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Bryan: I remember until mid-way through first season I never even knew what shipping was, and then suddenly on the internet... Mike: Suddenly on the internet you had writing about shipping and I was like, "What is this? What is this phenomenon about?" Bryan: Yeah. I was all like "They're shipping love to each other?"
"I will go down with this ship
I won't put my hands up and surrender
There will be no white flag above my door
I'm in love, and always will be."
-Dido, "White Flag"
Steve Jobs of Apple Computer reportedly said, "Real artists ship." What he meant was that a professional writer of computer software actually gets a release out on time. It has also been used to refer to professional writers releasing a story before the deadline set by their editor. That is not the sort of Shipping that this entry is referring to.
Generally deemed to be short for "relationshipping" (although some interpret it as stemming from "worship" of a particular couple), it is the desire of the audience for two characters to get together romantically.
Fans can decide which characters they "ship" for a variety of reasons, not necessarily related to Canon — or sanity. All of that simply can be just a personal choice on part of the audience. In a No Hugging No Kissing show that's not centered around kids ( sometimes even if it is), pairings of leads will tend to develop in the fan community. In a romance anime, they may decide that the Official Couple in a series is dancing The Masochism Tango and revolt (usually with unfair and cruel results for the offending party), or they may simply prefer the Unlucky Childhood Friend, the fan-preferred character, or even the Yaoi Guy/ Schoolgirl Lesbian/ Heterosexual Life Partner (as appropriate).
Frequently the writers know about this and play with the audience. The writers won't reward all shipping with a relationship, however. Then a majority of the ones that do don't until near the very end.
The frustrated need to see some of these relationships born/consummated provides the motivation for a fair percentage of Fan Fic (see Slash Fic); the classic example would be Spock/Kirk from Star Trek.
While series with a few yes-or-no style 'ships tend to be common and mundane, shipping gets out of hand when every single combination of characters will be endorsed by somebody, regardless of having to change the characters' sexuality, having to ignore the fact that they are mortal enemies or otherwise hate each other (see Slap Slap Kiss), having to ignore a thirty- or forty-year age gap (including ignoring statutory rape laws), having to ignore the fact that they're siblings, or having to interpret the tiniest, most ambiguous details as evidence. This can be self-subverting, with fans deliberately challenging each other to rationalize pairings made at random, or chosen to be as wrong as possible — Crack Pairings, for short. Of course, if a writer succeeds, there's a risk of these pairings developing a following anyway.
It's become an unspoken rule of cyberspace to invent a cutesy Portmanteau Couple Name, partly so as to make labeling Fan Fics easier. That or invent a "___shipping" name for it; bonus points if it's something like Rocket Ship or Pirate Ship. If the characters' names have numeric roots, expect arithmetic. (3+4 has entirely different meanings when it's a Codename Kids Next Door or Gundam Wing fanfic section). Also see Ship to Ship Combat
Note that while Official Couples are not generally listed below, that's because they're listed on the Official Couple page. Canon pairings do get shipped — in fact, they're usually more popular than the non-canon ones. The rare cases where a canon pairing is widely rejected can be found at Strangled By The Red String, and the preferred alternatives at Fan Preferred Couple.
Note also that it only takes one editor to post an example here, so don't assume everything listed is wildly popular.
Famous shipper movements:
Anime
- The Digimon fandom was just as obsessive as that of Harry Potter at first. The Digimon shipper fandom's got an interesting history: At first, the Tai/Sora and TK/Kari pairings were Serious Business of the "write a fic that pairs them with someone else at your own risk" variety. It wasn't a war so much as zero tolerance for non-"Taiora or Takari." When it didn't happen in the end, the insanity Harry Potter fans are now familiar with ensued, but after that, the reaction to other pairings in the fandom changed. The fandom eventually became one where anybody can be paired with anybody. (Sora/Gomamon, anyone?)
- Alongside the given pairing of Haruhi x Kyon, this troper has seen (and written) several fanfics based around Yuki x Kyon from Suzumiya Haruhi, where almost every time the plot has something to do with Yuki becoming human.
- There's also Kyon X Mikuru, which isn't canon because Haruhi says so.
- It should be noted that Haruhi/Kyon's canon status is much more tenuous than the anime would have you believe. This is mainly do to the facts that 1) nothing came of their kiss at the end of Melancholy (the anime's non-chronological order makes this easy to forget) and b) Kyon devotes pretty much every other paragraph of the books to describing his love of Mikuru, refering to her as his goddess (ironic, since Haruhi literally is a goddess) and stating that she is the one who gives his life meaning.
- Since the only official couples in the main cast of Sailor Moon are Usagi and Mamoru and Haruka and Michiru, there's a lot of potential pairings floating around the fandom, many of them yuri for obvious reasons. Some of the more popular ones include:
- Pairing off the first four Senshi with the Four Kings, based off an abandoned concept by Takeuchi that only produced an artbook image of them romantically involved that never fleshed out (and would be downright impossible in the anime).
- Some of the pairings (specifically, Minako / Kunzite and Rei / Jadeite) are still hinted at in the manga, though.
- Jadeite's brief attraction to Rei in the manga wouldn't have really worked, since Rei is so dedicated to her work that she pledged her chastity to Serenity in her past life and renewed these vows later. And cute as it was, Minako/Kunzite was hinted only in the Moon Kingdom flashbacks (too bad, this troper says, liking the possibility as much as Rei/Minako).
- Minako or Makoto with arcade attendant Motoki (Makoto actually chased him a few times...no idea why they like Minako and Motoki since they almost never intereact in the entire series).
