Thoughts on Fandom -- Intro Pt. 2

[phoenixfalls]

When I say "fandom" I'm generally referring to fan fiction, though I have some passing awareness of other fan activities (art and fanvids, mostly). And fan fiction (at least all that I've read) is overwhelming devoted to depicting canon characters in non-canon romantic and/or sexual relationships. There is a LOT of fan fiction on the internet, spread across lots of websites; I'm mostly familiar with the fan fiction that has been archived on AO3, which I am assuming is typical for purposes of all my analyses, because AO3 has a fairly well-developed search feature that makes my analyses possible.

Every fandom I've explored seems to have an OTP -- a pairing that is far and away the most popular for people to write and read. Then there are a few (or sometimes several) secondary pairings that have a significant chunk of fan fiction about them, and all the other possible pairings have just a handful of fics. So that I can reference the data, I'm going to list here the most popular pairings for each of my fandoms. The number in parentheses is the number of fics on AO3 archived with that tag. Pairings with an asterisk are canonical.

Sherlock (27,510)

• OTP: Sherlock/John (13,994)
• Secondary pairings:
  • Mycroft/Lestrade (1,737)
  • Sebastian/Moriarty (1,185)
  • Sherlock/Lestrade (546)
  • Sherlock/Molly (434)
  • John/Mary* (433)
  • Sherlock/Moriarty (356)
  • John/Lestrade (314)
  • Sherlock/Irene (279)
  • Sherlock/Mycroft (293)
  • John/Mycroft (232)
  • Molly/Lestrade (178)
  • John/Moriarty (165)
  • Molly/Moriarty* (157)
  • John/Sarah* (118)
• Common threesomes:
  • Sherlock/John/Lestrade (130)

All other pairings/threesomes have fewer than 100 fics archived under their pairing tags.

X-Men: First Class (5,730)

• OTP: Erik/Charles (4,258)
• Secondary pairings:
  • Alex/Hank (178)
  • Hank/Raven* (168)
  • Armando/Alex (154)
  • Erik/Raven* (103)

No threesomes have more than 50 fics archived under their tags; all other pairings have less than 75 fics archived under their tags.

The Avengers (20,246)

• OTP: Steve/Tony (4,313)
• Secondary pairings:
  • Clint/Coulson (2,771)
  • Clint/Natasha (2,233)
  • Loki/Thor (2,172)
  • Pepper/Tony* (1,670)
  • Loki/Tony (1,518)
  • Bruce/Tony (1,158)
  • Jane/Thor* (909)
  • Bucky/Steve (621)
  • Bruce/Clint (390)
  • Clint/Darcy (337)
  • Peggy/Steve* (335)
  • Darcy/Steve (290)
  • Natasha/Pepper (281)
  • Loki/Steve (251)
  • Clint/Tony (235)
  • Clint/Loki (213)
  • Bruce/Darcy (210)
  • Coulson/Steve (200)
  • Bruce/Natasha (194)
  • Bruce/Betty* (184)
  • Natasha/Steve (183)
  • Steve/Thor (182)
  • Clint/Steve (154)
  • Loki/Natasha (152)
• Common threesomes:
  • Bruce/Pepper/Tony (153)
  • Clint/Coulson/Natasha (143)

All other pairings/threesomes/moresomes have fewer than 100 fics archived under their tags.

Criminal Minds (3,621)

• OTP:
  • Morgan/Reid (550)
  • Hotch/Reid (510)
• Secondary pairings:
  • Hotch/Prentiss (190)
  • Prentiss/Rossi (128)
  • Hotch/Rossi (110)
  • JJ/Prentiss (81)

No threesomes have more than 50 fics archived under their tags; all other pairings have less than 75 fics archived under their tags.

Warehouse 13 (724)

• OTP: Myka/Helena* (394)

That's it. There are fewer than 25 fics archived under any other relationship tag on AO3.

Skyfall (1,937)

• OTP: Bond/Q (1,302)
• Secondary pairings:
  • Bond/Silva (170)
  • Bond/M (89)

All other relationships have fewer than 25 fics filed under their tags.

These numbers are not 100% dependable; not everyone uses the relationship tags, and orgy and polyamory fics will often tag every possible combination even if particular ones are not featured, and threesome fics will tag the pair relationships within them even if it's a triadic arrangement. And I have noted which relationships are canonical because in quite a few fics the action starts with the break-up of the canonical relationship to clear the stage for the non-canonical relationship the fic author wants to focus on, which tends to unjustly swell the relationship tags for canonical relationships versus non-canonical relationships. Still, these numbers are reasonably in tune with my own (unscientific) experience with what relationships these fandoms are focused on.