Putting together two characters with conflicting personalities to see how their dynamic and connections play out, certainly longfics and fanwork know all about that.
Although this trope has been in fandom in some form since its beginnings, it only became widely identifiable after the popularity of ship dynamic memes on social media like Twitter and Tiktok in the 2020s, says Fanlore.
From Star Trek, to Naruto, to Harry Potter, to Marvel, this dynamic has always been there.
AO3’s 2025 Ship Statistics are proof.
Not only are the top 12 ships on AO3 MxM, but they remain unchanged from 2024 to 2025. We can see the sunshine x grumpy dynamic from the top ten already…
- Harry/Louis
- Draco/Harry
- Bucky/Steve
- Baku/Deku
In terms of some history, this Grumpy x Sunshine popularity spiked with Spock and Kirk.
Though fanfiction as we know it started out from passionate Star Trek fans in the late 1960s to early 1970s, taking writing techniques from existing science fiction, fanfiction in the 21st century is a much bigger, different and diverse.
Fics can be by anyone, about anything, and be just as welcome on AO3 as Destiel or Remus/Sirius.
However… AO3’s Ship Statistics don’t track character archetypes, but they do reveal a recurring pattern: the fandom loves contrast.
Again and again, some of the archive’s most popular ships are built on opposing personalities.
Who might these ships be?
Let’s look at my pick of grumpy x sunshine ships from last year’s top 100 ships.
| Year | Rank | Ship | Fandom |
| 1966 | #48 | Kirk/Spock | Star Trek |
| 1997 | #2 | Draco/Harry | Harry Potter |
| 1997 | #7 | Sirius/Remus | Harry Potter |
| 1999 | #56 | Sasuke/Naruto | Naruto |
| 2005 | #1 | Castiel/Dean | Supernatural |
| 2008 | #24 | Merlin/Arthur | Merlin (TV) |
| 2009 | #53 | Levi/Eren | Attack on Titan |
| 2010 | #10 | Harry/Louis | One Direction |
| 2011 | #6 | Bucky/Steve | Captain America |
| 2012 | #39 | Iwaizumi/Oikawa | Haikyuu!! |
| 2012 | #44 | Hinata/Kageyama | Haikyuu!! |
| 2013 | #12 | Jungkook/Taehyung | BTS |
| 2013 | #13 | Dazai/Chuuya | Bungou Stray Dogs |
| 2014 | #8 | Bakugou/Midoriya | My Hero Academia |
| 2014 | #29 | Aizawa/Yamada | My Hero Academia |
| 2016 | #30 | Yuuri/Victor | Yuri!!! on Ice |
| 2018 | #42 | Getou/Gojo | Jujutsu Kaisen |
| 2022 | #82 | Soap/Ghost | CoD: Modern Warfare II |
Might I say, 90% of which are light-haired dumbasses with dark-haired calmness.
So why Why is Grumpy x Sunshine often light-haired loser x dark-haired yearner? Here’s some theories!
One theory is that comics/manga and animation have long used hair colour as instant visual characterisation.
- Light = soft, approachable, warm.
- Dark = brooding, mysterious, closed-off.
When those two designs stand next to each other, the contrast does half the emotional work before they even open their mouths.
Anime especially leans hard into this. Bakugou (blond) and Midoriya (dark green) are a perfect example, as are Hinata (orange) and Kageyama (dark). My babies.
A second theory is that it traces back to classic archetypes.
The light/dark pairing is ancient!!
Fairy tales where the pure innocent hero is fair and the dangerous/powerful figure is dark…
All fandoms kind of remix this: the dark-haired one is still intense and a little scary, but now that’s romantic rather than villainous. The light-haired one retains the warmth but sometimes loses the passivity in favour of loudness.
(Plus when you draw, write, or imagine a ship, you want them to be immediately distinguishable.)
Finally, of course, the “opposites attract” principle.
Grumpy/Sunshine is fundamentally about internal contrast: one character’s emotional walls coming down around the other’s relentless warmth. Hair colour externalises that internal dynamic!!
A good extension of this theory is that we’re all noticing is that it’s not just grumpy/sunshine but often specifically:
- the light-haired one = the “loser”, chaotic, clumsy, socially oblivious, underestimated, the one who stumbles into the dark one’s life
- dark-haired one = the yearner, composed, watchful, quietly obsessed, the one who noticed first.
A few reasons this combo keeps emerging?
In the right corner, for the dark-haired yearner…
The yearner needs something to fixate on that they can’t control. So the dark/careful character is usually defined by competence and composure.
The one thing that cracks that is someone completely outside their framework: someone unpredictable, loud, accidentally charming, impossible to read or manage.
The light-haired chaotic one fills that role perfectly. You can’t plan for someone like that. They just happen to you.
In the left corner, the light-haired loser…
The loser archetype needs to be non-threatening to work.
For the yearner’s quiet devotion to feel earned rather than obsessive, the sunshine/loser can’t be conventionally impressive.
They have to be a little ridiculous, a little hapless, someone the yearner has no logical reason to be so gone for.
Conclusion?
That gap between the loser’s objectively chaotic existence and the yearner’s total helpless devotion is where the emotional charge lives.
“Why them specifically” is the whole question.
Without doubt, these golden retriever x black cat, sun x moon, light x dark, idiot x dumbass, chaos x calm ships are one of the most iconic dynamics in fanfiction.