Ship Shape: Banter, Bicker, Bang

Last time on Ship Shape: Best Kiss Scenes and What Makes Them Great

I love, love, love when my ships fight.

When characters fight over fundamental character differences in philosophy or temperament, it is glorious. it is sexual tension. Romance in literature is, to me, a character finding another character the either balances or helps them overcome their fatal flaw. Their flaws and strengths complement each other like inverse puzzle pieces. It's negative space and positive space. Which means the two characters are going to be fundamentally different. Which means they're going to fight.

"I HATE YOU but I also kinda want to make out with you emotions are hard"

I LOVE WHEN CHARACTERS FIGHT. To me, that's make out time. That's tension. That's what makes a sense go all romantically crackly for me, and I feel it in my fingers I feel it in my toes (feel it is my to-o-oooooes). This is why I honestly love hate-to-love stories because I know I'm going to get some good complementary flaws and sexually charged arguments, yes indeedy. (Or at least, I hope I'm going to get that, and it's not just a rote hate-to-love for no reason or just to cash in on the trope.)

Don't get me wrong. I don't love when fictional couples fight for bs reasons, like author-forced angst, or if they're actually not a good  and healthy couple, but we're meant to believe they are. When there's no character-inherent reason for the arguing besides "Well, arguing's hot, right?" Well, yes, okay, right, but also...no. But that's not fun to read, because there's no reason or tension, right? I want them to fight in a very passionate, meaningful way, and then mayyyyybe to silence each other with a fiery kiss up against a wall? Or...whatever. Ahem.

"OUR VERY DIFFERENT PHILOSOPHIES ON HOW TO KEEP OUR SPACE ORPHANS ALIVE IN THIS RADIOACTIVE HELLSCAPE MEAN I HAVE TO STARE DEEPLY AT YOU WITH SEX IN MY EYES"

I've loved sweet romances in the past. I know that some characters are not the "banter, bicker, bang against a wall" type, and that's fine (I just personally happen to go BUG NUTS over those. Blame Darcy/Elizabeth and Dimitri/Anastasia) (neither of which did any on page/screen banging but YOU FOLLOW). But no relationship is sunshine and roses all the tme, and being able to overcome obstacles both outside of yourself and within yourself is the greatest thing there is to me. It's what gets me from "aw they're cute" to SHIPSHIPSHIPSHIP.

"Fine." "Fine." "FINE."

As Meg from Cuddlebuggery once said to me, "If a couple never fights, they're basically lobotomized sand people." Which is just so much more eloquent than anything I could ever say.

Some of my favorite Banter, Bicker, Bang couples (some hate-to-love, some such BBB):
(This list is by NO MEANS comprehensive:)

From TV:
Bellamy and Clarke from The 100 aka Bellarke (everything is Bellarke)
Logan and Veronica from Veronica Mars
Luke and Lorelai from Gilmore Girls ("This was not Nick and Nora, this was Sid and Nancy")
Dimitri and Anastasia from Anastasia
Belle and the Beast from Beauty and the Beast
Seth and Summer from The O.C.
Mindy and Danny from The Mindy Project

From books:
Ron and Hermione from the Harry Potter series by Her Majesty, Queen J.K. of Rowling
Elizabeth and Mr. Darcy from Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen
Emma and Mr. Knightley from Emma by Jane Austen
Percy and Annabeth from the Percy Jackson series and the Heroes of Olympus series by Rick Riordan
Micah and Lainey from The Art of Lainey by Paula Stokes
Blue and Gansey from The Raven Cycle by Maggie Stiefvater
Ryder and Jemma from Magnolia by Kristi Cook
Titus and Iolanthe from the Elemental trilogy by Sherry Thomas (REALLY great romance about two opposite types who banter with the best of them)

What about you? Do you like hate-to-love or bicker, banter, bang? What are some of your favorite fighting couples?