Who Tops in Polytrix? A Statistical Analysis
There are many discussions that can be had about the top/bottom dynamics within polytrix; however, these discussions would be better served by an accurate picture of the current state of affairs. I intend to help facilitate these discussions, and also to better support any future arguments that I plan to make, by conducting a statistical analysis of the current existing library of fanfictions published to Archiveofourown.org. Initially, my scope only included top/switch/bottom dynamics, but I eventually included ABO in my analysis.
While the dynamics within any ship may be complex, in order to remove bias and allow for large-scale analysis, I only included fics that were tagged with specific roles. The fics included in Top Rumi, for instance, include fics with that very specific tag (this will be addressed in the discussion section). The tags investigated were: Top Rumi, Switch Rumi, Bottom Rumi, Top Mira, Switch Mira, Bottom Mira, Top Zoey, Switch Zoey, & Bottom Zoey. Additionally, I realized halfway through doing this that I should at least touch on ABO (idk like anything about ABO but it would be negligent to not include it in my search), so the Alpha, Beta, & Omega tags for all three characters were also analyzed.
I first investigated how many fics existed with each respective tag. All searches were made to exclude any non-lesbian ships (when statistically relevant), (e.g. Rumi/Jinu, Zoey/Mystery, etc.). Additionally, all searches were repeated with the added tag of Rumi/Mira/Zoey. Independent searches were made for all ABO tags.
Of course, a raw count of how many fics exist is not representative of how popular these tags are. To examine each tag’s popularity, I analyzed hits and kudos. For each tag, a search was queried, sorting from most to least hits/kudos. The first twenty (first page) fics had their hits/kudos recorded. The sum of these first page values was tabulated. I only did the first page because a) I was doing this by hand and b) the numerical effect of subsequent pages is not as significant towards the sum because of the decreasing values. For the ABO tags, I only did kudos because the population values are low and also I’m doing this by hand and I’m tired.
Figure 1a is a table of the number of fics tagged with each top/switch/bottom tag. Figure 1b is the totals when only allowing for fics with the tag Rumi/Mira/Zoey. Figures 2 & 3 are the calculated totals (first page) for hits and kudos, respectively. Figure 4 is all previous figures normalized into ratios. The ratios determined for “number of fics” is a general ballpark that averages between the general searches and the polytrix exclusive searches.
Figure 5 is the same tabulation method as Figure 1 but for all ABO related tags. Similarly, Figure 6 is the previously described kudos totalling method but applied to the ABO tags. Figure 7 is a normalized ratio summary of Fig 5 & 6.
Generally, Mira is depicted as a Top, Rumi is depicted as a Bottom, and Zoey is depicted more diversely, with bias towards Top and Switch. Zoey is depicted more as a Switch per number of fics and hits, but is actually depicted more as a Top when looking at kudos, although this difference is hardly discernable from noise.
Looking at ABO, Mira is typically depicted as an Alpha and Rumi is most often depicted as an Omega. Zoey is the only character with a prominent presence as a Beta, with Mira & Rumi only having single-digit counts in this role. If not depicted as a Beta, Zoey is more often depicted as an Alpha.
These data support a hierarchical structure of polytrix, in which Mira tops both Zoey and Rumi, and Zoey tops Rumi. Mira & Rumi tend to act as anchor points, with Zoey allowed to maneuver throughout the throuple and produce complex interactions. This could be a reason that she is most often dubbed the “freakiest” of the group, as her role is open to the most interpretation and experimentation. The reverse could also be true.
There are a few very popular fics that are not included in this data, as they are not tagged with any tags that I investigated.
Two's Company (But they want a crowd) by TossLotsofsauce is not tagged any of the investigated tags, but I would argue that the fic could accurately be tagged with (Stone) Top Mira, Switch Zoey, and Bottom Rumi.
so we were liars by arendellesfirstwinter is not included because the tags surround who is top/bottom are complicated because they’re relevant to the plot of the story. I would argue though, that the tag Bottom Rumi could be safely applied to this fic.
Now, Two’s Company has over a million hits and 30k kudos, so including it into the calculations has a staggering effect.
Figure 8 is the updated hits and kudos counts, and Figure 9 is the updated normalized ratios.
One reason that Two’s Company has so many hits is because hits is simply the number of times someone has clicked on a fic, so being a 450,000 word, 40+ chapter fic means that people click on it a ton. But it’s also worth noting that the fic was first published in early July, which was in polytrix’s infancy. The exact causality/implications of this are not the focus of this analysis, but it is undeniable that the fic is influential and that its dynamics are in line with modern day consensus. (this is also just author bias cuz I was very influenced by this fic).
Generally, while the fandom is not averse to exploring many different dynamics and scenarios, it's abundantly clear that there are trends within the data, and that Rumi tends to get cast as a bottom & Mira tends to get cast as a top. Zoey is prone to a lot more variation, but is generally depicted as either a top or switch.
I think that one prominent question is that of Rumi's demonhood/shame. A lot of Rumi's depiction as a bottom is tied to the shame that is depicted in the movie, and Mira & Zoey, as her lovers who are trying to help her heal, are consequently positioned as tops.
Conversely, there's a growing number of fics in which Rumi is a top, and her demon nature is a prominent element to her being more dominant, possessive, and aggressive.
Further analysis will be required to determine if any trends can be gathered.
All raw data and figures from this analysis can be found here. The kudos data actually still contains the links to the fics.
Conflict of interest statement
The author is very lesbian.
gummygunk
turnnoffyourmind
theartofmadeline
vaporwave
dailybridgerton
yousharknotpass
annaxmalina
