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Die For Our Ship
And then the fanwriters hit him with a semi. Just wait till they kiss.
"Shipping leads people to be very mean at totally awesome characters."
I Don't Like Your Girlfriend

Sometimes, a character is hated because he's annoying. Or because he came in after the show Jumped The Shark. Or because she's a raging Mary Sue and gets too much attention. The list goes on. More often, though, when Shipping comes into play, the character is hated for existing at all.

Hate shrines. Death Fics. Fics where the formerly sweet and loyal character cheats on the heroine with her two best friends and proceeds to murder her teammates, just so she can be with the Jerk With A Heart Of Gold, or the Stalker With A Crush, her cousin, or even her brother, or whomever else the fan prefers. They're all over the place. People who know nothing about the show or even the genre have heard just how much of the fandom hates the rival love interest.

The writer often claims some other justification for treating the character this way, but it's all a masquerade with one goal firmly in mind. Destroy all who dare to get in the way of their OTP.

See, an average female going through puberty has ten times the lethal dose of estrogen running through her veins. This effectively gives the subject godlike abilities to discern which relationships will turn out in the end despite proof or character development or even the Word Of God saying otherwise. This obviously takes a toll on said subject's sanity, and they then go out of their way to prove to every single person on the internet why they're right, you're wrong, and you should go slug bleach.

This is especially virulent when the 'ship the fans want is on the wrong side of Cleaning Up Romantic Loose Ends. Paradoxically, this character is as likely to actually be part of an Official Couple as not. Beware if you're a girl and people ship your male best friends as Yaoi Guys, or conversely, if you're a boy and you hang around girls while yuri fanboys are watching. Not all yaoi fangirls/yuri fanboys do this, but it's quite common; fans of heterosexual pairings, for whatever reason, only seem to strike when characters actually fall in love. Perhaps they get sick of Bait And Switch Lesbians.

All of the main characters in Unwanted Harem series run the risk of suffering this in order to rationalize an author's 'ship. The Unlucky Everydude will take the brunt of the hatred, with fans preferring alternatives like a Bad Ass Marty Stu or another member of the harem. The Cheryl Blossom is especially prone to eliciting Die For Our Ship responses from shippers, as shippers on both sides of a Love Triangle will often put aside their differences and unite against him or her.

The Clingy Jealous Girl is an odd example, as she usually loses but is given the same amount of hate from the fandom. Tsundere are vulnerable either way. Yamato Nadeshiko aren't free of bashing either, which increases a thousandfold if her love rival is deemed "cooler" or "less girly, therefore stronger" by female fans.

One of the most unusual victim magnets is the Chaste Hero, whose simple non-information makes figuring things out mostly guesswork. Any bishonen, especially tough guys and the Ensemble Darkhorse, will also incite Ship To Ship Combat over whom he should be with, whether it be a Betty And Veronica in-series or a Mary Sue in a Self Insert Fic.

It isn't even restricted to fictional characters either: real-life celebrities' love interests have become targets of hate too!

This trope is the opposite of Draco In Leather Pants; here, a character's faults are exaggerated or created from whole cloth, while their virtues are either ignored or rationalized away. Revenge Fic is very common in this mindset.

A subtrope of both Shipping and Alternate Character Interpretation, with a heaping helping of Fan Dumb thrown into the mix.

Beware before you proceed, as the examples are sure to contain spoilers for whoever wins.
Notable victims:

Anime
  • Chiba Mamoru of Sailor Moon, who is consistently portrayed throughout every single part of the Sailor Moon franchise as Usagi's love interest. Because the final series, Sailor Stars, introduced Seiya Kou as a surrogate love interest while Mamoru was absent, many fans took it upon themselves to Fan Wank this into a real relationship. This is despite the fact that both the anime and manga (where Seiya appears) make the one-sided nature of Seiya's attraction to Usagi a major plot point, as well as disregarding five years of Mamoru being Usagi's true love in both the present and in their past lives. Some of them even try to accuse him of being secretly in love with his own daughter to make it work.
    • A good chunk of this ire stems from a plot arc in the anime where Mamoru broke up with Usagi over prophetic dreams that their relationship would cause her death, but also in ignorance of the fact that the two got back together again and saved the world and their future daughter because of the strength of their love for each other. The fact that the writing of the arc did come off as incredibly contrived and required severe Character Derailment to get Mamoru into that position did not help. Either way, after that arc was over, it was never referenced again, the series constantly showed Mamoru as a uber serious but very devoted boyfriend and the fanfic writers still bent over backwards to portray him as a heartless SOB that in reality hated Usagi.