- They did in the Sailor V manga — Minako liked Motoki, just like Usagi did later. As for Makoto / Motoki, Pretty Guardian Sailor Moon actually had them as a couple, with Motoki proposing to Mako at the end of Special Act. Nevermind that the live-action version of Motoki is a little... different.
- Usagi with Seiya. Shippers like to portray the Starlights as male to make it Het.
- Rei or Minako with Yaten (depends on whether they like two short-tempered characters together or one crazy person together with a short-tempered character).
- Ami with Taiki or the early character Urawa.
- Makoto with one-episode character Shinozaki. The anime left it incredibly open.
- Hotaru or Ami with Shingo. Depending on whether you think age or canon is more important.
- Rei with Yuuichirou, which has plenty of anime basis. Senshi/civilian shippers pretty much all agree on this one.
- Rei and Minako based on several bits of dialog from a single manga chapter that sound very suggestive out of context.
- Chibi Usa and Hotaru, because they're best friends. Which of course means they'll grow up to be yuri girls. Of course, the manga having Hotaru wonder about her feelings regarding Chibi-usa being so strong may seem strange "since they're both girls" helps.
- And those are the common ones. There's some really out there ones the deeper into the fandom you get.
- Ami and Makoto are a popular yuri pairing. So far as this Troper knows, the idea started with some images Naoko Takeuchi did.
- Many yuri fans like to break up Usagi and Mamoru (or even kill Mamoru off) so they can pair one of the other senshi with Usagi. Rei is particularly popular for this.
- There are also non-Senshi pairings like Naru with Umino.
- People seem to have trouble accepting Ichigo's love for Aoyama Masaya in Tokyo Mew Mew. Shipping her with Ryou has become a common pastime for many, even when the anime put him with Retasu. Creepily enough, the second most popular Ichigo pairing is her and Kisshu, her Stalker With A Crush; most to all these fics are completely out of character and actually have her happy to be with him. (Of course, then there's Minto x Masaya, Zakuro x Pai, Minto x Pai, Retasu x Bu-ling... this editor has seen Retasu x Neko-Ichigo doujinshi.)
- The name was popularized (though not originated) by Pokemon fandom, specifically with " Rocketshipping", which is, naturally, shipping between Jessie and James of Team Rocket. The Pokemon fandom now has "___shipping" names for just about every imaginable pairing. The "(In)Complete" list
 currently stands at somewhere over 4500 recognised ships. Gotta ship 'em all!
- Pokémon fandom ships everyone with everyone, to the point of designating certain ships as Nevermetships, for characters that have yet to actually meet one another, like Oystershipping. The primary problem is that the majority of the most vocal ships have the same person on one of the sides—Ash. And, of course, once you consider that the manga characters are not the same as the anime characters no matter how alike they may look, you've got a mess.
- In Samurai 7, the show hints at a relationship between Katsu and Kirara, until a very unexpected plot twist occurs at the end.
- Unwanted Harem shows in Anime are laden with this. The classic example, of course, is Ranma 1/2. The fan community latched on to the show just as internet discussion was becoming common, and the flamewars became downright vicious. Some writers were driven out of Fan Fic writing entirely; others became so thoroughly obsessed with their views that they perpetuated some of the worst bits of fanon about the series. (Gregg Sharp, for example, is utterly unable to write a story where Ranma and Akane are happily married; he also tends to portray her as violently abusive and once or twice made her into a sadistic murderess. Same goes to Mike Rhea and his fics featuring "Saint Ukyou" as Ranma's Love Martyr as well as Akane, Konatsu and Tsubasa bashing)
- The other classic? Tenchi Muyo. The psychotic levels of Ayeka bashing from the Tenchi x Ryoko rabid shippers have reached legendary dimensions. And actually, it's one of the biggest reasons why This Troper HATES Tenchi x Ryoko pairing with a passion.
- And this was even after Word Of God stated Tenchi eventually marries them all.
- Virtually any two characters in Naruto. Naruto/Hinata, Naruto/Sakura, and Temari/Shikamaru are some prominent ships, while Naruto/Sasuke threatens to explode like a giant, homoerotic bubble.
- The main ships in the Fullmetal Alchemist are Ed x Winry, and Roy x Riza (called Royai). The lesser ships are Ed x Rose, Ed x Al (called Elricest), Ling x Ran Fan, and Al x Mei.
- What about Roy x Ed or Envy x Ed?
- Magical Girl Lyrical Nanoha: see the Ho Yay page for more details, since as the series goes on it's mainly composed of Girls Love Ship Tease, much to the chagrin of Yuuno/Nanoha fans.
- Though conspicuously missing from the American dub, Cardcaptor Sakura gets plenty of attention from her costume conspirator and confidante, Tomoyo, without actually sealing the deal.
- This troper figured that was pretty much resolved with Tomoyo's "I don't care if I can't be with her, as long as she's happy with whoever she chooses" speech.
- Not that I don't ship 'em anyway.
- This Troper wonders where the Rin/Pick your Girl Ships from Shuffle haven't shown up yet, specially the Rin/Asa, which ended up somewhat requited, and the rather violent Rin/Kaede ships digged them self into a war
- Nothing about Neon Genesis Evangelion and Rei vs Asuka?
- Ah, Eva fanfiction... Where anyone can be paired with anyone. They shouldn't, but they are. Asuka x Rei, Shinji x Ritsuko, Asuka x Hikari and Asuka x PEN-PEN! I mean, come ON. Adimttedly the show was quite vague from the start-despite 26 episodes, about a dozen manga volumes and four (so far)movies, we STILL don't know whats canon. Even the alternate universe ones are evenly matched, with about as many of one pairing as another...
