Warning:  Spoilers for All of Slayers TV series. This essay may be subject to expansion in the future. 

In terms of canon, what are the actual Slayers couples? For the purposes of this article, canon shall be defined as the intent of the creators. I'm not going to attempt to argue that this makes the relationships realistic, deep, interesting to watch or read about, etc., or say that you have to like them. (Or "support" them, to use the silly Internet term.) Since I base this off the anime, I'm talking about the animators first and Kanazaka second, because a) the animation is an adaptation, and there are enough significant changes to make it necessary to view the anime in its own right. Also, there are numerous canonical problems with quick novel-to-anime equivalence, such as the appearances of Zel and Amelia in NEXT plotline where there were not in the novels, and the little fact that TRY is entirely original. b) Because this is not really part of the main plot, all romantic hints are probably rather subtle in the novels, which would necessitate my reading them in order to have an informed opinion. 

In terms of casual viewing, there's little open romance between the main characters in the show, which I think we can all agree on. With the exception of Martina and Zangulus, no one dates or gets married, making the idea of "relationships" between characters nebulous. Because the show is not interested in dealing very extensively with relationships (and this is not because it's not shoujo, and not because it's action. Many shounen action series have far more romantic stuff than Slayers), I'd say that it's not an "essential" part of being a Slayers fan to feel one way or another about the romance aspect. I'm not exactly thrilled that some fans have made it so in a very nasty manner (though they couldn't probably care less what I think), but I'll deal with that later. See Fanon and Couples. 

Probably the most canonical couple are Martina and Zangulus. They get married at the end of NEXT and confess their love and all. You can't get much more canonical than that. 

Gourry and Lina are close  friends whose friendship has a romantic subtext, but never take their relationship anywhere. The kissing scene at the end of NEXT pretty much proves the case that the animators (I believe that this wasn't in the novel; correct me if I'm wrong)  intended us to imagine them together. Note that the animators then chickened out and hit the big reset button. 

Zelgaldis and Amelia are also canonical, based on the bracelet scene at the very end of  TRY. Or if you are a novel-idolater when it comes to canon, you can argue that it isn't because TRY cannot be considered canon because Zel and Amelia disappear from novel continuity after certain events during the NEXT timeline. 

These are the easy ones. 

Now, for something much more exciting, the Xelloss/Filia/Valgaav debate. This is far more interesting than the G/L debate or the Z/A debate, because all arguments over these two relationships eventually degenerate into the uncanonical question of whether the relationship would be viable if the characters actually got together canonically, thus making the argument itself really a fandom argument.  Firstly, take the fact that none of TRY was ever a novel, giving us no references. One has to wonder, during some parts of TRY, how faithful the animators wanted to be to novel canon. 

Xelloss/Filia:  Most controversial. Greatest canonical objection:  the "mazoku can't love" stipulation, stated in the novel, though never explicitly in the anime. Why do some people tend to count them as so?  Firstly, Xelloss and Filia have tons of scenes together, and seem to be paired up in action in a similar fashion to the canonical pairs. They also are pictured together on merchandise together. Secondly, their interactions around the battle with Valgaav seem to promote viewer suppositions of some kind of more intense relationship (the background around Filia in some of the scenes, the "catching" part, the way Filia helps Xelloss after he gets slashed by Val.) Thirdly, the comment Xelloss makes to Filia in TRY 26, especially its dub version. On a more interpretive level (and therefore less useful, for the purposes of this article, which are to determine what "relationships" are canon, not if they are realistic), some suggest that many of Filia's reactions to Xelloss make more sense if one assumes that she has a crush on him. But going by the most probable interpretation of canon, it isn't canon. 

Valgaav/Filia:  In-series evidence is ambiguous. They seem to have an emotional connection, but it's difficult to characterize this as decisively romantic in nature, but Valgaav appears to regard Filia with great affection. There's also an eyecatch like the ones featuring the canonical couples with V/F, but there's also one with Gaav and Valgaav. So perhaps the eyecatch doesn't mean much of anything. But there's artbook pictures, too, especially the one of Val(teria) and Filia not wearing anything together. (If one can count wedding pictures not shown in the series itself as evidence, I think magazine pictures are fair game). 

Conclusion:  QP stated on the inverse.org message board the director's projected future for Filia. Let's just say it didn't include her and Valgaav getting married.  For now, I'd say Filia is canonically single, and that neither of the pairings is canon, if you care. 

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