Ships That Pass in the Night



""The most exciting attractions are between opposites that never meet.""

- Andy Warhol

So you like to ship Bob and Alice. The only problem you have is the fact that Bob and Alice have exchanged little more than a few lines with one another and there seems to be little to no interaction between the two.

This is when Ships Pass in the Night. Most of these types of ships could be considered Crack Pairings, but sometimes fans can dig deep and find decent proof for their beloved ship -- or at least persuade the readers that the couple would give each other the time of day.

It's especially Mood Whiplash if no transition period is shown and the couple is suddenly Strangled By the Red String.

Compare Launcher of a Thousand Ships, which can be a cause of many of these kinds of pairings.

Named in a remark made by Donald Hogan in Stand On Zanzibar.

Anime and Manga

 * Many of the Pokémon anime fans like to pair up Dawn and Paul, despite the fact that the two rarely speak and when they do, it's the farthest thing from romantic (he once even forgot she existed.) Misty/Gary was similarly popular in the old days as well.
 * Heck, most ships in this fandom are nevermets, have something to do with filler characters, or with characters who have had little interaction with each other, to ludicrous extremes.
 * Ivan (Origami Cyclone) and Pao Lin (Dragon Kid) hits the fandom of Tiger and Bunny HARD, probably an exteme case of Pair the Spares.
 * Kakashi/Iruka is a very popular pairing in the Naruto fandom, even though they haven't interacted that much, not even having met at all when the pairing became popular. Their het equivalent is, perhaps, Kakashi/Anko, who have occasionally been in the same room together, but have never spoken.
 * Did the pairing become popular before the part just before the Chunin Exams when they were talking about Naruto's performance and whether it was too soon to send the Rookie Nine to the Chunin Exam?
 * This may have something to do with the fact that they are of similar ages and have similar and/or identical professions.
 * And with the fact that, even before the time skip, some people responsible for Naruto merchandise had seemingly latched onto this fan preferred couple and produced an astounding number of merchandise with only the two of them (these included, back in 2006, posters, mousepads and mugs).
 * Even more important: Kakashi and Iruka are adults in their 20's, therefore they avert age-related squicks.
 * Some fairly well-known ships are between characters who never speak at all. Sasuke/Hinata (pictured above) is one such example, even though Hinata only talked about Sasuke once in the manga. Of course, a fair potion of that ship's popularity might stem from the fact that it removes the two competing love interests for the the Naruto/Sakura pairing.
 * Also, Naruto with nearly every female and male character.
 * Konohamaru/Hanabi seems growing too well as side pairing in the Naruto Ficdom mostly for the sake of Generation Xerox (cough-Naru/Hina-cough).
 * Although Sakura gets shipped with pretty much everyone, the new favorite person seem to be Itachi, of all people. This probably has to do with The Reveal that  and the fact that
 * Of course, Sakura gets a lot of Ship Tease in canon, too. Naruto and Lee have or used to have crushes on her, while she was drooling over Sasuke. More recently,  There's a reason she's a Launcher of a Thousand Ships.
 * Rima and Utau from Shugo Chara. No, really. There is a whole fanbase of them together out there.
 * Eriol and Tomoyo from Cardcaptor Sakura are a textbook example. They have a handful of conversations, all about other people, and the numerous fans take that as a sign of deep connection and possibly also current affections. Not to mention the fact that in the manga, Eriol/Kaho is indicated as canon and Tomoyo was in love with Sakura. The less popular ships Touya/Tomoyo, Touya/Meiling, and Eriol/Meiling are even better examples, as the two halves only interact on one or two occasions.
 * Asuka/Kaworu seems to have some popularity in Neon Genesis Evangelion fandom, despite the two never interacting in canon. This is probably because of a combination of non-Shinji/Asuka writers Cleaning Up Romantic Loose Ends, and the comedy value of Asuka's Tsundere nature struggling against Kaworu's Dissonant Serenity.
 * Shinji/Hikari also qualifies -- it's one of the most common Eva crack pairings, but her and Shinji barely know each other... although with her being Asuka's best friend and Toji being one of Shinji's friends, they at least have some chance of social contact. Perhaps to compensate for this, Shinji/Hikari fics tend to be framed either as Alternate Universe or post-series (for whatever value that yields) stories.
 * Shinji/Hikari isn't too implausible, but naturally needs some kind of push to make it work in canon since the two characters almost never talk directly to each other. There are several fanfics for this pairing that have been well-written enough to end up on the Fan Fic Recommendations list.
 * Rei/Kaworu also qualifies; they never talked, and Rei said exactly two lines relating to Kaworu. There are people who find this squickier than Shinji/Rei... although, to be fair, the squick factor of the latter depends on
 * Although most likely a deliberate-joke Crack Pairing, there's also Rei/Rei and Rei/Rei/Rei, despite the fact that Rei I, and that Rei III is introduced after . This ship/OT3 can expand near-infinitely with and the Reiquarium.
 * There's at least one fic where, among other pairings, Ritsuko and Kensuke are paired up.
 * NGE being often jokingly referred to as 'a Harem anime' because of Shinji's being surrounded by beautiful women (not to mention Kaworu), there's even been a few Shinji/Maya fics to crop up - naturally, they make Shinji/Hikari look all the more plausible.
 * Shinji/Maya? Definitely counts as Screw Yourself.
 * Despite the fact that Ren and Pirika from Shaman King barely talk to each other in either the anime or manga and that the Distant Finale of the manga implies that Ren's wife is actually Iron Maiden Jeanne (which is also an example of this trope), they seem to be incredibly popular as a couple, with the half of the fandom that doesn't dislike Pirika supporting the pairing. The reason for this is most likely the comedic potential stemming from the fact that Pirika's brother Horohoro and Ren fight almost constantly.
 * Horohoro/Tamao is also a fairly popular pairing, even though (in the manga at least) they've barely talked to each other. Again, Tamao is considered The Scrappy to one part of the fandom, but not in the part that supports this pairing (or Tamao/Yoh, which has alot more of a basis in-canon.)
 * The Yuuno/Hayate pairing has its small but still surprising share of fans in the Magical Girl Lyrical Nanoha fandom despite the fact that, well... have they even talked to each other? Even in the supplementary materials?
 * It's implied in the third Sound Stage that they worked together in making a Unison Device for Hayate, but are never seen talking about that.
