Shipper with an Agenda

"So you and Ikari-kun were trying to nudge Touji and I together to distract us?"

— Hikari, Advice and Trust

Not all shippers do so just because they think the couple is cute. They could have any number of ulterior motives for wanting people to get together, such as removing someone from a love triangle, a Wedlock Block, or (for the case of parents) getting grandchildren. Sure, they might also think it's cute or that the persons they ship are good for one another, but at times people gotta use their hearts and their brains...

A Sub-Trope of Shipper on Deck. May act like a Shipping Torpedo to anyone who wants a member of their favorite ship for themselves or someone else.

Compare Arranged Marriage for when it goes beyond just shipping.

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Examples:

Anime & Manga

• In Ashita no Nadja, Marianne ships Nadja with Keith because not only is Keith in love with Nadja and Nadja is attracted to him as well, but because Nadja's other Love Interest Francis is both Keith's twin younger brother and the guy Marianne has loved for years. So if Keith and Nadja hook up, Marianne will have a chance with Francis.
• In Assassination Classroom, Nagisa suggests that Okano forgive Maehara for his staged date because if she stays angry at him, it will fuck up the entire class' mood, and Nagisa doesn't want to deal with that for the months until graduation.
• Ayakashi Triangle:
  • Garaku has repeatedly arranged for Matsuri and Suzu to be alone and share intimate, bonding experiences. However, Garaku's actual goal is to awaken Suzu's full power as an ayakashi medium, and these moments with Matsuri provide the proper emotional stimulation, something Shirogane wants as well. And they're not just trying to get them to hook up, but to frustrate Suzu by complicating things, so they also egg on her mistaken belief that Matsuri and Soga are an item.
  • Matoi dislikes her child's primary love interest Suzu, who she views as a potential enemy of her organization and holds a grudge over Matsuri staying in town with Suzu when his mother moved away. Thus, Matoi would rather Matsuri get together with Reo, who is literally subordinate to Matoi and eager for "mother's" approval.
• In Boarding School Juliet, Char encourages Hazuki to seduce Romeo so he'll leave Juliet (Char's crush) alone.
  "Listen, girl! If you really like Inudzuka, just throw yourself at him already! What else are these lumps of fat for?!"
• Code Geass: Lelouch Lamperouge plans to make his best friend Suzaku marry his younger sister Nunnally so they can be Best Friends-in-Law, with all the benefits it'll bring to their lives and especially his own plans.
• In Daltanious Judela wants Catine to hook up with Kento because he's the heir to the Heliosian throne. If Catine marries him, she will be the Queen of Helios. Kento being the pilot of a Super Robot that's an Icon of Rebellion across the galaxy doesn't hurt, either.
• Alas Ramus from The Devil is a Part-Timer! ships Emi and Maou because she views them as her parents and wants her family to be together.
• In The Disastrous Life of Saiki K., Yumehara and Teruhashi both have feelings for Saiki, and each ships the other with someone else (Kaidou and Nendou, respectively) with the hopes of having Saiki to herself. Meanwhile, Saiki is completely uninterested in either of them or anyone and goes so far as to use his psychic powers to divert their affection to literally anyone else (especially in Yumehara's case) so they'll leave him alone already.
• Dual! Parallel Trouble Adventure:
  • Mitsuki tries desperately to help set up an Arranged Marriage between Yayoi Schwael and the son of a wealthy family, even going so far as to defend the site of the couple's marriage interview with her life. This is because Mitsuki and Yayoi are both in love with the same boy, Kazuki Yotsuga, and Yayoi was one-upping Mitsuki at home, school and in military training.
  • Ayuko Rara, upon noticing that Mitsuki Sawada, her alternate-universe daughter, is in love with Kazuki and deeply jealous of his protectiveness of other women, offers to help Mitsuki and Kazuki return to their original world—the fastest way to do so being to win the ongoing war for her side.
  • Ayuko Rara again tries to manipulate Kazuki by kidnapping him and stripping both he and her other daughter Mitsuki Rara and putting both in bed together. Her hope is that his "instincts" as a man will kick in and ravish Mitsuki while she's sleeping. This is strictly because Kazuki is the key to getting a hold of an alien artifact that can be used to take over the world and beyond.
• In Fairy Tail, Juvia often ships Lucy with many other characters besides Gray, since Juvia's madly in love with Gray and believes that Lucy is her primary rival for his affections.
• Hajiotsu has Shuuko ship Himari and Kai. Since she was the one who instigated the idea of confessing to work on Himari's problems talking to guys, her initial goal for any further suggestion is to simply have Himari loosen up. But when she sees how happy Himari and Kai actually are together, she drops it and wants to help the two get along better as a couple.
• High School D×D:
  • Issei Hyodo actively ships his Lancer Yuto Kiba with the Student Council vice-president Tsubaki Shinra because he's afraid that Kiba is becoming too interested in him.
  • Absurdly Powerful Student Council members Ruruko Nimura and Momo Hanakai actively ship Issei himself with their President Sona Sitri, primarily due to the target of their desires, Genshirou Saji, having a crush on her, and hope her getting with Issei will let them go after Saji.
• In I Swear I Won't Bother You Again!, the loyal maid, Marin, of the main character, Violette, is in love with her mistress, but supports the idea of her childhood friend Yupan getting together with her because he can provide a means of allowing Violette to escape her abusive household.
• In The Irregular at Magic High School, the Omnicidal Maniac Maya Yotsuba ships Tatsuya/Miyuki in the hope that, should the latter die, the former will get angry enough to destroy the world. Since Tatsuya went into an infamous Roaring Rampage of Revenge when Miyuki was wounded and all of his emotions save for his affection for Miyuki have been magically supressed, the world going BOOM when she kicks it is not out of the question... Once she gets the opportunity, she forces them into an Arranged Marriage.
• Kaguya-sama: Love Is War:
  • Kaguya appoints herself as Ishigami's Romantic Wingman after finding out that he has a crush on Tsubame. She feels that getting them to hook up (or even having him go through the effort to get her to notice him romantically) would be good for improving his self-confidence.
  • A flashback in chapter 147 reveals that Momo initially pushed Shirogane to pursue Kaguya and gave him the advice that helped him get her attention. She didn't have any vested interest in their relationship though, she just found his constant moping over Kaguya ignoring him annoying.
  • During the shipping war chapter, Fujiwara admits that she ships Ishigami/Iino solely because she likes watching them argue.
  • Kei shows at several points that she loves the idea of her brother hooking up with Kaguya since it would mean that she and Kaguya get to be sisters-in-law. Humorously, while she wants them to be a couple, she doesn't want them actually acting like one because she hates the idea of her brother defiling someone she admires. As such, she does everything she can to get between them when Kaguya comes to visit.
• Kaze no Stigma: Ayano's father ships her and her second cousin Kazuma (a supremely powerful wind mage) so he'll return to his estranged family and hopefully keep the Kannagi line going.
• Kodocha: When Tsuyoshi is torn between Sana and Aya, his friend Akito actively encourages him to date Aya and also helps Aya win him over. That's mostly because Akito secretly wants Sana for himself.
