Follow TV Tropes

Following

Launcher Of A Thousand Ships / Live-Action TV

Go To


https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/LauncherOfAThousandShips_3493.jpg
These are only some of the canonical ones for Chloe Sullivan.note 

  • The 100 has Clarke Griffin, who is shipped with every other character in the show, helped by the fact that she is canonically bisexual. Clarke's two biggest ships are with Lexa and Bellamy, but she is also often shipped with characters of Murphy, Wells, Raven, Finn, Anya, and Octavia. Both Bellamy and Lexa are also bicycles within the fandom, though not to the same degree that Clarke is.
  • Abbott Elementary: Melissa has been shipped with every character on the show, including Barbara, Ava, Janine, Joe, Gerald, and Gregory. That is not even getting into the OCs that she has been paired with. This is mainly because her actress Lisa Ann Walter is a fangirl favorite and has great chemistry with everyone.
  • Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D.:
    • Skye definitely takes the cake. There is Skye/Ward, Skye/Lincoln, Skye/Simmons, Skye/Fitz, Skye/May, Skye/Coulson, Skye/Tripp, Skye/Raina, Skye/Robbie, Skye/Mack, Skye/HIVE, Skye/pretty much every side-character you can think of, Skye/every Avenger no matter if old or new, Skye/Bucky, Skye/Rumlow...
    • Fan discussion around the show and shipping, especially post-Season 1, tends not so much to ask "Which couple do you ship?", rather "Who do you ship Simmons with?". In roughly descending order, the top five seems to be Fitz, Ward, Skye, May and Triplett — leaving only Coulson omitted out of the main cast. The former three also seem to be the most popular ships in the fandom overall.
    • Ward isn't far behind. In addition to actually hooking up with May and having feelings for Skye, he's shipped with Fitz (generally with a Seme and Uke dynamic) just as often as he is with Simmons.
    • The introduction of Mockingbird in Season 2 opened up the floodgates to Bobbi Morse being shipped with most of the other leads, as well as several other characters from elsewhere in the MCU. The favourites are usually Hunter (her canonical love interest), Hawkeye (her love interest from the comics), and Simmons (because the two enjoyed some serious Les Yay in their first couple of episodes). However, like Simmons, Bobbi will generally get shipped with anyone else on the team except Coulson, and there's a fair portion of the fandom shipping her with Skye, May, and Ward as well, despite the relative lack of interaction with them, just because she's so well-liked in general.
    • Fitz has been getting in on it, too. Not only is he shipped with Simmons and Ward, but come Season 2, his budding friendship with Mack is causing many fans to hope for a little bisexual action.
  • American Horror Story:
  • Arrow:
    • Oliver Queen is shipped just about everyone in canon, while in fanfic he's shipped with anyone the writers don't tease him with. As of the second season, he's slept with/dated Huntress, McKenna Hall, Shado, Isobel Rochev, and both Laurel and Sara Lance, and has been teased heavily with Felicity, and less heavily Diggle, Tommy, and Malcolm and Slade. In the fandom, he's shipped with all of the above, plus more!
    • Not to mention Felicity: While her most popular ship is undoubtedly Felicity/Oliver, there's also Felicity/Sara, Felicity/Diggle, Felicity/Walter, Felicity/Laurel... and her canon Ship Tease pairings Felicity/Barry and Felicity/Ray.
  • Among the corner of the Battlestar Galactica fandom that has special love for Lt. Felix Gaeta, he has been happily paired with every character (male, female, human, Cylon) you can think of. Including quite a few he has no real interaction with on the show.
    • And there's no possible way of counting the Kara "Starbuck" Thrace pairings. Or threesomes. Or... that was bound to happen because in the show itself she Really Gets Around. Gaius Baltar and Ellen Tigh also have a number of pairings. Even Lee has a collection.
  • James Diamond from Big Time Rush gets shipped with Logan, Kendall, Carlos, Kelly, Katie (although thankfully most stories about this pairing take place a few years in the future when Katie's legal), the aforementioned Logan and his canon girlfriend Camille both an once, a popular Crossover Ship with Tori Vega from Victorious and many more besides that. He's the best looking out of a Cast Full of Pretty Boys, so what do you expect?
  • In Blake's 7, Avon/anyone (and Orac, who doesn't).
  • Faith Lehane from Buffy the Vampire Slayer is a Launcher of a Thousand Ships not just for her own fandom, but for many, many others. Just in fandom there's been Faith/Cordelia, Faith/Dawn, Faith/Buffy, Faith/Willow, Faith/Dawn/Buffy/Willow, Faith/Spike, Faith/Angel, Faith/Wesley, Faith/Xander, Faith/Tara (who she met once, in Buffy's body), Faith/Tara/Willow, Faith/Robin Wood (canon, but they broke up between Seasons 7 and 8), Faith/Giles, Faith/Joyce, Faith/Anya, Faith/Harmony, Faith/Lilah Morgan (admittedly, Faith did hit on her the one time they met) and a few Faith/Everyone fics. And that's just in fandom.
    • Spike is another lucky one that has been paired endlessly with every imaginable character, including ones he never met. Like Ampata, the Inca mummy girl, who was only in one episode. Spike wasn't in it.
    • Angel is another, though it's more understandable, given there are the ships from Buffy and then the ships from Angel. There's canon Angel/Darla, Angel/Dru and Angel/Buffy, and then there are Angel/Spike, Angel/Wes, Angel/Lilah, Angel/Fred, Angel/Lindsey, Angel/Cordelia. Gunn is possibly the odd one out.
