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"Those of you who think Zuko and Katara should be together will forever have doomed relationships." — Sokka, Avatar The Last Airbender, Book 4 (the Ultimate Ship Sinking)
Though many producers and writers are aware of Shipping in their respective fandoms, that doesn't necessarily mean they like it. It may be because of the actions of the fans if they get too rowdy about it, or maybe they just don't like the pairing involved, or maybe they just want to put an argument to rest. But whatever the case, rather than teasing the ship, they load torpedoes and send it to Davy Jones' Locker.
Ship Sinking is a scene that, whether deliberate or not, seems to kill any reasonable chance of a relationship occurring between two characters. It can be a betrayal, a sudden familial connection (not like that will stop anyone), hooking up with someone else, having the respective love interest kick the bucket, or maybe they just bring them out of the closet (or rarely, put them in). If well done, this can actually cause the fans to Abandon Ship, but don't always count on that.
In any case, it's probably going to take a Ret Con to get those two together. Sorry fangirls (and boys!).
Compare No Hugging No Kissing. A variation on Jossing. Another variation, the Anchored Ship, occurs when factors arise that preclude the characters getting into a relationship, but have the potential to be resolved (although the problems are not always resolved, and even if they are, other factors can still sink the ship).
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Examples
Anime & Manga
- After 500 plus chapters of waiting to see if Sesshomaru would get together with a grown Rin, Sessh/Rin shippers of Inu Yasha had their ship completely destroyed when the final chapter came out and it turns out that they not only never get together, Rin had also left Sesshomaru's side — with both parties consenting. You'd think this would get it through some peoples' heads that this is not canon at all, but they still insist on twisting things around.
- Given that Sesshomaru basically raised Rin as his daughter, this was such a Crack Pairing that no one should have been surprised.
- It has been sunk way before that when Rin became a Shipper On Deck for Sesshomaru and Kagura, which love interests never do, or even before that when the manga clearly portrayed that kind of thing as ridiculous when Koharu came in and everyone was disgusted, a sign that the author hates that kind of pairing. However, people turned away from these signs and put on their Shipping Goggles.
- CLAMP has been accused of doing this on a few occasions. In one case, during the initial run of Card Captor Sakura, they very intentionally did this after one artist misunderstood and drew Schoolgirl Lesbian Tomoyo being infatuated with Sakura's brother Toya, making her behavior later get a Ret Con of being because she thought he resembled Sakura, the real object of her affections. The ladies got a good laugh out of this later.
- One other example you could use is how the Celes and Nihon arcs quickly sunk the Kuro-Tomoyo, Fai-Chii shippers and cemented the Kuro-Fai. Though given this is Tsubasa, chances are good CLAMP planned that from the start, and not as a response to the monumental amount of shipping wars that was tearing up the net.
- When Komachi and Nuts's mutual attraction in Yes! Precure 5 became undeniable in the middle of episode 26, you could practically hear the maniac screaming from the Coconuts and Karen/Komachi shippers. (Meanwhile the Rin/Nuts shippers just kind of whimpered.)
- Toei hasn't completely alienated its Girls Love fandom, since it makes up half the viewers, after all. Ever since Komachi/Nuts became obvious, they've been hinting towards putting Karen with Kurumi, just to keep them on.
- But then they ended the series by having Milk give up the ability to become Kurumi, turning that pairing into a Squicky Interspecies Romance.
- The adverts for the sequel, GoGo, announced Syrup was going to be shipped with Rin. Next thing you know, he forms some kind of bond with Urara, especially in episode 18 (and the very couple-hinting scene near the end. Cue the collective Squee from the Syrup/Urara fanbase.
- Poor Rin. She doesn't get any luck in romance...
- In episode 18 of Clannad, the three alternate crushes are swiftly dispatched all at once during a tennis match, becoming increasingly miserable as Tomoya's unconscious behavior makes it crystal-clear what the Official Couple is. There's always the Visual Novel...
- The Chrono/Nanoha and Chrono/Fate ships of Magical Girl Lyrical Nanoha were simultaneously sunk after the Time Skip, when they had Chrono and Amy get married with kids.
- The CD Drama released at the C76 Comiket sinks Yuunoha once and for all. Fate and Nanoha explain to Vivio what they thought of each other when they first met, which sounds almost like Love At First Sight. Also, one of the tracks featuring Nanoha, Fate and Vivio is entitled "Takamachi Family gathering". Meanwhile, Yuuno is described as a childhood friend of Nanoha, her teacher in magic and nothing more.
- More torpedoes come from this Sound Stages, with Vivio directly saying in the prologue that she is the child of Fate and Nanoha.
- One reason that Gundam SEED Destiny is reviled even some fans of the original Gundam SEED is the sinking of the (canon, rings and all) Athrun/Cagalli ship. Matters probably weren't helped by the pervading (and never proved) rumour that it was partially brought about by the storyboarder's personal grudges. The consequnce? Absolutely *venomous* bashing of Meyrin Hawke and Meer Campbell coming from enraged Athrun/Cagalli fans, some of them going as far as bragging and flaming when poor Meer was tragically killed in front of Athrun in the blogs and fansites of some vocal Meer fans who were also more or less known BNFs, and later bitching AsuMey out in the Athrun/Meyrin LJ comm and other sites, giving the AsuCaga fans as a whole a horrible reputation that took years to cleanse.
