Abandon Shipping is a fandom trope referring to when an event, or series of events, leads to a Shipping fandom to abandon a pairing en masse, irrespective of the ongoing canon or non-canon status of the pairing in the work.
Some Shippers are die-hard. They'll go through everything; Fire, Ice, Lightning, nuclear explosions, you name it, but they're still sticking by their One True Pairing no matter what. Even death is only a minor setback, thanks to the Alternate Timeline.
Then there are the other types who, when a new plot development occurs and changes what we knew about one of these characters, leap off the ship and swim for shore (or, most likely in this metaphor, towards another boat) without even bothering to grab a lifejacket. Maybe it's because a character had a deep dark secret or did something terrible that severely makes people question their ability to even be in a relationship. Maybe they're really siblings, otherwise blood-related, or maybe there's some sort of other aspect to their relationship that suddenly Squicks people. Maybe it is revealed a character has an Incompatible Orientation. Some will even drop a pairing because the fans are rabid. Or maybe shippers have just plain lost interest, with a pairing not suddenly being disliked, but rather another pairing suddenly becoming much more appealing. Whatever the case, when it suddenly seems like the former Shippers have dropped off the face of the Earth, they have Abandoned Ship.
There are also notable subversions, though. What would seem like a cause to Abandon Shipping to any outside observer not only doesn't have that effect but actually makes the Shippers fight harder for it. This is especially the case where theories about who will end up with who are Jossed or declared invalid by Word of God. And of course, there are those who are into more fringe pairings like Incest Yay Shipping, for whom such revelations might endear those fans to the pairing even more. Also take note of those within Shipping fandom for which shipping isn't serious business, and simply have fun shipping for shipping's sake. This group never cared about the actual viability of their pairing to begin with, so unless they lose interest on their own, they'll remain on that ship regardless of what comes.
See Ship Sinking for when the creators of a work introduce something into the canon of a work that is explicitly intended to stop the development of a pairing, to break up a pairing, or to destroy any likelihood of that pairing becoming canon. Ship Sinking is not at all guaranteed to cause Abandon Shipping though. Shipping Bed Death is when this occurs because the shippers got their wish and then found their dream wasn't what it was cracked up to be.
Compare No Yay, which can lead to this if it's not there one moment and then shows up with little warning in the next.
Not to Be Confused with Abandon Ship, which was this trope's previous name.
Please don't use this page as a way of complaining about pairings you don't like. While no citations are needed, any instances of Abandon Shipping should be verifiable through observation of fanworks and fan communities and not just hearsay.
Examples:
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Anime & Manga
- Attack on Titan: The revelation that Mikasa and Levi share the same last name has caused that particular ship to be scuttled. Later revelations confirm that they're related, which further sunk it.
- Berserk: Some fans of Griffith/Guts and Griffith/Casca immediately jumped ship after the Eclipse went down. The readers had known from the beginning that Griffith was destined to become the demon lord Femto, but it was discovering how he got there — and what he personally did to Guts and Casca both — that killed both ships stone dead.
- Bleach: Many fans abandoned the Shunsui and Nanao ship when it was revealed that they're uncle and niece through his older brother.
- Blood-C: Saya and Tokizane ship had sunk when it's revealed that Tokizane is a Grade A asshole who only join the experiment just for money and is disgusted of Saya's true nature. It sunk further when Fumito had the most of the cast, including Tokizane, brutally killed and nobody misses him.
- Blood+: The fandom’s small group of Saya/Diva shippers died off after Diva raped Saya's adoptive brother Riku to become pregnant and then killed him. Apparently, this was enough to kill off the "Evil Twincest" fandom that had sprung up.
- In Bungo Stray Dogs, Gin/Tachihara used to have a small but devoted following. Then chapter 68 rolled along, in which Tachihara stabbed Gin and later revealed himself as The Mole, and people dropped the ship. However, later chapters revealed that Tachihara had become attached to his position in the Port Mafia and had made sure to wound Gin non-fatally, even visiting her in the hospital afterwards, bringing the shippers back with a vengeance.
- Danganronpa 3:
- Chisa/Juzo and Juzo/Ruruka both lost a lot of followers once Juzo was revealed to be gay and in love with Munakata.
- Mikan/Junko was a ship since the previous installment of the franchise, but the fact that their relationship is portrayed as Domestic Abuse and Mikan was brainwashed at the time made it all go straight into Fan Disservice and Nightmare Fuel territory and everybody dropped the ship.
- Some who were on board with the Makoto/Mukuro ship as shown in IF jumped ship once Mukuro executed the Cold-Blooded Torture against Chisa. Even some of those left on the ship after that jumped when Side: Despair Episode 11 had her derogatorily refer to him as a "loser".
- Death Parade: Ginti and Mayu seemed to be a Beta Couple to Decim and his assistant's partnership, as both duos had unfeeling male arbiters and female humans who taught them about human feelings. Ginti and Mayu's antics and character interaction were so amusing that fans forgot what show they were actually watching and were caught off guard in the penultimate episode where Ginti sends Mayu to the Void.
- The Familiar of Zero: More than one Louise/Saitou fan abandoned the ship when, in the second novel, Louise's beatings of Saitou went from Running Gag to downright Domestic Abuse, what with Louise using a real whip on Saitou and making him pass out from the pain after she beat him the last night. Quite a few other people bailed on the pairing after Saito tried to have sex with Louise while she was asleep.
- Fruits Basket:
- After Yuki Sohma realized that he thought of Tohru as more of a mother figure than a love interest the overall support for Yuki/Tohru appeared to die down considerably, though not everyone agreed...
- Interestingly, a lot of people abandoned shipping Akito with any of the guys once it was revealed that he was actually a girl, making it a rather interesting case of Het is Ew.
- Fullmetal Alchemist:
- It happened to a dozen of Roy/Riza doujin circles during the Briggs Arc of the manga, when their OTP went Out of Focus after the Ishval memories chapters; while said chapters also had their own effect in driving away some of the fans who were more for the standard office romance. The series finale didn't help, either.
- In Fullmetal Alchemist (2003) a lot of fans jumped off Envy/Ed when we learned he and Edward are half-siblings. Though considering the fan bases love of brotherly incest, a lot of fans stood firm.
- Ed and Al apparently permanently being stuck on the wrong side of the Gate caused massive amounts of ship abandoning with almost every major pairing, though fans found ways around it or outright ignored it.
- Get Backers, manga only. Ship abandoned for Ban and Himiko because not only is she his little sister, but she's not even a real person.
- Hot Gimmick: Between Hatsumi's current boyfriend Ryoki and her only other one who tried to have her gang-raped in revenge for something that he thought was her father's fault, it's easy to see why fans started shipping Hatsumi with her older brother Shinogu instead. Support for it grew when he admitted to having feelings towards her and the fact they weren't actually siblings, Hatsumi staying with Ryoki in the end sparked such an outcry that a novel was written (though not by the mangaka) where Hatsumi breaks it off with Ryoki and leaves for Shinogu.
- Kill la Kill:
- The revelation that Satsuki Kiryuin and Ryuko Matoi are (unknown to them for most of the series) siblings, combined with the revelation in an earlier episode that their mother is an incestuous child molester effectively killed off the ship. However, there is a faction of fans who still ships them in spite of knowing both pieces of information.
- The same happened almost unanimously with Tsumugu and Kinue once it turned out she was his older sister rather than The Lost Lenore.
- Mobile Suit Gundam SEED: during the initial run, there was a small but devoted group of loyal Kira/Cagalli shippers for a time... until it was revealed that Kira and Cagalli were twins a la Luke and Leia, which Word of God confirms was a direct allusion to Star Wars. There are still some shippers out there, though, especially after Kira rescued Cagalli from marrying the wrong guy and carried her away in a wedding dress in Gundam SEED Destiny.
- My Hero Academia: Protagonist Izuku's father is never seen, so it's popular to pair his mother, Inko, with his mentor, All Might. However, official sources eventually revealed that Izuku's parents are still married, but his dad is away because of work. This has led some to abandon the Inko/All Might ship, while others just create AUs where Inko is single or All Might is Izuku's father. Of course, the mere fact that Izuku's dad is simply never around makes it rather easy for people to gravitate back to Inko/All Might.
- Naruto: Many Sasuke/Sakura fans were happy at the two hooking up and having a daughter together but the revelations in Naruto Gaiden that Sasuke has been gone for at least ten years, hasn't had any contact with his daughter since infancy, and Sakura barely knows basic trivia about her husband soured many fans opinions on the ship. There were also many fans who jumped off that ship when Sasuke tried to stab Sakura prior to his Heel–Face Turn.
- Some Naruto/Sasuke shippers ditched the pairing after the later reveal that they were the reincarnations of brothers Indra and Asura Otsutsuki, which inspired less than civil debates about whether or not this retroactively made the ship incestuous.
- Negima! Magister Negi Magi: Negi/Asuna. Between the fact that their relationship works fine non-romantically, rival ships (like Nodoka, Kuu Fei, Yue, Ako, Makie, Luna aka Shiori, Fate, etc.), and the false revelation that Asuna is Negi's aunt, though debunked by the fact that she is way too old, somewhat reviving this ship with minor Tenchi-style family confusion.
- Paradise Kiss: During the first volumes, Arashi Nagase and Miwako Sakurada attracted massive amounts of shipping. However, as the series progressed, readers tended to gradually back away from the (Canon) ship, as Arashi's attitude towards Miwako started to become aggressive and sometimes violent, and then came The Reveal that he raped her during their first time. Even though Miwako doesn't hold it against him, Arashi feels very guilty about his behaviour, and tries to correct what he has done. Despite this, the fact that they end up together and even have a child has proven too squicky for many fans to overcome.
- Pokémon: Hilda and N are one of the most popular non-canon couples to ever appear in the games, so it's natural people would ship their Pokémon Adventures counterparts. Almost everyone abandoned the White/N ship after the Ferris Wheel chapter. What's even worse is that the corresponding scene in the game arguably has the greatest amount of Ship Tease between them, so a lot of people were undoubtedly looking forward to seeing how the manga would handle it.
- Puella Magi Madoka Magica:
- About half of Homura/Madoka fans have jumped ship, thanks to the ending of the Rebellion movie, in which Homura becomes what could be described as equivalent to the Devil, and usurps Madoka's godly powers in order to create a world in which she is happy. The other half isn't going down without a fight, though, and their reactions vary from justifying Homura's actions to invoking Fanon Discontinuity.
