FanPreferredCouple Cleanup

I would say keep Riley/Maya and Maya/Lucas as the fan-prefered ships for Riley and Lucas respectively.

I don't know about the others. Do Farkle and Zay have canon love interests?

Farkle has fellow weird genius Isadora Smackle. Zay has an ex, but not sure he has a canon one beyond that though. He's paired with Sarah Carpenter (Sabrina Carpenter's real life sister Sarah—who keeps her real name on the show haha) in a science experiment in one episode, but not sure if they share any other interactions beyond that though.

I would agree that you probably can't call it that either.

Edited by futuremoviewriter on Aug 11th 2022 at 10:25:00 AM

I have a hard time calling Zay/Sarah as creator preferred pairing.

If his being paired with Farkle more than he is with Smackle is more frequent though, than that could probably still count just based on that then.

I'm a bit confused about you just said their. If who is being paired more wit Farkle. Riley would count for Farkle. That's his most popular pairing but it would only count for Farkle. That would still require three rewrites.

Edited by Bullman on Aug 11th 2022 at 1:40:45 PM

In my opinion Han/Lando counts as long as the entry makes it clear it's the case within the scope of that particular movie, not within the Star Wars franchise as a whole.

Makes sense.

So three GMW entries then? Riley's is Maya, Maya and Lucas are clearly each other's and Farkle's is Riley? There any BMW (haha) entries too?

Edited by futuremoviewriter on Aug 11th 2022 at 6:02:51 AM

I don't remember Boy Meets World, but going off of sites Shawn/Cory seems to be the most popular, do they have canon competition. I would say that Riley and Lucas share the role of the Maya's most popular as they are that close with no clear winner.

Edited by Bullman on Aug 11th 2022 at 8:11:19 AM

Well either way it still calls for three then. I feel dumb about saying Zay is Farkle's most popular now. Angela's for the original show would probably be Shawn's (she's married to someone else in the sequel series and the fanbase was vehemently against putting Shawn with Katy instead of Angela from what I could tell).

Edited by futuremoviewriter on Aug 11th 2022 at 9:37:58 AM

From Ginger Snaps:

• Fan-Preferred Couple: The most popular fan pairing is easily Brigitte and Ginger, despite the fact that they're sisters, and that Brigitte is given Ship Tease with Sam.

How much Ship Tease does Brigitte and Sam have? I mean it's been years since I have seen the movie but maybe her and Ginger could could if Brigitte and Sam are hinted at enough.

Brigitte x Sam is one of the more popular ships in the Ginger Snaps fandom, right behind the incest shipping of Ginger and Brigitte. I read that in an earlier script, they where expressly romantically attracted to eachother but it was cut out of the final draft.

Emily Perkin and Kris Lemche do have on screen chemistry together, but as far as Ship Teasing goes, there's a minor Running Gag where people (Ginger herself, Trina, Jason and his friends) think that there's something going on between the two; at one point, Sam denies thinking of Brigitte "that way", to which Brigitte rolls her eyes.

In fact the only scene where they seriously talk about their relationship is a deleted scene, and another when Ginger tries to seduce Sam, he pushes her away saying it'll hurt Brigitte

Then I guess it sounds like an example in that case.

From the Web Animation folder on the main page there's this example from RWBY

• Neptune/Sun. During Volumes 2-3, Neptune and Weiss are attracted to each other; Jaune gets them together at the ball, but it doesn't last due to Neptune's womanising. This has never been a popular pairing with the fandom; instead, fanfiction and fan art favour Neptune with his team leader and friend, Sun; this creates a Sensitive Guy and Manly Man dynamic due to Sun's machismo and Neptune's intellectualism, while also solving the canon Ship Tease Blake has with both Sun and Yang for Blake/Yang shippers.

Does this really qualify under the revised requirements?

While Sun/Neptune is certainly preferred by fans over both Weiss/Neptune and Sun/Blake (Sun/Neptune has 423 works on AO3 over Weiss/Neptune which has 166 and Sun/Blake, which has 404), as far as I'm aware, the latter two pairings don't really have canon support anymore.

Weiss/Neptune is basically dead at this point and probably was never intended to be a long term romance to begin with (seeing as the ship was killed off rather quickly in Vol 3 and the two hadn't interacted since) and while Sun/Blake and Sun/Yang did have some Ship Tease, both were dropped like a rock by Rooster Teeth in favor of Blake/Yang, which is clearly endgame at this point.

Basically, given that Sun/Blake, Sun/Yang and Weiss/Neptune are effectively irrelevant and dead in canon, Sun/Neptune doesn't qualify as a fan preferred couple since there is no longer a creator preferred couple for them to be compared to.

Edited by Tylerbear12 on Aug 15th 2022 at 8:35:36 AM

That is a good point. I would probably say cut but would like some more opinions. Who did the write up?

Yeah, with the current restrictions, those sound too loose to be creator preferred pairings. Also, while it’s a little hard to tell since we’re just looking at one website, but based on those stats, Sun/Neptune and Sun/Blake are pretty close in numbers, anyways.

The weirdest thing I, as an outsider, find about this show in relation to this trope is that the most popular Blake/Yang. Not the first time but with such as strong shipping war heavy fanbase, at least from what I can tell, I find it weird that neither has a love interests as normally that is what makes a shipping fanbase like that form.

But that's neither here nor there.

I say cut the example.

Edited by Bullman on Aug 15th 2022 at 9:12:57 AM

I was wondering. Do you guys think Steven/Tony could count? It's easily bigger than Steven/Christine. But I am unsure if that would count as creator preferred with Doctor Strange 2 taken into account.