- Code Geass... Code Geass... Code Geass...
- There's the main love triangle, Lelouch/Kallen vs. Lelouch/C.C. and Shirley also gets thrown into the mix, but that ship sinks when Rolo kills her.
- Suzaku/Euphemia, which briefly became canon, only to be dashed to pieces in the aftermath of the Euphinator scene.
- On the Ho Yay front, there's Lelouch/Suzaku, and Lelouch/Rolo.
- Additionally, there's Milly/Lloyd, which came out of no where, served no real purpose, and was ultimately sunk by the writers.
- Fanon has it that Sir Jeremiah Gottwald and Sayoko Shinozaki ultimately hook up. The final episode may or may not support this, depending on your interpretation.
- And who could forget Nina/Table-kun. Stop looking at me like that. It's totally canon. In fact, it's one of the only ships in the entire series to actually get consummated.
- Don't forget GuilfordxCornelia, which is Subtext incarnate, to the point where it might as well be canon.
- Hey, what about the huge passive-aggressive fights in The Prince Of Tennis? See Ship To Ship Combat and Ship Mates.
- Yu-Gi-Oh. Oh Jesus CHRIST, the Yu-gi-oh shipping!!
- Black Lagoon has several of these. The most common is Rock/Revy, but This Troper has also seen Benny/Jane, Chang/Balalaika, Revy/Roberta, Revy/Eda, Revy/Shenhua, Rock/Benny, Balalaika/Boris, Rotten/Sawyer, Rotten/Shenhua Shenhua/Sawyer, as well as several others. And then there's Hansel/Gretel, which is canon, but we don't like to talk about that.
- Ranma ˝ was well known for shipping in its heyday. There were too many to recount here, but Ryoga / Ukyo and Mousse / Shampoo had particularly dedicated followings. Ranma was shipped with virtually everybody else in the series, including him / herself. For extra squick there were even Soun / Genma and Happosai / Cologne pairings. However, Rumiko Takahashi notably addressed the shipping fans when she stated outright that aside from various people's parents, Ranma and Akane were the only canon couple in the series.
- How can Katekyo Hitman Reborn not be mentioned yet? Its apparently the most popular Shonen Jump title on the Japanese Doujin front.
- I'm going to tell you this right now - most of the pairings are not heterosexual. And 90% of them involve Tsuna one way or another.
- Bleach. Dear sweet kittens, Bleach. No matter what is supported, due to a Vocal Minority of some shippers, it assumed that all the different shippers violently hate each other.
- Fans of Axis Powers Hetalia have shipped just about every pairing under then sun and, with enough historical research, can prove that their ship is canon over half the time.
- Slayers has a few of them. Aside from Lina/Goury, you have Zelgadiss/Amelia, Lina/Zel, Xellos/Lina, Xellos/Zel, Xellos/Filia, Filia/Vargaarv, and just to mention the most popular.
- In Full Metal Panic, there's the Shipping Wars going on between fans of Kaname/Sousuke and Tessa/Sousuke. Of course, it is the official Love Triangle. And then, there's the shipping of one-sided Gauron/Sousuke. Mercilessly teased at by Shouji Gatou, it's nevertheless one of the more disturbing pairings. Gauron being Sousuke's mortal enemy that he would like nothing more than to beat the shit out of, adding that Gauron is at least thirty years older than Sousuke (and became obsessed with Sousuke since Sousuke was twelve), and is shown to have not been adverse to the idea of raping 16-year-old Sousuke after he kills him. Ah, Crack Pairing indeed.
- Two Words: Gundam. Wing. As a Humongous Mecha Gateway Series with a high Bishonen index, this show has a truly staggering Yaoi fanbase even going on a decade since it first came to the Western world. Unfortunately, this means that those who like the show for more legitimate reasons tend to get lumped in with the leering fangirls by the Fan Haters.
- Shugo Chara is a special case, since the Shipping Wars are actually justified: Every single important male in the series has yet confessed to have feelings for Hinamori Amu. And she seems to return those feelings to pretty much all of them. The two strongest Shippings in the series, Tada Amu(Tadase x Amu) and Amu To(Amu x Ikuto) both get a lot of Ship Teasing in the series. It usually happens pretty balantly and in the very same chapter/episode. As for now, there's still no way to figure out with whom Amu will ultimately get together. The fans who love adorable characters and Bishie Sparkle are usually Tada Amu-Shippers, while the ones who prefer more mature stuff are usually Amu To-Shippers. FlameWars between the two fractions ensue.
Comic Books
- Batman/Robin.
- Batman/Catwoman is also popular and is somewhat canonical.
- Batman/Wonder Woman and Batman/Black Canary are also popular, but the canon for those is threadbare at best. Especially now that Dinah's married.
- Batman/Canary, anyway. Batman/Wonder Woman got tossed around quite a bit in the JLA comic for a while, to the point that they even had a sort of Cold War about who was responsible for calling whom.
- Nightwing/Arsenal is another popular slash pairing, but you can find almost any conceivable pairing of any two DC Comics characters if you look hard enough. Good grief, someone wrote Darkseid/Galactus slash (and Galactus is a Marvel character!).
- Nightwing is allowed to be paired with anyone you like, but choose Barbara Gordon or Starfire and fans of the other will hunt you down and kill you in your sleep.
- Speaking as a Barbara Gordon fan, if you choose her I will hunt you down and kill you in your sleep.
- Oracle/Black Canary is fairly popular, regardless of the fact that they've gone through marriages, engagements, and so forth.
