#btvs data viz

[buffydataviz]

BTVS speaking time (racing bar chart)

Finally get to post something I created! Eventually I will make a Tableau dashboard to dig into this data, but for now here is a very rough racing bar chart, showing the top 11 BTVS characters by speaking time, per episode. This is built on the work done by J. Freedland in GitHub, which I linked to previously. Details below the cut.

BTVS_speaking_time

A Flourish data visualisation by Buffy Data Viz

When I googled how to create a racing bar chart for free, I found something called Flourish. It was very easy to create, so I decided to go ahead and make a rough version of this. (No coding required if you want to create your own. This post sadly not sponsored.) The colors on this aren't great, to keep it legible I limited it to the top 11 characters, it lacks captions, and it lacks images (faces) for the top characters. I can actually fix all that in Flourish but don't have the time at the moment. BUT you get the point.

Notes:

This is cumulative speaking time per episode for each character, in seconds. (The original J. Freedland data did the work of compiling this for each character for each episode.)

Angel and Angelus are treated separately in the original J. Freedland data, but I chose to combine them into one character labeled "Angel." This is consistent with how Spike's speaking time is treated, with only one entry. (I also deleted the original Flourish bars for Angel and Angelus, you can only see the combined bar here.)

For whatever reason the original J. Freedland data combines E01 and E02 for S06 into one entry.

I have not spot checked the J. Freedland data with a stopwatch, but from reviewing it at a high level it seems accurate.

ADDED 09/01: Joyce has speaking time in S7, but this is the First using her body. So note that this data source credits First's speaking time to the character the First is using. (You can also think of it as this data using the actors and not the characters.)

Happy to share the source data (currently in excel) upon request, however it is really just the raw csv from J. Freedland's GitHub in excel, and then basic math making it cumulative to put into Flourish.

If you have any requests for this type of chart for BTVS let me know! It would be relatively easy to re-create this for specific characters and / or focus on specific seasons.

[buffydataviz]

BTVS Speaking Time: Buffy Boos edition (racing bar chart)

Buffy is a hero. Buffy saved the world ALOT. Buffy cannot be reduced to the people she dated / flirted with.

And Yet... It is fun to compare. I created the Buffy Boos edition of the previous chart, and made some other improvements. ("Love interest" sounds like a 1980s term, and trying to be gender neutral I chose "boos.") So you have 17 of Buffy's boos in a racing bar chart, showing their speaking time, per episode. Unlike the previous version (with all characters) this has images for the top characters, and INTERACTIVE CATEGORIES. (Again, credit to J. Freedland who did the GitHub data work.) Details below the cut.

BTVS_Buffy_Boos_speaking_time

A Flourish data visualisation by Buffy Data Viz

The best part is the INTERACTIVE CATEGORIES!! They are color-coded in the chart and you can add or remove them at will. You can also flip the chart from Most to Least. (Do you reject that Faith was a boo? Remove her. Don't want to see minor baddies like Dracula? Remove them. Bored with the people she only flirted with? Remove them.)

Made using Flourish, it was free. This still lacks captions, which I hope to add in later. Will update if I do. End goal is a Tableau dashboard to dig into the full data, but this is fun for now.

This is a cumulative speaking time per episode for each of Buffy's boos in seconds. (The original J. Freedland data did the work of compiling this for each character for each episode. Note that on a high-level review it seems accurate. And the original data combines E01 and E02 for S06 into one entry.)

I have combined Angel's and Angelus's speaking time. This is consistent with how Spike's speaking time is treated. (I also did this in the previous chart.)

Online it looks like The First used Spike as a disguise a few times, so Spike's time could be inflated by that. You would have to check the Forever Dreaming transcripts for those moments to be sure. No other boos were used by The First as disguises.

I used the term "boos" very broadly. A racing bar chart of just Angel vs. Spike would be boring. As expected, adding Riley in does not make it less boring! I would not really count all of these people as boos, but Buffy had some sort of interesting interaction with each of them. Note this includes any speaking time they had, including to people besides Buffy, and also even when Buffy isn't around.

