History Main / Starboarding

The term comes from the fact that Starboard is the naval term for the right side of a ship (the left side being the Port, but "Porting" was already taken as a term). Thus a Starboard is one side of a ship.

A form of shipping where a shipper supports the idea that character A is in love with character B, but that character B doesn't return character A's affection. Like with ships where the love is presumed to be requited, this can be support for a "pairing" that is either supported or unsupported by canon. Unlike more mainstream shipping, if the love is ever requited in canon this may cause the "starboarder" to AbandonShip precisely because it ''has'' become canon.

* In ''{{Oz}}'', the pairing of Ryan O'Reily/Dr. Nathan actually had quite a few "starboarders" AbandonShip when she actually ''returned'' his feelings. Apparently, most of them liked it precisely ''because'' it was a screwed up, one-sided MindGameShip.

* In ''[[{{Anime/Ptitlei015gc004kw4}} Pokémon]]'', Ash is both a CelibateHero ''and'' the LittleBlackDress of the series, with evidence for (in order): Misty -> Ash, May -> Ash, and Dawn -> Ash, among others. It remains to be seen if [[PokemonBlackAndWhite Iris]] will continue the trend.

** Shippers of Tokko (Zoko+Toph) like to characterize this pairing as a one-sided crush rather then crack. This is largely do to Toph's affectionate actions towards Zuko, most of which he appears obvious of. Many Tokko shippers admit that Zuko probably doesn't return Toph's possible feelings for him. That may actually why they ship one-sided Tokko, because it is easy to relate to. Most also chose this above crack because it give at least somewhat of a basis in the canon, much like Tokka.

Especially prevalent in {{Slash}}, where shippers attempt to make an [[CrackPairing impossible pairing]] canon by making it be unrequited on one side. Also a common way of pairing characters when [[FoeYay one canonically hates the other]].

** Taiwan is often depicted as having a crush on her older "brother" Japan when she isn't paired with Hong Kong or Korea.

** For the Greece --> Japan <-- Turkey LoveTriangle, you can argue back and forth on whether Japan [[OfficialCouple returns Greece's feelings]] or [[JustFriends not]] or even on whether Greece and Turkey [[SitcomArchnemesis truly hate each other]] or [[FoeYay not]], but you'd be very hard-pressed to argue against Japan/Turkey being far, ''far'' less likely to happen than Japan/Greece. As a result, Turkey inevitably ends up as the HopelessSuitor who refuses to acknowledge that Japan has had eyes for only Greece ever since the beginning in fanfics where he isn't paired up with Greece or [[ShipMates Egypt]].

* In ''{{Pokemon}}'', Ash is both a CelibateHero ''and'' the LittleBlackDress of the series, with evidence for (in order): Misty -> Ash, May -> Ash, and Dawn -> Ash, among others. It remains to be seen if [[PokemonBlackAndWhite Iris]] will continue the trend.

* It's highly recognized in the ''Mega Man'' fandom that Ciel of ''MegaManZero'' has very blatant feelings for the [[{{Badass}} eponymous hero]], regardless of her being human and his being a [[strike:Reploid]] highly-advanced robot. It's also generally accepted that most of it is probably unrequited due to Zero's ''[[IronWoobie very]]'' [[IronWoobie broken past]] (although there're shades of [[ChasteHero chastity]] there, too). However, there's still the fact that Zero's very willing to ''die fighting for her,'' [[spoiler:and ''he does''.]] [[TheWoobie You can't help but feel sorry for the poor girl...]]

** This troper thinks there is canon evidence that Near is in love with Mello. However, the idea of canon!Mello loving canon!Near in any way is, well, basically impossible to accept for this troper. Thank heavens for well-written, plausible [=AUs=].

* This refers to the film version, but really, am I the only one who gets the feeling [[{{Film/Watchmen}} Adrian Veidt is carrying a little torch for Dan Dreiberg?]] Especially in the FoeYay-ful final fight (and in particular, the part where Adrian ''doesn't fight back''?
** From both version, Rorschach seems to hold his friendship with Daniel as his most important human relationship (and one of his very few) and also seems very posessive of Dan's time and attention; whereas Daneil sees Rorschach just as a friend with unique and disturbing personal perspectives. This has given some shippers cause to cry Rorschach-> Dan.

* The Marauders in ''HarryPotter'' are subject to a lot of this. It started with Remus/Sirius as a popular ship; however, as the series went on it became harder to ignore the evidence that it was Sirius and ''James'' who had the HeterosexualLifePartners relationship that's so easily mined for HoYay, and James, of course, [[NoBisexuals wound up with Lily]]. This led to a variety of scenarios: Sirius is in love with James, who is straight; Remus is in love with Sirius, who is straight; [[TriangRelations Remus is in love with Sirius, who is in love with James, who is straight]]; and occasionally, Sirius is in love with Remus, who is straight (because Remus eventually married Tonks; there was a time when he was the one most likely to be portrayed as gay, but as it turned out, it was Sirius who finished out the series as the only good Marauder who was never seen to have a female partner. Remus, however, ''is'' often portrayed as bisexual, especially since he only got with Tonks after Sirius died, which still leaves hope for the original R/S shippers that the two of them were basically living as an old married couple in Grimmauld Place during [=OotP=]). Peter is never a factor in any of this, because unattractive people who turn out to be evil don't get any in fanfic.

