Of Rivalship and RivalSlash

[xparrot]

The thing is, I love the rivalry relationship in fiction. But for the most part I don't go for slashing rivals. And I'm trying to figure out why.

I have a long-standing affection for rivalship. For the most part I'm not talking about the villain/hero dynamic (though that's closely related, and also fascinates me) but rivals. "Best enemies," who might have started out as actual foes, even trying to kill one another, but somewhere along the way they've become neutral, or allies, sometimes even two members of a team. But they don't get along, due to fundamental differences (or similarities) of personality, or philosophy, or sometimes just because one or both of them is an ass. And they're constantly trying to prove themselves over the other, always snarking, always, competing, always driving one another to new levels.

They're especially common in fight shounen, fighting face to face as much as back to back, and their chosen expression of affection is "Don't die and deny me the chance of killing you first!" To varying degrees, this is Goku and Vegeta. Ranma and Ryouga. Kenshin and Saitou. Sanzo and Gojyo. Ban and Shido. Yuusuke and Kuwabara. Zoro and Sanji. My latest crush, Yugi and Kaiba. They're countless, and I don't get tired of them.

All these pairs have two things in common: they're one of my favorite relationships of the series in question, often my absolute favorite relationship; for many of them one of the chars (most often the rival) is my favorite character of the series.

And, while slash exists for pretty much all of them, I don't have that much interest in reading or writing it for any of them.

It's a conundrum that's puzzled me for a while, ever since I figured out that yeah, I like slash. It would be pretty damn hot in a lot of these cases. And I can certainly see where it comes from: these chars all have chemistry. They're incredibly deeply bonded--some of them I even call soulmates, not in the romantic sense, but in that they're virtually tied together by fate, absolutely unable to ignore the existence one another, no matter how much it stings. They exist to play off each other.

If you convert that heated intensity to sexual passion, there's pretty much three ways it can go. The first is an unconsummated relationship. Either the attraction is one-sided, an unrequited love--but that's depressing, while not being the kind of high tragedy fangirls like me like to write or read; or it's all UST, which gets frustrating after a while. Sooner or later one craves resolution.

So the two rivals end up engaging in casual, meaningless, extremely sexy sex. Often repeatedly. But a few problems arise with this. For whatever reasons, in many such rivalships, one or both of the two are canonically involved with someone else (often romantically, though it can be an intense friendship or sibling love). While not universally true, I tend to be a canon whore, and don't care to see canon couples broken up, even for the sake of hot boysex, especially when it would be OOC for someone to abandon a loved one for the hated rival. Especially when those couples are OTPs, which a lot of them are for me. More on that later.

Even if both of the rivals are unattached, however, it's hard to maintain casual sex for very long. It's fine for a PWP, but in longer stories, only certain characters have the sort of mindset and life situation that could make a pair believably be fucking, while not having it affect their interactions outside of the sack. If it doesn't turn to something more, it's liable to start breeding resentment, changing the relationship dynamic. One of my favorite aspects of rivalries is the certain definite respect between the rivals; they may despise each other, but they acknowledge one another as equals (or close to); the competition doesn't have the same bite if they're not closely matched. Casual sex, using one another, can too easily damage that mutual respect. There's also the issue of the seme-uke dichotomy, difficult to avoid in animanga fic, in which a relationship requires a dominant and a submissive partner; if those roles are fixed in a story, they introduce an innate power imbalance.

Moreover, in its way, sex without romance, without caring, is even more frustrating than UST. It's almost getting there, but not quite. Because what much rivalslash is driving to in the end is the admission of mutual love between the rivals. Not necessarily verbally; that's pretty much impossible with some of the characters. But in deeds if not in words, the rivals manage to put aside their differences and become lovers.

Except--this undermines the whole rivalry. They might still snap at each other, might still fight and compete, but what's important is the way they truly feel. The intensity of their clashing is supplanted by the intensity of their devotion, and their aggression becomes a sham, a game, just a cover. The snarking still is funny, the peculiar ways of showing grudging affection still is cute. But the edge, the fire is gone. Any doubts about whether they really care, how important they are to one another, are erased.