• In Mobile Suit Gundam: The Witch from Mercury, Prospera Mercury is openly supportive of the engagement between her daughter Suletta and corporate heiress Miorine Rembran. She conveniently leaves out the fact she's been plotting to get the two together as part of her elaborate revenge scheme against Miorine's father, Delling, who ordered the extermination of all her friends and associates -including her husband- decades prior.
• In Mobile Suit Gundam ZZ, the Argama crew began to seriously consider the pros of a Judau/Haman relationship... because they were quite aware that she was a ruthless and exceptionally dangerous dictator who had lingering feelings for Judeau despite the age difference and being enemies, and would happily take any weapon they could get to stop her.
• In My-Otome Zwei, Kazuya, having become Emperor of Cardair, has been forced to have his girlfriend Akane as his Otome, which means they can't have sex lest Akane lose her Otome powers. Rosalie, the former Otome of the king of Florence, proposes a solution- they could have Akane marry Kazuya and become his empress, while Shiho, who replaced Akane as Florence's new Otome after Akane eloped with Kazuya, would become Kazuya's new Otome. This would not only allow Akane and Kazuya to consummate their relationship, but would also result in Rosalie no longer having to deal with Shiho, whom she dislikes.
• Chamo from Negima! Magister Negi Magi ships every couple he can find since he gets money whenever a Pactio is formed.
• Cuuko from Nyaruko: Crawling with Love! ships Mahiro with Hasta so she can have Nyarko for herself, although she later changes her plans about Mahiro.
• One of the reasons Akane from Ojojojo ships her friends Haru and Tsurezure is so she can ease her guilt over not reaching out to Haru in middle school.
• In Ranma ½, Ryoga's efforts to woo Akane have occasionally gotten support from Ukyo and Cologne, as both see Akane's continued betrothal to Ranma as an impediment to their own agendas — Ukyo wants to marry Ranma herself, whilst Cologne wants Ranma to acknowledge his Accidental Marriage to her great-granddaughter Shampoo.
• In Rosario + Vampire, Yukari is pushing Moka and Tsukune together mostly because she wants to have both of them and thinks that getting them together will increase her chances.
• Lalaco of Space Patrol Luluco urges Luluco to confess her love to Nova in episode 12, though in principle it's more about teaching Luluco to stand up for her feelings.
• Anya from Spy X Family has a particular vested interest in keeping her adoptive parents, Loid Forger (aka. the super-spy Twilight) and Yor Forger nee Briar (aka. the infamous assassin Thorn Princess) together in their Marriage of Convenience, partly because she does absolutely adore them both and wants them to be happy together, but also because she thinks having a spy and an assassin as parents is the coolest thing ever, and mainly because she's terrified that if their marriage fell apart then she'd end up abandoned and returned to the orphanage she was adopted from for the fifth time, her greatest fear. This is why she takes such pains to help keep their respective double lives (which she's only aware of because of her telepathic powers) a secret from each other.
• Tenchi Muyo: War on Geminar:
  • Lashara takes Kenshi as her "servant", knowing that this gives him value as a marriage item to increase her status and influence with other royal families and nations. Even moreso because she knows Kenshi is secretly a rare male Mechamaster, capable of piloting the series' Humongous Mecha, and furthermore, he is the greatest Mechamaster in existence. This makes Kenshi even more valuable for marrying off, to the point that when the King of Shurifon proclaims Kenshi to be betrothed to his daughter Aura, a gleeful Lashara says "We couldn't ask for a better bride!". All of this is in spite of the fact that she, like every other woman in the series, is in love with Kenshi herself.
  • Flora, the queen of Havoniwa (aunt of Queen Lashara) ships Kenshi with her daughter Maria and with Aura Shurifon because such a marriage would unite the three kingdoms. But given her personality, she also ships Kenshi with herself and has even stated that she would gladly bear him a child (even alongside Maria if Kenshi would have them both). This is the one ship that Lashara is against, because of the intense and bitter rivalry she has with her aunt and cousin.
  • Maria tries to get Yukine to steal Kenshi away from Lashara, both because she wants to one up her cousin and she realizes he is very skilled. Though it is also hinted she is doing this because she knows that Yukine has a genuine crush on him and wants her to be happy.
• Momo Velia Deviluke from To Love Ru Darkness has an entire "Harem Plan" dedicated to getting Rito together with many other girls, including herself. However, it's greatly implied this is Momo's Secretly Selfish means to get as close to Rito as she can, as she believes he'd never love her alone. The manga's ending has Momo realize this, and resolve to be his "number one girl"... specifically, the Top Wife of the harem she still wants him to form.
• Yoruka in Undefeated Bahamut Chronicle ships Lux with as many girls as possible, including herself, with the stated intention of producing as many heirs as possible.
• Karin in UQ Holder! wants Touta to hook up with Kuromaru so she can have Yukihime for herself. While she'd be perfectly happy with any member of Touta's harem hooking up with him except Yukihime, Kuromaru is the only one she actively supports. In the end, she ultimately realizes she also has feelings for Touta, who in turn chooses Polyamory and hooks up with her, Kuromaru, and Yukihime.
• The Vision of Escaflowne: A pretty extreme case when Emperor Dornkirk and General Folken. Their goal is to plunge Gaea into war so they can (somehow) use their Fate Alteration Machine to create an Ideal Future, but the villains' ability to predict and influence the future fades the closer the main heroes Van and Hitomi get togetting together. To prevent this from happening, the villains basically magically brainwash Hitomi into hooking up with her former crush, Allen Schezar, in order to keep her physically and emotionally away from Van, so their combined fate-alteration powers can't disrupt the bad guy's big plans.
• Wagnaria!!: Izumi Takanashi is an ill girl who can barely go through her day to day life if someone isn't helping her, and because of this, she fears that her little brother Souta will stop taking care of her if he one day gets a girlfriend. For this reason she'd like her brother to get with the kind girl who helped her when she got too exhausted on her way to the supermarket, as she thinks this girl and Souta could take care of her together. She is distraught when she learns from Nazuna that Takanashi might be in a relationship with a girl at his workplace, not realising that said girl is the one she wants him to meet, Inami Mahiru.
• Giuseppe from Wicked City turns out to have an interest into the demoness Makie and the human Renzaburou's potential Interspecies Romance, since if they conceive a child, it'll be the first half-human/half-demon kid ever in existence and the walking, living proof that humans and demons can live in peace.

Comic Books

• Batman:
  • Batman himself had a long Will They or Won't They? with Talia al Ghul, the daughter of supervillain Ra's al Ghul. For the record, Ras completely supported the relationship...because he wanted a male heir, and sees Bruce as one of the few people worthy enough to marry into his family. He eventually got his heir in the form of Bruce and Talia's son (via rape) Damian, before he defected to become Robin.
  • Ras then sent his sister to go make a male heir with Tim Drake, though there was no playing at romance in the interaction. It didn't work out since Tim figured them out and asked Cassandra Cain to protect him.
• In Runaways, Nico decides to encourage her then-boyfriend Victor to spend more time with Lillie, who is clearly interested in him, because she's planning to dump him and figures that if he develops a new relationship beforehand, it will soften the blow. It backfires when Lillie gets cold feet and leaves Victor, and he spends the rest of the series pining for Nico to take him back, much to her annoyance.

