#i don't read fic for the pairings

[basic-cable]

Favorite Fics of 2024

I've been seeing everyone post on other sites about the books they read in 2024 and which were their favorites and the total word count of what they've read, so I figured I'd make one about the fic I consumed, instead, because I read a whole lot of it.

In 2024, I read/listened to 422 works of fanfiction, for a total word count of 23,429,338. I read A LOT of really good fic, but these are the ones I marked as my absolute favorites. If you end up having similar taste in fic to me, I save all the fics I think are really good in my Ao3 bookmarks. (Most of it will be MCU, Harry Potter, and Sherlock, but there will also be some Bandom, Stranger Things, Anne with an E, and maybe a sprinkling of other things.)

My favorites from this year will be under the cut. 🙂

Title: Basilisks, Boggarts, and Boyfriends (oh my) Author: OptimisticDinosaur Fandom: Harry Potter Word Count: 8,718 Summary: Things that are not covered in the absolutely USELESS parenting books that Sirius Black, recently freed from Azkaban and new guardian of Harry James Potter, bought in a recent panic:

How to balance parenting and wooing the hot Dark Magic Exterminator from Lupin & Co that you hired to clear out your parents’ creepy townhouse

How to convince your five-year-old that the basilisk, boggart and ghoul you planted in the house so said hot exterminator would have to keep coming back are not, in fact, his new best friends

How to walk your child’s pet basilisk (when you inevitably fail).

My thoughts: Harry is adorable, Remus is competent, and Sirius is just trying to figure shit out. I loved this.

Title: morgan stark's murder class Author: tempestaurora Fandom: MCU Word Count: 7,315 Summary: Sam frowned. “What the hell are you teaching her, dude?��

“Life lessons,” Bucky replied simply.

“He’s teaching me how to maim people!” Morgan cried.

Sam choked. “Bucky?”

“Well, I’m not gonna teach her to kill a person, am I?”

She frowned up at him. “You promised you would.”

“Shh,” he whispered. “Not in front of the narc.”

OR Post-Snap, Morgan runs a budget fight club at school and Bucky is recruited to teach her how to defend herself. He also petitions to feature on the now-cancelled game show "Wipeout", because he has nothing else to do with his time

My thoughts: This was adorable and delightful and fun and I laughed out loud multiple times.

Title: Between the Lines Authors: A_LoveUnlaced & emmy_award Fandom: Harry Potter Word Count: 44,495 Summary: When Hermione received her Hogwarts letter, she wanted to cry, but didn’t.

My thoughts: The draw between Harry and Hermione is so heavy it's palpable, and it's a slow burn. This Harry is different because he was raised by Sirius from the beginning, so he's more confident, but not an asshole. This Hermione is different; she's a Ravenclaw with self esteem issues, but she's amazing.

Title: You Watched Me Grow Author: ironfamjam Fandom: MCU Word Count: 68,302 Summary: Tony looked at him, bold and true and utterly sincere, “Kid, I’m on your side, no matter what.”

Like most good things, it started with an accident.

Well, kinda.

This is a story about how a snarky, emotionally stunted genius became more than a mentor and how a just-trying-to-figure-it-out, doing his best superkid became the son he never had. No matter how empty our hearts are, love can always fill the gaps.

My thoughts: This was wonderful. It's mostly fluff, and there's a career day thing that is just as good as any field trip fic. I love them so much. All of the feels. My heart.

Title: Insane Mistakes Everybody Makes Author: Fluencca Fandom: MCU Word Count: 33,402 Summary: The Avengers' kids are kidnapped for leverage and ransom. Tony tries to find them, while Peter--who somehow is part of this mess--tries to keep the kids safe.

My thoughts: The author said that this is kind of a loose prequel to Everybody's Fine, but that they can be read separately, and they're right on both counts. It works great as a prequel but they're both great as standalones. They're so good at writing badass, unassuming Peter, and their Natasha is also awesome, and I am just really enjoying their writing. Peter is so good. I adore him.

