Ships That Pass In The Night / Video Games

---

Ships That Pass in the Night in Video Games.

---

• The fandom of Ace Combat 7: Skies Unknown seems to have a liking of pairing up Trigger with Rosa Cossette d’Elise, despite the fact that they’re on opposite sides of the war. The closest they ever interact is in the final mission, if the player chooses to take their time when flying up the Lighthouse, as Cossette will call out for Trigger.
• In Detroit: Become Human fandom, Gavin/RK900 (an upgraded Connor) became one of the most popular pairings despite the latter character appearing in only one ending and never interacting with Gavin. This may be because of the potential for a lot of tension between the two if they ever meet due to Gavin's hatred of androids and RK900 being widely interpreted by fans as the sexy version of Connor.
• In Devil May Cry, Vergil/Lady was a very popular ship despite them barely interacting in DMC3, being enemies the few times they did, and generally not even being in the same room together save for two occasions.
• Dishonored:
  • Daud and Teague Martin, who have never met in-game. Also, Martin is dead by the end of the game and Daud could be dead, depending on the player's choices. Quite a few people ship them anyway.
  • There are a lot such couples in Dishonored, considering how the only hinted Official Couple was Corvo/Jessamine, and since she died five minutes into the game, well. Other examples include The Outsider/Emily, Daud/Callista, and Sokolov/Lady Boyle.
• Dragalia Lost: There are some who like to ship Nedrick with Alex, despite not sharing much, if any, screen time together. They’re both Emo Teens (even if Alex is implied to be in her early 20s) who start were once murderers and opposed a particular one of the main characters, but eventually learn to work alongside them and repent for the crimes. These similarities make people think that they would get along swimmingly.
• Dragon Age:
  • Bethany / Alistair is surprisingly popular considering we only see them interact once, and then only if Bethany becomes a Warden and Alistair remained one. Also strange considering what the reaction was to Alistair/Leliana being suggested in the Darkspawn Chronicles DLC.
  • Since the launch of Dragon Age: Inquisition, Alistair/Cullen has become popular among slash shippers, even though we also see them only interact once, and only if Alistair is in the active party during "Broken Circle" in DAO.
• Final Fantasy:
  • Terra and Celes of Final Fantasy VI seem to be the second or third most popular ship in the fandom, and likely the most popular one to not be an Official Couple. Fans of the couple often cite their heavy similarities (former Imperials with an implied shared history, Magic Knight abilities, strong claims for protagonist status, the main female characters in the party) and contrasts (fire versus ice, inexperienced amnesiac versus hardened general, meek and self-doubting versus brave and prideful). It would honestly be a pretty concrete pairing — if Terra and Celes had more than one or two brief scripted interactions in the entire game and Celes wasn't half of the aforementioned Official Couple. Indeed, part of the reason their protagonist status is a topic of debate is that Terra is usually out of commission in the parts that focus on Celes, and vice versa — meaning times they could have interacted at all are pretty rare, and neither one is there at all in the most pivotal moments for the other.
  • In Final Fantasy XV, Cor/Prompto is a popular ship in Japan, but the only times they interact is when Cor's in the party, which doesn't last for a very long time and it's early in the game.
• Dissidia Final Fantasy (2015): Noctis x Lightning had a small following in the early days of XIII, back when XV was still called "Versus XIII", but it died down as the years went on. The addition of Noctis to the roster here, the introductory cutscene which sees him paired up with Lightning and the Warrior of Light as a travel companion, and finally the battle trailer where Noct and Light teamed up to fight Sephiroth saw the idea flare back to life.
• Fire Emblem:
  • The Blazing Sword fandom was quite fond of Wil/Florina for a while. They do speak in the chapter where they're both recruited, and Wil acts friendly to her... but after that, they have no more interactions with each other.
  • Most couples in Genealogy of the Holy War are like this. Good luck finding evidence for why Dew got hooked up with Ayra, or why Lewyn would go for Tailtiu outside of the Relationship Values. Things make more sense in the second half of the game, but that doesn't mean couples like Julia/Ares (or Julia/ANYONE besides Seliph for that matter) don't happen.