- Though not as well known, the Athrun x Meyrin ship was also sunk when Athrun gave a "Like Brother And Sister" speech to Meyrin. It's unknown whether or not their shippers are still harping on it because either they don't know about the CD Dramas or don't care. The directors also went out of their to erase all the scenes that could have been mistaken for romantic between the two in both Final Plus and the subsequent specials. Though it probably didn't help matters when some particularly rabid Athrun x Meyrin shippers photoshopped a Athrun x Cagalli fanart so that Cagalli looked liked Meyrin, and added fake Japanese on the picture so that it would look like a commercial for the next Gundam Seed franchise.
- Uhm, Athrun x Meyrin isn't completely sunk. This is, according to an interview with Chiaki Morosawa. It *did* more or less sink Athrun x Cagalli, though.
- As it turned out that interview was just another interview altered by another Athrun x Meyrin fan. The original interview never said anything about Athrun ending up with Meyrin but it did say that they may part ways, which they did in the Special edition IV where they changed Athrun's uniform from a Zaft uniform to an Orb uniform. The real interivew is right◊ here◊ if you can't read Japanese though here is english translation.here and here. Though no one cares anymore.
- Super Robot Wars Z does a better job at sinking the Shinn and Stella pairing partially by having Shinn and Luna's relationship not be so badly fumbled so that it lives up to Fukuda's claims that theirs was the ONLY pairing experiencing true love. In Setsuko's route, provided Stella is saved, one of Shinn's first lines when she comes on board is to tell Luna he considers her like a sister.
- The heavily hinted at Dearka/Miriallia ship from SEED was also sunk in Destiny in an even more unsatisfying way. One scene where Athrun mentions he met Dearka on the PLAN Ts, and Miriallia's reaction is 'oh, him ', and the next scene when she arrives on the Archangel and Murdoch asks her about what happened between them, and she says 'I dumped him'. All off-screen, of course.
- In a bizarre semi-subversion though, some fans of the ship were actually excited about this, as it meant that the couple had gotten together at one point. To this day there is a great deal of Fanon that interprets their relationship as one of those bickering on again, off again things.
- Code Geass had not one, not two, but three serious shipping candidates for protagonist Lelouch (Ho Yay aside). Each and every one was deliberately and emphatically torpedoed.
- Lelouch/Shirley: Sunk in the first season by Lelouch's belief that he's too bloodstained to deserve someone like her, after accidentally killing her father, getting her in a situation where she was mindraped by Mao, and then making her forget about him "for her own good". In the year between seasons Shirley falls in love with him again, only for her to be murdered by Rolo in full Yandere mode, leaving her to die in Lelouch's arms in a definite Tear Jerker moment.
- Lelouch/Kallen: Sunk late in the second season after many Ship Teases and Moment Killers, when Kallen pours her heart out to Lelouch, attempting to confirm that his "evil bastard Emperor" attitude is merely an act, ending with a rather passionate kiss. He doesn't respond at all, standing there with a blank look on his face, which leads her to believe that he doesn't care. Judging by the fact that he sadly whispers words of goodbye as soon as she walks off, it's probably a case of "I'm too rotten, I don't deserve your love" as with Shirley.
- Revealed by Word Of God to have been a case of I Want My Beloved To Be Happy on Lelouch's part as his reason for pushing Kallen away was to ensure that she could accomplish her dreams when everything was over, whereas having her at his side for the final plan would have destroyed any chance of that.
- Hinted by more and more post series side materials that Lelouch may have loved her romantically.
- Links, please? *is curious*
- Lelouch/C.C.: Sunk (or at least badly damaged) by Word Of God around the end of the first season, when Yukana (C.C.'s seiyuu) said in interviews that the love C.C. feels for Lelouch is purely motherly and not really romantic. They still did a little Ship Tease for the fans when an amnesiac C.C. seems to develop romantic feelings for Lelouch during the second season, and even after she regains her memories she seems a bit nicer to him than usual. On top of that, there is also the fact that C.C. kisses Lelouch twice over the course of the series (though
both kisses were one kiss was seemingly to restore his memories...).
- Well, now there is some sort of a flat-out statement from the Complete Guidebook that says Lelouch never yearns for C.C. as a lover or mother figure, instead he sees her as his equal, which is a rather high level... But if you consider that Schneizel, Suzaku and Charles also belongs there....
- And of course, pretty much ANY Ship involving Lelouch got the ultimate torpedo when he was killed in the final episode. If you support the popular fan theory that Hes Just Hiding, then the only person he could still get with is C.C., since he made himself look so evil that he'd never be able to show his face in public again. Still, Word Of God in magazine interviews implies he's truly dead after all. Though the Official Code Geass Guide Book for R2 does state that Lelouch wanted to be with Nunnally, whether that just meant living with her back at Ashford or something else is up for debate.
- Nunnally being his little sister and while she was always the most important thing in his life, he never actually displayed any "romantic" feelings towards her (Lelouch even planned to hook her up with Suzaku in season 1).
- Seeing all the Fetish Fuel imaginery surrounding her in the Grand Finale, some people still wonder if the feelings are purely brother-sister or were at least subconsciously tinged with some Brother Sister Incest or if the Suzaku thing was a case of I Want My Beloved To Be Happy...
