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Slash Fic

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Sokka discovers slash fic.note 
"The archtypal slash pairing is based on the existence of a clear contrast coupled with a close emotional bond. Given that the standard example is Kirk and Spock, this almost doesn't even need elucidation. He's impulsive and rash, he's cold and logical, and yet despite that something glues them together. What could it possibly be? Clearly their need to rip each other's uniforms off and shag like bunnies."
— El Sandifer, TARDIS Eruditorium

The most common definition of Slash is a Fan Fic that pairs two (or more) characters of the same sex. Often, "slash" is used for male/male pairings only, while "femslash" or "femmeslash" are used to define a female/female pairing (using an "x" symbol rather than a / between the names works too, it’s a matter of author preference). In most cases, one or both halves of the pairing is heterosexual in the original work, and part of the allure is the normally-straight character(s) realizing their same-sex attraction.note  Or the story skips the "why" altogether and is just them getting it on.

The more lopsided the male-to-female ratio in the original work, the more common it is to have slash pairings rather than straight pairings in the fandom.

Slash is often also used to pair up Heterosexual Life-Partners. Of course, some canonical works, especially Boys' Love and those with a Cast Full of Pretty Boys, invite such reading by playing the ambiguity for all it's worth. It's also common to (sexually) pair characters who are nemeses in the source material, in Fanfic's own version of Slap-Slap-Kiss and The Masochism Tango.

Some Slash Fics are so low in erotic and romantic content that although they focus on the relationship between two same-sex characters, it's not obvious if they're slash or not; making them closer to Ho Yay themselves. Such fics are often called something like “Slash-if-you-squint”. Then there’s “PreSlash”, which is used to refer to a fic where the characters aren’t a couple yet, but the author’s intention is that they got together later, even if you don’t actually see it happen in a sequel. These are generally focused on sexual tension.

The origin of the term predates the World Wide Web, going back to 1960s fanfic writers, specifically those interested in Star Trek, who wrote "Kirk/Spock" fiction, pronounced "Kirk Slash Spock." In many (but not all) communities, the ordering of the names is used to indicate a power relationship, and who exactly is the dominant member.

See also Lemon, Porn Without Plot, Cast Full of Gay, Het is Ew, Yaoi Fangirl and Most Fanfic Writers Are Girls. Not to be confused with fics about the guitarist from Guns 'n' Roses (they can overlap if you look, however). Also, Slash Fic has absolutely nothing to do with Slasher Movies; if you are looking for that kind of Fanfic then you should probably check out Dark Fic.

Examples

    open/close all folders 

    Anime & Manga 

    Comic Books 
  • The Batman/Gotham City universe is a virtual hotbed of slashy relationships. Batman and Joker finally consummate their true feelings for one another. Dick Grayson/Bruce Wayne or Dick Grayson/random male villain. Jason Todd/Bruce Wayne before he died and resurrection. Dick Grayson/ any of his three "brothers". Colin Wilkes/Damian Wayne. Joker often has his way with Harvey Dent. Dr Crane and Bruce Wayne make a startlingly hot pairing, but Crane is also often paired with blink-and-you'll-miss-him Dark Knight character Thomas Schiff. And Bruce Wayne/Commissioner Gordon already has its own lj community.
  • Captain America/Iron Man. Which has a community on lj and an archive called Tales of Suspense.
  • In-universe example: the main character of Empowered is a slash writer and reader, and there's a thriving Yaoi doujinshi scene slashing her male teammates.
  • Hawkeye/Phil Coulson (based mostly on the movieverse) is not quite as popular, but they do have their own Tumblr.
  • Loki. They're canonically the one, who committed the "most terrible slash upon the internet", in the Marvel universe! They were always a troll, and lately also got an internet connection.

