< Ship Tease

Ship Tease/Web Comics

  • Gunnerkrigg Court: Certain fans have noted subtext suggesting romantic feelings between Annie and Kat. Other fans have noted text-text that seems to contradict it (namely, that both characters have encouraged the other's crush on some third party). And then there's this page, which simultaneously plays up the subtext and undermines it by putting it in the mouth of the resident Deadpan Snarker Jerkass. Whatever Tom Siddell has planned for the characters, he seems to enjoy messing with the fans' heads in the meantime.
    • Remember, said Jerkass called Annie "Surma" when they first met, and killed a man for the chance to be with Surma back in the day. And then we get these two strips...
    • Recent strips have gone almost beyond teasing for possible Beta Couple Parley/Smitty. It starts with Smitty admitting that he lets Parley push him around because she's hot, followed by both Reynardine and Annie remarking that she does so because she has a thing for him. Cue Smitty's spluttered denial, and Parley's return to the scene and quickly draped all over him. And then she accidentally teleports the group to her bedroom. It all finally culminates in a Relationship Upgrade in chapter 30 where Parley's experience with the ghost of Jeanne causes her to finally admit her feelings for Andrew.
    • Predictably, a lot of "Jack/Annie, Yea or Nay?" reactions resulted from this page's obligatory He Is Not My Boyfriend teasing. Much more predictable would be the reactions to later developments.
    • Tom just went absolutely crazy in zigzagging the trope for the entirety of Chapter 34, especially in regard to Jack/Annie, and towards the end manages to sneak in Kat/Paz and Kat/Annie too. As the troper Meta Four put it: "With one hand Tom sinks ships, and with the other he raises them from the briny deep."
    • Then there's James Eglamore and Idra O'Kerrigan (the forest elf who saved his and the rest of the team's bacons from wisps). There was just enough to provoke jokes, right until Annies visit Eglamore and meet Idra wearing only his T-shirt (which is like a small toga for her). Instant Eye Pop! To which there may or may not be an innocent explanation, sure.
  • The Wotch had a page supporting a Robin/Cassie pairing for April Fools day.
    • More recently, Robin has sought Cassie out and is spending a good bit of time with her. All friendly outings, but with just her. Maybe this ship has come in...
    • Supported more fully by this strip. Perhaps it's not that much of a joke after all.
  • Misfile. Dear god, Misfile. No matter whether you ship Ash/Missi or Ash/Emily, it's a bumpy ride either way.
  • Something*Positive has teased fans by having PeeJee and Davan go through many relationship-like hurdles for years after Randy got sick of being asked the question. They both display forms of jealousy with other potential love interests, they spend a startling amount of time doing warm and fuzzy things together in a comic remarkably devoid of the same, and PeeJee even goes with Davan when he moves back to his home state of Texas. Since PeeJee is based on artist Randy's friend and Davan is an Author Avatar, he was encouraged to do this with the condition that it never actually happened, which was finally killed once and for all.
  • Looking for Group has this in the scene where Richard's spirit and Pella have a moment in a parody of the movie Ghost. After which we get the infamous "I thought we agreed no eye contact." and "You violated my spirit!" exchange. Way before all that, Richard had even declared "Can we keep her?" when having first met the dwarf. If you read in between the lines a few pages later on, in the scene right before she throws an axe into his forehead, he almost seems to be throwing a pickup line at her before being shot down. "I'd like to see more of that." indeed.
  • Questionable Content is occasionally doing this to Angus and Marigold. Like, here. And here. Poor Faye...
  • Homestuck writer Andrew Hussie just might be doing this intentionally. The first few acts have a lot of people making claims about who has fallen victim to the human weakness of amorous inclination. John tells Terezi that Karkat loves her, Dave accuses Kanaya of having a thing for Rose, Rose accuses Kanaya of having a thing for Dave, Rose accuses Tavros of aiming to couple with Dave, John accuses Rose of hitting on Dave, Dave tells Rose he loves John, and Dave flips out on Tavros at great length.
    • The description of the trolls game has gone on a tangent about the trolls system of romance, which seems to involve a lot of violent making out.
    • And now we get this strip, which teases Andrew/Ms. Paint.
    • This strip has some between Gamzee and Tavros.
    • A combination of fetishes and call backs demonstrates really strong Jake/Jane shipteasing; both have a fetish (blue ladies and moustaches) that happens to be what the other was/had in the Beta universe (Jane was Nannasprite, a glowing blue lady, and Jake had a fantastic stache as Grandpa).
    • There's also been some very strong Dirk/Jake teasing. It was established pretty quickly that Dirk had a crush on him and was planning to do something about it, but for a while we had no idea how Jake felt. Then, it was revealed that Jake was already well aware of Dirk's feelings, and had actually been thinking about taking him up on it. He wasn't sure whether to or not, but then Jane persuaded him to actually go ahead with it and ask him out.
    • During an episode where he was drawing "porn" of himself and his friends for uu, Dirk's shown already setting up the Dirk/Jake pictures before uu even requests it. And then uu tells Dirk he doesn't want it.

