History FanPreferredCouple / WesternAnimation

* ''WesternAnimation/TheGhostAndMollyMcGee'': While the show would introduce Oliver as Molly's love interest in the second season, with the characters having a mutual crush on each other, many fanworks still pair her up with her best friend Libby or rich girl acquaintance Andrea (''especially'' the former). This is mostly due to Molly having a season's worth of moments and scenes with the girls before Ollie joined the cast, and the show gathering a LGBTFanbase that came off the back of fellow Disney Channel show ''WesternAnimation/TheOwlHouse''.

* ''WesternAnimation/{{Arcane}}'': The Jayce/Viktor ship is much, much more popular than the canonical ship of Jayce/Mel. A very common opinion was that Mel was just using Jayce.

* ''WesternAnimation/TeenTitans2003'': Beast Boy/Raven. The creators and writers of the show repeatedly stated that the two characters are meant to be LikeBrotherAndSister more than anything else, with a romantic relationship even being joked about and dismissed on at least one occasion in the [[ComicBook/TeenTitansGo tie-in comic series]]. The ship became increasingly popular despite this, quickly becoming the [[ShipMates preferred complementary ship for Starfire/Robin shippers]], and a substantially large amount of people prefer it to the official canon couple of Beast Boy and Terra (the difference on FF.net was about ''twelvefold'' in the mid-2010s and has only increased since then, with a similar ratio on AO3). Notably, the popularity of the ship would affect other versions of the characters in the years during and since; various comics and YA graphic novels have had them as a couple, while the show's own DenserAndWackier spin-off ''WesternAnimation/TeenTitansGo'' would completely embrace the pairing (while jokingly turning Robin/Starfire into a case of unrequited love), dedicating several moments and whole episodes to their relationship.

*** 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. Tenzin-centric works focus on his past with Lin, are [=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, as Korra's most popular ship is with her canon LoveInterest, [[spoiler:Asami]].

* ''WesternAnimation/CodenameKidsNextDoor'': Two non-canonical pairing involving Nigel Uno are more popular than his canon relationship with [[TheScrappy Lizzie]] -- The first is Nigel/Rachel (1/362), with Nigel/Abigail (1/5) as the second most popular. Both have far more art on Deviantart than the canon Nigel/Lizzie. The former gained a large lead following the show's finale, which revealed [[spoiler:Numbuh 5 married Numbuh 2]].

* ''WesternAnimation/GeneratorRex'':
** Despite the ShipSinking, the age difference, and Rex himself being a ShipperOnDeck for 6/Holiday, you'll still find [[MayDecemberRomance Rex and Holiday]] to be one of the most popular pairings in the fandom.
** While Rex develops a romance with Circe over the course of the show, and Breach is shown to have an obsession with him that became a popular pairing in its own right, Rex is most commonly shipped with his best friend Noah in fan works due to their close bond and his grounding presence compared to the usual insanity Rex deals with.

%% * ''WesternAnimation/SushiPack'' has Ikura/Kani and Tako/Maguro.

* ''WesternAnimation/TeenTitans2003'': Beast Boy/Raven. The creators and writers of the show repeatedly stated that the two characters would never be more than PlatonicLifePartners, with such a relationship even being joked about and dismissed at least once in the [[ComicBook/TeenTitansGo tie-in comic series]]. The ship was increasingly popular despite this, 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 was about ''twelvefold'' in the mid-2010s and has only increased since then, with a similar ratio on AO3. The popularity ''is'' noted when it comes to other versions of the characters in the years during and since, however; various comics have had them as a couple both in the mainline DC Comics and several young adult graphic novels, while the show's DenserAndWackier spin-off ''WesternAnimation/TeenTitansGo'' completely embraced the pairing (while jokingly turning Robin/Starfire into a case of unrequited love), dedicating several moments and whole episodes to their relationship.

* ''WesternAnimation/TeenTitans2003'': 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 when it comes to other versions of the characters, however; various comics have had them as a couple in both in the mainline DC Comics and several graphic novels, while 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.

*** Zutara (the pairing of Zuko and Katara) is one of, if not the most popular fan pairing and arguably more popular than OfficialCouple, Aang/Katara. It's fanbase is such that the pairing was even referenced in the episode "Ember Island Players" and the non-canonical "School Time Shipping" short, as well as the satirical "Avatar Book 4" video shown at Comic-Con 2008 (though the former was done in a tongue-in-cheek manner, and the latter was outright mockery).

* ''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 when it comes to other versions of the characters, however; various comics have had them as a couple in both in the mainline DC Comics and several graphic novels, while 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.