I DID intentionally leave out Xander in this, even though Buffy does flirt with him (magic, making Angel jealous). I considered adding him but his speaking time will dwarf all the others, so I did not.

Happy to share the source data (currently in excel) upon request, however it is really just the raw csv from J. Freedland's GitHub in excel, and then basic math making it cumulative to put into Flourish.

If you have any requests for this type of chart for BTVS let me know!

[buffydataviz]

A03 Fandom data source

Are you interested in digging into stats on your favorite BTVS (or other) ship? Here's a helpful data source: https://fandomstats.org/

They have a tag stats API and a GitHub repository and a full explanation of their work. Bravo to Fandom Stats!

Related to that pie chart on top BTVS ships in AO3, you can explore basics on any ship, including non-BTVS ones. For example, you can search "spike/buffy" and find there are 5,669 (public) works on AO3. The 3 top spuffy tags are angst, romance, and season/series 06. Or "drusilla/spike" returns 705 with the top 3 tags being angst, pre-canon, and vampires.

[buffydataviz]

Since tumblr launched polls there have been a lot of ship and character polls, and some include BTVS! A recent tournament for the AO3 top femslash ships included Tillow (Tara x Willow) and Fuffy (Faith x Buffy). In Round 3 Tillow lost, but Fuffy pulled out a win, by only 20 votes.

As part of the tournament there are downloadable data sets and line graphs. The line graphs are for every single poll, showing the votes over time for both ships in each round.

You can see above once Tillow reaches about 1,000 votes the other ship gets a strong lead and never looks back.

On the other hand, the Fuffy matchup was fairly close the entire round. The lead keeps changing between Fuffy and the Amity/Luz (from The Owl House) ship.

Super cool that people are visualizing this poll data!

[buffydataviz]

BTVS Speaking Time: Adults Men vs. Women edition part 2 (racing bar chart)

Inspired by this great coraniaid post, I created the Adults Men vs. Women edition of the speaking time racing bar chart in part 1. (It includes the top adults by speaking time, the top 7 adult women and the top 5 adult men. No demons or vampires included.) Spoilers for the show BTW!

Giles has an enormous amount of speaking time, so I wanted to explore that. Is it true that if we exclude Giles (who is Buffy's father figure) that the adult men and women have equivalent speaking times? (Of course this ignores that of the top 5 men only 1 dies and of the top 5 women they all die, but let's ignore death for a minute.)

Answer: Nope. Even excluding Giles the top 4 adult men have more speaking time than the top 7 adult women.

(Again, credit to J. Freedland who did the GitHub data work.) Details below the cut!

Summary_Adults_on_BTVS_speaking_time

A Flourish data visualisation by Buffy Data Viz

There are 4 bars in this chart. The top one is "Top 5 M", so this includes all top 5 adult men by speaking time, or more simply "Men." The next bar is "Top 4 M", this is the same as "Top 5 M" but excluding Giles. Think of it as "Men without Giles." The next bar is "Top 7 W," this is the top 7 adult women by speaking time. And the last bar is "Top 5 W," this is the top 5 adult women. You can think of this as Women without Ms. Kroger or Olivia if you like.

The interactive categories for this chart are Men, Men without Giles, and Women. They are color-coded in the chart and you can add or remove them at will.

While Giles does skew the Top 5 Men's numbers with his speaking time, even excluding him, the top 4 adult men have more speaking time than the top 7 adult women. It's not a TON, but it is a noticeable difference.

Same as in Part 1: For the purposes of these 13 characters, they are assumed to be men or women. This is assuming that all 13 characters are non-binary.

Same as in Part 1: The top 5 adult men by speaking time are: Rupert Giles (most speaking time), Riley Finn, Robin Wood, Principal Snyder, and Wesley Wyndam-Pryce. Note that of these 5, only 1 of them dies during the show.

