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alt title(s): Shipping Wars 
... and the shipping wars... my God, the shipping wars... — J.K. Rowling, off the introduction from Harry: A History
Casey Jones: Not even close, Zip-neck. Professor and Mary Ann. Happily ever after.
Donatello: No way, Atomic-mouth, Gilligan was her main man. They'd be married and have six kids by now.
Casey Jones: Gilligan was a geek, Barfarooni.
Donatello: *You're* the geek, Camel-breath.
Casey Jones: Dome-head.
Donatello: Elf-lips.
— Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles
AKA Shipping Wars. Nothing to do with naval warfare ( or space warfare for that matter).
Most fans ship. Some of them have a distinct ship that they like over all others, while some of them support several, sometimes contradictory, pairings. Some of them like to debate a pairing while keeping in mind its status in canon, while some of them discuss it believing their pairing IS Canon (or will inevitably be).
Now throw in the power of the Internet to connect everybody (and everybody's opinions) with everybody else...
Shippers tend to become emotionally invested in their pairings, and Internet shipping discussions can be hard to keep peaceful. All too often, however, they can't help but devolve into heated quarrels where preferences are insulted, ad hominem attacks are thrown, and comparisons to Nazis are made (though, to be sure, the latter aspect is just as capable of arising from any subject of disagreement currently known to exist).
These Flame Wars are known as Shipping Wars: verbal arguments between people with different opinions about romantic relationships between fictional characters. There are those who bash whoever doesn't like their ship of choice, those who bash whoever likes a certain ship, and those who do both, usually basing their attacks on how canon/ Fanon the discussed ship is. The fact that most ships really aren't canon and will never be is usually ignored. Particular hatred for a pairing or a character who gets in the way of a pairing manifests in the form of Die For Our Ship.
Common victims include The Straight Will And Grace, the Heterosexual Life Partners, and the Lovely Angels, as lots of fans see Subtext, hints, and evidence where there really isn't. The Draco In Leather Pants also tends to be paired up a lot, and Shipping Wars erupt when deciding to whom he belongs.
This comic takes the trope to its literal extreme- or perhaps its littoral extreme. (And this one does the same, but speaks more for those who tend not to ship).
Trope Co, we'd like to order an emergency supply of MST3K Mantra, please.
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Examples
Anime & Manga
- What is generally considered the bloodiest ship war ever took place in the Pokemon fandom (this editor is not a hardcore fan, so feel free to elaborate). The main debate seems to be what combination of the constantly-fluctuating Power Trio should hook up; there's at least thirty possible sides, each with a knife to the throat of the others. Also, there's the "Rocketshipping" (Jessie/James) debate, a particularly odd one in that there's often no one else to pair them up with, but some fans just prefer them single. Violently prefer them single...
- This editor was one of the frontline fighters in that war. To clarify, the main war was between PokéShippers (pairing up Ash/Satoshi and Misty/Kasumi) and PalletShippers (Ash/Satoshi and Gary/Shigeru) from late 1999 to late 2001. Prior to the war ending in the nuclear blast of the "grand rebuttal" (A ~50,000 word multi part essay co-authored by 5 of the biggest PokéShipping debators of the time, including Archaic, who later went on to become webmaster and owner of Bulbagarden /Bulbapedia), the two sides were both highly regimented and organized, to the point where a cease-fire treaty called the "Pact of Pallet" between the two main groups on each side, "Official PokéShippers" (a.k.a. OPS, headed by Archaic) and Palletshippers International (a.k.a. PI, headed by ChaosRocket) was able to be effectively enforced for a significant period of time on a good proportion of the entire online fandom. Archaic and ChaosRocket both having mod/admin powers on the biggest boards at the time, BMG and TPM, probably had a lot to do with that. When the war ended, most of the big-name PalletShippers retreated from shipping and/or the fandom completely (Ketsuban, now staff on Bulbagarden/Bulbapedia, being the only notable exception), while a disproportionately large number of the victorious PokéShippers have gone on to become mods or admins on the two main sites in the modern fandom, Bulbagarden and Serebii. Of course, that hasn't stopped successor wars between the PokéShippers and AdvanceShippers (Ash/Satoshi and May/Haruka) and PearlShippers (Ash/Satoshi and Dawn/Hikari), but none of them have been anywhere near as fierce as the old ones used to be....except for the occasional instances where the vets of the original war decide to step into the fray, which are thankfully rare.
- Also, out of interest the "official" list of named ships for the fandom passed several thousand a while back...
- To put things in perspective, as well, it should be noted that Pokemon is a show targeted at children and the protagonists tend to be around 10 years of age.
- To put them in even MORE perspective, the above was written as though it were a history about warfare. This Troper is speechless that shipping wars could reach the level of organization and craziness detailed above.
- You're suprised? This is the internet. There are no suprises and no limits.
- Tsubasa Reservoir Chronicle fans tend to pick a side between Kurogane/Fay and Kurogane/Tomoyo. All of this is based on subtext (this is CLAMP, after all), but Die For Our Ship is common.
- Spike/Julia vs. Spike/Faye for Cowboy Bebop. Many Spike/Julia fans insist Faye is a slutty, obnoxious bitch who's too immature and whiny for Spike, while Spike/Faye fans often believe Julia's a fickle syndicate whore who destroyed Spike's relationship with his former best friend and ultimately got him killed.
- Many Naruto fans enjoy milking the loads of possible combinations within the Five Man Band for all they're worth.
- The Naruto fandom's version is Naruto/Sakura fans versus Naruto/Hinata and Sasuke/Sakura fans. Starting a shipping thread on any of these couples, on any anime/manga message board, is tantamount to throwing a live hand grenade.