  • Merric and Linde are an extremely popular pairing in the Akaneia games, despite the fact that, until the remakes, they never interacted with each other. And in said remake, they get exactly one conversation together. It's often assumed that Merric is the one Linde is said to be in love with in her epilogue in Mystery of the Emblem, even though said epilogue never mentioned anyone specifically.
  • Fire Emblem Gaiden:
    • Genny and Saber, who were often shipped in the original game despite having no interactions (granted, virtually nobody had any interactions with each other in that game), due to Genny's ending mentioning she fell in love with a comrade and Saber's ending mentioning him marrying an unnamed woman. The remake Shadows of Valentia sunk this somewhat: it revealed Genny is only 15 and Saber is 34, all Official Couples from the original got support conversations while Genny and Saber didn't, and other characters now marry unnamed people in their endings, making Genny's and Saber's stand out less, and Genny and Saber's ending explicitly contradict each other in that Genny kept her husband secret while Saber paraded around his wife for everyone to see. However, Genny does mention in an optional conversation that she Likes Older Men, possibly as a reference to the pairing.
    • Also in said remake, fans who feel bad for Faye's unrequited feelings for Alm often ship her with other characters, most of whom she never speaks to. She's sometimes shipped with Catria, someone who isn't even supposed to be in the same party as Faye, and even if players use the Guide Dang It! method to get Faye into Celica's party, she and Catria still never interact.
    • Also in Echoes, people who dislike the canon Clive/Mathilda occasionally ship Mathilda/Sonya (if they don't like Mathilda/Clair). Like Catria and Faye, the two of them aren't even in the same armies, and there's no indication that Mathilda and Sonya even know that the other exists.
  • In Fire Emblem: Awakening, Lucina/Severa is a fairly popular pairing. Lucina and Severa don't have any Relationship Values with each other and don't speak to each other outside of Downloadable Content. They do interact more in The Future Past, with Severa appearing to be Lucina's Number Two, but those aren't the playable versions, instead being the Lucina and Severa of an even worse Bad Future.
  • Fire Emblem: Three Houses:
    • Despite not having any Support conversations, Dimitri gets paired up with Hilda. The only time they ever interact is in the Cindered Shadows DLC, and it's dubious of how canon that scenario is.
    • Edelgard and Sylvain get paired up despite not having any interactions with one another save for Edelgard briefly mentioning Sylvain in the aftermath of Chapter 5, in which the protagonists recover the Lance of Ruin from Sylvain's evil brother Miklan. The main reasoning behind this is due to how their lives were affected by Fódlan’s crest system.
    • Petra is one of the few female characters who Sylvain does not have any interactions with. Despite that, there are fans who pair them up together.
    • Marianne and Bernadetta is fairly popular despite not having Support conversations. This stems from how the two girls are very socially awkward around others. Ironically, in a case of What Could Have Been, Bernadetta and Marianne were going to have Support conversations, but were scrapped before the game was launched.
    • Yuri and Ashe are a quite popular ship despite the fact they don't have a Support conversation. This is mostly because in the Cindered Shadows DLC, Ashe recognizes Yuri as Lord Rowe's former ward and urges him to return home, while Yuri recognizes Ashe as Lord Lonato's ward.
    • Dorothea and Mercedes have somewhat of a following, despite having no Support conversations; this one seems predicated on the LGBT Fanbase and both of these girls being a Gay Option.
• Any pairing between the human characters of Five Nights at Freddy's, since there's little to no indication that they have met or had any significant interaction. But then again, there's little to no indication of anything concrete about Five Nights at Freddy's and the fandom is pretty much made up of Wild Mass Guessing anyway, so the shippers go right ahead.
• Some Granblue Fantasy circles pair up Belial with Gran/Djeeta for either the comedic or sexy value of a Depraved Bisexual making advances on a straight-laced protagonist-type. Belial interacted with them only once, and that was in the middle of a battle where he made passes at everyone but them.
