These data tables show the top 250 canonical fandom tags on Archive of Our Own, ranked by the total number of public non-subtag works.
[Full transcription of the above data available in the AO3 version.]
What do you mean by canonical fandom tags?
On AO3, a canonical tag is one that has been recognised by the tag wranglers as an official part of the site's tag system. These are the only tags which appear in the drop-down suggestion list when posting a work. Fandom tags are one of the main categories of AO3 tag and lists showing all canonical fandom tags can be found here.
What do you mean by total works?
This is an "All Time" Top 250 list, showing the total number of works posted over the whole lifetime of the site up until the data was gathered (10th August 2026).
What do you mean by public works?
This dataset only includes public/unlocked works, or works that are visible to users viewing the site without an account. This is because I do not believe it is ethical to collect data on works that creators have chosen to mark as not for public access.
The number of works will be higher - around 15% higher on average - for tags viewed while logged in to an account. Recreating this data to include private works would cause some changes in the rankings, particularly for fandoms where are large proportion of works are marked private, such as RPF fandoms.
What do you mean by non-subtag works?
Some tags on AO3 have a "subtag" relationship, which means that all works in the subtag also count in the tag listings for the larger "metatag". For instance all works in "Marvel Cinematic Universe" are also listed in the "Marvel" fandom. This means that ranking by the total shown at the top of a tag tends to produce a list where the largest tags are those with the most large subtags, and it also means a single tagging can count towards multiple fandoms' totals.
In order to avoid this issue, I have instead taken the work totals shown in the "Sort and Filter" menu, which show the total number of works for each tag and its synonyms without counting uses of subtags. Using the example above, this means a work which is only tagged "Marvel Cinematic Universe" will only be counted towards that total. However, a work which is tagged with both "Marvel Cinematic Universe" and "Marvel" will still count towards both totals. This data shows the total number of times that a user has entered each fandom tag on a work, regardless of any other fandom tags which may have been used.
This is only one possible way to approach the issue of gathering data on the popularity of fandom tags, and other valid methodologies exist.
"bottom" please consider 🫵 whether the word you are looking for is in fact "submissive" ! because if we decide that taking dick means your personality & character r inherently subservient 😃 we might as well just throw in the towel on the most basic premise of feminism & 🔫 kill ourselves 🎉
[Image ID: Tumblr reply from duckToothCollection reading: being sexually submissive also doesn't mean that your personality and character are inherently subservient but that's probably too advanced for those people /End ID]
Made this tumblr to show @ssreeder what I made! ❤️ Zuko and Sokka running for their lives ❤️ (or just Sokka whilst Zuko catches a ride I guess). Didn’t come out exactly as I envisioned it but I gave it my best shot lol. Hope you like it and it does LIAB some justice!! (((:
"entity ryan lowkey seemed like it actually wanted naim LOL" yeah bc it's supposed to.. entity ryan panting like a dog, tongue wetting his lips, eyes blown and heavy lidded as it chokes naim, forcing his way into his mouth. how violating is that for naim? to see ryan's face as he's hurt, and have him look like he's getting off on it? the entity isn't just violent it's sexually violent, bc encounters with it are designed to be traumatising. the entity's attacks are sexually charged so that queer kids associate desire with harm, and fear it.
okay but naim bringing his doona into his mum's room to sleep on the floor beside her bed literally gutted me in that fucking theatre bitch i think i nearly wailed out loud wdym!!! the cognitive dissonance is insane. you did this to me, how could you do this to me? you were only trying to help me, you're supposed to protect me. i can't be alone, why did you leave me like that, please mum please don't leave me like that again WHAT THE FUUUUCKKK
just saw this clip of stacy talking abt the scene of naim's frst encounter with the entity at hunter's funeral and explaining how the entity targets naim by mimicking ryan's lust bc it's whole design is to link desire with fear. though naim is crying and shaken it doesn't offer words of comfort, it pulls him in for a rough kiss and tries to arouse him--targeting naim's sexual desire specifically. only once naim responds, kissing back with fervour, does it become violent. because the entity's main goal is to link fear and desire in naim's mind. pavlovian conditioning: by associating arousal with violence and fear, any feelings of lust and desire will be avoided. that's why the church enacts the ritual. they don't want queer kids dead, they want them scared. the goal has always been conformity. we need fear. fear is how we survive.
but when naim's last act in the face of what could be his death is to reach up and gently cup the entity's face, it falters. because to the people who set this thing upon ryan and naim and hunter, love was never part of the equation. the church puts so much emphasis on lust and desire because that's all queerness is to these people--sexual immorality condemned by God. and that's why the entity, a tool used by religious folk to scare kids away from their queerness and force them to conform, ultimately fails to drive ryan and naim apart.
izzy806
ellievsbear
