'Tis what you get
when Avatar fans go mad. (Image used with permission.)
when Avatar fans go mad. (Image used with permission.)Casey Jones: Not even close, Zip-neck. Professor and Mary Ann. Happily ever after.
Donatello: Heh! No way, Atomic Mouth. Gilligan was her main man. They'd be married and have six kids by now.
Casey Jones: Gilligan was a geek, Barfarooni!
Donatello: You're the geek, Camel Breath.
Casey Jones: Dome Head.
Donatello: [feels his head for a bit] Elf Lips.
Donatello: Heh! No way, Atomic Mouth. Gilligan was her main man. They'd be married and have six kids by now.
Casey Jones: Gilligan was a geek, Barfarooni!
Donatello: You're the geek, Camel Breath.
Casey Jones: Dome Head.
Donatello: [feels his head for a bit] Elf Lips.
A.k.a. Shipping Wars. Nothing to do with naval warfarenote . Or space warfare involving warships. Or UPS vs. FedEx. Or the A&E Reality Show based on the rivalry between a handful of independent truckers.
Fans love to ship. Some of them have a distinct ship that they like over all others, while some of them are torn between contradictory pairings. Some of them like to debate a pairing while keeping in mind its status in Canon, while some of them discuss it believing their pairing is Canon (or, in the case of those who argue over what's going to happen like they think they're pooling money for a bet, will inevitably be). Now throw in the power of the Internet to connect everybody (and everybody's opinions) with everybody else…
Shippers tend to become emotionally invested in their pairings, and Internet shipping discussions can be quite difficult to keep peaceful. All too often, they can't help but devolve into heated quarrels where preferences are insulted, ad hominem attacks are thrown, and comparisons to Nazis are made (though, to be sure, the latter aspect is just as capable of arising from any subject of Internet disagreement currently known to exist).
These Flame Wars are known as Shipping Wars: verbal arguments between people with different opinions about romantic relationships between fictional characters, though sometimes it can include real person fiction. There are those who bash whoever doesn't like their ship of choice, those who bash whoever likes a certain ship, and those who do both, usually basing their attacks on how Canon/Fanon the discussed ship is. The fact that most ships really aren't canon and will never be is usually ignored. Particular hatred for a pairing or a character who gets in the way of a pairing manifests in the form of Die for Our Ship in fic, or accusations of Canon Sue status in analysis. Alternatively, fans might pair that character with another character, getting them out of the way of their favorite ship. This creates "alliances" between different shippers called Ship Mates.
Common victims include Platonic Life-Partners, Heterosexual Life-Partners, and Lovely Angels. On one hand, lots of fans see Subtext, hints, and evidence where there really isn't; on the other, if there is some degree of subtext, other fans will adamantly refuse to see it and insult those who do. The Draco in Leather Pants also tends to be paired up a lot, and Shipping Wars erupt when deciding to whom he belongs. Often complicated by The "I Love You" Stigma.
Please note: someone just simply stating their opinion about whether they like a pairing or whether they think it's canon or not isn't Ship To Ship Combat or a ship war, that's just having a discussion. Or even when someone makes fun of a pairing. It's when the fans of a certain pairing start actually attacking and insulting the fans of another pairing that it becomes Ship To Ship Combat, such as if someone says they don't like a certain pairing or doesn't think it's canon and the fans of that pairing become enraged and start attacking that person for their opinion.
Trope Co., we'd like to order an emergency supply of MST3K Mantra, please.
If you really were looking for the trope about naval vessels fighting each other, try Epic Ship-on-Ship Action, Hot Sub-on-Sub Action, History of Naval Warfare, or even Standard Starship Scuffle if your definition of "naval" isn't strict.
