Tag: :)

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Anon 1: Agreed, on that first point! I think with Hetalia it strikes a good balance of finding moments of triviality and silliness within a wider historical backdrop of loneliness, pain, and melancholy of the past. Is that so? Why not find enjoyment in the fact that reality isn’t a perfect cookie-cutter version of what we desire? The imperfect is realistic, and that’s what I personally love about Hetalia so much. Unfortunately…

…the anime is completely unrepresentative of the series in that it only depicts the stock qualities of the characters and aims primarily for a happy angle, rather than exploring some of the emotional nuances and traumas that have consistently popped up in the manga. 

World Stars especially has fleshed out the mental healths of several nations. Don’t get me wrong either. I know how limited the anime medium is in exploring these angles. It’s just sad that this is what Hetalia is known for. 

Ironically, my biggest pet peeve are the canon police of fandoms. I think everyone should have free reign to take artistic liberties, so long as they don’t declare their interpretations to be canon. 

[You didn’t ask this off anon, so I couldn’t answer privately]. 

Anon 2: Yes, of course ^^. I’m working on France’s right now, actually!

Anon 3: Oh man. That’s something I’ve never really thought about to be honest. 

I love all of the characters and don’t dislike any of them. 

I don’t really have any favorites. They’re all flawed, and they all have their good qualities. There are very few series where I feel this way, but damn, Hima’s characterization man. It’s too good. 

Very random question I guess, but do you prefer to be referred to as Ariella or Ella? Or something else entirely? (explanation behind this: you usually tag yourself as ‘ella’, but you have ‘ariella’ in the blog description and you actually tagged yourself like that in one of your last memes. And this is just to call you with the name you’re most comfortable with in the future…)

I’m fine with both fam. Ella was created as an online nickname, while I go as Ariella in person. You could literally call me bitch nugget and I’d still be happy that you remembered my existence.

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I’m not an expert, far from it! All I do is link strips to make sense out of canon information. Religion actually comes up quite a bit in the strips, more than you’d think. 

Vatican City is only mentioned by Hima in passing on his blog and lacks an official design/ formal appearance. He’s hypothetically described as an old man that would constantly get into arguments/make up with Italy. 

Post on religion coming up tonight! 

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We have to remember that Hima is one person (and I do not recall him stating that he was a history student) and cannot get all the facts right. He’s not even from a western society, hence consistency errors. Take the joke about Norway and Iceland with “Oni-chan”, there is no Norwegian/Icelandic equivalent because up there people refer to each-other by name. Don’t take Hetalia too seriously/literally, it’s a comedy, not a history book.

Hmmm. Since I both agree
and disagree with this, I’ll play devil’s advocate 😈 😉

The series is based on
stereotypes. Stereotypes are generalizations predicated on the culture and
society in which you grow up. That said, it’s inevitable that stereotypes of
different nationalities are going to vary across the world. They’re also
inherently biased.

As you said, coming from
an Eastern society, this influences how Hima conceptualizes these national
stereotypes. To say that Hima’s stereotypes are inaccurate is a self-defeating
argument. They’re accurate from his point of view, and again, are inherently
biased.

It’s self-defeating in
the sense that anytime you attempt to apply stereotypes, it’ll be based on
where you’re from. With that logic, any stereotype someone comes up with will
always be seen as inaccurate to another person, who holds a different view of
what that stereotype consists of.

That’s where the fandom
comes in. Because stereotypes are so wishy-washy, it’s impossible to
characterize them accurately, not to mention that a stereotype is a generalization;
it’s function isn’t to pay attention to small details. This flexibility of stereotypes allows fans to mould characters to fit their own
understanding of their culture.

In other words, the series
wouldn’t function well if it wasn’t based on stereotypes.

However, regardless of
the presence of stereotypes, this series is a historical comedy. While they may
be a few misunderstandings and limitations of language spanning across diverse audiences,
Hima should still be held to account for the research he incorporates into his
writings.

If you check out his
blog, he does do quite a bit of research and travelling. Obviously, he’s human and
mistakes will happen, but since the series’ initial premise was historical in
nature, he should be aiming to be as accurate as possible.

The series gets a lot of
criticism, understandably, for some of his earlier characterizations of the
characters. In my opinion, I think what happened is that Hima never imagined
that the series would grow so big, and so he just did whatever he wanted with
them. If you notice, later characterizations are more culturally-sensitive, but
these older depictions will still haunt him and be brought up from time-to-time. 

I know it doesn’t happen very often, but do you have a favourite moment where Germany smiles?

While that’s true, I’ve always liked this moment here. 

Right as they’re preparing for war, Italy secretly panics (if you look closely, you can see that he’s crying, but he does well to mask it ) and makes Germany promise him that he’ll take care of himself. 

They switch roles for once and Italy becomes the ‘Commander.’

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ive seen your posts all over my recommendations, and your posts are always so cool and in-depth! :D just stopping by to say, youve earned another follower, and your blog is amazing !! keep up the good work 🌟💖

[You guys are too nice to me, thank you oh my lord]

By the way, sorry if I’m a bit slow to respond for the next few days. I have four midterms and a paper due at the end of next week. I’m barely running on any sleep :O