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angel-is-not-creative · 1 year

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Hetalia

I cannot rate this with a good conscience ❤

I have autism and Hetalia is my special interest so this is literally 3k words long and I have absolutely no regrets. I could have gone on longer but I wanted to remain relevant to the class. If you don't reply to me I will cry.

I'm gonna break this into a few sections so you can skip around. I'm going to try and stick to just season 1 with this discussion, which won't be too hard cause it's the most insane one. Also, I just want to say that I wrote this all before I read the attached article and I'm now seeing that I literally could have written that article because I know everything about Hetalia.

When do we cross the line between stereotyping and just straight-up racism?

Hey, why are we idolizing WWII Germany?

Oh, we are portraying war as silly and funny, okay cool.

Is this Japanese Nationalism? (a surprisingly controversial argument)

The Sub and the Dub are 2 totally different shows

The Fandom (and linking back to other class-related terms)

Okay I'll name one good thing

Alright, let's get started.

A lot of people will argue that Hetalia is not racist at all because they are making fun of everyone. If you are portraying all of the countries as their most common stereotypes then it evens out in the end. I would argue that this is in fact, not the case. Especially when you set your show during WWII. I will give Himaruya credit in that he mostly focuses on European countries to make fun of, making a lot of the stereotypes less so targeted at minorities. However, a lot of these jokes are still highly insensitive and frame some countries in a worse light than others

Just look at the difference between how Northern Italy is portrayed as opposed to Germany or Japan. Or how France is a predator, Belarus is into her literal brother, and Spain is seen as a creep. It is often times mocking an entire country's intelligence, appearance, or personality. While it is not always that serious, it does lead me to the second point.

When you personify a country and mock it, you aren't just mocking a piece of land, you are mocking an entire population of people. These jokes may seem harmless but they can still be hurtful. While I don't believe that liking Hetalia translates to your actual views on world events, it can unconsciously impact your real-life thoughts and behaviors.

(also why does Britain see imaginary magical creatures, what is that referencing? According to the wiki, it is some popular folklore story of a rabbit who lives on the moon but like.. what? If Himaruya was doing this much research into these countries' cultural backgrounds why is he portraying them like this?)

This show portrays WWII Germany in too positive of a light for my liking. I've noticed a trend in anime where they seem to love Germany (or Germanic aesthetics) a lot (AOT I'm looking at you). Now I'm not well-versed in the interpersonal relationships between Japan and Germany, but the idolization is not it. The way that Japan in this show is portrayed as being literally obsessed with Germany is the biggest example (Italy is also shown having an immense appreciation for Germany and is often gushing about his positive qualities, even writing him a song while he was being kept prisoner). But I mean look at how Germany is portrayed, even his stereotypes are mostly positive, he is hardworking but helps out his fellow allies, makes great food, and is super strong. His only negative trait is that he sometimes doesn't understand social scenarios and that makes him very awkward. However, he will always go out of his way to try and better understand his friends (like Italy) by purchasing books to try and help him learn the appropriate way to act in scenarios).

This is 10x worse in the dub but we will get there. When one of your main characters, the one you are portraying in the best light, is a literal war criminal hot anime boy, you can understand why I would be concerned. I mean they gave him the whole blonde hair blue eyed appearance like come on. Now I'm not going to go into depth on fandom or anything here but Hetalia knows that its demographic is young tweens (primarily girls) so how can you be surprised when this portrayal of Germany leads to WWII fanfics sympathizing with Germany and 14 y/o girls in German military uniforms doing questionable things. (also Germany becomes a canonically gay character in Hetalia in like season 4 or something and that just makes me so mad, like yeah, of course, the gay character is WWII Germany that so cool) (okay, I would like to clarify that technically Sweden is the only confirmed gay character. Sweden is bad representation though because he has one-sided feelings for Finland and makes him uncomfortable by constantly referring to him as his wife)

I mean yeah, obviously this isn't going to be an accurate portrayal of history but some of this is just totally misinformation.

Austria invading Germany is literally just Austria annoying him in his house for a really long time. But also there's like actual wars... and like all of the events of WWI are canon... and like there are some really serious episodes

Also, we literally see a bunch of countries going to war personally, like fighting on the frontlines. Which to me confirms that these people are all literal murderers, like mass murderers lowkey.

Do you know how many weird USSR jokes there are throughout this? So many. Lithuania is pretty much just in a running gag where he keeps getting manipulated by Russia into coming back to live with him. (Yeah, there are so many USSR fics as well).

ALSO! why is the American revolution portrayed as the saddest thing to happen thus far, the storyline is stretched out from episodes 16-20 and it is all drastically different from the tone of the rest of the show. Britain is literally on his knees crying saying that he can't shoot America (which also implies these countries can physically harm/kill each other). Like that is the war you wanted to make all sad and sentimental? Why? Is this how Japanese people think that we view the Revolutionary war? Because that is a pretty inaccurate view.

Anyways back to the original point. Some historical events should not be played for laughs sometimes. It is incredibly disrespectful for actual victims of these tragedies to portray these events as funny or goofy.

Though I will give credit because Himaruya does make all sides of the war look like idiots who have no clue what they are doing, which is a sentiment I can get behind.

As a both non-Japanese and non-Korean person I can not really give my opinion on this however I can share with you both sides of the argument. This is mostly in relation to the original comic strip, but has some relevance to the anime as well. I just wanted to bring it up because it is interesting to me. (This is briefly mentioned in the article but I wanted to expand on the argument).

You may or may not have noticed that there is no South Korea character in this show, however, there was in the original comic. In the comics, South Korea is a pervert who is constantly touching Japan and he also takes credit for the inventions of other countries. Now I'm obviously not going to go into the past history of these 2 countries because that would be incredibly long but the South Korean National Assembly reviewed Hetalia and determined that it was a "crime against South Koreans, akin to slander". So yeah, South Korean people were not happy with this portrayal and the character was inevitably removed from the anime before release. (This is a real picture of the South Korean National Assembly reviewed Hetalia, the corner shows South Korea groping Japan inappropriately)

There are two opposing views to the Japanese Nationalism take and I'll link them both (Belittling Japanese Nationalism Hetalia: Axis Powers is the title of the first one)

The first one pretty much argues that Hetalis is not Japanese nationalism because it paints Japan in just as negative of a light as all of the other countries, no one is left out of being made fun of. Japan is seen as socially awkward, emotionally repressed, and obsequious.

The second argues that Japan is often shown to be more intelligent than other characters as well as often being of the voice of reason (especially compared to China) and most of his negative attributes are not nearly as harmful as some others in Japan’s case, even his “negative” stereotypes are inoffensive, as they pose no threat of meiwaku.

I think we see in the dub that Americans are a little more willing to make fun of themselves. Though there are a few good Japan self digs, like the capitalism joke in one of the first episodes.

Oh boy I've been waiting for this.

The dub is 10x more offensive than the sub. Most people consider it a crack dub.

So many of the jokes are rewritten that it is practically a different show. The sub is from a Japanese perspective and the dub is from an American perspective.

First of all the accents in the dub are so bad like it is actually atrocious. Japan is really annoying because not only is his voice stereotypical but he always says 'nani?' instead of 'what?' as if that is a normal thing that people do. The narrator is the best part of the dub and she is hilarious.

So I don't really feel comfortable even typing out the jokes here so if you want to hear them I included the time stamps for the three nazi jokes I remember in season 1 (the last two being worse).

Episode 1 (1:35:1:38)

Episode 7 (2:13-2:19)

Episode 48 (1:28-1:31)

Those are just a few examples and it gets worse. The dub literally had no reason to include these jokes because there is not even an insinuation of them in the sub and it makes literally everything a million times worse.

I will give the dub some credit for being so utterly ridiculous that it's funny. I will provide a few timestamps for the funniest jokes that only appear in the dub from the first 19 episodes (but I really recommend looking up Hetalia dub funny moments on youtube because some of them are really priceless):

Episode 13: (1:45-2:05)

Episode 14: (1:12-1:22)

Episode 17: (0:59-1:15) (2:06-2:11)

Now I've had this post typed up for a bit and originally I wasn't going to talk about the fandom but after reading the article that he assigned (and going through the fandom unit), I see that there is a lot of reference to fandom in particular so I want to at least mention it.

Not the 2 biggest problems with the Hetalia fandom are racism and the fetishization of gay men.

As mentioned in the article, there have actually been multiple fan incidents of them dressing up in WWII German military uniforms Germany/Prussia cosplay, and standing in front of temples with fake guns or doing nazi salutes in convention photos (If we want to bring racism and fetishization of gay men together there were two people who kissed in a holocaust memorial museum in Italy and Germany cosplay... there is no picture of this so it might be a rumor but it was well-known so it is worth mentioning). There were also a lot of people using imperialist Japan flags in cosplay/fanart and writing incredibly inappropriate fanfiction about real-life events.

If you would like to see any of these incidents feel free to look up "Hetalia the Boston Incident" I don't really wanna include the photos here.

The fetishization is not unique to the Hetalia fandom, but it is amplified to the max. Obviously, within Hetalia, there are almost no female characters, so this leaves only male characters to be shipped with one another. Now suddenly Germany is an uwu gay bean and not an actual war criminal. At the moment of writing this Hetalia has 32105 M/M fics on ao3 which is only one of the three fanfiction sites, with ao3 not even becoming popularized until after the peak of the Hetalia fandom. (the most popular ship being America/England who refer to each other as brothers in the show as England raised America, showing another problematic part of the fandom). I would argue that Hetalia has one of the gayest fandoms (My Hero Academia is giving it a run for its money though) and I agree with the article that it is inaccurate to say that this is only done by straight cis women. The fact of the matter is a lot of queer teens used Hetalia as an outlet to express their own sexuality through these characters. The straight women that do fetishize BL are likely only doing so because anime creators suck at writing good female characters.

I think that the "level of gayness" turns straight fans away from watching the show (again MHA is the same way today) as it is hard to interact with the fandom without seeing some yaoi content. However, many people view this as something wrong or cringy, when in reality it is a normal part of fandom culture. When gay people have such little content that is actually gay, you cannot blame us for creating our own through characters that we like/relate to. Again, I think the only issues that arise here are the problematic ships that give young people a bad impression of relationships (abusive, incest, pedophilia, etc) or the arguable problematic ones like China/Russia or Lithuania/Russia as again these are real countries with real political relations. (However, I will never forget the time that there was Russia/China fanart on the news, maybe they approve and I shouldn't be complaining)

The thing is, Hetalia only seems so bad because the fandom is so large and so young. A lot of shows have fandoms that sexualize the characters and have kinda problematic fans, but the sheer volume makes things seem worse. This is something that we covered when we watched Genshiken, but there is a lot of negative stigma behind this fandom in particular, but it is just a loud minority that gets a lot of news coverage between fandoms.

