We love shipping our fave characters together, but put a Sapphic twist on it and we get even more excited!
X (formerly Twitter) user @simplytomh did just that by asking people to vote on their favorite lesbian ships for the inaugural “wlw ship awards.” More than two million people participated in the contest, which started with 88 pairings and was narrowed down to a top 40.
For the uninitiated, “shipping” is when fans make up a romantic pairing between two characters. Especially when queer charters were rarely seen on TV, shipping allowed fans to live out their queer dreams with characters that would never be allowed to be together on screen.
But we’re loving these wlw pairings since there still aren’t enough LGBTQ+ characters in media, and it’s even rarer to get a Sapphic romance that doesn’t end in the Bury Your Gays trope, and characters we think should get together often don’t — even if the shows teases it for ages.
Sometimes two characters have a close friendship, but fans want a romance, or there is such natural chemistry it makes sense for them to be together, or a simple touch of a hand on the shoulder has fans dying to see more, or the show is brimming with so much sexual tension that it’s palpable.
In the top 40 are classic ships like Buffy x Faith and Xena x Gabrielle, alongside newer pairings like Tara X Darcy from Heartstopper and Marceline x Princess Bubblegum from Adventure Time.
Of course, the comments were full of people who loved the wlw couples won and other people who were furious their faves didn’t make the cut, including someone who commented, “Ppl have no taste it’s actually shameful,” and another person who was angry their pick from League of Legends wasn’t on the list, writing, “Caitvi not making it is actuallyhomophobic wtf.”
But the votes don’t lie, the number one pick scored more than 1.3 million votes or 62.9 percent!
The top 10 includes Josie x Isabel from Bottoms, Sook-hee x Hideko from The Handmaiden, Korra x Asami from The Legend of Korra, Hope x Lizzie from Legacies, and Kara x Lena from Supergirl. But what ships landed in the top five spots, and do you agree with the voters?
Courtesy of MGM Pictures
The raunchy teen comedy Bottoms made audiences laugh, but queer women were smitten with Josie and Isabel, who share a kiss at the end of the film.
Courtesy of Amazon Studios
Sook-hee works as a made for the wealthy Lady Hideko in The Handmaiden, and the sexual tension between the two during a bathing scene and another when Sook-hee puts her finger in Hideki’s mouth had fans panting.
Courtesy of Nickelodeon
Korra and Asami’s relationship in The Legend of Korra starts as friends but takes on a romantic ton toward the end of the series, but fans felt cheated when the two never shared an onscreen kiss before the show ended.
Courtesy of CW
These two vampires have known each other since they were children, and fans were dying to see them have an enemies-to-lovers romance on the show.
Courtesy of the CW
It is rumored that there is a deleted scene from the series finale of Supergirl where Kara and Lena share a passionate kiss, but alas, we didn’t get to see it. That hasn't stopped fans from wanting the two characters to get together.
Courtesy of Showtime
These two characters spend most of Yellowjackets butting heads, but in season two, when Natalie infiltrates Lottie’s cult compound pretending to need help, the chemistry between the two had fans wanting them to get together.
Sadly, Dead Boy Detectives was canceled by Netflix after only one season, so we’ll never get to see Niko, who learned all of her investigative skills from cartoons and teenage medium Crystal get together, but that’s what fanfic is for!
Courtesy of ABC Family
Emily and Maya actually dated on Pretty Little Liars, but their romance ended too soon, and clearly, fans wanted more!
Courtesy of Paramount
Considering Star Trek: Voyager originally aired in the ‘90s, there was no way we would have gotten a lesbian love story on screen, but Captain Janeway and former Borg Seven of Nine’s chemistry was undeniable. Plus, who didn’t want to see Captain Janeway in her spandex Federation suit and Seven of Nine in her skin-tight silver catsuit share a Sapphic kiss?
Courtesy of AMC
In the book and original movie, Claudia had the body of a child, while Madeleine was an adult, but fans started shipping the two when AMC's new Interview with the VampireTV series premiered and depicted the two vampires closer in age. Clearly, the pairing is popular since more than a million people voted for it!
