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Die For Our Ship / Western Animation

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Western Animation has a surprising amount of Shipping, both in Canon and out of it. So the Die for Our Ship mentality can pop up here, too...

Series with their own pages

Other series

  • Adventure Time:
    • Marceline the Vampire Queen is not the favorite character of Finn/Princess Bubblegum shippers when she gets paired with either character. It died down after Finn and Marcie both sunk the pairing in the episode "Go With Me", and especially after Marceline and Princess Bubblegum rekindled their friendship and got back together in the series finale.
    • In addition to Ron the Death Eater, Princess Bubblegum gets this from those who ship Finn with anyone else besides her, painting her up as a heartless jerkass who toys with Finn's feelings without a care. Nevermind that they are still good friends after Finn's crush finally wanes, and Finn is still dedicated to protecting her.
    • Both Marceline/Finn and Finn/Bubblegum shippers were reduced to screaming messes after the appearance of Flame Princess. And then Finn and Flame Princess broke up. Things got very bad when "Red Throne" came out, wherein Cinnamon Bun admitted his love to Flame Princess. That led to the Finn/Flame Princess to become so outraged that many ragequit the show. This rage simmered down after Word of God confirmed that things between Cinnamon Bun and Flame Princess are strictly platonic, as FP is 16 and CB is 30.
  • The Amazing World of Gumball: Gumball and Darwin both have girlfriends, respectively Penny and Carrie, but they're much more shipped with each other, despite being (adoptive) brothers (as they have accidentally kissed once, hugged many times, and Gumball's love with Darwin, a goldfish, is the reason the latter grew legs). The episode "The Shippening" makes fun of this by depicting Gumball and Darwin as anime-style humans getting married.
  • American Dragon: Jake Long: Many Jake/Rose shippers became irate when Jake flirted with Dannika Hunicutt because she was a girl who Jake was attracted to and who was not Rose. She was even speculated to be the "siren" of a later episode and working for the Dark Dragon. As the show played out, however, the girl proved to be nothing more than an extra with a few lines. Oddly, the actual siren who brainwashed Jake into loving her is an Ensemble Dark Horse (probably because brainwashing doesn't quite count as actual romantic feelings, and she was only in one episode).
  • Even Batman gets this treatment in Batman: The Animated Series. Nightwing, Batgirl, and Batman fans absolutely loathe how he had a thing with Batgirl. Dating your son's love interest breaks so many things to people. The fact that Bruce officially impregnated Barbara makes it worse, though she had a miscarriage.
  • Batman Beyond: The Terry/Maxine and Terry/Melanie fans really hated Terry's canon girlfriend, Dana. Some even think that she's less sympathetic than the Stalker with a Crush who tried to kill her and/or that she deserved to die, just because she got fed up with being constantly Stood Up.
  • Ben 10:
    • For Ben himself, Kai is often portrayed in fanfiction as a snobby Rich Bitch-esque character who gets in the way of any other ship Ben finds himself a part of, though she's just as likely to be ignored wholesale outside works that aren't shipping infused rewrites of canon episodes. Despite being the Official Couple by way of foregone conclusion, it's rare to find any shipper in the fandom that even tolerates the character.
    • At one time, Kevin/Gwen shippers perceived Charmcaster as getting in the way of their ship due to her seducing Kevin in her Alien Force debut episode, and Michael Morningstar/Darkstar got a similar reaction due to his constant flirtations toward "lovely Gwen". Sometimes there was no Die for Our Ship, though, and Charmcaster and Darkstar ended up being paired with each other instead. Then that pairing actually happened, and many fans thought better of it.
    • Ben's love interests Julie and Kai are not liked by the Kevin/Ben shippers, and later Ben/Rook shippers. Or by Ben/Gwen shippers, who also bash Kevin for getting together with Gwen in Ben 10: Alien Force.
  • Code Lyoko:
    • Ulrich/Yumi shippers tend to take the flawed character aspects of alternate love interests Sissi (who is canonically outwardly annoying, but does show Jerk with a Heart of Gold depths) and William (a canonical Stalker with a Crush, but more dark than evil) and exaggerate them beyond recognition until there's no way they could threaten their beloved ship. Or the writers save themselves the trouble and kill them off, or pair them with each other. All of which is really unnecessary, since both Sissi and William are canonically Hopeless Suitors (Sissi from the beginning and William once he becomes Brainwashed and Crazy.) Ulrich/Yumi is in much more danger from Ulrich and Yumi themselves than outside forces.