Title: Lies of omission Author: Bergen Fandom: MCU Word Count: 48,264 Summary: “Your parents have been grooming you to take over the company, correct? You’ve been working closely alongside them, alongside their best scientists and technicians. I’m sure you’ve learned a fair deal. We could use that expertise at Stark Industries.” “Essentially,” Parker says, “you want to pay me to reveal my parents’ company secrets.” “Yes,” Tony says, cheerfully. “Thank you for catching on so quickly.” — Tony’s week just turned a lot more promising: Rich kid Peter Parker has apparently dropped out of college and provoked the ire of his parents. A delicious scandal for the tabloids. And an opportunity too good to waste, even if it means putting up with a snooty, preppy college kid as his new intern.

My thoughts: It's honestly so good. Peter's parents are awful and Tony and Pepper end up taking over, and the little ways they try to subvert the harm done to him by his parents is so heartwarming. The way Tony is constantly handing people his baby is my favorite thing.

Title: firepower Author: cassiopeia721 Fandom: Harry Potter Word Count: 31,697 Summary: Harry James Potter, Boy-Who-Lived, Chosen One, etc. is a squib with no knowledge of the magical world. By general consensus, he is most useful as potions ingredients.

General consensus being unanimous agreement by everyone except one Harry James Potter. But who cares about his opinion anyway?

(aka: Harry is having a good day, until the part where he gets teleported into a creepy graveyard with some even creepier… cult members?)

My thoughts: I loved this. That's it. I just loved it.

Title: Peter Parker's home for wayward people and animals Author: Bergen Fandom: MCU Word Count: 28,845 Summary: Peter Parker. 16 years old. Recently emancipated from the foster system and moved into the dingy villa his deceased parents left him. Which apparently means he has to deal with various stray animals and human beings who keep choosing his house as their refuge. He is so unprepared for this shit. And then stupid Tony Stark randomly decides to insert himself into Peter’s life, with his dad-sweaters and his boo-boo fixing and his casseroles. He thinks Peter’s parents are just out of town on a business trip. Peter is in no mood to correct him.

My thoughts: This Peter felt very similar to like, if my brain became a fictional character, so needless to say, I related to him a lot. Tony also often reminded me of myself. I love all the quirky characters, and obviously Tony and Peter and Morgan and Pepper, and everything about this was just so good.

Title: Thin Air Author: FerretShark Fandom: MCU Word Count: 6,052 Summary: When Peter and Tony have a serious disagreement, Peter withdraws. But when something unexpected happens to Tony's private jet Peter will stop at nothing to try to save him.

My thoughts: This was so good, and Peter is a total BAMF.

Title: ever upward Author: stranglerfig Fandom: Harry Potter Word Count: 406,524 Summary: The centaur tilted his head. “And what is a human boy doing riding a thestral into the Forest?” “I’m going to visit a friend. Well, a friend of a friend. Sort of. It’s a snake in the castle.”

In which Harry meets a garden snake, discovers magic, and sets off for a better life.

My thoughts: This series is excellent. It is impossible not to adore Harry, and actually a lot of the other characters are way better than their canon counterparts. There are a lot of characters, and I think all of them are queer; it's like the opposite of real life media, where there's always the one gay character. Anyway, the story is charming as fuck.

Title: C'est La Vie Author: cywscross Fandom: Harry Potter Word Count: 102,274 Summary: The war ends on Harry's twenty-first Halloween, and, one year later, with nothing truly holding him in that world, Fate takes this opportunity to toss her favourite hero into a different dimension to repay her debt. A new, stress-free life in exchange for having fulfilled her prophecy. A life where Neville is the Boy-Who-Lived instead, James and Lily are still alive, and that Harry Potter is relatively normal but a downright arse. Dimension-travelling Harry just wants to know why he has no say in the matter. And why he's fourteen again. And why Fate thinks, in all her infinite wisdom, that his hero complex won't eventually kick in. Then again, that might be exactly why Fate dumped him there.

My thoughts: This story is not finished; I pretty much never read unfinished fic on purpose, because it drives my brain crazy, but my best friend made me do it. And I'm glad she did, because it ended up being one of my favorites; the story is wonderful and I'll probably even reread it later because it's just that good.

Title: Play Author: losingmymindtonight Fandom: MCU Word Count: 33,275 Summary: Once Peter's relationship with Tony gets out, the public can't get enough of their new favorite father-son duo. So, naturally, they monopolize. (Or: Tony and Peter's relationship, as seen through videos.)

