#but here? yeah maaf kinda contributed

[cookieshower]

This question is 10+ years late, but I’m reaaaaaaaaaaaaaally curious to know. How did you first get into SpaPort / PortSpa and why do you like it more than the others?

oh this is gonna be a mini story time 🛐

how: since i got into hetalia toni is already a blorbo™. you know those things like uhh if a ship has both of my blorbo in it i will love it more? yeah...

in 2011-2014 there was a popular heta fan comic in deviantart called Maaf, it's mainly focused on maritime southeast asia ocs and bits of their history with other canon charas. it's kinda non linear (chronological??).

around that time port's 2nd design is revealed (the ponytail with scar), later the author of Maaf drew him in the story... note that the author doesn't write some parts of the story, chunks of it is provided/suggested by readers from said countries, port included.

ofc teen me (occasional yaoi enjoyer) & some readers went: oh ☺️ so that is spain's brother ☺️ they bicker a lot ☺️ wanna see more❣️ then i saw more arts of them by few dA artists... saw their tumblr accounts, followed, and from there i discovered many more in The spaport tumblr✨✨. i was just a minor lurker gnfjnfs, gradually left heta in 2014, made no drawing/content.

dragged back to heta bc of new season & SEA charas › jan 2022 i watched a certain anime and 2 main charas reminds me of #them › wow suddenly i miss #them a Lot..... › marathoned all their remaining tumblr arts and fics i've never seen before and dusted off my tumblr

why:

the 3 principles of good heta ship (credit to oomf): neighbours that share borders, one have invaded the other, family bond/related. this formula is always correct!

then there's canon materials and "why are you only meek with him"... toni only showed his weak side to port??? this exclusivity?!? oh it's over for other ships /lh.

TO ME a lot of ship dynamics/trope fit them heheh. sun and moon, dumb and dumber, sensitive and oblivious, writer and artist, i can fix him, etc. i think being a foreigner means i understood their irl relations less and i wont go "actually..." [insert better english sth sth ignorance is bliss].

they also reminds me of a favourite ship that involves my country so 🤒 even their language differences(?). then other fav ships reveals even more of spaport history bits from different pov. not elaborating the 3 ships here bc it will be Long and off topic lol but these kept adding as i learned more!! so yeah there's the many indirect connections.

ok that's what i can think of, excuse the incoherent texts :3c