Official Couple

So official, it's the game's logo.

"Oh fuck it. Who am I to stand between you two? You obviously make an adorable couple. Why should I let my rotten luck with the ladies rain on your parade. That's it, I'm calling it. I'm declaring your ship to be officially canon."

— Andrew Hussie, on Ms. Paint and Spades Slick

This is when the main characters in any given story are undeniably a couple. (Thus, in heroic stories The Hero and The Chick are the usual couple, though it isn't always them.) The important thing to know about this trope is that the characters are overtly paired off, so even if they never kiss on screen or even flirt with other characters, it's understood by the cast (and hopefully the audience) that the two are an item. Naturally, this does absolutely nothing to offset Shipping.

Sometimes, there's another couple that sometimes serves as a Foil and/or companion to the "official" couple that involves The Hero. This other couple usually involves The Lancer and a minor female. This couple is called the Beta Couple.

Expect: She Is Not My Girlfriend, Just Friends, Everyone Can See It, Like Brother and Sister, and Lampshade Hanging.

If this trope breaks up a Fan-Preferred Couple, expect Ship-to-Ship Combat to ensue.

Side-Story Bonus Art often has the couple getting married. Speaking of which, if this the path that the couple ends up taking, it is very likely to fall under being Happily Married.

See also Love Chart. Contrast One True Pairing, Fan-Preferred Couple. If the plot tortures the official couple, then that's Official Couple Ordeal Syndrome.

A REMINDER: A couple is an official couple only if they acknowledge their feelings and enter into a relationship in Canon. Ship Teasing and Unresolved Sexual Tension do not count, nor does your favorite Fan Fic or Doujinshi. Do not use this page as a proxy for Ship-to-Ship Combat.

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Examples

• Anime and Manga
• Comic Books
• Live-Action Films
• Literature
• Live-Action TV
• Video Games
• Visual Novels
• Web Comics
• Western Animation

Fan Works

• A Crown of Stars: Ching and Bir. They were two officers taking part in the campaign to free Shinji and Asuka's world. Due to working together closely they gradually developed a relationship.
• Evangelion 303: Jessika Ryan and her girlfriend Mandy. Jessika got assigned to a secret project and had to leave, intending to reunite with Mandy later. Unfortunately she died during a trial test. Later Mandy read her Secret Diary and foud out that Jessika had fallen in love with Asuka and thought that she had been unfaithful (even though Jessika had not cheated and she actually shipped Shinji and Asuka together.
• With an Anguished Declaration of Love at the end of Reality Is Fluid, Captain Kanril Eleya and Lieutenant Commander Reshek Gaarra of the Bait and Switch (STO)-verse are together for good after having danced around each other for months. The author confirmed it in an edit note on Memory Gamma wiki. No word yet on how they're working around the fact that them being together violates regulations (she's his direct superior).
• The Second Try: Koichi Yamadera and his wife in this story and the sequel Aki-chan's Life. They were the owners of the market-garden where Shinji and Asuka lived in the post-Impact world. After going back to the past, Shinji and Asuka visited them twice, and eventually they offered selling their old house to the pair of time-travelers.
• In Superman story Superman of 2499: The Great Confrontation, Alan Kent and Katherine de Ka'an were two thirds of a love triangle until Kath chose Alan over his brother Adam.
• Brock and Pike Queen Lucy are engaged to each other in Pokémon Reset Bloodlines, and it's hinted that Brock plans to propose to her soon.
• Galaxy Angel Retold:
  • The fic sees Original Character Arnold Williams develop a romantic relationship with Milfeulle Sakuraba while Tact pairs with Ranpha. Like the Galaxy Angel games, the fanfic is a six-installment series split between the two trilogies, with the second trilogy seeing Kazuya pair up with Lily; a seventh installment, listed as a crossover between Galaxy Angel and the 2016 remake of Doom, is added in which Arnold and Milfie have a baby boy at the end (conceived in a related side story) that Arnold names after a fallen friend he met during the events of the seventh main installment.
  • What-ifs stories in the series also exist, with all three males flipping romantic partners amongst the remaining five Angels.
  • Fanfiction author Khaos Omega deploys a few of this trope in his own variation. The main trilogy (only of Galaxy Angel II, though) pairs Tact with Vanilla, male Original Character lead Jace Davies with Anise Azeat, Kazuya with Natsume ( after the other four Angels, led by an early-returned Lily, set up a scheme that confirms the Jace/Anise pairing), Almo with her canon crush Lester, and, very surprisingly, Tequila as another of Jet Brazie's Rainbow Angels. Tequila later tweaks her name to Takara ahead of a 2304 Series change that reassigns her old spot to the Lily of the same multiverse as Jet's own Anise (the chronology's titular Amethyst Angel). A what-if version also exists, but with a different male original character named Marty Jordan in the role of Arnold Williams ( Khaos Christmas 2677 later confirms the original Marty's official girl is Chitose.)