- Also, the words they used to express their love for each other in the last episode. You do not tell your family members "aishiteru" or "aishite imasu" under any circumstance, only people you romantically love.
- Another Sunken Ship from Code Geass includes the possible Suzaku x Kallen ship, which was really never meant to set sail from the get go, considering the fact that Kallen truly despises Suzaku and has tried to kill him on many an occasion. But what really sunk the ship was when Suzaku decided to use Refrain on her, and then decided against it at the last minute. While this initially sounds good, he then displayed that classic "Suzaku brilliance" and said he wasn't going drug her...because he didn't want to be like Lelouch. So, in one fell swoop, he not only managed to simultaneously let her know he didn't care enough about Kallen personally to not shoot her up with narcotics, but also insulted the person she's Tsundere for. Then, in the next episode just to make sure the ship stayed sunk, they had Kallen use 7 hit combo to beat the tar out of him for trying to drug her. In the end, she DID come to understand his reasons for joining Lelouch as The Dragon and may hate him less by being his assymetric Secret Keeper, but STILL...
- The possibility of Suzaku x Euphemia was sunk when Euphemia died after being shot by Lelouch in the "Euphinator" incident in Episode 23 of Season 1.
- The "official" ships in the series ( i.e. those which are actually mutually reciprocated ) are Cornelia/Guilford, Tohdoh/Nagisa, Tianzi/Xingke, and of course Ougi/Villeta (they got married after all).
- Well, there's also the implied Last Minute Hookup of Jeremiah/Anya in the final episode.
- Other popular ships such as Milly/Rivalz, Kallen/Gino, Cecille/Lloyd / Rakshata/Lloyd also remain open-ended.
- Every ship other than Yamato/Sora and Ken/Miyako in the Distant Finale of Digimon Adventure 02. Although, most fans tend to ignore said finale anyway.
- Just for laughs, Digimon Adventure 02 included an episode with Daisuke doing his best to impress Hikari... and V-Mon trying to ship himself with Tailmon. It didn't ended well for them, and at the end of the series, both of them had given up on their crushes and moved on.
- And let's not start with the Impmon/Renamon tease thrown here and there during the entire run of Digimon Tamers. It didn't end well either.
- With Impmon/Renamon, it's hard to tell if it was actually sunk or just never resolved. They were still pretty friendly towards each other in the last episode (English and Japanese). If there was any kind of "end," it was through Ryo and Rika's relationship, so some fans want to put Renamon/Sakuyamon with Justimon.
- Apparently out of disgust for Kaworu's Misaimed Fandom, the Neon Genesis Evangelion manga devotes quite a bit of time to readjusting his status with the rest of the cast. Namely, Shinji makes it vocally clear he can't stand Kaworu (as opposed to latching onto him), while Rei instantly susses out what he is and tells him to stay far away from her. Not to mention his actions have given him the Fan Nickname "Evil Manga Kaworu"...
- However, in the chapter after Kaworu's death, Shinji tells Misato that on some level, he did find Kaworu attractive even though he knew he shouldn't.
- The Shinji/Rei ship is pretty decisively sunk with the revelation that she's a clone of his mother. Not to mention that it's not the same Rei all the time as she is replaced as necessary with a fresh clone. It's probably worse in the manga where the two of them are pretty clearly on track to start going out until Rei makes her Heroic Sacrifice.
- Of course, as noted in Abandon Ship page, despite all of above this ship still floats, and the Rebuild movies raises up the Ship Tease.
- After building it up for numerous issues, with love potions and more unconvincing denials than you can imagine, the Negi/Asuna ship now seems to have hit an iceberg in the form of Princess Arika Anarchia Enteofushia, who is definitely Asuna's older sister, and that Chapter 252 has confirmed to be Negi's mother. Um... yeah. Lolicon/Shotacon I can deal with, same for Yaoi/Yuri, but incest... I may have to reconsider this ship.
- Except that kind of thing is much more acceptable in Japan, enough so that this might actually not count.
- Also, they're The last two members of a royal family. Even in real life, incest taboos tend to be ignored when it comes to keeping the precious royal blood from being diluted. This is how Habsburg Chin formed, and why the Romans took Egypt so easily.
- Oda, creator of One Piece, must be a least somewhat aware of fandom's shipping tendencies since he apparently had the foresight to launch a couple of good sized torpedoes at the potential Luffy/Hancock ship. It's going to hurt for Hancock, but this book I'm linking to could help.
- He also seems to have issues with the Zoro/Nami ship's popularity in Japan. The ship's main basis is the so-called "sexual tension" indicated by their fighting, yet it's shown that he's not even attracted to her, to the point that his lack of interest is almost a running gag.
- And Sanji/any woman period. Several times. And shippers still refuse to understand what's plainly written in the text. The pain.
- The Fullmetal Alchemist first anime had one of these where essentially everyone was screwed. There was a lot of contention between Ed/Winry and Ed/Rose factions, but both ships were sunk with a single torpedo when Ed was shunted into another reality. OUR reality.
- This seems slightly poked fun at in the manga when Winry gets slightly jealous of Rose's passing comment on Ed's absence (which appears to be purely innocent.)
