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

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.