Ship Sinking / Video Games

• Advanced V.G.: Yuka/Tamao is popular with the Japanese fandom, as seen in fan art and multiple doujinshi dedicated to portraying them as a couple. Takahashi Kimura, the official artist for the series, shot it down himself with an official sketch that had Tamao gift-wrap herself naked as a birthday present to Yuka. Yuka's response effectively amounted to, 'Thanks, but no thanks'.
• In Assassin's Creed: Revelations Lucy/Desmond was sunk when it was revealed that Lucy did not survive being stabbed at the end of Assassin's Creed: Brotherhood. Fans of the ship held out hope that She's Just Hiding. Then Assassin's Creed III killed Desmond, and Assassin's Creed IV: Black Flag showed us that he was definitely Killed Off for Real. And if that was not enough, the icing of the cake was the reveal in the DLC of Revelations which showed that Lucy was a Templar.
• In Baldur's Gate II, there's plenty of interaction and fondness and loyalty between Imoen and the main character...and then, boom! Half-siblings. (Didn't stop some people, and was even referenced in-game.)
• Batman: Arkham Knight sinks Fan-Preferred Couple Batman/Catwoman, much to the displeasure of fans. The Dark Knight informs Selina that they can never see each other again. This is because he plans on Faking the Dead after his Secret Identity is revealed. In a brief Pet the Dog moment for fans, the two do share a kiss before departing.
• Bayonetta 3 cruelly and viciously sunk Bayonetta/Jeanne, the Fan-Preferred Couple of the LBGT fanbase, in a franchise-wide case of Bait-and-Switch Lesbians. Despite the previous two games strongly empathising their relationship with Bayo going to hell to rescue Jeanne in the second game and there being plenty of official art of them together the third game instead kills Jeanne off and has Bayonetta shack up with Luka the Butt-Monkey Handsome Lech who Took a Level in Badass and newcomer Viola is revealed to be their daughter.
• Prior to the release of Bioshock Infinite, Booker/Elizabeth was a popular pairing. Anyone who continued to ship them in-game would have been in for a nasty surprise the ending reveals Elizabeth is Booker's daughter.
• BlazBlue:
  • Hazama/Makoto was sunk in Decision when he tried to kill her. The scrap was smelted in Slight Hope when Makoto's continued interference slagged Hazama's plans and drove him to murderous rage.
  • Hazama/Trinity was sunk in Phase Shift 4 when Terumi manipulated her into lifting Mind Eater, and then he proceeded to kill Nine and Trinity before tossing them into the nearest cauldron.
  • While there are people who think Ragna/Nu is cute, Chronophantasma Extend arcade suggests that losing to Lambda has driven Nu completely off the deep end, changing her goals from "merge with Ragna" to "everybody dies". How this pans out in the next game is yet to be seen.
  • Speaking of Ragna, all three of his popular canon ships died in Central Fiction.
    • Ragna/Noel died because Noel merged with Izanami and the Orgin, therefore becoming Saya/Ragna's sister.
    • Ragna/Rachel died because Ragna erased himself and took Rachel's memories of him. However, there is slight hope. Rachel vows to find him (despite not remembering him) by the end of the game.
    • Ragna/Celica died because Celica chooses not to confess to Ragna, as she was almost out of life force and didn't want to burden him. In the ending, however, Ragna's Blood Scythe is planted beside the cross marking her grave.
• At the Devil May Cry 5 presentation by Capcom's 9/23 Tokyo Game Show 2018 event, game director Hideaki Itsuno had to clarify that Dante and Lady canonically aren't dating, partly due to Itsuno sort of introducing Dante's English voice actor Reuben Langdon's wife, who was also present and was cosplaying as Lady. The shipping of Dante and Lady by fans had been present since Devil May Cry 3: Dante's Awakening when it was first released back in 2005.
