Tomorows Headlines Have To Be Better

Hetalia Ukraine Headcanon #2 – or, rather, my take on Ukraine in Hetalia canon.

upd: I might have worded it a bit shitty, but the entire purpose of this post is that „canon/common fannon“ uwu crybaby Ukraine is bulshit and fuck canon we ball anyway. That I will be re-creating her character the way I want, and that‘s literally it. Damn. Pls don‘t misinterpret things, I‘m not defending Himaruya or anything

This is something that has to be clarified before I proceed, and even before I answer to any further asks.

I think of Ukraine in „canon Hetalia" as Russia's perspective, what he tells others about Ukraine and what he wants them to think of her, for his own purposes.

Because, if you recall, the episode where she is introduced (Axis Powers, ep 42), it is Russia telling England about her. Just like episode 43, it's Russia's memories and perspective. I hate that this fact is often overlooked, as it makes total sense for Russia to want others to see Ukraine as a weak crybaby that is dependant on him. In fact, this no shit is the attitude russians have to ukrainians. Almost inferior, (quote) unable to fend for themselves. It is not cute. It is very much toxic. The scarf moment is extremely fucking funny. Because, (and again, this is Russia's memories), Ukraine gives him her favorite scarf. But what people overlook, is that in return she asks (in dub) FOR CONTROL FROM BLACK SEA TO POLAND. HER TERRITORIES. THIS- THIS IS NOT A CUTE MOMENT. SHE IS TRYING TO GET AWAY. AS SHE ALWAYS HAS. FOR CENTURIES. Or, in sub, she asks for „inheritance rights to Kyivan Rus", so again, reclaiming a part of her identity. After which, russia concludes that maybe they've never been close at all. srsl I wish russia realised that in real life and fucked off already

To me, this is the first moment that shows that there is much more to Ukraine than what we see, and that Russia must in no way be trusted on his word when it comes to her.

Especially since In her next appearence, Gakuen Hetalian Newspaper Club part 1, Ukraine is nothing like that. She wants to join the choir club, where the baltic trio and others are, and we find out that the choir is targeted by the so-called „soviet club". Lmao. Nor she is in any of the Halloween episodes she appears in subsequently. Moreover, in the 2013 haloween series, Ukraine is shown dressed up as a reference to a Ukrainian(!!!) urban legend about a ghost train. So, she is not afraid to express her identity even at that point. Yes, she is emotional, but not a complete mess of a crybaby whose every 1 in 2 words is „Russia". Which further backs my theory.

The latest appearence, where in Chapter 389 of Hetalia world stars, Ukraine asks Lithuania to „sent spare paper Russias" to her if he ever gets any, because, quote „THIS RUSSIA IS OBEDIENT, QUIET, AND LISTENS TO WHAT I SAY".

Does this sound like a weak crybaby Ukraine whom Russia was describing to you?

No. That's the point.

Btw the only point in history I can think of where she could be referring to when she says it's „like we've gone back in time", is 7th - 10th century; when the principality of Suzdal (later: Muscovy→Russia) was just freshly colonized by Kyiv and Polatsk (later Ukraine and Belarus) and was paying fiefs to them. Which is like, literally 40 years before Suzdal’s prince plundered and burnt Kyiv down in 1169. A first russo-ukrainian war for you.

So, even from "canon hetalia", the idea of Ukraine's character that this fandom often percieves her as derives mostly from Russia's POV. Which is sad, ironic (represents the influence of russian propaganda irl), but also thanks fuck, this means we see so little of her that her personality can be easily interpreted in a multitude of ways that reflect history and reality way better

ngl this sounds like such a cool idea, i’m interested🫡

Link to interest check found here!

The interest check will run from November 22 until December 6

The World On A Plate aims to spotlight and celebrate food from all around the globe, and what better fandom for this project than Hetalia?

The goal is a collaborative recipe book. Artists will be asked to pick a character and a recipe from that country. Then, they will draw that character cooking/eating/with that food. In the zine layout, on one page will be the drawing and on the other there will be the recipe.

All this in addition to spread illustrations and writing!

For more information feel free to check out our Carrd!

If this sounds like something you'd be interested in, please reblog and share this around!

