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Ship To Ship Combat / Western Animation

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  • Adventure Time:
    • There was a quick little shipping war between fans of which girl they thought was better for Finn. Marceline the Vampire Queen or Princess Bubblegum. The war was ended when Marceline/Finn was sunk by Marceline herself and "Mortal Recoil" has given Bubblegum an age regression, turning her 13, and making her a compatible Toy Ship with Finn. Finn dates Princess Bubblegum in her age-regressed state but it doesn't last. In the episode "Too Young," PB returns to her proper age to evict a "friendly" usurper.
    • In the episode "What Was Missing," Bubbline (Marceline/Bubblegum) took off big time. The episode itself seems loaded by the writers with slashy tinder. The tension between Marceline/Bubblegum, Finn/Bubblegum, and Finn/Marceline fans was noticeable, even before Flame Princess came onto the scene.
    • Finn had a new love interest in the Flame Princess. Shippers quickly got into combat mode, with both Finn/Bubblegum and Finn/Marceline shippers screaming at her while Bubblegum/Marceline fans teaming up with Finn/Flame Princess shippers so they could have their cake and eat it whole. Finn/Flame Princess was sunk eventually, seeing as how Finn manipulated her into fighting Ice King. She says they can still be friends though. This, however, is no good for those who still ship them. At this point, fans accept one of two outcomes: either Finn and Flame Princess get back together, or Flame Princess is Killed Off for Real.
    • In the series finale, Marceline and Bubblegum get together while Finn remains romantically unattached, although previous seasons showed him develop a mutual but unresolved attraction towards Huntress Wizard.
  • The All Grown Up! fandom was prone to this and the show's main forum was rife with it. Essentially, it was Tommy/Kimi vs. everyone else, as Tommy/Kimi broke up two of the show's other popular ships (Tommy/Lil and Phil/Kimi). Chuckie/Angelica shippers tended to be more prone toward the Tommy/Lil-Phil/Kimi side of the fence, just to stir the pot further. An attempt at a fan-written continuation of the series collapsed into a several-page argument between Tommy/Kimi, Phil/Kimi and no shipping at all. This was largely due to long-standing rivalry between the writers involved, but the passion of the whole thing was indeed kind of frightening.
  • Amphibia has an In-Universe example in the episode “Civil Wart.” After the residents of Wartwood watch a Twilight-esque film on Anne’s phone, they wage war over it.
  • Avatar: The Last Airbender serves as the page image for this trope, so naturally there are quite a few examples:
    • Depending on the board, the fandom is either surprisingly civil or at least as bad as any other. The main fight is between what would become the Official Couple of Kataang (Katara/Aang) and the Fan-Preferred Pairing of Zutara (Zuko/Katara). Watch out for Ship Mates. Overall, the series makes a very good example of the dynamics of most ship-to-ship warfare: Katara/Aang is an example of shipping characters who share almost all of their interests in common and get along with small, day-to-day issues (which arguably makes for the more straightforward and sensible relationship). In contrast, Zuko/Katara is an example of shipping characters with complementary personalities (i.e., more entertaining to watch interact onscreen) who share similar emotional baggage (both lost their mothers due to the Fire Nation's actions). Thereby turning the whole thing into a grand debate on how relationships work and what the purpose of fictional relationships is. None of this is helped by the creators regularly poking fun at the latter pairing, calling it a nonsensical one that could never possibly work long-term... which only made Zutarians ship it harder.
      • This somehow continued into The Legend of Korra, where we learned with the show's announcement that Aang and Katara stayed together into adulthood and had at least one child (it turns out they had three). Some Zutarians stuck to the pairing, insisting that Katara had to have gone to Zuko for comfort after Aang's death (if not well before). The latter had some Zutarians heralding the "revival" of Zutara, or claiming Zutara to be an Anchored Ship.
    • There was also the whole debate concerning Zuko's ships, Mai/Zuko and Katara/Zuko. For the former, the two have similar, cynical personalities, share the same hardline approach to life, and the two tended to be at their happiest with one another, yet they share little if any interests or goals, have little to no chemistrynote , and they are reluctant/outright refuse to open up to one another, leading to numerous bitter break ups. For the latter, the two tend to be on opposite sides of an issue and have contrasting methods in approaching said issuenote , but while they come into conflict often, they are also capable of quickly and easily reaching an understanding, they share similar hang ups and bond over them, and have excellent chemistry. The battle seems to have died down a bit, but there are still many fanatics who subject Katara or Mai to Die for Our Ship.
      • Both the comics and Legend of Korra complicate matters. Korra confirms that Zuko has at least one daughter and one grandson, but never states who his wife was. If you weren't aware of the comics, you'd assume it was Mai. But she and Zuko break up in The Promise, followed by both it and The Search teasing at Zuko/Suki... but then Smoke and Shadows hinted that Maiko could make a return at some point. Sokka/Suki fans have grabbed their war paint, my friends.
    • There is also Sokka/Suki vs. Sokka/Toph, which intensified when The Legend of Korra didn't even mention Suki once, making it unclear whether or not she and Sokka stayed together. Many Tokka shippers initially speculated that Sokka may have fathered Toph's daughter, Lin, but it was later revealed she dated his nephew. When it turned out Toph had a second daughter, Suyin, with a different father, the theory was back on the table. However, some fans objected to the idea Sokka was an absent father, as Suyin's backstory implies.
    • This comic takes it to its literal extreme — or perhaps its littoral extreme. (And this one does the same, but speaks more for those who tend not to ship).
  • Where to start with the convoluted Ben 10 fandom? Said fandom has three major ships, Gwen/Kevin, Ben/Gwen, and Ben/Kevin. During the air of the original series, the Ben/Gwen and Ben/Kevin shippers were the most common (Gwen/Kevin was still a Crack Pairing)...