It also raises the question "Is a show responsible for the response of its fans?"

Because while Himaruya has no control over what people do with his characters or how they interpret a plot, if a majority of people are leaving your show spouting vaguely racist rhetoric and interpreting your show one way, isn't there some validity in that interpretation? I think a creator has to be aware of their audience, which in this case is a very young and impressionable audience who might not understand how offensive some of the things they are doing really are. They don't hold the same ability to separate fiction from reality.

That being said Hetalia had a large impact on fandom culture as a whole, largely starting things like 'ask a character' panels (along with like homestuck but we don't talk about her). If you go to any convention you will probably find a Hetalia cosplayer, and if you watch any dub there is probably a voice actor from Hetalia there.

I also want to mention Hetalia is also a fandom full of cultural capital, If you don't know every niche fact, you're not a real fan, If you haven't read Auf Wiedersehen Sweetheart you haven't even met the entry-level requirements to be a fan. There are also no characters that are too sacred to be altered within the fandom. If you want to put Germany in a maid dress have at it, if you want to see all the characters as girls you're in luck cause Himaruya literally drew them. Fanfictions can take place anywhere from WWI to the present day and you can put any characters in any scenario and make it believable. There are thousands of pieces of fanwork, fan art, fangames, and fan AUs. These characters are malleable to fit your personal preference and there is really no way you could be mad at this as Himaruya does this himself, with no real established canon.

a Hetalia fan once said, "No one cares if Hetalia was written by a Japenese Imperialism apologist when you're 31 chapters deep into a human Au soulmate fic about Austria inviting Prussia to see his boyband perform in Berlin"

Himaruya is also the king of moe characteristics because he turned these Hetalia men into any cute thing he could think of, Chibi versions (Chibitalia), female versions (Nyotalia), and cat versions (Nekotalia). He has no reservations about drawing the characters in a dress or in cat ears. He gave the characters human names to allow for more standardized human AU's and made a DS dating game. He encourages fans to take his characters and use them in their fanworks as they see fit, canon is up to interpretation itself. I think Himaruya himself was a huge part of fandom culture (not that I could tell you cause no one knows anything about the guy) and saw how the female characters were often treated by fans and turned it on its head, allowing for females to sexualize the males this time.

Also, none of the male characters in this show resembles a Hegemonic form of masculinity. Even the most masculine character in the show (Germany) can be seen doing more "feminine things" like wearing a dress or proposing to a man. Which, you know, I guess is a good diversion from things you would typically see in an anime of this nature (but again there are a lot of instances of characters being feminine being played for laughs, like a man being girly is something inherently funny). Feat. Germany proposing to Italy with a tomato ring.

I am Hetalia's biggest hater, however, I cannot deny the impact that it has had on my life and how much I love to talk about it. Hetalia is what introduced me to anime and fandom (and tumblr) for the first time. I met a lot of people I still talk to today because of this show. It encouraged me and a lot of other people to actually get interested in history. Thanks to this show I can identify every country in Europe, and it was a lot easier to remember historical facts if I just imagined the Hetalia characters. Also, Auf Wiedersehen Sweetheart is a literary masterpiece and there is a reason it almost has a five-star rating on goodnotes (https://www.goodreads.com/en/book/show/22064556) I love you George DeValier I hope you're doing good wherever you are.

I would like to make it abundantly clear that despite everything I've said that might make me sound like a woke blue-haired liberal, I don't really think this show is some horribly racist show or that the people who enjoy it are racist. I just wanted to provide a deeper outlook on the impact a seemingly dumb show can have on real people. I can't really blame the show for the terrible response of the fandom and it did honestly get better in later seasons that are not focused on WWII.

Despite all the bad stuff, it is a relatively funny little 5-minute watch, and you can really just jump in at any point you want to. If you don't take it as seriously as I do you might even enjoy it a little.

If you actually read this far I have major respect for you, I'm really excited to see what the general consensus on this show is.

Prussia and South Italy were my favorites in case anyone cared

If you're wondering why I didn't do my presentation on Hetalia despite my extensive knowledge, it is because I would be incredibly biased and I would go off the rails I think.

Also, my biggest fear is current Hetalia fans finding this and killing me, that might seem irrational but the Gundam fans found me last time so I wouldn't put it past them.

#jpt1311 #why did you do this to me #im sorry #blame the autism

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aphfanficwriters · 2 months

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Every month we will pose a question and collate responses as a fun and informal little exercise in getting to know each other and spark discussion. This month's question is:

“Who is your favourite character to write for and why?”

Beetroot / @council-of-beetroot: Feliks is a fave for me because he seems straightforward when writing but everything he says and does is only a small piece of how he feels and there's a lot of things that are subtly implied that you have to take into account. He's fun to write too because of his style of speech is so out there. There is a lot of humour that is mixed in with the angst of Feliks so it's incredibly fun to get to work with that and put it on to paper to dive deeper into what canon hints at.

Fed / @fedpawstered: Kiku is my favorite for doing most things with.. Idk I just have a lot of personal headcanons about him I really like sharing or showing off, not to mention my uselessly vast knowledge of eastern history finally has a usage when I write works for him. He’s an interesting character, and I love seeing fandom interpretations as well as creating my own! :)) silly little creature is what he is

Lacy: I think Yao is my fave to write because I am the most comfortable with his character design, maybe I just like a guy with long hair. I just vibe with him slightly more than other characters in hetalia for most of the stories I intended to write.

Tama / @delgumofics: I love to write Alfred the most. I think he's super cute and charming and he just inspires me like no one else. His silly little face begs me to torment him!

WhiteWings / @smuttyandabsurd: To the surprise of absolutely nobody, Ivan is my favourite Hetalia character to write for. He's multi-faceted and malleable and doesn't give me any trouble with characterisation; I can dream up practically any situation and he just pops up in my head fully formed and ready to take the leading role. He's fun to explore the silly things I come up with, but I'd like to give him a role with depth too some day.

Eru / @eruverse: My Kazakhstan OC is the one in my head. I’ve worked hard on his characterization and he’s evolved a long way from his early days until today; he’s not only someone who is based off of his dynamics with other countries (boring, plainly), but he is also his own individual. I like writing him bc I love his character; a formidable ball of intense drive that he tries to package underneath a smooth and neat persona because he loves to seem like a cool guy. In fact tho, he is anything but cool — but he has a lot of faith and pride in his abilities, and he will achieve his ambitions even if he has to forsake his health and sanity sometimes. He’s like your overachieving classmate with chronic insomnia due to stress. However he also has a lot of gags and humor potential, also why I love him.

Mossman: My favourite character to write for (and my favourite character in general) is Ivan. I wish I could write him well enough to make readers love him as I love him ) he is my darling and my baby boy, I enjoy everything about him.

Vitya / @veetyuh: My favourite is (historical) Sealand, because of the insane things he has survived. A direct hit from a Nazi bomb, abandonment, piracy, several invasions, a coup, stalking and a bombing attempt from England, and framed for drug smuggling and Versace's murder — all over a family of four living in international waters. That, paired with the contradictions of his character: smallest country, yet he canonically has Russia's level of physical strength. Built to serve England, but must prioritise his own sovereignty. So dramatic. I love dissecting him, and I hope to make him feel like more than just a gag character. 💕

@folightening: Thought hard about this, and I still can't figure out who I like writing more so: Spain and Switzerland. I like thinking about how they think, how they interact with others, what makes them who they are. They both have so much to them that makes them fun to write - for different yet similar reasons I can't find the words for. I suppose it helps that Spain's my favorite character in general and I adore Switzerland.

#hetalia writers' association #post: talking prompt #april 2024

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fumblingmusings · 8 months

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While I do see the appeal of usuk, I can't really see it. There's a generational resentment from the USA, there's a inferiority/superiority view from england. Idk, looks strange. I have siblings, that's how we behave with each other. But it's cool, just think the special relationship is mostly based on power and convenience nothing else.

Historically rusame doesn't work. I mean yeah, friends at first but then ideologies wreck it. How do you see those two? Historically I do enjoy my porteng and frain but for america it makes sense Canada or alone. I feel there's a quite lack of compromise in USA part. They want to take and their freedom is more important than any sort of relationship.

Woah woah woah I think you sent me like five ship asks in a row so let me just go through them one by one if that's okay! I'll do the France x Spain headcanons in its own ask but here let me run through some ship talk. As I should not need to clarify - I have my preferences certainly, and there are some ships which I cannot stand for one reason or another, but I have never been fussed about trying to un-justify why a pairing wouldn't work. Justify why it would certainly yes yes, but I am not your mother or any figure of authority and I am a big fan of the tag filter and block button, I encourage it with me if it keeps your dash hot take free. Crack ships, historical ships, human aus... whatever floats people's boats! Personally I am a big fan of unhealthy relationships that claw their way into functioning, so that will inform my understanding of the characters. That ain't for everyone.

So!

There's a generational resentment from the USA, there's a inferiority/superiority view from england

That's what makes it great :D

But it's cool, just think the special relationship is mostly based on power and convenience nothing else.

Again, that's kind of the point for me - how do you reconcile two people who are in a metaphorical open marriage of convenience with the fact that maybe they have genuine feelings which are distinct from any political role they play, knowing that they themselves aren't political players. They can potentially have a history that runs directly contradictory the the popular narrative of international relations: what does that look like? I think a lot of people employ that dynamic within Hetalia ships - personally I use it with US UK the most, but they're all party to it.

I have siblings, that's how we behave with each other.

That's cool and I can understand that angle! I have a brother and sister too and we get on like so painfully normally fine, so I always am a bit ???? when it comes to depictions of dysfunctional siblings in media. And that's the crux of it. Of course I see them as fraternal at times. It's really down to the story that the author - Hima or otherwise - wants to tell. The characters are immortal spirits. Tell interesting stories with them, the dynamics are intentionally left vague because it's fun to fill the gaps!

Historically rus ame doesn't work. I mean yeah, friends at first but then ideologies wreck it. How do you see those two?