 * Notably, Yuuno is the main competitor with Fate to Nanoha's heart and Hayate is one of Nanoha's best friends, meaning that Yuuno/Hayate is a good way of getting the two characters involved in a fic without interfering with the Fate/Nanoha or resorting to more... vindictive measures.
 * The Axis Powers Hetalia fandom can be justified in doing this, since the characters are countries and the story is based off of history. Even if the author has not covered a time where the nations interact, fans can call upon their history classes or The Other Wiki for evidence of their ship for fan works. A list of them can be found here
 * There are quite a few fanfics for Renji/Tatsuki from Bleach. In the Manga or Anime have those two had ever had even one conversation with each other?
 * There's also a small following for Renji/Orihime, mixing with Ship Mates if it comes from Ichigo/Rukia fans who don't want bash them to get them out of the way. While it is true that Renji followed Ichigo's quest to save Orihime alongside Rukia, they haven't really interacted either
 * Another pairing that's become extremely popular in fanfics recently is Toshiro/Karin, despite the fact their only interaction was in an anime-only filler episode.
 * Yeah, but it was kind of cute filler. What about the Kenpachi/Unohana shippers out there? People only give this pairing any consideration because they figure the two have had to interact with each other at some point because of how prone Zaraki is to getting huge, bloody wounds.
 * Ukitake/Nemu seems to be gaining a nice following. As does Byakuya/Yachiru, thanks to their interaction during the Shinigami's Cup omake, as well as a severe case of Older Than She Looks as Yachiru is apparently close to fifty years old.
 * And Ikkaku/Nemu, based on a single panel in which they smile at each other while Ikkaku is getting medical treatment, as well as Nemu objecting to Mayuri interrogating him. It's often assumed by yaoi Fangirls that this pairing comes from rabid yaoi-phobic fans who want to disprove Ikkaku/Yumichika, though it's not known how true this supposed "scenario" is.
 * Most of the Arrancar pairing are like this, as they rarely interact with each other. Stark/Harribel (who appeared several times in the same rooms, but never spoke to each other) and Grimmjow/Nelliel (who canonically never interacted with each other) are the two most famous examples.
 * ~Yu-Gi-Oh!~'s Silent Shipping. The one little scene where Seto and Shizuka interact sent many fangirls' hearts aflutter: according to the shippers, Kaiba agreed to get medical treatment for Bakura because Shizuka openly begged him to do so (as shown by how he makes the decision shortly after Shizuka speaks up), showing that he holds her in higher regard than the rest of the cast.
 * Another good example is Ryuzaki and Shizuka, who have never met and probably don't know the other even exists. The pairing was likely spawned PURELY out of the fact that Jounouchi would flip a shit, causing angst (or lulz, depending on the writer).
 * Higurashi has Keiichi/Satoshi shippers... even though not only do the two never meet (until Kira comes out), but Keiichi is more of a Lovable Sex Maniac and Satoshi was a more serious Expy of Keiichi to begin with.
 * Yomi and Sakaki from Azumanga Daioh are a semi-popular ship, even though the two barely exchange words with each other -- they only ever talk to each other specifically once, off-screen, to an unknown extent. In contrast, Tomo and Yomi are Vitriolic Best Buds and Sakaki has Kaorin, whose obsession is easy to extrapolate into something suspicious, as well as spending much of her time with Chiyo. The main justification for Yomi/Sakaki shipping seems to be that they're both the most buxom characters in the comic and anime.
 * Sakaki doesn't talk much at all, so there's that too. And they do talk a little at least once ("There's bear in that.").
 * They're also both cool-headed, much more so compared to the other girls, which can definitely count as an appeal in a show full of quirky people like Azumanga.
 * Sylphiel/Valgaav from Slayers is mildly popular in fanfiction, usually as a result of Pair the Spares.
 * Yu Yu Hakusho has a few of these in its fandom. One example is Kurama/Yukina - they only exchange lines once in the anime, but some fans ship the pairing anyway.
 * A far more popular example is Kurama/Botan. While they interact a bit more than the above pairing, it's never much (at least not in the manga). This may be an example of Ship Mates, since every other member of the main group has a romantic interest (Yusuke/Keiko, Kuwabara/Yukina, Hiei/Mukuro) except these two.
 * Code Geass-wise, there's more than a few Rolo/Euphemia and Rolo/Nunnally fanfics out there. First one's good, except that Euphie  before Rolo was even introduced as a character and almost certainly never met him or even knew of his existence. As for Rolo/Nunally, it's unknown whether the two ever met, but the fact that Rolo wants to kill Nunnally kind of puts a damper on the whole shipping thing.
 * Rolo and Nunnally at least get some cute interaction in official art. As for Kallen and Gino, there's some implication that the writers tried for it but hit a Relationship Writing Fumble.
 * Some fans have also jokingly noted that marrying Nunnally would be a way for Rolo to become Lelouch's brother for real. Chances are, if such a thing had been mentioned to Rolo, he wouldn't have taken it as a joke.
 * Rolo and Nunnally interact in Nightmare of Nunnally, although in that case,, and has a significantly different appearance, personality and role.
 * There's a small but growing group of Princess Tutu fans who think that Autor/Pique and Femio/Lilie are viable pairings. Partially due to Cleaning Up Romantic Loose Ends (with Autor and Pique's crushes on Rue and Fakir respectively), and partially just for the sheer crack that would develop (Femio's self-obsession and Lilie's sadism).
 * Pairing up Kagome and Sesshomaru from Inuyasha is insanely popular within the fandom. No one seems to care that he shows little to no interest in her and actually tried to kill her/did not care if she lived or not early on. She of course does not show any feelings towards him either.
 * To give some insight, this pairing was more popular earlier on, while the series was in progress. Most notably during Sesshomaru's first appearance and interaction with her and Inu-Yasha. Being the first real Bishonen, evil White Haired Pretty Boy who seemed to display a slight (predatory) interest in her (when she managed to pull out the sword), Fangirls decided to take it and run away with it. Of course, now it's pretty obscure, considering that they never really interact with each other again after 40-some volumes.
 * No, it's still huge, and has always been huge. This pairing is about Wish Fulfillment; Sesshomaru is the most lusted-after character, and Kagome is the easiest character for a teenage girl to relate to/project themselves onto, so by pairing her with him, they get a sense of pairing themselves with him.
