zephycluster

[zephycluster]

Shadow and Maria's Complex Relationship

FOR DISCLOSURE: this thread is going to be discussing the complexities of Shadow and Maria’s relationship based on many different factors. Though I will be including the romantic interpretation (NOT a sexual one – I do not support nor condone sexualizing these two, nor any of the characters in Sonic, as they are almost all minors) as a potential, I will not be arguing to assign a definite label to their relationship – I will, in fact, be doing exactly the opposite (I am also not interested in engaging in shipping discourse over Sonic the Hedgehog characters). I would simply like to disclose that that will be discussed in case the topic upsets you and you would prefer to stop reading now. I accept this post may not be received well by some.

SPOILERS FOR SONIC X SHADOW GENERATIONS

So I've had to break out my Tumblr for this - my usual haunt is Twitter/Bluesky, but those don't really allow for longform posts. This is also a major departure from my usual FFXIV posting, so apologies to anyone who follows me for that.

Sonic x Shadow Generations recently dropped, alongside the short animations “Dark Beginnings” as well as the (non-canonical) manga “The Jet Black Hedgehog: Shadow the Hedgehog.” With it, discourse surrounding Shadow and Maria’s relationship has kicked up again, largely in two parties – that Shadow and Maria held a sibling relationship, or that Shadow and Maria held romantic feelings for one another (some people have also argued that Shadow is her uncle, or Maria is his mother, but I won’t be discussing those views). There are arguments for both drawn from a variety of sources – I will do my best to present both (if there are others I've missed, please feel free to comment and I will add them).

For siblings:

This Twitter post of artwork for Dark Beginnings has the following alt text: “Shadow and Maria reach out for one another in an infinite abyss (as long-lost siblings would) with the Moon and the Space Colony ARK in the background."

The manual for Shadow the Hedgehog (2005) describes Maria as “like a sister to Shadow.” I have also seen another screenshot of a different manual that states that Shadow as "like a brother to Maria," but I've been unable to find which manual it is.

Gerald refers to Shadow as “son” during the climax of SxSG.

For romantic:

Maria saying “I love you” in the Japanese version of SxSG uses the kanji “ai shiteru,” whilst her “I love you” in the Japanese version of the manga uses “daisuki.” Whilst it can be used for familial relations, it is apparently very uncommon for both of these to be used outside of romantic intent.

Shiro Maekawa – the original creator of Shadow and Maria – based them (or at least parts of them) off of a romance manga known as “Please Save My Earth” (with Maria sharing the Japanese voice actress for the female lead from the anime), and has frequently supported them together, often retweeting romantic art and posts of Shadow and Maria.

In a recent interview from Sega, Maria touching Shadow’s face in Dark Beginnings was equated to Beauty and the Beast.

For Tanabata – a Japanese festival celebrating the meeting of the deities Orihime and Hikoboshi, and the separation of them as lovers – Sonic Channel posted artwork of Shadow and Maria reading the story beneath the stars. Sonic Channel has also published fanart for Valentine’s Day relating to Shadow and Maria (although they publish a lot of fanart).

Before I go any further, when the topic of Shadow and Maria in a romantic lens comes up, many of the same criticisms arise that I do not believe are fairly levied – namely accusations regarding their age, species, and familial ties. I would like to address – and debunk – these three before we go any further. Keep in mind while you read these – this is not meant to convince you that their relationship was one thing over another, but only to provide validity to a subjective point of view I feel is unfairly stigmatized.

“It’s incest because Shadow is Maria’s brother/uncle(?).”

While there were notions of family stated by both Maria and Gerald, Shadow was grown in a tube with alien DNA and has zero blood relation to the Robotnik family. Whilst there are abstract labels of “like a sister” or “sibling coding” that are only ever applied in a meta sense, neither of them define their relationship in such a way within the lens of the universe. And it is not as if the topic never arises - in Shadow Generations, Maria herself likens young Abraham Tower as akin to her little brother, but she makes no such distinction with Shadow.

“Sibling coding” is ultimately a nothing statement, and unless a proper adoption is made, it does not magically turn romantic feelings towards the two involved into incest. Frames of reference are often informed by what young people are familiar with, and they sometimes lack the proper tools to acknowledge that their feelings towards each other are more complex than they first believe - to say that this is something that potentially occurred with Shadow and Maria is not outlandish, and not a concept unique to Sonic as a series.

Similar examples to this include Clive and Jill from Final Fantasy XVI (Jill is accepted into the Rosfield household and raised alongside Clive and his brother, only to later enter a romantic relationship with him as an adult), Nero and Kyrie from Devil May Cry (Nero is fostered by Kyrie's family and considers Kyrie a sister initially, only for her to become his love interest as adults) and Sidon and Yona from The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom (Sidon grows up perceiving Yona as a sister, only to realize his feelings for her are more complex later on). None of these are incestuous relationships, nor is Shadow and Maria’s were it to be romantic.

“It’s bestiality because Shadow is an animal.”

Bestiality is applicable to regular animals that do not hold human sentience of thought, as they are unable to consent to a relationship, like a dog or cat. Shadow is not this, nor are any of the anthropomorphic characters within the Sonic games - were you to change the anthropomorphic animals in Sonic into humans, basically nothing about the series' content would change. All of them are completely sound-minded beings that are essentially just people who look different. Shadow is not Maria’s pet, he is her fully sentient friend that holds the same degree of thought as she does – given that Shadow’s entire arc is about finding his purpose in life, degrading him to simply a lab animal rather than acknowledging he is a person defeats that entire arc (something the manga also touches upon).