Examples
- Anime & Manga
- Comic Books
- Fan Works
- Film
- Literature
- Live-Action TV
- Music
- Theatre
- Video Games
- Webcomics
- Western Animation
Other Examples
Toys
- Monster High: Cleo/Deuce was arguably the most-loved couple in the Generation 1 line, and as such has a lot of fans — none of whom took it well when Generation 3 split them up and gave them different love interests, with the live-action movies teasing Deuce/Clawdeen and the animated series teasing Cleo/Frankie. While Deuce/Clawdeen was mostly ignored (as it's also working against years of creator-supported headcanons that Clawdeen's a lesbian), Cleo/Frankie ended up getting a fanbase of its own, which the Deuce/Cleo shippers quickly clashed with.
Visual Novels
- Ace Attorney:
- The most popular pairing in the franchise, both in the English and Japanese fandoms, is Phoenix Wright/Miles Edgeworth. Those who ship them together point to the blatant Homoerotic Subtext and Foe Romance Subtext between the two as proof of their relationship being canon. However, its most rabid cohorts are known to be very aggressive in their approach and attack anyone who disagrees with them, even accusing them of being homophobic. This has caused Hype Backlash and its detractors to hate the pairing because they believe that this Vocal Minority of obsessive Yaoi Fangirls represents the entire shipping community.
- Other than Edgeworth, Phoenix is usually shipped with Maya, Mia, or Iris. Phoenix/Mia is usually ignored, because Mia dies very early in the trilogy. Phoenix/Maya gets flack for being seen as creepy due to the large age gap between them and because they appear to be Like Brother and Sister. Phoenix/Iris is the most hated out of the three because Iris is seen as a Designated Love Interest who has no personality outside of her crush on Phoenix yet is pushed as the canon pairing by the end of the trilogy. Typically, the most bloody wars tend to be between Phoenix/Edgeworth and Phoenix/Maya shippers, but they will often come together to take down their common enemy — Phoenix/Iris shippers.
- Edgeworth's Launcher of a Thousand Ships status has sparked many of these:
- When Edgeworth isn't shipped with Phoenix, he is paired with either Detective Gumshoe or Shi Long Lang. Most of the time these shipping factions are cordial in spite of their differences. However, there is also a Vocal Minority of Edgeworth/Gumshoe and Edgeworth/Lang shippers who allege that Phoenix is an obsessive Stalker with a Crush at best, or straight-up Yandere for Edgeworth at absolute worst in order to prop up their pairings of choice as healthier and more wholesome.
- By contrast, those who dare to ship him with women — particularly Franziska, Kay, or Verity Gavèlle are met with constant backlash and homophobia accusations from all three factions (and no, suggesting he's bisexual won't soften the blow). Even ignoring debates about his sexuality, Edgeworth/Franziska is accused of leaning too close into Brother–Sister Incest since they were raised together (not helped by Franziska calling him her brother in the localization), Kay/Edgeworth is controversial due to their large age gap and Edgeworth being seen as acting like a father figure to her, and Edgeworth/Verity is argued to be unhealthy due to Verity's harsh treatment of him.
- If you want to piss off everybody in the shipping community, allege that Edgeworth is an aromantic asexual, then sit back and watch the sparks fly. Bringing up the fact that Edgeworth canonically seems to be disinterested in romance in general, even by the time of Spirit of Justice (where he's a Confirmed Bachelor who swears he'll never marry and defensively asks what's wrong with being single), will not save you either.
- There are also disputes between those who ship Franziska/Maya and Franziska/Adrian. Detractors of the former claim that their relationship makes no sense, as in canon they barely interact. Detractors of the latter either believe that Adrian's True Love was her deceased mentor Celeste Inpax or that Franziska/Adrian is too co-dependent and unhealthy, with Adrian probably seeing Fran as a Replacement Goldfish for Celeste rather than an actual girlfriend.
- Apollo Justice: Ace Attorney brought way more shipping disputes, with Klavier/Apollo (which is in pretty much the same boat as Phoenix/Edgeworth in being extremely popular but attracting backlash for that very reason), Klavier/Ema (with accusations of being too one-sided or Ema hating Klavier), and Ema/Apollo (with arguments over whether she is too much of a Jerkass towards him). Before release, there was Preemptive Shipping with Trucy/Apollo that seemed like it was going to join the war, but this evaporated after the game came out and the two were revealed to be half-siblings.
