#backdate: 2013

[ryanguzmansource]

📸 • ryanaguzman: reposted to stories (10.25.23)

[imogenleewriter]

Harry Styles/Louis Tomlinson AO3 Works Stats

The other day, I was curious to see what the trajectory of uploads of Larry fanfic on Ao3 was and if it was increasing.Anyway, it was a pretty simple process, and here were the findings:

Perfect right? Done. Time to go to bed? No, because ya girl got hyper-fixated. So grab a cup of tea and enjoy this absolutely ridiculous waste of time...

Introduction

The Covid-19 pandemic profoundly affected various aspects of societal behaviour, including participation in online communities. The ‘Larry fan fiction community’ had a notable influx of new participants and emerging writers during this period. My antedotal observations suggested a significant number of authors have been publishing their first works as recently as this month. This study aims to quantify the trends in Harry Styles/Louis Tomlinson fan fiction uploads on AO3 (Archive Of Our Own) over the past decade, with a particular focus on discerning any noticeable uptick in contributions corresponding to the pandemic’s timeline.

Method

The data collection was executed over several days, starting from the 16th of October 2023. Due to this, the 16th of October was used as a reference point for all of the 12-month periods. The following parameters were employed for filtering:

Relationship Category: Harry Styles/Louis Tomlinson.

Inclusivity: All pieces that included this relationship, irrespective of the presence of other pairings. The result of this means there are likely some works included where they are a side pairing.

Language: All languages were included.

Work Status: Both individual pieces and those parts of a series were included, as were completed and incomplete works.

Accessibility: Being logged in allowed access to members-only works.

During the analysis, two works were excluded due to backdating, to ensure the timeframe remained consistent. Due to the dynamic nature of the fan fiction platform, some works underwent updates or were removed during the data collection process. While these fluctuations did cause some inconsistencies, they were negligible and did not significantly impact the overall dataset.

For the 12-month periods under consideration, three main categories were analysed: total, completed, and unfinished.

Results

A comprehensive analysis of Harry Styles/Louis Tomlinson fan fiction uploads spanning from 2011 to 2023 revealed the following insights:

2011: A total of sixteen works were documented, all of which were completed.

2012: The total number of uploads rose to 417. Among these, 409 were completed works, while eight remained unfinished.

2013: A significant surge was observed, with total uploads reaching 4,795. Completed works accounted for 4,251, whereas 544 were left incomplete.

2014: The growth trend continued, recording a total of 6,303 uploads. 5,296 were completed, and 1,007 were in-progress.

2015: The first decline was witnessed, although minor, with 6,105 total uploads. Completed works comprised 4,919, and unfinished ones stood at 1,186.

2016: A slight decline was noted, totalling 4,805 works. Completed pieces were 3,765, with 1,040 still in-progress.

2017: Uploads further decreased to 2,898. Of these, 2,297 were completed, and 601 remained unfinished.

2018: A modest rise was seen with 2,784 total works. Completed contributions were 2,275, while 509 were ongoing.

2019: The total dropped to 2,064. Completed pieces stood at 1,700, and 364 were still under development.

2020: A slight increment occurred, totalling 2,572 uploads. Of these, 2,071 were finished, and 501 were ongoing.

2021: The count increased to 3,195. Completed works reached 2,483, with 712 in-progress.

2022: A total of 3,767 works were uploaded. Completed works were 3,090, while 677 were yet to be finished.

2023: The most recent data showcases 4,018 total works, with 3,104 completed and 914 still ongoing.

After collating the primary data on completed and uncompleted works, I wanted to look at the distribution based on word count. The intention behind this exploration was to discern if there were patterns or preferences within the writing community regarding the length of the stories. (Please note that on diagrams representing word count, the years are now in descending order)

The categorisation of word count was structured. Works were segmented into word count brackets that started from the shortest stories, ranging from 0 to 1999 words, then progressively moved up in intervals: 2000-4999 words, 5000-9999 words, and so on due to the high prevalence in numbers in the shorter works. This structured approach allowed for a visual representation of how numerous works fell into each bracket for each year.

