#ANIMATED BY LITHUANIANS IN LITHUANIA

[sidabro]

not even the most ussr-phile people on here will call something soviet instead of russian. "the russians sent man to space", no, on the teams were also georgians and latvians and all else, "the russians made amazing animations and cinema" no, ukrainians and mongolians propelled the most beahtiful of "the russians in the 70s did this and that" oh shut up and kill yourself. Even in russification and public opression people who were proud of their own ethnicities, only publically second to being "soviet" still made beautiful art, had technological and scientific achievements, participated in society. The history of the nations who spent so many decades under russian imperialism also had their 40ies 60ies and 80ies, and to give all of that to specifically russians is so insidious, it tells anyone Everything that must be known about the persona and their politics..

[antikristvs]

Me, my beer, and the badger pelt I plan on being my altar cloth on a forthill 💫

[madam-of-lithuania]

Here's my another art work from my art school 🏫 😌 ✨️

Today's lesson's were to make a sketch artwork

And i drawn my country(Lithuania)she is wearing traditional clothing from my region Aukštaitiją, some people say that my City Kaunas is part of Suvalkija region, but here in Kaunas we consider ourselves as a part of Aukštaitiją region more

In Lithuania we have cultural regions

That's how my regions traditional clothing looks like

And Here's the website in English it you are interested in my country's and regions traditional clothing

And this is the Baltic Lithuanian symbol of the sun from my culture

[crawlerarts]

(TFW when you absolutely FUCK up the line for the background so you're just like "Fuck it. I spent over two weeks trying to get the people drawn and I'm about done with this." and basic color this bitch.)

Basically, Neodrach participated in this battle and was shot in the head. Perun decided "Ya know. I could use you" and revived her. This is her making the routed infantry to the battle once again. Her flag with the golden sun-wheel was another sought after flag of the Teutons.

[vamqrya]

Polands Personality.

No one cares but like in the episode where poland meets lithuania and says "show me your cock and balls", it could've been a conversation starter as he is canonically shy when it comes to strangers shown in the manga (and anime)

However, in history there was a "union" treaty between Lithuania and Poland (it was called the Krewo Union, I think, and if anyone cares – it was before the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth and existed since the 1300s) so Poland mightve known about lithuania and him coming over but in the episode, I think he was whining or crying about it but I need to recheck that, but by that I meant that Poland may have already known Lithuania slightly from the union which is why he may have started a conversation in that way but accidentally made it awkward.

When I was talking to someone about this they said;

"And it makes sense that he'd say something like that as I suppose it was a manly thing to say in Poland's mind, probably very casual too, so bro was really just trying to break the ice in a way he knew 😭

And in the episode Poland was mainly just nervous over meeting Tolys, but since their bosses probably talked to each other previously I'm pretty sure Poland did have an idea of who Tolys was, but just hasn't interacted directly that way"

~

in the scene he was complaining about (I think who the female character in the scene was meant to represent) Jadwiga getting married to Jogaila (the Lithuanias king guy), so he probably didn't know who Lithuania was and stuff because prior to the scene, what probably happened, was Poland just got informed of it and he couldn't imagine Jadwiga getting married to someone he didn't even know, so probably it was he didn't know who he was. He also doesn't seem to have too much human conversation because he does, from my knowledge (and most people portray him as saying), say "like" a lot which can be from him being shy or that he doesn't know how to say something which can signify he doesn't talk to people that much from not having much base on how to speak to people, it can also be the reason for why he's shy. Him starting a conversation with "Show me your cock and balls" instead of something normal like "Hello, what's your name?" can be him trying to seem manly and fit in with "outsiders", not communicating with many people can also make you shy over time.

He also seems to warm up near people he trusts and is close to, he seems to sexualize himself or his friends without knowing it sometimes? I dont know about that but, I have art (I'm not sure if it's official or not) where its him and hungary in quite a 'sexual' position, though it probably wasn't intended?

I don't know how to explain it but me and the person figured he might have autism (me and them are both autistic to clarify were not making it out of our asses)

[unhonestlymirror]

Sometimes I think that russia suddenly decided to finance HAMAS openly now just to not only shift the focus but also let people assume that Israel/Palestine war is the same kind of war as Ukraine/russia. We never had the same type of wars, and it makes me horrified to see people drawing parallels where are no parallels.