- X-Men: all possible pairings.
- Out of all of these, Rogue/Gambit is perhaps the most legendary since it's the only "original" pairing to still exist. This is mainly because their on-again-off-again relationship is by now considered normal and because the fans will not allow the writers to pair them with anyone else. Many have tried, all have failed.
- Fantastic Four: Doom/Sue. This possibility was raised in the comics when a girl claiming to be their daughter from the future showed up. The current Sue was appalled that this future could even exist, what with Doom being Doom and all. (Turned out the real story was somewhat different.)
- Likewise, Sue/Namor, which has been teased consistently since the 60s. Namor immediately established himself as Sue's superhuman Stalker With A Crush; she was attracted to him for a while, but stayed with Reed and eventually married him. Since then, whenever Reed pisses her off, Sue often goes to see Namor. She's never been unfaithful (though Namor would very much like her to), or even seriously tempted as far as we know — but given Namor's status as a sex symbol among comic geeks, you can probably guess the number of jokes made about their 'relationship'.
- Captain America/Iron Man is very popular among Marvel Comics fanficcers. Due to Tony's status as a charming playboy, he also gets paired up with various other characters, such as Spider-Man and Hawkeye.
- In Empowered, the title character reads a fanfic shipping her with her hated co-worker.
- The Justice Society of America features Stargirl/Captain Marvel shippers, to the point where even the book's writers are amazed at just how much they've read requests to bring back the one-time couple (they broke up because he couldn't reveal his identity to the group).
Literature
- Perhaps the most obsessive is the shipping that goes on in the Harry Potter universe, where shippers go as far as pairing off characters who have only ever been vaguely mentioned by name — with the release of Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince, numerous pairings were ruined (for the non-Yaoi crowd) with the revelation that Blaise Zabini was a boy. And "apewire" cannot even begin to describe the over-the-top reactions among hardcore shippers to the "who ends up with who" questions concerning the main cast members finally being settled in Half-Blood Prince as well. Many fans were exceedingly obsessive, and there were also 'rivalries' between ships, with two of the biggest rivals being the Harry/Hermione and Ron/Hermione ships. One infamous comment by a Mugglenet staff member (who called them 'Delusional') inspired much flaming on Harry Potter forums.
- Louisa May Alcott, for her part, invented the authorial practice of Ship Sinking in Little Women. In a way, she also possibly mocked the practice of shipping in Jo's observations of Laurie and Beth. Once Jo jumps to the conclusion Beth is in love with Laurie (which Jo desperately would like to be reciprocated), she observes them for "proof" and
imagines sees romantic undertones in every minute detail of interaction between the two. After all, Alcott was already fed up at this point with fans whose only concern about Jo's story was her "obvious" marriage to Laurie. Some things never change.
- Search Jeeves And Wooster on Deviant ART. I dare you.
- Never having been one to resist a dare, this troper wishes to inform anyone who is thinking of following her example that doing so is not in their best interests. This particular troper is now scarred for life, and mourns a fandom in decline. Most likely she mourns it alone, as attested to by the large amount of 'art' devoted to one particular ship... Actually, on second thought, this troper dares you to search Jeeves And Wooster on Deviant ART.
- A Song Of Ice And Fire sports a fairly active shipping scene. The most popular pairings seem to be Jon/Dany, Jaime/Brienne and Sansa/Sandor, but there are many more. Surprisingly, the canon Ned/Cat and Jaime/Cercei have very few supporters. This is largely due to the undying hatred most of the fandom feels towards Cat, as well as the general squickiness of Jaime/Cersei.
- Lord Of The Rings have a whole bunch. Perhaps the two most common are Aragorn/Legolas and Merry/Éowyn.
- Warrior Cats: A lot. There are several canon pairings (in some cases three per character), as well as the fans pairing the Loads And Loads Of Characters to make Crack Pairings. See a list of pairings here. Yeah, that many.
Live Action TV
- Moonlighting — perhaps the canonical example.
- Ashes to Ashes — Gene Hunt and Alex Drake.
- Battlestar Galactica — too many to name.
- Remington Steele followed a similar template.
- Buffy The Vampire Slayer has had several. In one interview Anthony Stewart Head described how deeply, deeply disturbed he was to find a Willow/Giles shipping website with accompanying Fan Fic. His only response was that he was old enough to be her father.
- Josh/Donna in the West Wing- requited in the seventh season.
- Louis/Tawny in Even Stevens — requited in Grand Finale.
- Mulder/Scully in The X Files — requited. The very term "shipping" originated from this fandom.
- Not limited to them. There are a number of videos on You Tube putting Doggett and Reyes together, or even Doggett and Scully (go look them up. The best one is a video that cuts Mulder out entirely, and uses Dolly Parton's Jolene to express Reyes' fear that Scully will steal Doggett from her).
- Interestingly, it's the first of the rare instance of anti-shipping; according to some sources, a lot of fans really didn't want Scully and Mulder to end up together.
- We used to call the fans who didn't want Scully and Mulder together "noromos" but that term wasn't picked up the way that "shippers" was.
- Sydney/Vaughn in Alias — requited.
- Niles/Daphne in Frasier —requited from the end of season seven, married in the last two seasons.
- Grissom/Sara in CSI — requited in the season six finale. Thought ended when, well, Sara Sidled off, only to be brought back Season Nine. Ross and Rachel of crime scene shows, maybe? Finally resolved for good mid-season 9 with Grissom's departure from CSI (and the show) to rejoin her. In the forests of Costa Rica. Typical.
