#хеталія

[edelweissko]

Hetalia Ukraine Headcanon #2 – or, rather, my take on Ukraine in Hetalia canon.

upd: I might have worded it a bit shitty, but the entire purpose of this post is that „canon/common fannon“ uwu crybaby Ukraine is bulshit and fuck canon we ball anyway. That I will be re-creating her character the way I want, and that‘s literally it. Damn. Pls don‘t misinterpret things, I‘m not defending Himaruya or anything

This is something that has to be clarified before I proceed, and even before I answer to any further asks.

I think of Ukraine in „canon Hetalia" as Russia's perspective, what he tells others about Ukraine and what he wants them to think of her, for his own purposes.

Because, if you recall, the episode where she is introduced (Axis Powers, ep 42), it is Russia telling England about her. Just like episode 43, it's Russia's memories and perspective. I hate that this fact is often overlooked, as it makes total sense for Russia to want others to see Ukraine as a weak crybaby that is dependant on him. In fact, this no shit is the attitude russians have to ukrainians. Almost inferior, (quote) unable to fend for themselves. It is not cute. It is very much toxic. The scarf moment is extremely fucking funny. Because, (and again, this is Russia's memories), Ukraine gives him her favorite scarf. But what people overlook, is that in return she asks (in dub) FOR CONTROL FROM BLACK SEA TO POLAND. HER TERRITORIES. THIS- THIS IS NOT A CUTE MOMENT. SHE IS TRYING TO GET AWAY. AS SHE ALWAYS HAS. FOR CENTURIES. Or, in sub, she asks for „inheritance rights to Kyivan Rus", so again, reclaiming a part of her identity. After which, russia concludes that maybe they've never been close at all. srsl I wish russia realised that in real life and fucked off already

To me, this is the first moment that shows that there is much more to Ukraine than what we see, and that Russia must in no way be trusted on his word when it comes to her.

Especially since In her next appearence, Gakuen Hetalian Newspaper Club part 1, Ukraine is nothing like that. She wants to join the choir club, where the baltic trio and others are, and we find out that the choir is targeted by the so-called „soviet club". Lmao. Nor she is in any of the Halloween episodes she appears in subsequently. Moreover, in the 2013 haloween series, Ukraine is shown dressed up as a reference to a Ukrainian(!!!) urban legend about a ghost train. So, she is not afraid to express her identity even at that point. Yes, she is emotional, but not a complete mess of a crybaby whose every 1 in 2 words is „Russia". Which further backs my theory.

The latest appearence, where in Chapter 389 of Hetalia world stars, Ukraine asks Lithuania to „sent spare paper Russias" to her if he ever gets any, because, quote „THIS RUSSIA IS OBEDIENT, QUIET, AND LISTENS TO WHAT I SAY".

Does this sound like a weak crybaby Ukraine whom Russia was describing to you?

No. That's the point.

Btw the only point in history I can think of where she could be referring to when she says it's „like we've gone back in time", is 7th - 10th century; when the principality of Suzdal (later: Muscovy→Russia) was just freshly colonized by Kyiv and Polatsk (later Ukraine and Belarus) and was paying fiefs to them. Which is like, literally 40 years before Suzdal’s prince plundered and burnt Kyiv down in 1169. A first russo-ukrainian war for you.

So, even from "canon hetalia", the idea of Ukraine's character that this fandom often percieves her as derives mostly from Russia's POV. Which is sad, ironic (represents the influence of russian propaganda irl), but also thanks fuck, this means we see so little of her that her personality can be easily interpreted in a multitude of ways that reflect history and reality way better

[deadgoatproject]

planning to prank Alfred.

кулєги, ширте, Хеталія жива в Україні!

[unhonestlymirror]

hetalia is so funny to me: emphasising on genocide and current war crimes through art to bring more attention to them is inappropriate "because we don't discuss politics in a political fandom," but rusliet and "soviet siblings" are appropriate and definitely not spreading russian propaganda for some reason.

Idk. They say it's just characters, and you shouldn't perceive it seriously. I didn't perceive "blue eyes, blonde hair, poor russia's sister Ukraine" seriously for years - now look, people fr believe in that shit. It literally helps russians to genocide my nation better.

When I read how russia spreads its "Baltics always wanted to be under russia" - and when I see rusliet shippers - I notice the same pattern. I also wonder who invented this dumb rule "we don't talk about Bruno (c)" for a fandom which was made for discussing politics.

Idk why I'm writing this. Maybe I just want to tell that ми більше не можемо це ігнорувати. Хеталія - один зі струмочків російської пропаганди, що зливаються в одну велику й страшну ріку.