Also, it's hilarious to see the same people, who called Lithuania antisemitic for removing a monument of a nazi collaborator too late (oh i wonder why it was installed under soviet russia occupation🤔🤔🤔), calling Lithuania islamophobic now "for holding a rally in support of Jews killed by HAMAS (a terroristic organization financed by russia)". Truly you can't please everyone. A Lithuanian man, a Latvian woman and 18 Ukrainians were officially murdered by HAMAS - how can anyone expect Lithuanians to be okay with it? Lithuanians hold a rally in support of Palestine too, if you ever cared.

People, especially Palestinians, who perceive HAMAS as "liberators of Palestine" are fucking stupid. HAMAS is not liberating people, HAMAS is terrorizing them. Because of HAMAS people start hating Muslims, because of HAMAS actions Muslims are being deported and fired, not because of Israel propaganda or something. Whatever is financed by russia can not be good for Muslims, can not be good for Jews, can not be good for anyone - look at Ichkerians and Crimean Tatars. They are also Muslims, but for some reason I don't see many defenders of them. I wish I saw people writing "Free Ichkeria" and "Free Crimea" with the same enthusiasm.

I wonder if HAMAS supporters know that HAMAS kill not only people but also dogs, cats and cows. Dogs, so that they don't interfere with dealing with their owners. Cats? It's a mystery because a cat is a sacred animal to Muslims. Muhammad's life was saved by a cat that killed a snake, so since then. And still, they killed cats. The biggest mystery is why HAMAS killed milk cows? They didn’t drive them back to their hungry gas station, even though they had plenty of time, but they killed them. Each cow was shot in the head. And they didn’t mind the cartridges. They have enough money to buy ammunition and kill potential food - and leave this food where they kill it. So people logically assume Palestine is not that hungry and poor.

"HAMAS kills people but" - there can not be any "but". HAMAS kills people. End of the sentence. If you justify HAMAS, you don't support Palestine, you support terrorists. Here, in Eastern Europe, we still remember what Holocaust is.

[madam-of-lithuania]

Finally the Baltic representation 🙌 👏 😆

As a Lithuanian i love to see when someone represents my country's and our Baltic culture accurately and respectfully

Baltic and Slavic languages!

This is one of my favourite families, because they have such an interesting dynamic as characters. Their personalities crash a lot between them, but they have strong historical and cultural bonds. And, just like any family, they have the kinda crazy aunt who has tried to murder most of them at some point. Take your guess! Xd

[lilcindy]

Yandere Tolys Laurinaitis

Warning: obsessive behaviors, Poland is mentioned, mentions of wars, mentions of Word War II, historical events

Disclaimer: This can be cringe-worthy since this is the personification of a country, reduced to some anime trope, what I am indulging in can be harmful. Also, I go after comic events in the manga, not historical

━ A healthy relationship consists of two healthy individuals who acknowledge and accept responsibility for themselves, and Lithuania is a magnet for toxic ones.

━ His victim must be a nation, It takes a lot of time for Tolys to get used to someone, he's even willing to ignore the people who actually respect and appreciate him ( Estonia & Latvia) for his longer relationships.

━ Tries to be helpful to everyone, especially to his victim. Like helping them with legal issues, and giving them food and protection, If Lithuanian is not the official language of the Nation! darling, if we can say that, he will translate his most famous books, into their official language(s), which will be in vain since he never asked your permission in the first place. It doesn't matter, he LOVES helping/working for you.

━ As a yandere, Lithuania feels pretty threatened by his victim's independence, mainly due to a lack of security within himself, but doesn't really do anything about it. Finds it embarrassing to feel that way and he hates embarrassing stuff! ( attempts to restrict your choices many times)

━ He always overthinks his relationships with his obsession.

━ He is genuinely a kind person, unlike the average Yandere, he wouldn't wish to harm his love rivals. 

━ Too infatuated with his obsession that he can't see their flaws.

Before the partitions of the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth:  

━ He used to control Middle and Eastern Europe during the Middle Ages. He's a great leader and will always give you his best strategies. Since you're a Nation, he's not that overprotective despite being a Yandere but if you clearly are in danger, he won't hesitate to cut some throats.

 ━ It says that 'he used to be awesome before but he hasn't been blessed by his bosses'. I think Lithuania is willing to joke around, however, I don't think he will actively seek a romantic relationship with them. 

━ Why? He's born in the middle of a war, and as I said, he always overthinks his relationships with you, It may sound awful, but if you're not Poland, he will often hyperventilate when he puts scenarios in mind, where you and he had to war with each other.

