Chat corner 2026-02, with some unexpected stats

[annathecrow]

Hi,

welcome to the weekly chat corner. Have anything SW-related to talk about? Here's your chance!

~ ~ ~

I've been thinking about Star Wars fanfic today, or writing thereof. I have a lot of WIPs (oh gods, so many), but I do like it when I get more than two people and a shoelace to read my fic and I realized... what do The Kids even read, these days?

So I went and looked. (On AO3, where else.)

Quick, can you guess?

In the "Star Wars - All Media Types" tag on AO3, there are 25,988 fics with update date between 2025-01-01 and today.

Ship categories

1. F/M (9918)
2. Gen (7677)
3. M/M (6971)
4. F/F (1791)
5. Multi (1671)
6. Other (932)

Oh whow. I did not expect so much F/M. Is that all Reylo?

Fandoms

1. Star Wars - All Media Types (17881)
2. Star Wars: The Clone Wars (2008) - All Media Types (7274)
3. Star Wars Prequel Trilogy (4809)
4. Star Wars Sequel Trilogy (2835)
5. Star Wars: The Bad Batch (Cartoon) (2302)
6. Star Wars Original Trilogy (2019)
7. Andor (TV) (1555)
8. Star Wars: Rebels (1408)
9. Star Wars Legends - All Media Types (1229)
10. The Mandalorian (TV) (1136)

The Bad Batch surprised me here!

Characters

1. Obi-Wan Kenobi (6401)
2. Anakin Skywalker (4851)
3. Ahsoka Tano (2911)
4. Luke Skywalker (2641)
5. CT-7567 | Rex (2576)
6. Leia Organa (2480)
7. Padmé Amidala (2368)
8. CC-2224 | Cody (2324)
9. Rey (Star Wars) (1989)
10. Ben Solo | Kylo Ren (1898)

I'm... surprised by how unsurprising this is? I think this is the same top 10 I'd get if I removed the time filter, which feels odd.

Relationships

1. Padmé Amidala/Anakin Skywalker (1568)
2. Rey/Ben Solo | Kylo Ren (1375)
3. Obi-Wan Kenobi & Anakin Skywalker (1256)
4. Obi-Wan Kenobi/Anakin Skywalker (1252)
5. CC-2224 | Cody/Obi-Wan Kenobi (997)
6. Anakin Skywalker & Ahsoka Tano (707)
7. Rey/Ben Solo (558)
8. Leia Organa/Han Solo (532)
9. Kylo Ren/Rey (462)
10. Obi-Wan Kenobi/Satine Kryze (367)

And finally,

Additional tags

1. Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence (3208)
2. Angst (2916)
3. Hurt/Comfort (2741)
4. Fluff (2421)
5. Not Beta Read (1556)
6. Slow Burn (1542)
7. Alternate Universe - Modern Setting (1378)
8. Canon-Typical Violence (1240)
9. Emotional Hurt/Comfort (1125)
10. Alternate Universe (1121)

...yeah, that tracks.

Some details and notes

The F/M ships

Are this:

1. Rey/Ben Solo | Kylo Ren (1310)
2. Padmé Amidala/Anakin Skywalker (1151)
3. Rey/Ben Solo (538)
4. Kylo Ren/Rey (446)
5. Leia Organa/Han Solo (420)
6. Obi-Wan Kenobi & Anakin Skywalker (377)
7. Obi-Wan Kenobi/Satine Kryze (295)
8. Cassian Andor/Jyn Erso (287)
9. Anakin Skywalker & Ahsoka Tano (270)
10. Kanan Jarrus/Hera Syndulla

...so, big on Reylo but not only, or even mostly Reylo? I wish AO3 had a way to mark main ships vs background ones, that would be so useful for this.

Fic included

AO3 doesn't have a way to differentiate between "updated" and "first-posted", which means these numbers might be skewed by long-running WIPs. Just out of curiosity, I filtered only completed fics with one chapter (i.e. one-shots) and got 989 works in these fandoms:

1. Star Wars - All Media Types (685)
2. Star Wars: The Clone Wars (2008) - All Media Types (293)
3. Star Wars Prequel Trilogy (159)
4. Star Wars: The Bad Batch (Cartoon) (101)
5. Star Wars Original Trilogy (72)
6. Star Wars Sequel Trilogy (68)
7. Star Wars: Skeleton Crew (TV) (46)
8. The Mandalorian (TV) (40)
9. Star Wars: Rebels (38)
10. Star Wars: Jedi: Fallen Order Series (Video Games) (32)

The Bad Batch higher, some Skeleton Crew, some JFO, but generally very similar. I guess we're pretty set on the Prequel era, huh.

...um. This got a bit more involved than an interesting bit of stats I wanted to entertain you with. Enjoy, I guess!

Comments

[senmut]

... My first thought is obvs I need to write more RexSoka (post TCW, thank you) and maybe more BarrisSoka and possibly VentrSoka...

I'm terrible.

[atamascolily]

Obi-wan Kenobi really goes with everything, huh.

Also, a lot of the Reylo fics appear to be tagged with multiple permutations, because if you add up all the variations on that relationship, it comes out to be a larger number than the total number of fics featuring Rey or Kylo.