Talk:Illaoi/@comment-24491481-20151115013944/@comment-4068613-20151117002814

You established that a "ship" in this context refers to the fan's ideas about a relationship between the two characters. Saying "garen/kat ship" isn't saying "the garen/katarina relationship I wish happened but has not", it's saying "my general interest in the real or hypothetical relationship between Garen and Katarina".

So describing it as a ship isn't wrong. The fact that there are canonically romantic interactions between two characters has no relevance to whether or not it's valid to "ship" them. A canon ship is exactly as meaningful as a teased, random, or ridiculous ship, because "shipping" refers to responses and opinions of fans, and not to the established lore.