Same as in Part 1: The top 7 adult women by speaking time are: Joyce Summers (most speaking time), Jenny Calendar, Maggie Walsh, Gwendolyn Post, Catherine Madison (Amy's Mom), Ms. Doris Kroger (Dawn's social worker), and Olivia Williams (Rupert's British friend and romantic interest). Note that of these 7, the top 5 all die during the show.

Same as in Part 1: Joyce and Jenny and Maggie have speaking time after their deaths, because their ghost will appear, or the First will use their body.

Made using Flourish, it was free. This still lacks captions, which I hope to add in later. Will update if I do. End goal is a Tableau dashboard to dig into the full data, but this is fun for now.

This is a summary based on the cumulative speaking time per episode for these 13 characters in seconds. (The original J. Freedland data did the work of compiling this for each character for each episode. Note that on a high-level review it seems accurate. And the original data combines E01 and E02 for S06 into one entry.)

Happy to share the source data (currently in excel) upon request, however it is really just the raw csv from J. Freedland's GitHub in excel, and then basic math making it cumulative to put into Flourish.

If you have any requests for this type of chart for BTVS let me know!

[buffydataviz]

BTVS Speaking Time: Adults Men vs. Women edition part 1 (racing bar chart)

Inspired by this great coraniaid post, I created the Adults Men vs. Women edition of the speaking time racing bar chart. It includes the top 7 adult women by speaking time, as outlined by coraniaid. It also includes the top 5 adult men by speaking time. No demons or vampires included. This chart has the details for each of the 13 characters, so it is part 1.

(Again, credit to J. Freedland who did the GitHub data work.) Details below the cut, includes show spoilers!

Adult_BTVS_speaking_time

A Flourish data visualisation by Buffy Data Viz

For the purposes of these 13 characters, they are assumed to be men or women. This is assuming that all 13 characters are non-binary. Giles is his own category only because his speaking time is so much greater than everyone else's. He is the top adult man per speaking time in the show.

The top 5 adult men by speaking time are: Rupert Giles (most speaking time), Riley Finn, Robin Wood, Principal Snyder, and Wesley Wyndam-Pryce. Note that of these 5, only 1 of them dies during the show.

The top 7 adult women by speaking time are: Joyce Summers (most speaking time), Jenny Calendar, Maggie Walsh, Gwendolyn Post, Catherine Madison (Amy's Mom), Ms. Doris Kroger (Dawn's social worker), and Olivia Williams (Rupert's British friend and romantic interest). Note that of these 7, the top 5 all die during the show.

There are INTERACTIVE CATEGORIES!! They are color-coded in the chart and you can add or remove them at will. The categories are Giles, Men, and Women.

Joyce and Jenny and Maggie have speaking time after their deaths, because their ghost will appear, or the First will use their body.

Made using Flourish, it was free. This still lacks captions, which I hope to add in later. Will update if I do. End goal is a Tableau dashboard to dig into the full data, but this is fun for now.

This is a cumulative speaking time per episode for these 13 characters in seconds. (The original J. Freedland data did the work of compiling this for each character for each episode. Note that on a high-level review it seems accurate. And the original data combines E01 and E02 for S06 into one entry.)

Happy to share the source data (currently in excel) upon request, however it is really just the raw csv from J. Freedland's GitHub in excel, and then basic math making it cumulative to put into Flourish.

If you have any requests for this type of chart for BTVS let me know!

[buffydataviz]

BTVS Fandom on AO3 - Tillow and Fuffy

There are two blogs (ToastyStats and centrumlumina) that regularly post about AO3 fandom stats, and I wanted to summarize where BTVS ranks in their findings. The highlights?

While BTVS used to be a top fandom by popularity (as recently as Jan 2018) it is not anymore. Sadly no BTVS ships make the top overall ships list. But an Aug 2022 top 100 femslash ship ranking includes Tillow (Tara x Willow) at 61 and Fuffy (Faith x Buffy) at 73. (Back in 2014 they were both in the top 20!) And as of Feb 2021 Fuffy was top ranked for F/F ships with a higher percent of adult content, at 12. You can see them halfway down on the toastystat's chart below. Source links, more on Tillow, another chart, and other details after the cut!