A lot of people also cite Sonic and Elise from Sonic ‘06 (namely the scene where Elise kisses the deceased Sonic) as a reason why Shadow and Maria should not be done - while I think it’s valid if you didn’t like watching a human girl kissing Sonic the Hedgehog, I maintain that a good chunk of that disdain stemmed from two major reasons:

Elise was very poorly characterized in her game. She existed to constantly get kidnapped and be saved by Sonic, and so both the relationship and the kiss came off more like pandering than something earned.

Sonic '06 had a bizarrely realistic artstyle for the human characters, whilst all of the animal characters retained their cartoonish appearances. This clash of artstyles looked its worst when Elise kissed Sonic at the game's climax.

Maria, however, does not fall into these pitfalls. She does not exist to be purely a love interest for Shadow - she’s certainly not someone for him to save, as the entire inciting event of Shadow's character is his inability to save her when she saves him.

For a frame of reference, Shadow is more akin to an alien from Star Wars – a setting where humans also exist. It is not bestiality for a Human to hold a relationship with a Twi’lek, as both races are fully anthropomorphic and sentient. On a similar note, Beauty and the Beast is not considered bestiality either, even though the Beast bears obvious animalistic traits. Some people have also entertained the notion of Rouge and Topaz from Sonic X, even though the latter is human. This is all the same principle, and none of it is bestiality.

“It’s creepy because Maria is young.”

Shadow – while said to be ageless – is not an adult, and to imply that he is one is a fundamental misunderstanding of Shadow’s character – whilst there are many instances where he demonstrates maturity on some levels, he has shown much immaturity since his inception in Sonic Adventure 2 (his desire to destroy the world out of revenge for Maria), and his most recent storyline in Generations involves his naïve desire to change Maria and Gerald’s fates (or rather, an initial indifference to what it will bring). Not only that, but his time on the ARK was mired in confusion over the point of his existence – Maria was the one that helped him field through his confusion, and was arguably the more mature one between the two of them. We can safely say that Shadow is not an adult character, nor is he ever presented as one in the lens of the game.

As the closest thing Sonic likely has to an equal in both body and mind (Sonic holds his own immaturities similar to Shadow), he can likely be placed mentally close to his age of fifteen. This is reinforced by the leaked transcript of Sonic ‘06 that refers to Shadow as 15 (the red squared text in this image).

Maria has no canon age established in game material, but Sonic X lists her as 12. 15 and 12 is the same age gap as Sonic and Amy respectively.

In addition to that, many people have claimed that Shadow is over 50 years old, but this is only true of his chronological existence, not the time he has been conscious and aging. He spent 50 years stuck in cryosleep, and awoke exactly how he was when he was placed in there.

A similar example would be Aang and Katara from Avatar: The Last Airbender - Aang was frozen at the age of 12, and awoke 100 years later. Nobody, however, tried to claim that he was 112 years too old to kiss the 14 year old Katara, as Aang was physically and mentally still a 12 year old upon awakening - most people who watched the show were also actively rooting for these two characters to kiss, which they did at the show's finale. It's the same principle regarding Shadow - he is 50 chronologically, not 50 in mind or body.

If we’d like to really get into it, I would point out that nearly every character in the lens of Sonic is in and around Maria’s age range (according to the Sonic Channel). As stated previously, Sonic is 15. Amy is 12, Knuckles is 16, Rouge is 18, Blaze and Silver are 14, etc. Nobody bats an eye at notions of romance between any of these people (not that I’m saying they should inherently).

Romantic intent between minors is not inherently viewed as a bad thing - see the examples of Aang and Katara or Clive and Jill above, or for an in house example, consider the canonical (to Sonic X at least) relationship between the 8 year old Tails and Cosmo - yet for some reason when it comes to Shadow and Maria, a relationship is stigmatized.

To reiterate in the wake of the last point, my discussions of romantic intent ARE NOT SEXUAL IN NATURE. As I acknowledge these are minors, any notions of that are completely off the table, and I do not agree with anyone who would imply their relationship was a sexual one. I want to make that unmistakably clear.

My major takeaway from observing both the Sonic fanbase and those on Sonic Team seems to be that in western circles, Shadow and Maria as siblings is the popular perception, whilst in eastern circles, they are more commonly perceived romantically. But ultimately, Shadow and Maria’s relationship seems to have many contradictory signals that makes it hard to pinpoint a concrete definition, especially in the most recent releases – and I believe that this is fully intentional.

Shiro Maekawa has stated in DMs has stated this regarding their relationship when asked if he saw them as siblings or love interests (translated from Japanese):

“I think they have a special bond that is unique to them that doesn’t fall into either of those categories. Just my personal opinion.”

From the way that the two are written post-Sonic Adventure 2, this appears to be a sentiment that is fully carried forward – their relationship is more nuanced than a canonical label would make it. Maria was the only person who made Shadow feel loved, and Maria unquestionably loved him back. What kind of love that was is up to the viewer, especially given that Maria died when they were both young, before they even had a chance to expand upon their relationship, if that was ever on the table – not that they needed to, given that their bond seems to have transcended both labels. Maria was the only one who acknowledged Shadow as more than an experiment or a weapon, and Shadow was her rock in an environment where she was isolated away from her family and home. Maria was Shadow's person, and still remains that in death.