Films — Animation

• Any of the Disney Princesses and their respective princes/heroes.
• Anastasia and Dimitri, whose Belligerent Sexual Tension ends in an elopement.
• Garrett and Kayley in Quest for Camelot.
• In the Toy Story trilogy, there's Woody/Bo Peep before she was Put on a Bus by Toy Story 3, as well as Mr./Mrs. Potato Head and, predictably, Barbie/Ken. And, by the end of Toy Story 3, Buzz and Jesse.
• Derek and Odette in The Swan Princess
• Corpse Bride: Victor and Victoria.
• The Madagascar movies have Melman the giraffe and Gloria the hippo. While the original movie made no mention of any attraction between the two, the second movie established that Melman had fallen for Gloria long before they left New York, and their couple-ness was cemented by the end of the movie. In the third, they are still a couple, but not much is made of it, aside from a few pet names and their duo tightrope act in the circus. It also has, in the third movie, Alex and Gina.
• In Wreck-It Ralph, Fix-It Felix Junior and Sergeant Tamora Jean Calhoun end up together at the end.
• Hiccup and Astrid become one in the Race to the Edge episode "Blindsided" and are still going strong in How to Train Your Dragon 2.
• Manolo and Maria in The Book of Life.
• Alpha and Omega has two: Humphrey and Kate, and Lilly and Garth

Web Animation

• Much to the RWBY fandom's glee, Jaune and Pyrrha became official during the Volume Three Finale. Only to have it torn away when Cinder kills Pyrrha during the same episode.
• Tex and Church are the official couple in Red vs. Blue. Although they have a very tempestuous relationship and usually act more like enemies than a couple, neither ever denies it.
• Koden and Amber, the only two sane characters from DSBT InsaniT.

Web Original

• Legion of Nothing has a few of these. The current Heroes League has Nick and his girlfriend Haley. Earlier you had Nick's grandfather Joe Van Der Sloot and his wife Romy.
• That Guy with the Glasses:
  • While mostly having a reputation for slash, the TGWTG fangirl fandom adored former real-life pairings Linkara/Iron Liz and Spoony/Scarlett. There's also a "that's so adorable!" squee over Doug getting engaged to his girlfriend.
  • Later on, there's JesuOtaku / Nash and The Nostalgia Chick/Todd in the Shadows. This one's layered: Lindsay and Todd are dating in real life, but in-character The Nostalgia Chick pursues Todd in the Shadows, who brushes her off and pines for / stalks Allison Pregler aka Lupa, who is in a relationship with Phelous as well.
  • Regarding Chick, Lindsay and Doug confirmed in the FernGully: The Last Rainforest commentary that all of her Ship Tease with The Nostalgia Critic was intentional and that the characters had an ambiguous-on-details-but-very-real thing going on.
  • Doug gave his approval for Critic and Snob to be labelled "Internet Reviewer Boyfriends".
  • Hyper Fangirl and Devil Boner (lovingly named Hyper-Boner) are Ax-Crazy Sickeningly Sweethearts that bond over who kidnapped Critic best.
• Cecil and Carlos end up as one in Welcome to Night Vale.
• Critical Role
  • Within the party, Vax'ildan and Keyleth's relationship finally became official in Episode 65 after many complications and hardships from both.
  • Likewise, Percival de Rolo and Vex'ahlia had a lot of Ship Tease between them until Episode 69 where Vex confessed during his resurrection ritual, Episode 72 when Percy boldly kissed her, and Episode 78 when they spent what they believed to be their last night together.
  • After 60 episodes worth of hints and speculation from fans and party members alike, Matt Mercer confirmed that fan favorites Lady Kima and Allura Vysoren were together, having rekindled an old relationship from their adventuring days.
  • Kashaw and Zahra develop from Like Brother and Sister to this, which is made apparent in the last two episodes when the latter reveals to be pregnant with their child.
  • At the very end of the campaign, Scanlan and Pike finally get together. A bit surprising considering earlier character development had suggested these two would stay Just Friends.

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