    • Buffy even gets her share. Outside of her canon love interests Angel, Riley and Spike, there's Buffy/Willow, Buffy/Xander, Buffy/Dawn, Buffy/Anya, Giles/Buffy, and the ever so popular Buffy/Faith. To name the characters she has shipped with both in and outside her own series would take up the whole page.
  • Chilling Adventures of Sabrina:
    • Sabrina Spellman is shipped most often with her main two love interests Nichola and Harvey, as well as her teacher Mary Wardwell, her rival Prudence, her father Lucifer, her friend Roz, Lilith, her cousin Ambrose, and Caliban, as well as a crossover ship with Archie Andrews from Riverdale.
    • Zelda Spellman has arguably the most popular ship in the fandom with Lilith, but she is also popularly shipped with Faustus Blackwood, Marie LaFleur, her sister Hilda, Mary Wardwell, and Lucifer, as well as a crossover ship with Missy from Doctor Who.
  • Criminal Minds' Reid. Fandom ships him with everyone. Even half the unsubs. And there are also a lot of crossover ships.
  • Annie Edison is this in Community, evidently. About half of the speculations have been hinted at in canon.
    • More than half really. She's had (some admittedly small amounts, but still) Ship Tease with Jeff, Britta, Abed, Troy and a canon relationship with Vaughn (along with multiple minor characters, such as Starburns and Professor Duncan pointing out how attractive she is). That really only leaves Shirley and Pierce.
    • There's a further irony regarding Annie's status as the show's resident Launcher of a Thousand Ships in that she's also clearly established as being the most prudish, repressed and naive of the characters concerning matters of sexuality, and tends to stumble into such matters unwittingly.
    • The episode featuring the Crack Pairing description features pairing of most possible characters. Abed is very into every possible pairing.
  • Pretty much every main credits character in the entire CSI franchise is this by now. It's easier to name the ones who *haven't* been paired with everyone else in their own show and several in the other shows.
  • Claire Temple from Daredevil (2015), Jessica Jones (2015), Luke Cage (2016) and Iron Fist (2017). Jokes abound about her being the Defenders' collective girlfriend after she had a romance with Matt, the start of one with Luke, and even a bit of mock flirting with Jessica. Some fans even felt that with Iron Fist (2017), she'd actually complete the set with Danny Rand, and she didn't.
  • Degrassi: The Next Generation has Sean. It doesn't help that every girl he's shared a scene with (and a few he hasn't) have said how hot he is. For reasoning, Emma, Ellie, and Ashley are canon, Manny talks about how hot he is, Paige and Hazel are popular Crack Pairings, and that really leaves Liberty, which goes to show accidents will happen. For Ho Yay, let's see… He's the only person who truly understands Rick, he and Ellie defend Rick before anyone else does, and then he kills Rick; on TV.com, this combines with speculation about Toby's taste in anime to turn the yaoi up some. Then there's Craig; indeed, Sean/Craig is the official couple over at TV.com's Degrassi forum, complete with a user named Seaig. More relevant, though, is that Craig wanted Sean to run away with him, and attempted suicide when Sean didn't. For Jimmy, there's this rivalry between them at first that is Serious Business, and then Jimmy's girlfriend cheats with Sean and goes on and on about how Sean's the better man, sprinkling in double entendres throughout. JT and Toby think Sean scores a lot, and JT tries to get him to use X. Marco's first crush is actually Sean, complete with Male Gaze shot of Sean's naked torso. Jay is a popular choice because of how mopey Jay gets when Sean isn't around. Peter has a serious obsession with Sean during their episodes. As for Spinner? There's actually a promo pic of Daniel Clark embracing Shane Kippel.
    • Not even Liberty was immune to it. In Season 3, she had a very blatant — if only for one episode — crush on Sean. On top of that, there's Ashley, too, which is sort of Canon.
    • For slash-alone, Marco. Some fans just aren't that original.
    • Eli seems to have inherited Sean's throne. Canonically, he's been with just Clare and Julia, with hints of him and Imogen becoming an item currently there. However, within the fandom, he's shipped with everyone. Special mention goes to Fitz, Adam, and Fiona, however. The former of whom is a (As far as we've seen) straight male, as well as his rival during Season 10. And with the latter two Adam is an FTM Straight Transgender, and Fiona a lesbian. And then there's Eli/Morty the Hearse…
  • Jack Harkness of Doctor Who and Torchwood. Of course, he'd almost certainly flirt with everyone listed on this page. There is a Image Macro series out there pairing him with (among others) CJ Cregg, of all people.
    • This one has both been artificially inflated and taken to the next level by a fic challenge on a very popular Doctor Who community, called "Jack Harkness Sexes Everyone in Every Fandom Ever", which has at its core the absolutely impossible goal of writing enough fics to achieve just that.
    • The Doctor themself. Especially since the newer Doctors — Eight, Nine, Ten and especially Eleven — are a bit on the slutty side, and the Doctor has been written as bisexual ever since the Eighth Doctor Adventures. While the Doctor/Rose, Doctor/River, Doctor/Clara, Doctor/Fitz and Doctor/Charley shippers are the most vocal (and have the most canonical ships), there's strong support for the Doctor/Martha (who kiss), the Doctor/Jack (who kiss), the Doctor/the Master (who kiss), the Doctor/the TARDIS (who kiss), and this is all just from the new series. Even from the old series, there's the Doctor/Romana (he kissed the first in a non-canon special, and the second in the books, and the actors were married in real life), the Doctor/Sarah Jane Smith, and many, many more. Really, you can just say Doctor/X Companion and there's probably someone shipping it.