* ''WesternAnimation/YoungJustice'' fandom has Artemis/Robin due to him having more interaction with her than any of [[ReallyGetsAround his four actual love interests]]. Slash fandom also shows a strong preference for [[HeterosexualLifePartners Dick/Wally]], which isn't hurt by the fact that [[spoiler:Wally's death leads to Nightwing taking a leave of absence from the Team due to grief.]]

** ''WesternAnimation/Ben10AlienForce'': For a period of time on FF.net, four of the five most favourited romance stories were Ben/Kevin.
** ''WesternAnimation/Ben10Omniverse'' introduced several possible love interests for Ben before settling with Kai, a character from the original series. Unfortunately for Kai, she had two things going against her: 1) romance was heavily focused in the final arc, with the writers introducing [[KidFromTheFuture Spanner]] to actively force the pairing, and 2) Looma Redwind and Esther were popular from their introductions (especially the latter), while Kai was polarizing since her debut thanks to her treating Ben like a literal dog. Even Attea is a more popular het ship. However, when all is said and done, Ben/Rook is the most popular ship to rise from this installment of the series.

* ''WesternAnimation/Thundercats2011'': While Cheetara ends up with Tygra and that does have its fans, most fans prefer to pair her with Lion-O. This is mainly because said fans feel that Cheetara and Lion-O have better chemistry than she and Tygra do and Lion-O's unrequited crush on Cheetara. For example, on Website/FanfictionDotNet, Cheetara/Lion-O easily outranks Cheetara/Tygra by a good margin.

* ''WesternAnimation/TotallySpies'':
** [[OneTrueThreesome Sam/Alex/Clover]] ship. It doesn't help that most of the boys the three are interested in tend to be [[GirlOfTheWeek one-shots]], bar [[RecurringCharacter their fellow spy Blaine]].
** Sam and [[DatingCatwoman recurring villain Tim Scam]] also seems to be a popular ship among the fans, given that it takes up a good chunk of the ''Totally Spies'' archive on FF.net.

* ''WesternAnimation/VoltronLegendaryDefender'' has Keith/Lance and Keith/Shiro competing for the place as biggest ship depending on what part of the world you live in:
** In the western world, Keith and Lance is the most popular, and far more so than the canon Lance/Allura. Most of the shows fics on [=AO3=] are Keith/Lance. They've had varying levels of HoYay throughout the show, including later seasons with the lion switch, where Keith becomes the leader and Lance becomes his right hand man.
** In the eastern parts of the fandom, the most popular ship is Shiro/Keith, and even in the west is still easily Shiro's biggest ship. The pairing is also far bigger than Shiro's endgame one with [[spoiler:Curtis]]. It helps that Shiro is, unlike Lance, is actually gay and the two are the closest pair out of the whole group. The two also have a massive case of PlatonicWritingRomanticReading that often leads to fans seeing them as more romantic than the creators meant them to.

* ''WesternAnimation/{{Arcane}}'': The [[HotScientist Jayce/Viktor]] ship is much, much more popular than the canonical ship of Jayce/Mel. A very common opinion was that Mel was just using Jayce.

* The creators of ''WesternAnimation/StevenUniverse'' stated on twitter that Peridot is [=Asexual/Aromantic=][[https://twitter.com/rnn_tweet/status/1237596056746987520]], killing any canon possibility of a ship with Lapis Lazuli... at least in canon, but the fandom refuses to let the possibility die off, and fanworks continued for Lapidot.

* The creators of ''WesternAnimation/StevenUniverse'' stated on twitter that Peridot is [=Asexual/Aromantic=][[https://twitter.com/rnn_tweet/status/1237596056746987520]], [[ShipSinking killing any canon possibility of a ship with Lapis Lazuli]]... at least in canon, but the fandom refuses to let the possibility die off, and fanworks continued for Lapidot.

** ''WesternAnimation/Ben10Omniverse'' introduced several possible love interests for Ben before settling with Kai, a character from the original series. Unfortunately for Kai, she had two things going against her: 1) the shipping was heavily focused in the final arc, with the writers introducing [[KidFromTheFuture Spanner]] to actively force the pairing, and 2) Looma Redwind and Esther were popular from their introductions (especially the latter), while Kai was polarizing since her debut thanks to her treating Ben like a literal dog. Even Attea is a more popular het ship. However, when all is said and done, Ben/Rook is the most popular ship to rise from this installment of the series.

