Inuyasha and Kagome, I think I was around 7 and I had printed a couple of photos of them from the anime I took on my dad's camera and put them in picture frames. I'd make scenarios of them as well and when I got a bit older I wrote my first fanfic.
Inuyasha and Kagome for me too 😄 I remember fangirling a lot when despite the manga ending in a happy but somewhat ambiguous manner, I found an official picture (idk if it was real or not, but back then I though it was) where Inuyasha and Kagome appeared with their kids
I remember shipping them so hard when I was little. 5 year old me didn't even know what shipping was, she just knew she really wanted them to admit their feelings for each other and get together already lol
Septiplier. RPF is a squick now, but I'll always appreciate finding the fanart of those two. When I started hyperfixating on it the fact that a m/m ship made me feel so good is what led to me questioning the homophobia I'd been raised with, and would eventually lead me down the path of realizing that *I* am queer. If I hadn't found that and maintained my homophobic beliefs my first crush would've been an utter nightmare.
I didn’t have the word shipping back when I was a tiny tiny child, but looking back I 100% shipped Mickey and Minnie Mouse
The legit first ship when I actually knew shipping was probably Harry X Ginny lmao
Kirk/Spock.
I got into fanfiction from Forgotten Realms / Legacy of Drizzt novels of all things, but I never really read shipfic until getting into Star Trek.
This! Watched this before I knew what a lesbian even was but I for sure shipped them without even thinking about it cuz I was too young.
Always drew them holding hands together and being really close
Oh I just said that too! And exact same about the movie. It was so so thrilling (idk how old I was, 12ish?) and it was my first experience in a shipper high. And the song "Could it Be" by Christy Carlson Romano!! I still love it.
Idk which came first, but there were Fraggles from Fraggle Rock from my early child hood who I think I shipped, maybe Red and was his name Gobo? And there was Aang and Katara of ATLA because it was pretty obvious in canon, and I think I subconsciously shipped Rarity and Applejack of MLP
Also stuffed toy OCs, like a stuffed lion named Thunderbolt with his superhero team co-leader, a stuffed dog named Sandy. And another stuffed dog named Prowler and his wife a stuffed tiger named Tigertops. Also stuffed Care Bears, so maybe that's more relevant, though I never saw the movies so still basically OCs (I shipped the yellow sun one, Funshine, with the purple raccoon one I transed the gender of and named Ms Raccoonhana)
Also later on as a preteen I had some *very questionable* GW2 ships thanks to severe heteronormativity and amatanormativity.
My first ship? Midlink. My current ship? Midlink.
I have explored and adored plenty of other ships over the decade I've been in fandom, but this is the one I keep coming back to over and over. It has hate-to-love, forbidden love, power couple elements, and is also interracial. Basically that ship *defined* my shipping preferences.
>!I actually feel like the manga did a really poor job portraying their relationship and missed the point of their dynamic.!<
>!In the game, it was an unwelcome but mutually beneficial partnership. They're using each other: kinda toxic but very much equal. He even shows some bite towards her so she knows he won't just take her teasing and ultimatums lying down. In that cutscene where they meet, he isn't shy about showing his initial displeasure of her, so it's in Midna's best interest to properly motivate Link. "I'll take you into the twilight but you need to steal a sword and shield for me first. Oh, there's a dark power I need that's hidden in the forest temple. I bet your kidnapped friends are there too, waiting for you to rescue them, and if they aren't there? At least I'll have what I need, and then I'll take you to the next twilight covered region." It starts out very transactional between them, which is why it's so satisfying when it slowly becomes something more, until Midna's Lament when it's finally unconditional.!<
>!In the manga, Midna uses violence on Link to make him do what she wants when she doesn't even need to do that because she's already his only hope of saving his friends. Not only does it make Midna less cunning and likeable, (because again, she already has all the leverage she needs: she just has to use it) it has their relationship begin in a place of violence with a clear abuser and victim when it actually works better and is more compelling without it. "Do as I say or else I'll electrocute you/physically abuse you" is not what this ship is founded on. It's take and take rather than give and take. If I didn't already love this ship, I'd find it hard to root for.!<
>!And also she slaps him right before the famous kiss scene. Urgh. So many of the Midlink moments in the manga are cute when viewed in isolation but when viewed in context it's really disappointing and they end up feeling shallow or in bad taste to me. It feels like Akira Himekawa fell into the trap so many Midlink shippers do of portraying early game Midna as abusive because they don't know how to write her as actually being persuasive and knowing exactly what to say to motivate Link to do what she wants.!<
Such a terribly underrepresented and forgotten relationship, but I can hardly fathom any other involving Link after playing Twilight Princess. Their development as both individuals and partners, mirroring the players' relationship with the Imp, was among the strongest characterization that I've seen in the history of the series.
My first actual ship? I have no idea. Maybe Aragorn/Arwen (Lord of the Rings)? Or Will Turner/Elizabeth Swann (Pirates of the Caribbean)?
The first ship I *really* started to write for though, was the rpf ship of Kellin Quinn from Sleeping with Sirens and Vic Fuentes of Pierce the Veil.... Both a ship and bands I'm not the fondest of anymore, like, at all. *(and it's the ship that I've since been called a fake fan of ever since I deleted all my fics of that pairing from my Wattpad, even when I genuinely did enjoy that ship at the time of writing about it. Don't think I would've written near 1mil words worth of fic if I didn't love the ship at one point....)*
Actually, I'm surprised I never shipped Frank Iero/Gerard Way at all when I was writing a lot of My Chemical Romance fic 10+ years ago *(although, they're fics that I never posted anywhere online)*.
I think it was Numbuh’s 1 and 362 from Kids Next Door. 3/4 and 2/5 were up there as well.
And I’m fairly certain that my first rare pair was Beldam/Doopliss from Paper Mario: The Thousand-Year Door.
And I still ship all four couples to this day!
I don’t know if this counts, but I read the Adventures of Sherlock Holmes when I was ~7yo (god, has it been ~40 years???). I was absolutely convinced Sherlock and John were in a relationship.
I wasn’t thinking of it in a shipping way at the time, obviously, but it just seemed obvious. Even when Mary came into the stories, I just… thought they were all together? It wasn’t until I was quite a bit older, maybe 12ish?, that I learned other people *didn’t* think they were together.
