#does he even have his own arc in hws??

[ochzarunoki]

Holy shit Austria at HWS 506

[anthurak]

So as a follow-up to my post about Marceline's super tragic and angsty prequel to the Elements Arc hidden in the episode ‘Ketchup’ yesterday, here’s a fun little ‘What-If?’ idea I’ve been thinking about for a while that could branch off from it:

If Marceline really did go all ‘feral, angry vampire girlfriend warpath’ on Patience both for what she did to Bonnie and also to find a way to help Bonnie, what if Marcy went a little… further?

So that when Finn, Jake and BMO later return to what was once the Candy Kingdom in Skyhooks, we see that Marceline, even ‘Marshmaline the Campfire Queen’, is conspicuously absent.

Then later, when Finn, Jake and Ice King are traveling through the new, desolate Ice Kingdom, they start hearing a soulful, sorrowful tune echoing through the otherwise silent wastes. A song sung by a very familiar voice…

And when the trio finally get inside the new Ice Palace, they find not Patience St. Pim, but rather Marceline the Ice Queen.

Basically, what if in her rage at Patience and desperation to find some way of helping Bonnie, Marcy actually devoured Patience’s soul, and thus inadvertently became the NEW Ice Elemental herself?

Now funny enough, I feel like this change wouldn’t actually have much of an effect on the Elements Arc itself. For one, I highly doubt that Marceline would be in any condition/willingness to actually help Finn and Jake. Remember that the effects of Ice Elemental contamination induce overwhelming ennui and depression.

So if that got dumped onto Marceline of all people? In the midst of her losing Bonnie to her own elemental corruption? Yeah, at this point I think our girl isn’t going to have the will to do more than stay cooped up in her new ice tower singing angsty, gay love songs for her lost candy girlfriend/soulmate with her new ice-fox backup choir. Now of course they would certainly be THE ANGSTIEST and GAYEST love songs you ever did hear, but still.

Like the big danger for Finn and Jake isn’t that Marceline tries to keep them there or is otherwise antagonistic, it’s that her music is so sorrowful/angsty it actually carries the depression-inducing elemental contamination that threatens to sap people’s will to go on and making them think of lost loves. Which could lead to some interesting character-moments for Finn: Like Marceline’s song first dredge up his old feelings for Bubblegum and Flame Princess, but Finn is actually able to push through the depression and yearnings because he’s moved on from those feelings and can recognize that the relationships they represented have either ended (Flame Princess) or never existed in the first place (Bubblegum). And when the songs make him think of Huntress Wizard, Finn is able to push through because he has a far more casual relationship with HW and doesn’t have the kind of deep yearnings for her that would easily paralyze him with depression.

Of course the most interesting part of this new version of Winter Light would be the potential meeting and conversation between this new Ice Marceline and Ice King/Simon. From Marceline potentially musing on how she now knows how Simon feels, to Ice King possibly having a weird, distorted heart-to-heart with Marceline where we see just a glimpse of Simon.

Following this, I don’t see this change having much of an effect on the rest of the arc, with perhaps one small but still noteworthy addition: When Finn, Jake and IK flee the new Ice Kingdom, Finn calls out to Marceline something to the effect of if she does miss PB so much, she should go see her. Then later during Hero Heart when Princess Bubblegum candifies Phoebe and the rest of her flame army, Marceline actually DOES show up in a dramatic and very impressive display of power, possibly with her own ice army. Finn at first thinks she’s here to help, but it turns out Marcy isn’t here to fight, but simply to see Bonnie. And when her followers also start getting transformed by PB, Marceline simply accepts the candification herself to become Marshmaline. Simply because now she CAN be with Bonnie.

You know, all to really dial up the ‘All is Lost’ vibe of that episode.

Now this means that Skyhooks II and the end of the arc play out the same as they did originally, with Finn and Ice King managing to hit the LSP-shaped elemental-reset button and undo everyone’s elemental corruption. I mean, maybe Bonnie and Marcy have a Big Damn Kiss a season early after they get de-candied, but I think it’s easy to imagine they probably already had a BDK off-screen in the original XD

Of course I think we can all agree that the real interesting angle to this change is the potential of Marceline being the new Ice Elemental on rest of the series. Admittedly, it is a bit hard to imagine the existing plot-points for the rest of the series being affected much by Marceline now having some ice powers. Aside from her Dark Cloud kaiju form she breaks out in Come Along With Me now likely being a Dark BLIZZARD form.

Instead, the really interesting potential of this change comes in how this might affect Marcy’s dynamic with Simon and how she might go about adapting to her new abilities. I think we can all agree it would be fun to see Marcy and Bonnie trying to figure out their new elemental powers together. Though consider this: If Bonnie was visited by the spirit/past-incarnation-memories of Chatsberry, what if Marceline ends up being visited by the spirt of Urgance Evergreen? You know, the being who made the Ice Crown?

Really makes you think where something like that could lead…

[lilbittymonster]

Does it matter whether other people consider your OC sexually attractive? Did this inform your thinking when you were creating them? Also was it important that you put them in a relationship with a character who is generally considered "attractive"?

What is your favourite depiction of romance (or sex if you prefer) that you have produced? Or if you haven't produced one yet, then what is your favourite example from another creator?

Does it matter whether other people consider your OC sexually attractive? Did this inform your thinking when you were creating them? Also was it important that you put them in a relationship with a character who is generally considered "attractive"?

I was transferring her into the world of XIV from a failed 5e campaign, so really the only thought I had when making Kitali was "okay how close am I going to be able to get to making a tiefling in XIV?" I am genuinely surprised that people find Kitali attractive, especially the results from that whole smash/pass trend that was going around a while back. I don't particularly enjoy trying to make her ~sexy~, and that generally doesn't tend to get attention. I'm not going to sugarcoat it, she's hard to like. Most of what makes her attractive to me is her competence and raw power not how well she'd look as a pinup. She's a tomboy, she doesn't do femininity like that.

I think shipping with a character who is considered conventionally attractive and only because they are considered conventionally attractive is superficial as shit. Looks don't matter to me as much as the actual chemistry between characters. When I was planning out a wolstinien ship arc, it was based in the DRG4DRG juice and the fact that Estinien is the first person to ever actually stick up for her and treat her like a person, not as either a convenient solution to a primal-shaped problem or as an idolised war hero. Whether or not he was attractive (which we didn't even see until well into the HW patches) didn't factor into the question.

Aymeric, on the other hand.......my first reaction to meeting him was "oh he's pretty" followed immediately by "Kitali is never going to want anything to do with him". I am still not quite sure how that ship snuck up on me but here we are. I am just the narrator, Kitali went and did that all on her own. But again, they have an interpersonal dynamic that just works, looks plays no part in it.

What is your favourite depiction of romance (or sex if you prefer) that you have produced? Or if you haven't produced one yet, then what is your favourite example from another creator?

As far as romance goes, I think the most Typically Romantic thing I have done thus far is this one (full post)

Romance novel cover long walk on the beach lmao.

Second closest is this one I did for polyam week. (full version here)

Aymeric is so full of love for his wife (and sake, so much sake).

Some other personal faves are this one, this one, this one, and this one.

The spicy ones are few and far between but I'm particularly pleased with how this one came out (full links on the post).

As far as shouting out some of my favourite creators; @tallbluelady does the most atmospheric and tender wolianger posting. @myreia has such an in-depth exploration of the epic highs and lows of wolcred through the expansions. @sparrowsong-7's gpose comics are some of the most wistful and fluffy and longing and achingly beautiful ships and I am hanging on every crumb.

Thanks so much for the asks @mimble-sparklepudding!

OC Relationship Building Asks

[sugarywishes]

Could you go a bit more into your plans and the role of Elizabeth & Even in the future of your AU? I'm curious to learn a bit more about how their respective roles change things, as well as how it will end up playing out with Micheal & William also involved on the whole...

Of course! Answers below as usual.

So I'm trying really hard to not fully expose every detail of the Security Breach portion of this rewrite, but the gist of it is Glitchtrap/William, and the Afton kids return for a grand finale! And unfortunately Gregory, Vanessa, and GlamFred have to be in the middle of it all. (Which means HW 2, Secret of the Mimic or whatever games they'll be making in the future will likely not be added to this thing, unless I really like it but it's likely I won't lmao) (RUIN-ED is in a complicated situation in this rewrite, it's technically now an AU spinoff, that's not canon to the security breach section but is still related to it, but I'm over complicating things here, I'll explain it in other post!)

And as some of you know in this section of the rewrite/AU, Glitchtrap will use Gregory as a replacement body for Evan to inhabit to come back to Earth, and boy are they BOTH upset about this! (My Security Breach portion will include Gregory's family, the Casas, and they'll get a chance to interact with Evan a lot too, since they don't know that Gregory's kind of being possessed rn)

Speaking of the Casas, EVERYONE in that family serves as a 'mirror' to the Aftons (that does not mean they share the same personalities or anything, they're just the counterparts for story telling purposes, and I mean VERY important story telling purposes!) Julian is the 'William', Rebecca is the 'Clara', Gregory is the 'Evan', and Monica is the 'Michael'. You may notice that Elizabeth wasn't included in the line up (originally, before RUIN-ED came out, there were many theories that Cassie could be Gregory's twin sister and I was ALL for it because then I could finally have Lizzie have her own Casas counterpart, and then turns out she wasn't related to him, so I had to rewrite things unfortunately 😔) So now, VANESSA is the Elizabeth counterpart.

Going back to Evan, he HATED coming back, when he did originally wake up in Gregory's body, he had a full blown panic attack and was horrified by his surroundings, cause yk he was freaked out by Glitchtrap, an 8 foot tall gay ass bear, a white woman and a teenage girl who looked too similar to his brother whom he only remembers MURDERED HIM, that can really overwhelm someone! (Btw, Mike had been fully anticipating his father's return, but he didn't think Evan and Elizabeth would come back because he thought they moved on, they definitely did not!)

After a whole rescue operation (and losing someone during it, not a death though.) Gregory/Evan will go through a lot of trials and tribulations through family matters and trauma. Again, I'm trying not to spoil a lot about this section since it's pretty crazy, but they do become friends! They will be each other's first ever friends, actually, since Cassie won't be in this rewrite. SORRY ☹️ she will be important in the RUIN-ED AU/spinoff though! (Yk the one with the stupid ass kids/ocs)

For Elizabeth, she will end up attempting to possess Vanessa (although it was not part of William's original plan, and who knows? It could work.) I really want to say more details but I must restrain myself from doing so. She will be an antagonist along with Will, she's gonna cause some evil shit, and she'll get a redemption arc because it's what she deserves! (Yk after she learns her lesson) And there is actually a reason why she and Evan even have relationships with the MCI/KCI kids, even if Liz didn't actually meet them when she was still Baby. Let's just say, the afterlife prison for her was not cool! Thank goodness she managed to escape too.

And yeah, tons of Afton family drama is relevant in this too, it intertwines with the Casas family own trauma.

I'd really like to discuss more about what exactly will happen, believe me. But I'm saving all that for when I get to it! (And also because, I'm still working on it!)

[aotopmha]

In my FF14 journey, I'm now at the first lvl 86 quest.

I stopped just before going back to the Crystal Tower.

The latter half of Thavnair is fantastic in terms of building tension.

In one of my previous posts I talked about how much I liked that the story still manages to have moments of danger despite the characters surviving the most ridiculous circumstances.

At this point, I do not believe in most danger the Scions are in, but because, just like the corrupting force of light, Akasha is a new system with new rules, it makes you doubt, even if it is just for a moment.

And it certainly made me doubt with Matsya and the baby because they're just commonfolk.

Qerasaf and Mehvan are just normal civilians, so I fully believe they could die as easily as they did.

