History Main / ShippingGoggles

->''"Really the best thing about [[NotSoStoic the smirk]] is that it demonstrates that literally a single pixel[[note]]It's actually four pixels, but they form a square, so it's a common misconception.[[/note]] can serve as [[ShipTease shipping fuel]]. It was worth it for that scientific demonstration alone."''
-->--'''Creator/AndrewHussie''', [[http://www.mspaforums.com/showthread.php?33145-AutoChat-V.53&p=4281346&viewfull=1#post4281346 on]] [[http://www.mspaintadventures.com/?s=6&p=002282 this panel of]] ''Webcomic/{{Homestuck}}''[[note]]Actually, it's three pixels, but we'll let that slide.[[/note]]

->''"Really the best thing about [[NotSoStoic the smirk]] is that it demonstrates that literally a single pixel can serve as [[ShipTease shipping fuel]]. It was worth it for that scientific demonstration alone."''

* Despite ''Series/HowIMetYourMother'' explicitly torpedoing the ship in ''the pilot episode of the show'', hardcore Ted/Robin shippers can blow the aforementioned Guy/Marian fangirls out of the water with their ability to completely rearrange the entire context of the show and reinterpret every vastly important and meaningful plot point that has had a hand in leading Ted to the eponymous mother in order to find a loophole that would allow Robin to be the mother, even if it completely destroys the entire purpose and meaning of the story. Some even believe that the ''only'' possible ending to the story is that Ted meets the mother, has kids, divorces her, and gets with Robin. This mainly comes from a weird contingent of fans who keep comparing Ted/Robin to Ross/Rachel from ''Series/{{Friends}}'' (even though the two couples and the four characters are more different in more ways than it is possible to articulate, never mind that they're from ''completely different shows''). Their entire argument consists of "[[InsaneTrollLogic Ted and Robin have to get together in the end, or else it will be as though Ross and Rachel didn't get together at the end.]]" [[http://have-you-met-ted.com/2009/how-i-met-your-mother-theories-tracey-yellow-umbrella-and-more/ Just check out the last half of the comment thread at the end of this article.]] [[spoiler: The March 2014 finale of the show caused lots of controversy when this is essentially how it ended, although Ted did not divorce the mother - she died. Though, given how much this ending contradicts the rest of the show, and how passive agressive the writers who were not the head writers seem to be being in their episodes in the final season, it appears the writer had shipping goggles.]]

* In ''Series/GameOfThrones'' fans will pick any excuse to ship Arya with Gendry, even though she's ''twelve'' and he's around seventeen or eighteen, as when she looks at him while he's shirtless and working a forge.

** The die-hard Harry/Hermione shippers are fairly infamous for this -- even after the series ''finished'' they kept on writing essays on the supposed {{Subtext}} between the two and how JK Rowling had ruined the series by not hooking them up. This isn't helped by [[TheFilmOfTheBook the films]] turning Ron into the PluckyComicRelief {{Sidekick}} (well, moreso than he initially was in the books) and giving Harry and Hermione plenty of shiptastic scenes, until ''Half Blood Prince'' (due apparently to screenwriter Steve Kloves thinking that Rowling meant for them to get together).

*** In response to the infamous Mugglenet interview where Rowling commented on "anvil-sized hints" supporting Ron and Hermione, many Harry/Hermione shippers started claiming there were shipping crate/warehouse/other objects larger than an anvil sized hints for Harry and Hermione, yet rarely offer up examples other than ridiculous things like "The Symbolic Flight" or that "Hermione's Patronus is an OTTER".
*** And then years after the series had finished Rowling said that in some ways Hermione and Harry are a better fit than Ron and Hermione (though saying that they would be all right), and saying that Harry's love for Ginny is true, the shipping debacle just gets worse.

*** And then years after the series had finished Rowling said she made a mistake having Hermione hook up with Ron and saying she really should have been with Harry at the end, and the shipping debacle just gets worse.