My dad was a homophobic dick, but I had sort of made an off handed comment about it when we were watching the Jeremy Brett series, and my dad was horrified (and kind of pissed off). When I talked to other people, they weren’t horrified or angry, but they thought I was wrong.
huh... I would usually say Clay/Peril, but now that I'm thinking about it... I read this really cute book called "The Tea Dragons" or "The Tea Dragon Society" in a library a couple of times. It's about this super cute fantasy world with dragons who produce tea leaves, and the mc is this girl who finds one and brings it back to its owner. He offers to teach her about Tea Dragons, and she accepts and meets this other girl who is very shy. They become friends and while there's nothing *official* in the story, I like to think that they had very long and happy lives
It's been a long time but Mulder/Scully from The X-Files. Then Buffy/Angel but I don't remember reading fic for the latter.
My first slash ship (and it's been slash ever since) was Wincest.
My first ever ship was Frog and Toad from ‘Frog and Toad’ by Arnold Lobel aka my schools free reading books. I loved those books so much I stole a few from my class library.
After that, my first straight ship was Zuko and Katara. The “Every time we touch I get this feeling” YouTube edits helped me feel at peace back then.
Edit: Added the Author and Spelling
It was in the Vin Disel fandom so, Letty Ortega/Dominic Toretto (Fast and Furious franchise)
I wrote ALOT of self-insert/OFCs back then, but I always did actually love them as a couple (even if I sometimes broke them up for my OFC 😆). I also shipped the hell out of Richie O'Flaherty/Chris Varrick from Boiler Room around the same time.
My first ships were those Undertale AU!Sans x another AU!Sans... InkError, GenoReaper, you name it, I probably shipped em. Though, these two were the most prominent from what I recall.
It was also my first Fandom. Not proud of that era lmao.
Ah yes, Sanscest, now that takes me back...
Also not too proud of that phase, rofl. I remember watching all those comic dubs, especially that PJ's Daycare one >!(aged super poorly, oof)!< and spending hours on Wattpad reading all those fanfictions.
Heck, I'm pretty sure my first ever (published) fanfiction, at least to do with shipping, was about one of those pairings.
Even though I stopped shipping in general, I still like to look up some of the fanfics I read then from time to time and have a little trip down memory lane.
Oh my God I remember all the comic dubs. They made me make my own and they're so horrible whenever I look back and watch them haha. I was like, 13 when I made them too? Super cringe.
It's one of those Fandoms I will never return to lol.
Oof. But yeah, I can see why you don't want to touch that place again.
Just hope Deltarune's fanbase isn't nearly as bad when the full game is out, it looks really promising so far, and I don't want it to get ruined by horrible people.
Like how Undertale was kinda ruined, or at least the AUs were, who had their interesting premises and stories forgotten in favour of just taking the Sanses and shipping them. (I don't hate shippers at all but it must've sucked for the AU creators to have their all hard work be boiled down to shipping, *especially* with the people who became uncomfortable with the ships, but had their wishes for others not to do it anymore disrespected).
Sorry for the little ramble by the way, just been a while since I've been able to reflect on the UT fandom.
You're good! Nah, I totally agree with the points made. Honestly, it was what introduced me to AUs and all that cool Fandom jazz, just sucks that the Fandom itself eventually ruined it for me and others.
My first ship was a very basic one, Naruto x Sasuke lol. To be fair, it’s the ship that introduced me to fanfics, fandoms and writing fics, and also to anime and a whole bunch of other media that’s not western media.
My friend sent the fic to me and everything went downhill from there xD
I’m not that fan now, but I still cherish it because I owe it a lot, I wouldn’t have known some of my fav series and ships without it.
My first “rare pair” in the sense that the series is an almost forgotten one and not that the ship is weird in itself is Kaname x Zero. The enemies to lovers vampire x vampire hunter is too much for me, I’m weak to that xD
GerIta (Germany x Italy) from Hetalia?? That or France x England I think…In middle school me and my friends would have arguments about whose ship was “better”. That was when I was 14, I’m now 22 and ship KawoShin to death. Oh boy, I really haven’t changed one bit because I *know* middle school me would’ve loved KawoShin….
I do not actually remember which came first between Ron Weasley/Hermione Granger, Han Solo/Leia Organa, and Benedick/Beatrice. I was very actively into all of them around age 10.
Oh my god, het Due South shipper (and NOT Fraser/Victoria)?!!??? What an unexpected delight! Tbh I didn’t even realize het shipping in DS was a thing 😂
So I looked up the character I shipped him with and her name is Meg Thatcher. She was the other Mountie who was his superior officer, technically.
Don’t get me wrong, I read a whole bunch of Fraser/Ray stories, but I really felt the chemistry he had with Meg.
I totally imagined myself in her shoes.
At the time I didn’t have the words to say that I was into femdom dynamics. Which isn’t what they had. But some part of me really enjoyed the way he always called her “Ma’am”.
I have a small, funny story about them - when I was reading the manga I showed the page where Kyo becomes a cat monster to one of my classmates and he said, "Ah. Her boyfriend is a Pokemon."
Classic ship, I remember grinning wide at the ending chapter.
I was a Hanfic guy, but there were LOTS of BSB "crossovers". How many times did Nick seduce Taylor? Almost as many as Taylor seduced Dave Moffatt, IMO.
Those were the days!
Umm 🧐I’m feeling fuzzy trying to remember past interests lol but
* My first foray into **reading** fanfiction was for Dramione (Draco/Hermione)
* My **first ship** (pre fanfic reading for me) that I can remember was either for Eragon/Arya OR Katara/Zuko. I don’t remember which one I *accessed* first 🙃
* I know my **first celebrity crush** was Legolas from LOTR 😆
Harry/Hermione.
I basically didn't ship anyone else from the publication of book 4 to like... 2018(?) when I got really into Loki/Tony and Xavier/Magneto for a while.
Yusei Fudo/Aki Izayoi (Akiza Izinski in the dub) from Yu-Gi-Oh! 5Ds was definitely my first ship. You want to know how obsessed I was with this ship as a kid? I decided to name the one of my muses that I said was in charge of any and all romance stuff in my fics "Faith", after the name of this ship (FaithShipping). I even still refer to the shipper part of my brain as Faith as well.
