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Just in case, the paragraphs referring to the following fandoms have been moved to their own pages:

  • Ace Attorney:
    • The most popular pairing in the franchise, both in the English and Japanese fanbase, is Phoenix Wright and Miles Edgeworth. Those who ship them together point to the blatant Homoerotic Subtext and Foe Romance Subtext between the two as proof of their relationship being canon. However, its most rabid cohorts are known to be very aggressive in their approach and attack anyone who disagrees with them, even accusing them of being homophobic. This has caused Hype Backlash and its detractors to hate the pairing because they believe that this Vocal Minority of obsessive Yaoi Fangirls represents the entire shipping community.
    • Other than Edgeworth, Phoenix is usually shipped with Maya, Mia, or Iris. Phoenix/Mia is usually ignored, because Mia dies very early in the trilogy. Phoenix/Maya gets flack for being seen as creepy due to the large age gap between them and because they appear to be Like Brother and Sister. Phoenix/Iris is the most hated out of the three because Iris is seen as a Designated Love Interest who has no personality outside of her crush on Phoenix yet is pushed as the canon pairing by the end of the trilogy. Typically, the most bloody wars tend to be between Phoenix/Edgeworth and Phoenix/Maya shippers, but they will often come together to take down their common enemy — Phoenix/Iris shippers.
    • Edgeworth, similarly, when he isn't shipped with Phoenix, is paired with either Detective Gumshoe or Shi Long Lang. Most of the time these shipping factions are cordial in spite of their differences. However, there is also a Vocal Minority of Edgeworth/Gumshoe and Edgeworth/Lang shippers who allege that Phoenix is an obsessive Stalker with a Crush at best, or straight-up Yandere for Edgeworth at absolute worst in order to prop up their pairings of choice as healthier and more wholesome. By contrast, those who dare to ship him with women — particularly Franziska, Kay, or Justice Courtney are met with constant backlash and homophobia accusations from all three factions (and no, suggesting he's bisexual won't soften the blow). If you want to piss off everybody in the shipping community, allege that Edgeworth is an aromantic asexual, then sit back and watch the sparks fly. Bringing up the fact that Edgeworth canonically seems to be disinterested in romance in general, even by the time of Spirit of Justice (where he's a Confirmed Bachelor who swears he'll never marry and defensively asks what's wrong with being single), will not save you either.
    • The Distaff Counterpart to the above debacle is the disputes between those who ship Franziska/Maya and Franziska/Adrian. Detractors of the former claim that their relationship makes no sense, as in canon they barely interact. Detractors of the latter either believe that Adrian's True Love was her deceased mentor Celeste Inpax or that Franziska/Adrian is too co-dependent and unhealthy, with Adrian probably seeing Fran as a Replacement Goldfish for Celeste rather than an actual girlfriend.
    • Dual Destinies started some new ship wars, with Apollo/Athena (which is accused of either propping up Athena as a mix of Spotlight-Stealing Squad and Mary Sue or "breaking up" the very popular Apollo x Klavier) on one side, versus Apollo/Juniper and Athena/Simon on the other (the first is called bland and boring and Juniper is accused of being a Mary Sue too; the second is considered creepy because of the sizeable age gap between the two, plus the fact that he met her when he was a young adult and she was a kid; even fans who enjoy age gaps squirm uncomfortably at this detail). In the meantime, it's best not to even try to suggest pairing Metis and Aura with anyone but each other, while the Athena/Juniper shippers have wisely decided to stay in their corners.
    • And no, not even going the OT3 route to resolve the ship wars (Edgeworth/Phoenix/Maya, Apollo/Athena/Blackquill, and Apollo/Athena/Juniper being some of the more popular examples) is a guaranteed way to protect yourself from more militant shippers — though most of the fandom is agreeable enough to accept these choices.
  • This may be a BioWare thing in general. Knights of the Old Republic has one official ship for a male Revan, two (a het and Gay Option) for female. Fans will either take them as a given, or spin off into other territories like F!Revan/Canderous. Jade Empire has a smaller fanfic base, but the Spirit Monk's romantic choices are mostly a non-issue. In the case of both Mass Effect and Dragon Age (see their specific entries below), BioWare, to varying degrees of success, attempts to not officially designate a character the "proper" love interest — every player is free to choose who their love interest is, making any conflict inherently pointless.
  • Where do we begin with BlazBlue?
    • Fans of Bang/Litchi and Litchi/Arakune fans are often seen battling around the Internet. Consequently, Bang/Litchi fans tend to also be Arakune haters.
    • Jin/Tsubaki fans often attack poor Noel, even though Jin/Noel was sunk in the port of Calamity Trigger. Jin/Makoto had been gaining popularity as a pairing since Continuum Shift, but conflicts between fans of the two pairings are rare. Chronophantasma may simply have ended up igniting a cold war, however. Oh, and there's a portion of the community who prefer to Take a Third Option and leave Jin as a Celibate Hero, instead supporting Hakumen/Tsubaki, causing more friction. Finally, we have fans of Jin and Mai Natsume, the protagonist of BlazBlue: Remix Heart: a likely reasoning behind this is similarities between them and Ky/Dizzy. (Never mind that in the actual doujinshi, Mai, outside of getting a First Kiss from Makoto, has been Ship Teased with three other characters note , none of whom are Jin. Or the fact that Mai goes missing after graduation according to Chronophantasma, though she does make appearances in Extend as well as Central Fiction. Even then, Jin/Mai is treated as a strictly platonic relationship in-series.)
    • Ragna is paired with practically everyone, but the most common pairings are Ragna/Rachel and Ragna/Noel. These two are the most aggressive of the fandoms, and battles are constantly waged between them. This isn't helped by the questionable nature of both pairings: on one hand, the age gap between Ragna and Rachel is ridiculous, and Rachel is very youthful appearance-wise. The games make it clear that she is an adult, though this causes Squick for some. On the other hand, the fact that Noel is a clone of Ragna's sister leaves a bitter taste in some people. Making matters worse, the game seems to hint at both.
      • The addition of Celica in Chronophantasma, who was already confirmed in the Phase Shift novels to be in love with Bloodedge, the time-displaced Ragna, only added more fuel to the fire, especially with a Gag Reel involving the return of the Spectacles of Eros from CS which shows that she's one of two members of the female cast (the other being a heavily implied Rachel) to genuinely love Ragna for who he is, no hocus pocus required. With cries of "Mary Sue!" abounding (in the Western fandom, that is) due to her role in the CP story, things are looking grim.
    • Finally, we have fans of Ragna/Jin, Jin/Hazama and Ragna/Hazama, who hammer on everyone else.
  • Danganronpa:
  • Devil May Cry is vicious for this.
