DA2 pairing fic on AO3 - some stats

[sarasa_cat]

Crossposted from Tumblr:


Out of curiosity, I made a table that shows the number of stories at AO3 that feature various ships with female Hawke and Male Hawke. I only used AO3 (not ff.net) because AO3 allows me to easily identify only the stories that explicitly ship a pair.

I searched for Hawke paired with canon LIs, Hawke paired with non-LI party members, and Hawke with a small selection of NPCs (selected mostly on my interests and whims than anything else). I decided only to look at Hawke pairings because the author has a greater range of flexibility in how they shape Hawke. Hawke can be an author stand-in, Hawke can illustrate the author's feelings while playing DA2, or Hawke can become the kind of character that the author wishes to write about.

Barring any mistakes in my tallies, here are the stats:

For quick comparisons, here are stats for some other ships that are have 10 or more stories:

• Fenris/Anders: 249
• Fenris/Isabela: 69  
• Aveline/Donnic: 36
• Aveline/Isabela: 16
• Bethany/Isabela: 10
• Bethany/Sebastian: 14
• Carver/Merrill: 32
• Isabela/Merrill: 28

(Personal ramblings beneath the cut...)

 

I had some personal warm fuzzies making when I realized that Merrill and Isabela have a 3:1 ratio with fem!Hawke out numbering male!Hawke. Other than my first canon play through where my fem!Hawke turned down romances with Anders and Fenris (sorry fans >_>), my fem!Hawkes since then usually romance Merrill (sometimes Isabela/Fem!Hawke too). 

Overall, DA2 fandom has a far stronger showing of f/f ships than other videogame fandoms I've been in. I think the worst I've seen is FFXII fandom where one needs a microscope to find f/f ships. To me, this is a testament to how well written DA2's female characters are. Popular media lacks of interesting female characters far too often, making women into are sidekicks and helpers and love interests while men get to play the interesting plot-driven parts. Merrill, Isabela, and Aveline were huge breaths of fresh air for me. 

I'm kind of surprised that Fenris is shipped with fem!Hawke more often than male!Hawke. I know I hold a really unpopular opinion about fem!Hawke/Fenris (it makes me deeply uncomfortable) but, hey, Fenris is by far the most popular ship for fem!Hawke. Presumably because it is the one het ship for Hawke that eventually resolves into a trusting, committed relationship?

I'm not surprised that Anders is shipped with male!Hawke more often. I feel like I should have something profound to say about this but I do not.

Off in non-canonical land, I'm not surprised that Cullen/fem!Hawke greatly outnumbers Cullen/male!Hawke (although those two particular m!Hawke stories are the ones that strongly spark to my story-tastesbuds). For various reasons, Cullen/fem!Hawke is the only het relationship for Hawke that interests me, but I sometimes suspect my reasons aren't always the same as those of Cullen's core fandom?? (else I'm barking out my arse here?)

 

Comments

I NEED TO PLAY DA, CLEARLY

[auronlu]

"I think the worst I've seen is FFXII fandom where one needs a microscope to find f/f ships"

Sigh. If Penelo had been just a little bit older, there would've been Fran/Pen out the wazoo. (As it was, I've written a few.)

Re: I NEED TO PLAY DA, CLEARLY

[sarasa_cat]

Depending on your tastes in fantasy, I'd might suggest for you to play the Dragon Age games out of order. DA2 first, then DA:Origins+Awakening. DA2 is low fantasy whereas DA:Origins is high fantasy. This difference colors the texture of the games a good deal, especially when it comes to female characters.

The stats above are from DA2. I haven't yet tabulated ship stats for DA:Origins (because it's more work >_<) but I suspect that it has a notable amount of f/f ship fic.

So, about the games:

DA:Origins is straight up high fantasy with all of the problematic gender essentialism that is woven into the high fantasy genre. The plot is quintessentially high fantasy in that the player character goes off on an epic quest to rid the world of the ultimate evil. There are clever twists and turns, and the game plays out on a large map that introduces you to a very complex world that has problems far larger than the Big Bad Evil you need to wipe out. Origins also has dozens of different end configurations for the world and some of those end configurations provide a delicious subversion of the Classic High Fantasy Ending. But, in the end, it is high fantasy in a pseudo-medieval/feudal nation called Ferelden. The characters are fun but many of their lines are for laughs and a bit anachronistic. There are some tropish stereotypes in the love interests that can be annoying or fun depending on your perspective.

DA2 takes place in Kirkwall, an independent city-state north of Ferelden that is on the cusp of industrialization and, despite the occasional dragon, the story is very low fantasy. There are no black and white answers to Kirkwall's problems and saving the city is *cough* difficult or impossible. Your player character is just merely trying to survive and is more of an accidental hero, if even a hero at all, and it's hard to name who the true antagonist is. The companion characters in your party break many of the fantasy stereotypes in interesting ways. The female characters are arguably as interesting as the male characters and, unlike in Ferelden, many of the high leadership posts are held by women and for all of society's many problems, sexism is *not* among them. Other than one odd exception, the love interests in the game are all bi and they interact with a male vs female PC in slightly different manners. The dialogue between the party members is often very interesting (and very serious) rather than just for laughs.

