| 1 | %% |
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| 3 | %% This trope needs a canon couple to overshadow for it to count. |
| 4 | %% The canon/ones with no canon couples to compete with are removed. The ones without mentioning them are hidden/rewritten. |
| 5 | %% If you want to unhide one, please add a canon couple or come to this thread: |
| 6 | %% https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/posts.php?discussion=14860997890A40152400&page=1 |
| 7 | %% |
| 8 | %% |
| 9 | %% Image selected per Image Pickin' thread: https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/posts.php?discussion=17069095390.30560900 |
| 10 | %% Please don't change or remove without starting a new thread. |
| 11 | %% |
| 12 | [[quoteright:350:[[Series/OnceUponATime https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/mixcollage_03_feb_2024_10_16_am_397_5.jpg]]]] |
| 13 | [[caption-width-right:350:'''Left''': The couple [[OfficialCouple we got]] in [[PunnyName Storybrooke]].\ |
| 14 | '''Right''': The fairest couple in Fanfiction land.]] |
| 15 | %% |
| 16 | %% Caption selected per above IP thread. Please do not replace or remove without discussion in the Caption Repair thread: |
| 17 | %% https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/posts.php?discussion=1404492079030138900 |
| 18 | %% |
| 19 | Examples of FanPreferredCouple from live-action television. |
| 20 | |
| 21 | ---- |
| 22 | !!Series with their own subpages: |
| 23 | [[index]] |
| 24 | * ''[[FanPreferredCouple/{{Arrowverse}} Arrowverse]]'' |
| 25 | * ''[[FanPreferredCouple/MarvelCinematicUniverse Marvel Cinematic Universe]]'' |
| 26 | * ''[[FanPreferredCouple/PowerRangers Power Rangers]]'' |
| 27 | * ''[[FanPreferredCouple/SherlockHolmes Sherlock Holmes]]'' |
| 28 | [[/index]] |
| 29 | |
| 30 | !!Other Series |
| 31 | * ''Series/The100'': Clarke/Bellamy (a.k.a. [[PortmanteauCoupleName Bellarke]]) has always been the show's most popular pairing, even though, unlike in the original books where they're a canonical couple, the closest they ever came to an onscreen coupling in the show was a kiss on the cheek. A testament to Bellarke's enduring popularity is how they still have more fanfics on Archive of Our Own than the canonical Clarke/Lexa ship even after the show sunk any chance of Bellarke happening with [[spoiler:Bellamy's death and the series finale confirming Lexa to be Clarke's greatest love]]. |
| 32 | * ''Series/TwoBrokeGirls'': It did not take long for fans to latch onto the pairing of Caroline/Max, even though by the end of the show, Max ends up with Randy and Caroline is with Bobby. |
| 33 | %%* ''Series/ThirdRockFromTheSun'': Harry/Nina. One episode demonstrated their potential, but they broke up before they ever got together due to a OneDialogueTwoConversations misunderstanding. |
| 34 | * Oh, ''Series/ThirtyRock'' and the long, convoluted history of Jack/Liz. Creator/TinaFey has been saying NoHuggingNoKissing since the first season, but the ship remains as popular as ever. The show is just so determined not to put them together, giving both a series of love interests which never last. ''30 Rock'' long ago started outright spoofing the idea of Jack/Liz, but this just came off as extra quirky {{Ship Tease}}s, at least to the shippers. Eventually, they just went out and gave them an AccidentalMarriage, although [[StatusQuoIsGod it only lasted one episode]]. The whole episode was basically just a big LampshadeHanging, saying that "we know you want Jack and Liz together, but we're not doing it." In the last season, Liz gets married (for real, this time) to someone else. And a few episodes later in "Florida", the final nail in the coffin of Jack/Liz occurs when Jack and Liz discuss why they never had a romantic relationship and agree they were always BetterAsFriends. |
| 35 | * ''Series/NineOneOne'': |
| 36 | ** Buck/Eddie, aka [[PortmanteauCoupleName Buddie]], is the most popular pairing in the fandom, even with both of them having multiple canon love interests such as Buck with Taylor or Eddie with his ex-wife, Shannon. The sheer amount of fanfiction and communities devoted to them is staggering. Even Creator/JenniferLoveHewitt [[https://www.instagram.com/p/B_z_ymaHRtG/ likes them]]. |
| 37 | ** ''Series/NineOneOneLoneStar'': There is a sizable part of the fanbase which ships Owen/Michelle, despite their canon relationship being largely platonic. It is the most popular Owen ship and is easily more popular than his many canon ones, such as his one with Catherine Harper. It still has a dedicated fanbase even after Michelle left the show at the end of season one. |
| 38 | * ''Series/AbbottElementary'': Barbara/Melissa (aka [[IdiosyncraticShipNaming Work Wives]] or [[PortmanteauCoupleName Barlissa]]) is the most popular ship in the fandom and is greatly preferred over their canonical male love interests, such as Gerald for Barbara and Gary for Melissa. This is mainly due to the large amounts of LesYay between them and the chemistry between their actresses. On [=AO3=], the majority of fanfics are about Barbara/Melissa. |
| 39 | * ''Series/AmericanGods2017'': Laura and Mad Sweeney are the most popular ship in the fandom, having twice the amount of fan works about them than the next most popular couple Shadow/Mad Sweeney. They even have a PortmanteauCoupleName - [=MadWife=]. Fans were ''not'' pleased when [[spoiler:Mad Sweeney died and Creator/PabloSchreiber was confirmed to have exited the show.]] Both Laura/Mad Sweeney and Shadow/Mad Sweeney are easily more popular than the canon Shadow/Laura. |
| 40 | * ''Series/AmericanHorrorStory'' being an anthology series has a couple of these depending on the season: |
| 41 | ** ''Series/AmericanHorrorStoryAsylum'': Bananun (Lana/Sister Mary Eunice) is far more popular than the canon pairings of Lana/Wendy or Lana/Marion. This is despite how little they interact or the fact that Sister Mary Eunice is a nun that is possessed by the Devil for most of the show. The most common reasons are the very minor LesYay between them following the possession, Paulson and Rabe having great chemistry, and the brief interactions that they had before Sister Mary Eunice is possessed. It is quite popular on Website/ArchiveOfOurOwn and Tumblr and only grew in popularity in the years following the end of the season. |
| 42 | ** ''Series/AmericanHorrorStoryCoven'': Foxxay (Misty/Cordelia) is the most popular ship from the season and easily outranks the canon Hank/Cordelia. This is mainly due to the LesYay between the two and the chemistry between Paulson and Rabe. The ship easily outranks all others from the series in terms of numbers on Website/ArchiveOfOurOwn and is still quite popular on Tumblr and [=YouTube=] to this day. It also resulted in many fans [[ActorShipping shipping the two actresses]] as well. This continued into ''Series/AmericanHorrorStoryApocalypse'', where the two are reunited after Michael resurrects Misty. |
| 43 | ** ''Series/AmericanHorrorStoryFreakShow'': Though this season has less shipping than most, Jimmy/Maggie seems to be the only one that fans really hung on to, having retained a small but loyal following years later despite Maggie's controversial reputation at the time the season aired. Most of the fanbase is located on Tumblr and [=YouTube=]. Where it is very much more popular than the endgame ship, Jimmy/Dot. Mostly due to the fact that their actors were engaged for a while, and Maggie's CharacterDevelopment through the season being caused by their relationship. |
| 44 | ** ''Series/AmericanHorrorStoryRoanoke'': Most fanfiction about the season doesn't feature Shelby paired up with her canon husband Matt. Instead, most of it features her and Audrey surviving the events of the season and getting together. This is mainly due to the fact that they are the reunion of Creator/SarahPaulson and Creator/LilyRabe in the show, whose characters from previous seasons fans already shipped together massively, as well as Audrey being the actress who played Shelby in the InUniverse ShowWithinAShow. While the season as a whole doesn't have much fanfiction compared to others, most of what is out there is Shelby/Audrey. |
| 45 | * ''Series/AmericanHousewife'': Oliver Otto and Cooper Bradford are shipped together very strongly for how much of a bromance they have and the fact that they have more chemistry than Oliver had with Alice, Gina or Brie when he was with any of them. |
| 46 | * The ''Series/TheAstronautWivesClub'' fandom seems to have really latched on to the pairing of Max and Louise, particularly given Alan's characterization early in the series. |
| 47 | * Most viewers wanted to see Kara and Lee together, but in the GrandFinale of ''Series/{{Battlestar Galactica|2003}}'' we find out they don't get together after all. Many viewers found the Dee/Lee pairing came out of the blue and still prefer to pair Lee with Kara. |
| 48 | * Many fans of ''Series/{{The Bear|2022}}'' prefer the pairing of Sydney/Carmy over Carmy/Claire due to their palpable chemistry and mutual trust in each other's skills and ideas |
| 49 | * ''Series/BeverlyHills90210'': Even though Dylan/Kelly ended up being the endgame couple for the show, most fans ship Brenda/Dylan. Ditto for Brandon/Kelly. |
| 50 | * Most ''Series/BetterOffTed'' viewers ship Ted with Veronica over DesignatedLoveInterest Linda, despite the fact that Veronica is TheStoic who has no interest in a romantic relationship with Ted. It helps that they have already had sex without it getting weird, plus they get along well even though Veronica is Ted's boss and Veronica gets along well with Ted's daughter Rose. |
| 51 | * Sheldon/Penny on ''Series/TheBigBangTheory'' is the OneTruePairing, as far as the shippers are concerned. The breakup of the OfficialCouple, Leonard/Penny, [[AndThereWasMuchRejoicing invited some celebration]] on the part of more than a few fans. WordOfGod states it will never happen, however. |
| 52 | * ''Series/BigShot2021'': Harvyn (Holly/Marvyn) seems to be more popular than Maggie/Marvyn. Holly and Marvyn seem to have a bigger fanbase and more supporters than Maggie and Marvyn does. |
| 53 | * ''Series/BigSky'': Jenny Hoyt and Cassie Dwell is an intensely strong fan pairing for the show. The two get more support together over either one with any of their actual love interests in the show (Season 1 had Jenny and Cassie literally fight over Jenny's husband Cody whom Cassie had had an affair with while Jenny also had old flame Blake Kleinsasser and in Season 2 Jenny had Travis Reed while Cassie had Mark Lindor). What endears them so much as a couple to fans is that the two continued working with each other despite their conflict, Cassie helped Jenny recover from Cody's murder despite her own grief over him too and then the two eventually became very close friends beyond just being PI partners. |
| 54 | * ''Series/BigTimeRush'': While Kendall and Logan end up with Jo and Camille respectively, most fans ship the two together instead due to the large amounts of HoYay they have together, the two actors' chemistry, and their real-life friendship. Meanwhile, James ends up with Lucy in the final episode, but most fans ship him with either Kendall or Carlos. |
| 55 | * ''Series/BirdsOfPrey2002'': Despite the fact that Helena Kyle ultimately gets together with Detective Jesse Reese towards the end of the show, most fans prefer to pair her with her friend and mentor, Barbara Gordon. This is mostly due to the chemistry between the two's actresses, the fact that Reese [[CanonForeigner doesn't exist in the comics]], and the LesYay between them. As well as the absence of Barbara's canon love interest, Dick Grayson. This only increased following ''Series/CrisisOnInfiniteEarths2019'', where the two were the only ones from the show to return. The pairing dominates what little shipping fanfiction there is of the show. |
| 56 | * ''Series/TheBlacklist'': Lizzington (Red/Liz) is the most popular ship in the fandom, mostly thanks to the chemistry between Creator/JamesSpader (Red) and Creator/MeganBoone (Liz), as well as the fact that much of the show is focused on their dynamic. It even surpasses the canon Liz/Tom pairing in terms of popularity, despite repeated hints that Red might be Liz's father (and is eventually revealed to have been her [[spoiler:mother]]). |
| 57 | * ''Series/BlackSails'': Most fans prefer to ship Flint with John Silver over his canon romances with Miranda and Thomas, due to many feeling that they have better chemistry and the show being centered around their dynamic. Almost all the show's fan works and discussion online is centered around the two in a relationship. |
| 58 | * ''Series/TheBoldType'': In canon, Jane ends up with Scott and has a relationship with Ryan. However, most fans of the show ship her with her boss and mentor, Jacqueline, despite Jacqueline being married to Ian Carlyle. This is mainly due to the chemistry between the actresses, Creator/KatieStevens and Creator/MeloraHardin, as well as the fact that they make great ShipMates with the popular OfficialCouple of Kat/Adena. |