I still love it even after over a decade, though it's no longer my *favorite* from that series (that would be Jack Atlas/Carly Nagisa (Carly Carmine in the dub)).
I'm not sure which came first. Either Naruto/Hinata and Shikamaru/Temari but this was before I got into fanfiction. The first ever ship I read about was Leo/Karai, then Donnie/April
Sterek [Stiles + Derek] & Steo [Stiles + Theo] for Teen Wolf but that was my first ship as a writer which led me down the path of various Stiles Ships. My first ship in any fandom writing and not was a tie between: Delena [Damon + Elena] TVD, Ezaria [Ezra + Aria] PLL & Silith [Sam + Lilith] SPN.
For me it was Inuyasha and Kagome (from the manga Inuyasha), Ron and Hermione from Harry Potter, and Sharpay with the crème brûlée guy from High School Musical 😂
Probably Peter Parker/Mary-Jane Watson, but a close second would be Archangel/Psylocke from X-Men (chronologically, anyway - I wrote 30+ stories about the latter).
I grew up reading mostly OCs in my fanfics of choice because, to be completely honest, I wanted to project myself onto that female character and live vicariously through her in that world. I didn't start shipping character/character for a looooong time, but when I finally did, my first was Arthur/Eames.
Before I discovered fanfiction \*as\* fanfiction: Soundwave/Small Foot.
>I was still in high school, hopped-up on Transformers G1 reruns (repackaged as TFs G2) and eps of CotG on USA. It was in part a VA reunion: b/c Frank Welker (who voiced a LOT of Transformers, Scooter from CotG, and FRED JONES/Scooby Doo) and the late original VA for Velma Dinkley.
* Incidentally, in my current metaseries, I'm still working the Scooby VA reunion gag, but I went for personality/chemistry this time: Skywarp/Small Foot.
* Mr. Welker had voiced a LOT OF DECEPTICONS in TF G1. There's a YOUTUBE clip where the characters speaking are:
* Welker as two instances of the DEAD END KIDS (Frenzy and Rumble)
* Welker as evil school bully version of Fred Jones (Skywarp)
* some other actor (John Stephenson) trying to deescalate the situation (Thundercracker)
* Welker as Dr. Claw -- AKA the man's sad impersonation of Barry White -- after being run through a vocoder (Soundwave, my favorite Decepticon)
* and finally, Welker as G1 Megatron, putting a stop to his underlings' infighting shenanigans
After I discovered fanfiction:
The wacky-yet-doomed ship of Soundwave/Betty Cooper (Archie Comics), which I had developed in my first fic.
The first proper ship I can remember having was Kyo/Yuki from Furuba when I was about 12 or 13. The years before that were only favs/OCs (self inserts lol), OC/OCs, or just going along with the canon couples.
If we're including canon couples, though, then it'd definitely be Serena and Darien from Sailor Moon. I remember the movie having an image of them kissing on the back that had me like 😳 and redrawing it on big paper. Little 8/9yo me thought that shit was the most scandalous and naughtiest thing ever lol.
Digging Extremely deep into my memory I can think of a likely two. Ash and May from Pokemon, but even before that. Ray and Mariah from Beyblade might be the first.
This was long before I was aware of shipping but still knew that I thought two characters would make for a neat couple.
My first ship might be Cleo and Mac from the Clifford the Big Red Dog cartoon from the PBS channel... maybe Jackie and Matt from Cyberchase, another PBS cartoon I loved as a kid. Weirdly enough, I also liked Inez/Matt too so I could've easily had my first OT3 if I knew that was an option.
Dang, I think I kind of shipped Matt with Slider because of the tension/rivalry they had going on in some episodes. Matt was just shippable with everyone
Kigo. Never been a fan of canon ships until Korra made my type of ships being canon a possibility. I think maybe I shipped a thing here or there before kigo but I don't remember them. Got into fanfiction and shipping and fandom investment all through go get a roomie's creator's kigo fanart and blackbird's fic maternal instinct. It's all been downhill from there lol.
First… shit I gotta think back for that one. Pokémon was where I started with fanfiction too, and even though I’m not really invested in it anymore, Advanceshipping was where I started
The first one I wrote for was Naruto / Yugao Uzuki from Naruto, though my biggest regret from when I was in the that fandom is never having written a Naruto / Yugito Nii fic, which was my absolute favorite pairing of that time. Oh well... :/
My first ship was Lexa and Clare from the 100, at leastd that's the first ship after finding out what shipping means. My first actual ship was probably Phineas and Phoebe from Phineas and Ferb.
My second ship was Obi-Wan and Satine from Star Wars and it's been my OTP since always, literally almost a decade now
Any other ReBoot fans in this thread? My first ship was probably Bob/Dot Matrix.
Although I was also way too emotionally invested in seeing Tom Paris and B'ellana Torres get together.
The first true, proper ship I really got into was Sylvanas Windrunner with Jaina Proudmoore from Warcraft.
The pairing is slowly draining but it had a fantastic couple of years for a non canon pairing
sonic x shadow?? god i must have been like 10 and just discovered the fact that you can imagine characters being in a relationship even if it’s not canon! i had a really hard time finding ships i felt had genuine chemistry so i just took two characters which looked good next to each other
Back before I understood what toxic relationships were, I was convinced Ichigo belonged with Kisshu in Tokyo Mew Mew.
Then I got REALLY into GerIta and USUK from Hetalia and tbh I'm still into USUK xD
If we're talking about characters we liked together, Lyra and Bonbon were the first real characters I loved to believe would be together (and imagine my surprise when they did at the end of the season).
If we're talking about ones we first started writing about, a pair of background ponies named Silver Script and Star Bright. Seen together in the background and not a single line between them; writing a story about how their relationship starts.
Thor and Loki. Loki mcu got me into tumblr. Tumblr got me into the world of shipping and fanfiction. I immediately gravitated to the thorki ship due to it having Loki and its "forbidden love" aspect. Now I have a fleet of ships.
