History Main / GottaShipEmAll

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%%* This is the entire point of ''TabletopGame/TwilightSparklesSecretShipficFolder''.
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* Within the ''Disney/{{Frozen}}'' fandom, fanfiction can be found pairing any combination of characters including [[OfficialCouple Anna/Kristoff]], [[IncestYayShipping Anna]]/[[RelationshipWritingFumble Elsa]], [[ShipsThatPassInTheNight Hans/Kristoff who never met]], either [[FoeYay Anna/Hans or Elsa/Hans]], and even some involving Olaf, Sven, or Marshmallow. The Anna/Elsa/Kristoff, Anna/Elsa/Hans, and Anna/Hans/Kristoff [[OneTrueThreesome threesomes]] are also not unheard of.
** Additionally, characters are also often shipped with characters [[CrossoverShip from other movies]] both inside and outside the Franchise/DisneyAnimatedCanon, most commonly [[Disney/{{Tangled}} Rapunzel]] (despite the common {{Fanon}} theory that she's Anna and Elsa's cousin), [[Disney/{{Tangled}} Eugene]], [[WesternAnimation/{{Brave}} Merida]], and [[WesternAnimation/RiseOfTheGuardians Jack Frost]].

* On ''Series/OnceUponATime'', not only is every character shipped with just about every character they've ever had a scene with, but they are also shipped with characters they've never met, who are currently living in other realms. It doesn't only extend to series regulars either. Recurring characters, such as Mulan and Jefferson, often find themselves wrapped up in a tangled web of shipping as well. The only real exceptions to this are [[HappilyMarried Snow and Charming]], who are generally only shipped with each other, though you do occasionally see Snow being shipped with Ruby or Charming being shipped with Hook or Ruby.

** [[OfficialCouple Rumpelstiltskin and Belle]] mostly avoid this. Belle is occasionally shipped with Ruby or Jefferson, and Rumple with [[LauncherOfAThousandShips Emma]]. Although most Emma/Rumple shippers disappeared after season 2.

* [[HoYay/PuellaMagiMadokaMagica For the same reason as Nanoha]], ''Franchise/PuellaMagiMadokaMagica'' has [[http://wiki.puella-magi.net/Yuri_undertones every pairing]] of the main 5 characters covered, with the possible exception of Mami/Sayaka because they never have a private moment together without Madoka. (Though [[OneTrueThreesome Mami/Sayaka/Madoka]] is pretty common.) TheMovie bolstered some previously unpopular ones like Homura/Mami, Homura/Sayaka, and [[CrackPairing Mami/Charlotte]]. Even Hitomi, a minor character, gets dragged into a few pairings. The only [[AmbiguouslyGay unambiguous]] OfficialCouple (not counting [[HappilyMarried Madoka's parents]]) is Hitomi/Kyousuke, and that's probably the ''least'' popular pairing in the fandom.[[labelnote:*]]Partly because [[HetIsEw it's not a gay couple]], but both characters have shades of TheScrappy, and people who ''do'' like either of them generally want to pair them with someone else.[[/labelnote]]

* ''Manga/MyHeroAcademia'' has this due to LoadsAndLoadsOfCharacters and a LauncherOfAThousandShips Main Character; there are 20 recurring characters of which at least half can be paired with Midoriya without putting it in CrackShip territory, and that's completely ignoring the ships that can be created without Midoriya such as Bakugo/Ochako, Ochako/Tsuyu, Yaoyorozu/Jiro, Hagakure/Ojiro, Aizawa/Toshinori, Todoroki/Yaoyorozu, Iida/Mei and so on. The manga/anime itself enforces NoHuggingNoKissing, which only encourages the rampant shipping, since there are no official relationships to get in the way other than ''[[CrushBlush maybe]]'' Midoriya/Ochako (and don't bring that up in front of anyone who ships either of them with someone else).

* ''Manga/MyHeroAcademia'' has this due to LoadsAndLoadsOfCharacters and a LauncherOfAThousandShips Main Character; there are 20 recurring characters of which at least half can be paired with Midoriya without putting it in CrackShip territory, and that's completely ignoring the ships that can be created without Midoriya such as Bakugou/Ochako, Ochako/Tsuyu, Yaoyorozu/Jirou, Hagakure/Ojiro, Aizawa/Toshinori, Todoroki/Yaoyorozu, Iida/Mei and so on. The manga/anime itself enforces NoHuggingNoKissing, which only encourages the rampant shipping, since there are no official relationships to get in the way other than ''[[CrushBlush maybe]]'' Midoriya/Ochako (and don't bring that up in front of anyone who ships either of them with someone else).