- Mami/Charlotte was a very popular Crack Pairing in the fandom, partly for Black Comedy reasons, partly because Charlotte's human form made for a great O.C. Stand-in, and partly because it gave Mami a romantic partner in a manner that didn't get in the way of the two most popular ships in the fandom of Madoka/Homura and Kyouko/Sayaka. Then Rebellion revealed Charlotte's original human form, Nagisa Momoe — who, as it turned out, was a lot younger than Mami (how much is ambiguous, but she's definitely below middle-school age, while Mami was at least a very mature 15 and more likely 17 by the time of Rebellion). Add in that Nagisa in general was written as pretty childish and immature, and the whole thing skewed a little too close to pedophilia for most people's tastes.
- Tokyo Ghoul: Most shippers of Kaneki x Uta immediately went for the lifeboats after it turns out that the latter was part of the group that was responsible for all the events in the series.
- Tsubasa -RESERVoir CHRoNiCLE-:
- What had been a very vocal group of Fay/Chii Shippers (in contrast to the majority of Kurogane/Fay shippers) mysteriously disappeared after it was revealed that Fay had based the design of Chii off of his late mother. Apparently this was enough to turn most, if not all, of the Shippers away from the pairing (and the former Trope Namer comes from the reaction of a poster on an internet forum.) There was also the small fact that Chii disintegrated after the Feather used to create her was removed, and that probably put a major damper on the idea of them being involved in the future.
- And then cue the revelation that Syaoran is really actually the son of his own clone and his Sakura's clone, not the CCS pair. Fans are abandoning ship left and right, although there is a fair bit of confusion about which ship to abandon.
- There was also a small subset of Tomoyo/Kurogane shippers that vanished once the backstory between the two was delved into, not because of any negative reasons since it was actually quite touching. Mostly because the fandom generally agrees that regardless of the universe Tomoyo's one true love will always be Sakura, and as soon as she interacted with them it quickly became clear that Tomoyo herself ships Kurogane/Fai.
- Valvrave the Liberator:
- Fans abandoned the Haruto/Saki ship after the very bizarre scene where Haruto raped Saki while in a Brainwashed and Crazy state.
- Others abandoned the Haruto/Shouko shipping after Shouko turned against Haruto and sent Haruto and L-Elf to the ARUS army in order to save the students of Module 77. Needless to say, it didn't work..
- Wandering Son: Most of the remaining Nitori/Takatsuki and Nitori/Doi fans jumped off their ships when Nitori and Anna got back together.
- Prior to the release of When Marnie Was There, there was very high expectation of it being the first gay Studio Ghibli film. Then the movie came out and it was revealed that Marnie is the ghost of Anna's grandmother (a fact also present in the book this was based on). Needless to say that killed those expectations there and then.
- Fans of the Yu-Gi-Oh! ARC-V anime were baffled and disgusted by the decision to make Yuya's love interest Yuzu into his mother instead as a final twist in the manga version. Not only did it completely kill their ship in the latter, it made watching their anime counterparts awkward enough for some people to jump ship there too.
- Yuri!!! on Ice: Jean-Jacques/Yuri Plisetsky was the Fan-Preferred Couple for both characters, but episode 10 quickly began poking holes in the ship with the introduction of J.J.'s girlfriend Isabella and Yurio's newfound friendship/Ship Tease with Otabek, who turns out to be Yurio's forgotten Childhood Friend. While J.J./Yurio was not fully dropped, a lot of fans moved to Otabek/Yurio and others warmed up to J.J/Isabella.
Comic Books
- Ironically, for a run that was entirely based on their development as a couple, Batman (Tom King) ended up doing this to Bruce/Selina, and arguably for Bruce and shipping in general. This is mainly due to Bruce's behavior after Selina ditched him at the altar, where he started acting like an Unintentionally Unsympathetic Jerkass that abused the members of his family in frankly unforgivable ways as a way of handling his grief. This got him labeled as toxic, and the general idea was that if he was going to treat his kids like this when faced with a personal loss, then Selina was right to leave him, because what would stop him from doing the same with her eventually? The same process applied to other ships with Bruce, and many now seem to think that Bruce shouldn't be in a romantic relationship with anyone until he resolves his issues.
- ElfQuest: Ember hooked up with Mender once she reached puberty. The fandom generally liked him until he went off to fight in the war and was replaced by Ember's second love interest, Teir - who came literally out of nowhere. Now, the original authors and the guest artists/writers alike all collectively prefer Teir over Mender now... the fandom, predictably, is much more split on the subject, evenly between forgetting Mender even existed, and seeing Teir as an abhorrent Creator's Pet.
- The Transformers: More than Meets the Eye: A lot of people stopped shipping Brainstorm×Perceptor and Brainstorm×Nautica after it was revealed Brainstorm was a Decepticon spy. This got reversed when it was made clear he's an Anti-Villain and Decepticon In Name Only who was trying to stop the war at the cost of his own existence.
Film — Animation
- After the release of The Book of Life, a lot of fans speculated that Manolo Sanchez’s great grandmother Anita was the wife of one of his late ancestors, Jorge. They all quickly jumped ship once Word of God revealed that they were actually siblings.
- Prior to the release of Frozen there was a good amount of speculation whether Kristoff or Hans would be Anna or Elsa's love interest. Many shippers understandably shipped Anna with the handsome Hans. The film spectacularly killed it off at the end, with Hans revealing to a dying Anna that he had lied about loving Anna and was just after the throne. Nevertheless, that killed the ship for most fans. Oddly enough, Hans and Elsa are still an extremely popular ship despite them having no positive interactions and the fact Hans had always planned on killing Elsa. He left her sister to die and would have killed Elsa if not for Anna doing a Heroic Sacrifice.
- Prior to the release of Ruby Gillman, Teenage Kraken, Ruby/Chelsea was a popular ship due to their contrasting personalities and their prep/nerd dynamic. The theory that the trailers were deliberately misleading people into believing that Chelsea and the Mermaids were conventionally evil, only to pull out a Bait-and-Switch and reveal the conflict is more nuanced, added fuel to the shipping. Indeed, it had the potential for interesting scenarios - such as a story about Star-Crossed Lovers who are part of two warring sides, or an antagonist who would pretend to get close to the heroine only to become the mask and get a redemption. However, many fans would immediately jump off the pairing after the film came out and revealed that Chelsea was actually the adult Queen Nerissa in disguise, therefore a lot older than Ruby, as well as irredeemably evil. However, it regained popularity once it's revealed that in the original draft, Chelsea and Nerissa were indeed supposed to be two different character, with Chelsea's motivation being avenging her mother's death, leading many fans to ignore the plot twist altogether in favor of the original draft.
- Early on, when all the fandom knew of Vanellope was her name, the Wreck-It Ralph fanbase shipped her with Ralph. As it turns out, Vanellope is a cute little nine year old girl. The fanbase immediately stopped shipping them and instead preferred a big brother-little sister, or even father-daughter, friendship.
Film — Live-Action
- Harry Potter: Although readers of the books were already clued in by the time the first film came out, the decision to pair Ron and Hermione off (which started to become evident in the third film) caught those who assumed Harry and Hermione were destined for shipping a little off guard. Not that this was viewed as a serious problem by some shippers.
- There was a subset of Knives Out fans who shipped Blanc and Marta together, but the reveal in Glass Onion that Blanc was gay and married to a man made support for the pairing practically disappear altogether, with many of those fans instead preferring to depict their relationship as the loving but firmly platonic one that was established in Knives Out.
- Marvel Cinematic Universe:
- Steve/Tony used to be the most popular pairing in the MCU, mainly due to its longstanding comics fandom. However, supporters of the ship slowly abandoned it over the course of Phase 2, mainly due to a lack of interaction and Steve developing more meaningful relationships with other characters. This was mainly because of Captain America: The Winter Soldier, where Steve's relationship with his best friend Bucky Barnes/The Winter Soldier had so much Ho Yay that it outright eclipsed any interaction he had with Sharon Carter, his official love interest, and making Bucky look like he was Steve's love interest (not at all helped by Sharon being Demoted to Extra in the film). His chemistry with Sam Wilson and Natasha did not help either. This eventually reached a fever pitch with Captain America: Civil War, where it was made clear that, when it came down to it, Steve would choose Bucky over Tony. Steve/Tony took a huge hit, and while still a major popular ship, the film has more-or-less cemented Steve/Bucky as the Fan-Preferred Couple of the MCU, as it's all but been established that Bucky is the most important person in Steve's life and the person he'd do anything for.
- A lot of Clint ships were abandoned after Avengers: Age of Ultron, where it was revealed that he's happily married with two kids and a third on the way.
- Likewise, a lot of people abandoned all shipping of Thor in general after the Love Triangle mess between him, Sif, and Jane in Thor: The Dark World. The once-huge Thor/Loki ship also became moribund after the one-two punch of Avengers: Infinity War killing off Loki and Avengers: Endgame not bringing him back and also showing that Thor had grown fat in the meantime.
- Many people thought that T'Challa and Killmonger's interactions in the trailers for Black Panther (2018) had excellent Foe Yay Shipping potential, not hurt by comparisons of their relationship to Xavier and Magneto. Then the movie came out, and while it certainly wasn't enough to stop everyone, they were revealed to be first cousins.
- Avengers: Endgame caused a lot of people to abandon all Steve ships after Steve traveling back in time to the forties to grow old with Peggy made it nigh-impossible to pair him up with anyone other than Peggy without going hard into Alternate Universe Fic territory. Steve's most popular shipping options of Tony and Bucky respectively being Killed Off for Real and staying behind in the modern day in the same film didn't help.
- Star Wars: The revelation in Return of the Jedi that Luke and Leia were siblings did kill off the idea of them as a couple... for a while. Since then many grown-up fans have resumed shipping them. This happening in the past is why some people were hesitant to start supporting Kylo/Rey from The Force Awakens, who have some interesting interactions in the film. Some were under the impression that Rey might be Kylo's sister or cousin due to the popular theory that she was in some way related to the Skywalker family (either through Han/Leia or Luke); however, once the next movies revealed it was not the case, more people ended up boarding the 'Reylo' ship.
Literature
- Within the A Court of Thorns and Roses fandom, you'd be hard-pressed to find any remaining Tamlin/Feyre shippers following A Court of Mist and Fury, especially after Tamlin allies with the King of Hybern to try and get Feyre back, when his controlling and entitled behavior drove her away.
- The Harry Potter fandom has several examples:
- When the book series began, the natural assumption of many was that Harry and Hermione were destined to be a couple (owing to the trope that the lead male and lead female characters in such storylines are often paired up), but within a few books, it became obvious that Rowling was pairing Hermione with Ron instead.
- Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix:
- After the events of the book, previously vocal Harry/Cho Shippers appeared to Evanesco
. Though they do kind of start dating and even share a kiss, Cho is very clearly still not over Cedric's death and is On the Rebound with Harry, who is himself traumatized by witnessing Cedric being murdered by Voldemort and doesn't want to talk about it with her. They have multiple major fights, the final one of which ends their relationship for good.
