#thank you sexy hancock mod

[sibeal]

if the end times means this kind of stunning lighting, then perhaps... actually, no

[metalforhands]

Character Preferences Survey: RESULTS

Last week, I made a survey for Fallout 4, Mass Effect, and Dragon Age fans to fill out. I asked who people romanced, and I asked for their favorite characters. I kept the questions vague as to avoid complications and caveats. Using these results, I managed to find several interesting trends, as well as instances of overlap between character preferences in fans.

I made a Google document detailing all of my findings. However, I will also include the very same findings below to make the results easier to access.

Finally, I will be attaching a link to this post in the original post. Happy reading! Thank you to all who participated!

Before I begin, I would like to include a few disclaimers. 

I received 240 survey responses. It’s impossible to have every single person who has played these games fill out this survey. Consequently, the results will never be truly indicative of actual popularity. This survey is merely for fun, and so long as we all remember the results are heavily skewed towards the Tumblr userbase’s preferences, this document should make for an interesting read! If your favorite didn’t perform too well, don’t feel bad. Out of the 240 people who filled out this survey, there are thousands more who didn’t, and who like your favorite as well.

Also worth noting, I did not include Morinth because I assumed her numbers would be too low to draw any similarities. However, I want to take this moment to give a shout out to the Morinth romancers. Thank you to Tumblr user @fivekoboldsinacoat for speaking up for everyone who loves their serial killer girlfriend! Genuinely, nothing but respect from me.

If you are curious about anything not mentioned on this document, please feel free to reply here. I will either reblog with a batch of replies, or reply using my main account, @prezs. Thank you!

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NOTABLE ROMANCE TRENDS

FALLOUT 4

Hancock: Stealing the title of most popular Fallout 4 romance! People who romanced Hancock have massive overlap with people who used the Nick Valentine romance mod. There was also significant overlap with people who romanced Garrus, Zevran, Anders, and Fenris. Dragon Age: Inquisition, however, is a complete wildcard for most Hancock romancers.

Danse: Runner up for most popular Fallout 4 romance! Significant overlap with people who romanced Kaidan, Alistair (we’ll get to the specifics of this one), and Cullen. Twenty of the sixty people who romanced Danse did not romance Alistair… and out of these twenty, nine of them have not played a single game in the Dragon Age series. Keeping this in mind, that means approximately 83% of people who romanced Danse, and also played Dragon Age, romanced Alistair. Kaidan and Cullen also have similar overlap, but not to the degree of Alistair.

MacCready: A strong performance from our resident single dad! I was curious to see if MacCready had any overlap with other widowed companions, like Thane, but I couldn’t find anything. MacCready romancers were most likely to romance Garrus in Mass Effect, however. It’s okay! I get it! You guys love snipers! I completely understand. Do you think MacCready should get a sexy face scar too? Let’s discuss.

Preston Garvey: Similarly to Danse, most people who romanced Preston also romanced Alistair. Again, not to the same degree, but enough to be notable.

MASS EFFECT

Garrus: Our second sweeper. Similarly to Alistair, he was a common denominator among several people. However, there was a notable trend between people who romanced Hancock and people who romanced Garrus. Likewise, it seems there were several people who romanced both Kaidan and Garrus. This can either be attributed to separate playthroughs, or breaking up with Kaidan after the first Mass Effect.

Kaidan: Aside from the similarities with Danse romancers mentioned above, for those who have not played Fallout 4, the overlap between people who romanced Kaidan and those who romanced Alistair and Cullen was also incredibly strong. Likewise, several people who did not romance anyone in Fallout 4 also romanced Kaidan, Alistair, and Cullen.

Jack: While lacking in votes, the most overlap Jack romancers had was with Cait romancers! This… makes a lot of sense, the more I think about it. In fact, even with Jack’s lower numbers, this makes the overlap with Cait romancers even more notable.

DRAGON AGE

Alistair: He swept! What more can I say? Alistair was probably the one common denominator among most people taking the poll, which is a compliment to his popularity with so many different people. Because of this, he showed up SO often to the point where it was hard to pinpoint too many trends. Anything with unusual overlap will be mentioned in other character sections (see Kaidan, Danse, and Preston).

Fenris: Runner up for most popular Dragon Age romance. Something, something, joke about who swept who off the other’s feet here. While most Fenris romancers are wildcards in other games, the only character with notable overlap was Hancock.

Zevran: Ah, our favorite Antivan assassin! Aside from Hancock, Zevran was extremely popular with people who have never played Fallout 4 and people who have romanced several characters per game, more than likely due to different playthroughs.

Cullen: Several of his trends (primarily with Kaidan, Danse, and Alistair) have been mentioned above.

Anders: Hilariously, Anders was the only character who managed to have several people who romanced him, but did not include him on their favorite characters list. A testament to his divisive nature. I see you guys! You made me laugh! The only notable overlap I noticed was with Hancock romancers. That, and Anders appeared on a lot of lists where the voter romanced several characters instead of just sticking to one or two.

FINAL ROMANCE COMMENTARY

Of course, exceptions exist! Several do! I know I’m one of them, as my main romances were Danse, Liara, Alistair, Fenris, and Dorian. Well, I’m not an exception to the Danse and Alistair hive-mind. But, uh. Join us?

