This trope seems ridiculously broad. Doesn't nearly every work of fiction in history have at least one or two couples in it? This page could literally be endless. Just looking at Lost and The Office (two of my favourite shows) as examples, Lost has four couples listed and The Office has only two, yet both shows had far more canon pairings than that. What makes these four "official couples" and not the many other canon pairings on the show? And if the criteria is that the couple can't have been together at the start of the story but gets together later on as one person here suggested (which isn't even the case with many of the examples listed here), then how is that different from Relationship Upgrade? The Laconic for Relationship Upgrade even says that it's pretty much the same thing.
Okay, WTF is Fan Works section doing here in the trope like this? The definition outright states that this must be canon, and if we consider fanworks as their own little canon we might as well list every shipfic ever. Am i missing something here?
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No, you're about right. But There Is No Such Thing As Notability and yes, within each of those shipfics, there is an official couple. If that bleeds into the actual work's example that's a problem, but there's nothing wrong with fanfic examples (though I 100% agree it's completely pointless).
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Sorcerer in training
"Star Trek: Voyager: Neelix and Kes, then Tom Paris and B'Elanna Torres, but never Janeway and Chakotay to fan disappointment. In fact, given that the need for everyone to start pairing up was lampshaded early in the series (as they thought they'd take 70+ years to get home) it's surprising how little romance there was on the ship."
In the grand finale, Future!Janeway makes a mention that Chakotay and Seven got together for a while (and he was devastated by her death). Considering that it has been stated that Present!Janeway feels like Seven as she would a daughter... it's probably just as well Janeway and Chakotay never became official.
Coming back to where you started is not the same as never leaving. -Terry Pratchett
This discussion page seems to work under Official Couples being a ymmv trope. That we just sort of guess at under a bunch of different specifications froms how long the show is, which main characters, if they arnt or are together,blah blah blah. Its a show by show thing, and never agreed upon because shipping goggles. Shouldn't that mean its not a trope since it varies by person?
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Honestly, I find the trope pretty confusing based on what it considers an official couple or not. I'm seeing OCs that haven't gotten past the Will They or Won't They? stage, multiple OCs from the same series, listings where it seems like it's a one-sided relationship, etc. Sometimes it seems like the definition is "They obviously have feelings for each other (even if they never act on it, ever)" other times it's "They wind up together forever."
It's just... confusing.
Edited by Larkmarn Found a Youtube Channel with political stances you want to share? Hop on over to this page and add them.
Sounds like someone should take it to the Trope Repair Shop.
Waiting on a TRS slot? Finishing off one of these cleaning efforts will usually open one up.
Editing this:
"And now, after literally years of Ship Tease, as of Series 6, the Doctor and River Song are officially an item. With the Doctor looking appropriately terrified when he found out exactly whose daughter he's been shagging!"
First off, DW fans don't even know if the Doctor can "shag" a human, let alone if he's been "shagging" River Song. I would also term this 11/River rather than Doctor/River because it is specifically Doctor #11 that is OC with River, and none of the Doctor's previous incarnations knew River (and 10 certainly wasn't an OC with River but probably rather Rose). Plus the current wording relates to One True Pairing, which is more of a personal fan favorite couple deal than an actual "Official Couple".
Secondly, it's inaccurate, inappropriate, and purely speculation (the shagging bit) so I'm gonna cut it out.
Also adding Jack and Ianto as an Official Couple from Torchwood.
Edited by Konaharei Hide / Show Replies
Jack and Ianto are the Beta Couple, Gwen and Rhys was the Official Couple. While River vaugly imply the doctor and her have sex, its not worth much (and not even relevant to them being the official couple). Here again they could be considered the beta couple to Amy and Rory- but thats a lot more controversial. Every couple thats official isnt the official couple, there arn't more then one at a time.
Edited by IronAnimation Youtube Video Essays: here
Can someone enlighten me on how Cloud/Tifa and Zack/Aerith are canon? The game clearly made it obvious that Aerith didn't really care about Zack anymore, so I really doubt she would have gotten back with him just because they're both dead. And how is Cloud/Tifa canon? I'm pretty sure all the games, novels, and stuff have made it painfully clear that Cloud is still single, and isn't in love with anyone.
Sorry if this sort of topic makes anyone here peeved, but I'm just curious. You pride yourself on being more informal then other encyclopedic wikis, yet here you have such blatantly obvious false information, and its making you guys look like hypocrites.
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We are not going to engage you in this argument. TV Tropes is not going to be a proxy for your shipping wars.
"It's Occam's Shuriken! If the answer is elusive, never rule out ninjas!"
How am I starting a shipping war? I don't care about what ship it is, I just care about what is and isn't canon.
You are welcome to discuss what you believe to be canon on your own site. Leave us alone.
"It's Occam's Shuriken! If the answer is elusive, never rule out ninjas!"
Well, I personally believe that no ship in FF 7 is canon, and I'm sure many would agree with me. If you nice folks would stop closing your eyes and actually pay attention to the amount of people who are not pleased with this, and wish for it to be fixed (stating there are no canon ships), then you would finally "be left alone".
What you're doing is importing drama from offsite, which is against our rules. One small forum with one thread full of people being displeased with us is not going to make us lose any sleep.
If someone who is not from a group of clearly biased individuals who have signed up just because who is a couple in a 10 year old game is just that important would like to chime in, then we'd be willing to listen.
Waiting on a TRS slot? Finishing off one of these cleaning efforts will usually open one up.
If your referring to the forum that I think you are referring to, then stop. I have nothing to do with the forum, and I'm not a Cloud/Aerith shipper. I'm completely neutral on the subject. I'm just a simple fan of the game who doesn't like seeing anything about the game that's false.