Once again the story also uses the distinction between the massive strength of the Warrior of Light and the normal people of the world to great effect in that sense.

But even then, you can still not be in all places at once.

During the chain transformation cutscene, you could see the Warrior of Light being indecisive between targets and which people to save and later on with Mehvan, they were late to save her.

I really like that detail because stuff like this goes a long way in spelling out your position in the world. It's general enough characterisation where players can put their own spin on it, yet still enough to make the Warrior of Light have somewhat of an identity themselves.

And I think that's the best way to go with mute player characters.

I don't know much about Dungeons and Dragons, but to me it feels like a game master having their own idea of where to go with the story/characters, but leaving a good amount of room to do your own thing within their framework.

And I like that take a bunch.

Now, to loop back to what I was saying about tension, I fully believed Matsya and the baby were done for, so I was okay with either fate, but this is also where Endwalker's theming comes in.

Even if only really minor characters died, there was so much death in this part of the story.

Khalzahl, Nahbdeen, Qerasaf and Mehvan.

To cut to the point, this is a story about mental illness.

And what kind of message would that send if there was only despair?

What kind of message would this send to those suffering in similar ways?

You have to be really careful with messaging here. And I think both Matsya and the baby surviving was almost mandatory in that sense.

This is why certain criticisms of plot points later on in the story also ring wrong to me.

Because eventhough Thavnair's faith says there is more suffering in life than there is good on the surface (which I think some read the scene at the temple as), the true meaning behind their beliefs is to appreciate the good that does exist.

To see your life for what it is, good and bad.

And so the story lets Matsya and the baby survive.

Finally, I really like how Estinien's character arc and Heavensward is used in this section for Vrtra's character development and how Vrtra ends up a positive parallel to Sharlayan's policy of passivity in face of all-consuming doom.

Vrtra steps up when he is proven wrong about his presence being a source of chaos and more conflict. He considers the result of the Dragonsong War and Estinien's journey. And he considers Hraesvelgr's decision to help in the confrontation with Nidhogg.

And ultimately he steps up and decides to take responsibility as a leader of his people.

I've seen people complain about there not being enough love for Y'sayle compared to other beloved characters that died and that as a proof of sexism, but I feel it is just about the same, and the references to her with Licinia and her sister and now with Thavnair are super relevant and effective.

On my part, I think digging deeper made everything in this part so much better. Sometimes it does, sometimes it doesn't, but here it definitely did for me.

The HW connections might be my favourite because it's another exanple of making previous story have more relevance, weight and substance, but I adore the message of appreciating the good, however little, within the bad a bunch, too.

You might notice I actually didn't talk much about Bestways Burrow and the section of the Loporrits and that is precisely because the entire section wasn't as substantial to me. I had some good chuckles in there and I like the Urianger focus, but even if it has the same thematic point of overcoming passivity in the face of great danger, it was a bunch less nuanced and without much else going on aside from thay point.

Much of it was magic babble, which needed to happen to make everything come together and downtime to let big reveals set in.

And we've definitely come so far from you just having to do 8 generic fetch quests to go on to another zone with more of the same by at least getting specific characterisation and learning how this huge point of focus (the moon) functions within lore, but the technical stuff isn't as interesting by nature to me.

All of this said, Endwalker still continues to be fantastic. I just went on about how Bestways Burrow wasn't as good as everything else, but it is still contributing towards solving long-standing plot threads and it is put where it is with purpose.

Finishing Thavnair also unlocked the role quests, which I think I actually only have seen in bits and pieces, so those will be fun to do for myself.

And I'm looking forward to what comes next in general, of course.

[sundered-souls]

12. How much does your OC's background and origin affect their approach to relationships? Are there specific insecurities or preferences that lead on from their past?

In short: a lot, and yes.

Slightly longer answer: I don't really see how it could not? For me, the background of a character must inform their decisions, romantically or otherwise, and I don't think anybody goes through life without insecurities.

How it affects their relationships is just too specific to each one of them to really give a general answer, though, so I've developed more under the cut how it affects my WoLships specifically. Fair warning: it's pretty long xD

Aïcha's origins don't influence her too much in the sense that both her ships started in a very unorthodox way regardless of culture. In a more traditional context, it probably would have played a bigger role, but at the same time she's been living abroad for a long time now. She's Thavnairian, yes, but she's picked up a lot of cultural habits from other places too and it's kind of a mix nowadays that wouldn't fit neatly in any particular culture.

Her backstory, however, left her with a lot of guilt that in HW and StB conditioned greatly how she reacted to both Estinien during their road trip and the subsequent patches, and then later on to Zenos in Rhalgr's Reach and beyond.

She's doing better now, but she was a mess. Although a mess capable of recognizing a just and kind man despite his anger, despite his hatred for dragons, despite his role in upholding Ishgard's interests. That Estinien would consider giving a chance to Ysayle to prove her point—and then follow through—made her respect him a lot. And it's truly what drew her to him. Respect.

And from his perspective, the absolute lack of judgement and the deep understanding of what he was going through, despite knowing very little of him, was very much not something he expected from a foreigner. But it's the mixture of both, influenced by their own history, that drew them to each other even post 3.X patches.

For Zenos... Their relationship, which only truly lasted from the second fight against him in Yanxia to the Liberation of Ala Mhigo, is one of projecting onto the other, self-destructiveness and mutual obsession.

In the game, Zenos is kinda meant to be a foil for the WoL in a "what if the WoL had never have a good support system and a just cause to fight for?" but that's not what happened to them. Aïcha has everything she wanted before she sacrificed a promising life to save her dad: a loving and dotting father, friends, hobbies, a promising career as a professional dancer. She's strong, she was above the others in her art and would have become famous rather quickly, but she never felt disconnected from people. And she worked hard to get there.

Zenos, to her, represented the worst in herself. Because she, too, had killed people for an unjust cause. And she might have had good reasons to take that path at first, but that made no difference to those who died by her hand. So she hated him because she saw herself in him and couldn't stand it. She wanted him gone because she wanted herself gone, and the entire time their relationship lasted was time spent punishing herself for failing the one person who had had faith in her ability to redeem herself: Haurchefant.

She saw zenos for himself for the first time during their fight in Ultima Thule, and she killed him in an act that serves to close the narrative arc that started when she joined the mob to save her father: by once again sacrificing a part of herself to protect someone she loved. This time their daughter, because there was no way she'd ever allow Zenos to know she existed.

But Zenos was actually her soulmate, so when I say she sacrificed a part of herself, it's literal. This life will be the last they ever crossed path in because she left his body in Ultima Thule, thus never allowing him to rejoin the Lifestream and finally putting an end to a cycle of meeting in every life since their ancient selves bound their souls together.

Inge's origins influence one specific aspect of any romantic relationship she currently has or will ever have, because there's one aspect from her people's culture she's not interested in throwing away at all: it was never expected for them to spend a lot of time with their partners. People from her village tend to live relatively solitary lives, meeting sometimes in Sjasaris—which is really more a place to meet each other, celebrate and communally raise children—but otherwise spent their time essentially on their own. And that's very much still what she's doing.

She'll see her partners on occasion, spend quality time with them, send gifts, etc. but she needs to be able to go as she pleases and just live her life without them being around.

If one of her partners one day cannot stand it anymore, that'd signify the end of the relationship pretty quickly because she's really not interested in doing things differently.

She did try though. Once. It was a few years after leaving the Jungle, in Kugane, with a woman she's never been officially with but also they raised her young daughter Hanae together for a while... until her lover's eventual betrayal.

And that betrayal is very much another thing that conditions a lot how she approaches relationships, romantic or otherwise. She's less hesitant now to allow people in her inner circle, but it's not a coincidence that both her wife and Shtola are principled, protective and don't bow to authority. Inge doesn't trust nor forgive easily.

It also took her a while after Carteneau to let herself believe that no, she wouldn't lose everyone and everything again. She's mostly there, though. Mostly.

And thank you for the ask, @ascendedhypothesis! I hope you don't mind the length.

[sere-ness-ima]

HWS Poland during the partitions: the full timeline (1795-1918) [1]

...but it will take a long time to write, so I will divide the infodump into parts. Haha, divide into parts, get it?? Because Polan–

<concering muffled noises>

...this part contains the following topics:

[1.1] Why offing Poland during the partitions is a terrible move [an essay-flavoured rant]

[1.2] What I'm going for in shaping my hetalia universe [a short boring disclaimer]

[1.3] TL;DR Feliks' timeline 1795-1918 [because I'm not a clickbait type]

The actual essays [nessays?] detailing the events and providing contexts and sources will come later, and hell am I excited for it.

[1.1] An introduction

I’ve been sitting on it for almost 10 years at this point, which is a lot of time to sacrifice to a fictional character’s fictional biography. And I’m speaking about 123 years of Poland’s geographical non-existence, which even my fellow Polish fanfiction writers often skip by unaliving him and only letting him resurrect in 1918 after regaining independence, with cool phoenix metaphors and a jazzy remix of *Poland is not lost yet*.

It's not that I hate this concept utterly, because I have even attempted to write a fic just like that once. I couldn’t resist the picture of Poland, the snobby, aristocratic, moustached, hot-headed peasant-owner from the end of the 18th century, suddenly waking up in the middle of barely-post-WW1 turmoil, with the world having changed SO MUCH since the times he last remembers that he’s like a caveman released from a block of ice in the middle of modern-day New York. Oh, yeah, and his job is to rebuild a country which he lost- wait, he losT FOR HOW LONG???

Yeah, I like the idea. It would be a fascinating comedy plot. But let’s be realistic. The clue of all my rambling is, Poland just before the partitions and just after the partitions are two completely different people, but there’s a road between them, a story of Feliks changing drastically over the 123 years, a story which is absolutely delightful, emotional, hilarious, and honestly the director of The World should get an award for it, because oh boy does Feliks’ character arc HIT HARD. (And I’m not the director here. I’m the film editor, at best. Just choosing the best scenes to bring to light based on a personal whim.)

[1.2] A disclaimer

My hetalia universe works on my own custom-made rules. I only touch canon when convenient, otherwise ignoring it completely. My rule of thumb is to make the concept of personifications as realistic as possible and to bring the “Ness Cinematic Universe” as close to a normal history textbook as possible [some people are just built different, like and subscribe if your goal is to write a history textbook of a fic too!]. I strive for historical accuracy here – but the Rule of Cool takes priority when needed, because I also strive for whatever my heart desires. All my stuff are of the “public hetalia” variety unless stated otherwise. It means the personifications and their identity are usually public knowledge and their existence is a natural phenomenon in-universe.

[1.3] HWS Poland's 19th century timeline: TL;DR

(i'm about to elaborate on each point from this list in my future posts.)

1795 – the third partition. According to their earlier agreement, Russia takes Lithuania east and Prussia takes Poland west.

1796 – Poland moves through Saxony to France… 1797 – ...and from France to Italy, where the famous Polish legions in Italy are starting to form.

1797-1814 – Poland’s Great Napoleonic Adventure :) [to be elaborated on]

1815 – the previous agreements between the partitioning sides get nullified at the congress of Vienna. Feliks has no other way but to agree on a personal union with Russia under certain conditions.

1815-1830 – he then lives a mildly peaceful life in Warsaw, but the conditions aren’t met and the tsar’s brother is unbearable.

1830-31 – Feliks revolts in Warsaw.

1831-37 – prison time (Schliesselburg fortress, Russia)

1838-1848 – Poland’s Great Emigration :) (his mental health rapidly decreasing, he moves to live in France and travels here and there around western Europe. You can insert your ship content here, though.)

1848 – Feliks revolts in Germany.

1848-1849 – Feliks revolts in Hungary.