    Films — Animation 

    Films — Live-Action 
  • No Prince Charming is a rewrite of Enchanted with Nancy in Robert's role.
  • Girl vs. Monster has three oneshots written by Halia Stone that ship Skylar and Sadie.
    • Girl VS Abuse which is a Hurt/Comfort Fic that has Skylar flee to Sadie's house to escape her abusive relationship with Ryan.
    • Another one by the name of Skylar's Real Fear taking place a year after the events of the movie, where Skylar experiences feelings for Sadie despite dating Ryan.
    • A 3rd one that takes place before the events of the movie, Experimentations involves Skylar being curious with Sadie which includes tickling her.
  • Maleficent: The Queen of Sunshine and Bright Things is a three-chapter Aurora/Malora slash fic with a political element to it. In the years succeeding the film's story, Maleficent finds her feelings towards her "beastie" Aurora developing into a more romantic nature. Unwilling to confront her feelings in fear that they're unrequited, Maleficent leaves the moors.
  • Not a prince is a The School for Good and Evil (2022) fanfic that ends with the two female Deans, Professor Dovey and Lady Lesso, starting a relationship with each other.

    Literature 
  • In the Discworld fanfic Expanded Universe: The Expanded Discworld of A.A. Pessimal takes borderline or undeveloped one-line characters and fleshes them out as fully rounded story leads. Actual slash is vanishingly rare in the Pessimal world - Word of God is that the author has tried, but can't write sex without bursting into laughter at how ridiculous it is. However, Assassin, Miss Alice Band, is written as uncompromisingly gay in her tastes. An under-developed sub-theme in The Graduation Class is Alice's frustrated yearning for her attractive but (then) woefully naive room-mate Johanna Smith-Rhodes. This is left unresolved, but with a strong hint that something happened, fuelled by champagne and elation, on the night of their Graduation Ball as Licenced Assassins. Pessimal is waiting to see what fans make of this and whether any Continuation Fic appears. Elsewhere, Straight Gay André Loudweather of the Cable Street Particulars has an unresolved yearning for his new subordinate Victor Tugelbend
  • As the title indicates, the main character in Rainbow Rowell's YA novel Fangirl is a popular slash fic author known in-universe for her Harry Potter expy fan fic. The characters in her stories, Simon and Baz, go on to get their own spin-off novel Carry On.
  • Havemercy:
    • The series lends itself particularly well to slash fiction, considering that the number of female characters with names and personalities can be counted on one hand. Royston/Hal is canon, of course, and Rook/Thom may be the most popular, but there are plenty of others. A good picture of what I mean can be found on the LJ fan comm.
    • It doesn't help that the series had a built-in slash base... One of the authors is Lady Jaida, well known for the Harry Potter Sirius/Remus epic The Shoebox Project.
  • The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Even though it has a smaller following then most pairings, Arthur/Ford is surprisingly popular within the fandom (and some of it's not that bad).
  • Land of Oz:
  • The Wicked Years:
    • Trusting In Faith is a Glinda/Nessarose oneshot where the two become intimate after Elphaba left Shiz.
    • Verdigris mixes Elphaba/Glinda with a Zombie Fic. Elphaba Thropp was born on third day of the third month during the third year of the Verdigris Plague. Years later, her paths cross with Glinda Upland.