• In Disgaea 4: A Promise Unforgotten near the beginning we get a nice comment courtesy from your friendly neighborhood Werewolf Fenrich, that implies something may or may not happen between main character Valvatorez and Action Girl Fuka. It turns out nothing happens between the two and Fuka ends up shipping Valvatorez and Artina. And even if you do get Fuka's epilogue, she ends up sinking her own ship by choosing not to pursue Valvatorez, knowing that she would have to deal with Artina and Fenrich and break the "friendship rule" if she did.
• Dragon Age II gives you a chance at playfully flirting with one of your companions, Aveline. This of course is during the beginning of the mission where you have to play match maker with the guy she's actually interested in.
• Final Fantasy:
  • Final Fantasy VIII fired both tubes to ensure that players understood that Quistis was not going to interfere with the Official Couple.
  • Prior to the game's release, some Final Fantasy XIII shippers had taken to Snow/Lightning which was Jossed hard by canon since Snow's engaged to Lightning's sister and Lightning really hates Snow.
• Fire Emblem:
  • An odd (and cruel) example is in the first series. Nyna/Camus doesn't work out because he dies. But then in Fire Emblem Gaiden (and its remake Shadows of Valentia), he's revealed to have survived and is now with a White Magician Girl named Tatiana. This would leave Hardin/Nyna and they're married at the end of the first game. Sadly, even that is sunk in the third game when it is revealed Nyna had been faking romantic love for Hardin for the sake of their kingdoms and he soon falls victim to Love Makes You Evil and Brainwashed and Crazy. And when Camus (under the alias Sirius) saves Nyna from Medeus' hypnosis, he makes his intentions clear that he will go back to Valentia and live with Tatiana instead. Hence, two ships for Nyna are sunk, and her ending implies that she never gets over Camus...
  • While the sources are somewhat unproven, in the prototype of Fire Emblem: Genealogy of the Holy War, Seliph/Julia was a hard-lined Official Couple, but in the release, it was given a "490 -5t" love growth, making it practically impossible... unless you've got some mad skills and LOTS of patience.
  • A minor but otherwise important one happens in regards to Eliwood's wife in Fire Emblem: The Binding Blade. While he can marry either Ninian, Fiora, or Lyn in the prequel, Fire Emblem: The Blazing Blade, a Support conversation Roy has with Marcus in the former implies that his mother probably isn't Lyn. The reason? Marcus mentions that Eliwood gave his wife her favorite flower "from the snowy highlands," and the only snow area on the continent is the country of Ilia. This makes it far more likely that Roy's mother is either Fiora (a Pegasus Knight; they're all from Ilia) or Ninian (an ice dragon who was born and raised in Ilia), compared to Lyn, who is a native of the Sacae Plains. Even then, the game leans Ninian as the closest to Eliwood's canon wife, and the novelization of The Blazing Blade (whose canonicity can go either way) puts them together.
  • Fire Emblem: Radiant Dawn sank Ike/Elincia pretty hard. Not only did they lack the chemistry and Ship Tease of the previous game, but Ike's ending has him taking off either alone or with Soren or Ranulf, while Elincia's only ending is with Geoffrey. Granted, lack of paired endings doesn't mean other ships are Forever Sunk, but in this case it all but seals this pairing's lack of presence.
  • Ike/Soren took a hit thanks to the Canon Welding Awakening... Priam is in some fashion a descendant of Ike.
  • Awakening also has Chrom/Cordelia, which has the sad, sad honour of being sunk by the game mechanics themselves. Cordelia is all but stated to have an unrequited crush on Chrom, but not only can she not marry him^note Chrom can only marry the Female Avatar, Sumia, Sully, Maribelle or Olivia, and will marry the Maiden if none of the others are available. they can't even support!. And it got worse in the Summer Scramble DLC, where the developers finally gave Cordelia a conversation with Chrom, which is filled with awkward moments... and ends with Cordelia sinking the ship herself!
  • In Fire Emblem Fates, Owain, Inigo, and Severa from Awakening show up under pseudonyms, sinking several ships in the process.
    • All three of them can freely marry any appropriate member of the Fates cast, sinking every Awakening ship involving the trio except Severa/Owain and Severa/Inigo.
