Follow TV Tropes

Following

Shipper on Deck

Go To

https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/faf1ecbf_18fc_48bc_b289_1e7bc6e6c2ca.jpeg

"Because it's obvious you and Agent Booth were attracted to each other. I mean, a blind man could see that. I just couldn't understand why you two just didn't rip each other's clothes off. I mean, just get all butt-naked and– Oh, my God. Oh, my God. Oh, my God. Uh. I'm– I'm sorry. It just popped out, okay?"
Clark Edison, Bones

A character in a story actively ships two other characters in the story, trying to make them realize their true feelings while they're both still claiming that She Is Not My Girlfriend.

This character could be someone in love with one of the characters in the pairing who wants their beloved to be happy, or they could be a very good friend, or maybe they're just someone who likes playing matchmaker. If everyone in the cast is shipping the same pairing it becomes a case of Everyone Can See It. May overlap with Love Informant.

The Matchmaker is a Sub-Trope of this which takes shipping one step further. Often the Shipper On Deck will be a secondary character and often doesn't go out of their way to actually get them together. The Matchmaker on the other hand will often be a major character that actively and repeatedly tries to get other characters together and the characters they ship are often the protagonists of the story, and likely to be the Official Couple. Also contrast with Relationship Sabotage, where someone is trying to undermine a relationship that already exists (although the two can be part of the same plot quite easily, if the idea is to get someone out of one relationship and into another). Also contrasts with Shipping Torpedo, in which a character is against a pairing but may or may not go so far as to act on it, or Matchmaker Crush, when a character starts out trying to help one character hook up with another, but ends up falling in love with the person they were helping.

If the shipper has reasons beyond thinking they're a cute couple, they're a Shipper with an Agenda. If it's an actor that ships two characters in a work they star in, you have a Shipper on Set.

Beware a Creator's Pet if this is the writer trying to reinforce a disliked pairing.


Example subpages:

Other examples:

    open/close all folders 

    Comic Strips 
  • Pretty much everyone in For Better or for Worse shipped Liz/Anthony, even though Anthony was married to another woman. Pretty much nobody outside of it did.
  • In Peanuts, when Charlie Brown's baseball field is taken away, Marcie comes by to express her sympathies. She ends up pouring her heart out over how she feels about him, until Sally shouts to Charlie Brown, "KISS HER YOU BLOCKHEAD!" Subtlety is not one of Sally's strong suits.
  • In Safe Havens Samantha tended to get jealous of how often Dave spent time with his Italian translator Maria, which is ironic since Maria really wants Samantha and Dave to stay together. For a damn good reason too, she's their Kid from the Future.

    Fairy Tales 

    Manhua 
  • Infinite Apostles and Twelve War Girls: Snake, Linda's father, very much wants Linda and Yu to get officially married, partly because Yu saved both his and his daughter's life, and partly because Yu genuinely makes Linda happy.
  • In My Wife Is a Demon Queen, Principal Andre proudly supports Xiang Ye/Isabella, while Achil supports Sophisas/Elena.
  • In Ravages of Time, the Sima clan children outright ship Liaoyuan Huo and Xiao Meng in front of the woman that Huo's betrothed to! Not even Xiao Meng pointing out that he's not a womannote  stops them, and on the next page:
    Sima clan brats: Mommy! Don't hide it anymore! So what if the wedding didn't take place, daddy still loves you!

    Roleplay 
  • Dawn of a New Age: Oldport Blues:
    • The kooky drug dealer Eddie is led to believe that his pals Hyeon and Nadine have gotten back together after their previous break-up, and eagerly encourages their 'relationship'. He's yet to realise that Nadine's previous relationship with Hyeon also happened to be her Last Het Romance.
    • Zia has a crush on her Childhood Friend Ciro, who reciprocates but doesn't want to ruin the friendship they have. Mirielle, Zia's other childhood friend, is a romantic at heart who's eager to see them get together.
  • In Dino Attack RPG, Zachary Virchaus and Minerva Fabello both support Vinyatooth. Meanwhile, one random unnamed agent in the Final Battle supported Vinyareno and was disappointed by the Ship Sinking.
  • The Murderverse: In The Murder-Free Hotel, Travis, Vivi, Metabomb, Stew, and approximately every other character who ever observes them interacting with each other is cheering for Ikei and Pizzacatcher Cutbug to acknowledge their damn feelings and get together.
  • Sunny the Umbreon from We Are All Pokémon Trainers. He ships everyone and anyone with everyone and anyone. He even writes periodic fanfics on whatever romantic tension is happening at that time.
  • Katie and Candy Disastio from We Are Our Avatars. In fact, Katie got turned into Nepeta Leijon at one point.