I think it works in the 19th Century because Russia was often quite friendly with the US, particularly during the Civil War, but only in regards to the Russian Empire A) Liking 'strong' centralised government over federalisation B) It is a land based Empire who does not want a precedent set for splinter sections of the country declaring independence C) Russia hates Britain. America for much of the 19th Century is a bulwark against Britain (and by extension Canada). It was never a particularly important or course changing relationship outside of Alaska, but I can see historic cause for saying you could make something up. A lull of near nothing between WWI and WWII of course. After that it's the tension of MAD etc...

Personally. I am not a fan. Not a huge fan of Ivan in general so... I skip it. But yeah, once Alfred supplants Arthur as the 'real' enemy, any chance of happiness fades. Unless you aren't bothered about something as trivial as happiness in a ship and enjoy carnage. Not for me personally but!!

Historically I do enjoy my port eng and fra in but for america it makes sense Canada or alone. I feel there's a quite lack of compromise in USA part. They want to take and their freedom is more important than any sort of relationship.

Again I am not a fan of Canada and America... genuinely I think it's cause they are just too visually similar (for some I hear that's a perk...). But with every America ship you're gonna have fucked power dynamics. Doesn't matter who it's with. The eb and flow of influence will shift and depend on the other party certainly - some may be more openly defiant only to get shot down in flames, others may choose to try and be subtle only to find that Alfred doesn't do subtle. That's the fun in his ships I find. Can you have him in a romantic relationship where the scales tipped in his favour make everyday life just so utterly dysfunctional it's not worth the trouble?

#lil fucked up creatures #...#i love them #q&a #hetalia

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slowjamastan · 2 years

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readmoreing about my hetalia fanfics

ok so i was having a conniption last week about how canonically there's like at least 3 hetalia countries that are twitch streamers (like BRO ,,,sexie funy manboob -core for real) and now im working on an au / fanfic / ?? where a bunch of the young and/or social media capable characters make the worlds shittiest hype house

so far the setup is that hongkong made a joke tweet aimed at provoking iceland and liechtenstein (canonically a trio of friends and painfully underutilized imo), bcz the latter two are um. liech is like 12~14 she uses the internet exclusively for playing barbie dressup games. and ice is a young teen but is canonically struggling with modern tech which i think is so great

anyway all this is to say that larger influencers like the philippines were like Our Species needs better marketing let me hook you up and make this happen and then idk there's a hashtag trending and it gets the attention of the USA who is like waow just like the netflix show ill set u up in LA like a real hype house. who are u guys again (<- doesn't know his world geography )

and hong is like ok um fuck it we ball. ill double down im not a pussy. should we stream minecraft or something. and his bestie liech is like ok! whats minecraft

im still trying to figure out how to fit in femboy streamer poland (<- literally a thing he does in canon) since he's probably almost 30 and not a fun character to write for anyway but his presence feels necessary

so ya im still working through how this comes together but im excited to plan the fan response (if any) and then the swift downfall. the bit is that everyone they get involved has little to no technology know-how or otherwise their sense of pop culture is outdated. ideally they will end up giving their kind a worse image than before and get targetted for being cringe

most of my time so far has been spent researching like...... liechtenstein political history or cantonese slang or southeast asian historical relations. such is the danger of hetalia related wiki rabbit holes. thres a lot of ground im trying to cover and i want everything to be believable enough. ive read a lot of shitty heta fics in my time and i refuse to commit common mistakes

im also obsessed w using mostly minor characters while avoiding too many major ones. hetalia has so so so so so so many canonized characters and all of them are incredibly interesting. there's a lot of dynamics that can be mined for gold. and ppl like to focus on like ... 12? 12 of them. not in my house tho i wanna talk about some real obscure guys. america gets to be there tho bcz he's my number one best boy forever

next chapter im trying to introduce molossia to the main cast because Again . Incredibly underutilized guy. my son, even

this is all im thinking about these days btw

#post

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atlasgoodwin · 9 months

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Fandom meme by @/gehayi

A - Ships that you currently like a lot. (They don’t have to be OTPs because not everyone has OTPs.) Friendships, pairings, threesomes, etc. are allowed.

I have a lot of them, but right now, my main romantics ships are AsoRyuu (TGAA), Edeleth (FE3H) and Amy/Virginia (CC)

B - A pairing–platonic, romantic or sexual–that you initially didn’t consider, but someone changed your mind.

My friends changed my mind on many things over the years, but I don't remember the ships :(

C - A ship you have never liked and probably never will.

Russell and Amy from Criminal Case

D - A pairing you wish you liked but just can’t.

Most of the ships that I don't like are like popular ships from fandoms, for example, in Fairy Tail, I really don't like the main ship Nalu, but I wish I did

E - Have you added anything cracky/hilarious to your fandom? If so, what?

Yes, I made some wonderful masterpieces there and there- But for real, when I'm inspired, I love making shitpost stuff

F - What’s the longest you’ve ever been in a fandom?

I have been in the Criminal Case fandom for 7 years and it's still going let's goooooo

G - Have you ever had an OTP? If so, do you remember your first one? Who was in it?

My first OTP was Luigi/Daisy and to this day, I love them so so so so much <3

H - What is your favorite source text for fandom stuff (e.g., TV shows, movies, books, anime, Western animation, etc.)?

A little bit of everything to be honest, it depends on how I am feeling, but it's mostly video games, western animation and anime

I - Has Tumblr caused you to stop liking any fandoms, if so, which and why?

Not Tumblr, but Twitter did multiple times :/ One example being Super Smash Brothers and if you know... you know rip

J - Name a fandom you didn’t think about until you saw it all over Tumblr. (You don’t have to care about it or follow it; it just has to be something that Tumblr made you aware of.)

I guess Good Omens(?), is that the name? I have no clue what it is, but I know it exists because of Tumblr

K - What character has your favorite development arc/the best development arc?

Stealing my friend Katrina's answer by saying Amy Young from Criminal Case, she went through some insane character development in one district and girl, I feel so bad for you :(

L - Say something genuinely nice about a character who isn’t one of your faves. (Characters you’re neutral about are fair game, as are characters you merely dislike. Characters that you absolutely loathe with the fire of ten thousand suns are exempt, as there is no point in giving yourself an aneurysm over a character that you hate.)

Okay, I don't like Jones (Criminal Case) as much, but I can say that he had an amazing character development in Season 5, I was actually interested to see him grow as a character, even tho I am not a fan of him

M - Name a character that you’d like to have for a friend.

I would love to be friends with Marceline from Adventure Time, she is such a chill person, I wish to be her

N - Name three things you wish you saw more or in your main fandom (or a fandom of choice).

Criminal Case: - More fanarts (that is not of the main characters, like suspects, killers or victims)

-More shitpost memes

-More fanfics (Of characters that I care about- even that, just overall)

O - Choose a song at random. Which ship or character does it remind you of?

Monster from Imagine Dragons AND Skillet reminds me of one of my favorite Criminal Case characters, Duncan Young

P - Invent a random AU for any fandom (we always need more ideas).

I have many AUs in mind, but it would be interesting to see a Victim and Killer switch to see how it would plan out and the different motives!

Q - A fandom you’ve abandoned and why.

The first one that came to mind is Hetalia and it's literally because of Homestuck lmao, I got more interesting in Homestuck so I gave up on the Hetalia fandom

R - Which friendship/platonic relationship is your favorite in fandom?

(Total Drama) I do not ship romantically Cody and Sierra at all, but I really love them platonically, it has so much potential to be an amazing platonic ship, until All Stars happened,,,

S - Show us an example of your personal headcanon (prompts optional but encouraged)

I need to do a list of headcanons for my favs, because right now, I have NOTHING in mind D:

T - Do you have any hard and fast headcanons that you will die defending?

idk rip

U - Three favorite characters from three different fandoms, and why they’re your favorites.

Tess Goodwin (Criminal Case) - She is so intriguing as a character, at first, I didn't like her (that was like 9 years ago lol) but became so attached to her and I have a massive crush on her,,, I also love to analyze her so much

Kazuma Asogi (The Great Ace Attorney) - Wonderful well written character that I got attached to quickly, I won't spoil TGAA, but the only time I cried in TGAA was because of him aofbwoifbwos

Edelgard Von Hresvelg (Fire Emblem Three Houses) - She is a mixed feeling in the fandom, but I cannot stop thinking about her. Like Kazuma, so well written!! Love her design, love her personality and she is so fun to analyze!!

V - Which character do you relate to most?

Ivy (Carmen Sandiego 2019) physically and personality wise, I have a lot in common :)

W - A trope which you are virtually certain to hate in any fandom.

hmmmmmmmm

X - A trope which you are almost certain to love in any fandom.

hMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMM

Y - What are your secondhand fandoms (i.e., fandoms you aren’t in personally but are tangentially familiar with because your friends/people on your dash are in them)?

The only one that comes to mind is Star Trek (Thanks Katrina), because I know the other fandoms very well sdoibgfobgoer

Z - Just ramble about something fan-related, go go go! (Prompts optional but encouraged.)

I love fanart so goddamn much, I don't care if it's not for me, I still love love love LOVE IT so much!! People are so talented, it's insane and I wish they could share their passion and motivation with me please i am desperate ;o; oadbfoiwebigfwer

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aascribbles · 3 years

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#hetalia #fruk #one can say a lot about hetalia but it does have some interesting characters

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oumaheroes · 3 years

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omo more Prussia headcanons pls. Maybe some abt his relationship with Germany hehe

Okie dokey, here we go.

To start off, I think he's a wonderful character. Like all older characters in Hetalia, he's gone through a real ebb and flow of development and representation over the years- early fandom depictions he was either little more than a bumbling nuisance who 'kesesese'd' in the background, all the way to whiney, annoying, antagonist.

For me, I do see him as having a few of these traits. He a joker, for sure, someone who loves to mess about and play with people and make the most out of a moment. As I mentioned in these headcanons, he says what he thinks without considering or caring about the repercussions and this makes him a very brash personality, which isn’t for everyone.

He's lived a long time, he’s been through a lot of crap, and he's not got time for anyone's bullshit. He wants to enjoy himself and do things that make him happy; Prussia can be plenty serious when the time calls for it but when he doesn't have to be, he's very much of the opinion of 'why should I? That's boring.' He’s had years of boring things, horrible things, sad things, and he’s very much of the opinion that if you have a choice to do something that makes you happy, fucking do it man, the only one stopping you is you. (He’s a very bad influence for self indulgence).

