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You can't stop shipping, nor can you ever truly predict who fans will pair together. As the creator of the source material for Cyberpunk 2077 and a longtime tabletop RPG maker, Mike Pondsmith understands these things more than most, and though he loves the passion, it’s not his favorite aspect of fandom.
During a talk at Digital Dragons 2025, he dipped into the subject in a section dedicated to fans becoming part of the fabric of a franchise. "I am driven insane by shipping," he says. "In almost any case, there are people who want to see a good romance, and if you don't provide one, they're going to invent one, and it's going to be a weird one too."
Even if once is provided, fans will likely glom onto another connection that strikes a different kind of chord for them - and yes, it's usually more leftfield than whatever's explicitly happening. "Oh God, I have been appalled sometimes at the ships I see," he comments. "Were you on crack? How did you think that was going to happen?"
He adds that shippers will be present "whether you want them there or not," and it really just comes down to how you handle and encourage the community. One need only consult stats from Archive of Our Own, a popular fan-fiction blogsite, to see how shipping keeps a property going.
For instance, the perennial top ship on there is Dean Winchester and Castiel in Supernatural, which is just your run-of-the-mill queer friends-to-lovers arc that the show never fully gave us. Shipping often gives voice to fans who wish a property would have more LGBTQIA+ representation.
But the 20th most popular ship? Dean and Sam Winchesters. Brothers. Ick. Ick ick ick. Please see Pondsmith's reaction above.
The biggest video game ships are Jayce and Viktor followed by Caitlyn and Vi, both from League of Legends. Cyberpunk 2077 doesn't register in any of the rankings since it launched in 2020, but Keanu Reeves being involved must have spawned all sorts of strange and creative ships. Clearly, players need to be more dedicated, even if it may distress Pondsmith.
