HEHEHEHEHE NOT TO MENTION I LOST IT READING THE LETTER ITSELF

Oh, great Edel (idk what I should call you) please spare us your wisdom

HAHA WHAT—

literally it‘s Eligh/Eli although whatever great Edel will do too

also what wisdom this is literally me

although the overthinker in me is thinking they‘re being sarcastic. who knows

Unfortunately, hetalia is notoriously bad when it comes to accurate representations of political and historical relations between nations. Russia is the most obvious example with both the show and a distinct portion of the fandom being too uneasy with the idea of portraying the absolute hatred most if not all Eastern European nations feel towards Russia. Actually, the main reason hetalia is so widely hated by most people who happen upon it is because it tries to downplay these conflicts to try and make the show completely unpolitical, so instead of correctly portraying the baltics or Ukraine for example at least heavily disliking Russia, they try to make it into this massive joke where Russia is this scary (but of course ultimately harmless which is even more gross) goliath of a man while the baltics are these snivelling cowards who fear Russia but don't hate him (because of course not)

And I'm sure a lot of Russians have issues with how they're portrayed too, but it's not nearly as heinous. The best way to portray a character in hetalia is to try and actually look into the history and culture of this nation. Hell, tumblr is a huge platform, I'm sure if people wanted to accurately portray a nation, they could just go and ask someone from that country for their opinion, and if even that is too hard, they could at least make the character completely blank and flat so they don't end up offending the people of that nation.

I can totally see why having a character that's supposed to represent my country in a fun and digestible way be this stupid, snivelling coward who has absolutely no redeeming qualities whatsoever. Honestly, how is that supposed to reflect on actual Estonians who didn't elect that as a representative of their history and culture. This show was literally banned in South Korea because of how their country was portrayed in it. Heck, I've had my issues with how my own country is portrayed, and I've always said that much. Ukraine's portrayal is actually just a war crime in my opinion.

So, yeah, it's not exactly surprising that hetalia gets a bunch of hate.

Also, I know I'm probably not the best person to make a comment on this as I am actually a hetalia account, and I've actually had problems with this before where I have incorrectly based my information on a country through hetalia. It's just so shitty because most of the people who are guilty of this literally just don't know how to accurately portray these nations because of the harmful stereotypes hetalia has enforced. Nowadays, I try to reach out to people from the nations I post about to ask about my content before posting it. I avoid tagging nations that I know are often portrayed badly in this show.

Yes, hetalia is supposed to be harmless fun, but it's only that way for the countries that Himaruya thinks deserve it.

Anyway, sorry for the rant.

I had to take a few days to digest this ask. It's a long one, for sure! It's good to know some Hetalians are critical of the source material and understand why many people are upset with the show.

I will reiterate that the blog I reblogged and criticised deserved it. I understand they have been called out before for inaccurate portrayal that borders on ignorance at best.

I am aware that me reblogging a smaller blog is not great. Then again, @ask-computer-nerd-estonia has unforgivably crossed the line.

Estonia and Russia are not friendly countries. Russia has occupied our lands, tried to kill our people and threatens our existence regularly.

To say, even in character role-play, that these countries are friends is a gross misrepresentation of actual facts and history. Doing it days away from the anniversary of one of the worst days in Estonia's recent history and tagging it in a way Estonians will see it (by using the words "estonia" and "eesti" in tags)? Well, absolutely tasteless.

some concept art for Ukraine where I tried to apply some of my headcanons to have fun with her appearance (WIP)

my piece for the @hwsfemmephenomenon zine, featuring Ukraine!! she's in a traditional uzbek chapan, eating somsa next to uzbekistan wearing traditional ukrainian vyshyvanka and eating strawberry varenyky!! I gave ukraine blue and gold to reflect the colors of her flag <3 I hope you enjoy this piece, and pls check out the awesome pieces from the other collaborators in the zine, they've all done so wonderful <3

can we all talk about how prussias actual flag is so ugly

The Many Ills of Canon South Korea(as explained by a South Korean)

Ik a lot of people might feel a knee-jerk reaction to this and go "why are you making this? it's been a long time since the character was banned and went into oblivion," and that's true. However, I find that a lot of characteristics of how South Korea was written has been carried on by some Hetalia fans, which are still problematic and rooted in pro-Japanese imperialist sentiment.