• Franklin/Tracey has become a pretty popular ship in the Grand Theft Auto V fandom, despite the closest they ever come to meeting in-game is when Franklin breaks into her family's house and overhears her arguing with her brother. They also frequently serve as a Beta Couple in Michael/Trevor fanfic.
• Jak and Daxter:
  • There's the Jak/Ashelin shippers who often pair Keira up with Torn despite the two never interacting with each other.
  • We've also got this surprisingly well-written fic that pairs up Jinx/Seem.
• Jago/Kim Wu from Killer Instinct has developed a small but vocal fanbase on the official forums, in spite of the fact the series has little to no romance (save for Maya/Tusk) and that, outside gameplay, the two had no real interaction between each other in Killer Instinct 2.
• Kingdom Hearts:
  • Any and all Organization XIII shipping in the fandom. It's not so bad for the members who appear in Chain of Memories, but the members in Kingdom Hearts II have essentially no interaction and only appear by themselves. The Director's Cut edition adds a few scenes between them, but all they do is growl about The Plan. 358/2 Days may help with this, provided you're not trying to ship the Castle Oblivion group and don't mind emotionless hate sex. However, it still doesn't explain the absurd popularity of the Zexion/Demyx ship; never in any of the games do the two of them ever interact with one another.
  • The only time Zexion and Demyx ever say a thing about each other is in Days. Zexion mentions Demyx is being completely useless to the Organization and gives a mission for you two, later Demyx mentions that Zexion is annoying. That obviously meant they are not friends, but some shippers thought that was just perfect. (Also, since the Organization members have numbers, it may help that Demyx is No. IX and Zexion is No. VI.)
  • Despite being friends in their source game, Aerith and Tifa have literally no interactions in Kingdom Hearts. It's even vague whether Tifa is a physical person or a figment of Cloud's light. Still, Aerith/Tifa is a moderately popular pairing. Fans who shipped them in Final Fantasy VII jumped ship because Aerith being perfectly alive and healthy means the ship can thrive.
  • Ventus/Namine have a small following despite their complete lack of onscreen interaction. A lot of it takes the form of the two encountering each other in Castle Oblivion and Ventus waking up early.
• Kirby:
  • King Dedede x Fairy Queen is a rather popular ship amongst the fandom, despite the two never interacting in canon outside of the Queen giving him a medal in the ending. It helps that both are clumsy royal figures who act as the ruler of their home planets, on top of both getting possessed by Dark Matter.
  • In the Japanese fandom, Daroach and Drawcia are often paired together despite the fact that the two have never interacted with each other in the games. The both of them being Kirby villains from the early DS era may be a reason why.^note Another possible pairing that has leaked its way out of Japan is Drawcia x Dark Matter Blade, which is also another nevermet ship.
  • Due to their common jester-like appearances, Manipulative Bastard tendencies, and similarities in general, Magolor is commonly paired with Marx in fan works, but there is little to no evidence that the two have ever met, save for one line that he says on board his ship, stating that he heard about Kirby "from a friend."
  • Susie and Francisca became a popular ship after the former was Promoted to Playable in Kirby Star Allies, despite having no real canon interactions to speak of, outside of the latter's boss fight in Susie's Guest Star Mode, which isn't exactly a positive one.
• The website Legacy of Kain fansite Bleeding Beauty, devoted to the character Umah from Blood Omen 2, makes a case for Umah/Magnus, two characters that never meet in the game (after considering pairing her with every other character in the game).
• League of Legends:
  • Most of the ships are based on similarities or blatant differences, or because they look cute together (Ahri/Sona), or they share something in common about the past (Riven/Irelia).
  • Riven/Lux and Katarina/Ashe may sound absurd (not to mention Ashe is married and Lux is supposed to be Ezreal's love interest) but thanks to fanfics like Guiding Light and Wounded, they actually work.
  • Lux gets paired with lots of characters. Be it man, woman, or creature.
• The Legend of Zelda: Zelda/Dark Link is an actual ship. Even if one gets past the fact that Dark Link only exists to be a Mirror Boss and nothing else, there's no indication in any of the games where he appears that Zelda even knows he exists.
