A Statistical Breakdown of Malec Fanfiction

It was Jane Austen who wrote, “It is a truth universally acknowledged, that a single fandom in possession of a good ship, must be in want of a healthy ship tag.”

Or something like that, anyway…

Regardless of what great writers may or may not have written, the Malec fandom has never been short on great writers itself, as showcased by the fact that on September 17, 2018, the “Magnus Bane/Alec Lightwood” tag on Archive of Our Own (a popular fanfiction archive site, often abbreviated as “AO3”) reached a total of 17k works (a number that bears particular significance for Malec fans). The title of 17,000th work belongs to “Sweet Beginnings” by astudyinfic. But what of the other works? We crunched the numbers to try and find out.

Introduction to this breakdown

This piece covers the 17,074 works posted at the time of final data gathering on September 24, 2018. All numbers are rounded to the nearest integer, as per standard rules. Any inaccuracies are the writers’ own (we tried super hard to avoid any, we promise).

Here come the numbers

With a total of 113,729,355 words across 17,074 works (averaging at 6,738 per work), there’s no shortage of content to consume, and all of this doesn’t only come from a few very hardworking creators, either; more like 4,264 individual hardworking creators (the ‘webscraper’ program used for our research took only the first author noted in collaborative works, which means there could be more). That’s a mean average of four works per person, and a total of 26,672 words. 232 works have been orphaned (essentially disowned by their authors), but that still leaves a huge number of creators’ works to look at and enjoy. Some of those creators are absolute powerhouses in the tag, with over 50 works under their belts! Five people have contributed over 100, and we should probably revere them and their power – check out the list below:

Everything’s not entirely written in English either. While it’s certainly the majority at 16,195 works, AO3 supports a staggering number of languages (including Sindarin and Klingon, which this writer would pay money to see). Here’s a look at the other languages you can read about Malec in:

Thankfully, for authors, readers aren’t shy about feedback, either. All works have accrued a total of 48,864,974 hits, with 2,930,228 kudos, and 34,4260 comments. That’s an average 16:1 hits to kudos ratio, 142:1 hits to comments, and a hits/kudos/comments ratio of 142:9:1!

There’s not really much worse than getting invested in an amazing fic, to see it was left behind in the wreckage of 2016. Luckily, the Malec fandom is also very good at finishing works!

If you’re curious about the breakdown between show works and book works, we’ve got you covered. While there’ll never be an exact, clear indicator – unless you read every work and marked them down – given there are works with the show tag that have, say, blue-eyed Alec (characteristic of the book version of Alec), or show-based works additionally tagged with the book tag, filtering out on AO3 gives a pretty clear picture. This chart compares uses of the “Shadowhunters (TV)” tag in total; the “Shadowhunters (TV)” tag on its own, excluding all other tags; and then with the “Shadowhunters (TV)” tag excluded (leaving in various book tags and the City of Bones movie tag).

What came first, the ship or the fandom?

The first work to use the “Malec” tag, “Goes Nicely With Blue” by Etanseline, was posted just over a month after AO3 went into open beta, a stage of software testing open to the public (November 14, 2009). That makes the fic nearly 10 years old!

Now, the first show-based work is a little debatable. The first entry to use the show tag is “Thunderstorms” by brandnewworldtosee, first published on AO3 on May 6, 2014, but written four years beforehand, according to the summary. This is obviously a backdated tag, given the show was first announced to go ahead on October 12, 2014. So then, what is the first show work? The pilot of Season 1 aired on January 12, 2016, but it’s not uncommon for works to predate a source material’s release. Looking at works posted in January 2016, tagged with the show tag that don’t mention book appearances, it appears that the first explicitly show-verse work is “Shatter Me (Make Me Feel Alive)” by FrozenHearts. One could also argue, given that it mentions no defining characteristics to swing it one way or another, the first is “The Party Scene” by ninwrites (who you may recognize as still writing and publishing show-verse Malec to this day). Whichever you wish to herald as the first, we can all agree that these writers gave this tag its strong start.

The demon’s in the details

But what of the content of all 17,000 works? What are you most likely to find? Let’s start with ratings. AO3 has a rating system (similar to all media) as well as an archive warning system – this is so that users who wish to filter out content like graphic violence, rape/non-con, major character death, or underage sex, can do so quickly, easily, and effectively. It’s part of why AO3 is so beloved by its users, not least of all, the creators in the “Malec” tag. All ratings and warnings can be found, although it seems as though the general leaning is towards family-friendly content.

A common misconception about fanfiction and fan works is that it is all pornographic, but by these numbers, it’s only about 10%! In fact, we can safely assume that Malec fans like their content fluffy and friendly, as evidenced by the top 10 most common tags attached to works, which are listed below:

In terms of characters, a valid expectation would be that both Magnus and Alec are tagged 17,074 times – but this is not the case! Whether that’s because of third-person POV, because the author decided not to tag them individually, or some third unknown reason, here’s a list of the top 25 most commonly occurring characters in Malec works:

Here’s how the gender makeup of those ships breaks down:

“Hello? Is it me you’re looking for?”

So, say you’ve never explored the “Malec” tag before. Say you’ve had a look at the content above, and have decided to venture forth into a world of fine-crafted and thoughtful storytelling. What’s the first thing you’ll see? It all depends on what you sort by: date, kudos, hits, or word count!

If you sort by kudos, AO3’s “like” system, the first result is “Fall Without Wings” by notcrypticbutcoy. At the time of data gathering, it had garnered an incredible 7,266 kudos. In fact, look at all the numbers below the summary; each one is staggering in its own right, cementing this work as an absolute juggernaut of a fic!

“Fall Without Wings” is also the second work you’ll see when you sort by hits; it’s beaten to the top spot by “All Things Shadowhunters” – a compilation work by katikat that has amassed 186,820 hits! That’s 588 ficlets right there, in one work.

Finally, for when you want to really settle in for a while with Malec, sort by word count. Dominating the tag at the moment is “City of Wayward Sons” by 123Chickadee – a crossover fic between The Mortal Instruments books and the Supernatural TV series. Its position is precarious, however! “City of Wayward Sons” is a finished work, and close behind it is the unfinished “In the Sin Bin” by otppurefuckingmagic – the next chapter may well topple “CoWS” and claim the top spot as longest work in the “Malec” tag! That is unless another contender doesn’t enter the ring before then…

Conclusion

To recap, across 17,074 works on AO3 by over 4,000 individual authors, there are 10,807 family-friendly works. 3,739 are rated “mature and up.” 5% are in languages other than English. You’re most likely to find Clace or Sizzy as the secondary couple. And if you’re looking for some fluff in your diet, there’s nearly 5,000 works out there to satisfy.

With such a wide range of varied content out there, and with new works posted daily, there’s enough in the tag to keep even the speediest reader occupied for a long time and – with the way fandoms always carry on – for a long time to come as well.

 

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