Diplomat Alfred F. Jones At A UN Meeting.

THE CHILDREN YEARN FOR THE FANART OF UKRAINE

pov: You’re Poland; its 1620s and those "free armed folk" to the East, some of whom occasionally take part in wars on your side, have been more and more rebellious lately. You ride up to check what’s the deal — and as you pass one of the Cossacks, as they call themselves, the guy looks suspiciously similar to Ukraine herself…

***

1569. Lithuania had never been fond of Unia Lubelska that would unite the lands of the Grand Duchy with the Polish Republic. Yet Poland suddenly annexed Ruthenian – Ukrainian parts of the Duchy, using this move to pressure Lithuania back to negotiation tables.

Thus the era of Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth began.

For mainly Orthodox Christian Ruthenians, it only meant more tension with Catholics and szlachta nobles who realised they now acquired more serfs up for grabs.

There is no wonder then, that Ruthenians quite rapidly "cossack’ed" (покозачились) in such conditions. Many joined either free warrior communities or the rejestrowe wojsko zaporoskie under the polish crown’s service, but still able to do a fair deal of whatever the hell they wanted. Including uprisings against Poland, 1591-3 and 1594-6; allying with the Poles to almost(😭) burn Moscow to the ground in 1618; and occasionally raid Turks and Crimean Tatars.

But more importantly, paving the way for a powerful warrior state, autonomous from the Polish Republic by 1649, – Cossack Hetmanate (aka Hetman’schyna, Ruthenia, or simply Ukraine – all those + more names used at the time) – which famously takes its origins in Ukraine being pissed off.

The initial headcanon was that Ukraine ran away from the Commonwealth sometime after Lublin and pretended to be a guy to live amongst Cossacks and lead her raids and battles. Now, having read up some info on female Cossack leaders, I am thinking that whilst that might have been the case initially, by 1648 everyone knows she’s a woman and just chills about it ig

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.

can you make me some nyo turkraine? >:3 💫💥

Rip a diva

(Nyo!ukraine design by @/she-cu-on-my-piii-til-i-do. DIPSHIT I KNOW IT'S YOU, STOP HIDING BEHIND THE ANONYMOUS.)

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

hi, so im kind of wondering what is your thoughts with hetalia especially the fact that it hasnt age well and specifically what do you think of the way hetalia Ukraine's character is handled

oh that's a great question, thank you! oh i sure have a lot of things to say but it'll be difficult to make it concise and readable

early hetalia certainly has aged like milk, the idea of making axis powers the main characters Did Not Spark Joy. it seems that himaruya made an effort to distance hetalia from that since then, there was this whole rebranding from "axis powers hetalia" to "hetalia world stars" and the comics no longer touch on ww2 but rather modern day, sometimes history, some fun facts, and sometimes have no basis whatsoever. it's hard to judge the intentions behind that. sure it has ironed some of the problems but general inaccuracy and disrespectful portrayal of countries remains an issue. and personally i just find himaruya's writing bad and unfunny.

and now for ukraine. oh dear.

to start off easy, a short note on her appearance - as a ukrainian, it's a bit weird to see her blonde and blue eyed? the beauty standard here for centuries has been "black hair brown eyes" and it's seen in folk songs, poems and novels. and yet it's not just hetalia that does that. it's not a mistake really, i'm just weirded out, especially after how western far-right and far-left has been explaining support for ukraine as "because ukrainians are blonde and blue-eyed".

but onto her most prominent visual trait, let's talk about boobs. in hetalia collezione from 2021 (i think?), on ukraine's character profile himaruya has written that he was inspired by naked female protesters upon creating her.

the "naked protesters" are femen, a radical feminist activist group famous for topless protests. it's a group of like, 15 people. they were last prominent in 2013. i think most ukrainians barely even remember them. it's fucking wild to me that he based an entire country personification off of that. it is, however, quite telling of him that himaruya saw feminist protesters and only saw potential for cheap jokes about boobs.