| 59 | * ''Series/TheBoys2019'': While the canon pairing of Billy/Becca has its fans, most fans pair Billy with either Hughie or Homelander instead. In the case of the former, it is due to the chemistry between their actors and the fact that Hughie is Billy's [[TheLancer lancer]], it is also more popular than any of Hughie's canon relationships (such as with Starlight). In the case of the latter, it is due to their [[FoeYayShipping antagonistic relationship]] and is more popular than the canon Homelander/Stormfront. |
| 60 | * A decade before the term "shipper" was coined, many viewers of the 90s sitcom ''Series/TheBrittasEmpire'' felt that Gordon Brittas would have been better off with his HyperCompetentSidekick Laura than his nervous alcholic wife Helen. |
| 61 | * ''Series/BrooklynNineNine'': While Rosa got a few different major {{Love Interest}}s over the course of the show, her ships involving the main cast tend to be far more popular. Early on, her most popular ship was with Amy, due to the chemistry between the two characters. However, over time, that ship was overtaken by Rosa/Gina, or Dianetti, despite the two not getting nearly as many interactions. This is likely because it worked better as ShipMates with the massively popular OfficialCouple, Jake/Amy aka Peraltiago, in comparison to Rosa/Amy, the fact that they were the only main characters to not have a steady LoveInterest, and interest in how the the two characters' personalities would mesh. |
| 62 | * ''Franchise/{{Buffyverse}}'': |
| 63 | ** Right from Spike's introduction in season two of ''Series/BuffyTheVampireSlayer'', the at the time CrackPairing of Buffy/Spike had its fans, but its popularity as a ship ''really'' picked up when season four aired and Spike joined the main cast. And though they only really had an ''affair'' and plenty of ShipTease rather than a true relationship (on the show), they still have a very active fanbase even twenty years after the show wrapped up and remain the pairing wi th the highest number of fanfiction on Website/ArchiveOfOurOwn--beating out even Buffy/Angel by a rather large margin of a couple thousand. |
| 64 | ** Spike and Xander's multiple interactions gained them a lot of fans during Season 4 of ''Series/BuffyTheVampireSlayer'', and the pairing only grew as the series went on. Added to that was the general indifference if not dislike for Xander's canonical relationships, and the result was more fans shipping him with Spike than anyone he ever actually dated. |
| 65 | ** ''Series/{{Angel}}'': Angel/Cordy is popular due to their chemistry and touching friendship, which lead to them becoming canon. However, Cordy died and the comics leaned towards Angel/Illyria, but the fandom still prefers him with Cordy. |
| 66 | * ''Series/CagneyAndLacey'': Despite the fact that Mary Beth Lacey is HappilyMarried to Harvey, very few fans actually ship her with him online. Instead, most fans ship her with her police partner Christine Cagney. This is mainly due to them feeling Mary Beth has better chemistry with Christine and the fact that their partnership is the focus on the plot. In fact, the studio was aware of this potentially happening and tried to repeatedly meddle to prevent it. However, even decades later, Mary Beth/Christine remains basically the only ship in the fandom. |
| 67 | * ''Series/Charmed1998'': Despite Phoebe ending up with Coop, Phoebe/Cole is far more popular, due to the LoveRedeems nature of it — and Creator/JulianMcMahon really making Cole into quite TheWoobie. |
| 68 | * ''Series/ChillingAdventuresOfSabrina'': Despite how little they have actually interacted, a large part of the fandom pairs Zelda Spellman and Lilith/Madam Satan together over their canon interests of Father Blackwood and the Dark Lord respectively, mainly due to feeling like they would treat each other better and their chemistry when they did interact. This is also true with their other love interests, Adam for Lilith and Mambo Marie for Zelda, who these shippers did not take well to. On Website/ArchiveOfOurOwn, they have the most fanfiction of any pairing, even topping any with the actual lead, Sabrina, by a good margin. |
| 69 | * ''Series/CobraKai'': |
| 70 | ** One look at Website/ArchiveOfOurOwn shows that Daniel/Johnny is easily the fandom’s dominant ship, despite Daniel being married to Amanda and Johnny having a thing with Miguel's mom, Carmen. Though this was already present for the films, the ship really exploded after the show introduced the franchise to a whole new generation. Their rivalry is the center of the show, and they share a lot of HoYay during both this and the movie. The pairing is also quite popular on Tumblr and other fanfiction websites. |
| 71 | ** Among the younger cast, while the canon Robby/Tory has plenty of fans, the [[FoeYayShipping Miguel/Robby and Sam/Tory]] pairings are more popular in terms of fan content for both Robby and Tory, mainly due to their similarities to Daniel/Johnny. However, in terms of Sam and Miguel, the Miguel/Sam pairing is the most popular. |
| 72 | ** Although the canon Hawk/Moon and Demetri/Yasmine pairings are hardly unpopular, both are dwarfed by the Hawk/Demetri fandom. |
| 73 | %%* Lilly and Scotty from ''Series/ColdCase'', who had a clear UnresolvedSexualTension in the early seasons (even lampshaded by John Smith, who bluntly asks Scotty, "You get a piece of that? Bet you think about it from time to time.") [[MayDecemberRomance Lilly and Stillman]] also have their fans. |
| 74 | * ''Series/{{Community}}'' |
| 75 | ** Despite Troy and Abed having canon love interests in the form of Britta and Rachel, respectively, most fans ship the two together instead, due to the massive amounts of HoYay between them and their great chemistry, with Troy/Abed having the most fics for the show on [=AO3=] and still being popular years after the show ended. |
| 76 | ** Jeff and Annie evoked this reaction despite Jeff/Britta originally being meant to endgame. The various Season 1 DVD commentaries indicate that the pairing was a natural evolution of the characters and actors chemistry and also a reaction to the growing popularity of the pairing among the shippers. In the [[http://www.eonline.com/news/229149/tv-s-top-couples-2011-and-the-winner-is 2011 E!Online poll]] they were named the 2011 TV's Top Couple narrowly beating out the more well known TV pair of House and Cuddy from the Fox series "House". |
| 77 | * A lot of people ship Kiera with Kellogg in ''Series/{{Continuum}}'' due to BelligerentSexualTension; however, it's largely one-way as Kiera is keeping faithful to her husband from 2077. [[spoiler: As of season three, Kellogg is dead and Kiera is with a new time-traveling character. ]] |
| 78 | * All the ''Series/{{Coupling}}'' fans wanted to see Jeff and Jane hook up. They were supposed to in the 4th series, but then Richard Coyle (Jeff) quit the show, and was replaced by the man who would "Mount Jane...I'm not giving you instructions." |
| 79 | * Annie and Auggie on ''Series/{{Covert Affairs}}'', despite so far them being JustFriends without any hint of {{UST}}, Annie unable to get over her ex and being tentatively interested in Jai, and Auggie having his own [[LoveInterest love interests]]. |
| 80 | * ''Series/CriminalMinds'': J.J. is HappilyMarried to Will, but most fans prefer to pair her with Emily instead due to their close friendship and chemistry. It helps that Emily was originally meant to be a lesbian. Even some of the actors expressed their support, including Creator/PagetBrewster (Emily) ([[https://twitter.com/karasluthqr/status/1250571942442270728 who revealed]] that she and Creator/AJCook (J.J.) were aware of "[[PortmanteauCoupleName Jemily]]" and "loved it"), and [[https://www.instagram.com/p/BvR2Xj5gMXd/?hl=en&img_index=1 A.J. Cook]]. |
| 81 | %%* There's a fairly large and devoted fanbase for Stella/Mac from ''Series/{{CSINY}}'' despite the show steadfastly portraying them as PlatonicLifePartners. |
| 82 | %%** Ditto for Horatio/Calleigh in ''Series/CSIMiami''. |
| 83 | * Going by the sheer amount of shipping videos and fanfictions that popped up within months of the show's release, fans of ''Series/Cursed2020'' really like shipping Nimue with the Weeping Monk (who aren't just [[WarShip enemies]], but [[ShipsThatPassinTheNight don't even directly interact]] in the first season). Shippers cite an interest in the similarities between the two characters; both grew up being treated as monsters/outcasts and both have shoddy fathers. As of this writing, Archive of Our Own has more than double the amount of stories pairing Nimue and the Weeping Monk, compared to stories with the canon pairing of Nimue and Arthur. |
| 84 | * ''Series/DarkAngel'': Despite Max being paired with Logan Cale in canon, Max/Alec is far more popular in fanfiction. Many fans see their bickering as BelligerentSexualTension. Others see it just as bickering and find the idea of them together squicky since Alec is the identical twin brother of Max's adoptive brother Ben, even if he and Max are NotBloodSiblings. |
| 85 | * In the 2022 adaptation of ''ComicBook/{{Darna}}'', Narda is canonically paired with Brian, but in the fandom it is more popular to pair her with Regina. This is mainly because of Narda and Regina's quick friendship, many feeling they have better chemistry then Narda and Brian, and the [[FoeYayShipping two being destined enemies]]. |
| 86 | * ''Series/DawsonsCreek'': Had Dawson and Joey in the first season, but they were quickly overtaken by Joey/Pacey who retained fandom support for the duration of the show. It was ultimately settled when [[spoiler: Joey/Pacey]] become the official couple in the series finale. |
| 87 | * This was much the story for Mason and [[TomboyishName George]] from ''Series/DeadLikeMe'', even though Mason acted [[BigBrotherInstinct like a big brother to George]] and was interested in [[AlphaBitch Daisy]]. They ended up, with the end of the series, just being [[BetterAsFriends better as friends]].' |
| 88 | * ''Series/DeadToMe'': Jen/Judy is easily the most popular ship in the fandom and overshadows their canon ones with Ben and Michelle respectively, due to the chemistry between their actresses and the loads of LesYay between them. |
| 89 | * Despite being infamous for its DatingDoSiDo, Jimmy/Ellie was one of the more popular ships that never became official in ''Series/DegrassiTheNextGeneration''. While writers {{ship tease}}d it for a season, they [[ShipSinking ultimately decided to keep Ellie in a love triangle with Craig and Manny]]. |
| 90 | * Within ''Series/DoctorWho'', one of the most popular pairings is the Doctor/the Master, with Three, Four, and Five with their respective Masters are most common, and the age of both characters goes a long way to explaining their popularity. During the time of Ten's tenure, there was also a dedicated fanbase for shipping him with his respective Master. The introduction of the female version of the Master, known as Missy, who openly referred to the Doctor as her boyfriend in one episode and snogged Twelve in another (something not even Clara ever did) has created another fan-preferred pairing. Since Series 12 there has been a rise in shipping the female Thirteenth Doctor with yet another incarnation of The Master, once more a man. Other popular 'ships for Thirteen include her companion Yasmin 'Yaz' Khan and Captain Jack Harkness. |
| 91 | * ''Series/DowntonAbbey'': Isobel Crawley/Dr Clarkson was this for quite a long time. It was eventually revealed to be one-sided [[spoiler:but still proves more popular than the on-and-off ship of Isobel/Lord Merton]]. |
| 92 | * ''Series/Dracula2013'': Despite the show being built around a ReincarnationRomance between Dracula and Mina Murray, far more fans of this version ship Mina with her best friend, Lucy Westenra. This is mainly because this version of Lucy is a fan favorite as well as [[AdaptationalSexuality an actual lesbian]] in the show, who has a one-sided crush on Mina. The fact that Lucy is played by fangirl-favorite actress Creator/KatieMcGrath is also a major factor in these fans' shipping of them. |
| 93 | * Fans of ''Series/TheElephantPrincess'' prefer Kuru and Alex over Marcus and Alex or [[OfficialCouple Caleb and Alex]] by far. |
| 94 | * Despite some ShipTease with Danni, fans of ''Series/{{Endgame}}'' prefer to ship Arkady with either [[WideEyedIdealist Sam]] or [[NinjaMaid Alcina]]. |
| 95 | %%* There are too many to list in ''Series/{{ER}}'', but the most popular are Carter/Abby and Luka/Sam. |
| 96 | * Jack Carter and Nathan Stark are ''the'' FanPreferredCouple in ''Series/{{Eureka}}'' and keep being it even after [[spoiler:Stark dies]] and Jack gets engaged to Allison. |
| 97 | ** Many also prefer Jo/Taggart over Jo/Zane. |