  • Bluey: Not quite as bad as other fandoms due to the show's natural feel-good nature, but the largest divide in the fandom is between those who ship future Bluey with her long-time best guy friend Mackenzie and those who ship her with Jean-Luc, the French-Canadian boy she knew for a few days when they were kids and reunited with as a teenager (there is also a third faction that pairs her with her neighbor Judo, but it is utterly dwarfed in size by the other two). The arguments only got more heat after "Surprise" showed Bluey has a child in the future, with both sides quickly claiming based on his/her/their design that their chosen boy was clearly the father despite the child clearly having been designed in a way similar enough to both boys and Bluey's extended family that it could be either or even neither specifically to avoid this exact issue.
  • The Chip 'n Dale: Rescue Rangers Ship-To-Ship Combat is actually about only one pairing, namely Chip/Gadget. Those who favor that pairing oppose those who do not want to see Chip and Gadget together, regardless of alternatives. This led to two flame wars on the Usenet in 1997 and at the fan forum Acorn Cafe in 1998. Further flame wars could only be prevented by the experience gained during 1998's St. Valentine's Day Massacre and by "agreeing to disagree". A third, rather small faction among them call themselves the Neutrals and dislike the wary ways of both Pro and Anti fundamentalists. Mind you that there has never been a canonical pairing in this show.
  • Classic Disney Shorts characters usually avoid this due to how concrete the Official Couples are. Goofy is the exception. Goofy has never had one exact love interest like Mickey or Donald. In the 2000s Disney revived Clarabelle and began shipping her with Goofy. The problem is that Clarabelle traditionally has a boyfriend—Horace. A lot of Goofy/Clarabelle versus Horace/Clarabelle tension exists. Then there's Goofy's girlfriend in the Goof Troop universe, Sylvia from An Extremely Goofy Movie. She never became a Canon Immigrant like Max, however she occasionally gets drawn in.
  • The Code Lyoko fandom features a large group of people who ship Aelita and Odd and are combated vigorously by the people who support Aelita and Jeremie, the show's Official Couple. But of course this is nothing when it comes to the Ulrich/Yumi/William/Sissi debates.
  • Codename: Kids Next Door: Say one shipping, and you'll have shippers SWARMING YOU WITH FURY. While most fans ship 4/3, there is a never ending conflict between shippers of 1/5, 2/5, 1/362, 86/362 and 2/86 that continues 20 years after the show started airing. You may want to wear battle ready armor for this.
  • The Cuphead Show!: There's some conflict between people who ship Cala Maria with Mugman and those who ship her with Brineybeard. In the original game, Briney and Cala never interacted with each other (though they were both sea-themed antagonists who sold their souls to the Devil), and the interaction between Mugman and Cala Maria were purely antagonistic. In the show, Brineybeard is madly in love with Cala Maria, who first just wants to eat him but she gradually starts to like him, whereas Mugman is frightened of her first but eventually develops a Precocious Crush on her (so much that in a later episode, when he reads a romance book, he imagines the protagonist as himself and the love interest as Cala Maria). People who oppose the Mugman/Cala Maria ship point out that he is a child whereas she is an adult.
  • The shipping wars within the Danny Phantom fandom became (in)famously known as the "True-Fan vs. Anti-Fan" wars, and ran rampant throughout sites like DeviantArt. The wars involved the canon pairing of (Danny/Sam) vs. the popular fanon pairing (Danny/Valerie), but also had a huge focus on heterosexual parings (Danny/Sam, Danny/Valerie) vs. homosexual/slash pairings (Danny/Vlad, Danny/Dash, and even Danny Fenton/Danny Phantom).
    • How bad was it, you ask? Well, anyone who supported "Fanon" pairings were considered an "Anti-Fan" whom the "True-Fans" disregarded as propagating "filth and pornography" (even if artwork/fanfic of said pairing was completely "G" rated). Likewise, the supporters of "Canon" pairings were called "Canon Nazis" whom the "Anti-Fans" would often accuse of "not understanding artistic freedom". Not to mention that simply being friends or liking the artwork of someone on one side of the battlefield automatically made you enemies with the other. Thankfully, these days, the war seems to have died down a bit.
    • One fan going by the name of Wolf O'Donnell stepped forward and created the iconic ship to end all ships in protest of all of this: Cream Soup. Otherwise known as Danny/the Fenton Thermos. The Cream Soup ship was for those who simply don't want to get so involved in shipping. Fanons are slowly starting to use this one.
  • Ed, Edd n Eddy:
    • There was always a bit of animosity between Edd/Eddy and Edd/Kevin fans however it was downplayed due to the former being significantly more popular... Until a popular artist on Tumblr caused Kevedd to explode in the early 2010s. This caused a resurgence in the fandom, however these newer fandom members tend towards Kevin/Edd. Naturally the Edd/Eddy fans (many of which who have been in the fandom since the early-to-late 2000s) started getting mad and the ship wars were revived. Edd/Ed, Edd/Marie, Edd/May, and Edd/Nazz rarely get brought into the mess.
    • When it comes to shipping Edd with girls, there's a lot of ship warring. The three most popular are Edd/May, Edd/Marie, and Edd/Nazz however the fans rarely get along.
  • The Fairly Oddparents has its own, with the main combatants seeming to be Timmy/Tootie (Tootie is obsessed with Timmy but he doesn't like her back), Timmy/Trixie (Timmy likes Trixie but she usually brushes him aside), and Timmy/Chloe (Chloe being Timmy's new neighbor introduced in the last season). However, Veronica/Timmy also has its own devoted fanbase (even though Veronica was only shown to like Timmy in two episodes and she expressed it in a very... interesting way). There is also a minority of Timmy/Vicky shippers, who enjoy the Foe Romance Subtext between them or want Vicky redeemed.