@hetaliahappenings @heta-on-the-books

☝🏼☝🏼☝🏼

I've noticed what Hetalia fans are doing

I've noticed how for the fanarts for Russia, he was drawn with sunflowers. I want to give you a heads up that this is not the official country's flower.

Their flower is Chamomile.

The sunflower is Ukraine's national flower!

If you are a Hetalia fan and want to support Ukraine. Then I'd advise you to stop drawing Russia with the sunflowers or UwuU RusSiA He SOOOOOOO MisUNdERStOoD. Seriously, I am tired of people putting all of Slavic culture into Russia's culture. The Russian Empire was built on by destroying other cultures and pushing to be an imperialistic empire.

The sunflower is Ukraine's national flower!

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

when the meeting is going so bad you gotta pull out a song and dance that wont exist for another 61 years. (A v cool song that i didnt use fully so click here to listen to it!!!)

Edit : FUCK I FORGOR TO SAY THANKS TO @hetaestoniahq FOR THE ESTONIAN TRANSLATION! THANK U SM!!! THE ACTUAL ESTONIAN U SEE IN THE ANIMATIC IS THANKS TO THEM!!

(historical notes under read more)

Ok! The animatic is mostly comedic and very much started out as a shitpost (hence the fact that nobodys clothes are era apropriate etc) , but i did make it with history in mind so heres some history!

the Bulduru conference of 1920 was a conference that lasted from the 6th of august to the 6th of september 1920 in Bulduri (a part of the city of Jūrmala), Latvia. (Latvia was the host which is the reason i'm having Latvia be the main one who talks to ppl through the animatic)

It was a conference between Latvia, Lithuania, Finland, Estonia, Poland and Ukraine (Ukrainian Peoples's Republic) (sort of. Ukraine was either a member or an observer depending on the source.)

The UK and France were observers and Belarus (Belarusian Democratic Republic) was an unofficial observer (again. some sources say they were just an observer and some say they were unofficial).

Belarus and Ukraine at that moment held none of their land.

(Ukraine had lost the Polish-Ukranian war and was losing the Ukranian-Soviet war due to a lot of reasons that I'm not the best person to explian)

(one of them was France favouring Poland - a reason that i am mentioning bcs one of the things that i held in my mind during this whole animatic was the complex relations between the Baltic+Co countries and France and UK. both sides understood very much that they were just using eachother to get what they want. to France and UK these seperatist countries were needed as a shield against the Soviets (but they would have really prefered the Russian Empire to still exist and win the Russian civil war instead) and the Baltic+Co needed the wests guns and resources to win against the Soviets and/or Germans when they were involved.)

(Belarus, from what I can tell, lost all of its land to its Soviet alternative Socialist Soviet Republic of Byelorussia very fast after German troops left its teritory. People who know Belarussian history better than me please correct me if im wrong.)

The Bulduru conferences whole deal was creating a Baltic Union between Poland, Finland, Lithuania, Latvia and Estonia.

A goal that was ultimatly hopeless due to Polands and Lithuanians disagreements over Vilnius and their subsequent war.

A war the others tried really hard to be neutral on - wanting both the Poles and the Lithuanians as allies. (Latvia once asked Estonia to make a Baltic Entente with them and Lithuania (and Finland if they wanted) - to which Estonia declined because they didn't want to get on Polands bad side (also Lithuania was also against the idea bcs their whole plan was trying to befriend the Soviet and German states in the interwar period while Latvia and Estonia saw them as a danger). Later in 1934 a Baltic Entente would still be made - but as history would later tell - it didn't really acomplish much, due to lots and lots of reasons that i wont bore you with atm)

(also - just in general - if im wrong abt any of this history feel free to correct me. i did do reasearch but all of it was in latvian and english so i can very much be wrong abt things that consern the other nations)

None of the agreements that were signed during the Bulduru conference were ever ratified.

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.

I am procrastinating on finishing a fic so I drew the crew instead

what's the most interesting thing in prussian history you've found? and the funniest lol i love stupid history

sorry I took so long to get to this, it's because I kept debating with myself because there are so many good options and the Prussian Space Marine Liberal Economic Timebomb is right up there but I think I have to give it to the 1830s esoteric Königsberg sex cult

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

Final round of my Brandenburg doodles using using  ヒラ’s old Brandenburg OC design because its my friend’s favorite.