To disclose for me personally (in case it was not obvious), I have always interpreted their relationship as romantic - or at least having romantic implications - ever since playing Sonic Adventure 2 Battle and Shadow the Hedgehog when I was a kid. I have both a fiancé and a sibling, and the way they treat each other is far more evocative of how I treat the former than the latter (especially in Dark Beginnings – I do not imagine my sibling through a shoujo filter while I wistfully think about cuddling them in a field of flowers). I do not take the awkwardly placed alt text verbiage from the Sonic Twitter account, used to fake-argue with the Wendy’s Twitter account, as gospel for anything, and I think that treating it as a damning disproval is silly. Had she lived, I believed the complex feelings they held would have been identified as romantic down the line. The relationship always just read as too intimately charged for me to perceive as siblings (it still does especially in the wake of seeing how she touches and speaks to him), even before I had a serious relationship. I think that arguing the nitty gritty over Twitter alt text and translations is silly, as all it took for me to takeaway that the relationship was still romantic was to play the game, watch the animations, and read the manga for Shadow Generations - but that's just me.

That said, I will concur that if you are weirded out by romantic notions between the two of them, that is completely understandable, and I would never argue that you should not feel what you feel for yourself. The sibling viewpoint is also wholly valid an interpretation, with or without word from a meta source. Though she had her grandfather and later Abe, she was largely alone on the ARK away from a family that she clearly loved and missed, and it’s not unusual to presume that Shadow filled in the role of a brother for her. I will also acknowledge that many things I have not mentioned - such as Shadow blushing at Maria calling him cool, or her saying "I love you" in general - are not inherently indicative of romantic intent, and can be read as fully platonic interpretations, and I find those that try to state that the romantic interpretation is the objective one just as irritating as those that state the sibling interpretation is the objective.

My intent is only to dispute the idea that romantic interpretations, and the people who hold them, deserve to be scrutinized. The pairing is completely innocent, and the treatment people have received for believing them to be romantic is obscene. Sweeping blanket statements have been made to insult all who do (some going as far as to wish death and harm upon them), all just based on subjective viewpoints held by people who see them platonically. The fact that there is so much discourse surrounding this topic, and that there is evidence enough on both ends to make an argument, means that Sega has intentionally left the relationship up to interpretation - including the romantic take.

Everyone unclutch your pearls.

But with all that said, I will reiterate that this post was not meant to convince anyone of one thing or another, but rather that both interpretations of their relationship are valid, as it is essentially a secret third thing that transcends both labels and is special only to them. Strictly defining their relationship as “siblings” or “love interests” (even as someone who perceives them romantically, I would never want that to be definitively confirmed for this reason) is deconstructing what is perhaps the most nuanced part of a series that does not always tend to be terribly nuanced, and a definition matters far less than acknowledging what Maria means to Shadow in the present – he is who he is because of her, and because of that, he is now living a life for himself. Shadow the Hedgehog (2005) ended in a way that had Shadow let Maria go, and Shadow Generations ends with him carrying her forward with him after accepting her loss. She was, and will always be, the person who loved Shadow - however you define that love is up to you.

Nothing has ever been hard confirmed by Sega, no matter how much either side wants to pretend it has been.

In summary, both points of view regarding Shadow and Maria’s relationship are simultaneously true and not true – it is a matter of interpretation according to the viewer what their feelings towards each other were, yet their relationship in the lens of what it is now after the tragedy of their existence (even before Maria died) is purposefully indefinable, and it should remain that way. Nobody should ever try to say that Shadow and Maria are definitively something - that goes for both points of view. I doubt it will, but I hope this goes towards removing the stigmas towards one of the more nuanced parts of this series, as nuance in Sonic the Hedgehog - frankly - does not come along very often, and it would be nice if that were encouraged rather than smothered.

Thank you for reading.

[zephycluster]

I was summoned

Reblog this post if you are an ACTIVE HETALIA FAN (2024)

[zephycluster]

Perhaps he conflated the sweet tooth trait with us in PH, since our cuisine leans more towards sweet and salty in contrast to almost everyone else in SEA.

crawling out of my cave just to post this

in canon it's said Indo has a sweet tooth--which isn't entirely false given the way food and beverages are prepared here, also the ever alarming rate of rising diabetics

But Hima forgot a most crucial detail about Indonesian palate. And that is how people here enjoy consuming literal Hell's fire.

Unfortunately since it isn't written in canon, most people who aren't Asian won't know this fact. Fortunately I found this image which led me to make this post!

For the record: I stole this image from fb, and high chance that the op stole this too so don't ask me what resto it is.

Please consider this post as a cultural tidbit >wO

[zephycluster]

Ayo, is Italy not wearing pants...??

(Original)

They can even fit into Azone's Pico P size costumes!? (the Cat-ear hooded jacket in the photo) (Himaruya)

[zephycluster]

Do you know how upset I was when they were just hurling stats at each other???

I literally set up archetype decks for all of them!

Especially since this year is Yugioh's 25th anniversary!

Don't @ me, I have been playing competitive yugioh for 15 years and I wanted a card game not a dicc measuring contest uuurgh!

I will forever joke that in the new Hetalia series, they are playing glorified Yu-Gi-Oh.

It's giving Season 0.

I will not shut up about that.

ARE THEY GONNA SOLVE ALL THEIR PROBLEMS WITH CARD GAMES?!

Hima, don't let Konami see this lol

[zephycluster]

FILIPINO SERVANT WHEEEEEN???

Hello fellow Pinoy fgo fans, have ya'll been going to Pako sensei's X/Twitter? (Artist of Arjuna and Karna). I have noticed Pako sensei has been watching our famous Wildflower series

https://twitter.com/pakosun/status/1754768989635383703?t=40DRYzC0bDu_U-4QrG0V-A&s=19

And has reposted posts about Jurard, a pinoy hololive.

Soooo any thoughts?

[zephycluster]

Dropping this for the Dadstaticradio anon and @hazbinhazbinhazbinreblog

[zephycluster]

I had honestly quit Tumblr at this point, but when I was shown this post I had to dig up my own rant about Desa's work here. https://zephycluster.tumblr.com/post/657455510813032448/precolonial-hws-sea-rant-post-feel-free-to-ignore I have so many things to day about this, and have rewrote this segment I think 5 times now, but I will just keep this very simple.