My thoughts: This is basically the best thing ever; funny and fluffy with feels all over, but it's part of an unfinished series, and the last chapter is a lead-up to the much-more-serious sequel, which is about Peter getting kidnapped; the second story is finished, but it's super emotional and fraught, and the third story is not finished. I am subscribed, but won't be reading more until/unless it's completed. So if you are anything like me and prefer to wait for things to be finished, it's best to skip the final chapter of Play until the series itself is complete, because it's really good as a standalone without it.

Title: Peitho's Curse Author: SpideyFics Fandom: MCU Word Count: 85,825 Summary: Peter and MJ are just settling into their post-college lives when Peter is hit by an ancient, little-known curse that makes them swap bodies. With no way of immediately swapping back, they have no choice but to let the curse run its course, testing their relationship and learning new things about each other along the way.

My thoughts: I thought this story was excellent. I had a hard time putting it down. But it was also right up my alley, because there's a great deal in it about being pregnant, and I love pregnancy fics, and it's so hard to find ones that aren't omegaverse and are also worth reading. All other relationships take a backseat to Peter's relationship with MJ in this story. It's about how good they are, together and separately, and how they build each other up and make each other stronger, and I love them so much.

Title: Everyday Superhero Verse Author: stoneage_woman Fandom: MCU Word Count: 78,544 Summary: When a field trip to Stark Industries ends in disaster, Roger Harrington finds himself faced with an impossible choice. Suddenly, Tony Stark is shoving an NDA in his face while Peter Parker stares at him with terrified, desperate eyes. Nothing in his 13-year teaching career could have prepared Harrington for this, but he knows one thing for sure: ten years ago, he'd stared down into the sightless eyes of a seventeen-year-old girl, and he'd sworn to himself that he would never again lose another student. He's going to do everything in his power to keep that promise now…even if it costs him everything.

Set during and post Spider-Man Homecoming. A realistic field trip story that also explores the long-term consequences of trauma and responsibility, written by a real-life teacher.

My thoughts: My heart. I loved this so much. All of the feels. I cried. A lot.

Title: @ironman follows you Author: malyin_roza Fandom: MCU Word Count: 27,156 Summary: “Eighteen detentions last month alone, disgraceful amount of absent hours – often odd classes mid-day or half a day. I won’t mention the after-class clubs, or nerd groups, or whatever it is you do for ‘fun’ that actually counts in to your records anyway.”

Peter sat frozen on the spot, his face growing hot and red after rapidly paling when Tony began talking.

“I – I – look, I, let me explain – “

“That’s,” Tony pointed at him, silencing with one look, “that’s where we might start.”

“Start?” the teen repeated uneasily.

Sweet Jesus, what did he have on him?

“I solved it all, you’re welcome.”

A beat of silence as Peter blinked at him.

Or all your favorite tropes thrown into one happy bundle of fluff. Twitter, sick!Peter, dad!Tony, dickhead!Flash - you name it, I write (scratch that, probably have written) it. Because I'm a slut for iron dad like y'all, domestic hoes.

My thoughts: I listened to this while I was like, vacuuming and stuff, which was a mistake because there's a lot of Twitter happening in this story, but. It's so good. It's so cute and wholesome, and after it was over I sat myself down and reread it with my actual eyeballs, because I didn't want it to be over, and then when I finished it again I almost cried because I was just so happy that it exists and so sorry that it was over, you know? Idk, maybe I just came across it at the right moment, you know how that happens sometimes, but I'm just really happy that I found it. This is one of those stories about the transition between "we're not there yet" and Irondad, with Peter getting really comfortable, really quickly, and Tony enjoying the hell out of it.

Title: dear mr. fantasy Author: iron_spider Fandom: MCU Word Count: 46,300 Summary: Tony worries his brain is misfiring, transporting him across time and space in one final insane journey. He swallows hard, and he hears those garbled voices again. He can’t make out words, or tone, or who the hell is talking, but somebody definitely is, and it sounds strangely like they’re underwater. Or he is.

He grits his teeth and turns around, and before he can even begin to trudge over towards Peter’s room, he’s stopped in his tracks.

By a door. In the middle. Of the living room. Straight up and down like a monolith, just beside the glass coffee table.