- In the fandom's early days, Percy/Penelope was probably the most popular ship that didn't include one of the Golden Trio or Draco; after all, it was the only romance between side characters who weren't old or dead. Percy's Face–Heel Turn made a lot of people turn away from it, even aside from the fact that Penelope hadn't been mentioned since the third book.
- After the events of the book, previously vocal Harry/Cho Shippers appeared to Evanesco
- Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince:Ron/Lavender Brown used to be a popular Beta Couple among supporters of Harry/Hermione, which changed when it became Canon in the sixth book and turned Lavender into the Stalker with a Crush. They broke up on very bad terms and from then on, Ron was most commonly Hermione.
- Believe it or not, Sirius/Narcissa was moderately popular during the "Three-Year Summer," probably because it was a significant part of The Draco Trilogy, an extremely influential fanfic. Then Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix revealed that they're cousins (and Sirius died, to top it all off), which made the ship vanish overnight.
- Of the "Next Gen" characters, the most popular ship was Scorpius/Rose. Harry Potter and the Cursed Child makes it one-sided canon, but ironically made many fans jump to Scorpius/Albus, due to Ho Yay and portraying Rose as a massive Jerkass.
- The Heroes of Olympus: After Nico came out as gay in The House Of Hades, all heterosexual ships involving him were promptly abandoned.
- The Hunger Games: The Katniss/Gale ship was pretty much torpedoed in Mockingjay when Katniss first decides that since she can't have Peeta she wants to die, not considering Gale an option, and her sister Prim later gets killed in a trap designed by Gale.
- Song of the Lioness has an example within the story itself. Tamora Pierce realized that her planned ending of Alanna marrying Prince Jonathan wasn't really what Alanna wanted (to the point that Alanna forced Pierce to rewrite it) and wrote them breaking up after Jonathan proposed to her and he displayed an incredibly Entitled to Have You attitude. Instead Pierce paired Alanna off with her Gentleman Thief friend George Cooper and introduced Rebellious Princess Thayet for Jonathan.
- Warrior Cats:
- Many shippers abandoned Whitestorm/Bluestar when it was revealed that he was her nephew. The ship was even dubbed 'Denialshipping'.
- Similarly, Hollyleaf/Breezepelt shippers jumped ship after it was revealed the two characters were half-siblings. Well, SOME people jumped ship.
- Bramblestar/Squirrelflight, which was once very popular, has since fallen out of favor with many fans in recent years due to their lack of proper communication, relationship drama, and Official Couple Ordeal Syndrome. Additionally, more fans have started seeing their relationship as abusive or toxic, and simply want them to split up.
Live-Action TV
- Agent Carter: Peggy/Edwin Jarvis, quite a popular pairing in the first season, died a rapid but peaceful death as a canon wish among fans with the on-screen portrayal of Ana Jarvis in season 2, because she and Jarvis are so downright adorable and devoted to each other that breaking them up just seems wrong. Cheering continues for the badass Platonic Life-Partners relationship between Peggy and Jarvis, however.
- Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D.: The reveal at the end of Season 1 that Grant Ward was The Mole and Evil All Along, along with Skye giving him a scathing "The Reason You Suck" Speech, utterly destroyed the SkyWard ship that had been very popular up until then. Shippers of the pairing are now very scarce.
- Arrowverse:
- Arrow:
- Thea/Tommy died a relatively quiet and dignified death in season two for two reasons: the official Beta Couple Thea/Roy became more popular (it later became the most stable relationship on the show), and because of the reveal that they're half-siblings on their father's side.
- Several supporters of Oliver/Felicity have been steadily jumping ship across Seasons 3 and 4 as their relationship became more and more toxic. For some, this is because of the increasing drama and angst in a formerly subdued, drama-free relationship, as well as because they feel Olicity takes up screen time better spent on other plots and characters. The characters' unnecessary conflict concerning Oliver's secret son William has also has turned off a lot of fans, with the audience divided over blaming Oliver for lying to his fiancée when he specifically promised he'd stop or blaming Felicity for breaking up with him when she's kept secrets herself. What killed the pairing's popularity for many fans was the ending to the 2017 crossover Crisis on Earth-X: the infamous double wedding, which was hated by everyone except the most diehard of Olicity shippers.
- The Flash (2014)
- Barry/Caitlin (Snowbarry) was a Fan-Preferred Couple in Season One, partly due to similarities with Olicity above. Its popularity died down, however, after the show introduced Caitlin's eventual husband and One True Love Ronnie Raymond. Even after Ronnie died, the ship stagnated as the show moved towards building up Barry/Iris (WestAllen), the intended Official Couple, and stopped with the Ship Tease between Barry and Caitlin. Snowbarry did have a brief resurgence in Season Three after Caitlin finally became Killer Frost and partnered up with Savitar, an evil future version of Barry, enabling Snowbarry (albeit the evil version, which is called Savifrost) to exist at the same time as WestAllen, before beginning to stagnate again after Savitar was killed off in the season finale and Barry and Iris finally got married in Season Four.
- Barry/Leonard Snart (ColdFlash) was Barry's main slash pairing for years, and the most popular non-canon pairing in the fandom. Its popularity didn't die down even after Cold left for Legends of Tomorrow and was Killed Off for Real in the penultimate episode of its first season. It was only after Wentworth Miller finally left the Arrowverse and stopped making appearances as Captain Cold did people finally begin to stop shipping them together.
- Arrow:
- As the World Turns: Many fans abandoned the Luke/Noah pairing after Reid was introduced as another love interest for Luke. Some didn't particularly like Noah in the first place, but shipped Nuke because for a long time Noah was really the only option Luke had. Ship-to-Ship Combat ensued since there were a lot of fans who were still loyal to that ship.
- Faced with accusations of teasing at a Jason/Pythagoras romance that would never happen, Atlantis tried to rectify this in the second season by introducing Icarus as a possible love interest for Pythagoras. This does seem to have had the desired effect of driving away a large number of Jason/Pythagoras shippers.
- Battlestar Galactica had this happen to Kara/Lee mostly after the fans found the pair's actions in regards to their spouses during the Quadrangle of Doom despicable. Attrition though took place throughout the whole series with fans jumping ship as early as the first season finale, by the series finale Roslin/Adama overtook them as the largest ship in the fandom.
- Buffy the Vampire Slayer: Many abandoned the Spike/Buffy ship after the infamous attempted rape in "Seeing Red".
- Control Z: Many fans shipped Isabela/Alex due to their Les Yay moment at the NONA party and to Pair the Spares (as Isabela was involved with her ex Pablo and Alex was involved in a forbidden romance with her teacher Gabriela). However, this ship rapidly decreased in popularity after Isabela was Put on a Bus due to her actress being cast for another series.
- Doctor Who fandom saw a marked drop-off in the number of fics where River was paired with Amy and/or Rory after the reveal that she's their daughter. Combined with the Doctor marrying River, that also did a fairly good job of killing Doctor/Amy/Rory too, which was previously pretty popular.
- Prior to Amy and Rory getting married and Rory coming back into existence, there was also intense Doctor/Amy shipping (the ending of Flesh and Stone didn't help matters).
- Mickey/Jackie, formerly a popular ship mate to Tenth Doctor/Rose, has pretty much died off since the pairings of Jackie/alternate Pete in "Doomsday" and Mickey/Martha offscreen at some point before "The End of Time".
- Doctor/Rose shipping did reach a height towards the end of Season 4, until "Journey's End" closed that door forever by pairing Rose off with the Doctor's clone instead.
- With the announcement of the Twelfth Doctor as 50-something Peter Capaldi, the "Whouffle" (Doctor/Clara) ship appeared to lose a lot of steam within hours. It then regained that steam and then some with Series 8, in which the Ship Tease actually seemed to increase between the new Doctor and Clara, aided by good chemistry between Capaldi and Jenna Coleman. This is ultimately a huge subversion: Pro-Whouffaldi fans were (and continue to be) aided by contradictory Word of God statements. Although Capaldi is on record as opposing "hanky panky" between the Doctor and Clara (primarily due to the actors' age difference, though also due to his being an old-school classic-series fan), in other statements such as a September 2015 interview with the Canadian series Inner Space he outright referred to the Doctor and Clara's relationship as a romance. Steven Moffat defined the Doctor's forgiveness of Clara's betrayal in "Dark Water" as his equivalent of saying "I love you", and the episode "Mummy on the Orient Express" was noted for its romantic overtones — and Coleman has stated unequivocally at conventions that when she performed the closing scene she addressed that "I love you" to the Doctor, not to Danny. The phrase "duty of care" in Series 9, specifically its use in the finale, is also seen as an "I love you" equivalent — episodes that season saw the Clara saying things to the Doctor like "If you love me in any way, you'll come back" and a finale three-parter which pretty much canonized it all as the Doctor temporarily became a Woobie, Destroyer of Time in hopes of undoing her death. At the end they were parted for good and the Doctor forgot her appearance, voice, etc. and thus why he loved her, which would seem to end this love story forever. But one never knows.
- Doctor/River temporarily took a hit when they said goodbye for what was implied to be the last time in "The Name of the Doctor" and showrunner Steven Moffat started to get fan backlash, leading even people who liked River to complain that too much of her character was written to revolve around the Doctor. "The Husbands of River Song" two-plus years later was something of an Author's Saving Throw, giving her Character Focus that suggests a much richer life than this, revealing that (among other things) she has actually been stealing the TARDIS behind his back for years to have solo adventures he never knew about! It also rekindled some interest in the ship with the reveal that their last night together prior to "Silence in the Library" lasted twenty-four years.
- The announcement that the character would undergo a Gender Swap for the Thirteenth Doctor resulted in some fans dropping their shipping aspirations as they couldn't reconcile having previously male, handsome incarnations of the Doctor, who since the TV movie of 1996 have been shown romantically pursuing female characters (either canonically or through Shipping Goggles), now a woman who may or may not now pursue romances with male characters. Writers of Male Doctor/Female Companion fan fiction and makers of related merchandise have noticed a marked decline in interest since the female incarnation of the Doctor was announced in July 2017. This is impacting all previous incarnations of the Doctor. The fact at least two of the Doctor's romances, River Song and Clara Oswald, each underwent a Retcon establishing them as bisexual as potential future-proofing against such an eventuality appears to have had little impact.
- This also applies to Time Lord characters introduced as female and shipped with the Doctor and other male (and female) characters who now, it is implied, may become male at any point. The most notable example of this is Romana.
