Yu-Gi-Oh fandom

In particular, people who write about Mutou Yuugi. You know. The "Yugi"/"Yuugi" in "Yugioh"/"Yuugi-ou"? The titular protagonist?

Yeah. About him. He's self-sacrificing to the extreme, this is true. Yuugi's perfectly willing to let himself suffer copious amounts of physical violence if it means protecting his friends from physical violence / being extorted / being forced into random gangs / being forced to listen to bad karaoke / etc. His emotions are, for the first part of the series, so caught up with how his friends are doing that even after suffering physical distress, he doesn't get upset to the point of 'switching faces' until one of his friends is threatened/hurt/crying over carnival games.

Really. He gets beaten up badly enough to wind up in the nurse's office, covered in bandages, but doesn't get upset enough to actually do anything until one of his friends starts crying over their broken paper maché carnival games.

If his friends/family are really hurt (abducted, souls taken, murdered by Tetris), he goes into emotional catatonic shock -- which is when dark Yuugi pops up to 'save the day'.

So, erm, you guys? Being almost everyone else I've met in this fandom who likes Yuugi -- why are you all getting him so, so horribly wrong? Yuugi doesn't roll under the wills of others, and certainly never backs down from a fight. I suddenly have the DiC dub theme song to Sailor Moon stuck in my head, and it applies way more to Yuugi than it did to Serena...

Let the ghost that lives in his head come out to play card games as a way to discover his missing past? Sure, why not. He's been brooding since that last tournament over the holes in his memory and the fact he doesn't know who he is -- not only should this quest help him out, but it's a quest involving card games! How could he say no to that?

Send said ghost out to hang out with one of their mutual friends in an effort to cheer up said ghost when Yuugi's own efforts at such failed? Of course -- that's what friends do! And besides, mutual friend has a very obvious crush on you, ghost! This way, she can cheer him up, he can see how awesome a friend she is, and then those two might get together and then be even more happy! Everyone wins! yeah, Yuugi likes her, but she likes "Yami" more, and that's perfectly okay.

So where the hell are you getting the idea that he's this submissive little push-over that would weep big fat emo tears and go out cutting himself and go IT'S HOPELESS! THE FACT THAT I AM ALONE IN MY HEAD AGAIN -- LIKE EVERY OTHER SANE PERSON (with some exceptions, for which there are exorcists, therapists, and occasional medications) -- HAS LEFT ME IN DESPAIR *HANGS SELF*.

Well, if he did a reenactment of SZS, I'd be thrilled. But seriously. He wouldn't. Please stop failing at writing my favorite character?

In short: Self-sacrifice DOES NOT EQUAL submissive little cry-baby. A martyr complex is incredibly difficult to sustain for any considerable length of time. Being strong, supportive, and a good friend is much harder than you think. Considering that being a good, strong friend to others always has been and always will be his greatest and most fervent wish SHOULD TELL YOU SOMETHING.

AUGH. Honestly, did you get all this bad characterization from the 4Kids dub? Did it really murder his core personality, actions and values that badly, or did you all just go "HIS SUB/UKE STEREOTYPE IS PASTED ON YAY." ?

It's probably the latter. And this is why I hope that my fandom is just full of LOLCATS.