- Popular unrequited (and never will be) fan ships include:
- Greg/Sara - fans of this got a kick out of the episode 4x4 when the two were forced into a decontamination shower together. Awkwardness ensues. To be fair, it's pretty obvious he's had a crush on her since day one.
- Catherine/Warrick - this one was seriously hinted at in various places where the writers show them being definitely attracted to each other, but it ended when Warrick has a drive-thru wedding offscreen at the beginning of Season 6 (requiring some awkward appologizing to Catherine). Although the marriage (predictably) desintegrates, any further hope of this rekindling is cut off totally by Warrick's murder at the end of season 8.
- Danny Messer/Lindsay Monroe from CSI New York (known as M&M) — requited via a pool table, and now married.
- Tony/Michelle in 24 — requited with a marriage, then broken up after Tony went to prison for letting someone get away (In an I Have Your Wife scenario), re-requited in Day Four and then permanently ended by a car bomb.
- In the first two seasons of the new Doctor Who, there was quite a bit of Doctor/Rose shipping (known as "squee!" on Outpost Gallifrey), much to the initial shock of older fans, for whom this show has always been a No Hugging No Kissing show. When the Doctor and Rose kissed in "The Parting of the Ways" (he was removing the energy of the Time Vortex from her), the shippers went ecstatic, while the non-shippers didn't mind. (But contrast this to when they went absolutely apewire insane over a similar kiss in the 1996 Made For TV Movie). The less friendly folks on rec.arts.drwho were far less charitable about the kiss between the Doctor and Captain Jack. Others, of course, didn't mind.
- Bones seems to be written to encourage shipping.
- There are so many, oh so many examples of shipping in the Heroes fandom, ranging from the borderline (Matt and Mohinder; Claire and Zach) to the downright disturbing (Peter and Claire; Sylar and Claire - the latter usually ends in Wangst of some form or another).
- The Paire ship has shown to be not only one of the most popular, but one of the toughest. It SHOULD have been torpedoed with the revelation that Peter and Claire are uncle and niece, but it is still one of the most popular ships.
- But really, since the ship had already survived the fact that she was sixteen and he was in his late twenties, it's hard to see how a bit of incest would do more than dent the hull.
- And it doesn't help that their actors were/are really dating in real life... Real Life Writes The Fanfiction?
- Incest schmincest. This is a fandom that was writing Peter/Nathan slash when the pilot aired.
- While K/S (Kirk/Spock) was mentioned in the lead, the various incarnations of Star Trek each have their share of ship pairings, although they use a different naming convention. In TOS, Spock was often paired with any of the females aboard the Enterprise. In Next Generation P/C (Picard/Crusher) was quite popular, as was R/T (Riker and Counselor Troi) and W/T (Worf/Troi); the middle one being the only one requited. Deep Space Nine had O/K (Odo/Kira), W/J (Worf/Jadzia Dax), B/J (Bashir/Jadzia), W/E (Worf/Ezri Dax), and B/E (Bashir/Ezri out). Voyager had J/C (Janeway/Chakotay), K/7 (Harry Kim and 7 of 9), D/7 (The Doctor and Seven), as well as the dreaded canonical C/7, which is so hated that I'm not even going to tell you what it stands for. You should be able to figure it out by now, anyways. Oh, and Enterprise had A/T (Archer/T'Pol), A/H (Archer/Hoshi), and the canonical T/T (Trip/T'Pol; often dubbed "TnT" by shippers). There are several more, but those are the most prominent, as far as this troper knows.
- This site (caution: sanity hazard) is a Stealth Parody of Voyager shipping.
- J/7 (Janeway/Seven) and T/7 (Torres/Seven) are well known to 'some'. The Former even spawned a currently running series of fics. (Warning: Fan Garbage.)
- Weren't all the TNG ships actually requited? Picard/Crusher were mutually attracted, but couldn't really work out a relationship. Troi/Riker were together before the show and got back together in one of the movies. Troi/Worf didn't actually go anywhere but they tried, sort of. Plus it happened in an alternate reality.
- The Stargate Verse has plenty of them. The most well-known being Jack/Sam, much hinted at in the show.
- Firefly, despite only running for roughly half a season and the course of a movie, has already accrued a good number of ships among the crew. The big two ships are Mal/Inara and Simon/Kaylee, due to the Will They Or Wont They dynamics that were present in the show, as well as Wash/Zoe, who were Happily Married until Wash was killed in the Big Damn Movie. Other noncanon ships definitely exist, such as "Jaylee" (Jayne/Kaylee, the main competition to Simon/Kaylee), "Rayne" (Jayne/River, rather odd and verging on Foe Yay, but still with a good number of fans), the even odder Mal/River ship, "Zayne" (Zoe/Jayne, not really an option during the series, but after Serenity, well...), Mal/Zoe (still shipped even though Joss shot that one down in "War Stories"), Jayne/Inara, Simon/Inara (of which there is now actual canonical support for in Better Days), the Foe Yay-tastic Mal/Saffron, and the ever-squicky "CSI," which among the Firefly fandom stands for "Crazy Space Incest" rather than "Crime Scene Investigation" (Simon/River, needless to say).
- That plus the requisite slash pairings. Mal gets shipped with both Jayne and Simon regularly, and Jayne and Simon tend to get shipped together as well due to their rather adversarial relationship. On the female side, Kaylee is usually shipped with either Inara or River, while Inara sometimes gets shipped with Saffron.
- There's a disturbing amount of Mal/Jayne/Simon, too, for those who just can't choose.
