STOP Genderlocking Cosmetics!!

[Iscah]

I dunno, any series can inspire few slash fanfics, but when LotR has literally tens of thousands of them there must be something there that people are seeing.

Not really. It just tells you that it's a very big fandom with a considerable amount of people who want to see that subtext, regardless of whether it's blatant or wishful thinking.

At very least, the question to ask isn't "how many fanfics are there" but "how many are there relative to the overall size of the fandom".

[Halivel]

Not really. It just tells you that it's a very big fandom with a considerable amount of people who want to see that subtext, regardless of whether it's blatant or wishful thinking.

At very least, the question to ask isn't "how many fanfics are there" but "how many are there relative to the overall size of the fandom".

This. The bigger the fandom, the higher is the chance you'll see all sorts of fanart about it. LotR has (or at least used to have) one of the biggest fandoms ever.

Also as a person that used to hang out in a couple of fandoms, both small and big - shippers gotta ship, even if characters didn't see each other even once or they're mortal enemies that can't stand each others's existence. The title in question doesn't need to have anything special to it for people to decide to write slash fan fiction about it, it just happens. And then there's also such a thing as crossovers, too (yes, they exist in fanart as well) that has even less logic in it. Creators just have fun. /shrug