• Tia and Dekar have all of one interaction together in Lufia II: Rise of the Sinistrals, but said interaction is so heartwarming (and comes off of Tia realizing she can't have Maxim) that they became a popular fan couple. They do get a lot more interaction in Lufia: Curse of the Sinistrals and do hook up after Maxim and Selan's wedding.
• Mass Effect:
  • Theoretically, shipping almost any party member with anyone but Shepard will result in this. This effectively means that Garrus/Tali is exactly as possible as Grunt/Jacob, which in turn is as likely as Legion/Mordin or any combination of the above. This gains a certain hilarity in Mass Effect 3 where if Shepard didn't romance either, Garrus and Tali hook up at the end of the game.
  • Party members, at least, can be chosen to go on missions together — at the very least, they serve together on a ship with a very small crew. More difficult to justify is the surprisingly popular pairing of Oriana/Kolyat — relatives of different party members, who never interact with each other, barely interact with the player character, and live on different planets, and seem to be paired up largely due to being the only teenagers in the game.
  • While not extremely popular (due to both characters being love interests for Shepard), there is Ashley/Kaidan. It's particularly problematic, because one of these characters is most definitely dead, thanks to the Sadistic Choice.
  • And then there's the really weird one in the fanfic The Translation in Blood, bordering on Crack Pairing if it hadn't been carried off so well: Hannah Shepard and Councilor Sparatus. Two characters who are never even on the same planet at the same time, and one only appears over Video Phone in a cutscene if you have the Spacer background while the other is very plot-important.
• No Straight Roads: DJ Subatomic Supernova and Neon J never interact within the story itself (though, in the credits they are seen casually hanging out with an arm around each other's shoulders), but are a pretty popular pairing in the fandom, possibly due to their robotic appearance.
• Onmyoji:
  • For all the popularity that the Ōtengu and Yōko ship receives among the fandom, canonically they neither meet nor are mentioned in either's in-game recollections. In fact, due to the game's limited plotline yet large cast, many of the game's popular pairings never meet in canon.
  • Susabi/Ichimokuren is big among the shippers due to their godhood, their dragon motifs, and their tragic backgrounds even though their stories are completely independent of each other. This pair remains shipped even after Susabi gets canonically Ship Teased with Miketsu.
• Cassidy/Hanzo (a.k.a. Yeehan, previously McHanzo) is one of the most popular male/male ships in the Overwatch fandom, despite the fact that they have little in common and have never met before canonically. Cassidy knows Hanzo's estranged brother, Genji, though, but the fandom latched onto the pairing long before this revelation.
• Persona:
  • From Persona 3, there is an absurdly high amount of fans that ship the male and the female protagonist together. That is impossible since they literally can't exist at the same time. The female MC is also paired a lot with the next game's hero but that also would be impossible, since Persona 3 ends with the protagonist's Heroic Sacrifice. Even in the one game where a time-space paradox brings together the casts of both titles and the P3 group isn't from a time after the events of their game (unlike the Arena duology), the male protagonist is used to represent Persona 3 instead of the female one. (Though to be fair, Arena's establishment of a Shared Universe for the Persona games starting with P3 already canonized the P3 hero as male.) It remains to be seen how Persona Q2: New Cinema Labyrinth will affect the shipping landscape going forward; the game features the casts of P3, P4, and P5—including the female protagonist of P3 alongside her male counterpart, though it's implied she hails from an Alternate Universe to the main continuity and the male protagonist goes on to theorize that they're one and the same (which would obviously complicate that particular pairing).
  • There are shippers that pair the male P3 hero with Akihiko. This pairing is extremely out of place considering the male protagonist can date any girl while he and Akihiko are The Friends Who Never Hang.
  • From Persona 4, there is a surprisingly fair amount of Rise and Naoto material on the internet. Not only does Rise love the protagonist, but since they are the last to join the group they barely talk with other, and one of the few times they do Rise just teases Naoto with Kanji. This pairing is also commonly used to Pair the Spares in the gay fanworks.