1849-185X – prison time (Spielberg castle, Austria [nowadays Czech])

185X – 1861 – passed from Austria to Russia, he once again accepts an offer to sit calmly in Warsaw and try not to break anything. [the plot of BSA the fic happens here – for those who know :) you can also use this time for your ship content.]

1861-1863 – mildly chaos with occassional patches of prison time (Warsaw Citadel)

1863-64 – Feliks revolts in Warsaw.

1864-1866 – Poland’s Not So Great Exile To Siberia :)

1866 – Feliks revolts in Siberia.

1867-1890 – a free time slot. Show your OTP some love here. Personally I want to see him in Austria-Hungary, Prussia works too. So does going west and crying into France’s sleeve. So does prison time in Irkutsk, Siberia. Let him have a trip to China. Or Australia. Do your worst.

1891-190X – I’d love to see him in Russia around here, though, in Petersburg. At least when he’s not running wild and committing crimes.

190X-1914 – I’m currently reworking this section. The old version had him start WW1 in Prussia, in the Prussian army, then switch to the Russian side. The new one will probably have him do the exact opposite, so he’d be starting in Russian.

1914-16 – not like it matters, because he manages to fight for all the three occupants’ armies (until they notice he's jumping sides and...

1916-1918 – ...have him sit on his ass till the end of the war).

1918 – he finds his people eventually, or they find him. And the real fight starts now. :)

...see you in the next nessay, which will probably be all about the three acts of partitions and making an attempt to paint a picture of Feliks the moment his country collapses? We'll answer cool questions like:

"should the partitions be blamed on Feliks or is he helpless about his people's stupid decisions",

"was the canon partitions scene with Poland laying in the snow actually the battle of Maciejowice (1794)",

"is Austria the kind one, because you know, Hungary likes Poland"

"yeah but how can we make it pruspol" And more! Maybe I'll even add a picture to the wall of text. As a treat.

[kulay-ng-banaag]

“Before they were Perlas ng Silanganan they were Hija del sol de Oriente. They might as well look it.”

Physical Appearance (General) Headcanons for HWS Philippines

CW: mentions of body injury

‼ UPDATE (07/30/24): Few additions made; glazed images with personal art

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Skin Color: Moreno. Neutral undertone. Beautifully sun-kissed and proudly brown, after long hours under the sun, whether it be from toiling in the fields or wading in the waters.

Historically, mestizo/a* is used to refer to Filipinos of mixed Spanish blood. These days, it generally applies to anyone that appear foreign, if only by way of their fair skin.

*Grammatical gender is just not a thing in PH languages, even after integrating Spanish terms. As to the use of the term Filipinx, here's some great commentary by a PH linguist.

While I'm aware that fair-skinned Southeast Asians exist, fair-skinned Piri does not match up to how I view him spending the vast majority of his time outdoors & only wearing clothes that fully cover his limbs for formal occasions. No way is he going be white as non-existent-in-this-tropical-climate snow after 1500+ years in the fields and the seas and the wars in-between.

I, the artist behind all this terrible lore you all must suffer, may pass off as mestiza but the Philippines’ story encompasses many, not just the (mestizo) educated middle-class folks like me. I think that’s a fair (haha, ironic) enough representation.

If it means anything, Piri will rather eat papaya, not soak in it.

I did not think we would ever have discourse about skin whitening trends, but apparently we did. tl;dr unpack that sh*t.

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Hair Color: I hate rendering pure black hair so there will always be a subtle brownish or blueish undertone. In Piri's case, I use a warm and very dark shade of brown as the base color. Like the grains of Balatinaw black rice grown in the Cordillera terraces, or the liberica beans cultivated in the Batangueño lowlands.

While I have joked that Piri disappears from the chapters because he has been at the salon getting his hair bleached, I personally wish that that last-minute change in detail never occurred. Upgrades to color palettes are all a natural part of the art glowup, but tossing that in the middle of a story arc ended up selling so weird to me. I live in the metro and you are bound to bump into Filipinos with bleached hair (I, myself, did so if only to nab my dream pink mane), but even people who dye their hair are rare still. You're more likely to encounter those who opted for brown highlights instead.

The ahoge is a surprise because it isn't in the Dec. 2020 teaser sketch, and I figure it's an allusion to the American influence - or maybe it's that Himaruya quirk of giving characters ahoges. Ngl, without the ahoge, Piri will look like a stereotypical BL manhwa uke.

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Hairstyle: Side-swept hair with a fluffy & layered fringe.

It’s a trending hairstyle you’ll find with guys around here, albeit with an undercut instead of the unswept hair being combed down (in Piri’s case as I draw it). For formal occasions, all he has to do is slather the hair gel onto the fringe.

Piri was long past his 90s/early 2000s kachupoy phase.

I struggle with describing hairstyles through words (this is why I vibed with comics as a medium). I have recreated IndoPhil in my Sims 4 game there as closely as possible to how I imagine and the hairstyles I have given them are exactly what I have in mind.

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Eye Color: Dark brown that becomes a fiery amber under direct sunlight. Glimmering like precious gold beneath the rich earth.

Any "color changes" are just reflections from light sources (ex. for scenes/illustrations where I let his eyes go gold, it’s playing on how dark brown eyes under direct sunlight can appear amber). I’d demonstrate with my own but I rather not burn my own eyes out for the aesthetic, so I have pulled out these images from a Google search instead.

Other headcanon colors I’ve seen (pearl, ube) are cute! I use pearl eyes for the diwata!Piri I've drawn (not sirena!Piri, because his shiny golden tail is already a huge, enamoring de...tail 🥁).

Nonetheless, I’m also content with the eye color I started with.

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Height: I imagined him around 5’5” since the beginning, so I’m keeping the canon number. To quote one of my favorite nonfiction reads, the Philippines is not a small country.

Physique: Now I vehemently deny Himaruya’s canon for this. Maybe it’s on me growing up in an urban city littered with gym boys, but trust me when I say that Piri is absolutely THAT bakla who will use a photo revealing his well-built upper body as a Twitter profile picture.

I declare myself a twunk Piri artist. Some references I would cite are:

1). The UP Oblation statue.

2). Swimmer bods (if you don't believe, just look at the Free! anime)

3). Josh Dela Cruz!!!!!!

Piri did not earn his canon (modified) navy uniform nor go through a history book’s worth of revolutions, only to come out of it all a twink. As a Gemini, he’s full of physical adrenaline and that all has to go somewhere (chatting it away will not be enough).

He is of a swimmer build (think of the boys of Free!), with lean, softly-defined muscles, wider - if not broader - upper body (shoulders, biceps, back), narrow waistline, and fairly plump thighs. He also has what one will describe as a cute butt.

Piri is definitely not as beefy as Indo nor as chiseled as Thai (and hopefully I’ll sketch out the other SEAnigang too to explain this better). Admittedly, I also think it is ten times sexier to best know how sculpted Piri is by feeling his body (abang Indo, take notes!!). So yes, I have given my country abs, because if Hima won't I will he dasurvs it.

As a fun extra comparison, both Piri and Indo are the heavy eaters (in more ways than one, too) of the SEAnigang. Both will happily finish the leftovers from barkada eat-outs. Piri remains slim because he has higher metabolism.

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Scars: He has a couple from bullet wounds across his collarbone. There is a nasty, large burn scar on his right side. His back has clearly taken multiple hits, and they have left quite the damage to the tattoos that have come before.

To me, nations can take hits and physically heal up just fine (the rate of recovery honestly varied). Some things simply leave a lasting mark.

Tattoos: That gets its own post.

[sarcasticdolphin]

Todolf Music Conservatory au “Grading”

I have a previous post or several on headcanons for this verse. The tldr is that Tod is still death but has decided to moonlight as the advanced music theory professor at a music conservatory. Rudolf is a student studying the pipe organ and Tod’s TA for the music theory 1 class that Tod is being forced to teach. Exactly what a TA does varies by uni, but for the sake of this verse Tod grades the exams and Rudolf grades the homework. It’s also weird that Rudolf grades the hw in Tod’s office. 

Go read the headcanons post(s) (I don’t remember if it was one or several) for more background. If you have questions I’m happy to answer.

It would be, to an outsider, perhaps a bit odd how their system worked, but Rudolf found that he quite liked it. They already spend so much time together - what with the fact that Rudolf was the only student in Music Theory V that year - that he didn’t see anything incongruous about it.

Still, he locked the door at Tod’s head nod as he entered. The stack of homework on Tod’s desk was higher than he might have preferred, but he would never complain about spending more time with the man.

All but the very corners of Tod’s desk were already occupied with the exam papers, so Rudolf set down his pack, picked up the papers, skimming the top one as he sat on the ground, back against one of Tod’s cabinets.

Rudolf began his ritual the same way he always did, counting the papers. “Missing one.” He said after counting twice and getting 21 each time.

Tod took a moment to look up from his own grading. “Ah yes. I had a student drop on Wednesday.”

Rudolf nodded. His red pen was in its usual place in his pocket and the work began steadily enough, little checks soon reduced to lines alone, notes of mistakes scrawled in the margins. 

The first two questions were basic and had only silly mistakes. Two students hadn’t read the directions and had managed to give the F major progression rather than the minor progression despite the key signature being given. One had even crossed out the correct key signature and put the incorrect one.

The third question was also simple, but it tripped more of the students up and Rudolf found himself biting his own lip quite often, or the tip of the pen, the homework spreading out in more of an arc than the usual pile as he tried to keep his scoring consistent.

The rustling of papers, both from his own work and Tod’s filled Rudolf’s ears, relaxing him, and helping him finally get into a rhythm. Slowly, the papers found their way back into a stack as he found the patterns and scored them, until only three papers remained.

The progression in each of them was odd, but not, strictly speaking, incorrect at least to Rudolf’s eye. Ultimately though, what mattered was the sound so Rudolf rose, stretching as he did, and walked over to the keyboard on the opposite side of Tod’s office. 

He went through the first student’s progression twice, still frowning as he did so. Strictly speaking, there was nothing to take off for - they weren’t under the same rules that Rudolf himself had to follow in his own work - but even by the basic rules, the progression was odd.

Tod’s warm hand at the small of his back heralded the professor’s arrival at his side, and Rudolf had to stop himself from leaning into the touch. Tod’s hands were always so warm.

The first student’s paper was plucked from his hand and Tod glanced over it.

“Mark it wrong. The others, too.”

Rudolf tilted his head to the side.

“I told them only to use the techniques learned in class for this, and if you have to play it out then they aren’t using them.” He placed the homework back in Rudolf’s hand before returning to his desk. Rudolf resumed his place by the cabinet, sitting in a single fluid motion. 

As he did so his head tilted just a fraction too far back, and the sound of his head meeting the unforgiving metal reverberated through him.

“Fuck.” He breathed, opening his eyes to see Tod looking at him, eyes amused.

“Why are your cabinets so fucking hard?” That brought a laugh, and Tod turned toward him.

“Would you prefer a softer headrest?” Tod tapped his inner thigh as he did so.

Rudolf thought for a moment. The door was locked. Why not? He scooted to sit at Tod’s feet in a decidedly ungraceful fashion, dragging the stack of papers along with him. There was only one question left. 

Tod didn’t turn back to the desk and Rudolf was grateful for it - if he had the lighting situation would have made grading difficult. He tentatively laid his head on Tod’s thigh, marveling at the warmth, letting his eyes flutter shut for a moment as he half-nuzzled it, humming.

A hand sliding through his hair, bringing his head up, broke the pleasant sensation.

“That last question isn’t going to grade itself.”

Rudolf pouted. “Killjoy.” He said, only earning himself another laugh.