    • This can also happen in reverse, as some Mamoru/Usagi fans don't take kindly to people splitting up the "Ultimate OTP" of the fandom. Seiya Kou aka Sailor Starfighter in particular gets a lot of hatefics as if she actually deliberately tried to ruin Usagi's relationship to steal her from Mamoru, despite how respectful she was to Usagi's prior commitments and even Mamoru trusted her and Usagi.
    • Actually, most Seiya-demonizing fics use the anime's male Seiya and make him into a rapist.
  • Aoyama Masaya, Tokyo Mew Mew, a canon love interest. Fans that prefer Ichigo with the Jerk With A Heart Of Gold or Stalker With A Crush often portray him as either an unimportant idiot who is quickly discarded or an evil mastermind cheating on her with Miwa, Moe or Mint. Either interpretation completely ignores his kind, intelligent and loyal canon personality, and he usually ends up run over by a semi.
  • Some fans like to make Guido from Samurai Pizza Cats an abusive jerk, to enable the Speedy/Polly pairing.
  • Haruno Sakura, from Naruto, has the dual misfortune of being a girl that hung around boys shipped together and standing in the way of the supposed preferred pairing. Honestly, depending on your preference in which members of Team 7 should be together, this trope hits either Naruto, Sasuke, or Sakura. The fact that for the entire first half of Naruto she was a Clingy Jealous Girl in regards to Sasuke only made her situation worse, because fans deliberately ignore her subsequent Character Development that made her a Cute Bruiser...
    • There's also a fair amount regarding the Ino/Shikamaru/Temari triangle, with Ino being frequently bashed by Shikamaru x Temari fangirls and vice-versa. More Ino than Temari, though. And This troper is surprised that Shiho hasn't been crucified yet for her crush on Shikamaru.
    • Don't forget Karin bashing from both SasuNaru and SasuSaku fans.
    • Or Hinata Hyuuga, who's also bashed a lot for liking Naruto, or (seemingly) her cousin Neji. There are several fics where Hinata finds out that Naruto has the Kyuubi trapped inside him, and proceeds to hate him, be afraid or other, only to be slapped into shape by Sakura. Naruto/Hinata and Naruto/Sakura pairing wars get very ugly, and it's always assumed that Naruto x Hinata fans bash Sakura (while a majority of them don't), and Naru/Saku fans bash Hinata (again, while a good majority of them don't). To be fair, the same thing happens with Sakura in some Naru/Hina fics. She DID get scared in canon when she learnt about the Kyuubi, but ultimately stood by Naruto.
    • Also! This troper has a soft spot for Kiba x Hinata, but hates the bad treatment that Shino receives in the few fics about that particular couple.
    • In fact, there are very few people in Naruto that don't get bashed for one reason or another in terms of shipping. It's typically side characters that play a very, very small part.
  • Amagi Michal, Mermaid Melody Pichi Pichi Pitch, a Clingy Jealous Girl and Ill Girl who is very smitten with Kaito. Take out the clingy jealous part, and she's a lot like Tomoe Hotaru of Sailor Moon fame, but none of the latter's fans seem to realize this.
  • Li Xiao-lang (Li Syaoran), Cardcaptor Sakura, a male canon love interest in a series with a very large Girls Love fandom. Despite the intense possibilities, he's not a particularly ornery guy and has a positive following as much as a negative one... though that still doesn't save the boy from being called "gaki" ("brat", Kero's nickname for him) by his haters, having his and Sakura's hook-up described as "evil heterosexual conspiracy forged by CLAMP and destined to screw up with the yuri" (I Am Not Making This Up) or having rabid yuri fans twist him into an horrible abuser to pair up a whiny, wussified Sakura with a Tomoyo who's she's been transformed into a Possession Sue.
    • Kaho Mizuki, Eriol's canon love interest, is hated by two groups of shippers: Eriol/Tomoyo fans and a smaller group of Touya/Yukito fans, even though her and Touya's former romantic history occurs well before the story, and in the story, Kaho is very supportive of Touya's new relationship. There's also a Mary Kay Letourneau Teaches Here aspect to her relationship with Eriol that squicks people, though in truth, Eriol is not actually a kid.
    • Even after Meiling broke off her engagement to her Unlucky Childhood Friend Syaoran willingly, she's still demonized by some rabid Sakura/Syaoran shippers, which is rather silly because Sakura and Syaoran are by and large an Official Couple.
    • And there's also the bashing of Nakuru Akizuki from rabid Touya/Yukito fans...and they're also an Official Couple.
  • Notable exception: Oddly enough, Futari Wa Pretty Cure, poster child of non-canon yuri shipping, doesn't have legions of people out to get Kiriya or Fujipi.
    • Kouji and Natsu from Yes! Precure 5, however... The fact that they turn into Talking Animal sidekicks Coco and Nuts spurred the hatred by providing Squick as a ready excuse. They eventually found fandom support, however.