* ''Manga/{{Naruto}}'' shippers, rather notoriously. You pretty much have to do this to seriously ship any of the three most popular ships, because otherwise there isn't a whole lot that strongly suggests any of the feelings are reciprocated. Many, many, many lengthy essays have been written from all sides about how so-and-so is subtly hinted at secretly being in love with someone, flabbergasting anyone who reads manga more casually/normally.

[[folder:{{Anime}} and {{Manga}}]]

* ''Manga/{{Naruto}}'' shippers, rather notoriously. You pretty much have to do this to seriously ship any of the three most popular ships, because otherwise there isn't a whole lot that strongly suggests any of the feelings are reciprocated. Many, many, many lengthy essays have been written from all sides about how so-and-so is subtly hinted at secretly being in love with someone, flabbergasting anyone who reads manga more casually/normally. Honestly, it's kind of heartbreaking considering how MasashiKishimoto is widely criticised for depicting young women as single-mindedly love-obsessed, and yet so many female fans get so caught up in the romance they seem to forget the more prominent themes and relationships.

* ''Film/TheAvengers'': While pretty much every combination of couples has been shipped following the film, Clintasha seems to have taken off as the biggest-shipped couple from the film, to the point its gotten entire ''articles'' written about it going over how 'perfect' the couple is, to the point many interpret it as the token romance in the film. Despite that, though...they actually spend very little time actually interacting, or doing anything that could imply a romantic relationship. While Natasha's primarily motivated in saving Clint's life, she makes it clear in one scene that she doesn't care for love, and their partnership is more along the lines of comrades in arms. But, in-spite of that, many tend to exaggerate what's shown to interpret either that Natasha is self-conscious and does secretly harbour a crush on him (which would be out of character for her), or that they are actually dating (which would make her claim about not loving him make no sense).
** On top of that, is the mention of '[[NoodleIncident Budapest]]'; in the film, its a throw-away line that isn't really important, but in fandom, its seen as proof that the two have been dating, and that Budapest must be a big romantic encounter between them, even though the comment was comparing 'Budapest' to the ''current alien invasion they're fighting''. ''Film/CaptainAmericaTheWinterSoldier'' has an extended scene that specifies that 'Budapest' is one of the many atrocities Natasha committed while working for the KGB, so its unlikely to be anything romantic between her and Clint, but that doesn't stop people obsessing over it.

* ''Series/ICarly'': Shippers of the Sam/Freddie pairing are well known for their 'secret Seddie', where they consider any form of interaction, chatting, talking, [[DoubleStandardAbuseFemaleOnMale Sam hitting Freddie]], fighting, both having the colors red and blue OR purple on, mentioning the other or just being in the same room together as blatant evidence that they are going to become a canon couple. [[IKnewIt Which, granted, they did.]]
** And then they broke up with the opposite couple (Carly & Freddie) getting the LastMinuteHookUp.
*** The show itself dedicated an entire episode to the InUniverse versions of the two major shipping pairings.

* ''Series/{{Sherlock}}''
** Practically every frame gets interpreted as a Sherlock/John moment, and some weird things are used to justify/prove it. Shippers swear the fact that John [[HaveIMentionedIAmHeterosexualToday repeatedly insists that he's not gay]] in the face of people mistaking their relationship is somehow proof that he ''is'': "Me thinks the doctor dost protest too much". This is either ignoring that Sherlock doesn't care when people make that mistake, or using his apathy as some kind of paradoxical proof that Sherlock is also gay: "Notice how he doesn't correct them or anything?" Also, thanks to the creators being savvy enough to know how these two would come off in a modern setting, practically ''everyone'' who meets them tends to mistake them for a couple. To shippers, this is somehow also proof: "[[EveryoneCanSeeIt Everyone can see it but them!]]"
** This taken to the next level with the pairing of Mycroft/Lestrade: the two characters have interacted a total of a minute on screen.