  • Persona 5 saw the rise of Ann/Akechi, who don't have much in the way of direct interaction throughout the game, after unused voice files depicting a scenario in Sae's Palace began circulating the web. In the aforementioned scene, some clever thinking and sleight of hand on the part of Crow leads to the Phantom Thieves securing victory in a rigged poker game, prompting an admiring Panther to ecstatically proclaim "You go, cheating hottie!"—to which Crow replies "I'll gladly accept those words of praise later." Even if Ann was likely acting (given that the entire group knew about Akechi's true allegiances), never mind the fact that Akechi may or may not have died not too long after this event, some fans couldn't resist entertaining the idea of these two as a couple, both as a joke pairing and a serious one.
  • The pairing of Sae Niijima together with Tae Takemi is one of the more popular lesbian ships in the Persona 5 fandom despite the fact that they never meet in canon. Slightly downplayed as they get to meet each other in the Thieves' Den where Tae compliments the appearance of Sae's Shadow, much to Sae's embarrassment. However, the Thieves' Den is effectively the game's gallery room and its existence is not canon.
  • Pairing Tae Takemi with Munehisa Iwai has also become quite popular in certain circles due to fans seeing potential chemistry in their similarities, like their somewhat shady personalities, down-on-their-luck circumstances, and hidden heart of gold, making them ripe for Commonality Connection-type stories.
  • Since the release of Strikers, the pairing of Sae Niijima and Zenkichi Hasegawa has gained support even though they only have one onscreen interaction. Like with the above two pairings, fans have seen potential chemistry in their contrasting personalities meshed with their related professions (a straight-laced lawyer and a bumbling yet heroic police inspector) as well as the fact that cops and attorneys tend to have interesting dynamics (including romantic ones) when paired together in legal dramas.
  • Also due to Strikers, it's common to see Kuon Ichinose and Takuto Maruki paired up, whether romantically or platonically, in fan-works. This is due to both of them being Anti Villains who make a Heel–Face Turn thanks to the Phantom Thieves' influence and end up Walking the Earth in their games' respective true endings, and their similar interests: Maruki is a psychological councilor who wants to better understand psychological pain, while Ichinose is an AI researcher who develops programs in hope of better understanding human emotions. Many fans think they'd have a lot to talk about.
• Pokémon:
  • Afroshipping, Flint and Miror B. These two characters have not and will never meet. They both have afros, though.
  • Karen/Sidney, both Dark-type specialized Elite Four members. Karen/Will is also pretty popular, and also Karen/Lance and Karen/Grimsley. It's pretty much said that everyone wants Karen.
  • Speaking of Elite Four members, there's the rather niche pairing of Lance and Lorelei. Despite being part of the Indigo League E4 in the original games and their remakes, the two have no interaction whatsoever (compare this to their Adventures counterparts), and while Lance goes on to become the Champion during the three-year interim, Lorelei just vanishes with no official confirmation on her whereabouts.^note FireRed/LeafGreen implies she may have retired between games to defend her home, the Sevii Islands, from remnants of Team Rocket. Aside of being cool and somewhat arrogant personality-wise, fans of Lance/Lorelei simply think they look good together and like the idea of Lance with another strong Trainer (one whom, humorously enough, Lance's type specialty would put him at a great disadvantage against).
  • Cynthia/Steven Stone is mildly popular among the fanbase. They both are/were Champions of their respective regions (Sinnoh and Hoenn), both belong to affluent milieus (Cynthia's a Socialite, Steven's the son of the CEO of the Devon Corporation), both have a background/interest in archaeology (she studies ruins and other sites associated with Pokémon mythology, he collects rocks and fossils), their signature Mons are pseudo-legendaries (Garchomp and Metagross), and that's it. ^note Steven is implied to be the previous owner of the Villa in Platinum (and is outright stated as such in the Adventures continuity), as the estate formerly belonged to a rich man from Hoenn who came to Sinnoh in search of rare stones, but he and Cynthia never directly interact in any of the games they both appear in; they have separate cameos in HeartGold/SoulSilver and are participants in the Pokémon World Tournament along with the other Champions up to that point.
