#reader bias

[omgellendean]

istg, 90% of Cat hate in ASoIaF fandom is people being pressed that she’s a character on her own and not just dead mother of the heroes.

[omgellendean]

It’s funny though, that Sansa has a reputation of a particularly unreliable narrator (to the point where people hesitate to trust Sansa expressing her feelings and thoughts in her own PoV) because of the Unkiss. Every single PoV (if not every significant character) does the same or a similar thing with their memories at least once. Bran forces himself to forget who pushed him out the window, Arya is currently trying to erase her entire personality, Jaime’s MO is literally fake it till you make it, and I mean, there is THEON and his entire arc. But no, you add one cruel kiss to your otherwise accurate account of events and suddenly you are never to be trusted again.

[tryingthisfangirlthing]

So, I posted a bunch of Guild Wars 2 one-shots to Archive of Our Own yesterday.

The one piece clearly labeled “smut” and “PWP” received more hits than any three of the others combined. It’s not even really good smut. Admittedly, this sample size is probably not representative, since it’s only been one day and hits are in single to very low double digit range... but so far this has confirmed reader bias in a strangely real way.