Popular Christmas Song "Carol Of The Bells" Is Based On A Ukrainian Song Called "Shchedryk" And Was Originally

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.

a new rareship dropped/j

i need a fic where they go to therapy together

now, numbers explained⬇️

! This is hugely simplified and by no means am I saying the situation was the same or anything; no it wasn‘t, but it‘s interesting to see the paralelles !

1 - referring to years of English/British rule over Ireland and Russian rule over Ukraine.

2 - in both cases native language/culture was heavily disadvantaged in favour of the coloniser’s language/culture. What a surprise.

3 - he’s talking about the Great Famine of 1845-51, exacerbated by Britain’s lack of reaction and continued exports of provision from Ireland. Popular attitude being that „God has sent famine to punish the Irish”.

4 - she’s talking about 1933 Holodomor famine, a man-made famine where the soviet version of the Russian empire deliberately took grain and other stuff from peasants forcibly as a part of „state grain requisition“ and also forbid emigration so peasants were trapped to starve. Duh.

5 - Irish rebellions against the British rule, notably in 1798, 1803, 1820s O’Connel movement, 1848, 1867 etccc

6 - Ukrainian rebellions under Russian rule, for example Mazepa in early 1700s, Koliivschyna 1768, Haydamaky early 1800s etc

7 - the first Universal of the Ukrainian Central Council in 1917 proclaimed autonomy, not a full separation from Russia.

8 - similarly, Ireland aimed to get home rule first, which also kinda means staying within the empire but having their own parliament. But the developments pushes both nations to a fight for independence eventually.

9 - Thus we get Irish war of independence 1919-21 and Ukrainian liberational struggle 1917-22.

10 - Ireland ended up in a civil war following the signing of the Anglo-Irish treaty in 1922-23; In Ukraine…ugh, it was a mess, but to cut the long story short, there was UPR in bitter rivalry with the Hetmanate, there were communists, anarchists, the Western Ukrainian People’s Republic with different struggles from the rest of the Ukrainian People’s republic, there were local leaders…yes. I mean. Mad shit.

11. Unlike Ukraine, that got de-facto occupied by USSR, Ireland, except for 6 counties, became almost independent following the 1920s struggles.

12. „Almost” because it emerged as a British dominion, a free state rather than the republic; all the way until 1949. And the tensions over those six counties imploded again in 1970s.

13. And Ukraine is still. Fighting for her life against Russia as I’m typing this. Friendly reminder.

I could go on for ages about this; the economic impact, the nature of independence movements – but I’ll spare you for now. Ukrainians, have a meme I made in 2023

SKSHSKGSJS HER

Was too busy to draw anything new, so let Ukraine be:

"Shut your fucking mouth, it suits you well."

It needs to be more taboo for people to use traditional marxist symbolism, especially the kinds of symbols associated with the USSR.

The kinds of human rights abuses that mainstream Marxism engaged in are horrific, and not worthy of glorification.

The outright denial of Marxist atrocities common on the far left is shocking and astounding.

Yeh sure he can’t cook but at least he can try

Messed about with the lighting and hair render for this one. And jokes about England’s food are immortal ok?

If you're able, I do recommend donating to United Help Ukraine, and their Gifts of Hope have a number of different options available for various needs (like holiday gifts for children, hand and foot warmers, first aid kits, etc.)

Them, NAFO, Saint Javelin, Timothy Snyder and Mark Hamill and Misha Collins (who all have fundraisers for things like drones, demining robots, and so forth), United24 in general etc. - and even if you're not comfortable donating to things for offensive purposes (like drones or helping get weapons) they have defensive or support options as well. There are numerous organizations (and United24 is really good as a central source for projects and ways to support).

Read books about Ukraine (you can find numerous recommendations in my posts or can ask), enjoy Ukrainian art and music and food 9ditto), and pressure your legislators (Americans can go here for an example or here) and support and boost organizations like Razom for Ukraine and Ukrainian individuals.

Even reddit has some helpful links and info

I literally screamed. I can‘t but love your interpretation.

These two hit the point especially hard 🙏🏼🙏🏼🙏🏼

I may ot may not try to explain my take on it later on in the evening but this is all I can say in so far.

Does Prussia have ptsd from his childhood marriage with brandenburg

Yes!!!!!!!!!!!!!

But I'm kinda brain dead today to really get into it but this is a BEAUTIFUL fascinating question and I want to invite @sand-and-swamp-and-wildfire @proosh @edelweissko and anyone else interested in branpru (i know there's more of you in the shadows) to come and reblog this with their take if they want to 🥵🥵🥵🥵🥵🥵

lazy af Ukraine character sheet, I love her sm you can’t imagine

also first art of 2025 yay?

I‘ve been thinking about 1р Ukraine‘s human name (again) – and yes, I know I was screaming that I like „Mariia Chernenko“ for her, but that was before I knew Chernenko was just randomly added by a translator; besides, I was influenced by another character called Marichka/Mariia at the time and I kind of drifted away from that idea 🫠

And now I feel it kinda doesn‘t fit her and is kinda generic; not in a bad sense, rather that it is a name rather popular all throughout the world…not specific to her

So I‘ve been thinking — there is a nameform that half the names Hima suggested for her (Iryna, Kateryna) + some other common Ukrainian names (Marina, Daryna, Oryna, Karyna, you get me) can be shortened to — And its Ryna/Rina (Рина); short and simple

🤔🤔🤔

Sounds like a compromise. What do y’all think does it fit her?

tomorows headlines have to be better