Tony chews on his lower lip and stares at it. “Well that’s new,” he says, still rooted to the spot.

My thoughts: Oh my GOD. After Tony snaps, his consciousness ends up TRAPPED IN PETER'S MINDSCAPE while his body lies in a coma. It's SO good.

Title: I love you more than anything (bio dad au) Author: iron_spider Fandom: MCU Word Count: 185,711 Summary: The highs and lows of Tony unexpectedly becoming a single dad at 31– from Peter’s early baby years, all the way past the defeat of Thanos

My thoughts: This is really more of ongoing favorite; it's an unfinished series, and new chapters are posted as additional stories. I actually began reading it last year, but with the new additions, I did read 38,732 words of it this year, so I feel like it still counts. Peter is the best, most adorable, most charming thing ever, and adoring, devoted, dad!Tony is maybe the most attractive character ever written. Really, all the characters are great (except Obie, obviously), and it's impossible not to become incredibly fond. But the series isn't finished, so if you're like me, you may just want to subscribe, though you probably won't regret just going ahead and reading it.

[fistfightinganxietyandlosing]

Imagine if Benrius had actually become canon in the show. How do you think the writers would have tackled it or better yet - how would you have tackled it?

[whiskerknittles]

*sweating* alright listen to me guys, listen, hear me out, LISTEN-

So. I just spent the last 48 hours reading, then grieving over, then channeling my grief from this fic, Learning to Lose by komodobits. If you can't guess by the skates, it's an AU. It's an unfinished AU, which is largely where my grief comes from, especially as the (current) last two chapters pretty much tear out your soul and crush it to dust.

But guys. The style. The characterization. The literally everything about it--so so good. And SO FUCKING LONG (affectionate). Then again it's by the same author who wrote the wonderful fic Easy as Anything, so really why am I surprised?

I enjoyed this fic so much that I absolutely had to draw fanart for it, and not only fanart, but (possibly?) my first fully colored, fully shaded piece of Red Dwarf art--at least the first in many, many years. Fuck this fic is so good. It will hurt you, be warned.

I included the full version as well as an unshadowed version (in case the shadows make it a bit hard to see) and also a version without a background, since the background is, well, bad. It's just a blurry mass so I mean, it can't really be *good* per se, so I'm not too worried about it. And finally, in the spirit of how my RD art is usually colored, here's a blue-ish purple-ish gray-ish (depending on what screen you're looking at) version! Just for funsies.

komodobits, if you're on tumblr, I love you. How could you do this to me. I'll be thinking about this fic for the rest of time. Thanks for the brain worms. <3

[somerandomcockroach]

@keferon OKAY BUT LISTEN YEAH I would loved if it was just fun ehehehe and sassy flirting with the demon no one sees pfffht, literally summoned a demon just to flirt with, and I guess it could have been going for a long time, just little strips with their funny adventures and then plot can go to the fact that he wants to give him a body and Shockwave would agree or that they just stay the way they are and just hang out like this together (Alo I remember that you wanted to put Ratchet (I keep writing Ratched instead of Ratchet buuuh) and Drift in it as another demon and their summoner thing whghweghgwe but I like how you made two separate stories for them that happen at the same time, okay I am actually PRETTY MUCH invested in this story, I like a lot how it goes and gets tangled and how mixes up with idw ideas and other stuff a lot)