Now, wait just a minute. I've thrown Gojyo into a freezing river just to make Sanzo take care of his hypothermic ass. I write fifty thousand words just to get Zoro to say "I hate you" to Sanji and have it unequivocally mean "I love you." Obviously I like admissions of caring between rivals as much as the next fangirl! So why the anti-slash, even when it's not interfering with my chosen OTPs?

The difference is the nature of the connection. Friends of a certain type can still be rivals, still compete all-out. Romantic lovers should be more supportive of one another, depend on each other in different ways. This is why in so many rival pairings, the rivals do have close relationships with other people--they need others they can rely on, absolutely and unconditionally, without the stress of the rivalry. I love that kind of relationship, too, the total, trusting partnership, such as Ban and Ginji have. But it's a completely different dynamic from rivalship. I enjoy both, and don't especially want to see one transmuted in the other. Especially when I can often have both.

Which leads back to my OTPs. In certain cases I'll be fond of one pairing partly because it allows for exploration of another relationship, without the need to make the latter romantic, since the romance is already present. In Dragonball Z, I loved reading Buma/Vegeta - but while I found them a fun pairing, even more I liked Vegeta and Goku's incredibly intense connection. And it was a rare B/V story that didn't have at least a bit of that, because it's pretty much impossible to write an IC Vegeta without mentioning Goku sooner or later. Vegeta defines himself by how he measures up to Kakarrot.

--Incidentally, you'll note that while my OTPs will vary between het and slash, not a single rivalship I've referenced is male-female. This could be because men and women compete in fundamentally different ways, and therefore don't have that nearly perfectly matched, competitive championship drive that is essential to rivalry. It could also be that in the great general tradition of romance trumps all, it's pretty much impossible to find a male-female love-hate relationship that doesn't canonically become love-love eventually.

There are varying degrees to rivalry, obviously. It tends to be that the less intense the conflict, the easier I am about slashing it. I've developed a taste for Zoro and Sanji, partly because while they have rivalry tendencies, they're not so dependent on it as most (they aren't really evenly matched competitors; Zoro lives for the fight, and Sanji doesn't) and what they have is pretty clearly friendship anyway, albeit of an abusive and argumentative sort. ZoSan also is one of the few pairings that I could see as completely casual sex without it messing up their dynamic, just mutual pleasure between comrades, and that's how I like to write and read it. The moment it crosses the line into a love story, I lose interest.

What it comes down to, in the end, is that while I love the dependency of rivalship, and enjoy seeing the relationship acknowledged, I don't really want more than is already there. The complex relationship that draws me to rivals is that idea of needing someone else, not because you want their body or enjoy their presence, but because that other, striving against you, challenging you, defines who you are. In the end, I don't want rivals to admit, "You're important to me in spite of our differences," but, "You're important because of them, because our rivalry makes me who I am." Which I find as involving and affecting a bond as any true love affair.

Comments

[akatonbo.livejournal.com]

...so do you watch Prince of Tennis?

No, really, I ought to reply to this at length sometime when I'm not tired and embroiled in RP, but I have a one-track mind lately, so. XD

[pantswarrior]

Incidentally, you'll note that while my OTPs will vary between het and slash, not a single rivalship I've referenced is male-female.

You know, when you mentioned the seme/uke part throwing off the power balance earlier in this post, it flipped a light switch in my head and I went "Aha! That could be why I have next to no interest in rivalshipping anyone except Touda and Suzaku!" (From Yami no Matsuei.) They have a dynamic I find fascinating, and angersex between them, being het, would not make it come off as though one of them had "won". (Though I'm sure Suzaku would act as if she did anyhow. ;))

Other than that, I like the idea of rivals just being rivals, perhaps with occasional moments of UST or mockingly suggestive dialogue, but never going so far as to stop them from being rivals. (And now I'm thinking I need to read more Eroica.)