- A vocal portion of the "dozens and dozens of viewers" 30 Rock gets is dedicated to shipping Jack/Liz. Even though Word Of God has stated it won't happen (Tina Fey said it would be "too icky"), the show itself has stopped short of Ship Sinking. In fact, it seems to do quite the reverse.
- Despite the fact that he married Lois Lane in the comics and everyone knows that, Smallville shippers pair off Clark with just about everyone shy of Ma and Pa Kent. Woe betide the people who dare suggest anyone other than Lana, Chloe, Lex, Lionel, Jimmy, etc.
- Joan Of Arcadia deserves special reference for pairing off one of the main characters with God (and not a see-through lookalike either, but the actual commandment-wielding God. Granted, it helps when He makes an appearance in every single episode, but still.
- And that one of his most common avatars is a rather cute teenage boy, who, in his first appearance, appears to be chacking out the titular character. This was played for laughs in the show, but still.
- Lost has, in addition to the Jaters and Skaters, fans of Jack/Juliet, Daniel/Charlotte, and other ships both in Canon and not.
- I swear there are actually people who ship PC Plum/Miss Hoolie on Balamory. And if you think Het Is Ew, there's Plum/Archie. One can imagine future Tropers having their childhood memories thoroughly surprised from behind.
- The Sarah Connor Chronicles fandom has a solid John/Cameron community, with a notable Cameron/Sarah community, and some rather ardent supporters of Derek/Cameron and future!John Connor/Allison Young. Also, there's more than one shipping fic about Allison/Cameron, which is disturbing in so very many ways....
- How I Met Your Mother has a strong Barney/Robin fanbase, especially since "Sandcastles in the Sand". Also, the current season has established the fact that Barney is in love with Robin.
- Why is there no House here? Oh wait, is it because most of them have been made canon at some point?
- Also, because the show doesn't take its own ships too seriously.
Cuddy: "That ship sailed long ago, House. Get over it."
House: "If you're still referring to your ass, I think 'that supertanker sailed' would be the more precise metaphor."
- Dollhouse: The most popular seem to be Echo/Ballard, Victor/Sierra and Topher with your choice of Adelle, Dr. Saunders or Ivy, but This Troper has also seen Topher/Boyd, Echo/Sierra, Echo/Alpha and Adelle/Ballard suggested. Unsurprisingly (given it's a Whedon Show) nearly all of them have at least some basis in conon.
- Ah Supernatural fandom. I don't think even the Heroes fandom can touch the insane amount of support that the gay, incestuous Fanon Sam/Dean relationship receives. It even has a cute nickname: Wincest. When Castiel showed up, the slashers who don't like Wincest immediately started shipping Dean/Castiel—literally within hours of Castiel's first appearance (which was only a couple of minutes long). Needless to say, the Wincesters were not pleased.
Film
- A contest to see who could come up with the worst ship possible ended up in a story between (shudder) Jar Jar Binks and Gollum.
Web Comics
- Oddly, on Misfile, there is only one serious ship going on. However, due to the main character Ash being a male turned into a girl, the ship is divided into two halves, one half wanting him to eventually return to being male and the other wanting her to decide to permanently stay female. Due to Emily, the other main character involved in the ship, being a girl, this causes the subtext encouraging both sides of the ship to be very odd at times.
- As a side note, the conflict between shippers and non-shippers is surprisingly strong. Some shippers have been rather violently opposed to Ash's growing relationship with Missi, with non-shippers defending it on story grounds, almost to the point of spawning an Ash/Missi ship. Ash/Em shippers have developed the unofficial slogan of "Missi should die in a fire" in response.
- Megatokyo has a few of these. The most popular being Piro/Kimiko and Largo/Erika, although Piro/Miho, Piro/Ping, Miho/Ping and Miho/Largo are popular as well.
Web Original
- An amusing variation: In Survival Of The Fittest, shipping is alluded to in universe. Popular pairings amongst SOTF buffs include: Uriel Hunter/Jacob Starr, Izzy/Adam, Alice Jones/Guy Rapide and *shudder* Adam Dodd/Danya. This is because SOTF is captured on camera by Danya's organization and broadcast on television channels all over the world, meaning almost everyone who sees it just thinks it's a very realistic television show, and fans write fan fics, not knowing that they're writing about real people who are being killed in front of them.
Western Animation
- Kim/Ron in Kim Possible — requited in the first Grand Finale. Planned from the start according to the Word Of God.
- Not that Shego's left lonely: the Drakken/Shego ship is another major pairing, and very noticeable He Is Not My Boyfriend in the Grand Finale appears to make it canon.
- Ron/Yori tension was obviously present for a while, before the above Relationship Upgrade nixed it. That plus a single scene of a Ron/Bonnie one-sided kiss practically qualifies Ron for an Unwanted Harem.
- Don't forget about the other pairings such as Kim/Shego (the other main pairing along with K/R which the creators teased the shippers with), Ron/Shego (another respected pairing), Joss/Wade, Drakken/Kim, and the list just goes on and on. Truthfully, you'd be hard-pressed to not find at least one fan for any combination of the characters.
- Avatar The Last Airbender is full of and famous for it. The creators are extremely aware of the ships, to the point of dedicating a hilarious slide show segment to almost every single one at their 2006 ComicCon panel, including some non-existing, non-sensical, and borderline incestuous. Possibly the most infamous example is the "Zutara" ship. The writers seem to be taking advantage of this — the very first clip for the second season finale centered solely around the two "spending some unexpected time together", adding up to quite a bit of hate towards the girl he actually ended up with. The trailer for the second half of the 3rd season, after completing its recap, showed Aang and Katara kissing, with Katara moving back in surprise after, following with a shot of Katara giving Zuko a close hug with closed eyes. THEN they showed the cool action sequences. Which is why you should Never Trust A Trailer. Zuko and Mai kiss after Ozai's defeat, and Aang and Katara share an equally passionate kiss of their own in the very last scene, effectively sinking the Zutaran ship,
- There was also this little chibi short that poked fun at it all.