    • As far as their parents are concerned, none of the three react to Robin (in his amiibo battle) or Frederick (in the "Before Awakening" DLC) in a manner indicating that they are the fathers. In addition, Inigo a.k.a. Laslow makes no indication that Lucina is his sister or Chrom is his father. The ships sunk in this manner are Chrom/Olivia, Frederick/Olivia, Frederick/Lissa, Frederick/Cordelia, Robin/Olivia, Robin/Lissa, and Robin/Cordelia.
  • In Fire Emblem Gaiden, Saber and Genny are kind of a Fan-Preferred Couple despite the lack of in-game interactions, on the basis that they were the only two characters who got unnamed lovers in their endings. The Gaiden remake Shadows of Valentia gave them no unique interactions (which is much more glaring when every Official Couple now has supports or death quote interactions), revealed that Genny's only 15 whereas Saber is 34, and added endings where several other characters find love with someone unknown. While Genny does mention that she'd like to find an older man to fall in love with, and there's nothing explicitly saying that she wouldn't consider Saber as a prospect lover, it's just highly unlikely since their endings remain the same even when the other is dead.
  • Fire Emblem: Three Houses contains a lot of Ship Tease for Dimitri and Edelgard early on (with Claude playing Shipper on Deck to mess with them), but it takes a hit when Dimitri reveals Edelgard's mother was his father's second wife, making them step-siblings. But it's utterly torpedoed just before the Time Skip when Edelgard is revealed as the Flame Emperor, and from that point Dimitri's feelings for her can be summed up as blind, murderous LOATHING.
• While Goemon/Omitsu are the de facto Official Couple of Ganbare Goemon, there's an instance of Goemon/Yae teasing that's almost directly followed by sinking in Kuru Nara Koi! Ayashige Ikka no Kuroi Kage. Partway through the game, an injured Goemon is too weak to take the medicine brought to him by his friends, resulting in an impending Medicine Kiss scenario. A flustered Yae states that "Goemon's life is an irreplaceable thing!" ... So she has an obliging Ebisumaru perform the task instead - No Yay, indeed! (Just to rub it in, the conversation following that scene has Goemon and Yae make it very clear that Omitsu is the one he's truly concerned about.)
• Golden Sun:
  • Many a Mudshipper (Isaac/Mia) weeps at the revelation that Matthew is the product of Valeshipping (Isaac/Jenna).
  • Mud and Flame (Garet/Jenna) were far from the only casualties of the sequel. Whole squadrons were scrapped to make way for Generation Xerox.
  • Imilshipping (Mia/Alex) also took a hit after Dark Dawn clarified their relationship -They're cousins. In the first two games, their exact relationship wasn't known, only that they were from the same clan and Alex was once a pupil of Mia's father, making them a frequent target of Childhood Friend Romance.
• Guilty Gear:
  • Many people were surprised to find out in Guilty Gear 2: Overture that Ky Kiske is unofficially married to a Gear and fathered a son; later on, that Gear is revealed to be Dizzy. Ky/Jam supporters got an ouch there and for some reason, Ky/Dizzy fics started to pop up more often.
  • Weep for Dizzy/Testament. Because at least Sol/Ky fans got a consolation prize thrown at them, what with Ky's son Sin having Sol as his mentor. But Testament, who hasn't gotten an appearance since the Guilty Gear XX game? Nooooooo...
• Injustice 2 is not kind to ships. Catwoman gets together with Batman in her arcade ending, only to dump him after getting bored with the mundane lifestyle. Harley/Ivy also gets sunk, as the latter betrays the former for the Society and later even almost kills her by sending her into shock.
• The King of Fighters:
  • The rather popular Athena/Kensou may have been sunk in KOF XIII. If you fight as the Women's Team and find the Psycho Soldiers in the Story Mode, Athena straightforwardly rejects the idea of dating Kensou and says he's her "companion" when asked about it by Mai, and later cuts off Kensou when he attempts to declare his feelings in public. She stops him from confessing again in their pre-fight talks. At this rate Athena seems to be gearing towards Celibate Heroine, since as an Idol Singer she can't exactly date anyone or her career will be damaged by "scandals" (She uses this to avert going out with Benimaru, too.)