Fan Works

Crossovers

• In Beyond the Outer Gates Lies... A high school library?, much like in the light novels, Ruruko Nimura and Momo Hanakai ship Sona Sitri with someone else (in this case, Harry Dresden) to get their mutual crush Saji Genshirou drop his crush on Sona.
• A Dovahkiin Spreads His Wings:
  • Tywin knows that the Lannisters are facing the spectre of bankruptcy, so he commands Cersei to arrange for Margaery Tyrell to marry one of his grandsons. He also offers the hand of his bastard niece to Jon Whitewolf.
  • Varys wishes to see Jon become the next King of Westeros. To this end, he hopes to see him wed either Arianne Martell or Margaery Tyrell, believing either would serve as a good way to strengthen Jon's ties to the realm.
• Boscha sets up Luz and Amity together at the beginning of Infinity Train: Boiling Point not because she actually cares about Lumity, but because she hopes this will make the latter stop her Gibberish of Love and start acting more dignified. And given the kind of person Boscha is, the reveal of this action causes some tension between the duo when it's revealed.
• Harrys Family Of Chaldea: Marie Antoinette spends much of Chapter 6 arranging a date between Mata Hari and Dantes. She does this for two reasons; firstly, she's aiming to strengthen Harry's support system, and secondly, she's trying to help out a friend with their crush.
• The Owl and The Frog: Played villainously as part of The Reveal in Chapter 51: the reason that Belos has been trying to corrupt Sasha as The Voice is because he wants to pair her with Hunter, in the belief that loving a human instead of a witch will keep Hunter from betraying him like all past Grimwalkers.
• A Possible Encounter for a Phantom:
  • After realizing that Danny likes Kim, Vlad starts creating scenarios that bring the two together, seeing this as a way to push his long-term plans forward.
  • Danny also considers helping Ron and Yori hook up so that he can have Kim for himself, but quickly realizes that it's rather underhanded of him.
• Remnant's Bizarre Adventure: Downplayed with Yang in regards to Ruby and Josuke, given that Josuke will return to the Frontier when the Vytal Festival ends. Yang knows that Ruby is growing older and will eventually start dating. So she plans on having the two go to the dance together since she sees Josuke as a safe first boyfriend for her sister.
• In Spider-X, Mystique favours a relationship between Tabitha/Boom-Boom and Max Dillon/Electro as she feels that it will encourage Tabitha to be loyal to the Brotherhood, particularly if the X-Men hurt her boyfriend in combat; this backfires when Max is revealed to be an abuser, driving Tabitha to defect back to the X-Men with Lance and Wanda.
• A Supe of a Man: Donna wants Annie to hook up with Clark purely so she can milk plenty of publicity out of the relationship. This is precisely why Annie's afraid of potentially straying out of the "friend zone" with him.

Arrowverse

• These Foolish Things: Oliver's campaign manager Alex ships Oliver/Felicity because the campaign revolves Oliver's image as a reformed playboy, which is contingent on the relationship's success. He regrets it once Felicity shows her true nature to everyone, noting that Oliver was better off not dating her.

Batman

• I Saw Grayson Kissing Santa Claus: Damian becomes convinced that Santa is actually a criminal mastermind who breaks into houses and steals women away. Since Bruce isn't married, Damian fears that Santa will kidnap resident Team Mom Dick instead. So he attempts to convince Wonder Woman to marry his dad... and when that doesn't work, tries the same thing with Stephanie.
• one day at a time:
  • The Galavans supported their niece Silver St. Cloud's romance with Bruce Wayne because it would finally give them the opportunity to stand at the top of Gotham's high society and take control of the Wayne fortune through a Galavan-blooded Wayne heir. When Silver broke up with Bruce for undisclosed reasons (she found out Bruce was Batman and couldn't handle it), they nearly disinherited her.
  • Most of Gotham high society assumes that Bruce will arrange for his new adoptive daughter Cassandra to marry his former ward Tim Drake to make the boy he thinks of as a son officially part of his family. In reality, Bruce has no such intentions and both Cass and Tim are disgusted by the idea.

Danny Phantom

• Danny Phantom: Stranded:
  • Visited has Star butting heads with her Control Freak grandmother Beatrice, who wants to force her into an Arranged Marriage with Donovan Loadman purely because he comes from Old Money, not caring one whit about how callously he treats her.
  • Entranced: In order to punish Vlad, Puck casts a spell that makes him fall in love with his Abhorrent Admirer Alicia.
  • In Bewitched, Wufong reveals that he wants Danny to have children with Misty so that he can transfer his essence into one of them, allowing himself to be reborn in a potentially powerful vessel.
  • Barked has Jean-Luc attempting to set up his family's prized purebred poodle Fifi up with the Barrington-Upham's dog Lord Winthrop. Not because she wants anything to do with the other dog, but because he sees it as a way to build up his business connections.

Diabolik Lovers

• In Lover of the Sacrificial Bride, Karlheinz is delighted to see Tamotsu falling for Yui, and wants to ensure that he wins her heart. However, rather than wanting the two to be happy together, he intends to use the relationship as an object lesson for Kino and the Sakamaki, Mukami and Tsukinami brothers about how fragile the human heart can be.

Disney Animated Canon

• A Marriage Of Convenience has Lars helping his brother marry Elsa not because he thinks the two of them will actually make a good couple, but because he sees it as the best way of ensuring Hans gets away from their awful, abusive family.

Fairy Tail

• In Matchmaker, while Mirajane is an avid shipper as many stories portray her, here does so to reduce the number of "love-rivals" in order to have Freed (her perceived mate because of her Demon Take-Over magic and his Dark Ectriture magic) for herself.

Fate Series

• In Fate/Harem Antics, Irisviel, through use of the Holy Grail War, becomes a Harem Seeker by proxy for Shirou for the sole purpose of having grandchildren. However, even amongst her chosen girls, she ships Illyasviel and Taiga the strongest; the former for obviously being her daughter and Taiga in order to be the Harem Nanny. (Note that despite her and Ruler's authority within the harem, they don't really qualify for Top Wife as Shirou isn't really one to denote a "favorite".)
• In The Story of Illya Emiya, the titular character request Rin (who she knows to already have feelings for her brother Shirou) to take him as her fiancee, in hopes that a relationship would prevent him from taking the path of a Counter Guardian like Archer. Though she also extends the offer to Luvia and Sakura when they reveal they have feelings for Shirou.

Five Nights at Freddy's

• In Mike's New Ghostly Family, Susie wishes that her adoptive father Mike Schmidt would end up in relationship with his close friend Melody. When confessing about it, she admits that the primary reason why she wants them to hook up is because she wants to have a mother, acknowledging that, while Mike is a great parent, he can't fill a hole of the lack of mother figure, and she believes that Melody would make a good mother. Cassidy agrees with Susie for the same reasons.