- Are you still waiting for Ahiru to end up with the Prince, despite how dark the series has gotten since the end of episode 13? You'll change your tune come episode 24. A lot.
- The Miaka/Hotohori ship in Fushigi Yuugi is sunk way down to rock bottom. Hotohori gets over Miaka, realising he was in love with the idea of Suzaku no Miko; few later, he gets married to a court princess named Houki who looks like Nuriko's twin sister; he gets killed heroically in the war, then his and Houki's son Boushin is born; and then Miaka gets married to Tamahome—er, Taka Sukunami. And when Hotohori gets reincarnated, all hints tell us he ends up with Nuriko's reincarnation. Platonic love clearly doesn't exist.
- Naruto Chapter 469 & 470. A massive salvo of torpedoes launched at the Naruto/Sakura ship, with Naruto unambiguously rejecting Sakura's confession to him..
Naruto: You came all the way here just to tell me this?
Naruto: Cut the bullshit, Sakura, it ain't funny
- This line coming from a guy who many, many times pictured himself in that exact situation and when he finally gets his wish granted, rejects her.
- And on chapter 474 Two more to the Sasuke/Sakura and a depth charge to Naruto/Sakura, with the revelation that Sakura wants to kill Sasuke herself because she loves him so much she wants to spare him from a life in darkness and is willing to accept Naruto hating her for it.
- Any ship involving Shikamaru has been sunk since Word Of God explicitly said that he is not going to explore his love life (probably due to the fact that he's a secondary character). Though there's another way of looking at it: Shikamaru not hooking up with anyone in canon means all ships involving him are still afloat.
- Sasuke/Karin was just sunk. BIG time.
- Though usually the Yu-Gi-Oh writers don't bother to sink shippings, in Yu-Gi-Oh 5ds they seemingly felt like doing so. Pretty unusal case though, subverting the common First Girl Wins. Mikage Sagiri was the very first female character introduced in the show, crushing on Jack Atlas since the very beginning. Still she got pretty much dismissed by him in episode 30, and eventually was completely (and pretty harshly) turned down by him in episode 45, in favor of a girl who appeared an entire season later.
Comics
- In Spider-Girl there was huge May/Brad shipping. At last until she discovered he hates mutants and people with superpowers. From this time she can't even stand five minutes near him. Tom De Falco was playing Will They Or Wont They for years, and sink it in one issue. And it worked!
- Harley Quinn and Poison Ivy. Harley says she wants to kill Ivy, but still...
- Large chunks of the Blackest Night Green Lantern Corps tie-in issues are devoted to sinking Kyle Rayner/Jennie-Lynn Hayden in favor of Kyle Rayner/Soranik Natu; this, despite the fact that Jennie is dead and only came back as a zombie. Considering how common resurrection is in comics, it seems the writers wanted to ensure that Kyle/Soranik wouldn't be sunk if Jennie ever got a proper resurrection.
Fan Works
- Readers of At Soul's Edge, one of the numerous adaptations of the original plot of Baldurs Gate, were apparently suggesting the heroine would make a good match with Edwin, who hadn't even appeared in the story so far. The author disagreed. So Edwin made his appearance - the characters happened upon his hanging, which was executed without interruption.
Films
- Star Wars did this with Luke and Leia. Lucas strung the fans along until the third movie and BAMM! sprang the family relations card.
- According to original producer Gary Kurtz, the original nine-part masterplan for the story had Luke's "real" sister (not Leia) turn up in Episode 7 or 8, and that Leia and Han's romance would end tragically when Han died in Episode 6 in the battle that saw Darth Vader killed (which didn't involve a second Death Star). However, Lucas apparently changed his mind about the whole nine-film-idea during the writing of RoTJ and changed it so the whole story ends in Episode 6 and there is a happy ending. Bizarrely, he would sometimes later claim that there was never a plan for nine movies, despite repeatedly saying in interviews in the late 1970s that that was the case.
Literature
- It almost seems like Louisa May Alcott wrote the first sequel to Little Women deliberately to sink the Jo/Laurie ship ("I won't marry Jo to Laurie to please anybody," she wrote in her diary). Alcott showed NO mercy to her fans' demands of having Jo marry Laurie — a Like Brother And Sister speech, an Ill Girl who chases all thoughts of other love from Jo's mind, Jo marrying her other best male friend and beta-reader when she's "back", and a Last Minute Hook Up for Laurie with Jo's little sister Amy.
- There's no "maybe" about it. Jo March's marriage to Professor Bhaer in Little Women was an Authorial Take That to Jo/Laurie shippers. According to the Introduction to the Penguin Classics edition of the book, Louisa May Alcott wrote to a friend, Alf Whitman, "Jo should have remained a literary spinster, but so many enthusiastic young ladies wrote to me clamorously demanding that she marry Laurie, or somebody, that I didn't dare refuse & out of perversity went & made a funny match for her. I expect vials of wrath to be poured out upon my head, but rather enjoy the prospect."
- J.K. Rowling had to do this thrice for the Harry/Hermione ship. First, in an interview about the possible pairing, Rowling said she didn't think they were suited for each other. Secondly in Half Blood Prince, and then the internet exploded, with Harry/Hermione shippers sending out death threats, burning books, and swearing to abandon the series if she didn't change it. To drive the nail in the coffin, the last book has Harry giving the "Like Brother And Sister" speech to Ron and Hermione — possibly as a Take That to the death threats...