    • Theo Gautier, a one-shot character who displayed interest toward Sissi then toward Yumi, is either used to get Sissi out of the way while averting this trope, or portrayed as a Jerkass and abusive boyfriend toward Yumi so she can run into Ulrich's arms (despite the fact he is even less of a threat than Sissi is).
    • The treatment that Jérémie gets from a lot of Odd×Aelita supporters in fanfiction. Good luck finding Oddlita fanfiction that doesn't feature Jérémie as physically, verbally, emotionally, or sexually abusive towards Aelita. At best he's retroactively revealed to have been possessed by XANA the entire time, or dead before the story starts.
  • Codename: Kids Next Door: Lizzie Devine, Numbuh One's girlfriend gets a fair bit of hate from the fandom for several reasons, but as far as shippers are concerned, her worst crime is simply being the canon girlfriend for most of the series of the main Launcher of a Thousand Ships. Lizzie gets it worse than most as she's already considered to be rather unpleasant even in canon, making it even easier for fans to justify Numbuh 1 dumping her in favor of whoever they ship him with.
  • Danny Phantom:
    • Samantha "Sam" Manson (the one Danny ended up with) was subjected to this trope early in the fandom; she was hated, despised, and bashed in fanfiction written by Danny fangirls who paired Danny with the writer's Original Character. However, the hate for Sam lessened when Valerie Gray went through, not only Character Development, but also a Gondor Calls for Aid episode in which she and Danny become friends, and eventually ended up in a temporary Dating Catwoman situation before breaking up. After which, Valerie became despised by both these shippers and Danny/Sam shippers, as the breakup wasn't because they lost interest in each other, but purely because Valerie didn't want to put Danny in danger), leaving her as a "threat". Years after the shows' end, and Sam bashing would once again take the lead, but fanfics in which Sam is depressed over Danny and Valerie's relationship, and it turns out that Danny is only dating Valerie because he thinks Sam will never love him and never loved Valerie in the first place are still easy to find.
    • Danny/Valerie shippers frequently claim Sam is some kind of manipulative shrew who thinks of Danny as a tool for her own agendas. It got even worse after the finale had Danny and Sam officially get together.
  • Daria:
    • Some fans are still upset that Daria got over her crush on the cool slacker Trent and ended up with the charming preppie Tom, even though Tom is exactly like Daria, only male and well-adjusted and it's also made clear in the series that she would have been really unhappy with Trent. Perhaps some of this antipathy stems from the fact that, initially, it seemed like Daria "stole" Tom from Jane; in canon, the characters all eventually got past it and agreed it was unintentional and probably inevitable. The weird part is that Tom and Daria broke up at the end of the series anyway, so they're free to ship her with anyone else... and yet they still try to kill him.
    • There are the bitter Les Yay shippers who are still convinced Tom was invented for the sole purpose of ruining their fantasies. This despite both Daria and Jane (especially Jane) constantly showing interest in and pursuing men.
    • There's also a group of fans that believe Daria must remain single for eternity in order to maintain her status as a strong female character. Therefore, any scene that depicted Daria being attracted to men, displaying a wish of having a fulfilling heterosexual relationship, or actually dating, is bashed for trying to "ruin" Daria's independence.
    • Trent's on-and-off girlfriend Monique is also portrayed as an evil bitch in several Daria/Trent fics, despite her canon self being sweet and friendly.
    • It should be noted that after a decade, however, the whole Ship-to-Ship Combat in the fandom has died down a lot; the old fans have gotten over it and many of the newer ones went into the series knowing what was going to happen. These days, Tom-bashing is more a tongue-in-cheek joke than anything, and Daria/Trent, while still popular, is often seen as kind of cliché. Meanwhile, Crack Pairings are prominent.
    • Back in the day there was a short-lived blow-up over Ted, introduced in the episode "The New Kid." He and Daria were clearly Twice Shy and went out on what could arguably be called a date. This episode happened to air right before a hiatus, giving Daria/Trent shippers a few months to freak out. Ted was never meant to be an important character, however, and only had two small cameos (one non-speaking) throughout the rest of the series.
  • Ed, Edd n Eddy:
    • There are a few Edd/Marie fics that go out of their way to depict Nazz as a bitch and/or a slut. Particularly noticeable in that the former sums up Marie's entire canon personality quite well.
    • Edd/May shippers really dislike Marie. In a weird inversion of how it usually goes, it's not about making the "third wheel" worse, but about making the shipped girl better while keeping the hypotenuse on roughly the same moral level as in the original show.