** Despite deliberate HoYay between Phoenix and Edgeworth, neither character shows romantic feelings for the other at any point. There's a certain level of respect and trust, but they're shown to not socialize and often go months without talking to each other.
*** In fact, many of these so-called "Ho Yay" moments [[http://askaceattorney.tumblr.com/post/62170745858/dear-fan-ill-put-this-one-under-the-cut-because can also be argued as]] [[http://askaceattorney.tumblr.com/post/73263280625/dear-asher-wright-oh-thats-easy-apollo-and scenes being taken widely out of context.]] (Of course, the same could be said of many hetero ships in ''AA'', as seen directly below.)
** The same can be said for Phoenix X Maya and Edgeworth X Franziska, as in both pairings, the characters involved [[LikeBrotherAndSister act like brother and sister]] (Franziska even refers to Edgeworth as her brother) and have no romantic feelings for each other, but some fans ship them together anyway.
*** Parodied by Maya's cousin Pearl, who ships Phoenix and Maya, treats anything that Phoenix does for Maya as a great symbol of his love for her (despite that he would do the same for most people he knows) and gets mad at any girl (or at Phoenix himself) that gets any attention from Phoenix.

* ''WesternAnimation/AdventureTime''
** The episode "What Was Missing" caused an ''explosion'' in the number of people who ship Bubblegum and Marceline, interpreting their interactions as a former couple who had a nasty break-up, an opinion that only got stronger after "Sky Witch". Ultimately, it hasn't been revealed what their past relationship (if any) was, nor the story behind Bubblegum's animosity or Marceline's song, but support for the pairing has been strong ever since.

Caution should be used not to confuse every case of LGBTFanbase {{Gaydar}} as Shipping Goggles -- if fans believe a character is gay, it is not necessarily because fans want to ship them them.

** This taken to the next level with the pairing of Mycroft/Lestrade, the two characters have interacted a total of a minute on screen.

** One of the most bizarre and amazing examples on this page is Bon Bon and Lyra, two {{Recurring Extra}}s often placed next to each other due to their complementing colours, who somehow became one of '''the''' [[OneTruePairing most popular pairings]] in the fandom; indeed, pairing them with anypony else is almost considered [[FandomHeresy Heresy]]. Even the show's staff themselves acknowledged this phenomenon, placing them together in [[http://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=256161614401283 the official Comic Con poster]] and giving them {{Funny Background Event}}s in "Secrets of My Excess" and "Putting Your Hoof Down".

* Despite ''Series/HowIMetYourMother'' explicitly torpedoing the ship in ''the pilot episode of the show'', hardcore Ted/Robin shippers can blow the aforementioned Guy/Marian fangirls out of the water with their ability to completely rearrange the entire context of the show and reinterpret every vastly important and meaningful plot point that has had a hand in leading Ted to the eponymous mother in order to find a loophole that would allow Robin to be the mother, even if it completely destroys the entire purpose and meaning of the story. Some even believe that the ''only'' possible ending to the story is that Ted meets the mother, has kids, divorces her, and gets with Robin. This mainly comes from a weird contingent of fans who keep comparing Ted/Robin to Ross/Rachel from ''Series/{{Friends}}'' (even though the two couples and the four characters are more different in more ways than it is possible to articulate, never mind that they're from ''completely different shows''). Their entire argument consists of "[[InsaneTrollLogic Ted and Robin have to get together in the end, or else it will be as though Ross and Rachel didn't get together at the end.]]" [[http://have-you-met-ted.com/2009/how-i-met-your-mother-theories-tracey-yellow-umbrella-and-more/ Just check out the last half of the comment thread at the end of this article.]] [[spoiler: The March 2014 finale of the show caused lots of controversy when this is essentially how it ended, although Ted did not divorce the mother - she died.]]