    Live-Action TV 
  • Jon/Stephen on The Daily Show. The amount of deliberate Homoerotic Subtext in the source material has not lessened the number of fics on this pairing, but it has encouraged fics on just about every other pairing possible.
    • British comedian and substitute host John Oliver has a stand-up routine about discovering TDS slash when he was sent a link to some by a friend:
    "These were beautifully written stories, I don't want to give you the wrong impression! It was not just base pornography! There was a lot of time and lyrical language spent in describing the romanticism of each situation. A story might begin: 'Softed fall, the snow outside a ski lodge in Vermont, mounting up inch upon snowy inch on the wooden window sill. Lit from within by the glow of the roaring fire. Around the fire did sit Jon Stewart and Stephen Colbert, flushed from a long day skiing, toasting the marshmallows on the dancing flames, that surely they would enjoy as s'mores later that night. In walked the butler...' (sarcastically) Oh, who could that be, I wonder? That is basically racist! That's just ignorance, is what that is. That's just ignorance! (mockingly) "Can I 'elp you two gentleman with anything?" said the butler, exactly how they all speak. "Anything I can do for you? Pish-posh, hufflepuffle, flip-flop!" "No thank you, Mr. Butler," said Stephen Colbert. "But you can help us with this!" (makes unzipping fly motion) Zip! Thud! And I'm going to stop there. 'Cause you don't need to carry around in your head what I carry around every day in mine! The point is, who'd have thought that technology had evolved to the point where I would find myself alone in my office at work, shouting out loud at my own computer screen screaming 'WHEN DO I AT LEAST HAVE A GO?!!' Wait, what?"
  • Jeeves and Wooster has the obvious but indomitable Bertie/Jeeves, an extremely rare breed of pairing because of the actors who play them. Let's just say that Stephen Fry and Hugh Laurie are very okay with shipping themselves...
  • Laverne & Shirley: The Bed ships the title characters when they have to stay in a hotel where There Is Only One Bed.
  • One of the executive producers of Leverage, when asked if it bothered him that more people wrote Eliot/Parker than Hardison/Parker (one of the show's canon pairings), started his response by saying something along the lines of: "Let's be honest, more people are writing Nate/Eliot."
  • Sam/Gene on Series/Life on Mars. The amount of slash fiction on this pairing is unbelievable, with there being more than 1,000 slash fics with this pairing on the "lifein1973" LiveJournal page alone, no doubt stemming from the close physical contact Sam and Gene constantly display on the show. Chris/Ray is also a popular pairing.
  • Heroes is full of slash. Here's a game to try at home. Print out the names of all of the male characters, no matter how obscure, from Heroes, put them all on the wall and throw two darts at them. Using this method, try to find a pair somebody doesn't ship.
  • The "classic" – some might say definitive – Slash pairing is Kirk/Spock (from Star Trek: The Original Series). It has been suggested that the term "slash" came from the slash (the "/") between Kirk and Spock. According to The Other Wiki, there was a time in the 70's when the terms "slash" and "K/S" were used interchangeably.
    • Star Trek was the first fandom to share stories detailing an explicitly romantic relationship between two same-sex characters.note  Kirk/Spock slash stories were the first to be circulated among fans in actual fanzines, starting in 1982. They were taking a huge risk by doing so, since homosexuality in fiction was considered pornographic in most states even if nothing explicit happened, and using the U.S. Mail to distribute pornography is still a federal crime. (As The Ship's Closet points out, the fact that slash emerged during such a homophobic era is quite telling and points to a tremendous amount of perceived Subtext). Of course, when you consider that Gene Roddenberry himself later invented the Vulcan word t'hy'la, meaning "friend/brother/lover", it might be intentional — until you discover that the Great Bird may have had his wing twisted on that subject by two fans who were a) highly influential in fandom at the time and b) deeply invested in promoting K/S slash to Ascended Fanon. Or had he? There are many points of view on what happened and some background information might be helpful.