i chose a good screenshot, it shows some other problems as well - "crybaby", "poor" and "she loves russia chan". i'll save the latter for last. let's focus on her being a crybaby and poor. "but actually very strong!", himaruya says, except i can't recall any examples in canon where ukraine has been shown as strong. instead her whole personality and appearance reeks of 2000s perception of eastern europe, influenced by both western and russian chauvinism to show them as inferior. ukrainian women have been stereotyped like hetalia ukraine - poor, huge tits, weak in a "traditionally feminine" way, whores. it was disgusting back then, it's even more disgusting that in 20 years himaruya didn't bother to revisit that at all.

politically speaking, these jokes, about ukraine being poor and weak and dependent on russia, while have some basis in the reality of 1990-2000s ukraine, are very insensitive to the causes of these issues and just feel like punching down.

and now, "she's loves russia chan". lol. lmao even. in 2021 no less. it has been another consistent trait of hers, as shown on the screenshot above that she just wants to get along with her "siblings" russia and belarus. to talk to russia "like i used to". there's this sense that they somehow grew distant, and all of them regret it, but it's never shown what happened.

what it really reminds me of is the russian narrative "big bad evil politicians (and/or big bad evil west) want to divide our brotherly nations, the people just want to live in peace but have no say in it" and shit like that. it's not the case. what happened is the russian state trying to tie ukraine in its sphere of influence, using economic blackmail to influence its political decisions, and then punishing ukraine with occupation of crimea and parts of donetsk and luhansk regions for choosing eu over russia. even before that, but especially after 2014, the amount of chauvinism russian media and russian people has shown has been enormous. i grew up in an environment dominated by russian media showing how ukrainians were nothing more but dumber, poorer rural russians. since 2014 they also started calling us nazis, child eaters, ukrainian identity - fake and made up by austro-hungarian empire, ukrainian lands - gifts of lenin, and so on. i will stress again - not just russian media. but russian people. even the supposed "liberal opposition".

but yeah sure, we're brotherly nations. nothing but love between ukraine and russia. ironically, the last appearance of ukraine in hetalia comics as of now is a comic from late 2021 about how much ukraine loves russia. since then it seems himaruya has been too much of a coward to draw her again. thank fuck, really.

and fandom is no fucking better by the way. whenever i go into hws ukraine tag it's still half full of fanart of "soviet siblings" (the fucking audacity to use that name too), showcasing that "brotherly love" between ukraine and two aggressor states towards it.

but y'know, a lot of people in this fandom will claim that it's apolitical, that these are just characters. so, a few questions:

if it's apolitical, why does hetalia cover political events, like brexit?

is a country not a political entity? is a nation not a political entity?

is the genre of satire not political?

if these are just characters, why call them country names? why not just make them your human ocs? why tie their lives to historical and political events?

it just doesn't make sense to me. "it's not political" is an incredibly flimsy excuse. everything that has to do with portrayal of countries and cultures is inherently political. and if you want to be a decent person, there's a responsibility to portray these nations and cultures respectfully: do your research, talk to people from these countries, otherwise you're building with no foundation. it's not even hetalia-specific advice, this applies to writing any character from countries different to your own.

this was. very long. can't think of how to shorten it nor i really want to, i tried to answer this as fully as i could.

there's not much point in explaining all that to people who after 2 (10) years still don't get what the problem is. i expect this post only to get attention from people who already agree with it, and mostly ukrainians. but eh, maybe a miracle will happen and someone from outside my bubble would read it.

lmao me fr

Is this you? @clove-pinks

I might even pin this just because. Yes.

Long post about so-called Ukrainian “xenophobia” towards russians. If you’re not from East Europe\Ukraine - PLEASE, READ IT.

Me and my friends are really tired from seeing shit like this, so here’s simplest explanation to (almost) every popular agrument and answer to it.

