History FanPreferredCouple / WesternAnimation

*** Despite Kuvira being in a relationship with Baatar Jr. for most of Book 4, it is more popular to ship her with [[FoeYayShipping Korra]] due to their various similarities. The fact that Korra is the one who brings about Kuvira's HeelFaceTurn helps as well. Fanfics and fan art for this pairing outnumber those about Kuvira/Baatar Jr., though it should be noted that this only counts for Kuvira. Korra's most popular ship is with her canon LoveInterest, [[spoiler:Asami]].

* ''WesternAnimation/Castlevania2017'': Instead of pairing them off individually, most fans have taken to pairing the protagonists, Alucard, Trevor, and Sypha, together as a OneTrueThreesome. Most fanfiction and fan art are of this OT3 and it even outranks the canon combination Trevor/Sopha on most sites.

* ''WesternAnimation/RegularShow'': Given that Mordecai wound up with [[TakeAThirdOption neither of his two girlfriends]], the shipping wars between the two resulted in a draw, as nobody won. Still, that hasn't stopped fans of each insisting that either Margaret or CJ should've been with him at the end (with characters in-universe actually siding with the latter group). Which makes it ironic that shippers of Mordecai/CJ ended up the most distraught, as WordOfGod claims they never spoke to each other even once following their breakup, while he managed to still be good acquaintances with Margaret.

* In ''WesternAnimation/TheSecretShow'', Anita has a crush on an Italian sculptor named Alphonse, a character who was first introduced in the episode [[Recap/TheSecretShowS1E3BogieBall "Bogie Ball"]] and seems to reciprocate her feelings. Fans, however, prefer to pair Anita with her partner and best friend Victor due to them having very good chemistry together.[[note]]Many years after the show ended, WordOfGod revealed that the Victor/Anita pairing was ''canon'' (and, in fact, had been canon all along).[[/note]]

* In ''WesternAnimation/TheSecretShow'', Anita has a crush on an Italian sculptor named Alphonse, a character who was first introduced in the episode [[Recap/TheSecretShowS1E3BogieBall "Bogie Ball"]] and seems to reciprocate her feelings. Fans, however, prefer to pair Anita with her partner and best friend Victor due to them having very good chemistry together.[[note]]Many years after the show ended, WordOfGod revealed that this pairing was ''canon'' (and, in fact, had been canon all along).[[/note]]

* In ''WesternAnimation/TheSecretShow'', Anita has a crush on an Italian sculptor named Alphonse, a character who was first introduced in the episode [[Recap/TheSecretShowS1E3BogieBall "Bogie Ball"]] and seems to reciprocate her feelings. Fans, however, prefer to pair Anita with her partner and best friend Victor due to them having very good chemistry together.

* ''WesternAnimation/{{Daria}}'': Much of the fandom dislikes [[OfficialCouple Daria/Tom]] and would have preferred that Daria had ended up with [[RomanticTwoGirlFriendship Jane]] instead, likely due to the show's focus on the intimacy of their friendship. The pairing remains the most popular ship in the fandom to this day.

* ''WesternAnimation/{{Jem}}'' has Stormer/Kimber. The ship spawned due to "The Bands Break Up", which involved Stormer and Kimber developing an incredibly LesYay laden RomanticTwoGirlFriendship. It [[StatusQuoIsGod never gets referenced]] after Stormer goes back to The Misfits and Kimber has at least two boyfriends during the course of the series, but that hasn't stopped fans from writing Kimber ending up with Stormer sometime post-series (or at least having them as close friends with Stormer possibly falling under IncompatibleOrientation). The ''ComicBook/JemAndTheHologramsIDW'' reboot outright made them an OfficialCouple from the start.

*** Despite Sokka having a canon girlfriend in Suki, more people shipped him with Toph (who canonically has a PrecociousCrush on him) back in the early days of the fandom, and even into ''The Legend of Korra'' thanks to the father of Toph's children being unknown for most of that series. It has since fallen in popularity in favor of both the canon ship of Sokka/Suki and the non-canon ship of Sokka/Zuko, in part thanks to the unfavorable idea of Sokka needing to be an absent father to Lin and Suyin make the pairing work canonically.

*** Following the resurgence the series has experienced thanks to being broadcast on Netflix, Sokka/Zuko has become extremely popular, although according to statistics it still has a ''long'' way to go before overshadowing Zutara, and is now easily tops Sokka's canon ship with Suki.