Here, I'll try my best to go over some major points, starting with Korea's canon design.

Character Design

Looking at this for the first time, I felt like I was on some kind of trip. It looked like Himaruya was indecisive of whether he wanted Yongsoo to wear a durumagi or a jeogori, so he said "let's make the undershirt as long as a durumagi!"

For reference, left is a jeogori and pants outfit and right is a durumagi and pants outfit. These are the 2 main hanbok types for men.

I can't think of a single character whose character design was this flawed and so inaccurately done. It's like he didn't even care or put any thought into Korean traditional wear. It makes me laugh when I see how Japan is given such accurate clothing in contrast.

His clothing is a caricature of what Korean wear is. Thankfully, I don't see a lot of art of him wearing it anymore, but when it does appear it really does feel disrespectful.

His Personality

I don't really have a problem with his energetic personality, but if you know anything about his depiction in the manga, you know what I'll be talking about:

His "hobby" where he takes credit for inventions, and his weird "quirk" involving sexually harassing Japan.

What...was the reason for this exactly? A lot of personality quirks and gags of characters are rooted in some existing stereotype many people attribute to the country, like

America -> eats a lot of food, bright colored cake -> US's reputation as a country with a lot of fast food and artificially colored desserts

England -> food is inedible -> England's reputation of unappetizing foods

Korea -> claims credit for other countries' creations(Mostly Japan's), sexually harasses Japan -> ?????

This is why I don't accept some Westerners trying to brush South Korea aside "because everyone gets dunked on in Hetalia!" yes, but to what degree?

A Japanese man writing his Korean character to be stealing from the Japanese one says a lot, that Korea doesn't have a culture of its own, or most of it isn't their own. Or daresay, Korea takes Japanese culture and claims it to be their own. All three of these conclusions are problematic, and audacious coming from a person hailing from the empire that attempted to stamp our culture out and penalized those trying to preserve our culture.

The "grabbing Japan's chest" bit originates from an ongoing political dispute of an island known as Dokdo, or as Japan calls it, Takeshima. Personally, I'd agree that Dokdo belongs to Korea, referring to maps produced by Japan from the 1800s:

Yellow is marked as Korean land, with even the writing labeling it as "Joseon Land." But regardless of which side is correct, there is something about taking an ongoing territorial dispute(it was a much bigger issue while Himaruya was writing Hetalia) and applying it with the context of "haha he grabs Japan's chest."

It paints Korea as unreasonable and a sexual assaulter so that Korean grievances against Japan can be dismissed. Additionally, both countries have a rampant sexual assault issue(my phone's shutter sound cannot be turned off–a feature of phones only made in/for Korea and Japan), which is why it's also insensitive to give this trait to Korea and make light of this sensitive topic, while also...not extending this to Japan.

Let's not mention making Korea the harasser given the history and Japan's position too. Korea's red light districts and sex/entertainment industry was started by and formalized by the Japanese occupation so they could exploit Korean women.

"Korea had been a Japanese colony since 1910, and the proximity of colonial Korea to Japan, its established colonial bureaucracy and transportation network, and the presumed “cleanliness” of its young female population meant that likely the largest percentage of comfort women came from Korea. Another reason for the large numbers of Korean girls and young women in the comfort women system was the well-developed state of the Japanese colonial sex industry in Korea and its networks of human trafficking. This industry, which had been growing with Japanese encouragement since the late nineteenth century, blossomed under the Japanese colonization of Korea (1910–45) and provided networks for obtaining and trafficking sexual slaves." - Music and Dance in the Japanese Military “Comfort Women” System: A Case Study in the Performing Arts, War, and Sexual Violence by Joshua D Pilzer

Now, the "claiming everything is Korean" bit. The whole gag is Korea is delusional haha look he's claiming something Japan made as his!! While Japan is just looking at him like "ok...sure..go off whatever ig." Again, making Korea to be an unreasonable childish character while Japan is mature and just trying to get along, let bygones be bygones! Look at the sassy child I have to deal with guys!!!

