madwolf023prompts

[madwolf023prompts]

Yesterday I watched Arcane season 2. I had many thoughts and opinions about season 2.

But the biggest thought that went through my head was: How did Arcane shape shipping?

Specifically how Arcane has shaped what ships Fanfic writers have predominately written about.

So using Internet Archive’s Wayback Machine, and taking the data from AO3, which was literally me clicking on the relationship tab and seeing what the top fics were, I made some discovery’s.

The results should not surprise you, but I’m still compelled to write about it anyway because it’s been driving me insane.

There are disclaimers at the bottom that I find interesting, and add context, but are minimally impactful to what I’m going to write.

There may be some spoilers for who the most popular ships are, but I'm not going to actively discuss why those characters are the most popular ships, nor talk about the canonicity of said ships. Still, if you don't want to know anything at all about Arcane at all, especially which characters share a bond that could be described as romantic, then I'd advise you don't continue reading. Particularly for season 2, where I discuss a particular pairing. (I only mention that they get close/closer/meet/interact in season 2, not any specifics). I also mention that a character does not appear in Arcane.

Let’s start with a baseline:

As of Janurary 27, 2025, the League of Legends most popular ships are:

Not really surprising.

On January 14, 2021 League of Legends shipping looked like this:

Now the big things to note here is A) Akali/Evelynn is the top of the chart. B) Caitlyn/Vi is the second most popular pairing. C) Neither Jayce/Viktor, nor Ekko/Jinx are popular enough in the LoL community on AO3 to warrant enough fics to make this list. There is a little bit of interesting history here. Sometime between July 25th and December 11th, 2019, Caitlyn/Vi had gone from the most popular pairing to second most popular pairing behind Akali/Evelynn.

Next date October 16, 2021

This was the closest date I could find before Arcane released (there is a date that is closer after Arcane released, but I'll talk about that in a moment). This shows a very interesting: Over ten months: Akali/Evelynn had added 177 fics, Ahri/Kai'Sa had added 132 fics. Ahri/Evelynn, which hadn't been on the list had added at least 62 fics. Caitlyn/Vi had added 26 fics. The K/DA group was winning the shipping. Caitlyn/Vi had been relegated, and likely Ahri/Evelynn was looking to take it's place in the (relative to pre Arcane fic production level) near future.

Then Arcane Season 1 released on November 6th, 2021.

On November 11, 2021

Caitlyn/Vi had added 17 fics in a one month time frame. Akali/Evelynn had added 5 fics, Ahri/Kai'Sa had added 0 fics. Now, by this point, Caitlyn and Vi hadn't even interacted. (This was after the release of Arc 1, the first three episodes of Arcane). But there is a notable shift from, presumedly from information about future episodes such as trailers, that invigorated (or reinvigorated old fans of the ship) to create new fics of the two.

The next available date on the Wayback Machine is November 27, 2021, after the end of Season 1.

I would have loved to see the information at the end of Arc 2. How long did it take the Cait/Vi writers and Jayce/Viktor (who, unlike Cait/Vi had interacted in Arc 1) to get going. After Arc 2, or did it wait until the end of the first season? In any case, it's clear by now that Arcane had done two things: Reignited a ship that was starting to fall behind, and turbocharged a new ship.

November 29, 2021

Not much to say here, except the supercharge for both continue.

December 7, 2021

Return of the Queen(s). Honestly, at this point the trend is clear. Jayce/Viktor was clearly going to overtake Akali/Evelynn soon from this point. So, we're done. Cait/Vi and Jayce/Viktor are at the top, and probably anticipate to stay there for quite some time.

But.... isn't there another pairing who was completely absent from the original list on January 14, 2021? Who's popularity is almost entirely surrounded by Arcane?

Well... Jinx/Ekko clearly was a season 2 thing. So there shouldn't be any shock about the fact they don't make the cut after season 1.

Here is the list on October 10, 2024.

One month before Season 2 is released, Ekko/Jinx is in 9th place. Now it's popularity is clearly inflated by the presence of Season 2, adding 380 fics, more than doubling. Still, why is it on the list in 2024 before season 2, but not in 2021, after season 1?

But, Ekko and Jinx interacted in Season 1. Maybe it was a bit of a delay. Fics aren't instantaneous, and maybe it was just right behind Malcom Graves/Twisted Fate? The 11th most popular pairing that was going to eclipse them soon.

This is... sort of the case. Somewhere between January 29th, 2022 and March 4th, 2022, Ekko/Jinx would become the 9th most popular pairing.

So... there we are. Arcane has clearly changed the landscape of LoL shipping, in the same way that I imagine K/DA did, (though on a much more intense and broader scale, as seen by the pure number of fics).

