Interpreting Jugdral Popularity Data
Jun. 4th, 2013 09:46 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
mark_asphodelSo, over at the FE According to Japan tumblr there's a new dataset derived from Pixiv to determine who and what is popular, and it's fascinating.
I could go on all night about the deep meaning of the Gen 2 stats (I knew Lana, Julia and Tinny were popular, but good god), but let's look at Gen 1 first. Now, I've seen lots (OK, basically ALL) of this art myself, so many of these trends don't really surprise me, but a few things did stand out as noteworthy once all the stats are spread out in from of me.
Disclaimer: Pixiv is not the end-all be all of fandom, inaccurate tags skew the data to some extent, etc. I know all of my favorite characters have art filed under "Seisen no Keifu" or simply "Fire Emblem," not to mention some "name combination" shipper's tag in place of their actual names. So there's that. But that probably goes for all the characters, or at least enough that the trends are accurate even if the numbers aren't.
FE4, Gen 1, Pixiv Popularity
Low Tier:
Claude 12 (Nobody likes Claude. No surprise there.)
Alec 15
Beowulf 19
Holyn 26
Noishe 30
Dew 32
Briggid 33 (Ow! -_-)
Midayle 35
Jamke 37
Lex 41 (I think proto-Hector plays better to Western audiences)
Ardan 46 (And I can tell you right off many of these are comic/gags)
There seems to be kind of "sweet spot" for minor supporting characters-- about thirty pieces of art. Makes sense, I guess. Sucks if you're looking for art on Briggid, lemme tell ya, 'cause her FE5 incarnation does even worse. But the current pixiv archive doesn't go back all THAT far, so when you consider how long ago the SNES era was, finding 30-odd pieces of art for a character ain't bad.
Mid-Tier:
Edain 52
Sylvia 71
Cuan 89
Azel 97
You can see that squish-babby mage nets more attention than the vast majority of Gen 1 guys. Also, look where Aideen is. Look where the bulk of her suitors are. Maybe the idea that hey, the burning issue of "Who gets to make with Aideen?" is just not that @#$%ing compelling is shared by J-fen. Either that or all the hot archer/twin action is buried under name-combination tags.
High Tier:
Levin 115
Fury 115
Sigurd 117
Tiltyu 129
Ethlyn 140
Dierdre 140
LOL @ the ties. I'm a little surprised Lewyn/Fury don't rate higher, to be honest. Note that the Gen 1 Lord is by no means the most popular, which A) I've been saying for... a while, and B) will be a stark contrast to the Gen 2 data. But Sigurd is still plenty popular, especially if you allow for the multi-character, multi-verse pieces he's featured in that go untagged.
Top Tier:
Fin 167
Ayra 193
The person who wrote into the tumblr in question originally cited these two as being popular, and while they don't seem to be the most popular in the Jugdral games any more (ancient polling data be damned), there is enough stuff out there on them that their presence starts to stick out IMO, even for an archive as massive as Pixiv's. There was shiny new art of Ayra added a mere two days ago... and this is for a seventeen-year-old game!
Also, compare Finn's popularity to Beowulf's. Fourteen years after the Great Shipwar of Thracia 776, IS ain't ever gonna give the FinnRaquie shippers the satisfaction of being True Canon, but there ain't any doubt about which side won in the court of public opinion[*]. Though of course Finn's larger apparent fanbase is partly an effect of his being in two complete games and being a more versatile subject than all the Gen 1 drones who showed up, mated, and died.Sucks to be them.
* "フィンラケ" has 51 hits on its own.
Goddess Tier:
Lachesis 203
Oh yeah. Raquie conquers all, baby. Well, in Gen 1, anyway. And again, I know that 203 number is underreporting her. But Raquesis has new art going up pretty much ever couple of days-- on her own, with Eldigan (brotherly or otherwise), with various guys, with the kidlets...
Next time, we venture into the minefield of Gen 2. Bring your raincoat, as it'll be raining moeblobs.
I could go on all night about the deep meaning of the Gen 2 stats (I knew Lana, Julia and Tinny were popular, but good god), but let's look at Gen 1 first. Now, I've seen lots (OK, basically ALL) of this art myself, so many of these trends don't really surprise me, but a few things did stand out as noteworthy once all the stats are spread out in from of me.
Disclaimer: Pixiv is not the end-all be all of fandom, inaccurate tags skew the data to some extent, etc. I know all of my favorite characters have art filed under "Seisen no Keifu" or simply "Fire Emblem," not to mention some "name combination" shipper's tag in place of their actual names. So there's that. But that probably goes for all the characters, or at least enough that the trends are accurate even if the numbers aren't.
FE4, Gen 1, Pixiv Popularity
Low Tier:
Claude 12 (Nobody likes Claude. No surprise there.)
Alec 15
Beowulf 19
Holyn 26
Noishe 30
Dew 32
Briggid 33 (Ow! -_-)
Midayle 35
Jamke 37
Lex 41 (I think proto-Hector plays better to Western audiences)
Ardan 46 (And I can tell you right off many of these are comic/gags)
There seems to be kind of "sweet spot" for minor supporting characters-- about thirty pieces of art. Makes sense, I guess. Sucks if you're looking for art on Briggid, lemme tell ya, 'cause her FE5 incarnation does even worse. But the current pixiv archive doesn't go back all THAT far, so when you consider how long ago the SNES era was, finding 30-odd pieces of art for a character ain't bad.
Mid-Tier:
Edain 52
Sylvia 71
Cuan 89
Azel 97
You can see that squish-babby mage nets more attention than the vast majority of Gen 1 guys. Also, look where Aideen is. Look where the bulk of her suitors are. Maybe the idea that hey, the burning issue of "Who gets to make with Aideen?" is just not that @#$%ing compelling is shared by J-fen. Either that or all the hot archer/twin action is buried under name-combination tags.
