PSA: I found a stat about forgotten characters in fan fiction that blew my mind

I was browsing Archive of Our Own last week and saw a post breaking down how over 60% of side characters in popular fandoms get less than 100 fics written about them. That shocked me because you'd think every minor character has at least a few fans, right? I checked it against my own fandom and found only 2 fics for a character I love from the third book. Has anyone else dug into their fandom's stats and found a character that's basically ignored?

2 comments

2 Comments

hannahk196d ago

It's wild how that tracks with everything else in life, not just fanfic. Like in a TV show with a big ensemble, everybody fights over the main characters while the quiet ones in the background get completely overlooked. Same thing happens in music - everyone knows the lead singer's name but not the drummer or the bassist who actually hold the whole song together. It's like we as a species just naturally glom onto the loudest or most visible thing and forget that the whole picture needs those smaller pieces. Makes me wonder how many great stories or ideas get lost just because nobody bothered to look past the main event.

diana206d ago

Honestly I used to be the same way, I always focused on the main characters until a friend made me watch a show and I realized the side character actually had the best storyline. That comment really flipped a switch for me too.