━  Poland often calls him out for his obsession, calling it creepy, and weird as hell. Though,

After the partitions of the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth:  

━  The time when he was taken by Russia, well...he gets less time to be with you since Mother Russia overworks him to the point of exhaustion, Don't worry, he is Russia's favorite!

━  That is why Russia overworks him to the point of exhaustion. If You had bad blood with Russia in the past or currently, he will ask, in a forceful way, Lithuania to stop his yandere tenancies, after all, he is his property. ♡

━ If not, he still doesn't have time for you...he always sheers a tear while thinking about you. Lithuania will ask Poland for his news about you while drowning in alcohol. 

 ━ If you are also Russia's subordinate. He will always be concerned for you, like extremely, literally handed three handmade documents that tell how to please the Great Fearful Russia with being bullied.

━ While hesitated to cut some throats, since over time he developed a weak stomach, and couldn't handle the gore too much. 

Modern Days:

━ Now that Mother Russia is gone.  

━ If he was asked oh-so-aggressively by Russia to stop his obsession, he would immediately rush to your house, clean it, and cook for you, as I said before he loves working for you.

━ If you guys are both subordinates of Ivan, he will boldly ask you to get rid of stuff that reminds you of him. He will NOT insist if you rightly so refuse.

━ He has a better relationship with Poland, and this one doesn't approve of this relationship and constantly reminds Liet that his obsession isn't normal.

━ He will never let go of his unhealthy crush.

[suzilight]

"In Lithuania, garlands made of wild flowers, healing herbs, and grasses are used in the solstice festival to adorn the head, decorate the homestead, float candles on the water, and burn in the bonfire."

"On the summer solstice, Lithuanians give kupole staffs to friends and neighbors to protect and bless their homes. Jonas showed us a kupole staff he had made with healing herbs: nettle (good for healing arthritis and a relaxation); wormwood (good for the nerves); southern wort (a nerve relaxant used to make absinthe liquor); mountain ash (considered a male plant, used in the celebration of St. John); and belladonna (a medicinal nightshade)."

"Next, he showed us decorative iron saule, which means “sun.” One had a circle, which represents the sun; branches which represent the tree of life; jagged thunderbolts; curved snakes; and roots representing the earth. In Lithuania, snakes are symbols of life. Gyvate means snake; gyvas means life. The first animals to appear from Mother Earth in the spring are the toad and the snake. Thunderbolts allude to the god of thunder who creates rain, and therefore gives life."

by Maggie Holtzberg

[peppermint-chocolate-cherries]

Some Analysis of LietBela

I’ve been thinking about making this post for quite some time, but I also knew I’d be explaining my side of things in essay form.  Well, I finally wrote the essay.

Full disclaimers, I am a Canadian who was barely taught anything about Eastern Europe in high school.  My knowledge on Lithuanian, Belarusian and Polish history is from spending a few hours clicking through Wikipedia as I wanted to learn more about Lithuania once the Hetalian became my newest muse a few years ago.

Hetalia’s Lithuania was really an afterthought at best when I joined the fandom. When I wrote my first story, Absorbing the Deck, he appears as a side character in the last couple chapters driving the Clubs carriage.  At that point in my fandom experience, he was still just Russia’s lackey, and that’s how he was until I planned out The Nefarious Mathilda Jones.

I don’t recall what the change was this time, I think I just wanted to give Ivan a familiar Hetalian to be working with as one of Mathilda’s nefarious henchmen.  Even in the original D&D alignment chart (good vs evil, lawful vs chaotic) I made for the characters in the story, Tolys was never specifically assigned an alignment.  I even considered putting him and Antonio into a side fling, but that didn’t pan out.  Over time, since it took 2.5 years to write the last 10 chapters of the story, I was able to think about the nefarious quartet’s motivations a lot more, and develop backstory for them that would cover ⅔ seasons worth of a television show.  That is when Tolys’s POV became so important for me, as a voice of reason to rationalize Mathilda’s decisions in the last year of the story.

And that is when I fell in love with the character of Lithuania, and looked up his history.  Turns out that Lithuania was already an Eastern European powerhouse in the 1200’s-1400’s, before joining up with Poland to create the renowned Commonwealth.  There were many instances during their union where Poland wanted to cooperate more with other kingdoms, such as Sweden and France, but it was the Lithuanian faction that opposed this.  I realized that this made for an interesting dynamic between the two of them: Poland was the politician, and Lithuania was the warrior.