  • The Fairly OddParents!:
    • Timmy/Trixie shippers end up bashing Tootie, and Timmy/Tootie shippers bash Trixie. In one fanfic, known as "Trixie's True Self 2", Tootie even went to the evil side — something she would never do on the show — after Timmy started dating a new tomboy-fied Trixie. It is even said to happen with the writers.
    • Missy, a one-episode character from Season 9 who reciprocated Timmy's crush in said episode, got this treatment from both sides, especially since neither character appeared that season.
    • Chloe joining the cast as a main character for the last season and becoming Timmy's best friend also had Tootie and Trixie fans riled up. Not helped by said characters having disappeared completely from the show by that point.
  • Family Guy fans who pair Brian with Jillian hate Derek Wilcox.
  • Leela from Futurama often gets shafted in Fry/Bender fics as a cruel, snobbish, manipulative, ungrateful bitch. Stories like this often culminate in Bender protecting Fry from Leela, leading Fry to realize that Bender is his true love, and his (Fry's) longing for Leela is unhealthy because she, unlike Bender, doesn't give a damn about how much Fry loves her and/or is extremely abusive towards him. This despite the fact that Bender is canonically far, far more physically and emotionally abusive towards Fry than Leela is, not to mention canonically manipulative and needy and near-psychotically possessive. Since everyone in Futurama is royally screwed up, having Leela being mildly abusive (but far less abusive than Bender) towards Fry would be acceptably in-character—it's only when Leela manages to top Bender in abusiveness that signals that this trope has come into play.
  • Garfield and Friends:
    • Despite Arlene not appearing in the series outside of cameos and background dressing, Garfield/Arlene shippers treat Penelope Pussycat like utter garbage.
    • Shelia from the DTV movie gets less hate, probably due to yelling at Garfield for flirting with her just to get a slice of anchovy pizza she stole.
    Arlene: He's more loyal to his stomach than he is to me!
  • Gargoyles:
    • Fans have never entirely forgiven Angela for picking Broadway over Brooklyn. Some of them (the ones that don't kill him off) even derail Broadway from a Gentle Giant into a wife-beater in their fics so that Angela can go running into the arms of Brooklyn.
    • There's an in-show example too, as Demona ships herself with Goliath even in the 1990s. Thus, she particularly hates Elisa more than she hates the rest of humanity.
  • Hey Arnold!:
    • Many Helga/Arnold shippers hate and despise Lila for Arnold's former crush on her throughout the last part of the series. Which is odd, because Lila did nothing but gently and repeatedly turn Arnold down, and even helped Helga kiss him after getting her to admit her crush. Granted, it has been said by Word of God that Lila is really subconsciously stringing Arnold along due to a repressed sexual side, but that still doesn't make her the Evil Bitch from Hell!
    • Ruth and Summer also don't get spared from this, despite the fact that Ruth was insignificant to Arnold after season 1 and Summer was just a one-shot character who was just using Arnold to begin with and already had a boyfriend.
  • Jem:
    • Riot/Jerrica shippers are quick to note how overly jealous Rio is and how he outright cheats on Jerrica (with herself but still). It comes off as hypocritical how he thinks every guy is out for Jerrica, and Jem, but makes out with Jem behind Jerrica's back. At least Riot only flirts with Jem.
    • Rio/Jerrica fans point out what an arrogant jerk Riot is. He often gets exaggerated into an abusive boyfriend or someone who is overly violent.
  • Jimmy/Cindy shippers in The Adventures of Jimmy Neutron, Boy Genius do not approve of the existence of Betty, or in some cases April. Though, for what it's worth, Cindy doesn't exactly approve of Betty either. Made weirder because Betty made it clear at one point that she didn't have any romantic interest in Jimmy and basically told Cindy that she could have him. Some fans just can't accept that Cindy is in the wrong with her behavior here.
    • Nick can also be a victim here. Jimmy/Cindy shippers like to depict him as a controlling/abusive boyfriend who wants to take Cindy away from Jimmy, despite that he has never returned Cindy's one-sided crush in canon.
  • Surprisingly, there's little to none of this immature behavior in Justice League fandom, despite the Love Triangle between Shayera/Hawkgirl, Mari/Vixen and John/Green Lantern. Maybe it's helped by how, yanno, the three act more or less like adults in canon about it? Then again, it is also canon that Rex/Warhawk is Shayera and John's Kid from the Future, so maybe the GL/HG fans don't feel that threatened since they know Mari will be out of the picture later without any need to derail her.