Speaking of boredom, he is someone who can be easily distracted. He's the kinda guy who hyperfixates anf focuses on things to be point of forgetting to eat, but if he doesn't want to do something? Boy, have fun trying to get him to. He's very difficult to engage when he doesn't have any personal interest in an activity or topic, or when he doesn't see the benefit of something/ doesn't care about the benefits.

He's also a Big Nerd. Big big nerd. He has a lot of passionate hobbies that he takes very seriously, like his diaries, and unabashedly enjoys them to the fullest. His diaries are fancy and expensive, and his penmanship is to die for.

He’s not the strongest of guys, but he's very nimble and quick. Definitely what you'd consider to be scrappy when it comes to fighting technique and he gives it his all; he will not go down till he collapses. This, combined with his brilliant tactical abilities, makes him deadly and covers for any deficiency he may have in strength compared to his opponent.

Regarding his relationship with Germany, I think it's one that is very warm and healthy. Unlike certain other nation siblings (*cough*UkBros*cough*) Prussia was, and is, very openly affectionate to Germany and very encouraging of his growth and progress. They spent a lot of time together when Germany was young and Prussia made sure to raise him in a way that supported him, rather than putting him down. Prussia is very patient and good with children- he enjoys being silly, and he also takes them seriously. He's good at recognising what they need him to be and isn't held back by shame when it comes to acting like a big child himself.

Speaking of a big child, does Prussia cause issues sometimes? Yes. Does he stress Germany out to high heaven by digging himself into messy situations that need the government to come in and clean up after him? Oh boy yes. Germany dreads France, Spain, England, or Denmark visiting to spend time with Prussia; bad things will happen and Germany will most likely be woken up in the middle of the night to help them out of whatever drunken nonsense they've got themselves into.

I think @mandelene writes him stunningly well and I love whenever he appears in her work. I feel like she's got the perfect balance of jokey, light hearted dweeb and hugely intelligent and loyal friend, which for me is how Prussia acts regularly with people both young and old, depending on the situation.

His relationship with Germany has gone through rocky patches, the aftermath of WWII being one. Politics and war aside, I think as a person Prussia would have a lot to contend with regarding being dissolved in favour of his younger brother. This area is a difficult one to go into detail about though, and I'm not comfortable openly exploring the whys and hows of politics too much- I'm nowhere near knowledgeable enough to give a well rounded opinion and map it to an anime character (if it even can/ should be done).

I will say though, that for the most part the brothers are good friends as well as family, always have been, and enjoy spending time together as adults.

Prussia's questionable mortality does raise an uncomfortable feeling for Germany though and it is something they Do. Not. Talk. About, and likely won't until it's far too late. Prussia doesn't want to make Germany sad or guilty or awkward, and Germany doesn't want to acknowledge that it's happening, or any of the bad feelings that go along with that. They're not talking about it, which means he can pretend it's not really happening and so it sits between them silently and patiently, twisting Germany's stomach when he notices crow's feet gathering around his brother's eyes.

#aph prussia #hws prussia #hetalia headcanons #gilbert beilschmidt #aph #hetalia #hws #thanks for the ask!#i love prussia a lot #can you tell?#he's such a good egg #heroes answers #heroes headcanons

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hetaliatxtpostz · 3 years

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and Finally an actor au. (Sorry for spamming the Ask box!)

YES! No, no, don’t be sorry, I asked you to. Okay, this AU is one I’m so excited about.

I think this actor AU could be very, very fun if they were acting in Hetalia as a live-action show like I’ve seen @cereal-miilk do. But that might just be why they were all together. This is just how I would do them as actors in general.

Here’s my ;) cast:

Feliciano Vargas: Feli does exclusively indie horror/thriller productions as the villian. He has played some incredibly disturbing roles. His ability to convey a truly terrifying (many times inhuman) antagonist has landed him a cult following, tho he refuses to do any projects that would win him real fame, as he prefers the freedom of indie projects to convey truly dark themes. The people who have seen his acting are startled to find he’s a delightful and bubbly person outside of his roles.

Lovino Vargas: Also plays only villains, but he plays high-class types of villains. He plays opposite to action stars. He does a lot of popular movies. He’s great at accent work. His career is much more well known than his brother’s, although the people who know them both do say Feliciano is better for the sheer inhumanness of his performances... And there is a bit of mixup sometimes between them.

Romulus Vargas: Played a lot of famous roles of sexy action heros. Now does mostly cameos that reference himself. (Think Harrison Ford, but if he leaned heavily into his own hype.) Is very interested in sons careers: he’d like for Feliciano to take any role in any other type of movie. He thinks that Lovino should try playing a hero.

Wang Yao: The most famous actor in this lineup, especially in Asia (tho Romulus is more popular in America, Yao is more popular by the numbers). He has starred in a number of dramas. He has a lot more range to his acting than Romulus does. He refuses to tell people how old he is, but also is very insistent that he has more experience than anyone else he works with, and knows better. He has won so many awards and so much critical acclaim. The moves he makes are art.

Honda Kiku: He works mostly in j-dramas. He has a very private life outside of tv shows, and he doesn’t really have much interest in acting in movies.

Arthur Kirkland: Arthur Kirkland exclusively does two things: voice overs for documentaries, and period dramas. He works for the BBC, and he’s content with these two things, and that’s it.

Francis Bonnefoy: Does the cheesiest hallmark type rom-coms. He adores the rom-com. His goal in life is to start in as many rom-coms as possible. He loves over-acting. He doesn’t really do subtlety.

Antonio Fernandez Carriedo: He’s an actor that either plays action roles or like wholesome family type roles and nothing in between. He definitely has a lot of buzz presswise that’s stuff like “got into a bar fight” or “crashed a convertible.” But he’s still nice to his fans.

Ivan Braginski: Is a character actor who plays henchmen or the muscle for any show, but is really a very sweet guy who’s knitting backstage.

Matthew Williams: Does mostly comedies when he does movies. When he’s in TV shows he tends to be a one-off character actor which is something like “a guy who lives in the woods.”

Alfred F. Jones: He started off as Matthew’s stuntman, but when MAtthew found him reading off Matthew lines, he decided that Alfred was good enough to also be an actor and started securing roles for him. Alfred has a lot of range in acting. He does his own stunts. His dream is to play a superhero.

Ludwig Beilschmidt: Like a b-list actor, he tends to do only terrible movies you would find on like the sci-fi channel. Tho his being so handsome has won him a bit of a following, and there are serval memes going about regarding this hot actor.

Gilbert Beilschmidt: Was a popular vlogger before anyone cast him, and his casting was a surprise to people. Not considered a “real” actor. He is good at acting, and he works hard to be taken seriously, especially with his online image.

Extra Stuff

Okay so these are just my ideas for if they did do a live-action version of Hetalia where they all worked together.

Feliciano & Lovino working together and they have some tension that bleeds over into their acting (along with their villian energy that they have to work to tone down):

Feliciano: you need to stop telling the people I’m flirting with that I'm a slut. Lovino: you need to not pretend to be me and then say I do cocaine in interviews. Ludwig: .... What? You didn't actually do that did you? Feliciano: UGH ONE TIME!

Feliciano *brushing a strand of hair from his face, flirting, kinda softly*: I'm not that annoying in real life, you know-- Lovino *from the background*: BEG TO DIFFER!!!!

Also like, Matthew being like “you were my stuntman, then I started your career. So like, I kinda own your career?” And then he’s dedicated to just annoying Alfred-- peak sibling energy.

Matthew: "Alfred wants to play his younger self too." or “Should Canada just murder America in this episode, ‘cause--” Alfred: "Working with you is a nightmare"

The cast is surprised by the sheer volume that Matt can yell "ALFRED" across the set bc he's always whispering in character. (To which Alfred will shout back just as loud.)

Francis & Arthur are married outside of their roles, and they have to tone down being sweet and married in the show, bc they know they’re supposed to be fighting. But also:

Arthur *watching Francis play France*: You’re never like that with me at home." Francis You want me to be... Annoying? At home?

Romulus roped Yao into doing this project, and that’s the only reason such a talented and famous actor is in the show:

The rumor mill is like "are famous actors Romulus and Yao dating???!!" Based on this stupid show, and Yao sends Romulus that headline like "every day I work on this project my life is measurably worse and it's your fault."

Alfred is also in awe of Romulus’ action roles, and he’s like “wow can you sign my face??”

Other random details I would include:

Gilbird isn't part of the script Gilbert just loves his bird that much and asked if he could have him.

Lovino and Feliciano are also trying to make a crossover project where they’re two different types of villians having it out: it’s a movie.

I think it would be funny if Ludwig was actually American with German parents, and Alfred is actually Canadian like Matthew but can do an American so well.

Everyone on this set is having so much fun.

#hetalia #au ask game #actor au #I'm very enamoured with this AU #especially italy as an indie horror actor #i would ditch everything else for italy doing indie horror movies its so good

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zephycluster · 3 years

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Precolonial HWS SEA Rant Post, feel free to ignore

If you're still reading, then you're probably looking for evidence or some juicy tidbits to throw back at me or to try and find dirt to cancel me, like typical Tumblr/Twitter. Go ahead, I don't really care.

First off, let me just say that If you like Precolonial South-East Asia AUs, feel free to keep enjoying them. I will respectfully support your passions from afar. This post is just to explain why I don't like it, especially the way they keep insisting/portraying PH in it.

Still here? Then let me begin.

Since the recent confirmation that the ASEAN Six Majors (Can't really say ASEAN 10 atm since it's still missing some people) Were completed and the Ma-Phil-Indo Trio was included, there has been a large surge in 'Precolonial' fanarts and portrayals of South East Asians, those three especially.

Even long, long before, circa 2010's ish, a rather well-known fan universe known as 'Maaf' dealt with their story and how their Author thought their intertwined histories went. Written by (my best guesstimate) an Indonesian writer who wants to explore the old, SEA bond.

When I first stumbled across Maaf (I was in Highschool at the time, around age 16-ish), I took a casual interest in it and tried to read it through. But, I will wholeheartedly admit that at the time, Pre-Colonial cultures of South-East Asia in general, let alone Philippine, did not really interest me that much. The focus (I think) was mostly on Indonesia, a country I didn't really know back then, and the liberal use of 'ancient' names and artwork just made it feel like an entirely Original Work (that needed a degree in History to really appreciate) and not something from Hetalia. I also completely disagreed with what I could gather was the story's portrayal of PH but I'm getting ahead of myself.

