What makes a rare pair rare?
Jan. 4th, 2019 01:07 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
peoriapeoriawhereart posting in ![[community profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/community.png){kind=small}
fictional_fansThis time I'm going to be specific, and MCU & Marvel (comics). Keep in mind I was quickly made over as a slasher when I joined the internet's version of media fandom. At the time, that meant my 'ships and canon ships wouldn't even pass in the night.
Stony (aka Steve/Tony) is not a rare pair; it's canon in some multiverse realities, and fandom ran with it when MCU was unformed enough raiding comics canon was common. Stucky (Steve/Bucky) is not a rare pair because fandom ran with it. Pepperoni (Pepper/Tony) I wouldn't consider rarepair, it's MCU on and off and on again canon. Phlint (Phil Coulson/Clint Barton aka Shieldhusbands) is not a rare pair, slashers love that.
Is it a rare pair if it has Clint in it? Natasha/Clint, Bobbi/Clint, Penny/Clint, Spider-Woman/Clint (sorry, too many Jessicas) are all comics canon. Okay, arguably Winterhawk (Bucky/Clint) and Frosthawk (Loki/Clint) are rare pairs.
And yes, it does say something about fandom that I'm in the fourth paragraph before I ask if there are non-rarepairs for either Rhodey or Sam Wilson.
earlier related discussion
Stony (aka Steve/Tony) is not a rare pair; it's canon in some multiverse realities, and fandom ran with it when MCU was unformed enough raiding comics canon was common. Stucky (Steve/Bucky) is not a rare pair because fandom ran with it. Pepperoni (Pepper/Tony) I wouldn't consider rarepair, it's MCU on and off and on again canon. Phlint (Phil Coulson/Clint Barton aka Shieldhusbands) is not a rare pair, slashers love that.
Is it a rare pair if it has Clint in it? Natasha/Clint, Bobbi/Clint, Penny/Clint, Spider-Woman/Clint (sorry, too many Jessicas) are all comics canon. Okay, arguably Winterhawk (Bucky/Clint) and Frosthawk (Loki/Clint) are rare pairs.
And yes, it does say something about fandom that I'm in the fourth paragraph before I ask if there are non-rarepairs for either Rhodey or Sam Wilson.
earlier related discussion
no subject
Date: 2019-01-05 02:04 pm (UTC)how I judge what is a rare pair in any given fandom (just my way to do it, not a universal definition): I look at the ao3 page of the fandom. Example: Captain America (movies). Then I open the Relationships tab in the side bar. This lists the ten most tagged pairings in the category. Imho none of these can be considered rare since they are the top ten, even if #1 probably got a lot more works than #10.
For Cap movies we got the following top ten pairings:
James "Bucky" Barnes/Steve Rogers (29114)
James "Bucky" Barnes & Steve Rogers (5203)
Steve Rogers/Tony Stark (4647)
Peggy Carter/Steve Rogers (2767)
James "Bucky" Barnes/Reader (2258)
Pepper Potts/Tony Stark (2220)
James "Bucky" Barnes/Tony Stark (1988)
Clint Barton/Natasha Romanov (1957)
Steve Rogers/Sam Wilson (1880)
Steve Rogers/Natasha Romanov (1680)
Steve/Bucky has more fics than Steve/Sam but the latter is still in the top ten and therefore not rare to me. Same goes for Clintasha, which is probably a side pairing here (same with Tony/Pepper) but used to be huge huge huge in Avengers fandom aomong people who prefer het.
no subject
Date: 2019-01-05 02:13 pm (UTC)Steve Rogers/Tony Stark (4889)
Pepper Potts/Tony Stark (4299)
Loki/Tony Stark (2252)
James "Bucky" Barnes/Tony Stark (2045)
Peter Parker & Tony Stark (1892)
James "Bucky" Barnes/Steve Rogers (1228)
Steve Rogers & Tony Stark (926)
James "Rhodey" Rhodes & Tony Stark (920)
Tony Stark/Stephen Strange (876)
Bruce Banner/Tony Stark (827)
The numbers are overall a lot lower than for Cap, but Rhodey makes the list. However he makes the list as an "&" instead of "/", so friendship instead of sexy tiems. Rhodey/Tony on the other hand clocks in at 525 fics so kinda rare but there.