BUT NOW that you changed it that way, you made a few more things that reader might be interested a lot in, like that promise he made and you mentioning that he will regret it, how their relationship progressively develops, plus the fact that Blurr was a frivolous slob gifted with dark magic AND how the tables turn upside dow and he get consequences for what he did in the most unpredictable way for him and how he surely changes in his behaviour, getting more and more concerned about his promise and maybe truly loving someone for the first time in his life and wanting to change something. And then figuring out that that same demon actually was a person before, someone he knew, someone respectable, kind, shiny, absolut sun of a person, who died (I am still on my knees waiting to know how exactly he died...) miserably to the point that he absolutely can't stand his life as a demon and NOT EVEN being able to kill himself!!! And Blurr was a pupil in his school, he saw him, he gifted him an ability to make his magic work for him, gave the freedom to live among everyone to all who was poisoned with this dark magic. OH WAITA HGSDHAG the thing that beastformers can't walk among transformers and the fact that dark spellers also could not, and how these events happen at a close times, OKAY so dark spellers got their kind of freedom thanks to Senator Shockwave (OH MY GOD what if Orion can see Shockwave and will recognise him right away COUGH) BUT I am wondering if beastformers will get some kind of an official declaration or some kind of school to be educated in and I wonder if Deadlock/Drift (I think after leaving he will change his name from the last episode...) will volunteer to be a teacher t be something more, or he will just end up with Ratchet wandering around the world, or maybe there will be a whole damn revolution where all monoformers and beastformers leaded by Drift go against the system, and maybe these events happen at the same time as a Senator Shockwave fighting for the rights of gifted... Okay I'm getting carried a little bit ahsghag excuse me... OH I GOT carried away A LOT I wanted to get back to the point that Blurr, now figuring out the past of Shocwave, dealing with all the events, dealing with what he has done and find a way to free them, at the same time STILL having adventures and fun since I'm sure he can be a good mood lifter to moody Shockwave and even see him in a really good mood since he is... well, not just a demon made of hatred but the wonderful kind of person in his previous life... (okay being carried away but what if Orion might declare the freedom to beastformers (AJHGAJHSDJAH OH MY GOD I IMAGINED JAZZ AS A PANDA HAVING A ROMAN WITH PROWL AND PROWL NOT KNOWING ABOUT IT OKAY SORRY) after seeing what it lead to after Senator Shockwave. And maybe Ratchet will be able to get his sign back freely after revolution will be successful or he will be forever blind just to be free and safe with his husband OKAY LISTEN I think it is obvious that I really like the thing you do....

[dawnthefluffyduck]

Doodles based on "Yet Another Nightmare" by Catroic on Ao3 (highly recommend reading, its very good)

[shaanks]

Random but do you have any Eustass Kid fics that you like? I struggle to find ones where he's not written like an asshole (nsfw is okay too btw!) I also like kidkiller/kidlaw or character study/coming of age type ones or modern au...just anything please<3

Oh man, okay!!! :"D I know tryin to find stories where he's not written as like some kind of abusive shithead is like. hard as fuck. I feel very lucky to have stumbled on the little Kid Enjoyers community that I have, and I'll try to give you some good recs. Just as a disclaimer, a lot of what I read and engage with tends to be like nsft stuff, so that's going to be a lot of what's on the list. Also there is the possibility for spoilers for the current arc, I'm not sure where you are in your one piece journey alsedkjfasld

Okay, so:

@quinloki : Has pretty much my favorite characterization set for Kid of all time. They write mostly smut and op x reader stuff in both shortform and longform formats, and have a variety of faves, so if you like their style and have faves other than Kid there's more stuff in there too. c:

Some of my fave pieces of theirs are shorter ones, so they're good starters, I'll link em here, here and here . (the links are gonna open to punks-never-die205, that's one of their sideblogs)

@swampstew : Writes STUNNING work both short and longform, absolutely loves Kid, and if you like her writing she has a huge backlog of stories both on her blog and on her wattpad. A++++ 10/10, she also runs a blog and is writing a longer series for Killer, KillerCook, which is SO splendid.

She also does headcanon lists, a TON of events, and x reader things, I'll link some starter ones here, here, and here. (the last one is to an anthology of short stories and drabbles on her wattpad that is a ton of fun)

@standfucker : good GRACIOUS me, okay listen. Standfucker does it all. A+++ Kid characterization. Hot, well-balanced, well-written stories. They write for a bunch of characters and also do like, multiple people in a pairing/scenario stuff, and it's all phenomenal.

First one is one of my personal favorites, which involves all the Kid Pirate officers here. This is also one of my fave pieces, you get Kid all to yourself in this one here.

@wyvernslovecake : If you'd like something a little more crew-oriented and a little less x reader smut oriented, PLEASE I am begging you look into their Kid Pirates and Cross Guild little drabble posts with their character Shriek (who is the cutest little bat mink on the Grand Line), and the named characters Gabriel and Gryphon who are [spoiler characters for current arc] and adopted by the Cross Guild. Everything they write (and draw!!) is so delightful and fun, it will brighten up your day by AT LEAST tenfold.