| 98 | * ''Series/TheEvent'' has [[FoeYayShipping Vicky and Sean]]. Perhaps helped by the fact that Sean's fiancee is [[DamselScrappy Leila]], who gets herself captured at every conceivable opportunity and gets more competent characters killed off by [[DoomMagnet being around her!]] The series itself implies that Vicky is attracted to Sean, so there is some basis for it. |
| 99 | * ''Series/TheExpanse'': In the show, Chrisjen Avasarala is mostly HappilyMarried to Arjun for the first four seasons. However, while that does have its fans, most fans prefer to ship Chrisjen with Bobbie Draper. This is mainly due to the chemistry between their actresses and their OddFriendship that formed from having to work together in Seasons 2 and 3. On Website/ArchiveOfOurOwn, for example, Chrisjen/Bobbie has a little over 9 times as many fanfics as Chrisjen/Arjun. |
| 100 | * ''Series/TheFactsOfLife''[='=]s second season introduced new girl Jo Polniaczek to the main cast and had her form a rivalry with Blair Warner. This rivalry, as well as their actresses' chemistry, quickly led to Jo/Blair becoming the most popular pairing in the fandom. This only grew as the two became best friends, to the point that Jo's daughter in the reunion calls Blair "Aunt Blair". This continued even after they were each given multiple male love interests, most notably Jo marrying Rick Bonner and Blair marrying Tad Warner by the time of the reunion. Still, even years later, Jo/Blair remains the fandom's most popular ship. |
| 101 | * The show ''Series/FakingIt''[='=]s first season seems to be trying to sell Karma/Liam as much as Karma/Amy, with Karma/Liam even becoming the OfficialCouple, if only for a short amount of time. Pretty much no one is rooting for the first ship. Every single fanfic is [[PortmanteauCoupleName Karmy]] (Karma/Amy), and Creator/KatieStevens and Creator/RitaVolk seem to ship it themselves. Karma/Amy being a fictional couple InUniverse definitely helps. At the end of the show, Amy enters a relationship with Sabrina and Karma is given a MaybeEverAfter with Felix. However, despite this fact, Karma/Amy remains the most popular ship in the fandom. |
| 102 | * ''Series/FamilyTies'': Alex Keaton's pairing with his first big love Ellen Reed continues being far more intensely popular with the fandom than his pairing with his endgame love interest Lauren Miller was. Fans ultimately thought the chemistry was way better between Alex and Ellen with a big part of that being that Creator/MichaelJFox and Creator/TracyPollan met on set, fell in love and got married in real life. Another is that most fans didn't real seemed interested in Lauren either, even with a young Creator/CourteneyCox playing her. |
| 103 | * ''Series/FateTheWinxSaga'': Musa is canonically in a relationship with Sam, but, while that has its fans, it is far more popular in the fandom to pair her with Riven, due to many feeling that she has better chemistry with Riven. The fact that in the [[WesternAnimation/WinxClub original cartoon]], Musa and Riven were an actual couple helps as well. |
| 104 | * ''Series/FearTheWalkingDead'': |
| 105 | ** Alicia has a couple of canon love interests, most notably Jake, but there is next to no fanfiction, fan art, or fan edits centered around her with any of them. Instead, most fans prefer to pair her with Elyza Lex, a RecurringFanonCharacter character based on Clarke from ''Series/The100''. (Clarke's love interest, Lexa, was played by Alicia's actor.) |
| 106 | ** Most fans prefer to ship Nick with Troy rather than his canon girlfriend, Luciana. For example, the Nick/Troy pairing has over five times as many fanfics on Website/ArchiveOfOurOwn than Nick/Luciana does. |
| 107 | * ''Series/{{Friends}}'': |
| 108 | ** Despite Phoebe being married to Mike by the end of the show, many fans (and even the actors themselves!) would have liked for Joey and Phoebe to have become a couple. Sadly the writers thought it would be [[PairTheSpares too cliche]] (not to mention the fact that they had to free Joey up for the spin-off that Matt [=LeBlanc=] signed on for that Lisa Kudrow didn't). |
| 109 | ** While Chandler ends up with Monica, and that ship remains popular, there is a large portion of the fanbase that ships him with Joey due to the HoYay between them. It got to the point where co-creator David Crane had to make clear that Chandler was straight because he was a character and had no choice in the matter. It still has the most fanfiction for any ''Friends'' pairing on [=AO3=]. |
| 110 | %%* Olivia and Peter on ''Series/{{Fringe}}''. And while [[RomanticFalseLead Altlivia]] gets a lot of DieForOurShip attitude from fans, [[ShipMates most fans prefer her with Lincoln]]. |
| 111 | * Despite a 27-year age difference between the characters, 73 percent of ''Series/FoylesWar''-related fanfics found on FanFiction.net as of the beginning of 2012 romantically pair Christopher Foyle and his driver Samantha Stewart. Many fans argue that their relationship on the show is more father/daughter, but Foyle on occasion gently lets the audience know he finds Sam very attractive, and although he initially thinks her somewhat intrusive (and over time is often amused by her youthful exuberance), he quickly begins to admire her ingenuity and allows her to be involved with the solving of cases, treating her for the most part in an egalitarian manner unusual for a man of his generation and time. This continues to be more popular even after Sam gets married to Adam Wainwright. Add to that a lot of chemistry among the two actors, and fans want RST. |
| 112 | * ''Series/GameOfThrones'': |
| 113 | ** Despite Jamie’s main love interest being his sister Cersei, Brienne/Jaime are far more popular as they spend a lot of screen time alone traveling Westeros together, and Brienne pushes Jaime to rediscover his honor and strive to be a better person. The pairing is the only one from the franchise to enter the top 100 pairings on [=AO3=]. |
| 114 | ** Even though Stannis is married to Selyse, Davos/Stannis has proven surprisingly, but undeniably, to be the most popular HoYay pairing so far. |
| 115 | ** Oddly enough, Robb/Theon is the most popular Robb ship, despite Theon betraying him and allegedly murdering his younger brothers, and Robb being paired with Talisa and vowing to execute Theon for his betrayal. |
| 116 | ** While many fans ship the canonical Jon/Daenerys, Jon/Sansa ("Jonsa") has garnered the most fanfics on Archive of Our Own, ranking them the second from the franchise overall on the site. It has an active and devoted fanbase, even years after the show's finale. |
| 117 | %%* ''Series/GeneralHospital'' had Luke and Laura, right from the beginning. |
| 118 | * ''Series/GirlMeetsWorld'': Riley Matthews and Maya Hart each have their own definitive love interests (with Riley having Lucas Friar and Maya having Josh Matthews), but despite that and massive support for the pairing of Lucaya (Maya/Lucas), support for Rilaya (Riley/Maya) was even bigger thanks to the chemistry of Rowan Blanchard and Sabrina Carpenter (brought about by their real life friendship). This has also led to many [[ActorShipping shipping the two actresses]]. |
| 119 | * ''Series/Girls5eva'': Despite Dawn being HappilyMarried to Scott, most fans online ship Dawn with Wickie, mainly due to said fans feeling that she has better chemistry and a more interesting dynamic with Wickie. Most fan content for the show is about those two as a couple. |
| 120 | * ''Series/{{Glee}}'': The Quinn/Rachel, or "Faberry", pairing is easily in the running as the biggest FanPreferredCouple from the series despite Rachel being paired with Finn for most of the show. The pairing won the [[http://www.eonline.com/news/294212/tv-s-top-couple-tournament-and-the-winner-is 2012 E!Online poll]] for favorite couple and the [[http://www.zimbio.com/2012+TV+Couples+March+Madness+Challenge/articles/HoP1g2Wq7N0/Rachel+Quinn+Win+Zimbio+2012+TV+Couples+March 2012 Zimbio Couples March Madness poll]], notably beating out Brittany/Santana and Kurt/Blaine, two of the show's most popular canon couples, in both polls. |
| 121 | * Most ''Series/GoodLuckCharlie'' fans like the idea of [[TheSnarkKnight Gabe]] and [[LittleMissBadass Jo]] getting together eventually. They weren't exactly thrilled with the introduction of a new LoveInterest (and what later turned out to be a [[GirlOfTheWeek revolving door of love interests]]) for Gabe in Season 3. |
| 122 | * During the first few seasons of ''Series/TheGoodPlace'', Eleanor/Tahani was far more popular than any other pairing in the fandom, buoyed by Eleanor's StupidSexyFlanders moments with Tahani in Season 1 and Tahani being shown as one of the people Michael tried to set up as Eleanor's soulmate in Season 2's second episode. The pairing gradually petered out after the first two seasons as it became increasingly clear that Eleanor/Chidi was going to be the endgame couple in canon, but it still has fans who prefer it to Eleanor/Chidi. |
| 123 | * ''Series/GossipGirl'': |
| 124 | ** Chuck/Blair is easily the most popular ship to the point they became canon. They were preferred to [[OfficialCouple Nate/Blair]] until they mysteriously ended up as the OfficialCouple. Nate is generally considered to be TooDumbToLive and didn't treat Blair very well, whereas in contrast Blair and Chuck had some pretty intense BelligerentSexualTension. |
| 125 | ** Dan and Blair has also gained quite a strong following that started after heir arc in season 4 and is more popular than Dan/Serena. |
| 126 | ** Nate/Serena is far more popular than Serena/Dan and even became canon for a while before the creators had Serena get back together with Dan. |
| 127 | ** Rufus/Lily has proven to stand the test of time as a fan-favorite pairing, with many fans being very unhappy that the pair were broken up and Lily got back together with her ex to accommodate Dan/Serena, a ship which by that point had worn out its welcome for many people. |
| 128 | * ''Series/GraceAndFrankie'': The titular duo of Grace and Frankie are mostly shipped together in the fandom over their canon relationships (such as Nick for Grace and Jacob for Frankie), due to feeling that they have better chemistry with each other, their dynamic being the focus of the show, and the LesYay between them. |
| 129 | * ''Series/{{Grimm}}'': While Nick is all but engaged to his live-in girlfriend Juliette in Season 1, the fandom quickly took to pair him off with Monroe instead. This is mainly due to the chemistry and HoYay between them, as well the fact that Juliette is a major BaseBreakingCharacter in the fandom. Even when Nick later finds a second love interest in the form of Adalind and Monroe ends up with Rosalee, Nick/Monroe remains the most popular ship in the fandom. Those who don't ship Nick with Monroe tend to ship him with Renard over any of his canon love interests as well. |
| 130 | * ''Series/GuardianTheLonelyAndGreatGod'': Many fans prefer [[BelligerentSexualTension Kim Shin/Wang Yeo]] to the canon pairings of [[MayflyDecemberRomance Kim Shin/Eun-tak]] and [[ReincarnationRomance Wang Yeo/Sunny]]. It doesn't hurt that Kim Shin and Wang Yeo have plenty of HoYay, and Wang Yeo even tells Kim Shin he loves him (as a joke, but still). |
| 131 | * ''Series/HannahMontana'': Though Miley and Lilly end up with Jesse and Oliver respectively, most fans ship them together. This is due to the fact that their friendship is the main focus of most episodes, including the premier and final episode. The movie also put greater focus on their relationship than Miley's designated BoyOfTheWeek. On both Website/ArchiveOfOurOwn and Website/FanfictionDotNet, Liley fanfiction dominates canonical fanfiction, as opposed to ones based on Music/MileyCyrus that are often falsely slotted with the show's. |
| 132 | * Many ''Series/HappyEndings'' fans like the idea of Dave and Penny together, even though Dave is back together with Alex. |
| 133 | %%* A bizarre number of ''Series/HarpersIsland'' fans ship [[spoiler: Henry/Abby]]. |
| 134 | %%* ''Series/HartOfDixie'' has Zoe/Wade. |
| 135 | * In the new ''Series/HawaiiFive0'' fandom, Steve×Danny is the most popular pairing by far, despite Steve having dated Catherine and Danny getting back together with his ex-wife, Rachel. |
| 136 | %%* Henry and Charlotte from ''Series/HenryDanger'' are already this due to Charlotte being [[TheSmurfettePrinciple Henry's only female friend]] and being his SecretKeeper. |
| 137 | * In ''Series/{{Heroes}}'', Peter/Claire ('Paire') have been shipped since their very first interaction in season one. However, when the show revealed Claire was [[spoiler:Peter's niece]] shortly afterward, Peter and Claire's interactions became [[spoiler:niece and CoolUncle]]. Still, this did not deter shippers whatsoever and Peter/Claire remains the most popular ship for each of their characters -- far more so than any of their canon romantic relationships throughout the series. |
| 138 | * ''Series/{{Highlander}}'': The biggest ship in the fandom is Duncan/Methos, with the vast majority of fan works for the show being dedicated to them. The pairing is also far more popular than Duncan with any of his canon love interests, such as Amanda, Tessa, or Anne. |