 * Although it is sometimes admittedly about wish fulfillment, some of the fans just think that their personalities could bounce off each other well and create a really interesting dynamic. The great thing is, when handled right, they do. When they're not handled right mostly it devolves into Porn Without Plot as the two of them are Strangled By the Red String.
 * Actually, it seems like it's more popular now than it was back when the series was only like 200 chapters long.
 * In this ship's defense, which of Kagome's love interests *hasn't* tried to kill her upon first meeting? I can only think of Houjou, and he. Well. Also when this pairing is done well, it is done very, very, very well.
 * Full Metal Panic has Sousuke/Insane Police Lady. Sure, they've had some (hilarious) interactions, and the Police Lady is obsessed with him in a Foe Yay-riffic way... and Sousuke did compliment her skill and ability (in his mind). The only problem is that she's only like that with him when he's in his Bonta-kun mascot costume. Which can only say stuff like "Fumo-fumo fuu!!" As for actual interaction between them when he's dressed normally... there's little to none. Except an instance where he asks Kaname if he should "off" the Police Lady. Granted, the people who support this pairing at least do tend to acknowledge that it's crack.
 * Foursome pairing of Gauron/Xia Yu Fan/Xia Yu Lan/Sousuke. Not so much the Gauron paired with any of them part, as much as the Yu Fan and Yu Lan together with Sousuke part. Especially since the only interaction he's ever had with either of them was with Yu Fan, whom he never actually saw, and whom he said all of two sentences (consisting of, at most, three words) to. Though, as absurd a pairing as this seems (Sousuke being in a foursome with three people he hates is... not very realistic), it is true that both Yu Fan and Yu Lan had been watching and pondering over Sousuke for a while (since their Sensei kept talking about him, and sent them to find him).
 * Hayate the Combat Butler fandom now has Athena/Ikusa, Hayate's older brother.... although this would probably be considered parody, as it was invented mainly to annoy supporters of a certain other pairing.
 * That one does at least make sense, considering that
 * Back in the day, Matt and Mimi from Digimon. They never interacted at all. They did stand next to each other a few times, though. The reason they were such a popular ship was because everyone paired all the characters according to "hierarchy": Tai and Sora because they were the male and female leads (and because they had actual chemistry), TK and Kari because they were the two youngest, and Matt and Mimi because... they were the only boy-girl pair left. There were Izzy and Joe, of course, but they were both really nerdy, and weren't Troubled but Cute like Matt. (And yes, this meant that Izzy and Joe were often paired together - even though either of them would have been a better match for Mimi).
 * They both digged music as well. Or at least had something to do with music. Matt with his harmonica and Mimi with her singing. Not sure if any fanwork took advantage of it, but there's that.
 * They did get a single interaction scene in the original series, with Yamato defending Mimi from an impatient Taichi when he thought she was wangsting over . Still not enough to make it a super couple, tho.
 * Fullmetal Alchemist has a small fanbase dedicated to Greed/Riza. Who have appeared in the same CHAPTER maybe all of twice.
 * Gundam Wing: Trowa/Relena is a decently popular het alternative for Heero/Relena (at least among those who don't want Relena to die in a fire); however, the sum total of their interaction throughout Wing canon is nine lines of dialog, all related to Heero. Then there's the fact that such a ship could be seen as Loving a Shadow, since Trowa and Heero are remarkably similar personality-wise, an idea quite a few 3XR fanfics run with.
 * Wufei/Relena is this Up to Eleven: The two never interact in any form or fashion, not just in the anime or The Movie but in all the official sidestories and sequels. Beyond that, they're polar opposites (he's an Arrogant Kung Fu Guy, she's an Actual Pacifist), and he makes it plain that he doesn't like her on several occasions. So any pairing would require either Foe Yay of epic proportions, or a serious Ass Pull.
 * The Ouran High School Host Club fans who keep up with the anime rather than the manga see Kyoya/Kaoru as this, since their time together in the anime is limited to one scene of about 2 lines each. The pairing has recently developed a niche in the fandom due in part to continuing interactions in the manga.
 * Sailor Moon has its fair share. One of the most popular ones is Hotaru/Shingo due to their similar ages. They’re never actually seen together, though as Chibiusa's close friends, it is plausible that they have met off-screen. Sometimes it is done to allow Ami (whom Shingo crushes on) to be in with someone else.
 * Someoka/Fubuki seemed to have become extremely popular in the Inazuma Eleven fandom a long, long time before the two shared any decent amount of screentime, having spent an arc and a half (about 50 episodes) taking turns getting Put On a Bus starting shortly after Fubuki's introduction. Most of the shipping seems to have stemmed from a single scene where the two share a heartwarming friendship moment conversing on the Inazuma General Hospital rooftop. It'd be another two dozen or so episodes after that before they actually end up as simultaneously active teammates for any prolonged period of time.
 * In the video games -- in which the show was based off of -- actually subverts this. The two interact well before the aformated Rooftop scene, in fact Someoka was one of the only people he ever attempted to open up to. These two continue to interact well after the second game, Someoka was the first person to greet Fubuki after he he was also the first to congratulate him on getting on the team. Though there are much more direct examples of this trope in the fandom such as Fudou/Fuyuka who never interacted in either versions yet it remains the most popular hetreo shipping for that character.
 * One of the more hilarious plot twists in the most recent Haruhi Suzumiya novels was the revelation that  The two had never interacted before this and the pairing was so out there that this could be considered a canon example.
 * Loveless fans have the suprisingly popular Kio/Yayoi.
 * Death Note has Light/Mello, despite the two never meeting face-to-face in canon.
 * Fairy Tail has Zeref/Mavis, Zeref being the Sealed Evil in A Can and Mavis being Fairy Tail's angelic looking founder. Not only have they never met, but the fact that Zeref had no idea Tenroujima was a guild island is as good an indicator as any that he has no idea Mavis exists. The pairing seems to have come from the tenth opening, which ends with a clip of Zeref, then Mavis walking, then both of them looking up at the audience-and they aren't sharing the screen here either. It's usually backed up by the claim that Zeref was found on the same island where Mavis was burried.