  • In Magical Girl Lyrical Nanoha fandom, it seems the Nanoha/Fate fans and Nanoha/Yuuno fans reserve more disdain for each other than the actual characters, though some obnoxious people threaten the competition to tick rival shippers off. This seemed to die down as Yuuno was slowly edged out of screentime and Fate was elevated to co-star, until his reintroduction in the years-after sequel StrikerS. Nanoha's Chaste Hero status and a boatload of Ship Tease for either side leaves enough wiggleroom for fans to chew on.
  • Relena Darlian/Peacecraft, in the fangirl-popular series Gundam Wing, who is often depicted as a Rich Bitch, a Yandere or sometimes even a Card Carrying Villain by fans who prefer the Heero/Duo pairing, despite the fact that said pairing is virtually non-existent throughout the series.
    • Technically, this happens to most of the show's female cast in varying degrees, since there's a 1-to-1 ratio of men to women among the primary cast, even if they don't express any overt signs of romantic love for their counterparts. Relena gets it the worst because of a bad first impression. Other common victims are Duo's potential girlfriend Hilde, Treize's right-hand Lady Une and Quatre's rival/counterpart Dorothy, who also receives a good deal of hate for opposing and hurting The Woobie during a fight late in the show. Catherine Bloom is surprisingly scot free, though maybe that comes from her and Trowa acting more like siblings. It is hinted in the Episode Zero manga that they may be blood siblings.
      • Gundam Wing's director Masashi Ikeda once admitted that he can't write romances, and that he was more concerned with politics. This is sometimes taken as evidence Relena and Heero aren't a "real" couple; this may be technically true, but is usually invoked with a ridiculously acidic portrayal of Relena in fanfics by people who prefer Heero with other (male) characters. Oddly enough, the other girls who are, shall we say, "assigned" to each of the other male leads don't catch nearly the same amount of heat.
    • Interestingly, Relena's not even involved in the two positively confirmed heterosexual relationships in the series. (That would be her older brother, Zechs/Milliardo's relationship with Lucrezia Noin, and Treize's relationship with Lady Une.)
  • This is common in Tenchi Muyo:
    • Princess Ayeka is hated by the pro-Ryoko/pro-Tenchi x Ryoko fans. The reverse is also true, particularly those familar with the Alternate Continuity Tenchi Universe TV series and movie Tenchi Forever, which show a slant in Ryoko's direction.
    • Sakuya Kumashiro from Tenchi In Tokyo was added in as a third love interest, and was actually picked over both Ryoko and Ayeka, leading both fan segments to hate her, which leaves her with very few fans. She didn't make it to the end of the series, though.
    • Noike from the newest Tenchi OVA series is also hated for this, as well as for being both a borderline Canon Sue and a Jonas Quinn for the popular Alternate Continuity character Kiyone Makibi.
    • And all of this is incredibly ironic since the Word Of God has stated that Tenchi eventually just marries them all.
  • Nachi from Mugen Densetsu Takamagahara Dream Saga has a bit of this; she's also transsexual, and therefore has more fuel for jokes at her expense.
  • Expanded Universe example: Mana Kirishima, of the Neon Genesis Evangelion game Girlfriend of Steel 1. "Girlfriend" as in "Shinji's girlfriend", which pisses off those who ship him with Asuka, Rei, Misato, Kaworu, or Pen-Pen who LOVE to accuse her of being a Relationship Sue.
  • In School Rumble, a large slice of the fanbase wants to see Tenma drop dead. Apart from the Tenma fans, which want Eri to drop dead. The two groups are mutually exclusive and add up to exactly 99% of the show's audience. The remaining 1% is almost wholly composed of Yakumo/Harima shippers who earnestly believe their ship is the closest one to canon and the former two groups delude themselves.
    • The authors solution? Bitch slap all three factions: Nobody wins!
  • May/Haruka from Pokemon (by Pokeshippers and Misty/Kasumi fans in general), to the point where some of them stopped watching after Misty left the series. This emigration meant that things pretty much cooled down within the online fandom after a couple of years, and the return of negativity for Dawn/Hikari's introduction was much more short-lived.
    • The remaining Misty fans have an alarming tendency to kill her sisters off via house fire in fanfiction -- literal Die For Our Ship, as this takes Misty off the bus and puts her back into position to be a (romantic) factor. It's confusing in that, despite their relative incompetence at head-to-head fights (which are Serious Business), we're talking about people who can summon living fire extinguishers basically at will. (Besides, their presence was the whole reason that Misty could even go on the journey instead of stay in the gym!) The better uses of this device turn into Hurt Comfort Fic (to which Sturgeons Law still applied) while the others make token references at best. Of course, Ayame/Violet bears more than a passing resemblance to the oft-killed Hyatt...
    • Misty herself has been bashed for "being in the way" of the (apparent) Ho Yay between Ash and Gary or Ash and Brock.