- Now, it's getting interesting, since Hinata confessed her love to Naruto... then immediately was severely wounded by Pain, prompting the fans to clash over whether she would or should survive. She did, and now the debate's shifting to whether she should get together wtih Naruto.
- Interesting? Sakura has told Naruto that she loves him and not Sasuke. This has started TWO new flame wars: A VERY BLOODY NaruSaku vs NaruHina war and a war that questions Sakura's morale.
- Now that the manga seems to be on the road towards resolving the shipping situation once and for all, the "debates" are starting to intensify.
- Even side ships are not safe. Shikamaru x Temari and Shikamaru x Ino wars can pop up at any time. And you're just asking for it if you say Sasuke should end up with Karin and not Sakura or Naruto.
- And never, ever get yaoi involved, because then hell really has broken loose. Most yaoi shippers will stay out, but the ones out for more amusement/blood will insert themselves into the argument by saying their ship is better/more canon than the others being "discussed".
- Heck, even people on the same side of shipping can be incredibly vicious. Sasuke/Naruto vs. Naruto/Sasuke, anyone? And don't you dare say these are the same pairing deep down. For those of you who are understandably confused, the order apparently indicates who the dominant person in the relationship is....
- Neji/Hinata vs. Naruto/Hinata has been known to get pretty messy, too. Naruto/Hinata shippers can't seem wrap their heads around the fact of Neji's Heel Face Turn, claim that Hinata had absolutely nothing to do with it, or else they claim that Hinata will lose her purpose as a character if she ever gets over Naruto and moves on with her life. Neji/Hinata shippers tend to demonize Naruto as someone who is so Oblivious To Love that he would downright forget that he was dating her and go running off to try to woo Sakura at a moment's notice, ooor they'll put up the defense that "Neji and Hinata HAVE to get married, so they can keep the genetic phlebotinum in the family". Nevermind that an Arranged Marriage is no guarantee of love and decidedly not a replacement for Character Development.
- Bleach: The Ship To Ship Combat between fans of Ichigo/Orihime versus fans of Ichigo/Rukia is particularly bloody.
- After several years of Ichigo/Rukia and Ichigo/Orihime fights, Ishida/Orihime has taken more and more strength. You can guess what happened when Ichigo almost died at the hands of Ulquiorra, Orihime has an Heroic BSOD and Ishida is, for a while, the only one standing... and then Ichigo came back as a Hollow obsessed with protecting Orihime from anyone nearby.
- And don't forget what the last panels of Chapter 353 did for Ulquihime.
- The 19th ending, with its heavy Ship Tease for Ichi/Ruki and romantic lyrics (particularly the part starting at 1:14 where Orihime has a disappointed look on her face as Ichigo and Rukia run off together), ignited quite a few shipping arguments.
- Most of the existing Bleach forums (including the default named one) out there were established during the Soul Society arc, a period of time when the fandom considered Ichigo/Rukia to be canon and Ichigo/Orihime to be mere crack shipping. However, as the latter pairing gained development, the forum environments turned hostile (as some moderators were more likely supporters of the former) and wank ensued (possibly causing the downtime of an entire forum during a peak period). To this day, shipping sections on Bleach forums are usually heavily regulated (in one case, completely missing), and the majority of Ichigo/Orihime fans have banded together on their own ship-oriented forum for protection.
- Something like this happened in Japan as well. One reason why there are so few Ichigo/Orihime websites despite the pairing and Orihime herself being quite popular is that rabid Rukia and Ichigo/Rukia fangirls tend to troll Ichigo/Orihime sites and communities and few are willing to put up with it. Interestingly, in the Japanese fandom this Ship To Ship Combat and the Die For Our Ship effect seems to be one-sided: while rabid Ichigo/Rukia fans display the same vicious hatred of Orihime as their Western counterparts, Ichigo/Orihime fans usually like Rukia and they rarely fight back.
- Another famous incident is even a subversion: a case of Ichigo/Rukia vs Wikipedia editors, wherein the wank was sparked over alphabetical order of the characters' names.
- Rurouni Kenshin fandom has no shortage of shipping wars to decide who was/would be be better for Kenshin: Kaoru or Tomoe. Though they're usually one-sided: Tomoe wasn't introduced till the final arc of the manga and doesn't even show up in the anime (only the excellent Tsuiokuhen OVA) and is the tiniest bit dead by the time the main story starts. Guess who has the bigger fanbase.
- Digimon fandom suffered from a terminal case of Pair The Spares in its early years that went something like this: "Digidestined must be paired up in descending order by importance." Thus, Taichi/Sora, Mimi with either Koushiro, Yamato, or Jyou (despite that she rarely even speaks to the first two) and Takeru/Hikari. Then Hikari was bumped up to female lead in the next season opposite newcomer Daisuke, and a whole new pairing sprang up. Which wasn't helped at all by the continued and increased Ship Tease of Takeru/Hikari. Then everybody stopped keeping track when the Distant Finale paired Yamato with Sora.
- Taichi/Sora and Yamato/Sora fanboys still have it out once in a while. Taichi/Sora fanboys rationalize that Yamato comes off as a huge douche for part of the second season, and therefore can't stand the thought of him ending up with Sora. Yamato/Sora fanboys just use the Distant Finale for rationalization.
- On the flip-side, in some series, you must beware any pairing that blasphemes against the Ho Yay. There's a reason that Final Fantasy, Kingdom Hearts, Yu-Gi-Oh, and Gundam Wing are shipping minefields.
- The Magical Girl Lyrical Nanoha franchise has the battles between the Nanoha/Fate and Nanoha/Yuuno factions, which is not helped by the creators knowing about it and fueling both sides with loads of Ship Tease to keep the flames burning. There even seems to be a division in the lesser ranks of the production themselves; for example the Megami Sound Stages seem to support Nanoha/Yuuno; while the actresses who play Nanoha and Fate are convinced they're a couple, as well as the creator of Nanoha, Masaki Tsuzuki (who heavily imply they are a couple and a family). These flames, however, while apparently violent tend to be pretty friendly overall (perhaps due to the theme of the show itself), and people who take it as too much Serious Business are routinely mocked in the fandom.