Regardless, I may or may not have missed more subtle trends. If you’re curious about the overlap between specific characters, PLEASE let me know in the comments! I’ll be happy to update this post and answer your question.

GENERAL POPULARITY

I feel the poll results speak for themselves here. Most voters included their romanced characters in this section, along with other non-romanceable favorites. While there were exceptions to this, anything truly notable was mentioned above.

The results were also not too surprising. Nick Valentine absolutely demolished the Fallout 4 polls. Mass Effect and Dragon Age, while with more variety in their leads, also brought in unsurprising results.

For Mass Effect, Tali, despite not polling too well in the romance section, took the lead in general popularity! Following her is Garrus, Wrex, Legion, and Mordin, with an honorable mention to Jack, Grunt, and Thane. Non-romanceable companions polling so well over several of the romanceable ones goes to show how skilled Mass Effect is at making you care about Shepard’s platonic relationships.

For Dragon Age, Alistair initially demolished the poll, but Dorian crept behind him right into first place! Also popular was Morrigan (who, like Tali, scored well in the popularity section but not the romance one), Zevran, Merrill, Fenris, Varric, and Josephine. Special note goes out to Varric, the only one who cannot be romanced and managed to give Dorian and Alistair a run for their money!

Tali, Morrigan, Leliana, Merrill, Cassandra, and several of the other romanceable women performed well in the popularity section, but not in the romance section. Tali, Morrigan, and Cassandra are only able to be romanced by male Shepards, male Wardens, and male Inquisitors respectively. Leliana, all of the Dragon Age 2 women, and all of the Fallout 4 women can be romanced by anyone. Romantic unpopularity for these characters can probably be attributed to the Tumblr user base, who not only tend to play as female characters, but also tend to be drawn to male characters. I believe our results would be different on, say, Reddit, where the votes of heterosexual men playing as male protagonists would be more common.

[fictionkinfessions]

happy birthday to me, bitches !!!!! local transmasc pansexual and incredibly sexy zombie mayor is telling you to fucking drink water. yes, you. go drink it. yeah feel free to flavor it or carbonate it idc but it’s important to stay hydrated. it’s my birthday so you have to do what i say. thems the breaks

-john hancock

(please post 10/29 — i’m just sending this in advance so i don’t forget. thanks mod party cat!)

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[gold-and-rubies]

What's one thing you like and one thing you dislike about the Fallout 4 companions?

Thank you for the ask! This is a really interesting question!

Cait: One thing I like about Cait is that she has a complete character arc, and there is an actual tangible difference between the beginning and the end. One thing I dislike about her is back story. You know how writer’s use the dead wife trope to make you feel bad for male characters? The female version of that is a victim of abuse. Writer’s need to come up with better ways to make you feel sorry for character’s that don’t end up with women being seriously hurt.

Codsworth: One thing I like about him is that he waits to see if you’ve changed instead of just latching onto you. It gives him depth. One thing I dislike is how weak he is without the Automatron dlc. Because of this people don’t tend to see that’s he’s actually a pretty good character. 

Curie: One thing I like about her is her positivity. She brings some much needed light to the wasteland. What I dislike about her though, is that she’s an example of the “Born Sexy Yesterday” trope. She’s basically a hyper intelligent child in an adult woman’s body, so the romance option makes me uncomfortable.

Danse: Although it doesn’t seem like it at times to a lot of people, I like that Danse isn’t only ever thinking about the Brotherhood. He has really insightful opinions on things like the Treasures of Jamaica Plain, and he has opinions about things like music. Then the thing I dislike is kinda obvious. I hate how his character arc isn’t finished.

Deacon: I like that while he doesn’t necessarily approve of stealing, he understands that sometimes, it necessary. Weird I know. One thing I dislike is the way his past was handled. it felt like it was just kinda glossed over, and given what he did and the exact word he used, it doesn’t sit right with me.

Dogmeat: Dog. I wish we could have him with another companion. Yes, I know there are mods for it.

Hancock: I like how clear his morals are, and that he doesn’t act all high and mighty. Now this isn’t something I think detracts from his character, but his drug use makes me uncomfortable.

MacCready: I like how he’s a pretty excepting person overall. As an adult he’s usually only rude to people who are rude to him first, or people he assumes are going to be rude to him. His personal quest felt really clunky to me. The two parts didn’t flow into each other well.

Nick: I love how he comes to terms with things in his personal quest. How he realizes that his actions are his own, and they are what truly define him. However, serious overuse of the dead female s.o.

Piper: I like her back story. Although her father’s death definitely affected her, it was the other actions around it that defined her. What I don’t like is that she’s done some pretty messed up things and has not had to take accountability nor has she faced repercussions.

Preston: He is an excellent example of mental health struggles, and I wish more people saw that. I wish that we knew more about his childhood, why exactly he joined the Minutemen. Without that knowledge his character feels a bit flat to me.

Strong: I like that his respect for others is based on their actions. I wish we knew more about him before he became a mutant.

X6: I like the little details about him like his fear of heights, and the fact he isn’t all that afraid of heights. A lot of people don’t realize that he actually has a lot of depth to his character. I don’t like that he is really only available for a short time. I understand why he’s available that late in the game, but you should’ve been able to convince him to leave the Institute