Comic Books

 * You would probably be surprised at how many people ship Ted Kord with Michelle Carter, his best friend's twin sister. Despite the fact that they've never met, because one of them was usually dead at the time.

Film

 * In the 2009 Star Trek reboot movie, Sulu and Chekov share all of five lines of dialogue. They are still one of the most popular ships in the fandom, and every once in a blue moon will surpass even slash Trope Namer Kirk/Spock on the kink meme for sheer number of stories written. Doubtlessly, the ship is helped along by the characters' interactions in Trek Prime canon, but there is a cornucopia of fic set specifically and solely in the Reboot Universe.
 * Pairing Scotty with Gaila (Kirk's Orion girlfriend) is surprisingly popular. Not only do they share no scenes in the film Gaila is quite possibly
 * In Inglourious Basterds, Donny (the Bear Jew) and Utivich don't exchange any lines, but they are one of the fandom's most popular pairings. This can work out though, as the film shows a limited view of the Basterds, and it's possible that they all interacted at some point that we don't see in the movie.
 * Donny is also paired with Soshanna quite a lot, considering they have entirely different storylines, never meet at all during the film and
 * The Legion section on Fanfiction.net has a rather large proportion of Gabriel/Audrey, despite the fact that they share precisely one scene, in which she tries to kill him.
 * Although they have not even shared a movie just yet, Tony Stark and Loki have become an increasingly popular pairing.
 * So has Loki/Jane.
 * Mind you, he did allude to be willing to do nasty things to her in order to get a rise out of Thor.
 * Meanwhile, Darcy is frequently paired with either Loki or Hawkeye, despite never sharing a single scene with either character.
 * Which is nothing compared to her being frequently shipped with Steve Rogers.
 * Howard Stark and Peggy Carter from Captain America the First Avenger are frequently shipped as having hooked up afterwards to sire Tony Stark. Though they do share the screen a few times, they are usually in group scenes and they share TWO lines of dialogue set about twenty minutes apart and in different countries.
 * Camp Rock has the pairing of Nate and Caitlyn which seems to be so for the sole of Caitlyn being straight and not alone. It still goes on even after Nate was given a love interest (and a bigger role) in the second film

Literature

 * Harry Potter's Loads and Loads of Characters are prone to this.
 * The most popular example might be Draco/Ginny, which was insanely popular for a while and still has a decent sized following, even though they only spoke twice in seven books, way back in Book 2, when Ginny told him "Leave him alone, he didn't want all that!" and later when Draco made fun of her Valentine to Harry. Though apparently the actual actors dated in real life.
 * Draco/Ginny is also used as a Beta Couple in Harry/Hermione stories, if the writer isn't feeling vindictive. As is Blaise/Ginny, which has even less canon to stand on as, except for being at the same parties during HBP, they don't interact at all.
 * It should be noted, though, that after Pansy Parkinson suggests that Blaise finds Ginny attractive, Blaise says that he wouldn't touch a filthy blood traitor like her whatever she looked like."
 * Sirius Black and Lucius Malfoy didn't exchange a single word in the novels. The sum total of their conversations in the films was "Get away from my godson!" "Black!" There's a pretty solid body of slash devoted to them, because a loving godfather and a man who wants to kill his godson have so much in common. (Of course, the popularity of this pairing is actually because they are played by Mr. Fanservice Gary Oldman and Jason Isaacs.)
 * As pointed out on the YMMV page for Half Blood Prince, Lupin/Tonks is a canon example of this trope. Subverted, actually, because that's mostly due to the books being written from Harry's POV.
 * Jon/Dany is probably one of the most popular ships in the A Song of Ice and Fire series, despite the fact they live on different continents and that the former has taken a vow of celibacy. It helps that they're probably the closest that the series has to protagonists, and may well be the "Ice" and "Fire" referred to in the title.
 * It's also expected that they'll have lots of interaction later on in the series considering that Jon has essentially dedicated his life to defending the realm against the Others and the popular theory that Dany is destined to fight them also.
 * There's also another popular theory that Jon is Dany's nephew...which doesn't stop the shipping, since that's actually less squicky than the average Canon pairing in the series. (Jaime/Cersei, anybody?)
 * Also some quite suggestive symbolic dreams.
 * An odder ship seen though is Arya/Edric Storm. They haven't even met yet.
 * This is actually the norm for Shipping in A Song of Ice and Fire, where politics play a major role, and arranged marriages are the norm. Aegon, for instance, is shipped variously with Dany, Sansa, Arienne Martell, or even Arya or Margaery Tyrell, despite having met none of them.
 * Sansa/Harry is probably the leading Sansa pairing after Sansa/Sandor, despite the fact that not only has Sansa not met Harry, neither have the readers. However, a marriage with Harry would give Sansa control of the Vale of Arryn, and a very good chance of reclaiming the North.
 * In Phantom of the Opera fanfiction, Erik/Meg is one of the more popular pairings. In the book he arranges her advancement in the ballet chorus (mostly to ensure the loyalty of her mother), and she finds his mask at the end of the musical, but they never meet and theories of any sort of attraction on either side are Wild Mass Guessing at best. (Meg does have a thing for him in the musical sequel Love Never Dies, but the less said of this, the better.)
 * Molly Carpenter/Carlos Ramirez is a fairly popular pairing in the The Dresden Files fandom. The sum total of their interactions consist of Carlos offering Molly a hand grenade.
 * One possible factor is Carlos having expressed his appreciation of Molly's looks to Harry and goes on about what he'd like to do with her. Though bear in mind that Carlos fancies himself a ladies' man and Molly is just that hot.
 * We never see them interact, sure, but we do see Harry's inner monologue, in which he suspects that they have a thing for each other. It's just as likely that Harry is only trying to believe this so he can believe that Molly's squickey crush on him is over, but it is there.
 * Atlanta Nights does this to itself. One chapter features two characters who have never spoken before or since running away to get married, and another has a character contemplating suicide over his unrequited love for a character he has never shared a scene with.