Here, here, and here are some good examples <3.

@eustasssimp : She has a lot of like shorter form x reader and headcanon posts, and write Kid like the gruff secret softie he is. <3

Some examples here, here, and here.

@cyborg-franky : Again, he has a truly prodigious backlog of writing, so if you enjoy his Kid stuff and have other faves, you could truly spend hours and days enjoying some excellently written fun stuff here.

here, here, and here are some examples.

**

I am absolutely certain I'm forgetting people lmfao, my working memory is very bad and I'm nursing a concussion, but hopefully this gives you at least a bit of a start!! Everyone listed, and really everyone in this little section of the community, is lovely, sweet, and wildly talented. There's a lot of friendly open sharing 'round these parts, and I hope you find somewhere to land and enjoy the big guy too. If none of these does it for you, or if you'd like additional recs, just let me know and we'll figure something out.

Thank you so much for your lovely ask!!

[nostalgia-tblr]

"are people not into that?" i ask, after posting my weird niche shit to the internet, despite knowing it to be weird niche shit.

[fountainpenguin]

Things that happened in Martyn & Cleo Double Life canon:

Cleo hoping to find her soulmate and start a life with them

Cleo dumping Martyn without giving him a chance to explain his side of the story, but hearing him out when he comes to her later

Martyn watching Cleo through his spyglass and telling the audience she seems safe and happy even though he thinks it's weird she's outside at night

Martyn, after he's had time to consider how he wants to play this, spinning a story about trying to be a provider for her and Cleo explaining that she wanted him, not things

Cleo not being remotely impressed by the "I was providing" sob story, lol

Martyn calling Cleo selfish for choosing to be with Scott because she's supposed to be HIS soulmate and he wants a partner

Cleo willing to forgive Martyn if he meets them halfway

Martyn refusing to meet them halfway because he doesn't think he did anything wrong

Martyn screaming about how Cleo's building bridges with Scott but "When will she think about mending our bridges???"

Martyn explaining to Cleo that he doesn't understand why his Session 1 actions bothered them

Martyn centering his character arc and roleplay on trying to win Cleo back without actually apologizing

Cleo giving Martyn a flower and stating that if he loses it, she'll be real cross with him

Cleo chasing Martyn out of her yard because he tried to put an HOA sign on her base and she wanted to make it clear that she wasn't associated with them and their hate for his base (even though she does think his heart base is strange)

Martyn attacking Cleo after she said attacking is a form of affection to her

Cleo setting boundaries with Martyn and explaining what he can do to get her back

Cleo sighing when Scar set her up on a date with Martyn, but taking the chance to talk to him instead of walking out

Cleo genuinely wanting Martyn in her alliance

Martyn and Cleo giggling constantly when they chat

Scar asking if Martyn wanted him to play a romantic music disc for him and Cleo (and Martyn getting excited and saying yes)

Martyn offering to take Cleo's armor and weapons to the deep dark so he can enchant them and bring them back while she stays safe

Cleo gifting Martyn diamonds, expecting nothing in return but not wanting him to die from lack of a good sword

Martyn and Cleo forming a secret alliance that allows Cleo to live with Scott while being on good terms with Martyn

Martyn expressing frustration that Cleo wants to keep this alliance secret because he wants them to be public allies; Cleo softly shushes him when people approach and might overhear

Martyn telling Cleo that she's putting out a lot of mixed signals because she keeps reeling him in and then pushing him away, claiming he is very confused about where he stands with her

Martyn teasing Cleo by punching her off a cliff and accidentally killing her and feeling so bad about it that he apologizes profusely despite roleplaying as someone who refused to apologize for Session 1

Martyn and Cleo immediately threatening Bdubs together when he said hi to them while they were hanging out, sdkfj

Martyn genuinely apologizing to Pearl for dumping her after Session 1

Martyn hiding under Cleo's bed while she defends him from an enderman attack

Cleo offering to let Martyn move into her house after Etho and Joel grief his base; Martyn saying he might take her up on that

Cleo and Martyn agreeing to move out and base together at Box

Cleo trusting Martyn with the location and resources of her red life base

Martyn rushing to Cleo's aid in the deep dark and trying to turn everyone against him instead