    • Along with Star Trek Fan Fic overall, Slash Fic completely changed not only Star Trek fandom, but media fandom as a whole. Slash changed the way viewers (especially young female viewers) consume media. Numerous girls and women found it personally empowering in many ways including making them feel free to explore their own orientations. Today's fan writers who take it for granted that the two male leads of any series should (or must) be portrayed as having romance may be unaware that slash was once extremely controversial.note 
    • Another highly popular Slash pairing is Garak/Bashir, from Star Trek: Deep Space Nine. This could be because the the actors and writers played up the Ho Yay possibilities, and at least one of the actors is on record as having asked that the relationship be shown in canon, in 1995.
      • It is worth pointing out two things. One: when Bashir meets Garak for the first time, right before Garak walks away he puts his hands on Bashir's shoulders from behind. Two: Cardassians were later established to have erogenous zones in their shoulders. Interpret as you will.
      • One fic, entitled Usually Filed Under Cultural Practices, ships Dax and Kira. Dax is sort of bisexual and Kira's orientation is unknown but in canon she's only been "interested" in men.
    • Star Trek: Voyager was fertile ground for this given Captain Janeway's touch-feely body language. - It was said that Janeway only had to give her famous Gooey Look in the vague direction of a bulkhead and there'd be a dozen Janeway/Bulkhead fanfics the next day. Coupled with the failure of the Powers That Be to join her up with anybody (despite them all being trapped alone in the Delta Quadrant for six years) when they finally did hook up the captain ... it wasn't with a crewmember, but with a hologram. ... Very unsatisfying. Then a (character who some might consider a) blatant Ms. Fanservice joins the crew in the shapely shape of Seven of Nine, whose ongoing mother/daughter relationship was open to interpretation by lesbian fans...
  • As seen in the quote at the top of the page, Supernatural has so much slash, apparently, that it has even managed to creep into the universe in which the story takes place (thanks to a Prophet who wrote books about Sam and Dean without knowing they actually existed). The opener for season five even involved a slash fangirl as a minor character in the form of Becky, webmistress of morethanbrothers.com. Misha Collins once said in a Q&A that apparently, there's also Dean/Castiel/pie... But Misha sometimes says the darndest things.
  • Euphoria: Kat's written plenty of those. In fact, she was supposedly the one who "started" the Larry Stylinson ship.
  • Raven's Home:
    • And everything's gonna change, now. starts with Raven and Chelsea deciding to marry one another for the their children's sake: in case one of them dies, the other will become the guardian of all the kids. It soon becomes apparent that this isn't just a marriage in-name-only.
    • The Search for the Sublime starts prior to Raven's Home, with Chelsea and Levi turning up at Raven's in the middle of the night. The rest of the story tells Chelsea and Raven's relationship as it becomes increasingly less platonic.
  • Merlin generated a ton of Merlin×Arthur slash.
  • Highlander: Duncan and Methos get a lot of this, even though Duncan has always liked women in canon.
  • Due South had fans shipping Fraser with both of the Rays who were his partners.
  • The Man from U.N.C.L.E., alongside the above-mentioned Star Trek, spawned some of the earliest slash fic communities. Naturally, the shipping largely occurred between its two leads, Napoleon Solo and Illya Kuryakin, helped along by the large amounts of Ho Yay between them.
  • Once Upon a Time: On Archive of Our Own and Fanfiction Dot Net, the most popular slash pairing is Emma/Regina, with over 14,0000 fics on AO3 (making it the second biggest femslash ship on the site), easily topping their canon ones and every other pairing from the show. One fairly popular fanfic is Send Up a Signal (that everything's fine), which explores the idea by having Emma and Regina as actors who discover that fans ship/write fanfiction about their characters. Strangely, actual slash (as in ones featuring two male characters together) is far less common on both sites.
  • Wednesday fanfic Either Way What Bliss: Wednesday gets together with her female roommate Enid.