Speaking of "sassy child..."

Korea's age

I haven't checked the wiki in a hot minute, but there were 2 details of his age I remember.

he's 15

he was "born" 1945(liberation of Korea from Japan) or 1948(Creation of South Korean govt)

This would be contrary to even the manga, as it references a painting by a Japanese artist in the 1700s of what he assumed were Joseon messengers stealing chickens during their mission to Japan. Korea was alive then as depicted in the picture referencing the real one, so it's safe to say his existence should predate even 1945.

(Interesting to note that Himaruya says that Koreans interpret it as Japanese bullying the Korean envoys, when Korean sources actually suggest it could be children playing around.)

Even if Korea was set to be born 1945 or 1948, it doesn't do us justice. Why do we not have a history before colonization? How is it that Korea could be even younger than America, when the Joseon Dynasty was established a century before Christopher Columbus reached America in 1492? How is it that Japan gets to be older and Korea doesn't?

It's glaringly obvious, but Korea's "childish, immature personality" stems from Japanese imperialist rhetoric of Koreans during the Colonial Era, of people needing to be civilized.

"In April 1919, Baron Goto Shinpei (Home Minister, 1916–1918) addressed a luncheon attended by US Treasurer John Burke. Goto contended that Japan did not act duplicitously in 1905, but instead, “with the full cognizance of the United States government.”  "He added, “under the efficient government of Japan, the Korean people rapidly advanced in civilization and enjoyed the blessings resulting from the development of productive industry, as well as the spread of education." - The March First Movement in America: The Campaign to Win American Support by Brandon Palmer

The most important thing to remember in all of this was that during the time of Korea's controversy, Anti-Japanese sentiment was still quite high because of the unhealed wounds as a result of 35 years of Japanese Occupation. When you think about your colonizer making a personification of your country and depicting him as

-someone that copies from the colonizer and harasses them, a contrast to the "mature" colonizer

-someone with barely a history before the colonizer

-someone who's clothes are so wildly inaccurate

then wouldn't you too be enraged? This is what caused the National Assembly to ban the official airing of the anime, and official releases of the manga. You'll notice even these days Koreans are hostile towards Hetalia, even as the incident happened years ago, whereas the Countryhumans had a large Korean following and creators, because one of them was openly treating their country like a personification from a political cartoon found in a 1920s Japanese newspaper, and the other was fan created.

I hope this perspective was helpful in explaining why certain qualities of canon are disrespectful. Please remember before defending "canon" Hetalia, Hetalia is made by a Japanese author who was found to have been on Japanese right wing forums. Don't try to convince a Korean that his depiction/canon of Korea is respectful.

This has been living in my head for a while now, and I’m finally ready to announce it:

«Ukraine.1917»

– a historical Hetalia brainrot project that focuses on events around Ukraine in 1917-1921, aka the war of independance, or the ukrainian revolution – or that one time when she almost got away with it.

(Here are a few English-speaking vids that can explain what’s going on: https://youtu.be/9Gwuu7TXPwI?si=fmAfCIj-VSbxeoiQ and https://youtu.be/YVuuwQSjzvs?si=SY4JukRo9OW1uoBq )

basically – I am planning a series of mini-comics, drawings, etc. about the events of this period through Hetalia characters – bc hey, why not. We see so little of Ukraine in manga and reinventing her brings me genuine joy. 😔✋🏼.

It might turn out into a chronologically consistent comics, in which case it will be published here and in my tg channel. Or ot may not, lol idk I‘m just having fun

These are just some initial concept-sketches of mainly Ukraine 1917 to 1919, but also Poland and Germany as u can see

Please feel free to ask me anything on this!