    • Another startling fanfiction trend relates to Contestshipping (May/Drew) fics. As of late, some writers seem to have developed a fixation with plucking Brendan (the male playable character from the R/S/E games) out of nowhere to act as a generic villain who underhandedly plots to steal May away from Drew. This is a particularly egregious example, in that Brendan technically does not even exist in the same continuity as the anime series. Worse yet, he has no established personality in any fiction, people that ship him with May are relatively few (nowadays, anyway), and Contestshipping was already practically canon to begin with (or as close as Pokemon pairings can get, anyway). It's as if they simply decided to find a random patsy to help them drive their point home even further.
    • And let's not forget Rocketshippers, shall we? Though in contrast to the above examples, characters like Ash, Butch and Cassidy are bashed for simply being in opposition to Jessie and James, not because one might have romantic interest in either party. Some of the more rabid shippers think the very existence of these three is a threat or a personal affront to Jessie and James's possible love.
  • Back in the days of the Digimon fandom, just about every single character had a squad of people out to get them for getting in the way of this or that pairing, most of which would never even happen, and even if it did, many of these victims would have no interest in breaking it up. The main triangles, though, were Takeru-Hikari-Daisuke and Taichi-Sora-Yamato, one a very frequent Ship Tease and the other involving an Official Couple. And before you ask, no, there was no specific popular combination of happy couple and evil rival; the combinations in each triangle were pretty much of equal frequency. Yes, counting the yaoi options.
    • Don't forget how Miyako took the brunt of the bashing in the Miyako-Ken-Daisuke pairings, because she got Ken in the Distant Finale.
    • And not even the foreign Digidestined that appeared in maybe two or three episodes are safe from bashing. Catherine, the French blonde girl who helped Takeru and Taichi, is often seen as an horrible threat to Taichi/Sora and/or Takeru/Hikari. In a similar vein Wallace, who got a kiss from Hikari, has got both Takeru/Hikari and Daisuke/Hikari fans out for his blood. Same goes to Rosa, the Mexican little girl infatuated with Ken, who's very much maligned by Daisuke/Ken fans.
  • Asuka Tenjouin/Alexis Rhodes of Yu-Gi-Oh GX is not only hated and called all manner of bad names for being the token female love interest and Ms Fanservice in a show filled past the brink with Ho Yay, but for vehemently refusing to get into a relationship with Manjyome/Chazz.
    • There's at least one fan that will vilify anyone who so much dares to speak of Judai hooking up with anyone but Asuka, especially if said hook-up is with Canon Sue Johan/Jesse. With the series over now, it seems they took the best way out and had no ships resolved.
  • Anzu Mazaki of Yu-Gi-Oh!, Yugi's childhood friend and sometimes the voice of reason, not only has the misfortune of being one of the very few girls in the series, but is also involved in a Love Triangle with two of the main male characters. As a result, enraged yaoi shippers depict her as a complete idiot or a homophobic harpy who wants the bishies all to herself. She's usually killed off horribly at the end of the fic.
  • In Bleach, ever since The Medic and Cloud Cuckoo Lander Orihime Inoue started to take a bigger role in the storyline and was revealed to actually be both in love with Ichigo and much more powerful than anybody would think, militant and enraged Ichigo/Rukia fangirls twist her into a Rukia-hating, Ichigo-obsessed stalker to make Rukia look like a better match for Ichigo. Never mind that Orihime has high respect for Rukia (to the point of actively rejecting the idea of hating her), that she is the depressed and passive kind of jealous, and that Rukia herself adores Orihime. This has become so bad that everyone in the Ichigo/Rukia corner has been stereotyped as Orihime bashers, including sane ones who like or respect Orihime and hate the idea of being lumped with the crazies.
    • Many Ichigo/Orihime fans also paint Rukia in an horrible light, twisting her into an evil, possessive and bitchy Yandere who wants Orihime dead and away from her boytoy and completely hates her old friend Renji Abarai for having some feelings for her, despite all evidence pointing against it.
      • While not in fanfiction, on forums some unfortunate comments include Rukia not deserving Ichigo because she's flatchested, Orihime is hotter therefore better, Rukia is a Tomboy and/or a lesbian because of the way she looks, Ichigo doesn't really care about her and only saved her because he owed her and for no other reason, etc. A lot of emphasis is placed on the idea that Rukia is now completely obsolete within the story and Orihime is the one and only female lead now, this somehow making the relationship better or more plausible.
      • To be fair, in other forums Orihime is accused often of being as a bimbo-ish slut who uses her Gag Boobs to brainwash Ichigo into leaving Rukia (or better said, their Possession Sue masquerading as Rukia). They conveniently forget that Orihime is modest about her chest size and that Ichigo freaks out when he sees boobs. So Yeah, both sides are incredibly stupid about it.