Starting with definition. Xenophobia = hate for something foreign just because it is foreign. We DO NOT hate russians just because they're russians.

We hate russians for their warcrimes: both of the past and present.

(Litteraly the day I wrote this thread on Twitter it was another missile attack in the morning)

To put it plane and simple: russians and everything russia related aren't bad for just being russian: russians and everything russia related are bad because they destroying our lifes, cities, kill, rape, stole, occupy, torture and etc.

"But not every russian is related to military! Most of them against war!"

Oh? Really?

But even without numbers: you need to understand that more often so-called anti war russians are just ignorant to what their country doing. Be against war isn't about just words and position - it's about proving your position action. And by taking none since 2014, russians made it clear that they're okay with war.

"Anti war" russians most likely still paying taxes, and those money lately goes to army. "Anti war" russians, again, didn't do anything to stop war. Hell, most of liberal russians are direct imperialists.

So, if you see russian online and even if they're proclame themselves to be antiwar, in 99% cases they aren't.

Also, I simplifying most of things to better understanding, but you also need to know that without context of East Europe\russia-Ukraine conflict history a lot of imperialistic russian shit can pass though your ears. Just be aware of it.

"But how can they do anything against in such authoritarian country!"

Let's head back to simple math. According to russian sources, there was almost 15k detained (note: detained =\= convicted) for anti-war actions.

It all may sound scary... Until you look at looses of ru army.

So it is MUCH more safer in russia to be anti-war that is to be pro-war. Does it bother russians? Not at all.

and don't get me started on how lame it is for country with 144 million population to be afraid of abvously much lesser police force)

***

So, in summary:

Ukranians don't hate russians for being russians. Ukranians hate russians for being bloodthursty, ignorant mass who actively support war and\or don't do a shit to stop it.

Most russians, even "good" ones - likely a war supporter. Yes, they may not a straight forward z-one, but almost 100% an ignorant person who supports war by their money and absence of action against it.

We, Ukranians, have neither the strength nor the desire to look for a needle in our son's haystack.

Keep it in mind and please, do not get into conflicts, the nature and context of which you do not understand. Thanks for reading.

P.S Also there's a really good thread on Twitter that looks over this as a question of basic empathy, so please read it as well.

P.S.S And feel free to ask questions.

If you're able, I do recommend donating to United Help Ukraine, and their Gifts of Hope have a number of different options available for various needs (like holiday gifts for children, hand and foot warmers, first aid kits, etc.)

Them, NAFO, Saint Javelin, Timothy Snyder and Mark Hamill and Misha Collins (who all have fundraisers for things like drones, demining robots, and so forth), United24 in general etc. - and even if you're not comfortable donating to things for offensive purposes (like drones or helping get weapons) they have defensive or support options as well. There are numerous organizations (and United24 is really good as a central source for projects and ways to support).

Read books about Ukraine (you can find numerous recommendations in my posts or can ask), enjoy Ukrainian art and music and food 9ditto), and pressure your legislators (Americans can go here for an example or here) and support and boost organizations like Razom for Ukraine and Ukrainian individuals.

Even reddit has some helpful links and info

fr lol

Imagine hating someone just for the fact of their existence that even random pics on the internet drives you mad.

But of course you don't think about it when you repost russians. They are so harmless little uwus who just wanna play in the sandbox too aww 🥺

I'm tired of banning ya'll. If you are russian, just delete yourself from my blog. I don't wanna play friends and idc what your intentions are. It's so damn hilarious to see how you like my posts on neutral topics and prefer to ignore posts where I speak about the war which your country started.

We don't care if you support us, like our blogs/art/culture etc. If you are russian, please

JUST LEAVE US ALONE WE DON'T WANNA BE FRIENDS WITH YOU PERIOD

A short explanation of my layer by layer drawing of Central/Eastern Ukrainian folk attire, for anyone who might be interested.

monitor Miku