  • Disgaea:
  • Dragon Age:
    • The fandom, in fact, was relatively quiet on this front, with some minor exceptions (do not mention the Darkspawn Chronicles DLC if you value your life, and there's some backlash against Female!Cousland/Alistair simply because it's the most frequently shipped pairing). The second game, OTOH, has an ugly ship war going on between Hawke/Anders vs. Hawke/Fenris, which is fueled by the fact that the two characters represent the game's diametrically opposing views on mages, itself an endless hotbed of wank in the fandom. Hawke/Merrill is fairly safe, and Hawke/Isabela is also smooth sailing.
    • Some Anders vs. Fenris shippers will stop fighting to unite against those who have Taken a Third Option with Fenders.
    • There's somewhat of a schism between some Hawke/Fenris fan groups since he's among the most popular bi options. Which of the two FenHawke possibilities is the best? Uh... it's best not to ask...
    • There's definitely some tension between fans of Cullen and Solas in the third game. A lot of it seems to come down to how different the character and romances are. Cullen's romance falls into the Disney prince category, being very sweet and ending happily. Solas' romance, on the other hand, is super angsty and tragic. Interestingly, both groups of fans are often accused by the other of ignoring their characters' flaws — Cullen's past as a bigoted Knight Templar and Solas' Fantastic Racism and plans to destroy the world. All in all, the rivalry isn't too bad, but don't be surprised to see rabid fans saying Cullen is a boring pretty boy or Solas is a genocidal asshole.
  • The Fate/stay night fandom is divided between people who ship either Shirou/Saber, Shirou/Rin, or Shirou/Sakura. When these factions meet, things can get nasty very quickly. Sakura gets flack for being, according to her naysayers, a "girly thus weak" Damsel in Distress who constantly whines about her predicament and is often portrayed in fanfiction as being Entitled to Have You towards Shirou and The Resenter towards Saber. People who have issues with Saber accuse her of being Type Moon's cash cow who also drowns in a puddle of her own angst (especially in the prequel). And people who have issues with Rin believe she's a Jerkass Tsundere who wants nothing more than to steal Sakura's man.
  • Every Final Fantasy game gets this, to some degree. There is a reason why OT3 shippers are coming out of the woodwork for this series. In many cases, they're the fans who have grown sick of the shipping wars and who have decided to Take a Third Option:
    • Final Fantasy VII's "Love Triangle Debate" over whether Cloud loved Aerith or Tifa has an almost legendary status for thisnote . Even almost two decades after the game's release, there are still corners of the internet where Cloud/Tifa and Cloud/Aerith shippers wage war with each other. Debates tend to rage around whether Aerith loved "the real Cloud" or the persona he had when he was amnesiac, whether Cloud and Tifa can considered a couple by the time of Final Fantasy VII: Advent Children, which Gold Saucer date can be considered canon, whether or not the Highwind "sex" scene could be considered canon (as it relies on Cloud's Relationship Values with Tifa being high enough), and to what extent official materials and translations support either pairing. The aftershocks of this shipping war has spread outside FFVII, with shippers taking their arguments to other Final Fantasy games (specifically over if the official couples in these gamesnote  can be seen as a throwback to either Cloud/Aerith or Cloud/Tifa) and other Square Enix properties like Kingdom Hearts (which is itself covered below on this very page).
      • The prequel game Crisis Core heated up the shipping war further by expanding on Zack and Aerith's relationship, with many of their interactions parelling Aerith's interactions with Cloud in the original game. Cloud and Tifa shippers subsequently latched onto the Zack/Aerith ship. A key arguement of Cloud/Aerith shippers is that Aerith did come to love the real Cloud before her death, while Cloud/Tifa shippers argue that Crisis Core and the parallelism between Aerith's interactions with both Zack and Cloud prove once and for all that Aerith was solely attracted to Cloud's Zack persona, and that it is no longer possible to argue that she was attracted to Cloud for any other reason. Cloud/Aerith shippers argue in turn that nothing Zack and Aerith do in Crisis Core contradicts or sheds any new insight on Aerith's interactions with Cloud that can be interpreted as only falling for the Zack persona. Suffice to say, things are messy and the fact that the creators have kept this issue ambiguous to this day has not helped matters.
      • The release of Final Fantasy VII Remake further complicated things by not only reigniting the old Aerith/Tifa rivalry for Cloud, but also giving both women more screentime together with homoerotic subtext between them as well as throwing in a new challenger in Jessie and implying that the party's efforts caused a Cosmic Retcon undoing Zack's death, with the still surviving Zack being revealed to be looking for Aerith in the post-credits scene of Intergrade. The possibility of the ending of Remake implying that the remake trilogy being a Stealth Sequel undoing the events of the original game has also been fought over by shippers, with diehard Cloud/Aerith shippers arguing that sequels to Remake will confirm that the game is a Stealth Sequel where Cloud will save Aerith this time around while diehard Cloud/Tifa shippers argue that sequels to Remake will make it clear that the flow of the story and by extension Aerith's fate will be the same regardless of what happens in the trilogy or that Aerith will still die no matter what if the story is indeed a Stealth Sequel of the original game.
      • The Game Awards trailer for Final Fantasy VII Rebirth depicted a Cloud/Aerith Loveless date at the Gold Saucer and arguments quickly flared up over which date would be portrayed as more romantic or canonical. The Image Song "No Promises to Keep" itself has been subject to argument as the lyrics suggest the song is about Aerith's growing feelings for Cloud and in light of Aerith's heavy importance in the game's main plot and further implication that she'll continue to play a large role in the final entry, suggest a leaning towards Clerith being the creators' par preferati. Meanwhile, Cloti shippers claim that the song could easily be about Zack or Aerith's supposed projection of Zack onto an amnesiac Cloud rather than his real self, and that the flow of the story will end up favouring Cloti in the long run, especially if Aerith's fate is followed through at the very end. The game proper decided to Take a Third Option by giving both women equal amounts of screen time and Ship Tease moments, with their own Gold Saucer dates with differing romantic context: Tifa's high affection date leads to the Big Damn Kiss with the fireworks backdrop, and more powerfully Cloud is the one to initiate the kiss; while Aerith's high affection date has a thwarted Almost Kiss and then the two holding hands with Intertwined Fingers as they watch the fireworks together, a deep and meaningful gesture commonly seen between romantic couples in Japanese/Eastern fiction. Adding further fuel is the alternative Gold Saucer date scenes which lean Cloud towards one of the other: Yuffie's date has a moment where she discusses a past crush and the possibility of Tifa having a crush on Cloud; Barret's date has a rare Friendship Moment between the two men where he advises Cloud to not beat around the bush with a soulmate before life throws a curveball that separates the two, in a subtext that implies he is talking about Aerith; and Red XIII's "date" has Red and Cloud shake hands/paws on a Declaration of Protection towards Aerith.