*** The four which tend to be most "pushed" by the show are AppleDash (Applejack + Rainbow Dash), FlutterDash (Fluttershy + Rainbow Dash), RariJack (Rarity + Applejack), and Flarity (Fluttershy + Rarity). These are easily the most common pairings of characters in episodes, and when the group ends up in pairs, it is VERY likely that Applejack will end up with either Rarity or Rainbow Dash, and whoever she doesn't end up with will probably end up with Fluttershy. Every one of these pairings has had at least one episode which focuses on them, and several have had multiple episodes which featured them pretty strongly. These episodes are always purely platonic in nature, but it doesn't stop the fans at all.
**** RariJack shows up extremely often. It first showed up in "Look Before You Sleep", where the two characters spent the entire episode being catty towards each other, stoking the fires of shippers believing they had extreme UST. In "The Best Night Ever", the only two of the mane six who interact significantly outside of the beginning and ending are Applejack and Rarity, when Applejack gives Rarity free food because her date sucks. "Sisterhooves Social" found Applejack giving Rarity advice on being a good big sister. They ended up defending the Crystal Heart together in "The Crystal Empire", and the end of the episode also gave the shippers [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NIgGAcaph7Q this]]. Rarity was the one to help Applejack in "Magical Mystery Cure". They try to keep Discord away from Twilight in "Three's A Crowd". And then they got another episode of being extremely catty towards each other in the form of "Simple Ways". Most recently, they ended up setting out into the fair together in "Trade Ya". Several of the writers have admitted that they enjoy writing the two together because their personalities bounce off of each other so well.
**** FlutterDash also shows up frequently, possibly because the two are childhood friends, as established in "Cutie Mark Chronicles". Fluttershy is the only person who can initially go to cheer on Rainbow Dash in the Best Young Flyer's competition in "Sonic Rainboom", and very frequently supports Rainbow Dash in her endeavors. "Hurricane Fluttershy" turns this around, with Rainbow Dash urging Fluttershy to be the best she can be. Rainbow Dash saves Fluttershy in the changeling fight in "A Canterlot Wedding", and when she helps her up, the [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kZlgES3q6io overlap of their noses]] combined with a "swoosh" sound effect lead many with shipping goggles to believe that Rainbow Dash had given her a little kiss on the nose to reassure her). Fluttershy was the one to help out Rainbow Dash in "Magical Mystery Cure".

** The die-hard Harry/Hermione shippers are fairly infamous for this -- even after the series ''finished'' they kept on writing essays on the supposed {{Subtext}} between the two and how JK Rowling had ruined the series by not hooking them up. This isn't helped by [[TheFilmOfTheBook the films]] turning Ron into the PluckyComicRelief {{Sidekick}} and giving Harry and Hermione plenty of shiptastic scenes, until ''Half Blood Prince''.

* Despite ''Series/HowIMetYourMother'' explicitly torpedoing the ship in ''the pilot episode of the show'', hardcore Ted/Robin shippers can blow the aforementioned Guy/Marian fangirls out of the water with their ability to completely rearrange the entire context of the show and reinterpret every vastly important and meaningful plot point that has had a hand in leading Ted to the eponymous mother in order to find a loophole that would allow Robin to be the mother, even if it completely destroys the entire purpose and meaning of the story. Some even believe that the ''only'' possible ending to the story is that Ted meets the mother, has kids, divorces her, and gets with Robin. This mainly comes from a weird contingent of fans who keep comparing Ted/Robin to Ross/Rachel from ''Series/{{Friends}}'' (even though the two couples and the four characters are more different in more ways than it is possible to articulate, never mind that they're from ''completely different shows''). Their entire argument consists of "[[InsaneTrollLogic Ted and Robin have to get together in the end, or else it will be as though Ross and Rachel didn't get together at the end.]]" [[http://have-you-met-ted.com/2009/how-i-met-your-mother-theories-tracey-yellow-umbrella-and-more/ Just check out the last half of the comment thread at the end of this article.]] [[spoiler: The March 2014 finale of the show caused lots of controversy when this is essentially exactly how it ended.]]