<span style=" color:

  1. f2a400;">TT: Lame.
    • Every single character combination has been teased at one point or another; most of these teases go nowhere (such as when Vriska was looking at Kanaya with obvious adoration and a heart appearing near her head; later on, Hussie stated that it was just an one-off gag).
    • Tease? More like PLEASE FEEL FREE TO CHOKE THE INTERNET TO DEATH WITH GAMZEExJOHN FANART.
  • Done several times in Sluggy Freelance.
  • Tessa, the artist and writer behind Hanna Is Not a Boy's Name might very well enjoy intentionally teasing her shipper readers, especially when it comes to Doc Worth, Conrad, and now Lamont. And it's awesome.
  • Tracy Williams, the artist of Goodbye Chains has made it very clear that she thinks being both the artist and the fangirl of such a comic is nothing short of the greatest fun. Dig through her deviantART gallery if you don't believe me. You'll see what I mean. You'll thank me graciously.
  • Penny and Aggie has been teasing shippers of the title characters for over five years, whether through Sara first espousing the theory in-comic (and Lisa and Katy-Ann temporarily considering it); Penny's occasional blushing awkwardness around, and erotic dreams about, Aggie; a strip depicting either a possible future, or Penny's unconscious fantasy, where they end up together;[1] and Aggie's dream in which Penny holds her hand and looks at her longingly. Furthermore, T Campbell has dropped ambiguous hints in the forums and in his strip annotations in the P&APlus pay-site. The most straightforward comments he's made on the issue are that both characters have "bisexual leanings" and that the issue of a mutual attraction has been part of the plan from the comic's beginning. With the still-in-progress final major storyline, things gradually change.
  • In The Dreamer, in the 18th - century part of the comic, although Bea/Alan is the official couple (for now), there is some teasing for Bea/Alex potential, such as Bea and Alex living together for a summer and this little comment from Alex in the third panel.
  • Girl Genius - Used, and possibly alluded to by name, on this Higgs/Zeetha-heavy page (which was very much confirmed)). Then there were lesser examples, like with Tarvek and Ruxala. Of course, that's on top of the whole Love Dodecahedron (first Zola, then Seffie's quiet obsession with Gil).
  • The first VG Cats strip in 2010, along with being a Heartwarming Moment, did this and gave a rare canon hint of something more than what are usually seen between Aeris and Leo, inspiring a very good number of Fan Fics and Fan Arts in this subject. Your Mileage May Vary though.
  • 'Ménage à 3 features a lot of the same sex and heterosexual variety of this trope, most notably Zii and Gary.
    • Or rather, Ménage à 3 features Zii, so the question is always there.
  • There's plenty of this between Tanna and Rolan in Ears for Elves at the Taurëcuiva Festival. They walk around arm-in-arm, Rolan compliments Tanna's flowers in her hair...
  • Despite (or because of) her apparent Asexuality and baggage, Susan from El Goonish Shive gets this with a lot of characters, including Matt, Catalina, Justin and even Elliot (lots of). Whether or not any of these will lead anywhere remains to be seen. Though not any time soon if those two Imagine Spots are any indication.
    • After breakup of Sarah and Elliot, and until Sarah found someone else to date for a while there were hints at Grace X Tedd X Sarah.
  1. ↑ the author has declined to say which it is
This article is issued from Allthetropes. The text is licensed under Creative Commons - Attribution - Sharealike. Additional terms may apply for the media files.