You must have a very low estimation of our intelligence/gullibility. -_-
Waiting on a TRS slot? Finishing off one of these cleaning efforts will usually open one up.
If anyone is interested, we are discussing this on the forums
, in our uniquely irreverent way.
Removed this: "* Buffy The Vampire Slayer was fairly open with its Official Couples. There's the great Buffy/Angel romance, of course, but Buffy was also officially paired off with Riley and Spike. Notably, even when Buffy was officially-paired with someone else, her relationship with Angel was the most important. Despite being officially not-a-couple, Buffy claims they someday will be when she's ready and that she loves him "more than I will ever love anything in this world.""
This was pure biased shipper writing, with a a highly questionable claim that "even when Buffy was officially-paired with someone else, her relationship with Angel was the most important" - no, it really wasn't in seasons 4-7 - and some tweaking of the facts and taking things out of context, such as that Buffy said she loved Angel (past tense) "more than I will ever love anything in this world" in an early season 7 episode, not at the end of the show, and since she doesn't see the future it's hardly of proof of how she presently feels; and that Buffy a) sent Angel away in the finale and chose to spend the last couple of nights before the big battle with Spike, told Angel that Spike was in her heart (and told Spike she loved him), and b) didn't actually promise Angel they'll be together, just gave him hope that it's an option if she is ready for a committed relationship one day - "it will be a long time coming, years - if ever"; in other words, everything was open as far as her future goes. Hardly a promise, especially with "if ever".
This is the kind of thing for shipper debates. We can have it right here in the discussion thread. But it sure isn't something to put up as a supposed fact on the main page.
I assume the trope refers to couples who were not together (in the beginning, at least) but were destined by canon to be together.
Why are you reading this line?
Just a sort of Gondor Calls for Aid, the example list is riddled with with confusion over the idea that the couple is "official" and not how they are placed in the story. I don't know every series so I can't make a judgement call on every example.
"iCarly: Freddie and Carly's follow the 'overtly paired off' rule. The relationship has been the major non-comedic core of the show. Some would say the only such element, considering how much of the show is outright comedy. The only other viable pairings are the Sam/Freddie Love/Hate pairing which seems to have forgot the 'love' part, Carly/Sam and Spencer/Sam ships, which are both for all intents never going to happen. There is no guarentee that Carly/Freddie will happen either, not since the episode iStart A Fan War revolved around an Author Tract about how Dan Schneider disliked the way the fandom had focused on the Shipping, and not the 'stupid pointless comedy'. No overt romantic development has occoured between any pairing in Season 4 bar a throw-away line about teenaged Sam(antha) having a crush on Carly's 29 year old older brother Spencer."
copying and pasting my topic from the Fan-Preferred Couple discussion, as it's the same issue:
...can freddie/carly be counted as an Official Couple if they were officially together for one episode and they broke up by the end of it, with them having no inclination whatsoever to get back together even one season later?
should be noted that the iCarly main page is also currently under scrutiny for bias and ship warring.
and i add: i guess this really doesn't apply after iOMG. at least not until we are shown the outcome of that cliffhanger. (talk about counting your chickens before they hatch...)
Edited by carla Hide / Show Replies
The way I interpreted Official Couple (and it's supported by other entries) is that the pairing doesn't have to be an actual couple, but instead are the main pairing the show has regardless of current 'relationship' status.
This is supported by the entries which include many pairings that aren't together or never did: Dr. Brennan and Agent Booth in Bones. Shepard/Weir in Stargate. Glee: Rachel and Finn for the kids, and Wilemma for the adults. Rizzoli And Isles.
The question is do they still fit?
My answer is yes. For the same reason that Rachel/Finn are an official couple despite all the various non-Rachel/Finn pairings like Quinn/Finn and Jesse/Rachel happening. Also, keep them as 'yes' until such time that there is a nuclear level Ship Sinking on Carly/Freddie or the show ends with Sam/Freddie still together. Sam/Freddie could end up just like Puckelberry or Quinn/Finn or Emma/Carl.
Edited by mack
i agree with that definition. there's no doubt in my head that couples like booth & brennan are more than official, even if they've never actually been together on the show.
i disagree that carly and freddie fit that definition, though. the one episode where they were together, has not been brought up again since. they have not been "a little more overtly paired off" at any point in the series IMO, unless you're counting freddie having a crush on her since forever (which would make him a Dogged Nice Guy who wants them to be an Official Couple) and carly not reciprocating— except for that one episode.
it's not "understood by the cast that the two are an item" either. you'd think spencer at least would make some kind of comment about that, given that it's his sister we're talking about here.
this trope should be reciprocal, and it should be something the audience can see through the course of the series, not just a one-time thing. one episode where they dated does not an Official Couple make— else the friends entry would be endless, considering the amount of people the main characters dated and then broke up with, some even for quite long story arcs (hello, chandler and janice...).
i don't watch glee so i can't comment on why rachel and finn are official (although i hear through the grapevine that it was reciprocal at some point, and they continue to have tension even while not being together?). but i really believe there's no such thing as an Official Couple in icarly. at least, not yet.
EDIT: took down the example from the trope page for the moment, if anyone wants to add it in, please make an argument for it here.
Edited by carla
Hey, can we count comic strips in the mix as well? I've seen a number of couples from Retail that got together, and I see that Gwen and Skip got together in Intelligent Life, and what about Jeremey and Sara and Pierce and D'ijon, even Richandamy, all from Zits? And what about the many that are definitely there? I'm pretty sure John and Garfield both have significant others from their respective strip. Anyone agrees, let me know🙂