    • Speaking of Renji, some twist both him and Byakuya into wife-beaters, rapists, etc. to favor the Ichigo/Rukia coupling. Granted, it happens less than Orihime bashing, but still...
      • Don't they kinda slash them together to get them out of the picture most of the time?
      • Sometimes yes, sometimes not. But Renji is still more than often bitchslapped for being Rukia's childhood friend (whether he's unlucky or not is still up in the air and will probably stay there for a long time).
    • Many of the more militant Ichigo/Rukia fans bash Ishida as well, for his "failure" to take Orihime off Ichigo's hands and clear the path for their "goddess" Rukia.
    • Some of the most rabid Momo Hinamori haters are Hitsugaya/Matsumoto shippers who have somehow convinced themselves that Hitsugaya isn't allowed to care for two girls at the same time (even if it's in different ways) and must choose between his sexy and self-assured lieutenant and his broken adoptive sister. Or maybe that's because those fans also happen to hate Hinamori, even if she's not paired with Hitsugaya at all. And finally, she's not safe from het-pairing lovers only: Momo is also often bashed for the sake of some yaoi pairs, like Aizen/Gin.
    • And finally? Soi Fong is frequently twisted into a mixture of Psycho Lesbian and rabid misandrist by the most militant Urahara/Yoruichi shippers.
  • Also happened to Souma Oogami of Kannazuki No Miko, with fans likening him to an idiot or an overbearing bastard (of course, as nice as he could be, he is choosing the wrong series to love his girl). This decreased considerably (but still doesn't stop completely) when the series ended with Souma voluntarily stepping back after Himeko and Chikane confessed their love to each other.
  • The tiny Jigoku Sensei Nuubee fandom really loathes the beautiful Ritsuko-sensei. At first, she's bashed and called "shallow" and a "bitch" for rejecting Nuubee's advances (some of which were so awkward that no woman in her senses would accept them) in a regular basis; when she actually does fall for Nuubee after finally seeing his good side, she's bashed and called "third wheel bitch" for threatening the Nuubee/Yukime ship.
  • Princess Amelia of The Slayers is widely hated, especially by fangirls who are Zelgadis/Lina, Zelgadis/Xellos, or Zelgadis/Mary Sue shippers.
    • Don't forget the bashing that poor Staff Chick Sylphiel gets for "getting in between" Lina and Gourry. And sometimes even Gourry gets bashed by Lina/Zelgadis fans.
  • Essentially every character in Ranma 1/2 has experienced both this trope and Draco In Leather Pants at one point or another, often with one portrayal arising as a backlash to another.
    • For instance, Akane's Tsundere tendencies are frequently flanderized to the point of *literal* psychosis; this has led fans of her character to emphasize her compassionate side, sometimes overcorrecting to the point of "Saint Akane" who is an absolute Love Martyr.
    • On the other hand, Shampoo is often written by fans as being heartless, psychotic, downright evil, and willing to kill Akane and Mousse in cold blood and VERY violently in front of Ranma to get her "Airen"'s love.
    • In contrast, Ranma's own arrogance and personality flaws are frequently overlooked because of his harsh childhood and the many demands honor has placed upon him. This leads other fans to remind the readers of the times that he's streched honor to his advantage, performed petty con artistry on much of the cast, and otherwise holds responsibility for his troubles.
    • Ukyo is also made a Love Martyr, much at the expense of Akane (Two words: Mike Rhea). And at others, she's as bashed as Shampoo by "Saint Akane" fans.
  • In The Prince Of Tennis fandom, Sakuno and Tomoka are very often bashed by yaoi fans since they both have crushes on Ryoma Echizen, the male lead who is very slashable in fandom despite being just 12-to-13 years old. And if Tomoka and Sakuno are maligned for being females, then the girls from the dating sims are... well, let's not get into it.
    • Yanagi Renji has been bashed by some Inui/Kaidoh fans ever since his and Inui's backstory was brought up, because he used to be Inui's best friend and partner before Inui met Kaidoh and left him without saying anything when his family moved. That's seen as Renji being an horrible and heartless person who hates Inui and wants him to suffer, so his ruthless in-courts behavior (which is a trademark of Rikkai as a whole is a "proof" of his cruelty.
    • We also have the bad treatment Seiichi Yukimura receives from rabid Atobe/Sanada fans due to Sanada's obsessive (and very slashy) devotion to Yukimura, which they see as an obstacle for Atobe who shall NEVER be displeased. And some particularly rabid Sanada/Yukimura fans retaliate by bashing Atobe for daring to get in the way of their super-perfect and super-beautiful OTP.
    • Or how some Fujicest fans demonize and bash Yuuta's scheming and flamboyant manager, Hajime Mizuki. Granted, Mizuki wasn't introduced as the most likeable person, but not only he *did* pay the price for it, he's not as heartless as rabid Fujicest fans claim he is.
