Ngl This Sounds Like Such A Cool Idea, I’m Interested🫡

Happy Valentine's day

At some kind of negotiations, except they share a singular braincell and they fight each other who gets to use it.

[Loads of yapping under the cut.]

This was supposed to be set in 1605-ish, around the outsets of Jülich succession crisis. Let’s pretend a fucking lamp is not there okay??Prussia is still a Polish fief duchy, so kinda irrelevant? Well, nevermind, he got dragged in as it is Anna of Prussia who carried Brandenburg‘s Electors‘ claim to Jülich-Kleve. And along with her husband, the Elector‘s son, she was in favour of more decisive actions regarding Jülich, as far as a pre-emptive strike. Whereas the Elector himself hesitated, supporting a more cautious approach.

At that point Prussia knows what is coming.(okay, maybe Brandenburg‘s Elector marrying the younger sister of his own son‘s wife juuuuust to make sure no other family ever gets a chance to claim Prussia was a bit too— nevermind). He got the point. He knows he has no other option really, and that he and Johann are kind of…stuck in this ever since the Grand Master of the Teutonic Order happened to be a Hohenzollern. And thus he makes what he can out of it, trying out what strings he can pull and when.

After all, he‘s painfully aware that Johann may seem like a schemer with a long-term plan, but in fact? Will hesitate and push for neutrality when a firm decision is most needed. If Brandenburg is good at something, that is masking his indecisiveness with cautiousness. And Prussia wonders how, or rather when he will be able to use this to his advantage…

[this writing stuff is very experimental and very much a WIP and both interpretations and characterisations are subject to change !!! Be warned !!!]

Oh, yeah looks like I have my time to create stuff back? I was just testing that one technique when you draw stuff in grayscale and then colour it. It‘s torture, but damn, I like the result. Shit took 4 days to render. And I just gave up on the bg sorry not sorry.

Meh, It’s always „how do you get along?” and not „how do you even get. there. at the first place.” I was just thinking – 700-ish km between Berlin and Königsberg. Imagine. 2-3 weeks horseback through swamp sand and shit and you’re there except it’s too late and noone cares. Must’ve been hell.

By the way physically they‘re..? 15-16, I would say here? Brandenburg is a bit older, not really much, but he‘s taller lol.

Other versions because YES ITS HARD TO CHOOSE A FILTER RRRAH

my fav genre of fanfic is "ship i have not ever considered but the author is insane abt it in a way that intrigues me immensely"

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.

um. hear me out-

I was reading some things, and then this guy randomly spawned in my head. Throwing him at you and running away😼

My guy used to personify the Margraviate of Brandenburg, then post-1815-ish, the province of Brandenburg, and these days a Bundesland in Germany by the same name. His relationship with Gilbert is – um – complicated. Inherriting an unruly polish fief dutchy was one thing, but actually dealing with him turned out to be a whole other. But Prussia learnt to use the situation to his advantage. After some time. Eventually.

The name’s Johann Friedrich (von Beilschmidt); I doubt it would make sense to make him and Gilbert directly related, but they‘ve been using the same family name ever since the personal union; at least on paper.

— That quote that kind of sums up his personality was taken from “The Iron Kingdom” by Christopher Clark, where it was also quoted by the author; I haven’t read the original work by Valentin, unfortunately

Chernenko - added a translator. Himaruya didn't say anything about Ukraine's last name

So, I revisited the wiki page and the link to Himaruya’s post regarding this; and you’re right. I wonder why did that surname appear in her wiki at the first place. Thanks though, I’ll correct my old posts

To be honest, kinda feels like the pic below, NOW I CAN COME UP WITH ANY SURNAME I LIKE FOR HER, FREEDOOOOOM

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.

—Have you heard the new song that came out recently?

—Huh? *awkwardly scrolls down through mixed Irish and Ukrainian rebel music playlist, frev-napoleonic wars music playlist, „Legio Aeterna – Aeterna Vitrix“, Finnish Talvisota playlist, Polish resistance songs playlist, that one giant Ukrainian resistance songs playlist, German medieval/early modern songs playlist and honorable mention – the fucking metal cover of Preußens Gloria that has singlehandedly brought me out of misery* Huh?

…I like my music about century old at least, I guess??

'you still listen to music from 10 years ago 🤨?' bitch if prehistoric humans had audio recording technology id be sat up here listening to grog and unga bunga's greatest hits don't play with me

Diplomat Alfred F. Jones at a UN meeting.

«Prussia hatched from a cannon-ball»

– Napoleon Bonaparte, at some point.

I mean this explains why Gilbert has got a pet bird doesn’t it?

so random i know but silly sketching while i can ok?😔