    • The Brigadier, because of his insanely long tenure, can logically be paired with most of the original series's Doctors (One, Two, Three, Four, Five and Seven) without any stretch in continuity. If you count Big Finish, you can include Six and Eight, and if you count the Doctor Who Magazine comic, you can add Ten as well. Series 7 of the new series actually made a deliberate Ship Sinking effort for the pairing, but as we know, the Doctor lies.
    • Amy Pond is extremely popular in crossover shipping.
    • If you give the First Doctor Era fans more than a passing glance, you'll find that Steven gets shipped with just about every character he comes into contact with including Dodo, Vicki, Katarina, Oliver, Sara Kingdom and the Doctor himself. it certainly helps that the Doctor Who Expanded Universe makes it clear that Steven's from a Free-Love Future.
    • Clara Oswin Oswald can, canonically as of "The Name Of The Doctor", be shipped with every single Doctor Who character ever. If her personality doesn't match the ship — no problem, this Clara can just be a bit different. If she's shipped with the Doctor but he's not supposed to remember her face before "The Snowmen" — no problem, he gets Trauma-Induced Amnesia every few seasons anyway. The Clara/Ace ship on Ice World, in particular, has lots of leather jackets and fabulous '80s Hair.
    • Jo Grant, from the Third Doctor era, lends herself extremely well to shipping. She went on dates with Mike Yates in the Expanded Universe, married the leader of a hippie commune in the TV series, and has met up with the Eighth Doctor (in the Eighth Doctor Adventures novels) and the Eleventh (in The Sarah Jane Adventures). Add to that the picture of actress Katy Manning posing naked with a Dalek, which was canonised in the IDW comic "Prisoners Of Time", as well as pictures like these with Twelfth Doctor Peter Capaldi…
    • And then there's Iris Wildthyme, a big old slutty drunken ham of an alleged Time Lady who claims to have "had" the Doctor and who fancies all his incarnations. In addition to the slew of lovers (men and women alike) and husbands who show up in her own series. In the Big Finish audios, she's played by the same actor as Jo Grant.
  • John Gage on Emergency!. The most common are Johnny/original female and Johnny/Roy, but he's also been paired with nearly every other major character and one or two recurring characters on the show by someone at some point. The only exceptions seem to be Dr.Early, Dr.Morton and Captain Stanley.
  • Fate: The Winx Saga: Especially on sites like AO3, Farah Dowling is shipped with almost every other character in the show, including her students. Her most popular ship is with Saul Silva, but she has also been shipped with Queen Luna, Ben Harvey, Rose Harvey, Rosalind, Andreas, and the entirity of the Winx Suite (most notably Bloom). That is not even getting into the OCs and Author Avatars she has been paired with.
  • Firefly: Just every damn character. Pick any combination of the show's eleven regulars, and it won't be too hard to find a fanfic pairing them up.
    • It gets Jayne Cobb shipped with nearly everyone. Most common shippings include River or Zoe (naturally post Wash's death) but there's also plenty of fic involving Kaylee or Inara, as well as ones involving Simon or Mal. Jayne is the token barbarian of the series — he likes guns, booze and women, and he'll take any that seem available.
    • River gets paired up with a lot of people. The most common ones are Simon (which is nicknamed Crazy Space Incest or Tamcest), the aforementioned Jayne and Mal, but also with Kaylee, Inara, Wash, Book, Jubal Early, the Operative and even Badger. The fact that she fits this trope despite being seventeen on a ship whose median age seems to be about thirty is especially disturbing.
    • Kaylee as well. There’s Kaylee/Simon which is canon, Kaylee/Jayne, Kaylee/Mal, Kaylee/Inara and Kaylee/River.
    • Simon: Besides the aforementioned Kaylee, Jayne and River, there’s occasional Simon/Mal too.
  • Forever Knight: The fandom has factions as they’re called for just about every pairing you can think of. Nick in particular has a lot since he’s the lead. There’s Nick/Natalie, Nick/Tracy, Nick/Janette and Nick/LaCroix. Most ships also have light variants where Nick embraces his humanity and dark, where Nick embraces his vampire side.
  • Rachel from Friends. Helped by the fact she was roomates with Monica (up until early Season 6), Phoebe (Season 6), Joey (Seasons 6 to 10, intermittently), and Ross (briefly during 8 and 9). Several subtle (and not so subtle) ship teasing between her and the other girls (notably in some fights and "what if?" instances), some with Chandler (especially in early seasons) and she dated the remaining regulars. The character also, at some point, kissed every other person in the main cast, including the girls.
  • Game of Thrones:
    • Sansa. Sansa/Sandor as Beast and Beauty, Sansa with Prince Charmless Joffery, Brother–Sister Incest with Sansa/Robb, Sansa/Jon as brother/half-sister incest, later Kissing Cousins, Pseudo-Romantic Friendship with Sansa/Margery, No Yay of Sansa/Ramsay, Sansa/Theon (A Shared Suffering), Sansa/Tyrion (Arranged Marriage), Sansa/Dolorous Edd, Sansa/Stannis, Sansa/Littlefinger... It's far quicker to list the characters the poor girl isn't shipped with by fandom. Even without the fandom, she's been engaged to Joffrey, planned to marry Loras and Robin Arryn, actually married to Tyrion Lannister and Ramsay Bolton, and attracted the attention of Sandor Clegane and Petyr Baelish.
    • Brienne. She's been shipped primarily with Jaime and Tormund, but also with Podrick and Sandor. She was actually in love with Renly, is all but confirmed to be in love with Jaime and Tormund is completely besotted with her.