[vejiicakes.livejournal.com]

While I can't claim to have thought this out half as well as you, I think you've pretty well covered everything I've come to love and crave about slashing rivals, or those who could be. Including the take on hetero couples (Vejiita and Bulma are, as far as I'm concerned, the only way it could go, but damned if ol' Veg Head's connection with Gokuu isn't at least twice as fascinating as V/B could ever be!)

It always seems to be the more at odds with each other two characters are, the more fascinating the translation to a "something more" their characteristics stand to be. Or, sometimes, the more room for exploration that's given, the more interesting they seem. (Though why I refuse to read Naruto/Sasuke, I'll never figure out .. maybe it's the way their HoYay is so thoroughly shoved in my face, or maybe it's my averseness to jailbait, I'll never know.)

*cough* Anyway, very nicely done write up! I feel as if all the sentiments I hold toward my OTPs of choice now have some sort of .. I don't want to say "justification", but a means of being voiced. Thank you!

[bluepard.livejournal.com]

Little to do with your rant but ... this has made me realize that the "loser" in a rivalry is likely to be my favorite character in a series.

Yuki v Kyou? Kyou.
Yusuke v Kuwabara? Kuwabara.
Ranma v Ryouga? Ryouga.

The only exception is ZoSan, because my fave is Usopp. Still. He's a coward and a goof and I tend towards those types too. I'm now horrified by my predictability. I hope you're happy!

PS. I have the same problem with rivalslash--except I want to read it, but then find it rarely satisfies me. Too much romance, too little of what I liked about the relationship to start with, ya.

[halcyonjazz.livejournal.com]

Incidentally, you'll note that while my OTPs will vary between het and slash, not a single rivalship I've referenced is male-female.

I'll give you one: Ichigo-Tatsuki. Ichigo constantly spent his childhood trying to beat her in a fight, and when he finally DID get his victory, he absolutely refuses to fight her again. She's very bitter about it.

Hmm. Renji and Rukia, too, had a huge rivalry going on as they grew up. I think they still do. It's an oddly defined rivalry. It borders on sibling rivalry--except not because they are the definition of hetslash.

[nightwalker.livejournal.com]

You've put a great deal more thought and effort into this than I ever have, and I think you've hit the nail on the head.

Rival slash doesn't appeal to me. Harry/Draco melts my brain unless very well-written. Kuwabara/Yuusuke... makes me snicker like a teenage boy and snort water out my nose, actually.

In the end, I don't want rivals to admit, "You're important to me in spite of our differences," but, "You're important because of them, because our rivalry makes me who I am."

That's as good a means of describing Kuwabara and Yuusuke as any. Kuwabara spends his younger years pitting himself against Yuusuke, gauging his strength based solely on how good he is against Yuusuke and despite their constant clashes, he respects Yuusuke because he's stronger. And when Yuusuke is killed, Kuwabara reacts to that not as the loss of a friend, necessarily, but as the loss of a pivotal influence in his life. He never got to beat Yuusuke, and now he never will.

And then Yuusuke comes back to life and they spend the next few years killing demons and saving the world, but I digress.

I also think Yuusuke had a similar need. He wasn't pitting his strength against Kuwabara (although he did acknowledge that Kuwabara was strong and that probably helped keep him on his toes). He was comparing himself to Kuwabara in terms of character and honor.

If a fanfic has Yuusuke and Kuwabara wake up one morning and declare that their fighting had been silly and they should get down to some serious snuggling, then a huge part of what makes those two close - their need to prove themselves to each other, and their need to excel against one another - has been completely dismissed. That need is what makes the best friend/rival relationship so appealing to me.