| 139 | %%* Darren and Nancy are very much this in ''Series/{{HollyOaks}}''. Callum and George also have their fans. |
| 140 | * ''Series/HotInCleveland'': Despite the fact that Joy ends up marrying Bob at the end of the show, most fans prefer to ship Joy with Victoria. This is mainly due to the fact that a lot of fans feel that Joy and Victoria have better chemistry than Joy and Bob. It doesn't help that Joy and Victoria have a lot of LesYay between them, including them getting an AccidentalMarriage in one episode. The majority of the fan works for the show across the Internet is Joy/Victoria. |
| 141 | %%* Freddie and Bel are this on ''Series/TheHour''. |
| 142 | * ''Series/{{House}}'': |
| 143 | ** While the canon WillTheyOrWontThey, House/Cuddy, is quite popular, an even larger group of fans ship House with his best friend Wilson. This is mainly due to the chemistry and HoYay between them, along with the fact that they were designed to mimic the dynamic of Holmes/Watson (a popular ship in its own right) from ''Franchise/SherlockHolmes''. Even the final scene reveals that House faked his death in order to spend as much time as possible with Wilson, who has cancer, before Wilson dies. On [=AO3=], for example, House/Wilson easily outranks every other pairing. |
| 144 | ** For most of the fifth season, fans preferred Thirteen and Kutner to the OfficialCouple, Thirteen and [[spoiler:Foreman]]. This probably resulted from [[ShippingGoggles many fans' interpretations]] that Thirteen and Kutner were previously being set up as a potential couple, the common sentiment that the Thirteen/Foreman get-together [[AssPull came out of nowhere]], and just the fact that [[spoiler:Foreman]] was easily the least popular character at the time. The pairing did eventually gain some popularity, especially once [[spoiler:Kutner died.]] |
| 145 | * ''Series/HowIMetYourMother'' |
| 146 | ** Barney/Robin is [[https://phantomstatistician.tumblr.com/image/656786676673396736 the most popular ship overall]], which caused a quandary for the showrunners as they had planned from the start for Ted/Robin to be the surprise endgame couple with the show hinting at several points that Ted still had lingering feelings for Robin well after their breakup to foreshadow this, but most people believed Robin was only meant to be a RomanticFalseLead for Ted because the first episode had established that she was not the titular mother of Ted's children and really liked the chemistry between her and Barney. The final season, which was built entirely around Barney and Robin's wedding, seemed to give the fans what they wanted... until the final episode revealed that Barney and Robin divorced, Tracy (the titular mother) died, and Ted wanted to figure out if his children would be okay with him pursuing Robin again after Tracy's death. |
| 147 | ** Ted/Tracy is one of the strangest examples of this trope to date. It initially seemed to be an ''inversion'' of this trope as it appeared to be a ForegoneConclusion that Ted and whoever they chose to reveal as the titular mother would become the OfficialCouple but many fans were skeptical that the show would be able to make the couple popular with fans after nine seasons spent [[ArcFatigue dragging out the mother reveal]]. However, when Tracy was finally introduced, she became a fan favorite and the unexpected ShipSinking reveal in the last episode that she had died in the time between Ted's flashbacks and his present-day conversations with his children did nothing to stop her from remaining the most popular pairing option for Ted. |
| 148 | * ''Series/HowToGetAwayWithMurder'': Wes/Laurel is gaining a following too due to their BirdsOfAFeather personalities and that their canon love interests are [[BaseBreakingCharacter Rebecca]] and [[{{Jerkass}} Frank]]. |
| 149 | * ''Series/HowToRock'': Zevie (Zander Robbins/Stevie Baskara) is intensely loved by the fanbase specifically because of the close dynamic between the two characters and chemistry between Max Schneider and Creator/LuluAntariksa. The ship is widely well-received above the two Zander ships the show seemed to be implying instead: either him and Kacey Simon (Zacey) or him and Molly Garfunkel (Zolly). |
| 150 | * Inspector Thomas Lynley and Sergeant Barbara Havers of ''Series/TheInspectorLynleyMysteries'' are shipped far and wide in the (admittedly small) fandom (including by the [[Creator/NathanielParker star of the show himself]], who once declared that he'd have liked to see the series end with [[ShipperOnDeck Lynley and Havers]] holding hands and walking into the sunset). Although Lynley himself spent much of the series involved with [[spoiler:and even married to]] his university BFF Helen Clyde, when [[spoiler:she dies in series 5]], all sorts of possibilities are left ''wide'' open. Couple that with a not-insignificant amount of subtext - including the fact that Lynley's relationship with Barbara, despite its difficulties, is far healthier[[note]]for a given value of healthier, given [[LivingEmotionalCrutch how]] screwed [[BrokenBird up]] they [[DefectiveDetective are]][[/note]] than his relationship with Helen ever was, the fact that Lynley will leave Helen behind to go running off with Barbara without a second thought, that they call each other their reason to get up in the morning, and [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=07pN5KHK268 the hug]] - and there's a good reason [=Lynley/Havers=] is, quite simply, the ''only'' pairing in the fandom. |
| 151 | %%* ''Series/TheITCrowd'' has Jen/Roy, which was teased a little bit in the first season but never really went anywhere after that, but the fans still expressed that they wanted them to get together in the series finale. |
| 152 | %%* Jane and Billy are this in ''Series/JaneByDesign''. |
| 153 | * Jake/Heather in ''Series/Jericho2006'', despite the [[WordofGod Word of God's]] preference for Jake/Emily. (Considering that Jake and Emily were exes at the start of the series, you would think this was the last direction you expected the writers to go.) |
| 154 | * The title character in ''Series/{{Jessie}}'' is with Tony, but fans like to pair her with [[PrecociousCrush Luke]] or [[BirdsOfAFeather Officer Petey]], or for LesYay, Emma. |
| 155 | * ''Franchise/KamenRider'': |
| 156 | ** ''Series/KamenRiderDouble'' features [[GenkiGirl Akiko]] and [[TroubledButCute Terui]] as the Official Couple. Akiko [[BrokenBase divides the fanbase]] between those who like her and those who find her too loud and annoying, and a common opinion expressed on fanboards is that Terui should have got together with guest character Lily, played by fanboy favourite Nao Nagasawa (also known as [[Series/NinpuuSentaiHurricaneger HurricaneBlue]].) |
| 157 | ** In ''Series/KamenRiderKiva'', Yuri Aso first falls in love with Jirou before Otoya wins her heart. [[spoiler:Otoya later abandons her for Maya]], and most fans want Jirou to have won out, [[spoiler:despite the fact he attempted to rape Yuri]]. |
| 158 | %%** Haruto and Koyomi in ''Series/KamenRiderWizard'' had a lot of "moments" together, with Haruto explicitly stating that Koyomi is his own "last hope." As of the end of the show, it can't happen because [[spoiler:Koyomi is DeadAllAlong and finally destroyed, leaving the Hope Ring for Haruto and asking that she be left to rest in peace.]] It still enjoys huge fan following and is even supported by Haruto's actor, who referred to their shopping trip in episode 14 as a "date." |
| 159 | %%** ''Series/KamenRiderGaim'' had a lot of fan support for the pairing of Takatora Kureshima with Kouta's sister Akira - even more so after the show's BittersweetEnding, since it would finally give the characters a bit of happiness. Even some yaoi shippers like it, due to the idea that Takatora would be attracted to Akira's [[SettleForSibling similarities to her brother]]. In canon, [[ShipsThatPassInTheNight they don't interact on-screen until the final episode]]; but with the show continuing via ''Gaim Gaiden'' straight-to-DVD specials, fans of the ship are still holding out hope. |
| 160 | * ''Series/KevinCanFuckHimself'': While Patty/Tammy and Allison/Sam aren't disliked and have their supporters, Allison/Patty has emerged as the most popular ship in the fandom as their relationship has deepened and become more mutually supportive. Even Patty's actress, Mary Hollis Inboden, ships it. |
| 161 | * On ''Series/TheKingOfQueens'', Deacon was dumped by his wife Kelly (the real life reason being that Kelly's actress accepted a role on'' Series/{{Alias}}''), and during this time, the writers very briefly {{Ship Tease}}d him with Holly. This consisted entirely of one scene, and was never mentioned again, but evidently a lot of fans liked the idea, as Holly/Deacon seems to be a popular pairing in the fandom. However, Deacon and Kelly eventually reconciled (once the actress returned from ABC). |
| 162 | %%* ''Series/KirbyBuckets'' fans love to pair [[IncestYayShipping Kirby with his sister Dawn]]. |
| 163 | %%* Fans of ''Series/LabRats'' like to pair [[GenkiGirl Bree]] with [[BadassBookworm Chase]]. They're technically siblings, but the show isn't clear about whether they're NotBloodSiblings. |
| 164 | * Elliot Stabler and Olivia Benson of ''Series/LawAndOrderSpecialVictimsUnit'' as a heterosexual pairing, with Alex Cabot and [[LauncherOfAThousandShips Olivia Benson]] for slash fans. |
| 165 | ** In the later seasons, shipping Benson with ADA Barba seems to be more popular than shipping her with her canon love interest Cassidy. Given the near-constant [[HeldGaze lingering gazes]], [[ShipTease gentle touches]], blatant concern for each other, late-night drinks, and sizzling chemistry -- and the fact that actors Raul Esparza and Mariska Hargitay also ship the two characters together -- this is not surprising. |
| 166 | ** For slash shippers, Barba/Carisi has become an increasingly prevalent one as [[RescuedFromTheScrappyHeap Carisi as a character became more popular]]. |
| 167 | %%* Lewis and Hobson in ''Series/{{Lewis}}'', until series 7 when they finally become an OfficialCouple. |
| 168 | * ''Series/{{Leverage}}'': There are a ''lot'' of Eliot/Parker fics on fanfiction.net, despite Parker/Hardison being the OfficialCouple now and having had the [=UST=] massively pushed from at least Season 2. |
| 169 | ** Also popular is Eliot/Hardison, for how much they bicker and yet genuinely like one another. For obvious reasons, Parker/Hardison/Eliot is very popular. |
| 170 | * Crews and Reese are this in ''Series/{{Life|2007}}'' despite the fact that Reese is dating Tidwell. |
| 171 | * ''Series/LifeWithDerek'': |
| 172 | ** Dasey (Derek Venturi and Casey [=MacDonald=]) skyrockets above every pairing each of them ever had in the show, even with Derek's final love interest in the show being his RelationshipUpgrade with Emily and Casey being paired off with Truman (they each also had different love interests in TheMovie too). While never actually intended to be interpreted as romantic through the writing, they were viewed as having such intense BelligerentSexualTension rather than sibling rivalry that they became the very definition of this instead. Even actors Creator/MichaelSeater and Creator/AshleyLeggat strongly support the ship. |
| 173 | ** Lizwin (Lizzie [=MacDonald=] and Edwin Venturi) also got a strong following even though Lizwin's support didn't quite compare to the fever pitch of Dasey. It helped that even if they got along more (and maybe felt more like step-siblings at least too), is that they often did act like they'd gotten to know each other so well, often confided in each other (even if they also sometimes bickered too) and still managed to show that romantic chemistry fans were clinging to. Whenever each had a love interest, they didn't stick around for more than a few episodes here and there. |
| 174 | * ''Series/LineOfDuty'' added Jo Davidson to the cast in season 6, partnered her professionally with long-term character Kate Fleming, and created a shipping explosion -- before the season was even over more than two-thirds of the stories on Website/ArchiveOfOurOwn were Jo/Kate, and continued even after the final episode of the season gave Jo a new girlfriend. |
| 175 | * While Jack/Kate did have its fair share of shippers in ''Series/{{LOST}}'', a majority of fans preferred Kate/Sawyer. |
| 176 | ** A lot of people were also upset that Sayid ended up with Shannon (who he dated for only a few weeks before [[spoiler: her untimely death]]), when many felt that Nadia (his [[ChildhoodFriendRomance love interest since childhood]] who he spent 8 years searching for, [[spoiler: married and then [[CrusadingWidow went on a murder spree to avenge after she was killed]]]]) was his true soul mate. |