  • Both Puck and Rachel on Glee.
    • Kurt isn't quite as popular because he mostly doesn't get shipped with girls, but he has been shipped with EVERY male character to appear on the show, and as the series continues there's been more and more Kurt/Various Girls fic. Apparently fangirls like a challenge almost as much as they like canon gayness.
    • Blaine is also quickly becoming this — and unlike Kurt, he did have an episode where he briefly doubted his sexuality, which fans have taken as an A-OK to ship him with girls. He's still mostly been shipped with guys, though, but like Kurt, it's with just about every guy on the show.
    • Quinn is quickly becoming this, too. The fact that she's hopped from boyfriend to boyfriend in canon — and, as of Season 4, even had a romantic moment with Santana — means there's more than enough establishment for it.
    • Sam also frequently gets this treatment, largely because of fans who keep holding out hope for him being bisexual, even though he's only dated girls on the show.
    • Former bully Dave has been shipped with Kurt, Sebastian, and Blaine, and a few of the straight boys. Most of this is because he hasn't appeared since the Bittersweet Ending to his gayngst storyline and many fans simply want him to be happy with someone.
  • Blair from Gossip Girl has been shipped with everyone in the show, including men who only love Serena, straight girls, her worst enemy, and her boyfriend's deceased father. Apart from that she's also been paired with Edward Cullen, Draco Malfoy, Damon Salvatore, Dean Winchester, and Rachel Berry. And many more.
  • For Gotham fans, everything really is better with penguins — the vast majority of Gotham fanfiction involves shipping the young Oswald Cobblepot with either another one (or more) of the many, many male characters or the reader.
  • Green Wing:
    • Boyce has a habit of walking into a room and asking "who wants to suck my cock?" regardless of anyone's gender.
    • Guy prides himself on being a man-slut, although he's only interested in women.
    • Rachel is called "Naughty Rachel" for a reason.
    • Joanna is desperate enough to try anyone.
    • Sue White is freakishly insane enough to try anyone.
  • Hannah Montana has Miley/Hannah, who has been paired with just about everyone by the fandom, including herself. She has been shipped with her best friends Lilly and Oliver, canon boyfriends Jake, Travis, and Jessie, her brother Jackson, and rival pop-star Mikayla. There are also the popular crossover ships with Alex Russo from Wizards of Waverly Place and Mitchie Torres from Camp Rock.
  • In addition to Peter Petrelli, Sylar is also a Launcher Of A Thousand Ships in the Heroes fandom. Check out this LJ Heroes community: Rare Heroes. Look at the pairing tags list; Peter and Sylar have the most pairings. Peter actually comes in as a close second to Sylar, when you count them up.
    • Every Heroes fanfic is about Peter, Sylar, Claire, or Elle, usually a combination of two... or more.
    • This Livejournal, "The Heroes Slash Manual", applies this quality to Kaito Nakamura… after a fashion.
  • Duncan Macleod in Highlander. Aside from the canon Duncan/Tessa and Duncan/Amanda, there's a lot of Duncan/Methos, some Duncan/Joe and even some Duncan/Richie now and then. And Connor has likely been paired with him a time or two as well.
  • It seems agreed on by much of the House of Anubis fandom that Patricia makes a good pairing with virtually every other student in the house, regardless of gender. (And one teacher.) While they can be platonic most of them are viewed as romantic.
  • Barney in How I Met Your Mother. The most popular pairing is Barney/Robin, but it is by no means the only one.
    • Barney/Lily is HIMYM's biggest UC ship. He's also shipped with Marshall and Ted. Or Stella and Victoria. Plus the crossovers...
  • As it's his show, House obviously gets treated like the fandom bicycle by fic writers. He's been paired up with everyone, from Wilson, Cuddy, Chase, Foreman and Cameron to Vogler, Tritter, and, um, a giant squid. Which clearly hasn't been on the show but still...
    • Chase too. I've seen Chase/House, Chase/Foreman, Chase/Cameron, Chase/Stacy, Chase/Wilson, Chase/Cuddy, Chase/Kutner and Chase/Lucas.
    • Thirteen also probably qualifies as this. While the most popular pairings continue to be Thirteen/Foreman, Thirteen/Kutner, Thirteen/Chase, and Thirteen/Cameron, Thirteen/House, Thirteen/Wilson, Thirteen/Cuddy, and Thirteen/Taub all have followings.
  • Sam in iCarly. She has fanbases (although small in some cases) for pairings with Freddie, Carly, Spencer, Gibby, Griffin, Missy, Principal Franklin, Wendy, Brad, Shelby, Jade from Victorious and Alex from Wizards of Waverly Place. The prevalent fandom interpretation of her is that she is bi.
    • The male version is Freddie. He has been paired with Carly, Sam, Spencer, Gibby, Wendy, Melanie, Shelby, along with several girls of the week, and two reasonably popular Crossover Ship pairings, one with Megan from Drake & Josh, and the more recent one with Cat from Victorious.
  • Laverne & Shirley: Downplayed for both the title characters. Laverne is mainly shipped with Lenny, although she's also sometimes shipped with Shirley, Fonzie (somewhat canon, she's dated him), and occasionally Squiggy. Shirley is usually shipped with Carmine (canon, as they've dated), but also sometimes Fonzie (again somewhat canon), Squiggy, Lenny (relatively rarely), Richie (they did date in that one episode of Happy Days), and Laverne.
  • It's a Law & Order, so it isn't that obvious, but in the (admittedly small) L&O:SVU fandom, Olivia Benson is this. Probably because she's Mariska flippin' Hargitay.
