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The Top 50 Fictional Relationships Voting Thread - I'd Do Anything For Love (But I Won't Vote That)

Positronic Brain

Out Of Warranty
(He/him)
Since the earliest stages of civilization, after mankind stopped worrying about outrunning predators (but before they solved the problem of public plumbing), we have devoted a significant part of our collective mind-power to a very important topic: shipping. Not in the “packing stuff to send it far away” sense, but in the “these two fictional characters really go well together, like peanut butter and jam, don’t they? *nod, nod, wink wink*” sense. They say the very moment after the first tale was finished being shared over a campfire, the first shot of the first shipping war was fired: were Gilgamesh and Enkidu really good friends or Really Good Friends?

Let’s face it - romance it’s a vital part of fiction. Love is one of the most basic human needs, so it’s obvious why it can resonate so deeply with us. But since we’re individuals, it resonates differently within each of us, so what some people think it’s a hot couple can leave other people cold. But then there are some relationships that resonate so much that everybody agrees that, yes, I certainly ship that.

So, Talking Time, let’s celebrate the ancient art of shipping by playing with our metaphorical dolls, have them smooch in our minds and decide: what are the Best Fictional Relationships of All Time?

Rules

Very easy - send me via PM a list of your favorite fictional romantic relationships using the Standard Annotation For Romantic Ships (you know, Scrooge McDuck/Money or Percy/Boss) and the serie(s) the characters are from. If you want to add a line detailing why that relationship lifts you up where you belong, feel free to do so - I might steal use it in the Top 50 thread. Remember to number them so I know which one goes at the top!

Standard weighted rules will apply - #1 gets 35 points, #2 gets 34 and so on. The Best Romantic Relationship of All Talking Time will be the couple or policule with the highest number of votes.

So, questions?

What do you consider a Fictional Romantic Relationship?

This is a tricky one! Short answer: whatever relationship you say is romantic in nature between two or more fictional characters.

Long answer: We're Just Friends might be But There Was Only One Bed away from becoming Romantic Partners Who FIght Crime - that’s part of the fun of shipping. So to make things easier (and because creators sometimes have no idea what they are doing with their characters who they clearly don’t know as deeply as we fans do) I am not asking for the relationship to be canon. I also don’t care about the number of vertices, the bi-directionality or the geometric shape of the relationship - as long as you consider it romantic in nature, it counts.

So, in other words, this list is for fun, so just send a list of which romantic relationships totally melt your icy cynical heart and let me worry about edge cases.

I don’t have 25 favorite relationships!

Is OK, just send the list, even if it only has one entry - the more the merrier! It’s not your fault that modern media has failed you in giving you shipping role models.

Can I send corrections to my list?

As long as you do so before the deadline, sure.

Deadline? What deadline?

Glad you asked. I will be receiving entries until May 1st, 23:59:59 PST. And then I’ll tally the votes.

Let’s have fun!
 

Torzelbaum

????? LV 13 HP 292/ 292
(he, him, his)
Very easy - send me via PM a list of your favorite fictional romantic relationships using the Standard Annotation For Romantic Ships (you know, Scrooge McDuck/Money or Percy/Boss) and the serie(s) the characters are from.
What should we do if one or more parts of the relationship have an alias or an alter ego that we consider relevant?
 

Positronic Brain

Out Of Warranty
(He/him)
What should we do if one or more parts of the relationship have an alias or an alter ego that we consider relevant?
Like Clark Kent (Superman) /Lois Lane (Superwoman)? Parenthesis would do, but a note on why the alias matters for the relationship would be appreciated.
 

Johnny Unusual

(He/Him)
I have a list made but I'm hesitant in submitting it because I am positive another one will pop in.

Also, I limited myself to one romance where the romance is all subtext, perhaps unintended. But, like, very strong.
 

Johnny Unusual

(He/Him)
My #1 (for the moment) shocked me. I was expecting something tried and true but somehow recency bias and it just being very good put it to the top.
 

Positronic Brain

Out Of Warranty
(He/him)
Also, I limited myself to one romance where the romance is all subtext, perhaps unintended. But, like, very strong.
Unintended subtexts are fun and perfectly valid. Looking forward to the list when you’re ready to send it in.
So is including last names at our discretion?
Yep. As long as I know which fandom(s) they come from I can smooth it over when tallying the votes.
 