- ... right after a scene in which Harry/Hermione appears as an evil illusion made by the locket-Horcrux that seems vaguely perverse and is intended entirely to enrage Ron into attacking Harry. And it uses frequent Harmonian arguments, at that.
- Some Harry/Hermione shippers think that JKR wrote the "nineteen years later" epilogue primarily or solely to spite them by making "Harry and Hermione get together after Hogwarts" stories uncanonical. A number of fans reject the canonicity of the epilogue to get around this, leading to the phrase "Epilogue? What Epilogue?"
- Will "scifantasy" Frank wrote a Filk Song about the shippers going crazy when Half Blood Prince came out and a lot of their ships got sunk, to the tune of the legendary "Wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald". It can be viewed here.
- Some Sirius/Remus shippers think that JKR paired up Remus with Tonks solely to disprove the first ship, since as everyone knows there are No Bisexuals.
- Of course she was paired up. Can't have an attractive woman hang around for long without her becoming someone's love interest... and then having her subsequent involvement in the book be all about that screwy relationship.
- She also personally took a torpedo to Luna/Neville after Order of the Phoenix was published. When asked about the seeming rappaport that the "two misfits" of the Order had, JKR said that she had no plans to make that a pairing, noting that she thought Luna was far too weird for Neville's comfort levels.
- And the less said about Luna/Harry, prior to Half-Blood Prince, the better.
- And don't forget Deathly Hallows's revelation that Snape only ever loved Lily Evans Potter.
- Gone with the Wind: ... now that you mention it, probably every potential ship involving Scarlett, all very painfully. Proof that beauty doesn't guarantee true Official Couple status?
- Star Wars New Jedi Order novels Conquest and Rebirth built a lot of potential romance between Anakin Solo and his childhood friend Tahiri Veila, right down Anakin giving Tahiri her First Kiss, except that in the next novel Star by Star Anakin is killed. This is actually a very common occurrence in the Star Wars Expanded Universe, as the authors are split into two major factions: those who approve of Jedi in love, and those who disapprove of Jedi in love. Since any author is allowed to write about any character, an anti-love author can respond to any pairing with the power of canon behind them. The marriage between Leia and Han is untouchable, but any other Jedi who fall in love will — without exception — fall to the dark side, die, suffer the loss of their love interest, go insane, and/or worse.
- Harry/Luccio, at the end of Turn Coat.
- The Will of the Empress spent so much effort on sinking ships between Briar and any of the girls, you'd think these ships were out when Tris decided to play with some hurricanes.
- Stephanie Barron did it via a previously unmentioned and unexpected love interest for Lord Harold in Jane and the Stillroom Maid. Still bitter.
- The Pendragon Adventure sets up Bobby/Loor only to knock it down a few books later.
- Though it is a Crack Pairing and/or Cargo Ship, JayxStick of Warrior Cats has accumulated quite a fandom. Shame that the previews of The Fourth Apprentice reveal that he broke the stick.
- Much to the surprise and sadness of the series' fans, Inkdeath brutally took down Meggie and Farid, who had already achieved Official Couple status in the previous book. Instead, they paired Meggie up with some inventor guy who hadn't even been mentioned in the previous books and had almost no importance to the plot. It became an even bigger Wall Banger when they made it seem, intentionally or not, as though Meggie picked him instead Because Destiny Says So.
Live Action TV
- In Heroes, The Reveal of Peter and Claire being related came almost immediately after the Peter/Claire ship was reaching full-steam.
- To maximise ship-teasing confusion, the actors playing Peter and Claire then proceeded to enter a real-life romance.
- No, that got maximized in Season 3, where they go past teasing and make it quite explicit that Claire is in love with Peter.
- Unfortunately for her, she also picked up a Stalker With A Crush who she can't even just wait to outlive.
- The Buffy the Vampire Slayer episode Something Blue features Willow unknowingly casting a spell that causes whatever she says to come true, including Buffy and Spike getting engaged. Both of them susequently act completely in love with each other, even though every other aspect of their respective personalities is still there, causing a completely nonsensical dissonance between their words and their actions. This didn't stop the writers from hooking them up for real a couple years later, but even then the relationship was portrayed as very dark and depressing, based more on mutual obsession than love.
- Buffy Season 8 #15: Buffy isn't Willow's type. Damn!
- In the episode "Band Candy" Giles and Joyce have sex while under the influence of candy that causes them to act like teenagers. It kills any and all sexual tension between them, despite the fact that Giles is effectively Buffy's surrogate father.
- In "Graduation, Pt. 2", Wesley and Cordelia (who have been infatuated with one another since they met) finally kiss. The kiss is awkward enough to wipe out half a season's worth of chemistry.
- In the fifth season of Angel, Fred hooking up with Wesley sank any possibility of Spike/Fred ever happening, even though there was a lot of subtext that supported it. But when Illyria came on the scene, it suddenly became plausible again.