    • Final Fantasy X-2: Back when the fandom was more active, there was something of a friendly rivalry between the Gippal/Rikku and Gippal/Baralai ships. That neither had any real canon support (the former is vaguely hinted at but only gets a Maybe Ever After while the latter used to be friends then had a falling out) probably helped a lot.
    • Final Fantasy XIII-2 started a shipping war between those who wants to see Serah with her fiance Snow and those who'd rather her be with the newly introduced Noel. This also created, by proxy, Noel/Yeul vs. Noel/Serah, though that affair is decidedly less hostile.
    • It is very common in Final Fantasy XIV to ship characters with the Warrior of Light, especially since the creators have given players their blessing to interpret character relationships however they wish. As a result, shipping is civil except in instances when other NPCs are seen as romantic rivals. It is now common for heated arguments to occur between those who want Y'shtola with the Warrior of Light, and those who want her with Runar.
    • Noctis/Luna is the Flame Bait of Final Fantasy XV's shipping fandom. Any discussion where it comes up will get heated. Either you love it, are willing to vehemently defend it to the death against others who you think can't or are unwilling to understand its sublime beauty, and find the idea of people wanting to see them romantically involved with anyone else unfathomable, or you loathe it as one of the worst written romances of the whole series and think anyone who does enjoy it in any form must be delusional. Only the bravest dare openly express an intermediate opinion. Of the various competing ships, Nyx/Luna and Noctis/Prompto tend to be the ones that cause the bloodiest fights.
  • Genshin Impact: Due in part to the game's popularity and the community's extensive reach, the western end of the fandom has become particularly infamous for its infighting concerning ships:
    • Zhongli/Childe and Childe/Lumine shippers tend to be at each other's throats due to both of these ships being the most popular options for Childe. Not helping matters, an early mistranslation labeling Childe as a teenager added fuel to the fire, with Childe/Lumine claiming that the relationship between Zhongli, who is thousands of years old, and Childe is problematic (this was before it became widely known that the Traveler is also hundreds of years old). Following the backlash, the western branch of Hoyoverse corrected the mistake, though there are still times when both sides find reasons to attack each other for simply shipping one or the other pairing or to declare their preferred ships' superiority.
    • With the Inazuma update arguments began popping up between Noelle/Traveler and Ayaka/Traveler shippers due to the heavy romantic themes of both characters' story quests. Naturally, this led to arguments over which girl was the Traveler's "canon" love interest. These usually revolve around where Noelle's multi-route hangout event stands canonically compared to Ayaka's story quest, which is part of the main questline.
    • Fans of Raiden/Yae got into a fight with Ayato/Yae shippers over which ship had more chemistry. Raiden/Yae shippers liked the close relationship and care the two showed for each other, while Ayato/Yae fans argued that Ayato's ability to one-up the cunning fox made their dynamic much more interesting.
    • Diluc/Kaeya shippers and Albedo/Kaeya shippers generally dislike one another. Diluc/Kaeya shippers complained that the opposing ship's apparent age gap was problematic (due to Albedo having a short male model), while Albedo/Kaeya shippers fired back by saying their ship was incestuous (due to a supposedly faulty English translation).
    • The popularity of Neuvillette/Furina skyrocketed after the conclusion of Chapter IV Act V which provided lots of material in-game and other official/sponsored media that could be interpreted as supportive of the ship. Of course, same-sex shippers like Wriothesley/Neuvillette, Arlecchino/Furina, and even Furina/Traveler shippers became upset and proceeded to argue and harass Neuvillette/Furina shippers by droves, causing them to rabidly fight back. Any discussions between the opposing ships usually lead to an age gap and power discussion discourse, accusations of Neuvillette/Furina being an incestuous pairing (due to Furina's short female model and histrionic personality) or downplay their relationship, and in extreme cases, resorting to butting heads and personal attacks.
  • Golden Sun:
    • The wars between the four combinations coming from Isaac, Garet, Jenna, and Mia (just to clarify, we're talking hetero pairings here) are kinda like a Mexican Standoff, except everyone is, well, shooting at each other. Heck, the four pairings from that one group could easily fuel debate for several years without touching the dozens of other pairings in the GS 'verse. However, a lot of the pairings are just for fun (Magmashipping, anyone?).
    • The third game stars the descendants of the heroes from the first two games. Things were getting ugly before the game was even close to release. One pairing was confirmed canon, but its partner... seems to have been sunk. The first four playable characters each have a member of the first game's party for a parent, and none of them are siblings, which means that neither Isaac nor Garet ended up with Mia. However, Isaac x Jenna is canon.
  • Halo:
    • There are quite a significant number of people in the fandom who point out that Spartan-IIs and IIIs almost never get into relationships due to their artificially reduced sex drives, but there still seem to be fan pairings. John/Kelly, John/Cortana, John/Miranda, and John/Thel being the most dominant in the fandom. The first three are easily the most popular, but the last one seems to be growing at a snail's pace. John/Miranda supporters were not held back by the fact that Miranda died in Halo 3, they just change the outcome of the battle to say that she survived.
    • It's helped that there are canon or near-canon examples of S-IIs and IIIs getting in relationships, most notably Noble Team's Kat and Carter. Even several Spartan-IIs have shown romantic inclinations: Two pre-augmented members of Spartan Team BLACK were romantically involved with a third jealous of the fling, and Spartan Fred has ambiguously flirted with one civilian (Veta Lopis) who goes on to work with the Spartans.
  • Harvest Moon:
    • Harvest Moon has odd examples of this. The fandom is usually quite nice and pleasant, but this can occur when referring to games where the same characters are paired with different people. Harvest Moon 64 has the rival pairs as: Karen/Kai, Popuri/Gray, Ann/Cliff, Elli/Jeff, and Maria/Harris. Harvest Moon: Back to Nature has them as: Karen/Rick, Popuri/Kai, Ann/Cliff, Elli/Doctor, and Mary/Gray. Due to Sequel Displacement, the BTN couples are most popular but it's not too uncommon to see complaints about how well they go together.
    • The most common ship war involves the protagonists and the bachelor(ette)s. Harvest Moon: A Wonderful Life fans are especially prone to this. Celia/Mark vs. Nami/Mark vs. Muffy/Mark, with the additional Lumina/Mark (which gets flack for Lumina being a teen) and Mark/Flora and occasionally the rival ships. Bachelorettes besides the one shipped either get made plain and boring (usually Celia) or outright get Ron the Death Eater treatment (Muffy especially). Another Wonderful Life gets less flame-bait as both Marlin and Gustafa get varying degrees of dislike for not being "cute" enough; Marlin is still preferred over Rock, though.