The last question went quickly enough until he was on the second to last paper. He frowns. The mistake is odd - but that isn’t strange. The question is a bit odd. What is strange is that this particular odd answer is familiar. He takes the pile of completed homework and thumbs through it until he finds what he is looking for.

The two answers are completely identical, down to the typo on the second line. Tod’s hand, which had rested motionlessly in his hair, moves again and Rudolf looks up.

“Identical answers.” He says as he passes the papers up to Tod, who only glances at them for a moment before flipping to the front page, to the name. It is only then that Rudolf realizes that Tod has finished grading the exams as the man goes through the stack, pulling two papers and handing them down to Rudolf. One is excellent, 95/100 scrawled on the top. The other is not, scoring only 63/100. 

“They copied,” Rudolf states the obvious.

Tod hums, taking the exams back. “So it seems. Put those two aside. I’ll deal with them.”

Rudolf does and finishes a few minutes later, passing the stack up to Tod before letting his head tip back, enjoying the warm pillow of Tod’s thigh.

Tod’s hand is back in his hair, then, carding gently, and Rudolf purrs at the sensation, leaning into the touch, eyes still closed. If they stayed closed this might never end.

But it eventually does with Rudolf’s leg falling asleep. Gingerly, he rises, accepting Tod’s offered hand as he does.

“Do you still have practice tonight?”

Rudolf shakes his head, gazing at Tod in his chair. “There was some last-minute funeral that had to be moved. I was bumped to the morning slot.”

“7:30?”

Rudolf snorts. “If only. 5:30.”

Tod rises, one hand going to Rudolf’s hip and the other to his chin, tilting it up.

“In that case, I must insist you go and sleep.”

Rudolf made a noncommittal noise as Tod adjusted Rudolf’s chin to place a warm kiss on his forehead, the hand at his hip shifting to his back, pulling him closer.

“Sweet dreams. I will see you Monday.”

Rudolf murmured his thanks before Tod released him, but then quickly gathered his bag and left the office, slipping back into the darkened building with its echoey halls.

[mikeellee]

I was debating if I should make another rant. Another one saying why BHN is poorly written and it hits me.

What does make a stort be considered bad written? Is it the main character give up.being a magic hero and be a regular person?

No. As I cited the example above...a character wanting to "retire" may not be seen as bad written if it was work properly. "Maybe the grand hero is tired of adventures and now wants to be a simple pottery"

What I have a problem is with narrative and intention.

Look at BNH

It is poorly written bc the author himself refuses to let his character develop. And I know people will come to me and say "but Zuzu won against that dude..that is developement"

My countet response: as impressive his fightings scenes are. He is more than just a dude with some fighting scenes.

HE IS THE MC! All the message of BNH and how "men arent created equal" should matter bc of him.

But Hori refuses to let Izu be free of his abuser nor let him speak about his own abuse. He never had an arc about his pain.

UA never felt different from Aldera

The MC is treated poorly and...for no reason. What is the point in sering bk mistreated and hurt by BK.

And if that COULD be smth I could, theorically, ignore and just focus on 🥦 if Hori disnt show how abuse is bad and the fandom nods.

Tenko was abused. You dont see anyone here denying

Shoto was abused and so was Rei. No one denies that (but sone claim Endeavor's got a redemption arc which ...yeah sort of but hw shouldnt be forgiven ao easy for all the damage he caused to his family)

Izuku's abuse? Is glossed over. Villanize in some fics "zuzu stalks bk see that why he treated him like that" or just brushed off "well he forgive him so who cares?!"

1- he never forgive him bc bk shows no remorse

2- it matters to the fans.

Also let me say...people who think zuzu is a stlaker or make stalker zuzu in fics....yoi guys are agreeing with what the abuser is saying about the victim.

I know this is fiction but fiction dont exist in a vaccum.

And my other point is...how this is a story where zuzu is a great hero if Zuzu is lump with his abuser?

How Zuzu cant reach a god mode if no one teach him anything?

Look...I dont like the protagonist Naruto and I stand by that Kishimoto is SUPER SEXIST but at least, he let his MC go God mode and get senseis (yes. I hate Jiraya but at least he teach him something)

But Zuzu doesn't have any of this. He is disrespected by the writing. CLASS A1 FORCING him to come to the school was ....bad.

The bath scene was even worse.

The fact he havrnt master OFA ...completely ia bad

But the fact the author continues to let such good character be wasted and think he is worthless is awful.

Even badder is having the abuser speaking for the victim.

BNH is not a story about heroes. Is a story where the abuser wins bc you, the victim, can't function withoit him.

Also bk is a void. He only serves to hurt Zuzu and harm the story.

[hologramcowboy]

Hi, I rarely send in asks but this question has been boggling me for a couple days now, so here goes. My question is “Do you think the prequel is more Danneel’s project than Jensen’s?” I’m asking this because it’s been confirmed that TB has been renewed for a season 4 and the account that usually leaks stuff from TB has claimed that pre-production starts in March and the next few months is when shooting starts. So now it’s got me thinking that Danneel will have more say in what’s supposed to happen regarding the prequel over the next upcoming months while Jensen is filming (possibly). I kinda started thinking this project was more hers, when Jensen had pretty much inserted her and made her look like she was the most important person, regarding the prequel even though she has no producing, directing, or creating experience in the industry. It was also weird how she didn’t like his post about the prequel getting a pilot order, even though she did post a story. Could it mean she’s not that confident in it which is why she posted a story that was only up for a few hours? I feel like it’s known by now that she can’t handle criticism, which could be why she’s being cautious about it.

They both fulfill the role of executive producer but it does appear that Danneel has been taking on more than Jensen. It's also obvious that naming her executive producer was and is an attempt to shift and raise her profile given her stalled career. I have no information regarding Season 3 yet so I can't confirm that Jensen will be a part of the cast, that all depends on whether or not Soldier's Boy's arc was completed or not. Besides, I doubt the production would appreciate further leaks be it info or others. I think the reason Jensen is bringing attention to Danneel, besides it being an arrangement is the fact that he knows that if he shifts fully into being a producer now people will stop considering him for roles. So has to make a smooth transition that doesn't threaten or limit his status as an Actor. It's true that being a multi-hyphenate in HW is all the rage but it's also true that if you are someone who is deeply involved in production, buyers may think you don't have the time or energy to dedicate to their projects or that you would not get involved given your profile. So I am sure a part of why he is delegating to Danneel is this very reason, he's playing it safe. While Danneel is desperate to shift her image and raise her profile, she's also shrewd so she knows how to wait for the right time to post about things. That's why she's so quiet, she hopes that when she does make the shift full on people will buy into it immediately and they most probably will if the prequel goes well.

Not being able to ever handle discussion or criticism means Danneel is a ticking time bomb for any production so it's no wonder her career stalled. This production company might just be the best thing that's ever happened to her if she puts in the work. Danneel might also become a liability for Jensen since he seems set on negotiating her into everything which lowers his own profile, screams nepotism and more importantly she has no skills to back anything up so it also affects his credibility factor. I don't know who advised him to negotiate Elta into his ventures but it wasn't the best move in my humble opinion.

It appears he's hoping to ride the coattails of SPN and translate the prequel into success but there's a lot he took for granted in the worst possible way without doing research. Intelligent fans won't be fooled so I hope they did prepare a great script and will deliver, even if I hate the fact that Elta is going to be taking credit for other people's work. Jensen keeps desperately trying to prove her loves her so he probably thought the production company was a way to prove this? I'm just trying to justify why adding Elta was an idea in the first place so nevermind me. lol It very much looks like people will be tuning in to the Elta show from now on, guess no one told Jensen most people are only interested in her because they want to see him. lol

[lilbittymonster]

How compliant is your character when it comes to following orders? Do they tend to default to another person if they feel they have more authority/expertise, or do they need a hierarchal system to understand the power dynamic? Has there ever been a time where they have rebuked orders? What was the outcome?

Kitali really has no respect for authority. If she sees logic behind a plan, she'll usually go along with it, but if someone comes along and starts demanding obedience simply because of their rank or age or what have you she will shut down with a "fuck you, earn it". This has caused her some problems in the past! She will not change :)

She is very confident in her own skills but she is also not above trusting the judgement of others that have earned her respect. This is something that she does learn very. very. very. slowly. over time. She can be a team player when she has to but as soon as she thinks the orders are stupid she's not going to listen to them.

I haven't written much of the HW arc but she and Estinien really butt heads a lot during the early months as they sort of jockey for the Azure Dragoon responsibilities. He hasn't earned her complete respect yet, so even though she's technically under his command per her contract with the Temple Knights she will still disobey his orders if she thinks she can do better. This is also partially due to Estinien not knowing how she operates and not having all that much faith in her ability to function as part of a military unit.

One particular bit that does a lot to cement her further in good standing with the rest of the Temple Knights is she disobeys a fall back order, and instead of letting a knight die, she goes directly into the bite zone of a dragon and kills it. This leads to a "I ordered you to retreat." "I was under the impression my orders were to kill the Horde and prevent deaths to the Knights. I've done both." standoff between them. (Heustienne is not helping the situation At All lol)

Thanks so much for the ask @gatheredfates!

[mkstrigidae]

I HAVE SO MANY THEORIES and i want a distraction from my physics hw so thank you. So what evil stuff did Petyr teach Sansa that was normal that in reality is super weird? You mentioned something about Sansa balancing Petyr's books? MYA FINDING OUT THAT THE KING IS HER DAD?? THAT GENDRY AND HER ARE SIBBLINGS?? What reeeeaaaly was up with Lysa's death? Why did Baelish feel that he had to unalive her? What's gonna come up in the trial? How is the media scrutiny gonna affect Sansa? Also I kinda want to see how Sansa peruses her career and how her new situation is gonna change her prospects/ alter her timeline/ help or hinder her? I would very much like to see Robin's buried trauma cause he's honestly a fascinating character. you've also hyped up the shopping so much im v excited with Rhae and Cate and eeeveryone (im sensing buried trauma). random also, there's something up with the lemon tree too I can feel it. I LOVE APWH and thank you so much :))))

Hello friend!!! I don't think Petyr deliberately set alarms on his phone like '3:30pm- teach my kidnapped daughter eeeevil stuff' or anything- but his idea of a normal father-daughter relationship is warped in some ways because he sees Sansa as an extension of both himself and of Catelyn in some ways- I get into this a bit more in later chapters when getting into why Petyr actually decided to kidnap Sansa in the first place. But yes, Sansa does help do some of the accounting for Baelish's businesses! Petyr considers basic Shady Accounting Skills™ to be the kind of domestic thing that dads teach their kids on weekends (instead of idk teaching Sansa how to change the oil in a car?? He doesn't know that either, so sketchy finance lessons it is) and I think it's genuinely like a dad sentiment on his part- like he considers understanding how money works to be really important and wants Sansa to be successful! So he teaches her about money and politics and she's like, secretly plotting to sneak off to the movies with Mya the entire time. Mya and Gendry's stuff- i'm still trying to figure out if it fits in the main story, but if it doesn't, they're getting their own lil mini story because it's gonna be super interesting. Everyone in this story has so many daddy issues.

Lysa's death is... complicated. I can't quite spill that one yet! But I hope the final answer will be worth it. As for the trial- lots of things will come up! Jon's there, and Dany's there and in her element, and Sansa's getting the worst crash course in North Westerosi law imaginable and also like, wildly crushing on one of the prosecutorial interns (i.e. Jon) which is a wild emotional spectrum for anyone to exist on, quite frankly. Sansa's career and her goals for the future are actually something I really plan to dig into during the trial arc- long story short, she's going to spend some time doing an internship in White Harbor that really makes her reevaluate what she wants from life and her work. And you know I'm going to dig deep into Robin's trauma/past/relationship with both Lysa and Petyr. I love APWH Robin so much and he's growing in leaps and bounds where he is right now.