Live Action TV

 * Quite a few Law and Order SVU fans like to pair up John Munch and Casey Novak. Again, they haven't said much to each other, but one reporter does refer to them as "Mulder and Scully". Now, we all know what happened there.
 * Speaking of The X Files, one popular fanfic pairing is Skinner with Scully's mother.
 * On Heroes, Sylar and Heidi make for an interesting ship. They've never been seen to meet in the series, but the ship bears a dubiously canon odor due to two timelines in which Sylar murdered and impersonated Heidi's husband.
 * A lot of Heroes fans slash Mohinder Suresh and Adam Monroe, despite the fact that the two have never met in canon. Reasons include Mohinder's status as evil magnet, or the "British connection" stemming from the fanon idea that Mohinder went to boarding school in England... but mainly, the actors are just so freaking pretty. Not That There's Anything Wrong With That.
 * Claude/Sandra is another popular one. We've never seen them onscreen together, but Claude was HRG's partner at the Company and apparently his close friend, and Sandra is/was HRG's wife, so they most likely knew each other.
 * I Carly: iChristmas showed that Spencer/Mrs. Benson would have worked if Spencer was a little more normal.
 * In order to Pair the Spares, Buffy the Vampire Slayer fans have a tendency to do this. One favourite is the Dawn/Andrew ship, even though they've hardly ever talked and Andrew is in love with Spike.
 * This isn't actually that stupid, since Andrew has expressed a certain fondness for Dawn and she's practically fawning over him after he refuses to help the First.
 * There are a fair number of Angel crossovers (probably the majority of them set in season 7/4 in fact) that pair Dawn with Connor, most likely due to their closeness in ages. The two have yet to meet, even in the comics.
 * In keeping with that, there are also a number of Faith/Doyle fanfics. To point out the absurdity: Doyle is now dead. When he was alive - for the whole time he was on Angel - Faith was in a coma, far far away.
 * And let's not even start on Spike/Tara, who traded words maybe once, and Spike/Willow, who had maybe three onscreen conversations over the course of the show (though to be fair, one of those conversations was full of Does This Remind You of Anything).
 * Connor/Drusilla showed up occasionally post-Season 4; despite them never having met this one actually made some sense. Her psychic/prophetic abilities might enable her to become aware of his existence, and he was the only surviving person she could consider "family" who hadn't turned on her already. Plus without his memories he wouldn't immediately try to kill her.
 * In NCIS there is a ship called Kiva - Kate/Ziva. They lived in completely different countries, and never met. And . This does not seem to deter fans of Les Yay.
 * Star Trek Voyager fandom once had a large sect interested in pairing up minor crew members Joseph Carey and Samantha Wildman, though he only appeared in the first season (and then in a time-traveling fifth season episode) and she wasn't introduced until the second. It was a great disappointment to them when Carey was killed in the last season.
 * Of course, in a crew of about one hundred and fifty people spending several years on the wrong side of the galaxy without contact with people back home, it's not unreasonable to assume that everyone has at least met each other.
 * For Glee, pairing Kurt with Mike Chang (Other Asian) would make much more sense than the proposed boyfriend being cast for him. They don't have a lot of interaction and it may be a case of Pair the Spares, but there are hints of it in the show, intentional or not.
 * And among the fandom, Jesse seems to get shipped with Quinn a lot, despite the fact that the two have only spoken once.
 * Glee actually made a successful example by having Mike date Tina in season 2 after they made out at Asian Camp. Mike was Living Scenary at the time but the two actually are the most successful couple in the show's history having never broken up.
 * A large contingent of the Supernatural fandom ships Sam/Gabriel despite the hostile nature of their few canon interactions, presumably because the ship is a good mirror for the Dean/Castiel ship. This is rarely framed as Foe Yay. Perhaps more surprising is the small but growing support for Meg/Castiel (who were on screen together for all of thirty seconds) and Gabriel/Crowley (who never shared a scene).
 * Someone was paying attention to these crack pairings,  way to fuel the flames show writers.
 * Joike. In canon, they've had under five minutes of screen time together. They still have 'shippers.
 * Super Sentai has a few of these, since many fans like to Pair the Spares for the whole team. Notable examples are Takeru/Momoko in Hikari Sentai Maskman and Hiroto/Saki in Engine Sentai Go-onger, even though both "couples" hardly talk to each other and don't get a focus episode together.
 * Power Rangers has had it's fair share of these over the years. Two of the bigger examples are probably Tori/Kira, who only appeared in four episodes together. (Or either of them with any of their teammates during Operation Overdrive.) And Tommy/Taylor, who never even appeared on screen together, but the actors portrayed a canon couple... on a completely different show.
 * The Sherlock series has Mycroft/Lestrade, as illustrated by this video. It wasn't clear that either of them even knew the other existed until mid-series 2, when Sherlock accused Lestrade of being sent to Baskerville by Mycroft (which Lestrade denied).
 * The ship Moriarty/Moran takes this trope to an extreme - Moran has not even appeared in this show, as of the end of series 2.
 * From Merlin: Morgana and Sir Leon. Leon was introduced in the second season and had no scenes whatsoever with Morgana in the second or third series, yet it still gained quite a number of followers. This changed in the finale of season three in which Leon . The increase in shippers went up exponentially.
 * On the third generation of Skins, there is a rare canon example with Franky and Matty, who have exchanged relatively few lines for people who are supposedly destined to be together.
 * There are lots of fandom examples too. Cook/Katie, Effy/Emily, James/Paddy, Tony/Cassie, etc. There are even some across the generations, like Tony/Katie and Naomi/Michelle.
 * In the Sy Fy miniseries Tin Man fandom, the most popular Beta Couple to Cain/DG seems to be Glitch and Azkadellia, despite the fact that they meet (as adults) exactly twice in the series--oh, and that bit about her cutting out half his brain and putting it in a jar.
 * The Grimm fandom features a sizeable fan base for Barry Raeb/Roddy Piper. The two have never met and would most likely be natural enemies (one is a bear, the other is a rat), but they are both Cute but Troubled.
 * There is an anthology of Suite Life On Deck stories called The Strange Love Collection which exists pretty on this trope. Examples include Alex Russo and London's Stalker With a Crush Corrie, Addison and the Russian chess champ Sasha and Bailey and Jessica (which actually preceded their Les Yay in a later episode
 * Both BAMF & dressed for business, Elijah & Pearl

Theatre

 * The Twenty Fifth Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee's fandom ships Leaf/Logainne and Chip/Marcy, despite the fact that they don't really talk.
 * one fic has the characters recognising each other in later events.

