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[veteran-hetalia]

POV: It’s 2013, and You’re in the Hetalia Fandom

[veteran-hetalia]

honestly……. the existence of the bad friends trio is proof that nations do have some degree of free will. 

it’s just. these three allied ONCE during the war of austrian succession, and presumably meshed so well together during those 8 years that they drink together in modern day. regardless of the centuries of bloodshed before and after that short span of time, regardless of whatever hell france and the germans and spain wreaked on each other. 

i’d like to think think there’s a story behind that. i don’t believe their friendship came that easily,, they’re three bastards with very strong personalities and tons of horrific deeds to forgive each other for. how do you separate nation from your companion, especially when their beliefs fall so closely in line with the prospect of your own destruction? maybe the “““bad friends trio”“ as a concept only came by recently.

but arrghghh,, the fact that they’re not friends because the course of history pushed them to be, but rather because they chose— with great adamance— to seek out each others’ company. like a massive fuck you to the idea that nations are entirely bound to the will of their people. like seeing two of your own kind; specifically those two other wretched, declining old men you recognise yourself in, and choosing to make peace. i think that’s beautiful.

[veteran-hetalia]

This was something that really confused me and I think this comic was a cool way of explaining the situation.

An important educational comic about the problematic nature of making anyone in Asia related

*Inspired by the Frukmerunning situation. Also there’s no need to bash other ships because every ship in Hetalia can be tricky (even though she didn’t ship Nichu, it needs to be said.) 

[veteran-hetalia]

😌✨

[veteran-hetalia]

Hetalia fans.

If we somehow manage to get new, young fans after this new season we have to make sure that they do like turn out like the old fandom. We need to make a genuine effort to prevent racism and homophobia (and other forms of bigotry) in the fandom. We cannot ever let the fandom get to the state it was in before.

Any form of bigotry is unacceptable and absolutely vile and should not be accepted in the fandom.

[veteran-hetalia]

It has become rather obvious that this fandom has begun to get lazy when it comes to calling out the unacceptable behavior that racists exhibit when they begin to try and weasel their way into the fandom.

This needs to stop.

To say that the Hetalia fandom has gotten better but to allow these people in is ridiculous. The amount of racists, anti-semites, transphobic, and homophobic people I have seen attempt to use this fandom as a scape goat is disgusting.

This abhorrent behavior should not be allowed to manifest and white allies need to do better.

Every time that there is an issue it is only the POC I see speaking out about it and sharing on the spot. Of course it is us because we are the lives that they want to erase and which they disrespect. If we do not speak up, it is a genuine threat. Every time that there is an issue, I see white people defending the person in question and this shit is tiring.

Nyo Germany in N@zi attire is posted and people tell OP to delete it only because “everyone is going to hate you” as if that is the issue at all with drawing a sexy anime girl N@zi. No, it’s clearly not the disrespect and hatred perpetuated by that drawing and the excuse the poster made of “well N@zis are people too”. The worry shouldnt be that people will hate them but that they are actively spreading hatred and bigotry with such art and disrespect the lives lost with this ignorance. They disrespecting lives with that. It is the people they are hurting that matter.

We find a bunch of racists, a whole group chat of them, and then a literal N@zi and nobody except those were hurt spread the word again. A few allies join in but everyone just ignores what we say or do the bare minimum to keep this fandom clear of people like this. 

It is TIRING. We scream and beg for your aid and for people in this fandom to do more because the fact is that you cannot do the bare minimum here. We need to be better than this and seeing how the fandom has let this behavior get away breaks my heart.

We know that Hetalia can easily be used by racists to justify their behavior and that is why we need to do so much better about pointing out the things that aren’t okay to do and calling racists/homophobes/transphobes out on their bullshit. We have to work harder than other fandoms yes but that is because the source material at hand is easier to manipulate.

This isn’t even about the stuff just on tumblr. In June I had to make a roleplay server for a friend of mine because the one she was in was full of people saying “all lives matter” and “black lives matter is stupid” and spouting the N-word.

She was the ONLY black person on that server.

And I had been mutuals with some of the people in that server (I have since unfollowed)

The fact that this is still going on and the fact that the only ones besides POC who seem to care enough to actively speak up about is a handful of people isn’t okay.

We as a collective fandom need to do better because just reblogging posts, just saying “black lives matter” or “abolish ICE” once is not enough. We need to make it clear that racists are not welcome here and we need to be quick about making sure to tell others to block and report the MINUTE these people try to show up with their art or their fics or whatever and act like it is okay.

It’s NOT okay.

And I as a bisexual nonbinary person of color am FUCKING TIRED of it.

I am tired of people not wanting to do their part here and I am tired of these people being defended. I am tired of saying “this hurts me as a POC/LGBT person” and having people brush it off. I am tired of my allies not being allies to me.