  • Dawn from KaBlam!! probably gets a lot of hate from Henry/June shippers, when in her first (and probably only) appearance, Henry started flirting with her. June was not pleased.
  • Kaijudo:
  • Kim Possible:
    • Josh Mankey was often vilified for standing in the way of Kim/Ron before Kim stated that they had drifted apart in the third season. He was usually depicted as womanizing, manipulative, or abusive. This, even though he was shown as caring and understanding the few times he dated Kim. Although, since he was simply a character as a plot device he was very poorly defined and thus open to wide interpretation with what little was shown of him in the show.
    • Kim suffers from this in stories that pair Ron with other characters, such as Shego, Yori, or Bonnie. Often, Kim is transformed into a demanding, jealous bitch who takes Ron's help for granted and treats him like dirt. One fic had her slash her wrists after Ron and Shego get married.
    • Ron is sometimes flanderized into a completely incompetent, useless tag-along who doesn't have any redeeming qualities — that is, someone who doesn't "deserve" Kim. The more extreme shippers portray his friendship with Kim as little more than "generosity" (that is, pity) on Kim's part. He usually isn't killed by such writers, but he usually has his role reduced to The Friend Nobody Likes.
    • A plot device popular after "So the Drama" was having Ron being a rebound, which could go two ways. On one hand, it was used against Ron so Kim can dump him for someone else the shipper prefers her with. On the other hand, it was used to make Kim look like a bitch so Ron can run into the arms of another who presumably ISN'T a rebound for comfort. To the point that one infamous fanfic had that "another" be Kim's own mother.
    • Then there's Yori, Ron's Ninja friend who was clearly in love with him. Oddly enough, despite Kim's own in-universe jealous behavior towards the character, the fans don't utilize this trope with the character. This may be thanks to her quickly accepting Kim and Ron as a couple when they tell her.
    • Kim/Shego writers also have a habit of taking Drakken to one of two extremes to get him out of the picture. One has him be a bigoted Jerkass who can't stand to see Shego with anyone else (especially not a woman); the other has him be a worthless loser who couldn't tie his shoes without Shego and is holding her back from being successful.
  • Looney Tunes: Bugs/Lola shippers detest Honey Bunny, rewriting her as a nutjob who feels like she deserves Bugs for no good reason. A bit of a moot point, since only the most diehard fans of the franchise know who Honey Bunny even is, since not only did she disappear from all Looney Tunes products as soon as Lola was created, but she never even appeared in a single short (only appearing sporadically in comics). That said, any female character Bugs has remotely interacted with is treated like Satan to these shippers (Daffy too, but they usually ignore him or slap him with some other girl).
  • From The Loud House, Ronnie Anne Santiago received backlash from the Loudcest shippers very quickly, even more after the events of "Save the Date". After she moved away to star in her own Spin-Off, some of the hate transferred over to Lincoln's new friend Stella. Not all mind you, as Lincoln and Ronnie Anne still visit each other regularly.
  • There are the type of Metalocalypse fans that believe Abigail gets in the way of their favored slash ships, even though she did not show as much interest in Pickles as he did for her. She still gets hate regardless, particularly as she does end up hooking up with Nathan.
  • Miraculous Ladybug:
    • Luka and Kagami get bashed on a lot by Adrienette shippers, all because they think "they are in the way of my ship". While Kagami bashers usually just remove the "heart of gold" and "defrosting" parts from her canonical Jerk with a Heart of Gold and Defrosting Ice Queen traits, Luka's canonical Nice Guy Mellow Fellow personality means that his bashers usually just make up negative character traits for him on the spot.
    • Marinette and Adrien themselves tend to get hit with this in fics that don't go for the Adrienette pairing. If Marinette is being paired with someone else, expect Adrien to become a spineless victim-blamer as well as have his Entitled to Have You traits as Cat Noir become far more pronounced; if Adrien is being paired with someone else, expect Marinette's Stalker with a Crush tendencies to get blown into full-on Yandere status and for her to act as a Control Freak as Ladybug.
  • Monster High: Despite the franchise being all about accepting your "freaky flaws", many Frankie/Jackson shippers give a lot of hate towards Neighthan Rot (Frankie's Love interest in the Freaky Fusion movie.) as well as Claire (Jackson's love interest in the Ghouls Rule movie.)