Video Games

 * Pokémon Colosseum has Afroshipping, Flint from Diamond and Pearl x Mirror B. These two characters have not and will never meet. They both have afros, though.
 * Fire Emblem: Rekka no Ken fandom was quite fond of Wil/Florina for a while.
 * Star Ocean Till the End of Time has Albel and Nel, two soldiers from warring kingdoms. Plenty of opportunities for Foe Yay, but they mostly ignore each other in the script. Doesn't stop the shippers from using Albel as the Straight Option for Nel.
 * In this pairing's defense, it's actually somewhat logical, given both make great Foils for the other, but given the game only has Nel comment on Albel disdainfully and Albel generally doesn't give a crap about anything outside of stabbing his enemies to death and pursuing a rivalry with Fayt, you'd have to have a third party intervene to make it work, and the usual fanfic cliche is to have them get married for political reasons (which, given the plot, would make sense).
 * Any and all Organization XIII shipping in the Kingdom Hearts fandom. It's not so bad for the members who appear in Chain of Memories, but the members in Kingdom Hearts 2 have essentially no interaction and only appear by themselves. The Director's Cut edition adds a few scenes between them, but all they do is growl about The Plan.
 * 358/2 Days may help with this, provided you're not trying to ship the Castle Oblivion group and don't mind emotionless hatesex. However, it still doesn't explain the absurd popularity of the Zexion/Demyx ship. Never in any of the games do the two of them ever interact with one another.
 * Hence the wonder that is AU fanfiction.
 * Joshyme (Joshua/Rhyme) is a very popular pairing in the fandom of The World Ends With You, despite the fact that they never met at any point in the game. They are actually the only two of the five main characters who have never met; everyone else has at least seen each other at one point or another.
 * Even more popular seems to be Minamimoto/Rhyme. Given that, this is slightly mystifying.
 * Phoenix Wright has quite a few, but one that sticks out is Mike Meekins and Maggey Byrde.
 * Due to Pair the Spares, Waluigi and Rosalina of Super Mario fame are often portrayed as a couple.
 * Thanks to it's origins as a Shmup, the vast majority of Touhou characters have never interacted or shown evidence of being aware of each other. Thus, almost all possible ships are like this. On the plus side, the fandom is fairly sane and prefers to ship people who at least have reason to know each other... though sometimes this takes the form of having adjacent stages in gameplay that may be miles apart in canon. Most exceptions tend to be bad jokes (eg. shipping the bug girl with the plant lady) or instances of a Little Black Dress.
 * The Baten Kaitos fanfiction page has quite a few popular yaoi fics, a majority of them being about Kalas and Lyude, even though Kalas gives no indication of liking the latter, and vice-versa.
 * The website Legacy of Kain fansite Bleeding Beauty, devoted to the character Umah from Blood Omen 2, makes a case for Umah/Magnus, two characters that never meet in the game (after considering pairing her with every other character in the game).
 * Ky/Dizzy, of all pairings, managed Official Couple status. Since the latter is incapacitated, they don't even interact much in the game that reveals this!
 * That's fixed later, in some endings that have quite a bit of Ship Tease. I.e., one of them has Dizzy seeking for someone able to help her train and control her powers, and the one who gave her a hand on that was Ky.
 * Theoretically, shipping almost any party member in Mass Effect with anyone but Shepard will result in this. This effectively means that Garrus/Tali is exactly as possible as Grunt/Jacob, which in turn is as likely as Legion/Mordin or any combination of the above.
 * The above gains a certain hilarity in Mass Effect 3 where
 * Party members, at least, can be chosen to go on missions together - at the very least, they serve together on a ship with a very small crew. More difficult to justify is the surprisingly popular pairing of Oriana/Kolyat - relatives of different party members, who never interact with each other, barely interact with the player character, and live on different planets, and seem to be paired up largely due to being the only teenagers in the game.
 * In Sonic the Hedgehog, Tails and Cream is a popular pairing. However, the two do not interact, and Tails' stance on romance would make things... Not work.
 * Shadow and Amy is astonishingly popular considering how little the two interact.

Webcomics

 * Abe and Kroenen centers around Abe Sapien and Karl Reprecht Kroenen, two characters from Hellboy getting together in a secret post-film romance, even though they never shared a scene.
 * Thanks to the power of well-written Crack Fanfiction, Redcloak/Vaarsuvius has a following. The two haven't spoken directly to each other once and are on opposite sides, but they have a lot in common. It works.
 * Of course, Vaarsuvius has been shipped with just about the entire cast, as well as Mr. Spock. It helps that (s)he can be written any way the fanon wants.
 * Quasi-in-universe example: At one point, Elan tells Haley that when she gets back to normal, she can make out with any of the strip's recurring villains she wants. The name of the strip in question is "We Recommend Tsukiko." Given that Haley and Tsukiko have only had one major interaction (the fight beneath Azure City), this counts.
 * Homestuck fans have a big habit of taking advantage of the Loads and Loads of Characters, Love Dodecahedron and many bisexual characters for shipping purposes, leading to many of these. Probably the most significant is John/Eridan, a moderately popular ship between two characters who have not once interacted in canon yet.
 * By a very strict reading of this trope, even Dirk/Jake could technically qualify, because as of the end of Act 6 Act 2 the two have not yet directly interacted in canon once. However, they are best friends, Dirk canonically has a crush on Jake,, meaning that the pairing somehow manages to be this trope and yet have absolute buckets of Ship Tease simultaneously.

Web Original

 * Ask That Guy and Dr. Insano are a popular ship in the TGWTG fandom. They have yet to interact onscreen together. Pity, because when one is a Canon Depraved Omnisexual and the other is a Mad Scientist and they're both fiendishly evil, you can imagine they'd hit it off right away.
 * Also with Ask That Guy, shipping him with The Nostalgia Chick seems pretty popular. We think it would probably has something to do with the fact that she could easily kick his ass if they ever met. Possibly.
 * And with Ask That Guy again, lets be honest, him and The Nostalgia Critic. While its pretty easy to see Ask That Guy wanting to bang someone who looks exactly like him, the characters have exchanged like five lines of dialog. But suddenly in fanfic, they're incestuous twins who are ridiculously co-dependent and the Critic is usually Ask That Guy's fuck-and-torture toy.
 * As soon as Dr. Tease's evilness became apparent, people started shipping her with Dr. Insano.