Then we have Belarus.  The young child was bounced around a lot between guardians, along with Ukraine and Russia.  The rise in power of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania in the 1200’s was all about taking over land from the Mongols and from the former Kievan Rus when opportunity struck. At that time, he controlled territory all the way from the Baltic Sea to the Black Sea, including large sections of what are now Belarus and Ukraine.  As such, both sisters would have technically been under Lithuania’s charge for some time.

So, this is where this complex relationship starts, with Lithuania as Belarus’s guardian.  In the Hetalia strips and anime, we see that Belarus is quite young around this time, as this is also when Russia is a child struggling to make friends while also fending off the Teutonic Knights (aka Prussia).  While not much older, Lithuania definitely has the advantage in this power dynamic with Belarus. Although I did read that the Lithuanians did allow the Ruthenians a bit more economic and cultural autonomy in exchange for on-call military support.

During these centuries under Lithuania’s control is where Belarus grew up into a young lady, in my humble opinion.  Perhaps it was the autonomy while under his control that allowed her to do just that.  Even when Poland entered the mix and the Commonwealth came to be, Belarus remained firmly under Lithuania’s control and was not shared with Poland.  Perhaps it was Lithuania, or even Poland, that taught her how to use daggers in self-defence, should the two of them ever be unable to protect her.

Meanwhile, through all this time, Belarus kept an eye on the welfare of her siblings.  While Ukraine was also subject to Lithuania’s rulership at times, Russia was not.  He eventually found his own footing and path to imperial power, eventually becoming a fascination and a threat to the rest of Europe.  The inheritance and control of Kievan Rus, the former territory that was home to all three siblings, was becoming a hot topic of debate again, and now Russia had the power to make the move.

And so he did.  Not only did he bring his sisters back under his wing, he also dismantled the Commonwealth and claimed Lithuania for the Russian Empire as well.

Lithuania had all his former power and glory stripped away, and was reduced to following the orders of someone else.  Sure, he had to work with Poland for centuries, but that was a relationship of equals.  For the first time in centuries, Lithuania no longer had his autonomy, and now had to answer to the Russian empire.

The only trace of his former life was having Belarus at his side in the same position.

This is where I think their relationship becomes more twisted and complicated.  Belarus is the only constant that Lithuania has left, she’s the only one here he can technically still trust.  This is likely where he starts projecting his affections on her, believing that she still cares enough about him to watch his back.  Meanwhile, Belarus is embracing her role in the Empire, enjoying her people’s return to Slavic cultures and traditions, and more than happy to serve her brother instead of Lithuania.

When the Russian Empire collapses, and everyone becomes independent after World War I, Lithuania and Belarus both find themselves suddenly fighting with Poland and Russia to reclaim the territories surrounding Vilnius.  There were even a couple attempts to work together, first as equals in a Lithuanian-Byelorussian republic, but then with Belarus still a part of Lithuania.  Ultimately, her land got split between Russian control and Polish control, while Lithuania had to cede control of Vilnius to Poland.  Nobody was getting along during this time, let’s just put it like that.

World War II comes along, and they both get conquered again, bouncing between Nazi Germany and Soviet Russia a few times before they both ultimately become Soviet states after the war.  Finding himself in the same position as before, Lithuania is desperate to make amends with Belarus and rekindle the allegiance they once held to each other.  Even if the times of conquering lands and controlling territories was no longer a thing, Lithuania still deeply cared for her.  However, Belarus was once again happily embracing Russification and rejecting Lithuania at every turn.

This is where I ultimately think their relationship became toxic.  Lithuania is pining for her beyond reason, and she wants nothing to do with him.  It’s hard to say who is more at fault here. While Belarus breaking his fingers in the Hetalia strips is certainly a very extreme action, Lithuania also did not have the wherewithal to take off his rose-coloured glasses and see that she was genuinely not interested in his advances.

It’s not until the fall of the Soviet Union, when Lithuania and Belarus take their separate paths to independence, that I think Lithuania finally sees the light.  He’s making all these efforts to join the European alliances and economy, and earn his places in the UN and NATO.  He’s working with the other European countries to find ways to bolster his own economy and provide for his own people, now that everyone has agreed to stop invading each other and work together instead.