The lemon tree represents home to Sansa in a way that the house in Braavos doesn't even- she loves it in the way that you can only love a gift that came from one of the people you care about most in this world, and it's something that I think is very grounding for her. She doesn't have it with her now- adding to just how off-kilter she feels still at Winterfell.

Thanks so much for your thoughts!!! I love reading these!

[redsplash1]

Alright y’all, I was bored and wanted to ignore my hw, so I made a tier list on everyone’s lore and a quick writeup for each placement. Just an fyi this is my opinion and will most likely change as we get more story content, but right now this is where I stand (no arguing please, or at least nothing that’ll result in name calling and such)

But yeah this is something I’ll probably look back on and be like “hmm maybe I was too harsh with my rankings” but rn it’s like 2:30 in the morning so yeah

TW: mention of abuse in Octane’s section

All of it will be under the cut

S Tier

Bloodhound: Maybe I’m biased because I’m a BH main, but imo their lore is the most interesting and nuanced out of everyone’s. From their parents, to their uncle, to Boone, and now their planet, Bloodhound’s backstory, current lore, and character is fantastic and honestly peak writing from Respawn atm.

Wraith: I understand that not everyone loves the “I lost my memory and am now trying to find out who I am” trope, and maybe this is also biased because I’m a complete Wraith simp, but her lore to me is also very unique and well done. The entire Voidwalker cinematic alone is what’s basically putting her in S tier, but I also love how she is the prime definition of “Looks like they can kill you, but is actually a cinnamon roll” instead of your typical edgy girl that coldly pushes everyone away.

A Tier

Horizon: Interstellar but make it Scottish. She has really nice interactions with Mirage and Wattson, and there’s plenty of potential with where her character can go now that Ash is in the picture.

Gibraltar: While his lore isn’t as flashy like the ones in S tier, I still think it’s really good. For one, it’s consistent, and the stuff with Nik and Michael is very bittersweet. I really like how despite the tragedies in his life, like BH, that only made him more determined to do the right thing. 10/10 he’s got your back bruddahs

Mirage: Respawn’s poster boy, so it’s only natural that he gets a shitload of lore. Fortunately, it’s not shit and actually fleshes him out as a character greatly. I also really like the canon sibling relationship he has with Rampart. Now that his dad may or may not force himself into the picture soon, it’s gonna be more character development for Mirage either way.

Borderline

I’ll explain this tier real quick. Basically they’re between A and B; they have the potential to be great, but they’re being held back by a certain something.

--

Bangalore: Pathfinder’s Quest did a really good job fleshing her out, but the love triangle and inconsistent behavior towards Wraith isn’t doing her any favors. It’s a shame, because characters like Anita are really unique and not seen often. I can only hope Respawn realizes that no, love triangles are not the peak writing they think it is.

Loba: Same deal here, that love triangle and her rebounding off Valk is really not doing anything good towards her character. They’re adults, are they not capable of communicating? Like Bangalore, she’s also really unique in the sense that she’s a bisexual woman of color in a video game who is a complete girlboss and inspiration. Respawn stop fucking up your characters please!

B Tier

Revenant: He’s really badass, and his lore is fun, it’s just that the writing is making him look like a complete joke. He gets clowned on every time he’s about to do something cool and it’s honestly kinda sad. If the writing could give him a few kills to his name to actually establish that he’s a threat, I’ll put him up higher.

Octane: If this was fanon Octane, he’d be an automatic S tier. Respawn needs to flesh out his backstory some more, like most of the fanfics do. That one comic where he confronts his dad was 10/10, we just need more of that and actually tackling the effects his father’s abuse had on him. Also the potential history he has with Seer is a good opportunity to explore more of his character, so that’s a good start.

Rampart: Just recently she’s getting lore, and all of it is very good so far. The relationships she has with a lot of the legends are very strong, and the foreshadowing towards Big Sister returning is also a huge plus.

Fuse: The Maggie stuff was honestly really fucking lame (I blame the ingame comics for this), for me what’s really carrying his character rn are the Fusehound interactions. Idrc if it ends up platonic or romantic, all Ik is that there is a lot of potential in fleshing out Fuse as a character either way.

C Tier

Pathfinder: Okay I’m not gonna lie, I have conflicted feelings on Path. He got an entire book to himself dedicated to his own lore, along with a cinematic that gave a visual on what actually happened to his creators, and yet I don’t care for his lore??? Thinking about it, it’s probably because he didn’t really get any character development, he ultimately stayed the same (except that one moment where Revenant screwed with him, but he bounced back literally one chapter later). Also, it honestly looks like his story is over anyway, he just has to find his kid. At least his personality is 10/10 though

Lifeline: Y’all are probably thinking, why is Lifeline here and not Octane + vice versa, isn’t their lore basically the same? It’s because imo Octane has more potential character development atm, and Lifeline doesn’t really have any character interactions that don’t have to do with her childhood friend, so that to me is what’s separating her from Octane. Lol again if this were fanon Lifeline she’d probably be in A tier, borderline S tier.

D Tier

Valkyrie: Literally the first thing that happens to her in the lore is that she gets thrown into a love triangle. I understand that it’s in her character to be flirty and stuff, but a love triangle? Really? Ms. Kairi Imahara deserves sm better than that. Honestly the only reason she’s not in F tier is because I like her personality, along with the Northstar cinematic.

Seer: Tbh, there isn’t a lot we know about Seer. However, what we know about him so far isn’t detrimental and for me the reason he isn’t in F tier. The interactions he has so far have the potential to be explored.

E Tier

Wattson: Man. I wish she wasn’t here, but the fact that almost all her lore involves babysitting two grown men really killed her character for me. Fanon Wattson is a million times more enjoyable to me, Respawn needs to seriously consider giving her independent lore and/or branch out to other characters that aren’t Crypto and Caustic.

Crypto: Same thing, the fact that he’s strictly tied to Wattson and Caustic rn is annoying and stupid. It also doesn’t help that literally nothing about his personal lore has been addressed recently (Mila, clearing his name).

F Tier

Caustic: If he were actually established as a proper villain, he’d be way higher. But no, Respawn wants to play rock paper scissors with this guy; one second he literally wants to gas a city, the next he’s playing nice because “Wattson blackmailed him?” Lol I don’t fucking think so. I’m not saying a redemption arc for Caustic is impossible, it’s just that Respawn did a really shitty job in actually convincing people that he deserves it. And yes, even the whole deal with his mom isn’t doing it for me. Nah fuck this guy sorry y’all, he’d be way better as a villain imo

TLDR: Fanon does it better

[honestlyhufflepuff]

Taking a closer look at “Why So Blue”

This episode was a lovely break from Steven’s “baggage,” instead focusing on the growth Lapis has had. It was visually beautiful, with a touching new song from Lapis, and an interesting contrast from gems that remind her of her old self.

However, I feel this episode has been a little neglected in the fandom as far as the things it tells us about Steven and the world around him. Remember, Future is primarily about Steven’s arc and anything revealed about another character is bound to reveal something about him as well. “Why So blue” has been overshadowed by more dramatic episodes that had Steven’s anger and negative feelings at the forefront. This is no surprise, as seeing Steven’s issues manifesting so intensely is still such a new thing for the fans to process. This episode has Steven acting closer to his lighthearted, optimistic “old self” than any other one in SUF, and I wanted to delve into the implications of that. Let’s break down some things the episode establishes…

1. Despite his “outbursts,” Steven is still a Pacifist at heart.

This look was all it took for Lapis to regain control of herself. In this episode- this moment- is when he really seemed the most like “Classic Steven.” He’s not shouting at her to stop, or joining in the fight. He is just believing in Lapis’s growth and giving her the space to come around on her own. I don’t think the Steven we saw in “Guidance” would have done that. Part of this shift is due to his personal growth, but it’s also probably because he is falling back into his old role of pacifying hostile gems, which is what he knows best and what he’s comfortable with. That isn’t healthy, especially considering how much we’ve seen him panic when he doesn’t have someone to fix in later eps. However, it’s still a relief to see that fighting is not his first recourse despite his new “pink” powers making an appearance almost every episode.

2. Our Lapis is far stronger than your average Lapis. It is unclear if she was designed to be this way or if it is a result of her trials. Regardless, the Crystal Gems should be very grateful she’s on their side. She has the potential to rival a Diamond in combat.

She fixin’ to mess y’all up.

3. Steven has had growth over the course of SUF.

I bring this up because I think even though Steven is facing a very real personal crisis regarding his growth, he’s still had positive changes since the original series, and since the start of Future.

Lapis: I wish I hadn’t done that. They just remind me so much of myself. It’s infuriating.

Steven: Give yourself a break. You’ve grown a lot. It’s not your fault they’re stuck in their ways.

Contrast Steven’s attitude in this scene with his attitude towards Jasper back in Little Homeschool, after agonizing about his inability to change her:

Are you just going to sit here…waiting for someone to give you a purpose? Because I’m TRYING to give you one!

There have been obvious parallels between Jasper and Steven in this series, as Jasper is possibly the only character almost as stuck in the past as Steven is. I don’t know if Steven is self aware enough to realize that Jasper set him off so easily because he saw himself in her, like Lapis did in the HW Lapises. What he has realized is that not all gems will change in the way he imagined they should, and that’s ok. Him and Jasper, as far as we know, are not exactly friends, but they have an understanding of each other. Jasper may always be stuck in her ways, and Steven has apparently made peace with the fact that her bitterness is not his burden. He even sees value in the fact that she sees the world differently from him, and wants to learn from her.

This was a huge point of growth for Steven. All he did through the main series was try to fix people, and it’s obviously taken a toll on him. The only problem is now that he’s let go of his need to fix others by leaving Little Homeschool, he doesn’t know how to do anything else.

Steven has moments of self awareness regarding his issues (in between all the repression, avoidance, and denial) throughout SUF. One is in this moment with with Lapis, where he articulates that you can’t blame yourself for someone else not wanting to change and grow. He admitted to the Rose Quartzes that he’s “not fine,” but vehemently says the opposite to anyone else. He admits to Pink Pearl that he has “baggage,” although he won’t elaborate. He admits to Amethyst that his need to control others is a problem. He admits to his friends- under extreme duress and prodding- that he is having a hard time coping with cange. He opens up to “Cactus Steven” more than anyone, but after how that turned out the next time he opens up won’t come very easily.

My point is, Steven is still growing as a person, but it is a slow process due to all the trauma he is processing, compounded with having powers just as volatile as his emotions are.

4. HW gems are having a hard time letting go of the old caste system.

He’s half Diamond. Maybe we should half listen.

If the Lapises were really listening to Steven in the first place, then their primary motivation for listening to him would not be him being “half diamond.” The whole point of him overthrowing the empire was to create an equal society where Diamonds wouldn’t dictate what everyone does anymore.

How can the thing we’ve always done just suddenly be wrong?

Everyone is having trouble adjusting to this new equality in practice, including Steven. This is a massive, ancient, complex dictatorship that is now adjusting to a new government created by a human teenager. A Diamond is the one teaching and leading the new way things work, so of course it’s a mixed message for HW gems who have him telling them everyone is equal, but also that they no longer can do what they want to if it impedes his vision. I certainly wouldn’t want to be in Steven’s position. It would make most people uncomfortable to tell someone that the thing they were created for- that they also take joy and pride in- is now not only obsolete but morally wrong. Hooray for minors dealing with the nuances of cultural sensitivity in their galactic imperialism!

“He’s smaller than I thought.