| 177 | * ''Series/LostInAusten'' has a very popular pairing in Amanda/Wickham, despite Amanda's main love interest being Darcy, given their great chemistry and the fact that her interactions with him, and initial prejudice against him, so strongly parallel those of Elizabeth and Darcy from [[Literature/PrideAndPrejudice the original novel.]] |
| 178 | * ''Series/TheMagicians2016'' most popular pairing from the begining is Eliot/Quentin, and is vastly preferred over Quentin/Alice. |
| 179 | * Payson and Sasha from ''Series/MakeItOrBreakIt'' have over four times the fanfiction written about them than canon couple, Summer/Sasha |
| 180 | * ''Series/MakoMermaidsAnH2OAdventure'': Despite Zac/Evie being the primary pairing, there's still a large following for Zac/Lyla. Canonically, Evie is kept in the dark about the existence of merfolk, much to her frustration, as she only sees a strange girl unfriendly to her getting close to her boyfriend. On Zac's part, he has a blatant emotional affair with Lyla while continuing to withhold the context of what he's been up to from Evie, but Lyla backs off once Evie is brought into the secret. |
| 181 | * ''Series/TheManFromUncle'': Despite Napoleon Solo being an infamous ChickMagnet, most fans ship him with Russian partner Illya Kuryakin instead of any GirlOfTheWeek. In fact, the ship predates the "grandfather" of shipping, [[Franchise/StarTrek Kirk/Spock]], by quite a bit and is arguably just as influential on the way fans ship things as it. This continued into [[Film/TheManFromUNCLE2015 the 2015 film]], where more people found themselves shipping Napoleon/Illya over the canon Illya/Gabby. |
| 182 | * ''Series/MareOfEasttown'': Mare Sheehan/Colin Zabel is the most popular ship in the fandom, due to their shared interests and circumstances. The effortless chemistry between its stars Creator/KateWinslet and Creator/EvanPeters also helps. It is also easily more popular than Mare's canon pairing with Richard Ryan. |
| 183 | * ''Series/{{Mash}}'': B.J. Hunnicut is HappilyMarried to Peg in the show. However, while that does have its fans, most fans prefer to pair him with his best friend Hawkeye Pierce. This is not only because of the massive amount of HoYay between B.J. and Hawkeye and the chemistry between their actors, but because the audience never actually gets to meet Peg due to the show taking place during the Korean War and her being at home the entire time. Most of the fanfics for the show are B.J./Hawkeye, and it easily outranks B.J./Peg on almost every site. |
| 184 | * ''Series/TheMentalist'' had Lisbon/Bosco as a canonical one-sided romance, which, while having the small issue of ''Bosco being married'', also has the much bigger problem of being universally hated because most fans are Jane/Lisbon. |
| 185 | ** However, season 5 supports the idea that Jane/Lisbon are the OfficialCouple, despite previous WordofGod. |
| 186 | * ''Series/{{Merlin|2008}}'' has Merlin/Arthur. The couple was popular from the very first episode and it grew more and more until hundreds of fans began to watch the show for the main reason that Merlin and Arthur looked really good together. On every youtube that the two appear together in, most comments are about the homoerotic subtext in their relationship, about how they are secretly lovers/married, etc. This is sometimes extended to [[ActorShipping shipping their actors]], Colin Morgan and Bradley James. But while many people dislike the OfficialCouple Arthur/Gwen, people ''do'' like Gwen herself, an so Lancelot/Gwen are another fan favourite, often appearing as ShipMates with Arthur/Merlin. |
| 187 | %%* In ''Series/TheMiddleman'', the Middleman and Wendy, despite the fact that the WordofGod has stated this pairing would never be allowed as long as the original creator remained in control of the show. |
| 188 | * ''Series/TheMightyBoosh'': Despite the fact that a) Howard and Mrs. Gideon were never a couple, and b) it was obvious that she was never meant to be a serious contender for Howard's affections, it doesn't stop fans from hating her, probably because she distracted from the {{UST}} between Howard and Vince. Many breathed a sigh of relief when she did not appear in the other two seasons. The writers themselves, who play the characters, actively encouraged the pairing, and intentionally wrote vast mounts of HoYay into their interactions, to the point they even fell in love and kissed in the next to final episode. Noel Fielding and Julian Barratt claimed they were originally going to write in a sex scene, but decided to save that for if they ever decided to make a movie. |
| 189 | * ''Series/MotherlandFortSalem'': Tally Craven ultimately ends the series with Gregorio Shellbark and has a relationship with Gerit Buttonwood in Season 1, but most fans prefer to pair her with Sarah Alder. This mainly started when Season 2 had Tally become temporarily infatuated with Alder after being psychically linked to her. Though this went nowhere in the show, fans took and ran with it. This is not helped by many fans feeling that Tally had better chemistry with Alder than either of her male love interests. For example, on Website/ArchiveOfOurOwn, Tally/Alder has over 1000 fanfics while both Tally/Gerit and Tally/Gregorio aren't even close to cracking 100. |
| 190 | %%* ''Series/{{Nashville}}'': Rayna and Deacon became this more or less from the pilot, helped by their emotional history [[spoiler: (e.g. his being the father of her firstborn)]]. |
| 191 | * ''Series/NecessaryRoughness'' fan writers prefer the shipping of Nico and Dani over Matt and Dani. |
| 192 | * ''Series/TheNineLivesOfChloeKing'': Alek is generally greatly preferred over the canon love interest Brian when it comes to pairing Chloe. |
| 193 | %%* ''Series/NUMB3RS'': David/Colby. It seems like half of the fandom ships these two. The other half ships Charlie/Colby. |
| 194 | * ''Series/TheOfficeUS'' |
| 195 | ** Andy/Erin. Apart from Michael's absence, this was one of the main criticisms many had for the final season, as many critics and viewers hated how Pete's inclusion [[ShaggyDogStory ruined]] three seasons' worth of relationship building between Andy and Erin (on top of putting Andy through an especially blatant DerailingLoveInterests treatment in order to facilitate Erin getting together with Pete, who became TheScrappy among not just Andy/Erin shippers, but also non-shippers who found him to be a [[TheGenericGuy bland and boring]] Jim clone with no character of his own besides being a SatelliteLoveInterest for Erin). Even WordOfStPaul from [[Creator/EllieKemper Erin's actress]] coming out in [[https://www.cinemablend.com/television/2553336/why-the-offices-ellie-kemper-wasnt-exactly-a-fan-of-erin-and-andys-relationship support of Erin/Pete]] has done little to make the fans abandon the pairing. |
| 196 | ** Another popular ship involving Andy is Andy/Kelly. [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZiH_JarTo_c As this video points out]], they share a number of similarities - both are rather immature and enjoy pop culture, even playfully interacting with one another, with a number of Kelly fans finding it a much more fun alternative to her toxic relationship with [[{{Jerkass}} Ryan]]. |
| 197 | * ''Series/OnceUponATime'': |
| 198 | ** Despite the creators [[WordOfGod constantly stating that it's not the direction they're taking the show and never was]], the enemies-turned-friends pairing of Swan Queen (Regina Mills with Emma Swan), is a popular fan couple (largely because the two of them are both Henry's mothers and they eventually become best friends in canon), so much so that Swan Queen made it into the Final Four in every Zimbio poll since 2014, beating out canon pairings Captain Swan (Emma Swan with Captain Hook), Snowing (Snow White with Prince Charming), and Rumbelle (Belle French with Rumplestiltskin) each time, and still dominates fanfiction for the show years after the show ended. On Website/ArchiveOfOurOwn and Platform/FanfictionDotNet, it tops both of their canon pairings (Emma/Hook and Regina/Robin Hood), as well as all other ships from the show on either site, with it even being the second most popular femslash ship on [=AO3=] as a whole. |
| 199 | ** Mulan and Aurora, especially with their TomboyAndGirlyGirl dynamic, is more popular than the canon Philip/Aurora. More than a few viewers would love to see their LesYay get a full upgrade, and FanFiction.net has more Romance genre fics featuring the two of them than fics shipping Aurora/Phillip and in every single couple poll they have absolutely clobbered Aurora/Phillip. It was revealed Mulan actually did have feelings for Aurora in canon, but she waited too long to say something and they went unrequited. |
| 200 | ** Red Beauty (Ruby Lucas, aka Red Riding Hood, with Belle French) is the most popular Ruby ship and easily more so than the canon pairing of Ruby with Dorothy Gale (Ruby Slippers), due to Ruby and Belle's close friendship. Some of the people who ship it try to direct comparisons to the canon Belle/Rumplestiltskin (which remains the most popular for Belle) and their take on the Beauty and the Beast story, since Ruby is a werewolf. |
| 201 | ** When the first half of the seventh season was airing, shipping Henry Mills with Drizella/Ivy Belfrey (aka Step Believer) was popular. The consensus was that Drizella/Ivy has far more chemistry with Henry than his canon love interest, her stepsister Cinderella, does. It helps that Drizella seems closer to Henry's age (Cinderella looks a bit older), has a major case of AdaptationalAttractiveness, and has in fact [[VillainessesWantHeroes tried to seduce him]] and speculated on how things might have been different if they'd met each other earlier. However, as the second half aired and Ivy became far less important, the ship quickly fell from popularity. Nowadays, you are far more likely to find a post on Tumblr or Twitter (or come across a fanfiction or fan art) dedicated to Henry and his canon love interest Cinderella/Jacinda Vidrio (aka Glass Believer) than you are him and Ivy. |
| 202 | * ''Series/{{Passions}}'': At one point, many fans of Ethan and Theresa got so disgusted with Ethan's behavior, they began actively clamoring that Theresa be paired with his brother Fox. |
| 203 | %%** Fans also preferred Hank/Gwen. |
| 204 | * ''Series/PeakyBlinders'': While the canon Tommy/Grace pairing has its fans, most fans prefer to pair Tommy with Alfie due to the chemistry between Creator/CillianMurphy and Creator/TomHardy, which means this pairing dominates fan works for the show. |
| 205 | * ''Series/{{Popular}}'' |
| 206 | ** [[LesYay Sam and Brooke]] have [[UnresolvedSexualTension quite the following]], far more than Brooke/Harrison, even after all these years. |
| 207 | ** Sam and Harrison is more popular than Brooke/Harrison, though still overshadowed by Sam/Brooke. |
| 208 | * In ''Series/{{Psych}}'', Shawn/Lassiter used to be the biggest pairing a few seasons back. It lost some of its popularity when Shawn/Juliet became the OfficialCouple, but is still by far the fandom's most written-for pairing. |
| 209 | * Many fans of ''Series/PushingDaisies'' wanted to see Ned hook up with HopelessSuitor Olive rather than ChildhoodSweetheart Chuck. After all, Ned had a DarkAndTroubledPast and might have been happier if he had a woman that he actually ''could'' touch, as he is unable to make any physical contact with Chuck. However, the Piemaker only has eyes for Chuck and despite their issues, [[OfficialCouple they are the primary couple of the series]] from beginning to ([[CutShort premature]]) end. |
| 210 | * ''Series/QuantumLeap'': The most popular ship in the fandom is easily Sam/Al. It easily overshadows the endgame pairing of Al/Beth and Sam with his wife, Donna. This is mainly due to Sam and Al being the main two characters (as well as the only ones to appear in every episode), the chemistry between their actors, and the massive amounts of HoYay between them. The majority of fanfics for this show on [=AO3=] is Sam/Al. |
| 211 | %%* Brock/Reba are this in ''Series/{{Reba}}''. |
| 212 | * The only {{Official Couple}} in the entire ''Series/{{Red Dwarf}}'' series was Lister/Kochanski, yet they are never really embraced by the fandom - mainly due to Kochanski's role as {{Replacement Scrappy}} . The most popular ship in the show is Rimmer and Lister - by fanfic count, about 20x more popular than anything else. Funnily enough, Rimmer was the character Kochanski replaced. |
| 213 | * In ''Series/{{Revenge}}'', [[MagnificentBitch Emily]] is in a LoveTriangle with Daniel and Jack. However, many fans like the idea of her with Nolan, even though WordOfGod says they're supposed to be LikeBrotherAndSister. |
| 214 | * ''Series/{{Riverdale}}'': So far the most popular ships have been ones that, ironically, do ''not'' include Archie or his eternal BettyAndVeronica dilemma. Betty/Veronica are shipped ''[[HoYay together]]'' '''more''' than either seems to be shipped with Archie. [[OppositesAttract Betty/Jughead]] is also massively more popular than the traditional Archie/Betty. [[spoiler: Betty/Jughead's popularity has only gained popularity since becoming [[OfficialCouple official]]]]. Many are hoping that the show abandons the classic Betty/Archie/Veronica love triangle all together to instead focus on building other relationships. |