  • Athena's unrequited love for Kyo Kusanagi seems to have been sunk, even when it was mostly exclusive to materials on the periphery of canon. Their KOF XIII pre-fight talks sound devoid of Ship Tease, and the one with NESTS!Kyo alludes to Kyo's girlfriend Yuki, whom Athena is in good terms with. The semi-canon KOF:KYO manga/game and 2000 CD drama also shoot it down: in the first Athena's initial interest in Kyo switches to them interacting in more friendly terms after she learns of Yuki and befriends her (and in the game, having Kyo flirt with Athena may make the player lose favor with her), and in the second Athena finds a missing Kyo and begs him to come back home... but while Kyo listens to her, he refuses to come back home since he doesn't want his friends and family to be targeted by NESTS, and shows her a talisman that Yuki gave him as they speak.
  • The Robert/Yuri ship was officially sunk by Buriki One which, according to SNK, is the latest point in the AOF/KOF timeline^note Ryo and Robert are in their early 40's by then, placing Buriki One over 20 years later. Ryo states that Robert and Yuri are both still single and haven't even had a date yet. Meaning, all his efforts to get with her throughout KOF are destined to fail. Ouch.
• In the trailer for The Passing, an expansion campaign for Left 4 Dead 2, Francis (L4D1 Survivor) and Rochelle (L4D2) see each other; Rochelle randomly says that she hates stairs. Francis, who has a meme of hating everything, says with genuine interest "Oh my god... you hate stuff too?". Rochelle says she hates various things, with Francis happily agreeing with her. Then she crosses the line and says "I hate your vest!", to which "I don't think this is gonna work out." This is subverted in-game, where they actually have a mutual attraction to each other. Likewise, Nick and Ellis were extremely popular to ship together, but the ship sunk hard once it was revealed that Ellis was madly in love with Zoey.
• The Legend of Heroes: Trails of Cold Steel III was not kind on the Rean/Claire shipping especially since the game actually gave her more ship worthy moments, even giving Rean a kiss on his cheek. But when Claire decided to side with her boss the Big Bad and help sacrifice Altina, a little girl who was also Rean's student to make her into a sword to destroy the corrupted divine beast of the goddess of the world which will then spread the curse all over Zemuria, the ship sank really hard. Hammered more after her and the rest of the Ironbloods boss fight where Rean and the rest of his students get past them while Rean's friends hold them back and Claire tries to reach her hand towards Rean but Rean doesn't even bother looking back at her.
• The Legend of Zelda:
  • In The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time, Word of God confirming the split timeline sinks every single Link pairing. At the end of Ocarina of Time Zelda sends Link back in time to when he was a child. This creates two timelines, the "Adult Timeline" where Link defeats Ganon and where most of the game took place, and the "Child Timeline", the timeline only briefly seen during the ending where Link is a child again (certainly he ends up with someone, as the Link of Twilight Princess is his descendant, but no indication is given as to whether it's any of the characters from Ocarina of Time). In the "Adult Timeline", Link ceases to exist and it eventually leads into The Legend of Zelda: The Wind Waker while the "Child Timeline" eventually leads into The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess. While technically Link can still be paired in the "Child Timeline", the versions of the characters you meet during the game are the "Adult Timeline" versions. Not only do none of the shipping options happen, none of Link's friends ever see him again after the ending. Furthermore, in Wind Waker, Tetra is supposed to be a direct descendant of OOT Zelda, which implies that in the Wind Waker timeline, OOT Zelda did eventually marry someone who wasn't Link. And what leads to The Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past naturally makes any romantic relationship involving OOT Link impossible there as well. Of course, the Link from The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess is supposed to be a descendant of The Hero of Time from the "Child Timeline". And the TP Link happens to have a lot in common with Ensemble Dark Horse Farm Girl Malon. He is a Rancher who owns a horse with the same name as hers and can play a song that was passed down to Malon from her mother.