Funny that this was the same thing said by the Rose Quartzes. It’s probably hard for any gem to imagine a Diamond that is not massive and imposing, but Steven is still pretty small even for a human (and still shorter than Connie). I can imagine this is why Jasper was so quick to reject him as her Diamond. Steven does not project the towering picture of immortal and flawless power as the other Diamonds have, and this is inevitably disappointing to gems that have long valued that image.

You really expect us to dance and sing like Pearls?

Gem society was not lacking in the arts, but they were strictly reserved for the elite and those who served to perform for them.

It’s interesting that Peridot had no idea what music was, and I presume this is because she was in a lower status than Lapis. The problem is not that the HW Lapises were unaware of artistic expression, but that they found it beneath them. The Lapises take pride in being instruments of power and destruction, the opposite of how everyone perceives Pearls. It’s no surprise they perceived such a heartfelt song from a fellow Lapis as “pitiful.”

Despite the fact that Pearls were very close to those in power, they had none of their own, and even Peridot considered herself above them when she first arrived from Homeworld. Pearls were created to be objects. Status symbols. Pretty little ornaments. Music boxes. And gems created for more “practical” purposes than entertaining the elite and opening doors would see anything associated with Pearls as beneath them.

5. Hot take: Lapis’s approach wasn’t totally in the wrong.

Lapis: We’ve just got to force them to stop. They’re not nice like me.

Steven: Ummm *avoids eye contact*

Lapis: Exactly.

The HW Lapises- much like Jasper- valued physical power over other virtues. Lapis beat herself up a lot for her loss of restraint, but communicating a bit with a show of the type of power the Lapises valued was enough to get them to listen. Steven’s approach alone clearly wasn’t working.

Sometimes people think so differently from you that you have to meet them halfway to have any hope of getting through to them. Steven did this when he agreed to fight Jasper.

I think the main reason he feared Lapis taking this approach was because he knew her past. He knew how hard she was to reign in once she got started, and how drastic she could be in confrontation. I mean, that’s why we have the entire Malachite story arc.

Restraint takes strength! Patience takes strength! Ugh, I don’t have the strength to deal with you.

However, Lapis has grown past that stage of her life, where her trauma ruled all her interactions with others. She has friends- like Steven and Peridot- who keep her grounded. She has developed healthy coping skills and outlets for her processing her emotions. This is why is so concerning to see Steven doing the opposite. The more fragile his mental state becomes, the more he distances himself from his closest friends and interests.

Lapis had the self awareness to realize she was slipping into old habits and losing control, and removed herself from the situation to cool down. That is huge for her.

Not every gem is going to want to go to Little Homeschool, and there’s probably a lot of them that still like fighting and destruction- especially if that’s what they were made for. Era 3 is so bent on avoiding violence that there isn’t really an outlet for pent up aggression (which Steven could use as well, btw). I think starting up some kind of gem dojo would be a great alternative instead of just expecting every gem to like the “softer” things like dancing and making meep morp.

Also, just imagine Jasper as a dojo master. Hell yeah.

6. Most people probably do not realize that Steven is struggling.

Wow, Steven. It took you a whole 5 seconds to make a new friend. You’re getting rusty.

I found this quote from Lapis telling. She still sees Steven as being able to make and keep friends effortlessly. In “Room for Ruby,” she was actually relieved to hear Ruby’s immediate love for earth was all an act, laughing and saying “No one could be that well adjusted.” The only exception to this rule for her seems to be Steven. She looks to him for stability, just like she did in the fight with the other Lapises.

In reality, Steven is terrified of his friends moving on and changing, while also being resentful if they don’t recognize he has changed. He has unresolved trauma that is eating away at him and causing him to have emotions he doesn’t know how to handle. However, most people probably see Steven as he presented in “Why So Blue-” gentle, charismatic, and carefree. It is not uncommon with mental illness to be “high functioning” in public and then come undone the moment you are home around your immediate family.

Even after the very public display of his stress in “Little Graduation,” none of his friends were like “dude, you’re scaring me, please go to therapy.” They saw one incident, but not the whole picture, so none of them seemed to really grasp how bad things are going for him. This is because Steven is still pretty adept at putting up a positive front most of the time.

***

Anyways, I just wanted to revisit this episode and give it some love. Feel free to RB and tell me things you noticed about it that I may have missed!

[starsgivemehp]

The Argument Against and Defense of Hetalia

Let me preface this by saying that I have not watched the show or read the manga in a few years now, and thus I am working mostly off of memory and what fan content I see these days, which is not a lot. Also, I am a gentile, and I don’t claim to know a lot about the Jewish community or traditions. I am, however, a writer and I have plenty of practice analyzing and criticizing works of fiction from multiple angles. With that in mind, this essay is an attempt to explain everything that is wrong and not wrong with the show, the comic strips, and the fandom.

I’m putting this under a read more for sheer length, this was 11 pages on Google docs.

Let us start with the list of grievances assembled largely from one post, the majority of which I had to go digging for as the original person in this post who mentioned Hetalia said, and I quote, “i dont feel the need to link a source for [hetalia] because…” and then listed two things, one of which is incorrect entirely. But I digress, I will address each one at a time. The list of grievances is as follows:

It is called ‘Axis Powers’ Hetalia

One of the main characters is a personification of Nazi Germany

The entire point of the series is:

Advocating for eugenics

Racial fetishization

Advocating for fascism

Nazi sympathizing/propaganda

The entire franchise is terrible due to rape jokes, racism, and Holocaust jokes

Hetalia fans are all terrible due to rape jokes and other issues

Death of the author cannot apply to this fandom

There may be more that are in other reblogs of the post in question, and I may add addendums further in this essay, but for the time being, I will address each of these grievances and explain the validity or non-validity of each, from a position understanding of both fans and of non-fans. Thus, in order:

‘Axis Powers’ Hetalia

When people talk about Hetalia, they usually are referring to the anime due to its widespread popularity. However, Hetalia began as a series of strip comics posted on a forum by Hidekaz Himaruya (and I spent a while trying to actually find the original comics, but I can’t, there are links to his blogs there in what I’ve provided). It later was formatted into a manga, and then later became an anime. While it was originally titled Axis Powers: Hetalia and the first two seasons of the show are named as such, it usually is only referred to as Hetalia. The anime seasons after said first two seasons have all been ‘world’ focused: Seasons three and four were titled World Series, season five was titled Beautiful World, season six was titled World Twinkle, and the upcoming season seven is titled World Stars.

For the purposes of tagging everything, I tend to see the tags ‘hetalia’ and ‘hws,’ which is short for Hetalia: World Series. This name of the third and fourth anime seasons is the most widely accepted and used name for the series as a whole. While it is true that, years ago, people referred to it as ‘aph’ for Axis Powers Hetalia, the fans and the series have put that behind them, for good reason. It is understandable, even righteous, to not accept the title ‘Axis Powers.’ It does draw focus to the WW2 era, and place the fascists and nazis as the ‘main characters,’ or even, ‘the good guys,’ which is not the case. Obviously, the Nazis were terrible and the entirety of the Axis Powers did horrible, unspeakable things during the war.

It must be noted, to anybody who has not seen the show or read the manga, that the first one to two seasons do have a ‘focus’ on the WW2 era, per se, but it largely talks about interactions between countries, as they are the personified party, and makes extremely few allusions to the war itself, and none to the Holocaust. I will address that in a later section. For now, the point to make is that after these original two seasons, Hetalia branches out into a much wider worldview, adds several more characters, and focuses more on said characters in individual arcs and offerings of historical facts - as generalized as they may be. Nobody claimed that Hetalia was correct in everything it said, but it aims to play out some historical information in a simplified and humorous way. This is due to the fact that the characters are all singular people meant to personify entire countries, which leads us to point two.

The Personification of Nazi Germany

This is the second complaint of the strand of the post in question that I was presented with, quoted as “one of the main characters is a personification of nazi germany.” This is an entirely incorrect statement. ‘Nazi Germany,’ as people call it, is the state of Germany during the era leading up to and of World War 2. The country is still Germany, the people were still German, the Nazi part comes from the political regime in power, a real world nightmare. In the Hetalia series, the characters are called by their country names, because that is who they personify. This may change at times. For example, the character now known as Turkey was previously called Ottoman Empire. They come to be when civilization starts or a colony is introduced to a place. This can be seen in the strip or episode where China ‘finds’ Japan as a small boy and begins to teach him reading and writing - and Japan thereafter invents hiragana. It can also be seen in the comic where a young child, Iceland, questions who he is and why he knows his people are “different beings” than him. The country that speaks to him (I only have the comic here in my likes in that list, the name isn’t mentioned and it’s been a while, but it might be another of the Scandinavian countries) explains that he is Mr. Iceland, they don’t know why he is Mr. Iceland, but they know he is.

What I am attempting to explain with all of these other examples is that there is no ‘Nazi Germany’ character. There is a character called Germany (or Mr. Germany), and all of his adult life, he has been called Germany. He is never addressed by anything else. He does, however, look remarkably similar to a childhood friend of Italy’s, Holy Roman Empire (or just Holy Rome), but as far as it has been explained in canon, Holy Rome went off somewhere and, later on Germany and Italy met as strangers. The general consensus is, due to the area where the Holy Roman Empire used to be is around-ish Germany, the characters are the same. But never, in any of the comics, anime, or movie, is Germany referred to as Nazi Germany. I don’t believe the word ‘Nazi’ appears at any point in time, even, though I cannot claim I have seen every shred of content, so I may be wrong. But I doubt that very much, as it is not in the nature of the series to do such a thing. Moving on.

Advocating for Eugenics

I will start and end this section by saying that Hetalia was, in the original post, roped in with Attack on Titan, of which (as far as I know) the author advocates for eugenics - or the idea that certain people should not be allowed to produce offspring due to their race or other factors. There is no example of Hetalia content wherein this disgusting opinion is ever mentioned or supported in any way. This is at worst a flat-out lie, and at best lumping Hetalia in with a much worse show that does do this (but I won’t get into that, I have never seen more than a few episodes of Attack on Titan and I don’t care to see any more of it. Throw your opinions or defenses elsewhere, I care 0% about it entirely). I have no more need to prepare a more detailed response to this accusation. It simply is not true.

Racial Fetishization

This particular accusation is a difficult one. Fetishization may be a strong word, as the series is largely a comedy. Everyone gets their turn in the spotlight, so to speak, so I find it hard to plainly state that any one character is fetishized or displayed as the most powerful. There is, of course, Rome, who only appears in small segments as Italy’s grandfather and is, in the series, touted as an amazing empire who had it all. I do not believe this is what the accusation is referring to. This accusation seems to be some sort of insistence that the show and creator believe that white people (or possibly just Germans/Nazis/the Aryan race?) are touted as the most powerful and nobody else can compare. I can confidently say that while that is never said anywhere, there are a few issues. Hetalia, particularly the animated series, had (and may still have) a longstanding issue of whitewashing countries that should not be white. This includes Egypt and Seychelles (who both later got a darker skin tone, probably still not dark enough though) as the worst offenders, and even Spain, Turkey, Greece, and Romano (southern Italy), and so on. Yes, this is a big problem. There is no defense against that. It should not be the case. These characters obviously should have darker skin. I will note, however, that many fans are already completely aware of this, have been complaining about it since the beginning, and tend to draw these characters with more correct skin tones in their fanart. This is a case where yes, the original content is not good, but the fans make their own fixes. If you are angry at Hetalia for whitewashing, good. You should be. But I do not believe this should reflect on the entirety of the content and the fandom (And note that I am not linking any particular fanart here, because I want nobody to go attack any fans).