- Dollhouse: More than half of Topher and Claire's fandom abandoned shipping when it was revealed that Claire was actually a Doll and claimed she hated Topher's guts. Those who left began to ship Topher with Adelle, until Bennett came into the picture and killed whatever was left of both pairings. (Before, you know, getting killed off by Claire...)
- Friends:
- In early seasons, Richard/Monica and Chandler/Kathy were pretty popular, but vanished almost the minute Monica popped up from under Chandler's covers and the entire fandom jumped on the Chandler/Monica ship, which sailed strongly to the end of the series.
- Ross and Rachel started out as an extremely popular ship with the majority of the viewing audience seemingly rooting for them to get together. However around the end of season three/start of season four a lot of people began to grow tired of the many ons and offs between them, not to mention their behavior towards one another was oftentimes rather nasty. As the series went on the producers kept beating on the Ross and Rachel drum (and appeared to truly believe they were still as popular as ever judging by what they said in interviews) while more and more fans abandoned the ship. It didn't exactly help that fan favourite couple Chandler and Monica (who had gotten together in the first place because online fans shipped them to such a degree) constantly had to take a backseat to Ross and Rachel (even Chandler and Monica's wedding episode ended with focus on a Ross/Rachel cliffhanger). Ross and Rachel still hold a fanbase to this day but most fans seem to dislike them nowadays.
- Game of Thrones: Due to several changes that contradicted the books, several characters had completely different personalities which affected the relationship:
- Oberyn/Ellaria ship had been abandoned after Ellaria did something which is against what Oberyn wanted: killing Myrcella Baratheon who had nothing to do with Oberyn’s death and murdering his brother and nephew, who don’t support her revenge. This is a complete opposite in the books where Ellaria is not a vengeful person and is aware that revenge will not bring back Oberyn. And those who have read the books are very offended at Show!Ellaria’s Adaptational Personality Change.
- Sansa/Littlefinger ship is slowly abandoned after Littlefinger sends Sansa to the Boltons (read: the family responsible for betraying her family in the Red Wedding) for his plans and Sansa got raped and abused by Ramsey Bolton who she was forced to marry. When Sansa met Littlefinger again in Season 6, she understandably called him out if he knows about Ramsey’s behavior. In Season 7, the ship has been abandoned after Littlefinger attempted to manipulate both Arya and Sansa into fighting each other. Thanks to Bran, both sisters resolve their feud and put Littlefinger on trial for his actions, particularly for betraying their father and kickstarting the War of the Five Kings. Even though Littlefinger begs and confesses that he "loves" her, Sansa has none of it and lets Arya slit his throat.
- After season 7, Lyanna/Rhaegar slipped into this for many fans. The truth reveals that Lyanna wasn't abducted by Rhaegar as many characters thought, but rather eloped with him and that Rhaegar annulled his marriage to Elia and married Lyanna. The realization of every tragedy that happened, such as Robert's Rebellion, the death of Brandon and Rickard Stark, to the fall of the Targaryen Dynasty, and especially to the cruel and gruesome fate that Elia suffered, all because of two helpless teenagers make a selfish action that caused the death of thousands who fought "based on a lie", is very hard for fans to stomach shipping them. Thus, making both Lyanna and Rhaegar come off as Unintentionally Unsympathetic and a Jerkass.
- Some fans backed away from the Chuck/Blair pairing on Gossip Girl after the season three episode where Blair agreed to sleep with Chuck's uncle Jack so that Jack would give back Chuck's hotel, only to find out Chuck had agreed to the deal beforehand. They still remained the most popular ship but some former fans became rather... bitter.
- Hawaii Five-0: The reveal in the season 1 finale that Danny had been having an affair with his ex-wife who was currently married to another man caused Steve/Danny to lose many fans overnight. The pairing still remained the most popular one in the fandom, but fan activity for it became a lot less fevered from that point on.
- Heroes: The Reveal that Peter and Claire are related did scare off most of the more casual shippers. However, many stuck to it, either pretending that the reveal didn't happen or just accepting it regardless. Considering that the fandom's most popular Ho Yay pairing is Peter and his brother, this isn't too surprising.
- Ironically enough, the implication of incest didn't stop Claire and Peter's actors from hooking up. Of course, their subsequent break up (and rumors of Hayden Panettiere trying to get Milo Ventimiglia thrown off the show) might spike those particular wheels.
- There seems to have been a significant drop in Mohinder being paired with anyone ever since his experiments with Super Serum kicked off a mutation into... whatever the heck it is he's turning into.
- iCarly:
- The Seddie (Sam/Freddie) ship lost shippers every time Sam increased her level of Comedic Sociopathy against Freddie as well as bumping her Moral Event Horizon. Examples include throwing Freddie out of a treehouse after delivering to him a harsh beating with a tennis racket in "iMeet Fred" and running a child labor sweatshop during "iSell Penny Tee's."
- As with many pairings that get together and then break up later, there are fans who abandoned Seddie after their break up in iLove You. Shipping Bed Death, or having seen the relationship and not be satisfied with how they were as a couple or simply because they were satisfied by what they saw and wanted the show to go back to being about comedy.
- After the finale saw the opposing Carly/Freddie pairing triumph, there were example of Seddie shippers abandoning it totally. With the majority of the Seddie fandom preferring Sam as their favorite character, they saw Freddie being kissed by Carly then celebrating it as a betrayal of Sam.
- It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia: Charlie/Dee was a pretty popular pairing within the fandom, but the shippers dropped it pretty much unanimously after the Season 13 episode "Time's Up for the Gang," when Dee realizes that Charlie did not consent to having sex with her when they hooked up in a fade-to-black scene in the Season 10 episode "The Gang Misses the Boat."
- Kamen Rider:
- Kamen Rider Den-O appeared to have quite a bit of ship tease between Ryotaro and Hana, until Hana's actress left the show and the character reverted to her ten-year-old self, "Kohana." However, Ryotaro/Hana remained popular in fandom until the reveal that Hana was Ryotaro's niece; fans jumped ship abruptly.
- Kamen Rider Kabuto has a similar example whereby Tendou was commonly shipped with Hiyori until the show revealed that she is actually a Worm based on his sister. Whatever shippers were left after that ( since she's technically just a copy of his sister, not the actual one) drifted away or jumped ship when the show began to lean towards Kagami/Hiyori (and they got married in the AU God Speed Love movie.)
- Yet another example happened in Kamen Rider Double with the reveal that Philip and Wakana are brother and sister, causing a lot of their fans to jump ship. The same happened to Shotaro/Akiko, which mostly died out after Akiko fell in love with and married Terui.
- Lost: A decent amount of shippers in the fandom jumped ship when it was revealed that Jacob and the Man in Black are twin brothers. Others have continued to ship it.
- Ben/Juliet had a fairly sizeable number of shippers back in Season 3, when they were just two villains and there was no canon reason to believe that anything was going on between them. The ship was abandoned when flashbacks in Season 4 revealed that Ben actually did have feelings for Juliet, to the point where he had made unwanted advances on her and acted possessive towards her, even having a Romantic Rival killed, while refusing to allow her to leave the island to return home to her dying sister.
- Although there was Ship Tease between Arthur and Morgana in the first series of Merlin, many shippers soon lost interest simply because they barely interacted in series two, and were then revealed to be half-siblings in series threenote (and still didn't interact in any meaningful way). Despite the potential for Foe Yay Shipping, they only had one brief scene together throughout the entirety of series four.
- Mr. Robot: The only significant shipping pairings in the first season are Elliot with either Darlene or Angela. Episode 8 sinks the Darlene pairing into the deepest ocean via Surprise Incest, because Elliot's mental health issues have caused him to forget Darlene is his sister, a twist many people didn't seem coming because they guessed the much bigger twist involving Mr Robot and assumed the writers wouldn't stack so many twists it looked like a mid-day soap opera's writing.
- Many fans of The Muppets noticed that even by the standards of both being part of The Electric Mayhem, Floyd and Animal were very close, with Floyd usually being the band member in charge of caring for Animal, often being the one holding his leash. This spawned two headcanons in the fandom. One was a ship of the two, Flanimal. While far from the most popular ship in the Muppet fandom (even compared to a fellow Floyd ship, the semi-canon Floyanice), it still had a small but notable following. Then, episode 3 of The Muppets Mayhem released, and brought to canon the OTHER popular headcanon on their relationship: Floyd being Animal's father figure. Specifically, Animal was a Doorstep Baby left on Floyd's porch that he took in, basically making Floyd Animal's father. The combined nature of how beloved the scene quickly became for its strongly heartwarming nature and the way it turned the ship to utter Squick caused the ship to pretty much completely die that day.
- Once Upon a Time: Wendy and Baelfire, who appeared in flashbacks together. As of season 3, she is still the same age, while he is now an adult. He's also revealed to be Neal, Henry's father.
- In a similar boat with August and Emma, the Blue Fairy turns August back into a young boy with no memories of his adult life to save him from death.
- Henry/Peter Pan was fairly popular until it was revealed that Pan is Henry's great-grandfather. Now its just straight up No Yay
- In season 1 Emma/Baelfire had a small following that completely evaporated when it was revealed that Neal was Baelfire. Ironically, after The Reveal was when the ship actually gained popularity, but not for the original shippers
- Some Emma/Rumpelstiltskin shippers jumped ship after Rumple's actual love interest, Belle, was introduced.
- The rest disappeared after The Reveal that Rumple's son was formerly involved with Emma.
- Power Rangers:
- Power Rangers in Space: There was a mild Ship-to-Ship Combat over pairing Red Ranger Andros with either Yellow Ranger Ashley or the villain of the season Astronema, which was resolved when it turns out that Astronema is Karone, Andros' sister who had been kidnapped when they were kids.
- Power Rangers Ninja Steel: When Sixth Ranger Levi Weston joined the team, fans immediately started shipping him with Red Ranger Brody as an extension of the standard Red/Sixth Ranger ship and because a previous episode could be seen as a date between the two. Then comes The Reveal that Levi is actually Aiden, Brody's long lost brother.
- Robin Hood: The Sheriff/Guy ship seems to have died out in series three after Guy attempted to kill the Sheriff and later had a Heel–Face Turn ... then the Sheriff killed him in the final episode. He joins the outlaws around the same time that his sister Isabella does a Face–Heel Turn, which put off a lot of people who were beginning to ship Robin/Isabella.
- However, the fact that Guy of Gisborne deliberately murdered Marian by impaling her on a giant sword didn't deter the shippers in the way that the writers apparently wanted it to.
- In the Smallville fandom, the earliest handful of episodes saw Clana (Clark Kent and Lana Lang) enjoy a majority of fan support, but as Lana became increasingly unpopular, the Clana ship went from being popular and accepted to being the least shipped relationship (and undoubtedly the most hated) within a mere two or three years.