* ''WesternAnimation/WordGirl'': In canon, Becky has a crush on ObliviousToLove Scoops while Tobey has a VillainousCrush [[LovesMyAlterEgo on her superhero alter ego WordGirl]], meaning that neither couple is really canon. However, Becky/Tobey is easily more popular than Becky/Scoops due to how much they have in common and how {{Adorkable}} Tobey can be about his crush at times. It also helps that they do have some scattered moments of legitimately getting along despite Tobey being a villain, such as [=WordGirl=] admitting (in a very roundabout and reluctant fashion) to enjoying their NotADate in "Have You Seen the Remote?".

* ''WesternAnimation/CodenameKidsNextDoor'': Just about ''any'' non-canonical pairing involving Nigel Uno is more popular than his canon relationship with [[TheScrappy Lizzie]] -- though the most popular seems to be Nigel/Rachel (1/362), with Nigel/Abigail (1/5) as the second most popular. The former gained a large lead following the show's finale, which revealed [[spoiler:Numbuh 5 married Numbuh 2]].

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

** The [[WesternAnimation/Ben10 original series]] had [[KissingCousins Ben and his cousin Gwen]], with their constant bickering being perceived by fans as BelligerentSexualTension. Plus, there were were no other characters available to ship them with at the time (Kevin was the only recurring child character, he only ever interacted with Ben, and the two mutually hated each other). Even after being officially paired off with other characters in future installments, as well as getting more potential shipping options in general, Ben/Gwen remains one of the most popular pairings in the fandom, resulting in loads of H-art and fan made videos of them together.

*** Zutara (the pairing of Zuko and Katara) is one of the, if not the, most popular fan pairing. It's fanbase is such that the pairing was even referenced in the episode "Ember Island Players" and the non-canonical "School Time Shipping" short, as well as the satirical "Avatar Book 4" video shown at Comic-Con 2008 (though the former was done in a tongue-in-cheek manner, and the latter was outright mockery).

*** Following the resurgence the series has experienced thanks to being broadcast on Netflix, Sokka/Zuko has become extremely popular.

** In the eastern parts of the fandom, the most popular ship is Shiro/Keith, and even in the west is still easily Shiro's biggest ship. The pairing is also far bigger than Shiro's endgame one with [[spoiler:Curtis]]. It helps that Shiro is, unlike Lance, is actually gay and the two are the closest pair out of the whole group. The two also have a massive case of FriendshipWritingFumble that often leads to fans seeing them as more romantic than the creators meant them to.

*** Zutara (the pairing of Zuko and Zutara) is one of the, if not the, most popular fan pairing. It's fanbase is such that the pairing was even referenced in the episode "Ember Island Players" and the non-canonical "School Time Shipping" short, as well as the satirical "Avatar Book 4" video shown at Comic-Con 2008 (though the former was done in a tongue-in-cheek manner, and the latter was outright mockery).

** Because ''Total Drama'' has [[LoadsAndLoadsOfCharacters so many major characters]] and an active shipping community, this trope happens a lot for characters in less than popular relationships. One of the biggest examples of this is pairing up [[{{Cloudcuckoolander}} Izzy]] with [[HomeschooledKids Ezekiel]], rather than her briefly canon relationship with [[BigEater Owen]].

* Keith and Lance in ''WesternAnimation/VoltronLegendaryDefender'', so much so. Something like half of all Voltron fics on [=AO3=] are these two getting together. Its only real competition is Shiro and Keith (which, though just as non-canon, also outstrips all other pairings by a pretty wide margin). They've had varying levels of HoYay throughout the show, but that's about it. This even earned the fandom [[FandomRivalry a somewhat cold reception]] when Klance outtrended fellow red-and-blue gay pairing [[WesternAnimation/StevenUniverse Rupphire]] on Tumblr, on the week that the latter pairing got ''[[OfficialCouple married.]]'' This was emphasized in later seasons with the lion switch, where Keith becomes the leader and Lance becomes his right hand man. There is also preference from the fans due to the writers noting that they had influence from Macross, an anime with a famous LoveTriangle. As of the end of the series, though, it's still non-canon.

*** When the sequel comics came out, Zuki (the pairing of Zuko and Suki) became popular as the two were closely together with Suki as his bodyguard, while Sokka wasn't getting a lot of screentime with her. However, it seems to have died down as soon as Sokka and Suki were reunited.

*** 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."

*** 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 it now easily tops Sokka's canon ship with Suki.

* ''WesternAnimation/HarleyQuinn2019'': With Poison Ivy and Harley Quinn being a couple in many comic continuities but never on screen, it was inevitable the ship was more popular than the canon Ivy/Kite Man in Season 1. [[spoiler: Eventually resolved when Harlivy becomes canon at the expense of Kite Man at the end of Season 2.]]