  • On Lost Claire Littleton tends to get paired with anyone she has any sort of contact with. Apart from her canon relationship with Charlie, there’s Claire/Desmond, Claire/Locke, Claire/Sawyer, Claire/Ethan, Claire/Boone, Claire/Hurley, Claire/Eko and Claire/Shannon from earlier seasons and Claire/Miles, Claire/Richard, Claire/Jacob, Claire/Man in Black, Claire/Sayid, Claire/Kate, Claire/Juliet and yes Claire/Jack brought on by later ones.
  • Zev/Xev from Lexx for obvious reasons.
  • The Mandalorian has gone on for multiple seasons without giving Din Djarin an official Love Interest, but fans like to pair him with various companions he makes during his adventures, regardless of their gender or how long they get to know him.
  • Hawkeye Pierce from M*A*S*H has been paired with virtually every other character in the series, though the most popular pairings are BJ/Hawkeye, Margaret/Hawkeye (canon for an episode or so, actually), Trapper/Hawkeye, and Radar/Hawkeye. Justified in that Hawkeye tends to flirt with anyone, though he (apparently) only flirts with men to make them uncomfortable.
  • Merlin (2008):
    • Morgana. The first season inspired Morgana/Gwen, Morgana/Uther, Morgana/Arthur as well as some Morgana/Merlin, Morgana/(older)Mordred and Morgana/Nimueh, even though those two never even met! Season 2 cut it down a little on the Morgana/Uther and Morgana/Arthur front but also inspired Morgana/Morgause (even though they're half-sisters) and (thanks to some fanmade vids for them) also Morgana/Sir Leon.
    • Merlin himself is the fandom bicycle. He is basically shipped with every single character on the show. Canonically, there's Merlin/Freya (and, extremely briefly at the very start of the series, Merlin/Gwen). But add in the vast majority who ship Merlin/Arthur, another segment who ship Merlin/Morgana, some who ship Merlin/Sefa, Merlin/Nimueh, Merlin/Mithian (due to Ship Tease photos), a few who even ship Merlin/Uther (yes, it exists!), the growing popularity of the Merlin/adult!Mordred ship, and finish it off with the Ho Yay-tastic possibilities of Merlin/Lancelot, Merlin/Percival (especially after Percival carried Merlin in 4x02), Merlin/Will, Merlin/Daegal, Merlin/Gilli, Merlin/Gwaine and Merlin/Knights, and you've definitely got this trope. But, as mentioned above, this show itself is this trope embodied. Merlin is also popular in crossover shipping.
    • Gwaine is shipped with anyone and anything, as illustrated here. In addition to pairing him with various main characters, Gwaine/apples is also popular.
  • The Morning Show: Bradley is shipped with pretty much every character in the show. Her most popular is her canon with Laura, but she is also often paired with Alex, Cory, and Maggie, to name a few. This is helped by Reese Witherspoon having great chemistry with her co-stars.
  • Once Upon a Time:
    • Emma is commonly paired with her step-grandmother and archenemy Regina, who also happens to be her biological son's adoptive mom. Also fairly popular are Emma/Graham, Emma/August, Emma/Jefferson, and Emma/Gold. You'll also see your vocal minorities of Emma/Ruby and Emma/Archie shippers and those who would ship Emma/Mary Margaret if Mary Margaret wasn't actually Emma's mom. Or who ship it regardless.
      • As of Season 2, you can add Emma/Hook and Emma/Neal to the list as well (the second one is synonymous with Emma/Baelfire).
      • As of Season 4, Emma/Elsa is gaining popularity.
    • Regina has been shipped with Emma, Gold, David, Snow, Jefferson, Ruby, Archie, Daniel, Hook, Tinkerbell, Robin Hood, Maleficent, Doctor Facilier, and Ivy. That is not even getting into OT3 pairings with Emma and Ruby or Robin and Maleficent.
    • Ruby/Red is also shipped with quite a few characters — Emma (as mentioned above), Archie (due to both characters' popularity with fans and lack of canon love interests), Gold (especially before the introduction of his canon love interest Belle), Snow White, and Graham by fans who like Graham's character too much to take the convenient Killed Off for Real exit to further their preferred Emma ship. Jefferson and Regina, too, even though they (and Gold and Archie, come to think of it) have never actually interacted with Ruby. August and Ruby had one conversation of Ship Tease and gained a small-but-loyal fanbase. And then there are those who liked Red's original love interest Peter from her tragic backstory… Red is also commonly paired with Belle and Frankenstein, though both pairings have certainly had the Ship Tease to warrant such followings.
    • Captain Hook. He was being shipped with Emma, Aurora, Ruby, and basically half the cast before his debut episode had even aired. Hook is even shipped with characters before they were added to the show (Ariel and Wendy, for example).
  • Many characters from One Tree Hill, but especially Brooke. Other than her canon pairings, including the one night stands (Lucas, Nathan, Chase, Owen, Julian, Chris Keller), she has been paired with Mouth, Jake, Clay, Peyton, Rachel and many others. She's also very popular with crossover shipping.
  • In Power Rangers, Tommy got paired with an inordinate amount of OCs over the years, but Sky from S.P.D. really takes the cake here, ending up with every single one of his teammates in fic (all at the same time on occasion), and some of his enemies.
    • And then there's Dr. K, who is being paired up with each member of RPM team and the villains. And possibly her violin and keyboards.