* The ''WebAnimation/{{RWBY}}'' fandom is wide and voracious where ships are concerned. The sheer number of ships is mind-boggling, with characters that have had next-to-no screen time already being shipped with other characters. [[note]]For example: Sage 'appeared' in the background corner of one shot, and there's already a ship named 'Wise Dragons' that pairs him with Yang.[[/note]] Every protagonist has several other people they are commonly shipped with, along with a number of somewhat less popular ships, as well as admittedly crack pairings. [[note]] Blake alone is very popularly paired with Yang and Weiss, as well as Ruby, Sun, Adam, Velvet, Pyrrha, and even Torchwick. Art and fics can easily be found for Yang with Blake, Weiss, Ruby, both Malachite sisters, Junior, Pyrrha, Sage, and Yatsuhashi.[[/note]] The saving grace is that, apart from a few very divisive pairings, the fandom hasn't really devolved into shipping wars.

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* This is the entire point of ''TabletopGame/TwilightSparklesSecretShipficFolder''.
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* ''Webcomic/{{Homestuck}}'' has a ''huge'' number of ships, due both to the canon LoveDodecahedron and LoadsAndLoadsOfCharacters, almost all of whom have a large number of associated elements and hobbies that make it easy to find commonalities between them. For a good example, take the Shipping Olympics, a popular fandom challenge where people sign up for their favourite ship and then compete with other ships through creating themed fanart. Most fandoms get less than ten teams to represent the main ships. One year, the ''Homestuck'' Shipping Olympics had ''well over 50 teams'', including an 'other' team who were allowed to write about any ship not already covered by a team. To make things worse, the in-universe creatures the trolls canonically have four different kinds of romance, and people commonly like to apply those to their ships, often with very strong opinions about why they ship pairings in one quadrant but not another.
* Canon example: In order to prove that all of the characters in ''Webcomic/{{Sonichu}}'' are straight, author Christian Weston Chandler paired up each male character with a female character (except for villains and a few exceptions, and they will be paired later). Except for the two central characters Sonichu and Rosechu, who were already romantically paired, all of these pairings happened seemingly simultaneously. There is exactly the same number of male characters as there are female characters (again, except for villains), though it's unclear if this was intentional or not.

* The ''WesternAnimation/TotalDrama'' has a constantly rotating cast of ''dozens'' of teenagers, all of whom are suitably [[Disney/{{Bambi}} twitterpated]] for their age. The fandom has taken note of this.

* ''Franchise/{{Pokemon}}'' has nearly 27,000 formally named and recognized pairings. [[http://shipping.bulbagarden.net/listaz.html Here's the ever-growing list from all Pokémon media]]

* [[HoYay/PuellaMagiMadokaMagica For the same reason as Nanoha]], ''Franchise/PuellaMagiMadokaMagica'' has [[http://wiki.puella-magi.net/Yuri_undertones every pairing]] of the main 5 characters covered, with the possible exception of Mami/Sayaka because they never have a private moment together without Madoka. (Though [[OneTrueThreesome Mami/Sayaka/Madoka]] is pretty common.) TheMovie bolstered some previously unpopular ones like Homura/Mami, Homura/Sayaka, and [[CrackPairing Mami/Charlotte]]. Even Hitomi, a minor character, gets dragged into a few pairings. The only [[AmbiguouslyGay unambiguous]] OfficialCouple (not counting [[HappilyMarried Madoka's parents]]) is Hitomi/Kyousuke, and that's probably the ''least'' popular pairing in the fandom.[[labelnote:*]]Partly because [[HetIsEw it's not a gay couple]], but both characters have shades of TheScrappy, and people who ''do'' like either of them generally want to pair them with someone else.[[/labelnote]]

* [[Anime/LoveLive Love Live! School Idol Project]]: Each of the nine main characters can be considered a LauncherOfAThousandShips, and while some ships like Nozomi/Eli Nico/Maki or Hanayo/Rin are the most popular, one can find fanwork about any combination between µ's' members , some [[OneTrueThreesome threesomes]], or "one of the girl x everyone", with any of them at the center of the harem. There are also pairings involving other characters like Eli and Honoka's little sisters, or the members of [[TheRival A-Rise]],