- Dual Destinies started some new ship wars, with Apollo/Athena (which is accused of either propping up Athena as a mix of Spotlight-Stealing Squad and Mary Sue or "breaking up" the very popular Apollo x Klavier) on one side, versus Apollo/Juniper and Athena/Simon on the other (the first is often called bland and boring and Juniper is accused of being a Mary Sue too; the second is considered creepy because of the sizeable age gap between the two, plus the fact that he met her when he was a young adult and she was a kid; even fans who enjoy age gaps squirm uncomfortably at this detail). In the meantime, it's best not to even try to suggest pairing Metis and Aura with anyone but each other, while the Athena/Juniper shippers have wisely decided to stay in their corners.
- Spirit of Justice added fuel to the fire with its addition of Base-Breaking Character Nahyuta Sahdmadhi, who gets Ship Tease with Ema Skye, much to the chagrin of Ema/Klavier and Ema/Kay shippers. Other than Ema, Nahyuta is also popularly shipped with Simon Blackquill, with debates over whether their limited yet tense interactions are enough for shipping fodder. Nahyuta/Apollo, meanwhile, is not explosively popular, but those who do ship it tend to get into heated arguments due to how they are foster brothers.
- The Great Ace Attorney doesn't have as contentious ship wars, but Barok van Zieks's Base-Breaking Character status caused his ships with both Kazuma and Ryunosuke to get some hostile backlash from shippers of Kazuma/Ryunosuke or other ships for these two characters. There's also some tension with Ryunosuke/Susato shippers due to controversy over their age gap. It's also not a good idea to claim that Ryunosuke being Phoenix Wright's ancestor indicates he ended up with a woman (even if not necessarily Susato)... not that it stops shippers who point to other possibilities such as Ryunosuke being an indirect ancestor, the mother of his children being The Beard, or other stuff.
- Danganronpa:
- Danganronpa 2: Goodbye Despair has Hajime Hinata/Nagito Komaeda (Komahina) vs. Hajime/Chiaki Nanami (Hinanami), due to both Nagito and Chiaki being hinted to have romantic feelings for Hajime. On rare occasions, Nagito/Chiaki (Komanami) fans will sometimes join in on the fight as well, but again, this is extremely rare.
- Being a Launcher of a Thousand Ships, Shuichi of Danganronpa V3: Killing Harmony gets a lot of this, mostly between people who ship him with Kaede, Kaito or Kokichi.
- The Fate/stay night fandom is divided between people who ship either Shirou/Saber, Shirou/Rin, or Shirou/Sakura. When these factions meet, things can get nasty very quickly. Sakura gets flack for being, according to her naysayers, a "girly thus weak" Damsel in Distress who constantly whines about her predicament and is often portrayed in fanfiction as being Entitled to Have You towards Shirou and The Resenter towards Saber. People who have issues with Saber accuse her of being Type Moon's cash cow who also drowns in a puddle of her own angst (especially in the prequel). And people who have issues with Rin believe she's a Jerkass Tsundere who wants nothing more than to steal Sakura's man.
- Pretty much comes with territory, in regards to Katawa Shoujo. While Lilly and Hanako have the largest camps, every girl has a strong following. Shizune fans in particular can be downright militant in their support, largely as a result of having to constantly battle the hatedom the character has developed since release due to the divisive nature of her route, and her rivalry with the much-adored Lilly. On the forums, it's fairly common for posters to rank the routes/girls in their signatures with ">" or "=" signs. For example, Favorite>Second favorite>Tied for third=Tied for third>Least favorite
Web Animation
- The Amazing Digital Circus:
- Discussed and lampshaded in the "POMNI WAKE UP TIME TO GO ON AN ADVENTURE" short. While talking about the upcoming series, Caine mentions all the new characters who will show up, "With this many new characters, imagine all of the violent shipping wars that we'll become powerless to do ANYTHING ABOUT!!"