    • Speaking of Tommy, it's easy to see Tommy with Jason (classic), Goldar (obsessed with Tommy), Zedd (even more obsessed than Goldar), Rita (come on, if you were her, you would), Kim (canon, and it's been said that 45% of Power Rangers fics are slash and 54% are Tommy/Kim), his clone, Kat (canon), and Adam (the two most popular rangers ever). There are also more bizarre fics pairing him with Zack, Trini, and Rocky. Fast forward to Dino Thunder, and he's paired with every other cast member: Hayley (despite the inherent Scrappiness of dating Tommy in canon and not being a Pink Ranger), Anton (they sound like lovers), Mesogog (personal space issues), Elsa (fakes being in love with him), Conner (because heavy is the head that wears the crown), Ethan (apparently on the same grounds as Trini/Billy, that one can understand the other's technobabble), Kira (far too much), and Trent (because they were both evil). There's also a Memetic Mutation that sleeping with Tommy is one of the fringe benefits of being a Pink Ranger. No doubt someone's paired him with Andros because they look so much alike. We're just lucky David never became a ranger, or we wouldn't have had to wait until Ninja Storm for incest slash to come out.
    • Other male Mighty Morphin' Rangers have their fair share of shipping fanfics, notably Billy since he is considered the Lady's Man of the team albeit being a nerd. Alongside pair-ups of him and his crushes in the show, some of the favorite fan ships of him include: Billy/Kimberly (affectionately labeled Kimbilly or Billery by fans), Billy/Trini, Billy/Aisha, and Billy/Kat.
    • Jason gets this to an extent as well. In addition to his canonical relationship with Emily from Zeo, Jason is often shipped with Tommy, Kimberly, Kat, Trini and Zack. Some fans step outside the Zordon Era and pair Jason with the likes of Cole, Shane or Conner.
  • Parks and Recreation
  • Emily from Pretty Little Liars seems to get paired up with a lot of people: Ali, Spencer, Aria, Hanna, Maya, Paige, Samara, even Toby (despite being lesbian.)
  • Shawn from Psych. Justified in the case that he has made a pass at everyone of the recurring characters at least once. He's most commonly paired with his canon girlfriend Juliet, but also with Lassie, Gus, Abigail, and Chief Vick.
  • Sam from Quantum Leap. Not that surprising, as the show itself has a premise specifically designed to allow for any kind of story the writer of the week wants to tell.
  • In Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles community, Cameron tends to get shipped with everyone. The most common pairings appear to be with John Conner, Sarah Connor and Derek Reese, but even John Henry and Allison Young have their supporters.
    • Like Firefly this is probably due in part to Cameron being played by Summer Glau.
  • The Sandman (2022): Dream has been shipped with nearly everyone he appears on screen with. Although the most prominent ship so far seems to be Dream/Hob Gadling, he has plenty of sexual tension with his two confirmed past romantic relationships (Nada and Calliope), and has also been shipped with Lucienne, Johanna Constantine, Lucifer, the Corinthian, and even the other Endless. When discussed in an interview with Kirby Howell-Baptiste and Mason Alexander Park, Park stated that Tom Sturridge "just has sexual chemistry with everyone", leading Howell-Baptiste to conclude that Dream was the cast bicycle.
  • The Secret Circle: Faye is shipped with almost every character on the show, particularly her other Circle members. The most popular ship in the fandom is Faye and Diana, but Faye has been shipped with Cassie, Melissa, Adam, Jake, and Nick. This is because she is the fan favorite of the show and her actress, Phoebe Tonkin, has good chemistry with everyone.
  • Sherlock Holmes from, well, Sherlock. The Fan-Preferred Couple appears to be him with John, but he's also paired with Molly (who canonically has a one-sided crush on Sherlock), Irene Adler (a lesbian until Moffat decided to contradict his earlier 'not wired that way' anti-John/Sherlock statement), Anderson and Donovan (both of whom hate Sherlock), Lestrade, his own brother Mycroft (whom Sherlock hates), and nemesis Moriarty. Season 3 added Mary Morstan (John's wife, making for an OT3 situation) and Charles Augustus Milverton (the season's Big Bad).
  • Smallville:
    • Clark Kent has been paired with every character on the show. Clark and Lex being the most popular Slash Couple rivaled with Oliver/Clark, then you have your Clark/Lois Shippers, your Clark/Chloe shippers and Clark/Lana shippers. They even go far enough to pair him with Kara or Jor-El. The writers even would paint him as a Chick Magnet on the show, even though he hasn't caught onto it.
    • Tess Mercer, an original character who is partly based on Mercy Graves, Miss Tessmacher and the original version of Lena Luthor, the one who was Lex's sister in the Silver Age comics, has been shipped with just about everybody on the show. This is helped by the fact that the showrunners seem happy to intentionally fuel this with regards to Tess, by having her flirt with just about everybody in the main cast, plus several guest characters.
    • Chloe Sullivan also served as a Launcher Of A Thousand Ships. The fact that many of her fans seem to use her as their own personal Audience Surrogate means that Chloe hooking up with virtually any attractive character can be seen as wish-fulfillment. To that end, the fandom has shipped Chloe with Clark (Chlark; there are also pairings of her and Kal and Bizarro), Oliver (a ship so popular that the showrunners themselves became Chlollie shippers in the last couple seasons), Lex (Chlex enjoyed a brief but dramatic spike in fanfic popularity around Season 2 for some reason), LIONEL of all peoplenote , and out-of-universe characters from other shows, like Dean and/or Sam Winchester from Supernatural. One of the more popular Chloe crossover ships over the years has also been Chloe/Batman.
    • Oliver Queen, aka Green Arrow, is subject to this a lot. Helped by the fact that the show actually does have him embark on relationships with most of the main female characters during his years on the show.
