FanPreferredCouple Cleanup

Today I thought it'd be cool to point out some people prefer Poison Ivy and Kite Man to Harley and Ivy in the Harley Quinn animated series, only for that piece's wings to be clipped and declared 'false'. I don't think it is, but it might just well be a minority viewpoint. What say you tropers?

Edited by Zarius on Jul 16th 2020 at 1:34:50 AM

Okay. Let me make my points. One) They were canon for a long time a season and most of the second. 2) In terms of number of fanfictions on both Fanfiction Dot Net and Archive of Our Own our own Harlivy overshadows it by quite a bit. It's not that you're false. It's just that it's not quite to the extent of this trope. As the canon couple is still more popular. Plus it was canon for the majority of the show as is.

Edited by Bullman on Jul 16th 2020 at 3:49:16 AM

Please remember that even YMMV tropes have criteria they must follow. If they don't fit the criteria, they get cut.

Exactly. Keep in mind on the main page it says:

No listing pairings that are less popular than rival pairings. Yes, this means it's not a Fan-Preferred Couple if the Official Couple is more fan-preferred than it.

It's kinda of like a couple pages back we discussed and some of the Star Wars examples because they weren't as popular as the canon couples. This is similar yes some fans prefer it, but it's still not as popular as Harley x Ivy.

Edited by Bullman on Jul 16th 2020 at 4:13:16 AM

Yeah, it sounds like the Kite Man thing is playing with it a little, not enough to really fit it appropriately though.

Also yeah, Peter and M.J. in those movies definitely get way more attention.

Edited by futuremoviewriter on Jul 16th 2020 at 2:13:04 AM

What ever way this discussion goes, I don't know if I can touch the entry without being part of an edit war.

Speaking of entries. From Animated Films:

• Frozen:
  • Fans love shipping Elsa and Anna, more so than any other pairing, including the canon Kristoff/Anna, due in no small part to the film's subtext.
  • Following the release of Frozen II, fans, particularly those disgusted with the incestous Elsanna pairing, began shipping Elsa with Honeymaren due to their brief but meaningful interactions with one another.

Okay I was never a huge fan of these folks. But the rules say that you can only have one entry per character. So I took a look at the Archive of Our Own and Fanfiction Dot Net sections for the films and Elsa x Anna clearly told the other one. However I would be open to a second opinion from a fan of them.

Edited by Bullman on Jul 16th 2020 at 4:37:29 AM

Not a fan of those pairings, either, but Elsanna is definitely the most popular pairing in the fandom, so I'd say keep the first entry and remove the second.

Edited by Oshawott337 on Jul 16th 2020 at 2:57:16 AM

I'd cut the Poisoin Ivy x Kite Man entry. The entry itself basically admits that it's not an example by saying that most fans were happy that Harley and Ivy got together.

Again. Can I do that with out it turning into another Edit War?

I think if you're carrying out the decision of the thread you should be fine.

Just link to the thread in the edit reason, and you should be okay.

Okay I cut and linked to the thread discussion.

Anymore opinions on the Frozen and Spider-Man trilogy entries.

Edited by Bullman on Jul 16th 2020 at 5:54:27 AM

I'm with you guys on the Spider-Man entry, it can go.

Could I get some imput on the rewrites/additions I wrote for the Yu-Gi-Oh! section? I didn't include the Yu-Gi-Oh! ZEXAL ones yet since I'm still kind of stuck on what to do with them, but I did the rest, and I made sure to use dub names as per policy:

• In Yu-Gi-Oh!, Joey/Mai was the intended pairing for the two. While it's no doubt popular, more fans prefer to ship Joey/Kaiba, despite their less than friendly relationship, and it's one of the most popular pairings in the fandom. It mostly comes from that one time with the dog suit. This really only applies to the anime, however, as Word of God for the manga said that Joey and Mai were meant to be Just Friends, and most of their major Ship Tease is in the anime, especially during the DOMA arc.
  • Also, despite the actual Yugi/Tea/Atem Love Triangle (where Yugi has a crush on Tea, who has a crush on Atem), Yugi and Atem are shipped together much more often due to the sheer amount of Ho Yay they get in both the anime and the manga. The two are probably the most well-known pairing in the entire franchise.
• Yu-Gi-Oh! GX has Jesse/Jaden as the top pairing in the fandom. It eclipses one of the few Official Couples in the franchise, Jaden/Yubel, due to Jesse and Jaden's incredibly close relationship and all the subtext they got, and people being turned off by Yubel's Yandere nature. Yubel being changed into more of a child-like psychopath in the English dub and Season 4 not being dubbed in the West (as they had their Heel–Face Turn then), probably didn't help their case.
• In Yu-Gi-Oh! 5D's, Yusei/Akiza, though it has plenty of fans, gets edged out by the popular protagonist/rival pairing, Yusei/Jack.
• Yu-Gi-Oh! ARC-V: While the most popular ship for every other Yu-boy is with their respective Bracelet Girl, Yuto stands out as the exception. Despite him and Lulu being the closest of the Yu-Boy/Bracelet Girl relationships to being an Official Couple, shipping him with Yuya is a bit more popular (though not as popular as shipping Yuya with his Implied Love Interest Zuzu). This is probably due to the fact that we don't see Lulu at all until much later than the other Bracelet Girls, and Yuto ends up having quite a bit of Ho Yay with Yuya while the two are stuck in the same body early on.
• With Yu-Gi-Oh! VRAINS, there's Yusaku/Theodore. Despite Theodore and his Childhood Friend Kiku getting teased a bit, especially in the last episode, fans are much more interested in shipping him with the protagonist, likely due to the fact Kiku only makes a few appearances throughout the show.

For that last one, should I make a note that while Yusaku/Theodore is Theodore's most popular pairing, it's not Yusaku's?

Edited by Oshawott337 on Jul 16th 2020 at 4:26:59 AM

I like them.

What's the more popular Yusaku ship?

Edited by Bullman on Jul 16th 2020 at 6:21:37 AM

Thanks! And Yusaku/Ryoken and Yusaku/Ai are both more popular, but since it was two pairings rather than one, I wasn't sure if I should make note of it like I did in the ARC V section.

I say it would be worth noting, but I will leave that up to you. Again nice rewrites/entries.

Edited by Bullman on Jul 16th 2020 at 6:33:12 AM

Quite an interesting dilemma with the Frozen ones. Yeah, right or wrong, whichever is more popular.

Okay I'll delete the second one later. Because Elsanna is easily the most popular.

Edited by Bullman on Jul 16th 2020 at 7:09:40 AM

I think the Frozen example technically refers to two different movies. Look at the popularity of Elsamaren content against Elsanna content that was made after the release of Frozen 2. Of course Elsanna would be more popular because Honeymaren, and by extent Elsamaren, didn't exist for six years, giving Elsanna an advantage. Though I'm still unsure about Elsamaren counting because neither have a canon love interest, so there's no canon ship to overshadow that involves either girl (though they might still overshadow Anna/Kristoff?).

Edited by mightymewtron on Jul 16th 2020 at 8:11:51 AM

That would also be a problem. Elsanna at least had some canon competition in the form of Kristoff. The other doesn't have a Creator Preferred one to compete with. I would be fine with keeping both if either of them had a love interest or Ship Tease with anyone, but they don't.

Edited by Bullman on Jul 16th 2020 at 7:17:25 AM

Does it count if they're more popular than the Official Couple that's supposed to be the focus of the movie, even if the Official Couple doesn't involve them? The page description says it has to be more popular than a rival pairing, but never says the rival pairing needs to have the same character as the fan preferred one.

I would say no. I usually go by if the character has a Creator Preferred one. Otherwise if feels like they aren't really competing with anything. But that's just me. I would like to hear what others think.

Edited by Bullman on Jul 16th 2020 at 7:32:38 AM

I'm with you on that. Especially since two different ships with completely different characters don't really "compete" since they can theoretically both coexist. Like Ship Mates.

Edited by Oshawott337 on Jul 16th 2020 at 5:55:25 AM

Then I think it should be added to the description that characters who have no rival canon ships doesn't count. I was thinking about earlier debates about whether this should count for works that aren't focused on shipping much at all.

Edited by mightymewtron on Jul 16th 2020 at 9:08:24 AM

Funny you should mention works that aren't very focused on shipping. I was reading Carrie. So I was curious about how the fanfiction works. And while it's not very much shipping, but most of it seems to be Sue x Carrie rather than Sue x Tommy. However again there's not much shipping. So I'm unsure if it's worth noting.

Edited by Bullman on Jul 16th 2020 at 8:18:31 AM