It is also important to note that yes, a large majority of the series builds upon stereotypes. No, stereotypes are not good. No, you should not assume that the personifications of the countries encompass all citizens of said countries. The entire premise of the show is one person = the embodiment of a country, and that person changes and adapts with the times in terms of uniform and personality. It is extremely hard to do this without stereotyping. Most serious fans are aware of this, and do not in any way believe that these characters represent everyone from these countries. It may be true that much younger fans used to, and it may be true that people do not want to watch the show because stereotypes are, arguably, bad. But do remember that this is a comedy, and every character is picked on. Every one. And it is understandable if this branch of humor is not for you. I, personally, don’t like Family Guy or South Park or any shows like that for their humor. I also don’t attack the people who do. I ignore it.

Advocating for Fascism

This is another area wherein I believe the accuser is simply lumping Hetalia in with the original poster’s subject, Attack on Titan. Again, I will not defend or attack that show, as I do not care about it at all. However, regarding Hetalia, I can confidently say that it does not advocate for fascism. While the first two seasons are (sort of) set in WW2 era, as previously mentioned, the fighting is not really a big part, and nobody is touted as correct - only struggling in the conflict. For example, there is a scene where Germany, post WW1, is shown making cuckoo clocks by hand and lamenting the fact that he has to make so many thousands in order to pay back France. This is by no means painting fascism as a good thing, or explaining anything about how poverty and other struggles lead to the formation and rise of the Nazi party. It is simply a scene where we see a man frustratedly making cuckoo clocks and complaining while France’s big head jeers at him in his imagination. The surrounding scenes and the end of this one are making note of how Italy keeps coming over to his house to try and be friends and Germany keeps kicking him out because Italy is annoying and whiny. The episode further goes on to mention that Germany is attacking France again, and Italy has suddenly become his ally, and he is not happy about it for the aforementioned reasons. Again, this does not in any way paint Germany as being ‘right.’ The purpose of the segment(s) is/are to show him disliking the annoying Italy (whom the show is named for) and trying to get him out of his house before eventually giving up and accepting that they can be friends. Is it all 100% historically accurate? No, not by a long shot. Does it paint him as sympathetic? Sort of, you feel bad for the guy making a thousand cuckoo clocks, but only in the sense that he is one person doing a lot of work, a completely fictional situation. But Italy - and the audience - obviously know that attacking France again is not a good thing, so does it advocate the Nazis or fascism? Also no.

Nazi Sympathizing/Propaganda

I pretty well covered this in the previous section, but I will expand. I have alluded to the first two seasons as “focusing” on WW2, in a way, and also mentioned that this is a generalization of sorts, so here I will attempt to clarify. The first few episodes do, indeed, touch on ‘the way they all met’ in a sense; Germany is starting a war and he reluctantly becomes allies with Italy, and less reluctantly becomes allies with Japan, who examines both of them and decides he is content with this situation. However, none of it is very serious, and these ‘formalities’ give way easily to more humorous personable interactions, such as Italy hugging Japan without warning and the touch-anxious Japan pushing him off and getting flustered, Italy petting a cat and then freaking out when he is licked because a cat’s tongue is rough, the two of them ‘training’ by doing your regular old exercising and jogging and Italy being late, etc etc. Stupid, personable jokes.

On the flip side, the show covers the Allied Powers quite a bit too. A lot of this is the five big ones - America, Britain (/England/UK), France, Russia, and China - all meeting around one table and squabbling about various things. I fondly recall one scene where China arrives late and has a bunch of workers suddenly building a Chinatown in the meeting room because he was hungry and wanted his own food, and the others protesting. They are then offered food and become okay with it, because food. Other such nonsense plays out in other, similar meetings. There is also a segment where the Axis powers are all stranded on an island for… some unknown reason… and they set about attempting to survive via campfire and fishing and such. Twice (three times?) the Allied powers ‘attack’ them on this island via China whacking them each with a wok and, as the three of them are in a sad heap, something interrupts the scene to make the Allies retreat. One time, it is Rome’s sudden and also unexplained entrance across the sky singing a song, and another time, it is England’s preoccupation with a cursed chair. Also, at one point, Austria is playing a piano. Does any of this magic logical, real life sense? No. It’s stupid and funny and has nothing to do with war. These are just personable characters thrown into weird situations so they can be funny, with some extremely mild historical context along the way.

I will note again that WW2 is pretty much completely dropped after these two seasons, with the war hardly addressed at all, and future seasons focus more on other characters. The Scandinavians get to all have fun together, the Baltic trio is mentioned, there is a lot about Switzerland taking care of Liechtenstein (wow I spelled it right after all these years, go me) and being stiff and formal with Austria. There is also plenty about people mistaking Canada for America, and England and France squabbling throughout the years, and Spain finding Romano cute but also very grumpy, etc etc… This series is largely Eurasia-focused, yes, and it can be criticized for not being as diverse as it should be. But boiling it down to ‘Nazi propaganda’ is outright, obliviously false.

I don’t know if this is the best place to put this particular note, but I couldn’t think of anywhere else to place it, so here it will go. I would like to mention that in the series, some characters, like Germany and Russia, express outright fear of their ‘bosses’ in certain points in history. It is important to realize that Germany, Japan, America, etc… these characters are not the actual, real-life humans in charge of these countries, but people of a fictional, separate species than humans who grow up as the nation grows and have lives that are affected by these world leaders (we even watch in the show America shooting up from child to young adult as the colonies expand, and England comments on how quickly he grew up - but not as quickly as his people, of course. We’ll get to Davie later). The president of the United States is America’s ‘boss,’ and naturally, that boss changes every time the president changes. The emperor of China is China’s ‘boss.’ It follows, thusly, that at one point, Hitler was Germany’s ‘boss.’ The terrible person himself was alluded to, as far as I know, exactly one time, not by name, and no face was shown. In a very brief scene, Germany laments that his new boss is scary and he was just ordered to go force Austria to come live with him. Said boss is shown as, I believe, an evilly laughing shadowy figure. That’s it. That’s the scene. There is no other mention of Hitler, nor is there any mention of the Holocaust anywhere. One could argue that the show is then trying to say that the Holocaust didn’t happen, but I think such an accusation is frankly absurd. It’s a comedy, it was always a comedy, and what in the fuck would be comedic about a mass genocide in any way? Nothing. None of it is funny. Of course it is not brought up in a comedy.

Rape Jokes, Racism, and Holocaust Jokes

While I did somewhat address racism already in the section about whitewashing and racial fetishization, I have another clarification to make, especially regarding the jokes. A lot of people complain that there are rape jokes throughout the series, and that there are two Holocaust jokes. I will begin by saying yes, this is all true, those things did happen during the course of the show. However, it is important to note that all of those things happened in the English dub of the animated show, and none of these terrible jokes exist in the Japanese/subbed version, or the original comic strips.

The English dub is, on all accounts, pretty terrible. Everyone has an over exaggerated accent, there are the aforementioned jokes, there are name changes (England referred to as Britain, among them, very confusing), and the voice actors themselves make mention in commentaries that their goal in this job was, to paraphrase because I haven’t listened in a while, ‘to be as offensive as possible to absolutely everyone’ (and one of the English dub voice actors is even a convicted sex offender, but that’s it’s own mess).  Not the most glamorous or noble of goals. One could say ‘at least if it’s everyone, it’s not really racism, is it? Just humor?’ There is a case for that. Many comedians will say that they poke fun at everyone to avoid singling anybody out as inherently superior. It cannot be said to be the best way to make humor, but it cannot be said to be the worst way, also. Overall, I don’t like the English dub, I don’t watch it, I prefer the subs. And yes, the subbed version has a few issues of its own, but I can say that at least, no, it does not make any Holocaust or rape jokes. Are those kinds of jokes excusable? Fuck no. They’re completely inappropriate. Should you judge the whole series and fandom based on the grossness of the English dubs? Also no, the people who did the English dubs have zero to do with the original creator, the animators, and the fans. Screw them.

The Fandom Being Terrible

I must again preface by saying I was never super active in the fandom at large. I had my own little niche of friends and I stuck to them and I didn’t often branch out. I did, however, go to cons back in those days, and saw plenty of cosplayers. The main complaint I see regarding the fandom is that most of the fans are completely rabid, make a bunch of rape jokes, and even dress up as ‘Nazi Germany’ (iron cross and red armband and all) and pretend to shoot up synagogues. Now, I have not seen cosplayers do the nazi solute or do such photoshoots, but I can believe that people have done it. I have seen plenty of rabid fans, and some of the OCs created for Hetalia, especially many interpretations of individual states (or Antarctica), were extremely cringey, racist, and overall just not good. And yes, these things are undeniably bad. They are very bad things! Those people should be ashamed. They should know better, regardless of their ages or anything, for fuck’s sake. The nazi salute is not a thing you do jokingly, pretending to shoot people is not a joke. Everyone is aware of this. The people who did, or maybe even still do, those things need a serious sit-down and to be woken the fuck up, because they are acting terrible.

However, it is extremely unfair to paint all Hetalia fans in the same light. That is a very stereotypical thing to do, no? As I mentioned earlier, I stuck to my little niche friend group of fans, and while we all had our own flaws and were younger and kinda dumber, we never did things like that. I never did things like that. Rape jokes were never funny, I never liked them, I never accepted them. I have people I still know who still like Hetalia and they never made those kinds of jokes either. I think, as the years have gone by, a lot of the more rabid fans have died out of the fandom. They’ve either grown the fuck up or they’ve went off to pollute some other fandom. Recognize that, especially in the beginning, the anime was low-budget and had a lot of that old and gross queerbaiting and stuff like that, so it was undeniably a magnet for crazy yaoi fans. But the majority of fanart, fanfics, and just overall fan stuff that I see these days are nothing like that. Overall, the fandom has seriously calmed down. A lot of the focus is much more on taking these characters and applying them to other historical events with more accuracy than the show might give. The history in these fanfics and fanarts may also be of questionable accuracy at times. I personally once wrote a fic where I made allusions to the death of Joan d’Arc and, later, the death of Elizabeth I, but did I add much historic fact? No, do I look like a history major spilling all this? The point of the fic was England - the character - maturing through starting to love one of his rulers and recognizing a terrible thing that he did before. It’s not the best piece of work out there, and maybe someone could point out a few things I did wrong with it, but for what it’s meant to be, it’s harmless. Takes on characters not actually in the series, like Ireland, Scotland, etc etc are generally pretty mature from what I see, fanart tends to just be the characters in various poses and styles. The overall love the fandom has, I think, is in the better character designs and in the very concept of the countries as people who laugh and cry and live through war and peace for thousands of years. And here is where I address the final grievance that I personally saw in the notes of the post which started this whole thought process and essay.

The Death of the Author

A lot of people might not fully understand what ‘The Death of the Author’ means. The death of the author is a belief rooted in the 20th century that the personal intentions, beliefs, and prejudices of the authors of certain works can have no bearing on their produced content, because once it is out in the public, every reader may then have their own interpretation and belief system. By publicizing the content, the author ‘dies’ and the reader is born.

There are some scenarios where this cannot apply. One example is JK Rowling, a very special case of a very problematic woman who happens to be so powerful, and so rich, that consuming any type of official (or even unofficial) Harry Potter anything can and will give her that much more power to spread her TERF bullshit. Let me be frank: Any time that consuming a product is allowing a bigoted or problematic person to gain extra money or extra power that they then use for evil, the death of the author cannot apply. You cannot use it as a moral justification. You might perhaps use it as the reason why you struggle to let go of a fandom near and dear to you, as Harry Potter is to so many people, but you absolutely must recognize that purchasing the books, the movies, or any other official content is outright supporting a TERF.