    Music 

    Podcasts 
  • One of Night Vale radio station interns sounds off about Cecil making her "copy edit his Jaws slash fic even though that wasn’t in the job description".
  • During the "Crystal Kingdom"-arc of The Adventure Zone, the Big Bad of the arc (the Grim Reaper, real name Kravitz) reveals his skeletal form while trying to get the Tres Horny Boys to come with him to the Astral Plane. Taako remarks that "if [Kravitz] wanted to lure [him] in there, [he] should've stayed handsome." This leads to the boys joking that all of the fan-artists will now have to change their Taako/Kravitz fanart to account for the skeleton form, culminating in Clint declaring that the ship name should be "Taakitz." Becomes Hilarious in Hindsight as Taako and Kravitz actually do start dating after the events of "The Eleventh Hour", and remain an Official Couple to this day, with "Taakitz" being the most commonly used shipping name by fans.

    Roleplay 
  • In-universe fans of Survival of the Fittest are apparently fond of these types of fanfic (heck, this kind of fanfic in general. then again... In fact, it was the reading of a particularly disturbing Uriel Hunter/Jacob Starr fic (accidentally broadcast on the PA system to the students on the island) that got three of Danya's terrorists thrown into the game themselves.

    Theatre 
  • The Wicked fic Promises Kept starts off as Elphaba/Fiyero but quickly turns into Elphaba/Glinda. Elphaba returns to Glinda after finding out Fiyero fathered a a child with Glinda, but abandoned her to be with Elphaba.

    Toys 
  • Ever After High:
    • In By the Book, Apple White has taken it upon herself to properly court her One True Love Apple Darling. Much to Apple's dismay, she begins studying The Art of Wooing, by Darling's great-uncle Passion Charming.
    • Girlfrenemies involves Apple and Raven faking being a couple. It soons turns into Apple realizing she wants to really be a couple with Raven.
    • You Built This House is a Coming-Out Story for Apple that ends in Apple/Darling.

    Video Games 

    Web Animation 
  • Homestar Runner Strong Bad Email #188, fan club, has both Strong Sad writing Strong Bad Fan Fic and Strong Bad writing Strong Sad Fan Fiction (because he has plenty of time to say both syllables). Both of them include a hastily interrupted scene where they get slashed with Homestar Runner, Strong Sad having Strong Bad put on a bonnet and give Homestar a deep tissue massage, Strong Bad just having Homestar walk in "naked as a jaybird" and suggestively ask Strong Sad for Twizzlers. Naturally, you can't type in "Homestar Runner fanfic" on Google without some slash showing up. Just don't try it on deviantART, unless you enjoy your eyes melting out of your skull.
  • RWBY:

    Webcomics 

    Web Original 
  • In Whateley Universe, it's occasionally brought up as an Old Shame for several of the Lit Chix, including Loophole:
    "This isn't another of those terrible romance novels you experimented with last year, is it?" the computer's somewhat motherly voice complained. "I have to tell you that one scene was anatomically impossible..."