If that made no sense, it's probably because I'm crazy. But I'll try blaming it on the late, late hour. *grins*

[airairo.livejournal.com]

Rivalslash is something that I always flirt with, but rarely holds my interest. When it turns into true love, the dynamic is gone. And if it's not that, its the OTP thing you mentioned. Shido x Ban, I liked a lot initially. Getting further into the series, when I read fic with Ban he has to be paired with Ginji or no one for me to enjoy it (tho I can pair Ginji with others, but that's a whole other ramble >_>). And I've never dipped a toe into Sanzo/Gojyo because I am far too infatuated with Gojyo/Hakkai. ♥

But when it does keep my interest? It often becomes a pairing that I *really* love. Naruto/Sasuke is one of them. Their relationship changes enough in different parts of the series to keep me interested (it's also very one sided for a better part of it and they've never entirely struck me as "true" rivals anyway). Another one that I really love is Light/L from Death Note. Given the circumstances of their relationship, it could *never* turn into love and mind games can be interwoven into a sexual relationship in such a nice and twisted way. Come to think of it, I think those are the only rival pairings that I actively ship.

But rivals are most definitely fun. ^__^ They seem to always be the first characters in a series to grab me.

[beckerbell.livejournal.com]

When I walked into this post, I had it in my head that I liked rivalslash, at least the kind that had genuine friendship underneath the layers of genuine irritation and snarling at each other. The difference between rivalslash and enemyslash, for me, is that I can believe there's real caring between the two, that no matter how crazy they drive you, you'll still help drag their ass out of the line of fire when they need it. Then taunt them horribly about it. With enemyslash, I can't just buy the idea that it's simply attraction funnelled into snarking, because I have people that I genuinely hate and will frequently argue with. I really, really don't want to sleep with them.

But the more I read the most, the more I started to rethink my position. Not my definitions of rivalslash vs enemyslash, but that I'm not quite the rivalslash fan that I thought I was. I suppose I tend more towards relationships that have many of the same elements (I like the snark, the driving each other crazy with irritation, the definitive impact of that person on your life), not necessarily the rivalslash itself. Like, Dragonball Z is a great example of that. The relationship between Vejiita and Goku is what defines Vejiita in so many ways, it's so much of what he pieced himself back together with after the whole thing with Freeza ended, even when he moved on, got married, had kids, he still defined himself so much by his rivalry with Goku.

Yet, I couldn't 'ship it ever, I don't think. The idea of romance between them just doesn't compute, even aside from that I'm a devout fan of both Goku/Chichi and Vejiita/Bulma. And, at the same time, I think Vejiita/Bulma is just the best thing ever, the way they snark and fight and neither gives an inch without a fight. I go for those pairings, I'm often times fascinated by those relationships even more than the defining rivalslashes. (It's the same with Ranma 1/2, the way Ranma/Akane fascinates me and I don't think I could 'ship Ranma/Ryouga.)

So, I think, well, maybe I just don't like rivalslash itself, I like pairings that simply have elements of it. But for every instance like the above, there's a ZoSan or a SasuNaru or Ryuhou/Kazuma, a relationship that I do see as romantic. (Maybe it's the difference between a canon romance for one of the characters that is very close to the rivalship that makes the difference. With Ranma/Akane, I'd almost argue that Akane makes up more of Ranma's world than anyone else, Bulma is a strong presence in Vejiita's life, the whole Majin Buu thing really brought that home, etc. Would I not care for ZoSan as much if, say, Zoro and Nami's snarking and fighting was intended to be canon-esque romance?)

[snakelights.livejournal.com]

I agree. when rivals get togethar it should be /because/ of their diffrences not despite them. Yet while that makes it hard for such a rivalship to exist in a relationship sometimes a rivalry can be turned into a romantic relationship. The Rivalry can become something else (irristable poison is Harry/Draco fic that does that). But I on the whole am not as fond of the rivals to lovers in most fandoms.

However that is not why I posted.

I'm worriexd about your fic Summertime that Static slash you did. It is absolutly excellent yet we haven't seen an update in an over two weeks. So I took it upon myself to hunt you down. (by the way if you are wondering why their might not be enough comments on your screen it is 'cause the comment section on fanfic is messed up at the moment)PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE update!!!