On the other side of the border, he can see all too clearly now how stuck Belarus is in her own ways.  She struggles to make ends meet for herself, she does not seek aid or alliances with the rest of Europe, and she ultimately resorts to being a puppet state to now-capitalist Russia.  It troubles Lithuania greatly, since he’s watched her for so long as she grew to be a nation only for her to take this path that opposes his own.

He does still have to cooperate with her on border issues, and he still has to pay attention to anything she or Russia might be up to.  Lithuania still cares about her fate, but I think in modern days he’s come to accept that he cannot control it for her.  One day, Belarus will have to remove her own rose-coloured glasses and see where she has allowed Russian influence to take her.

On that day she comes to her senses, she might realize that it’s already too late to avoid becoming entirely Russian and fading away into the history books.  On the other hand, she might wake up in time to resist that fate, and forge her own independence.  She might finally call on assistance from the West to break free from Russification, to reclaim her own culture and language that were nearly lost.

Lithuania still awaits the day where she’ll come to his doorstep asking for help, and he will always keep the door open for her.  But now he realizes that it’s up to her to ask for his help, when and if she is ever ready to.

I found Hetalia in 2015, at which point there were already thousands of stories posted to Livejournal, Fanfiction.Net and AO3.  When looking through the tags for LietBela (as well as RusLiet), there is a LOT of toxic relationships in there.  Early fandom really went hard with the “Lithuania pines, Belarus breaks his fingers” aspect of the manga and wrote some very dark and abusive tropes into their stories for Tolys and Natalya.  I only needed to read a couple of these stories to figure out that this is definitely not my cup of tea.

However, I cannot overlook the historical context between these two characters, and what events would have led to their relationship becoming so toxic and complicated in the first place.  These are two characters who have known each other for 800 years, who grew up together and forged their identities alongside each other.  No doubt they used to respect each other when Belarus was under Lithuania’s rulership, perhaps even admire each other’s strengths.  But that loss of Lithuania's power led to their relationship becoming incredibly strained and violent.

In my headcanons for the modern day nations, Lithuania is still recovering from the anxiety and paranoia he developed under Russia’s control, and part of that journey is accepting what has become of his relationship with Belarus.  He has learned to move on, to work on himself instead and to find happiness in other ways and with other relationships.  But he still holds onto that hope that, someday, Belarus will come to him and ask for his help.

And he will answer that call gladly.

[zinniajones]

Lithuanian pre-Christian mythology and snake worship (part 2)

(copied from Twitter)

There were plenty of Lithuanian religious practices before Christianity and they sound amazing, the snake worship, the eternal fire, the oak groves, the "sun-hammer cult" ("the sun was liberated by a hammer"), a whole 1200s pantheon (etalpykla.lituanistikadb.lt/fedora/objects…)

A Baltic folk song about snakes as protectors of the home and its stove and fire, hanging out in the house, Lithuanians keeping the snakes warm by their stoves; also, snakes appeared as "protectors of the cows" and "the mother of bees" (degruyter.com/document/doi/1…)

"Where are you creeping, black adder, In the darkness in the evening? - I bring a message to the mother of the son, The son is on the bottom of the sea."

So that's pretty chilling

"O you grass snake, dear snake, Bearer of gods, Lead me to the hill, To dear God." (The grave is on the hill) "In the open field by the blue sea stands an oak-tree with broad leaves, under this oak are old sheep, no lambs, (with) black wool. On this wool lies the snake."

So there was a popular 1500s Lithuanian snake cult version of Running Up That Hill

Big ups to pre-Christian medieval Lithuanians, absolutely understood the assignment

When Christianity showed up, the snakes were replaced by witches lol typical

Just immediately turns into something fucked up about blaming women

"Euphemism for the snake constitute the largest group of animal euphemisms in Lithuanian .... The ancient cult of the snake in Lithuania was abolished with the advent of Christianity and then a negative attitude to snakes was imposed." (epublications.vu.lt/object/elaba:2…)

A large Lithuanian vocabulary for talking about snakes:

(to be continued!!)

[mi4011amandithewarathanthri]

Assessment 1

2. conduct research into their life stories

Wladyslaw Starewicz - life and work

The first Polish animator and one of the first animation makers in the world

He was born in 1882 in Moscow to a Polish family (through his places of residence and work he would become acquainted with Lithuanian, Russian and French cinematography). He spent his childhood and youth in Kaunas, in present-day Lithuania where, as a four-year-old boy, he was adopted by his mother’s parents after she died. Early drawings revealed his significant artistic talent - he liked photography and was interested in cinematography, which at the time was still an innovation, as well as nature, particularly in the insects which he so passionately collected. 