  • Pretty much comes with territory, in regards to Katawa Shoujo. While Lilly and Hanako have the largest camps, every girl has a strong following. Shizune fans in particular can be downright militant in their support, largely as a result of having to constantly battle the hatedom the character has developed since release due to the divisive nature of her route, and her rivalry with the much-adored Lilly. On the forums, it's fairly common for posters to rank the routes/girls in their signatures with ">" or "=" signs. For example, Favorite>Second favorite>Tied for third=Tied for third>Least favorite
  • Kingdom Hearts:
    • The Kingdom Hearts fandom, especially as of the second installment, seems to be comprised of two groups: those who regard shipping as Serious Business, and those that ship for fun or to point at and laugh at the first group. The introduction of Organization XIII basically just gave the former group license to spark flame wars over the relative merits of the #### ship of the day (12 males that hang out in a castle all day? Why, it's like shooting fish in a barrel!). AkuRoku seems to be one of the more hot-button ships in the fandom, and its wise not to bring it up.
    • Aerith/Cloud vs Aerith/Leon vs Yuffie/Leon. The former two get especially touchy as Leon and Cloud's characters are so similar.
    • Carried over from the source material (see above), the Cloud/Aerith vs. Cloud/Tifa love triangle debate rears its' ugly head in the Kingdom Hearts fandom as well. Debates rage on regarding which girl is Cloud's light, whether Tifa in the KH universe is a real person or the metaphysical manifestation of Cloud's inner goodness, and whether Nomura's statements about having Aerith appear in the games is meant to shed any light on how the love triangle is meant to be perceived in the source material.
  • The King of Fighters fandom used to have very fierce ship wars in the second part of The '90s, and sometimes these still pop out once in a while.
    • Kyo Kusanagi x Iori Yagami is one of the most (in)famous cases of Shipping in any video game fandom, and whoever mentions Kyo's canon girlfriend Yuki will be on the receiving end of nasty insults, with Yuki being accused of being a bland Damsel in Distress or worse, and sometimes getting the Die for Our Ship treatment. The few Kyo/Yuki fans that are still around may react via passive-aggressively accusing all Kyo/Iori fans of being misogynistic or shallow, or take the Canon Theocrat option in opposing it on the basis of it being non-canon and thus unworthy of being shipped, or accuse it of being an abusive relationship consisting entirely of hate with zero basis other than Guy on Guy Is Hot. Not helping is that though Kyo/Yuki are still together as of XIV, Yuki has become more and more Out of Focus, while the Ho Yay for Kyo/Iori persists with each entry and even receives deliberate Ship Tease in the form of Lampshade Hanging.
    • It's not much better whenever Athena Asamiya, who's hinted to have a crush on Kyo in some continuities, is mentioned. Similarly to the above, Kyo/Athena fans will also engage in Yuki bashing, accusing her of being weak and anti-feminist while defending Athena as more interesting, stronger, and prettier, and understanding Kyo better. Meanwhile Kyo/Yuki fans will either again deride it as non-canon and thus invalid or accuse Kyo/Athena shippers of treating her as a Satellite Love Interest. This will get more complicated if Athena's Dogged Nice Guy Kensou is brought up: some Kensou/Athena fans will support the idea of a possible "double date" with Kyo/Yuki, while others will accuse Athena of being ungrateful for Kensou's affections or shallow for chasing after an already taken man while ignoring the feelings of the guy who loves her and said taken man's girlfriend. And that's not getting into the fact that as both a dedicated fighter and Idol Singer Athena is likely not allowed to have a love life and she's shown to take her career seriously.
  • Shipping wars in The Legend of Heroes: Trails of Cold Steel is such a headache to deal with especially since Rean is such a Launcher of a Thousand Ships guy. The most vocal ones would be the "Rean-Alisa" shippers going up against the "Rean-Laura" shippers though the "Rean-Fie" and "Rean-Sara" shippers would also chime in and argue that their ship is better ("Rean-Claire" shippers also used to be active until Cold Steel IV sunk that ship). This isn't even starting on the Ho Yay shipping between the "Rean-Crow" shippers. This isn't even including Cold Steel IV where Rean, who is a teacher, can be up paired with any of his students in addition to the previous pairings that he has in previous games.
  • The Legend of Zelda:
  • Life Is Strange
    • The fandom's main two competing ships are PriceField (Max x Chloe) vs. the less popular GrahamField (Max x Warren). The PriceField camp consider Max and Chloe to be soulmates bonded together by childhood friendship and the discovery of Max's rewind ability, which they attribute to Max's desire to save Chloe. The game's final decision even pits both ships indirectly against each other by forcing Max to either sacrifice everyone in Arcadia Bay to save Chloe, or to let Chloe die in order to save the town. Three guess which one PriceFielders choose?
    • GrahamFielders view Max's friendship with Chloe as toxic, built seemingly around Chloe manipulating Max with childhood nostalgia and guilt trips. Thus, they feel Warren is better for her since he's the Nice Guy option and Max's closest friend at school. But to PriceFielders, Warren is a stalker who's only pretending to be Max's "friend" in order to get into her panties, despite the game's narrative repeatedly showing Warren to be well-meaning and supportive of Max regardless whether she reciprocates his feelings, or not.
  • Mass Effect:
    • Commander Shepard has a variety of love interests to choose from of both sexes (not that it stops people from shipping Shepard with non-canon options too). Each pairing has its supporters, and while most of them are "live and let live," there are certain sects that are vehemently against certain characters being paired with anyone else besides Shepard (namely, Garrus, Thane, Tali, and Liara). The fact that Garrus and Tali hook up in the third game — provided they were not romanced at all — only threw gasoline on some fires. And then there's the Joker/EDI and Joker/Shepard ship combat as well...
    • Mass Effect 3 ignited a firestorm of Shepard-centric ship warring, largely due to reduced screen time for the Mass Effect 2 love interests and the controversial way several of their storylines were wrapped up. spoilers Among Fem Shep die-hards, Shepard/Kaidan vs. Shepard/Garrus is probably the ugliest ship wars get in the fandom. In general, most Shepard-centric ship wars in the fandom seem to fall along the lines of humans vs. aliens, with accusations of favoritism by the writers across the board. Shipping is such Serious Business in the Mass Effect fandom that a fan survey was created on it and sent to BioWare.
    • Should be noted that most of these ships are with Fem!Shepard/male love interest. The Male!Shepard/female love interest and gay/lesbian ships are generally peaceful as most players generally have a main couple and stick with it (some more than others, most notably Male!Shepard/Tali, Fem!Shepard/Liara and Male!Shepard/Kaidan).
  • Do not mention either Sumika or Meiya, or which would be better with Takeru on any forum or thread dedicated to Muv-Luv. And especially don't say the words "Noble Confidant." That is, provided you value your brain cells: it gets more violent than a BETA attack.
  • In the Portal fandom, you've got Chelldos (Chell/GLaDOS) vs. Chelley (Chell/Wheatley) vs. Wheatdos (GLaDOS/Wheatley). And that's just the main trio. However, the "shipping war" aspect is generally absent, especially on the Portal Kink Meme, where they even discussed what fun it might be to get into raging arguments about whether Chell should be with GLaDOS or Wheatley or neither while other posters tried to appeal for calm, but eventually decided it wouldn't as good as shipping their favourite couples, writing about them and tolerating others to ship and let ship.