    • Or the portrayals of Tezuka and Saeki in fics and doujinshii depicting a Tezuka/Fuji/Saeki love triangle, depending on who the fan writer or doujinshii author likes with Fuji the best. Saeki often takes the brunt of either the bashing, the OoC or the use as a plot device to get Tezuka's Selective Obliviousness in regards to Fuji undone, sadly.
  • In Shakugan No Shana, the desire to see Yoshida Kazumi's soul eaten by a Tomogara in a painful way for getting between Shana and Sakai Yuuji is extremely spread among the fandom. That Kazumi is presented as a fairly boring character at first didn't help her case any.
    • Kazumi received a hougu from Pheles in season 2, allowing her to summon Pheles at the cost of her own life. Certain fans think that such a summoning would be a very good idea...
  • Hikaru Hiyama in Kimagure Orange Road. It's true that The Movie made her really fixated on Kyousuke, but it's not like she was the only one to blame for the whole fuck-up either. Kyousuke and Madoka were as guilty as Hikaru, but she's the only one who gets bitchslapped by fandom.
  • Susanna Marlowe from Candy Candy gets this so bad that women in their thirties and forties behave like whiny teenyboppers whenever reminded of how Susanna got Terry instead of Candy, after Candy decides to give him up willingly, since Susanna almost got killed for him and ended up crippled.
  • In the InuYasha fandom, there are the rabid Kikyou/Inuyasha fans accusing Kagome of being a Tsundere Sue or a Clingy Jealous Girl, and the Kagome/Inuyasha fans react by calling Kikyou an evil whore who still wants to drag Inuyasha into Hell with her. Add the Kouga/Kagome shippers who bash Ayame and the Sango/Miroku fans who bash Kuranosuke Takeda too.
  • In Dragon Ball Z... Yamcha often gets twisted into a wife-beater by fans of the Bulma/Vegeta pairing. As long as we're on the subject, why shippers think that a wife-beater would be worse then an Omnicidal Maniac is anyone's guess.
    • Most of the DBZ fic this troper has read had Yamcha cheating on Bulma with another woman as the impetus for Bulma to break it off with him and get together with Vegeta, who had pulled a Heel Face Turn by the time the Frieza saga was over, though he was still something of an arrogant Jerk Ass. Most of the fic in question was of the year or so before the arrival of the Androids which resulted in the birth of Bulma and Vegeta's son, Trunks. In the canon, Bulma and Yamcha (who before meeting Bulma was absolutely petrified of women) broke up because it just wasn't working out between the two of them.
    • There's also the Trunks/Marron (Kuririn and #18's daughter) who bash Pan, and the Trunks/Pan fans who bash Marron, neither of whom have done anything to suggest a romantic rivalry. In fact, Marron doesn't do anything at all.
  • There appears to be quite a bit of animosity in the Mai-HiME shipping camp between those deciding whether to pair Natsuki Kuga exclusively with Shizuru Fujino (a dyed-in-the-wool Schoolgirl/School Supervisor Lesbian with an obvious crush on her) or Nao Yuuki (who teases her like crazy in Mai-Otome), with fans of one pairing painting the designated "third wheel" as an evil harpy deserving of death (despite both Shizuru and Nao being examples of Draco In Leather Pants).
    • Ignoring the non-shippers who dislike want male lead character Yuuichi Tate to die in a fire for being largely useless (and stealing the spotlight in the manga, to the point that some fans have sworn off the manga adaptation entirely because he's in it), those who write him in fanfic at all keep Mai Tokiha the hell away from him in favor of hooking her up with Mikoto Minagi. This is complicated even further because of the constant Les Yay Mai and Mikoto share on-screen, and because even though Mai feels like she'd be better as Mikoto's Cool Big Sis, she actually tells Mikoto "I love you" before saying the same about Tate, even in the final episode's omake.
    • This troper has also seen rabid Shizuru/Natsuki fans bash Reito Kanzaki, vicepresident of the Absurdly Powerful Student Council Shizuru leads. Oddly enough, he shows more intrest in Mai in canon, but Mai/Mikoto fans are NOT out for his blood as far as the troper knows. The fact that Reito is Mikoto's older brother as well as the Big Bad (when possessed by the Obsidian Lord, in his defense) doesn't seem to bother them that much.
    • And speaking of Mai-Otome, many shippers of the Akane/Kazuya pairing (yes, they exist) would like nothing better than Mahya falling down the stairs and breaking a leg or something, for the annoying "crime" of interrupting any romantic moment between the two and generally acting like Garderobe's "romance police". Mahya is not a romantic rival, to be sure, but she still does get in the way of the pairing.