  • In The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom, sequel to The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild, fan favourite character Sidon received a new Love Interest in the form of a previously unmentioned childhood friend Yona, whom he will end up married to by the end of his quest line. This, of course, was not received particularly well, since a vast majority of his fanbase liked to ship him with Link—the pairing being easily the second most popular next to the ever ship-teased Zelda/Link. While Yona's existence hasn't particularly stopped the Sidon/Link fanbase from continuing on with the pairing, it has led to poor Yona becoming subject to a lot of Die for Our Ship.
  • Hyrule Warriors heavily implies that Link and Zelda's incarnations always end up being romantically involved and that it never ends well for anyone else who falls for them. Cia and Lana learned this the hard way. Even though it's non-canon to the rest of the series, other women who have either implied or confirmed feelings for Link were sunk in-game (Saria, Ruto, Marin, Midna and Mipha to name a few), which suggests that might actually be the case anyway.
• Mass Effect 3:
  • A missile was sent at Jacob/Shepard and Thane/Shepard. Jacob cheats on her, and Thane is killed by Kai Leng.
    • As far as Thane's romance goes, if Shepard hasn't gotten involved with anybody else, Thane, as a spirit, shows up at the end of the Citadel DLC and it's implied that he's waiting for her on the other side. There's still hope for them if Shepard's patient and devoted.
  • What's that? You liked Kal'Reegar and Tali's interactions in the previous game and wanted to see more of them? Too bad, he gets killed off-screen.
  • Joker/Shepard is torpedoed, too, what with him getting together with EDI, although he does admit he'd totally date her in another universe.
  • James/Shepard doesn't happen either. (Honestly, FemShep's options in the game are pretty limited if she's heterosexual.) James/Shepard shippers are thrown a bone in the final DLC, Citadel, but he only agrees to a drunken one night stand after repeatedly insisting that he's not interested in her for numerous reasons. By the end of it, Shepard is basically sexually harassing the guy.
  • Mass Effect and Mass Effect 2 have the option of the player doing this to themselves, romancing someone then getting them killed in certain spoileriffic scenes.
• The clumsy (but perfectly in-character) romantic subplot involving Naomi Hunter in Metal Gear Solid 4 was arguably added to distract from the fact that Snake and Otacon had been living together for nine years and had recently adopted a daughter together. It failed to work — shipping carried on as normal, but now everyone just hates Naomi. It's the two men who end up "together" at the end, anyway. (Plus Otacon is required by divine law to kill one woman a game.)
• Metroid: After Metroid Fusion, many fans had shipped Samus with Adam Malkovich. With Other M, the writers fired a Super Missile at said ship with this single line: "Because I was so young when I lost both of my parents, there's no question that I saw Adam as a father figure."
• In Neverwinter Nights 2, Bishop/FemalePC was sunk a grand total of three times. First, when he betrays her; second, when the infamous ending happens; and third, when his soul is eaten in Mask of the Betrayer. Seeing as they are a Fan-Preferred Couple, mods exist to change this.
• Overwatch
  • The comics revealed that Lena "Tracer" Oxton has a non-combatant girlfriend named Emily. This sunk pretty much all the ships with her and any playable characters, especially with her Arch-Enemy Amélie "Widowmaker" Lacroix.
  • Soldier: 76 (Jack Morrison) was revealed in a short story that he has an ex-boyfriend who he still thinks about, killing any ships he had, particularly with his former second in command Ana.
• Professor Layton:
  • Azran Legacy effectively sunk every popular ship that has been introduced in the prequel series. Descole is Layton's older brother, and Bronev is Layton and Descole's father. And Claire? That ship was confirmed and burned at the same time! And boy did it burn...
  • Every possible pairing in the games involving Luke Triton was sunk by Layton Mystery Detective Agency (the anime adaptation of Katrielle and the Millionaires' Conspiracy, which in turn is a distant sequel to Unwound Future): grown-up Luke now has a wife, Marina Triton.