- Nanoha/Chrono was a third fleet in the running for a long time, too. You should have seen the looks of disbelief when the authors sank the possibility of Chrono/Nanoha or Chrono/Fate by pairing him up with Amy and making his mother adopt Fate (not that this last one would stop some people, of course). At least the shippers of that have some comfort: it's canon in Triangle Heart 3 Sweet Songs Forever, in which neither Yuuno, Fate nor Amy exist.
- Frequenters of the AnimeSuki forum would've known the infamous 300 against Legion Flamewar. The supporters of NanoFate shipping called themselves Legion due to their sheer numbers, while YuuNano shippers called themselves 300 since they're so few.
- Things Have settled down since Strikers/Vivid/C76 Comiket Soundstages settled the obvious pairing of Nanoha and Fate as a couple, as well as a family with Vivio (altought it's never said outright). It is now basically limited to "canon" NanoFate shippers against any non-canon shipping figuring of any of the NanoFate couple (Nanoha and Fate).
- The Prince Of Tennis fandom is FULL of passive-aggressive fights because of its Ho Yay and Foe Yay. The Tezuka x Fuji pairing is often bashed by fans who ship them with others, specially Fujicest and Atobe x Tezuka fans ( And it's made worse after Fuji and Tezuka DO get Ship Tease in the manga itself), the few Ryoma x Sakuno and An x Momoshiro fans are often automatically accused of being "homophobic" or "having the icky, useless girls take Ryoma away from Momo" by slash shippers, Inui x Kaidoh fans bash Yanagi and the Inui x Yanagi pairing and fans, Sanada x Yukimura do the same with Atobe and Atobe x Sanada and vice-versa (Atobe x Sanada peeps retort by bashing Yukimura)...
- Macross Frontier fandom has fighting between those who want Alto to end up with Sheryl Nome (the accomplished star), or with Ranka Lee (the Moe Moe starlet). Naturally, this irks the fans who are in it for the Humongous Mecha, the story or the music, or some combination thereof, as one anonymous 4Chan user put it: "This kind of ship-to-ship combat doesn't belong on /m/!"
- More interesting is that while all Macross Shows have love triangles, this one is especially complicated since there is some subtext between Ranka and Sheryl and even some scenes that can imply a threesome end. So the shipping War is actually between Ranka/Alto, Sheryl/Alto, Sheryl/Ranka and Ranka/Sheryl Alto.
- The Inu Yasha fandom is more or less evenly divided between fans who think that Kagome is an abusive Scrappy whose love for Inu-Yasha isn't nearly as true as that of tragic paragon Kikyō, and fans who think that Kikyō is a psycho ex standing in the way of Inu-Yasha and Kagome's true redeeming love.
- Now mindboggle at the realization that they're the same person.
- Though nowhere near as terrible as the aforementioned Kikyo vs. Kagome craziness, there's some... tension between Sesshoumaru/Rin shippers and those who prefer Sesshoumaru/Kagura. Likewise, the three-way battle between Inuyasha/Kagome, Kouga/Kagome, and Sesshoumaru/Kagome is as enduring as it is mystifying.
- Also, Sess/Rin vs. Kohaku/Rin.
- Tamao and Yaya didn't have it easy despite a good army of shippers for their side for Strawberry Panic. While the original vote was open ended, the anime had the pairings settled as Nagisa with Shizuma and Hikari with Amane. And Tamao doesn't even have another girl to fall back on... talk about fighting for a sinking ship.
- Neon Genesis Evangelion is rife with this, though of a more subtle and insidious brand than any of those above. Although there is the usual mutual enmity between the Rei/Shinji shippers, the Asuka/Shinji shippers, the more controversial Misato/Shinji shippers, the Kaworu/Shinji shippers, and (God forbid) the occasional vicious fans of Mana Kirishima, the worst offender is the internal strife amongst the most devoted Asuka/Shinji shippers. These are typically the same people who have watched the series and the movie twenty times, and feel vindicated that theirs is the only ship that is canon, thanks to the Word Of God in regards to the admittedly ambiguous movie. A/S shippers, while agreeing on the basic tenet of their mutual ship (that two people, commonly referred to as Asuka and Shinji, are romantically entangled in some way) agree on little else. There are vicious, exhaustive arguments about the dynamics of the relationship, the canonicity of the relationship, and the canonicity of the dynamics of the relationship. Thanks to the ambiguity and infinite variability of interpretations of the series, each shipper has their own personal character interpretation which each defends with fanatical fervor even against others within the same shipping subset. A/S fans will frequently forgo the more vulnerable targets of R/S and M/S shippers to attack each other over perceived slights to their interpretations. Simple statements will spark slow-burning guerrilla wars which smolder for years. This has been made worse in the recent months by the recurrence of arguments over the validity of Asuka/Shinji yuri, yaoi, and gender-swap pairings versus the original ship, further factionalizing the demographic.
- Back in the early days of the Internet the large and prolific Ranma One Half fanfic community engaged in a huge three-sided shipping war among the partisans of Ranma's three "official" fiancées. The flanderization, mischaracterization, recriminations, demonization, and outright nastiness still echoes through fanon more than a decade later.
- Mid-nineties Usenet group rec.arts.anime was once victim of the "Who is Ranma's Best Babe" thread, debating the merits of Ranma ˝'s rivals for the title. Eventually it degenerated into an actual, role-playing trench war that became a fixture on the newsgroup for over eight years.