Grandmaster of Demonic Cultivation: Mo Dao Zu Shi

• In Second Bite of the Cherry, the Lan elders are rather wary about Qingheng-jun's sons emulating their father by kidnapping and locking a bride away, so they carefully encourage them to spend time with a girl they groomed to be a suitable wife. They are quite happy when their scheme succeeds, with the younger son genuinely falling for the girl.

How to Train Your Dragon

• A Thing of Vikings: Mor's extended Uí Ímair relatives are supportive of her relationship with Tuffnut since they reason it's a good way for the rest of them to get dragons.

The Irregular at Magic High School

• In CAD Wa ni (NFSW), Shizuku helps her friend Honoka score in the hope she will think about something other than sex afterwards. As it is, Honoka is too lust-addled to hold a conversation with.

The Loud House

• Qt Quarrel:
  • The Loud sisters want to force on Lincoln a partner who they think would make Lincoln the brother they want him to be. Only Leni avoids this, wanting Lincoln to marry a girl he wants and calls the others out for trying to use Lincoln's romance for their own gain.
  • Nikki's mom is a negative version of this trope, only wanting her daughter to date Lincoln because he is a white kid. The woman especially doesn't want him to date Ronnie Anne and have "half breeds". Nikki isn't down for this one bit.

Miraculous Ladybug

• CONSEQUENCES: MALICIOUS COMPLIANCE offers a Downplayed example; Miss Bustier encourages Adrien to talk with Marinette more not just because she knows about Marinette's crush on him, but because she believes he needs more friends and confidants his own age to talk to.
• Feralnette AU: Gabriel wants Adrien's relationship with Kagami to work out because he's a Control Freak who claims nobody else is "good enough" for his son. When he learns that Kagami is having second thoughts about the relationship after realizing she's invested far more into it than Adrien ever has, he declares that he'll be calling her mother to work things out without either teenager getting a say in the matter.
• After finding out how close Adrien and Marinette are in Gabriel's Plot, Gabriel plots to get the two of them together for several reasons, none of which involve Adrien's happiness. The most important reason is that, due to viewing his son as an Inadequate Inheritor in regards to his business, Gabriel hopes to make Marinette his heir should she and Adrien get married.
• Hawkmoth Gets A Reference: After getting annoyed with Alya aggressively shipping LadyNoir, Lila claims to prefer LadyBee. Alya is so outraged by this that when she's akumatized into Shipmaster, she Brainwashes Lila into falling in love with Chloé as a bit of petty revenge.
• If Only I Could Break Free: Adrien suspects that his parents have ulterior motives of this nature when they insist that he and Kagami are "of the same design", referring to how both are products of the Peacock Pin's powers. He muses that their parents believe that the two of them should "magically fall in love with each other" because that's what they want.
• Juleka vs. the Forces of the Universe:
  • Alya has long stopped caring about whether or not Marinette still wants to get together with Adrien; she just wants to hook them up because she's convinced that she "knows what's best" for her bestie, and that Marinette wouldn't accomplish anything if Alya wasn't shoving her towards it. In other words, she only cares about "helping" because she feels entitled to controlling Marinette's life.
  • Similarly, Alya ignores all evidence that Ladybug is not interested in Chat Noir; the only thing she cares about is her ship sailing, even if that means encouraging Chat Noir's gross sense of entitlement towards his "partner".
  • Nadja supports the LadyNoir ship because all of the gossip and speculation about the heroes' personal lives is good for ratings.
  • In direct contrast to Alya, Juleka offers a more positive take on the concept: she wants to help Marinette hook up with her brother Luka because she can see that both of them are much healthier for each other. Especially when compared to Adrien, who feigns ignorance of Marinette's crush and would only care about her if he realized she was Ladybug, whom he feels entitled to as Chat Noir.
• Scarlet Lady: In "Prime Queen", Nadja sets out to prove that Chat Noir and Marigold are actually a couple in order to drive up her show's ratings. This works against her when her blatant harassment and badgering of the pair causes Scarlet Lady to throw a fit over being ignored and all three to storm out, calling her out on her incredibly unprofessional behavior.
• Gabriel's sole motive for pairing Adrien and Marinette in She Can't Head the Family Business if She's Not Family is so Marinette can be his heir. When she starts falling for Luka instead, Gabriel starts meddling, both as Gabriel Agreste and as Hawkmoth.
• Weight Off Your Shoulder:
  • Bunnyx wants Marinette and Adrien to hook up because she believes that as Ladybug and Chat Noir, they'll make the ultimate power couple. Unfortunately, she ignores all evidence that they would both have to grow as individuals in order to make the relationship work, and has been manipulating time itself to try forcing them together.
  • Chloé arrogantly believes that she can convince Gabriel Agreste to become one of these for her and Adrien. Specifically, she knows that Gabriel is a total Control Freak, and since she also wants to dictate every aspect of Adrien's life... surely they can reach an accord, right? Especially since Gabriel has been arrested after his exposure as Hawk/Shadow Moth, meaning he's in a poor position to continue controlling his son... but Chloé could act in his stead.
• What Goes Around Comes Around: Played for horror with how Gabriel and Emilie both support the idea of Adrien getting together with Marinette due to Villain Respect. So much so, in fact, that they intend to use the Wish to force Marinette into a relationship with the amalgamated result of Adrien and Felix being fused into their "ideal" son.

My Hero Academia

• Played With in The Reason why the Second Meta-Liberation War is going to be Weird. Initially, the MLA executives find Ko's crush on Izuku to be cute; however, they later spin it to their advantage in order to convince Inko that she shouldn't kill them for being a villainous organization that her son is now technically embroiled in.

My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic

• In A Brief History of Equestria, Princess Platinum facilitates Clover's budding romance with Commander Hurricane in part because she genuinely wants her foster sister to be happy, but also to further her agenda of solidifying peace between the unicorns and the pegasi and to get Clover out of reach from the remains of the Unicorn Royal Court.
• The Weedverse: In House of the Rising Sunflower, Fancy Pants attempts to pair Sundance up with a nice mare so that he can produce an heir and continue his family line.

Naruto

• Son of the Sannin: Karin ships Sakura with Lee after learning about the latter's crush so she can have Sasuke for herself. It never really amounts to anything, since she loses interest in Sasuke soon afterwards and ends up in a relationship with Neji instead.

Neon Genesis Evangelion

• Advice and Trust: In order to keep everyone from noticing their Secret Relationship, Asuka and Shinji hooked up Hikari and Touji.
• In Neon Metathesis Evangelion, Asuka fears "losing" to Shinji and Rei in their romantic triangle. But ah, if she brings them together, that would then be no defeat, right? Also, it would leave her open to pursue Kaji! A master plan... that already crumbles in the very next episode because Shinji is just too damn cute.

The Owl House

• In Emperor Belos: Great Dictator, Average Father, Amity's parents want her to start a relationship with Luz (who in the story is Emperor Belos's daughter) so that a child of the Blight bloodline can become the next ruler of the Boiling Isles. Amity, of course, is annoyed that her parents are using her own feelings for their political agenda.

