GUYS. THIS. IT MAY LOOK LONG, BUT PLEASE. READ. THIS.

2p! Ukraine concept art(?)

I’ve had this idea for a while now, and finally got myself to somehow implement it into life

"In essence, 2p Ukraine personifies Ukrainian resistance, if you wish – hence the red-black flag, otherwise known as the revolutionary flag; or what happens when blood spilled fighting for her freedom spills onto the regular flag, whereas 1p represents the country as a whole"

she is more cautious, more serious and mistrustful; more of a cold tactical thinker, and oh boy she does not forgive that easily. amongst her distinct features would be a singular earring in her ear, darker hair+eyes, more angular and leaner face, thinner eyebrows and a slight hump on her nose. She occasionally draws an embroidery pattern on her cheek as a part of her make-up (could be seen on the yellow-scarf mini version)

zoom in for detail+notes; there is a lot to unpack about this character I swear.

a new rareship dropped/j

i need a fic where they go to therapy together

now, numbers explained⬇️

! This is hugely simplified and by no means am I saying the situation was the same or anything; no it wasn‘t, but it‘s interesting to see the paralelles !

1 - referring to years of English/British rule over Ireland and Russian rule over Ukraine.

2 - in both cases native language/culture was heavily disadvantaged in favour of the coloniser’s language/culture. What a surprise.

3 - he’s talking about the Great Famine of 1845-51, exacerbated by Britain’s lack of reaction and continued exports of provision from Ireland. Popular attitude being that „God has sent famine to punish the Irish”.

4 - she’s talking about 1933 Holodomor famine, a man-made famine where the soviet version of the Russian empire deliberately took grain and other stuff from peasants forcibly as a part of „state grain requisition“ and also forbid emigration so peasants were trapped to starve. Duh.

5 - Irish rebellions against the British rule, notably in 1798, 1803, 1820s O’Connel movement, 1848, 1867 etccc

6 - Ukrainian rebellions under Russian rule, for example Mazepa in early 1700s, Koliivschyna 1768, Haydamaky early 1800s etc

7 - the first Universal of the Ukrainian Central Council in 1917 proclaimed autonomy, not a full separation from Russia.

8 - similarly, Ireland aimed to get home rule first, which also kinda means staying within the empire but having their own parliament. But the developments pushes both nations to a fight for independence eventually.

9 - Thus we get Irish war of independence 1919-21 and Ukrainian liberational struggle 1917-22.

10 - Ireland ended up in a civil war following the signing of the Anglo-Irish treaty in 1922-23; In Ukraine…ugh, it was a mess, but to cut the long story short, there was UPR in bitter rivalry with the Hetmanate, there were communists, anarchists, the Western Ukrainian People’s Republic with different struggles from the rest of the Ukrainian People’s republic, there were local leaders…yes. I mean. Mad shit.

11. Unlike Ukraine, that got de-facto occupied by USSR, Ireland, except for 6 counties, became almost independent following the 1920s struggles.

12. „Almost” because it emerged as a British dominion, a free state rather than the republic; all the way until 1949. And the tensions over those six counties imploded again in 1970s.

13. And Ukraine is still. Fighting for her life against Russia as I’m typing this. Friendly reminder.

I could go on for ages about this; the economic impact, the nature of independence movements – but I’ll spare you for now. Ukrainians, have a meme I made in 2023

"russians dni" is one of the coolest things ukrainians invented because somehow it's not even a spell against russians it's a spell against the idiots offended on their behalf because how can you possibly follow someone whose friend was torn apart by russian missile or whatever if they're mean

Now, for my own nefarious reasons, I asked my German (Schleswig-Holstein) friend today if there are any stereotypes about modern Brandenburg federal state in Germany, and she sent me this ABSOLUTE GEM

(Since I follow the chain of events that today’s Bundesland Brandenburg is personified by the same guy as personified the former Margraviate, part of the kingdom, etc, etc, these days Gilbert-Prussia would absolutely annoy the shit out of him with this song I CAN FUCKING SEE IT HAPPENING. With the other Bundesländer joining in.)

Basically the stereotype is that the area is very rural and there’s nothing to do and everyone’s moving out and shit and yes stereotypes are bad but in no right does this song have to be so fucking funny🙏🏻🙏🏻🙏🏻

PLEASE.

I CAN’T.

Wah, I made almost the same joke the other day!

OH YES MARK BRANDENBURG.

also a meme spoiler to a WIP which is the only reason I haven’t drawn this. YET. Except this was made before I even heard the song and this is just his normal face.

Also, here’s where the screenshots are from and where u can find English translation and stuff. I’M REALLY SORRY.

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.

headcanon: despite ireland's loud cheery nature and ukraine's sweet motherly demeanor, these two can get serious if you make them angry

me when ppl hc south italy as X percent arab when italians invaded colonized and committed massacres against north africans, going so far as to commit a genocide in libya:

HAHA ME WHEN I SAW THIS. At first I was like…ahaha, ukrire, as a joke…but bro…bro I like what I’m seeing🌹

i approve of this rarepair! very cute ദ്ദി(•̀ ᗜ <)

☝🏼☝🏼☝🏼

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.

~ (¯´★`¯)

stylish country