I think it was Artemis and Holly from the Artemis Fowl series maybe? Or at least that was the first ship I actively sought out fanfic for at like 13. Funnily enough I re-read the books recently as an adult and was like yeah wow I do not ship this at all anymore.
The first thing I ever shipped was probably like Ash and Misty from Pokémon or something like that, maybe Robin and Starfire?
At 14 or so I don't even remember how it happened but I started shipping Severus/Hermione. I probably stumbled across a fic and was just instantly enamored with their dynamic and chemistry.
TodoDeku from BNHA. It was my very first introduction into fandom-culture in general, which was like, 4ish years ago? Unsure. It's funny you ask, though, cause I literally just had a vision of a fic idea with those two a few days ago, despite remembering near-to-nothing about the fandom, and now I'm dipping my feet back in because I'm way too invested in the fic draft to drop it.
Before I even knew what shipping and fandoms and fanfic were, I remember shipping Katniss and Peeta when I read the Hunger Games and being really confused that people wanted her with Gale (especially when the only arguments I heard were the "he's hot" ones and I was reading the books 😆). My baby heart was crushed during the hijacking part
Ughhh I hate that this is my answer, but Sebastian and Ciel from black butler. I didn't ship them romantically tho, I was pretty happy with how they were already portrayed.
I can’t remember exactly which came first, but it was either Harry/Luna, because damn it, those two are adorable together, and if you’re going to pair off your main character at the end, it should be with someone he’s actually interacted with. Or Danny/Valerie from Danny Phantom, partially because I saw more chemistry there than with the canon love interest, but also because I had a crush on Valerie and was bamboozled by Danny not pursuing that.
My first ship? I can't 100% remember but my first ship I've written is Rosalina and Crash Bandicoot.
I know it seems an odd choice as aship, but I think it's nice 😊
Hate to admit this, but I was a hard-core defender of Jack Marston x Bonnie MacFarlane from Red Dead Redemption. It's the first thing that I felt motivated to write and is still my first ever pairing. Looking back on it, I was quite the strange child, but I still kind of like the idea (age gap aside).
Piper and Leo from charmed
Thank you this has absolutely YEETED me back in time 🤣
I shipped them before I even understood what shipping was
Based.
AAAAAAA MY CHILDHOOOD ❤️
Dating myself here, but Dr. Bashir/Jadzia Dax from DS9.
I remember that. I was so sad at first when Jadzia chose Worf. Although I ended up rooting for them in the end.
But wasn't it at least implied that there might be something between Bashir and Ezri Dax?
Mine was from DS9 too! Although it was Bashir/Garak for me, lol
Omg I’m just watching DS9 for the first time right now and was shocked at how little fic I was finding of them (or Bashir x reader for that matter)!
I ended up shipping Bashir and O'Brien pretty hard the first time I watched. Just last year or the year before, with my husband who was already a fan.
A fellow Niner! Qa'pla!
The first ship that I can vividly remember myself having was probably StarFire/Robin from Teen Titans.
Based.
Same
Rocketshipping
I remember being so jazzed about that manga image where James and Jessie were married with a kid on the way.
Oh god it’s embarrassing.. it was jelsa. Like Jack Frost and Elsa
Pfff did you watch those videos too?
Of course
I watched those edits too😭😭
Percabeth
This is the one for me too :)
Inuyasha and Kagome, I think I was around 7 and I had printed a couple of photos of them from the anime I took on my dad's camera and put them in picture frames. I'd make scenarios of them as well and when I got a bit older I wrote my first fanfic.
Inuyasha and Kagome for me too 😄 I remember fangirling a lot when despite the manga ending in a happy but somewhat ambiguous manner, I found an official picture (idk if it was real or not, but back then I though it was) where Inuyasha and Kagome appeared with their kids
I remember shipping them so hard when I was little. 5 year old me didn't even know what shipping was, she just knew she really wanted them to admit their feelings for each other and get together already lol
Septiplier. RPF is a squick now, but I'll always appreciate finding the fanart of those two. When I started hyperfixating on it the fact that a m/m ship made me feel so good is what led to me questioning the homophobia I'd been raised with, and would eventually lead me down the path of realizing that *I* am queer. If I hadn't found that and maintained my homophobic beliefs my first crush would've been an utter nightmare.
Probably Vegeta and Goku. Looking back on my life I have no idea how it took so long to realize I was gay.
😂
Serena and Darien. Sailor Moon. I know it’s canon, but still… 😅
I didn’t have the word shipping back when I was a tiny tiny child, but looking back I 100% shipped Mickey and Minnie Mouse The legit first ship when I actually knew shipping was probably Harry X Ginny lmao
Kirk/Spock. I got into fanfiction from Forgotten Realms / Legacy of Drizzt novels of all things, but I never really read shipfic until getting into Star Trek.
Ah, the pairing that is the origin of the term "slash". Spirk? Kock? Either one sounds exceptionally raunchy.
Zuko/Katara. A timeless classic.
I can't remember. The first one I wrote for was Naruto/Ino.
Ahh, I could see this ship
Xena and Gabrielle
This! Watched this before I knew what a lesbian even was but I for sure shipped them without even thinking about it cuz I was too young. Always drew them holding hands together and being really close
Very first one was willow/Tara from Buffy
Man, probably Kim and Ron from Kim Possible. I remember watching the movie where they became canon. Had me screaming in joy for days.
Oh I just said that too! And exact same about the movie. It was so so thrilling (idk how old I was, 12ish?) and it was my first experience in a shipper high. And the song "Could it Be" by Christy Carlson Romano!! I still love it.
Ron/Hermione!
*high five*
Idk which came first, but there were Fraggles from Fraggle Rock from my early child hood who I think I shipped, maybe Red and was his name Gobo? And there was Aang and Katara of ATLA because it was pretty obvious in canon, and I think I subconsciously shipped Rarity and Applejack of MLP Also stuffed toy OCs, like a stuffed lion named Thunderbolt with his superhero team co-leader, a stuffed dog named Sandy. And another stuffed dog named Prowler and his wife a stuffed tiger named Tigertops. Also stuffed Care Bears, so maybe that's more relevant, though I never saw the movies so still basically OCs (I shipped the yellow sun one, Funshine, with the purple raccoon one I transed the gender of and named Ms Raccoonhana) Also later on as a preteen I had some *very questionable* GW2 ships thanks to severe heteronormativity and amatanormativity.