  • Psychonauts has Sasha/Milla and Lilli/Raz versus Sasha/Raz and, occasionally, Lilli/Milla. Although this tends to consist of the former getting Squicked out at the latter and the latter making arguments as to why it's not gross.
  • With how much shipping goes on in the Puyo Puyo fanbase, this had to happen at some point.
    • A more obvious one, Arle x Schezo vs. Arle x Satan/Dark Prince, is reflected in-universe with Schezo and Satan being known to begin obnoxious Cock Fights over Arle. And then you have the third group of fans who prefer to ship Arle with pretty much anyone else due to finding both those pairings creepy for their big age gaps and being Angel/Devil Shipping.
    • Arle x Schezo vs. Schezo x Witch, especially given the Ship Tease the latter is known to get.
    • Ringo x Maguro fans would probably rather ignore the Unresolved Sexual Tension Tee from Puyo Puyo Tetris shares with Ringo, and for that matter how Jay and Elle tease about "Maguro and Ess sitting in a tree/P-U-Y-O-I-N-G". And the less said about a certain Ecolo, the better.
    • Fans usually don't mind shipping Sig, one of the resident launchers of a thousand ships, with anyone they like. That said, certain Amitie x Sig and Sig x Klug fans aren't that appreciative of pairings between Sig and anyone besides the other two.
  • Resident Evil:
    • Should Leon S. Kennedy be with Claire Redfield? Ada Wong? Manuela Hidalgo? Ashley? Or Krauser? Fans will never fully agree. Bringing up the fact that Helena Harper, Leon's partner in Resident Evil 6, actively supports Leon/Ada is ill-advised.
    • Speaking of Claire, fans are torn on whether to pair her with Leon, Steve Burnside, Moria Burton, Wesker or her brother Chris or, worse still, Sherry — who is like a daughter/little sister to her.
    • It's best not to ask the William Birkin/Annette Birkin shippers what they think of Wesker/Birkin and vice versa.
    • Chris Redfield/Sheva Alomar vs. Chris/Jill Valentine... and mentioning Chris/Wesker is pretty much a nuclear explosion waiting to happen. Piers gets off relatively easy by comparison, though the fact that he dies in a Heroic Sacrifice might have something to do with that.
    • The year is 2019. It's been about 20 years since the original Resident Evil 2 where Leon and Claire last starred together and Leon/Ada fans were happily Armed with Canon thanks to RE4 and RE6 furthering Leon and Ada's bond (and Word of God stating their dialogue in Damnation was written to suggest they might have gone on a date between games) while Claire and her partnership with Leon was mostly left Out of Focus. But then a long-awaited remake of RE2 came out and intentionally added new Leon/Claire moments to "deepen their relationship" which deeply annoyed Leon/Ada fans who thought Capcom were trying to spoil the "superior ship." Conversely, Leon/Claire fans were overjoyed at the rekindled ship and a Flame War ensured arguing over which girl was truly "better" for Leon. Leon/Ada shippers cite the other ship as a mere unrequited schoolgirl crush on Claire's part and any moments in the remake are just Shipping Goggles from fans and Doomed by Canon anyway. Leon/Claire shippers, on the other hand, state Leon has more chemistry with Claire in the four scenes they have together than he does in the entire scenario with Ada and the ending scene where Sherry mistook Leon and Claire for boyfriend and girlfriend and then asking them to adopt her certainly helps matters. The kicker? RE2R and its sequels appear to be going the Alternate Continuity route from the original games, meaning it's entirely possible the shipping wars will be rendered completely meaningless if Capcom does go for Leon/Claire this time around.
      • Memetic Mutation also got involved with the former, promoting "the Redfield Bloodline" which requires Leon to sleep with Claire (often with some aggressive prodding from Chris) and Chris trying to kill Ada to get her out of the way. Shippers have even gone so far as to mod Leon's cutscenes, replacing Claire with Ada or vice versa.
  • Shin Megami Tensei has its share of this, particularly within the Persona sub-series.
    • The "best girl" and "best boy" disputes are so prevalent and so bitter among the Persona fandom that a growing subset of fans deliberately refuses to romance party members and other plot-important NPCs in order to avoid getting dragged into the above debates note , instead focusing on "lesser" characters to pursue a relationship with. Though none of these alternatives have reached Fan-Preferred Couple status (with the possible exception of the third game's Velvet Siblings, Elizabeth especially), some candidates, such as Chihiro in Persona 3 and Kawakami in Persona 5, have proven popular choices in their own right.
    • Persona 2 has mostly the rabid Tatsuya/Jun shippers, who don't seem to take the existence of Tatsuya/Maya shippers kindly. Strangely, those who ship Tatsuya with Lisa, the Veronica in this situation, have largely slipped under their radars.
    • Persona 3:
      • P3 gives us all of Minato/Makoto/Sakuya/whatever-you're-calling-the-MC's possible pairings, with MC/Aigis and MC/Yukari getting the most attention. Despite the fact that the player can choose who the MC dates, there are frequent (and very heated) arguments about which ship is "canon."
      • If we go to the FemMC route in Portable, it's not wise to mention how Minako/Minami/Hamuko/Kotone can get together with either Ken Amada or Shinjiro Aragaki; both pairings are known for rising HUGE hackles in the fandom.
    • Persona 4:
    • Persona 5:
      • The fifth entry continues the grand tradition by sparking wars between those who believe Joker belong with Ann vs. those who believe he belongs with Makoto vs. those who believe he belongs with Futaba. The Futaba issue can get particularly heated, since fans who don't ship them tend to interpret them as Like Brother and Sister. In addition to that, Joker/Futaba and Ann/Joker often have to go up against ships such as Yusuke/Futaba and Ann/Ryuji. The latter was not helped by the fact Ann's English voice actress also ships Ann and Ryuji together.
      • And that's not even mentioning the Ho Yay side of things between those who ship Joker with Yusuke, Ryuji, or Akechi, with the two former usually ganging up on the latter due to it being one of Joker's most popular ships, Akechi being a victim of Americans Hate Tingle in the Western fandom, and Akechi's canon affection towards the protagonist which gets cranked up in the English version. Fans of any of these pairings usually end up in arguments with fans who pair Joker with one of the girls (usually Makoto or Futaba) and/or pair the party members together, although this is somewhat downplayed in terms of Ryuji/Ann vs. Joker/Ryuji.
      • Fights between those that ship Joker/Akechi and Shido/Akechi can get nasty at times, although such conflicts are caused by people going out of their way to harass Shido/Akechi fans. The animosity towards Shido/Akechi shippers reached a point where a "block list" was circulated listing the names of every fan of the pairing, as well as people who weren't fans of the pairing but were on the list because they were nice to Shido/Akechi fans.