Do I hate 'Maaf'? No, I don't hate it. Do I wish I never came across it or that it didn't exist? Of course not. Just because I didn't enjoy it or appreciate it that well doesn't mean I wish any ill toward it, its fans, or its creator.

Fast forward to April 2021, the long awaited inclusion of South East Asia to the canon Hetalia verse. I was happy, the other fans were happy, all was good.

Then started the questionable fanarts, fan theories and fan pairings.

Especially the expansion of Precolonial! PH.

Let's go back to Maaf for one moment. From what I understood of Maaf, PH there was a character who once was like all the other South East Asian cultures, trading with them, all around being a nice family.

But all that changed when the Spaniards attacked, so cry the precolonial buffs. They destroyed everything, ransacked and marginalized the tribes, erased everything that PH was!

Did that happen? ABSOLUTELY. The Spaniards had this vision in mind that they must spread Christianity to all of the 'savage, unchristian heathens' of their realm. :V /s

But back up a second, back to PH's portrayal in Maaf. The way she (yeah, she) was portrayed there was that she was slowly losing her memories of being a 'true' South East Asian and grew more and more westernized in the process, like some sort of Culture-specific Alzheimer's or something.

Firstly, that is seriously depressing, and secondly, I just really don't see that happening.

Here's why.

Point 1: Even before Colonial Masters, Filipinos as a people cannot agree on anything.

I'll just begin this segment with a Philippine proverb that outlines what Filipinos call 'Crab Mentality' or 'Crab Bucket Mentality'.

"You don't need a lid for a container when you're keeping multiple crabs. If you keep at least two crabs together, they will just pull each other down instead of helping each other up."

I don't know how it goes with Indonesian or Malaysian history class, but what I know of my homeland, both pre- and post-colonial history, we were never really 'united' or 'together' in the sense that Indonesia and Malaysia were (from what I assume).

Let me pull up a somewhat related question on r/AskHistorians.

The reason I brought this up as it shows the reasons why, in my opinion, a single entity that is 'Precolonial Philippines-tan' is an impossibility.

The answers are long and would extend this already long post to stupid proportions, so I'll just quote relevant sentences. The link is here for those that wanna deep-dive into the answer.

"All this to say that there wasn't a name used for the entire Philippine islands before the Philippines that people now would agree to. An interesting comparison would be the Holy Roman Empire, which might also be characterized as disparate politico-geographic groups of relatively small size that had a history of relations between each other, but one thing they had that the Philippines did not was a common language, or at least a family of mostly mutually intelligible languages, so that the name Deutschland or Germany isn't terribly offensive to anyone. If you called the Philippines the 'Lupang-Tagalog' or even 'Lupang-Tao' the other ethnic groups would protest."

For those in need of translation, 'Lupang Tagalog' means 'Land of the Tagalogs' and 'Lupang Tao' means 'Land of People', specifically. The first one is already exclusive and offensive, as the Tagalog peoples are but one of many ethnicities here.

And for the 'Lupang Tagalog' suggestion specifically, it's even more offensive as they are the majority ethnicity (not by much, just around 28%) From this chart from Geography Now! It would basically be alienating everyone else in the 72% remainder that isn't 'Tagalog'.

And even 'Lupang Tao', the most generic name in a local language you can think of, would be met with contempt because the name itself is in the Tagalog language.

Just travelling between two individual island groups today would sometimes require a translator because the words can change very rapidly and very drastically. Here's a sample of some differences coming from a friend living in Visayas (in Red) vs. the words I know living in Luzon (In blue).

Ate vs. Manang = Older Sister

Ibon vs. Pispis = Bird

Tumawa vs. Kadlaw = To laugh

Takot vs. Hadlok = Fear

Kain vs. Kaon = To eat

Ngayon vs. Subong = Now, at this point in time

Iyak vs. Hibi/Gibi = to cry

Talampakan vs. Tiil = Foot (in Tagalog, the word retains its 'body part AND unit of measurement' meaning)

Tulog vs. Tuyo = to sleep (Tuyo in Tagalog is either a dried salted fish or 'to dry')

The kicker is that just like Tagalog is just one of many languages here, so too is the language my friend speaks. Ask an entirely new person, like someone from Mindanao, they'll probably have an entirely new set of words.

It's not just Luzon vs. Visayas vs. Mindanao, either. Here's a map listing some of the ethnic groups here.

Even the way they're written differs from location to location.

While we're on the subject of Island divisions, a casual skim across Twitter and Tumblr has shown that their Precolonial PH has been one of the following ancient civilizations: Tondo, Butuan, Sugbu, Namayan. There may have been others but that was what I have found.

Notice how even today, the posters of Precolonial PH can't seem to agree on what he's supposed to be? With Indonesia it's either Majapahit or Srivijaya and Malaysia it's usually Malacca iirc.

What is the big deal? Well, let's go back to the Ask Historians post. "Why didn't the Philippines ever change its name to remove the colonial mark that being named after a Spanish King has?" The answer: "If you suggested something dating to precolonial times, the other ethnic groups would protest."

Since we're on a roll with maps, let me bring this up.

As you can see, the precolonial PH posts have a reason to not be able to agree on one thing, as there is a LOT of options. Do you also see how THAT list is also split up?

It's split up into those aligned with China (Sinified), aligned with India (Indianized), aligned with the Middle East (Islamicized), and no alignment (Animist). Now, let's go back to the main suggestions for which Kingdom/Polity/Civilization/whatever Modern Philippines used to be.

If the Filipino peoples' couldn't agree on something as simple as WHAT TO CALL THE LAND THEY'RE LIVING ON, what more a living, breathing, walking, talking entity that is supposed to be a beacon of all of their 'unified' culture? ESPECIALLY if that entity used to be a currently existing Kingdom/Polity/Rajahnate/Sultanate/whatever.

Tondo? "Of course, always the damn Tagalogs. Tagalog this, Tagalog that. First the capital city, then the language,* THE REST OF US EXIST, YOU KNOW! What about us in Visayas? Mindanao?"

*The national language known as 'Filipino' is just standardized Tagalog*

Butuan? "Wait, you want Butuan to represent us? They're they only Indian-aligned city in the Islam-majority Mindanao! They're not even that many of them! I'm not gonna change my religion!"

Sugbu, the other name for the Rajahnate of Cebu on the map? Lemme bring back my Visayan friend again. According to her, she hails from the Hiligaynon part of Visayas.

"Sure :v and the other islands are what?

Chopped liver?

Not to mention the language and writing barrier helloooo"

And Namayan? Well. I'll let this pic speak for itself.

To summarize, no matter who you pick as Modern PH's previous identity, it will not end well nor be accepted by the other Kingdoms at the time.

"So where does that leave Modern PH, he had to have been ONE of them, right?"

Well, not really. He doesn't HAVE to be one of the Ancient Kingdoms that lasted till the modern day. I mean, predecessor representatives exist in Hetalia canon, after all. Like Modern Greece is a different character from Ancient Greece, Ancient Egypt and Modern Egypt, heck even England and his brothers have a canon mother that was the rep before them.

Or you could even use the same logic that Germany does, in that each specific region has/had its own representative and that Modern!PH is just the 'mediator' between them (cause gawd does PH need one). There could be a Tondo, a Namayan, a Butuan, and a Sugbu, all arguing and this Proto-PH is just trying to make headway in making them all satisfied.

But, even after all this, there is another reason why I personally don't subscribe to the 'Precolonial PH' idea, and by tangential extension, the Indo x Phil pairing.

Point 2: Even without intending to, Precolonial Indo x Phil just comes off as patronizing

This second point is just ENTIRELY personal preference and barely has any facts to back it up.

Again, if you like the pairing and disagree with me, You do you. I will respectfully support you and your passions from a distance.

But for me, Indo being Phil's seme/bae/boyfriend and consistently bringing up precolonial times just comes off as patronizing.

Just one more time, I'd like to point out that I am NOT bashing Indonesia, its people or the subscribers of Indo x Phil. This is just how the pairing feels to ME specifically.

The way I see it, Indo x Phil as a pairing, especially if it extends back into precolonial times, reads the same way as a long-since married couple where the husband/wife CONSTANTLY brings up that ONE outing you had together, or that ONE prom night where you kissed while dancing, even it happened like 30 some-odd years ago and so much more happened since then.

Even in a platonic sense, It reads like two besties where one ALWAYS mentions stuff like 'Yeah but you looked so much cooler back in High School' or 'Back in Grade School you would've known that', or 'Remember back in Pre-school we did X? How could you forget that?'

How does one respond to the notion that no matter what you do now, it will never compare to a past you've already forgotten or barely remember? That the best version of 'you' is already long gone?

"That's because the westerners made you forget your culture! You gotta take it back!"

While it is true, yes, as a collective we barely remember the Kingdom that commissioned the Laguna Copperplate, or created the Banaue Rice Terraces, or created the millennia old bonds that we still share with Indonesia and Malaysia.

But to keep pushing the precolonial identity would be to neglect and cast aside the one REAL binding belief and culture that spans the entirety of these islands we call the Philippines.

We take on all the bad stuff that happens to us, conquer it, and make it our own. Be it natural disasters, foreign powers, or negative stereotypical mentalities.

Yes, we've forgotten the ancient kingdoms of old and are just now digging through the closet for those remnants of the past. Yes, the colonizers imposed that on us, and made us forget. But in the process we've also taken everything that they left behind, everything that they threw at us, and created something that can only come from us.

The lanterns that the Spaniards used to light the way to the morning masses they made us attend became our globally known symbol of Christmas. The junked vehicles that the Americans left behind in World War 2 are now rolling works of art that announce themselves loud and proud on the streets (for better or for worse). The iced dessert recipe that the Japanese forced us to learn while they were occupying the country is now so distinct and famous it is synonymous with us, and is so delicious even Italy has taken notice.

Even after all this? Even after all the 425-ish years total we have been under a foreign power, with all the progress we've made as a country, a people, and a nation, you would still imply our fragmented, jigsaw puzzle state of being in the past was better just because it was pure 'South East Asian' like everyone else?

We might not be as well put-together as Indonesia or Malaysia, but we made this melting pot of angry, leg-pulling, dogpiling, Native, Mestizo, Chinoy, and Fil-Am crabs OURS, damnit!

It's now 4:30 AM and I have work in 5 or so hours. I'll be going to sleep now.