| 215 | * Go to Website/FanFictionDotNet, and you will see that almost every ''Series/RizzoliAndIsles'' story is Jane/Maura. It's not hard to see why these two are constantly being shipped, with all the heavy-duty LesYay and whatnot. Despite this, the two have multiple canon love interests, such as Casey Jones for Jane, who get the DieForOurShip treatment. |
| 216 | %%* ''Series/{{Roswell}}'' has Max/Tess and Isobel/Michael. |
| 217 | * Evan is engaged to Paige on ''Series/RoyalPains'', but most fanfiction you'll find will pair him up with Divya. |
| 218 | ** As the series progressed, the character Jeremiah is introduced into HankMed and almost instantly fell in love with Divya. Unfortunately, due to the relationship she was in at that moment (and Jeremiah's own awkwardness) Divya remained ObliviousToLove. It's even lampshaded in a series premiere [[https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=hYgIhocp5iY commercial]] [[spoiler: Most fans still would've preferred Divya would've ended up with Jeremiah than Raj in the finale.]] |
| 219 | ** Though if it's the pairing in the majority of fanfiction, then it has to be [[HoYay Boris/Hank]]. Throughout the series, Hank [[CartwrightCurse can't keep a romance going for more than a few episodes]] and while Boris is HappilyMarried to his OldFlame, Marisa [[CommutingOnABus doesn't take the bus back very often]]. It's probably the steadiest relationship either of them has had in their lives. With all of the long walks together, meals they share, and travelling around the world, it's understandable why someone could think they were dating. |
| 220 | %%* In the short-lived ''Series/RubyAndTheRockits'', the favorite couple is Ruby and Jordan despite them being cousins. The fact that it's canon from Jordan's side doesn't help. |
| 221 | * ''Series/RuyisRoyalLoveInThePalace'': [[LesYay Ruyi/Hailan]] is by far the most popular ship in the fandom. Ruyi/Yunche also has some fans. The canon pairing of Ruyi/Hongli has absolutely ''no'' fans, [[AwfulWeddedLife which is]] for [[DomesticAbuse very]] good [[RoyallyScrewedUp reasons]]. |
| 222 | * ''Series/SamAndCat'': Following the premiere of this spin-off, the small CrossoverShip Puckentine (Sam/Cat) blew up due to them running a babysitting business together, being roommates, and a lot of LesYay. Most of the fanfiction about the show features the two getting together and is more popular than Cat's canon ship with Robbie. |
| 223 | * In ''Series/{{Sanctuary}}'', Helen/Druitt is canon; however, Helen/Tesla is more favored both in and out of universe, especially by Tesla. |
| 224 | * In ''Series/TheSandman2022'', Dream/Morpheus is presented as still in love with Nada, despite not ultimately helping her out of Hell, and was married to Calliope. However, while those have their fans, most fans prefer to pair him with Hob Gadling (dubbed [[PortmanteauCoupleName Dreamling]] by fans), mainly due to the chemistry between their actors and the HoYay between them. On almost every site, Dream/Gadling outranks any of Dream's other pairings. |
| 225 | * ''Series/{{Scrubs}}'': JD/Cox is the most popular ship in the fandom, despite the fact that JD [[spoiler:and Elliot end up together]] and Dr. Cox has been in a stable relationship with his ex-wife since Season 2. It's also kind of ironic because canon-wise, JD and Turk are the ones who have a lot of HoYay. |
| 226 | * ''Series/TheSecretCircle'': |
| 227 | ** Faye/Diana aka [[PortmanteauCoupleName Fayana]] is more popular than their canon love interests with Jake and Lee for Faye or Grant for Diana, as well as arguably any other ship from the show to a ridiculous extent based on all the LesYay. When Wetpaint ran a "who should Faye be with" poll, only Lee and Jake were mentioned in the title and the article itself, but the poll also included Diana. [[http://www.wetpaint.com/the-secret-circle/articles/who-should-faye-be-with-on-the-secret-circle-jake-armstrong-or-lee-labeque?utm_source=dlvr.it&utm_medium=twitter Diana won with over 87% of the vote]], and on Website/ArchiveOfOurOwn, they have over twice as many fics as the next most popular pairing. |
| 228 | ** The show tries to present Adam as Cassie's OneTrueLove, but a lot of fans quickly grew tired of their WillTheyOrWontThey, feeling that it grew old fast. Early on in the show, most fans paired her with Faye, due to the chemistry between the two actresses. However, that soon changed with the introduction of Nick's older brother and resident bad boy, Jake, who the fangirls almost instantly took to shipping Cassie with over Adam. |
| 229 | * Most fanfiction you see about the show ''Series/ShakeItUp'' will be Cece/Rocky. Despite this fact, the future episode showed that Cece married Logan. |
| 230 | * ''Series/TheShannaraChronicles'' has found out what happens when you give a [[FlatCharacter boring male lead]] (Wil) two much more interesting love interests (the bisexual bandit Eretria and the princess Amberle) -- the fandom just ships the two girls together en masse. The show leaned into this in the second season, giving Eretria a new female love interest and having her and Wil BetterAsFriends. Princess Rover is still the most popular ship, [[spoiler:despite the fact that Amberle is dead]]. |
| 231 | * On ''Series/{{Skins}}'': |
| 232 | ** Effy/Cook was way more popular than Effy/Freddie ever was, though there was enough of both to lead to ShipToShipCombat. There's a decent wedge of Effy/Katie as well. |
| 233 | ** Mini/Franky aka Minky was easily the most popular ship of the third generation (with the possible exception of BetaCouple Rich/Grace), though, like the example above, it's not so universal that there isn't ''some'' ShipToShipCombat.... with Mini/Alo. But pretty much nobody liked Franky with ''her'' canon love interest, [[TheScrappy Matty]]. As a result, there was a huge fan outcry when WordOfGod said not to expect anything Minky in Series 6. |
| 234 | ** In the US version, the pairing of Tea and Tony was more popular than Tea with Betty, despite the unfortunate implications of having an "out and proud" lesbian character with a male character. T/T was ''intended'' to show how lesbians can sometimes have confusing feelings for men they admire platonically, but because the series [[PlatonicWritingRomanticReading built that relationship up more and the actors had more chemistry]], the show (that already was flailing in ratings) ended up pissing up ''both'' the T/T shippers who couldn't help but respond to what was on their screen, and lesbian fans (a significant group due to SuperCouple Naomi/Emily in the UK version) who felt like the series was suggesting that men could "convert" them. |
| 235 | * ''Series/SleepyHollow'': Ichabod/Abbie is easily the most popular ship in the fandom, overshadowing the canon Ichabod/Katrina and any of Abbie's canon romances. This is mainly due to the chemistry between their actors and the fact that their friendship is the focus of the the first three seasons. Fans of this ship practically exploded with {{squee}} after Creator/TomMison (Ichabod's actor) gave an interview in which he said that Ichabod was [[http://www.tvguide.com/news/sleepy-hollow-abbie-vs-katrina-ichabod/ completely in love with Abbie]]. These fans did not take it well when Abbie was killed off in the Season 3 finale. |
| 236 | * ''Series/{{Smallville}}'': |
| 237 | ** Though Clark has a lot of popular ships, the one that easily wins out is his pairing with Lex Luthor. It even out ranks the canon ones of him with Lana and Lois in terms of numbers on Website/ArchiveOfOurOwn. This mostly due to how close they grow in a relatively short time at the beginning of the show. While that closeness would eventually fade, it would be replaced with intense tension between the two. The ship would survive long after Lex dies, and continues now despite the show having ended awhile ago. |
| 238 | ** Chlollie--the pairing of Chloe with Oliver Queen (aka ComicBook/GreenArrow) was hugely popular, to the point that in the DVD commentary for "Lazarus", producer Holly Henderson makes special note of the fan campaigns in favor of it, particularly when fans sent in thousands of sporks to the SV offices, in reference to a particular Chlollie moment. When they first met, Chloe was clearly wowed by Ollie, and fans immediately jumped aboard the idea of shipping them in fanfic and fanart, especially once they started working together in the Justice League. In Season 9, the showrunners warmed up to the idea, and put them together due to fan demand. |
| 239 | ** Before the introduction of Lois, Lana was set up as Clark's main LoveInterest. However, that ship was eclipsed in popularity within the fandom by the Clark/Chloe ship. There was even a group of fans who theorized that she would become Lois. After Lois was introduced, the Clark/Chloe ship lost some steam, but there was still a group of fans who believed Chloe would take Lois's identity. |
| 240 | * In ''Series/SouthOfNowhere'' fanfiction, Kyla/Carmen is just as possible... or probably more than Kyla/Aiden. |
| 241 | * ''Series/StargateAtlantis'': |
| 242 | ** The most popular pairing in the fandom is John/Rodney. The originally intended John/Teyla pairing fell by the wayside as John & Rodney shared stronger chemistry and the writers losing interest in relationships changed the intended dynamics. The ship was sunk after Rodney got together with Jennifer Keller. Keller was a heavily disliked character upon her introduction and, as the show went on, John became darker and never ended up in any official couple, leading the Rodney/John ship to retain popularity throughout the run of the show. |
| 243 | ** John/Teyla was also more popular than Teyla/Kanaan. This is mainly because Kanaan is an example of RememberTheNewGuy, the man that Teyla was promised to and has loved all her life that she never bothered to mention until he was introduced in late season 4. While the John/Teyla ship slowly fizzled out after some initial teases, it was still more believable than Teyla and some unknown guy being StrangledByTheRedString. |
| 244 | * ''Series/StargateUniverse'': While Nicholas Rush holds a candle for his dead wife and Everett Young has his affair with TJ, most fanfiction instead pairs them with each other, due to their intense rivalry and the real-life friendship between their actors. In fact, Rush has been shipped with almost every other character. In particular, Eli and Chloe are mostly shipped with Rush over their canon love interests Scott and Ginn. |
| 245 | * ''Series/Stargirl2020'': Courtney/Yolanda is probably the biggest ship for Courtney, definitely moreso than Courtney/Cameron, her current "canon" ship. It helps that Courtney's canon love interest in the comics is [[ComicBook/{{Shazam}} Billy Batson]], whom is almost definitely going to be AdaptedOut due to ''Film/Shazam2019'', while her alternative love interest Al Rothstein/Atom Smasher has also been adapted out due to appearing in ''Black Adam (2021)''. Additionally, given that Cameron only appeared in five out of the first thirteen episodes, he and Courtney haven't shared nearly the amount of screentime or emotional connection that Courtney and Yolanda have. |
| 246 | * The ''Franchise/StarTrek'' franchise has: |
| 247 | ** Kirk/Spock from ''Series/StarTrekTheOriginalSeries'' is one of the most famous examples of this trope. It was the first slash pairing that became popular enough to inspire slash-dedicated fan conventions and fanzines and codified the use of the "/" symbol to distinguish a romantic pairing from a friendly one. Virtually all shipping fics for the series are dedicated to it and you'd be hard-pressed to find a TOS fan who ships Kirk or Spock with ''anyone'' other than each other. |
| 248 | ** ''Series/StarTrekVoyager'' had one in Janeway/Chakotay. This ship was derailed for the universally reviled Chakotay/Seven pairing that capped off the series in its final season. (Speculation is that this was a last-ditch effort to make up for Chakotay's lack of character development and sub-par writing. As a consolation prize for the actor, snogging Jeri Ryan is not exactly terrible, but this derailed not one but ''two'' highly popular {{Fan Preferred Couple}}s -- Janeway/Chakotay, and Janeway/Seven.) |
| 249 | ** ''Series/StarTrekDeepSpaceNine'': |