      • Conflicts between those who ship Haru and Akechi with other characters vs. those who ship Akechi/Haru are common, mostly due to Akechi murdering Haru's father, with Haru herself mentioning that she can't forgive him for doing it.
      • Showing that history is perhaps doomed to repeat itself, Persona 5 Royal introduced a new female member of the Phantom Thieves, Kasumi Yoshizawa. While reception to the character herself is largely positive, the fact that Kasumi, like Marie before her, is angled as Joker's Implied Love Interest (numerous interactions outside of her Confidant, several signs of attraction to Joker as said Confidant progresses, a Love Confession quite a while before the end of the Rank 9 conversation, having the only Showtime with Joker out of the female party members — and a rather romantic-looking one at that, etc.) is far more contentious.
  • Surprisingly enough (especially for a game with one male and two female leads), Skies of Arcadia has almost none of this in its fandom. This is because the game neither sinks nor confirms the Vyse/Aika or Vyse/Fina pairings — and unmissable dialogue with each girl indicates that she is in love with Vyse, but completely accepting of the fact that he loves the other girl (and they both get along very well). The fandom has as such largely accepted the interpretation that the game is hinting at a Vyse/Aika/Fina One True Threesome.
  • Not even the worst problem of the immensely Broken Base of Sonic the Hedgehog:
    • The fiercest battle must surely be fought between Sonic/Amy and Shadow/Amy shippers, mostly because the two men are direct rivals, but also because Amy's talk with Shadow in Sonic Adventure 2 is seen as one of her best character moments in the entire franchise.
    • The second-fiercest must be Knuckles/Rouge vs. Shadow/Rouge. Also doesn’t help that Shadow and Knuckles fans are prone to disputes for other reasons as well.
    • Sonic/Shadow vs Sonic/Any Female Character is a popular battle. With the former being the most popular gay ship (and by some metrics is the most popular ship outright) in the fandom, it is put into contention with the wide number of such ships by default.
    • There's quite a bit of animosity between fans of Sonic/Amy and Sonic/Sally, for obvious reasons; whereas Amy is generally a Stalker with a Crush towards Sonic with only a few moments of Ship Tease between the two at best, Sally Acorn is a Canon Foreigner who is unambiguously Sonic's love interest in her debut cartoon and the comic continuation, having shared the Big Damn Kiss more than once. note  This is a somewhat odd instance of this, as the two characters only coexisted within the comics, where Amy first appeared as a 10 year-old girl whose age proved quite the hurdle in getting Sonic's attention. An awkward attempt at Canon Welding meant this continuity had her grow up into her modern teenage self through a Plot-Relevant Age-Up (while still having the mind of a 10-year-old), a fact that later writers probably wished they could completely ignore. Fans did freely ignore this tidbit though, and continue to duke it out anyway.
    • Since Blaze's introduction in Sonic Rush, as well as Sonic the Hedgehog (2006) changing her to being from the future (though this would be ignored in later appearances), Sonic/Blaze fans and Silver/Blaze fans often fight over who would make a better couple, often leading into arguments about the canonicity of the latter game due to its ending.
    • Similar to Sonic/Shadow above, Whisper/Tangle fans often feud with any who would ship either with a male character, though for more understandable reasons. While Sonic/Shadow is strictly Played for Laughs in official material, Whisper/Tangle has strong support from comic staff and would be canon if Sega didn't enforce a rule against romance. It became more fraught after Issue #61 snuck the Lesbian Pride flag behind them in a panel, which many fans took as confirming their sexualities and some took as a justification to begin gatekeeping against such rival ships as homophobic and/or lesbian erasure. It's pushed Ian Flynn to tell such shippers to knock it off more than once.
  • Soul Series:
    • Soulcalibur II created conflict between those who shipped Talim with Yun-seong and those who shipped her with Link. Despite the fact Link was merely a guest character, meaning the latter had no chance of ever happening. Though two games later, Talim received a pair of ocarinas as unlockable weapons.
    • The same game also made the Link/Cassandra pairing popular, which was naturally at odds with those who shipped Cassandra with Raphael. This is to say nothing of the part of the fandom that views Cassandra as either a Celibate Heroine (coming across as something of a Maiden Aunt due to her apparent lack of interest in romance and how her journeys are motivated by wanting her sister Sophitia to be able to enjoy a normal life) or a lesbian (partially fueled by a 4-koma for SCIV wherein Cassandra eagerly explains gameplay mechanics to Hilde and seems to enjoy being subjected to Clothing Damage, but also based on the aforementioned character traits).
    • Also, the "Korean ships," Hwang/Mi-na and Yun-seong/Mi-na. Never mind that Mi-na isn't even remotely interested in marrying Hwang, and she views Yun-seong as a kid (the official relationship chart in IV plainly states her feelings for Yun-seong are platonic, seeing him more as her surrogate younger brother) — likewise, Yun-seong thinks of her as an old lady who should butt out of his business. Both ships remain hugely popular and to this day exchange the occasional broadside even though they've both been officially sunk.
      • Interestingly, Project Soul seems to have reversed their stance on both Mi-na pairings as of Soulcalibur VI. Hwang plays a significant supporting role in Mi-na's Soul Chronicle and there's romantic undertones present in their interactions despite Hwang being The Not-Love Interest; most notably, Mi-na happily asks Hwang if she can ride piggyback like they used to do when younger after being saved from the clutches of the Fygul Cestemus cult and the two have cleared up a previous misunderstanding about their partnership in defending their homeland... only for Hwang to lift Mi-na into his arms, causing her to furiously blush. Yun-seong, while not present in the story, has a profile in the Library that mentions how close he and Mi-na are, with onlookers giving knowing stares when they're together.
    • Present, but relatively milder in the case of two naval battles: Siegfried/Sophitia vs. Siegfried/Hilde and Mitsurugi/Taki vs. Mitsurugi/Setsuka. Each pairing is a fan-fave in its own right, with the former entries being established for far longer (as Hilde and Setsuka made their respective debuts in SCIV and SCIII, whereas the other four were main characters in Soul Edge, the very first game of the series); the inter-pairing rivalries can go anywhere from civil to nasty. This is discounting the fact that Sophitia is Happily Married in canon (to Rothion, but nobody seems to like him, perhaps simply because he's Sophitia's husband, and it wasn't until he made an actual on-screen appearance in SCVI as a kind, supportive partner to Sophie that the hate started to subside); Siegfried becomes a loner and decides that "no one would touch his heart" in IV due to his actions as Nightmare; Hilde has two children in SCV that are apparently not fathered by Siegfried in spite of them becoming friends and traveling together; Setsuka was in love with her late master and caretaker and hates Mitsurugi for killing him until she gets over her grudge by defeating him in a duel between IV and V, whereupon she relocates to Istanbul under a new name and trains orphans in the way of the sword; and Mitsurugi and Taki probably have no romantic designs whatsoever. (Taki and her best friend Chie even become maternal figures to her apprentice Natsu, one of the playable fighters in V.) Oh, and both Sophitia and Rothion are dead by the time V rolls around. Some fans have come up with ways to reconcile all of this, such as portraying Sophitia and Siegfried as an item before Sophitia meets Rothion at the beginning of her Soulcalibur story (and before Siegfried becomes Nightmare) and then having Siegfried gravitate over to Hilde or creating a Taki/Mitsurugi/Setsuka OT3.