  • In the Stargate universe:
    • Rodney McKay, of all people. People will read anything that features him as part of a 'ship. If you watch the episode "Tao of Rodney", this makes perfect sense.
    Elizabeth Weir: Rodney, you're a good person. Know that we love you.
    Rodney McKay: You love me? Really? All of you?
    • Evan Lorne also fulfills this trope.
    • So does John Sheppard. More John than even Rodney, since there seems to be the subfandom of Richard Woolsey/John Sheppard. Also, John has spent time with every Atlantis Civilian Head in a 'one on one' scene on a balcony somewhere, and has DARED to fall for an ascended lady (and a near-ascended one). Poor John's reputation is also cemented because Rodney just doesn't let it go. In extreme cases, John's character kind of goes through a transformation, and people forget that he's actually the military head of the Atlantis expedition. John/Elizabeth, John/Teyla, John/Ronon, John/Rodney, John/Richard, John/Random Evil Alien, John/Random Good Alien, John/his abusive dad, John/the entirety of a hockey team… well. It's been done.
    • Daniel Jackson & Cameron Mitchell from SG-1 have been paired up in fanfic not only with each other, but with every main character in the show's history. Sometimes crossing over with Stargate Atlantis and other shows. Can you blame the other main characters?
  • Kotoha of Samurai Sentai Shinkenger. And the writers seem bound to encourage it.
    • Her lord, Takeru, has been paired with all five of his vassals, his childhood friend, his rival, and the true lord, who is now his mother.
  • Supernatural:
    • Dean Winchester. He's been paired with his little brother, his father, Bobby, Castiel, probably every single male and female character in the show, OMCs, OFCs and I'm not even touching the millions of crossovers that he's been in. Possibly justified because he's very pretty and very slutty but it's getting ridiculous.
    • Castiel has been paired with nearly as many characters as Dean has and appeared in far fewer episodes. It started harmlessly with just Dean/Cas, but then other angels (and demons and humans) appeared, and the rest is history. Cas/Meg remains popular, there's plenty of fics portraying Cas/April and on top of that there's Cas/Sam, Cas/Jimmy Novak, Cas/Casifer, Cas/Claire Novak, Cas/Dean/Anna, Cas/Crowley (which is often a Crossover of Good Omens)...the list goes on. It doesn't hurt that the bad future version of Cas we see in "The End" is running a sex cult.
    • Sam Winchester. He might not be in quite as many pairing as his big brother, but writers who ship Destiel love to pair Sam off with someone else. Hence the many stories with Sam/Eileen, Sam/Sarah, Sam/Jess, Sam/Lucifer, Sam/Gadreel. There's also still plenty of Sam/Dean.
    • Crowley. It helps that he flirts with most everyone he meets.
  • The Suite Life on Deck features Zack Martin, a serial dater who seems to be compatible which every girl on the show.
  • Star Trek:
    • Malcolm Reed of Star Trek: Enterprise. There is a significant amount of fic for: Tucker/Reed, Archer/Reed, Reed/Sato, Reed/Mayweather, and Reed/Hayes. No other character comes close. The reason why can only be guessed at, but it probably has something to do with the whole "shy, reserved, and stoic" thing. And his fondness for making things go boom.
    • Captain Janeway seems to be this for Star Trek: Voyager. The most popular are the somewhat canon Janeway/Chakotay and the less canon Janeway/Seven.
    • Hoshi, who's been shippedwho's been shipped with Malcolm, Trip, Archer, and T'Pol but not so much Phlox or Mayweather.
  • Stranger Things: Steve may be the best example of the show. There is his canon relationship with Nancy and then we have Jonathan, Billy, Robin and Eddie. The fact that the latest three were introduced in different seasons could make a Running Gag that every new character is expected to be shipped with Steve somehow.
  • In Sanctuary, Helen Magnus is paired through fanfic with everyone, including non-canon relationships with Amelia Earhart and H.G. Wells, among many others. Many of the popular ships in fandom include Magnus/John Druitt, Magnus/Nikola Tesla, Magnus/James Watson, Magnus/Will Zimmerman, Magnus/Kate, Magnus/… you get the picture. In canon, Tesla has a long-lived and one-sided flirtation with Magnus, but has gone so far as to sneak into her room at night (unsuccessfully) and has made it clear he would enjoy a relationship with Magnus if given the opportunity. Given that the woman is over 157 years old, is sexually fluid, and would have chemistry with a flea, it's not hard to see how this trope applies.
  • Supergirl (2015): Kara Danvers has been shipped with virtually everyone, regardless of age, gender or universe: her co-worker Jimmy, her another co-worker Winn, her boyfriend Mon-El, her boss Cat Grant, her friend Lena, her sister Alex, her friend from another universe Barry Allen...
  • Teen Wolf gives us Stiles Stilinski, the protagonist's Muggle Best Friend who quickly gained a large fanbase due to his witty remarks and comments and the actor's good looks, which had loads of fangirls sighing more for him than for the other protagonists (which surprised both the cast and the producers). While the Fan-Preferred Couple (by a very large part of the fans) is Stiles/Derek, there's also Stiles/Lydia, Stiles/Jackson, Stiles/Danny, Stiles/Scott, Stiles/Isaac, Stiles/Allison, Stiles/Peter, Stiles/Erica, Stiles/Cora, Stiles/Boyd... and that's just the tip of the iceberg.
    • Stiles has been paired with pretty much every single girl (and guy, mainly due to his Ambiguously Bi moments) on the show, whether he interacted with him/her or not. And let's not get started with the crossovers…
  • Interesting thing on The Tudors. Henry gets paired off the most times in the show (obviously) but as for pairings written or suggested... um, Katherine of Aragon. A popular theory is that people just want her to be happy, considering how things went for her on the show.
