#tbhk does this well because it’s the focus of the manga but there are absolutely ways to do that in fighting based animes

[plantsandpies]

Personal opinion: if a fandom has to argue over ships and the main ship is one of lowers options, you didn’t write their relationship well. If they are the main couple but one of them is paired with someone or multiple someones, you didn’t write the main pair well enough.

For a good example: tbhk does have other ships, of course, but the main ships are the intended ones. Yeah some people ship yashiro and Kou, but that’s a rarer ship than yashiro and hanako and Kou and mitsuba, which are the main ones you’ll find.

For a bad example: mha has a like a million ships. But the top one isn’t deku and uraraka. It’s deku with a bunch of different guys. That isn’t the fandom taking over with their gayness. It’s deku and uraraka’s relationship not being developed well. It’s uraraka not being a well done character that the fandom will love. It’s bakugo and deku’s relationship as friends getting more attention than uraraka and deku’s romantic relationship.

When it comes to ships, for me, I’m fine with any ship as long as they are both well done characters with a real, well developed relationship. The reason a fandom becomes so ship filled is because the writers didn’t make the romance right. (And maybe because (at least for anime) male writers aren’t focused on their female characters or literally made them to be girlfriends (that last thing is a particular writer btw) if it’s Disney it’s because they’re soulless and don’t care).

If it doesn’t have any romance, then it’s just the fans. But ships all depend on character chemistry. You need the romance to be obvious. Definitely don’t add a rival if you’re worried though cause that could do the opposite of what you want. Do you remember Edward vs Jacob? Jacob was never going to be an option, but the war happened because they weren’t written well.