  • Gargoyles:
    • The Gargoyles fandom has had this going on for over a decade after Goliath's daughter Angela hooked up with Broadway over Brooklyn (and Brooklyn himself was very graceful about his "loss"). While most fans understood that Broadway was the correct choice, even if not the obvious choice, there are still fans who believe she should have hooked up with Brooklyn, and it intensified after Greg Weisman came out and said that Brooklyn's attraction to her was shallow and superficial. The arrival of Brooklyn's true love, Katana, seems to have finally laid this to rest... however there are still some hold-outs because "Katana is not hot." (This is what Katana looks like, by the way.)
    • For a period, several years back, there were militant shippers who believed that Demona and Elisa Maza should be a couple. While some were doing it just for the fun, there was a rising faction who were dead serious about it. They even denounced Greg Weisman as a writer, and attacked him for not writing "realistic relationships." So, according to these people, Demona and Elisa were meant for each other. One is a human, and one wants to commit mass genocide upon humanity, and each despises the other.
  • The Ghost and Molly McGee:
    • As early as the first episode, a rivalry started between Molly/Andrea fans and Molly/Libby fans. Much of the Molldrea fanbase started from Foe Yay Shipping and got even stronger as the character began having positive interactions to the point of becoming friends by Season 2, while Mollibby rode on a 'friends-to-lovers' scenario from the very start.
    • Season 2 threw in the Molly/Ollie ship, which immediately began receiving flak from Molly/Libby and Molly/Andrea shippers. In return, the Molly/Ollie shippers accuse the other two shipping factions of putting their Shipping Goggles on too tightly, and disrespecting the creators' choice of pairing Molly with Ollie instead of Libby or Andrea.
  • Gravity Falls:
    • Just like the Invader Zim fanbase, the biggest shipping war is between those who ship Pinecest (Dipper/Mabel) and those who despise it. The fact that the creator based the two main characters off of him and his sister doesn't help the Pinecest shippers at all.
    • Season 2 caused quite a large war between Wendip (Wendy/Dipper) shippers and the newly-growing Dipcifica (Dipper/Pacifica) shippers. While for Wendip, there was early Ship Sinking, the ship has been reinvigorated towards the end thanks to hints surrounding the final six episodes, Dipcifica only really has one episode of Ship Tease, and it is one of the only other ships likely to happen besides Wendip, unless Dipper meets a new girl, though the fans will never know. Further complicating things is that while Dipcifica was only briefly teased in the series, the tie-in materials like Gravity Falls: Legend of the Gnome Gemulets, Gravity Falls: Journal 3, and Gravity Falls: Lost Legends seem to lean more towards Dipcifica.
    • Season 2 also caused a completely different ship war between those who like Dipcifica and those who like Mabifica (Mabel/Pacifica).
    • Eventually, as time went on after the show ended, most of the ship wars died down, although Dipcifica shippers often remain at odds with the majority of other shippers.
  • Strangely, the Happy Tree Friends fandom engages in this. The wars often revolve around who Flaky will end up with. Never mind that Flaky is a character who is never romantically involved and her gender is still quite the subject of debate. And then, there's Flippy/Flaky vs. Flippy/Splendid, as well. Flippy/Flaky vs. a part of the fandom that can't stand the couple pops up frequently because of how common in fanon the pairing is.
  • Harley Quinn (2019): Harley/Ivy vs Ivy/Kite-Man. Possibly the biggest draw of the series has been the possibility of Harley Quinn and Poison Ivy forming a romantic relationship like their comic book counterparts. When Ivy started seeing Kite-Man, it was seen as just a running gag. But then they got serious, and now the show is divided into two camps: those who see Ivy/Kite-Man as surprisingly well-written and sweet and deserving to be explored, and those who think the show has used good old-fashioned queerbaiting to entice LGBT viewers with no payoff. As the series is ongoing, time will tell how things play out. One factor that leaves Harley/Ivy fans hopeful is that the ladies (at least in the comics) are no strangers to polyamory.
  • The Invader Zim fandom has little fighting, probably because the show only focuses on a few main characters and Dib/Gaz is unpopular for obvious reasons. The biggest ship war is actually just between those who like ZADR and those who despise it, especially since Jhonen Vasquez says it makes him "sick to his ill-prone belly." Building on that, there is a small collection of anti-shippers who are against pairings in general, but ZADR is where they direct most of their ire. There is also actually a pretty big fight between Zim/Dib shippers and Zim/Gaz shippers. And let's not forget Zim/Tak and Dib/Tak. Or Gaz/Tak.
  • Jem:
    • Kimber has Kimber/Sean versus Kimber/Stormer, Kimber's main boyfriend against Kimber's Pseudo-Romantic Friendship. Jeff rarely gets brought into the debate.
    • This is encouraged in season 3: Is Jem best with Rio or Riot? Jem shows interest in both and the series ends on No Romantic Resolution. That's not even getting the mildly popular Jem/Pizzazz ship involved.
  • Justice League Action is one of the few adaptations to use Superman/Wonder Woman. Naturally, this caused a storm within the fanbase, with Lois/Superman fans and Steve/WW fans getting into arguments with fans of this pairing about which couple is best. Batman/WW fans also entered the mix, thanks to the previous Justice League show having popularized that pairing.
  • While not as extreme as some of the others mentioned on this page, there's the Green Lantern/Hawkgirl shippers vs. the Green Lantern/Vixen shippers for Justice League Unlimited, even though both are canon, and there was a big reveal about Warhawk being Green Lantern and Hawkgirl's son in the future, and Word of God has pretty much said the Green Lantern/Hawkgirl shippers have reason to be victorious in this fight. And yet there's still friction between them.
  • While most Kaeloo fans ship Kaeloo and Mr. Cat, a few of them ship Mr. Cat with Pretty. On occasions, things can get ugly when the fans start fighting over which ship is better.
