Implied Love Interest / Western Animation

• Codename: Kids Next Door: The Hero Nigel Uno/Numbuh 1 and his superior/Mission Control, Rachel T. McKenzie/Numbuh 362. While there was no explicit proclamations of love, the two had a lot of Ship Tease together in Rachel's two major appearances, and it was strongly implied that Rachel, at the very least, had a crush on him (Nigel's feeling were less clear, but it was clear he saw her as one of his closest friends). Complicating the matter is that Nigel already had an official love interest: his Puppy Love girlfriend Lizzie Devine, who he had been dating since Season One. That being said, it's notable that the episode where he and Rachel had most of their Ship Tease, "Operation: G.I.R.L.F.R.I.E.N.D.", was also the episode where he and Lizzie finally broke up.
• Danny Phantom: The episode "Frightmare" suggests that Danny has/had a one-sided crush on Star even though she made her dislike of him constant.
• Mac and Goo from Foster's Home for Imaginary Friends. Admittedly Goo's first appearance was filled with She Is Not My Girlfriend and a few bits of Mac accidentally Ship Teasing himself with her, but throughout the rest of the series their relationship seems to be completely platonic. Though this dynamic could be justified by them being all of 8.
• Gravity Falls: The episode "Northwest Mansion Mystery" gives Dipper and Pacifica several nice moments together. It's not definitively romantic, but multiple side materials have further played up the Ship Tease.
  • Some have also interpreted Dipper and Wendy's last conversation as a Maybe Ever After.
• Did anyone ever watch Handy Manny and not assume that he and Kelly had a thing for each other, despite no real evidence?
• Hey Arnold!: Gerald and Phoebe have a strongly implied mutual crush, making them a Beta Couple for their best friends, Arnold and Helga.
  • Early episodes have repeated hints of something between Harold and Rhonda but nothing is ever stated explicitly stated and in other episodes Harold is shown to be interested in Patti.
• Did anyone ever watch Jake And The Neverland Pirates and not assume that Jake and Izzy had a thing for each other, despite no real evidence?
• Kaeloo: Kaeloo has never made it clear whether she has a crush on Mr. Cat or not, though the occasional She Is Not My Girlfriend and Ship Tease moments suggest that she does. Subverted as of the fourth season, where it is made very clear that she is in love with him.
• The Legend of Korra: When held prisoner by Gazan and Ming-Hua, Bolin makes three statements: That Gazan had a mustache since he was ten, that he was raised by an older sister, and that he and Ming-Hua are mutually attracted to each other. They share a look, then Gazan tells Bolin he got two out of three right. We never find out which.
• Lincoln Loud and Ronnie Anne Santiago of The Loud House and The Casagrandes. When they first meet, Ronnie Anne writes a letter and signs it "XOXO", and in "Save the Date", they date, but that's only to save the relationship of Lori and Bobby, who are their respective older siblings. She takes offense at him saying that he'd rather lick the bathroom floor than kiss her, but it's hard to tell if she's taking offense at the insult or that he doesn't want to kiss her. In "The Horror Scope", Ronnie Anne doesn't want Lincoln to have a crush on her, which could mean that she's afraid of getting into a relationship with him or that she simply doesn't feel that way about him. In the licensed game "Ace Savvy on the Case", Ronnie Anne's bio ends with "Has a crush on Lincoln?", and one tweet has Lincoln denying having a crush on Ronnie Anne but it doesn't say anything about her side.
• My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic: In the series' final episode/epilogue, we get to see what has happened to the Mane Six in the many moons since Twilight's coronation. As they arrive for their regular Council of Friendship meeting, Applejack and Rainbow Dash are playfully arguing over chores, and Fluttershy pops in via Discord's personal dimension as he hands her a bag lunch. AppleDash and FlutterCord were both very popular ships in the fandom, and though nothing is explicitly said, implications are definitely there.
• Peg + Cat:
  • In "The Roxanne Problem", Cat meets a female cat named Roxanne. He behaves very nervously around her and doesn't want her to think he's dumb, which could imply he has a crush on her, and at the end, they dance together and she says she "likes" him, making him excited. They're never seen dating, though.
  • Peg greatly admires Ramone, and at times this seems like a crush, such as when she enthuses about him in a dreamy voice. However, she also behaves in a similar way toward the Teens, and this behaviour is explicitly not romantic.
