Juggernaut Ship
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| Synonyms: | Juggernaut Pairing |
| See also: | OTP, The Fandom That Ate Fandom |
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A Juggernaut Ship is a relationship that is so extremely popular within a fandom that it dwarfs all other pairings in the amount of fanworks produced. It could also be considered the majority pairing within a fandom.
Beyond this basic definition, and despite the term being frequently referenced or used in various fandom spaces, the meaning of 'juggernaut pairing' seems to be understood intuitively and not universally. Additionally, fans may have a variety of opinions on how to identify such pairings or describe their characteristics.
The process of identifying juggernauts is further complicated when dealing with fandoms with multiple types of source media or extended universes, such as the MCU, Star Wars, or Star Trek fandoms, or when a fandom is particularly long-lived and has multiple generations or waves of participation. However, most juggernaut ships seem to be understood as a pairing whose content completely overwhelms all others based on the 'highest level' of the fandom, and across all spaces or platforms which host the fanworks, rather than for specific sub-fandoms or sites.
In LiveJournal fandom in recent years, the juggernaut ship is likely to be a white male/male (slash) one.[1] This phenomenon is also known as White Cock.
Sometimes the predominance of a particular ship makes other fans feel left out. At times bitterness over juggernaut ships leads to wank or ship wars. Juggernauts may also be referenced in direct contrast to rarepairs.
An extremely popular fandom (aka The Fandom That Ate Fandom) may also be a juggernaut; for example Harry Potter.
Juggernaut Pairings
Slash Examples
- Holmes/Watson (Johnlock) in (probably?) all incarnations of Sherlock Holmes fandom
- Kirk/Spock (Spirk) in Star Trek: The Original Series fandom
- Clark/Lex (Clex) in Smallville fandom, during the early seasons.
- McKay/Sheppard in Stargate Atlantis fandom
- Jared/Jensen (J2) in Supernatural RPF fandom
- Sam/Dean (Wincest) and Dean/Castiel in Supernatural fandom. When SPN first became The Fandom That Ate Fandom the prevalence of Wincest and J2 caused much wank and helped make both incest and RPS less taboo and more accepted in slash fandom at wide. (Although the show also caused many long-term slashers to expand their reading to include gen and het.) Starting in season 4 Dean/Castiel (Destiel) became a new and competing juggernaut pairing that took over both SPN and slash fandom (leading to more wank).
- Merlin/Arthur (Merthur) in Merlin fandom, and Bradley/Colin in Merlin RPF
- Steve/Tony (Stony) and later on Steve/Bucky (Stucky) in The Avengers fandom
- Charles/Erik (Cherik) in X-Men: First Class fandom
- Arthur/Eames in Inception fandom
- Steve/Danny (McDanno) in Hawaii Five-0 (2010) fandom
- Frank/Gerard in My Chemical Romance fandom
- Derek/Stiles (Sterek) in Teen Wolf fandom
- Harry/Louis in One Direction fandom
- Phoenix/Edgeworth in Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney fandom
- Ike/Soren in Fire Emblem: Path of Radiance fandom and Radiant Dawn fandom
- Leo/Takumi in Fire Emblem Fates fandom
- Lance McClain/Keith in the Voltron: Legendary Defender fandom
- Mark/Eduardo in The Social Network
- Altaïr/Malik and Ezio/Leo in Assassin's Creed fandom
- Yuuri Katsuki/Victor Nikiforov (Victuri) in Yuri!!! on Ice fandom
- Bachelor/Garuspix in Pathologic fandom
- Lan Wangji/Wei Wuxian of the MDZS series
- Hua Cheng/Xie Lian in Heaven Official's Blessing fandom
- Ryan Bergara/Shane Madej in BuzzFeed Unsolved and Watcher Entertainment
- Jack Harkness/Ianto Jones in Torchwood
- Draco/Harry (Drarry) in Harry Potter fandom
- SnowBaz in Carry On fandom
- Jim/Blair in The Sentinel fandom
- Nico di Angelo/Will Solace (Solangelo) in the Percy Jackson and the Olympians fandom
- Aquarius Camus/Scorpio Milo in Saint Seiya fandom
- Red/Blue in Pokémon fandom
- USUK in Hetalia fandom
- Joe/Nicky in The Old Guard fandom
- Heiwajima Shizuo/Orihara Izaya in Durarara!! fandom
- Sanscest in Undertale fandom
- Bilbo/Thorin in The Hobbit fandom
- Sokka/Zuko in Avatar: The Last Airbender Fandom
Het Examples
- Catherine/Vincent in Beauty and the Beast fandom
- John/Aeryn in Farscape fandom
- Zuko/Katara (Zutara) in Avatar: The Last Airbender fandom
- Percy Jackson/Annabeth Chase (Percabeth) in the Percy Jackson and the Olympians fandom
- Helga/Arnold in Hey Arnold! fandom
- Ten/Rose in Doctor Who fandom
- Jaime Lannister/Brienne of Tarth in A Song of Ice and Fire and Game of Thrones fandom
- Cullen/Female Inquisitor in Dragon Age fandom
- Sam Puckett/Freddie Benson in iCarly fandom
- Ash/Misty in Pokémon anime fandom
- Spike/Buffy in Buffy the Vampire Slayer fandom
- Erik/Christine in Phantom of the Opera fandom
- Reylo in Star Wars fandom
- Chloe/Ollie in Smallville fandom, eclipsing even Clark/Lana and Clark/Lois, the previous juggernauts.
- Oliver Queen/Felicity Smoak in Arrow (TV) fandom
- Katniss Everdeen/Peeta Mellark in The Hunger Games fandom
- Emma/Hook in Once Upon A Time fandom
- Uzi/N in Murder Drones fandom
- Tsukino Usagi/Chiba Mamoru in Sailor Moon fandom
- Betty Cooper/Jughead Jones in Riverdale fandom
Femslash Examples
- Xena/Gabrielle in Xena: Warrior Princess fandom
- Max Caulfield/Chloe Price in Life is Strange fandom
- Chloe/Beca in Pitch Perfect fandom
- Erin/Holtzman in Ghostbusters fandom
- Korrasami in Legend of Korra fandom
- Emma/Regina in Once Upon A Time fandom
- Kara/Cat and later Kara/Lena & Alex/Maggie in Supergirl fandom
- Adora/Catra in She-Ra and the Princesses of Power fandom
- Thirteen/Yazmin in Doctor Who fandom (most popular ship for the Thirteenth Doctor)
- Anthy/Utena in Revolutionary Girl Utena
- Tori Vega/Jade West in Victorious fandom
- Bumbleby in RWBY fandom
- Lumity in The Owl House fandom
- Suletta/Miorine in Gundam: The Witch from Mercury fandom
Nonbinary/Genderfluid Examples
- Aziraphale/Crowley in Good Omens fandom
- Chrom/Robin in Fire Emblem Awakening fandom
- Shez/Byleth Eisner in Fire Emblem Warriors: Three Hopes fandom
- Alfonse/Summoner in Fire Emblem Heroes fandom
References
- ^ meta by skalja, Archived version: "But in almost every single Western fandom I’ve been in, the most popular pairing is two white-presenting guys; the few exceptions pair a white-presenting man and a white-presenting woman."