Pokémon

• In For the Love of Pikachu, Ryder is secretly aware that Laura is a robotic pikachu working with Team Rocket, so he's got a vested interest in helping Buneary win Pikachu's heart.

Rango

• Two Snakes One Bullet is an AU where Rango is a ball python rather than a chameleon. The Mayor sets him up with Rattlesnake Jake with the intention of using the relationship to his advantage; however, the two endanger his plans when they wind up getting too attached to each other.

RWBY

• Aunt Salem:
• Summer attempts to force Jaune to marry both of her daughters out of the belief that this would protect them from Salem's wrath.
  • Terra, who is Jaune's sister-in-law, wants him to date Pyrrha because she wants to be related to a celebrity.
• Ozpin the Eugenicist has Ozpin and Dr. Ooblek trying to get their students together in relationships... to help breed a new generation of huntsmen and huntresses with the combined traits of their parents.

A Song of Ice and Fire

• The Fate of the Dowager Queen: Alicent is quick to ship Rhaenyra with Harwin, having the latter accompany them on Rhaenyra's tour and suggesting to Rhaenyra that she pick Harwin as her husband over the more politically viable Laenor. Of course, this is primarily to prevent Rhaenyra and Harwin from having an extra-marita affair and siring bastards, a conundrum that contributed to the Dance in the original timeline.
• In Our Blades Are Sharp, Roose Bolton plots to give the Bolton family a claim on Winterfell by setting his son and heir Domeric with Sansa Stark. Domeric is aware of his father's plans but doesn't mind as he's in love with his bride-to-be and she reciprocates.

Superman

• In Clara Kent Superwoman, Lionel Luthor has no problem with his son Lex being close with Clara Kent. If she's human, he can use her as a bargaining chip against Lex. If she's an alien, the Luthor family would gain a powerful and lasting legacy.

Total Drama

• In Candy for Your Thoughts?, Cody tricks Sierra into thinking that Noah has a crush on her so that she'll leave him alone but not feel bad. It succeeds in that regard, though the couple itself gets a Maybe Ever After.

The Twilight Saga

• In Luminosity, Bella sets Mike up with Jessica to get his attentions off of herself. She subconsciously starts coming up with more "noble" reasons, but quickly notices this and rejects them as the self-deception they are.
  I just didn't want his attention, and so I was trying to send it somewhere else. I refused to lie to myself about the nobility of the decision, even as it firmed up on my list of plans.

Films — Animated

• The Book of Life:
  • Maria's father, General Posada, prefers that Maria marry Joaquin. His preference is because of Joaquin's reputation as a fighter, thus ensuring the town is safe, and doesn't really take into account Maria's feelings. Although he accepts her marrying Manolo at the end.
  • Xibalba wagers Joaquin and Maria will marry. Although it should be noted it's less because he thinks they would be good for each other, and more because he made a bet on it.
• Disney Animated Canon:
  • Pongo in 101 Dalmatians actively works as a matchmaker for Roger and Anita, but he doesn't specifically ship them, he just wants his useless bachelor owner to get with somebody. The real ulterior motive is so he gets a chance with Anita's beautiful dalmatian, Perdita.
  • For most of The Little Mermaid, Sebastian only aided in getting Eric to fall in love with Ariel was because if they couldn't, then Ariel would become Ursula's slave. However, the ending shows him becoming a true Shipper on Deck.
  • In Beauty and the Beast, the Beast's servants, transformed into anthropomorphic household objects due to a curse, try to help Belle and the Beast fall in love so that the curse is broken and they can become human again. The fact that Belle is a very pretty girl who treats them kindly quite helps as well.
  • Encanto: Abuela is really into setting up her granddaughter Isabela with Mariano Guzman. It is implied she does this because she likes the Guzman family and thinks the handsome Mariano would logically be a perfect match for the beautiful, graceful Isa. She accepts that Isabela does not wish to marry him at the end of the film.
• Unscrupulous manager Pinky from Don Bluth's Rock-A-Doodle assigns showbird Goldie Pheasant to seduce The Hero, which would make it harder for Chanticleer's former associates to contact him. Pinky is also The Dragon to the Big Bad Grand Duke, who likewise would profit from keeping The Hero ensconced in the city.

Films — Live Action

• In Back to the Future: Marty tries actively to make George and Lorraine hook up as they are his parents; if they don't, Marty will be Ret-Gone.
• Eternals: Sprite encourages Sersi to move in with her boyfriend, Dane Whitman, early in the film. Later on, it's revealed that she's secretly in love with Sersi's ex, Ikaris, and is trying to stop them getting back together... a chance which is shot to hell after Ikaris's Face–Heel Turn.
• In The Parent Trap (1998), live-in housekeeper Chessy is noticeably pleased when her employer chooses Elizabeth, a genuinely kind woman, over the classist Meredith.
• Single All the Way: Peter moved from his small New England hometown to LA. The two biggest reasons for the move seem to be for work, and because the gay dating pool in a small town is very limited. When he comes home to visit his family for Christmas, his mother Carole arranges a date for Peter with a local guy. She hopes that if the two hit it off, Peter might move back to town to be with this guy. Then she'd get to see more of her son, who she loves and misses.
• From White Christmas, when Phil is trying set up Bob with a woman (any woman...):
  Bob: What's behind all this, anyway?
  Phil: Only your happiness.
  Bob: When you get an idea that's for my ultimate happiness, there's always a little angle for you. What is it?
  Phil: Do you really want to know?
  Bob: I really want to know.
  Phil: All right, I'll really tell you. Ever since we became producers you've gone absolutely berserk with work. The strange thing is you like it, you like being Rodgers and Hammerstein.
  Bob: It was your idea.
  Phil: Sure, but I didn't think I was going to create a Frankenstein. I've not had one minute to myself.
  Bob: What do you want me to do?
  Phil: I want you to get married; I want you to have nine children. And if you only spent five minutes a day with each kid that's 45 minutes. I could go and get a massage or something.