#hws #hws philippines #precolonial philippines #hws theory #hetalia #hetalia world stars #hetalia world series #hetalia headcanons #aph #axis powers hetalia #aph philippines #hetalia philippines #aph hetalia

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circlique · 3 years

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How do you make a good OC hetalia nations?

1. Research Seems cliche, but a hetalia OC without research is just...an OC. You’re trying to represent a whole country with a person, so designing a character and then picking a country for them to represent is...not it. You need to actually look into the country’s history and understand how it got to where it is today, what factors influenced its history and current society. Understand why it gets along with some countries and doesn’t with others. And yet this can’t be the only thing you research. I think researching the history and relations is a good baseline but that ultimately does not result in a good character on its own. You need to also research what the people there look like, what people there tend to wear, any common stereotypes (positive or neutral, not negative/racist ones please), cultural norms, etc. I’ve seen plenty of profiles that had obviously had a lot of research put into them, but they read like a wikipedia article for the country. The character themselves just seemed bland, because the creator spent a lot of time on the history, relations, and facts, but not a lot on actually developing their character.

2. A Personality

So that’s really where the other stuff comes in. What are people there generally like? What cultural norms drive morality and society there? It is like Japan where there’s a heavy emphasis on honor, politeness, and working as a group? Is it like America where individuality, strength, and hard work are highly valued? Those are the kind of stereotypes playing into the personalities of Hetalia characters, and those should kind of be the baseline when figuring out what kind of person your OC should be.

And then--just make the character interesting. Stereotypes shouldn’t be the only thing making up their personality. All the Hetalia characters have their little quirks that make them unique, like Prussia keeping a diary or Canada being a fan of Naruto. Don’t be afraid to give them interests beyond stereotypical things people from their country would do. Don’t be afraid to give them relatable, human trait that make them unique and stand out as an individual. Look at their history and think what things might have left an impact on them, for better or worse. Incorporate that into their character!

That’s why the OCs that read like a wikipedia article are boring. You’re telling me what the country is like, not what the character is like. Your character should believably be able to represent someone from that country, but I should also be able to believe that they are an actual person! They should grow and develop and learn from their mistakes, have heartbreaks, have joys and things that are important to them, just like anyone else.

3. Design

I already talked a little bit about researching what people from the country look like and dress like. Even if your character is their own individual, they should still look like someone I would reasonably expect to find in the country. If there are cultural hairstyles that are common, consider giving one to your OC. If people in the country tend to dress modestly, perhaps the OC dresses in the same manner. Race and ethnicity can get complicated and there really is no one-size-fits-all method to determining what ethnic groups your character should represent or what features they should have, but I would highly recommend against making your OC half-(insert colonizer here) for “historical reasons.” (I am mostly talking about things like making Laos half French btw). I really have never seen that sort of thing done well. If anything it tends to make the focus the colonizer’s influence rather than the influence of the culture that existed before the colonizer’s arrival. Don’t fall into the trap, unless there is a very, very good reason, like total death of the civilization that came before and replacement by the colonizers/immigrants, or the intent of the OC to represent colonial populations ONLY (like intending America as “new world” settlers, and personifying Indigenous Nations as separate characters completely).

Another thing about physical design is to try and make it interesting. Traditional costumes and unique uniforms are always good. Plain colored shirts and flag design hoodies are...plain, predictable, boring. Look up some fashion from that country! Dress them as something someone from their country might be interested in! (Australia wearing khakis like Steve Irwin, or America wearing a bomber jacket because the image of a Top Gun pilot in a jacket and aviator glasses is just...very very American) But, also try and keep it realistic and don’t go overboard trying to make your character unique or representing too many things at once. Slapping 3 different curls on them and giving them heterochromia is overdoing it.

4. Relations

You should get a basic idea of how the country gets along with others by researching its history. Common allies are most likely friends, common enemies, at least a rivalry or possibly some disdain between the two (if not outright hatred).

One thing I want to emphasize is to let the OC be their own person though! Don’t define them by their relation to someone else. Isn’t it annoying when someone greets you with “oh, you’re ____’s kid!” instead of your name? I feel the same way when I see an OC described as ____’s child/sibling. Especially if there are plenty of history and culture and things that make that country unique, but the creator has chosen to focus on that time the country was colonized, or part of a union. That’s not to say your OC can’t be related to a canon character, but don’t force it just so you can have a certain family dynamic. Sometimes countries that are close are just friends or neighbors, not family. Let the country be their own character rather than make them an extension or an accessory to another!

----

This is getting long, but I think those are things people should consider when making a Hetalia OC. Long story short, the character should be someone I would expect to find in that country, but who is also their own individual who I could really see existing!

#hetalia #aph #hws #Anonymous

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roamingpoffin · 3 years

Text

Mr. Genova: Instructions for Use

Hello there! I recently got to re-read Hetalia’s story about Napoleon in occasion of a trip in Corsica, and suddently remembered this adorable little guy. While there are a lot of wonderful people that took the mantle and tried to give character and story to what are actually just 2 sketches from 3y ago, I also noticed some disappointment (understandable) and…. misinformation from lack of context and historical knowledge about the topic. I know that seeing the 4th italian brother when maybe your country isn’t in yet can be frustrating, but trust me when I say that Genova is a very important character for many of the events that occurred between the middle-ages and WWII (does Colombo ring a bell?).

With that said let’s try to discover together who actually was is Mr.Genova!

Why Genova and not Genoa? Genova is the correct italian name of the republic/city while Genoa is it's english version and, incidentally, the name of Genova's most renowed football team. So just like for Venezia and Roma we'll keep the original pronunciation.

In this first part we’ll talk about Genova design

[Original sketch by Hima, I just polished and colored it to better convey my ideas about his design.]

I’ve heard people complaining that “he just seems like a fusion of Romano and France”, funnily enough not only the comparison is quite on point, but it’s coherent with Genova’s history and probably intentional on Hima’s side.

To understand what I mean let’s look at a little map of modern Italy

We can immediatly notice some things ->

1) Liguria (the name given to Genova’s historical territories after the city became “capoluogo di regione” in 1948) borders with France and Monaco. For all it’s life Genova had to fend against France and would often end under it’s dominion for brief periods; at the same time their vicinity favored a similar culture and language (with one BIG exeption we'll see another time): Monaco and Corsica, previously territories of Genova, retain a great resemblance with Ligurian when speaking their actual language, aka Corso and Monegasco. At the same time Ligurian presents some elements common in french that are actually absent in standard italian.

2) Genova is situated in front of the Ligurian sea and has open access to all of west-Mediterraneum, becoming the most important harbor in north-west Italy since it gained his autonomy from the HRE around 1096 A.D. Due to Liguria peculiar geografical conformation (no plains and the Alps-Appenines isolating Genova from the rest of north Italy, favoring a climatic bubble that makes the region a greener version of the south) our republic decided to limit it's expansion towards northen countries and instead focus on the Mediterraneum sea, becoming Spain and by proxy South Italy best commercial/political buddy till (almost) the end of it’s indipendent life.

3bonus) Yes guys Seborga is a little town in the Ligurian hinterland and was part of the Genovese republic. While Seborga's story is really interesting (might do a focus in the future) the general history and culture of the 2 is the same.

NOTE: every time I use the term “Italy” during any period pre 1861 consider it only as the geographical meaning of the peninsula (Italy as a country wasn't a thing till then).

PALETTE AND DESIGN

With this introduction in mind it makes sense for little Genova to have his hair styled similar to France and a darker shade compared to Veneziano. While the dark gray used by Hima could hint at both black and dark brown, the latter is by far the most common color in Liguria so I decided to go with that.

His eyes are anybody’s game to be fair, but I decided to be as faithful as possible to the average ligurian so, just like Feli and Lovi when Hima decides that his eyes aren’t olive anymore, brown/light brown is the most common color in Italy (+ we already have Seborga as the random flashy neighbouring brother).

To end our palette the skin tone could be an in between: probably darker that a Northener but lighter than a Southener (no mayor arabic nor germanic influences here)

CLOTHES AND ACCESSORIES

clothes -> nothing too important to say, the clothes are fit for the XVIII sec., they shows Genova’s status as a wealthy commercial republic and unofficial bank of Europe (yup, before Switzerland Genova had that role and it’s banks are considered the oldest in Europe). As long as the colors used aren’t too flashy everything is fine.

crown thingy(?) -> now this is where things become interesting. There are 3 possible options I could think as of why Genova, of all the possible accessories, has a crown when it wasn’t even a monarchy. Pick what you prefer or feel free to add your personal interpretation if you want.

1) money and superbia: as written before, during it's prime Genova was a wealthy republic, lending money to half of Europe and being the indiscussed queen of west-Mediterraneum (ofc Venezia was the queen of east-Mediterraneum, but that’s another story for another post). The city even got the nickname “Superba” to enanche the grandiosity and way too much pride of it’s people. A crown would be a fitting choice for someone who is probably a bit narcisist.

2) city status: in ancient paintings the personifications of countries and cities were made recognizable by the presence of a little crown on their head. Adding to that, in Italy to be a full fledged town or city you must receive a crown symbol to put on your emblem, maybe Hima is hinting at Genova actual predicament.

3) the Lanterna: I’ll admit the first thing I tought while looking at Genova was “that looks like a little tower”. A bit strange, but actually not farfetched; if you have ever visited Genova you’ll know what I mean when I say this city has a lot, and I say A LOT of towers positioned trough the historical center. The reason? To protect themselves from the French/Ottomans/eventual pirates, in the XVI sec. Genova decided to build a massive system of walls and towers that surrounded the city. There is also a specific tower that is considered the symbol of Genova itself “la Lanterna”. The Lanterna is the oldest Lighthouse still in function trough Europe; maybe if you glance at its modern look it doesn’t scream “tower”, but before it was semi-destroyed by the French army in 1513 A.D. Lanterna beared a striking resemblance to what Mr.Genova is wearing.

“MUGUGNO LIBERO”

Last but not least, the infamous pout that gave Genova the label of “Romano 2.0”. It’s not random, it’s not wrong, it’s such a toughtful and unexpected touch that Hima would be declared honored guest by any Genovese (and made me personally laugh like an idiot for an hour).

What Genova is doing here has a specific term in the local language, mugugnare!

What is “mugugnare”? Mugugnare is a peculiar way of complaining and rambling specific of the Ligurians. This act is soo ingraned into the culture of the region that it’s considered an art and will take a good part of any conversation you’ll have with a local.