  • The Kim Possible fans of the Kim/Ron pairing will viciously attack any fans of Kim/Shego like a piranha-feeding frenzy. Any sign of Kigo Fan Art will invariably get several negative comments from a Kim/Ron supporter; the same can be said of any Fan Fiction. And of course, Kigo shippers will invariably call the Kim/Ron pairing "mainstream" or "not gritty enough" or accuse the Kim/Ron shippers of homophobia. There was a major fight that occurred between the Kigo and K/R shippers a while back. Nowadays, the topic is kept out of most forums for obvious reasons. Most enjoy both shipping sides nowadays and there are some that even enjoy mixing the ships.
  • The Legend of Korra:
    • Even before Book 1, there was already a huge brewing shipping war between Korra/Mako fans and Asami/Mako fans. It didn't help that many Zutara shippers Jumped Ship to Makorra after Zutara was definitively Sunk. There also was a war brewing between Korra/Mako fans and Korra/Bolin fans as well, including arguments on which brother "deserves Korra more" and vice versa. Asami and Mako became a couple early on, though with continuous ship tease between Mako and Korra. Despite Episode 5 sinking Borra, it grew massively in popularity to due to the chemistry between the two, turning the shipping wars into a duel between Borra and Makorra. Mako's poor treatment of Asami caused most to jump ship and turned Makorra's Official Couple status divisive, which was not helped by the ambiguous breakup between Mako and Asami to assume that Mako was cheating on both of them. Korrasami grew as a fringe ship that mostly started as a protest against the Love Triangle that everyone was quickly becoming frustrated with. Remember that for later.
    • Book 2 saw the growth of Asami/Bolin partly as a reaction to how the shipping war had hurt both Korra and Mako's popularity within the fandom, and it quickly clashed with the canon Eska/Bolin. Mako and Korra eventually broke up for good, with Mako's botched handling of an amnesiac Korra after getting back together with Asami midway through the season obliterating Mako/Asami and only worsened his status as The Scrappy.
    • Die-hard Makorra shippers continued to hope that their ship would get back together in Book 3, though it never happened. This season also saw the meteoric rise of Korrasami to One True Pairing as the series explored their friendship (once again, remember that for later). Hopes for any other ships involving Bolin collapsed with the introduction of Opal as his new love interest, who proved to be fairly popular.
    • Now it's later. Book 4's shipping wars consisted of Makorra and Korrasami fighting it out, though many expected Korra to canonically end up alone. After the finale suggested that all the Homo Erotic Subtext may not have been Shipping Goggles but fully intentional, heated debates over what the final shot meant erupted, with Makorra shippers leading the "Just Friends" charge. Then Word of God confirmed that Korra and Asami are indeed bisexual and Korrasami is canon, causing major opposition to cease, with only some angry holdouts.
      • After the fandom settled down post-finale, interactions between the Makorra and Korrasami camps have been largely respectful, or at least civil due to the former group continuing to shrink with each passing day. While there's still debate, both sides are much more inclined to agree to disagree, never quite reaching the emotional fervor of the Kataang-Zutara days. That is, until the concept of homo/biphobia comes up. Then a whole different sort of argument starts, and it isn't pretty.
      • Increasingly Averted as time passes from the finale and the canon spin- offs focus on Korrasami. Makorra's popularity is declining, while Korrasami remains popular as ever. Within the metaphor, the war could be said to be over.
    • Ever since the revelation that Lin and Tenzin once were in a Childhood Friend Romance, the Tenzin/Lin shippers have pushed for their ship, often bashing the shit out of Tenzin's actual wife Pema in the process, labeling her as a slutty home-wrecker without any evidence. Naturally, the Tenzin/Pema fans have retaliated...
  • Kion/Jasiri and Kion/Fuli are two of the most popular Toy Ships in The Lion Guard. Ship wars have popped up as a result, despite the lack of actual romance in the series. At least until the final season, when the canon Kion/Rani ship joined the mix.
  • The Loud House:
    • Lincoln has been hinted to have a crush on various girls throughout the series, including Christina, Girl Jordan, and Stella. However, the most popular of these is Ronnie Anne, a Hispanic girl who was a former bully of his, but gradually developed feelings for Lincoln in the show's early episodes. Despite being one of the most popular ships in the fanbase, various detractors are quick to point out that Ronnie Anne's treatment of Lincoln is borderline abusive and that she started off viciously bullying him. Some have alo made note of how Lincoln and Ronnie Anne have shown very little (if any) romantic interest in one another since the latter moved to Great Lakes City in the show's second season, and are now just seen as friends. The fact that Nickelodeon officially debunked Ronniecoln hasn't helped to settle these shipping wars, with Ronniecoln supporters arguing Lincoln and Ronnie Anne's denial of being significant others as behavior typical of kids their age. In the series' live-action adaptation, The Really Loud House, Lincoln developed a crush on a girl named Charlie, with Ronnie Anne completely absent from the series. Ronniecoln supporters were angered by this change, considering it unrelated to the original series' canon.
    • Even though Benny and Luan were promoted to Official Couple, that hasn't changed the minds of an extremely vocal group of fans who ship Luan with Maggie. Pointing out that they never said one word to each other in the one episode Maggie has actually appeared in won't help your case, either.
  • Miraculous Ladybug shipping is interesting because the four main ships are between two characters who act so differently between their civilian and superhero identities that they count as four separate ships. There's "Adrienette", the pairing between Marinette/Adrien, their civilian identities; "Ladynoir", the pairing between Ladybug/Chat Noir, their superheroes identities; "Marichat" the pairing between Marinette/Chat Noir; and "Ladrien", the pairing between Adrien/Ladybug. This is just as confusing as it sounds, and also ignores the show's own arc concerning the characters learning to stop separating their personas as much as they do in order to become more well-rounded people.