  • The Spyro the Dragon fandom is bad at this, despite the fact there are three continuities that don't intersect with each other. There are the Spyro/Ember fans vs. the Spyro/Cynder ones. Ember canonically has an unrequited crush on Spyro (though she ends up dating an armadillo eventually) while Cynder ultimately gets with Spyro... in a completely different continuity from Ember's. There's no sign that either girl even exists in each others universe, but the fandom doesn't care. Die for Our Ship behavior is very common. That's completely ignoring Ember/Flame and the occasional Spyro/Flame. Spyro/Elora rarely finds its way into the war despite Elora being an Implied Love Interest. This warring often relates to the Broken Base between "classic" fans and Legend of Spyro fans.
  • Star Fox's combat revolves all around Fox: Fox/Krystal vs. Fox/Fara (oftentimes ending badly for Krystal) vs. Fox/Falco vs. Fox/Wolf, a notable exception being Wolf/Krystal, and, later (and for no apparent reason), Fox/Miyu. Fox/Falco also gets pitted against Falco/Katt every now and then, and the Fox/Krystal Official Couple occasionally goes against Panther/Krystal, which is usually the target of Die for Our Ship anyway.
  • Star Ocean: The Second Story has the Claude/Rena shippers at odds with the Dias/Rena shippers, with the Claude/Dias, Claude/Ashton and Dias/Ashton fans occasionally joining in. It's best not to mention the little known sequel on the Game Boy Color (Blue Sphere) to anyone who ships Claude and Rena with other people. (Oddly enough, the various yuri pairings, the het pairings that don't involve Rena, and pretty much any pairing involving Noel are ignored in shipping wars.) This eventually died down over the years, as very few people even raised an eyebrow when Claude and Rena's descendant was included as a party member in the fifth game.
  • Street Fighter: Sakura's arcade ending in Street Fighter V sparked a minor one between Ryu/Sakura shippers and longtime fans who had always shipped him with Chun-Li. Those who support Sakura use the fact that she told Ryu she wants to have his children as evidence of their being more likely to become canon. The Chun-Li camp feels the age gap between him and Sakura would make Ryu look like an Ephebophile, so they continue to ship him with Chun-Li instead, which is also fueled by the fact that she's hot and canonically still single.
  • Super Mario Bros.:
    • The cannons fire between the S.S. Mario/Peach, Mario/Daisy, Mario/Rosalina, and Mario/Pauline. And then there's Mario/Luigi.
    • Same with Mario/Peach, Luigi/Peach, and Bowser/Peach.
    • As well as Luigi/Peach, Luigi/Daisy and Luigi/Rosalina.
    • Waluigi/Rosalina versus Luigi/Rosalina is a thing that pops up. It doesn't help that most fans of the former ship like Luigi/Daisy, so shipping Luigi with anyone else gets them especially worked up.
  • Tales Series:
    • Tales of Symphonia:
      • Sheena/Lloyd vs. Colette/Lloyd, with Sheloyd shippers arguing that Colette is too annoying, and Colloyd shippers arguing that Sheena is favored because of her Ms. Fanservice role.
      • Oddly enough, the Yaoi Fangirls don't do this as often. Key words: as often. You don't get between a Genis/Lloyd fan and Zelos/Lloyd fan if you value your brain cells.
      • Kratos/Anna and Kratos/Raine shippers were also pretty nasty to each other in the earlier days of the Symphonia fandom. And let's not get started on what Kratos/Yuan is to either of them...
    • Tales of Graces fandom is split between Asbel/Cheria, Asbel/Sophie and Asbel/Richard fans.
    • The Tales of Legendia fandom is not large, but it sheds some blood over which couple is the OTP — Senel/Stella, Senel/Shirley or Senel/Chloe, especially the latter two, considering Stella dies.
    • Most of the (minor) ship conflicts with Tales of Vesperia come from the fact that Yuri is a Launcher of a Thousand Ships while simultaneously being a Celibate Hero and a bit of a flirt towards both genders. Yuri/Judith is popular in the West, Yuri/Estelle is popular in Japan but still has quite an English following, and Flynn/Yuri (Fluri) is a favourite of both sides of the fandom. There's also Yuri/Raven and Yuri/Duke, which are both more popular than you'd initially think.
    • Before any of those conflicts there was Stahn/Rutee versus Stahn/Leon in the Tales of Destiny fandom. Like some examples above, it wasn't helped by Rutee being a Scrappy and Leon being an Ensemble Dark Horse.
  • Team Fortress 2: Due to its Excuse Plot, a plethora of suggestive response lines, achievements, and para-text materials, fans fight over the following:
    • One True Paring vs. Happy Orgy: This is the meta ship, wherein some fans will argue over whether or not any particular Class has a preferred partner, or they're just all in one big pile of love/lust (perhaps not even bothering to worry about team color).
    • Medic/Heavy vs. Medic/Soldier: The Heavy was the Medic's preferred heal target in "Meet the Medic", a number of Medic hats are suggestive, and the Sniper has an achievement called "Beaus and Arrows" for shooting a Medic-Heavy pair with a single arrow, but the Soldier calls Medic "Sally" and "Sweetheart" in voice clips, Soldier-Medic is the go-to combo in high-level competitive play, and long-time Medic players hate how possessive (and yet simultaneously incompetent) many Heavies can be, and that's just the in-game arguments of who makes the hotter Battle Couple.
    • (BLU) Soldier/(RED) Demoman vs. Medic/Soldier vs. Engineer/Soldier: Soldiers and Demomen were always natural rivals, but when the BLU Soldier and RED Demoman were said to have been tricked into fighting each other by the Announcer because she hates friendships, the Ship went into the stratosphere. As for the other two Ships, Medic/Soldier has already been discussed above, and Engineer/Soldier is popular among fanfic writers because they imagine that the two men's personalities would go together well.
    • Engineer/Soldier vs. Engineer/Sniper: In-game, Snipers are most often seen hanging around Engineers, especially in Capture the Flag maps, because both of them tend to default near the back of the battlefield.
    • Engineer/Sniper vs. Engineer/Pyro vs. Spy/Sniper- Battle Brothers vs. Foe Yay Shipping. It doesn't help that Pyros are most often seen babysitting Engineer nests in maps once the fighting stalls at a choke point or wields an Ax replacement called "The Homewrecker."
