Honestly, maybe it’s just because I was a teen and very into Hetalia back when those jokes in Hetalia were still pretty common (luntil 2012 at least fandom wise?), but I miss that humor style Hima had. Yes it was offensive and inappropriate at times, but I prefer some of those old strips over many new ones from World Star which seem kinda boring to me (not all of them ofc, WS has great strips too that I love). The only thing I’m still horrified by, though, is that awful p/3d0 deleted strip.

EDITED. (I made a small mistake and looked back in my notes.) 

I say 2010-2011 in terms of
canon because the Christmas 2010 Event and the 2011 April Fools Event was the last that we saw of the ‘attacking’ stripping trope.  In Christmas 2011, France even makes a shocked remark about
how the tradition was broken. I.e.., as you already know, he used to stalk
other nations, embarrass them…and was basically just unwanted in every aspect. I
hadn’t gotten into the fandom in 2012, so I wouldn’t know. I had just gotten
into the manga.

I agree to a certain
extent. I actually prefer World Stars and later volumes. Not that some of the older
strips didn’t make me laugh either. They were just as funny when they weren’t
using inappropriate shock humour, but I found that the dialogue improved a lot
over the years.

Same. There are some chapters
in World Stars that make me wonder if Himaruya felt pressured to create
something (anything) to meet his deadlines and ended up sacrificing quality in the process . Call me
crazy, but three panels of trivia without a real narrative, purpose, or
punchline doesn’t hit the spot.

OH yeah. That strip is
just…WTF. Way way waaaaay too far. There’s nothing remotely funny about it, and I don’t know how anyone could ever think that it would be.