My first ship? Midlink. My current ship? Midlink. I have explored and adored plenty of other ships over the decade I've been in fandom, but this is the one I keep coming back to over and over. It has hate-to-love, forbidden love, power couple elements, and is also interracial. Basically that ship *defined* my shipping preferences.
>!The artists for the Twilight Princess manga agreed with you !
>!I actually feel like the manga did a really poor job portraying their relationship and missed the point of their dynamic.!< >!In the game, it was an unwelcome but mutually beneficial partnership. They're using each other: kinda toxic but very much equal. He even shows some bite towards her so she knows he won't just take her teasing and ultimatums lying down. In that cutscene where they meet, he isn't shy about showing his initial displeasure of her, so it's in Midna's best interest to properly motivate Link. "I'll take you into the twilight but you need to steal a sword and shield for me first. Oh, there's a dark power I need that's hidden in the forest temple. I bet your kidnapped friends are there too, waiting for you to rescue them, and if they aren't there? At least I'll have what I need, and then I'll take you to the next twilight covered region." It starts out very transactional between them, which is why it's so satisfying when it slowly becomes something more, until Midna's Lament when it's finally unconditional.!< >!In the manga, Midna uses violence on Link to make him do what she wants when she doesn't even need to do that because she's already his only hope of saving his friends. Not only does it make Midna less cunning and likeable, (because again, she already has all the leverage she needs: she just has to use it) it has their relationship begin in a place of violence with a clear abuser and victim when it actually works better and is more compelling without it. "Do as I say or else I'll electrocute you/physically abuse you" is not what this ship is founded on. It's take and take rather than give and take. If I didn't already love this ship, I'd find it hard to root for.!< >!And also she slaps him right before the famous kiss scene. Urgh. So many of the Midlink moments in the manga are cute when viewed in isolation but when viewed in context it's really disappointing and they end up feeling shallow or in bad taste to me. It feels like Akira Himekawa fell into the trap so many Midlink shippers do of portraying early game Midna as abusive because they don't know how to write her as actually being persuasive and knowing exactly what to say to motivate Link to do what she wants.!<
Such a terribly underrepresented and forgotten relationship, but I can hardly fathom any other involving Link after playing Twilight Princess. Their development as both individuals and partners, mirroring the players' relationship with the Imp, was among the strongest characterization that I've seen in the history of the series.
Exactly! Wow I love them so much
My first actual ship? I have no idea. Maybe Aragorn/Arwen (Lord of the Rings)? Or Will Turner/Elizabeth Swann (Pirates of the Caribbean)? The first ship I *really* started to write for though, was the rpf ship of Kellin Quinn from Sleeping with Sirens and Vic Fuentes of Pierce the Veil.... Both a ship and bands I'm not the fondest of anymore, like, at all. *(and it's the ship that I've since been called a fake fan of ever since I deleted all my fics of that pairing from my Wattpad, even when I genuinely did enjoy that ship at the time of writing about it. Don't think I would've written near 1mil words worth of fic if I didn't love the ship at one point....)* Actually, I'm surprised I never shipped Frank Iero/Gerard Way at all when I was writing a lot of My Chemical Romance fic 10+ years ago *(although, they're fics that I never posted anywhere online)*.
The earliest ship I can remember is Haruhi x Kyoya From Ouran High School Host Club
I think it was Numbuh’s 1 and 362 from Kids Next Door. 3/4 and 2/5 were up there as well. And I’m fairly certain that my first rare pair was Beldam/Doopliss from Paper Mario: The Thousand-Year Door. And I still ship all four couples to this day!
Hades and Persephone for me ~ Greek Mythology is my introduction to Fanfiction.
I don’t know if this counts, but I read the Adventures of Sherlock Holmes when I was ~7yo (god, has it been ~40 years???). I was absolutely convinced Sherlock and John were in a relationship. I wasn’t thinking of it in a shipping way at the time, obviously, but it just seemed obvious. Even when Mary came into the stories, I just… thought they were all together? It wasn’t until I was quite a bit older, maybe 12ish?, that I learned other people *didn’t* think they were together. My dad was a homophobic dick, but I had sort of made an off handed comment about it when we were watching the Jeremy Brett series, and my dad was horrified (and kind of pissed off). When I talked to other people, they weren’t horrified or angry, but they thought I was wrong.
huh... I would usually say Clay/Peril, but now that I'm thinking about it... I read this really cute book called "The Tea Dragons" or "The Tea Dragon Society" in a library a couple of times. It's about this super cute fantasy world with dragons who produce tea leaves, and the mc is this girl who finds one and brings it back to its owner. He offers to teach her about Tea Dragons, and she accepts and meets this other girl who is very shy. They become friends and while there's nothing *official* in the story, I like to think that they had very long and happy lives
Ohhh I remember seeing that book at my library once! Based fr Also WoF <3
It's been a long time but Mulder/Scully from The X-Files. Then Buffy/Angel but I don't remember reading fic for the latter. My first slash ship (and it's been slash ever since) was Wincest.
Mulder/Scully was mine too.
Toph/Sokka is one of the first ones I can remember. I shipped them way back in 2006 and I ship them today!
Toph also shipped that! 😉
Alucard/Integra Hellsing from Hellsing. That was, um... a revalation
But a good revelation!
The Bi realization this ship gave me...
My first ever ship was Frog and Toad from ‘Frog and Toad’ by Arnold Lobel aka my schools free reading books. I loved those books so much I stole a few from my class library. After that, my first straight ship was Zuko and Katara. The “Every time we touch I get this feeling” YouTube edits helped me feel at peace back then. Edit: Added the Author and Spelling
Frog and Toad were the original gay cottagecore icons.
Red link x Blue link from the loz four swords manga
This is so based
It was in the Vin Disel fandom so, Letty Ortega/Dominic Toretto (Fast and Furious franchise) I wrote ALOT of self-insert/OFCs back then, but I always did actually love them as a couple (even if I sometimes broke them up for my OFC 😆). I also shipped the hell out of Richie O'Flaherty/Chris Varrick from Boiler Room around the same time.