- The new series of Doctor Who is a strange mixture of both ship teasing and sinking, resulting from the change of focus to the relationships between the characters while still being influenced by the original series' No Hugging No Kissing policy. The best and most well known example is Rose, who after spending two seasons as effectively the Doctor's interstellar girlfriend was trapped in an Alternate Universe with no hope of return. The flood of Fix Fic that followed speaks for itself.
- Including what could be considered a cannon Fix Fic, when a later storyline had the Doctor leave his half-human clone with Rose giving her the best of both worlds - she got a clone of the Doctor who looked and acted the same and felt the same way about her as the original, but would age at a human rate (and thus not outlive her) and would be free to declare his love for her.
- Even though they still tease the pairing (like they do with everything), the Hameron fans were crushed when "Kids" and "Love Hurts" happened. In the former, Cameron telling House that she would only come back to work if he would go out on a date with her was seen as blackmail and in the latter, their distastrous date consists of small talk, an extremely misguided Cameron and House eventually telling her that she doesn't love him - only pities him because he's crippled and emotionally damaged.
- That wasn't the last attempt to sink the Hameron ship. We have Cameron reject House when he propositions her under the influence of ketamine — though he wasn't serious at the time. And we have her speech to him when she left in season 6. Even this isn't stopping the Hameron shippers; they are very stubborn.
- The Chameron ship, after being an Official Couple for two years, got sunk in the same season 6 speech. This is all but definitive: she effectively declared that she considered Chase mentally incompetent.
- In Kamen Rider Den-O, if Hana being de-aged didn't derail Ryotaro/Hana shippers, revealing that she was his niece surely did.
- Considering that Yuriko Shiratori *was* Hana, who wouldn't have shipped them at first?
- Firefly devotes an entire episode to having Wash suspect Zoe of having feelings for Mal, and being repeatedly proven wrong.
- In Scrubs, the end of the third season and beginning of the fourth season seems to sink JD and Elliot forever. There's JD realizing he only wants her because he can't have her, and the final torpedo seems to come in "My Common Enemy" with JD's quote, "That's when I realized that Elliot and I had absolutely no romantic feeling for each other anymore. No matter what the situation. It was a little sad, but maybe it meant we could be friends today."
- But the ship is unsunk abruptly at the end of the sixth season and becomes [1] again until they finally get together in the eighth season.
- In the first episode of How I Met Your Mother, after playing up the Ted/Robin romance, they revealed that Robin would be the aunt of Ted's children, thus killing any future relationship before it begins.
- From Robin Hood. Poor Guy/Marian shippers. It was always doomed considering that the show was called Robin Hood, but then Guy went and killed her. If that wasn't enough, he eventually admits to Robin that: "she was always yours." Then Robin dies and is reunited with Marian in Heaven, at which point she tells him that she's his wife: "now and forever." So Guy is presumably parted from Marian even in death. Could a ship possibly get more sunk than this?
- Samurai Sentai Shinkenger, in the fourth episode, hints on the eventual Ryuunosuke-Mako pairing, with Ryuunosuke being the first visual victim of Mako's Cooldown Hug, first eater of her cooking, and they slept on the same futon TOGETHER. When Ryuunosuke wants to finally officialize it, Mako sent down a torpedo to the ship before it even sailed. And afterwards, they never get a pair-episode again and Ryuunosuke never bothers to mention it again.
- May have been done in Go Go Sentai Boukenger as Masumi's actor stated in interviews that the character considered Natsuki like his daughter, despite the popularity of the ship with fans. They never became an Official Couple, although it was hinted that they might.
Video Games
- The entire compilation of Final Fantasy VII is a massive torpedo that neatly pairs off Cloud/Tifa and Zack/Aeris.
- Though one would think that Aeris' ultimate fate, if nothing else, would have cleared matters up sooner...
- Inverted with Army of Two. The prequel seems to torpedo the game's massive Ho Yay by showing Rios to have a girlfriend and a daughter... until you get to the part about him outright missing or otherwise delaying the wedding multiple times, over several years, so he can go on another mission with his Ho Yay buddy, Salem. At the end of the book, Rios' girlfriend is all but forgotten as Rios and Salem plan a vacation in Hawaii together.
- The clumsy (but perfectly in-character) romantic subplot involving Naomi Hunter in Metal Gear Solid 4 was arguably added to distract from the fact that Snake and Otacon had been living together for nine years and had recently adopted a daughter together. It failed to work — shipping carried on as normal, but now everyone just hates Naomi. It's the two men who end up "together" at the end, anyway.
- Plus Otacon is required by divine law to kill one woman a game.
- There should be a divine law that says Otacon isn't allowed to have romantic feelings for anything female, given their death tally. SO far the only one that seems to be still alive is his stepmother, who he was banging as well.
- At the end of Xenosaga, the obviously romantic subtext between Shion and KOS-MOS is abruptly shoved aside when Shion ends up with Allen, the series' resident Butt Monkey. In a case of Throw The Dog A Bone, KOS-MOS and Shion can't be together, but will be in another Reincarnation. So hey, he gets to be with her since she can't be with her soul-mate.
- Note, however, that the "obviously romantic subtext" is not so obvious to everyone.
- A side effect of Het Is Ew is that all strong bonds between people of the same gender seem like "romance".