* Inevitable in the Film/{{Maleficent}} fandom, given that there are only four characters portrayed with any degree of sympathy. [[FanPreferredCouple Fan-favorite pairings]] include [[HoYay Maleficent/Aurora]] or [[MinionShipping Maleficent/Diaval]]. Either pairing tends to trigger PairTheSpares, leaving either [[ShipsThatPassInTheNight Diaval/Phillip]] or [[OfficialCouple Aurora/Philip]], depending on whether your fancy is for het or slash pairings.
* ''Franchise/StarWars'': This mainly occurs with fans of the [[Film/TheForceAwakens sequel]] [[Film/TheLastJedi trilogy.]] Although some pairings (ie Rey/Kylo and Finn/Poe) are definitely more popular than others, there's support for just about ''every'' combination of characters possible. [[ShipsThatPassInTheNight Yes, even Poe/Hux and Rey/Rose.]] This is undoubtedly the result of the near-constant ShipTease and [[ImpliedLoveInterest ambiguous relationships.]]

* The end of one episode of ''Series/{{Community}}'' played with this when they acknowledged that, essentially, nothing was truly off limits and there would always be some degree of tension between unrelated characters. It then went around the table, pairing everyone with everyone else. Sometimes to the characters' [[UnresolvedSexualTension interest]], sometimes to their [[HoYay surprised interest]], sometimes to their [[{{Squick}} disgust]] and [[CrackPairing shock]].

* ''VideoGame/{{Touhou}}''. With one or two exceptions, the extremely large cast is entirely female, and just about everyone has been shipped with someone else. And while none are canon, the fandom has accepted most of them as Fanon, so there's at least one pairing per shipping trope (FoeYay, BodyguardCrush, OneTrueThreesome...).
* ''VideoGames/TeamFortress2'': While there are fan favorite ships and Valve teases a more-than-friends camaraderie among various classes both in game and in supplemental materials, technically there's only one 100% official pairing (RED Spy/BLU Scout's mother). With 9 classes on each side (and classes can be interpreted as archetypes rather than individual characters), as well as a large supporting cast, the CombinatorialExplosion potential is huge.

* ''VideoGames/KingdomHearts'': There are 156 possible pairings between the original members of Organization 13, and each and every one has a group of fans dedicated to it. They are ''just'' sketched out enough to create interesting relationship dynamics, but lack detail so you can plausibly pair anyone with anyone.
* ''Franchise/AceAttorney'': '''EVERYONE''' has been shipped with everyone else, and each pairing has a loyal following. It doesn't matter if [[ShipsThatPassInTheNight they've never met]], [[FoeYay they're bitter rivals]], [[HoYay they're the same gender]], [[IncestIsRelative they're closely related]], [[GhostShipping one of them isn't alive]] (or [[CargoShip one of them isn't alive]]), [[MayDecemberRomance there's a huge age gap between them]], [[SheIsNotMyGirlfriend they've explicitly denied being in a relationship]], [[HeterosexualLifePartners they're clearly just]] [[PlatonicLifePartners best friends]], or [[CrackPairing it doesn't make sense in some other way]], someone has shipped them.
* ''VisualNovel/NewDanganRonpaV3'' had this situation pre release. Since the characters hadn't had their personalities established and neither their relationships with each others, with this, fans randomly decided to pair characters off with anyone they felt like it, causing ships that would come to be forgotten when the actual game showed several of their guesses incorrect.

* ''WesternAnimation/MyLittlePonyFriendshipIsMagic'': A heaping helping of LesYay means that pretty much every possible combination of primary characters has been explored in multiple fanfics and fanart. And [[TheOneGuy Spike]]? Yeah, he's also been paired with pretty much every major character. The secondary characters don't fare any better, and even ''background'' characters aren't immune.

* ''Videogame/CorpseParty''... can get pretty rampant with pairings for the 9 main characters , as the fans almost always try not to leave anybody alone except[[TheScrappy Yuka]]; for example, if there's [=SeikoxNaomi=], there must also be [=AyumixYoshiki=], [=YuixTsukasa=], [=MayuxMorishige=] and Yuka either is usually left alone (a ton of people wouldn't ever pair her with her brother Satoshi) or paired with her friend Satsuki.