If you click on it, you might be able to see the distribution.

Results: Word Count Analysis

The following overview encapsulates the distribution of word counts for fan fiction uploads from 2011 to 2023:

0-10,000 Words:

2023 observed the highest concentration within this frame with 2507 works. Over half of the total published works for the 12-month period were found within this bracket.

The trend experienced notable growth from the 14 entries in 2012.

2014 saw a peak with 4994 works in this category, followed by a fluctuating pattern in subsequent years.

10,001-50,000 Words:

2023 recorded 1,031, a slight increase from 1,010 in 2022.

2015 led the chart with the most works in this range.

50,001-100,000 Words:

The count in 2023 showcased the highest number in this category, with 293 works.

2016 and 2021 were equal second, with 219 works in this category.

100,001-300,000 Words:

2023 had the most works in this segment, followed by 2022 and 2021.

Prior to this, the peak was in 2017.

300,001 Words and above:

The numbers in this range are comparatively limited, with 2023 having the most works surpassing 300,000 words.

Most years witnessed very few works in this extensive word count bracket, with numbers often remaining in single or low double digits.

I was also interested to find where most work stopped being completed. This is the percentage of completed works in each range.

Limitations of the Analysis:

AO3 Filtering System Limitations: The AO3 filtering system does not readily display the initial posting date of a fic. A fic could have been started several years prior to its completion but only shows up in the filtering system in the year it was last updated. This poses a significant limitation as the actual duration taken for the completion of a work might not be accurately represented.

Human Fallacy: There's always a potential for human error in manual data collection and analysis. Overlooked details, misinterpretations, or unintended biases can inadvertently influence the results.

Deletion and Date Modification of Works: Authors may delete their works or modify posting dates. This becomes significant for older works with a higher likelihood of deletions or date changes. Such actions can skew the numbers, offering a misrepresented view of the works available during a particular year.

Variability in Word Count Reporting: While categorising based on word count is useful, it's possible that authors might update or expand their works after the initial posting, leading to changes in word count categories over time.

Conclusion:

The data spanning from 2011 to 2023 shows that over the 13-year period, there has been a marked increase in both completed and uncompleted works, with the total number of works increasing more than 250-fold from 16 in 2011 to 4018 in 2023.

From 2011 to 2015, there was a notable surge in the number of completed works, culminating in 2014 with a total of 6307 works. This could potentially reflect an increased growing interest or a pivotal shift in the community or broader fandom dynamics during this period.

From 2016 to 2019, a noticeable decrease in the total works emerged, with 2019 seeing the steepest drop. This decline aligns with the onset of One Direction's hiatus. While causation cannot be conclusively established, it does provide a reasonable explanation.

Beginning in 2020, a revitalisation is evident, with figures steadily climbing and nearing their zenith by 2023. While this remains speculative, anecdotal accounts suggest that the pandemic, affording individuals more leisure for social media coupled with the growing popularity of TikTok, may have reignited interest in the fandom, steering them towards both reading and potentially writing fanfiction.

In summary, the AO3 community showcases dynamic growth, decline, and resurgence patterns over the examined period. While completed works have seen fluctuating trends, the spirit of initiation remains unwavering, as observed by the consistent number of uncompleted works.

Length of works

In 2011, the publication of longer stories (10,000 words and above) was almost non-existent. The numbers began to rise steadily, with a significant jump in longer stories from 2015 to 2017.

The number of stories with a word count between 10,000-14,999 went from 2 in 2011 to a peak of 458 in 2014. Similarly, the 15,000-19,999 range saw an increase from 0 stories in 2011 to its peak at 253 in 2015. As we progress through the word count brackets, there's a discernible growth trend, albeit with some fluctuations. For instance, the 80,000-89,999 bracket jumped from 0 stories in 2011 to a peak of 48 stories in 2023.

While there have been fluctuations in the numbers for some years, the overall trend does show growth in the publication of longer stories over the past decade.

The data shows that extremely long stories (those above 200,000 words) have always been a rarity. However, there's still a perceptible trend.