You have some clear older pairings that have remained somewhat popular. LoL has clearly been doing other things in the background that isn't Arcane that has also shaped shipping. Ezreal/Shieda Kayn appears sometime between March 4th, 2022 and October 10, 2024 and outperforms Ekko/Jinx until Season 2 of Arcane.

But by far, the biggest driver of shipping has to be Arcane. Six of the top ten most popular 'ships' (including three friendship tags for characters), are full Arcane ships (in which both characters appear in Arcane), and an additional ship is a half Arcane ship (involving a character from Arcane, and a character not from Arcane.) Compared to prior to the show being release, where only one pairing of the top ten would be considered today a full Arcane ship, and another would be a half Arcane ship, this showcases how much the shipping landscape has changed.

This wasn't a project I intended to do. It started with a thought. I wonder how popular Jayce and Viktor were before Arcane. I then lost about three hours of my life.

Damn.

Anyway disclaimers below:

Disclaimers:

1) This is not a thoroughly researched paper, nor should it be considered as such. This took me an hour of research (and two hours writing), and honestly most of it was doublechecking the dates. Because of that:

1a) I only use AO3. If I was being serious and doing a more in-depth research, I would have also done research on at least Fanfic.net, and a more general search online of where LoL fics are located. But AO3 is honestly the easiest to navigate, and as the most popular one should show enough of the pattern to make a generalized statement on my non academic post. 

2) As anyone who has used the wayback machine can tell you, the wayback machine are ‘screenshots’ of a particular moment in time. It is not updated constantly. Particularly for something a bit… niche like this. For example, the first sceeenshot I could find for LoL fics on AO3 is November 7, 2012, which has 7 fics: one labeled maybe romance, one gen fic, two M/F but no ships attached (though one fic does have Morgana and Katarina as the only two characters listed, so I’m guessing them, the other has Jarvan Lightshield IV, Pantheon- The Artisan of War, Hagurashi Kagome as the tags), one Miss Fortune/Twisted Fate fic, one Garen/Katerina fic, and one Ezreal/Shyvana | Jarvin IV/Shyvana fic. The next date is November 9th, same fics. After that is January 24th, 2013, with 15 fics. So some dates are used not because they make the most sense, but because they are the closest date I could find to the date that would make the most sense. 

This brings up an interesting point:

2a) Fics disappear. One of the fics I mention no longer seems to exist on AO3. That means that, especially as we approach the more modern day, a lot of fics may have disappeared. So if I say: there were 100 fics about Vi/Cait, that means when the screenshot was taken there were, at that time, 100 fics about Vi/Cait on AO3, and not that there were only 100 Vi/Cait fics ever posted on AO3 before that point. 

3) I am not a LoL fan. I enjoyed Arcane, but beyond Arcane and some TB Skyen shorts I’ve watched, I know nothing about LoL and its world. If you had asked me before December 2021 (when I first watched Arcane season 1) I could have identified: K/DA (though I would not have known they were related to LoL), and Jinx. My knowledge has only improved based entirely around Arcane. (And TB Skyen shorts)

4) I touch upon this briefly, but Jinx/Lux is an interesting case. Similar to Caitlyn/Vi it appears in the top ten list the entire time I check, so it had some popularity before Arcane came out. But... Lux isn't in Arcane. I can't speak to the appeal that Jinx/Lux has in the same way that I could for Cait/Vi, Viktor/Jayce, or Ekko/Jinx. I have theories on why it's popular, and why it became supercharged in it's popularity since Arcane, but that is well outside the scope of what I actually researched and am presenting, and would require much more research than I want to do. I'm looking into: Did fics involving pairings increase after show began, not why did certain pairings become much more popular instead of others.

Last Note:

I don't use Tumblr much anymore. I stopped opening the App on a daily basis 5-6 years ago. I check maybe every few months. I had one 'viral' post. The email attached to this Tumblr account is one I never use anymore.

I always told myself that once I became an author I'd return to Tumblr. Realize my dreams. That's not progressing the way I'd hoped. And I'm honestly probably happier for it.

I do publish fanfics of my own, but honestly not that much. (Check out Madwolf023 on AO3 if for some reason a demon possessed you while reading this and is now forcing you to read my fics.) When I started using Tumblr I thought I'd be writing fics every day of my life. Spoiler Alert I did not. As with most people, my focus changed. I still love writing, and still I'm more focused on fun research now that I do for myself, and is like this: Scientifically and Academically dubious, but enough to satisfy my itch.

The reason I say this is as a bit of a swan song to myself, an admittance to myself that maybe work in the creative fields isn't for me.

I'll still write, I'll still do the world building I love, which I have done in the years since I stopped using Tumblr.

