#juliocctis

Of the 78 possible pairings, 34 have at least one fic, so not quite halfway there. Another 9 have only the & tag, which pushes over the halfway point for overall character-character interactions.

Right now, the tags lean heavily M/M - making up 5 of the top nine ships, as well as 62% of the overall tags, M/M also has the highest proportion of possible tags in use, with 18 of 28 (64%) possible pairings compared to the 11 / 40 (28%) of F/M and 5 / 10 (50%) of F/F pairings, with F/F only making up 7% of ship tags at the moment.

Occtis is the most widely shipped character, very much the early fandom bicycle, only missing tags from Tyranny & Wick (although one of the few OT3 tags is Occtis/Tyranny/Wick). Hal is a close runner up on both fronts, shipped with everyone but Murray, Thimble, and Tyranny, and also has the greatest number of total tags/fics with his 60 to Occtis' 54.

Least ship'd we have poor, dear Murray Mag'nesson with only 3 tags, each for a different ship. followed by Thimble who's also only at 3 PC/PC tags but has more /NPC tags. Vaelus comes in third, mostly propped up by the Thaisha/Vaelus. For the most single-focused, a full 92% of Bolaire ship tags are Halaire, the most one-sided of any of pairing or character. The other 'majority' ships are Occtis/Kattigan for Kattigan (but not Occtis, who's just under the radar at only 48%), Thaisha as the top ship for Vaelus (54%), and Tyranny/Wick who are each othersmajority (with 85% of Tyranny ships, and 67% of Wick ships)

On the platonic side, things are much more focused, with more single-use tags. 100% of Murray & tags is Bolaire & Murray, same with Tyranny & Wick being the only tag for Tyranny, and still the majority for Wick. Thaisha & Vaelus and Bolaire & Hal are also the top of both romantic and platonic, but Kattigan & Teor is the dominant tag for Kattigan, and Occtis & Thaisha the majority for both of them.

Occtis is also the most widely &'d character, having platonic tags for everyone but Kattigan, Murray, Teor, and Tyranny, Hal and Bolaire both following behind him in range, although Thaisha is the highest for total number (with Hal & Thaisha helping her beat out with Occtis since Occtis & Thaisha is the number one & pairing by far)

Again, Murray is at the bottom with only 3 tags, with Kattigan and Thimble are tied at second-least & tags at 5, followed by Vaelus and Teor at 9.

22 tags have both a romantic/sexual and a platonic variant, so we can calculate the most "shippy" of them. While there are a ton of ships with no & (and more with an & but no /), for the ones that have both, the most romantic is Teor/Wick at 9:1, followed by Azune/Kattigan at 4:1, and Julien/Occtis at 3.25:1.

The most platonic pairing is, unsurprisingly, Occtis & Thaisha at 1:18, followed by Bolaire & Occtis at 1:4, Kattigan & Teor at 1:3, then Thimble & Occtis at 1:2. There are two pairings that are (currently) perfectly balanced: Azune & Julien and Hal & Teor.

Overall, most characters have more romantic pairings than platonic (as platonic relationships are more often untagged or unwritten). Kattigan has the highest ration at almost 7:1, while most fall below 2:1, with Murray the perfect 1:1. Only three characters have more platonic works than romantic, Bolaire, Thimble, and Thaisha who is at 1:2 (mostly driven by the presence that is Occtis & Thaisha).

The Seekers' table is the only one where every dynamic has been tag'd, mostly driven by their focus in e4, while Schemers have 5 / 6 possible tags and Soldiers only 6 / 10. Seekers/Schemers has the most crossover (12 / 16 possible pairings), while the Soldiers' table has the most untagged dynamics (7 / 20 in both cases).

Dynamics that I think its wild not to have any tag at all, romantic or platonic:

Azune & Murray - the stuff with them in e3 staring into each others eyes? so good. given that they're at the same table, I expect this to change

Hal & Thimble - such an interesting dynamic. there's history there, even if the connection is mostly through Thjazi

Julien & Thimble - again, super ripe connection, especially with the Aranessa/Royce/Faerie ties. This one I can understand waiting for them to have more explained before writing, though

Teor & Thimble - come on, episode 1? big lion man with tiny pixie? I've seen so much fanart to not have any fic.

Murray & Thaisha and Murray & Tyranny, okay, so this is a stretch, but you see the vision, don't you?