The 200,000-249,999 word count range sees the most action, with a peak of 27 stories in 2023. This is growth from the previous years 17, and then to 14, and so on. The numbers decrease as we progress to the right into the higher word counts, but occasional stories reach these impressive lengths.

The 250,000-299,999 word count range has peaked at 6, with numbers generally dropping with previous years. Higher word count ranges, such as 300,000-349,999 and 350,000-399,999, are sparser but maintain a presence.

Word counts of 450,000 and beyond are sparse, with very few recent entries.

In conclusion, while very lengthy stories remain uncommon, they exist and have seen publication in varying numbers. There's a trend towards fewer stories as the word count increases, which is expected given the monumental length of these works.

Upon examination of the data, there's a pronounced resurgence in the publication of longer narratives, particularly following a noticeable decline post-2016. The trajectory of this resurgence hints at an evolving literary landscape, with authors and perhaps readers veering towards more extensive works. Although the factors underpinning this shift remain speculative, the upward trend, especially in the realm of extended narratives, cannot be dismissed.

Monitoring developments in this sphere to ascertain whether this resurgence signifies a phase or a deeper, more sustained transformation in literary predilections will be interesting.

[loquaciousquark]

fic stat game

Rules: Give us the links to your fic with the most hits, second most kudos, third most comments, fourth most bookmarks, fifth most words, and fic with the least words.

Tagged by @faejilly! I would like to read yours. You, right now, with your eyes reading this, I would like you to make a post and tag me in it. Yes, you!

Anyway, only including AO3 results here, because if I included FF.net it'd just be my old Ichiruki fic all the way down and I've Grown Beyond That.

Most Hits: Crucible, ya nasties. 40k hits on a porny oneshot from 2013. Whatever, I still like it, can't make me not.

2nd Most Kudos: No Labor Like Love, the Hawke-is-pregnant fic. (Invicta wins this category and took second in hits by a narrow margin, so I don't even think it's going to make the list, lol.)

3rd Most Comments: Mend, You Homespun Sorrow, the one where they get Hawke out of the Fade & then have to figure out how to get her mind also Out Of The Fade. I don't see a way to sort easily by total comments (vs. threads) so I'm leaving that one out, I guess.

4th Most Bookmarks: Spire! My first 100k Tevinter AU! Awww, good for Spire. I'd write that fic differently now, but I'm still immensely fond of it.

5th Most Words: A Detailed Accounting of the Rigorous and Remarkable Struggles Faced by One Fereldan Refugee in the Singularly Capricious City of Kirkwall, as Experienced by the Illustrious Author, lmfao. 77k words this journal ended up being. What a trooper. Topped by Spire, Pouch of Pebbles, Ever Rise, & Invicta, which are all around 100k.

Fic with Least Words: Splintered, an Inuyasha drabble collection from 2005. 415 words. Yech. I backdated you for a reason, you schleb, and that was so I could have a complete archive while pretending you didn't exist.

[sanneke94]

I was feeling nostalgic about my BaCC now that the first settler has died so I was looking through my old pictures (from 2013 ). I did family pictures at the end of every round but I never shared them for the first four rounds so I am adding them now but I will backdate them so that you can see them in order with this tag).

These were the family pictures at the end of round 1. I did not move any sims in the first 2 rounds so the families look similar as the pictures taken at the start but you can already see that some families were expanding.

[amelias-calamity-quintet]

I don't think I've mentioned this yet on the blog, but figured I'd should with GoS going up and the current chapters of MoaH as well. I have backdated all the 2017 chapters of MoaH (the first 23) and am backdating GoS as I upload it on AO3 to when the chapters were originally published on Wattpad. Partially this is to archive when the work was created originally, and how that time period would have influenced the story (not that it's not getting modern edits, just the narrative was built around an older version of the franchise).