  • ¡Mucha Lucha!: The owner of the Rikochet/Buena Girl Yahoo! group once ran a poll asking "Do you hate Penny Plutonium because her crush on Rikochet interferes with his relationship with Buena Girl?" Immediately following, he got responses voting for "Yes! Death to Penny Plutonium!"
  • My Little Pony: Equestria Girls:
    • Flash Sentry was hit by loads of fandom flak before he even got a name (even before the movie came out, bringing with it every last ounce of Ship Tease you'd expect). Just seeing official artwork of him standing next to Twilight was enough to spark enough shipping rage to last a decade. Hell, just pick out a random piece of fanart of Flash and Twilight on Derpibooru and you're bound to find said rage.
    • My Little Pony: Equestria Girls – Legend of Everfree: After a sneak peek showed Timber Spruce flirting with Human Twilight Sparkle and her seeming to return it, the fans immediately started raging about it, some comparing him to Flash Sentry.
    • And then there came Ragamuffin from Spring Breakdown. As soon as Rarity fell for him, Rarijack shippers fell upon him like a pack of hounds on a three-legged cat.
  • My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic: You'd think a No Hugging, No Kissing cartoon wouldn't have this be present in fanworks, but let it be known that shippers find a way.
    • Miss Cheerilee used to be a well-liked background pony. Then the synopsis for the episode "Hearts and Hooves Day" said she would be going on a date with Big Macintosh. Since Big Mac was a Launcher of a Thousand Ships, the fallout from FlutterMac, TwiMac, etc. shippers was vicious, even when it turned out to be a Love Potion episode that ended on a very ambiguous Maybe Ever After that was never followed up on. But try telling that to those wishing death on Cheerilee and calling her among other things, a scarlet woman (because according to the fandom, she is older than Big Macintosh, despite her saying they've been friends since childhood). The hate would later be transferred to Sugar Belle a few seasons later, with whom Big Mac does enter a relationship with.
    • Spitfire is often killed off or made even worse so Rainbow Dash can be with the innocent woobie Soarin. She's often seen as a hellish harpy for daring to get in between Soarin and Rainbow Dash. On the other side of the coin, we have Wonderbolts shippers who absolutely despise Rainbow Dash for getting in the way of Spitfire/Soarin even though it's been clearly said they all think of each other as friends and no romantic feelings are between them. And then we also have rabid FlutterCord shippers who want to hunt Tree Hugger down just for the heinous crime of being Fluttershy's "plus one" at the Grand Galloping Gala.
    • Some fans who ship Spike with anyone besides Rarity don't think highly of her, depicting her as a Manipulative Bitch who takes advantage of Spike's crush to use him as slave labour, or outright abuses him. Her Clingy Jealous Girl streak in "Dragon Dropped" gave them even more ammunition.
    • Strangely enough, Princess Cadence is usually well loved by almost everyone in the general consensuses. However, on the Rule 34 side of the fandom, she is loathed by most of the yaoi fans, incest fans, and especially fans of pairings of Shining Armor with any pony (e.g Shining/Trixie, Shining/Big Mac, etc) but her. As of late, the Shining Armor/Cadence pairing is one of the least popular (ironically enough, the pairing is well beloved by almost every fan of the series) in shipping. However, some people end up having Shining Armor die, though not for their ship, but rather the implied Mayfly–December Romance.
    • Much like Flash Sentry, many fans tend to hate on Soarin/Rainbow Dash for getting in the way of either Soarin/Spitfire or Rainbow Dash/Any Other Pony. Sadly, some of these debates crack out the age old mistake that is "Rainbow Dash is a lesbian because of her rainbows". The fire has only intensified after the episode Rainbow Falls, where Soarin and Rainbow Dash had a small scene together and the fact that Rainbow is becoming a Wonderbolt.
    • Discord, while often beloved by the fandom for being a delightfully hilarious Q Expy, has gained lots of ire for getting in the way of Flutterdash and Pinkieshy. Bulk Biceps even got some hatred for simply being with Fluttershy on the same relay team in Season 4.
    • In Season 8, Maud Pie got a boyfriend named Mudbriar. Many fans who shipped her with Starlight Glimmer, Trixie, etc started hating on him.
    • Since the distant series finale confirms them as a Maybe Ever After, FlutterDash or Dislestia fans have been accusing Discord of "pedophilia" despite the fact Fluttershy is a consenting adult, and think Discord should be with Celestia and Fluttershy with someone her own age.