Starewicz decided to purse an artistic career by enrolling into a painting school, despite  how disapproving his family was of this choice. 

1910 - he was awarded the title of Director of the Museum of Natural History in Kaunas, Lithuania. His first foray into filmmaking included making a series of four short documentaries, however it was in live action. 

He didn’t start delving into animation until his fifth movie. This was also meant to be a documentary intending to “show the life of stag beetles.” However, he was incensed to find that it was impossible to capture two stag belts fighting due to the beetles dying from the light of the stage lighting. 

This gave rise to his first stop motion piece featured two stag beetles in battle, named “Lucanus Cervus” (1910), after their scientific name. It was the first ever animated puppet film in Russia. He used wires to put their limbs back on, dressed them in knight outfits and then moved them, capturing individual movement phases frame by frame. 

He started working with Khanzhonkov in 1911. Aleksandr Khanzhonkov was the world's first maker of a cartoon film, the first maker of a full-time feature film in Russia and the founder of the first Russian film studio  (Studio Khanzhonkov) in 1905. Here, Starewicz continued his passion for stop motion, mostly using his dead bug collection as his character models. 

1912 - “The Beautiful Leukandia.” Was an adaptation about the tale of Agamemnon and Menelaus.

1912 - “the cameraman’s revenge.” This was his most famous piece of work and is widely  regarded as the piece that pioneered stop motion as an art form. When the film first premiered audiences actually thought that Starewicz had managed to train live bugs to act. It was a short comedy drama movie about marital infidelity, jealously,  and of course revenge. The animated story was not made for children, which was quite uncommon at the time. Starewicz showed how versatile animation as a medium can be and how it can be curated for an older audience. 

The success of The ant and the grasshopper (1913/1911) is also worth mentioning – an adaptation of a fable by Ivan Krylov that, thanks to a record 140 copies, was seen by viewers all over Europe and America. One copy, packed in a silver box, was given by the producer to a successor of the Russian throne, Alexei Nikolayevich Romanov

“The night before Christmas” (1913). It was Starewicz’s version of the original Nikolai Vasilyevich Gogol story. This film featured live action interaction with his animated elements. Some parts even included his daughter Irina. 

“Terrible Vengeance” (1913). This  movie won the 2014 gold medal at international film festival in Milan.

During WW1, Satrewicz continued to make films. He worked for many different film companies and produced 60 live action movies. After WW1, he changed his name to Ladislas Starevich, as it was easier to pronounce in French, and began diving back into stop motion. During this time he produced: Midnight Wedding, The Scarecrow (1921), Frogland (1922), Love in Black and White (1923), The Voice of the Nightingale (1923), and The Little Street Singer (1924).

In 1924, Starevich moved to Fontenay-sous-Bois, where he lived until his death in 1965. There he made the rest of his films.

The Eyes of the Dragon (1925) — this film was exceptionally impressive due to its complex use of set design and character design. Starewicz’s talent as an artist truly shines through here in set decoration as well as ingenious trick photography.

The Town Rat and the Country Rat (1927) — a parody of American slapstick films.

The Magical Clock (1928) — a fairy tale story

The Little Parade - an adaptation of Hans Christian Anderson’s story titled ‘the steadfast tin soldier’

“Le Roman de Renard” (1937) — some consider this his best film. 

During WW2 he didn’t make any films. After WW2 he made a few more films before passing away:  “Zanzabelle a Paris”, “Fern Flower” (This his first movie in colour and won the first prize as an animated film in the 11th International Children Film Festival in Venice Biennale), “Nose to Wind”, “Winter Carousel” (his last completed film), and a half completed film titled “Like Dog and Cat.” He passed away before he could complete this last film. 