There are a couple things in there too I'm including the backdating for to cover myself a bit. I don't mean to imply like, I created any of the ideas wholly in GoS, but there are some things that became either supported in canon or popular in fandom that I did before then. Two examples, I have a goron named Groko and I believe there is a location in the Wild duo also named Groko something. Mine would have been first, in 2012. It's a pretty standard goron sounding name, it's honestly probably a coincidence, but there are a few of those kinds of things that are now accidental tie-ins.

The big one is how GoS (and by extension MoaH) handle the Master Sword that I did before I saw it get big. GoS's Master Sword collection chapters were out in 2013 and, mild spoilers, have Link meeting a past incarnation when he tries to claim it. This has since become pretty popular, I'm not surprised, it's a cool trope. I just worry a lot about people saying I took ideas from them and I want to be able to use the dates to at least be able to say, "No, look, this predates that, I've been doing this for a while." All of the dates are public on my Wattpad as well and Wattpad can't backdate.

[wastrelwoods]

the thing abt 'will and hannibal are already secretly married pre-canon' AUs is that it's not my vibe from a characterization standpoint but MORE than that i am always curious if the author is truly deeply madly aware that gay marriage was only just legalized at the start of 2013 in maryland, was still a hypothetical gleam in the eye of the virginia legislature until the end of 2014, and the furthest you could backdate it in DC would be 2010 unless you were settling for a domestic partnership. louisiana had to wait all the way up to obergefell in 2015 so that's a non-starter. anyway i get that that's not to everyone a compelling reality to acknowledge but i guess it pulls me out of it sometimes bc it doesn't feel like the kind of thing i personally would handwave away for these guys in particular in this situation, that there is a very shaky and inconsistent legal recognition available to them if they wanna be husbands. i guess this still applies post-canon but they're fugitives from the law anyway you know

[initiala]

Rules: Go to your published works on AO3 and list the first fic you ever published there, the last fic you published, any fic that you wrote for a fandom/ship only once, your favorite fic you wrote in the fandom/ship that has the most works, the fic you wish more people read, the fic you agonized over the most, the fic that sprang fully formed from your mind without any effort, and a work you are proud of—for whatever reason. <3

Tagged by @spartanguard thanks lovey

Oh good grief, there's a lot of stuff to go through here hang on...

First fic published there: Anthony and Virginia, back when I was headlong into Pepperony/the MCU. Published on May 24, 2012. I have fics that are dated older, because I backdated them when I cross-posted some old stuff over for archival purposes, but A&V is the first fic I published on AO3. It was also the first time I was getting back into fic writing after a couple of years of break!

Last fic published there: SPEAKING OF... Growing Up Hanyou was posted sometime probably in 2021 or 2022, it doesn't say when I uploaded it because I backdated it to the original publishing time of 2008. It was a slice of life sequel-ish to A Matter of Trust, a fic that I won an award for Best Melodrama for, which honestly tells you everything you need to know about 19-year old Amanda's fic writing habits.

Any fic that I wrote for a fandom/ship once: The Old House, for Breath of the Wild. While I've written for the Legend of Zelda franchise before, they're literally lost to the annals of time because it was like 2002 and I have wiped that from the internet as best as I know how. (also it was like seventeen usernames ago) They're best forgotten, though I do kinda wish I kept the one around that tried to bridge what happened between OoT/MM and WW. It was also very dramatic. I was a very dramatic child.

Your favorite fic you wrote in the fandom/ship that has the most works: Red-eye to Incheon. Biased because this is heavily pulled from my (positive) experiences in Korea without any of the negative stuff (of which there were many), but I really liked writing this and getting to live a little vicariously through the characters (I'm a very boring person. Expat culture is fucking WILD when you're a boring person like me so I mostly observed and filed away for later use, aka here.)

The fic you wish more people read: Very Cool. If I'm going based on hits, I can see why some of these aren't like. Hit up more. There's the very old ones that I archived here, there's one-offs that are just genfic that most people in fandom Do Not Care About. But I'm actually proud of Very Cool because I wrote it after seeing a copy of the Doctor Who magazine on the stands while I was in England and I wrote Eleven exactly how he speaks in his cadence and honestly it should have more than 239 hits even as a little crackfic, especially back in the big Series 5/6 heyday thank you.