* ''WesternAnimation/AvatarTheLastAirbender'':
** The Zuko/Katara (aka "Zutara") fanbase is legendary, considerably outstripping both {{Official Couple}}s Kataang (Katara/Aang) and Maiko (Mai/Zuko) put together. The "Ember Island Players" episode [[FandomNod lampshaded this]] with an in-universe play that put Zuko and Katara together and having her refer to Aang, repeatedly, as [[LikeBrotherAndSister "like a little brother"]]. Not to mention, this couple provides the literal cover image for the trope. A long-running debate in the fandom revolved around whether the Zutara pairing becoming canon was ever even considered by the writers. One of the show's writers, John O'Bryan, [[https://twitter.com/NickRewind/status/1427632598109540353 would confirm years later that some of the writing team did push for the pairing]] on the ''Braving the Elements'' podcast, him included, but "lost that fight."
** Despite Sokka having a canon girlfriend in Suki, more people shipped him with Toph (who canonically has a PrecociousCrush on him) back in the early days of the fandom, and even into ''The Legend of Korra'' thanks to the father of Toph's children being unknown for most of that series. It has since fallen in popularity in favor of both the canon ship of Sokka/Suki and the non-canon ship of Sokka/Zuko, in part thanks to the unfavorable idea of Sokka needing to be an absent father to Lin and Suyin make the pairing work canonically.
** Following the resurgence the series has experienced thanks to being broadcast on Netflix, Sokka/Zuko has become extremely popular, although according to statistics it still has a ''long'' way to go before overshadowing Zutara.

* ''WesternAnimation/TheLegendOfKorra'':
** There are far more fanworks involving Lin and Tenzin than there are of Tenzin and his ''wife'' Pema. Tenzin is HappilyMarried with four kids, but a comment in an early episode caused fans to lean towards Linzin. In their youth, Lin and Tenzin dated, while Pema hung at the sidelines before gaining the courage to confess her love, and the rest is history. A large portion of Tenzin-centric works focus on his past with Lin, are outright [=AUs=] where they don't split, or have Tenzin cheat on Pema with Lin. Pema even gets hits by DieForOurShip and is sometimes depicted as a home wrecker, when Pema didn't actually have much to do Tenzin and Lin breaking up; she just had the lucky timing of Tenzin already planning on doing so.
** Despite Kuvira being in a relationship with Baatar Jr. for most of Book 4, it is more popular to ship her with [[FoeYayShipping Korra]] due to their various similarities. The fact that Korra is the one who brings about Kuvira's HeelFaceTurn helps as well. Fanfics and fan art for this pairing outnumber those about Kuvira/Baatar Jr., though it should be noted that this only counts for Kuvira. Korra's most popular ship is with her canon LoveInterest, [[spoiler:Asami]].

** There seems to be a good amount towards Rex/[[CreepyCute Breach]]. Which ''exploded'' after Breach started getting episodes that focused on her.

* ''WesternAnimation/TheSimpsons'': Despite breaking his heart and ultimately friendzoning him in the episode ''I Love Lisa'', there are a few fans who would still prefer Lisa date Ralph Wiggum, largely due to the synergy with level headed Simpsons women marrying dim-witted husbands. Lisa herself has imagined being married to Ralph and having several kids with him, and even remarked that Ralph being a potential U.S President wouldn't be so bad, and even liking the idea of being his first lady.

* ''WesternAnimation/{{Superjail}}'':
** Since the beginning, many fans have embraced the idea of Warden/Mistress (Misden or Wardess) getting together, most of the time [[FoeYayShipping being aware that they are foes]]. As of Season 3, this does not appear possible.
** Alice/Mistress shippers, even though the relationship would in likelihood be as one-sided as Warden's affections for Alice (as Alice seemed unimpressed at Mistress' change and remarked on forgetting how "needy" women can be).

*** Several teams introduced in the series have become popular among the series' shipping community, with the most notable among them being the Police Cadets, Sanders and [=MacArthur=], the Fashion Bloggers, Tom and Jen, and the Ice Dancers, Jacques and Josee (this is despite the former team showing no romantic interest in each other, and Tom and Jacques of the latter two teams being confirmed as gay by WordOfGod).

*** Several teams introduced in the series have become popular among the series' shipping community, with the most notable among them being the Police Cadets, Sanders and [=MacArthur=], the Fashion Bloggers, Tom and Jen, and the Ice Dancers, Jacques and Josee (this is despite the former team showing no romantic interest in each other, and the Tom and Jacques of the latter two teams being confirmed as gay by WordOfGod).

* ''WesternAnimation/TransformersPrime'':
** By far the most popular pairing is Knock Out/Breakdown, despite Breakdown having shown interest in Airachnid.
** [[RoboShip Jack/Arcee]] is quite popular as well, even though WordOfGod denies any romantic feelings between them. But due to the RelationshipWritingFumble, it gets hinted alot that there may be some deeper feelings between them, which only gives the fans more fuel.