- Chlex (original character Chloe Sullivan being paired with Lex Luthor) used to be a fairly popular pairing, often accompanied by tons of Draco in Leather Pants for Lex in fanfics. However, after the events of "Freak," the episode where Chloe is revealed to be a mutant and Lex orders his scientists to kidnap her and perform sadistic experiments on her, before almost killing her, most of the shippers quite understandably lost their taste for Chlex, as Lex had proven himself to be too much of a sociopath for even Draco in Leather Pants to make the ship popular anymore.
- Also, many former Clark/Chloe shippers moved on to shipping Clark with Lois Lane once she arrived on the scene (which also torpedoed the once-popular theory among Clark/Chloe shippers that Chloe would use Lois Lane as a Pen Name), and many more switched to Chimmy (Chloe and Jimmy Olsen) and Chlollie (Chloe and Oliver Queen) by the end, though of course many continued to ship Chlark.
- Chlex (original character Chloe Sullivan being paired with Lex Luthor) used to be a fairly popular pairing, often accompanied by tons of Draco in Leather Pants for Lex in fanfics. However, after the events of "Freak," the episode where Chloe is revealed to be a mutant and Lex orders his scientists to kidnap her and perform sadistic experiments on her, before almost killing her, most of the shippers quite understandably lost their taste for Chlex, as Lex had proven himself to be too much of a sociopath for even Draco in Leather Pants to make the ship popular anymore.
- Stargate Atlantis, once it was revealed that Teyla was pregnant with the baby of her fellow Athosian, Canaan, and after the child was born, many dropped all ships between her and anyone else.
- Though the idea that a relationship could've taken place before her relationship with Canaan allows many ships to stay afloat, including but not limited to Sheyla (Teyla/Sheppard, the most popular pairing involving Teyla), Teyla/Ronon, and even McKeyla (Teyla/McKay, due to McKay, oddly enough, being the series' Launcher of a Thousand Ships).
- The Sheppard/Teyla fanbase also shrunk a lot at the beginning of Season 2, it was strong going during Season 1 despite standing against the popular Sheppard/Weir but when Ronon arrived many fans switched to shipping Ronon/Teyla instead, making Ronn/Teyla and Sheppard/Weir the most popular het pairings.
- It turns out that the main author of the post-finale novel series is pretty clearly a Sheppard/Teyla shipper, giving them tons of Ship Tease and effectively writing Canaan out of the story.
- Stargate Universe: the Eli/Chloe ship was already on life support by Season Two, but the arrival of Ginn put the nail in the coffin.
- Star Trek: Enterprise: During the first couple of seasons, all signs pointed towards a ship between Captain Archer and T'Pol, until the third season when all of a sudden the ship turned into one between T'Pol and Trip Tucker. (Made all the more frustrating for A/T shippers by the fact the third season also features "Twilight", an episode in which T'Pol devotes her life to caring for Archer after he is infected by memory-deleting parasites.)
- With the series finale bringing back the idea of a T'Pol/Archer pairing.
- Star Trek: Voyager: It's not unreasonable to believe that pretty much any chance of Janeway/Chakotay happening was put to bed permanently by the event of the Scorpion two-parter.
- Super Sentai:
- In Samurai Sentai Shinkenger, Genta/Kaoru became very popular after episode 47, causing pretty much all other ships involving Genta to be abandoned.
- Masumi/Natsuki was a popular pairing during the run of GoGo Sentai Boukenger, but saw a drop in shippers when it failed to become canon and then when Masumi's actor did not support the ship in an interview.
- The Souji/Amy ship in Zyuden Sentai Kyoryuger survived the introduction of Souji's guest love interest Rin, and rivalry from Souji/Ian; but died off after Amy and Daigo were Strangled by the Red String and got together suddenly over the last three episodes.
- Supernatural: Sam and Dean being brothers didn't stop Sam/Dean from being the most popular pairing in the fandom in early seasons. What did make it lose its Fan-Preferred Couple status was the introduction of Castiel in the fourth season that caused fans who hadn't been entirely comfortable with Sam/Dean but still shipped it due to a lack of other popular ships in the fandom to jump ship to Dean/Castiel. Sam/Dean still has a devoted fanbase, but the fandom's overall attitude towards it has shifted from "yeah, it's incest, but it's not like there are any other close relationships on the show or any other good-looking males to ship them with" to "why ship two brothers together when one of these brothers has a perfectly fine Ho Yay dynamic with someone who isn't related to him?"
- True Blood:
- Bill/Sookie got hit with this hard around season 3 when it was revealed that not only had Bill been sent by Queen Sophie Anne to procure Sookie for her, but that way back in season 1, Bill stood by and allowed the Rattarays to beat the shit out of Sookie so he could pretend to be a hero, drug her with his blood (which was both a tracking device and a powerful aphrodisiac), manipulate her into falling in love with him, and then later tried to cover it all up by murdering Eric and Pam when they discover what he did. All the while, he was gaslighting Sookie into thinking he had her best interests in mind when, in reality, he never wanted her to find out about the truth so she wouldn't break up with him. Many fans were disgusted with Bill's actions, with some even going as far as to declare it a Moral Event Horizon for the character. It doesn't help that Sooric (Eric/Sookie) was becoming popular at the time (especially since it was a key relationship in the books), with fans expressing interest in seeing that relationship adapted to the screen. In recent years (especially for those who go back and re-watch the show) many fans have soured towards the Bill/Sookie relationship, with some seeing it as toxic, abusive, and seriously questionable considering what Bill did to get into that relationship with Sookie.
- Downplayed in the case of Hoyt/Jessica. While the relationship still has its fans, there were people who were put off by Hoyt's behavior towards Jessica in seasons 4-5, and stopped shipping them as a result. A key moment that caused people to abandon ship entirely was when Hoyt joins a hate group in season 5, said hate group captures Jessica for Hoyt to kill, and Hoyt has a debate about whether or not to murder her while pointing a gun at her head when she's not in a position to fight back. This left a really bad taste in people's mouths because of how nasty, entitled, and misogynistic Hoyt's behavior was. The fact the show glosses over this in season 7 in favor of getting Jessica and Hoyt back together did not go over well with certain fans.
- 24: The potential Jack/Nina ship came apart at the end of Season 1 for very obvious reasons.
- The Vampire Diaries:
- Most Tyler/Caroline fans feel like the couple's entire history has been ruined after Caroline slept with Klaus.
- After seasons 4 and 5, with Elena choosing Damon over and over again, the Stefan/Elena fanbase don't even want them together anymore, opting for rooting for Stefan to just move on from her once and for all.
- The Damon/Elena fanbase shrunk after the revelation that Elena was sired to Damon. They are still the most popular ship on the show though.
- Victorious: The events of "Tori Goes Platinum" have caused some Beck/Jade fans to jump ship - though not all of them.
- Your Family: Many Ares/Bella shippers quit this ship after Ares' actor left the show.
Tabletop Games
- In Magic: The Gathering, the character of Tamiyo was introduced in the original Innistrad block with little to nothing known about her. All that was really known was that she was a blue-aligned Planeswalker who was researching Innistrad's moon. It became popular to pair her up with Jace, simply due to her being, at the time, the only other monoblue Planeswalker who wasn't evil. However, when the second Innistrad block came around, she was revealed to be a Happily Married mother of three, thoroughly sinking the ship.
Video Games
- One of the more popular ships in the AFK Arena fandom used to be Antandra and Satrana due to their being virtually inseparable. However, fans of the ship disappeared practically overnight when their canonical ages were revealed by the Dolly's Corner mini-blog: Antandra is 25, and Satrana is 15.
- Apollo Justice: Ace Attorney, Trucy and Apollo tend to gather shippers early on in the game due to their quirky antics and how they team up to solve cases. However, at the very end of the game it is revealed that Trucy and Apollo are in fact half-siblings, thus causing many fans to reject the pairing. To add insult to injury, there's also the fact that Trucy and Apollo are never seen learning the truth of their heritage, though a scene in the credits of Spirit of Justice indicates they will soon be told of it.
- Fans of Baldur's Gate were originally quite fond of pairing player character CHARNAME with his/her adoptive kid sister Imoen. Shadows of Amn would retcon Imoen into a Bhaalspawn, which made her CHARNAME'S actual sister as well. Although most of the fans predictably dropped the idea, at least two romance mods featuring Imoen have been created.
- In BioShock Infinite, some fans thought that Booker and Elizabeth had a cute dynamic and would've made a good couple. Naturally, the revelation that Booker is Elizabeth's father ended that pretty quick.
- Danganronpa V3: Killing Harmony is a massive example. Due to the exact characterization and relationships between characters being unclear before the release of the game, a lot of ships sprung purely built on Gotta Ship 'Em All mentality. When the game came out and revealed many things fans believed were incorrect, there was a colossal exodus of shipping. Specific examples include Rantaro/Kokichi and Kaede/Maki, both of which didn't interact as much in canon as the official art and screenshots implied (partly because Rantaro and Kaede die in the first chapter), as well as Kokichi/Himiko and Kokichi/Keebo, both had extremely unpleasant canon interactions, with Keebo and Himiko vocally hating Oma.
- Final Fantasy XV: There were many who shipped Noctis/Iris, thanks to their chemistry and Iris's crush on Noctis. Then it was revealed that Noctis is 20 and Iris was only 15, at which point the ship was largely sunk.
- Fire Emblem:
- In Fire Emblem: Awakening, some fans bailed out of shipping Frederick/Cordelia thanks to their extremely awkwardly written S Support. It can be easily seen as Frederick being an Entitled Dogged Nice Guy to Cordelia (complete with him badmouthing her Unrequited Love Chrom, which is even more awkward since Frederick holds an Undying Loyalty to Chrom that is almost Ho Yay-tastic), while she seems to settle for Fred to forget about Chrom rather than for her actually liking Frederick. The fact that their shared ending specifically states how Cordelia is not exactly happy in her married life to Fred doesn't help note .
- Henry/Olivia was an extremely popular pairing when a translation of their Japanese supports was released. The English version made several small changes to their supports that practically changed the tone of the entire thing (long story short, what was an I Can Change My Beloved in the Japanese version becomes just a case of All Girls Want Bad Boys), which caused many former shippers to reject the pairing. That, and the fact that Japanese-speakers have since shown that the translation most shippers based their preferences on may not have been entirely accurate.
- Similarly to the Rhajat example below, both the Chrom/Sumia ship and Sumia as a character took a major hit in popularity when the localization came out and was found to have turned their S Support into one big joke about pies (Sumia only cooked for Chrom twice originally), which fans took as sexist and forced. Most shippers of the pairing simply eschew viewing the S support in favor of obtaining their proposal event at the end of Chapter 11, which is considered as far less awkwardly written.