  • The tagline to the harem anime SHUFFLE is "Which girl would you choose?" Better pick fast, because the Instant Fanclubs depicted in the show have carried over into the fandom, and they're just as crazy as on TV. Kitto Kitto Kaede (pro Kaede Fuyou) and Ai Ai Asa (pro Asa Shigure) in particular have deep, deep vendettas against each other's characters.
  • In Romeo X Juliet, Mad Dictator's Handsome Son Romeo Candorebanto Montague has a fiancée named Hermione di Borromeo. She's sweet, with an odd hairtstyle, starts as a Yamato Nadeshiko but has an episode that features her as a momentary Yandere, and is in between Romeo's destined love with a Juliet portrayed as a mix of Bifauxnen and Action Girl for plot reasons. Of course, no matter how sympathetic she is in canon (which is somewhat rare for a Paolo), a good part of the fandom sees Hermione as an evil, stupid slut who must die so the Strong and Cool Juliet can have her Romeo, kthxbai.
  • In Gundam SEED and its sequel: The ire of Athrun/Cagalli fans, after canon went against them in Gundam SEED Destiny, brought lots of bashing of Meyrin Hawke, Lunamaria "Luna" Hawke and Meer Campbell... to the point that some people have either: a) sworn off SEED as a whole; b) sworn off the Athrun/Cagalli pairing, or c) bashed AsuCaga back for the evil it inflicted on their girls or ships - especially poor Cagalli. Because it's not like Athrun was an innocent dove, no.
    • And it's not only about the infamous AsuCaga shipwar. If you like Kira/Lacus, you can't like Fllay and must call her "whore" and "bitch". If you prefer Kira/Fllay, you're expected to call Lacus a plain and unrealistic Canon Sue. And if you're an Athrun/Kira fan... well, tough luck.
    • What is ironic is that no such feelings have arisen due to the Stellar/Shinn/Lunamaria love triangle. The Gundam SEED Destiny fanbase seems to have chosen largely to ignore Stellar and pair Shinn with Lunamaria. Stellar's utterly flat personality probably had something to do with it.
      • Don't forget that Stellar, a Tykebomb as well as Brainwashed, seems to have the mindset of an 8-year-old girl, which is a Squick for some. And also, she is dead.
  • If you're a more or less sane Code Geass fan, do not mention the name Shirley Fenette in front of rabid Lelouch/C.C. or Lelouch/Kallen fans (and even then, it's probably best to isolate Lulu/C.C. and Lulu/Kallen fans from each other for a while). Even after Shirley actually died for the ship.
    • There's one message board where one poster insists that Shirley is an evil, heartless, manipulative bitch for using her father's death as an "excuse" to get closer to Lelouch, ignoring that she admitted it was selfish and apologized to Lelouch for it, and Lulu actually reciprocates her feelings to some extent. Interestingly enough, compare the above to Mao's little Hannibal Lecture he gives to Shirley in Episode 14 of the first season.
    • Also, a good part of the hatred that sprung for Rolo comes from people being convinced that he killed Shirley solely out of psychotic love jealousy. Forget that poor Shirley said the wrong thing at the worst moment, Rolo killed Lulu's ONE TWU WUB to steal Lulu's heart for himself.
  • In regards to Kaleido Star, Kenneth "Ken" Robbins has a crush on Sora Naegino, the very femslashable female lead, but has so far escaped from the yuri fans' rage. But those who ship Sora with the second season's White Haired Pretty Boy Leon Oswald have huge hate-ons for Leon's partner, the arrogant and child-like Chinese Girl May Wong.
  • School Days shippers can often behave just as idiotic as the characters they're shipping. Aside from the obvious Makoto-bashing (though it's not like he doesn't deserve it), Sekai fans call Kotonoha a "stupid, psycho, anti-feminist whore" for being Makoto-obsessed to the point of mental illness, and in return Kotonoha fans just won't stop referring to Sekai as "prostitute", "traitor" and "hypocrite". It doesn't help that in the manga, Sekai is quite the manipulative and selfish bitch, instead of an impulsive and confused teen.
  • Shippers in the Death Note fandom have been known to come to blows over whether Mello should be with Matt or Near, despite the fact that Matt featured in all of ten panels in the manga, and his appearance in the anime was even briefer.
    • Much loathing is also directed at Misa Amane for "standing in the way" of Light/L, even though Light sees both of them as obstacles on his path to world domination.
  • No matter what your opinion of the Ichigo 100% ending is, you will be despised by an opposing shipping group, despite the fact that it's universally agreed that the lead, Junpei, is a loser. I guess that entire theory about harem leads being losers so the audience can relate to them is true, as much as the fans hate them.