The fic you agonized most over: Day of the Dead. I think I agonize a bit over every fic I wrote, but I think most of the WTNV fics were agonized over a bit more. It was 2013, I was really pushing myself with what I was comfortable writing and Tumblr was REALLY Tumblring at that time so there was a lot of cause to not get cancelled over a fic (seriously. There were a LOT of wolves with pitchforks then. If you think it's bad now, it was worse then) I wrote my first genderswap fic in that fandom, I played a lot with the laws of physics and reality, and I wrote this, my first fic that was multi-lingual. I had a lot of help to make sure the Spanish was correct and even after it's been nitpicked over a bit, but for the most part everyone received it well. But I did SO MUCH research because I really didn't know much about Dia de Muertos at the time, it hadn't become a thing to integrate it into the US yet, Coco was years off, and I wanted to make sure I was portraying this cultural holiday accurately and respectfully, while also showing that these are still just people celebrating and it's not going to be this Irreverent Thing you follow exactly to a T.

The fic that sprang fully formed from your mind without any effort: The Corner of First and Amistad. I literally wrote all 8 chapters in one day and then posted as I finished editing. I do wish I'd had more experience/training in how I write now for this, because I think this fic deserves it, but for something that was brain-dumped so completely in such a short amount of time it's not bad. I'd also need like. Fresh eyes to go in and help with the edits because while I KNOW it needs polishing and expanded on, I'm always too fucking precious about my own work to do anything without someone forcing me to.

A work you are proud of—for whatever reason: Hook-Echo. This is the fic no one wanted, no one asked for (though let's be real, all of my multi-chapter AUs are this, every single one is a "huh? how is THAT an AU?") and absolutely a "I wrote this because it's been living in my brain for years and I just needed something to force me to sit down and write it all out", so I can absolutely thank the 2018 Big Bang for giving me that excuse. It was published after the show ended, so the fandom was... gone by then, so it definitely is a passion project like no other and didn't get anywhere near as much love as it might have had it been done on the heels of finishing Dark Horse like I'd originally planned.

[testlixthemetest]

second post

backdate: 2013

[ryanguzmansource]

🎥🔍 • tigerkirchharz: One of my best experience so far and I am still so thankful for this opportunity. Transcript: TK: Hey Germany, we're here on set. Step Up 5, this is Ryan. RG: What up Germany? TK: Ryan, Germany—everybody loves you. RG: Oh. TK: Everybody. RG: Well, I love Germany. TK: And especially they love your body RG: [laughs] TK: So, will you show us your body one time? TK: [cheers]

[markumb]

deadlock.

Do heroes wear capes? Are they graceful in the air, hair lightly tousled by the breeze and shining under the warmth of the sun?

Or do they grovel. Do they pant and bleed with cracked glasses, their hands grasping at the air as they struggle for one last breath.

This is life and death, he told himself. My life, and its death.

Nothing else would be acceptable.

Pain radiated through his left leg, but negligible in comparison to the other, far more pressing issues. The monster’s grip wasn’t loosening, yet it wasn’t tightening either, this meant Mark was as close to victory as he was to death. He had done his best, and now it was up to fate.

Another wave of agony as something else exploded, this time in his torso. Mark hoped that it wasn’t something vital, for there were only so much the field medics could do, even if some of them were highly skilled. 

The monster stared, its six beady eyes meeting Mark’s two.

Die. Mark silently willed the monster as he continued to drain its energy. Right here, right now. You will die for me.

The creature growled, but weaker than before. Its claws loosened just enough for Mark to suck in a painful, but much needed gulp of air. He imagined the oxygen flowing in through his nostrils and filling his depleted lungs in a trail of purifying blue. I can live, he informed himself. I have to try. He raised his knife and brought it down towards the monster’s eyes, drawing it across the row of three at the top, then turning the blade downwards for the rest.

His second swipe missed, but the first one was right on the money. Finally, the creature dropped him. It would have been a bone-breaking fall, if not for a dead teammate’s last service as cushion.