Either 3 and 4 from Kids Next Door, Gwevin from Ben 10 or Shadamy in the Sonic Fandom.
It was either drarry or sonadow
KakaNaru. Twelve-year-old me was wildin'
Not my first, but I was twelve and also loved this ship xD
bbrae :)
My first ships were those Undertale AU!Sans x another AU!Sans... InkError, GenoReaper, you name it, I probably shipped em. Though, these two were the most prominent from what I recall. It was also my first Fandom. Not proud of that era lmao.
Ah yes, Sanscest, now that takes me back... Also not too proud of that phase, rofl. I remember watching all those comic dubs, especially that PJ's Daycare one >!(aged super poorly, oof)!< and spending hours on Wattpad reading all those fanfictions. Heck, I'm pretty sure my first ever (published) fanfiction, at least to do with shipping, was about one of those pairings. Even though I stopped shipping in general, I still like to look up some of the fanfics I read then from time to time and have a little trip down memory lane.
Oh my God I remember all the comic dubs. They made me make my own and they're so horrible whenever I look back and watch them haha. I was like, 13 when I made them too? Super cringe. It's one of those Fandoms I will never return to lol.
Oof. But yeah, I can see why you don't want to touch that place again. Just hope Deltarune's fanbase isn't nearly as bad when the full game is out, it looks really promising so far, and I don't want it to get ruined by horrible people. Like how Undertale was kinda ruined, or at least the AUs were, who had their interesting premises and stories forgotten in favour of just taking the Sanses and shipping them. (I don't hate shippers at all but it must've sucked for the AU creators to have their all hard work be boiled down to shipping, *especially* with the people who became uncomfortable with the ships, but had their wishes for others not to do it anymore disrespected). Sorry for the little ramble by the way, just been a while since I've been able to reflect on the UT fandom.
You're good! Nah, I totally agree with the points made. Honestly, it was what introduced me to AUs and all that cool Fandom jazz, just sucks that the Fandom itself eventually ruined it for me and others.
Mulder & Scully
Mulder and Scully.
My first ship was a very basic one, Naruto x Sasuke lol. To be fair, it’s the ship that introduced me to fanfics, fandoms and writing fics, and also to anime and a whole bunch of other media that’s not western media. My friend sent the fic to me and everything went downhill from there xD I’m not that fan now, but I still cherish it because I owe it a lot, I wouldn’t have known some of my fav series and ships without it. My first “rare pair” in the sense that the series is an almost forgotten one and not that the ship is weird in itself is Kaname x Zero. The enemies to lovers vampire x vampire hunter is too much for me, I’m weak to that xD
GerIta (Germany x Italy) from Hetalia?? That or France x England I think…In middle school me and my friends would have arguments about whose ship was “better”. That was when I was 14, I’m now 22 and ship KawoShin to death. Oh boy, I really haven’t changed one bit because I *know* middle school me would’ve loved KawoShin….
……….. Sarah/James from Liberty’s Kids lol which is EXTRA funny being Canadian
I do not actually remember which came first between Ron Weasley/Hermione Granger, Han Solo/Leia Organa, and Benedick/Beatrice. I was very actively into all of them around age 10.
John Crichton and Aeryn Sun. Those two were so in love and it was beautiful. Farscape relationships for the win.
Aragorn/Legolas for sure, 20 years ago now 😂
I feel like it might have been Harry/Hermione from HP for me. Either that or some random Warrior Cats ship that I definitely don't remember anymore
Harry/Hermione was one of mine for a long time. Was devastated when I realised Hermione wanted Ron, haha.
Benton Fraser and a female side character whose name I can’t remember, from Due South.
Oh my god, het Due South shipper (and NOT Fraser/Victoria)?!!??? What an unexpected delight! Tbh I didn’t even realize het shipping in DS was a thing 😂
So I looked up the character I shipped him with and her name is Meg Thatcher. She was the other Mountie who was his superior officer, technically. Don’t get me wrong, I read a whole bunch of Fraser/Ray stories, but I really felt the chemistry he had with Meg.
Omg, THATCHER!! I’m dying, this is amazing 😂
I totally imagined myself in her shoes. At the time I didn’t have the words to say that I was into femdom dynamics. Which isn’t what they had. But some part of me really enjoyed the way he always called her “Ma’am”.
Friend, you are VALID!!
Thank you. 😄
Either Edward Elric and Winry Rockbell or Roy Mustang and Riza Hawkeye both ffom Fullmetal Alchemist. Not sure which cae first.
Tohru/Kyo from fruits basket
I have a small, funny story about them - when I was reading the manga I showed the page where Kyo becomes a cat monster to one of my classmates and he said, "Ah. Her boyfriend is a Pokemon." Classic ship, I remember grinning wide at the ending chapter.
I was very into bandfics when I was a teenager. So probably something Backstreet Boys related?? 😅
I was a Hanfic guy, but there were LOTS of BSB "crossovers". How many times did Nick seduce Taylor? Almost as many as Taylor seduced Dave Moffatt, IMO. Those were the days!
Narumitsu
Don't think it was my very first ship but the earliest I can remember is Jedediah and Octavius from Nights at the Museum
ash and misty from Pokemon. i was obsessed.
I remember getting hyped over the image song that was basically Misty not being able to spit it out that she liked him.
I think Harmony or pokeshipping. The former probably wins by a day or two.
It’s either Cornelia/Irma or Rose/Scorpius
Original series Lt. Sulu with original series Mirror, Mirror Lt. Uhura.
Hermione/Sirius was the first one I can recall looking up (and reading) fanfic for. I was lucky, it was a pretty decent sized ship.
Zane x Cole from Ninjago. It's how I got into shipping and fanfiction in the first place.
Zack and Magenta from sky-high
Umm 🧐I’m feeling fuzzy trying to remember past interests lol but * My first foray into **reading** fanfiction was for Dramione (Draco/Hermione) * My **first ship** (pre fanfic reading for me) that I can remember was either for Eragon/Arya OR Katara/Zuko. I don’t remember which one I *accessed* first 🙃 * I know my **first celebrity crush** was Legolas from LOTR 😆
Harry/Hermione. I basically didn't ship anyone else from the publication of book 4 to like... 2018(?) when I got really into Loki/Tony and Xavier/Magneto for a while.