* Despite ''Series/HowIMetYourMother'' explicitly torpedoing the ship in ''the pilot episode of the show'', hardcore Ted/Robin shippers can blow the aforementioned Guy/Marian fangirls out of the water with their ability to completely rearrange the entire context of the show and reinterpret every vastly important and meaningful plot point that has had a hand in leading Ted to the eponymous mother in order to find a loophole that would allow Robin to be the mother, even if it completely destroys the entire purpose and meaning of the story. Some even believe that the ''only'' possible ending to the story is that Ted meets the mother, has kids, divorces her, and gets with Robin. This mainly comes from a weird contingent of fans who keep comparing Ted/Robin to Ross/Rachel from ''Series/{{Friends}}'' (even though the two couples and the four characters are more different in more ways than it is possible to articulate, never mind that they're from ''completely different shows''). Their entire argument consists of "[[InsaneTrollLogic Ted and Robin have to get together in the end, or else it will be as though Ross and Rachel didn't get together at the end.]]" [[http://have-you-met-ted.com/2009/how-i-met-your-mother-theories-tracey-yellow-umbrella-and-more/ Just check out the last half of the comment thread at the end of this article.]] [[spoiler: The March 2014 finale of the show caused lots of controversy when this is essentially exactly how it ended...]]

* Despite ''Series/HowIMetYourMother'' explicitly torpedoing the ship in ''the pilot episode of the show'', hardcore Ted/Robin shippers can blow the aforementioned Guy/Marian fangirls out of the water with their ability to completely rearrange the entire context of the show and reinterpret every vastly important and meaningful plot point that has had a hand in leading Ted to the eponymous mother in order to find a loophole that would allow Robin to be the mother, even if it completely destroys the entire purpose and meaning of the story. Some even believe that the ''only'' possible ending to the story is that Ted meets the mother, has kids, divorces her, and gets with Robin. This mainly comes from a weird contingent of fans who keep comparing Ted/Robin to Ross/Rachel from ''Series/{{Friends}}'' (even though the two couples and the four characters are more different in more ways than it is possible to articulate, never mind that they're from ''completely different shows''). Their entire argument consists of "[[InsaneTrollLogic Ted and Robin have to get together in the end, or else it will be as though Ross and Rachel didn't get together at the end.]]" [[http://have-you-met-ted.com/2009/how-i-met-your-mother-theories-tracey-yellow-umbrella-and-more/ Just check out the last half of the comment thread at the end of this article.]]

** A few lines between a woman who will do anything to win a case offering emotional support after the trial, and a woman who is so incredibly co-dependant that she needs someone to guide her in being able to do ANYTHING at that point, led to the huge following of Franziska/Adrian.

** A mild example of this cropped up with ''[[VideoGame/KingdomHeartsBirthBySleep Birth By Sleep]]'', where Terra/Aqua shippers insist that the scene where Terra, Aqua, and Ven reunite in Radiant Garden is proof that Ven regards Terra and Aqua as his parents and [[ShipperOnDeck ships them together]]. Never mind that when Ven says "Parents" he is notably irritable over being seen as just a little kid, and ignore how Terra and Aqua, when confronted with the notion of them as Ven's parents, they casually laugh it off. Furthermore, this is only in the Japanese version; in the English dub they're simply referred to as "grown ups".

* An ''in-universe'' example happens in ''VideoGame/NamcoXCapcom'' where Reiji points out plenty of times that Saya is the one who killed his father. Yet the other girls in the party ([[VideoGame/{{Darkstalkers}} Lei-Lei, Felicia]], [[Franchise/StreetFighter Sakura]], and Momo) insist that they were into some sort of relationship.
** Xiaomu pulls this in ProjectXZone if you team her and Reiji with [[SuperRobotWars Sanger Zonvolt]].