Why We Ship Characters - From X-Files to Reylo

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The history of "shipping," the act of rooting for a romantic relationship between two fictional characters, has been around for ages, yet the phenomenon got its name from The X-Files. Fans of the science-fiction series who pined for Agent Fox Mulder (David Duchovny) and Agent Dana Scully (Gillian Anderson) didn't always see their relationship develop on screen, so a vocal subset of viewers kept it alive online. The X-Files thus became ground zero for the explosion of shipping as a common, if controversial part of fandom, for everything from sitcoms to Star Wars. Here’s our Take on the evolution of shipping, from The X-Files to The Rise of Skywalker, the reasoning behind it, and the effects that rooting for love can have on the things we love.

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