What Does This Mean?
A fanfiction and fandom trope in which characters left without a romantic partner are paired with one another, often to give a story a neat ending.
REAL-WORLD EXAMPLE
"In the epilogue the author paired the spares, so the two side characters ended up married too."
LORE & ORIGIN
Fanlore describes Pair the Spares as a trope in which leftover characters in a cast are matched with each other, because fandom, or sometimes canon itself, leaves little room for single characters. It is often used to tie up loose ends, and is a common outcome for the losing rival in a love triangle. It appears across het, slash and femslash pairings. Outside fandom the phrase can sound negative, while fans often use it neutrally as a way to explore characters that canon leaves aside. TV Tropes covers the same idea under the name Ship Mates. The date of the first use of the phrase is not documented.
MENTIONS OVER TIME
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