• Resident Evil
  • Despite having good chemistry and plenty of Ship Tease Billy/Rebecca doesn't happen at the end of Resident Evil 0. Billy being an escaped convict flees into the wild, while Rebecca goes to the Spencer Mansion (she still keeps his dog tags however). Billy is never seen or heard from again and Rebecca never talks about him.
  • Leon/Ada seem like this at the end of Resident Evil 2 with Leon escaping with Claire and Sherry while Ada is left behind, but RE4, Damnation and RE6 brings Leon and Ada together again... then has them separate again. Likely because Ada is a morally ambiguous spy who doesn't do commitment. Not that this has really stopped shippers.
  • Leon/Claire in Resident Evil 2 is seemingly sunk single-handedly by the aforementioned Ada, then it resurfaces years later stronger than ever in Resident Evil: Infinite Darkness... at least before the Bittersweet Ending where Claire coldly leaves Leon angry that he won’t expose the government’s wrongdoing. Much like Chris and Jill, it’s strongly inferred Leon and Claire like each a lot, but it’s still left fairly ambiguous if their feelings are romantic or just affectionately platonic based on shared experiences.
  • Resident Evil 4 has Ashley flirting with Leon on several occasions, leading all the way up to the ending cutscene where she asks him if, once they get back to the U.S., he wants to "do some overtime". He declines and Ashley says that she knew he wouldn't accept.
  • In Resident Evil 3: Nemesis Carlos, a Casanova Wannabe Umbrella operative, flirts with Jill multiple times, saying ladies can't resist his "foxy accent". Jill, being more interested in surviving the Zombie Apocalypse, either shoots down his advances or simply ignores it. Subverted in the remake, Jill acts more Tsundere to Carlos (who's more charming in this version) and actually responds to his affection having grown to care about him. It's possible since the remakes are set in an Alternate Timeline, Jill and Carlos could become a item, but given Carlos's absence in The Stinger it's left ambiguous.
  • Resident Evil – Code: Veronica attempts to set up Claire/Steve until he gets injected with the T-Veronica virus by Alexia, turns into a Humanoid Abomination, has to be fought and then gets mortally wounded reverting into a human again and tells Claire he loves her before dying. Ship sunk.
  • In Resident Evil: Revelations, Jessica Sherawat repeatedly hits on Chris Redfield, but she may as well flirt with a brick wall for all the good it does.
• Sonic the Hedgehog, being one of the most infamous franchises when it comes to shipping, tends to actively avoid any official relationships, likely due to a combination of how divided the fanbase is on the subject and that rather infamous debacle with Elise. That said, a number of them have been actively sunk.
  • Sonic Rivals 2 could be seen as this to Shadow/Rouge fans, considering the two clash in that game, as opposed to the Ship Tease in the first one. Other games to feature this are non-canon however, such as the Mario and Sonic games, and the main games where they work together show them doing so fairly well; they're Team Dark, after all. The ship was later more seriously sunk by Sonic the Hedgehog (IDW) writer Ian Flynn, who on his podcast stated that, according to Sega, they don't see each other as lovers or even really as friends.
  • Sonic Chronicles is (well, was) this for Knuckles/Tikal fans too, as it states that Knuckles is a descendant of Tikal's father.
  • Silver/Blaze was pretty popular around the time Sonic the Hedgehog (2006) was released, until it was revealed that Blaze locked herself away in an Alternate Dimension. This is further emphasized with the revelation that Blaze and Silver don't even live in the same timeline^note the details are infamously messy, but to keep it simple; Silver is from a range of Bad Future types, while Blaze is from another dimension entirely, making any interaction limited at best. They are often seen with each other whenever on screen, but this is likely due to audience recognition than any real feelings for each other.
  • Then there is the ever infamous Sonadow, a shipping of, well, Sonic and Shadow. If the Twitter Takeover from on the cusp of Sonic Forces is any indication, however, BOTH recipients are aware of the pairing. And they both hate it.
