Basic Trope: The creators of a series deliberately torpedo a certain couple and make it clear the pairing won't happen in Canon.
- Straight:
- Alice, Bob and Charlie are part of a Power Trio. One day, an episode rolls around where Belligerent Sexual Tension finally leads Charlie into kissing Alice, only for Alice to stop him, telling Charlie that to her, they are Like Brother and Sister and they will never become a couple.
- Alice and Bob are heading towards being a couple until one day someone from Bob or Alice's past arrives who may have been "lost, assumed dead" or with a surprise offspring in tow. Alice/Bob, out of honour or reactivated love for that person, immediately moves the person they were shipping into the friend zone.
- Exaggerated:
- Instead of just a Like Brother and Sister, they find out they are actually brother and sister.
- Alice is Bob. And so is Charlie. Cue subtitles saying "Problem, Shippers?"
- Charlie pulls a Face–Heel Turn and turns into a villain openly antagonizing Alice and Bob and quickly crossing the Moral Event Horizon, part of what caused the turn being some bad moments in Alice and Charlie's past together.
- Downplayed: A ship is allowed to just peter out naturally, as in the episodes make no further reference to it, there is no evident romantic attraction between the two characters, they just go about their business. Sometime later (perhaps much later in the case of long-runners) there might be a throwaway line of dialogue related to a significant other, suggesting the characters have moved on. But otherwise no big deal is made of it.
- Justified:
- They had always intended for Alice and Bob to get together, but over the course of the episodes they realized they'd created a Relationship Writing Fumble for Alice/Charlie and needed to correct it.
- The writers are Trolling Creators.
- As sometimes happens in real life, Incompatible Orientation is blocking the ship.
- Inverted: Official Couple
- Subverted:
- Yep. They really are brother and sister. Here, have some canon Brother–Sister Incest.
- Alice appears to reject Charlie but was actually just messing with his head.
- Charlie breaks up with Alice and makes it clear they will never be together, but they eventually reconcile and get back together.
- The author makes it clear that the Fan-Preferred Couple will not happen... but also announces an official Alternate Universe where the ship is canon, and encourages fans to still release artwork/fanfics because they're canon in the other universe.
- Alice declares "Charles and I as a couple?" and she and Charles laugh there heads off. Turns out the two of them and trying to hard to convince themselves that they do not have feelings.
- Double Subverted:
- Turns out they aren't brother and sister at all, but discover Alice's mother killed Charlie's father, and neither can stand to be around the other any longer.
- After creating an official shipping-based Alternate Timeline for the fans, the author realizes that the ship actually is good enough to use, and either alters or outright abandons the original timeline.
- Parodied:
- Alice and Charlie have a massive dispute that creates irreconcilable differences between them, while on a literal sinking ship. That Bob owned. And Alice is responsible for it sinking. Which Bob won't forgive her for.
- They spend an entire episode sinking every ship on the show, even completely non-plausible ones.
- The SS [Insert Portmanteau Name] sinks, with various passengers with photographed heads fleeing to the liveboats.
- Zig Zagged: The ship keeps getting sunk and refloated every so often, completely infuriating both the Alice/Charlie shippers and the Alice/Bob shippers. Or it's part of the Star Wars extended universe, and you've got writers fighting over the ship using actual canon.
- Averted:
- They become an Official Couple.
- The relationship takes a natural backseat to the Alice/Bob and Charlie/Donna relationships.
- They simply don't ever end up in a situation where one or the other has to stop a potential relationship, or has to tell the other they don't want the other for a relationship.
- Enforced:
- The actor who plays Charlie is leaving the show. They decide to sink the Alice/Charlie ship so they can move on to the Alice/Bob relationship in the future, with no baggage.
- The actors playing Charlie or Alice (or both) refuse the new scripts, and the executives accept to keep the couple of the original scripts, fandom be damned.
- Lampshaded: Ship Tease
- Implied: Alice and Charlie spend Ten Minutes in the Closet. Alice comes out sobbing like mad.
- Invoked: Charlie forces Alice to confess or explain her feelings, and those feelings are platonic.
- Exploited: The writers know that a certain ship is popular with fans, so they intentionally sink it in order to generate viewer interest and drama. Or, they appear to sink the ship only for it to be rescued at a later date (often in the episode where one of the ship pairing is Killed Off for Real or Put on a Bus, usually after some form of Love Confession).
- Defied: Charlie refuses to give up on Alice.
- Discussed: "Look, Alice, I think Charlie might have some feelings for you. You should think about telling him you're not interested."
- Conversed: "There goes Charlie and Alice. Poor guy. Sucks to be in love with someone not interested."
- Deconstructed: Alice ends up alone and miserable, wishing she'd taken the chance to be with Charlie.
- Played For Laughs: Bob acts as a Shipper on Deck for Alice/Charlie, and all her attempts to get the pair together end up highlighting all the reasons why the relationship doesn't work, and why Alice/Bob would.
- Played For Drama: Charlie has had a crush on Alice for a while now, whilst Alice has been content not to hurt their friendship. Charlie overhears a conversation that leads him to believe that Alice might like him finally, he makes a move for her... and is brutally shot down, as well as finding out that Alice loves Bob instead. This leads to severe jealously and anger for Charlie towards Bob. It also threatens the foundation of the Alice/Charlie friendship, perhaps to a point where Charlie thinks about leaving.
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