New item by Destination Toast

Sources are at the end and noted in text in parentheses.

As recently as Jan 2018 (1 - ToastyStats) BTVS was one of the top 25 fandoms, considering only large fandoms. It was at 25 overall and 10 for TV show fandoms. "Large" meant over 25K fanworks. Fanworks include fan fic and also fan art!

Unfortunately BTVS is no longer one of the top fandoms. (2)

We know (from before) that 2 of the top 5 AO3 ships for BTVS are Tara x Willow (Tillow) and Faith x Buffy (Fuffy). While the other ships do not make the "top 100 ship lists" (3 - centrumlumina) Tillow and Fuffy do make the "femslash top 100" list (4). (Femslash is an older term for F/F ships.)

As of Aug 2022, rankings were Tillow at 61 and Fuffy at 73. Both fell from their ranking last year. The first year that centrumlumina did her femslash analysis, way back in July 2014, Tillow was at 9 and Fuffy was at 13! (5)

Additionally, if you're looking for F/F ships with a higher percent of adult content (rated Explicit or Mature), Fuffy is shown on this chart at 12. (6) That ToastyStats purple-y chart (also shown above) is sorted by % Explicit. Only F/F ships with more than 1,000 works were included. You can see the fuller set of data (that includes Tillow) at ToastyStats's helpful data link.

If you leave out the video games, leave out the Anna & Elsa (platonic) ship**, and sort by the total % Adult Content, you can create the chart below. In this chart Fuffy moves up to 8. The new chart shows the 1 - 25 ships, and by that method then Tillow is ranked at 24. (The main difference is sorting by % Explicit above vs % Adult Content below. Adult Content is combined Explicit and Mature rated fanworks.)

AO3 top adult F/F ships

A Flourish data visualisation by Buffy Data Viz

[ ** I suspect this is an error by the AO3 fanwork creators. Perhaps they meant to label their Anna - Elsa work as non-platonic, but they are using the "&" symbol instead of the "/" symbol for their ship.]

For the red - yellow - grey chart, if you mouse-over the fandom will pop-up, and you can also see the last year the original media aired. It will say current if the media is still going. Shout outs to Star Trek: Voyager (last aired 2001) and BTVS (2003) for being the oldest fandoms to make the top 25!

Also interesting to see that some media have two ships in this list: The 100 (2020), Glee (2015), and BTVS (2003).

While I made the red - yellow - grey chart on Flourish, all the data compilation was done by ToastyStats. All credit to her, and all errors in this chart are mine.

Sources:

Note AO3 posts have more details. While you have to agree to their terms of service to view, they are rated G (for General) and you do not need an AO3 login.

2018 top fandoms: AO3 post or Tumblr post (ToastyStats)

2022 top fandoms: AO3 post or Tumblr post (ToastyStats)

2022 top ships: AO3 post (centreoftheselights)

2022 top femslash ships: AO3 post (centreoftheselights)

2014 top femslash ships: AO3 post (centreoftheselights)

F/F stats: AO3 post or Tumblr post (ToastyStats)

[buffydataviz]

what does the redacted stand for in the buffy boos chart? faith has that colour and i can't make out what it's supposed to mean. i love what you're doing it's so cool!!

So glad you like the charts! Redacted is a little joke, because the show never honors Faith as being interested in Buffy (or Buffy being interested in her). It's also a reference to the @herinsectreflection essay (roughly focused on episode 3x03) where Part 3 is titled [Redacted]. If you have seen BTVS I encourage you to read all the essays, she's working through S3 now.

Practically, I wanted to have Faith in her own category because some people will want to filter her out. And then she gets to have that nice red color all to herself.

Thank you for the question!