CalaMug

CalaMug is the het ship between Cala Maria and Mugman from the Cuphead fandom.

Canon
Mugman, alongside his brother Cuphead, was sent by the Devil to collect the soul contracts of several debtors after Cuphead's recklessness got them indebted to the Devil when he gambled too much. After beating all the debtors in the first two Inkwell Isles, the brothers arrive at the third and last Isle where Cala Maria, one of the debtors, confronts them when they reach her but ultimately loses and is forced to surrender her contract as with the others. Luckily, the Cup brothers eventually get strong enough to stand up to and defeat the Devil. The two not only free themselves from their debt but also destroy the contracts to free the other debtors from eternal servitude to the Devil. At the end of the game, the debtors (Cala Maria included) come to befriend and celebrate the heroes' success out of gratitude.

In the official novel, Cuphead in Carnival Chaos, Mugman ends up smitten with Cala Maria after he sees her at the carnival and she blows a kiss at him then he becomes determined to satisfy her whims to win her over, which she takes advantage of to get him to buy her things and do her favors as Mugman is too enamoured to wise up and he winds up separated from Cuphead and Ms. Chalice which prevents them from talking him out of appealing to the mermaid's wishes. In the end, however, Mugman stops catering to her when he spots a kiddie plane and gets distracted, due to his even bigger love of them, enough to forget about Cala Maria, to her dissatisfaction, with her even lamenting to Cuphead that Mugman doesn't even seems to know she exists anymore, possibly implying that she also has feelings for Mugman, although it could be that she simply was upset that he would no longer buy what she desires. This was the first onscreen ship tease the two had in the franchise.

In the second season of The Cuphead Show Cala Maria makes her debut in the third episode where she encounters the Cup Brothers and Captain Brineybeard while on a sea expedition. When Brineyneard reveals that he intends to court Cala Maria despite her horrifying powers and cruel nature, Mugman reluctantly agrees to help the pirate Captain hook up with her despite the risks of trying to do so, only for Cala Maria to reject him despite his best efforts due to her commitment to her "job" as a man-eating monster, albeit gentler than usual. Mugman himself would end up smitten with Cala Maria near the end of the episode after hearing her singing and even try to awkwardly introduce himself to her only to be dismayed when she dismisses him as her "dinner". In the sixth episode it's shown that Mugman's crush on Cala Maria has remained and he even has a fantasy where he imagines himself courting Cala Maria, both falling in love and nearly kissing while reading a book and later on her rejecting him because he was "mean" to the ice cream man who'd been annoying him in his lecture. It's taken even further as he puts himself in the exact same situation that Brineybeard was in, albeit more successful in wooing the mermaid/gorgon.

Fanon
's start was had more or less around the release of the game and when the fandom was in its more initial stages. Though the exact reason for the ship's huge popularity is partly unknown, some allude it to the potential dynamic between Mugman's kind-hearted and passive nature and Cala Maria's implied sultry and alluring attitude due to being a mermaid. Some works start off with Mugman being smitten with Cala Maria and doing his best to win her over. Cala Maria will be depicted either being annoyed at first by his advances before slowly warming up to him or becoming charmed by them and reciprocating without issue on the first instance. Other times Mugman will even be depicted with a preference for "Giant Women" as a cause of his crush on Cala Maria. There are also some depictions where Cala Maria tends to flirt with or make a move on Mugman, the latter of which normally involves kissing him, resulting in Mugman getting flustered and embarrassed.

Those who Mugman and Cala Maria often also ship popular pairings such as CupBon (Cuphead and Baroness Von Bon), Snake Eyes (The Devil and King Dice) and Starry Flower (Hilda Berg and Carney Cargnation), especially the first. There's even been fankids ideas and a popular albeit discontinued sequel comic "One More Deal" even has the pairing's fanchild on the spotlight. There is some slight friction with Sailing Seas (the ship between Cala Maria and Captain Brineybeard) which was increased somewhat with the release of The Cuphead Show which has Brineybeard crush on Cala Maria (though she rejects him). Other than that, the ship hardly ever comes to clash with other Cala Maria or Mugman ships.

CalaMug is one of the most popular ships of the Cuphead fandom and both Mugman's and Cala Maria's most popular ship for each. As one of the first ships the fandom came up with, it has enjoyed a fair share of popularity ever since the inception of the fandom itself. Though recently some fans take issue with the possible age gap and pedophilia aspects of the ship due to Cala Maria being an adult and Mugman being a teenager, though others tend to ignore it or consider that the ages are ambiguous enough not to be bothered by it. That said the debates tend to not be too impactful to the ship's popularity outside a few circles.

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Trivia

 * If Cala Maria kills you in her first phase, her win quote will have her wonder if she should keep Cuphead and/or Mugman or let them go ("catch and release") because she finds them cute.
 * Mugman having a crush on Cala Maria started out as a fanon thing due to her having no interaction with the main duo outside of her boss battle and last cutscene both interactions being the same as the other bosses, but was canonized in the novel Carnival Chaos and later in The Cuphead Show, presumably as a result of the ship's popularity in the fandom.
 * Mugman falls in love with Cala Maria for a different reason each albeit both relating to her nature as a mermaid/gorgon: In Carnival Chaos she uses her beauty and flirts to enthrall him on purpose, while on The Cuphead Show she inavertedly makes him fall in love with her after he hears her singing voice but otherwise acts indifferent towards him.