Fun Stuff: Shipping Roulette

For shippers, crack pairings are either something you love or you hate. On one hand, it's a bit unsettling to see one-half of a pairing you love being all over someone completely random, but there's a lot to be said for getting creative enough to make a relationship between two totally unrelated or opposite characters seem believable (or just indulging in the straight up humor of the situation). The world is full of unlikely relationships, so why not see what would happen if you sent Aizen and Chad skipping into the sunset together or made poor Hermione Granger the object of Gregory Goyle's affection?

Team Starkid's crack pairing of Quirrell/Voldemort in A Very Potter Musical ended up being a huge hit with fans even though it goes against many canon truths of the books. It's funny, so who really cares?

Crack pairings are typically a staple in fan fiction and fan art, but anyone can try their hand at them to get some laughs out of their favorite fandom. One of my favorite crack pairing memes, shipping roulette, is a fun and easy way to make your own cracky pairs as a foundation for a silly story, picture, or something interesting to store in your imagination during a boring class in school. So if you're looking for something random to do, why not give it a try?

To start off, write down the names of at least 20 of your favorite characters to rip up and put in a hat, or if you want to save a tree, type them in to an online randomizer. The names can be from your favorite fandom or a mix of different fandoms (or even original characters, if you have them), and can include whatever gender ratio you're interested in as well as amusing non-human options (like Aizen's tea cup if you're doing Bleach or Tony, Pixie, and Brownie for Hetalia). If characters have alternate identities or personas, it may also be fun to include those for some extra cracky pairings.

Be forewarned: Aizen will not tolerate his tea cup seeing another man.

As a sample, I'm going to be doing roulette with CLAMP characters: Chii, Subaru, Black Mokona, White Mokona, Yuuko, Hikaru, Umi, Fuu, Sumomo, Eagle Vision, Kurogane, Fuuma, Watanuki, Himawari, Tomoyo, Kamui, Ioryogi, Syaoran, Ginsei, Fei Wang Reed, Sakura, Doumeki, Yasha, Ashura, Yukito, Touya, Fai, Sorata, Eriol, Syaoran!Cloney, Arashi, Seishirou, Clow, and Koboto. That's more than 20, I know, but I love CLAMP! Now let's see what happens.

Got the names all mixed up? Pick two, and that will be your first pairing. If you've started with a good variety of names, it should typically be something pretty odd. I ended up with the dynamic duo of Watanuki + Touya, xxxHolic's famous keet and Sakura's big brother from Carcaptor Sakura and Tsubasa. I don't know if Touya's easily annoyed demeanor would be able to tolerate Watanuki's shrieking, but we all know he doesn't mind same sex relationships (poor, lonely Yukito) and dudes with glasses.

As luck would have it, Watanuki already knows a few things about being a neko

Every series needs an OT3, so this time pick out three names from your list for your fandom's threesome. Looks like our leading man Syaoran gets all the ladies, including Umi and Tomoyo! As one of the most popular ladies of CLAMP canon, Sakura must be feeling pretty bummed that both the people with a crush on her have moved onto Magic Knight Umi. Must be a blue haired thing.

Syaoran and Tomoyo have found a new hero to worship: the beautiful woman warrior Umi!

Now, let's get a bit convoluted. Pull out the next seven names, paying attention to the order. The first character you picked (for me, Fai) is in a relationship with the second (Fuuma), but the second runs off with the third (Chii) leaving the first brokenhearted. One (Fai) has a steamy one night stand with the fourth (oh God, Sumomo) and unhappy affair with the fifth (Yasha) before taking the advice of six (love guru Yukito) and finding true love with seven (Kamui). My god, Fai, what an intriguing love life!

The cracky loves of Fai D Flourite. He's a busy man... and apparently enjoys dolls on the side.

The next four will be our chain of fools. The first (Subaru) is in love with the second (Kobato) who is in love with the third (Clow) who loves four (White Mokona) who loves one (Subaru). Bwhaha, I think I just destroyed the CLAMP canon and pissed off a few jilted pairings (Seishirou, Fujimoto, and Yuuko). Sorry guys. Mokona wants to have fun!

This is wrong on so many levels. Dying here!

A more straight up love triangle is in order for the next three names. One (Sorata) and two (Eriol) are in love with three (Ioryogi). What will happen when they vie for his affection? Keep in mind that Ioryogi is actually a spirit trapped in the body of stuffed animal, so our boys aren't crushing on a plushie... kind of. They just have odd taste. 

Ioryogi's just so cute, both Eriol and Sorata have to have him

Our poor last name... Kurogane... will be alone forever. Shocked by Fai's risque sexcapades, his liege lady's and son-figure's abandonment of her his 'daughter' Sakura for Umi, and Mokona's shocking feelings for Subaru Sumeragi has destroyed his desire for love. He will instead spend the rest of his life bleaching his brain. As will I after this experience.

Even if you ring an apology out of him, Fai's not going to feel guilty, Kuro-tan

Hope anyone who tried it out enjoyed it. And my apologies to CLAMP fans :)