Literature

• Ascendance of a Bookworm: Lamprecht is the bodyguard of Wilfried, the oldest son of a powerful family. He finds out that he has a Sent Into Hiding sister a short time before she gets adopted by Wilfried's father. From there, there are two possibilities for Lamprecht's sister: either she becomes comptetion to Wilfried for the position of the family's heir or she marries him and becomes a sidekick of sorts. The "competing heirs" scenario would result in different factions of the nobility supporting each child and put Lamprecht in a Conflicting Loyalty situation. The "what if they get married?" scenario makes the interest of the factions overlap rather than compete, which causes Lamprecht to like the idea of a marriage for reasons other than the two children having complementary personality traits.
• In the Book of Ruth from The Bible, Ruth is widowed, destitute, and living with her mother-in-law Naomi. She goes out to glean scraps of grain from a nearby farm, just so they have enough food to barely survive, and catches the eye of the farm's owner Boaz. Naomi encourages her to go for it and gives her some advice on how to seal the deal, as Boaz is a wealthy guy and marrying him will ensure they're both cared for. (It helps that he was a close relative of Ruth's late husband, and was thus obligated to marry her under the laws at the time.)
• Downplayed in The Count of Monte Cristo: as the Count is preparing his will, he adds that if his protege Maximilien is not elsewhere engaged, Maximilien should marry the Count's freed slave/adopted daughter Haydee. However, as it's important for his plans that Haydee not have any contact with outside society, he doesn't push either into seeing the other.
• In Frozen's novelization A Frozen Heart Prince Hans's plan to come to Arendelle in an attempt to marry Elsa was a plan conceived by his brother Lars. Lars, who was the only member of his family aside from their mother to treat Hans fairly well, thought Hans should be Elsa's suitor so that he could marry into another family and have excuse to never come back to the Southern Isles. Unfortunately for Lars, Hans let his desire to be a king, years of abuse and want for their father's respect get to him and things took the wrong turn.
• My Next Life as a Villainess: All Routes Lead to Doom!: Sophia Ascart originally has a brother complex for her older brother Nicol. Early in the series, she befriends the protagonist, Catarina Claes, but her feelings quickly grow to become romantic. When her brother Nicol also falls in love with Catarina, Sophia tries to play matchmaker between the two. It's implied that her reasons are selfish: if the two people she's in love with hook up, then Sophia can have them both.
• Northanger Abbey: General Tilney ships Catherine with his son Henry because he thinks she's a wealthy heiress. She's actually not.
• Persuasion:
  • Sir Walter supports his daughter's Elizabeth's pursuit of William Elliot because he's his heir presumptive. Thus their entailed property can stay in the family. In addition, Elizabeth is his favourite daughter and he thinks she should marry someone noble, and a future baronet from their own family is the best option in his eyes.
  • Lady Russell ships Anne/William Elliot. She thinks they would be a good match and cute together, but she also thinks of the Kellynch Hall and the entailed property that could stay in the Elliot family, and actually at the hands of the more deserving daughter who would become the next Lady Elliot, beloved by people just as her late mother (the former Lady Elliot) was.
  • For a brief moment, Mrs Smith pretends she ships Anne and William Elliot. It's because she thinks the deal is done and that they are already engaged, and she wants to use Anne's influence over her husband. She is his former close friend who fell in harder times (financially, socially, health-wise) and wants his help. When Anne insists she doesn't love him and that their marriage is out of the question, Mrs Smith reveals Mr Elliot's true character and says her heart bled for her when she spoke of their future happy union.
  • Mrs Smith jokingly implies that Nurse Rooke ships Sir Walter and widowed Mrs Clay as she hopes to get a job of delivering a baby and providing her with a post-natal care.
    Mrs Smith: And, indeed, to own the truth, I do not think nurse, in her heart, is a very strenuous opposer of Sir Walter's making a second match. She must be allowed to be a favourer of matrimony, you know; and (since self will intrude) who can say that she may not have some flying visions of attending the next Lady Elliot, through Mrs Wallis's recommendation?
  • Louisa ships her sister Henrietta with Charles Hayter — though perhaps only because Captain Wentworth seems to be courting both sisters and she wants him just for herself.
  • Mary Musgrove ships Henrietta/Captain Wentworth because she dislikes the idea of Charles Hayter marrying her sister-in-law. She considers the Hayters a lowly connection.
• Pride and Prejudice: Miss Bingley ships her brother Charles Bingley to Miss Darcy, and not because of her wonderful dowry. She wants to be a member of the family because she thinks it will be easier for her to marry Mr Darcy then.
• Woodley in The Solitary Cyclist, a Sherlock Holmes short story, flirts with Violet aggressively and gets rejected. Then he sees that his accomplice Carruthers has really fallen in love with Violet, so he tells him to marry her. On the condition that Woodley still gets his share of Violet's enormous fortune, which is what the whole plan was about. The shipping attempt fails, as Violet rejects Carruthers' proposal and he (unlike Woodley) doesn't want to force her.
• Deconstructed in Trapped in a Dating Sim: The World of Otome Games is Tough for Mobs with Lelia. She reincarnated as the twin sister of Noelle, the second game's protagonist, and was bent on trying to pair her with Loic since his route was considered the Golden Ending. Problem was, her limited knowledge of the game and interference caused Loic's worst personality traits to go up, so Noelle hates him and wants nothing to do with him. And it gets even worse, as her prodding almost cause her to go down the Bad Ending route, hadn't Leon and Marie caught wind of it when they did.
• In Twilight, Bella sets up each member of her Unwanted Harem with one of her female friends.
• In The War With Mr. Wizzle, the entire student body of Macdonald Hall and Miss Scrimmage's try to set up Mr. Wizzle and Miss Peabody in order to get rid of them. The plan is successful, and both teachers leave to build their own school after getting married.
• In Wings of Fire: Darkness of Dragons, as part of his We Can Rule Together spiel, the oracle-tyrant Darkstalker tells Qibli that in the timeline where they join forces, Qibli is married to his crush. For what it's worth, he was probably telling the truth- although since Qibli rejects his offer and ends up with Moon anyway, that's irrelevant.

Live-Action TV

• Sheldon from The Big Bang Theory, being almost comically selfish, occasionally interferes in Leonard's relationships in order to ensure that they continue, because they bring him some perceived benefit:
  • In "The White Asparagus Triangulation", he keeps butting into Leonard's budding relationship with Stephanie because she's a doctor and could indulge in his paranoid hypochondria. While Leonard quickly gets exasperated with Sheldon's interference, his antics actually wind up helping Leonard push his relationship with Stephanie forward.
  • In "The Decoupling Fluctuation", he tries to convince Penny not to break up with Leonard. He initially claims he doesn't want them to break up just because he hates change, before revealing that he's actually trying to protect Leonard's feelings and earnestly asks Penny not to hurt his friend.
• Community: Abed accuses Annie of shipping Troy/Britta in order to keep Britta away from Jeff so that Annie can have him to herself. She is indignant, saying that she really does think that Troy and Britta would be happy together— Jeff is just a bonus.
• In Drop Dead Diva, Luke is a shipper for Jane/Owen because he was ordered to make Jane give up any vestige of her life as Deb, including keeping her away from Grayson.
• On Gilmore Girls, a major source of conflict between Lorelai and her mother is Emily's insistence on pushing her into a relationship with Christopher, Rory's father and Lorlai's high school boyfriend. Emily doesn't actually care about Lorelai's opinion, Chris's ambivalence, or their massive incompatability. She is just extremely classist and wants them to marry because she has always felt deep embarassment over Lorelai getting pregnant at 16, running away with the baby, and living a life Emily feels is beneath her. Marrying Christopher would bring Lorelai, and by exention Rory, back into the upper-class fold. She goes as far as to commit Relationship Sabotage against Lorelai's budding relationship with Luke, very nearly succeeding in sinking that ship.
  • It's implied that Lorelai keeps pushing Rory back towards First Love Dean even after it's clear Rory doesn't love him anymore because he is the "safe" option in the Fire and Ice Love Triangle of Rory, Dean, and big city bad boy Jess. This is deconstructed and inverted in season 4, when Rory takes this to heart and has an affair with Dean, even though he has since married, while Lorelai strongly disapproves of this affair.
• In Monk, one culprit set it up to have his ex-wife reconnect with her high school sweetheart (who she hasn't seen in years), and if they rekindle their relationship, the husband would never have to pay her alimony anymore.
• Oshin has Oshin's second son Hitoshi, a businessman who wants to marry off his little sister Tei to his Number Two Tatsunori to strengthen the Family Business. They do marry, but that's because Tei does like Tatsunori for being a good guy.
• Outlander: Dugal proposes that Jamie marry Claire in order to save her from being turned over to the villainous Captain Jack Randall. He presents it as though he's become fond of Claire and wants her to be safe. It's later revealed that he specifically proposed that she marry Jamie because marrying an English woman would remove the extremely charismatic, well-liked Jamie, Dugal's biggest rival, from contention for Laird of Clan MacKenzie.
• Runaways (2017) - Gert likes Chase, who likes Karolina, who likes Nico. When Gert catches onto the last part in episode six, she's quick to encourage Karolina to act on her feelings. Karolina calls her out on this.
• Supernatural:
  • In a particularly bizarre example of this trope, Heaven (and/or the archangel Michael, depending on one's interpretation) is one of these for Mary Campbell and John Winchester, because the resultant offspring from their union are intended as weapons in the upcoming apocalypse. And not only do the angels ship them, but sending a Cupid to make them fall in love forces the relationship to actually happen. The angels on this show operate with questionable morality.
  • Sam has been known to (jokingly) ship Dean and Cas, partly as a Fandom Nod and partly as an attempt to get the two of them to stop dancing a platonic variant on The Masochism Tango...but mostly to yank Dean's chain.

