The “Rodrina” Internet Sensation: What the “Crossover Ship” Reveals About Fandom Culture and the Future of Social Media Marketing

At some point during this past Halloween season, you are likely to have come across a variety of couples costumes on social media—whether it be popular Disney couples like Cinderella and Prince Charming, or Superhero pairings like Superman and Lois Lane. But have you had the pleasure of coming across the “Regina George x Rodrick Heffley”/“Rodrina” couple’s costume? Yes, that Regina George, from Mean Girls, and that Rodrick Heffley, from Diary of a Wimpy Kid: Rodrick Rules. To someone who isn’t familiar with online shipping culture, this may seem absurd, but there is a long internet history of what is known as a “crossover ship” or “cross ship”—where two characters from two separate pieces of media are “shipped,” or romantically coupled together, by the fans of these media. But it is only recently that we have seen this phenomenon become somewhat mainstream, indicated by the hundreds of thousands of interactions with Regina x Rodrick social media posts. 

I’ve mainly interacted with these types of videos on TikTok, where it’s typical to see one person wearing a “Löded Diper” t-shirt—the heavy metal band that Rodrick Heffley frontlines—while their partner dresses akin to Regina George with a black mini-skirt and a pink cardigan layered over her signature “A Little Bit Dramatic” white tank top. The majority of these videos feature the song “Dirty Little Secret” by The All-American Rejects, hinting at the online characterization of Regina and Rodrick’s relationship as “forbidden” because Regina is the stereotypical popular mean girl while Rodrick is an outsider/loner. I hypothesize that it is exactly this “opposites-attract” trope that has allowed this ship to become more mainstream, as it’s one of the most popular tropes in romance films. One only has to look at the classic films Pretty Woman, When Harry Met Sally, Pride & Prejudice, 10 Things I Hate About You, Titanic, and Grease to understand just how obsessed we are with the idea that two complete opposites can find something to love about one another. But why have we decided to express this obsession through a pairing of characters from different films/shows? And what does this reveal about fan culture and our deep obsession with love? 

Well, this “crossover” phenomenon is definitely not new and has been prevalent across various online platforms for several years. One of the oldest online crossover ships is MordeTwi, which is the romantic pairing of Twilight Sparkle from the children’s television series My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic and Mordecai from the animated sitcom Regular Show. According to Shipping Wiki, an online platform for information on romantic ships between fictional characters, this crossover ship originated in 2011 in an online fiction series, which inspired hundreds of others to create similar stories and artwork. This ship came to my attention when the art piece shown above became a viral meme on TikTok in 2021—a time when users recreated the drawing and even dressed up as the characters. When I first encountered this ship on TikTok, I was completely baffled. How in the world did someone come up with the idea to romantically ship a pony from a children’s show that is about friendship and love with a bird from a mature animated comedy that often engages in mature and sometimes violent themes? Well, here again lies the inescapable “opposites attract” trope, with some fans claiming that their “contrasting personalities would create balance and compliment each other.” 

However incredulous MordeTwi may seem, it’s evident that what usually holds a crossover ship together is the idea that two individuals with completely opposite personalities will feed off of each other’s differences and ultimately “complete” one another. We desperately want to believe that a person will love us because of our differences, rather than despite them, and that they will make up for our weaknesses with their strengths. When we don’t see a romantic relationship in a television show or film that we can form an emotional attachment to, we take that agency into our own hands and imagine relationships between the characters we love that we can live vicariously through. While it may seem that these crossover ships serve no purpose whatsoever, their origins trace back to our obsession with fictional characters that we can relate to, as well as our intense desire to be understood and loved for who we are. Ultimately, there is nothing wrong with wanting to fulfill these desires through an unconventional yet safe outlet.

Amazon Prime Video clearly understands the virality of a crossover ship, as their Australian/New Zealand official TikTok account @primevideoaunz posted a romantic video edit of Regina and Rodrick, which yielded almost 1.5 million views and over 206 thousand likes. Online fandoms have classified this type of video content as an “edit,” which is when scenes from a television show or movie are strategically spliced together and typically overlaid with a song that aligns with the mood of these clips. This was a strategic marketing move on Prime Video’s part, as seen with the promotional comment by @primevideoaunz under this video: “Mean Girls; Diary of a Wimpy Kid: Rodrick Rules are both available to rent or buy on Prime Video.” Amazon Prime Video is not the only company posting “edits” to their official account, with the prominent television and film distributor Lionsgate also creating edits of notable film franchises such as The Hunger Games, Twilight, Now You See Me, and Divergent to their TikTok feed. Many of these posts also hint at the person behind the “mask,” with the caption to a thirst edit of Dave Franco reading “i love my job” and a comedic edit of The Hunger Games captioned “twin we are so cooked.” The company’s participation in a mainly Gen Z trend indicates to social media users that there are people just like them working behind the scenes at these media companies who understand their interests and humor. By participating in such a niche internet trend, the Amazon Prime Video corporation seems less abstract and intimidating and instead becomes more relatable to a younger audience, subliminally pushing this audience to further engage with Prime Video’s content. These companies understand the importance of shipping to fans, whether it be a crossover ship or a canon relationship, revealing how widespread shipping culture has become, and hinting at further adoptions of niche internet trends into mainstream media and culture. 

I am well-versed in online fandom culture and how its members find connection through their collective devotion to a piece of media and its characters, but I have only recently discovered the world of crossover ships. As a newcomer, it’s easy to automatically delegitimize the crossover ship and view it as a chronically online activity that indicates our generation’s growing disconnect from the real world. In actuality, this practice creates safe spaces for fans to bond over their shared emotional connection with fictional characters, allowing them to accept and better understand their personal desires and emotions without fear of judgment. It is these close-knit communities that make the marketization of crossover shipping so interesting, as the large companies that participate in this trend are increasingly exposing outsiders to these communities, possibly threatening the safety and comfort that they were initially built upon. On the other hand, this exposure may also normalize this practice, which could very well help destigmatize online fandom culture and create a more welcoming online environment. Either way, the crossover ship’s entrance into mainstream culture indicates a significant shift in social media marketing and the state of online communities. I, for one, am eager to see how content creators and media companies respond to this shift in the coming months.