    • The distant Finale also confirms AppleDash as a Maybe Ever After, and this does not bode well to those who believe Rainbow should have ended up with Fluttershy, or Soarin', or Spitfire, or Pinkie Pie, or Twilight Sparkle, or Zephyr Breeze, or Rarity, or Scootaloo, or Quibble Pants.
  • Over the Garden Wall has a truly bizarre example with Fan-Preferred Couple Wirt/Beatrice vs. Maybe Ever After couple Wirt/Sara. Because the entire show takes place in a Dying Dream and/or the afterlife, with Wirt eventually returning to his old life and his schoolboy crush Sara, the fashion is to kill off not Sara, but Wirt, ensuring him a permanent place in the Unknown and leaving him free to court Beatrice (or Lorna). A common AU starting point has Wirt either make a Heroic Sacrifice to save Greg's life or consent to take the Woodsman's place as the Lantern Bearer.
  • One-shot character Kitka the Falcon from The Penguins of Madagascar occasionally gets hate from Skilene shippers. Said shippers also don't like seeing Marlene paired with Julien or Fred the Squirrel, either.
  • Phineas and Ferb:
    • Suzy Johnson is an odd example of this because she is Jeremy's little sister. However, she's violently opposed to him dating Candace and tortures her at every opportunity, making her highly unpopular with C/J shippers.
    • Johnny occasionally got this from some Ferb/Vanessa shippers, though it largely subsided when it seemed he would just be a Boy of the Week. More than a season later he's back as Vanessa's official boyfriend (in series of the Latin American version at least), and it's started up again.
    • Vanessa isn't too liked by a small number of Ferb/Gretchen shippers, or just people who find the idea of her and Ferb together—-which seems sort of unnecessary, since she doesn't even know Ferb likes her anyway.
    • Peter isn't too well liked by the Perry/Doofenshmirtz shippers.
    • Isabella gets this from time to time for her crush on Phineas, especially from Phineas/Ferb shippers.
  • In The Powerpuff Girls fandom, Powerpuff/Rowdyruff shippers are surprisingly vicious towards anyone who even touches pairings but the Girls and their color counterparts, even though the Boys are their Evil Twins and Buttercup canonically having a Precocious Crush towards Ace as opposed to Butch.
  • The Real Ghostbusters:
    • Janine Melnitz often becomes the target because of her love interest Egon Spengler. Usually vilified as either an over controlling harpy or a heartless slut. If the pairing is OC/Egon, then this can get especially bad. Doesn't help that Ramis wasn't too fond of Janine/Egon either in the original movies.
    • The above Ship Sinking of Egon and Janine's attraction in the movies had also led to Louis Tully getting a load of hate and revenge fic from Egon/Janine shippers, despite the fact that the animated Louis barely got to have much a chance with her.
  • Regular Show: Margaret and Eileen are hated by the Mordecai/Rigby Yaoi Fangirls (and some Fanboys).
  • She-Ra and the Princesses of Power: Some characters are hit with this big time by the Catdora/Adora fans.
  • In the Sidekick fandom, Kitty and Vana are despised by the Trevor/Eric fangirls for obvious reasons.
  • The Simpsons:
    • Many people who ship Marge x Ned Flanders (or any other Marge ship that isn’t Homer x Marge) tend to play up Homer’s alcoholism and Jerkass tendencies, to the point of making him outright abusive towards Marge.
    • It’s common for Ned Flanders/Reverend Lovejoy fans to have Helen Lovejoy divorce her husband to get her “out of the way” in their fan works, if they don’t just kill her off or ignore her existence altogether. Though this may not be solely done for shipping reasons, as Helen is repeatedly characterized as a nosy Obnoxious Entitled Housewife who’s always trying to one-up Marge (albeit one who loves her husband very much), so it’s easy to see why many fans dislike her.
    • In an odd case of this being done to a character who was already a villain, Mr. Burns is despised by Smithers/Moe shippers (due to Smithers’ canonical crush on Burns and Burns/Smithers being a massive Fan-Preferred Couple in the Simpsons fandom), and Smithers/Moe fan works tend to emphasize his negative qualities or portray him as even worse than he is in canon. Smithers/Moe shippers are also more likely to complain about the Age-Gap Romance and Sleeping with the Boss elements of the Burns/Smithers ship, and tend to circulate the widely-held misconception that Burns became Smithers’ Parental Substitute after his father died.
  • The Spectacular Spider-Man:
    • When Liz Allen came onto the scene, many viewers hated her for getting in the way of Peter/Gwen... but then this trope ended up becoming subverted when these viewers' hatred gave way to pity as it became clear that Peter loved Gwen and Liz was just a Hopeless Suitor. It helped that her inevitable breakup with Peter was a Tear Jerker.