Kirin

Summon for hire
(he/him)
So I have like almost 50 now and I know I’m still missing lots that I love. Oof.
 

Torzelbaum

????? LV 13 HP 292/ 292
(he, him, his)
At first I had a hard time coming up with relationships that met my criteria but I was eventually able to come up with my top 25 (but only had 1 spare that I had cut).

But since then I did think of a couple others that I had forgotten about. (But I'm not planning on revising my list to include them.)
 
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Kirin

Summon for hire
(he/him)
Have just realized I’m on the road for the weekend and It’s Gonna Be May. How firm is that deadline? I can try to scrape up something from my Dropbox draft on my iPad here but it’d be considerably easier to get something in Monday evening if that won’t cause you too much delay @Positronic Brain. Sorry I’m too ADD to deal with due dates sensibly.
 

Positronic Brain

Out Of Warranty
(He/him)
Glad you asked because I was coming to post I'm extending the deadline - I haven't gotten many lists, so it'd be a boring thread if I don't get more entries. New deadline is May 8th

I'll also post this in the relevant discord channels.
 

Kirin

Summon for hire
(he/him)
I don’t want to spoil anything so I’ll be vague, but I’m hella amused right now that the ship my partner contributed to my list was just totally green-lit on TV the day after I sent it to PB.
 

Positronic Brain

Out Of Warranty
(He/him)
Hi1 Just to let you know I am capturing the final lists I received yesterday and then going over the tiresome process of ensuring no dupliates got past my data sieve (because Excel sheets are dumb and they don't know Mario/Sonic and Sonic/Mario is the same ship). I expect to tally the final votes tomorrow at the latest so let me know if you don't get a confirmation by then, and the thread proper should start on monday.
 

q 3

here to eat fish and erase the universe
(they/them)
excuse me but Mario/Sonic and Sonic/Mario are clearly two different ships, which have divided the fandom into extremely bitter camps over whether Mario is the seme or uke and whether Sonic is an alpha, beta, or omega
 

Kirin

Summon for hire
(he/him)
Sometimes. The order can indicate dominant partner first, but it depends wildly on context.
 

Violentvixen

(She/Her)
excuse me but Mario/Sonic and Sonic/Mario are clearly two different ships, which have divided the fandom into extremely bitter camps over whether Mario is the seme or uke and whether Sonic is an alpha, beta, or omega
Not sure about Sonic, but it's pretty obvious that Shadow is a sigma male.
Sometimes. The order can indicate dominant partner first, but it depends wildly on context.

I'm going to be honest, when I voted I thought it meant "relationships in fiction" like famous couples in movies or something. So then when the nominating thread came up I realized I was very wrong and had no idea what was happening and didn't submit a list. These posts are confirming that decision, ha!

I'm very excited for this though, should be a fun time.
 

Torzelbaum

????? LV 13 HP 292/ 292
(he, him, his)
I'm going to be honest, when I voted I thought it meant "relationships in fiction" like famous couples in movies or something. So then when the nominating thread came up I realized I was very wrong and had no idea what was happening and didn't submit a list.

I am not asking for the relationship to be canon
I know Pos wasn't explicitly clear about it but he did accept canon relationships so I think this was supposed to cover both.
 

Johnny Unusual

(He/Him)
I mostly stuck with canonical (though also includes "will they/won't they" that haven't truly happened yet) except one where the chemistry and emotional weight is already there but it's not officially (and probably won't canonically be) romantic.
 

q 3

here to eat fish and erase the universe
(they/them)
Just be glad we aren't doing fictional romantic relationships between real people
 

Kirin

Summon for hire
(he/him)
Yeah my list actually ended up being mostly canon relationships, only a few speculative ones.
 

Positronic Brain

Out Of Warranty
(He/him)
I'll say it was a good idea to recheck the list manually because, oh boy, that would have been egg on my face. Final list is in, and vote spread was weird. As a result we have a major traffic jam in ties in some places - looks like it'll be a Top 52 List.
 
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