Fire Emblem as a whole has this in spades. Ship Wars is great part of the culture of the fandom. Thanks to the Support system, which gives characters both nifty Character Development and stat bonuses, Fire Emblem tends to be a breeding ground for Ship-to-Ship Combat with the unique difference that shipping in Fire Emblem — and thus arguments thereof — is often concerned with gameplay viability as much as it is with the romantic dynamic between the characters. It also doesn't help that the series sports Permadeath, meaning you're free in most cases to actually kill someone off if they're in the way of your preferred pairing.
Examples of Die for Our Ship in the Archanea games:
- Some fans who don’t like the canon Marth/Caeda pairing bash Caeda. This even included fans who want to ship Marth in Super Smash Bros pairings. Oddly enough, Catria/Marth shippers don't seem to have a problem with Caeda, simply opting to pair her with Ogma instead.
- Many Palla/Abel shippers bash Est, Palla's little sister and Abel's canon wife. According to them, Palla "deserved" Abel more even though she never came forward with her feelings and stepped aside for the sake of her sister's happiness.
- Marth's older sister Elice gets bashed by Merric/Linde fans, since she is Merric's Victorious Childhood Friend. People have claimed the relationship is "gross" due to Elice bringing up how she remembered him as a sick little boy (it was meant to be a He Is All Grown Up moment).
- It's said that many Japanese fans favor Catria as a better girlfriend for Marth than Caeda and go batshit at the mere sight of the second. Outside of Japan there is less outcry since Catria's crush on Marth is a minor facet of her character and is restricted to Japan-only games.
Examples of Die for Our Ship in the Jugdral games:
- Fire Emblem: Genealogy of the Holy War suffers from a bit of this as well. As Permadeath and Relationship Values are both important parts of the game, the player can literally invoke Die for Our Ship:
- Beowolf suffers a lot of hate in the fandom as it is, but Finn/Lachesis gives the haters even more fuel for their fire. In turn, Beowolf fans scorn the Finn/Lachesis pairing and Lachesis herself. Meanwhile, they forget her other prospect "canon" husbands Dew and Naoise exist. Hilariously, Thracia 776 very strongly implies that Lachesis first was with Beowulf and then with Finn: Diarmuid is all but stated to be Beo's son (same to Fergus) while Nanna is for all effects Finn's daughter.
- Lewyn/Erinys fans turn up their noses at Sylvia. Lewyn/Sylvia fans turn up their noses at Erinys. Lewyn/Tailtiu fans turn up their noses at both. Sylvia gets the most hate from shippers of either, though.
- Mitsuki Oosawa's manga portrays Eldigan's canon wife Grahnye (here named Iria) negatively and ships Eldigan/Lachesis instead. Mitsuki also excluded Chulainn and Beowulf from the manga in favor of pairing Ayra up with Lex and Lachesis up with Finn.
- Despite Leif and Nanna being the only option to each other in Thracia, some people find it boring and prefer to marry them to other characters in the love System of Genealogy of Holy Way, with the justification that they broke up.
- Nanna also gets criticism from those who prefer Leif with other girls, specially Miranda, Sara or Jeanne, despite Jeanne being the only possible option among the three, that can marry Leif, in Genealogy of Holy War.
- The fact that Nanna and Leif follow the overdone childhood friend trope, and were raised as siblings make some people to frown upon the ship.
Examples of Die for Our Ship in the Elibe games:
- Quit a lot of fighting goes on over which pairings create the children of certain characters in Fire Emblem: The Binding Blade.
- There are six different endings involving marriage for Roy;
- Some shippers tend to have a lot of hate for Roy's teacher Cecilia because of the age difference, trying to make false narratives of grooming and abuse.
- Some of Lilina shippers try bash other ships that stand between their OTP. They try to claim that she is the canon wife to start ship wars, and bash anyone who prefer Roy with either Cecilia, Sue, Shanna, Sophia, or Larum.
- Roy/Lilina is also criticised for being another boring childhood friend romance, and Lilina getting more attention than the other girls.
- There are six different endings involving marriage for Roy;
- In Fire Emblem: The Blazing Blade,
- Shippers of Ninian/Eliwood tend to bash Lyn and Fiora for standing in between their OTP. They harass fans that like Eliwood with either of those girls, trying to push Fiora or Lyn with Eliwood as less canon and lying that Ninian is the only correct option, often starting false argumentations to prove the canonicity of their otp above other equally valid and official options. This often has a the contrary effect, making the fans of Eliwood/Fiora or Eliwood/Lyn more denfensive.