The mentality of "(insert modern day version of colonial power) is evil and needs to pay for (historical tragedies that happened)" Does nothing but invite generational hate and all the colors of bigotry.

EVERY country, even the "oppressed", "colonized" ones, was born from spilled blood, so why single out any one "evil" country out of the myriad of murder and indiscriminate slaughter the world has seen instead of denouncing the practices that created those murders in the first place?

I have nothing against Desa as a human being, but her view of certain characters is just as human as she is, i.e. flawed and narrow-minded.

To those who are her still her fans. I just remind you all to remember, she is a human and not a god, therefore her work is not gospel.

In the spirit of releasing all emotional debts on New Year's Eve, I’m going to open up about my frustrations regarding Desa aka dinosaurusgede aka the creator of Maaf.

For context, she made a Twitter account around the time that Himaruya properly introduced the newly canonized cast of SEA nations (Philippines, Indonesia, Singapore, and Malaysia). Like many other fans, she rode the nostalgia wave in creating content of them. By this point in time, Maaf was more or less a “finished” story to her — whatever Hetalia/SEAtalia content she published from that point onward was not as a continuation of, nor even as a reboot, of Maaf (although she did mention entertaining that idea). For the most part, the newer works she uploaded on Twitter were independent stories and were not necessarily linked to one other either.

Regrettably, I cannot present the problematic page/s for a more thorough and guided scrutiny because she deleted her Twitter account. Unless someone out there saved them, and frankly I wouldn't know who did nor would care to find out, everything was lost to the void. I’m literally working on what was imprinted in my memory by spite, so I apologize if I misremember details.

This will include discussion of anti-indigenous racism and other issues pertaining to colonialism.

She had an IndoPhil story titled Trust Me? and it was inspired by a fanmade BruPhil AMV wherein Indonesia was manipulating Philippines into believing that he was married to Indonesia and not Brunei. Trust Me? kept that concept of a manipulative Indonesia; the key difference being that Indonesia’s motivation for it (in Desa’s story) was the mix of hurt over Philippines “losing his precolonial memories” — based on popularized misconceptions of early Philippine history — of and how that was “aggravated” by his Westernization™, made worse under the United States (350+ years in the convent getting ratio'd by 50 years in Hollywood is hilarious ngl).

That was a lot to unpack, but before we even get there:

Indonesia and Philippines were having a tender moment when HWS America (as in the Hetalia personification that is Alfred F. Jones) walks in calling out "MY LITTLE BROWN BROTHER!"

Indonesia entered his Joker arc because he recalled how HWS America dumped the Philippines in a human zoo at the 1904 St. Louis World’s Fair. There was an explicit panel of Philippines in Igorot* dress and a painfully forlorn bearing.

What "triggered" Indonesia was when, after the flashback, Piri goes up to Indonesia and asks him if he's a Bolshevist 🥺 (the idea was PH being brainwashed by Red Scare propaganda). Cue kabedon moment from Indonesia, and basically a yandere walk down "memory lane."

I did not have it in me to finish reading that comic...

*Igorot is an outdated umbrella term for the upland indigenous peoples of Northern Luzon

Aside from the clearly intended shock value of that depiction, I was taken aback by the painful lack of objectivity on her part when it came to the reading of history. To be fair on Desa, she never specialized in history studies, so it was only courteous that we could not expect her to have as developed of a critical reading as trained academics of history. Unfortunately, that was precisely why I disagreed with the popular notion of Desa as both a great researcher and a great storyteller of her research — all the more when Maaf was just the mangafication of certain Wikipedia articles.

To be fair as well on Wikipedia, it was, at best, a satisfactory jumpstart into more in-depth reading, and we could give it the benefit of the doubt that revisions had since been made to at least some of the articles that Desa relied while making Maaf (more than 10 years is more than enough time for change). Nevertheless, the articles themselves did not teach users how to scrutinize the sources — most especially the biases of the sources’ author/s — utilized in building up the information.

That mattered because much of the retrospect narratives about the St. Louis Fair had a tendency of raising awareness through the newspaper articles that covered the exhibition at the time. These chronicled the impressions of the visiting authors, who likely (and I say likely because we would have to more exhaustively discern their personal politics one by one) were biased in favor of the “benevolent assimilation” of the Philippines — and the sights that they beheld only validated it further. They did not, however, explain why these Philippine indigenous peoples were brought in in the first place — information that could have further cemented Desa's reputation had she truly spent the efforts, even while understandably juggling other commitments as we all do. Instead, she only perpetuated the habit of sacrificing the veracity of equally important, finer details to the bigger picture in order to sensationalize righteous fury against colonialism.

The 1904 St. Louis World’s Fair was also formally known as the Louisiana Purchase Exposition, giving away its purpose as a commemoration. More appropriately, it was the centennial anniversary (technically delayed by a year though) of the acquisition of French Louisiana, expanding the territorial bounds of the United States. Additionally, the point of a world’s fair was to showcase the achievements of a nation, and one could also think of it as the sale of a fever dream — what more for a fast-growing, fledgling power the likes of the United States, itself a former colony? On another note, the St. Louis World’s Fair was not the only one of its kind so no, the US is not that original lmao.

One could thus see how the inclusion of a dedicated exhibit to the newly acquired colony that was the Philippines neatly fit into the themes of a world's fair centralized on the US. It was all the more a paramount topic of debate, with prominent Americans the likes of Mark Twain (here are selected excerpts, but I highly recommend reading the entirety of his To the Person Sitting in the Darkness) publishing anti-US imperialism opinions, even after the endgame of the Philippine-American War essentially favored the pro-imperialists. While dissent from the American side at the time remains poorly studied AND THAT'S ON OVERRULE BY BIAS, we at least have a glimpse, if mostly obscure still, of its existence.