  • Sookie from True Blood. Not only has she dated or had sexual tension with four guys canonically, but fan fic writers don't let silly things like gender or Incompatible Orientation keep them from pairing her with everyone on the show.
    • Sam and Jason as well. Both are tied in having the most onscreen love interests on the show (five, not counting Jason's random floozies), as well as some Ho Yay with a few male characters, making them very popular with shippers.
  • The Vampire Diaries Universe:
    • The Vampire Diaries: All of the characters in the series fall into this, especially Caroline (who has been paired with everyone even in-universe), the Salvatore brothers, and obviously Elena.
      • In Fanfiction, Caroline has been paired with Klaus, Stefan, Jeremy, (whose actor she dated in real life), Elena, Katherine, Rebekah, Kol, even complete Crack Pairings like Alaric (which briefly became canon), Mason, Jenna, and Vicki.
      • Stefan's biggest ships are with Elena and Caroline. He is also shipped with other characters, including Katherine, Damon, Bonnie, Klaus, Elijah, and Rebekah.
      • Bonnie is shipped with everyone on the show, both male and female characters. In terms of male characters, she is shipped with Damon, Stefan, Jeremy, Klaus, Elijah, Kol, Kai, Enzo, and Matt. She is also shipped with the female characters too such as Elena, Caroline, and Katherine.
    • Legacies:
  • Victorious has Tori, Cat, and Jade who, like iCarly's Sam, are all considered bisexual by the majority of the fandom.
    • Tori is shipped in popular pairings with Jade, Cat, and Beck, semi-popular ones like Andre and Robbie, along with Crossover Ships with Carly from iCarly and James from Big Time Rush. That is not even getting into her Crack Pairings with her sister Trina and Rex.
    • Cat has popular pairings with Jade, Robbie and Tori, semi-popular pairings with Trina, Beck and Andre and a popular Crossover Ship with Freddie from iCarly, and with the Spin-Off Sam & Cat, Sam.
    • Jade is perhaps the biggest launcher, being paired with Tori, Cat, and Beck as her most popular pairings, with less popular pairings with Andre and Robbie and a Crossover Ship with Sam from iCarly.
  • Warehouse 13 has Myka Berring and Helena "H.G." Wells, who have both been shipped with almost every other character from the show. The most popular is pairing them together, but they have each been shipped with Pete (which became canon for Myka), Claudia, Leena, Sam, Abigail and Emily Lake (H.G. with none of her memories), as well as OT3 pairings that have paired both of them with Claudia and Pete. There has also been crossover fanfiction that paired them with characters from other shows. Helena has been paired with Regina Mills from Once Upon a Time and Helen Magnus from Sanctuary, just to name a few. Myka has been paired with Adelle DeWitt from Dollhouse, Stahma Tarr from Defiance, Olivia Dunham from Fringe, and Wynonna Earp from Wynonna Earp.
  • Warrior Nun: Sister Lilith is shipped with basically every other character, namely her sister nuns Shotgun Mary, Ava, Camille, and Beatrice. It helps that she has great chemistry with all of them and Lorena Andrea is a fairly attractive person who imbues Lilith with a lot of charisma. Also, it helps that unlike say, Ava, Beatrice, or Shotgun Mary (the only characters more popular than she is) she is never given any concrete Ship Tease or Les Yay with anyone, making her a much easier fandom bicycle.
  • Wednesday:
    • Wednesday Addams herself quickly became a big fandom bicycle after the show aired, due to Jenna Ortega's great chemistry with everyone. The most popular ship is her with roommate Enid, but there's also Wednesday/Tyler, Wednesday/Xavier, Wednesday/Bianca, Wednesday/Ajax, Wednesday/Yoko, and Wednesday/Eugene. It certainly helps that Wednesday doesn't actually end up with anyone at the end of the first season. Ironically, the least popular pairings were Tyler and Xavier, the actual romantic leads, as many fans felt that the love triangle was way too forced and that Wednesday had more natural chemistry with just about every other character in her age group.
    • Enid Sinclair has been a big part of multiple ships in the fandom. Beyond her popular ship with Wednesday, Enid has been shipped with Yoko, Ajax, Tyler, Xavier, and Bianca. It helps that her actress Emma Myers has great chemistry with the whole cast.
  • Alex in Wizards of Waverly Place. Goes above and beyond the usual fandom bicycle because her most popular pairing is an incest pairing with brother Justin.
  • The Worst Witch: For the Netflix series, Miss Hardbroom, especially in slash fanfiction. She's been shipped with Miss Cackle, Miss Pentangle, Miss Drill, and even Mildred Hubble and Agatha Cackle.
  • The X-Files:
    • Both Mulder and Scully. There are still whole websites devoted to shipping either of them with half the show's characters.
    • Alex Krycek. Do a little fanfic digging and you'll find him paired with almost everyone from the show. Krycek/Mulder is most common, but his level of shippiness with practically everybody spun off all sorts of other pairings. It's probably impossible to find a fic that doesn't mention his green eyes at least once.
  • Yellowjackets: Natalie is often shipped with almost every other character on the show. In canon there's her romance with Travis, but her two most popular fanon ones are with Lottie and Misty, with some even going so far as to ship her with both. There are also those who ship her with Shauna, Jackie, Taissa, Van, and Laura Lee. It helps that her teen and adult actresses, Sophie Thatcher and Juliette Lewis, have good chemistry with the rest of the cast.

Top