I am tired of not feeling safe in a fandom I came to for comfort and escapism.

We need to speak up. We need to report and block. We need to actually work to make sure racists know we are aware that they are here and that they are not welcome.

White allies need to actually listen to POC and for the love of god stop telling us we are overreacting when we say something feels sus and we need to examine it (i.e 2P America being made violent while being racially ambiguous, the lack of attention POC characters get in this fandom whether canon or OC compared to white characters and OCs, the way people portray POC nations, the half-assed apologies that do not address the issue, etc)

Because I am tired of having to go into white people’s DMs for my friends to tell them that what they are doing isn’t okay. I’m tired of explaining that POC are undervalued, I’m tired of explaining why our cultures are important to look at too, I am tired of being written off as a bitch for saying how this fandom treats Latines is gross. I am tired of seeing the way this fandom writes the Asian characters in such a disrespectful manner and then refusing to listen to Asians when they say that makes them uncomfortable.

I am TIRED of having to sugar coat things and spoon feed it to people. I should not have to educate others on this like this! I don’t mind talking about it and sharing my experiences, but when people literally do not educate themselves until I sit them down and talk about it, it hurts me and frustrates me.

It is not MY job to teach white people about these things. It is not any person of color’s job to teach white people these things. You should actively be pursuing this knowledge yourself and if you refuse to, I want you to examine why you think the subjugation, discrimination, and hatred that we face is not worth researching about to you.

If you think it isn’t important to stand up for us now and if you think that you can just not do anything about this. If you think of this situation as just “drama” I want you to examine WHY you feel that our struggles and our fear when these people pop up is just “drama” to you.

It’s time we stopped calling this drama because it isn’t drama. This is an ISSUE. This fandom has an issue and white allies need to do their part in helping us be heard because it’s fucking ridiculous.

So start helping POC with wiping this issue out and making this fandom safer because I’m over it. I am done with seeing people who hate me for wanting to live equally. I am tired of being brushed under the rug and I am tired of nobody wanting to talk about this issue until it blows up in our faces.

Racists don’t belong here and it’s about fucking time the fandom actually acted like it and stopped saying “oh but we’re better than the old fandom” because at this point, we really fucking aren’t if actual N@zis feel welcome here. If you want to be better, start fucking speaking up about this shit because your silence kills.

[veteran-hetalia]

They take their work very seriously and, honestly, they’re the backbone of this fandom.

[veteran-hetalia]

if you had the chance to rewrite hetalia, what would you do?

some of my personal preferences:

starting the series in the modern day or some other time period besides ww2 if it’s going to start as humourous and with jokes. it’d be easier to transition into more serious strips from that

no crying arthur during the revolutionary war, period. also explicit father/son dynamic between arthur and alfred to parallel how it was depicted in the 18th century (so many Mother England and her Wilful Daughter America™ tropes)

more dragging of the british empire (esp. when india was introduced)

diving more into the nuts and bolts of nation immortality (though i’ll say canon did explore this in many interesting ways! like with the davey strip, america ageing faster than canada, that strip about how people start to lose their sense of time if they’re around nations too much)

more depth to antonio’s depiction. churros guy and conquistador can be the same person (since i gather some parts are set in the 16th century). 

less childish, scary manchild ivan vibe. i’d depict him as someone who is rather cynical (because of his experiences), prideful and calculating. who can be terrifying, yes. but not in the yandere way he’s depicted in the manga. 

matthew not being invisible. 

alfred and matthew being a foot taller than arthur. canon heights???? nah.

more machiavellian veneziano. he can at times be smiley and light-hearted but this boy is a schemer, as i see him.

romano being depicted as physically older than antonio 

rome being the italybros’ father instead of grandfather. 

a whole lot of further depth and various changes to characterisation generally — yes, i get that the original series was supposed to be a kind of crackish humour so it was going to have more simplified characters (and i do enjoy a lot of parts of canon!). but since i want to run with the whole concept of What If These Immortal Eldritch Beings Existed (And Wouldn’t That Be Freaky) all the way, these are some of the things i’d change

bonus: the weird chibitalia and tomatobox ww1 scenes will be revealed to be the byproduct of ludwig recalling the Great War in a drug-addled daze as he snorts coke in a berlin nightclub in the 1920s (total babylon berlin™ vibe) 

[veteran-hetalia]

The only way we can help

[veteran-hetalia]

I’m all for the tag switch.