☝🏼☝🏼☝🏼

so another anon mentioned how fanart and fanfic on russia-ukraine war should be call out more often. with all the debate on this blog about political-apolitical hetalia, let's talk about it, shall we?

personally i don't remember seeing many direct portrayals of the war in the fandom. it's few and far between and back in the first months of 2022 there were a lot of callouts for that. though it faded away as people started paying less attention to the war.

that being said, a part of the fandom still portrays russia ukraine and belarus as this happy little family and any care for how insensitive that is has been thrown out of the window. there's been few callouts for that and mostly by ukrainians. sometimes it's justified with "portraying the people, not the government". and yet ukrainians are vocally against it! so when the fandom continues to portray it that way, is it still about "the people"? or is it about the idea of a fluffy family regardless of any connection it has to reality?

honestly just wish these people would make their own non-hetalia ocs and spare me and my compatriots the indignity of having our country portrayed by a character who's all lovey-dovey with its oppressor. it's not cute, it's not a "coping mechanism", it's not "in the name of peace", and it's not even "apolitical". it's disrespectful and it directly stems from the statements used by the russian government to justify this war. so it's a good confirmation if any was needed that hetalia doesn't exist in isolation from real life events.

but i don't want to be all negative. there has been a change in how people treat ukraine as a character and it's blatantly clear by browsing the tag. "east slavic siblings" used to be most of the art with her to be found but that's far from it anymore and i don't think that's just the result curating my fandom experience. ukraine is much more of her own character now and i thank all the creators responsible for it. you make this corner of the fandom a much more bearable and comfortable place, keep up the great work.

~ (¯´★`¯)

Nah being fr i think that the fandom seeing independance days as birthdays for very many nations is straight up insulting and a very very american idea. It's the same kind of thinking that gives to those "omg i am older than the countey of serbia" memes.

Like okkkkaaayyy, maybe it makes sence in USA to conceptualise yourself as the folkpeople becoming 'Muricans rather than a brittish colony on the independance day, but in Europe and Asia and Africa these people, a continous line of an ethnicity, the idea of " deutch" or "latgalīši" or "the people who live in the carpathian basin" existed before becoming a conquered imperial land. I get it why for America (or Canada, Australia, etc) this works, but it is not the way things are elsewhere. It is americanocentric.

Its very offputting and invalidates history in such an insidious way. In the case of the baltics +Belarus + especially at this time Ukraine, to celebrate their 1991 independance days as birthdays is playing into russian propaganda that our histories only begin then, and that everything before it is unorganised and primitive, that russians gave us cultures etc etc etc (you can look it up, im not going to dwelve into long detail here). It is an insult to centuries of past, centuries of culture, national identity (be it under diffrent names- Wallachia, Ruthenia, Livonia, so on), and our sovereignity.

I'm not saying we dont celebrate independance days, like we even have two of them (both from russians); they should be memorated. Im not saying hetaliafandom cant have events and weeks n stuff put on these dates. But not as birthdays, I beg. And I do get the headcanons and interpretations, but I ask you to see why it alienates and makes uncomfortable the people *from* these places.

In the case of Lithuania you can choose february 14 1009 when it was first mentioned with the name, or july 6 1253 when the first king was crowned. For Latvia you could use the date of 1204 when the first city of Riege(Rīga) was established by german crusaders, but i dont use a birthday, since there is no concrete date in the 11th century when Latgale was first described by name (up to a hubdred years earlier, so i usually put him besides Lithuania...) For Ukaine you can use the establishing of the Kyivan Rus, for Belarus aswell the first named instances of Ruthenia, so on and so on. There are many important days these characters could assume in the place of a human birthday, and I hope you understand none would use the earliest independances.. There is aswell nothing wrong with them not having set birthdays or ages - like damn, it gets complex and nuanced! They can just hold memorations like everyone else in the country does, with plausible deniability were they there or not. You people are constantly creative with this fandom, this cant possibly be a problem.

There is old and known history to these characters' countries, what to talk about all others whove declared independances from china, russia, england, france, austro-hungary... You do not have to default to the youngest independance dates. I beg you to do better, for your own sake- if i see one more "happy birthday Lithuania" on the 11th made by americans im gonna tear their heads off 🥹💓

Sasori: Did it hurt when you fell?

Deidara: From where? Heaven? Or in love?

Sasori: Brat, as much as I’d love to save your ego, you just faceplanted down a flight of stairs.

Just a little comics about Sasori being worried and Deidara being Deidara. I kinda messed the order up, but there are numbers in the corners so here we go