That in mind, there are dozens of other cases where the death of the author absolutely can apply. The easiest, of course, is with authors who are actually dead, such as Lovecraft. Lovecraft was a complete bigot and racist, an overall terrible person, and his works are saturated in that racism. But he is dead, and his work is very popular, and there are ways to take and use his work that do not contribute further to racism and bigotry. All you have to do is slap a non-racist cthulhu on a page. Make that cthulhu eat everyone equally. That’s a good cthulhu right there, a nice, safe cthulhu.

So where does Hetalia fall in this spectrum of can or cannot have death of the author? I believe it leans more to the side of yes, you can apply it. For one thing, you can definitely find the show for free in some places, and watch it without giving Himaruya a single cent. The comics are also available online for free, and while you might be giving your ‘support’ by being a viewer, I think overall, that’s not only negligible, but does not contribute anything bad? The author of Attack on Titan has many charges levied against him in the post which prompted this, and arguably, giving him any money is bad. But as far as I have seen, while Himaruya might have started out with a flawed premise and may have some whitewashing issues, I have seen nowhere that he funds any kind of racist, nationalistic, fascist, etc anything of any kind. This is not like Chick-Fil-A, where offering any kind of patronage is (or maybe used to be) sinking funds into terrible organizations. This is not supporting literal Nazis, as the complaints claim. This is a largely mediocre series with good parts and bad parts and zero ties to horrific organizations or ideals. Consuming good fan content does not make someone a racist or a bigot or a nazi sympathizer. Even rewatching some old favorite scenes or checking out the new season doesn’t make someone that. By all accounts, the show is flawed but not a means to fund nazis.

The Bad Anything Else

I will now take some time to talk about some other problems Hetalia has, because no, it is by no means flawless. I already discussed the whitewashing and stereotypes and the mess of the English dub, but there is more. I made mention of the fact that battles and seriously bad events such as the Holocaust are not mentioned, and this holds true throughout pretty much all of the series. There are certain points where ‘battles’ of a sort are seen, but only flash moments. One scene in particular that I really enjoyed as a tween and can now see the problems with is the whole revolutionary war scene. This was a scene split into two episodes (for some weird reason, even an unrelated episode in between, like, what? Why??) about a particular (unnamed) battle in the American Revolution where England faced down America, they each had a gun with a bayonet, and England charged America and his bayonet deeply scratched America’s gun, and America declared he was no longer England’s little brother, and the whole thing was played out as an extremely emotional scene. England is lost in the past of seeing America as a cute little kid he took care of, who has now grown up and is being reckless and stupid, and America is all righteous and independent and proving he’s a grown up, it’s all very emotional, I cried, other fans cried, there was much fanart.

This scene is problematic in a way. Boiling down an extremely nasty conflict following lots of really bad laws and protests to this one scene doesn’t do history any justice. It says nothing about the struggles of the American colonists, the struggles of the British empire, the awful things the colonists did to the natives, etc etc. It is one small scene and it focuses on these characters as humanoid, with feelings, and completely ignores the complexities of history. And yes, in a way, that is bad. But it is bad in the sense that nobody can - or at least should - take this show to be the end-all be-all of history. It is not. It is not often entirely correct, and it picks and chooses what points in the past several thousand years to play with, and trying to use it as a map for history is a bad idea. However, this focus on the countries as human-like and struggling can also be a good thing.

It is also important to note that there have been other problems. The portrayal of South Korea, for example, is extremely controversial, and while I do not know all of the specifics, I believe that it was banned in Korea due to this, and the character was entirely removed from the anime, among other things. Obviously, a bad take, a bad character. There are also just straight up not great characterizations in certain cases. I don’t, for example, like anything about how Belarus is portrayed as a crazy psycho constantly begging Russia (her big brother) to marry her? I think that that is ridiculous, and I know nothing about Belarus as a country but I am pretty darn sure that that is not how one ought to go about portraying the country. There are a few other examples, but my purpose here was not to pull up a list of every country and explain what is correct or incorrect about each characterization. It is enough to say that some characters were not portrayed perfectly. But with that in mind...

The Good Anything Else

It is the most important to remember that this, all of this, is fiction. This is a silly, silly fantasy series. The countries are not humans, they are some weird semi-immortal species that share a universal language and know they are not human and are referenced by humans as ‘those people.’ They are fictional constructs. But the good out of all of this is that they explore human emotions. The American Revolution scene should not be taken as how the revolution was, and who might have been right or wrong. But it is a very emotional story of a big brother unable to accept that his little brother has grown up and wants to make his own choices. That, right there, is a heartfelt scene that I’m sure plenty of real people can feel something about. And there are plenty of other scenes that really grab you by the heartstrings, especially given how crazy, stupid, and humor-oriented the rest of the show is. And I will take a moment and enthuse about some of the more popular scenes that I think are, in fact, pretty good.

There is one episode in season 5, Beautiful World, where an American woman visits France (the place). This woman, Lisa, is blond and bears a striking resemblance to Joan d’Arc. While visiting some historical place somewhere or another in Paris, France (the person) spots her and rushes up with an odd look. When she questions him, he apologizes and offers to give her a tour of the area, which she accepts. He then proceeds to lead her around and explain some history and show off some beautiful sights, and he mentions some stuff about Joan d’Arc. She butts in and lists off some stuff she knows, he beams and looks proud and says yes, she’s right. The end of the scene has the two of them standing alone somewhere and him commenting how young Joan was when she was killed, and that he always wished she could have had a better, nicer life. He then states that he is very happy that she got it, while giving this American tourist a gentle smile. She looks away for a moment, distracted by something perhaps, and when she looks back to ask just who the heck he really is, talking about a historical figure like he knew her, he is gone. It’s a very emotional scene in a quiet sort of way, because the watcher/reader understands that he took one look at this woman and instantly believed that she was, in fact, Joan d’Arc reincarnated into a totally different and totally average life, and he is so genuinely happy that a woman he saw as a hero gets this chance to live normally. Whether or not you may personally believe in reincarnation, and regardless of how often other times in the show France is shown as an obnoxious sexaholic, this is an extremely tender scene that lots of fans seriously love. It is very ‘human.’ And I feel like this is what the series as a whole strives to offer. These human moments. They may be peppered in a sort of lackadaisical style in the anime, but they are far more prominent in the comic strips, so it is important to realize that that kind of scene is more of what the creator likes to focus on.

Another very popular and touted scene is the Davie scene. I don’t remember if it was put in the anime or not, I read it as a comic. It was a scene set in colonial America, where the man himself was just a very small child. Little baby America was hanging out in a field with a rabbit and sees this boy, who introduces himself as Davie. Davie brings America to his house and opens up a botany book and points out a blue flower (possibly a forget-me-not) that he wants to see but that isn’t in the New World. America assures Davie that he will find him one of those flowers, and goes off to do so. He fails his search and goes back to Davie, who is older now, but Davie looks embarrassed and turns and walks away. Distressed, America runs to England and explains about the flower, and England says the flower is not there, but they do grow at home, and he will bring some the next time he leaves and comes back. America happily waits, and when England returns with a bouquet of the blue flowers, America takes them and runs off to Davie’s house. He is let in by a boy who looks just like Davie and presents the flowers, and the boy then puts them on (or maybe in) a coffin of an elderly man. America, smiling, does not seem to understand what is going on, and hopefully calls the boy Davie.

This entire scene, in the comic, has very few words. Davie’s name is repeated a few times, but most of the rest of the ‘dialogue’ is in images. The flower, England saying it is not there, etc. This makes the scene extremely poignant, and when we reach the end, we, the audience, realize suddenly that while baby America was fixated on finding a special flower for his new friend, years and years went by, and that friend grew up and got married and had children and eventually died, all while America remained looking the exact same age and understanding the exact same things. Look, folks, I don’t know about you, but that is some angsty stuff right there. I cried. We all cried. We all miss Davie. Mention the name to fans and you will get sobs. We love you, Davie.

Which brings me to my penultimate point, that this series is heartfelt and, while it avoids a lot of the bad of history, can be very poignant about what human nature is like. Human lives are long, very long, but also so very short, they fly by. Some lives end in tragedy, others are mostly peaceful, and maybe we get second chances if you believe in reincarnation, maybe not. Maybe it’s good that our lives are so short, maybe the fate of living forever and watching people you connect with die is tragic. Or maybe it would actually be really fun, having friends for thousands of years that you may squabble with at times but ultimately care for. Maybe nothing is simple and life is about finding joy where you can, and everyone needs to sometimes take a step back and realize that everyone is flawed, and there might be good and evil but the vast majority of people are in a grey area, trying to live their own lives and do what good they can for whatever reason they might give. I want to end with one last topic, one I have not yet addressed this whole time. The big white alien in the room, if you will.

Paint it: White!

There is a Hetalia movie, folks, if you didn’t know it, and it’s called Paint It White. This movie has just as many silly parts as any other Hetalia thing, but it also has a plot! In this movie, strange, all-white aliens are starting to invade the Earth. They arrive and anything they touch, they turn into completely identical white humanoid blobs, even the country personifications. With this scary and seemingly-unstoppable threat, the main eight - America, England, Russia, China, France, Japan, Germany, and Italy - all try to infiltrate the alien spaceship in frankly hideous uniforms to find out more and figure out a way to defeat them. Hijinks and disaster ensues, and at the end, each of them is fighting a mob and gradually being defeated. Italy is the last one standing, and as Germany is slowly being transformed into a blob along with the others, he tells Italy to smile. Italy then finds (or has? the plot isn’t great, it’s just there) a black marker and he suddenly starts going around drawing ridiculous faces on everyone. He draws fitting faces on each of his friend blobs, like a stern face on Germany-blob, a deadpan face on Japan-blob, etc etc. The invaders suddenly stop. They look at each other, marker-faced, and start to laugh. Then their leader of sorts comes out and is basically like “wow, we thought you were all stupid and you have wars and stuff, but this? This is beautiful. Wow. We all look exactly identical on our world, and these faces are cool and new and unique. We’ll turn everyone on your planet back if we can have this magical thingie you’re holding.” And of course Italy hands the marker right over, and everyone is put back to normal, and crybaby, scaredy-cat, useless Italy saves the world.

The plot is, obviously, not super great. It’s not going to win anybody any awards. But it has a very poetic premise. The strength of humans is that they are all unique. Every human has a different face, a different body, a different life. Our differences may cause conflict, but they are also something to celebrate. At the end of the day, Hetalia is an okay show that can get you hooked on history and tries its best to teach you that we’re all only human and there might be war and conflict and bad things, but you have to reach for the good things and find yourself good friends and have stupid laughs and enjoy life, however long or short it may be. I think that that’s a pretty decent message to send out to people.

The Bottom Line

In the end, this is a fandom like many others. Hetalia has its flaws and its cringe moments, and it certainly had its fair share of awful fans. But I truly believe that painting it overall as nazi propoganda and one of the most problematic and harmful shows out there is a blatant lie and disregards… just about everything of the actual content. I think it is difficult for someone to concretely say anything is super good or super bad without seeing at least some of it, or doing some research, and this business of blithely going along with what everyone else says just because they use big danger words does not do anybody any favors. Spreading misinformation is, I’m sure, the exact opposite of what most people want to do. And make no mistake, I am definitely not saying that everyone needs to like, or even watch, the show. If you never ever want to watch this show in your life, that is absolutely fine. Go forth and never watch it. But mindlessly following the herd and yelling overgeneralized, unsupported opinions about it is not a good thing. I beg of you, do research on the things you want to form or share an opinion on, think critically, and for the love of God, do not swipe a giant paintbrush to forsake every single individual fan of a show as a terrible, awful person. By all means, hate nazis, they are pieces of shit. Boycott things that support genocide and fascism, yes, fight for equality, yes. But do not go accusing without thinking, and do not overgeneralize. I leave you with the words of my old laptop bag that I bought years ago at a convention:

Make pasta, not war.

Thank you for reading.