Regarding the tag wars

Recently there's been some slight discourse within the fandom to determine whether or not we should switch tags. Here are some arguments from both sides:

Pros of switching tags:

• No longer being associated with the term 'axis powers' (which was commonly used by many as an excuse to hate Hetalia

• Change representing a new renaissance era of Hetalia

• Could stand for World Series or World Stars, both subtitles Hetalia has used before

• Hima currently calls the series Hetalia World Stars

• No more confusion with popular youtuber Aphmau

Cons of switching tags:

• Not a lot of fans ready to switch

• Fans in other languages still use APH

• While things have improved drastically over the years, there are still some problematic aspects in the series and fandom

I personally don't really know much about the url switch, as my url is just a play on the name of a popular Touhou blog's url and has doesn't contain aph or hws. As for tags, I will personally use both from now on until we find a solution.

In order to help find said solution faster, I decided to make a poll to see what you all think https://www.strawpoll.me/18495721

[veteran-hetalia]

Discord Hetalia for “old” people

I’ve made a discord server for “old” Hetalians. Old is always a relative term that’s why i put it in quotes. But I thought it’d be nice for the older hetalians, that being the 21+ fans to have a place to get to know each other and just chat. It’s always nice to be able to chat with people the same age as you. 

You can chat, ask for advice on adulting, discuss headcanons, share your blogs and other stuff! You must be 21 years or older to join! 

You don’t need to have an ask blog or anything to join. Also don’t feel pressured to be active on the server every day! We all have our busy lives and it’s fine if you just pop up every so often. 

JOIN NOW!

[veteran-hetalia]

If I hear someone call APH Germany the personification of nazi Germany and nothing else ever again I’m going to punch a wall

[veteran-hetalia]

Common Misconceptions About: Romano

Y'all are in for a treat today.

I fucking love Romano–perhaps to an unhealthy degree. However, I’ve heard some disturbing things about him. I’ve seen some.

ALRIGHT. First up: he’s not a Uke. I can hear the shock, I can hear the awe… But it’s true; like England, Romano’s personality is simplified to fit this “roll.” Writers often turn him into a blushing, stuttering mess. 

In essence, writers turn him into a tsundere. I know that’s how he’s described. As a writer, you have to be able to look past this one-word description and actually give Romano a personality. And no, “blushing and denying his feelings” is not a personality.

Here’s a good test to see if your Romano has personality: does he have one when he’s not around his pairing? Does his personality depend entirely on him pushing away his family members and lovers, with nothing much there? Congratulations–you’ve created a tsundere.

Romano is such an interesting character. There are so many different components to him, it’s disheartening when he’s dumbed down. Most people look at Romano and see anger. Or, George DeValier-esque, anger covering up insecurities. 

That’s not right. Coming from an angry person herself, people don’t just call me “angry.” Anger is a part of Romano, but not the only thing in him. Romano can laugh, he can find things funny. Even facing someone he hates, he’s going laugh if he thinks something is funny. He’s going to enjoy things–in my headcanons, he loves gardening and fast cars. He would spend all day driving around in a nice Mustang, screaming at the top of his lungs. 

And when Lovino does get angry, people don’t just brush it off. When you scream at someone, do people just laugh and pat you on the head? Do you know that screaming wasn’t an appropriate reaction? So would Lovino.

He would apologize; as much as he likes to pretend to be a dick, Romano understands that it’s sort of hard to keep people around when you only scream at them. He values people–he loves his brother, his friends, his significant other. You’re going to apologize if you like someone. 

Yeah, Romano is going to get angry. He is going to swear. But give him some credit, he knows when to hold his tongue. Talking to his boss? Romano isn’t going to rave and rant. Talking to his brother’s boyfriend? He’s not going to insult him because he loves his brother, and he know that insulting a family member’s lover isn’t exactly… Well, loving.

Romano is impassioned. He gets too caught up in stuff. Instead of letting something go, he’ll make sure you understand why this thing is important to him. He’s going to yell, he’s going to curse. There is a difference between feeling and believing something to your core and being angry. 

Please, if you ever need any help writing Romano, come to me. It would literally make my day. :)

Happy writings!

P.S. Romano is Italy, too. Refer to him as such. Veneziano is one half, Romano is the other. Don’t use Romano and Italy. They are both Italy. 

Bonus: Fight Scene

Continua a leggere

[veteran-hetalia]

[veteran-hetalia]

YO IGGY AND FRANCE, who was the first to say the 3 magical words first?

[veteran-hetalia]

friendly reminder that alfred can do this:

[veteran-hetalia]

Have a little Wales enjoying a flight to the skies with Y Ddraig Goch, his faithful dragon companion. Yes he’s using his cloak wrapped around the dragon to stay on the dragon’s back. No it’s probably not the most efficient way to ride a dragon. But what can you do, Wales had no idea how to make his own saddles and any existing saddles he would have gotten his hands on would be far too small for a dragon.

@notice-me-hetasenpai