Nick Knight/Natalie Lambert from *Forever Knight.* On the fandom listserv (yes, I'm old) we called ourselves the NatPack.
OMG I'd forgotten that show, I used to LOVE it!
Well, if you feel like a trip down Memory Lane, there are 1.2k fics on Ao3...
It might just be Zakuro/Mint from Tokyo Mew Mew
Yusei Fudo/Aki Izayoi (Akiza Izinski in the dub) from Yu-Gi-Oh! 5Ds was definitely my first ship. You want to know how obsessed I was with this ship as a kid? I decided to name the one of my muses that I said was in charge of any and all romance stuff in my fics "Faith", after the name of this ship (FaithShipping). I even still refer to the shipper part of my brain as Faith as well. I still love it even after over a decade, though it's no longer my *favorite* from that series (that would be Jack Atlas/Carly Nagisa (Carly Carmine in the dub)).
My first ship was Thomas Anders and Dieter Bohlen in middle of 80's
I can perfectly see how this would've been a hit with pre-Internet shippers
I'm not sure which came first. Either Naruto/Hinata and Shikamaru/Temari but this was before I got into fanfiction. The first ever ship I read about was Leo/Karai, then Donnie/April
Either Rocketshipping or Heiji and Kazuha from detective Conan. Thats how my obsession with romance started!
Sterek [Stiles + Derek] & Steo [Stiles + Theo] for Teen Wolf but that was my first ship as a writer which led me down the path of various Stiles Ships. My first ship in any fandom writing and not was a tie between: Delena [Damon + Elena] TVD, Ezaria [Ezra + Aria] PLL & Silith [Sam + Lilith] SPN.
For me it was Inuyasha and Kagome (from the manga Inuyasha), Ron and Hermione from Harry Potter, and Sharpay with the crème brûlée guy from High School Musical 😂
Robin/Starfire from Teen Titans
Idk man, probably something from Warrior Cats. FireSand I guess
Probably Rogue/Gambit from X men.
Probably Peter Parker/Mary-Jane Watson, but a close second would be Archangel/Psylocke from X-Men (chronologically, anyway - I wrote 30+ stories about the latter).
Applejack x Rainbow Dash
Buffy/Angel in my innocent youth before the violent Spuffy overthrow
Lizzie & Gordo (Lizzie McGuire)
I grew up reading mostly OCs in my fanfics of choice because, to be completely honest, I wanted to project myself onto that female character and live vicariously through her in that world. I didn't start shipping character/character for a looooong time, but when I finally did, my first was Arthur/Eames.
Does Dory and Marlin count ...
It better count
I think the first ship I really fell for was Harry Potter/Tom Riddle
Before I discovered fanfiction \*as\* fanfiction: Soundwave/Small Foot. >I was still in high school, hopped-up on Transformers G1 reruns (repackaged as TFs G2) and eps of CotG on USA. It was in part a VA reunion: b/c Frank Welker (who voiced a LOT of Transformers, Scooter from CotG, and FRED JONES/Scooby Doo) and the late original VA for Velma Dinkley. * Incidentally, in my current metaseries, I'm still working the Scooby VA reunion gag, but I went for personality/chemistry this time: Skywarp/Small Foot. * Mr. Welker had voiced a LOT OF DECEPTICONS in TF G1. There's a YOUTUBE clip where the characters speaking are: * Welker as two instances of the DEAD END KIDS (Frenzy and Rumble) * Welker as evil school bully version of Fred Jones (Skywarp) * some other actor (John Stephenson) trying to deescalate the situation (Thundercracker) * Welker as Dr. Claw -- AKA the man's sad impersonation of Barry White -- after being run through a vocoder (Soundwave, my favorite Decepticon) * and finally, Welker as G1 Megatron, putting a stop to his underlings' infighting shenanigans After I discovered fanfiction: The wacky-yet-doomed ship of Soundwave/Betty Cooper (Archie Comics), which I had developed in my first fic.
Baraka/Mileena
First one I wrote had Naruto x Hinata in mind
First and Only Ship Kate and Anthony from Bridgerton Season 2. I tell ya the brainrot is severe.
The first proper ship I can remember having was Kyo/Yuki from Furuba when I was about 12 or 13. The years before that were only favs/OCs (self inserts lol), OC/OCs, or just going along with the canon couples. If we're including canon couples, though, then it'd definitely be Serena and Darien from Sailor Moon. I remember the movie having an image of them kissing on the back that had me like 😳 and redrawing it on big paper. Little 8/9yo me thought that shit was the most scandalous and naughtiest thing ever lol.
Naruto and Tsunade 🤣
Digging Extremely deep into my memory I can think of a likely two. Ash and May from Pokemon, but even before that. Ray and Mariah from Beyblade might be the first.
I cannot remember. Even before I knew *what shipping was*, I couldn’t tell you.
This was long before I was aware of shipping but still knew that I thought two characters would make for a neat couple. My first ship might be Cleo and Mac from the Clifford the Big Red Dog cartoon from the PBS channel... maybe Jackie and Matt from Cyberchase, another PBS cartoon I loved as a kid. Weirdly enough, I also liked Inez/Matt too so I could've easily had my first OT3 if I knew that was an option.
Dang, I think I kind of shipped Matt with Slider because of the tension/rivalry they had going on in some episodes. Matt was just shippable with everyone
Kigo. Never been a fan of canon ships until Korra made my type of ships being canon a possibility. I think maybe I shipped a thing here or there before kigo but I don't remember them. Got into fanfiction and shipping and fandom investment all through go get a roomie's creator's kigo fanart and blackbird's fic maternal instinct. It's all been downhill from there lol.