- 99% of the Invader Zim fanfiction that erupts from the fandom's bowels is Zim/Dib or Zim/Gaz; the former is generally disgusting, while the latter is generally dark and serious.
- Teen Titans, the animated version. While Robin/Starfire is the Official Couple, Robin/Raven has a very strong following. On another front, Beast Boy/Terra is established as somewhat canon during the second season (helped by the comics), but during the third season, some tender moments between Beast Boy and Raven (ALSO in the comics! (making things even worse...)) added fuel to the fire for Beast Boy/Raven shippers, and the war between the Beast Boy/Terra and Beast Boy/Raven shippers continues to this day.
- The writing staff have stated that Beast Boy/Raven was never intentional throughout any of the show, making the Season 3 stuff a prime example of a Relationship Writing Fumble.
- Starscream and Megatron have been shipped since the original Transformers came out, although given that it's a children's cartoon the chances of it happening are nil. However, if Starscream's female clone shows even the slightest bit of interest in Megatron come the end of season three of Transformers Animated, it's going to raise a lot of eyebrows.
- Despite having very little character interaction, Prowl and Jazz of Transformers Generation One were also a very common ship. This has carried over into Transformers Animated with the characters of same name (who at least share the connection of both being cyberninjas), despite the fact that Jazz is in the Elite Guard and spends very little time on Earth or with Prowl in general. Although leaving Team Sentinel for Team Optimus towards the end of the third season and then spending half an episode just training with Prowl is probably going to put a lot of fuel on the ship fire.
- In Super Robot Monkey Team Hyperforce Go! fandom, shipping of SPRX 77 and Nova was popular, and there is reason to believe this is why they became an Official Couple.
- Jackie Chan Adventures has had several examples of this. The most popular being the character Jade with a variety of other characters, most notably Hsi Wu (there have been hints of this relationship during the show, but nothing happened), Drago, Valmont, Paco and the Dark Hand. Occasionally there is shipping done amongst the other characters of the show as well, Jackie and Viper are popular along with Valmont and Bai Sa.
- Daria, the title character and Trent Lane. The later introduction of Tom Sloane as Daria's first true boyfriend, combined with the girl becoming disillusioned with Trent's irresponsibility, has been a controversial point among fans.
- Also, while Helen and Eric (Helen's boss) are hardly ever seen together onscreen, they talk on the phone enough that many people (maybe even Jake) suspect it.
- Danny Phantom is also grounded in shipping-mania. Most fans are divided between Danny/Sam and Danny/Valerie, though there's also Sam/Tucker, Dash/Kwan, Jack/Vlad (they like to use the backwash incident as evidence for that particular one), and some truly bizarre ones such as Jazz/Clockwork. Danny himself is a living example of the Little Black Dress as fans pair him up with everyone, including Vlad Masters and the Fenton Thermos, the latter being a parody ship. Luckily, most fanfiction has Danny as an adult getting together with Vlad... well, most. From there it gets into Squick territory.
- Ben 10 Alien Force may be the first case in existence where the female lead is shipped with the bad boy in canon (and badly, at that) and with The Hero in fanon, despite the implications.
- The Raccoons - Bert and Lisa. The only episode to deal with such a romance is "Spring Fever" in which Lisa had to let down Bert who was going way too fast, but the fact it ends with Lisa sending an affectionate letter to Bert before she moves into the forest in the next season was enough for the series' fans.
- Futurama: Fry and Leela. Shipping thread runs throughout the series, and Fry tends to express his (as yet unrequited) love with ridiculously large-scale objects or works. Oddly enough, everything returns to status quo at the end of an episode. Who knew.
- They did get together at the end of the last Futurama movie.
- The Real Adventures Of Jonny Quest: Jonny and Jessie. This troper's introduction to Shipping.
- Chip And Dale Rescue Rangers: Chip and Gadget (though there are a few who support Dale and Gadget, and quite a few who believe Gadget shouldn't end up with either/anybody). Also, Dale and Foxglove (supported almost universally, even though she only appears in one episode).
- Gargoyles: Goliath and Elisa being the main Will They Or Wont They (and probably this troper's first Ship).
Video Games
- Any game that makes shipping a game mechanic is a magnet for this.
- Especially Mass Effect, which provided several canonical shipping possibilities, leaving fans to inevitably gripe about the few that weren't included.
- Don't forget Fire Emblem, where shipping improves both units' stats.
- Baldurs Gate. Half the mods are for shipping people that were unshippable in the original. The rest just create new characters entirely to ship them with the main PC:
- Half Life 2: Alyx/Gordon. Unlikely to be requited in the games, due to Gordon never speaking, but the ship has near universal support in fanfic. It also has canon support from Eli Vance, Alyx's father. The only opposition comes from the small group of fans who dislike Alyx and want to see her die.
- Or Chell/Gordon fans. I used to be one. Then I finished Half Life 2.
- Phoenix Wright thrives on this, due to the ratio of Ship Tease to canon couples. Especially for people who like their Ho Yay.
- The Harvest Moon fandom is completely and utterly
rife with devoted to shipping. To be fair though, there are numerous potential brides and/or grooms in each game and, quite frankly, the series is about farming, so it only make sense that fan interest would gravitate toward pairings. Surprisingly, the shippers in this fandom are very civil to each other.
