Hetalia! Ukraine

when i say i’m from ukraine, people assume i live somewhere else now. when i say i live in ukraine, they assume i’m somehow immune to war, and there’s a logical division between a ukrainian they chat with on discord and a ukrainian on the news. bitches my yaoi is written from the bomb shelter

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.

They are so in love

Quick sketch of Frankenstein AU PruMano because I love them, was up until 6am last night just going wild with the details lol this was meant to be as simple as that one little sketch I did of them leaning on each other in the sunset. Needless to say it ended up being far more complex. Improvement I guess??? Anyway PLEASE READ MY FANFIC UNTIL DEATH BINDS US BY PRUMANO ON AO3 PLEASE YOU WANT TO READ IT SOOOO BAD

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

bugs when you lift a rock

go tumblr, fuck the quality up, i dare you

can we all talk about how prussias actual flag is so ugly

8 April 1866 • A secret Italo-Prussian Treaty was signed

…according to which, Romano agreed he’d help kick Austria’s ass, and Prussia guaranteed he’d not back off from the war until Veneciano’s reunited with the rest of Italy.

Now, why Romano, you may ask, if the Risorgimento was initiated more so by the North? Well, in my interpritation, it all started with Sardinia/Piedmont-Sardinia/Savoy, (a separate OC because she deserves it), whilst Romano joined her in 1861, – who had been the Kingdom of Two Sicilies under the Bourbon rule prior, his people voting 98,5% to join. Thus, the Kingdom of Italy was proclaimed in 1861; with Venice still living under Austria’s rule up until 1866.

And it was mailnly upon Romano to be the Kingdom of Italy in the next 5 years. Not that he had ever wanted it.

[As you may have noticed, I got into PruMano and Risorgimento simultaneously, god forbid. And I’m trying not to trail off, but I’ve got a detailed version of the events’ interpretation in my head – what happened to Sardinia? why is it Romano and Veneciano, out of all, specifically, that came to be modern Italy? What about the Papal States? — but more on all that to come🫢]

The last thing I’ll add, is that though I tried to make their uniforms nerdy af accurate, basing Romano’s off Sicilian Regiments’ Chivalry and Prussia’s off high-ranking Prussian commandment on general, this is still a silly anime bois fanart first and foremost lol. Take nothing seriously

Why yes I did indeed draw them for Valentines Day don't you worry! Anyway they're supposed to be wearing the outfits from the Valentines café collab (Lovino doesn't have his grey jacket because I kind of hate it ngl)

Some first draft sketches

(upd: this has now been kindly updated by one of the admins 🥹, but the info I‘m referring to used to be there since like 2009, so I‘ll leave this post just for info)

oh, c’mon, naming a ukrainian character after one of the most anti-ukrainian figures in history?

I know no official name was given to her, but this shit just pissed me off, why would they list this fact on her wiki page as relevant to Ukraine? Ekaterina II abolished the ukrainian (semi) autonomy Cossack Hetmanate of 1764, ordered brutal destruction of Zaporiz'ka Sich in 1775 (a cossack state-military centre), EXPANDED. SERFDOM. INTO LEFT BANK AND SLOBOZHANSCHYNA DO I EVEN HAVE TO CONTINUE?? Russification?? Crimean Khanate Colonisation?? And that just being of the top of me head?? Hello?

I know it’s not that deep and Hetalia is meant to be irony BUT HOLY SHIT.

And also using russified version of her name Ekaterina as a reference to Katiusha rocket systems, ironically, the descendant of which, (GRAD BM-21) is bombing Ukrainian cities right now FUCK OFF. At least use Kateryna, the Ukrainian version.

From Himaruya’s suggested versions I prefer Maria; as Mariia and pet names Marichka (like ukrainian military mascot hehe), Marusya (a reference to a common Ukranian folklore character, Marusya Boguslavka (a rlly smart woman who helped cossaks out of captivity), Marusya Churai (semi-legendary folk songwriter of 17th century), Marusya from a folk song who poisoned a guy cuz he cheated, Marusya Sokolovska (a female rebel leader during 1917-21 war of independance) AND MANY MORE. I LOVE MY UKRAINIAN MARICHKAS.

SO ON THIS PAGE AT LEAST, SHE’S CALLED MARIIA (MARICHKA/MARUSYA/MARI). FIGHT ME.

[upd 2: it turned out that Himaruya never listed a name for her in the original post, so forget what I said on her surname]