Plabs

Plabs is the slash ship between Mr. Krabs and Plankton from the SpongeBob SquarePants fandom.

SpongeBob SquarePants
Mr. Krabs and Plankton are primarily arch-nemeses and rivals across the franchise, though upon occasion referred to as frenemies. However they weren't always this way, as they were best friends during their childhood as mentioned in multiple episodes. Most information about their friendship is taken from the episode Friend or Foe, where Plankton was said to be Mr. Krabs' first friend and the two were inseparable. When Mr. Krabs attended elementary school he was bullied by other kids for being poor, though Plankton never cared about that. Plankton was even shown to have helped Mr. Krabs seek revenge a number of times.

Together, the both of them opened a food truck at the dumpster in Bikini Bottom, the only thing they could afford. However their business venture was unsuccessful because they had no customers, with Old Man Jenkins being the only person to try their burger. However when Old Man Jenkins passed out immediately after eating the Plab Patty, Plankton started an argument over who was more to blame for what was wrong with the recipe. When he claimed that he was "taking the recipe and fixing it," the two got into a tug of war fight over who had more ownership over the recipe. When the recipe tore in half, Plankton stormed out of their clubhouse with a declaration of war. By slamming the door, he ended up accidentally assisting Mr. Krabs in the creation of what would soon become the Krabby Patty as a shelf of ingredients had fallen into the leftover patty batter.

The two would then compete with each other to prove who could provide the tastier sandwich, with Mr. Krabs' prototype recipe being referred to as more flavorful and edible than what Plankton had created on his own. This would become integral to the brand loyalty that citizens of Bikini Bottom would hold for the Krabby Patty in the future, and Mr. Krabs opened the Krusty Krab in his adulthood. Envious of Mr. Krabs' success as proprietor of the Krusty Krab, Plankton is said to later open the Chum Bucket as direct competition. But his continued failure to create an appetizing menu of his own eventually results in the status quo of the series: where Plankton makes continuous efforts to steal the Krabby Patty secret formula from Mr. Krabs, but always being met with repetitive failure.

Having made many attempts at the formula over the years, many of Plankton's schemes have relied on taking advantage of Mr. Krabs emotions - one of the most notable being Married to Money, an episode where Plankton disguises himself as a sapient stack of money named Cashina. Over the course of several days, Plankton-as-Cashina seduces Mr. Krabs, with the endgame of enticing him into telling Plankton the formula himself. This eventually culminates in a marriage between Cashina and Mr. Krabs, with wedding held at the Krusty Krab. When Mr. Krabs nearly reveals the formula to his bride at their honeymoon, Plankton's disguise is ruined in the process. Though he was initially furious with this deception, Mr. Krabs sadly reveals that he'd been alone for so long he was desperate for companionship and even if Cashina wasn't real, his feelings were. When he asks Plankton if it was all just a scheme to him, Plankton dodges the question and storms out of the honeymoon suite.

Plankton: The College Years
A short comic story that was published in the Nickelodeon Magazine depicting the two crustaceans as college roommates. This comic is presumably not canon to the series, or at the very least not to episodes like Friend or Foe, as it appears that Plankton and Mr. Krabs might not have known each other prior to rooming together at Bikini Bottom University. In this story, Mr. Krabs is shown to repeatedly inconvenience and harm Plankton unintentionally, though seemingly wanting to be friends with the much smaller copepod regardless of how much harm he inadvertently causes. The climax of the story involves Mr. Krabs arranging double dates for the two, only to accidentally trap Plankton within the confines of a book when answering the door for their dates. The penultimate panel is Plankton swearing eternal vengeance upon Mr. Krabs for this unintentional slight.

Kamp Koral: SpongeBob's Under Years
Taking place 16 years before the original series, Kamp Koral is a spinoff based on the flashbacks featured in The SpongeBob Movie: Sponge on the Run. However, both film and the spin-off series are said to take place in an alternate universe that was created by Sandy's interference. As a result, the details of their friendship differ from the main series. Rather than their friendship coming to an end over the Plab Patty, the Krabby Patty has not yet been invented and the two have thus far remained close friends into their 20s. A year after the flashbacks shown in the film, Mr. Krabs has become the new proprietor of the camp. With their friendship still intact, Mr. Krabs hired Plankton as the new chef prior to the beginning of the series. The two are often seen hanging out when not busy wrangling the campers, and one episode shows that they are often playing board games with each other (and Mrs. Puff) when the children are asleep.

Fanon
was originally considered to be a rarepair within the SpongeBob SquarePants fandom. Though it's still often overshadowed by more popular ships within the fandom, such as SquidBob and PatBob, the ship has risen in popularity within the last decade. This may be a result of the popularity of newer episodes that have focused on their relationship over other characters, such as Married to Money, The Krusty Bucket, or There Will Be Grease.

It is not at all uncommon for fans of the pair to explore the angsty aspects of their relationship, such as their falling out or the effects their rivalry may have on each other. A popular scenario among fans seem to be continuations of the events of Married to Money, where Mr. Krabs is suggested to have romantic feelings for Plankton, or at the very least a desire for Plankton to have romantic feelings for him instead. This will usually have the endgame of Plankton ending up married to Mr. Krabs for real, or at the very least realizing that he might reciprocate any amorous feelings Mr. Krabs may feel for him.

The two of them are usually shipped alongside Karen and Sandy. A common scenario in fan works that focus on the two as shipmates involve Plankton and Karen divorcing each other, often with Karen and Sandy getting together while Plankton and Mr. Krabs go from enemies to lovers. The details may differ between works, but there have been multiple works where it has been Karen and Sandy's developing relationship that acts as an inciting event for Plankton and Mr. Krabs to repair their relationship with each other.

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Trivia

 * "Plabs" used as a ship name for the two originates from the name of their original patty in Friend or Foe, the Plab Patty. However, "Plabs" used as a name for a fusion of the two characters used in an obscure Nick bumper may have possibly predated the Plab Patty.