[mei-yanohi.livejournal.com]

This was a fantastic essay. I always enjoy when you or Shadow write these things, it just tickles my fancy. <3 Then again, I enjoy when you write ANYTHING.

Like ninjatrauma, I do enjoy a rivalry, but romance kills me faster. I am such a sucker for love. I am also a HUGE sucker for your gen, but we are all aware of that. I adore the dynamic between Goku and Vejiita, but my original OTP was V/B. (When I was in fifth grade I wrote all kinds of fanfiction for it XD). I could not see slash between them, mostly because fighting > sex for Vejiita anyway.

With Zoro/Sanji, I can see them being caring and careful with eachother at times, when the situation is down to the bare bones (like in Jess's recent H/C drabble, literally), but then again that may be because they already harbor intense love for one another, just as all the nakama do for all the other nakama. When those two openly express that caring, it can often be more poignant than if it, were, say, Luffy and Usopp, because Zoro and Sanji are both so proud and are, in fact, some kind of rivals. I find it interesting that you said Zoro lives for the fight while Sanji doesn't, because I had never thought of it that way. This may be why many consider Sanji more the "woman" or uke in the relationship, but for me, something like that in writing turns me off intensely. If someone's writing Z/S to please yours truly, they still give Sanji his very active emotions, his charm, and his slight silliness and girlyness, but they also recognize that Sanji is a young man, a proud young man, who is in fact very masculine, strong, and stubborn. Seme!Sanji may possibly be one of the hottest things in the universe, next to Gojyo simply existing. Zoro is commonly considered to be stronger and a superior fighter to Sanji, which saddens me because I don't agree, but this can become an outlet for a new kind of victory for him: a win in the bedroom. Sanji seems to me like he would be infinitely more talented in the ways of the flesh than simple, unsensual Zoro, who would go straight for the big O, do not stop, do not collect 200 beri.

The situation could be turned around to be very erotic with them while still keeping Sanji in the uke position. Gays often say that the bottom is the true position of control, and the element of surprise could be turned on Zoro when he insists on taking top but becomes dominated by Sanji anyway.

The third turn-on option for me applies to Sanjixthe whole crew. It seems to me (although perhaps I look WAY too deeply into these people's characters...) that it makes Sanji incredibly happy to serve. He finds immense joy in feeding the hungry, attending the needy, guarding the unsafe, defending the helpless. He likes to feel useful, he likes to feel needed, because he himself is emotionally needy. When this translates to sex, it can be turned into almost a submissive role as opposed to an uke role (I find them to be completely different). Living to serve his partner, he worships his or her body, minimizing his own pleasure and maximizing his partner's. When it comes to penetration, it will be whatever they prefer. This treatment would probably be reserved to those he admires, respects, cares about, because to Sanji, everyone close to him is a huge role-model (especially women). I am entranced by Dom/Sub, it's incredibly erotic to me, so maybe this whole thing is just me. o_O

Alrighty, so that turned into a Sexuality of Sanji lecture. Back to the original subject.

[duae.livejournal.com]

Another person curious about Summertime who found your LJ, and read the essay and have been thinking on it.

To me, it's all a matter of what I'm in the mood for. I tend to crave a certain kind of fic, so sometimes a quick rivals sparking and snarling and pushing eachother to the mattress and biting and Angry!sex is really nice.

And sometimes it's good to read something really angsty and bawl my eyes out.

Most different 'flavors' of fic have their own appeal. I love best-friends-becoming-lovers like Ban and Ginji, or Virgil and Richie, but at the same time I love it when an author can convince me that rivals or non-friendly characters could have a relationship.

Like I've found a little Virgil/Richie/Hotstreak slash, and I think with the right author ready to tackle the whole complex relationship, it could be done really well.

I think the biggest drawback in rivalslash, which you didn't mention, is the tendancy for a fandom to start to take a rival pairing for granted. They don't bother to explain how they go from rivals (either friendly or unfriendly) to lovers because DUH, everyone knows hate is only a thin line from love and all that, so of course when they say "I hate you" they mean "Do me!" Isn't it obvious?