Thanks, let me borrow this. Mark pulled his leg out of the unpleasant bloody mess and helped himself to another dead squad mate’s gun. His hands were shaking, but he managed to reload the gun. He could barely aim, but thankfully his target was a large, slowly drooping mound. How many bullets did he fire? That, he wasn’t certain, but he had but two remaining by the end. The thing eventually stopped moving, and at its stillness he laughed.

Nothing about this situation was humorous, and such a devastating scene should earn no laughter, yet he couldn’t stop himself. Something was cracking inside, worse than his glasses, and somehow the hysterical noises he was making  felt soothing on those frayed nerves.

Report. Static. Report.

What was that sound? Did it come from his ear piece? Oh yes, he still had that, didn’t he?

“Mission completed.” He put a hand over his mouth to contain his laughter and rolled onto his side. “Rank B monster eliminated.” Was that how he was supposed to report? His commanding officer should be doing this, except she might have been the first to die trying to save somebody else. Such a good person. “Civilian casualty...nine. I think that’s everyone. They all died, we couldn’t save a single person.” He wanted to raise his head and have a look around, but maybe that could be somebody else’s job. “Six of us died trying, though. You are talking to the last kid standing, or, uh, lying.”

What’s the point of all this? What’s the point of all this?

“If a medic doesn’t get here soon, we might have a total team wipeout.” Now that the battle was done, he was actually beginning to feel all his injuries. “Since I have you on the line, want to sing me Happy Birthday? Yeah? Awesome. To Mark please. Oh? Yeah, I am turning sixteen.”

[lunarowena]

For some reason my old Doctor Who fics have been getting attention lately and I have no idea why.

[padawanduck]

i read an authors note that felt so 2007 i almost couldn’t believe it was written in 2020

[luna-rainbow]

Got curious about fandom trends so pulled some data from AO3.

Like a good scientist, going to start with Limitations:

Polyships not included. Ships list is also by no means exhaustive.

Not filtered for OTP:true so same fic may feature multiple ships that may not be the endgame

Also doesn't reflect which ship is centered in the fic as opposed to mentions

Obviously deleted fics won't turn up in the count, but it would be interesting to know real historical numbers for these fandoms

Quite a few fics have been backdated, given AO3 was only launched in 2009 and several fics are marked pre-2009. It's possible other fics have also been backdated but I think the numbers are small enough to be non significant.

I did not filter out between MCU and Marvel comics for the ships

(Addit for something new I noticed) Fics that have been updated on 2023 will disappear from earlier numbers i.e. if a fic was started in 2022 but is still being published in 2023, it will not show up in 2022 numbers.

As always, keep in mind AO3 has relatively higher slash ships than other fanfic sites

AO3 doesn't necessarily reflect the size of the fandom, only how many people write for the fandom on AO3 (duh). Other activity - discussions, meta, fanart etc doesn't always correlate to fic production.

RIGHT axis scale applies to the MCU area only - this is the overall number of fics being written for the MCU over the years.

Observations:

Stucky took a while to catch attention. In 2011 when CATFA came out, there was only 61 fics, but that jumped to ~400 and ~600 for the following 2 years.

Avengers (2012) made Stony into one of the first juggernaut ships of the MCU with around 3000 fics that year.

2014 CATWS vaulted Stucky into the stratosphere, going from less than 600 fics in 2013 to just shy of 6000 in 2014. SamBucky and SteveSam both started then, but SteveSam was the bigger ship at the time (500 vs 150 fics)

2016 CACW gave a boost to both Stucky and Stony, as well as a boost to SamBucky.

Curiously, SteveSam did not receive the same boost from the movie, and its numbers dropped in following years and stayed around 300

AC, starting in 2015, gave the first real boost to Steggy. Prior to this its numbers stayed around 200, with a small uptick in 2014 with CATWS to 400.

