Ships That Pass in the Night: Difference between revisions

{{trope}}

 

 

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.

 

 

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

 

{{examples}}

== Anime and Manga ==

* Many of the ''[[Pokémon (anime)|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.

** This may have something to do with the fact that [[Theme Pairing|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).

** 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 [[Pair the Spares|removes the two competing love interests]] for the the Naruto/Sakura pairing.

** Also, Naruto with ''[[Launcher of a Thousand Ships|nearly every female and male character]]''.

** '''[[Toy Ship|Konohamaru/Hanabi]]''' seems growing ''too'' well [[Pair the Spares|as side pairing]] in the Naruto [[Ficdom]] mostly for the sake of [[Generation Xerox]] ([[Ship-to-Ship Combat|cough-Naru/Hina-cough]]).

** Although Sakura gets shipped with [[Launcher of a Thousand Ships|pretty much everyone]], the new favorite person seem to be ''Itachi'', of all people. This probably has to do with [[The Reveal]] that {{spoiler|he was actually a good guy all along... [[Knight Templar|sort]] [[Draco in Leather Pants|of]] }} and the fact that {{spoiler|Sasuke has become an evil bastard ([[Nice Job Breaking It, Hero|ironically... thanks to Itachi]]).}}

*** 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, {{spoiler|a wounded soldier [[Florence Nightingale Effect|confessed he'd fallen in love with her after she treated his wounds.]] Given that she's one of the top medics, it's unlikely that was the only time that happened.}} There's a reason she's a [[Launcher of a Thousand Ships]].

* 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 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 {{spoiler|how much of Shinji's mom's genetic material you think was used to make Rei.}}

** 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 [[Ho Yay|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]].

** 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? [[All There in the Manual|Even in the supplementary materials]]?

** 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 [[Girls Love|Fate/Nanoha]] or resorting to more... [[Die for Our Ship|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 [[Real Life|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 [[Axis Powers Hetalia/Ships That Pass in The Night|here]]

*** 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.

** 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.

** 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 no Naku Koro ni|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.

** Sakaki doesn't talk much at all, so there's that too. And they do talk a little at least once ([[Crowning Moment of Funny|"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.

*** 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.

* ''[[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 {{spoiler|Ikusa was the one who released Athena from her [[Gilded Cage]].}}

* Back in the day, Matt and Mimi from ''[[Digimon Adventure|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 [[Fan-Preferred Couple|chemistry]]), TK and Kari because they were the two [[Toy Ship|youngest]], and Matt and Mimi because... they were [[Pair the Spares|the only boy-girl pair left]]. There were Izzy and Joe, of course, but they were both [[Hollywood Nerd|really nerdy]], and weren't [[Troubled but Cute]] like Matt. (And yes, this meant that Izzy and Joe were often [[Slash Fic|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.

* ''[[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 [[OTP|Heero/Relena]] (at least among those who don't want Relena to [[Die for Our Ship|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 [[The Stoic|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]].

* ''[[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 [[Pair the Spares|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.

* One of the more hilarious plot twists in the most recent ''[[Haruhi Suzumiya]]'' novels was the revelation that {{spoiler|[[Casanova Wannabe|Taniguchi]] once dated [[Humanoid Abomination|Kuyou]] for a short time.}} The two had never interacted before this and the pairing was [[Crack Pairing|so out there]] that this could be considered a canon example.

* [[Loveless]] fans have the suprisingly popular [[Perpetual Smiler|Kio]]/[[Ill Boy|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 [[Blue Beetle|Ted Kord]] with Michelle Carter, his [[Booster Gold|best friend's]] twin sister. Despite the fact that they've never met, because [[Death Is Cheap|one of them was usually dead at the time]].

 

== Film ==

** So has Loki/Jane.

*** Mind you, he did allude to be willing to do nasty things to her in order to [[Berserk Button|get a rise out of Thor]].

*** Which is nothing compared to her being frequently shipped with [[Captain America: The First Avenger|Steve Rogers]].

 

== Literature ==

** 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, [[Sarcasm Mode|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]].)

* 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 [[Celibate Hero|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.

** Also some quite suggestive symbolic dreams.

** An odder ship seen though is Arya/Edric Storm. They haven't even met yet.

* 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 [[Casanova Wannabe|fancies himself a ladies' man]] and Molly [[Hello, Nurse!|is just that hot]].

 

== Live Action TV ==

** Speaking of ''[[The X-Files]]'', one popular fanfic pairing is Skinner with Scully's mother.

* On ''[[Heroes (TV series)|Heroes]]'', Sylar and Heidi make for an interesting ship. They've never been seen to meet in the series, but the ship bears a [[Unfortunate Implications|dubiously canon odor]] due to two timelines in which Sylar murdered and impersonated Heidi's husband.