  • Cynthia finds herself paired up with Diantha, the Kalos region Champion, for similar reasons, being cultured, graceful, elite-level Trainers with no overarching typing to their teams. (Diantha also has a pseudo-legendary in Goodra, though her signature Pokémon is actually Gardevoir.) Both women appear to share fashion styles, too, with Diantha wearing an all-white outfit to contrast Cynthia's black ensemble. Ironically enough, the anime (which exists in its own continuity) would make this pairing seem more plausible many years later: Journeys shows that Cynthia and Diantha are good friends, with the former even confiding in the latter about her plans to retire from competitive battling after the conclusion of that year's Masters Eight Tournament.
  • Jasmine/Volkner is also strangely popular. Jasmine is a Steel-type leader from Johto, while Volkner is an Electric-type leader from Sinnoh. Jasmine makes a cameo in Sunyshore City (where Volkner is Leader), but there's no evidence the two ever meet. The only links seem to be that Jasmine's Magnemite are part-Electric and that both are Gym Leaders in cities that have lighthouses.
  • While the two still don't interact in the game, Volkner making an appearance in Black 2/White 2 strengthened the Elesa/Volkner "beautiful Electric Gym Leader" pairing. A step up from him not appearing in the prequel, however.
  • Erika and Sabrina have fans. They are both Kanto Gym Leaders (or at least Sabrina was until she became a Pokéstar Studios actress by Pokémon Black 2 and White 2 ^note though she's still counted among the Kanto Leaders in the Pokémon World Tournament; then again, so is Giovanni) but don't interact. The ship seems to have sparked due to Erika seeming Ambiguously Gay to many players (has a female-only Gym, gives out the Rainbow Badge, etc.) and Sabrina being from the same region as her. Opposites Attract also applies to them; Erika's a polite, friendly, and rather outgoing Yamato Nadeshiko, while Sabrina's a stoic, Creepy Good psychic with an implied gentleness underneath the surface.
  • Partnering off Sabrina with Johto Gym Leader Morty, which appears to be the most popular of Sabrina's scant het options, is no better, rooted mainly in similar characteristics (Psychic Powers ^note presumably in Morty's case, as his title is "The Mystic Seer of the Future" and outwardly imposing but inwardly friendly personalities) and, possibly, a Mythology Gag to the Haunter Sabrina befriended in the anime by means of Morty's Gengar.
  • A surprisingly well-liked pairing for Sun/Moon is Team Skull Boss Guzma and Kahili of the Elite Four. They've never met, but they do squat down during battles to survey the action. Black Comedy may also be involved, at least so far as a "justification" for hooking them up: Kahili is a pro golfer, while Guzma is heavily implied to come from an abusive household, with a particularly violent altercation between Guzma and his dad apparently involving golf clubs. Additionally, Guzma's home at Route 2 features numerous trophies Guzma earned in his childhood. These are stated to have been awarded for Pokémon battling, but have been mistaken as golf trophies by several fans due to the above and thus taken as a sign that he and Kahili could have crossed paths when they were younger.
  • Guzma and the player character's mother in Sun & Moon occasionally pops up. They don't interact, but many either think they'd go good together or want to see Guzma as Elio/Selene's stepfather.
  • Giovanni and Red's mother pops up for the same reason their anime counterparts are shipped—people like the idea of Giovanni secretly being Red's father.
  • A surprisingly popular Pokémon Scarlet and Violet ship is Grusha/Rika, even though the two of them never interact in the game. A lot of this can be chalked up to fans seeing them as a prime example of a Masculine Girl, Feminine Boy pairing (the former is a Long-Haired Pretty Boy, the latter is Bifauxnen, and both were hit with Viewer Gender Confusion as a result).
• Portal fandom has the Space core and Curiosity core, even though the Curiosity core was introduced, and dies, in the first game while the Space core was introduced and shot into space in Portal 2.
• In the Professor Layton fandom, there's pairings such as Flora/Clive and Descole/Emmy. They're both fairly popular, although the characters don't really interact all that much. There's also a few with Layton, although he's a Launcher of a Thousand Ships.