    • A reversed situation happened with Harry/Gwen. When Gwen starts dating Harry, it's clear that she's doing so just because she feels sorry for him. Shippers agreed with her decision (Harry went through some Grade-A Shit last season) and they waited patiently for them to break-up so we could get to the Peter/Gwen. Just when the build-up to the fabled ship arrived, Harry found out Gwen's true feelings and became jealous. Then another woobie moment happens, and Harry decides to Kick the Dog by manipulating Gwen into staying with him to "ease the pain," though it's evident he's just jealous of Peter. Shippers promptly went to war.
    • And then there's the small contingent of Mary Jane/Peter shippers who want Gwen to die for the ship because, well, that's exactly what happened in the comics. They're mostly pretty quiet, though.
  • Despite what some people think, the SpongeBob SquarePants fandom does have shippers, and more than enough of the ones who pair SpongeBob with either Patrick, Squidward, or some other male character from the show have a blinding hatred for Sandy Cheeks and those who support the SpongeBob/Sandy couple for having the nerve to think SpongeBob likes her. Surprisingly, there doesn't seem to be much argument between those who ship other slash pairings, nor do they seem to do the same with Pearl. (Then again, it's Pearl and not too many people ship her with SpongeBob anyway.)
  • Star Wars: The Clone Wars:
    • Anakin/Ahsoka shippers utterly love to make Captain Rex an abusive boyfriend or husband for Ahsoka so that she'll go to Anakin for help. Or they make Padme out to be a domineering, emotionally distant bitch to get Anakin to run to Ahsoka. Or both.
    • Boba/Ahsoka, Rex/Ahsoka, and Lux/Ahsoka fans like to give Anakin this treatment. Given that the entire point of the Prequel Trilogy was to show the downward descent of Anakin Skywalker, this is a tricky one to judge as there is a measure of Justified Trope in play here.
    • Then there came Steela in the Season Five Onderon arc. Cue fangirl jabs about her being a "cougar" (because she's got a crush on a guy a few years younger than her), in addition to the usual accusations of "bitch" and "slut". This died down at the end of the arc, when she turned out to be a Romantic False Lead who actually did die. Cue the hurt/comfort Luxsoka fics with Ahsoka consoling Lux over this development.
  • Star vs. the Forces of Evil:
    • Star/Marco shippers heavily disliked their respective love interests Oskar and Jackie. Fans went ballistic when "Bon Bon the Birthday Clown" aired, where Marco and Jackie went on a date and kissed.
    • Tom received this twofold, getting hate from Star/Marco shippers because he was seen as a threat to both sides of the party. On Star's side, he was canonically her ex-boyfriend, and the two later began dating again. On Marco's side, he's seen as having a lot of Ambiguously Bi Ho Yay moments with the human. It became more downplayed as the series went on however, and Tom became a more popular character; by series end, Starco fics had shifted to have him kindly step aside of his own volition rather than suddenly relapse into an asshole, and end up with Janna.
  • An in-universe example occurs in Steven Universe. Peridot is a fan of Camp Pining Hearts, a Canadian soap opera, and she has a hatred for Paulette because Paulette interferes with the "superior pairing" that is Percy and Pierre.
  • Lo from Stōked is public enemy #1 for Reef/Fin shippers.
  • Superjail!:
    • The fandom has many cases of Ho Yay ships that invite hatred towards any female characters who are deemed to "interfere" with male-on-male pairings. It is incredibly rare to see male characters hated for interference with female-only ships, due to the show's Smurfette Principle. The two biggest cases are the Mistress, who received some very over-the-top hatred from fans who preferred shipping the Warden with Lord Stingray or felt she was getting in the way of any of their pairings (despite the fact that she and Warden were not an official couple), and Charise who some Warden/Jared shippers wish would die or disappear.
    • Not even Alice is immune to this, as a vocal minority of Warden/Mistress fans have invoked this trope on her for allegedly "stealing" Mistress from Warden, and for Warden having an (unrequited) crush on her instead of having feelings for the Mistress. In some cases, she gets hate for being in the way of shipping Warden with Original Characters, even though it's repeatedly shown that she doesn't feel the same for the Warden as he does for her. Less commonly but most egregiously, transphobic comments wind up leveled at her for not being a "real woman" for Warden to lust over.