[veralevina15]

# 2

Минулого разу я вам розповіла, що почала цікавитися українською мовою та культурою (а ще історією) навдяки аніме «Хеталія». Але насправді вже у дитинстві я нерідко стикалася з чимось, що пов'язано з Україною.

Недалеко від мого будинку колись існувала крамничка, яка була стилізована під мазанку. Вона була дуже файненька, всередині прикрашена різьбленими полицями та картинами. Ми ходили туди з бабусею: як зараз пам'ятаю, що там продавали найсмачніші пиріжки з капустою, рисом, яйцем і цибулею…🤤🤤🤤 я таких, як там, більше ніде не пробувала!

Але зараз не про їжу. У тій крамниці висіли чарівни картини, зроблені, немов із пластиліну, із сільськими ґаздой та ґаздинею (господарем і господинею, хазяїном і хазяйкою; мені дуже подобається різноманіття синонімів до ц��х слів💛). На кожній із трьох картин було українське прислів'я, але я запам’ятала лише одно. Мабуть, тому, що інші я змогла перекласти, а ось одне прислів'я довгий час залишилося для мене таємницею.

Там було написано (як я тоді прочитала): «Як кума гляне - серце в яне».

Щоразу, коли я заходила у крамницю, я перечитувала прислів'я й думала: «Та що таке той «ян»?? Напій якись чи що?». Потім, коли ця крамничка вже була закрита (заміст неї тепер звичайний суші-бар 😞), я згадувала цю приказку. І тільки, коли я почала вивчати українську, я розв‘язала цю проблему!

Те було цікаве й гарне прислів‘я про кохання:

«Як кума гляне - серце в‘яне» ❤️

[edelweissko]

“Ah how good that we only live once! Had it been twice, I wouldn’t have fuckin’ handled it”

drawing Ukraine into Ukrainian memes as self care (original under the cut)

i mawst apologeize fowr zhe lack of origgginal cowntwnt on zhis blog lateaealy, art hasn’t been arting and life not exactly lifing either. also my birthday is in less than a week and the very idea is terrifying.

прікол я спочатку думала що ʼ��уй потягнувʼ типу…буквально потягнув. як мʼяз(?). не знаю чи це щось про мене говорить.

[edelweissko]

Hetalia Ukraine Headcanon #1: hair colour

…or new unexpected and un-asked for series, where I yap in detail about one headcanon on physical appearence, personality or history of my Ukraine interpretation at a time

This has been a thing that confused the hell out of me for ages, because her hair colour in the anime & official art exists on a spectrum from grey to white to blonde to ash blonde to yellow ??? (which may or may not be due to an art style change and had hapenned to 75% of characters at least) but REGARDLESS, I decided to put a twist on it

So, in my vision, her hair colour is best-described as «світло-русявий натуральний колір волосся»; which would, as per most suitable photos I found on the internet, loosely mean this:

So, you see; blonde, but not really blonde; depends on the lighting; the best English equivalent to «світло-русявий» my brain could think of was a borderline between «dark blonde», «light brown» and «ash-blonde», which coincidentally could all be applied to describe Ukraine’s hair in different depictions at different points

Furthermore, many Ukrainians on my experience would describe their hair as «русяве», ranging from темно-русяве for darker colours, to світло-русяве for lighter, to the point where it seems like a safe option in case your hair is not exactly dark or not 100% light and you are not sure what to reply. And even in folklore you’ll find a «руса коса до пояса»; «русява коса – дівоча краса»; or occasionally hair being compared to gold as well, i.e. «ой у полі жито, а в дівчини коса золота», translating too «there was wheat in the field, a girl had a golden braid» (more to come on her hairstyle!!)

by the way WHEAT. YET ANOTHER WAY I LIKE TO THINK OF HER HAIR COLOUR, is that it has the colour of wheat

I know you know what wheat looks like, just a moment of appreciation

And finally — Ukraine’s русявий hair colour changes slightly throughout the year! In the summer, when she gets lots of sun, it bleaches Ukraine’s hair a bit (UV light breaks down melanin in the hair blah blah blah); moreover it looks lighter in contrast to the skin tan she gets (again, we’ll get to this later); compared to winter when the tan fades and the hair would look visibly darker due to less sun exposure. And I mean like:

So, to sum up, I see Ukraine’s hair colour as „світло-русявий”, something closest to „dark blonde”, „light brown”, „ash blonde” or simply „wheat colour”, which tends to look darker in winter due to less sun exposure and lighter in the summer ;)

by the way fun fact, I’m NOT ignoring your guys’ asks; I just wanna draw something for each and do them justice, which happens to require some time (!!!)