- It got so silly that people actually accused a group called "The Defenders of the True Fiancée" of spreading viruses and hacking websites. One particularly notorious shipper even accused the animators of conspiring against his favorite character.
- For Black Cat, fans of Creed x Train and fans Saya x Train don't really get along. Huge arguments were made over whether Train ever liked Saya as more than a friend, which evidently would make it more canonical than the pairing of Creed and Train. Not that any of this really matters, considering that Saya died very early in the story.
- Amongst Shugo Chara fans there is definitely animosity between the Tadase/Amu and Ikuto/Amu factions, with the expected Die For Our Ship mentalities.
- Same with Konata/Kagami vs. Konata/Miyuki camps in Lucky Star, even though this anime spends much of its time SATIRIZING anime tropes and conventions.
- Among Code Geass fans the pairing wars between Lelouch/Kallen and Lelouch/C.C. shippers could get pretty vicious at times.
- Shuffle, dear God, Shuffle.
- Katekyo Hitman Reborn seems to suffer from this quite a bit. Between all the people who want Gokudera with Yamamoto and all the people who want him with Tsuna instead, it all seems a bit pointless. Don't even get started on the Magical Tsuna Bicycle, Rokudo/Basil or Hibari/anyone.
- Though Reborn fans are notoriously easy to convert. It only takes a few good fanfics for someone who was previously against a pairing to change to tolerating it or outright enjoying it.
- If you ever see the name "Suzumiya Haruhi" used in conjunction with the word "shipping", get out while you still have the chance. Someone is going to get flamed. Odds are, everyone will.
- In other words, never discuss your favorite pair with Kyon involved.
- X1999: Seishirou/Subaru VS Subaru/Kamui◊, anyone?
- Fruits Basket fandom has had many a pairing war between Kyo/Tohru and Yuki/Tohru fans, with the occasional alternate pairing thrown into the mix (Kyo/Kagura, Yuki/Machi, Shigure/Tohru...Momiji/Tohru...anyone/Tohru...).
- Higurashi No Naku Koro Ni has a somewhat mild case of this. There's Rika/Hanyuu vs Rika/Satoko vs Rika/Keiichi vs Keiichi/Satoko vs Akasaka/Rika. However, the most obvious is Keiichi/Rena vs Keiichi/Mion. For some reason, Keiichi/Rena was more popular in the past, but now Keiichi/Mion is. Same with Rika/Satoko and Rika/Keiichu, they were the least popular Rika pairings.
- Even worse, the anime says that Rena, Mion, Satoko and Rika all like Keiichi.
- In the drama cd, all of the original girls fall in love with Keiichi when he becomes more Bishonen then usual. Mion obviously likes him, and Rena even confesses to him, but Rika and Satoko? There's also Shion..
- D Grayman: The shipping wars of pairing Allen with their favorite OTP. The sad thing is that he hasn't even really shown that much interest in any of them. There's the obvious wars between Lenalee/Allen and Road/Allen fans, and then there's the Ho Yay / Foe Yay shippers (Kanda/Allen, Lavi/Allen, Tyki/Allen)...
- Axis Powers Hetalia is mostly free of this since the shippers can pretty much mix and match characters and find foundation for virtually any ship if they're good at Wiki-fu. However, this doesn't mean that STSC does not exist. The biggest example is the struggle between Poland/Lithuania and Russia/Lithuania, where shippers regularly engage in Die For Our Ship against the other's preferred Liet suitor — specially the rabid Poland/Liet fans, who cash on Russia's status as the local Psychopathic Manchild and Memetic Molester by turning him into a Complete Monster, but the other camp is not far behind, exaggerating Poland's selfishness to JerkAss levels.
- The fact that Russia/America, America/England, and France/England are all popular ships in the fandom seems to practically invite a three-way shipping war, but the shippers are civil with each other for the most part, and it isn't uncommon for a fan to like more than one of the aforementioned ships. America/England gets the most vocal anti-sentiment for apparently being too popular for its own good, and England (and to a smaller extent, America) tends to fall victim of Die For Our Ship, but it hasn't escalated to open Hatedom or Flame War levels yet, although there have been flamewars on anon territories.
- Hayate No Gotoku has had a lot of escalating Ship To Ship Combat ever since the introduction of Athena, Hayate's canonical ex. While the old shipping lines (Hayate x Nagi vs. Hayate x Hinagiku vs. Hayate x Nishizawa vs. Hayate x Maria, etc.) still exist, the major battle seems to be between those who think Hayate and his New Old Flame are destined to be together and those who think that she ruined Hayate's life by utterly destroying his self-esteem.
- Death Note has a couple pairings, such as Light/L, Mello/Near, and Mello/Matt, along with pairing any of the above with an original character in fanfiction.
- There's also a minor shipwar between Light/Misa and L/Misa shippers. Needless to say, neither get on well with the Light/L shippers. The Light/L fangirls were as much of an inspiration for the Het Is Ew trope as Heero/Duo. The shipping wars simply tend to be more along het and slash lines rather than within the Ho Yay and het fandoms, with Misa and Halle getting bashed because they take Light and Mello away from their potential male partners.
- Back in the early years of the Slayers fandom there some pretty heated ship wars between Lina/Gourry and Lina/Zel shipper. Its calmed down considerably since.
Comics
- During the time when Sonic was trying to decide between Mina and Sally, there were flame wars over which was better for him. Things died down a bit when Mina got her own boyfriend and Sonic and Sally got engaged. (Of course, then they went and broke the engagement off...)