DA:O has a gigantic cast with many interesting female characters but I feel they are overshadowed by the male characters. One of the male party members plays such a very large role in the game's plot and I feel that this decision has detrimental consequences to interesting female characters. To say anything more about this would be spoilerific... But, I can say that the female characters always feel slightly less empowered and more stereotypical (female wise woman mage, female mage wearing a distinct lack of clothing, female sexy assassin who wants to braid your hair and go shopping for shoes, "cold" female politician, vs outgoing male warriors and manly male warriors and smexy male rogue/assassins). Men hold most seats of power in DA:O.

DA2, on the other hand, has a slightly smaller cast and no one character overshadows everyone else. Some people dislike the fact that DA2 is a series of stories that are only tied together because they take place in one city (in fact, the city of Kirkwall is a character in its own right). I actually like it a lot because each individual story plays out over time and the stories form a symphony of "LET ME TELL YOU ALL THE WAYS THAT THIS CITY IS FUCKED." The female characters do not play second fiddle to anyone. To say that the game passes the bechdel test is an understatement. Depending on how you choose your party members, you can play certain key scenes controlling a female power squad as you negotiate with female clan leaders, female military leaders, and female religious leaders. And, best of it, these scenes actually feel real and weighty rather than "oh, gee, let's have some flowery girl power! whoo!"

I like the characters in both games, but I like DA2's cast more.

The other thing that you may or may not care about is how the two games handle het relationships. The canon het relationships in DA:O are interesting to me *only* when the player goes out of their way to figure out how to subvert the Classic Het Script (although the game does a lot to subvert it for you). It's possible and, to be honest, DA:O's *canon* het relationships are some of the first to ever interest me for fic. (In final fantasy fandoms I *always* need to subvert canon to create the kinds of het ships that interest me.) DA2 is a little different.

The canon relationships in DA2 are all just plain complex, and most are bi rather than het-only. All of the canon love interests come in with serious baggage and they create serious wreckage along the way. None of them fit the Classic Het Script and all of them are interestingly problematic although some of the canon relationships are so problematic that it can be difficult (or interesting?) to watch when you are immersed in the player characters' perspective. DA2 is kink galore, although judging from the fic I've read, many writers ignore the obvious kinks.

How's all of that for the strangest review EVER of a game series?! XD

Re: I NEED TO PLAY DA, CLEARLY

[auronlu]

VERY useful. Thank you!

And now I'm trying to remember if I got DA:O for my ex and her wife or if I guessed correctly and got DA:2.

I can turn off my brain and deal with female stereotypes better than I should (see the incredibly heteronormative FFX, despite the strong female friendships and characters in it) but it's fun when I don't have to.

Re: I NEED TO PLAY DA, CLEARLY

[sarasa_cat]

Now that I've taken the time to frame DA:O and DA2 as I did above, it occurs to me that DA:O's entire plot is one big heteronormative tale writ at an epic scale. DA2 isn't.

I have mixed "success" at trying to turn off my brain when faced with female stereotypes. It's a huge problem for me while watching hollywood movies and many tv series. As much as I obviously love the Final Fantasy series of games, I have trouble with the underlying subservience that female characters in many of the games. I have a hard time explaining why, but characters like Aeris, Yuna, and Ashe do not appeal to me and always feel like weak, subservient, stereotypical female characters. I can't remember who but someone in FFX fandom once had an interesting discussion with me about Yuna as a strong, independent, and carrying the weight of the world on her shoulders (their view) vs Yuna as subservient and a stereotypically good asian girl who knows her place in society (my view). It was interesting how Yuna evoked very different feelings.

Like FFX, both DA games have strong female-female interactions but everyone is a little more prickly. Fans hold very broad and often opposing views of many of the characters although it seems like the female characters get the most polarized treatment. For instance, there is one character in DA2 named Isabela who is written as pirate-feminist who subscribes to sex positive and body positive philosophy. Her lines are funny and refreshing but also quite deep when she speaks with other female characters about sex, relationships, and body image. Fandom is split over Isabela. Some love her to bits because Isabela wants other women to take pride in who they are (no matter their shape or size or sexual interests and orientation) but other fans call Isabela a selfish selfish selfish slutty slut. (Indeed, Isabela does some selfish things.) So... it's interesting to watch how fans glom onto either the positive traits or the flaws in each character.

[thene]

fwiw the most femslashy fandom I've ever been in is FFXIII, for obvious reasons. But I'm constantly wishing there was any kind of active fandom for Metal Gear Ac!d, which is an all the girls all the time game (PSP, card-based stealth RPG? is that a thing?)