Tailarby

Tailarby is the het ship between Tails and Barby from the Sonic the Hedgehog fandom.

Canon
Tails first meets Barby in the the second issue of the Sonic the Hedgehog Buddy's Tails spinoff comic, where the fox was badly hurt by Wing Dingoes while exploring Downunda. Barby and the other members of the Dowunda Freedom Fighters were able to save Tails from being in bad shape even further. As the fighters are about to introduce themselves, the fox passes out and the koala says that "the youngster's badly hurt". After one of theirs was kidnapped by a Wing Dingo, Walt Wallaby asks Barby and the rest to tail them while he brings the fox to the "old man".

In the next and final issue of the spinoff comic, Barby was flung by the CD-ROM Ram to the crater where Tails was staying. She lands on the fox's arms, and the introduce themselves. There's also a brief chat about whether koala bears fly, which Barby replies that she and the other Downunda Freedom Fighters were currently busy with the robotic ram. She asks Tails for help, which he accepts, not before attempting to say goodbye to Athair. He thinks that the old echidna disappeared without a trace along with the statues, but Barby reminds him about battling Crocbot. Tails flies the koala out of the crater and into Crocbot's blimp. Inside, they attack the robot crocodile's from the rear, indirectly burning the entire blimp to the ground. Barby frees Stu, while Tails gets knocked out by Crocbot, who tries to escape. Guru Emu, with the help of Tails, uses one of Walt's bomberangs to knock the robot crocodile to the very same crater Barby was thrown down to, exploding the robot in the process with the smoke in Athair's likeliness. Walt offers Tails a place in the Downunda Freedom Fighters, which Barby recommends, but the fox is worried about going home more, leaving both in tears. With the Sea Fox recovered by his sea friends, Tails gives them each of the Downunda Freedom Fighters a high-five and promises to tell Sally, Sonic, and others about them and the existence other Freedom Fighters.

In issue 61 of the main Sonic the Hedgehog comics, the Downunda Freedom Fighters, Sonic, and Tails took down an army of brainwashed anthropomorphic platypuses. The first two pages clearly see both koala and fox close to each other. It is revealed that Sonic and Tails have arrived during a set-up, and Barby greeted the fox with a kiss. They all then ride the rapids and fight more platypuses, finally reaching Duck "Bill" Platypus's hideout. They storm the house, calmed Bill down, and Sonic opens the hatch, revealing Crocbot. Immediately, the hedgehog unplugs the robot crocodile and decides to bring it to King Acorn. As Sonic and Tails return home with the disabled Crocbot, Barby blow kisses to the latter and affirms missing him, which implies that the koala might have some feelings for the fox.

While Tails sees Barby as a friend, he does hope that he'll see her soon, implying that he, despite his age, has feelings for her.

Barby never had any more meetings with the fox even after the Super Genesis Wave rewrote the entire story and the koala erased from the timeline.

Fanon
The ship has some support, although it is not among the most popular pairings for Tails. Some, including Archie Comics writer Ian Flynn, dislike the ship for being creepy due to Tails' young age. However, others had no problem shipping Tails with Fiona, with Mina, and other characters, even though they are also older than the yellow fox.

Some, who supported it, can agree that Tails' relationship with Barby Koala was a lot better than Fiona, due to the red fox slapping the yellow two-tailed fox, and Mina, due to others who disagree about Tails being married to her in Light Mobius when she was with Ash Mongoose in the present. Other rival ships for Tails include characters from outside the Archie comics, such as with Cosmo, with Cream, and with Zooey.

Ardan-Norgate made a post of Tails having a family with Barby Koala. A what-if post if Tails married Barby Koala instead of Mina Mongoose in Light Mobius. Ardan-Norgate also made a post of Tails joining the Downunda Freedom Fighters. A what-if post if Barby Koala convince Tails to reconsider joining the Downunda Freedom Fighters. If Tails actually did joined the Downunda Freedom Fighters, the relationship would've start better as the two would take things slow, until the fox was old enough for the two of them to official date each other.

Fandom
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