Films
- Back in its heyday, Pirates of the Caribbean fandom was split into approximately three groups: the people who wanted Will/Elizabeth (Willabeth) to happen, the people who wanted Jack/Elizabeth (Sparrabeth) to happen, and the tiny group who completely stayed out of it and just watched the madness, usually complete with pointing and laughing. On one forum, these "debates" got to be so bad that the administrators completely shut down all "shipping debates", and had to relegate the respective shippers to their own discussion threads
- And it wasn't just that forum either... fans on a certain website's message board did it too. To extreme levels. There was a point where there was nothing on said forum but shipping "team" threads, and bashing of X character.
Literature
- Harry Potter's up there too, in an interesting case in that the pairing debates here could be very civil — the pairings were generally about equally probable until the last book — if not for the inclusion of the Harmonians, a particularly insane fringe group of the Harry/Hermione ship who are the rough shipping equivalents of kamikazes. And by that we mean, they drop into innocent Harry/Ginny, Harry/Luna, and Ron/Hermione discussions, which promptly explode into a sea of Internet Backdraft. Not to say they're the only problem; many OBHWF (Ron/Hermione-Harry/Ginny shippers) aren't without their own stains, insulting every Harry/Hermione shipper regardless of their actions and calling them retarded and delusional for daring to continue shipping a non-canon pairing. And there are plenty of Draco Malfoy fangirls running around ready to ship him with anything with a pulse. Also, may God} have mercy on you should you get into a discussion on Remus's sexuality (or Dumbledore's, for that matter).
- In the fanbase's defense, a not insignificant fraction of those Harmonians may be Msscribe.
- Hell, half the wank in the fandom at the time might have been Msscribe.
- The H/Hr and R/H ship war became pretty ridiculous after a post-HBP interview with J.K. Rowling by Mugglenet creator Emerson Spartz and Leaky Cauldron webmistress Melissa Anelli. When Rowling confirmed Harry/Ginny and Ron/Hermione, Spartz snicked that Harmonians were delusional. The comment probably wasn't called for, but the reaction was definitely uncalled for. All three got death threats, and people even accused Rowling of "not understanding the subtext throughout the novels". The novels... which she wrote.
- Perhaps the oddest fandom to have this going on is Les Miserables of all things, vis, Marius/Eponine vs. Marius/Cosette. Stupidest arguments from each side are the argument that Marius/Cosette reeks of Yamato Nadeshiko and that Marius/Eponine shippers are so socially locked out that they feel better looking up to a street urchin. Try not to trip on the Eppie Sues. Avoid any variations on the phrases "First Girl Wins" or "Stalker With A Crush" if you want to keep all your limbs.
- Hilarity Ensues when Ship To Ship Combat breaks out between the writers of a collaborative work. This has happened at least twice to the Star Wars Expanded Universe:
- Timothy Zahn wrote Mara Jade as a Love Interest for Luke Skywalker. Other writers had other ideas, and she ended up not-quite paired with Lando Calrissian. On Zahn's (evidently rather irate) return, he retconned Mara's implied courtship of Lando to a spying mission, and to further hammer the point home had Luke propose to her. Which she naturally accepted. And other authors promptly killed her off in the most recent set of books.
- On the other hand, the Lando/Mara was very heavily implied in Children of the Jedi, possibly just to get her out of the way so Luke could be paired off with Callista Ming.
- To be fair, Mara/Luke lasted quite a while, all through the New Jedi Order and Swarm War. And then when Mara died she got 2-3 books about how much her death impacted everyone. So she probably wasn't actually killed because the writers didn't want her paired with Luke... just because they weren't allowed to let the series' Big Bad kill anyone else in the Skywalker-Solo clan/important.
- Mara wasn't written as a love interest at first; that only happened because the fans started to, well, react strongly. Check questions 17-20.
- Lando, incidentally, later married a woman for her money and genuinely fell in love with her.
- In the New Jedi Order cycle, which of Jaina Solo's suitors she prefers (if any) is strongly dependent on who's writing this month's novel. Even after that, Troy Denning broke up her and the "winner" in his trilogy of
bullshit very silly novels taking place immediately afterwards, reportedly because he doesn't like the couple. Hilariously, though, Dark Horse Comics seems to have gotten in the last word by setting up an Empire run by a dynasty with the New Jedi Order winner's last name... and Force-sensitivity.
- Don't even get started on Jacen Solo. First he liked Tenel Ka, then he liked some random girl out of nowhere, then Tenel Ka again. He just can't make up his mind, can he?
- Poor Ben Skywalker is just as unlucky as his father when it comes to pairing debates, if this thread is anything to go by. He's not even 20, gods...
- The biggest pity in the world is that Little Women wasn't written 150 years later. It would have been grand to watch the Jo/Laurie and Amy/Laurie Ship Wars unfold, the outrage when the author deliberately sunk the Fan Preferred Couple's ship, and the various creative and excruciatingly painful ways Amy must die. But unless Alcott's fans' letters are preserved in a museum somewhere, one of the earliest Shipping frenzies is lost to time.
Live Action TV
- In Buffy fandom, if you suggest that Angel is Buffy's true love and their relationship is the most romantic ever, the Spuffy 'shippers will hit you. If you suggest that Spike is Buffy's true love and their relationship was gritty and realistic compared to the hopeless and boring idealism of Buffy/Angel, the Bangel 'shippers will hit you. If you suggest that Angel and Spike had no interest in Buffy at all except for fighting over her because they're really in love with each other, the het 'shippers will hit you. If you suggest that neither Spike nor Angel had interest in each other and they both love Buffy more than anything else in the universe (including beer, pizza, chocolate and any ex-girlfriends they might have had long commitments with), the slashers will hit you. If you admit to 'shipping anyone with Riley Finn, they'll all hit you.
- Funnily enough, averted with Willow/Tara vs Willow/Oz shippers who generally tend to get along just fine. In their mutual hate of the Willow/Kennedy shippers, that is (yes, all 14 of them).