- Averted, interestingly, with the Seliph/Julia pairing from Genealogy of the Holy War. While many other incestuous pairings in the series are either abandoned or bashed, this couple involving two half-siblings tends to be adored, or at very least not given half the hate said ships get. There's also evidence it may have been intended to be canon at one point, though by the time the game was actually released it was made impossible to pair them up without exploiting a bug (their starting Relationship Values are sky-high, just a little short of already being paired, but the growth level for it is the only one in the game to be negative).
- Another aversion occurs in Fire Emblem Fates. Male Corrin/Azura was one of the most popular pairings both pre-release and during the initial release...then the third path came out with The Reveal that the pair are cousins. The fanbase, after milling about in shock and anger for a few days, basically shrugged, said "at least they aren't siblings", and resumed shipping. It helps that cousin marriage is perfectly legal in Japan and that Azura is still treated as the Implied Love Interest in-game, even having unique confessions should Corrin S-support her.
- Played straight in Fates, however, with Female Corrin and Rhajat, which was once one of the more popular Avatar ships thanks to Rhajat being the female Gay Option as well as being blatantly implied to be the reincarnation of the very popular Tharja. But when the localization played up some of Rhajat's creepiness and unpleasant nature, especially in her supports with Female Corrin, the ships' popularity (as well as Rhajat's) took a beating. The pairing's still loved in several spaces and the remaining fans are very protective of it and of Rhajat herself, but it's become more of a niche ship than it was before.
- Another Fates ship that lost a lot of fans was Avatar/Flora. Like Cordelia, Flora's in unrequited love with a man she can't support, this guy being the Battle Butler. Some fans went up in arms when one of the DLCs included a talk between Flora and Jakob that can be seen as ship teasey even if she's married to the Avatar and Jakob's married to someone else, viewing it as "cheating".
- There's a rather interesting example involving Fire Emblem Gaiden and its own remake, Fire Emblem Echoes: Shadows of Valentia. A lot of fans shipped Genny with Saber back in the days of Gaiden, since they were the only two characters who were stated to get married, but their endings were unclear on exactly who their partners were. However, once Echoes rolled around, there were a couple of things that caused most fans to jump ship. The biggest factor being that Genny and Saber were revealed via data mining to be 15 and 34, respectively, and the age gap Squicked many people. Then, there were a handful of other characters who got unnamed spouses as well, making it harder to Pair the Spares.
- Before the release of Fire Emblem: Three Houses, some shipped Byleth with Leonie due to her being a former student of their father and greatly idolizing him. Their B support caused many to abandon the pairing, which has her chewing out Byleth for not idolizing Jeralt as much as she does, which might not be so bad if it weren't gated-off until right after he dies.
- Before Fire Emblem Engage was released, there were some fans who prematurely shipped Alear with Veyle, a mysterious girl who appears to have a connection to Alear, and whom some compared to Azura from Fates. The ship barely had the chance to sail once the game was released and it's revealed that Alear and Veyle are siblings.
- Also from Engage, some people shipped Alcryst, the second prince of Brodia, with his retainer Citrinne, after seeing their C support. Many of those people stopped doing so after it's revealed in their B support (or Citrinne and Alcryst's brother Diamant's B support) that Citrinne is Alcryst and Diamant's cousin.
- Five Nights at Freddy's: Security Breach: A notable example occurred pre-release. Early on into the game's teasers, it was common to ship the then-unnamed blonde female nightguard with Vanny, typically as Foe Yay Shipping. What caused people to jump ship was the increasing implications, through additional teasers, names of merch, and the Five Nights at Freddy's AR: Special Delivery emails that the two are actually the same person, either through a Split Personality or Vanessa (the nightguard) simply being Vanny out of costume. While a few are still in denial of the possibility and speculate it may be a Red Herring, much of the fandom has taken humor out of it.
- Heavy Rain: Scott Shelby and Lauren Winter. All gone to hell when it is revealed that Scott was the person who killed Lauren's son. She whacks him in the most epic way though.
- Overwatch:
- D.Va/Sombra gained a following prior to Sombra's official reveal because a lot of people liked the idea that a hacker and a pro-gamer being together. Then it was revealed that Sombra is 30 and D.Va is only 19.
- Tracer/Widowmaker was a fairly popular femslash ship until the "Reflections" comic revealed Tracer's canon girlfriend Emily. Since then most people have either jumped off Tracer/Widowmaker or in the case of a few shipped the three together. Most of the pairings that put Tracer with any of the guys also took a hard hit after it was confirmed that she identifies as a lesbian.
- Ana/Soldier: 76 was a pretty strong pairing due to Ana being second in command to Jack while he led Overwatch and even in the present, they have one of the strongest friendships out of the entire cast. While there were a couple of revelations that caused the ship to crack, most notably the reveal that Pharah’s father was a Canadian First Nation and not Soldier: 76, the short story Bastat reveals that not only is Solder: 76 gay but still has feelings for his ex-boyfriend Vincent was the final nail on the coffin for plenty of people still shipping the two.
- Persona 5
- In the very early days of the fandom, before the game's release, it was common to see Joker shipped with Yuuki Mishima, and many fans hoped he'd be an official Gay Option. Interest in the ship quickly faded once Mishima's actual personality became more well-known (instead of the Honorary True Companion fans expected him to be, he's a Loony Fan and The Friend Nobody Likes) and Joker/Akechi took over as the prime Ho Yay ship.
- Joker and Futaba Sakura elicited this reaction among some members of the Western fanbase when it was revealed that Futaba was the adopted daughter of Sojiro, Joker's caretaker during the game's events. As such, there are those among the fandom who instead choose to depict them Like Brother and Sister, especially to keep both of them close to each other while freeing them for other ships instead; in particular, they cite the fact that Joker and Futaba sharing the same father figure would yield a reaction full of Squick if such a pairing did push through. That said, there are those who still choose to ship them romantically, citing that the game treats her no different than any other of Joker's potential love interests. This divide over Futaba being either Joker's lover or sister figure is rooted more in the West, as Japanese fans tend to see Joker more as her caregiver than as an older brother, making the debate there moot.
- A lot of people playing Radiant Historia for the first time ship Stocke with Eruca right up until they figure out that the reason they're so drawn to each other is that she's his sister. This also makes a couple of earlier misunderstandings on other characters' parts much, much funnier.
- Up until episode four of Sally Face, a lot of people, if not the majority of the fandom, were shipping Sal and Larry, but most stopped once episode four rolled around and they found out that during the timeskip between high school and college, Sal's dad married Larry's mom, so they became stepbrothers.
- Shadow Hearts: Covenant: Aw, Yuri and Karin make such a cute couple. Oh, wait. She's his mother!? Icky! Wait, how does that work? Stupid time paradox!
- Despite their name, many people shipped the Squid Sisters from Splatoon, arguing that they were likely not actual sisters, their band name being just a title. And they were eventually proven right when the first game released: they're not sisters, they're cousins, which isn't much better and killed the ship for most people.
- Spyro the Dragon:
- Spyro and Elora were a pretty popular couple in the early days thanks to Elora being an Implied Love Interest. However, with time it's become a rare ship (though the Reignited Trilogy helped boost support for it again). This occurred because Elora disappeared post-original trilogy. The series also introduced more dragons afterwards, so people prefer to ship Spyro with Ember, Cynder, or Flame instead of going for the Interspecies Romance route. There's also the fact Spyro is implied to be twelve while Elora seems to be a few years older.
- A lot of Spyro/Ember shippers jumped ship when the Legend of Spyro reboot introduced Cynder, a new female dragon that Spyro had a more amicable relationship with. It doesn't help that a handheld game sunk Spyro/Ember by giving Ember a boyfriend. Still, many ship both Spyro/Ember and Spyro/Cynder because the two pairings aren't from the same universe.
- Tales Series:
- Tales of Symphonia: Kratos/Lloyd was looking good for most of the game. From Lloyd's jealousy of Kratos's strength, and Kratos's efforts at training and defending him, the strengthening of their bond while they traveled together, and Kratos's obvious desire to protect Lloyd (and Lloyd's equally obvious desire to trust him) even after Kratos's Face–Heel Turn, the connection was obvious and easily made. ...Then near the end of the game, it turns out that Kratos is Lloyd's long-lost father. Oops.
- Tales of Berseria:
- Velvet/Laphicet was a very high-ranking ship before the game's release since they were portrayed as the female and male lead of the story. When the game came out, people began to ship it less when it was mentioned that this malak looked very similar to Velvet's dead little brother and that she was the one that chose to call him Laphicet. Some were willing to look past that, but the two-thirds point of the game revealed that the malak Laphicet is the reincarnation of their sister's unborn child, making him Velvet's nephew, killed off the pairing.
- For similar reasons, Velvet/Seres was also abandoned after the game revealed that Seres is the malak reincarnation of Velvet's dead sister Celica.
- From Triangle Strategy, Roland/Serenoa was fairly popular in the early days after the game's release, even with the fact that Serenoa is engaged to Frederica, due to how close they are. They're frequently shown confiding in each other and generally being supportive, with Hughette even commenting on how close they are after she first meets Serenoa. However, Chapter 15 revealed that Serenoa and Roland are actually half-brothers, causing pretty much everyone to jump ship.
- While many fans of The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild saw Urbosa and Zelda as having a platonic/familial bond right from the start, there was a somewhat sizeable fanbase who saw their overt closeness as Les Yay. That fanbase shrunk considerably when The Champion's Ballad DLC was released and revealed that Urbosa was longtime friends with Zelda's late mother, confirming a quite large age-gap between her and the 16-17-year-old Zelda and heavily emphasizing her as a surrogate mother-figure. The DLC invented a new Les Yay ship between Urbosa and Zelda's mother instead.
- Undertale:
- Because one of Mettaton's quiz show questions asked if you would "smooch a ghost", there have been fans who ship Mettaton with the resident adorable ghost Napstablook. Buying the Mystery Key and using it on the house next to Napstablook's will unlock it, and through diaries and a phone call to Undyne it is revealed that they are cousins. People not into Incest Yay Shipping jumped ship.
- After the Version 1.01 patch in January of 2016, modified content in the game added stronger implications that Sans is related to Gaster in some way, possibly as family. This has caused a lot of people to jump off the Sans/Gaster ship.
- The World Ends with You: Some people began to ship Beat and Rhyme due to their close interactions at the beginning. This was quickly dropped by most when we found out that they are siblings. And that Rhyme is substantially younger (probably by five or more years, although the cast's ages are not specified) than Beat. But...
