FanPreferredCouple Cleanup

Last I checked, it wasn't more popular on Ao 3, but it seems it's passed it now, though only by a little bit. I feel like we might be jumping the gun with that alone, but if it's more popular on Tumblr and other websites, too, then I say go for it.

So I removed this from FanPreferredCouple.Live Action TV (Succession tree):

• While Roman's canon relationships with Tabitha and Gerri are well-liked, especially the latter, there's a growing chunk of fans that prefer to ship him with either Mencken or Lukas (who, complicating matters, is heavily implied to be attracted to Shiv and that pairing has its own fair share of shippers too). Roman/Mencken is due to their interactions dripping with homoerotic tension (to the point where many fans do believe they had sex in that bathroom in Season 3) and Roman/Lukas is due to them being rather similar in personality despite both characters despising each other. All of this is helped by the show repeatedly dropping hints that Roman isn't completely straight, as well as the Roman/Gerri pairing getting thoroughly sunk in the fourth season.

Roman/Gerri is easily more popular than either of these on every site.

Edited by Bullman on Jun 11th 2023 at 12:44:03 PM

These examples from X-Men: Evolution:

• Fan-Preferred Couple:
  • Rogue and Gambit ended up being the most popular couple, mostly due to their comic book counterparts, eventually leading to the creators devoting an episode to setting them up (and the final scene implying they were together). Doesn't mention a Creator preferred but aparently the creator wanted Scott and Rogue so it can count with a rewrite.
  • Cyclops and Rogue actually became a MAJOR contender from this series, to the point where most of the creators working on it had to be reminded to give Jean more sympathetic character development to make her eventual coupling with Scott more acceptable. Even so, series creator Frank Puar made no secret of the fact that had the show continued into future seasons, Scott and Rogue would eventually become a couple following Jean having a lethal encounter with the Phoenix. Sounds creator preferred.
  Puar: We played the relationship card with Scott and Rogue, she makes a play for him, and why not? If anyone has an idea of what she's going through, it would be Scott. He lives in fear of losing control of his powers and killing someone; so does she. He had a lousy childhood; so does she. He always feels isolated because of his powers and of his responsibility; so does she. And he's the one who reached out to her and brought her into an environment of warmth, family and friends. Why wouldn't she make a play for him? She reads Jean's actions toward Scott as mean. Jean is a player, the cheerleader who has everything, and can't make up her mind at what she wants. Scott is an item to her, just like Duncan, and who knows whom else. Rogue thinks Jean is a dumb ass and cannot recognize a good thing when she sees it, so yeah, she's going to make a play on the guy. (Oh, as a minor side note; on the final episode, during the peek into the future, check out who is not included in the group shot and check out whom Rogue lands next to.)
  • Nightcrawler/Shadowcat. It was mostly a side-effect of porting their relationship from the comics to the show. Kurt's canon crush on Kitty prior to dating Amanda and their consistently close friendship after probably helped, along with them being the biggest Ship Launchers in the fandom. Sounds fine.
  • Storm and Wolverine are an odd case as they did have a few genuine Ship Tease moments, fans just wanted way more of it. Doesn't mention a Creator prefer.

Thoughts?

• Based on what you said about it, I think it needs a rewrite or maybe more context.
• I think it might be misuse because it doesn't seem the fans prefer it.
• To me, it sounds like it counts.
• I guess at most the entry needs more context to mention what the creators prefer.

Bringing in this example from YMMV.South Park (folderized due to length). There's a mix between typical examples and just plain shipping. I added some comments, but a second opinion is always welcome.

Edited by nanakiro on Jun 28th 2023 at 3:44:04 AM

I agree with most of your assessments. For Kenny and butters I think I'm unsure but I would argue that Heldi/Kyle doesn't count simply because the show goes to far out of its way to point out how bad/unhealthy her and Cartman are for me to say that they are Creator preferred. Craig/Tweek seem more like One True Pairing or Super Couple.