Clearly, lots of people were happy/unhappy/had things to say about EG, because that was when Stucky, Steggy and Stony all peaked, while SamBucky also had a big boost. This peak is also mirrored in the overall number of MCU fics produced

Big spike for SamBucky as expected from TFATWS in 2021, nearly breaking 5000 and overtaking Stony for the year

2021 was also the peak for overall number of MCU fics per year, which I wonder if it's partially due to Covid lockdown. Other franchises released that year were Loki, Black Widow, Shangchi, Eternals and Spiderman.

SteveNat and BuckyNat have stayed fairly constant ships (of around 500 fics/year) with a small boost from each movie. Staron has remained a small with around 100 fics a year.

[hugintheraven]

Dracula Daily and Fanfic

So, I decided to look into AO3 and see what this fandom produced since the beginning of *gestures vaguely* ALL THIS. 

Historical context: Pre-2016, there were 166 fanfics total in the Dracula(Bram Stoker 1897) tag on AO3. 2016-2019, there was an average of 60 fics added to the tag per year. In 2020, Moffat dropped a BBC Dracula series and the fandom exploded, posting 242 fics in 1 year. 2021, things died down, only 156 fics posted, still far better than any pre-2020 year for the tag.

And in 2022, as of November 11, the tag has 320 new fics. Double last year, and the year’s not even over yet. Of those, 265 have been posted since May, which is more than the previous record year(Moffat), and this fandom did it in 6 months. Congratulations, that is legit impressive and I just want to say thank you to everyone involved. I hope to see more fanfics added to that list so that I have to revise my numbers even further in 2 months.

Now, some disclaimers. This data was gathered manually so I may have messed up some marginal things, and the practice of uploading other archives and backdating fics makes it more confusing. I have also not excluded crossovers. This means that this definitely includes some works based on the 2013 TV show(for example) that were tagged with this fandom as well, but defining a crossover in a useful way for my purposes here seems difficult. And I only checked the Bram Stoker Dracula tag, because the “All Works” Dracula tag will include plenty of other unrelated works. And of course, there’s fanfics that are in the tag for this year that aren’t Daily-related. But the conclusion is pretty clear anyway, this was a good year for Dracula fanfic.

[esther-dot]

It seems like jonsa wasn’t a thing till season 6 happened and they hugged each other? Idk I’m wondering what some saw in that hug that others didn’t that made people start shipping them romantically? That scene was emotional for me but that’s because I saw two siblings that have been through so much and are what’s left of their family reunite. Of course since then there has been a lot of metas written from both show and book to support it. But it was after the fact. What was it about that one scene lol

Well, season six premiered in 2016, but three years prior, in 2013 there was a beautiful meta speculating that Jon and Sansa would reunite first of all the Starks (link) and marry for political reasons, so, the hug may have been the introduction to the idea for some, but the interest in/theory of romantic Jonsa preexisted it.

In addition to spec, there are Jonsa fics on AO3 dating back to 2011 (I see some that are now dated before that but those may have been backdated, not sure), I know I've reblogged artwork and meta from before the reunion, here’s a post about the ship from 2011, so, the moment anyone thought “this reunion is being filmed some kinda way”, or, “this soup scene is a little flirty”, or “why are they breathing this way in their scenes and …is Jon…panting? WTF”, or “why did they mutually cloak each other?”, or “why are the promising trust and protection?”, or “why are they cosplaying as NedCat?” they could check and find meta and fics that predicted some or several of those elements before the show did it. Some of the fics and spec even predicted Sansa in Witnerfell and Jon at the Wall, so there was a lot of foresight on the part of the og shippers!

I suppose what I’m getting at is that even when people point to the hug, there’s a context for why it so easily  snowballed. We can pinpoint that as the moment, but my tendency is to think that all the surrounding things made a foundation for it. I mean, even genre tropes played a role here. I’ve had people tell me they expected it from the first book because of the princess/secret prince idea. And, in-verse, it has connections to other ideas like a Targ prince and Stark maiden, Targcest, and the Jaime/Jon foils + the Cersei/Sansa foils situation. I mean, hundreds of thousands of words have been written about this stuff since the reunion, sure, but a lot of the elements that make it so compelling were written by book fans first, they just never carried it to an endpoint where these things could all be gathered into a single development that allowed Martin to write a shade of grey into his discussion of incest via a storyline that also addresses Jon's longing for Winterfell/children and Sansa's desire for love. If one is willing to take a step back from the preconception of what Jonsa is, why it exists as a ship, it's very easy to see it as a clever culmination of many, many threads into a heart-wrenching, possibly hopeful, development. So, I’d argue that even if those ideas were only present in someone’s subconscious, it’s why someone might watch that hug (or the mutual cloaking/chemistry of the actors/lighting and blocking etc) and have a holy shit moment.