• This is common in the Puyo Puyo fanbase, which is already rife with shipping. One example is Sig/Serilly, who have not met in canon and aren't even from the same era (Serilly is from the Compile era while Sig is from the Primp Town era that began with Puyo Puyo Fever).
• Ratchet & Clank:
  • Angela Cross and Sasha Phyronix have never met, but there are some people that can put them in a relationship.
  • There's also this drawing showing Sasha and Rivet as a ship.
• Sonic the Hedgehog: The fandom is absolutely filled to the brim with these type of ships, to where it's likely easier to list the ones that do have canonical interactions. That said, there are still some notable ones worth mentioning.
  • Tails/Cream is one of the most popular pairings, mainly because the latter can be easily seen as a Distaff Counterpart to the former; both are the youngest characters of the cast, both feature physical quirks that grant them the power of flight (with Tails being a Heli-Critter who uses his propeller-like tails to hover above the ground, and Cream possessing Ear Wings that let her glide across the level), and both even filled identical roles as Kid Sidekicks and Mission Control in Sonic Heroes and Sonic Rush respectively. It's also popular as a "junior" version of the Sonic/Amy ship, owing to Tails and Cream being their respective BFFs. In canon, however, the two do not interact in any notable or significant manner.
  • Shadow and Amy is astonishingly popular considering how little the two interact. It helps that one of their two interactions in Sonic Adventure 2 is the crux of Shadow's Heel–Face Turn because Amy reminds Shadow of his dead best friend, Maria Robotnik.
  • There's quite a few Shadow/Tikal shippers, despite the two never meeting, and the latter's unfortunate handicap of being dead.
  • Shadow/Blaze has a sizable amount of shippers, however are only seen together in the ending of Sonic Generations. On the other hand, Shadow and Blaze have met in Sonic Universe.
• Splatoon:
  • Many fans ship Annie and Spyke despite the fact that they're never shown or mentioned as interacting with anyone but the protagonist (and Moe in Annie's case) in the first game. The Squid Research Lab later released an official relationship chart for Splatoon 2 which seemingly gave evidence against this ship, with Annie's only comment on Spyke being that "He seems dangerous…". Then again, this has never stopped people from shipping before, as this page clearly shows.
  • Callie and Dedf1sh/Acht are never depicted as having met, with the latter being someone whose only in-game presence in Splatoon 2 was their music. This didn't prevent the ship from immediately becoming Callie's most popular pairing. Acht would graduate to being an Ascended Extra in Splatoon 3, but all her interactions in that game are solely with Eight, Pearl, and Marina.
• Star Ocean: Till the End of Time has Albel and Nel, two soldiers from warring kingdoms. Plenty of opportunities for Foe Yay Shipping, but they mostly ignore each other in the script. Doesn't stop the shippers from using Albel as the Straight Option for Nel.
• Super Mario Bros.:
  • Due to Pair the Spares, Waluigi and Rosalina are often portrayed as a couple. Mario has Peach, Luigi has Daisy, Wario has either Mona or Captain Syrup depending on the fan's preference, so who can Rosalina be shipped with? Waluigi obviously. The Ugly Guy, Hot Wife and Opposites Attract tropes also boosted them into popularity.
  • Rosalina/Daisy is also a somewhat popular ship, despite their lack of interactions in the games. This is largely due to fans liking the contrast between Daisy's energetic, tomboyish personality and Rosalina’s quiet, motherly personality.
  • Super Mario Odyssey is the first mainline game to feature Pauline, Mario's original girlfriend from Donkey Kong, in years. Pauline has been subject to a lot of Die for Our Ship by Mario/Peach fans both, due to being Mario's ex and due to her more provocative design. In Odyssey, Pauline is the mayor of New Donk City and dresses in a red suit instead of a red dress. Fans didn't miss how well this matched with Peach's bridal outfit or how they're both women in power. Within a few days of the E3 2017 reveal, there was a lot of fan art of them together.
  • At least one fic has shipped Bowser and Rosalina because they're both single parents (Bowser towards Bowser Jr. and Rosalina towards the Luma).
• There are lots of fun cracky ships in the Tales series.
