Crina

Crina is the het ship between Crash and Nina from the Crash Bandicoot fandom.

Canon
Nina is the niece of Dr. Neo Cortex; as a result, this means that she and Crash are enemies. The most noticeable instance is in the console version of Crash of the Titans, where Uka Uka has Nina replace her uncle after he failed to defeat Crash Bandicoot. At the game’s climax, she battles Crash by piloting a mech suit called the Arachnina in an effort to kill Crash. However, she fails in her mission too and Cortex sends her to Evil Public School - much to her dismay. Because of this and now being “stuck with the dregs of society”, she has developed an absolute hatred of Crash for “ruining her life”.

Yet despite this, Crash and Nina are more often NOT enemies when they arguably should be. In fact, despite Nina’s detest of Crash, she will agree to help or ask for help from him. This can be seen in the DS version Crash of the Titans, where upon realizing that she is just a grunt minion to Cortex, Nina eventually teams up with Crash to fight her uncle. Though this alliance is short-lived, it shows that Nina is not afraid to trust Crash if benefits her in the long run. She also repeatedly asks Crash for help in Crash Tag Team Racing to unlock her vehicles. In return, she will give him Power Crystals for doing her tasks.

Additionally, there is one piece of character lore that provides support for this ship. According to the game manual of Crash Twinsanity, Nina used to love playing with and cuddling small and fuzzy animals. When Dr Cortex found out, he had Nina’s hands replaced with bionic spring-traps and sent her to Madame Amberly’s Academy of Evil, so as to make her evil. The manual also states that Nina still has feelings for cute animals - which Crash Bandicoot classifies for as he is a bandicoot - but is unable to hug them because of her bionic hands. This might suggest that Nina is simply acting evil, but as this has never been addressed or brought up in future titles, it is pure speculation.

Fanon
Crash Bandicoot and Nina Cortex as a ship is considered divisive, sometimes referred to as the “forbidden love” by its fans as it is a ship between enemies. However, it is by far Nina’s most popular het ship. Most fan-art of the pairing play off of the backstory as revealed in the Crash Twinsanity game manual, in that Nina may have hidden tender feelings for Crash—as he is a cute and cuddly animal. It is also not uncommon for people to ship her with Crash’s 10th dimension counterpart: Evil Crash. This instance is built on events that took place in Twinsanity, but as such holds little canonical reference.

Fandom
FAN FICTION

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