But... for myself. Not really for the perceived audience I once hoped for.

For anybody who is really interested in this... thank you.

Madwolf023 out.

[madwolf023prompts]

I once saw a post, and I wish I could find it because it had something that has lived in my mind ever since. But the barebones of it was Dick Grayson is both the biggest Feminist, and the biggest Man Whore at the same time.

And I don’t know why, but this describes my impression of Fandom Dick Grayson to a tee.

[madwolf023prompts]

Me: Who’s a good boy?

Dog:???????????????????????????????????

Me: YOU’RE A GOOD BOY!

Dog:!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[madwolf023prompts]

"It seemed to roar from thirty years of frustration, confusion, denial, love, yearning...yearning for what? An anchor. A harbor. A sense of safety. A sense of identity. Yes, I can relate. Yes, this is terrain I know well. I felt Batman rising from deep within." -"Finding Batman" by Kevin Conroy (from DC Pride 2022)

In memory of Kevin Conroy, I'm reposting his story in his own words. We were so lucky to have Kevin share a piece of his soul with us through playing Batman for over thirty years, and his loss is heartbreaking for an entire generation who grew up with him as our Batman. I'm incredibly grateful to have lived in a world where he got the opportunity to play that role for us for so long and in so many different productions. RIP to a good man, a legend, and one of the most iconic voice actors of all time.

[madwolf023prompts]

Artgem (Stanley Lau)+The Batgirls

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Temples are built for gods. Knowing this a farmer builds a small temple to see what kind of god turns up.

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All ill say if the us supreme court decides to turn over the indian child welfare act and i don't see white people talking about it, especially white lgbt people, i will be pissed

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Me and my Twin just assumed Harry was walking around giving people Cocaine.

Because honestly that just tracks.

top ten disco elysium dialogue options that take me out on spot

[madwolf023prompts]

My favourite things about Scrivener

1. Navigation. You can see all your chapters, scenes, character & setting planning at one glance and switch between them very easily - compared to scrolling up and down in one long word processing document. Every file can also be a folder, so you can have collapsible items underneath it.

2. Word count targets. The “Project Targets” are particularly useful for NaNoWriMo so you don’t have to keep looking back at the website to see how you’re doing for the day, but more so outside of it, when you want to keep yourself working to a target but don’t have Nano’s charts and daily word counts. It also gives you a nice ding when you hit your session target.

3. How many pages? I only recently discovered this, but it’s very nice to be able to see in Project Statistics approximately how big your manuscript would be in pages without worrying about formatting. 

4. Outlining. Scrivener has two methods of outlining - one is Corkboard, which is exactly what it sounds like, a digital corkboard with notes pinned on it that represent your chapters/scenes with their summaries. The screenshot above is called ‘outliner’ and lists collapsible chapters/scenes with various statistics you can select as shown in the tick menu. Generally I prefer Corkboard, but Outliner is useful if you just want to see everything in a clear order. 

5. Full screen. I get distracted very easily when writing, so the full-screen writing mode is wonderful for me to avoid that - but you can still choose certain windows from the normal Scrivener view to show up. I have my targets and my summary, so I can stick to my plan when I’m writing and also see what progress I’m making.

6. Notes. No screenshot, but it’s a simple post-it note style box to the side of every document (chapter, scene, character etc.) that allows you to add notes. This may sound very simple, but it’s far more useful than I’d expected. During NaNoWriMo when I’m not meant to be editing at all, but I know something needs fixing, I will jot down something in the side like 'Take out the horse’ so that when I go through again to edit I know exactly the things to focus on immediately but which would have taken too much time before. It’s linked to the scene so I don’t just have a pile of notes in one document at the end and then have to work out where it needs fixing.

Overall

I downloaded Scrivener for the first time two years ago, and now I can’t imagine working without it. It’s so nice to have the planning and the writing all combined into one place where I can easily switch between the two. I haven’t yet got as far in a novel created in Scrivener to use the compile features so I can’t comment on those, but so far all my experiences of it have been good.

One thing to note is that if transferring project between a Windows and a Mac version of Scrivener, it’s generally best to zip the file first.

[Screenshots from my current novel Kindling Ashes using the Mac version of Scrivener - some features may not be available in Windows yet.]

[madwolf023prompts]

When people assume Celtic = Irish I get a strong urge to stab myself in the eye.

No no no no no no. 

Sit down we must have a conversation.

There were 6 Celtic nations.

Éire, Cymru, Alba, Kernow, Breizh, and Ellan Vannin.

Ireland, Wales, Scotland, Cornwall, Brittany, and the Isle of Mann respectively.