    • Season 2 added Luka and Kagami to the mix as possible love interests for Marinette and Adrien, respectively. While the resultant "Lukanette" and "Adrigami" factions tend to unite against the wrath of the Love Square shippers, they're also prone to their own fights because of how said factions (partly) formed: some Lukanette shippers got fed up with Adrien's Entitled to Have You behavior towards Ladybug and doormat tendencies and decided Marinette would be better off without him, while some Adrigami shippers got fed up with Marinette's stalking tendencies and actions towards her romantic rivals and thought Adrien would be better off without her. Hence, their differing opinions on the show's two leads cause them to argue independent of their preferred ships. And that's without factoring in the also-competing "Lukadrien", "Kagaminette", and "Lukagami" factions (the first two tend to be allied with each other, and the second one with the various Love Square factions).
  • My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic:
    • There are ships that pair Rainbow Dash with Applejack, but there are others that pair her with Pinkie Pie. Fans of one ship will immediately (upon realization) state they don't like the shipping, while stating however, that the story is [X] ([X] being their humble, critical opinion on the author's writing) and so living on to their promise of "loving and tolerating the $c#i+ out of you".
    • While fans generally promote "love and tolerance", many still start ship wars, PinkieDashers in particular.
    • If you pair Lyra or Bon Bon with anypony other than each other, you can expect to at least a few times be called a troll, a homophobe, an idiot, or all three. Many LyraBon fans are perfectly normal, but a lot of them are so possessive of both characters that if you don't accept the shipping of them as "almost canon," and confirmed canon as of the series finale, you'll soon meet a lot of people who neither love nor tolerate your opinion.
    • Some plot points to the Valentines Day episode, Hearts and Hooves Day, were revealed early. It was revealed that the Cutie Mark Crusaders try to hook up Big Macintosh and Cheerilee. Big Mac and Fluttershy is one of the most popular ships in bronydom, so naturally, the FlutterMac shippers took exception - before the episode had even aired and before it was established that anything had changed in the first place. And a lot of people found the episode a Funny Moment because in a way it said "shipping is bad" since the plot was about making two people fall in love because you think they'll work. Cue a bunch of teasing fanart all around.
    • There can also be quite a bit of friction between FlutterMac (Fluttershy/Big Mac) and TwiMac (Twilight/Big Mac) fans (though it doesn't usually reach the fevered level of some of the other ship wars). And now there's Mac being shipped with Pinkie's sister Marble. Who's a lot like Fluttershy. Fantastic.
    • Then in season 7, he got a canon ship, with Sugar Belle, which just made things worse.
    • Let's face it, you really can't bring up a pairing without people complaining about it. Notable examples include shipping Original Characters with canon characters, merely mentioning Trixie in a non-Twilight/Trixie story (because Twixie has quite a few vocal fans), the very implication of Bic Mac being with anypony that isn't Fluttershy or Cheerilee, any of the Background Six getting together with anypony other than their double (Derpy and the Doctor, Lyra and Bon Bon, and Vinyl Scratch and Octavia), and most anything involving Princess Celestia.
    • A three-way conflict seems to be underway. All three factions are fighting over whom Rainbow Dash should be shipped with. AppleDash is the most popular and generally most organized faction; FlutterDash (Fluttershy X Rainbow Dash) seems to have the most zealous and passionate fans; and TwiDash (Twilight x Rainbow Dash), based on the sheer popularity on FimFiction.net, is gaining momentum the fastest out of the three and is recruiting more and more casual first time shippers.
      • Recently, discoveries have been made that a lot of hardcore shippers of various mane six ships will express notable distaste for other main characters. Incidentally, these characters happen to make up halves of other very popular ships. Examples include AppleDash shippers, who generally hate RariJack and don't take kindly to Rarity, and TwiDash shippers, who often loathe AppleDash and are quick to dismiss Applejack as a background character, boring, a mudpony, or all the above.
    • The fandom also is split on whether the Mane 6 are Heterosexual Life-Partners or possible lovers.
    • There is also an escalating debate based on who the Wonderbolt Soarin should be paired with. Soarindash (Soarin X Rainbow Dash) has one of the largest followings amongst the shipping fandom (not to mention an exceptionally high DeviantArt membership), but faces some competition from Soarinjack (Soarin X Applejack) shippers and Soarinfire (Soarin X Spitfire) shippers as well.
    • Any shipping involving Discord is subject to controversy. However, following a brief scene in the 4th season's finale in which Discord gives Princess Celestia a bouquet of flowers, a rather heated conflict has emerged between those who ship the two together, and those who ship him with Fluttershy. And that's not even accounting for the debate between "Dislestians", and fans that believe that the relationship between Celestia and The King Sombra of the parallel universe should be taken as canon.
    • The series finale caused warring between Applejack/Rainbow Dash and Applejack/Rarity fans. The ending implies that Applejack and Rainbow Dash live together 15+ years in the future, while Equestria Girls has Ship Tease between Applejack and Rarity (with a Word of Gay to back it up). Fans thought the two worlds were more-or-less parallel, which caused debating on whether Applejack and Rainbow Dash are a couple or not.
  • Largely averted by The Owl House; While two ships involving the main character, Luz, namely Lumity (Luz x Amity), and Lunter (Luz x Hunter) exist and have their fans, the former is overwhelmingly more popular, to the point where it makes up more than 60% of all Owl House fanfiction on AO3, more than any competing or unrelated pairs combined. After Lumity ascended to Official Couple status, the fandom largely moved on to other conflicts.