- In Angel: Methinks it is not wise to bring up Buffy's name when there are Angel/Cordelia shippers about. Nina doesn't fare much better- not since Cordelia was effectively Put On A Bus.
- Then there's all the fun that goes on between Wesley/Fred vs. Gunn/Fred vs. Wesley/Gunn shippers. It is not helped that by the fifth season, EVERYONE WAS FRIKKIN' IN LOVE WITH FRED. Seriously, rewatch the episodes surrounding her death. You will understand.
- The fans of Jake/Heather (Jericho) would argue pretty frequently with the also ship teased Jake/Emily fans. Jake/Emily is canon, Emily is a regular to Heather's guest star, and got far more screentime in Season One. Jake/Heather is more popular, Heather is rather well-liked in the fandom as a whole compared to Emily being at least a moderate case of The Scrappy, and Heather got far more screentime in Season Two. Jake/Emily fans say that they have a history together and have fittingly similar personalities, while Jake/Heather are nothing alike and she's naive and annoyingly perky. Jake/Heather fans say that Jake needs someone who's less trigger-happy, impulsive and angsty than he is, while Jake/Emily have a bad history together, and she's useless, self-entitled and a bit of a Faux Action Girl. Oh, there's even conflict amongst TBTP, John Turteltaub supported Jake/Heather while Carol Barbee supported Jake/Emily. Barbee won.
- Rose vs. Martha bitchfights in Doctor Who fandom get epic, complete with racism, classism, occasionally ageism and sometimes, hilariously, speciesism - some fans are actually capable of arguing that other than the Doctor's true love, all other companions are goldfish to him. Or hamsters. And then some fans follow up on this arument and elevate Doctor/Master to somewhat distressing levels. At large, whenever finding any post at all that discusses the Doctor's love life, the only right response is "in before Fandom Wank".
- In the Stargate SG-1 fandom, the two major ship factions were the Sam/Jack faction, and the Daniel/Jack slash faction.
- With Sam/Daniel, and Janet/Daniel shippers getting railroaded by both sides.
- Stargate Atlantis tends to split between John/Elizabeth and John/Teyla, with most of the brutal fighting occuring in season two before the writers ruined the show.
- In the last few seasons it became more like McKeller (Mc Kay/Keller) vs The Internet.
- While not as severe as many examples, there is tension in the Heroes Fandom between Mohinder/Sylar shippers and Mohinder/Matt shippers.
- Veronica Mars is the centre of some refreshingly vitriolic flame wars. The two dominant camps are the Logan/Veronica and Duncan/Veronica ones — in spite of Duncan absconding to Australia at the end of season 2 — followed up by the progressively-smaller Piz/Veronica, Wallace/Veronica, Mac/Veronica and Keith/Veronica. You'd think the latter two didn't exist, but they're out there. Oh yes, they're out there.
- iCarly has "Creddie" Carly/Freddie vs. "Seddie" Sam/Freddie. It really blew up once the Tonight Someone Kisses episode featured Sam and Freddie kissing and again after a 2nd Tonight Someone Kisses. Probably Nickelodeon's biggest shipping war since Kataang vs. Zutara.
- The House MD fanbase is a fairly even split between Huddy (House/Cuddy), Hameron (House/Cameron) and Hilson (House/Wilson) all of whom spend a lot of time at each other's throats. All insist their ship is canon, based on purely circumstantial evidance.
- Hameron shippers are particularly rabid at the moment over Chase and Cameron's engagement, and continue to insist that they will Die For Our Ship. See Unpleasable Fanbase
- It doesn't help that Hugh Laurie himself thinks the show will go through Huddy, Hameron, and Hilson if the show lasts long enough. Or that Robert Sean Leonard (who plays Wilson) has called the House/Cuddy storyline "boring" a number of times.
- Lost: Jate and Skate shippers continue to be locked in battle.
- And in Season Five, the writters decided to add Suliet into the mix.
- Everyone always forgets poor Jacket!
- Not to mention the Desmond/Claire or Charlie/Claire shipwars that happened in the earlier seasons, and the Michael/Sun Jin/Sun shipwars...in fact, why don't you just go look at the season 1 Lost promo for the UK on youtube, it's a minute and a half of beautiful ship war dancing.
- Firefly shippers of River/Mal and River/Jayne are locked solidly at each others' throats, if only because both of them have about the exact same amount of canon support for their respective ships.
- And it's probably a good idea to keep both sides isolated from the River/Simon shippers.
- For that matter, the Simon/Kaylee and Jayne/Kaylee shippers don't really see eye-to-eye on a lot of things.
- And once you add Ship Mates into the mix, the whole thing escalates into a full scale war between the Mal/Inara-Simon/Kaylee-Jayne/River alliance and the Mal/River-Jayne/Kaylee-Simon/Inara faction. And that's without even getting into the rivalries between popular slash pairings like Mal/Simon and Jayne/Simon or River/Kaylee and Inara/Kaylee.
- And god forbid shipping the crazy underaged broken girl with anyone Squick you out, and thus you ship Simon/Inara, Jayne/Kaylee and Mal/Zoe. The Jayne and Wash fangirls will hunt you down.
- While most of the time the One Tree Hill fandom passes under the radar, if they really want to, they can make NejiHina/NaruHina/NaruSaku/SasuSaku fandoms seem sane by comparison.
- Smallville. The Clanaphiles, the Cloisers, and the Chlarkers have all been at each others' throats.
Music Videos
- Not even the Vocaloids could avoid this one, despite the fact that the canon changes with EACH. FREAKING. SONG. Because there is no official canon source to determine who should be paired with who, you'd think the fans would just mind their own business, right? Nope.