- Similarly, Ninian was at one time the biggest victim of this from Lyn/Eliwood, Eliwood/Hector, and Eliwood/Fiora fans who bash her for standing in between their pairing of choice. This has calmed down a bit in recent years, but when it does happen it can be pretty nasty.
- Hector/Lyn, Eliwood/Lyn and Rath/Lyn shippers claim that their respective ship are the canon romance for Lyn, often causing nasty fighs with each ther.
- Hector/Lyn or Eliwood/Lyn is bashed by those who prefer all the involved with other characters, claiming that Lyn would never be happy living in a palace, ignoring that it's a Lyn option to marry them and that she has a happy life regardless of who she marries.
- Priscilla is bashed because all her Supports are boys who happen to be part of the fandom's most popular slash pairings (and in some cases, one reasonably popular het pairing).
- Leila, and Matthew's canon love for her, are often disregarded for the sake of the popular Matthew/Guy. Conversely, some Matthew/Leila fans loathe Matthew/Guy.
- Kent/Lyn shippers can be very protective of their pairing, hating Rath for being standoffish to Lyn despite caring about her and claiming Kent/Fiora's supports ruin the characters. Conversely, some Lyn/Tactician shippers loathe Kent.
- At one point it was common for Erk/Nino shippers to bash Jaffar and the Jaffar/Nino pairing, complaining about the "age difference"note and claiming the relationship was emotionally abusive while touting Erk/Nino as "much healthier" (ignoring the fact that Erk has his own issues).
- Sain could get this in a weird roundabout way: Fans treated him like a lech who should never be with any woman "because all the girls hate him", then turn around and pair him with Kent while demonizing any of their prospect wives.
Examples of Die for Our Ship in Fire Emblem: The Sacred Stones:
- In Fire Emblem: The Sacred Stones, Natasha gets bashed by some Joshua/Artur, Joshua/Marisa and Seth/Eirika fans. She's even accused of being a Gold Digger just because Seth and Joshua happen to be rather affluent even though that never comes up in their supports.
- Colm is bashed as well by people who dislike his treatment of Neimi and prefer to pair her up with someone else. While he can be a bit harsh towards her, that doesn't excuse the way his worst haters exaggerate his jackassery to outright Domestic Abuse extremes.
- The Seth/Eirika vs. Innes/Eirika vs. Saleh/Eirika vs Eirika/Lyon shipping wars can get quite heated, with people on all sides bashing the suitor they do not favor.
- Ephraim/Eirika and Ephraim yaoi shippers used to hate Tana for having a crush on Ephraim, as well as the pairing itself. While the pairing's still heavily disliked, thankfully the hatred for Tana has died down. And then there are double standard cases where whoever is the least liked between Ephraim and Innes are bashed for their overprotectiveness towards their respective sisters and are even perceived as attempting to hog both Eirika and Tana for themselves even though the more liked of the two can get away with doing such things.
Examples of Die for Our Ship in the Tellius games:
- Fire Emblem: Path of Radiance had Ike/Soren shippers who bash Elincia. It's mostly stopped now that the sequel implies that she ends up with Geoffrey. Unfortunately, it's turned the tables to Ike/Elincia fans bashing Geoffrey and the Ike/Soren pairing.
- And while this technically should go below: the Ike/Soren shippers aren't happy that a recruitable character in Awakening claims to be Ike's descendant. They don't know who Ike could have paired up with to start his lineage; they just want her dead.
- Not to mention the war between Tibarn/Reyson shippers and Naesala/Reyson shippers. This died down sometime after Radiant Dawn came out, though. (It probably helped that Naesala/Leanne was more or less canonized and a lot of people jumped on board that ship.)
- In Fire Emblem: Radiant Dawn, main character Micaiah occasionally gets bashed for her romance with Sothe and standing in the way of Ho Yay.
Examples of Die for Our Ship in Awakening:
- Awakening marked the return of the Lover/Inheritance System from Genealogy, popularizing it...and the cannons immediately started firing.
- Out of Chrom's potential wives, Sumia gets a lot of hate from the fandom, especially fans of any other Chrom ship. Part of it comes from the way the game gives focus to her as Chrom’s love interest, due to restriction of her selection of other suitors, cutscenes featuring the two, including one titled “Lovebirds” in the North American edition. That can make some players feel it is being forced on them. Others see
Unfortunate Implications in the emphasis on her clumsiness and poor self-image and in how much of their support chain revolves around Sumia cooking for Chrom and doing his laundrynote .- Sumia/Chrom is heavily criticized by fans who prefer Robin/Chrom, Olivia/Chrom, Robin/Sumia, and Gaius/Sumia; Chrom himself occasionally comes under fire from fans of Sumia/Male Avatar.