- Guilty Gear: Many people were so surprised to find out Ky Kiske is now unofficially married to a Gear and fathered a son. Ky/Jam supporters got an ouch there and for some reason, Ky/Dizzy fics are starting to pop up more often.
- It turns into an "AAAUUUGGHH!!!" with Accent Core Plus, where they put more Ky/Dizzy Ship Tease.
- Weep for Dizzy/Testament. Because at least Sol/Ky fans got a consolation prize thrown at them, what with Ky's son Sin having Sol as his mentor. But Testament? Nooooooo...
- While Goemon/Omitsu are the de facto Official Couple of Ganbare Goemon, there's an instance of Goemon/Yae teasing that's almost directly followed by sinking in Kuru Nara Koi! Ayashige Ikka no Kuroi Kage. Partway through the game, an injured Goemon is too weak to take the medicine brought to him by his friends, resulting in an impending Medicine Kiss scenario. A flustered Yae states that "Goemon's life is an irreplacable thing!" ...So she has an obliging Ebisumaru perform the task instead - No Yay, indeed! (Just to rub it in, the conversation following that scene has Goemon and Yae make it very clear that Omitsu is the one he's truly concerned about.)
- In Baldurs Gate II, there's plenty of interaction and fondness and loyalty between Imoen and the main character...and then, boom! Half-siblings. (Didn't stop some people, and was even referenced in-game.)
- There's a game mod that allows you to romance her. To say "didn't stop some people" is an understatement.
- There's game mods that allow you to do alot of things... like romance Sarevok too. Your half brother.
- Tales Of Symphonia Dawn Of The New World intentionally creates and sinks a ship as a distraction. the "Love Letter" Raine gives Regal was actually a note asking him to keep an eye on Emil's personality changes
- Then there was the moment where Raine told Emil and Marta about how Paul's father died when the Desians attacked Iselia and Lloyd proposed to his mother Lilia, in order to take on the role of his father, resulting in tomatoes being thrown. Even though Lloyd managed to cheer them up, the damage to every Lloyd X ship was still done.
- And neatly, completely undone in a sidequest in chapter 8.
- In Apollo Justice: Ace Attorney, Apollo x Trucy is effective sent to the bottom of the sea when Case 4-4 reveals they're, in fact, siblings. Turnabout Taboo◊ indeed!
- Hey, that means nothing. They're only half siblings!
- How could that been Ship Sinking if it came in the very same game in which Apollo and Trucy debuted?? The ship didn't even had time to sail before finishing playing.
- Call it a preemptive strike.
- Playfully done in Super Smash Bros Brawl, with the "Unwanted Suitors" event. Zelda and Samus fight off a long approaching stream of invisible Luigis and Captain Falcons, and since Samus/Falcon was the most popular het pairing in the fandom before Brawl came along...
- Some Warcraft fans have interpreted an interlude in Arthas: Rise of the Lich King as sinking the Thrall/Jaina ship. However, Your Mileage May Vary.
- A lot of Path of Radiance's ships were sunk at the end of Radiant Dawn. Given it's incredibly neutered support system, it was only allowed the barest of paired endings compared to previous Fire Emblem games. To wit: Anyone hopes Ike was heterosexual were dashed as he either travels with Soren, Ranulf, or alone, never to be seen again. The Last Minute Hook Up of Boyd and Mist sunk the fan-preferred Mist/Rolf ship. Elincia/Geofferry, Micaiah/Sothe, Jill/Haar, and Leanne/Naesala sunk any of the ships that involved those characters with others. As for everyone else? They more or less die alone. Especially poor Gatrie.
- Though some fans actually like Bowser and Peach together, that ship sunk in Super Paper Mario when it was revealed that if Bowser and Peach would be married at any time, chaos would end the universe.
- Though, of course, they did get married (at the start of the game) and they never got divorced (its not even suggested in passing). So Yeah...
- They were never pronounced husband and wife if that means something.
- Much rage erupted among Team Fortress 2 fans who ship Heavy / Medic when the WAR update gave the Demoman the domination quote: "DOMINATED! And I've been shagging your wife!"
- Similarly, one of the Soldier's new domination quotes over the Sniper is: "I'll send condolences to your kangaroo wife." Given that this is, well, the Soldier, fans are much less inclined to take this as evidence that the Sniper is not secretly snogging the Spy senseless.
Web Comics
Web Original
Western Animation
- The finale of Teen Titans may as well have been titled "Sorry, Shippers". What's worse is the fact that the episode was also Terra's Back From The Dead moment, making BB/Terra the ship so nice they sank it twice.
- But if you try sometimes...
- It bears mentioning that episode was deliberately ambiguous when it comes to whether or not the girl credited only as "schoolgirl" was a resurrected Terra or not.
- In issue fifty-one of Teen Titans Go!, Terra's brother Geo-Force, when looking for his sister, gets one good look at the Schoolgirl and shouts, "It's HER!" then comments that she looks happier than she's ever been before. Afterwards, he and Beast Boy leave, as Terra/The Schoolgirl watches them go, a knowing smile on her face... so yeah, the 'ship's so nice, they sunk it thrice.
- While Blackarachnia/Optimus was fairly obvious in Transformers Animated, "Predacons Rising" killed off any hope of Sentinel/Blackarachnia. He isn't just disgusted by her, he actively wants to murder her.