    Theatre 
  • In The Pajama Game, the other girls in the factory are shipping Babe and Sid. Babe sings a song, "I'm Not At All In Love", in an attempt to get them to buzz off, but she and Sid end up together anyway.
  • Elwood P. Dowd and Harvey help Dr. Sanderson and Ms. Kelly rediscover their long-buried feelings for one another by the end of the play/film.
  • In Little Shop of Horrors, Crystal, Ronette and Chiffon ship Seymour and Audrey.
    Crystal: So dump the chump, get another guy and let him protect you.
    Chiffon: And we got one all picked out.
    Ronette: A little botanical genius.
    Crystal: And she ain't talkin' about George Washington Carver.
  • In the penultimate vignette of Almost, Maine, "Seeing the Thing", Dave has finally gotten up the nerve to confess his love for Rhonda. She was completely unaware, which Dave can't believe; after all, he says, Everyone Can See It and is rooting for them to get together (he lists almost every other named character in the play, who have encouraged him to go for it).
  • Much Ado About Nothing runs on this trope. Most of the cast ships Benedick/Beatrice and schemes to get them together. Beatrice also ships Claudio/Hero, and goes into a murderous rage when her ship gets temporarily sunk.
  • In A Midsummer Night's Dream, Lysander and Hermia ship Demetrius/Helena, partly because they like Helena and partly because Demetrius's plan to marry Hermia is getting in the way of their relationship. (It doesn't help that Hermia's father has talked Theseus, Duke of Athens, into supporting his preferred ship of Demetrius/Hermia.) Oberon also ships Demetrius/Helena and attempts to use love potion to make it canon. When a mix-up makes both Lysander and Demetrius love Helena, they instantly begin to ship each other with Hermia. Finally, Oberon fixes everything and his two favorite couples become Ship Mates. Even Theseus gets on board in the end.
  • The subplot in The Taming of the Shrew mostly exists because Lucentio's servant, Tranio, ships Lucentio/Bianca. He eggs his master on in pursuit of the girl, then instigates a Zany Scheme to make it happen, eliminating her other suitors while he's at it.
  • Deconstructed in Cyrano de Bergerac: Christian forces Cyrano to tell the truth to Roxanne because he wants Roxanne to choose him instead of Cyrano.
  • The Desert Song: In the reprise of "The Song of The Brass Key", Clementina attempts to convince Margot to admit she loves the Red Shadow.
  • In Hamlet, Queen Gertrude jumps pretty quickly to the conclusion that Hamlet's madness is caused by his love for Ophelia. She says several times that she hopes it to be the case and, at Ophelia's funeral, says she wishes Ophelia had been the girl Hamlet married.
  • Westeros: An American Musical: After "First Watch", in which Jon and Sam discuss the latter's crush on Gilly, the Interactive Narrator states that she "ships it". She doesn't make it clear whether she means Sam/Gilly or Jon/Sam, both of which are possible due to the No Fourth Wall parody nature of the play.
  • The Mrs. Hawking play series: Nathaniel roots hard for Mary and Arthur's relationship, and constantly endeavors to get the two together.
    • In part IV: Gilded Cages, Arthur comes to the house to give Mary some news, forcing the maid to pretend not to know him. Nathaniel, who's in the parlor with the pair, gets a huge kick out of the two's interaction and teases Mary relentlessly during it.
    • In part VI: Fallen Women, Nathaniel reveals he’s been after Arthur to propose to Mary for months.
    • In Gentlemen Never Tell, Justin is highly in favor of Morgan pursuing someone and offers to school him in the ways of seduction. Morgan is characteristically mortified.
  • In Hamilton, Burr attends Hamilton's wedding and congratulates him for marrying Eliza. When Alexander hears that Burr is dating the wife of a British officer, he sincerely tells the man, in turn, to "go get her" and he wants to meet Theodosia some day.
  • Hermes in Hadestown ships Orpheus and Eurydice, even encouraging Orpheus to talk to her when he realizes he likes her.

    Web Animation 
  • Helluva Boss: In "Mammon's Magnificent Musical", when Asmodeus publicly admits he loves Fizzarolli, the audience watching them immediately rejoices that the two actually are together and turn the ship into a social media trending topic within seconds.
  • In Homestar Runner, an... unusual example happens in the Sbemail "fan fiction." It's revealed that Strong Sad has written fanfic about his brother Strong Bad and Homestar Runner, with Strong Bad "putting on a bonnet and giving Homestar a deep tissue massage." It's clearly a parody of shipping fanfics, though it's left ambiguous if Strong Sad ships them purely in fanfic, or if he ships them in real life, too. Homestar has occasionally seemed to harbor a crush on Strong Bad (and upon hearing about Strong Sad's fic, was excited about the prospect of a massage from SB).

    Real Life 
  • Peter Lorre convinced Humphrey Bogart to marry Lauren Bacall.
  • Happens with Rooster Teeth quite a bit... by the fandom, no less, and this has actually been lampshaded quite a bit by the staff themselves.
    • This actually happened with Gavin Free and Meg Turney, who both recall Monty Oum encouraging them to go out. In fact, both of them stated that they were both too awkward to make the first move despite their mutual attraction, that Monty had to make the first move for them by making Gavin walk her back to her hotel room.
    • Monty also assisted Michael Jones with a prank on Lindsay Jones (neé Tuggey) because he thought they would make a lovely couple. He was right as they're Happily Married with children.
  • Often the topic in teachers' lounges at school.
    • And behind coworkers' backs at all manner of places of employment.
  • PUSH The Talking Trash Can, a roaming robotic trash can at Disney Theme Parks that can communicate with guests, can do this if the puppeteer controlling him is in the mood. Here he is encouraging a guy to propose to his girlfriend.
  • The late 19th century had possibly the most epic instance in recorded history when literally every royal in Europe joined forces to get Vittorio Emanuele of Savoy, heir to the throne of Italy, to marry Elena of Montenegro. This was owed to the fact Vittorio Emanuele knew perfectly he owed his short stature and poor health to his parents being first cousins like three of his grandparents and having already torpedoed an engagement with a German princess to whom he was related, thus getting king Umberto I and queen Margherita to find one of the few European princesses that wasn't related to them and convincing every other royal to help them getting her and their son together.

Top

Maki's Romantic Brain

Maki is naive and idealistic when it comes to romance, so when Shinra rescues Iris she is quick to call it "romantic", which annoys Iris, who is a devoted nun who isn't interested in romance.

How well does it match the trope?

5 (5 votes)

Example of:

Main / ThinksLikeARomanceNovel

Media sources:

Report