- The female Avatar and Sumia sometimes come under fire from fans of Chrom/Male Avatar. The female Avatar versus male Avatar war has gotten particularly nasty with Intsys's recent trend of using m!Robin over f!Robin, with fans of m!Robin using this as ammunition to claim that m!Robin/Chrom is the One True Pairing and fans of f!Robin decrying this as misogynistic pandering to male players.
- Olivia/Chrom shippers interpret the couple as the canon option, since it's Chrom's fastest support, saying that Olivia is his true wife, often pissing people that prefer Chrom with Robin, Sully, Sumia or Maribelle.
- Some male Avatar/Lucina fans aren't fond of her with other available male characters, and will bash any character who might get in the way. Gerome and Inigo are the biggest victims of this, and some shippers also attack Severa due to her status as a popular pairing for Lucina in the fandom, in spite of the fact that the two of them cannot actually support in the game.
- Some male Avatar/Lucina fans also attack other girls who are commonly shipped with the male Avatar. Tharja and Cordelia are the two biggest victims.
- Frederick is often used as an all-purpose bashing magnet for a variety of ships, due to him showing signs of Entitled to Have You in his S Support with Cordelia. In Chrom/Male Avatar fics that don't go the OT3 route, he'll often be the token jealous villain who wants Chrom all to himself. He can also be a victim of this in Cordelia/Anyone or Emmeryn/Anyone (despite Frederick/Emmeryn not being a possible pairing in the game).
- Inigo/Gerome is an interesting case in which Inigo's female love interests are bashed for being mean to him, but fans also insist he can only be paired with Gerome because him being in a straight relationship is "gross".
Examples of Die for Our Ship in Fates
- Corrin gets guff from being heavily shipped with Xander, Camilla, Leo and Elise, that are their adopted siblings.
- Charlotte gets some guff from shippers of Xander/Female Avatar due to her Gold Digger facade, despite the fact that her supports have her marrying Xander out of love and explaining she wants money to care for her ailing parents.
- Camilla has gotten this from Hinoka fans who ship her with the male Avatar, due to Camilla's obsession with an Avatar of either gender.
- Xander doesn't get off too easily either if a fic chooses to ship Hinoka with anyone other than him.
- Hinoka also has her share of naysayers from people who ship Camilla with the male Avatar for being a relentless obsessive "harpy" who wants Corrin for herself and is willing to destroy Nohr to get him, deforming Hinoka's Chronic Hero Syndrome into simple Clingy Jealous Girl behavior. On the other hand, some Male Avatar/Hinoka fans reply by trying to frame Camilla as a whore (due to her obsession with an Avatar of either gender) and Hinoka as "purer, thus better", ignoring Camilla's Broken Bird side and genuinely good Freudian Excuse. Both sides miss how Camilla and Hinoka are supposed to contrast one another and how they can get along quite well in Revelation.
- Soleil gets this a lot due to her constant skirt-chasing and lack of boundaries, with her detractors glad she's not the female Gay Option because she "needs to be kept away from all women". It's especially prominent with Ophelia, though, as she comes on way too strong and makes Ophelia nervous in 2/3 of their support chain. The fact that both girls admit they made a mess of things (Soleil by being pushy and Ophelia by running away because Soleil didn't meet her high expectations as a partner) and patch it up in the A support isn't enough for the detractors, and some of the shippers can get defensive as a result. Those who are on the fence regarding the controversy behind her sexuality tends to cite this scene and her overall aggressiveness as the reason to dislike her.
- Ryoma/Oboro is proof that even rare pairs can fall under this. A few of its shippers deride Takumi or the Oboro/Takumi pairing, painting Oboro's feelings for Takumi as "just a silly crush" that she should get over so she can enjoy Ryoma, who is So Much Better for her. The majority of fic about this pairing paints Takumi as dense at best or callous at worst when it comes to Oboro's feelings, and overall the shippers give off an air of insecurity and feeling threatened by Oboro's feelings for Takumi despite canon itself not treating them as an obstacle for her to get over; they can be requited if the player chooses, but only one of her other romantic support sets mentions her crush (and it makes sense that Hinata would say something, the two being as close as they are).