Cleo responding to Martyn's panicked shouts for her to eat by opening her inventory to get food (and drowning because she forgot she was in water)

Cleo hanging back and letting Martyn attack Scott while she does nothing to stop him from doing so, implying as much as she likes Scott, she won't kill Martyn (and herself) for him (and/or she trusted Scott to handle himself even though he ran away while Martyn was shooting at him)

Things that did not happen:

Cleo unwilling to forgive Martyn or consider being his friend and partner

Martyn and Cleo hating each other

Thank you for coming to my TED Talk

[peaktotheocean]

pairing: pre-buck/eddie

summary:

"If you think that I'm getting back in a helicopter with that guy, you've got another thing coming," Eddie warns.

"You might not have a choice. You know, because of our job and all," Buck points out and he's smiling, just a little bit.

"Watch me," Eddie bites out fiercely.

[aniseandspearmint]

ffs people some if y'all were just raised with no manners at all.

You DO NOT send shitty messages to an author after they post a fic, just because you got excited they were writing in a fandom you like, but it turned out to feature a pairing you don't like/hate/squicks you!

I don't like that pairing EITHER, but you know what I did when I opened the email and saw the listed pairings on the first chapter?

I went, 'Awww DARN that sounded interesting. Oh well.' And then i deleted the email and went on reading things I DID like!

I did NOT act like this was a personal betrayal and immediately hop on social media to bitch at the author!

[curls-cat]

nothing like a medium sized fandom to make you realize that the most popular fic isn't usually the best written

[swinging-stars-from-satellites]

I really wish you could filter your own AO3 history page

[lgbtlunaverse]

3zun data analysis part 2 electric boogaloo

So in my first post on 3zun data analysis I said I manually excluded all non-3zun ships in the 3zun tag to figure out how many of them were actually centered around 3zun.

So that's... actually not how i first went about that. Instead, I decided to, one after the other, include each 2-out-of-3zun ship, and then manually exclude every relationship not contained in 3zun. (leaving te other 2-out-of-3zun ships alone) Then, I'd figure out how many of these fics were exclusively tagged the ship I included, how many included only one of the other 2 ships, and how many included all 3, which would allow me to calculate how many 3zun fics in total had 2-out-of-3zun ships included but no other side pairings, which, upon being added to the otp:true fics, should give me the total number of 3zun fics exclusively focused on 3zun.

"Wow! That seems really inefficient" yes! But it did give me more information for this post. Because with these numbers, I can somewhat crudely estimate what 2-out-of-3zun pairing tends to get more narrative focus within 3zun fics.

Here are the results, data collected on march 18th 2024:

There are 196 3zun fics tagged with xiyao and no non-3zun relationships. Of these, 151 are also tagged nieyao, and 137 are tagged nielan.

Coincidentally, nieyao has the same number, also 196, 151 of wich are also tagged xiyao, but only 117 are tagged nielan.

Then there are 159 3zun fics tagged nielan with no non-3zun pairings, with 137 of them also being tagged xiyao and 117 nieyao. (I hope you've all noticed those numbers matching up!)

by the way, here are the raw stats in just the plain vanilla 3zun tag, no filters, for how many fics are tagged with the different ot2s.

Also, this has nothing to do with anything, but for nielan and xiyao i mostly had to filter out relatively normal side pairings, a few crossovers with mxtx's other works or different danmei, nothing too weird. But the nieyao tag had THIS

JESUS/JUDAS??? IN MY NIEYAO?? It's more likely than you think!!

Anyway, to the complicated numbers! Selecting for all 3 after excluding everything else gives you 112 fics.

With these numbers you can now calculate some really fun stuff. Taking the fics tagged with both xiyao and nieyao (151) and subtracting the fics tagging all 3 (112) you get the number of 3zun fics that are only tagged as xiyao and nieyao, excluding nielan. In this case: 39

"Couldn't you just exclude nielan on ao3" you have to understand I like doing things the hard way.

Doing this gives:

Fics tagged nieyao and xiyao but not nielan: 39

Fics tagged xiyao and nielan but not nieyao: 25

Fics tagged nieyao and nielan but not xiyao: 5

Generally tagging 2 ot2 pairings in an ot3 signals that either the relationship is a V and the excluded ship are not together, or that- even if they're a triad- the excluded ship doesn't feature in the narrative much. As you can see, xiyao is by far the least likely to be excluded here.