- Sadly, ship wars would actually happen, though none of them involved the NPC characters introduced in episodes 2-4 as joked about in the promo video. The biggest war is between Jax/Pomni ("Funnybunny") and Pomni/Ragatha ("Ragapom") shippers, with arguments about which ship is more "toxic" or "healthy" than the other, and plenty of Ron the Death Eater and Die for Our Ship thrown about. While not as prominent due to not centering around Pomni, Jax/Ragatha ("Bunnydoll") shippers also get caught in the crossfire, with a section of them growing to resent the show for what they perceive as pandering towards Funnybunny, while not showing as many Bunnydoll interactions, especially considering that they used to be friends and serve as foils to each other.
- The Helluva Boss short "Mission: Weeaboo-boo" has an In-Universe example, with Blitzo hired to kill someone because of shipping drama. Emberlynn Pinkle apparently shipped "Scrimbleson" with "Shawnathan" instead of "Blorbinzo" seven years ago, which the client considered incest. Even Blitzo considers this motive for hiring him to kill someone to be excessive, but unfortunately for him, Emberlynn turns out to be such an Abhorrent Admirer for him that he's wanting to kill her and get it over with.
- Murder Drones: Shipping wars aren’t uncommon, especially between Nuzi (N/Uzi) and Envy (N/V) shippers. Some people have added either one to their list of do-not-interacts, and Nuzi has been notoriously called "problematic" on the basis of Uzi being assumed to be a minor and N being assumed to be an adult (in reality, how old they are is debatable, as things in Episode 3 and Episode 4, like the “missing” posters in the former and N referring to everyone, including himself, as “kids” the latter, only give very vague indicators about their ages). However, with N and V seemingly drifting apart to some extent, combined with some of N and Uzi’s interactions (which have a very wide array of interpretations, ranging from simply being platonic to possibly being romantic), some people point to Nuzi being more likely to happen in canon. And despite V’s later self-sacrifice in Episode 6, which left her fate unknown, things didn’t seem to entirely settle down afterwards. Ultimately, the series finale sees Nuzi win out, with N and Uzi directly confirming themselves to be a couple.
- RWBY:
- The Shipping War that erupted after the events of "End of the Beginning" between the "Arkos" (Jaune Arc/Pyrrha Nikos) and the "Lancaster" (Jaune Arc/Ruby Rose) pairings. The end of "End of the Beginning" had Pyrrha kissing Jaune and then dying at the hands of Cinder Fall, leading to the Arkos pairing to suffer a Ship Sinking. Many of those connected to that ship bailed over to Lancaster as a response. However, despite this, many Arkos shippers are still defiant that their ship is still viable, that she's not dead, and that those who went over to Lancaster are traitors to the ship.
- Lancaster competes with three other very popular Ruby-related ships: "White Rose" (Ruby/Weiss), "Nuts and Dolts" (Ruby/Penny) and Rose Garden (Ruby/Oscar). Unlike with Arkos, Season 3's events had no effect on Nuts and Dolts, largely because everyone believes the situation is temporary. As a Robot Girl, Penny was never expected to stay dead. After her return in Volume 7, her storyline concludes with her death at the end of Volume 8.
- Blake has three main ships that complete with each other: "Bumblebee" (Blake/Yang), "Black Sun" (Blake/Sun) and "Changing Colours" (Blake/Ilia). While the friction with Changing Colours is milder because Ilia's feelings are unrequited, Bumblebee/Black Sun is the most divisive ship in the fandom. Both the show and the soundtracks have included Ship Tease for both pairings. Every interaction, line of dialogue and song lyric gets dissected, analysed, and debated by the two sides to such an extreme, both the creators and composers have weighed in several times to try and cool things down. The ship war has only increased since Volume 6, where Sun was Put on a Bus and Ship Tease increased so much between Yang and Blake that other characters begin lampshading it from Volume 7. The ship wars finally emerged with a victor in Volume 9 in which Blake and Yang confess their feelings for each other and seal their love with a Big Damn Kiss halfway through the volume, thereby upgrading their Ship Tease to Official Couple status and ultimately Ship Sinking all other rival ships involving Blake... though of course the fighting continues over whether or not this was the correct decision from an artistic standpoint. Some controversial statements from Blake's voice actressnote did not help the infighting.
