DISCLAIMER: This is not a judgement of the quality, value, or merits of any of the fics on this list. It's just me being curious about what's popular with the A:TLA fandom on AO3. I was genuinely surprised at some of the results!
Observations and analysis under the cut:
TL:DR, the fandom fucking loves putting Zuko into Situations.
Methodology: I'm including all fics from the first page of results from the most kudos'd, commented, hits, and bookmarks tagged under the Avatar: The Last Airbender (cartoon, 2005) tag on ao3. I am deliberately not including any larger multifandom flash fiction or drabble collections because I don't think they're super relevant. This ended up including 38 fics in total.
I put all the fics into one single spreadsheet in order to compare the differences between fics that are really high on the kudos count but not the hit count, or what has a lot of comments but fewer hits. Basically, I'm throwing a lot of things together to observe what gets engagement and looking at patterns that emerge!
Top 5 most popular fics by hit count:
Salvage - MuffinLance
Fractures - EvieNyx
Embers- Vathara
Towards the Sun - MuffinLance
The Art Of Burning - hella1975
Max: 1,407,170 (Salvage -MuffinLance)
Min: 78,168 (Risking it all - Sreeder)
Average: 349,442
Top 5 most popular fics by kudos count:
Salvage - MuffinLance
The Family You Choose - TunaFishChris
where the stars do not take sides - WitchofEndor
Fractures - EvieNyx
The beginning of a new and brighter birth - aloneintherain
Max: 59,947 (Salvage - MuffinLance)
Min: 3293 (Risking it all - Sreeder)
Average: 19,868
Top 5 most popular fics by number of comments:
The Art Of Burning - hella1975
Salvage - MuffinLance
Fractures - EvieNyx
Towards the Sun - MuffinLance
War Games - Lovely_Elbow_Leech
Max: 13,469 (The Art Of Burning - hella1975)
Min: 358 (Hallowed - Haircrescendo)
Average: 3634
Top 5 most popular fics by number of bookmarks:
absence of heat, excess of destiny - theycallmesuperboy
Salvage - MuffinLance
where the stars do not take sides - WitchofEndor
The Family You Choose - TunaFishChris
The beginning of a new and brighter birth - aloneintherain
Max: 150,317 (absence of heat - theycallmesuperboy)
Min: 430 (Risking it all - Sreeder)
Average: 9297
Highest kudos/hit ratio: Safety First - Haircrescendo (20.36%)
Lowest kudos/hit ratio: My Heart Burns For You - alwaysZutarian (0.89%)
Average kudos/hit ratio: 8.25%
Fic Ratings:
G: 9
T: 18
M: 6
E: 2
Unrated: 3
Popular authors (people who showed up more than once):
Aloneintherain (3)
Haircrescendo (5)
MuffinLance (4)
WitchofEndor (2)
Characters:
Literally all of these fics are Zuko-centric. Not all of them are Zuko-pov but every. single. one. focuses on Zuko as a main character. At least one of the following tags is on every single fic in this list: "The Gaang & Zuko", "Zuko & Zuko's Crew", "Zuko & Iroh" "Zuko & Azula" and "Zuko & [insert gaang member here]"
Relationships:
Ok this is what actually shocked me the most. I fully expected to see more Kataang, Zutara, etc in the top rated fics, but NO! Only 21 out of the 38 fics had any relationship slash tag, and of those, 20/21 were Sokka/Zuko (shoutout to My Heart Burns For You as the token Zutara fic to make it into this list). I did NOT realize Zukka was so popular! Now I'm super curious about what it would be like to run these numbers on FF.net because I know so much A:tla fanfic was written before ao3 existed and most hasn't been cross-posted, and Zukka wasn't a popular ship until more recently.
Other random observations:
There seems to be a pretty even split between post-canon firelord Zuko fics and canon-divergent "Zuko joins the Gaang early" fics.