I’ll be more specific when we’ll touch Genova possible characterization, just you know that where Romano is loud, pretty offensive and direct the mugugno is more subtle and passive-aggressive. It can and WILL BE directed at anything, from the weather to jobs to Venezia and the rest of the north.

This finally brings us in what defines most of the characters of Hetalia, the wonderful land of stereotypes.

See you in the next part where we’ll talk about the temperament and culture of what is often considered the “black sheep” of north Italy!

#hetalia #aph genoa #aph italy #aph romano #hws genoa #hws italy #hws romano #hws seborga #my coloring #poffin ramblings #aph seborga

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fiore-rosewood9 · 3 years

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♫FrUk :D

Thank you for the ask, I will send a few songs that remind me of fruk, a whole playlist if you may, not only one song. I also touch a few of triggering topics as I explain the nations's personalities and relationships with one another so I apologize in advance if I upset/trigger someone and will put my trigger here - Warning - mentions of abuse, alcoholism, s*exual trauma. Under the explanation there is a playlist of songs that make me think of Ukfr/Fruk, so if anyone gets upset you can feel free to skip my general headcanons about fruk/ukfr relationship dynamics. There are too many songs that make me think of different characters or ships but I collected the ones that make me think the most of them.

I know the original song is by Lady gaga but this version is too sweet and cheesy for me so I chose the rock cover by the group Halestorm since I prefer it, it sounds more genuine and rough and kinda makes me think of the dynamic that ukfr/fruk has, that some people present is as just the enemies to lovers trope or them just fighting which is.....simply unhealthy????? Fruk is much more than that and I wish people would stop seeing it as a two dimensional thing, yeah they do argue on a lot of things and it is not the healthiest dynamic however it does work in my mind because they stick through thin and thick and that requires effort and true love since a lot of people nowdays do not take time to know the other person, they just jump into marriage and have a few divorces and just argue over everything and then separate, fruk is an off and on thing where they break and make. This kind of dedication is hard to find in today's couples. I know they're fictional characters and no one really cares but I practice my psychology skills and my knowledge of people around me, and I sometimes see people with similar or almost the same characters as fictional characters, they may not have all of their hobbies but they do act the same way. And certain pairs, no offence, just make me want to gag my self due to history with bad and toxic fans but if I look at it subjectivly and never encountered mean fans from a certain ship, I would say that they ship simply doesn't work. No ship bashing but as far as I know, people with this kind of personality from this ship that I dislike, and get upset when seeing fan art of, simply just do not get along and had a hard time divorcing, it is not only unhealthy and unbalanced, it is downright abusive because both partners seek control and to have the upper hand and this is not...what romance is about???? It is about two people taking care of each other, understanding personal space and boundaries, lifting each other up and yeah, they will argue a lot, sometimes for small things, sometimes for bigger things, but generally the point of romantic relationships is not someone using you, or abusing you financially and generally being better or bigger than you. This breeds insecurity and jealousy in the other partner and makes them feel inadequate. Usually such problems are not talked over and one of the partners acts passive agressive which is what ultimaltly leads to said divorce. So yeah, people can go away with their (BUT IT IS CUTE, IT IS SO FUCKING CUTE) pairing because real life pairings and how humans communicate and develop friendships and relationships isn't based on what your mind conciders and doesn't concider cute and there are lots of factors on whether relationship will ever happen like common interests, type personality, etc and just block me so I will never hear from them and their childish mindset ever again, which is why I blocked certain tumbrl fan art hetalia accounts who produce art of a pairing I (dislike) lowkey hate, for historical reasons, for manga reasons, for toxic fans who bullied me and made me go on 3 hiatuses reason and ultimatly in real life experience and psychology and how humans and the human mind works and what is healthy and unhealthy reason. Why should I support something where certain people have been hateful towards me and these same people that act like these characters and I know in my life are on bad terms in real life? Why shouldn't I just move on to something more realistic and more healthy, that I have seen that works with humans I know first hand? I am not a clinical psychologist and I have no power or saying in this but I had to write thesis and read books by psycholgists and analyze them in high school and my first year of Uni, in order to pass the year and I have also read reccomended books by a psychologist I went to because I wanted an advice on how to deal with my anxiety and talking to people, because my condition is extremely severe but I honestly feel stuck and try to improve but also feel confused, I sometimes feel like I am not doing enough to

self improve as a human. I sometimes come off as too cold or overly bitter and angry without intending to, and it sucks.

Francis is a really manipulative person and Matthew picked up that from him while part of Alfred's agression doesn't only come from confidence in his own abilities but the fact that England him self is an overly agressive person and is very dominant or at least used to be for a very long time, now he is more mild to keep his gentleman persona but he does suffer from severe anger issues which he hides while Alfred is prone to breaking things and screaming, Arthur is more prone to being rude, sarcastic and generally mean before he loses it. Matthew and Francis do not engage in fight if they can avoid it which is why sometimes people call them cowardly I think? And Matthew is a bit prone to being a codependent people pleaser as far as I see and he seems to have severe anxiety issues. Francis albeit charismatic and beautiful, is deep down in his core lonely.

I think that part of his pervertedness, shocking people with his s*xual humour and all of this sex obsession comes from trauma in his childhood and dressing like a girl. I wouldn't explain what the trauma in question was since it is not canon but I do headcanon that he had s*xual trauma and it is partly why Hungary dressed like a guy. I don't know if this is legit, it is bias from reading too much japanese fan comics relating to hetalia or just general history of humans and how they treated consent and what is moral today, wasn't amoral or against the law a few centuries ago, but I have seen artists touch on it. I think both Arthur and Francis suffer from neglect and they weren't particularly good fathers, in fact no country is, the whole FACE family is dysfunctional and while I love all of them, I kinda pity them. I think Rome was a bit discriminatory mostly towards France and never towards his other children while Arthur had to constantly prove him self and was bullied by his brothers. While other nations have suffered from trauma too (I headcanon that Prussia was burnt on stake and people threw rocks at him due to his albinism and being left handed) something similar happened to Arthur, who I headcanon that he was burnt for being a witch and Francis went a few times through the guillotine, or Arthur still having a bullet scar on his arm from the American revolution or Francis having nightmares from that day where Jeanne was burnt and waking up in his own sweat. Arthur also must suffer from workholism and alcoholism, judging by how much he works and goes to pubs to drink. Everyone chooses their own poison and how to cope with life and many use unhealthy coping mechanisms, hell, even I used unhealthy coping mechanisms a lot in the past and I am not proud of them, in fact, I try to improve.

I can talk about their history and how it relates to their mental health and what scars they have for hours but I would bore you. You came for a song and I am probably boring you so I apologize for writting a lot of words, in advance. I basically think that fruk/ukfr is the ultimate ship for many reasons because they click, I do ship spuk/engita/asakiku and many other things but fruk/ukfr is kinda like butter and bread, it is a great combination. I never said it is 100 percent healthy, however their relationship makes psychological sense and their personalities click. I know people like to present arthur as this dumb tsundere man that blushes and says baka, or he is this garbage rat dad that no one likes or francis is presented or at least used to be this perverted sex machine that touched other countries inappropriatly or at least the 2012-2015 fans saw him this way and while he still has the reputation of a pervert, what many young people in the fandom see as disgusting, I just see as an overly lonely man that just happens to have high libido and copes with it by having casual sex and just has a sex humour, the same way some people have fart jokes humour or darker, more cursed humour, I am really glad that fans mostly left off this whole - Francis is a r**ist and will grope you, in the past, because honestly r**e is not joke and as a character he clearly understands consent and boundaries and I don't think someone like him would do such a thing. Also Greece and Turkey have even higher libido than him and sleep around more, yet he is the ''pervert'', I don't get it??????????? but fruk is just so much more than opposites attract, they have a lot in common so I can't say they're full opposites, no one is truly. I have heard people ask why does anyone ship fruk when it is just opposites attract/enemies to lovers trope and I am honestly confused, because that is extremely rough generalization to say the least, it is like saying - All men/women are the same, it is simply wrong/uncorrect. I think they ''married'' five times - The Treaty of Paris (1657) formed an alliance against Spain. The Anglo-French Alliance (1716–31) formed another alliance against Spain. The Anglo-French blockade of the Río de la Plata (1845-1850). The Anglo-French joint invasion of Qing Dynasty (1856–1860). And the last one which is their official marriage The Entente Cordiale (1904) fought together in both World Wars. As far as I remember Francis tried to marry Arthur but he refused and why he refused is up for subjective opinion but I must write a whole thesis on why Fruk/ukfr works so well and people are not here for that, they're here for the music and I will provide. I also always saw Francis as the more gentle and more submissive partner, I just love to see him drawn in frilly beautiful dresses with bows and stuff and Arthur as the more dominant, I mean as a country he was a powerhouse during the 1600s-1800s and used to be a punkrocker, usually rockers are mentally tough and that man is extremely cunning and witty so...people drawing him as this useless baka uwu overly feminine anorexic boy that looks more like a tween rather than a 23 year old guy just assasinated his character in my opinion and it disturbs me but I am just some awkward human on the internet and no one values my opinion anyway because this is the internet and many people nowdays love to have hot takes and try to gain followers through clickbait stuff which sometimes goes out of control and everything just seems more fake and shallow to me, the more old I get.Okay that was my silly rant no one asked about but I feel really passionate about hetalia and Fruk/Ukfr. Anyway, I apologize again for my long rant and going all over the place, please enjoy this playlist

PLAYLIST WITH SONGS THAT REMIND ME OF FRUK/UKFR

1 - Halestorm - Bad romance - rock cover https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ll4NJs3NBIU

2 - Queen - Somebody to love - lyrics https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zj69iA_goIk

3 - ABBA - Voulez vous - (I know everyone chooses Waterloo and while waterloo is a fruk theme, I think Voulez vous works too) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fwcgMVXuBJc

4 - London beat - I've been thinking about you - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ixBryyQSrD8

5 - Santana - Smooth - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6Whgn_iE5uc

6 - George Michael - Careless whisper - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=izGwDsrQ1eQ

7 - Robbie Williams - Feel - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iy4mXZN1Zzk

8 - Michael Buble - Feeling good - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Edwsf-8F3sI

9 - Edith Piaf - La vie en rose - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kFzViYkZAz4

10 - Chopin - Marriage d'amour (Spring waltz) - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EFJ7kDva7JE

11 - Vanessa Carlton - A thousand miles - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ERw2LuU6Jj8

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maivalkov · 3 years

Note

I have seen not long ago a post about "spain's dark side" so...your opinion about that? (I kinda have a feeling of knowing why himaruya came up with that and, if I am right, I am not sure if I like it. It's not that I don't like the dark side thing, but if the reason is what I think, then I don't fancy it)

Great question! Please excuse the length of this response in advance, and if I go off on any tangents. To directly answer your question: I have a horrible feeling that Dark Spain is inspired by the Spanish Black Legend/La leyenda negra, and I don't like that at all. You've really hit on an important topic here, so I'm going to extend this discussion. I call this upcoming piece: Why I don't like Dark Spain and why we, as fans and creators, need to be mindful of how we enjoy our beloved series.

