DA2 pairing fic on AO3 - some stats
Crossposted from Tumblr:
Out of curiosity, I made a table that shows the number of stories at AO3 that feature various ships with female Hawke and Male Hawke. I only used AO3 (not ff.net) because AO3 allows me to easily identify only the stories that explicitly ship a pair.
I searched for Hawke paired with canon LIs, Hawke paired with non-LI party members, and Hawke with a small selection of NPCs (selected mostly on my interests and whims than anything else). I decided only to look at Hawke pairings because the author has a greater range of flexibility in how they shape Hawke. Hawke can be an author stand-in, Hawke can illustrate the author's feelings while playing DA2, or Hawke can become the kind of character that the author wishes to write about.
Barring any mistakes in my tallies, here are the stats:
For quick comparisons, here are stats for some other ships that are have 10 or more stories:
(Personal ramblings beneath the cut...)
I had some personal warm fuzzies making when I realized that Merrill and Isabela have a 3:1 ratio with fem!Hawke out numbering male!Hawke. Other than my first canon play through where my fem!Hawke turned down romances with Anders and Fenris (sorry fans >_>), my fem!Hawkes since then usually romance Merrill (sometimes Isabela/Fem!Hawke too).
Overall, DA2 fandom has a far stronger showing of f/f ships than other videogame fandoms I've been in. I think the worst I've seen is FFXII fandom where one needs a microscope to find f/f ships. To me, this is a testament to how well written DA2's female characters are. Popular media lacks of interesting female characters far too often, making women into are sidekicks and helpers and love interests while men get to play the interesting plot-driven parts. Merrill, Isabela, and Aveline were huge breaths of fresh air for me.
I'm kind of surprised that Fenris is shipped with fem!Hawke more often than male!Hawke. I know I hold a really unpopular opinion about fem!Hawke/Fenris (it makes me deeply uncomfortable) but, hey, Fenris is by far the most popular ship for fem!Hawke. Presumably because it is the one het ship for Hawke that eventually resolves into a trusting, committed relationship?
I'm not surprised that Anders is shipped with male!Hawke more often. I feel like I should have something profound to say about this but I do not.
Off in non-canonical land, I'm not surprised that Cullen/fem!Hawke greatly outnumbers Cullen/male!Hawke (although those two particular m!Hawke stories are the ones that strongly spark to my story-tastesbuds). For various reasons, Cullen/fem!Hawke is the only het relationship for Hawke that interests me, but I sometimes suspect my reasons aren't always the same as those of Cullen's core fandom?? (else I'm barking out my arse here?)
Crossposted at http://vieralynn.dreamwidth.org/177972.html.
Out of curiosity, I made a table that shows the number of stories at AO3 that feature various ships with female Hawke and Male Hawke. I only used AO3 (not ff.net) because AO3 allows me to easily identify only the stories that explicitly ship a pair.
I searched for Hawke paired with canon LIs, Hawke paired with non-LI party members, and Hawke with a small selection of NPCs (selected mostly on my interests and whims than anything else). I decided only to look at Hawke pairings because the author has a greater range of flexibility in how they shape Hawke. Hawke can be an author stand-in, Hawke can illustrate the author's feelings while playing DA2, or Hawke can become the kind of character that the author wishes to write about.
Barring any mistakes in my tallies, here are the stats:
For quick comparisons, here are stats for some other ships that are have 10 or more stories:
- Fenris/Anders: 249
- Fenris/Isabela: 69
- Aveline/Donnic: 36
- Aveline/Isabela: 16
- Bethany/Isabela: 10
- Bethany/Sebastian: 14
- Carver/Merrill: 32
- Isabela/Merrill: 28
(Personal ramblings beneath the cut...)
I had some personal warm fuzzies making when I realized that Merrill and Isabela have a 3:1 ratio with fem!Hawke out numbering male!Hawke. Other than my first canon play through where my fem!Hawke turned down romances with Anders and Fenris (sorry fans >_>), my fem!Hawkes since then usually romance Merrill (sometimes Isabela/Fem!Hawke too).
Overall, DA2 fandom has a far stronger showing of f/f ships than other videogame fandoms I've been in. I think the worst I've seen is FFXII fandom where one needs a microscope to find f/f ships. To me, this is a testament to how well written DA2's female characters are. Popular media lacks of interesting female characters far too often, making women into are sidekicks and helpers and love interests while men get to play the interesting plot-driven parts. Merrill, Isabela, and Aveline were huge breaths of fresh air for me.
I'm kind of surprised that Fenris is shipped with fem!Hawke more often than male!Hawke. I know I hold a really unpopular opinion about fem!Hawke/Fenris (it makes me deeply uncomfortable) but, hey, Fenris is by far the most popular ship for fem!Hawke. Presumably because it is the one het ship for Hawke that eventually resolves into a trusting, committed relationship?
I'm not surprised that Anders is shipped with male!Hawke more often. I feel like I should have something profound to say about this but I do not.
Off in non-canonical land, I'm not surprised that Cullen/fem!Hawke greatly outnumbers Cullen/male!Hawke (although those two particular m!Hawke stories are the ones that strongly spark to my story-tastesbuds). For various reasons, Cullen/fem!Hawke is the only het relationship for Hawke that interests me, but I sometimes suspect my reasons aren't always the same as those of Cullen's core fandom?? (else I'm barking out my arse here?)
Crossposted at http://vieralynn.dreamwidth.org/177972.html.