If we can assume that it must have indeed been a prominent discourse in America, loud enough to get the White House furrowing its brows, then it's plausible to understand how it was of utmost importance that the the Philippine exhibit was to be carefully — because, in a way, America had to sell itself as the "lesser evil" vs notable "rivals" — curated while still ultimately corroborating assimilation of the Philippines. Thus, enter Truman Hunt, the man who oversaw "the Igorot Village" of the St. Louis Fair, having won the hearts of the native Igorots for a powerful reason:

Section from Claire Prentice, The Lost Tribe of Coney Island: Headhunters, Luna Park, and the Man Who Pulled Off the Spectacle of the Century, New York, NY: Amazon Publishing, 2014.

While the cholera epidemic that occurred at the onset of the American Colonial Period was arguably the worst in the history of cholera epidemic management in the Philippines, I want to make it very, very clear that it was not the first and only wave that hit the archipelago. There had been a handful in the prior century alone — all of such magnitudes that it embedded a deep collective trauma; farmers refused to harvest their crops for fear of infection, tragically enabling famines and contributing starvation & nutrition deficiencies on top of a viral & swift killer (the experience of severe, rapid dehydration is such that one can fall dead within hours of infection).

Given such an imaginably harrowing experience (and it was an awfully painful topic to study as someone who got infected with and survived COVID-19 and has family working as frontliners), how could the natives turn away a stranger with such miraculous powers? Who knows how they comprehended it (e.g. a benevolent sign from heaven they must accept) because, unfortunately, we have yet to discuss preserved accounts on that matter, if any at all.

What is known, however, is that there were Igorots who were not just enamored by the "opportunity of a lifetime," but the selected lucky candidates clearly expressed their consent to participate:

More sections from Prentice, The Lost Tribe of Coney Island.

I will quickly add that, unfortunately, a few members of the Igorot delegation died from illness in making the trip, and Hunt aged like milk over the years (fell into the trap of capitalism in pushing for more subsequent exhibit trips, to the point that less care was extended to the Igorots and we was ultimately arrested for embezzlement). Given that our scope remains to be the 1904 St. Louis Fair, any signs of abuse inflicted upon the Igorots during their stay based on preserved photographs is simply not clear. To assume that they were in a pitiable state would be to enforce a presentist reading that might betray not just their memories & experiences but also their right to self-determination.

EDIT (01/02/24): A good example to demonstrate what I mean in analyzing photographs, here's an article on the author's personal, genealogical research into the Igorots — specifically, the Suyoc — who were at the St. Louis Fair.

It truly is ironic that a Filipino is making these points as if to defend the United States as a whole (no I am not, and if you think I do, lumayas ka). I agree that white people gawking over the peoples of the Philippines with such fascination that borders fetishism warrants all the eye-rolls. At the same time — and it is even more ironic that I am pointing this out as a lowland, Christianized Tagalog based in the metro (not just any urbanized part of the country) — there is a character of patronizing these indigenous communities in the unspoken assumption that their participation is the fault of their ignorance. Pay attention, once more, to the demographics that constituted the Philippine exhibit in the 1904 St. Louis Fair — what kind of "Filipinos" were included and who were left out? There were also Negritos*, Visayans, and Muslims from Mindanao (historically referred to as Moros) in the same event, yet we hardly hear about their experiences. Perhaps it might have to do with how they were considered "more civilized" than these upland groups.

*OUTDATED term (and please blame the Spanish for it); these are the Aeta.

I understand Desa's reservations against US imperialism and sympathies for communities marginalized by Western colonization. I just hope that I was able to clarify as best as I could why I was so taken aback in how she depicted the Hetalia personification of my country the way she did. I agree that, as far as I ever got to interact with her, she is generally very polite and kind. That's why I gave her the benefit of the doubt when she approached me in DM to apologize for how her narrative choice was offensive. As someone who despised red tape in academia, I tried to talk to her about how there were valid reasons as to why the American Colonial Period was considered a mixed blessing, even by PH historians.

Instead, she pulled a complete 180.

She said that — to a Filipino who condemned imperialism (no matter who started it), who also happened to study history as a profession, and was also a Hetalia fan who wants to explore Hetalia narratives differently from what was popularized. Half of the reason was because some fandom takes left a bad taste, like eating a dish with ingredients that even Gordon Ramsay would tell you shouldn’t go together; the other half was because I saw things differently and wanted to express it because why not?

I want to say it's not necessary to bring up something from a private conversation, but I will anyway to reiterate that my issue is not that she isn't nice. Bluntly, however, the way she said those words so formally did creep me out, but ultimately, my issues lies in how her biases have led her into making off-putting takes from time to time. I will not say more, but Trust Me? was not the only Twitter comic by Desa that got bombastic side-eyes.

And if only because Sukarno got dragged in, I felt compelled to briefly debunk that as well: even he initially viewed the United States in a very positive light: “The United States occupies a very distinguished part, a very distinguished place, in the hearts of the Indonesian people.” That was uttered in 1961, and it took a very specific historical context to instigate a complete shift by 1964:

Sections from Vincent Bevins, The Jakarta Method: Washington’s Anticommunist Crusade & the Mass Murder Program that Shaped Our World, New York: PublicAffairs, 2021, 121-123.