Western Animation

 * In Avatar: The Last Airbender,
 * Toph/the Duke and Toph/Teo are popular Ship Mates for the canon pairings. Unfortunately, the only evidence for the former is Duke letting Toph use his helmet as a barf bag during "The Day of Black Sun" and a hug in the finale. (during the finale commentary, the creators coyly point out the hug) There's hardly any at all for the latter.
 * Jet/Zuko could be considered this as well, as they only interacted in a couple of episodes, but became a popular slash pairing due to heavy amounts of Subtext (specially coming from Jet's Ho Yay towards Zuko).
 * Ursa, meet Hakoda, Hakoda, meet Ursa, I think you'll get along great. Oh yeah, we ship Ursoda. Theme Pairing: opposite-gender single parents of two major characters each. Pulled off exceptionally well here.
 * Azula and Toph are starting to gain a small fanbase. The two only talk once, in the Day of the Black Sun, when Azula proves she can get past Toph's Living Lie Detector ability. This is due in part to popular fan theories painting them both as lesbians.
 * Some Zutarians like to ship off Mai with Jet,  Though I won't limit it to just Zutarians or just Mai. Jet's really into complete strangers, some say...
 * June/Combustion Man anyone?
 * The Zutara ship started out this way. Yes, they ran into each other half a dozen times in the first season, but with the exception of one scene where Zuko trying to barter Katara's necklace for Aang, he never even spoke to her. The second season was even worse. It wasn't until the cave that Zuko and Katara had any real interaction with each other, but the Zutara ship was already running strong.
 * June/Piandao is another one that's been appearing recently.
 * Haru/Ty Lee were paired in the Super Deformed Shorts, despite the fact they never met in the canon.
 * As for Sequel Series The Legend of Korra, there's a surprising amount of Jinora/Skoochy fic. One is Tenzin's Cute Bookworm airbender daughter and the other's a street rat who trades information for money, and naturally they've never met; they just happen to be the only ones in their age group.
 * Robin/Raven used to be this way in Teen Titans fandom. Of all the Titans, they interacted the least, yet people liked pairing them up because they liked the aesthetics of it: both were the darkest Titans, both were named after birds so writers could do a contrived "birds of a feather" metaphor, etc. It wasn't until the Trigon Story Arc where Raven started confiding in Robin more and scenes like Robin rescuing a mindraped and clothing-torn Raven that shippers finally had decent canon stuff to write off of.
 * A slightly more extreme example is Blackfire and Red X. Never met, but each is the Evil Counterpart to the official couple of Robin and Starfire.
 * Even more extreme is Slarella - Slade and Arella. One is an enemy of the Titans living in their dimensions, and the other is the mother of a Titan living in an alternate dimension.
 * Flippy/Splendid from the Happy Tree Friends has a surprising following, especially in the japanese fandom, in spite of the fact that the two have never met. One of the reasons may be that people always wanted them to fight each other, so that they could see who would win, which earned them a lot of popularity. In Japan, it is probably the most popular pairing after Flippy/Flaky and Handy/Petunia.
 * Nutty/Flaky is quite popular as well, even though they've probably interacted only once and that was when Nutty acted like a complete jerk to her.
 * Pop/Disco Bear is also surprisingly popular, which is weird because they've never even been in the same episode.
 * South Park has many strange couples in fandom and some of them are really popular. For example, Craig/Tweek is the most popular crack pairing and the most popular pairing after Stan/Kyle and Cartman/Kyle, even though they have interacted only in one episode.
 * Another fairly popular crack pairing is Damien/Pip. The two only appeared in an episode together, for a few moments, during Damien bullied Pip and set him on fire. Guess why they are shipped together.
 * One that there's more than a few shippers for is Stan and Ike despite the interaction between the two being nothing more than Ike being the little brother of Stan's best friend. Can get into Squick territory thanks to a 6 year age difference.
 * Kenny/Butters is surprisingly popular; while you do see them hanging around each other quite a bit, they don't actually interact - Kenny interacts a lot more with Kyle, and Butters with Cartman. The only justification seems to be that they're both blonds.
 * Total Drama Island crack fans will pair just about anyone together, so there are several popular examples of this: Izzy/Ezekiel, Noah/Katie, DJ/Eva, Tyler/Gwen, Cody/Bridgette, Cody/Sadie and DJ/Sierra, all of which have had little to no on-screen interactions.
 * Don't forget Billy the Intern/Emily The Flight Attendant from the fourth aftermath of Action.
 * Trent and Courtney are becoming a popular fanon couple despite barely interacting in canon (in fact Trent may be the contestant Courtney has talked to least on the whole show.) Helping them is that they are Ship Mates for people who want to see Gwen and Duncan together.
 * A rare canon example of this trope: in the Yukon episode Courtney suggests they huddle together for warmth. Cody immediately tries to get with Gwen (instead winding up with Sierra), several girls latch onto Alejandro...and Noah suddenly hugs Bridgette while smiling contentedly, even though the two had never interacted before. Just a quick bit of Ship Tease, but if one is a crack shipper, it was highly amusing.
 * Out of the three main fan pairings in Ben 10, only Gwen/Kevin was like this at first, as the Ben/Gwen and Ben/Kevin shippers had plenty of evidence to back themselves up. The writers may have caught on to this, and paired Gwen and Kevin off awkwardly in Ben 10 Alien Force to sink the Bwen and Bwevin shippers. This was so forced it had the effect of stopping approximately no-one.
 * In the case of Phineas and Ferb, this likely would apply to Ferb & Gretchen (the Fireside Girl who wears glasses). Despite Ferb's Precocious Crush on Vanessa and the fact that he and Gretchen have never truly interacted onscreen, it's a very popular ship in the fandom
 * Just try to tell some of the Wolverine and The X Men fans that Forge and Toad have never so much as been in the same room together. That doesn't stop them from being rather plausible if they ever did meet, or the fact that their ship is hands-down the cutest one in the fandom.
 * Their ship is so popular, it has a Live Journal community dedicated to it now.
 * Transformers Animated. Prowl and Blackarachnia only met once But given his Friend to All Living Things and her self-loathing for her technorganic Body Horror had a strange appeal for fans as the one to bringing her 'round not only for a Heel Face Turn but for her to accept herself. He could have brought out the good like Silverbolt did for the original BA in Beast Wars.
 * A very extreme, disturbing example is a fanart involving Blurr/Longarm, despite the fact the only interaction those two characters ever had was when the former was killed by the latter.
 * Transformers Prime has Knock-out and Arcee. The two of them barely spoken and have little interaction with each other, and the little they have is hostile. Yet this seems to be the fan favorite pairing if fanfiction has anything to say about it.
 * Bonus: Knock-Out is heavily implied to be gay. Arcee is female. Genders are nominally meaningless among Transformers, sure, but the shipping community voids that rule by its very nature.
 * Invader Zim offers the odd example with Dib/Gretchen. They only interact in about two episodes, and in one of them Gretchen doesn't even speak. However, that silent appearance makes it very clear that she has a crush on him. It comes nowhere near Zim/Dib or Dib/Tak in popularity, but the ship has its supporters for being the most "normal" and only real canon couple on the show.
 * In Fairly Oddparents, Chester and Trixie is a moderately popular ship. The rationale for pairing them is that they both work for the school newspaper, aside from being a good Pair the Spares couple if you ship Timmy with somebody else.
 * Chester and Veronica too.
 * A fair number of Danny Phantom fans support Dani/Youngblood, even though they never meet in the series. The logic is that they're the only two recurring "kid" characters; everyone else is a teenager or adult.
 * A lot of The Princess and The Frog fans seem to ship Charlotte LaBouff and Dr. Facilier, even if they never canonically interacted. This also ignores the detail of Facilier trying to kill Lottie's beloved father.
 * Daria has a few examples--some fans ship Ted with Stacy, for example, based on their similarly kind and intelligent personalities. Mr. DeMartino / Ms. Defoe, the most notable teachers to still be single at the end of the series, are also sometimes paired together.
 * A small number of Hey Arnold fans pair Brainy/Lila as a Ship Mates for Helga/Arnold. It's Pair the Spares to be sure, but when you consider that Lila liked Arnie, who's possibly even weirder than Brainy, it actually makes a bit of sense.
 * In the season 22 finale of The Simpsons, Ned Flanders and Edna Krabappel, two of the few characters in the show's large cast who have never interacted, start dating.
 * In My Little Pony Friendship Is Magic, Soarin' once bought a pie from Applejack. They're a fairly popular ship. There isn't much else to say.
 * Those fans seeking an alternative to the yuri pairings that make up the majority of MLP ships often have to resort to...unorthodox options; Twilight Sparkle/Doctor Whooves and Pinkie Pie/Pokey Pierce are among the more sane ones, and even they make use of background ponies whose actual personalities and relationships with the main characters are tenuous at best.
 * Applejack's cousing Braeburn has appeared in one episode, and lives very far from everyone else, but since had lines, a discernable personality and is male, he appears in a lot of ships - though not only straight ones, but also to fill out the low yaoi quota in Ponyville and to be the one a main character tries to have a straight relationship with before they realise the prefer mares. Presumably he does a lot of travelling.
 * Speaking of which Big Macintosh hasn't spoken to many ponies apart from his sister, however since he is (other than Spike) the only recurring male character he gets shipped around a lot.
 * Twilight's misfired spell in "Lesson Zero" gives Mac plenty of shipping fodder, but he still hasn't actually interacted with all that many.
 * A particularly popular Big Mac ship is Big Mac/Fluttershy. This is probably due to the fact that both are fairly quiet and seem to like nature, but they've never really interacted at all.
 * Another popular ship is Discord/Celestia, due to the dialogue they do share, and the fact that Discord is the only other major character outside of Luna and Celestia that seems to be able to live several thousands of years. It has three groups dedicated to it on Deviant ART.
 * Lyra Heartstrings and [ are seen together often enough that it gives the fans ideas.
 * An especially odd example (if only because of how popular it is) is the shipping between DJ Pon-3/Vinyl Scratch and Octavia. It started with fans juxtiposing the two for humorous effect since they represent conflicting musical aesthetics, however the sheer amount of such fan art was enough to get the gears turning for the community's shippers, to the point that a large chunk of fan art involving the two is now shipping art (as well as several fan fictions). DJ Pon-3 also has a growing Shipdom with Neon Lights/EmCee W1SH, who in popular fanon is seen as another musician who has a friendly rivalry with DJ Pon-3. It should be noted that DJ Pon-3 has yet to appear in the same scene as either of her two most popular shipmates, only appearing in the same episode as Neon Lights in the Season 2 finale and only appearing with Octavia in The Merch.
 * X Men Evolution's Pietro and X-23 is a very popular ship. But so is Kurt and X-23. This is despite X-23's closest interaction with Kurt being off screen and involving her knocking him out; her and Pietro's closest interaction in the series only happening in people's imaginations; and each character's personality being completely different. If the characters did interact without first having a LARGE dose of Character Development first, it would either end with X-23 killing Pietro for making a wise ass remark, or X-23 killing Kurt for not being serious enough in a situation. Kitty and Pietro is slightly saner, but even more jarring as the two have interacted, and by 'interacted' we mean Pietro insults her, she glares at him, and once threatens him. Let's just say X-23 couldn't be shipped with anyone as she has a very unique personality and the only three people she was shown on screen with were either being knocked out, are dead, or her genetic template and the closest thing to a father.
 * Recess fans tend to ship Hustler Kid x Butch...despite the fact that the two hardly interact in the series.
 * on Young Justice, Lagoon Boy had about a minute of screen time before he was lip locked with Miss Martian, who most people thought was still in a relationship with Superboy. While the 5 year time skip made a relationship shakeup plausible, obody saw it coming.