Theater

• In A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum, the slave Pseudolus does his best to set his master Hero up with Philia because Hero promises to grant him freedom if he succeeds.
• In Amilcare Ponchielli's La Gioconda, the singer Gioconda mixes this with Matchmaker Crush: she's in love with Enzo, but supports his relationship with Laura since not only they love each other, but Laura saved the life of Gioconda's mother and Gioconda wants to repay the debt.
• In Wicked, Glinda sets up Boq and Nessa for the school dance, mostly so Boq will stop pestering her and she can focus on pursuing Fiyero. Nessa is thrilled; Boq... less so.

Video Games

• Dragon Quest VII: in Greenthumb Gardens, Cayenne supports Lavender and Carraway getting together because that would leave Dill open for her to swoop in and catch on the rebound. She also encourages Dill's jealousy and distrust of Carraway, even attempting to use their supposedly 'illicit relationship' to encourage Dill to fool around with her.
• A purely heroic example in Final Fantasy X-2, where Yuna decides that, to end Shuyin's rampage and save all of Spira, she had to reunite him with his dead lover Lenne.
• A nasty, nasty one in Fire Emblem: Genealogy of the Holy War. Manfroy kidnapped and brainwashed Deirdre, Sigurd's wife, for Arvis to find and fall on love with. All so their minor Loptous blood combined can give birth to a child with Major Loptous blood - and he succeeded in Julius.
• Claude from Fire Emblem: Three Houses ships Edelgard/Dimitri... to fluster them into letting their guards down in mock battles against him.
• The King of Fighters:
  • It's implied that Takuma ships his son Ryo with King so that he can have a new Heir to the Dojo. That, and King is generally a good person.
  • In the semi-canon spin-off game KOF: KYO, Chizuru has some plans centered on Yuki and Kyo's High-School Sweethearts bond. She asks Yuki to lay low and makes Kyo believe that she's been kidnapped, using her sudden absence as a Secret Test of Character destined to see if Kyo can protect his loved ones... And this is before she finds out that Yuki is a Barrier Maiden whose safety should be entrusted to Kyo, so she won't be subjected to a Targeted Human Sacrifice to empower Orochi.
• Peret em Heru: For the Prisoners has a Downplayed version: Nei encouraged Yoko to take a "subtler approach" in pursuing Ayuto, hoping that his obliviousness to her feelings would eventually spur Yoko to draw comfort from Kyosuke, given how blatantly he crushes on her.
• In Persona 4, Rise ships Kanji/Naoto and Yosuke/Chie, though it should be noted that she ships herself with the Protagonist, making it possible that she wants to weed out competition and thinks the other pairings are cute.
• Count Bleck in Super Paper Mario wants to brainwash Bowser and Peach into marrying because it will summon the Chaos Heart and lead to the destruction of the universe.
• Subverted in Warcraft III: the manual claims that just about everybody looks happily on the relationship between crown prince Arthas of Lordaeron and Kul Tiras admiral Proudmoore's daughter Jaina (who also holds a high rank in the Dalaran Magocracy), but there's no official pressure on them, and their respective duties make it difficult to see each other.
• One of Ayano "Yandere-chan" Aishi's many options for Removing the Rival in Yandere Simulator is playing matchmaker, hooking a rival up with someone who has a crush on them in order to get them the hell away from Senpai.

Visual Novels

• In Cafe Enchante, In Canus's route, Vennia is shown appearing pleased when seeing Canus and Kotone interacting and becoming closer, even bringing Kotone to Medio to patch things up with Canus. His actual goal was to switch Kotone with Titania as the World Bride, thus giving Canus and the other regulars motivation to destroy the Yggdrasil if they want to save Kotone.
• In Spirit Hunter: NG, Seiji frequently teases Akira about getting together with Kaoru, which mostly seems to be because he enjoys riling up his best friend and not out of any interest in their relationship.
• In Sunrider, Claude Trilleo supports the budding relationship between Captain Kayto Shields and his chief engineer Chigara and helps push the two of them together over the course of the first game, despite lusting after Kayto herself. It turns out that Chigara is a Prototype spy sent to seduce Kayto, and Claude, who is collaborating with the Prototypes, is making sure that it happens.

Web Animation

• Etra chan saw it!: Tachibana and Azami want Tsutsuji to get married with Kuroki because they want to get his family's money. Fortunately, Tsutsuji quickly tells Kuroki's parents about it. They eventually reflect on their actions and let the marriage keep going on without malicious intents.