  • Phineas and Ferb:
    • The biggest question is with whom Isabella should end up with. Fans usually ship her with the two principal brothers. That's because she's the only one female character of their age with an important role. A joke in "Quantum Boogaloo" Ship Teased Ferb/Isabella (Ferbella), but this pair was never developed in the series. Isabella has a crush on Phineas. Because of this, Phineas/Isabella (Phinabella) simply has much more canon evidence and a significantly larger fanbase.
    • That's also a rather controversial question of who Ferb should wind up with. Canonically, he has a Precocious Crush on Vanessa, who at sixteen is about two-to-six years older than him. Many fans, however, decided to pair him with Gretchen, who originally seems to be chosen simply because she was the first girl his age (other than Isabella) to have a name; they have never interacted, though, despite how many times the Fireside Girls have helped in Phineas and Ferb's projects. And of course, some fans Take a Third Option and just invent an Original Character, pair Ferb with somebody else in the show, or have a threesome.
    • Another possible war that could break out is between the Phineas/Ferb shippers and...well, like the Invader Zim example above, just the people who hate that pairing.
    • An episode revealed that Johnny, who fans had generally written off as a Boy Of The Week, was now Vanessa's boyfriend. It was not long before Johnny got subjected to the madness of the rabid Ferbnessa shippers. Later Vannesa broke up with Johnny...but got a thing for Monty Monogram. here we go...
    • This was mostly averted between Jeremy/Candace and Candace/Stacy shippers. Most of the latter also support the former and there isn't any reported sighting on any debate between the two thus far.
  • Scooby-Doo:
  • South Park has a lot of this:
    • Shipping wars have gotten especially common since You're Getting Old aired, where Kyle didn't want to be Stan's friend anymore, and was seen playing with Cartman and smiling at him at the end of the episode, implying that the hostility between Cartman and Kyle is slowly replaced with a building friendship. The rabid Stan/Kyle and Cartman/Kyle fans went crazy, especially since there was a war between the ships even before the episode. Although their friendship ended the following episode, tensions remained high.
    • Then there are smaller battles in the fandom, between Cartman/Butters fans and Kenny/Butters fans, Cartman/Wendy vs. Stan/Wendy, and Craig/Tweek vs. Craig/Thomas vs. Craig/Clyde vs Kevin/Clyde.
    • As of season sixteen, especially on sites like Tumblr, Stan/Kyle fangirls have begun whittling down or switching in favor of Cartman/Kyle.
    • Yet, this only escalated the fighting even more, and fans of other pairings like K2 and Candy have also jumped on the bandwagon of standing their ground against the growing number of Kyman fans. Season 17's run continued the fight between Stan/Kyle fans and Cartman/Kyle fans, with some proponents of the latter hoping it would be officially canonized. Come "Ginger Cow", where the entire episode involved Kyle being humiliated by Cartman and made to "eat farts". This was either seen as deconstructing and shining a light on how unhealthy Kyle would be with Cartman- or alternatively, used by specific Kyman fans as FURTHER proof and fodder for the pairing, with them trashing Stan/Kyle in the process.
  • SpongeBob SquarePants: Spandy (SpongeBob and Sandy) fans and all of the SpongeBob slash-fans seem to constantly be at each other's throats whenever people start to discuss the pairings that they like and don't like (or at least the very militant ones are). The slash fans tend to ignore that Word of God said at one point that SpongeBob had a chaste crush on Sandy, the Spandy fans often ignore all of the Ho Yay, and everybody seems to ignore the fact that Word of God has also stated that SpongeBob's asexuality.
  • Star vs. the Forces of Evil: With romance rivaling the main myth arc in importance, ship wars were inevitable.
    • The two largest combatants at the start of the show were Star/Marco (Starco) and Marco/Jackie (Jarco). Jarco shippers would usually claim that having the main characters get together is cliché and that Star and Marco's relationship should stay platonic. On the other hand, Starco shippers would claim that Marco has far better chemistry with Star than with Jackie. Plus, they have support from the actor of Marco himself (Adam McArthur), the fact that Star and Marco are loosely based on creator Daron Nefcy and her husband, and a season one episode where their souls were literally fused together. Marco and Jackie end up dating halfway through the second season, intensifying the war and even leading to a fan webcomic... only for Season 3 to have Jackie officially break up with Marco, knowing that he has unrealized feelings for Star.
    • This wasn't a win for Starco shippers quite yet though, as by that point, Star had gotten back together with her ex-boyfriend Tom, fulfilling the seemingly unlikely ship of Tomstar, and angering Starco and Jarco fans equally. And Marco got to deal with his own relationship issues once he came to terms with the fact that he has a crush on Star after all; since he doesn't want to ruin Star's relationship with Tom, we ended up feeding the fuel of ship wars by teasing Heckapoo/Marco (Marcapoo) and Kelly/Marco (Kellco).
    • The fandom was heavily divided after "Booth Buddies" where Marco kissed Star... because they were trapped in a photo booth by someone who wanted them to kiss. And while Star was still dating Tom, and may or may not have enjoyed the kiss. A lot of fans complained that it was unfair to Tom, regardless of what pairing they shipped, with some Starco shippers feeling that the context of their first kiss ruined the ship for them. Meanwhile, others saw this as another victory, in spite of how awkward the circumstances were.
    • While it was expected as an inevitability when Starco ended up being the final pairing, Tomstar fans (including Tom's own voice actor), weren't happy about how their ship ended. While Star and Tom end their relationship amicably, these fans argue it felt less like a mutual split and more like Tom having to end things due to Star suddenly becoming apathetic about a relationship she was wholly into just episodes prior. And this is after two seasons of Tom being shown as deeply devoted to making this second go at their relationship work and becoming a better person, even privately forgiving Star for kissing Marco behind his back and brushing it off when she gets mad at him upon finding out he learned about it.