From YMMV.A Knights Tale:

• Fan-Preferred Couple: A lot of people feel that Will should have pursued Kate rather than Jocelyn.

Okay I can't tell if this is accurate or not. So you see this fandom is pretty much dead so I can't find much on Tumblr or Twitter, old forms of sites were fans would write fanfics or deleted. On AO3 Will/Jocelyn (and so is Will/Edward) is more popular and FF.Net has no tags and I don't have time through all of the pages. Either way I have no idea what to do.

I'd just remove it unless someone can prove otherwise. Maybe ask the person who added it (if it's a recent addition) to come to this thread. It could be accurate but if there's no fandom presence left who knows?

As for as I can tell it has been there since 2013 or at least that is the earliest record of an edit to it I can find but I can't find who originally added it because it seems like it was added before 2011 and the edits only go to 2011 despite by most accounts the page existing before that.

Edited by Bullman on Jul 25th 2023 at 11:08:23 AM

Oh, that's old. Yeah, I guess maybe just remove it then.

From Overwatch - Story and Lore

• Despite Word of God confirmed that their relationship is firmly platonic, Ramattra/ Zenyatta instantly took off rivaling the popular Genji / Zenyatta. Reason for this is because the ample history between Zenyatta and Ramattra despite their opposing ideology and canon affliation opposing side. The voiceline where it revealed that they still fondly interacted with each other in the game definitely helped.

Who is the creator preferred if they have one?

There is none for either character.

So this was added to the description:

"It's also important to keep in mind that, while the number of fanfics for a given pairing is somewhat informative about the pairing's popularity, fanfic numbers tend to skew toward non-canon pairings, because people who are dissatisfied with canon pairings are more likely to be writing fics that feature their OTP, as opposed to those who like canon pairings, who may be satisfied with the events in canon and not feel the need to write fics."

I don't mind it but considering that this was not discussed anywhere I thought I would get more opinions. Also this does seem somewhat odd to add as this is true for any form of fandom

Edited by Bullman on Aug 9th 2023 at 12:58:09 PM

Given that one of the recurring arguments for cutting an example has been that there's more fics for the canon pairing, I'm not even convinced this is true.

(FWIW I'm personally most drawn to read/write shipping fics for works without canon pairings in the first place, which conceptually overlaps with this but isn't the same thing as our definition.)

Edited by nrjxll on Aug 9th 2023 at 1:01:50 PM

Don’t you need to make a TRS thread to add to the description? I don’t think we should be adding anything big without that. And idk, I’ve seen plenty of fandoms with lots of fics for the canon ship. It really depends.

No, that's what the Trope Description Improvement thread is for.

Indeed we do but to be clear I didn't add it.

Should I have taken it there instead.

To be clear there's plenty of fandoms were the canon gets the most fanfics. It really depends on the fandom and fans.

Edited by Bullman on Aug 9th 2023 at 1:17:48 PM

While I think it's true in many cases, and speaking personally I tend to agree with the point insofar as I often tend to read stories for noncanon pairings unless the main ship is both a) good enough to have my interest in reading fic and b) has a lot of empty gaps in the canon that I would like to see filled, at the same time it's also not universally true or something I would put in the main body of the page.

Ah, my bad then. Still, doesn’t seem like this was shown there, either.

As to that, I do think it can be true in certain instances but I’ve also seen it not be the case, too, even in ones where the main pairing was pretty thoroughly focused on and explored in the canon.

Okay I removrd with a link here.

Edited by Tylerbear12 on Aug 12th 2023 at 12:09:42 PM

Alice in Wonderland

• Fan-Preferred Couple: Alice and the Mad Hatter, though they give him more of the appearance of his Disney World cosplay.

Neither has an official love interrest

Easy cut

From Alice in Wonderland (2010)

• Fan-Preferred Couple: Alice/Hatter within the fandom and in the movieverse as well.

Okay this is indeed the most popular, but like there's no Creator preferred competition.

I think you can cut it.