Anger: Hot vs. Cold
Okay, let's talk anger. First, let me tell you some background on why I am writing this. I was reading fanfiction on FF.net and I was having trouble finding one that didn't contain yaoi, or abuse (or both!). And I read this one where a girl said she was tired of people writing stories where Yami Bakura abused Bakura and then they ended up in love (never read one of those as I try to avoid yaoi and abuse) and I realized that she was right, a lot of summaries mentioned stuff along those lines. She then said that she 'realizes it's probably in Yami Bakura's personality' to be abusive... And that's when I started thinking that I don't think it is.
Not that Yami Bakura is a good person. He is evil, angry, he hates everyone, he uses everyone, and he's willing to hurt himself (and consequently his host Bakura) to get what he wants. He probably wouldn't hesitate to kill to get what he wants, but he'd think it through, it wouldn't be on impulse. He's more the kind to verbally cut people down. He's far too superior (attitude not reality) to let himself lose control like that. Think about it, no matter how weak/stupid/annoying/treacherous he thinks the other characters are, he has never once hit anyone. He hardly ever even raises his voice. He just wouldn't because that would be showing too much emotion.
So I got to thinking about that. And I realized the Yami Bakura (and almost all the other characters in YGO) have what I would term 'cold anger'. That's the kind of person who gets really calm and quiet when angry, and you know you're in trouble. The other kind of anger is hot anger. This is an extremely emotional anger that leads to fights, abuse, crimes of passion, etc. While someone with cold anger is in control the whole time, someone with hot anger is not.
In fanfiction people tend to give all characters hot anger. It really bugs me, especially with Seto and Yami Bakura. Yami Marik is probably the only character on the show with hot anger tendencies, and even then I'm not sure he would be physically abusive (psychotic murderer, yes - wife beater, no.) Joey and Tristan also posses hot anger tendencies but to such a mild degree that they would never be physically abusive either. (That doesn't mean they don't pick fights or finish them. There's a difference between abuse and just street fighting). And if they aren't going to be physically abusive they aren't going to be *other* (PG 13/R rated) kinds of abusive either. Words is the limit here. Because no one is going to deny that Joey, Yami Bakura, and Seto Kaiba, are verbally abusive. I mean, they practically live off name calling and smart remarks.