As for the hug itself, I don’t interpret it as romantic either in the sense that, I don’t think that is at all what the characters were feeling. However, when one thinks about how it was filmed, the breathlessness of the acting and how they let that scene stretch out and take it’s time...few other moments compare. Every aspect of it worked to tell the audience how important it was, and of course, as a Stark fan, finally having two Starks reunite after near misses, well, we had spent years building up to a meaningful Stark moment. Jon and Sansa’s relief and joy was ours. And not only did we have all that catharsis and a scene that was...treated with solemnity in a show that was losing it’s depth, storywise, it was one of the few writing choices after the halfway point that carried through the last three seasons. It set a trajectory for Jon and Sansa individually, that reunion and relationship changed everything for them. However one interprets it, their bond became the most important relationship in the last three seasons, and was of the utmost importance in the finale, despite everything becoming pretty nonsensical. In hindsight, it wasn’t accidentally meaningful, incidentally a highpoint of the series, it was essential, essential to them, essential to the story, essential to the endgame.

So, not only do you have in-universe ideas that make this meaningful, not only was there speculation that called it and presents it as the beginning of a romance, not only did they film it in a far more reverential way than they filmed any other relationship (even more so than the epic romance of the series), it also was a necessary stepping stone to the endgame. Even mishandled as it ultimately was, the weight of what it meant spans the entire series, and audiences felt that. It was a turning point for Jon, for Sansa, for the North, for the fight against the Others (even more so than Jon meeting Dany because s7-s8 were so horribly written), so not only is it compelling for lovers of themes, for lovers of the overarching narrative, for lovers of the characters who simply needed their favs to smile again, the failure of the last two seasons made it even more of a high point in our minds of what GoT was and should have been, who these characters are and what they want. And you see how this leads us right back to those desires Jon and Sansa have: Winterfell and family. Again, I did not watch s6 and think it had to be interpreted romantically, but after s7 when I got online and read spec, rewatched their scenes and compared them to how Kit acted Jon with Ygritte and with Dany, I changed my mind. Jon and Sansa, their desires and fears, were never as vivid and compelling as they were in their shared scenes, every conversation developed the complexity of their emotions for each other, and all of that was established in the way they presented that first hug—disbelief, longing, relief, joy.

Also, when someone can predict what happens, I think it’s worthwhile to consider the idea that maybe there’s something to learn from their interpretation of themes, and the fact that a Jonsa reunion was long predicted, matters so much for character development as well as plot progression...well, it means something! Anyway, I can’t argue that the hug itself was romantic, but I do think, especially in comparison to how they handled every other relationship, meeting or reunion in s7-8, that D&D were doing something there, and I personally can’t be convinced they meant for the Jon and Sansa dynamic to be read as strictly familial.

[olderthannetfic]

Due to the anthology wank I've unlisted all my fics to go through each of them and adjust tags and summaries where necessary. I have around 60 anthologies of ficlets and fanart (200+ fics overall), some with 24 chapters. The stats will be fucked for this year. Any advice on how to deal with the untangled anthology posts in terms of accumulated kudos? Idk if I should delete and hope for the best in terms of kudos (cause I'm not backdating to 2013) or keep one ficlet in the original anthology and retitle it. Either way it's heavily skewing my numbers.

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TBH, I would probably keep the old works as-is and just post differently going forward. Won't deleting chapters delete any comments on those chapters?

If you do want to split things up, I would definitely keep the old work. Maybe pick the most popular of the fics and keep that one at the old URL.