ship wars
Romantic preference battles
Ship wars are conflicts between fans who support different romantic pairings in fictional media.
When one faction believes characters A and B belong together while another insists on A and C, the resulting arguments—across social media, forums, and fan communities—constitute a ship war.
These disputes can grow surprisingly heated, sometimes fragmenting entire fandoms: The ship wars over who should end up with the protagonist destroyed the subreddit.
- pairingJoining two together
- queerbaitingImplying queerness for profit
- fandomEnthusiast community collectively
- romanceLove and its excitement
- fanfictionAmateur work using existing characters
OTP · het · slow burn · enemies to lovers · relationships · conflicts · gatekeeping · tribalism · sailors · fan communities · vessels · retconning · subtext · headcanon · fan art · representation · trolling · online harassment