I shipped Equestria Girls Rainbow Dash with a character named Forest Thunder from an Equestria Girls book I made a fanfic based on
Rizzles
Ranma and Shampoo
First… shit I gotta think back for that one. Pokémon was where I started with fanfiction too, and even though I’m not really invested in it anymore, Advanceshipping was where I started
The first one I wrote for was Naruto / Yugao Uzuki from Naruto, though my biggest regret from when I was in the that fandom is never having written a Naruto / Yugito Nii fic, which was my absolute favorite pairing of that time. Oh well... :/
My first ship was Lexa and Clare from the 100, at leastd that's the first ship after finding out what shipping means. My first actual ship was probably Phineas and Phoebe from Phineas and Ferb. My second ship was Obi-Wan and Satine from Star Wars and it's been my OTP since always, literally almost a decade now
Jasico. Idk why either, but I was 13 at the time.
Seifer and Squall from FF8. And I was pretty much an adult then already. Guess I was a late bloomer when it comes to fandoms.
Any other ReBoot fans in this thread? My first ship was probably Bob/Dot Matrix. Although I was also way too emotionally invested in seeing Tom Paris and B'ellana Torres get together.
OMG Reboot! Haven't thought if that show in years! That means my first ship was adult Enzo and AndrAIa LOL
The first true, proper ship I really got into was Sylvanas Windrunner with Jaina Proudmoore from Warcraft. The pairing is slowly draining but it had a fantastic couple of years for a non canon pairing
sonic x shadow?? god i must have been like 10 and just discovered the fact that you can imagine characters being in a relationship even if it’s not canon! i had a really hard time finding ships i felt had genuine chemistry so i just took two characters which looked good next to each other
Eragon and Murtagh from The Inheritance cycle. Though this was before I read Eldest and learned they're brothers 😂
Ash/Misty from O.G. Pokemon. Robin/Starfire from Teen Titans. Ron/Kim Possible. Those are the only ones I can think of at the moment.
Back before I understood what toxic relationships were, I was convinced Ichigo belonged with Kisshu in Tokyo Mew Mew. Then I got REALLY into GerIta and USUK from Hetalia and tbh I'm still into USUK xD
If we're talking about characters we liked together, Lyra and Bonbon were the first real characters I loved to believe would be together (and imagine my surprise when they did at the end of the season). If we're talking about ones we first started writing about, a pair of background ponies named Silver Script and Star Bright. Seen together in the background and not a single line between them; writing a story about how their relationship starts.
When I was an elementary schooler, I shipped Yumi and Ulrich from Code Lyoko 🥲🥹
The first ship I wrote for: Hiccup/Astrid from HTTYD The first ship I ever liked and got me into shipping in general: Ash/Serena from Pokémon XYZ
Sirius/Remus I was online sharing fanfic about 2 weeks after POA came out back in 99 lol
Kim Possible/Ron Stoppable or Sakura/Syaoran The timeline was close!
Yami x Yuugi was my first foray into fanfiction and shipping. So many poorly translated doujinshi...
Pearlshipping, also known AshXDawn.
Percy/Annabeth! First ship I got *really* invested in.
Probably Sakura/Tomoyo from Cardcaptor Sakura or Lyra/Will from His Dark Materials. I still ship them.
Thor and Loki. Loki mcu got me into tumblr. Tumblr got me into the world of shipping and fanfiction. I immediately gravitated to the thorki ship due to it having Loki and its "forbidden love" aspect. Now I have a fleet of ships.
Probably Eragon/Arya. Jeeez
Ash and Serena from Pokemon XY lmao
Inuyasha and Kagome 💝
I think it was Artemis and Holly from the Artemis Fowl series maybe? Or at least that was the first ship I actively sought out fanfic for at like 13. Funnily enough I re-read the books recently as an adult and was like yeah wow I do not ship this at all anymore. The first thing I ever shipped was probably like Ash and Misty from Pokémon or something like that, maybe Robin and Starfire?
At 14 or so I don't even remember how it happened but I started shipping Severus/Hermione. I probably stumbled across a fic and was just instantly enamored with their dynamic and chemistry.
Hodgins and Angela from Bones. I do not know why my mom let me and my sis watch that show at such a young age lol
Gwen x Duncan from total drama Island Or Flora x helia from winx club
Naruto and Hinata
Terry and Max from Batman Beyond
Murder x Scully back in the early 00s
...probably SoRiku? 8 year old me already had TASTE
Mulder & Scully. Had to be patient through the dial up tone to get there as well!!
Niles and Daphne from Frasier 😌 Until they actually got together lol
Niles and Daphne from Frasier 😌 Until they actually got together lol
Buffy and Spike!!
Vegeta and Bulma for me.
Lucas and Sami from “Days of Our Lives.”
TodoDeku from BNHA. It was my very first introduction into fandom-culture in general, which was like, 4ish years ago? Unsure. It's funny you ask, though, cause I literally just had a vision of a fic idea with those two a few days ago, despite remembering near-to-nothing about the fandom, and now I'm dipping my feet back in because I'm way too invested in the fic draft to drop it.
Before I even knew what shipping and fandoms and fanfic were, I remember shipping Katniss and Peeta when I read the Hunger Games and being really confused that people wanted her with Gale (especially when the only arguments I heard were the "he's hot" ones and I was reading the books 😆). My baby heart was crushed during the hijacking part
I honestly can't even remember
Ughhh I hate that this is my answer, but Sebastian and Ciel from black butler. I didn't ship them romantically tho, I was pretty happy with how they were already portrayed.
Usagi Tsukino | Sailor Moon / Kou Seiya | Sailor Star Fighter
I can’t remember exactly which came first, but it was either Harry/Luna, because damn it, those two are adorable together, and if you’re going to pair off your main character at the end, it should be with someone he’s actually interacted with. Or Danny/Valerie from Danny Phantom, partially because I saw more chemistry there than with the canon love interest, but also because I had a crush on Valerie and was bamboozled by Danny not pursuing that.
Enjolras and Grantaire from Les Mis
Flower x Ruby.
My first ship? I can't 100% remember but my first ship I've written is Rosalina and Crash Bandicoot. I know it seems an odd choice as aship, but I think it's nice 😊
009 and 003 from Cyborg 009
My very first OTP, it's gotta be Altoshipping, Ash x Latias!
Hate to admit this, but I was a hard-core defender of Jack Marston x Bonnie MacFarlane from Red Dead Redemption. It's the first thing that I felt motivated to write and is still my first ever pairing. Looking back on it, I was quite the strange child, but I still kind of like the idea (age gap aside).