- Ben 10: Man of Action must have deliberately paired Ben with Julie and added Kevin and Gwen's odd relationship in Alien Force just to sink Cousinshipping. It didn't exactly work out...
- Season 3 appears to be doing much to fix the strangulation of Gwen and Kevin's relationship from earlier episodes by adding conflict to it. Many people, however, think it's far too late to rescue the couple from the scrappy heap.
- The head writer of Code Lyoko confirmed in an interview that there was no romantic affection between Odd and Aelita, and that their relationship was purely platonic.
- Glenn Eichler of Daria has admitted in interviews post-show that he never intended from the beginning for a Daria/Trent relationship to actually be possible. Some fans took the creation of Tom Sloane as an example of Ship Sinking, but the sinking had already been in action before Tom's conception. However, the fact that Tom was created to see how Daria would react to a boyfriend without even considering Trent a viable romantic partner shows that he never took Daria's crush too seriously. Some fans over the years have still accused Tom of being an Ass Pull no matter how much evidence has been produced of how long they intended the process to be. These are usually the ones that try to kill him.
- Codename Kids Next Door can fall under this trope because there exist people who would've preferred Numbuh 5/Abby to end up with Numbuh 1/Nigel instead of Numbuh 2/Hoagie as shown in the Grand Finale (some of these people would also have preferred Numbuh 2/Hoagie to end up with Numbuh 86/Fanny).
- It seems the writing team of Avatar the Last Airbender absolutely HATE the Katara/Zuko (Zutara) pairing.
- They've tried to torpedo the pairing via canon a few times... once just outright teasing them with a scene that looked like Katara was going to lead Zuko to the path of righteousness, but immediately dumping him once Aang shows up to rescue her and further destroying it by having Zuko head back to The Dark Side... and when Zuko finally goes good for real? Katara threatens to kill him if he betrays them again and means it.
- Mai, a dour and cynical handmaiden of Princess Azula and Katara's main competition (in the sense that Zuko actually showed interest in her), was widely dismissed as a shallow shrew incapable of understanding Zuko at best and a social climber who has no interest in anything but laying with the Prince at worse. Then,after he ditched her (leaving only a note while committing himself to a course of high treason) she provides an unsolicited rearguard action as he escaped the Boiling Rock with important POWs knowing full well she had no chance to avoid capture... or Azula's wrath.
- Mike and Bryan confirm in the commentaries for the third season DVD box set that it was all about the Kataang and Maiko from the beginning, noting that "[the Zutarians] are probably mad right now."
- The writers parodied the Zutara ship in "The Ember Island Players" (an episode explicitly meant to be a humorous nod to the fandom in general), where the versions of the Gaang in the play behave exactly how the most rabid Zutarians would like them to — "Katara" is dreamily nursing a crush on "Zuko" while she and "Aang" gleefully declare themselves to be Like Brother And Sister. The reactions from the real characters had both Zuko (disgusted) and Katara (incredulous) rapidly putting as much space between them as they could, while Aang became even more depressed. A similar reaction occurs a mere episode later in a scene where Jun the bounty hunter teases them about being in a relationship, much to their chagrin.
- In the "Sozin's Comet" novelization interview: According to Mike, Zutara was "never intended" while Bryan said, "Come on, kids! "Zutara" never would have lasted! It was just dark and intriguing."
- And the most notorious instance: The "Book 4: Air" July 2008 Comic Con prank, If all of the above sunk the ship with nuclear torpedoes, then this one dropped a +50 Asteroid of Smiting on it.
- The Toph/Sokka was similarly sunk in the finale, with Sokka being officially paired with Suki and Toph showing signs of a crush on Zuko, indicating that her crushes are nothing serious and merely hormones acting up.
- While it might not sink the ship completely, The Spectacular Spider-Man's Spider-Man and Blackcat are now unlikely to ever have a relationship. Let's just say alone time with the girl whose father killed your uncle, the closest thing you had to a real father would be awwwwwkward.
- Hey, in Pushing Daisies Chuck managed to make it work with the guy who accidentally killed her father, so you never know.
- I know a certain Family Guy fan artist who drew quite a bit of pictures pairing Meg with Kevin Swanson, and was most likely very upset to hear that Kevin was in a Bus Crash.
- The Futurama episode "Put Your Head On My Shoulder" torpedoed Fry / Amy.
- The Kim Possible episode "Emotion Sickness" could've been interpreted as a mockery of both Kim/Ron shippers and Drakken/Shego shippers — Until it was revealed that Kim and Ron were supposed to have ended up together all along.
- They sunk KiGo... Then revived it, and sunk it again rougher then before.
- The Better Man, that's all you need to know Dean/Triana shippers. Good while it was implied though.
- That being said, this had to have been one of the most humane and reasonable sinkings in recent memory. Both characters benefited from it, and doesn't seem to have upset the fanbase. Writers could learn from the way they handled this one.
- In JLU, Batman/Wonder Woman was sunk before the series had even started. Batman Beyond, you know.
- In The Fairly Oddparents "Wishology" trilogy, Trixie being Timmy's love intrest during the three movies effectivly did this for Timmy/Tootie shippers. While a Reset Button was hit on the relationship, a lot of people gave up hope the couple would ever recover.
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