for me

G1 Ironhide and Chromia
G1 Hot Rod and Arcee (and also Shaoshao Li in the Legends manga)
Cybertron Hot Shot and Override
Cybertron Megatron and Thunderblast
BW Tigatron and Airrazor
BW Silverbolt and Blackarachnia
BWII Scylla and Scuba
IDW1 Skids and Nautica
IDW1 Chromedome and Rewind (in season 1 of MTMTE)
IDW2 Blast Off and Cosmos
IDW2 Glyph and Tap-Out

 

It just means they like the characters and want to see them kiss. Or. You know. What's the thing you don't get?

 

It used to be popular like 2005ish before everyone was on Prowl/Jazz.

 

Randomly pairing up characters who have nothing in common.

 

That's called crack shipping. It can be fun sometimes!

 

It's not always about characters who have nothing in common. There are plenty of 'canon' pairings that people love and ship. Let's go with a pretty well known and established one. Chromedome and Rewind from IDW comics. In the comics, they have an established relationship, a lot of people like them and a lot of people like to consume fic and art with this pairing. This is still shipping.

As for your nothing in common pairings, let's go with an example mentioned earlier in this thread, G1 Ratchet and Prowl. They as far as I know don't interact much or at all in their respective canon. But most of the fun of shipping characters like these is figuring out HOW the dynamic would work. You've got a grouchy medic and a by the books police officer. How would they talk to one another? How would they fall in love? A writer is going to see these questions and be thrilled to discover the answers to them.

Let's go back to Chromedome and Rewind again. Before IDW they weren't a couple. They were pretty different. You have a Historian and a Brain Surgeon. You can't make that work, can you? A good writer can though, a good writer will answer those questions of How and Why and figure out how to make things work. And it works. Chromedome and Rewind are a very memorable couple, their personal story is filled with heartbreak and triumph and honestly if you told me before I read IDW that those two were married I'd probably give you the side eye.

TLDR: A good writer can see even the oddest pairing, say I can make that work, and fit them together like two pieces of a puzzle meant for on another.

 

My aromantic nature is really starting to show here. ^_^*

 

You don't even have to think of it in terms of romance. Ship is short for relationship. A relationship doesn't have to be romantic in nature which is something I think a lot of people get hung up on. 'friend'shipping is super valid too, and idw comics gave us an amazing gift that I think fandom should utilize more called 'amica endura'. Which is basically a best friend, a platonic soulmate that you love and care about and would go to the ends of the universe for but you wouldn't put a ring on it.

Think about it that way. Characters you think might be cool to see hang out together, or go ona mission together. What would their dynamic be? How would they get along?

Here's a writing exercise I love to help me warm up. Take two random characters and sit them next to each other in Maccadam's bar. What is their conversation like?

This is kind of the basis for all types of ships whether romantic or platonic. How would these two characters interact?

 

I think amica endura is romantic but not sexual (at least not usually), although possibly less so for those people who decide they need 7 amicas.

 

i like to think in their past, IDW nautica and firestar were a mismatched couple

 

That's...canon?

 

They were reluctant friends in the comics but I liked their chemistry and like idea that they were mismatched lovers

 

Amica endura is a coupled relationship, just not (usually) a sexual one.

There were cultures in the Transformers verse where you had to be amica before you could be conjunx, though Caminus treated them separately; so it's not that simple.

 

Cherish & Cheetor



Good Friends!

 

Flamewar and her goodies

 

Flamewar and Slipstream.
Flamewar and Rosanna.
Slipstream and Rosanna.
Slipstream, Flamewar and Rosanna.

 

That reminds me of something ...

Flamewar and Thundercracker (I also have a older commissioned picture of the two, inspired by an fic, which I can't show here, a bit too naughty ; )).

Also, Slipstream and Dirge (induced by a funny fic that I read earlier this year).

 

There are no sexual relationships in Transformers.

Romantic, sure. Sexual, no.

 

Yes there are. My cousin works at Hasbro and he told me.

 

These robots fuck and there's nothing you can do about it :^)