EDIT (01/02/24): Note that Desa was citing Sukarno's later sentiments in the late 1960s as her reason for characterizing Indonesia as such in her comic. However, the setting of the story was the late 1920s (Indonesia's visit was based on Tan Malaka's abscondence to the Philippines). I'd dare say the anachronism was not due to oversight but a deliberate choice in using a certain fictional character — namely HWS Indonesia — as propaganda for Desa's anti-Americanism.

EDIT (01/02/24): It's definitely depressing to think about all the "lost" history & culture that thrived before the arrival of white colonizers. It's why I'm surprised that, for a fiction work, she didn't project all that anger onto Spain instead — it had to specifically be the United States. Was it because they basically cockblocked Philippine independence, even though Spain practically sold the Philippines to the US? The implication that Spain should be permitted to wash its hands clean of all accountability was an awkward message to convey.

EDIT (01/02/24): I understand that nothing could be 100% accurate (I'm actually quoting Desa defending herself on that matter) in fiction, but the level of projection coming from a certain non-Filipino reading Philippine history was so silly. And again, how did it all justify the explicit depiction of HWS Philippines as an indigenous man in a human zoo?

As my professors will also never tire of saying: you can disagree with a historian’s interpretations but you can never disagree with the evidence in themselves. You don’t have to morally agree either, and I can guarantee you that many Filipinos do not. I, myself, resented the endgame of the particular war that brought that period about in the first place. How dare, then, she said it was “not her place” to defend US imperialism, while granting herself the freedom to express her country’s feelings on the matter?

Oh, it’s all just fiction? I do not condone the subsequent treatment she received, but why then couldn’t she stop trying to “educate” NLID shippers? I do not know how both sides talked to one another, only that what caught me eye was: Why does everyone else have to respect her fiction while she gets to disrespect others’ fictions for not aligning with hers?

I’m not Indonesian but I do not have it in me to politely accuse a native Indonesian of allowing their personal biases to misread their own history. As a Filipino, however, while I'm not surprised by the reductionist chronicling of the histories & cultures of the Philippines, I am at a loss for words over the continuing idolization for Desa & Maaf, when she was not the best and most reliable narrator, especially given her negligence in representing indigenous peoples through her comics.

I mean, guys, I'm not saying this as if the Trust Me? comic was the first and only instance when this was literally Maaf canon that sat comfortably in the internet for over a decade, and continues to be appraised as THE BIBLE OF HISTORICAL HETALIA.

So as 2023 comes to a close, I'd like to conclude this post with the following points:

At best, Wikipedia is a satisfactory jumping point, but please believe me when I say no historian will respect you for (over-)relying on Wikipedia. And given that anyone with a decent device & internet signal can access Wikipedia, Desa is just not a GOAT in historical research.

At worst, idolizing Maaf patronizes the work of historians. It doesn't help that PH historians have been targets of harassment because of dis-/misinformation campaigns. I bring this up because it's already bad enough to have to confront that reality outside of fandom spaces on a regular basis in standing our ground for more just historical truths. I hope that folks understand why that's a particularly sensitive struggle for me, and why receiving such comments like the one I shared above deeply hurt. She was not apologetic about that — and every time she would post about apologizing for the moments she has offended others, or when others compliment her for being so open-minded, I cannot help but feel bitter.

Other BIPOC — yes, not just other SEAsians and that's on literally drawing nations other than SEA — have spoken up on the matter. If you can talk about how you learned so much from Desa, you can also learn as much from other perspectives. I hope that in raising all of this, more SEAtalians understand that we risk othering non-SEA BIPOC.

The idolization of Maaf (and the creator in question) is personally far more off-putting than the problematic points of Maaf or any comic she has ever made, because I think she caved to peer pressure instead of learning to wield her fiction more sensitively without being too reliant of the opinions of those she has pleased. Not even Hidekaz Himaruya writes his nationverse characters like that — the one time I’ll admit that canon trumps fanon.

I’m not stopping people from liking Maaf or Desa anyway. I just cannot help but take issue with how the SEAtalia fandom feels less of a safe & inclusive community than it is a cult centered on one person. Almost as if her fiction is unquestionable canon and anyone who disagrees gets the boot. Once again, I do not condone the subsequent treatment she received in retaliation, but frankly that's just not what I'm addressing here.

I'm also not saying it's wrong to give words of reassurance and validation to people you admire, only that some of you need to understand you're forcing a parasocial relationship with your idols. It may feel good to you, but please be mindful of the unwarranted pressure it imposes.

I apologize for dumping all of this at literally the end of the year. I want to let it all go in a manner that is clear, concise, and not overwhelming to digest. I do hope that my candid thoughts will push the fandom one step forward in critically consuming media without having to resort to crab-mentality tendencies — because it's been especially hard seeing the demeaning takes made about the Philippines in this fandom.

[zephycluster]

The colony/colonizer ship leaves a sour taste in my mouth, but for another spin on the history angle...

Grandpa UK basically stringpulled his son US to adopt PH as a grandson from rival Spain.

given the historical context of england influencing both american and philippine sides of the ph-us war to come up with a scenario that both a) put the philippines under american control, if only to protect the ph from being under germans and b) respected the philippine revolution for independence, it’s not all that farfetched to think of amephil as an arranged marriage scenario

[zephycluster]

【 HETALIA 】 A Certain Family's Tea Party || HWS Indonesia [ENG/INDO SUB]

This deserves more views, the song, the atmosphere, everything is so pretty and in depth!

[zephycluster]

"You lookin' at me?" :}

Rawr rawr xD

Slowjamastan

[zephycluster]

Hush, Madam Bo approves, therefore they are allowed entry.