High Tier:
Levin 115
Fury 115
Sigurd 117
Tiltyu 129
Ethlyn 140
Dierdre 140
LOL @ the ties. I'm a little surprised Lewyn/Fury don't rate higher, to be honest. Note that the Gen 1 Lord is by no means the most popular, which A) I've been saying for... a while, and B) will be a stark contrast to the Gen 2 data. But Sigurd is still plenty popular, especially if you allow for the multi-character, multi-verse pieces he's featured in that go untagged.
Top Tier:
Fin 167
Ayra 193
The person who wrote into the tumblr in question originally cited these two as being popular, and while they don't seem to be the most popular in the Jugdral games any more (ancient polling data be damned), there is enough stuff out there on them that their presence starts to stick out IMO, even for an archive as massive as Pixiv's. There was shiny new art of Ayra added a mere two days ago... and this is for a seventeen-year-old game!
Also, compare Finn's popularity to Beowulf's. Fourteen years after the Great Shipwar of Thracia 776, IS ain't ever gonna give the FinnRaquie shippers the satisfaction of being True Canon, but there ain't any doubt about which side won in the court of public opinion[*]. Though of course Finn's larger apparent fanbase is partly an effect of his being in two complete games and being a more versatile subject than all the Gen 1 drones who showed up, mated, and died.
* "フィンラケ" has 51 hits on its own.
Goddess Tier:
Lachesis 203
Oh yeah. Raquie conquers all, baby. Well, in Gen 1, anyway. And again, I know that 203 number is underreporting her. But Raquesis has new art going up pretty much ever couple of days-- on her own, with Eldigan (brotherly or otherwise), with various guys, with the kidlets...
Next time, we venture into the minefield of Gen 2. Bring your raincoat, as it'll be raining moeblobs.
no subject
Date: 2013-06-05 07:22 am (UTC)You're talking about that one artist, 74, aren't you?
That guy has so much Julia art, it's not even funny. A lot of Julia in a girl friendship triangle with Larcei and Lana, a lot of Julia with Tinny (for some reason), and even more Julia by herself.
The guy seems to like his pale-haired-half-goddess ladies because he has a lot of Sophia and Ninian too, and his only FE10 piece is of Micaiah (though that may have more to do with her being the main character...)
no subject
Date: 2013-06-05 02:10 pm (UTC)Yeah, there's that guy, and there's this other artist who's apparently made it his/her life's mission to put up as much Tinny art as their pencils can produce. Nothing wrong with that except I don't much like their style and so the art doesn't do it for me.
no subject
Date: 2013-06-05 04:58 pm (UTC)But then again, they are in love with his Silver Sword and his Horse so, eh....Personally im surprised by Deidre sitting at 140(tieing with Ethlyn for that matter. Is there something I missed about these two?
Outside of being killed silly by a Holy Weapon owner and being a terrible mom in generalJust out of interest, which ship are the most common out of gen 1?
no subject
Date: 2013-06-05 07:07 pm (UTC)"Considering the amount of "Sigurd this Sigurd that" in the U!fandom regarding FE4, its quite surprising to know this, to be honest.... "
I signed up for GameFaqs purely to contest the near-memetic insistence in the FE segment of SSB fandom that Sigurd is the Most Popular Lord Ever and a shoo-in for every single SSB release. Because all the evidence at hand says the dude isn't even the most popular blue-haired mounted lance user in his own damn game.
But, as with Roy vs the FE7 Lords, J!fandom and worldwide fandom have sharply different tastes on what makes a cool Lord.
I think Deirdre's popularity probably stems from the same place as Julia's and Lana's-- they're bland, underwritten, and passive, but apparently that's part of the appeal? Maybe it's that whole "nadeshiko" trope. Ethlyn at least DOES things-- destructive things, but she's an actor, not a re-actor. She's arguably the single most proactive character in Gen1.
"Just out of interest, which ship are the most common out of gen 1?"
Don't know. Haven't run the stats for any pairings outside the ones I'm personally into. It'd be worth investigating.
no subject
Date: 2013-06-05 08:54 pm (UTC)If Nino, Donnel, Sigurd, Marcus* and Seth is any indication being a "generic unit with growth" or being overpowered is a good way to gain popularity. I assume Roy is unpopular because he.... rather sucked.
*also fads. Never forget the silly fads.
no subject
Date: 2013-06-05 09:29 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2013-06-05 09:44 pm (UTC)Especially when Lana's so damned popular.
no subject
Date: 2013-06-06 10:20 pm (UTC)I did not attempt every conceivable pairing, but when it comes down to pairings being LABELED as such via names smashed together, Finn/Raquesis wallops everything (51, compared to Cuan/Ethlyn's 34, Sigurd/Diadora's 26, Azel/Tiltyu's 22, Lewyn/Fury's 17, and so on).
I think this says more about the people who agree to be labeled FinnRaquie fans than it does fandom in general.
no subject
Date: 2013-06-05 07:45 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2013-06-05 09:44 pm (UTC)MOST of it's SFW. Most.
no subject
Date: 2013-06-05 07:54 pm (UTC)Wonder what a similar overview of the other games would reveal...
no subject
Date: 2013-06-05 08:10 pm (UTC)I think the overall analysis says a lot about the appeal of certain character "types"-- and we'll see more of that with Gen2. The most popular male characters are sort of quiet, dutiful, low-key types and the astonishingly popular females are... sweetly passive underwritten staffchicks?
Instead of flakes, nuts, or crunchies, it's all a big bowl of vanilla custard. I like vanilla custard, but damn, gimme some texture.