    Web Videos 

    Western Animation 
  • In Adventure Time Princess Bubblegum and Marceline are one of the most popular pairings in the fandom (so much so that the writers followed suit), and it doesn't stop there it extends to their gender flip counter parts Prince Gumball and Marshall Lee.
  • The Amazing World of Gumball has an In-Universe example. When Sarah gets her hands on a magic book that makes everything that’s written in it become a reality, human, anime versions of Gumball and Darwin (with Gumball being portrayed as a woman) are shown to be getting married. They both react accordingly.
    Darwin: *cries hysterically upon seeing their anime selves getting hitched*
    Gumball: I agree. I always thought I was the one wearing the pants in this relationship.
  • An In-Universe example gets found in the Arthur fanfic Fandemonium. While browsing a Bionic Bunny fanfiction site, Arthur and Buster come across some slash fics; however, as neither of them are familiar with the concept, they end up guessing that they're fanfics where Bionic Bunny is literally slashed at with knives before moving on (dismissing the idea as dumb due to the hero's invulnerability).
  • Just look around Daria fandom, and you'll find some... interesting slashfic ('Ragged Denim') and saffic ('Night of the Storm', The Winters Of Those Gone Before'). Take brain bleach along for the ride. You have been warned.
  • Ed, Edd n Eddy:
    • The fandom is made out of yaoi. The most popular pairings being Eddy/Edd, Rolf/Kevin, Ed/Edd, Kevin/Edd and Kevin/Eddy. It goes further than the fans. A.k.a Cartoon has a history of hiring animators and storyboarders from fandom. At least a few of their storyboarders were slash fans (you can still see some of the shippy fanart on their DeviantArt pages) who intentionally slipped homoerotic overtones and in-between frames into the animation.
    • Three of the most EEnE popular fan-artists in the 2000s (Yami-Shin, chidoriashi, and sweeteggyroll) drew Edd/Eddy fanart and comics. Alas, Yami-Shin has removed pretty much everything from their Deviantart, but much still exists in circulation elsewhere, however.
    • The fandom was revived circa 2011 when an artist on Tumblr began drawing Edd/Kevin fanart, including AU!Reverse. This boosted the ship incredibly, to the point where it's most likely now more popular than Edd/Eddy.
  • Kim Possible:
    • Practically any two characters in Kim Possible, even key villain Shego with Ron's naked mole rat Rufus, but most of all Kim/Shego, which has generated enough writing to develop its own cliches, parodied in this fic. Kim Possible also has more Femslash (most notably Kim/Shego or 'Kigo') than Straight fics on fanfiction.net (There are over a hundred more Kim/Shego fics than there are Kim/Ron fics at present time.)
    • A Small Possibility is a fic where Kim becomes pregnant with Shego's daughters due to a scheme unknowingly done by Drakken. It has a lot of Recursive-Works and caused a lot of similar fics (such as Maternal Instinct).
    • In The Touch of Green Fire Shego falls ill with a potentially terminal illness. While trying to save her, Kim comes to terms with her feelings for Shego.
    • Alone, Together is a romance fic where Kim and Shego get stuck in a universe where they're the only people around.
    • Best Enemies is a really long Kim/Shego story that blends slice-of-life chapters together with action chapters.
  • The Legend of Korra: Unstable Equilibrium is an Asami/Korra fanfic that takes place in an alternate universe where Asami is an Equalist. The fic began before the two had their Relationship Upgrade in canon.
  • My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic:
    • The Evening Sonata has Sunset Shimmer and Sonata Dusk paired together.
    • The Royal Sketchbook Ask Blog ended up shipping Twilight and Luna together. They even got married. It also pairs together Celestia and Rarity.
    • Kindness's Reward ships Fluttershy with Trixie. Fluttershy takes care of an injured Trixie.
  • South Park: One episode had Tweek and Craig realizing that girls were drawing slash art of them together. This ends in them Mistaken for Gay. Or not, as they begin dating afterwards.
  • In the Young Justice yj anon meme (found here) contains a lot of Kid Flash/Robin and Kid Flash/Red Arrow fics. Dueling for popularity is Robin/Superboy and Superboy/Aqualad. Artemis and M'gann get shipped, too, though more often with Kid Flash and Superboy than with one another. Conversation threads have revealed that a disproportionate number of active Anons are gay, which may or may not be significant contributing factor. There's also Impulse and Blue Beetle in season two, since nearly all their screen time was of them together.
  • Jem:
    • The fic A Song of Grumbling & Cotton Candy starts with Jem being at a charity auction where the biggest bidder wins a date with her. A drunk Pizzazz bids and wins the date. To Jem's surprise, Pizzazz plans on actually taking her on a date (despite claiming not to be lesbian).
    • Bad Influence is an unfinished fic based around the episode "The Bands Break Up". The fic is a more grown-up Perspective Flip on events the episode. It centers around the conflict between Stormer's romantic feelings towards Kimber and her loyalty to her old band, the Misfits.
    • Touch (2005) takes place roughly four years after the show began, but prior to "Britrock". It is about Stormer contemplating her romantic relationship with Roxy and what Roxy means to her.
  • DC Animated Universe:
    • The Next Best Thing to Normal is a Kid Fic where a reformed Harley and a not-so-reformed Ivy raise Harley's son together. It has implications of Harley/Ivy.
    • Psalm of the Lark starts off as a fic where Harley Quinn decides that she has to repay Batgirl, and society as a whole, so she replaces Tim as a Batfamily member. Eventually, this leads to Batgirl and Harley falling for one another.
  • Teen Titans: To Catch A Raven starts when Jinx asks Raven out during a burglary.

Alternative Title(s): Femme Slash, Slash Fics

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