- NEO: The World Ends with You had people ship Rindo and Nagi when they first appeared in previews since they are the main male and female character in the previews. However, this ship is now rarely seen if ever due to the reveal of Nagi being a college student against Rindo's high school age and Rindo having much better chemistry with Shoka especially after she joined the Wicked Twister and later on, reveal that she is his online friend Swallow.
- Zero Escape: One of the more popular ships from Virtue's Last Reward, Sigma/Phi, was thoroughly abandoned following the reveal in Zero Time Dilemma that Phi is Sigma's daughter.
Web Animation
- Red vs. Blue: During seasons 9 and 10, Agent Carolina had three major pairings associated with her: York/Carolina (which was somewhat canon), Director/Carolina, and Tex/Carolina. The last episode of Season 10 reveals that the Director is her father, and thus Tex is an AI based on her father's memory of her mother. A mass exodus from both those ships ensued.
- RWBY:
- Between the release of the trailers and of the first actual episode Ruby/Yang was somewhat popular; its popularity dropped dramatically when it was revealed that Ruby's use of "sis" to refer to Yang wasn't just a nickname and they really are sisters. The ship soon gained the nickname "Enabler", as a suggestion that people who kept the ship going were "enabling" unhealthy behaviour.
- The show had the potential pairing between Blake Belladonna and her former White Fang partner and leader Adam Taurus. Even though Adam hadn't been in the series outside of the "Black" trailer, people still held a candle for this pairing and saw a future where they could reconcile. That ship sank quickly come Vol. 3, Episode 11 "Heroes and Monsters", when he finally appears and proceeds to go full Yandere on Blake, vowing to destroy everything she holds dear, and starts by stabbing Blake in the stomach, before going on to lop off Yang Xiao Long's arm and trying to decapitate Blake as she shields Yang from further harm. This intensifies in the following season, where despite not appearing on-screen himself, we see that the aforementioned event gave Yang PTSD, learn he was physically abusive towards Blake prior to her abandoning him, discover has been attempting to get the current Supreme Leader of the White Fang to join the villain cabal, and when that fails, plans her death and usurpation so he can launch a terrorist campaign. In short, fans went from thinking Adam would be a Broken Bird Woobie to discovering that he was actually a vile jerkass in the span of a year despite not being in the show. It's telling that Blake/Adam ship quickly changed its name from Tauradonna to Animal Abuse.
- When the pilot for Hazbin Hotel, was uploaded onto YouTube, there was a popular ship between Angel Dust and Valentino. In the music video ADDICT, Valentino is implied to be sexually abusing Angel, causing the ship to die instantly.
Web Comics
- In Drowtales:
- Ariel/Sarnel was a secondary but still popular ship after he stands up for her when they're both children and eventually end up in the same squad together. It was quietly abandoned later on when a flashback post-timeskip showed how their families tried to set them up on a date and the two had No Sparks. The fact that Ariel proceeded to hook up with her (female) Victorious Childhood Friend Faen and Sarnel got together with Shala, another member of their squad, pretty much ended any possibilities for the pairing, though a few still hold out that Ariel/Faen/Sarnel might become a One True Threesome and/or Chosen Conception Partner situation due to drow society (and for that matter, Faen) actually encouraging such arrangements.
- Mel'arnach/Snadhya'rune is an example of a canon ship being abandoned after later revelations. It had been implied early on that the two were Star-Crossed Lovers because of their feuding families and then later confirmed by Mel herself, but when it was later all but stated by Zhor, who is more or less Mel's husband, that Snadhya'rune is using Mel and effectively keeping her as a pet and a status symbol, not to mention manipulating her into being completely emotionally dependent and stealing her genetic material to conceive a child without Mel's knowledge the ship was effectively scuttled and just about all the fanwork produced since then of the two has emphasized just how unhealthy their relationship actually is.
- Ariel/Sarnel was a secondary but still popular ship after he stands up for her when they're both children and eventually end up in the same squad together. It was quietly abandoned later on when a flashback post-timeskip showed how
- The Girl Genius fandom had a variant, in that shippers didn't ditch a pairing due to one of the characters doing something unconscionable, but simply because a better one showed up. When Tarvek and Bangladesh interacted, Bang's schoolgirl glee at seeing Tarvek again earned the pairing a lot of fans. Two days later, Bang met Vole, and everyone immediately jumped to that ship. To quote one of the posters on our own forums: "I support this ship. I support this ship so much it will not displace water. I support this ship so much it will be a skyship."
- Homestuck:
- When it was revealed that Dave/Rose and John/Jade would be incest because those pairings are siblings, the ships dropped off the face of the internet. They do still exist to some mild extent, but the addition of many new characters since then such as the Trolls has made such pairings irrelevant.
- There is a case where canon events did not deter shippers at all. John has directly stated he's not interested in men and later said he wasn't interested in any romance at all. Despite this, John/Karkat and John/Dave remain two of the most popular ships in the series.
- Rain (2010):
- Most people who shipped Rain and Gavin jumped off once Rain figured out she’s sapphic. Ana being introduced as Gavin’s eventual love interest also made more readers abandon the ship.
- Rain x Maria shippers also jumped off once Chanel was introduced and her and Maria became a couple.
- Stand Still, Stay Silent:
- Some people had second thoughts about the Emil/Lalli pairing because they felt that Lalli's means of getting Emil out of the influence of the troll spirit's Compelling Voice was unnecessarily aggressive and highlighted the unhealthy parts of their interaction.
- An unusual case in this one: it's noted the amount of Reynir/Tuuri fics dropped significantly after the developments of Chapters 13 and 14 where Tuuri is bitten by a troll and is separated from Reynir in case she was infected by the rash so she didn't pass it to him hindered what could be done in canon-compliant fics, which allowed alternate pairings like Sigrun/Tuuri and Reynir/Onni to flourish in their stead, giving the impression that this happened to the Reynir/Tuuri pairing.
Web Original
- Gaia Online has a shipping scene. As a result, this has happened a few times.
- The first was with Love Triangle between Ian, Sasha, and Gino. There used to be debate between Sasha X Ian, and Sasha X Gino supporters as to who she should go with. However, when she took yet a third person who was already in a love triangle of his own to a Halloween ball, everyone decided Sasha was Too Dumb to Live and abandoned ship. Since then, Ian has shown only passing interest in Sasha, and Gino has become hilariously inept at dating.
- In 2007, Friendly Neighborhood Vampire Louie was introduced, and promo art showed Perky Goth Moira as his love interest. Naturally all of the fangirls leapt on Louie/Moira... until the animated plot updates came out. The relationship was so convoluted that even Gaia abandoned ship.
- Around this same time, it was revealed that Louie, Ian, and Gino were all related (Louie and Ian are brothers, and they are both Gino's half-brothers). Upon this revelation, those that shipped these three in some form or way eventually abandoned ship.
Web Video
- Critical Role once saw a decent amount of shipping-related fanart and fanfiction involving Caduceus Clay, one of the party's clerics in the second campaign. However, later on in the campaign, it's revealed that Caduceus is in-canon both asexual and aromantic, so any shipping involving him naturally died down after that.
- Meme House: Madeline/Bulk Bogan was a popular ship with the Twitch Chat. This ended in Part 7 after she stabbed Bulk to death.
- MiraRae’s Royal Family: Kaleo and Alice May were a reasonably possible ship until Kaleo went Yandere and attacked Caspian.
Western Animation
- Adventure Time:
- Shippers of Finn/Princess Bubblegum got excited at the end of Season 2, but when "Too Young" rolled around in Season 3, well ... That caused many shippers to walk the plank. If you were still a fan of the couple, even the remotest chance of them being together was evaporated by the Season 3 finale. Shippers of the couple are scarce, very scarce.
- Finn/Marceline shippers saw hope at the ending of "Too Young", but like the Finn/Bubblegum shippers, they too took a dive after "Incendium", where he finally got a love interest that was his own age and liked him back (Flame Princess) but even that pairing got sunk a season later.
- Many say the Finn/Marceline ship died when the two agreed they were not romantically interested in each other in season 2's "Go With Me".
- Those who shipped Lemongrab with his clone and brother, Lemongrab 2, understandably jumped ship when the former ate the latter alive.
- Batman Beyond: Terry/Bruce was a big favorite for fans. The way they were presented you'd think they were perfect....until JLU Epilogue came out and well, turns out Bruce is Terry's biological father and.... Well the pairing is now very rare. Actual incest is something that makes even Batslashers uncomfortable sometimes.
- In the original Ben 10 series, Ben and Gwen was the most popular ship despite them being cousins, though this can mainly be chalked up to them being the only kids in the show.note As the franchise continued, and new characters were introduced and given regular appearances, a fair number of Bwen fans abandoned ship for other pairings. Ben 10: Omniverse even hurt the ship additionally simply because many fans hated Gwen's new redesign in that incarnation. Nowadays, while Ben/Gwen material is still common, it makes up a significantly smaller amount of fanworks than it did in the late 2000s.
- Charmcaster/Darkstar was once a popular Pair the Spares option for various Gwen ships. Then "Couples Retreat" aired and showed what exactly the pairing would look like in canon (namely, Darkstar manipulating Charmcaster so he could have an unlimited supply of mana to feed on). The fans jumped ship soon afterwards.
- Bob's Burgers: Tina/Jimmy Jr. was one of the main pairings from the early days of the show and still has some fans, but Jimmy Jr.'s actions in "V For Valentine-Detta" - leaving Tina heartbroken by getting with someone else for Valentine's Day, using Tina's homemade picture frame for a picture of said Valentine's date, then dumping said date to hook back up with Tina mid-date - caused fans to turn away from Tina/Jimmy Jr. and start shipping Tina/Zeke or other pairings instead, seeing Jimmy Jr.'s actions as too cruel and selfish to justify Tina being with him.
- The Dragon Prince:
- Fans started shipping Harrow/Viren as soon as they were shown to have a very close relationship. Their introductory scene was Viren waking up Harrow who playfully said that he'd kill him if he continued to do so, and they continue behaving Like an Old Married Couple, helped by Viren's children's mother never been mentioned and Harrow being a widower. Many jumped ship quickly when Viren stepped up as the show's villain and described Harrow as a brother to him killed the ship for many.
- Slash fans started shipping Soren/Runaan since the two were among the most attractive males in the show. This was quickly dropped when their age gap was shown much larger than expected (Runaan is old enough to have raised a girl just a little younger than Soren). This was permanently sunk as season one starts heavily implying that Runaan already has a male romantic partner in his home country, which was confirmed with the introduction of Ethari, Runaan's husband.
- Many who shipped Webby with the triplets in DuckTales (2017) and choose to avoid Fanon Discontinuity jumped ship due to the series finale revealing she is Scrooge's daughter and their first cousin once removed via cloning.