  • Prior to the release of Sonic Superstars, Trip was shipped with Fang on grounds of the two being henchmen working under Eggman. The ship was pulverized by Piko Hammers when it was revealed that said partnership was an abusive one, with Trip ultimately calling it off by wrecking Fang's giant robot. The passengers for the ship eagerly abandoned it and went on to ship Trip with Amy instead.
• Soul Series:
  • Soul Edge sank the Seong Mi-na/Hwang pairing during her ending for that game, when she runs away from home and leaves a note for her father saying "marrying Hwang wasn't for her." By the following game, Soulcalibur, her father was trying to wed her to another of his students named Kim, which angered Mi-na, causing her to run away from home again. From SCII onward, her father took the hint and let it drop. SCII through SCIV also sink the possibility of rival naval vessel Mi-na/Yun-seong, as Mi-na interacts with him in a sisterly manner and an official relationship chart in the fourth game (and Broken Destiny) strictly defines their relationship as platonic.
  • Soulcalibur V continued the trend with other characters:
    • The Kilik/Xianghua shippers were teased when the latter's replacement and daughter Leixia appeared wearing Kilik's Dvapara-Yuga necklace. However, it sunk HARD when it was revealed Xianghua married the Ming General Yan Wujin. Guess who Xiba's parents are, though.
    • Tira's story profile appears to have sunk the Nightmare/Tira pairing. The story itself seems to lend (more) credence to Tira/Soul Edge, though.
    • Hilde is now an Action Mom? And she's travelling with Siegfried as a mercenary now? Yes! Hilde/Siegfried Battle Couple finally confirmed! Oh, yes! Ye—wait... Word of God... is those children aren't his.
  • In Soulcalibur VI, which is a Soft Reboot taking place in an alternate timeline, no time is wasted sinking Hwang/Mi-na and Hilde/Siegfried. Mi-na is explicitly stated to see Hwang as a Cool Big Bro and has no romantic feelings for him, and Hilde is revealed to be betrothed to her cousin Wilhelm.^note Yes, very gross, but these kinds of unions weren't exactly rare in 16th Century Europe.
• Falco Lombardi and Katt Monroe from Star Fox are not only a ship sinking, but an Incompatible Orientation. There was not much of an associated fandom Humiliation Conga in the West, because the canonical manga this appeared in was Japan-only (packaged with Star Fox Adventures), and only started to surface in the West through Scanlation, long after Falox had already become the dominant Falco ship in Japan and the Western fandom had long since already broken over Krystal (introduced in the aforementioned Adventures).
• Playfully done in Super Smash Bros. Brawl, with the "Unwanted Suitors" event. Zelda and Samus fight off a long approaching stream of invisible Luigis and Captain Falcons, and since Samus/Falcon was the most popular het pairing in the fandom before Brawl came along...
• In Sly Cooper: Thieves in Time, Penelope undergoes a Face–Heel Turn and it's made very clear that she and Bentley are done.
• Tales Series:
  • Stahn/Leon and Stahn/Philia are both sunk by the sequel showing that Stahn married Rutee and had a child with her before he was killed. Even after Leon is brought back to life, Stahn/Leon was further sunk by Judas being disgusted and horrified when Loni asks if he had any romantic entanglements with Stahn or Rutee.
  • Tales of Symphonia: Dawn of the New World intentionally creates and sinks a ship as a distraction. the "Love Letter" Raine gives Regal was actually a note asking him to keep an eye on Emil's personality changes.
  • Tales of Graces: Both the popular Asbel/Sophie and Asbel/Richard ships are sunk by Asbel marrying Cheria and being shown to have had children with her in the end cutscene.
• Team Fortress 2:
  • Much rage erupted among fans who ship Heavy/Medic when the WAR update gave the Demoman the Medic-specific domination quote: "DOMINATED! And I've been shagging your wife!" It is possible, though that Demo was drunk as hell when he said this.
  • One of the Soldier's domination quotes over the Sniper is: "I'll send condolences to your kangaroo wife." Given that this is, well, the Soldier, fans are much less inclined to take this as evidence that the Sniper is not secretly snogging the Spy senseless.