* ''Videogame/CorpseParty'... can get pretty rampant with pairings for the 9 main characters , as the fans almost always try not to leave anybody alone [[ TheScrappy except Yuka]]; for example, if there's SeikoxNaomi, there must also be AyumixYoshiki, YuixTsukasa, MayuxMorishige and Yuka either is paired with her brother Satoshi or with her friend Satsuki.

* ''Videogame/CorpseParty'... can get pretty rampant with pairings for the 9 main characters , as the fans almost always try not to leave anobody alone ([[except Yuka TheScrappy]]; for example, if there's SeikoxNaomi, there must also be AyumixYoshiki, YuixTsukasa, MayuxMorishige and Yuka either is paired with her brother Satoshi or with her friend Satsuki.

* In ''VideoGame/{{Overwatch}}'', nearly every hero is shipped with at least one other hero, [[CrackPairing many of which are done regardless of whether the characters actually would reasonably have interacted in the story.

* ''WesternAnimation/MyLittlePonyFriendshipIsMagic'': A heaping helping of LesYay means that pretty much every possible combination of primary characters has been explored in multiple fanfics and fanart. And [[TheOneGuy Spike]]? Yeah, he's also been paired with pretty much every major character. The secondary characters don't fare any better.

* ''Manga/MyHeroAcademia'' has this due to LoadsAndLoadsOfCharacters and a LauncherOfAThousandShips Main Character; there are 20 recurring characters of which at least half can be paired with Midoriya without putting it in CrackShip territory, and that's completely ignoring the ships that can be created without Midoriya such as Bakugou/Ochako, Ochako/Tsuyu, Yaoyorozu/Jirou, Hagakure/Ojiro, Aizawa/Toshinori, Todoroki/Yaoyorozu, Iida/Mei and so on.

* ''Manga/{{YuGiOh}}''. There exists more than one website with the sole purpose of listing the names of ships between even obscure side characters or pairings one would never otherwise imagine. Mostly dedicated to the original series, but also for later spin offs such as ''GX'', or even crossovers between series.

* ''Franchise/StarWars'': This mainly occurs with fans of the [[Film/TheForceAwakens sequel]] [[Film/TheLastJedi trilogy.]] Although some pairings (ie Rey/Kylo and Finn/Poe) are definitely more popular than others, there's support for just about ''every'' combination of characters possible. [[ShipsThatPassInTheNight Yes, even Poe/Hux and Rey/Rose.]] This is undoubtedly the result of the near-constant ShipTease and [[ImpliedLoveInterests ambiguous relationships.]]

This situation is most common on large-ensemble television shows that don't have both a clear male and female lead or shows where characters fly through relationships every few episodes. If it is unclear at the beginning of a show which characters will be the OfficialCouple, this can result from WildMassGuessing. If this is the case, even once it does become clear which characters are on their way to being paired off, a significant number of the non-canon ships that emerged maintain a following. It can also result from PairTheSpares when the fandom can't agree on which spares should be paired. Usually, a small handful of these ships will exhibit UnresolvedSexualTension and receive meaningful ShipTease, while the vast majority will simply be ShipsThatPassInTheNight, and the result of viewers wearing ShippingGoggles. In these fandoms, if two characters have been in a scene together, it's a safe bet that people are shipping them. This often results in some pretty vicious ShipToShipCombat.

This trope is most common in television, but certainly exists in all types of fandoms.

* ''ComicBook/ElfQuest'' - being canonically the kind of series where everyone has sex with everyone else - has a similarly open-minded fandom.

Most TV shows have about four or five popular [[{{Shipping}} ships]]. Bob and Alice are the [[OfficialCouple golden couple]], Steve and Carol are the BetaCouple. Small but noteworthy contingencies of fans ship Bob and Carol, Bob and Steve, or Alice and Tom, but in general, the fandom is in consensus that Bob/Alice and Steve/Carol are the pairings. Occasionally, though, you’ll come across a show where every character is shipped, by a significantly-sized and active fanbase, with just about every other character.