I hate that. To me, the biggest draw about rivalslash is that they've got these big glaring Issues, and you're going to have to convince me that they can work through them.

I am also most guilty of being the Anti-OTP, while I'll admit to having favorites, I'm happy to read most any pairing so long as it's well written and a fun read. So... I love Ginji x Ban very much, but if a writer I knew was very good came out with... oh Ban x Kazuki, I'd probably read and enjoy.

Same as I'll check out a series if a writer I know writes something for it. Which is why I've been on a Static Shock kick lately ^_^ Browsed right from your Getbackers fic to Summertime and got hooked.

[laylalawlor.livejournal.com]

I think one reason why I like your fic so much (besides the fact that it's just very well written) is that we seem to be coming from a very similar viewpoint as fans. So often your journal entries seem to elegantly express thoughts that I've had half-formed in the back of my head but couldn't ever really put into words.

Anyway, this pretty much describes me to a "T" -- I have nothing against slash, but I tend to veer away from slash of my favorite rival pairings (and my OTP friendships, as well) because I like the relationship better the way it is. Adding sex to the mix inevitably changes the dynamic and usually not, in this one reader's opinion, for the better.

I never could really figure it out because many of the rival/friend/enemy pairings that I adore have all the hallmarks of a classic romantic relationship of the "Romancing the Stone" type -- characters who start out hating each other and bicker constantly, only to have a core of mutual affection grow underneath it. In a romantic situation, that sort of thing usually drives me crazy. I generally dislike bickering couples in TV, movies and comics. (With certain exceptions -- I love Bulma/Vegeta, for example.) But give me a bickering pair of GUYS, and I'm all over that. And, I'm perfectly fine with bickery slashy subtext when it's in the original (e.g. Eroica *drools*). But when that sexual element is added to the relationships between Goku & Vegeta, or Yusuke & Kuwabara, etc, it seems to lose a lot of what originally appealed to me about the character dynamic. Expressing your deep-down affection for somebody by beating them to a pulp or casually saving their life and then pretending you didn't mean to do it is TOTALLY different from expressing it by having sex with them. I guess, sex to me implies a level of tenderness that is not usually found in these sorts of relationships, or at least not sustained for that long. Sex without tenderness is a power struggle at best, rape at worst. In sex you have to give as much as you take.

Usually the rival characters that I like are both very strong, very masculine individuals, and neither one of them is likely to fall into a nurturing role in a relationship. Maybe that's why I like seeing really masculine characters paired off with nurturing ones (e.g. Kuwabara/Yukina or Shido/Madoka) because it balances the relationship. With the rival relationships, though, both people are forceful and domineering personalities, or the dynamic wouldn't work. Neither one seems particularly capable of maintaining the level of "give" that is necessary for MY idea of a healthy sexual relationship.

Maybe that's why I can see friend slash (e.g. Gojyo/Hakkai -- which very nearly *is* canon -- or Jounouchi/Yugi) much more easily than rival or enemy slash. Where the nurturing element is already there, I actually *could* see it slipping over into romance, given a suitable situation. (I still usually prefer friendship in this cases too, maybe because it seems like expressing love as sex is taking the easy way out -- it's harder yet more rewarding, for me, to walk the line between. But at least there I can *see* it, which isn't really the case with rival slash.)

[nenya85.livejournal.com]

Hi -- sorry for the late post -- just found your LJ. Although I write it, in general, I'm not a big fan of rival/slash (lol) for the reasons you mention. Mainly because there's such a temptation to make said rivals cuddly, whic usually disregards not only their history, but their very characters. I mean if you look at Kaiba's relationship with the only person (fanfic spec aside) he loves -- Mokuba -- although he'll literally die for him in a heatbeat -- he needs to be facing death to give even a hint to Mokuba how he feels, has never told him he loves him, and hugs him exactly once in the manga -- after they are reunited at Duelist's Kingdom. This is not the kind of guy who's going to be singing and bringing flowers because he's gotten laid. And Yami (yeah I was getting to him) isn't exactly Mr. Warm and Fuzzy himself.