* One could easily see implications of [[{{Firefly}} River -> Mal]] if one wanted to. Especially during/after the BigDamnMovie.
** Hey, there's plenty of us who see it as not one sided! I like the explanation given by most fanfic authors, he just thinks that he shouldn't act on it due to the age difference.
*** He's afraid of the special Hell.

* In ''MetalGearSolid3'', the pairing of Ocelot/Big Boss. Everyone is cool with the idea that Ocelot has a [[WordOfGay giant, unrequited crush]] on Big Boss. And no one seems to feel the need for Big Boss to ever return it.
** Because if he spent time returning the feelings for every person who had a crush on him, he wouldn't get anything done.
** Although Ocelot/Big Boss is also extremely as a regular [[HoYay slash pairing]] in the fandom. Also according to the Metal Gear Solid 3 commentary Big Boss did share a "pure love" with Ocelot, though the nature and degree of the relationship on Big Boss's side was not elaborated upon.
* ''KingdomHeartsII'': A ''lot'' of Axel/Roxas fans ship the idea of it being unrequited on Axel's part. Particularly helped by how [[TheStoic cold]] Roxas is (complete with him saying "You're not my friend" in the novels. Ouch).

*** Both have a fair amount of evidence for them (though Tokka has a little bit more), but the problem with many of these ships is that "crush" and "love" are treated as interchangable.

** Although, from another perspective, it could just be that Gumshoe is very, very lonely in general, and is out for just about any attention he can get. The manual for Justice For All offers a jokey sort of explanation for where all that confetti comes from when Phoenix wins a case; Gumshoe ''spends his free time cutting it all out himself'', and apparently throws it out at the conclusion of any case where he's present without any particular favor. Edgeworth doesn't appreciate the gesture quite as much as Phoenix does.

* It's canon that Autor has a pretty big crush on Rue in ''PrincessTutu'', and a lot of fans will admit to shipping one-sided Autor -> Rue. There are a ''lot'' less fans that ship requited Autor/Rue, however, since Rue is very attached to Mytho [[spoiler:and later ends up going back to his story with him, presumably to marry him]].

* Many ''{{Kuroshitsuji}}'' yaoi fangirls support the idea of Sebastian -> Ciel, [[DepravedHomosexual Grell]] -> Sebastian (which is canon on Grell's side), and Alois -> Ciel (canon on Alois's side).

* ''XMenEvolution'': The [[TheSnarkKnight Rogue]]/[[TheStoic Scott]] pairing is sometimes written this way.

* It's highly recognized in the ''MegaMan'' fandom that Ciel of ''MegaManZero'' has very blatant feelings for the [[{{Badass}} eponymous hero]], regardless of her being human and his being a [[strike:Reploid]] highly-advanced robot. It's also generally accepted that most of it is probably unrequited due to Zero's ''[[IronWoobie very]]'' [[IronWoobie broken past]] (although there're shades of [[ChasteHero chastity]] there, too). However, there's still the fact that Zero's very willing to ''die fighting for her,'' [[spoiler:and ''he does''.]] [[TheWoobie You can't help but feel sorry for the poor girl...]]

* There's a number of {{Supernatural}} fans that see Castiel having serious feelings for Dean, but not the other way around.

*** Also, some Turkey/Greece fics justify [[NiceGuy Greece]]'s intense dislike of Turkey as resulting from Turkey's bad treatment of him when he was under his care (a couple even going so far as to imply that [[RapeAsDrama Turkey sexually abused him**), thus making him extremely adverse to the idea of ever entering a relationship with his hated enemy. Since these fics ''are'' ultimately Turkey/Greece, though, they usually have Greece show ''some'' sign that he at least doesn't 100% hate Turkey by the end.

*** Also, some Turkey/Greece fics justify [[NiceGuy Greece]]'s intense dislike of Turkey as resulting from Turkey's bad treatment of him when he was under his care (a couple even going so far as to imply that Turkey sexually abused him), thus making him extremely adverse to the idea of ever entering a relationship with his hated enemy. Since these fics ''are'' ultimately Turkey/Greece, though, they usually have Greece show ''some'' sign that he at least doesn't 100% hate Turkey by the end.

* When Ryoga from ''[[RanmaOneHalf Ranma 1/2]]'' was given his own love interest to fall in love with, many fans hated it. Some wanted him to end up with Akane, others thought he should [[PairTheSpares end up with Ukyou]], but many felt that he should continue pining after Akane while she pined after Ranma, just as a demonstration of dogged determination as his primary quality. The cast of Ranma is full of other examples mostly because in canon it's a critical plot point that Ranma and Akane [[LoveDodecahedron have a ton of suitors, and some of them have suitors as well]].