[madam-of-lithuania]

Here's my yesterday's trip to The Lithuanian Zoo

My home citie Kaunas, Lithuania 🇱🇹 part 10

[lietpolski]

2 5 7

2 - favourite platonic duo: denmark and iceland for sure!! it doesn't look like it from my blog, but denmark is my favourite character & his familial relationship with iceland just means the world to me :,)

5 - one of my favourite headcanons: ooh... i don't think i have favourites, but i'll share one that i consider canon in my head & haven't mentioned before! i like to think that when liet & poland got married, lithuania barely spoke polish (he wouldn't have had time to learn!) and poland didn't speak a lick of lithuanian. so they spent the first few months of their marriage communicating in sounds and gestures until liet's polish improved

7 - who's a character you don't talk about much, but really love?: there's a few!! i don't mention the nordics much on this blog, and i adooore them! & england for sure!! i love england to bits he's so interesting to me like a weird little lab animal... honourable mention: serbia because who the fuck wants to hear me talk abt hws serbia

[22degreehalo]

So I'm back to watching Assassination Classroom but I had to put out some laundry earlier so I looked up to see if there were any Karma/Nagisa podcasts (there are two!) and I got to thinking about what a surreal setting that fandom is and how much I love that and that got me thinking about a thread on /r/Ao3 about writing fic where the characters have weird names and how I was bummed I only got to thread when it was many hours old (as usual) so I didn't bother to leave a comment but I just felt so strongly about calling the characters 'Black' and 'White' or, like, 'America' and 'Lithuania', because some writers like to use their 'human' names but it's so much more meaningful and interesting IMO when it really is The United States of America and The Republic of Lithuania locking tongues, and then I imagined a person from Lithuania being really startled to see their country referenced out of the blue 'cause maybe they're young or old but either way they're not really familiar with Hetalia, so then I had to mentally write out a whole long comment about how Lithuania is depicted in that fandom (to my memory; it's been a while) and why I ship America/Lithuania, and I'd have to share some fic because there are some REALLY good ones, and there are the Lithuania genfics ofc and the one puella_nerdii and mithrigil wrote, but then there was another that I reread a few years ago when my phone screen broke so I had to use my first smartphone for a couple of days and I found it saved tot he device (never transferred on) and was surprised to find it even better than I'd remembered, so then I had to try and look it up and by now I'm about to have a shower because it's hot today and I know the fic's on my tablet but I only have my phone with me and I'm just standing there naked in the bathroom for ten minutes scowling down as I repeatedly google "How does your garden grow?" and various combinations of 'livejournal' 'lithuania' 'fanfiction' 'usliet' 'rec list' and eventually I got to my tablet and found it but I guess I didn't include the author's name when I copied it to a word document??? So now I had to go look up my del.icio.us recs because thank god I'd sorted that all out earlier this year and even refound this exact fic (but didn't bookmark it to ao3 for some reason), and after all that I had to give it a re-read, didn't I? Since it took so long to track down and, like, I didn't want to accidentally rec a super offensive fic to this made-up Lithuanian redditor. 'cause when I thought about it, the idea of America being this really nice guy who makes Lithuania really happy probably wouldn't fly so well in 2024, huh?

but I did read it and

it's so....... fucking good ;_________;

I want to go to Lithuania... I lolvve that fucking country so stupidly much oh my god. so fucking cringe that Im getting this worked up over a dumb gay anime fanfiction about wacky ww2 yaoi fascists but here I am and it's' actually still probably one of my favourite fics ever tbh. unironically.

so uhhHHHHHHHH that's how my afternoon went and also please read 'How Does Your Garden Grow?' by zempasuchil 🙏🙏🙏

[unhonestlymirror]

It makes me really sad that it's so hard to find Lithuanian (and European) movies - meanwhile, russian series are literally "crawling out of the ass": they are free and available on YT and other platforms. Most people are not billionaires to pay for every single video they want to watch - and then we wonder why our parents and close people are so prorussian and dumb. This "copyright law" bullshit doesn't work for small countries like Lithuania or Latvia - it just hides their culture like some kind of trash under the carpet. If we want, e.g., Baltic culture, to be popular, we need to make it at least free and available for everyone. Yes, it may be a loss of some money in the short term, but in the long run, it could save our lives - look at Japan. They ensured a technological breakthrough for themselves because they attracted many investors - and the investors were attracted because people were interested in Japanese culture - and why so? Anime & Manga available everywhere and for some time even for free. I can't even find a source providing Sengirė (2017) for money, but I can easily find something russian (filmed in 2023-2024) for free - this is so unfair. The democracy times are long ago gone because the absolute most of the audience doesn't have a choice. Just because russia is a terrorist and nazi country does not mean that we are obliged to ignore their tactics against us.

I know I have no right to criticize something I know little about. But I believe that even if there are very strict laws, there is still something we can do to popularise the same Lithuanian cinema. Following European rules (maybe American too, who knows?) doesn’t always work, and it doesn’t work for everyone, especially when these rules and laws are being kindly financed by russia.