This situation is most common on large-ensemble television shows that don’t have both a clear male and female lead or shows where characters fly through relationships every few episodes. If it is unclear at the beginning of a show which characters will be the OfficialCouple, this can result from WildMassGuessing. If this is the case, even once it does become clear which characters are on their way to being paired off, a significant number of the non-canon ships that emerged maintain a following. It can also result from PairTheSpares when the fandom can't agree on which spares should be paired. Usually, a small handful of these ships will exhibit UnresolvedSexualTension and receive meaningful ShipTease, while the vast majority will simply be ShipsThatPassInTheNight, and the result of viewers wearing ShippingGoggles. In these fandoms, if two characters have been in a scene together, it’s a safe bet that people are shipping them. This often results in some pretty vicious ShipToShipCombat.

Requires the fandom to collectively adopt an EveryoneIsBi mentality. A variation on the LauncherOfAThousandShips where almost every character is the launcher of a thousand ships. Results in HoYay, often FoeYay, and sometimes [[IncestYayShipping Incest Yay]]. Compare DatingDoSiDo, which is kind of like the InUniverse version -- where nearly everyone in the cast dates everyone at one point.

This trope is most common in television, but certainly exists in all types of fandoms.

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* Within the ''Disney/{{Frozen}}'' fandom, fanfiction can be found pairing any combination of characters including [[OfficialCouple Anna and Kristoff]], [[IncestYayShipping Anna]] [[RelationshipWritingFumble and Elsa]], [[HoYay Hans and Kristoff]], who [[ShipsThatPassInTheNight never met]], either [[FoeYay Anna or Elsa with Hans]], and even some involving Olaf, Sven, or Marshmallow. The Anna/Elsa/Kristoff, Anna/Elsa/Hans, and Anna/Hans/Kristoff [[OneTrueThreesome threesomes]] are also not unheard of.

* Pick a character in the Franchise/MarvelCinematicUniverse. Now pick another one. You are guaranteed to find at least one fic that pairs them together, however tangentially. Yes, even very minor characters like Sitwell.
** This is much more true of male characters than female characters.

* In the ''Literature/HarryPotter'' series, most of the central characters (Harry, Ron, Hermione, Ginny, Draco, Neville, Luna, etc.) are shipped with ''a lot'' of other characters, including [[FoeYay all of their mortal enemies]], [[TeacherStudentRomance their teachers]], parents of their classmates, [[IncestYayShipping their siblings]], and characters who are only mentioned by name a couple of times within the series. For instance, Hermione is sometimes shipped with Theodore Nott, whose name is mentioned less than twelve times throughout all seven books, and Blaise Zabini, who was a minor enough character in the first five books that many readers mistook him for a girl. Additionally, a lot of minor characters, such as Ernie Macmillan and Hannah Abbott, are also shipped together.

* ''Series/TheVampireDiaries'': every character is shipped with ''at least'' three people, and it doesn't help that most characters have gotten stuck in love triangles at some point on the show.

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* Similarly, ''Literature/PercyJacksonAndTheOlympians'', in large part due to the author's love of [[ShipTease messing with the fans' minds]] and the [[LoadsAndLoadsOfCharacters loads and loads of characters]]. And the fact that so many of the mains are sympathetic and charismatic - take a look at their entry in [[LauncherOfAThousandShips this trope]].

* Discussed in ''Series/{{Glee}}'', to the point that the characters inadvertently give everyone ''more'' ships. Most likely a case of AscendedFanon because Ryan Murphy lurks around the Internet. Not to mention all the {{Crack Pairing}}s that end up canon (Santana and Brittany, Kurt and Blaine). Helps that Puck and Santana are [[LauncherOfAThousandShips launchers of thousands of ships]].

The pure origin of this phrase is clearly {{Pokemon}}, the rumour being that a standard discussion about Jessie/James Rocketshipping was ongoing when another fan heated the discussion with a comment on Pokémon shipping between different species. Another fan jokingly replied "Pokémon, gotta ship 'em all," and began the MemeticMutation.

* ''Anime/{{Pokemon}}'' has nearly 27,000 formally named and recognized pairings. [[http://shipping.bulbagarden.net/listaz.html Here's the ever-growing list from all Pokemon media]]

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* ''Series/{{Doctor Who}}'' and its spinoffs ''Series/{{Torchwood}}'' and ''Series/TheSarahJaneAdventures'' fuel this:

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