  • Star Wars Rebels: On the other hand, is fairly light on shipping (presumably due to the Lighter and Softer tone and the younger characters act less like Child Soldiers), with most emphasis being on Kanan and Hera (Kanera). A few circles ship Sabezra, with its Detractors shipped Sabine with Ketsu (Ketbine). Probably also helps that the LGBT Fanbase from The Clone Wars carried over.
  • Star Wars: The Clone Wars: Ahsoka is paired with every single male character on the show. Lux/Ahsoka (Luxsoka), Captain Rex/Ahsoka (Rexsoka) and Anakin/Ahsoka (Anisoka) are the three biggest ones, but then of course Boba/Ahsoka, Barriss/Ahsoka, Riyo/Ahsoka, Ventress/Ahsoka, Bane/Ahsoka all exist and are somewhat popular. The show also has some very disturbing pairings being supported. Count Dooku/Ahsoka is what we're talking about here. Considering Ahsoka was a Kid Hero as well as a rolemodel to numerous young girls at the time (emphasis on kid and girl), you kind of have to wonder if her LGBT Fanbase resulted as backlash from the prevalence of Luxsoka (which garnered Broken Base status as some felt that the two were Strangled by the Red String) and the shipping of her with older men.
  • Steven Universe: Amedot (Amethyst/Peridot) vs. Lapidot (Lapis/Peridot) shippers. This war got so bad that the writer of the episodes that first teased these ships (stating that they wrote Lapidot as if they were in a growing relationship, and Amedot as Peridot having a crush on Amethyst that led to them becoming close intimate friends, and that their stance on it might not be the other writers/storyboarders' stance on it), Jesse Zuke, eventually quit the show itself following constant fan harassment. Occasionally Jaspis (Jasper/Lapis) gets dragged into it.
  • Superjail!:
    • For a time on sites like deviantART, shipwars could get very vicious, especially if they involved male/female pairings vs. male/male ones (or more rarely, female/female). This would lead to some fans from either camp flinging stereotypes about the opposing one, with shippers of heterosexual pairings being called homophobes, and the shippers of homosexual pairings being accused of "oppressing het". Not as bad as Danny Phantom in the end, but still mind-boggling.
    • In the days of season 1, Warden/Mistress ("Misden"), Warden/Jared ("Jayden"), and Warden/Future Warden ("Wardencest"/"Timeshipping") went head-to-head, with Warden/Jailbot ("Warbot") also another option considered. Once Lord Stingray entered the picture in season 2, select fans of "Stingden" and Misden began arguing over which pairing would be more canon and which of Warden's nemesises was more worthy of him. This lead to both Mistress and Stingray getting hate from the other's fans out of the idea that either one was in the way of their desired pairing. This seemed to die down a little after "Stingstress" since the Mistress wound up sleeping with Alice.
      • A vocal minority of Warden/Mistress fans have also thrown potshots at Alice and those who ship her with either the Mistress (who they believe only Warden is entitled to) or the Warden (who only the Mistress is apparently entitled to). This was spurred on by the above episode.
    • While the Warden/Jared vs. Jared/Charise disputes are less frequent or as overplayed as the above, it doesn't make Charise completely immune from being subjected to this and Die for Our Ship by fans who insist that she's "in the way", secretly evil, or not as significant to Jared as the Warden would be. In turn, some Jared/Charise fans even jumped ship to the other pairing after season 3, feeling it'd be less likely for Jared to actually get together with her.
    • In the least frequent but most baffling example of the trope, some fans go to war over whether the Twins are incestuous or whether they're more deserving of being paired off with women (sometimes even just pairing them off as an attempt to dissuade the Twincest). Seeing as there are very few female characters in the show, it leads to pairings that would be ridiculous anyway, such as pairing one Twin off with Alice or the Mistress.
  • Teen Titans:
    • Teen Titans was famous for ship wars during its run. Most notably, Beast Boy/Raven shippers vs. Beast Boy/Terra shippers, Beast Boy/Raven shippers vs. Robin/Raven shippers and Robin/Starfire shippers vs. Robin/Raven shippers. All they need is a Starfire/Terra ship, and the Mexican Standoff will be complete. Word of God saying that any Beast Boy/Raven Ship Tease was accidental gets scoffed at by fans. Teen Titans Go! would cause the ship wars to start up again after years of rest due to actively teasing Beast Boy/Raven on several occasions (one episode even being called BBRae), and the lack of mutual Beast Boy/Terra (Terra has her old manipulative comic book persona) and Robin/Starfire (Starfire openly rejects his advances).
    • Cyborg was mostly left out of this. There was a quick Cyborg/Raven vs. Cyborg/Jinx ship battle, but it didn't last long, as most came to the conclusion that Cyborg and Raven had more of a sibling bond and that he was better with Bumblebee anyway. After Jinx pulled a Heel–Face Turn and started dating Kid Flash, a rivalry developed between Kid Flash/Jinx shippers and Cyborg/Jinx shippers that still continues to this day. Interestingly enough, Teen Titans Go! pushes Cyborg/Jinx as one of its definitive pairings.
    • Parodied in the show itself; Control disabled person is broadcasting a live feed of his Death Course to fellow geeky supervillains, and they briefly argue about whether Robin or Beast Boy is better for Starfire.
  • Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles (2012) has a large one going on. A lot of fans are supportive of April/Donatello, but the Official Couple of most incarnations is Casey/April. The large amount of Apritello fans may be a result of the first season not having Casey. Once he became part of the show, many fans weren't happy and were willing to defend their fandom, while other fans jumped on the Capril ship and unsurprisingly retaliated. Tensions only heightened when the Love Triangle came about.
  • As this fanart will demonstrate, not even Thomas & Friends fandom is safe from shipping wars. It does not help however that that some of the episodes have hinted towards crushes between the engines (such as Rosie trying to follow Thomas everywhere in her introductory episode, or Thomas blushing on seeing Flora in her introductory episode).