Only one modern au as far as I could tell! (shoutout to "The Good Vanilla")
We all seem to love a Dadkoda fic
There is a very strong correlation between one-shots and a high kudos/hit ratio.
Seemingly no correlation between word count and number of kudos. The top kudos'd stories were mostly under 10k words, while all the other catergories were dominated by fics in the 100k+ word count.
I didn't really see much correlation between hits, kudos, and comments overall.
There were LOTS of fics that only showed up in one category, which was really interesting! I figured each list would look pretty much the same, and there were several fics that did show up on the front page of every category (Salvage definitely sweeps the board for overall most popular fic), but there was a lot of variation between each list! Some fics had TONS of hits but very few comments, some had truly wild kudos/hit ratios, some were just massively bookmarked.
Thank you for indulging in my nerdiness, and feel free to tell me what I missed or anything you're curious about!
Update: I did it again, this time with Legend of Zelda
A Statistical Analysis of Popular Fanfiction in the Legend of Zelda Fandom on AO3
I like numbers and stats and for some unfathomable reason
this is a gift (it comes with a price) by WitchofEndor ( @a-witch-in-endor )
There is a ghost on the Wani. But the crew have grown used to - even fond of - Prince Zuko. And no matter how many times General Iroh tries to gently explain the boy’s predicament, tries to suggest that he might attempt to move on, Prince Zuko can always be found watching the sea.
-
There is a prisoner in the palace. Finished, 46k words.
*** ** * ** ***
Chap 2:
Anywhere but here, Zuko thinks. Anywhere but here. Anywhere but here.
When Azula is nine, she becomes an only child. She hears the Fire Lord call for Zuko's life, and in the morning, her mother and brother are gone. Azula may be young, but she isn't naive. She knows what happened to them.
Which makes it all the more surprising when Azula tracks the Avatar down and fights his group of peasant friends, only to find herself staring into an eerily familiar face.
An Archive of Our Own, a project of the Organization for Transformative Works
Chapters: 6/6
Fandom: Avatar: The Last Airbender
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Relationships: Azula & Zuko (Avatar), The Gaang & Zuko (Avatar), Azula & The Gaang (Avatar)
Additional Tags: Ursa (Avatar) is a Good Parent, Ozai (Avatar) Being a Terrible Parent, Hakoda (Avatar) is a Good Parent, Azula (Avatar) Redemption, Zuko is an Awkward Turtleduck, Everyone Needs A Hug, Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Sibling Dynamic: Fucked Up But Wholesome
Summary:
Her daughter is five years old when Ursa realises what she and Ozai have been doing to their children. By each choosing one to bestow with their approval, they’re pitting them against one another. Perhaps Ozai is doing it on purpose, but Ursa isn’t. She resolves to heal the damage she has done.
In which Ursa tries to be a better parent to Azula, and it doesn’t change very much. And then, quite abruptly, it changes everything.
Its OFFICIALLY 100 days until Halloween and I refuse to contain my excitement any longer. I'm feeling quite ambitious but up for the challenge. Introducing: 100 Witches/Witch Families/Covens (and some other generally badass marginalized and persecuted women and occultists that probably would not have used the term witch). 100 days. 100 posts. 100+ Witches. These will be in no particular order, and will, as witchcraft does, span history, literature, mythology, cinema, and the modern world. GET READY.
To start us off:
100- The Witch of Endor
No, this is not some awesome character you missed in Star Wars. This biblical necromancer appears in 1 Samuel 28. After driving out all magicians and necromancers from Israel, King Saul seeks her out for assistance. Through her, the ghost of the Prophet Samuel berates Saul, predicting his death and downfall.
We'll see this trope of those in power banishing those with power, only to later seek them out for help, again.
Meredith Vickers delivers a prophecy of death The Witch of Endor and Meredith Vickers http://crwd.fr/2DufTqY #bible #witchofendor #meredithvickers #prometheus #theprophet #aliencovenantorigins