  • Teen Titans (2003):
    • Terra was absolutely loathed by Beast Boy/Raven shippers after she appeared in season two. After her revelation as Slade's apprentice, the hate magnified even more; many fics were written featuring Terra as a maniacal sociopath... which, ironically, fits the original comic version of her. The show's version is quite different.
    • Starfire, as part of the Official Couple, tends to get a LOT of hatred from Robin/Raven fans.
    • Robin and Beast Boy occasionally get hatred from Beast Boy/Raven shippers and Robin/Raven shippers respectively.
    • After Lightspeed premiered, the love for the Kid Flash/Jinx pairing that emerged from that episode and eventually became an Official Couple was almost unanimous; however, there were still some that much preferred the Cyborg/Jinx pairing that was teased several times throughout the series, most prominently in Deception, and thus thrust their hatred onto Kid Flash. Many post-Lightspeed Cyborg/Jinx fics portray Kid Flash as someone who inevitably cheated on Jinx after they started dating. Some Kid Flash/Jinx shippers also hate Cyborg as a result.
  • Some fans of Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles (2012) dislike Casey because he gets in between Donnie and April. They takes his jerkish traits up to eleven. They will also ignore the fact that April and he do share some sweet and flirty moments. On the flip side, Capril fans and Anti- Apriltello claim that April has showed no interest in Donnie despite kissing him several times (once on the lips). Some refuse to forget Donatello's stalker with a crush moments despite only appearing for a few minutes in a handful of episodes. Not to mention April herself gets this from fans who think she's leading both boys on.
  • Transformers fans are often the embodiment of this trope, with Prowl/Jazz frequently serving as the poster child.
  • The Voltron: Legendary Defender grew an intense infamy to the point where people would censor its name in posts because they were afraid for them to show up in the tags. See Why Fandom Can't Have Nice Things for some examples, as many of the issues have arisen from shipping motives.
  • Wild Kratts: Youtube was the real warzone for a while, until one user put their foot down and put a stop to the bashing. It then moved to Fanfiction, up until yet another user put their foot down. The Vocal Minority claimed that the show has evidence (which was parodied in another Youtube video, which has just as much "evidence" as Martin/Aviva). And Chris, who did nothing wrong, was victimized, all for being Martin's brother. The only way to stop it is to fight fire with fire. The Vocal Minority count is set to 4 total- that person created approximately 20 sockpuppets.
  • Winx Club:
    • There are a lot of Sky/Diaspro fans that loathe Bloom to death.
    • Aisha/Nabu fans HATE Roy and Nex. Roy gained a little popularity in the sixth season, but Nex ultimately won the Love Triangle and became Aisha's official new boyfriend. The shippers hate him even more.
    • Musa/Riven fans freaked out when Musa and Orlando got close in the seventh season. Fortunately for them, it didn't work out for her.
  • W.I.T.C.H.
    • Caleb, Caleb, Caleb. Either he's taken out of the picture all together, or he's turned into a douchebag for Cornelia to leave in the dust for Irma or Elyon. It doesn't help how his personality was drastically changed from the comics.
    • Matt Olsen is flat-out ignored by slash fic involving Will.
    • Oddly (but thankfully), Orube and Miranda aren't really treated that wrongly by Phobos/Cedric shippers. Granted, Orube is only in the comics and never got to be in the series proper, and Miranda's romantic situation with Cedric is a bit... contested, so to speak.
  • X-Men: Evolution:
  • Young Justice (2010):
    • In light of the recent timeskip for Season 2, "Invasion", every fan who has shipped Superboy and Miss Martian together are all up in arms over their breakup and her being with Lagoon Boy. There is so much hate for poor La'gaan that it's starting to turn into hate for the show in general as far as they're concerned. Those fans of the show who remember the MST3K Mantra have started referring to them as "Keezy Fem," a derogatory term in Interlac, used In-Universe by Lobo in reference to Wonder Girl and Batgirl, who were in his way on a bounty-hunting job in the first episode of Season 2.
    • Also, while Nightwing is loved by just about everyone in the fandom, if you pair him up with either Wally or Artemis, some Spitfire shippers can get ugly.
    • Bette Kane's appearance in the tie-in comic and the revelation that she and Nightwing had a one-night stand together (which Greg Weisman teased "could lead to something more") got shippers of Nightwing/Batgirl angry, as it was given as one reason why Barbara wasn't ready to settle down into a relationship with Dick just yet (between that, and his flirting with Rocket and Zatanna). To add to the distaste for Bette, she was portrayed as having forgotten Dick's name and not even remembering who he was.

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