They’re all related, but not the same. They all have different languages descended from a similar group, Irish (Gaeilge), Scottish (Gàidhlig), Manx (Gaelg), Welsh (Cymraeg), Cornish (Kernowek), and Breton (Brezhoneg). Some are more widely spoken than others, for example Welsh is still commonly spoken in Wales, whereas hearing Cornish in Cornwall instead of English is rare.  All Celtic nations have varied mythology and culture. Irish Mythology is different from Breton Mythology, and even Welsh and Cornish mythology (arguably the most related Celtic Nations) have subtle differences to each other. I wish I could add more about the cultures at this time but my knowledge of Celtic nations is primarily made up of the history and languages of those regions, particularly Cornwall. 

You might have notice that England and English are missing from this, because the English descended from Anglo-Saxons, who were German invaders that came to the isles right around the Fall of the Roman empire in the 5th Century, erasing the Celtic influence in what is now England. 

So what this all really means is that Celtic is an umbrella term, and just because it’s Celtic doesn’t mean it has anything to do with Ireland at all. So don’t assume that just because someone’s talking about something Celtic that they’re talking about something Irish.

[madwolf023prompts]

Your son has taken to writing prayers in letter form, starting them all with “Deerest God.” The misspelling becomes slightly less adorable when the prayers, however ridiculous, are all answered by a doe-like goddess who shows up at your door, crying about how she just loves getting prayers again. She decides to move in and caters to your young son’s every whim.

[madwolf023prompts]

Virtue requires a delicate balance. 

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i’ve been doing my homework on how to break into a writing career and honestly. there’s a Lot that i didn’t know about thats critical to a writing career in this day and age, and on the one hand, its understandable because we’re experiencing a massive cultural shift, but on the other hand, writers who do not have formal training in school or don’t have the connections to learn more via social osmosis end up extremely out of loop and working at a disadvantage. 

[madwolf023prompts]

A female dragonborn paladin with the noble background is the ultimate switch: she can be the knight, the princess or the dragon, as circumstances require.

[madwolf023prompts]

I think the best piece of character design advice I ever received was actually from a band leadership camp I attended in june of 2017. 

the speaker there gave lots of advice for leaders—obviously, it was a leadership camp—but his saying about personality flaws struck me as useful for writers too. 

he said to us all “your curses are your blessings and your blessings are your curses” and went on to explain how because he was such a great speaker, it made him a terrible listener. he could give speeches for hours on end and inspire thousands of people, but as soon as someone wanted to talk to him one on one or vent to him, he struggled with it. 

he had us write down our greatest weakness and relate it to our biggest strength (mine being that I am far too emotional, but I’m gentle with others because I can understand their emotions), and the whole time people are sharing theirs, my mind was running wild with all my characters and their flaws.

previously, I had added flaws as an after thought, as in “this character seems too perfect. how can I make them not-like-that?” but that’s not how people or personalities work. for every human alive, their flaws and their strengths are directly related to each other. you can’t have one without the other.

is your character strong-willed? that can easily turn into stubbornness. is your character compassionate? maybe they give too many chances. are they loyal? then they’ll destroy the world for the people they love.

it works the other way around too: maybe your villain only hates the protagonist’s people because they love their own and just have a twisted sense of how to protect them. maybe your antagonist is arrogant, but they’ll be confident in everything they do.

tl;dr “your curses are your blessings, and your blessings are your curses” there is no such thing as a character flaw, just a strength that has been stretched too far.

[madwolf023prompts]

You’re a regular office worker born with the ability to “see” how dangerous a person is with a number scale of 1-10 above their heads. A toddler would be a 1, while a skilled soldier with a firearm may score a 7. Today, you notice the reserved new guy at the office measures a 10.

[madwolf023prompts]

Lucifer would respect Lena so much! He would be like ‘you, idiots, listen to the more intelligent person!’ and he would pissed at Kara. ‘I tell people I’m the devil as soon as I met them because I don’t. Like. Lies.”

Lucifer comes sauntering up, all casual like. He’s spent most of his time with Lena, whose direct honesty, patent intelligence, and breathtaking beauty all capture his attention– and his affection.“I’ve never met a Kryptonian before,” he says in greeting, leaning against the same wall Kara is using to prop herself up. “Miss Luthor says the abilities our yellow sun gives you are almost godlike. Is it true?”Kara shrugs. “Some call it that.”Clearly, she does not. Still, Lucifer doesn’t heed her obvious desire to be left alone. “The lying devil is a myth, you know,” he continues, as charming and conversational as you please, “cultivated by centuries of heretic priests and oppressive regimes. I don’t lie. I have no need to. But you know who does?”Finally glancing his way, Kara waits for him to answer. He does, with a dark and dangerous glint of righteous anger in his eyes.“Gods.”