Webcomics

• Awkward Zombie has this strip, in which the Avatar from Fire Emblem: Awakening is depicted as one of these for Gaius and Tharja. For context, Galeforce is a Game-Breaker skill exclusive to a female-only class. Via some complex rules of inheritance and gender-exclusivity, a daughter fathered by Gaius can get that class. The woman Gaius was about to ask out in the first panel always has a son, while Tharja, on the other hand, always has a daughter...
• Sarah in Dumbing of Age is pushing Joyce towards Jacob, because of her mutual enmity with his current girlfriend Raidah.
• Girl Genius:
  • Ardsley Wooster ships Gil/Agatha principally out of fear that Gilgamesh might decide to melt England if Agatha ends up with anyone else.
    Agatha: Oooh--do you think he would?
  • Xerxsephina von Blitzengaard ships Agatha with her cousin Tarvek over her own brother (despite knowing that this will enhance Tarvek's claim to the throne of the Storm King, again over her brother) because she knows this will leave Gil for her. She is aware that Gil probably won't love her back, but she is the most logical political marriage.
• In Homestuck, Karkat encourages Dave and John to hook up with Jade and Rose respectively because their only other romantic options are trolls, and at that point Karkat disapproves of inter-species romance. However, he has a secondary motivation: wanting to keep them away from his crush Terezi.
• Shortpacked!: Amber once had a long-distance boyfriend with a female roommate. Amber was slightly worried, but Nathan assured her there was nothing going on. It turned out Meredith even gave him fashion advice—an absolutely repulsive pedostache that caused Amber to break up almost as soon as they met in person. Cut to the freshly-shaved Nathan and Meredith in bed.
• Yumi's Cells: Hanbyeol sees Babi as a rival as one of the hottest guys in the office. Babi was thought to be ineligible for the ladies because he had a girlfriend, but they broke up. When Yumi transfers into their department, Hanbyeol immediately tries to pair her up with Babi to get him out of the way again, unaware that Yumi has a boyfriend.
• Played for Laughs in this Fate/Grand Order fan comic. During a tea party, Artoria and Lostbelt Morgan both remark how Artoria's knight Bedivere is quite a dutiful servant and how Morgan's knight Barghest is a wonderful chef. They decide immediately to arrange a marriage between them so they can enjoy the other's knight more often.
  • In chapter 4, the other Knights of the Round also show their support after Artoria announces the marriage. However, Mordred does so because she finds it hilarious, Gawain sees it as a chance to see his counterpart more often, and Tristan and Lancelot because they expect Barghest will will eat Bedivere like she had her past lovers and thus become a widow that they can confort.

Web Video

• Ultra Fast Pony: In "Pirate Shipping", Apple Bloom takes it upon herself to find a romantic partner for her schoolteacher, Cheerilee, and she quickly settles on her own older brother, Big Macintosh, as the best candidate. After her manipulations result in Big Mac and Cheerilee actually getting married, AB lets slip that she did it all solely to gain herself more influence in Cheerilee's classroom.
• Vision of Escaflowne Abridged: Like in canon, Emperor Dornkirk and General Folken want to break up 15-year-old Van and Hitomi and ship her with someone else. Only in this version, it's so they can steal their screentime.
  Folken: My brother and that girl make a ridiculously cute couple. And the more time they get to develop their little "relationship," the less time we get to carry out our plans.
  Dornkirk: Well, that is a problem. What do we do?
  Folken: Simple: We cock-block my brother. Break the two of them up and replace Vantomi with a couple so awkward, so totally lacking in chemistry, that once established, it will get no screentime whatsoever.

Western Animation

• American Dad!:
  • In one episode, Hayley has Roger become her life coach and Roger gets her a job. Roger then encourages her to get with a co-worker she meets. Turns out the man is married and his wife can get his money in a divorce only if he is caught cheating. Of course the wife is another of Roger's personas.
  • In "Four Little Words," Stan tries to set his boss, Bullock, up with one of Francine's friends just so that he'll have a social life and not keep them late at the office anymore. It goes badly, but due to crazy hijinks, he winds up adopting a baby by the end of the episode and thus has a life outside of work anyway.
• Angel's Friends: Reina, a villainous example. She wants Raf and Sulfus to have The Big Damn Kiss in order to commit the Sacrilege that will free from her strings.
• Avatar: The Last Airbender:
  • Downplayed when Uncle Iroh pushes Zuko to go out and have fun with a girl. Not so much because they're so cute together, but because he knows focusing on something completely unrelated to their fugitive situation would do his nephew a world of good.
  • Zuko's sister Azula is shown in a tie in comic pushing him together with her friend Mai, though unlike with Iroh's altruistic motives it's soley so she can more easily manipulate him.
• In an episode of Danny Phantom, the ghost villain Technus starts to subtly push Danny together with ghost hunter Valerie to distract them both from his master plan.
• Kaeloo: Stumpy has been portrayed as a shipper of Kaeloo and Mr. Cat since the very first season of the show. However, the first instance of him trying to get them together wasn't purely out of goodwill towards them, but part of a larger plan where he was hoping that they would have a baby together, which he could then babysit in exchange for pay.
• In Kick Buttowski, the titular character try to set his best friend Gunther up with Jackie so he can have the Stalker with a Crush get off his back and to make him happy.
• The Loud House:
  • Lori Loud wants to make sure that her brother, Lincoln, has a good relationship with Ronnie Anne Santiago, the younger sister of her boyfriend, Bobby. This is understandable, considering Bobby broke up with Lori after Lincoln (unintentionally) upset Ronnie.
  • In "Teachers Union", Clyde and Lincoln try to get Mrs. Johnson and Coach Pacowski together because they hope the coach will go easy on them during gym class once he and Mrs. Johnson are a couple.
• In Miraculous Ladybug, show host Nadja wants to boost her viewership ratings... So when two local superhero-celebrities agree to an interview, she tries to pressure them into doing romantic things. Since Ladybug is 14, and not interested in her partner that way, she angrily walks out.
• In The Owl House episode "Escaping Expulsion", Amity's father convinces her mother that it would be in their best interest to allow Amity's budding relationship with Luz to continue. Not so much because she makes Amity happy (they honestly couldn't care less about that), but rather because it's clearly making Amity stronger.
• Jet from Ready Jet Go! definitely ships Mindy with Mitchell. In "Jet's First Halloween", he gets them to come to the treehouse together so they can look at the red moon together and see Jet (dressed up as a witch) fly across the moon on a broom to fulfill Mindy's wish of wanting to see a witch fly across the moon.
• South Park:
  • In "Cartman Finds Love", Cartman frequently locks two kids of the same race in the school locker room to prove his racist notion that people should only marry within their own race.
  • In the episode "Tweek x Craig", the two characters were at first shipped by In-Universe Yaoi Fangirls (which is in itself a reaction to the real life shipping of South Park characters). The fact that the whole town follows suit ties into the season-long arc about political correctness: people love their supposed romance simply because it's a gay relationship, not out of any real concern about Tweek or Craig themselves. (Ironically, Craig's dad, who has a hard time coming to terms with Craig's supposed sexuality, would be an exception: he eventually supports them because he thinks it makes Craig happy.)
• While partially for the sake of shipping, Wander from Wander over Yonder ships Hater/Dominator for the sake of turning both (but especially Hater) into good guys.
• Young Justice:
  • Both M'gann and Artemis are initially interested in Superboy. In one episode, the two are somewhat teasingly suggesting that the other hook up with someone else (M'gann suggests Wally for Artemis, Artemis suggests Kaldur for M'gann). M'gann probably had an extra motive, since at the time Wally had a thing for her despite her obvious (but polite) disinterest.
  • Artemis's mother, Paula, suggesting that she and Will get together leans into this. While she genuinely believes that they are interested in each other, she also wants her daughter to pursue the relationship so that she can permanently retire from being a superhero out of concern for her well-being. Another reason is because Paula has lost hope that Jade will return to the family, and she needs Artemis to be there for Lian as a mother.

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