Real Life

 * Alexis Denisof (who played Wesley on Buffy the Vampire Slayer and Angel) married Alyson Hannigan, who played Willow on those shows. The two characters barely spoke to each other within the show, so this is perhaps a real life example of something like this happening!
 * They started dating after Denisof's move to the spinoff show Angel, in which Hannigan has appeared in only three episodes. As a guest star. One of those appearances count as the only time Wesley and Willow have ever had a canon conversation.
 * Amber Benson, who played Tara, and Adam Busch, who played Warren, have been dating for nearly a decade. They only interacted together once on the show, and even that was more Warren's bullet interacting with Tara's chest.
 * The above also happened with Mariska Hargitay and Peter Hermann of Law and Order SVU, the former of whom is Olivia Benson, and the latter of whom is the recurring defense attorney Trevor Langan. Hargitay and Hermann are married in real life, but they barely speak to each other on the show. Hilariously, Langan was a temporary love interest for ADA Alexandra Cabot; this gets interesting when you think about the large numbers of people who ship Alex/Olivia...
 * Don't forget the fact that the main ship and source of UST is between Hargitay and Meloni's characters...
 * And Now for Something Completely Different: The Bondareva-Shapley theorem in Game Theory was independently discovered during the sixties by Lloyd Shapley and Olga Bondareva, the star-crossed, er, co-authors. They had in all probability never even heard of one another during their lifetimes because of the Cold War. Given that they were married to other people, no significant support of shipping them has emerged. Yet. Thankfully.
 * On The Vampire Diaries, there was a relationship between Candice Accola (Caroline) and Steven Mcqueen (Jeremy). The characters rarely ever spoke