    • Spy/Sniper vs. Engineer/Spy vs. Pyro/Spy vs. Scout's Mother/Spy: Only Scout's Mother has any real standing in official text: she's shown as the Spy's paramour in "Meet the Spy", wherein Spy calls her by an affectionate pet-name and shows real fondness for her, and in-game taunts the enemy Scout with "Well, off to visit your mother!", but the Foe Yay Shipping and Mind Game Ship of Engineer, Sniper, and Pyro is often too much to resist, especially considering Spy's main job is to troll and backstab.
  • Fellow Namco fighting series Tekken isn't quite as bad as this when compared to the (still relatively tame) Soulcalibur fandom, but it happens from time to time in rather peculiar ways.
    • Who should series protagonist Jin Kazama end up with? Xiaoyu? Hwoarang? Asuka? Nina? Julia? Debates continue on to this day... in spite of the fact that the most reasonable answer is "no one." The developers (including series producer Katsuhiro Harada) have outright stated that Jin is celibate on account of his genetics: as a Devil Gene carrier who's suffered his entire life; willingly cut off ties from the few friends he actually did have (Xiaoyu included); and went as far as engineering the series equivalent of World War III to draw out the Greater-Scope Villain behind his family's cursed blood, take it down, and implicitly die in the process, it's highly unlikely he'd want his bloodline to continue on in any capacity.
      • Surprisingly, those who do ship Jin and Asuka together don't tend to come under fire from fans of the very popular Lili/Asuka pairing.
    • In Tekken 6's Scenario Campaign, Robot Girl newcomer Alisa Bosconovitch becomes rather close to fellow newcomer (and former Tekken Force commander) Lars. Their scenes together, as well as his reaction to Alisa's temporary shutdown late in the story, can be viewed through romantic lens, though their relationship never overtly progresses beyond a platonic stage. Tekken 7 would only add more fuel to the fire by having a repaired Alisa happily tackle Lars during their reunion (with Lee — who brought Alisa to Lars in the first place — enjoying the show). On the other hand, Tekken: Blood Vengeance has Xiaoyu teamed up with Alisa... and their scenes together can also be viewed through romantic lens. Cue bickering over who Alisa "truly" belongs with. Note that while Blood Vengeance is officially touted as taking place between T5 and T6, the film contradicts the games' canon at multiple turns to the point it'd be easier to write it off as an Alternate Continuity — essentially rendering these arguments a non-issue from the start.
  • In what is probably the most widespread example of this trope, the Touhou fanbase is, ostensibly, nothing but a GIGANTIC NAVAL WAR. Marisa Kirisame is probably the most disputed, having no less than four even divisions. Most fans often have preferred ships but realize that in the world of Touhou, everyone belongs with everyone else. Fan works often portray in-character ship wars as comedy. (i.e. Alice vs. Patchouli for Marisa, Keine glaring at Mokou hanging out with Kaguya, and so on.) Oh, and the whole mess with Marisa is parodied here (NSFW link due to ads).
  • Undertale:
    • Toriel/Sans vs. Toriel/Asgore, though thankfully the shipping debates are relatively tame and haven't gotten bloody... Yet.
    • Undyne x Alphys seems to be the only couple that the fandom allows Undyne to be put with. Suggesting Undyne x Papyrus or Asgore x Alphys (both of which, while not official, do have some explanation for their existence) is essentially grounds for being called out on either being homophobic or trying to change the canon.
    • Since Frisk has no official gender, Frisk can be essentially paired with anyone, the most popular of which tends to be with Sans or Asriel with Frisk being a teenage-adult woman. While not terribly huge on wars, Asriel x Frisk shippers clash with Sans x Frisk shippers, with Toby Fox outright explaining Sans would be too lazy to ever commit to any relationship, and Asriel not being a valid option given he returns to being Flowey after you close the game.
    • Chara x Frisk has been more popular as of late — in time with the theory of Chara being the narrator for the entire story, whether on the Pacifist or Genocide route, has also been slowly gaining steam for quite a while. Also, Chara has been just as ambiguously gendered as Frisk. As such, this lead to some shipping the two, with multiple reasons given as to why it would work. Since Chara had the same SOUL color as Frisk, many fans reason that what's left of Chara's SOUL would attach to Frisk's, and the two would speak and form a relationship. Some fans even think that Chara would be able to regain a body, or at least some kind of visible form. Many others, of course, think that Chara is still pure evil and would kill Frisk and everyone else in a heartbeat. This has lead to quite a few bloody wars over how Chara really feels, and the player's own influence in the Genocide route.
    • Over on the Deltarune side of things, it didn't take long for the Susie/Kris shippers and the Susie/Noelle shippers to begin going at each other's throats. Ship Tease abounds between the two different pairings (with Noelle canonically having a hidden crush on Susie in particular), and nobody can seem to agree which of the pairings is the best one.
  • A rather interesting case: Normally, Warship Gunner 2 is a game about actual naval combat. But the unlockable Special missions seem to run with, or perhaps mock, this idea — one of them is in fact an Escort Mission where you travel around sightseeing, and the three "love interests" (two men — one of whom is an old man — and a female German scientist, none of whom are acting like their normal selves) actually dig out naval fleets with the intention of blowing each other up over the captain, Schulz. He has none of it, sinking all of their fleets and their flagships to about the same depth as their chances with him.
  • World of Warcraft: Thrall's new bride (or at least fiancée) Aggra is apparently the target of many a Revenge Fic from Thrall/Jaina shippers. Now, she did kind of come out of nowhere, apparently for the express purpose of Ship Sinking... but even with that in mind, it gets pretty vicious. Even before Aggra existed, there was already a bit of a ship war between Arthas/Jaina and Thrall/Jaina.
  • Xeno series:
    • In regards to Xenoblade Chronicles 1, there's the debate over who Shulk should be paired with. On the one side, there's the childhood friend whose death sets the plot in motion (Fiora); and on the other side, there's the princess of a dying race (Melia).
    • In Xenoblade Chronicles 2, there is a three-way battle for who Rex should be with. There's the two forms of the Aegis (Pyra and Mythra) and Nia, a Gormotti that he meets early on in the game who has a Love Confession for him at one point in the story after helping her to be comfortable with the fact that she's a Flesh Eater. Hilariously, Xenoblade Chronicles 3 resolves this by revealing Rex canonically ended up with all three of them.
  • Yandere Simulator has Budo/Ayano vs. Budo/Shin. One blogger was on team Budo/Shin and didn't want to do requests that involved Budo/Ayano. This led to haters sending her massive amounts of hate, and some even went so far as to send her pictures of dead animals. Considering that this spawned from a game where you kill people for your love interest's affection, it wasn't too out of place in a fandom like this.

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