* [[BirdsofAFeather Tommy/Kimi]] and [[OppositesAttract Chuckie/Angelica]] are both fairly popular in the ''WesternAnimation/AllGrownUp'' fandom, the former because it is suggested that she might have a crush on him in one episode and the latter because of the surprising amount of chemistry they have as an OddCouple.

** There are far more fanworks involving Lin and Tenzin than there are of Tenzin and his ''wife'' Pema. Tenzin is HappilyMarried with four kids, but a comment in an early episode caused fans to lean towards Linzin. In their youth Lin and Tenzin dated, while Pema hung at the sidelines before gaining the courage to confess her love, and the rest is history. Granted, Pema didn't have ''too'' much to do with them breaking up; she just had the lucky timing of Tenzin already feeling that what he and Lin wanted in life was too different, so he was already planning to break up with her. A large portion of Tenzin-centric works focus on his past with Lin, are outright [=AUs=] where they don't split, or have Tenzin cheat on Pema with Lin. Pema even gets hits by DieForOurShip and is sometimes depicted as a home wrecker.
** Despite Kuvira being in a relationship with Baatar Jr. for most of Book 4, it is more popular to ship her with [[FoeYayShipping Korra]], due to their similarities in terms of personality. This was already happening as far back as the trailers for the season. The fact that Korra is the one who brings about Kuvira's HeelFaceTurn also led to many shipping them as well. Many also felt that Baatar was less enjoyable of an option for Kuvira than Korra and that the two's voice actresses had better chemistry. Fanfics and fan art for this pairing outnumber those about Kuvira/Baatar Jr. Though, this only counts for Kuvira, because Korra's most popular ship is with her canon LoveInterest, [[spoiler:Asami]].

* ''WesternAnimation/KimPossible'': While the canon ship of Kim/Ron is popular, there is still a large portion of fans who ship Kim with Shego over him, particularly those who write fanfiction. Mainly due to the chemistry between the two, Shego is often seen as being very flirty with Kim, and she is often given the DracoInLeatherPants treatment from fans. It is also far more popular than Shego's canon ship with Drakken.

* ''WesternAnimation/TheSimpsons'':
** Nedna (Ned Flanders/Edna Krabappel) is ''literally'' a fan-preferred couple: FOX held a vote to see if they should break up or become an OfficialCouple. Nedna won (but not before Edna's voice actress Marcia Wallace died, leaving Ned Flanders a widower once again).
** Despite breaking his heart and ultimately friendzoning him in the episode ''I Love Lisa'', there are a few fans who would still prefer Lisa date Ralph Wiggum, largely due to the synergy with level headed Simpsons women marrying dim-witted husbands. Lisa herself has imagined being married to Ralph and having several kids with him, and even remarked that Ralph being a potential U.S President wouldn't be so bad, and even liking the idea of being his first lady.

** The Zuko/Katara (aka "Zutara") fanbase is legendary, considerably outstripping both {{Official Couple}}s Kataang (Katara/Aang) and Maiko (Mai/Zuko) put together. The "Ember Island Players" episode [[FandomNod lampshaded this]] with an in-universe play that put Zuko and Katara together and having her refer to Aang, repeatedly, as [[LikeBrotherAndSister "like a little brother"]]. Not to mention, this couple provides the literal cover image for the trope. A long-running debate in the fandom revolved around whether the Zutara pairing becoming canon was ever even considered by the writers. One of the show's writers, John O'Bryan, [[https://twitter.com/NickRewind/status/1427632598109540353 would confirm years later that some of the writing team did push for the pairing]] on the ''Braving the Elements'' podcast, him included, but "lost that fight".
** Despite Sokka having a canon girlfriend in Suki, more people shipped him with Toph (who canonically has a PrecociousCrush on him) back in the early days of the fandom. Though this has died down in popularity in recent years in favor of both the canon ship of Sokka/Suki and the non-canon ship of Sokka/Zuko.

** The Zuko/Katara (aka "Zutara") fanbase is legendary, considerably outstripping both {{Official Couple}}s Kataang (Katara/Aang) and Maiko (Mai/Zuko) put together. The "Ember Island Players" episode [[FandomNod lampshaded this]] with an in-universe play that put Zuko and Katara together and having her refer to Aang, repeatedly, as [[LikeBrotherAndSister "like a little brother"]]. Not to mention, this couple provides the literal cover image for the trope. A long-running debate in the fandom revolved around whether the Zutara pairing becoming canon was ever considered by the writers, which was [[https://twitter.com/NickRewind/status/1427632598109540353 confirmed by writer John O'Bryan on the ''Braving the Elements'' podcast]].