  • Oh, Princess Tutu fandom. No matter how human she is, how much she hurts for being abused by her evil father and her love interest when he turns evil and how she actually learns from her mistakes, Rue/Princess Kraehe keeps getting crap from rabid Mytho/Ahiru fans for stealing Mytho from the Sue-fied version of Ahiru they have in their minds. Nevermind that later Ahiru bonds more with Mytho's companion Fakir, and how Mytho ultimately chooses Rue as his Princess freely, after she rejects her evil father and pulls a heart-wretching Heroic Sacrifice.
  • The Marmalade Boy fandom, surprisingly, doesn't bash the people involved in the ridiculously huge Love Dodecahedron that much (outside of hating Jinny Golding for pulling something so stupid that even she regrets it later... but the hardest, cruelest bashing actually piles up on handsome teacher Shinichi "Nat-chan" Namura, who's the love intrest of Miki's best friend Meiko Akizuki. Yes, this is one of the cases where a Mary Kay Letourneau Teaches Here situation is developed symapthetically, but the fans who ship Meiko with Satoshi Miwa just will not stop calling Namura-sensei "pedophile" or "asshole who makes Meiko suffer for nothing". Even after Satoshi sees he cannot sway Meiko away from Namura and pulls an I Want My Beloved To Be Happy along with Namura's Unlucky Childhood Friend, Ryouko-sensei.
  • In a Ranka vs. Sheryl debate on a Macross Frontier forum thread, Ranka gets criticized for being a "barely legal loli moeblob", while Sheryl gets flak for her overly flirty attitude and her somewhat selfish, overbearing personality, even if onscreen, when both are not being rivals to each other about Alto, they have somewhat of a Sempai Kohai relationship.
  • Cowboy Bebop fans love to pair off Spike and Faye. Julia can go die in a fire.
    • How about shot on a roof top?
  • Fushigi Yuugi fans who would have rather seen Miaka hook up with Hotohori or Tasuki often bash Tamahome or kill him off in their fics to make either of the former pairings possible. (Oddly enough, fans of the Miaka/Yui pairing have yet to resort to this.)
  • Even the blatantly fanservicey Yuri Fanboy bait seinen Girls Love romantic comedy Strawberry Panic isn't immune to this. The Shizuma/Nagisa shippers and the Tamao/Nagisa shippers can get quite violent when provoked. There is also a very large body of fans were angry that Yaya didn't get Hikari, and would rather see Amane get Stuffed In The Fridge.
  • The Sorcerer Hunters sidestory novels introduced a character named Enzeru Fish, who fell in love with Tira at first sight. At least one rabid Carrot/Tira fan was not too happy about that◊. This troper remembers another fan bashing Chocolat for having a crush on Carrot as well.
    • On the yaoi side of things, Carrot is often demonized into a homophobic Jerkass who would disown Marron for being in love with Gateau. Conversely, Gateau is made into a raping bastard for the sake of Carrot/Marron or Marron/Tira.
  • In Elfen Lied, Lucy/Kouta fans hate Yuuka with a fiery passion. Even when, well, she's not exactly the biggest threat to their relationship... but the fact that Lucy murdered Kouta's father and sister is.
  • A somewhat surprising exception can be found in the Vision Of Escaflowne fandom. The one who gets the hardest and cruelest bashing from fangirls for getting in between Van Fanel and Hitomi Kanzaki is... not Merle the Cat Girl. Though fans *do* complain about Merle, the one who's hated the most is actually Allen Schezar, the blond-haired bishonen with a convoluted love life prior to meeting Hitomi (don't ask), who is seen as "sexist", "control freak" and "traitor" because he got to kiss Hitomi in front of Van... when the three were in a sort-of weird More Than Mind Control situation enacted by Folken and the twin catgirls and staged by Dornkirk That was not Allen's fault (and neither Hitomi's, nor Van's), but people still use that scene to woobify Van and bash Allen. .
  • Have you guys forgotten the infamous "Kaoru is soooo emotional and sweet and that makes her better for Kenshin than the ice cold Mary Sue Tomoe" v/s "Kaoru is a stupid, clingy little bitch and Tomoe was a perfect goddess who made Kenshin truly happy" wars in Rurouni Kenshin?
  • Not even Suzumiya Haruhi No Yuutsu is free of this. Some Kyon/Yuki and Kyon/Mikuru fans just won't stop overexaggerating Haruhi's child-like and impulsive behavior to downright evil and/or psychotic degrees, while turning the "rival" into a Purity Sue to "prove" how more "deserving" she is of Kyon's love than Haruhi. To them, Kyon doesn't care for Haruhi at all and ONLY puts up with her because he's forced to as a member of the SOS Brigade (read: he doesn't want her to re-write reality without knowing it, but would ditch her immediately if he could). Nevermind that Kyon does gently but clearly tell Yuki in the novels that he likes all the craziness Haruhi brings to his life.
  • The fanbase on at least one anime website is bitterly, bitterly divided on their opinion of Meido Siesta's overtures towards Saito in the anime Zero No Tsukaima