From these graphs we are able to analyze the number of works published on AO3 by month that contain these specific characters in my data sample. The graph at the top titled “Fics Published Over Time” was included as a control to be able to compare the later graphs as they were filtered to only include the number of works published that contain one specific character. In order to fully understand the comparison between characters it is important to know their relative importance in the series. Feyre is the main character and as such it would be expected that her, or her love interest Rhysand, would be mentioned in the most fanfics at all times, but this is not the case. Azriel is a side character along with Cassian. Both are of equal importance to the series until February of 2021 when Cassian became the main character in the new novel. The graph showing Azriel's popularity over time in this sample demonstrates a sharp peak in May 2022 whereas the other characters all show a similar shape, but no peak in this area. In fact, the other graphs don’t appear to be significantly different from each other at all. All of them seem to hover between 50 and 100 works during the time period my data appears to have scraped from. Azriel’s graph is the only one to have such a significant peak in popularity in May of 2022 in contrast to the other characters' popularity graphs, which seemed to see a dip or a slow rise, but no peak.

In relation to the previously mentioned timeline for ACOTAR, the two potentially significant dates that could affect this data are the release of A Court of Silver Flames in February 2021 and the announcement of the TV show in October of 2021. Based on the graphs it appears that the data was scraped mostly after these two events so the graphs were not significantly impacted by them. Although it could be argued that there was a rise in published fanfiction all together with the announcement of the show, there appears to be no significant character differences. There is definitely significance in the month and character popularity as seen by the Azriel graph, but it does not correlate with any current events on the ACOTAR timeline.

These graphs were created using Tableau with the initial data set of 2876 of the most recently published fanfics. The count of Work IDs was graphed against the month of publication to obtain the “Fics Published Over Time” graph. The character specific graphs were made in the same manner but with an additional filter for character done by 'Wildcard' searching for each individual name.

Based on these graphs it can not be concluded that the release of new canonical material with a new novel influences character popularity in published fanfiction. These graphs don’t hold enough evidence to support or completely refute this claim since the data does not appear to significantly overlap with any events in the ACOTAR timeline. Despite the lack of overlap with the timeline, the graphs are still significant in that it does show that as of recently Azriel tends to be mentioned more in published fanfics than Feyre. This supports the idea that without a definite canonical ending to Azriel's story people are writing more about him than Feyre who has a mostly completed story. This finding inspired further exploration into how canon plays a role in who fanfic authors are writing about.