** There are far more fanworks involving Lin and Tenzin than there are of Tenzin and his ''wife'' Pema. Tenzin is HappilyMarried with four kids, but a comment in an early episode caused fans to lean towards Linzin. In their youth Lin and Tenzin dated but broke up. Pema had a little to do with it, however the two were too different to work out anyway and had been growing apart even before Pema came into the picture. A large portion of Tenzin-centric works focus on his past with Lin, are outright [=AUs=] where they don't split, or have Tenzin cheat on Pema with Lin. Pema even gets hits by DieForOurShip and is sometimes depicted as a home wrecker.

** Given that Rainbow Dash is the show's biggest LauncherOfAThousandShips, many people would've preferred that either Pinkie Pie [[spoiler:(who married Cheese Sandwich)]] or Fluttershy [[spoiler:(who was implied to be with Discord)]] ended up with her in the DistantFinale. That said, there are just as many people who were happy that [[spoiler:Dash×Applejack were implied to be canon]].

* While many ''WesternAnimation/RandyCunninghamNinthGradeNinja'' fans ship what seems to be the intended endgame of Randy/Theresa ("Fowlham"), even more ship Randy and Howard ("Weinerham"), probably due to the show having all of the usual questionable bro closeness without so much of the "no homo" that usually comes with it.

** Nedna (Ned Flanders/Edna Krabappel) is ''literally'' a fan-preferred couple: FOX held a vote to see if they should break up or become an OfficialCouple. Nedna won (but not before Marcia Wallace died, leaving Ned Flanders a widower once again).

* ''WesternAnimation/TeenTitans'': Beast Boy/Raven. The creators and writers of the show repeatedly stated that the two character would never be more than PlatonicLifePartners, though such a relationship was often joked about in the [[ComicBook/TeenTitansGo tie-in comic series]]. The ship became increasingly popular, quickly becoming the [[ShipMates preferred complementary ship for Starfire/Robin shippers]]. At the very least, a substantially large amount of people prefer it to the official canon couple of Beast Boy and Terra (the difference on FF.net is about ''twelvefold'' in the romance category). The popularity is noted in other versions of the ''Titans'', however; the mainstream comics have them as a couple in a number of different runs, and the show's DenserAndWackier spin-off ''WesternAnimation/TeenTitansGo'' completely embraced the pairing (while turning Robin/Starfire into a case of unrequited love), dedicating several moments and whole episodes to their relationship.

** Despite breaking his heart and ultimately freindzoning him in the episode ''I Love Lisa'', there are a few fans who would still prefer Lisa date Ralph Wiggum, largely due to the synergy with level headed Simpsons women marrying dim-witted husbands. Lisa herself has imagined being married to Ralph and having several kids with him, and even remarked that Ralph being a potential U.S President wouldn't be so bad, and even liking the idea of being his first lady.

** [[JerkWithAHeartOfGold Duncan]]/[[PerkyGoth Gwen]] was this to [[JerkWithAHeartOfGold Duncan]]/[[WellExcuseMePrincess Courtney]], but then it became canon so the fan preference switched to Trent/Gwen and Courtney/Gwen instead.
** Because ''Total Drama'' has [[LoadsAndLoadsOfCharacters so many major characters]] and an active {{Crack Ship}}ping community, this trope happens a lot for the less popular couples--for example, [[CloudCuckooLander Izzy]] is paired more with [[DeadpanSnarker Noah]] or [[HomeschooledKids Ezekiel]] than her canon boyfriend [[BigEater Owen]], while [[IronButtmonkey Tyler]] gets ignored so [[DumbBlonde Lindsay]] can wind up with Trent instead.

** Despite Sokka having a canon girlfriend in Suki, more people shipped him with Toph (who canonically has a PrecociousCrush on him). Though this has died down in popularity in recent years in favor of both the canon ship of Sokka/Suki and the non-canon ship of Sokka/Zuko.

** The Zuko/Katara (aka "Zutara") fanbase is legendary, considerably outstripping both {{Official Couple}}s Kataang (Katara/Aang) and Maiko (Mai/Zuko) put together. The "Ember Island Players" episode [[FandomNod lampshaded this]] with an in-universe play that put Zuko and Katara together and having her refer to Aang, repeatedly, as [[LikeBrotherAndSister "like a little brother"]]. Not to mention, this couple provides the literal cover image for the trope.