- There was also a notable fourth ship: "Tauradonna" (Blake/Adam). But as Adam's true nature came to light culminating with stabbing Blake through the stomach and permanently maiming Yang to hurt Blake, Tauradonna suffered from an Abandon Ship.
- The Most Popular Girls in School: During Season 5, there was a bit of this between Thanner (Than/Tanner) and Tristanner (Tanner/Tristan) shippers, all of which pretty much died down by that season's eleventh episode after certain loose ends were tied up.
- Terrible Writing Advice: Shipping wars reaction is discussed in "Shipping" episode.
- Baeubien suggests that when the author doesn't want to explain why shipping is bad or commit to Ship Sinking, then the best option is to embrace the shipping war. According to him, the authors should play all sides of the shipping debate for a free press...and then resolve things anticlimactically. JP also says there is no way this can be a dangerous thing to do.
- For the fans, Baeubien suggests insulting and harassing the supporters of the rival ship. If that doesn't work, then he suggests harassing the author until the shippers get their way. If that somehow doesn't work, then he recommends writing fanfiction.
Web Video
- Critical Role: Campaign 1 largely lacked this, partially due to its demographics skewing more heavily male, but Campaign 2 and a gradual shift in audience brought in more shipping wars, and this has carried over into Campaign 3.
- Caleb/Molly vs Essek/Caleb vs Caleb/Jester vs Fjord/Jester vs Beau/Jester vs Beau/Yasha. Several fans angrily dropped the show when Beaujes was sunk; other fans clung to their insistence that "Laura's microexpressions" meant that Beaujes or Widojest would become canon at the eleventh hour. Some fans even attacked Matt over this, claiming that Jester being hit by a magical effect that increased her age by five years was actually an intentional ploy to make Jester "old enough" to get with Fjord (both were canonically young adults). Other fans claimed that Beauyasha sailing instead of Beaujes was actually "queerbaiting"; called Beauyasha a "lesbian ship for the straights"; and argued that Laura and Marisha were actually going to do Beaujes before the COVID hiatus wherein they decided not to because the company wanted to do Beauyasha and Fjorester instead. To say that this all got messy very quickly is an understatement.
- Campaign 3 has an interesting case in that Imogen/Laudna is an incredibly popular pairing and is canon, but its shippers are easily outraged at any criticism of the ship or the characters, viewing it as an attack on a healthy and supportive relationship. Anti-shippers see the ship as both unhealthily codependent and boring and not worth the attention it gets, and tend to criticize the shippers (particularly if they also ship Beau/Jester and Vex/Keyleth) of only being interested in it because they want Laura and Marisha to play a romance.
- Campaign 3 also brings us Dorian/Orym vs Ashton/Orym vs Ashton/Fearne. Fans of Dorym have been interested in the dynamic since EXU Prime and have been excited for the hints that have been slowly dropped over the course of the campaign, and tend to dismiss Ashrym shippers as people who just want Taliesin and Liam's characters to have a romance regardless of whether or not it makes sense. Ashrym shippers argue that Dorian has been away from the table for too long; that Orym's attachment to him is based on an ideal rather than the real person; and that Fearne and Ashton's relationship would be unhealthy based on the conflict they had over Ashton absorbing the shard of a Titan. Ashton/Fearne shippers enjoy the rapport the two have had from early on in their back-and-forth attempts to steal from one another and found their conflict over the shard to be an enjoyable source of development, particularly in light of their continued trust in and attachment to each another, and find that Ashrym simply lacks substance.