What’s better than thinking about iconic childhood characters from franchises foundational to the early 2000s? Thinking “what if they dated,” that’s what. The shipping of Regina George and Rodrick Heffley is taking the internet by storm right now.
The seemingly polar opposite character combination from Mean Girls (2004) and Diary of a Wimpy Kid (2010) has recently inspired tons of fan edits and fan fiction, reigniting everyone’s inner mid-2010s crack shipping Tumblr girlie. What many people are asking, though, is why and how this has become such a massive thing.
Iconic + Ironic = Rodrina
Sparked by an initial post by monia_lynn on Instagram, Rodrick and Regina, AKA Rodrina, might seem like complete and total opposites, but they happen to make an extremely cute couple on paper.
Regina is the queen of the social eco-culture of North Shore High School, who just so happens to have a love for punk rock music, based on the Avril Lavigne and The Strokes posters seen in her massive bedroom. Rodrick is a rebellious, prankster older brother obsessed with his own band Löded Diper, who just happens to fall over himself when a pretty girl is around.
Aesthetically alone, they give life to the song “Sk8er Boi” by Avril Lavigne, but their mutual love of similar music has people obsessed with the potential dynamic of these two.
Fans of the couple often depict Rodrick at Regina’s beck and call to hold her bags while she shops, and Regina attending all of his band performances. My personal favorite is of her helping him put on eyeliner.
One big criticism of the ship is what is seemingly the erasure of the LGBTQ+ coding of Regina’s character and her popular in-universe ship with Janis Ian, as many point out that Janis and Rodrick have similar, if not the same, aesthetics. Many are deeming this the loss of the ancient yuri texts, but for others, this is a much healthier imagined version of this former dynamic.
One certainty about this ship is that for many, it symbolized the revitalization of a classic fandom staple thought to be lost to time, the crack ship.
A Brief Guide to Crack Shipping & Crossover Fandoms
The crack shipping universe is vast and expansive, but for those not so chronically online in the early 2010s, crack shipping is the term used when referring to coupling up characters from different properties or franchises. This has been a very common occurrence in many fandoms and spawned some of the most iconic fan art on the internet.
Some of the more iconic crack ship couples include Sonic x Mario, and Twilight Sparkle (My Little Pony) x Mordecai (Regular Show) from the infamous “Airplanes” meme, but none come close to the death grip that Elsa (Frozen) x Jack Frost (Rise of the Guardians) held on the internet in 2012.
Elsa x Jack Frost (Jelsa) became a popular ship based on their shared aesthetics, themes of loneliness, and ice powers. The ship took the internet by storm, but Jelsa was a popular ship that was simply one part of a much larger fandom known as the Rise of the Brave Tangled Frozen Dragons.
This is a five-way crossover universe created by fans online, which reached its peak between 2012 and 2013 and lost steam a few years later. The universe was based on the potential interactions of the main characters of Hiccup, Rapunzel, Elsa, Anna, Jack Frost, and Merida.
A huge reason why this fandom came to be was due to the close releases of all of these movies in the early 2010s. This was only fueled by the discovery of the cameo of Rapunzel and Flynn Ryder in Frozen.
Another reason this crossover happened is that the 2000s loved a crossover special. Any 2000s Disney Channel kid knows that the crossover episodes were some of the best. Where else besides “Wizards on Deck with Hannah Montana” could you see your favorite characters from Wizards of Waverly Place, Suite Life on Deck, and Hannah Montana interact?
In the world of crack shipping and multiverse fandoms, I’d also be remiss to not mention the Superwholock fandom, the fan-made crossover between Supernatural, BBC’s Sherlock, and Doctor Who, which also held a death grip on internet culture in the early 2010s, driven by all three shows’ popularity on platforms like Tumblr.
Crack shipping didn’t disappear, but the main fandoms certainly lost steam. This return of childhood nostalgia is why seeing a ship like Rodrina gain mainstream attention is taking the internet by storm.
The Return of Crack Shipping
Many staples from the 2000s and 2010s childhood experience, like flip phones, My Chemical Romance, Dan and Phil, and Kesha, have all made a comeback in 2025, but one thing not on most people’s bingo cards was the powerful return of the classic crack ship.
Rodrina, by many, has been fully embraced as edits and fan art of the two seemingly can’t be avoided at the moment. Could this be counted as a recession indicator? Maybe. Will this be the return of crack shipping culture? Who knows. One thing is for sure: this nostalgic return to form is definitely fun while it lasts and is definitely worth diving into.
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