- Team Fortress 2: Heavy/Medic has been the most popular since day one, but Spy/Engineer and Sniper/Spy are also common choices. The TF2 shipping community can at best be described as... obsessive.
- This troper is a fanatical TF2 player and was not even aware that such a community existed. He would further like to un-read this entry if possible. Backstabbing, indeed.
- Golden Sun: the fandom has enough shippers, with enough interest in pairings of just about any pair of characters, as well as characters that are all in their late teens (effective), that...
- First, people made terms for these pairings. For example, pairing Isaac and Mia became known as "mudshipping" because Isaac was of the earth element and Mia was of the water element.
- Second, the amount of shipping (and ship naming) got so out of hand that people started making up extremely unrealistic and impractical pairings, such as "magmashipping" between Garet (fire) and The Wise One (a spherical chunk of rock with a single large eye) just to parody the rest of the shipping.
- And then there's the lighthouse scene at the end of the first game.
- Though some people (especially Felix/Karst shippers) insist that Felix and Sheba are Like Brother And Sister, pointing to the
fivefour-year age difference between them. (Though on the other hand, it's pretty much impossible to tell how old Karst is.)
- Now it seems like it'll die off a bit, at least in respect to the first two games, because Golden Sun DS is using the direct descendants of the GS 1/2 Cast. So it looks like Nintendo is readying their Wave-Motion Coning anti-shipping torpedo.
- Thrall and Jaina, sittin' in a tree...
- For Metal Gear Solid fandom- OtaSune. Enough said.
- Sonic The Hedgehog has no canon romance beyond Amy Rose portraying a schoolgirl crush on the hero, and Rouge flirting with anyone to get her advantage. Just don't tell any of the shippers this.
- That's debatable- the Archie Sat AM canon also adds Sally as a possible or canonical love interest, depending on which side of the Dork Age you're on.
- The waters are made murkier by how, in in radical contrast to the games, the Sonic X anime devotes a great deal of time dropping anvil-sized hints that Sonic loves Amy in return.
- Sonic X also has allot of moments between Knuckles and Rouge as did Sonic Adventure 2. Also, the games have started supporting Sonic and Amy. It all started when Sonic and the Secret Rings officially labeled Amy Sonic's love interest. Sonic 06 has the Trail of Love between Elise and Amy (Both are girls, so its pretty obvious what the trail is about) if you choose Elise, the man is concerned about choosing baised on title, if you choose Amy he's much happier with your choice. Sonic Chronciles if your nice to Amy, you get a scene where you get to decide whether or not Sonic loves Amy, and then Sonic Unleashed has a scene where Amy asks you out on a date, and you can reply either yes or no, the canon answer is possibly given in Sonic and the Black Knight where Amy is mad at Sonic for missing their date, because Sonic had been sucked into the world of King Author.
- Touhou... Oh, boy. The sheer number of pairings are mindboggling, from the hateship between Mokou and Kaguya, to Marisa stealing enough Precious Things to have a whole harem. Amazingly, flamewars seem lees likely to spring up in the corner of the fandom this troper frequents, as either (a) the denizens of that community are less Serious Business than most, or (b) everyone there agrees that it'll all degenerate into an orgy at some point after a massive spellcard battle royale.
- Why hasn't anyone mentioned The Legend Of Zelda yet? Any time Link winds up with a new potential love interest (Zelda came first, and then there was Saria, Malon, Ruto, Nabooru, Medli, Midna...), you can bet there'll be fanfics out within days. Just watch out if you come across a Link/Zelda fic and your favorite pairing is, say, Link/Ruto - the end result might raise your blood pressure.
- Needless to say, the only pairing not shipped frequently is the Link/Ilia pair...Which is actually the closest thing to canon romance in the entire series.
- Despite the fact that Cortana (of the "Halo" trilogy) is a AI without a physical body, many fans insist that she and Chief have a romantic relationship.
- Two words: courtly love. Three more: virtual reality environments. *g*
- Final Fantasy and Kingdom Hearts both have their share of infamous ships and ship wank.
- The World Ends With You is full of endless shipping. Basically any two (or three, or four, and let's not forget "reaperpile") characters you can think of have been made into a pairing. Neku x Shiki, Neku x Joshua, Hanekoma x Joshua, Beat x Rhyme, Eri x Shiki, and of course, anyone with that tentacle noise....
- By this point, it seems that Squeenix has caught on. Remember that scene in Another Day?
- The Tales Series is full of it. Especially the newer ones (Symphonia and on)
Other
- On the Order Of The Stick forums, there is actually a thread devoted to writing ships about other forum members. No, seriously. There's actually two three four five six threads. =P
- We do too.
- This seems inevitable on shipping-focused forums. This Troper was a part of one... but it ended badly.
- The Protectors of the Plot Continuum not only ship agents together, but have a whole Alternative Universe called the shipverse, where everyone in the PPC is shipped with each other, and free love is not only encouraged, it's a way of life.
- This came as a natural response to The Nostalgia Critic teaming up with The Nostaglia Chick to review Ferngully. The review in question contains not only the two of them beating the crap out of each other, but even has the two mocking the hald-holding "fairy sex" scene by imitating it.
Real Life
- Historians talking about any major unmarried historical figure. For example, despite the Virgin Queen thing, Elizabeth I seems to have been shipped with most men she ever met, although just to be different this troper is going with the Mar-I-Beth shipping instead...
- Antarctic fur seal and king penguin [1].
- Celebrities, especially attractive ones. Tabloid journalists sometimes even write accompanying fanfiction.
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