  • Yuri/Luke is a good example; people ship them despite the fact that their games take place in different universes.
  • In Tales of Symphonia, it's not unheard of to ship Sheena and Yuan, mostly on the basis they have prior interaction from when Sheena was sent to Sylvarant via the Renegades and later Yuan reunites Sheena with the party after she fires the mana canon.
• Tekken: Anna/Bruce. While they have been Co-Dragons to Kazuya, their relationship has never been explored in the games. Nonetheless, they often get paired off due to their proximity to each other.
• The vast majority of the extensive Touhou Project cast have never interacted or shown evidence of being aware of each other, due to being a Shoot 'Em Up, and even in the Expanded Universe most characters rarely stray from their Cast Herd. Thus, almost all possible ships are like this, with basis for a pairing being anything from appearing in adjacent stages to bad jokes (e.g. shipping the bug girl with the plant lady). Gensokyo is at least confined and not a large place, so everyone ought to run into everyone else eventually.
• The Undertale fandom is filled with these:
  • Papyrus/Mettaton is one of the fandom's biggest ships, with a lot of fanart and fanfiction depicting the two as a couple, despite the fact that they never have any on-screen interactions with one another. The main reasons why this ship is popular have to do with the characters' similar personalities, as well as optional flavor text and dialogue that shows that Papyrus is a fan of Mettaton and may have a Celeb Crush on him.
  • On the topic of Mettaton, the release of first chapter of the Alternate Universe follow-up game Deltarune has made it common to see him shipped with that game's resident Large Ham Pretty Boy, Rouxls Kaard. Beyond not having any onscreen interaction, with Rouxls existing in a totally different world than any of the characters from the first game, fan work uses Mettaton's Undertale version near-exclusively, as Deltarune confines its version of Mettaton to a small cameo that depicts him as a gloomy shut-in that doesn't have a robotic body.
• WarioWare:
  • Ashley/Penny has become a popular pairing for the two, with many fans liking the contrast between them in regards to personality and skillset (Ashley being a reserved witch, Penny being a cheerful scientist). This is in spite of the two having only having interacted once in the entire franchise (which was a rather minor one on the Japanese-exclusive Smooth Moves Character Blog), with their relationship being unknown (though it is implied that they’re on good terms at least, given the aforementioned interaction was a positive one).
  • Ashley and Young Cricket don't even interact at all in any official media, only being shown on screen together at the very most. That doesn't stop it from being a popular pair anyway, especially on the Japanese side of the fandom. It helps that the two do wear contrasting colored outfits (Ashley wears Red, Cricket wears Blue) and that although different, are similar in some aspects (both are apprentices, both are Big Eaters, etc), which makes it an appealing and easy ship to latch on to.
  • 9-Volt/Kat is one of the most popular pairings in the fandom, in spite of the two not interacting much in the series. While the two do have some interactions in supplementary materials, they're extremely sparse and don't indicate anything deeper than friends who hang out on occasion.
  • Orbulon/Mike has grown rapidly in popularity after Gold, despite the fact that neither of them has interacted once in the franchise. On top of Orbulon being an alien and Mike being a robot.
• The World Ends with You:
  • Joshyme (Joshua/Rhyme) is a very popular pairing in the fandom, despite having never met at any point in the game, and are indeed the only two of the five main characters who have never met; everyone else has at least seen each other at one point or another.
  • Even more popular seems to be Minamimoto/Rhyme. Given that Rhyme is killed off before Minamimoto even comes anywhere near the rest of the protagonists, this is slightly mystifying.
• Xenoblade Chronicles 3: There are a few who have liked to ship Taion with Miyabi, because although they barely interact in canon, many believe that they should have, since after Miyabi presumably died, Taion essentially took her place as the third member in Mio and Sena’s group. This could have led to a few interactions between them and their times with the group. With Taion being a Not So Stoic, and Miyabi being incredibly gentle and sweet, some believe that they could have some interesting chemistry together.
• Yo-kai Watch: Venoct and Kyubi have no interactions but have a lot of shippers because they're both Bishōnen (or at least Kyubi is when he's in human form).

---