That said, I think the reason I see them working is because so much of their rivalry is about, as Yami says at Alcatraz, their bringing out the best in each other -- as people. There is a real sense that neither will settle for the other being less than they can be -- and that goes beyond the dueling field. Like if Yami teaches Kaiba something about accepting his past (and by extension himself) at Alcatraz, and about the futility of trying to use anger to sdestroy his hatred -- Kaiba in his duel with Isis teaches Yami, who is so focused on his past -- that everyone has a responsibility to create their own future. It is this sense that their rivaly is really an expression of their caring, that for me can turn rival/slash into a OTP.

[measuringlife.livejournal.com]

Rather late, I know. I uh, just came upon this while browsing gushoushinfiles and thought I'd add my .2 cents. ;;

First off let me fangirl you. INTELLIGENT YGO FAN OMG! Do you write it? I've been out of the YGO fandom for months now because the state of it made me weep, but it will always hold a place in my heart. It was my first large, long-lasting, and yaoi fandom :D Your Seto x JouRa icon makes me smile. And, uh *waves Seto/Otogi banner XD*


Actually, thoughout the whole essay, I was thinking "What about Shindou/Touya of HikaGo?"
But I'll get to that later.

I think it's a case by case definition -- and the main problem is that fangirls lack the ablity to tell strong emotions and "love" apart. They place all strong emotion as twoo wuv and make them fuck like bunnies and run off in the sunset to get married and have physically impossible assbabies.

Though I blame the English language, it's hard to break up the definition of "love" and "like" without making it clunky and ungraceful and going on for paragraph after paragraph "I don't like her, I likelike her" -- (also, a double negative).

Some pairings grow and change, the rivalry aspects may still be there on
But then the rivalship has turned into a romantic relationship. It is very hard for them to coexist as one -- if you're dating a person, they you are not supposed to wanting to better them, no? Even if rivalries do have a large amount of passion, often sexual passion, but that does not mean they could ever sustain a relationship.

And as for rivalries and psuedo-rivalries --

Tsuzuki and Hisoka were rather rivalish for all of, oh two seconds. Seriously, though, some pairings which are deemed "romantic" keep rivalry aspects.

Gaara & Naruto aren't true rivals, the same can be said for Sasuke & Naruto (while Sasuke & Gaara are rivals to at least a slight extent.) as well as Neji & Naruto. They all have, or have had elements of rivalship, but it has grown past that point and could possibly, with imagination and fandom rights, be placed in a relationship status.

In Tenipuri, Tezuka & Fuji were called "Eternal Rivals" in the (end) anime, but that's more fitting to Tezuka & Atobe. (But then, EVERYONE is Tezuka's rival for he is GOD and everyone must give him slashy rival looks (tm) and stalk him) They have aspects of rivalry, the intensity, that they seem to pass around the actual classification. (Actual, there is no classification for Tezuka & Fuji, they aren't really that close of friends, they are really rivals, they just *are*)

But they are also capable of having calm, even domestic talks and can work together quite well. Fuji's goal isn't beating Tezuka -- For most of the series Fuji doesn't exactly have a goal. Perhaps his goal at the moment is to become strogner, find passion and become serious about something (thus, his goal is to find a goal) Tezuka's goal is to inspire and take his team to victory, his own strength is a far less goal in itself, he turns down scholorships to stay for the team.

I'd say what sets Tezuka & Fuji and makes them *not* true rivals is that they don't wish
there's the tension, that they are in the top of Seigaku for power, (intelligence, as well),
there always is a sense they know each other's strength and closely guard it, but it isn't just fixated on that strength.

(And I should stop here, before I start essaying. For it will be long and I will drag out every conversation they ever had in the manga. I am a shameless fangirl ♥)

[gah, over the word count]