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How do you feel about russia, Belarus, and Ukraine being siblings in hetalia? Do you think the author should change that the same way he changed China and Japan being siblings?
To be honest — it makes me sad. There is a common propaganda theory that emerged in Russian empire if ever around the beginning of 19th century with the activisation of european nationalism in what is now Ukraine and Belarus, to justify whatever the repressive policies Russia wanted implemented on them because „we‘re brotherly nations so I‘m protecting you even if u don‘t like it“ which somehow escalated into „we are the same nation separated by artificial borders“ thing, and I think you can already see the problem with this.
And though Russia would usually be portrayed as the „older brother“, and, thankfully, at least Ukraine is the oldest in hetalia, still – it‘s pretty much the same old rotten story. Especially since hetalia fans often use Russia‘s surname for both Ukraine and Belarus, as if undermining their independence.
But I think rather than just changing it, an interesting spin could be applied to this. See, the entire „siblings“ idea is what I am more than sure Russia would want everyone to believe. And there‘s no doubt Ukraine and Belarus did not have the courage to speak up for a while. Until recently, almost. And now just imagine this kind of conversation:
— Well, yeah, hard to imagine he‘s been so horrible to you even though he‘s your brother…
—Erm…actually he‘s even not my brother…
—Wait wha–
But we all know we‘re not getting anything like this, well because..*sighs*…Himaruya…