FanPreferredCouple Cleanup

Oh man, I was a hardcore Patrome shipper back when the show was in its prime, you've no idea... I liked it more than Peddie for the longest time.

But this is a bit off topic.

Actually...the Fabina thing. Would they count as a Fan-Preferred Couple in season 3 and TOR?

Are they porticularly popular with the fandom? If so then yes. I haven't watched the show in a while and can't really comment on the fandom since I was never that into it.

It sounds like when Patrome was popular there was no Creator Preferred Couole that it was competing with, which would mean that it does’n't count.

That is a good point.

Guys. Was there a Creator preferred pairing that it was competing with? Because that's an important part of the trope in my mind.

Edited by Bullman on Jul 8th 2020 at 2:40:43 PM

There technically was but it was a little more complicated. Jerome had a crush on Mara but she ended the season still dating her on-and-off boyfriend Mick. This left Jerome single. While "Jara" was a competing couple at the time and would eventually become canon, at the end of season 1 it was just a one-sided crush. Patrome was competing against Jara, but for the most part people preferred Patrome and Mickra.

As for Fabina... hell yeah they're popular. They're the most popular pairing in the show. The problem is that in season 1 and 2, they were official. Nina left in the third season however and Fabian ended the series kissing...well, Mara (girl got around). This meant that "Mabian" became the new "official couple" as far as the show was concerned, despite Fabina still being extremely popular.

Edited by WarJay77 on Jul 8th 2020 at 3:40:42 PM

Okay they might be enough to be Fan Preferred then.

I do not necessarily think there needs to be a specific preference by the creator, unless you would count whatever is currently canon for there to be a fan preference. There could be No Romantic Resolution and yet the fans still have someone they want together despite that.

I wondered if Axl/Lexie from The Middle (my OTP Lexl thank you very much) would be this since it was definitely what I wanted while Axl was dating April. That said, April was clearly a Romantic False Lead and Lexl was pretty strongly hinted at so the plan was probably for him to be with Lexie all along. I mean yeah, it was an arc (and a great one) so probably the plan from the start. I think those wishing Axl had gotten back with Cassidy or Weird Ashley (or even Devin) would qualify any of those parings for this since his paring with Lexie was the endgame one by the conclusion of the series.

Edited by futuremoviewriter on Jul 8th 2020 at 12:54:52 PM

I can at least garauntee that Patrome was not the creator's preference by any means. They were never close to canon. They had a single date in season 3 that turned out to be a gag and that's the closest they got.

There still needs to be a Creator preferred pairing, through hints like a one character has crush on another or Ship Tease. To bring back one I braught up a few days ago. Princess Protection Program doesn't have a Official Couple, but it does have hints of Carter ending up with Ed at the end and her crush on Donny. However most fans ship her with Rosie. So there is a disconnect between the creator and the fan preferences.

Also I don't think The Middle one counts, because it similar to the Austin and Ally one. It was clearly going to be Canon and there was no disconnect between the creator and fans. Do to wanting them to be together, being clearly what the creator wants.

Okay I say they count. Do they already have an entry?

Edited by Bullman on Jul 8th 2020 at 3:20:25 AM

If anything, I think Fabicia (Fabian/Patricia) got more lip service in the actual show and that never happened. Since Joy for a lot of the show held such a torch for him, I am kind of surprised Jabian was not immediately canon right after Nina left.

Edited by futuremoviewriter on Jul 8th 2020 at 1:02:19 AM

Alright, so it sounds like Patrome does qualify because in the show it was Jara being given the attention and Patrome was an invention of the fans more than anything.

Fabina I'll hold off on. Season 3 and TOR may qualify for them but because they used to be canon that puts it into a weird gray area I don't want to worry about.

There's an entry on the YMMV page but it's...bad and isn't Patrome-focused. I'll write a new one later.

Edited by WarJay77 on Jul 8th 2020 at 4:04:06 AM

So the big issue I have with doing a clean-up rn is that I don't think we can make that many edits without some sort of official change to the trope page so people don't get confused when examples with no Official Couple/ Implied Love Interest/ some sort of creator preferred couple to begin with start getting purged. Should we try to open up another Trope Repair Shop thread or something and hope it actually gains traction this time around? Otherwise, I'm not sure if we can do much atm. I'm also a bit worried about how many examples we'll end up throwing out by the time this is done and over with.

I think should start a TRS and hope that it gets traction. Though I don't know how to do that myself.

Edited by Bullman on Jul 8th 2020 at 4:10:28 AM

This does seem very open to interpretation as opposed to CM or MB. With the possibility of Derby/Ivy from Mr. Young, he clearly had a crush/attraction to her, she was always disgusted in him and then she ended up with Slab who she had far less interactions with. Then again, I am not sure if many fans actually think they should have been paired instead or not.

Yeah, Lexl was definitely meant to be canon before it happened. Other pairings Axl had before Lexie would count as the FPC s instead.