Now doing some more math (or, if you're normal, clicking a few extra times on ao3) will give you the fics exclusively tagged with one ot2 pairing besides 3zun. Generally that means that this relationship is the narrative focus, even if all of 3zun are together.

And these results actually surprised me.

Fics exclusively tagged xiyao: 196 - 112 - 39 - 25 = 20

Fics exclusively tagged nielan: 159 - 112- 25 - 5 = 17

Fics exclusively tagged nieyao: 196 - 112 - 39 - 5 = 40

I checked the answers by actually filtering on ao3 (making all my work redundant) and uh. Yeah. I had expected that, with xiyao being the least likely to be excluded, the most commonly tagged ship in 3zun overall, and simply the most popular ship, they'd be first here too.

And yet, not only does nieyao have more fics, it has more than nielan and xiyao combined. Despite having less fics in total than either of the other 2!

Out of interest, I repeated the experiment without manually excluding all the unrelated ships.

Basically, for each 2-out-of-3zun ship, I only filtered out the two other ships. This data will give us the same insight into narrative focus, just without excluding all other non 3zun rleated side pairings.

This time I just included one ship, and excluded the other 2-out-of-3zun ships. (the hard math comes later)

Doing this gives:

3zun fics only tagged xiyao: 45

3zun fics only tagged nielan: 33

3zun fics only tagged nieyao: 59

It's a less drastic difference, but nieyao still come out on top!!

What this means, I think, is that people with nieyao as their absolute favorite side of the triangle are a lot more likely to write 3zun fics than those for whom the same is true for nielan or xiyao.

That is to say: Someone who likes all 3zun pairings equally is more likely to write 3zun where the pairings all share narrative balance. And if you really really really love xiyao, and think nieyao and nielan are pretty ok but you don't go crazy over them, you're a lot more likely to just write a solo xiyao fic than you are a xiyao-focused 3zun fic. Idem ditto for nielan. But if nieyao is your absolute fave, you wanna put those guys in a throuple anyway.

What I'm saying is I think nieyaoists are the subfandom of triangular desire. Which... *looks at my own mutuals*... is the least surprising thing i've ever said.

Anyway! I didn't stop there! I wanted to see which pairings were more likely to get tagged together again. I also decided to make things even harder for myself!

Instead of filtering one ship at a time and seeing how many of each of the others were tagged alongside it, like i did last time, I only gave myself a few figures to calculate it manually: The overall number of tags each had in the 3zun tag (348, 328, and 284, as pictured above) the afformentioned data about exclusively tagged fics, and the number of fics tagged with all three 2-out-of-3zun ships (175)

Rather than a simple subtraction, I had to... Well i'm just gonna let y'all look at my notes app. I wanna stress that i could have looked all of this up in minutes and in fact did later to check my answers! No time was saved! A lot was wasted!

But I like number so 👉👈

Tldr:

Fics tagged xiyao and nieyao but not nielan: 73

Fics tagged xiyao and nielan but not nieyao: 55

Fics tagged nieyao and nielan but not xiyao: 21

Once again, similar but slightly less drastic results.

With this I can only come to one conclusion: the fandom likes to joke about 3zun being a love triangle with xichen in the middle. But looking at these numbers? The real center is jiggy. Everything revolves around a-yao, baby!.

[elisedonut]

yeah sure technically there are two Seamus Finnigan/Percy Weasley fics

but really both are in that many many ships in one catagory of fic

so really there are kind of none

and i think that's a shame

you should still read Percyholics Anonymous by hchollym though

[kasterborous154]

My brain approaching me while I'm watching something, about to suggest the nichest, rarest pair to obsess over

[weltato]

y'know the sad thing about writing for a small/niche fandom? the thing you wrote doesn't get much interaction and in this economy and societal norm that means I don't get a nice hit of the happy chemicals

it's been three days since I last checked my most recent fic and the hits has gone up by like...2

kudos hasn't changed for a week :(

this is the existence I lead and I've made peace with it

(it's because I didn't tag it as rimster, isn't it?)