Other same-table pairs I expect to see get something over these first arcs: Kattigan & Wick, Teor & Tyranny, Thimble & Wick

And, for those who want some more nitty gritty, the individual graphs for each character. (by nature, some of these lines overlap a bit, but that usually only happens with the 1/fic peaks. only major NPC ships have been included, which is mostly just Thjazi and Julien/Aranessa.

Splitting this up, lets start with the soldiers!

Kattigan we mostly see Occtigan which has a very strong early presence that has dropped off with e3/4, as well as Azune/Kattigan, which picks up a bit with e3 and Azune bidding the Soldiers' farewell, but there's little content in e4 as the Soldiers table was gone, although with one Murray/Kattigan fic to represent their e3 flirting.

This will be interesting to see evolve as we move into the next episodes covering their first arc, as Kattigan is mostly shipped with characters from other tables and not his fellow soldiers.

For Teor, the dominant ship is with Wick, although it only really shows up in e2/3 (where the Teor-Wick interactions are in play, with e1 having more of a focus with Azune, fellow mercenary. There are some singular fics with Hal & Kattigan, and the general omnipresence of Occtis shipping, but Wick is definitely the early lead

Thimble has generally not gotten a lot of ships - one with Vaelus, one with Occtis, one with Tyranny, the only big point is 2 fics with Thjazi, but it is still mostly tagged platonic.

Tyranny, while there are a few Thaisha fics coming out of their interaction at the funeral, and one Thimble fic (actually a full Soldiers/Soldiers fic), this is basically just Wickanny, with a early e1 peak and a higher e3 peak as we get into the details of the Creed.

Similarly, Wick is mostly with Tyranny, although Wick/Teor is higher for e2, but doesn't maintain the momentum; both ships fall of in e4 with the absence. In e1 we also see early uses of Juilen & Hal that fall off.

Now, for the seekers!

Julien has mostly nothing until we get the huge e4 leap of Juliocctis with the fall of House Davinos. Early on, we see Hal and Wick which fall off, and Thaisha who is low but present throughout but most for e2, while e3 and 4 have a decent showing of Aranessa as she gets more screentime, which is the most prominent PC/NPC relationship to date.

For Occtis, while he is the current fandom bicycle, these are mostly 1-2 fics since we're early on, and is driven in large part by a fic that has Occtis/almost every possible tag. The obvious swap here is between Occtigan in e1-2 and Juliocctis in e4, but notable there is a very consistent 1fic of Azune/Octis across all four episodes (and not from the same author!)

Thaisha's main pairing early on is Hal for obvious reasons, with the big peak coming in e2 which has some of the top moments ('stay') although it has fallen off in e3-4. e1 gives Tyranny, but it falls off quickly as they have no further interactions, while there's a decent amount of Julien with their enemies dynamic. Vaelus rises to be the top ship for e3/4 but is still relatively low as despite the weird psychic wolf bond, they still haven't had many interactions.

However, on Vaelus' otherwise very low ships, Thaisha thoroughly dominates. There is a Thimble and a Bolaire fic, but the only other ship of any note is Occtis/Vaelus coming out of e4.

For the schemers...

Azune has a decent amount of ships, but none that are super dominant. E1 starts off strong with Azune/Hal as they are the opening scene, but it doesn't show up in later episodes (we'll see if that changes when we get to the Schemers' table). The other torn banner mercenaries in Teor & Kattigan are the other top pairing, with Teor for e1/2 and Kattigan in e3, but with their departure these fall in e4. There's a low level constant of Azune/Occtis, but notable in e4 is a spike of Azune/Julien, although still only 2 fics.

Bolaire is basically just the exponential rise of Halaire, which has a slow but steady following until the huge jump in e4. There's one Vaelus and one Occtis fic, but its just the Halaire show here.

Hal, meanwhile, is more varied, with a ton of fics that come out of e1 that then pretty immediately fall to the wayside, leaving mostly just Hal/Thaisha giving way to Halaire in e3/e4.

And Murray. I feel sorry she ends up alphabetically here at the last, but I have nothing to say - there's one e1 fic based on the initial Murray/Vaelus reaction, and then the everyone/Occtis fic, with a Kattigan/Murray fic hidden behind it (still just the one).

Anyways I have enjoyed many of these ships. I am excited to see more...write more ships, give me more data....i hunger....