| 250 | *** The series had a large following for Garak/Bashir. However, once the studio realized that, they forced the writers to give them fewer scenes together, and Bashir ended up with Ezri (which was received similarly to the aforementioned Chakotay/Seven, and in the re-launch novels, they break up). None of this has stopped the shippers, with the G/B relationship as the third most popular one on Website/ArchiveOfOurOwn among ''all'' Trek canons according to a 2021 article for the official Star Trek website. Fans have been VindicatedByHistory both in the actors' [[ApprovalOfGod approval]] causing them to go so far as [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3Tq8zaSObWU&ab_channel=SidCity perform fanfiction that features Garak and Bashir as a married couple after the series]], and that the general critical consensus is that the scuffling of the relationship is one of the more egregious examples of '90s Star Trek's cowardice about LGBT characters. |
| 251 | *** In recent years Jake/Ziyal has developed a following, despite them never interacting in canon, as they’re close in age and could have bonded over their respective creative interests in writing and art. They're certainly more popular than the near-universally-revilved Garak/Ziyal, or Jake's various one-off love interests. Garak/Bashir usually appear as ShipMates, acting as supportive mentors. |
| 252 | *** After Garak/Bashir, the most popular couples in the Website/ArchiveOfOurOwn and Website/{{Tumblr}} era of the [=DS9=] fandom seem to be Jadzia/Kira -- also making it onto the aforementioned list on the Star Trek website -- and Quark/Odo, who got a major boost from an unearthed outtake of their goodbye scene where the two characters kiss. The pairings are also more popular than the canon Kira/Odo, Jadzia/Worf, or Quark with his various canon love interests. |
| 253 | * ''Series/StrangerThings'': |
| 254 | ** The [[PortmanteauCoupleName Steddie]] Ship. Lauded newcomer Eddie Munson (Creator/JosephQuinn) is shipped heavily with Steve due to their friendly interactions throughout ''4'' and Creator/JoeKeery's chemistry with Quinn in various Netflix promotional clips. Despite the fact that Steve is being set up to rekindle his romantic relationship with Nancy (while also being TheBeard to Robin) and Eddie having an affectionate crush on head cheerleader Chrissy Cunningham (Grace Van Dien) both before and after she's Vecna's first victim. The amount of stories, art work, and other fan works dedicated to the pairing saw a meteoric rise between the release of Vol. 1 and 2 and overtook previous favorite Harringrove ''three months'' after the season premiere. |
| 255 | ** The [[PortmanteauCoupleName Harringrove]] ship (Steve Harrington and Billy Hargrove) is far more popular than most of the show's other ships due to the HoYay type vibe displayed between the two in the show as well as the chemistry between Creator/JoeKeery and Creator/DacreMontgomery. Fans express more interest in the two of them than they do Steve with Nancy Wheeler or Robin Buckley and Billy with Heather Holloway or Karen Wheeler. It reached number 68 on [[https://fandom.tumblr.com/post/669380161647591424/2021-ships Tumblr's top ships of 2021]] (while no other ship from the show appeared). |
| 256 | ** Given their budding and friendly interactions in ''4'' that begins as most of the Hawkins section of the party starts working together, Nancy (Creator/NataliaDyer) and Robin (Creator/MayaHawke) instantly developed a very strong ship following with the chemistry between the two praised highly by the fans. When it comes to this pairing, no second thoughts are given to Nancy's deteriorating romantic relationship with Jonathan Byers (Creator/CharlieHeaton)—as well as the likely rekindling of her relationship with Steve nor are they given to Robin having both Steve as her Beard as well as her feelings for fellow band geek Vickie (Amybeth [=McNulty=]). |
| 257 | ** Robin and Heather (Francesca Reale), despite [[ShipsThatPassInTheNight neither ever meeting]] in the show and the latter dying, ended up pretty popular with the fanbase after Season 3, specifically with the reveal of Robin being gay. The pair noticeably exceeds the popularity of both Robin's canon ship with Steve and Heather's with Billy as well. |
| 258 | * ''Series/{{Succession}}'': Tom/Greg has far more fans than Tom's canon pairing with Shiv. While very few fans believe it's a healthy pairing, it's far and away the most popular ship on the show due their hilarious and growing homoerotic chemistry as well as the fact that despite Tom's horrible abuse of Greg, he shows himself to care for the guy deep down many different times. |
| 259 | * ''Series/{{Supernatural}}'': |
| 260 | ** For the first three seasons, Sam/Dean (or "[[IncestYayShipping Wincest]]") was the most popular ship in the fandom by a wide margin. Part of this was that there were basically no other recurring characters to pair them up with in these early seasons that weren't father figures or women who always ended up [[CartwrightCurse dead]], [[FatalAttractor evil]], and/or [[DieForOurShip hated by many fans]], but part of it was also that Sam and Dean's relationship was consistently depicted as ''the'' most important thing in both of their lives with them willingly giving up everything else to save each other's lives on multiple occasions. The ship's popularity was even [[FandomNod acknowledged in-universe]] in a season 4 episode where Sam and Dean [[OhCrapThereAreFanficsOfUs learn that fanfiction has been written about them]] and are hilariously {{squick}}ed out by it. |
| 261 | ** Starting in season 4, Dean/Castiel (or "Destiel") exploded in popularity and eventually took Sam/Dean's place as the fandom's most popular ship. Like with Sam/Dean, it attracted fans with its depiction of an emotionally intense relationship between two good-looking males who regularly risked everything to protect one another and made heartfelt declarations about how much they needed each other, but unlike Sam/Dean, it wasn't an incestuous ship and it had the added draw of being an InterspeciesRomance between a human and an angel which made it more widely appealing to viewers. It became so popular that it's been the most written-for pairing on Website/ArchiveOfOurOwn from all fandoms since 2015 and it got a ShoutOut in a season 10 episode where the characters attend a fan convention that includes a fan putting on a Destiel-centric play. |
| 262 | * ''Franchise/SuperSentai'': Most series feature ShipTease between the Red and Pink Rangers (or Red and White, if there is no Pink) so in any Sentai where they do not get together, they are likely to be the FanPreferredCouple instead. The most prominent example is probably ''Series/HikariSentaiMaskman'', which has a large fanbase in Indonesia and the Philippines because official dubs of the show were aired there. These fans often state on fansites and blogs that they would have preferred Momoko to be Takeru's love interest, rather than the canon Takeru/Iyal (which later broke up due to Iyal's duties as the new Tube leader). Which is kinda weird since Takeru and Momoko [[ShipsThatPassInTheNight hardly speak to each other or share any screen time.]] |
| 263 | ** Back in Japanese fandom, in ''Series/TokusouSentaiDekaranger'', while Ban eventually got a girlfriend from TheMovie and Umeko gets on with Sen-chan, the [[PairTheSpares spare-pairing]] between Hoji and Jasmine is slightly a bit more popular than their other options. It helps that Hoji and Jasmine were perceived as the most 'pro' and 'senior' of the team, respectively, and that they had some history; never mind that Hoji nearly embarked on a relationship with another woman (though they were rather tragically torn apart due to Hoji killing her younger brother who was the criminal of the week). |
| 264 | ** The pairings of Daigo/Yayoi and Utsusemimaru/Amy are quite popular with fans of ''Series/ZyudenSentaiKyoryuger'', thanks to some discernable ShipTease for both pairings, but both were sunk by the [[AssPull sudden]] romance [[TokenRomance between Daigo and Amy]] during the [[LastMinuteHookUp last three episodes of the series]]. |
| 265 | ** Nanami/Isshu was hugely popular with fans of ''Series/NinpuuSentaiHurricaneger'' and became an OfficialCouple on the show, but was [[ShipSinking sunk]] by the reunion movie ''10 Years Later'' (released in 2013, ten years after the show's end), in which they have split off-screen and Isshu is now a playboy with many girlfriends. It's done nothing to kill off the ship's fanbase, thus, they're now a FanPreferredCouple instead. |
| 266 | %%** ''Series/ChoujinSentaiJetman'' has Ryu and Kaori, though many fans prefer her with Gai. |
| 267 | %%** On the American adaption of ''Series/MahouSentaiMagiranger'', the fan preferred couples seemed to be Yellow/Pink and Green/Blue. Both were mostly disrailed towards the end of series, but remain popular in fandom. |
| 268 | %%** Masumi/Natsuki is universally popular among fans of ''Series/GoGoSentaiBoukenger'', and despite never quite reaching OfficialCouple status, it gets as much praise and fanworks as the canon Akashi/Sakura. |
| 269 | %%*** The ship was later [[ShipSinking sunk]] when both actors stated [[WordOfGod in an interview]] that the characters had a family-like relationship. |
| 270 | * ''Series/SweetVicious'': Jules and Ophelia are the most commonly paired ship in fics, with their friendship being center staged of the series, and Ophelia being confirmed bisexual by WordOfGay. This is despite Jules dating Tyler, and Ophelia being in a relationship with Evan throughout the show. |
| 271 | * ''Series/TeenWolf'': |
| 272 | ** The fandom sometimes seems to ship one thing and only one thing: Stiles and Derek, the dorky sidekick and the TallDarkAndHandsome older werewolf mentor. The cast and crew are vastly amused by this and greatly enjoy [[ShipTease fan-baiting]]. In-person and online. Despite this, the show paired them up with several canon love interests, such as Stiles who ends up with Lydia in the sixth and final season. Still, even years after the show ended Stiles/Derek remains the fandoms most popular pairing with it having over 60,000 fics on [=AO3=] (making it the third most written about ship on the whole site) and the next most popular one only has over 9000. |
| 273 | ** A lot of people -- including the majority of the fandom, the actors, and apparently even the wardrobe crew -- would have liked to see Sheriff Stilinski and Melissa [=McCall=] end up together, mainly because their sons are best friends and Stilinski and Melissa are the honorary parent to the other's child. Most fans greatly preferred it to the canon Melissa/Chris. |
| 274 | ** Season 6 gave Liam a canon love interest in the form of Hayden, but next to no fans ship him with her. Instead, most fans greatly prefer to pair him with enemy turned {{frenemy}} Theo, due to most of them feeling that Liam has better chemistry with Theo than he does with Hayden, the HoYay Liam and Theo share, and Liam and Theo becoming BashBrothers in the GrandFinale. Almost any fan work centered on Liam will pair him with Theo. |
| 275 | * Jackie and Hyde on ''Series/That70sShow''. An interesting case, since the writers actually made the two a couple in later seasons... only for them to break up and cause them to slip right back into preferred territory with even more fans then before. Danny Masterson (Hyde's actor) has even tweeted [[https://twitter.com/dannymasterson/status/419737079434604544 saying]] he doesn't understand to this day why they didn't end up together. |
| 276 | * ''Series/ThatsSoRaven'': Despite Raven being with with Devon, most of the fanfiction about the show features her getting together with either of her best friends. When the show was still airing Eddie was the preferred partner for Raven due to the ShipTease between the two, including a kiss. However in the years since Chrave (Chelsea x Raven) has become the dominant pairing. Due to the LesYay between the two. This became more evident after ''Series/RavensHome'' premiered. Which saw Raven and Chelsea as two divorced moms raising their kids together while Eddie has yet to be mentioned. Leading to Chrave being basically the sole pairing in the fandom. |
| 277 | * Many ''Series/ThreesCompany'' fans over the years have expressed disappointment that Jack and Janet didn't get together in the end. Creator/JohnRitter himself speculated that the sequel sitcom ''Three's A Crowd'', where he is paired with Vicky, failed in part because fans couldn't accept Jack settling down with anyone but Janet. |
| 278 | %%* ''Series/TheThundermans'': Everyone seems to love shipping [[IncestYayShipping Phoebe and Max]], to the point that Phoebe's actress Creator/KiraKosarin has called on people to stop. |
| 279 | * ''Series/TheTribe'': Both Jay/Ebony and Jay/Trudy were more popular than the designated endgame couple Jay/Amber. Most of the fandom seems to actually quite dislike that pairing for various reasons. |
| 280 | * In ''Series/TrueBlood'', despite [[spoiler: the fact that they barely even get to ''speak'' between their affair in the first season and their hookup at the end of the third]], the pairing of Sam and Tara generates much more squee than either does with their other LoveInterests. |
| 281 | ** Ever since "Escape from the Dragon House", fans have been ''dying'' to see Sookie/Eric happen. Recently though the fanbase seems to be divided on whether [[FirstGirlWins Bookie]] should be reintroduced, or if it's Sooric all the way. |