  • Total Drama has a complicated situation, due to the huge cast and lots of Ship Tease:
    • The biggest one is between the original Official Couple, Duncan/Courtney, and the new canon, former Fan-Preferred Couple Duncan/Gwen before their breakup much later. The fact that the latter got together thanks to Duncan cheating on Courtney doesn't help.
    • Gwen/Trent, also originally canon, used to be heavily involved in this fray too before being sunk. They still tend to side with Duncan/Courtney as a Ship Mate, though, as do Cody/Gwen supporters.
    • Loony Fan Sierra, Cody's Stalker with a Crush, is the perfect casus belli of Shipping Wars. Many Noah/Cody and Cody/Gwen supporters despise her, though the more forgiving ones are willing to tolerate her after season three ends with her and Cody as Just Friends (and the resulting fact that she no longer makes his life a living hell).
  • Voltron: Legendary Defender:
    • Shiro/Keith shippers vs. Keith/Lance shippers. The Foe Romance Subtext of Klance vs. the respectful admiration of Sheith. The feelings of animosity can spark some serious fights in the vein of previous series the writers and producers worked on; except this time the lingo has been updated with accusations of either ship being abusive or pedophiliac (despite Keith being an older teen tops, not a child), such is the way of shipping.
    • Granted, with the reveal that Keith is legally an adult (the handbook places him as 18 at the start of the series), the age-related arguments have begun to shift towards Shiro/Keith being an unhealthy age gap rather than outright pedophillia— though there are still a significant amount of people who claim it as such. Since Shiro is stated to be 25, this puts the age gap at 7 years. Unfortunately for those who hate the discourse, this means that it's a large enough gap to get on some people's red alert but small enough that others don't see a problem with it.
    • At the start of Season 2, Keith and Allura had some moments that could be seen as Ship Tease. More than a few Shiro/Allura, Shiro/Keith, and Keith/Lance fans got defensive and started complaining about it.
    • Allura/Lotor shippers don't get along well with Allura/Lance or Allura/Keith shippers, since while Lotor receives a lot of Ship Tease with Allura, he has traditionally been a villain and enemy of Allura's, while Lance and Keith are heroic characters. The latter's suspicions were proven correct in Season 6, when Lotor turns against Allura. Allura/Keith and Allura/Lance shippers don't get along well with each other either; the former, which was the Official Couple in all previous incarnations of the show, accuse the latter, which is the Official Couple in this continuity, of being a creepy and abusive Dogged Nice Guy relationship, while the latter insist Keith's at-times harsh treatment of Allura is also abusive and accuse the former of misrepresenting Lance's treatment of Allura.
    • When the series finale had a last-minute wedding between Shiro and Curtis, a character who was so minor that most fans didn't even know his name at first, the pairing and the fans who liked it or were happy that Shiro at least got a happy ending with another man were attacked on all sides by Shiro/Keith and Shiro/Adam shippers who denounced it as a poorly thought-out attempt by the producers to make up for the backlash surrounding Adam's death and insisted that the man Shiro married should have been someone he had actual on-screen history and development with.
  • X-Men: Evolution has a few interesting ones:
    • Lancitty (Lance/Kitty) vs. Kurtty (Kurt/Kitty) is the biggest one and dates back to the start of the fandom. Some Kurtty fans like to bash Lance as a violent bad boy who is all wrong for the innocent and sweet Kitty and should be with someone like Wanda or Tabitha, while Dogged Nice Guy Kurt is the one for her (sometimes depicting him more violently than usual and being rather immature about it). Lancitty fans will point out that Kitty is attracted to Lance, and never showed the slightest romantic interest in Kurt, who is in a relationship with Amanda (sometimes agressively saying 'ITS NEVER GOING TO HAPPEN' and be rather immature about the matter as well). They are also quick to remind anyone they have Canon behind them as the Official Couple since Lance and Kitty are hinted to get back together at the end. And, that's not even mentioning the Piotr/Kitty fans. Usually, they're spared by the other fans due to Piotr's little screentime. But the fact he's Kitty's comic love interest, and in a few scenes at the end of the third season Kitty and him proved to work well together, he's just as much up for grabs by the less tolerable fans. Sometimes, he'll get off light with just a casual "It didn't happen", sometimes he'll get a "he was too old for her" (his age wasn't ever stated, but he appeared to be only around Scott and Lance's age), but, sometimes he'll just get treated like garbage, or Out of Character moments from the comics will be given as 'evidence' of him being wrong for Kitty.
    • Another one is Scogue (Scott/Rogue) vs. Romy (Gambit/Rogue). Rogue had a crush on Scott that lasted for three seasons of the show; this pairing proved very popular, much more so than Scott's always inevitable hookup with Jean. But it was challenged when Rogue's longtime comic boyfriend Gambit appeared on the show. Now, every detail about Scogue is bashed (including its name; seriously, some cite that "Scogue" or "Rott" sounds terrible) by the Romy fans.
    • Jott (Scott/Jean), especially by Scogue fans. Or Jean herself, who apparently is a slutty evil Alpha Bitch in the view of rabid Scogue fans who think Popular Is Dumb despite Jean being portrayed sympathetically in the show, or creepily overproject their own teenage experiences on the Love Triangle: Rogue the Misfit is automatically good, Jean the pampered but sweet girl is automatically bad, Scott is Rogue's "prize penis" for being the Cool Girl, etc.
  • In the Young Justice (2010) fandom there are many ship wars, but the main ship war being Spitfire (Artemis/Wally) and Traught (Artemis/Robin). BirdFlash (Wally/Robin), Chalant (Robin/Zatanna), and Babs/Robin often get caught in the crossfire. Some people have compromised with an OT3, Museum Heist (Robin/Wally/Artemis), which occasionally expands into four with Babs or Zatanna.

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