• Ready Jet Go!:
  • Mindy enjoys sneaking up on Mitchell and playing around with him, which he finds uncomfortable. However, later episodes such as "Detective Mindy" and "Sean's Robotic Arm" demonstrate Mitchell warming up to Mindy, and them becoming good friends. In the latter episode, Mitchell is excited at Mindy approaching him with a detective case, only to get nervous about it and correct himself. Later on, she hugs him, which surprises him. It seems similar to Puppy Love, but it's not made clear.
  • Sean and Jet. At first, Jet seemed interested in Sydney, but this waned and the Jet/Sean shipping was boosted over the course of the show. Jet is very affectionate with Sean, always teams up with him when the situation calls for it, and has a nickname for him ("Seanzo"). Like Mitchell/Mindy, it's unclear whether they like each other that way.
• Fred and Daphne in the original Scooby-Doo, Where Are You! cartoon may very well be the Western Animation Ur-Example. In the original series, none of the characters were romantically linked. The closest the series came to outright Ship Tease was occasionally having the pair dance together. This was enough for the general audience to assume they were a couple. It's become so synonymous with the franchise that many many future adaptations have taken the subtext and run with it.
• Spongebob and Sandy from Spongebob Squarepants. It's occasionally implied SpongeBob has a crush on her, especially in early episodes, but nothing has been confirmed in the series itself (licensed products have confirmed it).
• Star Wars Rebels: Kanan and Hera act Like an Old Married Couple, serve as a pair of Parental Substitutes for the younger members of the crew, and have a few moments where it looks like they're about to kiss, only to pull back so the kids don't have to see it. The prequel novelization A New Dawn depicts a romantic tension between them, though one-sided on Kanan's part; while Hera likes him too, she's Married to the Job. It's implied that while Kanan outgrew this infatuation to focus on commitments in wartime, his feelings still linger. This is most apparent in the episode (re)introducing Hera's father. As of Season 4 it's no longer implied, complete with The Big Damn Kiss. Then it's confirmed their relationship had been sexual by the appearance of a child in the finale.
• Steven Universe:
  • The show sets up a lot of romantic tropes around Steven and Connie, including Steven working up the courage to talk to her followed by a Crash-Into Hello, but it isn't immediately clear whether or not their relationship itself is actually a romantic or platonic one. Their relationship becomes more clearly romantic in nature later in the series, with Steven definitely having a crush on her and Connie implied to have the same, but neither character has admitted this to each other yet. This may be in part due to Steven aging slower than normal humans complicating things.
    • Having only met them twice before, Kevin assumes they're a couple and spends a whole episode trying to get them back together again... because he wants Stevonnie to liven up his party.
    • As of Steven Universe: The Movie, Steven and Connie have aged by two years, and Steven's body has finally grown into that of a teenager. His and Connie's only major interaction in the film ends with her leaving for space camp, where she gives him a quick kiss on the cheek before running out the door. After a brief moment of Post-Kiss Catatonia, Steven bursts into a massive smile.
    • Steven Universe: Future turns their relationship from implied to explicit, going as far as Steven proposing to Connie. She rejects him only because she thinks it's too early, not because she doesn't like him.
  • Pearl and Rose. Pearl is heavily implied in the show, and outright stated by Word of God (and Amethyst, in The Movie), to have been in love, but it's left decidedly ambiguous whether or not Rose returned those feelings exactly, especially considering her eventually falling in love with Greg and having Steven. One of the writers, Matt Burnett, stated on Twitter that Rose's feelings were 'much more complicated' than simply one-sided, however, and Rebecca Sugar herself drew art of Rose and Pearl kissing back in 2015. This may no longer actually be the case, as Rose definitely reciprocated Pearl's feelings during her time as Pink Diamond.
• Aerrow and Piper on Storm Hawks are close friends and have several intimate moments throughout the series. Their relationship never goes into anything explicitly romantic, but you could hardly be faulted for assuming it was intended to be. Then again, they could just be Platonic Life-Partners.
• Victor and Valentino: Valentino and Isabella have a strongly implied mutual crush, making them a Beta Couple for Victor and Charlene.
• Rai/Kim from Xiaolin Showdown is a very popular ship on FF.net, and while there are indications that they might like each other in the series (Rai dreaming about being on a date with Kim, Rai being the only one of the guys that Kim kisses on the cheek, the third season episode "Dreamstalker" confirming Rai's side), it is never outright stated whether Kimiko reciprocates or not.

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