[edelweissko]

she’s glad dick-tators do not live forever

72 years ago, on the 5th of March, the fucker responcible for the forced collectivisation, holodomor famine, the great purge and the execution of an entire generation of writers, poets, artists, thinkers that were first led to believe into a communist utopia; mass deportations, constant and brutal supression and destruction of national identity — and that to speak only of Ukraine, the list goes on and on, — was found dead in a puddle of his own piss, for he had paranoicly fired the only guard and doctors that still somehow tolerated him at that point. Joseph Stalin I mean.

I drew Ukraine bc the café in Washington in the original photo was serving free borscht (борщ) that day, a Ukrainian dish. And who‘s beside her on the right? Well. I suppose there‘d be LOTS of candidates among the nations. I‘ll leave that up to you to imagine ;)

[unhonestlymirror]

Ї&ать тут хеталія зібралася

[unhonestlymirror]

I want to tell Mr. Himaruya something, although he may never read this message.

I think Himaruya-san still does not fully realize how much impact his creation had on the world. Thousands of thousands of people have grown on hetalia, reading about countries which are located so far away it is simply impossible to know the real state of affairs. It's a common phenomenon - to not know almost anything about people who are literally on the other side of Earth - and to rely on your local information sources about them. Especially if it's the start of a new millennium, when the Internet is not so developed, and there are not so many ways to talk with actual representatives of a nation. But ignorance is no excuse, especially if you draw a worldwide popular manga, right?

Let me tell you how it looked from my nationalities' perspective - to read about Ukraine and Belarus through the eyes of Japanese people. Because an artist is always a representation, a Face of their nation, especially a popular one. We wondered, is it how Japanese people think about us? Although we were sitting on russian social media back then, even now, you can search хеталія in twitter and scroll through people's opinion, which is pretty much the same. Frustration. Sadness. Confusion.

Ukrainians (and Belarus) have always been respecting Japanese people - because I've never heard ANYTHING bad about them from my side. Never. And Ukrainians are famous for teasing people. And despite everything hetalia told about us, I still see not a single curse from Ukrainians. We were so happy to know Japan is actually on our side and supports us because we always believed this country is unsafe for us - because of hetalia! We believed that Japanese culture fans, those who study Japanese language, those who move to Japan are fools - because we thought Japan is extremely prorussian - because of hetalia! Don't you find it interesting that hetalia stopped being popular about 5-7 years ago and Ukraine started learning Japanese culture deeply than "omae wa mou shindeiru" also about 5-7 years ago? My teacher once said she moved out to China because it seemed more attractive to her than Japan. Can you imagine?

I don't want to curse anyone, especially now, especially after so many years have passed. I want to remind you that making the wrong decision is okay. What is not okay is pretending your wrong choice was right - especially when it still causes harm and pain to others. It's never too late to try to fix it - but what Himaruya-san does right now is pretending nothing happened and completely ignoring our existence. Although, he never really noticed us, didn't he? We are just silly crybaby sex-object russia's sibling nation. Blonde, white and blue-eyed. We do not exist for him outside this costume, which was soooo popular in russia, sooooo popular. Oh, russians do love hetalia because it helped them so much in spreading imperialistic propaganda among young people. It kills my people right now.

And oh, the "I really don't know how Belarus came to be the way she is now....". Well, I know, if it helps you, Himaruya-san. You made Belarus like this because this is how russians describe it - and you relied on russians' opinion. That's it. Simply.

I want to thank Japanese people who help us. I want to thank them for ruining the stereotypes planted by hetalia. For saving us. For making us happy. I am happy.

However, despite actual Japanese people respecting us, I see not a single trace of respect of Ukrainians and Belarus in hetalia. In fact, I see a total disrespect, and it's oh, it still hurts.

This text is just an attempt of expression the whole frustration, which accumulated in me for years.

[veralevina15]

Почнемо! 🌟

# 1

Свій перший підручник-самовчитель з української мови я купила в 2017 році, трохі пізніше - тематичний словник та маленьку книжку з граматики. Також я скачала цікаву книгу «Як ми говоримо» (1970). До речі, нещодавно вийшов ще один зовсім новий самовчитель (зі словничком у кінці), і мене це дуже здивувало.

Взагалі, в Росії можна знайти чимало підручників, але я не змогла відшукати словник (не тематичний, а прям великий словник). Одного разу я шукала словник івриту, і той коштував 9000 рублів ( ~ 134 $). Трохі дорогувато х) Мабуть, шукати паперовий словник у 2017 - це якесь ретроградство 😅 В підсумку, мені допомагає сайт «УКРЛІТ», він мені дуже подобається.

Але цікавитись українською мовою та культурою я почала раніше. Можливо тому, що я дуже любила аніме «Хеталія» (Hetalia) про країни, де була персонажка Україна. Здається, що як раз тоді були мої «перші кроки».