Nov. 5, 2025 | Jaylin Emond-Hardin | Entertainment Editor
The term “crackship” became popularized in the early days of Tumblr when users began to ship characters from two completely different fandoms. Typically, these crackships arose when two characters simply made sense together, but sometimes others would be the most out-of-left-field pairings anyone had ever seen.
Crackships were especially big in the 2010s when the fanmade “Rise of the Brave, Tangled, Frozen Dragons” crossover — involving characters from “Rise of the Guardians,” “Brave,” “Tangled,” “Frozen” and “How to Train Your Dragon” — blew up on Tumblr. Suddenly, everyone was involved in crackships not only from different movies, but from completely different animation studios.
The most popular ships among this crossover list were Jack Frost x Elsa, Jack Frost x Rapunzel, Hiccup x Merida and Hiccup x Rapunzel. I was a hardcore ‘Jelsa’ — the ship name for Jack Frost x Elsa — believer in middle school. Another popular crackship from this era that was not part of that crossover was Rapunzel x Mavis Dracula, which ignited a slew of memes about the pairing.
Crackships are still alive and well today. Typically, they live on Tumblr, but in recent weeks, one specific ship has taken the internet by storm: Rodrick Heffley x Regina George.
Yes. That’s right. Rodrick from “Diary of a Wimpy Kid” and Regina from “Mean Girls.”
The ship — now dubbed “Rodrina” — originated in early October when Instagram user @monia_lynn shared a reel of their fan art of the pairing, with the caption “I might be a genius.”
This crackship has blossomed into even more fan art, ship edits and Halloween costumes. Fans have been quick with this ship, and edits are slowly making their way onto people’s explore pages — typically paired with “Sk8r Boi” or “Girlfriend” by Avril Lavigne or “Dirty Little Secret” by The All-American Rejects. The post on @monia_lynn’s reel featured “Girlfriend.”
With this pairing gaining traction the way it is, other crackships are coming out of the woodwork. Jelsa is once again becoming prominent on social media spaces, while people have also begun to ship Cinderella and Sukuna from “Jujutsu Kaisen,” as well as Elphaba Thropp from “Wicked” and Colonel Miles Quartich from “Avatar.”
Honestly? I’m glad people are beginning to share their crackships again. It reminds me of the 2014 era of Tumblr, when people were fighting over whether Jack Frost belonged with Elsa or Rapunzel, the Avengers lived in Stark Tower as roommates and everyone was obsessed with rose gold and Starbucks. It’s nostalgia. Plain and simple.
Plus, seeing people be comfortable with their weirdness openly and freely brings me a certain feeling of joy. The internet is slowly moving away from the aesthetic, minimalist posts and moving back towards whimsy and accepting one’s own quirkiness. I welcome it.
Rodrina edits and fan art are all over the internet currently, feeding fans with the “mean girl x teenage dirtbag” pairing that everyone always seems to crave.
If this wave of whimsy and crackships sticks around, I know many people — including myself — will be happy. After all, who can resist pairings that might never canonically meet but seem to work so well?
Contact the author at howlentertainment@wou.edu
