Some of you may be surprised to hear that this is a gay man call of Duty Schiff is in the top ten fanfiction sites The annual, unofficial summary of Archive Of Our Own, but it’s not me. Not long after the release of Modern Warfare IIa bevy of TikToks bimbofied call of Duty Character Simon “Ghost” Riley, who is only ever shown in the game wearing a full face mask with a skull on it. The baby-girlification of the decidedly male character led to a massive increase in Archive Of Our Own (AO3) stories, in which Ghost aired with his hardened military colleague John “Soap” MacTavish.
According to the summary, which rates the pairing tags posted on AO3 as having the “largest increase in fanwork overall,” the two potential lovebirds are the sixth most popular ship on the site and the second most popular from the world of gaming. just fall back Genshin Impact‘s Kaveh and Alhaitham. The next gaming ship on the list? Baldur’s Gate 3The hot vampire Astarion and the player character Tav. Check out the entire list below.
As you can see, Good omensAngel and devil duo Aziraphale and Crowley are at the top of the list, likely thanks to Michael Sheen and David Tennant’s appearances in the Amazon Prime series based on the book of the same name by Neil Gaiman and Terry Pratchett (they took the spot last year). 30th place). Secondly, we have a proven ship: Harry Potter‘S Sirius Black and Remus Lupine, followed by Dazai Osamu and Nakahara Chuuya from the Bungou Stray dogs manga. In fourth place are the leftovers from 2022: Stranger Things‘ Eddie Munson and Steve Harrington, despite falling from their first place finish in 2022. The latest addition to the AO3 rankings is GenshinFifth place is pretty impressive, and then there’s ours call of Duty Task Force 141 guys who gained a whopping 75 spots this year – and I think I know why.
Call of Duty’s Ghost and Soap, in love
Late last year, Ghost became such an iconic figure for shippers and ThirstTok fans that even wildly popular influencer Brittany Broski (you may know her as…) Kombucha Girl, although to me and millions of others she has long since outgrown that moniker) openly pined for him on the social media platform. In September of this year Broski bought a cameo (a personalized celebrity video you can buy for yourself or a really fun birthday gift) by former Ghost voice actor Jeff Leachwho offers videos of himself in full Ghost cosplay for $99. The following clip of her When I saw her personalized cameo, I almost sent myself into orbit.
Even though at first glance it seems like there are several degrees of separation between the inherently masculine guy and the bombastic guy call of Duty Series and very graphic gay fanfic, AO3’s 2023 recap is here to suspend your disbelief. I took a cursory look at what kind of content was on offer and came across comics that depicted Ghost as an actual ghost providing emotional support to a very lively soap opera, a story in which you are a new recruit to the Task Force 141 are and The Masked Man piques your sexual interest, and one in which Soap’s aunt brings home a new SAS boyfriend for Christmas who turns his attention to her nephew instead. The Ghost content is either deliciously raunchy or adorably sweet, but almost all of it is very, very gay.
The layered, complicated connections between the military and LGBTQIA+ people have a long and messy history, but Ghost and Soap is clearly well-received by fanfiction writers everywhere. Are there any other additions to this year’s list that surprise you?
Correction 02/01/2024 at 4:00 p.m. EST: This is Michael Sheen Good omensnot Martin.