While every universe says that his relationship with Christine no matter what is doomed, she's still treated as Strange's love interest regardless of that. It's tricky to say the least.

You mean Stephen right? Though Steven Grant/Tony Stark would be a very interesting Crack Ship.

Anyway, I'd say the fact that Christine was ever even on the radar of official love interests to Stephen automatically makes her more preferred than Tony by default, even if it didn't last. It's a couple that while not meant to last, did at least happen, versus a couple that was never even considered to be on the writer's radar and would've likely been considered by the writers to be a Crack Ship given their attitudes towards queer romance.

Edited by AlleyOop on Aug 17th 2022 at 4:47:31 AM

Yes I meant Stephen.

In that case how is this for the write up:

• Stephen Strange's main Love Interest in the MCU is Christine Palmer. However, while that pairing does have its fans, most prefer to pair Stephen with Tony Stark. This is for multiple reasons. 1) Most fans feel that with what happens in Avengers: Infinity War, Stephen has far better chemistry with Tony than he does with Christine. 2) Their similar sense of humor. 3) The meta reason is that their actors, Robert Downey Jr. and Benedict Cumberbatch, have both played different versions of Sherlock Holmes. Almost any fanfiction about Stephen pairs him with Tony.

Edited by Bullman on Aug 17th 2022 at 11:38:31 AM

Looks good. I thought of asking about additional ships for a show or movie, but I can't remember what right now. I'll get back to you guys.

So recently Final Fantasy XV was edited to adjust the FPC entries, removing Nyx/Luna and Noctis/Iris as FPC because they have less entries on AO 3 than the canon pairing of Noctis/Luna. While the numbers don't lie for that particular website, as someone in that game's fandom, I think this is one of those examples where the raw numbers aren't really reflective of overall fandom shipping opinions, as outside of a dedicated Vocal Minority, Noctis/Lunafreya is one of the most widely disliked canon romances in the FF franchise.

During my time on social media like Reddit, Twitter, and Tumblr I saw plenty of people criticizing Noctis/Luna and praising Nyx/Lunafreya or Noctis/Iris as better and wishing they got together instead, and a lot of the praise for the Terra Battle collab was the result of people thinking Noctis and Sarah had a better romantic dynamic than the canon did. The game's writers implicitly understand they did a poor job with the canon romance given they dedicated a lot of post-game patches to fleshing out their relationship, though my experience with both casual and more committed fandom indicates it didn't really work.

The main reason Noctis/Lunafreya has more content on AO 3, going off my interactions with the fandom including some of the ship's writers and actual fans, is less because they like it per se and more a combination of Lunafreya being a Flat Character who is convenient for Possession Sue fic, because the pairing was so poorly handled that people felt bad and consider it rich fodder for Better Than Canon Fix Fic, as Ship Mates to free up Noctis's companions for one other, or as a past/side relationship when the main focus is about pairing Noctis with other characters. Likewise, the main reason Nyx/Luna and Noctis/Iris seem less popular than Noctis/Lunafreya, mostly has to do with its fans and Kingsglaive viewers in general being less likely to be the fic-writing type (and also because age discourse was really taking off around then, forcing a lot of Noctis/Iris fans to hide underground).

As noted in the edit reason, the person even agrees with me on the logic behind the old entries; do you think this is sufficient explanation for why the ships can go back on, then? I believe in the past we ruled that AO 3 numbers and such can be a useful tool but they aren't to be relied on as an absolute measure.

Edited by AlleyOop on Aug 17th 2022 at 3:36:04 PM

My thing is criticizing on sites is not enough in my opinion. We don't look at this is as fans said but actual numbers to support . Like I don't think just fans don't like the canon one means that the others are more popular. This is the exact problem I have with the Arrow stuff. I need more evidence than I saw a lot critizing the canon one. Like Tumblr, Twitter, and Reddit have actual ways of tracking those numbers. I know because I have used them before. How do those track for Nyx/Luna and Noctis/Iris. More importantly how does the canon one look on those sites in terms of numbers. I am not doubting you but I need more than you see people critizing the canon. Like people criticize Edward/Bella but that is still the biggest Twilight ship by a good margin.

Edited by Bullman on Aug 17th 2022 at 2:52:40 PM

If fan headcanons, drabbles, and conversations about ships that just never graduated into fully-published fic count, I saw a lot of that for Nyx/Lunafreya in the fan communities I was in, although not so much for Noctis/Iris, which was more people praising their interactions and gushing about how adorable the ship was and how the game was cowardly not to have grown-up Iris interact with the heroes in the timeskip.

I do think it's worth acknowledging the point about a large chunk of the Noctis/Lunafreya fic in the tag coming from people who self-admittedly don't like the ship in the first place, but aren't gauche enough to make Hate Fic of it.

Edited by AlleyOop on Aug 17th 2022 at 3:54:46 PM

You are absolutely right that simply using AO 3 numbers is not enough though. If it was I would make a entry for Meridith/Addison from Grey's Anatomy.

In that case I am far more okay with Nyx/Lunafreya than Noctis/Iris as there is actual numbers or something of the like from looking at the sites you mentioned but I am not okay listing something on people just praised the interactions with very little in terms of actual numbers.

Again critizing one thing does not mean you prefer the other. I need some actual tangible stuff like head canons and so on then just praising interactions.

Again I am doubting you but I am just making sure we have everything covered. I'm fully prepared to be persuaded to adding both back.

Edited by Bullman on Aug 17th 2022 at 3:22:46 AM