** A lot of ''[[Heroes (TV series)|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 [[Horrible Judge of Character|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.

* 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 [[Ambiguously Gay|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 ( {{spoiler|the whole nine episodes}}) 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 {{spoiler|Kate dies before Ziva arrives on the show}}. This does not seem to deter fans of [[Les Yay]].

* 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.

* 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, {{spoiler|in season 6, Meg and Cas meet for roughly 30 more seconds, except this time they make out}} way to fuel the flames show writers.

* 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.

* The ''[[Grimm (TV)|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]].

* Both BAMF & dressed for business, [[The Vampire Diaries|Elijah & Pearl]]

 

== Theatre ==

* ''[[The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee]]'''s fandom ships Leaf/Logainne and Chip/Marcy, despite the fact that they don't really talk.

 

== Video Games ==

* ''[[Fire Emblem]]: Rekka no Ken'' fandom was quite fond of Wil/Florina for a while.

* 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 [[The Omniscient Council of Vagueness|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.

* 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.

** 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'' [[Player Character|Shepard]] will result in this. This effectively means that [[Friendly Sniper|Garrus]]/[[Wrench Wench|Tali]] is exactly as possible as [[Blood Knight|Grunt]]/[[Only Sane Man|Jacob]], which in turn is as likely as [[Hive Mind|Legion]]/[[Omnidisciplinary Scientist|Mordin]] or ''any combination of the above''.

** 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]], [[Toy Ship|Tails and Cream]] is a popular pairing. However, the two do not interact, and Tails' [[Girls Have Cooties|stance on romance]] would make things... Not work.

 

 

** Of course, Vaarsuvius has been shipped with [[Launcher of a Thousand Ships|just about the entire cast]], as well as [[Star Trek: The Original Series|Mr. Spock]]. It helps that [[Ambiguous Gender|(s)he]] can be written [[Ho Yay|any]] [[Les Yay|way]] [[Heterosexual Life Partners|the]] [[Bi the Way|fanon]] [[Gender Bender|wants]].

** [[No Fourth Wall|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 [[Dark Magical Girl|Tsukiko]]." Given that Haley and Tsukiko have only had one major interaction (the fight beneath Azure City), this counts.

** 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, {{spoiler|and Jake canonically has some degree of romantic feelings for Dirk, however small}}, meaning that the pairing somehow manages to be this trope and yet have absolute ''buckets'' of [[Ship Tease]] simultaneously.

 

 

== Western Animation ==

** [[Toy Ship|Toph/the Duke]] and Toph/Teo are popular [[Ship Mates]] for the [[Official Couple|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 [[Trolling Creator|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).

** 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 [[Alternative Character Interpretation|popular fan theories painting them both as lesbians]].

** Some Zutarians like to ship off [[Deadpan Snarker|Mai]] with Jet, {{spoiler|Despite the fact that Jet's dead and they've never met.}} Though I won't limit it to just Zutarians or just Mai. Jet's really into complete strangers, some say...

** 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.

** 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, [[Ho Yay|Craig/Tweek]] is the most popular crack pairing and the most popular pairing after Stan/Kyle and [[Foe Yay|Cartman/Kyle]], even though they have interacted only in one episode.

** Another fairly popular crack pairing is [[The Antichrist|Damien]]/Pip. The two only appeared in an episode together, for a few moments, during Damien bullied Pip and set him on fire. [[No Yay|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.

** Don't forget [[Fan Nickname|Billy the Intern]]/[[Fan Nickname|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.

* In the case of ''[[Phineas and Ferb]]'', this likely would apply to Ferb & Gretchen (the Fireside Girl who [[Meganekko|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 [[Ditzy Genius|Forge]] and [[Ugly Cute|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.

* [[Transformers Animated]]. Prowl and Blackarachnia only met once {{spoiler|and all she did was poison him so she could manipulate Optimus.}} 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 [[Knight in Shining Armor|Silverbolt]] did for the original [[Dark Action Girl|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.

* 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 lot of ''[[The Princess and the Frog]]'' fans seem to ship [[Spoiled Sweet|Charlotte LaBouff]] and [[Witch Doctor|Dr. Facilier]], even if they never canonically interacted. This also ignores the detail of Facilier trying to kill Lottie's beloved father.

* In the season 22 finale of ''[[The Simpsons]]'', Ned Flanders and Edna Krabappel, two of the few characters in the show's [[Loads and Loads of Characters|large cast]] who have never interacted, start dating.

* In ''[[My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic|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.

*** 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 [[The Quiet One|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.

*** 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 [[Foe Yay|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]].

* ''[[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 [[Jerkass|each]] [[Fun Personified|character's]] [[Woobie, Destroyer of Worlds|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 [[Squick|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 (animation)|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 ==

{{reflist}}

[[Category:Shipping Tropes]]

[[Category:YMMV Trope]]