-Not Sweet or Clean-

Pairing: Ashrah/Syzoth (Reptile), 1.9k words

Rating: Explicit

Summary: It's mating season for our favorite Zaterran... too bad Ashrah doesn't know anything about Zaterran culture.

tw: smut, unprotected sex, mating, partial transformation, full transformation, dirty talk

author's note: i can't believe i actually wrote this, it's filthy. but ashrah is one of my faves and she deserves to get fucked stupid by her hot lizard bf. why he have an insane tongue if he ain't gonna use it (he does). anywaaay. enjoy.

The sheets shifted, and Ashrah's eyes opened at the whispering sound of fabric against fabric. Sleep was relatively new to her, and when it did come, it was often accompanied by the human phenomenon of nightmares.

They were nearly always the same: Quan Chi found them, and she couldn't stop him from taking back Sareena. Half the time, Raiden, Kung Lao or Johnny died, and in the worst ones, Syzoth.

Her heart slowed as his arm wound around her waist and he pressed against her back, and her hand stopped wanting for her kris. It was just Syzoth.

Her lips pulled into a smile. "You're not supposed to be in here," she reminded him softly. The Wu Shi frowned upon unmarried lovers sharing a bed, but Ashrah still remembered the first time he checked on her, claiming he heard her struggling in her sleep.

It took her too long to figure out that he was afflicted with the same condition, and he was searching for comfort as much as offering it. "I won't tell," she added, turning to face him. "But maybe if you told Raiden... the Wu Shi might be understanding," she said, gently pushing his hair back from his forehead.

It was damp, and even in the sparse moonlight, she could see his cheeks and neck were flushed. "It's not that," he mumbled, wedging himself into her embrace. Between her legs, pushing apart the thin white robe and pulling her against his chest, his face burying in the crook of her neck and shoulder and inhaling deeply.

Oh. Well... this was exactly what the Wu Shi wouldn't approve of, but Ashrah had atoned for far greater sins. Syzoth's lips pressed against her neck, searching for the familiar spot that had her wriggling against him, as his other hand sought out the tie of her robe. His mouth opened, his forked tongue sliding across her skin as soft as silk. Her breath hitched as it slithered over her ear, and he pressed against her, hard and throbbing.

He was so eager... the first few times, he had wooed her shyly, unsure if she would accept his affection. But this time, there was something desperate in his panting breath and wandering hands, the kind of desperation that didn't appear until they were almost at their peak.

Something was off. Even the desire smoldering in her core couldn't burn away that feeling. "Syzoth..." she murmured, tilting her head away.

He followed, laving his lips and tongue along the fresh canvas she had accidentally exposed. "You smell so good... so clean and pretty, like that tea Madam Bo serves."

Ashrah flushed, her knees spreading wider. Syzoth often said sweet things to her, but the way that made her feel was not sweet--or clean. The Zaterran took advantage, pressing his full weight into her and shifting her onto her back.

As he started to grind against her, Ashrah steeled her voice, "Syzoth. Stop."

He looked up at her, green eyes dark and hazy, his mouth slick and pouty. The way he looked when she kissed him a little too long. So gorgeous and messy, but she'd barely touched him. Gods, why would that little voice not shut up? 

"Don't you want me?" he asked, voice soft and husky as he rolled his hips into her. Instinctively, her body moved against him, craving that hard heat cradled against her.

Her hands framed his face. "Always," she affirmed. Earthrealm had given her many joys, but none she treasured so much as him. He was the only one who understood what it meant to be different, reviled and outcast by their own people, but still carry love for some of them. She had a soul now, and it recognized its counterpart in him... so she could not ignore this. "Tell me what's wrong."

His lip pulled between his teeth for a moment, then he said, "I need you."

Before she could even respond, his head ducked for her neck and he resumed grinding against her, even more desperately than before. His hand brushed against her thigh, and she jerked.

"I'm aware..." she said, reaching down to pull it away.

He kissed up her throat to her mouth, shaking his head. "No... no, I need you," he mumbled, his mouth fumbling against hers as he laced their fingers together and pressed her hand to the mattress. "Do demons not..." frustration edged his voice, "mate?" he tried.

It was so endearing. "You know very well we do," she replied. They had done so several times.

His head slumped, his forehead tilting against her shoulder, but his hips kept their rhythm. "Syzoth?" she asked, wondering if she had said something wrong. She did that often, being ignorant of human culture. She was learning.

Maybe this wasn't a human thing... she was ignorant of Zaterran culture, too, but she was just as willing to learn. She reached for his face, tilting it up so she could press her mouth to his. He responded automatically, giving her unfettered access and groaning in a way that settled deliciously in her core. 

"Tell me what you need..." she beckoned against his lips, wrapping her legs around his waist.

"You," he whined. "I need you, please." His free hand slid between them, and she froze at the claw that grazed against her skin. A beat, and then a tearing sound and she knew what was in his hand before she saw it. What she didn't expect was for him to press it to his mouth and inhale, watching her hungrily.

Syzoth was a sweet man, but she knew there was an animal within him, too. One he had no intention of giving up... and one who apparently had it's own needs.

His head dipped, his mouth trailing down her stomach until his shoulders were nestled between her thighs. Ashrah knew what was coming next, her heart beating in the lowest point of her core; Syzoth was a generous lover, always making sure she was taken care of.

But this time, he dove in like a man in the desert who had just found an oasis. His tongue laved over her lower lips, drinking up every drop of her arousal. The forked tip fluttered against her clit, making her gasp and squirm.

His tongue traced every sensitive inch of her skin, exploring and worshipping her. He groaned into her, the sound reverberating in her core.

He pulled his head up, looking at her, his lips and tip of his nose shiny. She shifted beneath him; she was so close, but she needed more than just his serpentine tongue.