- Fans of Niles/Male Avatar sometimes bash the various girls that both of them can marry instead. Camilla seems to be the biggest target.
- Some yaoi fans that wish Silas was the Male Avatar's Gay Option instead of Niles bash the later for supposedly being a kinky sadist and keep spreading the ultimately jossed "Silas was supposed to be the original Gay Option" rumor. This goes both ways as some Niles/Male Avatar fans bash Silas for being "too loyal and boring" compared with Niles.
- Switching "yaoi" with "yuri", "Silas" with "Azura" and sometimes "Soleil", "Niles" with "Rhajat" and "Male Avatar" with "Female Avatar" will often bring similar results.
Examples of Die for Our Ship in Fire Emblem Gaiden and its remake Fire Emblem Echoes: Shadows of Valentia:
- Fans of Celica and Faye have been spotted fighting it out both regarding their characters and whether one or another girl is the best Love Interest for Alm: Celica fans accuse Faye of being a Flat Character without any depth beyond an obsession with Alm that borders on Yandere, whereas Faye fans call Celica a Relationship Sue. Fans also accuse Celica/Alm of being a boring, unrealistic romance.
- Fans of Alm/Clair also eventually fight over their ship with the fans of the canon outcome Alm/Celica and Clair/Gray. They claim that Alm/Clair would be the most realistic and healthier option for all involved, accusing Alm/Celica and Clair/Gray of being of being Strangled by the Red String .
- Similarly, Saber/Celica is a somewhat common pairing especially among fans who are newer to the franchise. Alm/Celica fans have not taken kindly to that, calling Saber/Celica fans creepy because of the age difference between the two characters; the Saber/Celica shippers retaliate by accusing the Alm/Celica ship of being Strangled by the Red String.
- In both games, Clive and Mathilda are an Official Couple as long as both of them live (If not, either Clive dies young while fighting pirates, or Mathilda replaces him as commander but never marries). After the latter game came out, some parts of the fandom (namely, the Het Is Ew part of Tumblr) have started to bash or ignore Clive to favor pairing up Mathilda with other women.
- Mathilda gets criticism for turning a housewife after she married Clive, despite being a better knight. This causes people to kill Clive in game, so she gets an ending in which she turns the lead of the knights.
- Gray and Boey sometimes get a similar treatment from the Het Is Ew fans, since they're the official love interests for Clair and Mae respectively—which means they can't easily be shipped with other girls either.
- Tatiana isn't exactly well-liked by Camus/Nyna shippers. While the original merely heavily implied Ezekiel/Zeke chose her over Princess Nyna, it still left it somewhat ambiguous. The remake outright confirms he marries her, and if Tatiana dies in-game, the game just states that Zeke still didn't return to Nyna, just vanishing forever this time (probably right after saving her from Gharnef and Medeus).
Examples of Die for Our Ship in Three Houses:
- In a rather odd turn of events, fans of Edelgard and Female Byleth give the male version of Byleth a lot of flak just for existing and being an option for Edelgard to marry. Despite the fact that the only difference between the two Byleths is their gender and that both they and Edelgard are canonically bisexual, there is a lot of Het Is Ew in effect and very strong biphobia from those who would rather have Edelgard and Female Byleth be lesbians. It's even to the point that some fans have insinuated that the only reason anyone would ship Edelgard with Male Byleth over the female counterpart is because they're straight men who want to get with Edelgard, even though the majority of Byleth/Edelgard fans and content go with Female Byleth and those who prefer her with Male Byleth are a small minority.
- Shipping discourse is often a microcosm for the overall faction fighting among the Three Houses fanbase; any discussion of whether or not Claudeleth, Dimileth, or Edeleth is the best Byleth ship usually involves tearing down the other two options. Edelgard is usually dismissed as a manipulative liar who only loves Byleth as much as she can be considered useful to her cause (when she's not portrayed as an obsessive Stalker with a Crush); Dimitri is regarded as a violent abuser (even though he apologized for his vengeful behavior and worked to atone); and Claude is viewed as insensitive and selfish, with fans decrying his S-support for having him immediately run off after proposing (even though Byleth herself never objects, knowing this is part of Claude's dream, and they're reunited the quickest out of all of Claude's paired endings).
- Out of all the most popular ships in the fandom, Felix/Sylvain outstrips even the Byleth/Lord ships, and as such its shippers have frequent quarrels with rival shippers—particularly those of Felix/Annette, one of the most popular Felix ships.