| 282 | *** To make matters worse, there's also Alcide who a large section of the fandom (And Magazine/TVGuide) ships Sookie with. |
| 283 | ** The pairing of Pam/ Tara has progressively become very popular since the beginning of Season 4. Humungous amounts of squee erupted after the Season 5 finale. |
| 284 | * Dale Cooper and Audrey Horne in ''Series/TwinPeaks''. Not only fans, but also writers wanted to develop their relationship further in the second season (Mark Frost, the producer, said that it was gonna be the next big thing in the show after the exposure of Laura's murderer). According to Robert Engels, the producer-writer, the script was changed because of Lara Flynn Boyle, who was dating Kyle [=MacLachlan=] at the time. Later Kyle [=MacLachlan=] tried to justify the decision, that Cooper would not date a high-school girl. However he hooked up with Annie Blackburn, who was only one year older than Audrey (Heather Graham, who portrayed Annie, is in fact five years younger than Sherilyn Fenn). Sherilyn Fenn was disappointed with the changes. In 2007 documentary "Secrets from Another Place: Creating Twin Peaks" she stated: "I was not interested in Kyle as a man, but Audrey loved him. I was really into being in those scenes and i thought we had fun chemistry, so... I don't know, I guess chalk it up to unrequited love". |
| 285 | %%* Danny and Lacey in ''Series/{{Twisted}}'' was this before the show even started airing. |
| 286 | %%** Tess/Karen is quickly starting to become this as well. |
| 287 | * Following the events of the eighth season of ''Series/TwoPintsOfLagerAndAPacketOfCrisps'', a fair few fans want [[spoiler:Janet and Wesley]] to get together. |
| 288 | ** When it looked as if Gaz and Janet were going to become an OfficialCouple, the fans clamoured for Gaz and Donna to make a return. [[spoiler:It worked.]] |
| 289 | %%* ''Series/UglyBetty'' has Daniel/Betty. They never [[MaybeEverAfter officially got together]], much to the frustration of shippers. |
| 290 | * ''Series/UnbreakableKimmySchmidt'': Although Kimmy has multiple canon love interests, including [[Film/KimmyVsTheReverend Frederick]], most fan content online pairs her with Jacqueline instead. |
| 291 | * ''Series/Unreal2015'': Easily the most popular ship in the fandom is Rachel/Quinn. Almost all of the fanfiction for the show is exclusively is for this pairing and it is easily more popular than any of Rachel's canon relationships (such as Jeremy or Tommy) or Quinn's affair with Chet. This is mainly due to a lot of fans feeling that the two have far better chemistry with each other than their male love interests and the fact that Rachel is Quinn's [[TheDragon dragon]], along with one of the few people Quinn actually cares about. |
| 292 | * Joshua and Lisa on ''Series/{{V 2009}}''. Mainly because the two have a nice chemistry and are very protective of one another and - oh yeah! Lisa's canon LoveInterest is [[TheScrappy Tyler]]. |
| 293 | * Franchise/TheVampireDiariesUniverse: |
| 294 | ** ''Series/TheVampireDiaries'': |
| 295 | *** Due to the ShipTease between Klaus and Caroline in seasons three and four, the pairing quickly became the most popular ship in the fandom. However, due to Klaus getting his own spin-off, Caroline instead ended up with Stefan. Despite this, most fans prefer to pair her with Klaus, and the pairing remains the most written about ship from the franchise in terms of fanfiction. |
| 296 | *** The show ends with Bonnie in a relationship with Enzo, however most fans prefer to pair her with enemy turned best friend Damon. This is mainly due to the chemistry between their actors, who were best friends in real life, and the fact that their friendship is one of the few things fans generally love about the later seasons. |
| 297 | ** ''Series/{{Legacies}}'': |
| 298 | *** Hope and Josie both had a crush on each other when they were younger, and this, as well as the LesYay between them, led to the ship becoming extremely popular. It's arguably the most popular ship in the show's fandom. The pairing dominates most fanfiction sites and is easily more popular than [[OfficialCouple Hope/Landon]] or any of Josie's ships. This is not helped by the two's actresses, Creator/DanielleRoseRussell and Creator/KayleeBryant, encouraging shippers and saying that they would love for the ship to become canon. |
| 299 | *** Despite Lizzie having a couple of canon love interests, such as Sebastian and Ethan, most fans prefer to ship her with Hope. This is due to her and Hope's rivalry coming off more like BelligerentSexualTension than the creators intended and the fact that Lizzie is the first person to remember Hope in season two, leading to the two developing a close friendship. |
| 300 | * The writers couldn't change history on ''Series/{{Victoria}}'' in order for her to get together with her first Prime Minister, Lord Melbourne, instead of her real-life husband Prince Albert. However, a lot of fans probably would've been very happy if it had gone in that direction, and there are many, many, many fics exploring potential alternate histories where Victoria refuses to marry anyone other than Melbourne. The ship by far dominates the fandom on [=Ao3=]. |
| 301 | * ''Series/{{Victorious}}'': Despite Jade being in a relationship with Beck, most fans prefer to pair her with her female co-stars. For most of season 1, Jade was paired with Cat due to their unlikely friendship and their actresses real life friendship. However, that pairing, along with every other, was soon overshadowed by the one between Jade and Tori, due to the two's tense rivalry that drives the plot of most episodes. Along with Tori often going out of her way to help Jade and Jade often going to Tori for help. It got to the point that phrases including their ship name started trending worldwide on Website/{{Twitter}}, and it still dominates fanfiction to this day. |
| 302 | * ''Series/TheWalkingDead2010'': |
| 303 | ** While the canon Rick and Michonne are popular, there is a group just as big, if not bigger, that ships Rick with Daryl due to the fact that they are two of the most recurring characters in the show and the chemistry between them. On [=AO3=], for example, Rick/Daryl has more fics than any other pairing and it still has a following even after Rick left the show. |
| 304 | ** Daryl/Beth is easily more popular than Beth's canon pairing's with Jimmy and Zach. While [[spoiler: her death]] [[ShipSinking took this off the canonical table]], it has not stopped them from becoming the most popular heterosexual Daryl Dixon ship on [[Website/ArchiveOfOurOwn AO3]], with the most fanworks featuring them. The popularity skyrocketed after the events of Season 4 brought them together, with fanworks and fanart flooding the internet before and after [[spoiler: Beth's death]]. |
| 305 | ** Daryl/Carol is more popular than her canon pairing with Tobin. She and Daryl are a popular choice due to their copious amounts of ShipTease and the overall ambiguous state of their relationship -- they're obviously very close, and it's generally agreed that their interactions are great whether they're intended romantically or [[PlatonicWritingRomanticReading not]]. It's surely helped by the fact that Daryl and Carol are the show's two main {{Breakout Character}}s in their own right, and a lot of fans would like their relationship to develop further just to see them get even more focus. [[spoiler:They ultimately end the show as PlatonicLifePartners, and Carol calls Daryl her best friend.]] |
| 306 | ** Thanks to some LesYay, the two becoming very close, and Tara's occasional leering at Rosita, Tara and Rosita are the most popular pairing for both. It is far more popular than Rosita's canon ones with Abraham, Gabriel, and Siddiq (who she has a kid with) and Tara with any of her canon girlfriends. |
| 307 | * ''Series/Warehouse13'': Season 2 introduces a still alive (and female version of) Creator/HGWells and then precedes to have her form a close bond with Myka Bering. This almost instantly had fans shipping them to a great degree, with it becoming the fandom's most popular ship, mainly due to the chemistry between their actresses (who later admitted they intentionally played the two as attracted to each other). However, in the final season, H.G. is dating someone else and Myka is paired with Pete out of nowhere. Despite this, Bering and Wells remain the most popular pairing in the fandom to this day. |
| 308 | * ''Series/{{Wednesday}}'': Even [[PreemptiveShipping before the series premiered]], a lot of fans already shipped Wednesday with her roommate, Enid Sinclair, and it only got stronger when the show was released to the point of overshadowing their respective canon pairings with Xavier and Ajax. This is due to both the LesYay they share; and the chemistry between their actresses Creator/JennaOrtega and Creator/EmmaMyers. |
| 309 | * Andy and Nancy, from ''Series/{{Weeds}}'', although their case is a complicated one. It's been made canon that Andy is in love with her and that she may or may not reciprocate his feelings and they have a tendency to act like a couple regardless of whether or not they're in other relationships at the time, but the two haven't gone past a FakeOutMakeOut and most fans believe they'll never happen on the show. Still, that doesn't stop them from being countless times more popular than any of their canon relationships. |
| 310 | * ''Series/{{Wentworth}}'': In canon, Vera is paired with Jake and Joan is paired with Jianna, but Vera/Joan is far more popular in the fandom due to the chemistry between their actresses and what many fans consider a far more compelling dynamic then their canon ones. |
| 311 | * ''Series/{{Westworld}}'': [[FoeYayShipping William/Dolores]] is by far the biggest ship in the fandom due to the tragic angle of their previous romance in flashbacks and William getting a lot of DracoInLeatherPants treatment. Dolores/William is also easily more popular than the canon in present day Dolores/Teddy and gets far more fan content than the latter. Even Creator/EvanRachelWood and Creator/JimmiSimpson, the actors who play Dolores and William, have openly admitted to shipping William/Dolores. |
| 312 | * ''Series/WillAndGrace'': While Karen ends the show getting back together with her husband Stan, most fanfiction for the show instead pairs Karen with her boss Grace. This is mainly due to the chemistry between the two and the massive amounts of LesYay between them, as well as the fact that Stan is TheGhost. It also easily overshadows Grace with any of her canon love interests, such as her marriage to Leo. On Website/ArchiveOfOurOwn and Website/FanfictionDotNet, the Grace/Karen pairing makes up most of the shipping fanfiction for the show. |
| 313 | * In ''Series/TheWitcher2019'' Geralt is set up with HotWitch Yennifer as his OneTrueLove via destiny. However a good deal of fans online seem to prefer Geralt’s relationship with Jaskier, his BumblingSidekick citing their bond as being more genuine. Yaoi fangirls in particular [[https://encrypted-tbn0.gstatic.com/images?q=tbn%3AANd9GcRtSlczCEyP0UicnS8I0CmsuDZ8n_24r6keaarI_lp4P51N-dKw wasted no time]] with FanArt and there was even a petition to get the show runners to hook Geralt and Jaskier up. |
| 314 | * ''Series/WizardsOfWaverlyPlace'': Justin/Alex is easily more popular than their canon pairings with Juliet and Mason respectively. This is mainly due to the major IncestYay between the two, the chemistry between the actors, and the fact that they weren't originally supposed to be related. The pairing dominates fanfiction about the show on both Website/ArchiveOfOurOwn and Website/FanfictionDotNet. It has also lead to some [[ActorShipping shipping their actors]]. |
| 315 | * The short-lived ''Series/WomensMurderClub'' has Lindsay Boxer canonically paired up with Pete Raynor. However, there are next to no fans who pair her with him, with most fans preferring to pair Lindsay with the titular club's youngest member, Cindy Thomas. This is mainly due to the chemistry between Creator/AngieHarmon and Creator/AubreyDollar. On [=AO3=] for example, Cindy/Lindsay make up 85 (the most for the work on the site) of the total 140 fanfics for the show, while Lindsay/Pete has exactly 0 fics dedicated to it. |
| 316 | * In ''Series/{{Yellowjackets}}'', Shauna is married to Jeff in the present and had an affair with him in the flashback storylines, but most fans and fan content instead ship her with Jackie due to their LesYay filled friendship in the flashback storyline. For example, Shauna/Jackie have the most fics for the show on [=AO3=], with over 200 as of this writing, easily outnumbering Jeff/Shauna. Even [[spoiler:Jackie's death has done nothing to stop their being shipped, with many {{Fix Fic}}s being written where Jackie lives and gets together with Shauna]]. |
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