Finally, when she was almost to the point of protesting, his cock was sheathed inside of her, stretching and filling her. Hunched over with his face nuzzled between her breasts as he thrust. "You're so warm..." he groaned, his shallow thrusts getting deeper. His clawed hand gripped her thigh, trying to drag her up into him, and she grew impossibly slicker at the way his talons pressured her skin but didn't break it.

"Syzoth..." she moaned his name as he picked up speed. His tongue wrapped around her breast, the forked tip flicking the nipple, and she had to bite down on her lip to keep from crying out.

"I want to hear you." His thrusts were getting desperate again, and she could feel him thickening inside her. "Please, my pretty mate..."

They were going to get caught, she wanted to protest, but that wasn't what left her mouth. Instead, it was an answering plea of, "Hurry..."

It never took long. This human body was sensitive, and Syzoth always took good care of it. And maybe, the fact that it was him made everything so much more intense. No... that was definitely part of it. A few more deep thrusts and she was seeing stars behind her eyelids.

His thrusts grew shallow again, attempting to wring every ounce of pleasure out of her body. “Can we....?” he asked.

Ashrah's eyes blinked open. “Again?”

He nodded, that hungry look in his eyes as he took her in. “Just one more time,” he promised.

A promise that was almost immediately broken. After he pulled her into his lap, his clawed hands gripping her hips and guiding her up and down on his cock until he spilled, he made the same whining plea. She couldn't refuse, not with his tongue flicking against her ear, so she weakly agreed.

He flipped her over, cleaving her from behind. One hand snaked around her thigh, between her legs to play with that sensitive pearl of flesh just above where he was thrusting. He groaned in wanton delight, “You're so tight...” as her body clenched around him. She could barely breathe, let alone respond, completely lost as another wave of pleasure wracked her body.

And again, he whined, “Just one more time...” She was too strung out to protest as he carefully tilted her onto her side. Something rough and scaled wrapped around her leg, lifting it up—his tail, she realized.

He slid inside her again, filling that deep ache. “Syzoth~”

“You're so pretty and kind and strong... I hope our brood is just like you,” he groaned in her ear.

What...? “Syzoth, what are you--”

His mouth descended on her ear, whispering in a husky tone, “I'm going to put a whole clutch in you.” His thrusts grew even rougher, pounding into her relentlessly, the tip of his cock railing against her womb.

She could barely speak without moaning. He'd never been like this before... his tail constricted around her quivering leg, and a hazy thought slid across her mind.

He'd been holding back, controlling himself, containing that animal side to him. But it slipped out anyway, in his tongue, his hands, his tail. How difficult it must have been, considering the animal side... that was how he was born. He was more Zaterran with a human side, really.

She reached up with one hand to cup his cheek. He turned, nuzzling his face into her touch, though he kept moving between her legs with the same fervor. “You don't have to hold back,” she whispered. She still didn't know entirely what was going on, but she trusted him.

He groaned against her palm, shifting entirely. Her back was now pressed against broad scales, and his girth expanded inside her. She couldn't understand what he was saying, his words a whispering mess in her ear but his tongue and muzzle against her neck was enough to let her know that she was loved.

His hips tilted, his cock grazing against that spot inside her that made her feel like every part of her body was curling, and she choked out his name at her last climax.

He buried himself inside her to the hilt, spilling so much she could feel it sliding down her thighs. His mouth opened, his breath cool against her skin and then—teeth against her shoulder. She winced, the slight pain breaking through the haze of the afterglow, but didn't struggle. Then, he was licking at the small puncture wounds, and the prickling pain faded.

He slid out of her with a second gush of wetness between her thighs and shifted back to his human form. He let her leg down gently, then settled behind her, pulling her back against his sweaty chest. His hand rested against her stomach, stroking it gently. “I love you so much, my mate...” he mumbled, his lips brushing against the marks on her shoulder.

She'd ask him about it in the morning. For now, she was too tired to do anything but fall asleep, safely nestled in her mate's arms.

[zephycluster]

^7^ vs *w* and >( Alfred dafuq are your genes. XD

America's family

Silly doodle I made based on the new chapter

[zephycluster]

SUS

I just had a realization that Camazotz x Nitocris is a little similar to Shuri x Namor pairing from Black Panther

A MesoAmerican guy who was human in origin and the King of his people, is considered a God

Had a weird sorta tension/attraction to a dark skin lady from the continent of Africa and she is a ruler who misses her late brother/s

The Mesoamerican guy has the girl held in his territory/lair for a while and they have a weird heart to heart talk.

[zephycluster]

So I got to ask who's your favorite contryball and hetalia character? My favorite contryball is poland but I also love germany and my favorite hetalia character... well I have a few but I would mostly say it would be Prussia he's like super awesome and funny

I don't really have a fave countryball per se, though I tend to have a lot more ideas for my homeland of PH just because the topic is more familiar to me.

For hetalia though, visually it'd be Austria cause I'm a sucker for 'sophisticated' men with glasses and suits. :P

Writing wise it'd be England/Arthur. So much depth of characterization to explore in relationships with other nations, events, history, etc.

[zephycluster]

<3<3

Doodling an old fic

Well this is base on my old fic that I wrote a loooong time ago, that was eventually adopted by a new author (shoutout to Frostbite43, I love the changes and additions :') thank you for keeping the au alive)

Doodle 1: How I initially imagine human Bunnymund looks like.

Doodle 2: A meeting

Doodle 3: "When your kid made you late for work cause he was making a mess of the paints" and yes this is a hybrid au of sorts.

[zephycluster]

Sorry for the wait. A new chapter is ready! :D

Chapter 7

Artwork or mine and ate @zephycluster's fic:

Draw a blob, that's the World