  • Said Sniper/Spy fans are also apt to pretend that Scout's Mom doesn't exist.
  • The Demoman/Soldier pairing came courtesy of Valve pre-sunk as the Excuse Plot for the WAR update was that the Administrator was out to destroy their friendship.
  • "Meet The Pyro" reveals that the entire team is terrified of Pyro, which makes the most of the Pyro-related pairings now rather unlikely. Pyro does still have a canon friend through the Engineer, if the True Meaning comic is any indication.
  • Miss Pauling had been subject to Ship Tease with the Scout for some time, only for Jay Pinkerton to reveal her to be a lesbian on Twitter.
    • However, Jay's confirmation hasn't been officially endorsed (or even agreed upon) by the other Valve writers, who range from saying Miss Pauling is openly asexual to agreeing with the original ship tease with Scout, the comics and the Expiration Date short film edging towards the latter.
  • Also, Scout/Spy is a popular one for reasons unknown, tended to be the feature in a lot of softer, angst-related stories. Never mind the fact they quite literally hate each other, oh, and the The Naked and the Dead comic has revealed that Scout is the Spy's son. So yeah, that one sunk fairly quickly.
• The Touhou Project fandom, due to ZUN's Shrug of God and the lack of any Official Couples, usually doesn't have to worry about this. Usually. Aya/Momiji shippers got a nasty kick in the pants when Double Spoiler ~ Touhou Bunkachou revealed that there's actually a bit of bad blood between the two. This has not stopped the fan art from rolling in the slightest, though, some deciding to simply take their shipping in a bit of a different direction.
• Some Warcraft fans interpreted an interlude in Arthas: Rise of the Lich King as sinking the Thrall/Jaina ship. The official sink is pairing Thrall with a Mag'har shamanka in The Shattering. In the Tides of War novel Jaina and Thrall's friendship falls apart and Jaina starts a relationship with Kalecgos. As of World of Warcraft patch 4.2 Aggra and Thrall are now life mates (married, for you non-orcs) and Aggra is pregnant. The complete and final nail in the coffin came with Mists of Pandaria, wherein the destruction of Theramore Isle has caused Jaina to become fervently racist against the Horde, orcs in particular, encouraging Varian to rally his guardsmen and slaughter the present Horde leaders, her "friend" Thrall among them during their choosing of a new Warchief after the turmoil following Garrosh's defeat. Just so the ship sank even further, when Jaina is included in Heroes of the Storm, even at her pre-Mists of Pandaria phase, one of her 'annoyed' quotes reflect that she finds the concept of shipping her and Thrall ridiculous and she preferred blue over green, referring to her romance with Arthas (who prominently wore blue when he's human) and Kalegcos, and the last two people pursuing romance with her ends up as world-destroying Omnicidal Maniac (the aforementioned Arthas, and also Kael'thas), so she settles that her OTP is with studying. Being a game in a more 'lighthearted' setting, this is done more for laughs.
• Xenoblade Chronicles 1 has a curious in-universe example: Sharla encourages Melia to keep fighting for Shulk's affection despite that his Childhood Friend Romance girlfriend Fiora is Back from the Dead. Melia eventually gives up on him, though.
• Xenoblade Chronicles 2: In the main game, it's unclear what relationship Mythra had with the hero Addam, her previous driver. Her current driver (and love interest) Rex is directly compared to him several times. The prequel DLC immediately makes it clear that there was no romance whatsoever; Addam acts like a put-upon father trying to deal with his bratty teenage daughter. Addam even has a wife, though she never appears on screen.
• At the end of Xenosaga, the obviously romantic subtext between Shion and KOS-MOS is abruptly shoved aside when Shion ends up with Allen, the series' resident Butt-Monkey. In a case of Throw the Dog a Bone, KOS-MOS and Shion can't be together, but will be in another Reincarnation. So hey, he gets to be with her since she can't be with her soul-mate.