Edited by futuremoviewriter on Jul 8th 2020 at 5:51:07 AM

Yeah, that's true, it can be a little hard to tell what counts as creator-preferred or what the most popular ship actually is. And in terms of shows like Mr. Young, the fan community for it isn't exactly large, and there's very few fanfics on it, so it's hard to tell what people were most into. In fact, going by the number of fics on FFN, it seems quite a few people preferred Derby/Adam? Not really sure, though.

Come to think of it yeah, on fanfiction.net, pairing him with Derby did seem common. I was a big shipper of Adam and Echo though.

There is also other ways to tell a Fan-Preferred Couple then just fanfiction. I just usually use that because it's the easiest way to tell. For examples Cadet Kelly. Kelly has a huge crush on Brad, but go to YouTube videos, posts or a lot of articles about the movie, and most about them are about the very accidental sexual tension between her and Jennifer. There's no real section of the film on Fanfiction Dot Net, but there are a few in the mix movie section. Almost all of these are about the Kelly and Jennifer pairing. This to me would add up to a Fan-Preferred Couple despite it not the fandom not being as big as other DCOMs.

It's also popular on Archive of Our Own. Actually it's the subject of the only fanfic about the show on the site. So that would be the FPC.

Edited by Bullman on Jul 8th 2020 at 4:58:04 AM

Yeah, they were mine, too, but I guess it can depend. Might be a good idea to look in other places where there's discussion about the show to check.

I think more and more fanfiction for newer fandoms tends to get posted on Archive of Our Own but it depends on how old or new the piece of media is.

Also, I sent a message to the mods to get the old TRS page unlocked. Now we've just gotta wait to see if anything comes of it.

That's not how that really works. You need to start a new thread with a demonstration that misuse exists- preferably a Wick Check.

Ah, shoot. Sorry, I'm new to all this, I read some rules on this stuff, but I guess I should've done more research. I'll see if I can do that instead.

It's alright, no big.

I know. On the other hand you have things like Victorious. A show with a surprisingly very big and dedicated fanbase that seems very popular on both sites. Though on Archive of Our Own you mostly get either Jori (the pairing with the most on the site) or Bade stories. However on Fanfiction.net you get more variety.

Okay I have a question. Let's say a character starts out on one show were they have a popular fan pairing, but then get a spin off were they get a new equally or more popular fan ship. Would both pairing be able to count?

Edited by Bullman on Jul 8th 2020 at 7:06:01 AM

Different shows so yeah, I would say yes. Even if they were not different shows, I would still say yes because each one was true at some point.

Okay while we are looking at entries let's take a look at this tree from Live-Action TV.

• Victorious, as a Nickelodeon teen comedy, is unlikely to end with canon lesbian or gay pairings. This has lead to a handful of Fan-Preferred Couple variations due to the Segregation rule:
  • When the show aired the first season, the overall Fan-Preferred Couple was the Les Yay pairing of Cat Valentine, a perky Genki Girl Cloud Cuckoo Lander with Goth looking, Deadpan Snarking Jade. When Tori is added to the Cat/Jade pairing, it becomes the Fan Preferred OT3 Cat/Jade/Tori, aka Catorade.
    • By the end of Season 2, the Fan-Preferred Couple shifted to Tori/Jade aka Jori.. to the point where phrases including the name have trended worldwide on Twitter. The creator has started teasing the pairing as well.
  • The preferred heterosexual pairing is the main character Tori with Andre in a Just Friends romance.
  • The preferred heterosexual Beta Couple is Cat with Jerkass Woobie Robbie. These two pairings keep the Official Couple Jade and Beck together, form a fleet of Ship Mates, and only leaves Tori's older sister Trina who is more like a guest character than a main character unpaired.

The Victorious page also lists Bade and Trina x Tori.

Now let's get the obvious out of the way. Bade and Robbie x Cat don't count. Jade and Beck were together from the beginning (yes they broke up but each time they were obviously going to get back together) and eventually got overshadowed greatly by Jori. Cat and Robbie were given more Ship Tease moments than any other. Trina and Tori also don't count they were never shipped that hard.

Tori x Andre I could take or leave. It was popular for season 1, but it's never been super popular with any group of fans I was apart of and it's easily overshadowed by Tori's other ships.

Cade (Cat x Jade) and Jori (Jade x Tori) can stay. Cade is popular in season 1 and I think it is worth noting. And Jori has the most fanfiction from the show period. It got to the point that the show itself started to point it out. Now you could argue that the show started to give them legit Ship Tease moments. Like them playing a married couple twice and them going on a date (Yes it was forced, but still). However I think those only started after the ship blew up in the fandom. Though those two entries will need rewrites.

Edited by Bullman on Jul 8th 2020 at 9:50:32 AM

Here's my rewrite for HOA:

At the end of season one, one of the most popular pairings was Patricia and Jerome, or "Patrome". While Patricia had no canon love interest at this point, Jerome did have a canon crush on Mara. But since fans liked the idea of Mara being with Mick, they also liked the idea of Patricia and Jerome getting together instead, in part due to their similar personalities. This popularity lasted until season two came out, and Patricia's actual love interest, Eddie, was introduced, and their relationship overtook Patrome in popularity almost overnight.