- Gravity Falls:
- The ship of Bill Cipher/Dipper Pines, or Billdip, became the biggest OTP of the fandom for Season 2, to the point where it became extremely hard to find a fanfic that featured both of the characters that didn't ship them. However, come "Dipper and Mabel vs. The Future" and "Weirdmaggedon Part I", where a lot of the Draco in Leather Pants characterisation that fans had given Bill were blown completely out of the water, a lot of shippers jumped.
- A lot of Dipper/Mabel fans abandoned Pinecest not because of anything defined in the series, but because they started to prefer other ships thanks to Season 2 and supplementary material giving more development to characters like Wendy, Pacifica, and Bill Cipher.
- Infinity Train fans immediately started shipping Grace and Simon, especially when the start of Book 3 showcased how close of a friendship the duo shared. Even after it became clear that Grace was the only one who would be undergoing a Heel–Face Turn, while Simon would continue to spiral, fans hung onto the pairing. Then the final two episodes of the season happened, where Simon mentally abuses Grace, attempts to leave her for dead trapped in her mind, and when she comes back from that, actively attempts to murder her himself by throwing her to the train tracks. As a result, AU fics are pretty much the only place you'll see these two paired together now.
- Ever since the show began airing, many KaBlam! fans shipped Henry and June, mainly due to a number of their interactions coming off as Ship Tease. But then fifteen years later in 2011, a fan asked Mark Marek, who did the Henry and June wraparound segments about whether or not it was truly canon. He confirmed on the fan's now-defunct fansite that neither Henry nor June had romantic feelings for the other, but that they were intended to be more Like Brother and Sister than anything else. The fans were more or less split in half at it; while a very good portion of the fans ignored it and continued shipping them, other fans jumped ship.
- Kaeloo:
- While there were already very few of them, most of the Mr. Cat/Pretty shippers abandoned the ship for Mr. Cat/Kaeloo following the events of Episode 105.
- Pretty/Stumpy was a popular ship until Stumpy's girlfriend Ursula was revealed to exist. With Stumpy/Ursula being one of the healthiest relationships on the show, literally everyone jumped ship for Stumpy/Ursula and Stumpy/Pretty has since become but a distant memory.
- My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic:
- During during the first two seasons, Twixie (Twilight/Trixie) was one of the most popular ships and received a lot of fanworks, despite the latter only having one appearance (granted, this is a fandom that creates pages of backstory for the most innocuous background character). "Magic Duel" caused some fans to abandon the ship, but "No Second Prances" was the real nail in the coffin. Twilight's questionable attitude and behavior towards Trixie in that episode caused many of the remaining Twixie fans to jump ship to Starlight/Trixie due to them immediately showcasing some fun chemistry.
- Spike/Apple Bloom was very popular in the early days of the show, possibly because they were the first major young characters introduced. The pairing declined in popularity as the show went on and the two almost never interacted, and other popular pairings for Spike emerged like Ember and Smoulder. These days, if Spike is being shipped with any of the Crusaders, it's most likely with Sweetie Belle.
- Being one of the most popular background colts, it was fairly common to ship Rumble with each of the Cutie Mark Crusaders. However, once Rumble got A Day in the Limelight with "Marks And Recreation", his anti-Cutie Mark rhetoric dealt quite a blow to his ships with the CMC.
- Rainbow Dash and fellow Daring Do fan Quibble Pants were a popular ship after their interaction in "Stranger Than Fanfiction" until "Common Ground" where Quibble had a new girlfriend old enough to have a young daughter, voiced by his actor's real life wife and daughter respectively. The couple's chemistry along with Rainbow's enthusiastic approval discredited the romantic interpretation of her and Quibble's interactions and implying a maturity gap between them that further hurt interest such the new paring got practically no shipper backlash.
- The Owl House:
- Every single ship featuring Lilith suffered this after Word of God confirmed she is asexual and aromantic.
- After getting a lot of Ship Tease with Hunter following their first interactions in "Any Sport In A Storm", the Boschlow ship died down in favor of Huntlow. Boscha not receiving any Character Development or interactions with Willow during the second season only killed it faster.
- After "Clouds on the Horizon" showed Alador leaving Odalia over her support of Belos' genocidal plans and abusive behavior, many fans who previously liked the couple have stopped supporting the ship.
- Camila and Eda became a lot less popular after the introduction of Raine, Eda's ex and a rare nonbinary major character.
- The Lunter (Luz/Hunter) ship began to wane in popularity after Lumity became canon and Hunter started interacting with Willow. The pairing definitely still has its fans, but not as much as there were during Season 2A, with most fans coming to see them as Like Brother and Sister instead.
- In the early days of the The Powerpuff Girls fandom, shipping Professor Utonium with his daughters' teacher, Ms. Keane, was very popular. The writers saw this and made an episode about this happening in-series. The episode is nothing but a Take That, Audience! against the shippers and went out of its way to portray the pairing as not working well. Considering it's a post-movie episode — and fans often think those episodes suffer from heavy Seasonal Rot — many opted to ignore it but it still created a noticeable dent in Utonium/Keane.
- She-Ra and the Princesses of Power: Catra's third season Villainous Breakdown, in which she took a meat cleaver to her own personal life in the hope of catching Adora with the edge, did a lot of damage to her fanfic romantic life for a while. Between Adora visibly giving up on her, her betrayal of Scorpia's trust, and Glimmer's mother making a Heroic Sacrifice to stop a disaster Catra set in motion, all her ships were stalled as most moved over to "Catra/Therapy", with some feeling as though she'd never be in a good state for a romantic relationship at all. They were all still popular, but it took until the character's redemption arc in the show's fifth season for all these groups (especially Catradora shippers), to return to writing fics that weren't just AUs or Time Skips.
- South Park: The great majority of Heiman (Cartman/Heidi) shippers abandoned the ship because of how poorly he treated her in Season 21.
- Steven Universe:
- During Season 1, Rose/Pearl was an exceedingly popular pairing due to fans loving their relationship and how Pearl viewed Rose Quartz as The Lost Lenore. It would then go on to lose a lot of support in Season 2, when it was revealed that Pearl had a complicated relationship with Rose that led to her being a Clingy Jealous Girl and generally nasty towards Greg in the past. It still had its fans, but many moved onto other ships, especially Pearl and Mystery Girl... with those pairings taking a hit for a long period of time following "Cry For Help", as many felt Pearl just wasn't in the right mindset to be in a relationship in general. And Rose/Pearl would die completely after The Reveal in Season 5 that Rose Quartz was Pink Diamond, Pearl was owned by Pink, and that she put Pearl under a Geas to not reveal any of this riddled their relationship with unfortunate implications that many weren't fond of.
- Most of the ships involving Garnet were abandoned after the episode "Jail Break" revealed she is actually the Romantic Fusion of two Gems named Ruby and Sapphire, meaning she effectively is a relationship. A later episode, "Love Letters", even has her directly state that she has no interest in being in a relationship with anyone else.
- "Alone At Sea" caused Jasper/Lapis fans to jump off the ship in droves, as it blatantly showcases how toxic and damaging the relationship was for both Gems, with Lapis even saying that she never wants to feel the way she felt with Jasper ever again. It doesn't help that the scene has them on a literal sinking ship.
- Pearl and Mystery Girl lost some shippers after it was revealed that Pearl has been flirting with various women since that episode.
- Jasper/Lapis/Peridot was a popular One True Threesome early in the fandom. It acted as a villainous counterpart to the popular Garnet/Pearl/Amethyst (also known as "Polygems"). It lost most of its shippers when the official characterizations were revealed to be different from how fans expected. Many shippers switched to shipping Lapis/Peridot, Jasper/Peridot, or Lapis/Jasper instead (though as mentioned above, that last ship lost a lot of support after "Alone At Sea").
- Tales of Arcadia: During Trollhunters Eli/Steve, the Bully and Wimp Pairing of the series, was a rather popular ship, on par with the main couples, but the sequel to that series, 3Below introduced Steve's official love interest, Aja, the main character of that show, and as the two became official, the former ship became less prominent though still pretty popular. This also caused the rise of Steve/Aja ship mate, Eli/Krel.
- Teen Titans:
- Many fans waited patiently for Terra to be revived and for her and Beast Boy to be an Official Couple. The series finale did bring her back but not as expected. It's implied Terra is either an amnesiac or is purposely lying to Beast Boy in order to avoid going back to being a superhero. The episode ends on a Downer Ending that almost killed the ship, if not for persistent fans attempting to 'fix' it or ignoring it. Nevertheless, many fans stopped shipping BB/Terra.
- Cyborg/Raven was a Beta Couple during season 1. It's since become a rarepair due to most fans pairing Cyborg with Bumblebee or Jinx; and in rare cases, Sara (Cyborg's canon girlfriend in the tie-in comics).
- Total Drama:
- Total Drama World Tour provides an in-universe example: Loony Fan Sierra seems to have been a Shipper on Deck for Fan-Preferred Couple Duncan/Gwen, at least in part because Cody has a crush on Gwen and Sierra has a crush on him. (You following this?) However, Duncan was already with Courtney, and when he and Gwen hooked up behind her back, Sierra turned on Gwen out of principle. (Though the fact that Cody didn't abandon the himself/Gwen ship probably helped.)
- Out-of-universe, many Duncan/Courtney fans abandoned ship after Courtney became antagonistic (and at times outright abusive towards Duncan) in Total Drama Action, with most switching to Duncan/Gwen. Her personality improved in season three, but it didn't stop the D/G Relationship Upgrade (which ironically led to many former D/G shippers abandoning it, thanks to how they got together).
- Also out-of-universe, Action caused a large number of Bridgette/Geoff fans to abandon the pairing due to the two being flanderized into Makeout Kids and Geoff's Acquired Situational Narcissism on the Aftermaths painting him in a bad light. While the makeout sessions were heavily toned down and Geoff was restored to his normal self in World Tour, Bridgette unfortunately ended up falling for Alejandro and trying to kiss him, meaning little faith was restored in the pairing for its ex-fans.
- From the Spin-Off Total Drama Presents: The Ridonculous Race many fans jumped ship from Noah/Cody in favour of Noah/Emma and Noah/Owen, thanks to the season's development of Noah and Owen's friendship and Noah finally receiving an official love interest. Also in the same spinoff, many Owen/Izzy fans jumped ship to Owen/Kitty and Noah/Owen, due to the development of Owen's friendships with the two characters.
- The Voltron: Legendary Defender fandom jumped off any ships involving Shiro with a female character (most prominently the Shiro/Allura ship) once Season 7 revealed that he used to have a male love interest. It didn't help that, while some Word of God had been vague on Shiro's exact orientation, some of the showrunners have explicitly described him as gay.