Side note before we begin: I'm going to be talking from a writer's perspective, since this is what I mostly do. My opinion is just that, nothing more. Some will agree with me, others won't, and that's okay. If you're happy with the terms, let's crack on.

Part 1: "Dark" characters I'm not against 2P or "dark" versions of a character if it's required for a particular setting. Let me show you what I mean, using some fic plots I just pulled from my head: Example one: You've got this gritty, fantasy gangster city plot. You use a real city as your location, but the characters are human. Antonio's the leader of a huge criminal organisation and therefore he will do incredibly bad things. It's trigger warnings ahoy. Is this portrayal okay? Sure. (read on before you hit that reply button) Example two: You're writing a horror fic. Antonio's a sexy merman who's more likely to decorate his cave with your entrails, than serenade you on a beach. Is this plot fine? Absolutely. It's dark af, but you're writing sexy merman horror. It kinda’ comes with the territory. Did you see how I wrote "fantasy" and "human" in bold? And did you see that I used Antonio, not Spain? There's a reason. I personally believe in this: When your story uses Hetalia characters in their human form (i.e: Antonio is just Antonio, he does not represent Spain), there's much more freedom and flexibility. I've read many excellent works with darker themes who use real locations alongside human versions of the characters, and do so brilliantly. They're wonderful stories, and they don't cause harm. They're fiction. Fantasy. Fiction. Did I mention fiction? On the flip side: When we are writing the characters as country personifications, who represent the people and the history, we must take proper precaution. The same applies to writing about historical events. (To be continued down below.)

Part 2: Dark Spain

As someone who's been in fandom 10+ years now, my problem with Dark Spain is this: a number of creators back in the old days seemed to agree with my Black Legend theory/concerns, and yet they willingly made content for it. Not everybody did this, but I certainly saw some who thought "wow dark crazy Spain because Inquisition", applied it to certain ships because "ohh angst leads to romance, what a plot" and that is wrong on so many levels. If you know the Spanish Black Legend, then you know how bad this is. It's an incredibly difficult topic because it is, in the simplest sense, massive propaganda designed to seriously damage a country's image. I welcome Spanish input on this, but personally I think using this as some edgy portrayal of Antonio in your fics is insulting. Don't bloody well do it.

(Please note that the fandom is MUCH better now, but it doesn't change the fact it has, and could still happen. I used past tense for a reason, as I do think things are improving.)

Russia is another character which suffers this treatment, and I do think we have a responsibility to be considerate. Many countries have done awful things, mine (the UK) included, and yet our characters have escaped receiving this Dark persona. It's not fair, it really isn't. It's a poor judgment call on Himaruya's behalf if my theory is true. If I'm wrong, then this argument is void. Either way I feel like Himaruya should've specified how and why Dark Spain came about. Part 3: Historical writing

Here's where it gets interesting. I'm not saying "don't write historical hetalia fanfiction", and I never will say it because historical fiction exists. You can go in your local bookshop and boom, people are making real money off it.

I'm not one of those lucky sorts, but I am contributing to that genre myself. Despite lots of magic, fantasy and general artistic license, my story Gatito can be considered historicaI.

It's set in England, 1569. Spain and the Netherlands are two of the main characters, and yes, their conflict is referenced. It coincides with the timeline, and all the while I write them as personifications, I can't pretend that tension between them doesn't exist. If I did, that'd probably be even more insulting to their history, and no doubt confusing for the reader.

The main plot is a daft mash of Arthur misusing his magic, a vile fictional man from Antonio's court who wants his head, and poor Netherlands and Portugal get wrapped up in the drama along the way.

The Dutch conflict is featured, but not the plot. The event is occurring right in the middle of a fictional disaster which Antonio is trying to overcome. It's acknowledged, but it's on the side, to put it simply.

I use human names (Antonio and Abel) and explore that situation from an emotional, human perspective. I do not claim that Abel is a victim, and no one thinks he is either. Personal HC time here: I don't think any of the characters look back at their history and think "wow, poor me". Everyone's made mistakes, and they've all played a role in hurting someone else. My history teacher once told me this: The more you look, the more you see. There's many sides to a story, and even to this day, I doubt historians have truly, faithfully documented events so that it's fair on every nation involved. That's why we need to try and learn history from multiple perspectives, and why when writing hetalia characters during a historical event, we should show the reader as many viewpoints as possible. If you don't, then... well. I frown at you. More on this in part 4.

Part 4: Conclusion/advice

I won't pretend to be a saintly figure in the fandom, and this rant is a bit of a mess, but I hope you get what I'm on about. Thank you if you're still reading.

I'm going to finish with a bit of advice that has helped me have a positive time, and allowed me to create works for a series I really love:

1- If your story is historical, and you purposely want to paint a country in a bad light, think before you do. Don't slander another country for the sake of your comfort character or ship. If your story is set during a battle then yes, they can moan about the opposition, but don’t go hardcore. You know what I mean.

2- Research, research, research.

3- You want to write a particular character. Their human name is unconfirmed, or you don't know a part of their history, but you want to write about it. What should you do? Talk. I had this very dilemma regarding Portugal's surnames, and I just asked Portuguese mutuals on Tumblr for help. I received numerous valid responses in under an hour, and I felt better for it. 10/10 highly recommend.

4- If you've gotta' write Dark Spain: Keep. It. Fictional. If you don't believe my theory behind it, cool, crack on. But if you agree with me, then yeah, I've said it enough. Respect the country.

5- DO explore history. It's fascinating.

6- If you write historical hetalia and you feel that something might be misunderstood: PLEASE USE DISCLAIMERS, END NOTES ETC. I write number 6 from experience. There is a scene in Gatito where a significantly stressed Antonio attempts to summarise the Dutch conflict. He's being blamed for countless fictional issues, and rather than think things through, he blames himself for Abel's pain as well. He does it on a purely emotional basis. Have you ever had that really bad day, and things keep getting worse? Someone comes along and says "you did x y z and I'm mad", and rather than argue your side, you accept it?

That's Antonio in that scene. I know it is, because that's how I intended it to be read. His answer is flawed, to say the least, but in his human heart, he can't help it. I used the end notes as a warning/apology/explanation for this scene. I don't want it to be misinterpreted, and I don't want to disrespect Spanish history.

7- If someone does comment/ask about a sensitive, historical part of your work: don't rant. And don't get offended. I believe we all need to talk more. Have conversations about HCs, how we would write/imagine different scenes, and use it to improve your work.

8- Have fun, and be sensible. Thank you again for reading, I hope this helps to some extent. I know I've thrown my opinion out here, but if you strongly disagree with me, don't @. Move on, embrace what you believe, and everyone's a winner. (This really should've been number 9 on the list haha.)

#ask #hws spain

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radioactivehydronerd · 3 years

Text

Should Veneziano and Romano's personalities be swapped?

I see this being mentioned a lot when it comes to mischaracterisation in Hetalia, especially from fellow Italians, and I wanted to talk about it. Mind you, this is my personal opinion, I don't claim this as the absolute truth and it's always up to discussion.

We all know that Hetalia characters' personalities are like 70% based on stereotypes for their nation. Within Italy, the general stereotype for people from the North is that they're closed off, cold, a bit apathetic and hardworking, while those from the South are cheerful, warm, lazy and food-loving. So from this point of view their personalities should definitely be swapped, how dare Himaruya?!

However, there's still that remaining percentage of their personality that is based on their experience as individuals, just like real people. Let's take a look at that.

Both in Hetalia and in the real world, the South of Italy was always more isolated than the North, where important ports like Venice and Genoa thrived for centuries. The South, unfortunately, was penalised by the French and Spanish dominations during its "development". That isn't to say the South was useless, don't misunderstand me! It also had important trading spots like Sicily and the city of Naples, and the North wasn't flourishing everywhere either, obviously.

You can also see it in Hetalia: Veneziano has been shown to be meeting new nations since he was small, while Romano was penalised in meeting others from being under Spain's protection and his general inferiority complex to his brother, who was "always better than him and liked by everyone".

Naturally, this has caused Veneziano to be generally more open and welcoming, and Romano to be diffident and isolated.

Now, onto the faults. While I find the characterisation from the characters themselves very sensed and interesting, the part of the characterisation coming from stereotypes is certainly questionable (sorry for the repetition of words here, oops.) Both are portrayed as extremely lazy and great food lovers, but when it comes to comparing them, Veneziano is shown to be the hardworking one "dragging" lazy Romano around; he's also shown to be more curious about foreign cultures and food, while his brother is picky and skeptical about things that don't come from his land.

This in itself wouldn't be a problem, but in the big picture, it seems that Veneziano seems to get all the positive qualities while Romano seems to be perpetuating the stereotype of the whiny, lazy and close-minded Southern Italian. This is a big issue because many still assume that people from the South don't want to work and are only good at complaining.

I myself am from the South, I can definitely see why many people would want Romano to have his brother's qualities and Veneziano to be a bit more like the stereotypes, and I second this, yes to more qualities to Romano and don't just remember he exists when compared to his brother! But, there's always a "but", it's also harmful to want Veneziano to be portrayed as the bad guy. There's more to a people than just stereotypes, and also, remember what we keep saying about Hetalia characters and their governments??? They're not the same, don't give a character bad qualities based on what their government does/did at some point in history. The Italies are no exception.

In conclusion, I think that yes, parts of their personalities should be swapped but in a way that doesn't make either of them look like the bad guy. Let's also not forget that they are brothers! It's natural that Romano, being the oldest, feels overshadowed by his younger brother. That doesn't make the younger brother purposefully or inherently evil!

Thank you for your attention 🇮🇹🍝🍕

#hetalia #hws italy #hws romano #frambles #I'm open to discuss but nothing too harsh pls

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