Video Games
- Sheena/Lloyd vs. Colette/Lloyd in Tales of Symphonia fandom, with Sheloyd shippers arguing that Colette is too annoying, and Colloyd shippers arguing that Sheena is favored because of her Ms Fanservice role.
- Oddly enough, the Yaoi Fangirls don't do this as often. Key words: as often. You don't get between a Genis/Lloyd fan and Zelos/Lloyd fan if you value your brain cells.
- Another war has been brewing for Tales of Graces between the Asbel/Cheria shippers and Asbel/Sophie shippers. You know, that game that is still in development?
- Fire Emblem fandom is stuffed with this, especially the 4th and 7th installments. Word of advice to forum newbies? Do not, under any circumstances, bring up the subject of Roy and Lilina's mothers. Or Wolt's father. Heck, don't question or mention the parentage of any kid whose name isn't Klein, Clarine, Hugh, Ingrene, Rei, Lugh, or Fir. You'll be sucked into a neverending stream of arguments and namecalling.
- Given that Genealogy of Holy War made shipping a game mechanic, we probably shouldn't be all that surprised...
- Plus, even Rei and Lugh could be argued, since their mother Nino has two potential husbands. There's enough in-game evidence to support Jaffar as Nino's canon love interest, but she can marry Erk if you get them to A support. And their supports are just as meaningful and sweet even without outside interaction. Oddly enough, though, this doesn't create as big of an argument as discussing the Lords' pairings does.
- Possibly because it's heavily implied in the character endings of The Sword of Flame that whoever marries Nino dies.
- Actually only Jaffar dies if he A supports Nino, if Nino gets an A with Erk, she dies.
- There have been more than a few terse words over who Ike might possibly end up with, though it tends to be divided between people who ship Ike/Soren, and those who deny that Ike could be anything other than 100% heterosexual. It's usually not TOO bad, unless someone happens to mention that Ike shows zero interest in women and that Ike/Soren is practically canon. Then things can get ugly. Oddly enough Ike/Ranulf gets a pass, probably because it's not nearly as popular.
- Not the worst problem of the immensely Broken Base of Sonic The Hedgehog, but it pops up from time to time. See Tails/Cream versus Tails/Cosmo for the tip of the iceberg, along with the mixed consensus on Sonic/Amy.
- There's quite a bit of animosity between fans of Sonic/Amy and Sonic/Sally. Somewhat odd because Sally and Amy mostly don't exist within the same series — Sally does not appear in the games or Sonic X, while Amy does not appear in Sat AM. The only version of the franchise where both Amy and Sally exist is the Archie comic, in which Amy has a large hurdle to getting Sonic's attention — having a 10-year-old mind in a 15-year-old-body.
- The Baldur's Gate community, while small and generally quiet and civil on the subject, features an interesting and unusual take on Ship To Ship Combat, in that there's virtually no discussion, and a great deal of fan art and fan fic, many of which espouse one (or more) ships and ignore, or on a rare few occasions, publicly torpedo other ships.
- The Kingdom Hearts fandom, especially as of the second installment, seems to be comprised of two groups: those who regard shipping as Serious Business, and those that ship for fun and to point at laugh at the first group. The introduction of Organization XIII basically just gave the former group license to spark flame wars over the relative merits of the gay ship of the day (12 males that hang out in a castle all day? Why, it's like shooting fish in a barrel!). Oh, and never mention Aku Roku if you value your head.
- Pick a Final Fantasy pairing, ANY Final Fantasy pairing, but in particular, BEWARE of Final Fantasy VII, and especially any pairing with the words 'Aerith' or 'Tifa' involved anywhere at all. The only pairing immune to this is, weirdly, Aerith/Tifa.
- Golden Sun. The wars between the four combinations coming from Isaac, Garet, Jenna, and Mia (just to clarify, I'm talking hetero pairings here) are kinda like a Mexican Standoff, except everyone is, well, shooting at each other. Heck, the four pairings from that one group could easily fuel debate for several years without touching the dozens of other pairings in the GS 'verse. However, a lot of the pairings are just for fun (Magmashipping, anyone?).
- Poor Ivan. He really gets left out of it, doesn't he?
- Don't feel sorry for him, he's got Sheba. That is, unless Felix (and at least five other characters) have something to say about it.
- The third game is set to star the descendents of the heroes from the first two games. Things are already getting ugly.
- Don't get started on Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney. There's LOTS of Phoenix x Edgeworth shipping and lots of Phoenix x Maya shipping, both of which are hostile to other ships (Phoenix x Iris for starters) and each other. In fact, yaoi is the main ship, the figurehead being P x E. If you don't ship that or if you don't ship yaoi and instead ship a hetro that isn't P x M, you are totally in for a nightmare of harassment and ridicule. Also beware of Mia x Diego shippers, though most are friendly enough if you don't question the canonicity of their ship.
- Go to any forum about The Legend of Zelda and you'll find ample discussion about which woman (or man) Link should end up with. Given that Link has no real personality but the player's, you have to wonder if shipping debates are more about which person the player wants to end up with.
Web Comics
- Misfile contains a rare example of a ship fighting itself. Ash/Emily shippers all want to see Ash and Emily hook up, but because Ash is a boy turned into a girl they can't agree on how the comic should end. One side desperately wants Ash to decide to stay a girl, the other wants to see Ash back as a guy. The fighting hasn't yet reached dangerous levels, but the arguments crop up with regularity.
- While the Megatokyo fandom as a general rule tends to be quite civil, there does seem to be a distinct undercurrent of dislike between fans who think Piro should stay with his current girlfriend, Nanasawa Kimiko, and those who would like to see him get back together with his previous girlfriend, Tohya Miho. One can generally tell which girl a particular fan supports by whether he refers to Kimiko by her given name, or by her familly name (Nanasawa).
Western Animation
- Depending on the board, Avatar the Last Airbender fandom is either surprisingly civil or at least as bad as any other. The main fight is between Kataang (Katara/Aang) and Zutara (Zuko/Katara) (and yes, there are Portmanteau Couple Names for all of them). Watch out for Pair The Spares.
- The series finale features literal Ship To Ship Combat, in addition to ungodly amounts of Ship Tease. Given the creators' awareness of their fanbase's tendencies, the odds of this being intentional are excellent.
- Any chance of that NOT being intentional went out the window after the ship-tease short they put together for Comic-Con.
- Teen Titans was famous for ship wars during its run. Most notably, Robin/Starfire shippers vs. Robin/Raven shippers, Robin/Raven shippers vs. Beast Boy/Raven shippers, and Beast Boy/Raven shippers vs. Beast Boy/Terra shippers. All they need is a Starfire/Terra ship, and the Mexican Standoff will be complete.
- Did poor Cyborg have no one? Or were those among the parts he had replaced with unfeeling mechanisms?
- Most likely, which is why he told Sarasim it would never work out and why Jinx chose Kid Flash.
- Comic Cy got GroinAttacked by Robin once when he was brainwashed, so there's a chance.
- This reminds me of a certain fanfic where Cyborg's mechanical Grayson Really Gets Around with the gals. So point is kiddos, unfeeling mechanisms shouldn't really be an excuse. Cyborg just tends to get short stick in fanfics, regardless.
- There's always Bumblebee.
- Starfire/Glurdleskletch 4EVUR
- Cyborg was most popularly paired with Jinx, and was a popular alternative ship with Raven in the show's early days.
- Oh, be thankful that the shipping wars of Daria are over! There are STILL Daria/Trent shippers out there — the biggest contingent, who were set to declare holy war when the Word Of God Jossed that pairing in the third season finale by showing that reality would never support the pairing. Still, that's NOTHING compared to what happened a season later. Want to start a war in Daria fandom? Two words: "The Kiss." Daria/Tom shipping has caused heated arguments the way the Sun provides heat and light for the Earth. And the real irony is that in the end of the show, they broke up and Daria stayed single, so neither pairing is is One True Pairing.
- Then don't forget those who still cling desperately to Daria/Jane.
- Where to start with the convoluted Ben 10 fandom? Said fandom has three major ships, Gwen/Kevin, Ben/Gwen and Ben/Kevin. During the air of the original series, the Ben/Gwen and Ben/Kevin shippers were the most common (Gwen/Kevin was still a Crack Pairing).
- The Code Lyoko fandom features a large group of people who ship Aelita and Odd and are combated vigorously by the people who support Aelita and Jérémie, the show's Official Couple. But of course this is nothing when it comes to the Ulrich/Yumi/William/Sissi debates.
- As this fanart will demonstrate, not even Thomas the Tank Engine fandom is safe from shipping wars. It does not help however that that some of the episodes have hinted towards crushes between the engines (such as Rosie trying to follow Thomas everywhere in her introductory episode, or Thomas blushing on seeing Flora in her introductory episode).
- The Kim Possible fans of the Kim/Ron pairing will viciously attack any fans of Kim/Shego like a piranha feeding frenzy. Any sign of Kigo Fan Art will invariably get several negative comments from a Kim/Ron supporter, same can be said of any Fan Fiction.
- The Chip and Dale Rescue Rangers Ship To Ship Combat is actually about only one pairing, namely Chip/Gadget. Those who favor that pairing oppose those who do not want to see Chip and Gadget together, regardless of alternatives. This led to two flame wars on the Usenet in 1997 and at the fan forum Acorn Cafe in 1998. Further flame wars could only be prevented by the experience gained during 1998's St. Valentine's Day Massacre and by "agreeing to disagree". A third, rather small faction among them call themselves the Neutrals and dislike the wary ways of both Pro and Anti fundamentalists. Mind you that there has never been a canonical pairing in this show.
- Total Drama Action: When Duncan and Gwen got close, the shippers went pretty ballistic.
- And Cody/Gwen vs. Trent/Gwen vs. Duncan/Gwen vs. Noah/Cody.
- Strangely, the Happy Tree Friends fandom engages in this. The wars often revolve around who Flaky will end up with (the most noteworthy pairing is Flaky x Flippy). Never mind that Flaky is a character who is never romantically involved and her gender is still quite the subject of debate.
- The Invader Zim fandom has little fighting, probably because the show only focuses on a few main characters and Dib/Gaz is unpopular for obvious reasons. The biggest ship war is actually just between those who like ZADR and those who despise it. What girl Zim or Dib winds up with seems far less important than whether or not they get a girl at all.
- Subverted and averted in Adventures of the Galaxy Rangers where out of the four main characters: Zach is Happily Married and unquestionably devoted to Eliza and his children. Shane and Niko are shipped together (despite his tendency to acquire a mostly-Unwanted Harem), and Robert Mandell admits he was planning to marry them off. Walter manages to charm a Recurring Character who left Shane's Unwanted Harem when she saw that Walter wasn't the useless goof she initially thought he was.
- Phineas and Ferb have a whole bunch of shipping wars, the most notable being Ferb and Gretchen VS Ferb and Vanessa. It really is a lesser of two evils arguement, however, as Vanessa is dislike due to age, and Gretchen is disliked due to not being in the show much.
- Metalocalypse, despite its veritable buffet of pairings and a fandom that just loves the Ho Yay, has thus far avoided this. Every possible pairing has its supporters, some quite staunch, but as a whole the fandom is laid back enough to live and let live, with the Skwisgaar/Toki, Toki/Nathan, and Nathan/Charles supporters sharing forums and communities in relative harmony.
Everyone x Everyone: Now witness the firepower of this fully armed and operational battle station!
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