Hetalia fanon
Aug. 9th, 2010 03:19 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
transemacabreThere's tons and tons of fanon for Hetalia, some of which is based on history-canon, and some of which is just plain made up. Unfortunately, sometimes its hard to tell what is and isn't canon. With that in mind, I'm trying to document FANON that is commonly mistaken for CANON.
1. America and Russia hate each other. This is pertinant to my interests as a Russia/America shipper, because a common argument against my OTP is that it's 'OOC' because America and Russia allegedly hate each other.
The truth is there's not much in canon to suggest that they DO hate each other. All that Yandere Cold War smut is based on very little -- there's the strip where America and Russia are sending each other boxes of extra-small condoms to psych each other out, which to my mind is hardly the basis to portray them as having a crazed hatred. There's not much evidence to suggest that they're in love, but neither is there much to suggest that they hate each other.
2. Canada being portrayed as delicate or petit. Poor Canada gets stuck with being 'the girl' because of his wallflower personality. He is shown in the manga and anime to be the same approximate height/build as his brother, America.
3. Poland crossdressing. He DOES crossdress a couple of times in the strips, but its a bit of a stretch to portray him as a transvestite. He is, if anything, turned into 'the girl' more than Canada is, which is a shame because he has unique personality traits of his own, such as his shyness, his utter refusal to die, and the fact that he appears to be the only character who isn't afraid of Russia.
4. Russia stole Finland from Sweden. Not touched upon by Himaruya yet, but there's been several fics that portray Russia snatching Finland away from Sweden in 1809. Historically, Finland willingly left Sweden to join Russia. I imagine this upsets shippers who prefer to look at Sweden and Finland as being happily married lovebirds, but I think this has waaaaay more potential for interesting fic than yet another Ebil Rapist Russia keeps Sweden from his True Love Finland scenario.
5. Russia notices Canada. I've seen this in several Russia/Canada fics. Russia straight up sits on top of Canada in one strip, people. Canada is totally invisible to him. It's canon that PRUSSIA notices Canada, not Russia.
6. America is stupid. America is without a doubt self-centered and sometimes an asshole, albeit one with good intentions. But at least some of his idiot/oblivious persona is an act -- if "I'll just pretend I can't read the mood" in WDC World Dancing doesn't convince you, Himaruya has stated that America pretends to be stupider than he is.
7. There's no such thing as state-tans! There are no known personifications for America's states, but other personifications have been shown: Japan's prefectures is an obvious one.
8. Nazi Germany/Nazi Prussia. Himaruya was sensitive enough to sidestep this issue and he doesn't portray Germany or Prussia as being passionate Nazis, even during the WW2 storylines. Its canon that Germany thought Hitler was crazier than a shithouse rat. Because Hitler was his boss he couldn't go against him, and there's not much to suggest that he or Prussia are passionate Nazis. This is a major pet peeve of mine because so many braindead fangirls use this as an excuse to draw 'sexy' pictures of Germany and Prussia in Nazi uniforms, or to cosplay as Nazi Germany and Nazi Prussia and go around seig-heil'ing like idiots at cons.
9. America is a jock/popular kid. I see this one a lot in AU stories, but it crops up in regular fic, too. Canonically, America's only real friends are Lithuania, England, and Japan. Clearly, several other characters such as Canada are important in his life, but this idea that he's super-popular or 'rules the school' or something is totally uncanonical. I think its plain that he bugs the shit out of most of the other characters.
1. America and Russia hate each other. This is pertinant to my interests as a Russia/America shipper, because a common argument against my OTP is that it's 'OOC' because America and Russia allegedly hate each other.
The truth is there's not much in canon to suggest that they DO hate each other. All that Yandere Cold War smut is based on very little -- there's the strip where America and Russia are sending each other boxes of extra-small condoms to psych each other out, which to my mind is hardly the basis to portray them as having a crazed hatred. There's not much evidence to suggest that they're in love, but neither is there much to suggest that they hate each other.
2. Canada being portrayed as delicate or petit. Poor Canada gets stuck with being 'the girl' because of his wallflower personality. He is shown in the manga and anime to be the same approximate height/build as his brother, America.
3. Poland crossdressing. He DOES crossdress a couple of times in the strips, but its a bit of a stretch to portray him as a transvestite. He is, if anything, turned into 'the girl' more than Canada is, which is a shame because he has unique personality traits of his own, such as his shyness, his utter refusal to die, and the fact that he appears to be the only character who isn't afraid of Russia.
4. Russia stole Finland from Sweden. Not touched upon by Himaruya yet, but there's been several fics that portray Russia snatching Finland away from Sweden in 1809. Historically, Finland willingly left Sweden to join Russia. I imagine this upsets shippers who prefer to look at Sweden and Finland as being happily married lovebirds, but I think this has waaaaay more potential for interesting fic than yet another Ebil Rapist Russia keeps Sweden from his True Love Finland scenario.
5. Russia notices Canada. I've seen this in several Russia/Canada fics. Russia straight up sits on top of Canada in one strip, people. Canada is totally invisible to him. It's canon that PRUSSIA notices Canada, not Russia.
6. America is stupid. America is without a doubt self-centered and sometimes an asshole, albeit one with good intentions. But at least some of his idiot/oblivious persona is an act -- if "I'll just pretend I can't read the mood" in WDC World Dancing doesn't convince you, Himaruya has stated that America pretends to be stupider than he is.
7. There's no such thing as state-tans! There are no known personifications for America's states, but other personifications have been shown: Japan's prefectures is an obvious one.
8. Nazi Germany/Nazi Prussia. Himaruya was sensitive enough to sidestep this issue and he doesn't portray Germany or Prussia as being passionate Nazis, even during the WW2 storylines. Its canon that Germany thought Hitler was crazier than a shithouse rat. Because Hitler was his boss he couldn't go against him, and there's not much to suggest that he or Prussia are passionate Nazis. This is a major pet peeve of mine because so many braindead fangirls use this as an excuse to draw 'sexy' pictures of Germany and Prussia in Nazi uniforms, or to cosplay as Nazi Germany and Nazi Prussia and go around seig-heil'ing like idiots at cons.
9. America is a jock/popular kid. I see this one a lot in AU stories, but it crops up in regular fic, too. Canonically, America's only real friends are Lithuania, England, and Japan. Clearly, several other characters such as Canada are important in his life, but this idea that he's super-popular or 'rules the school' or something is totally uncanonical. I think its plain that he bugs the shit out of most of the other characters.
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no subject
Date: 2010-08-09 08:14 am (UTC)Well, this thing is debatable. Finland's upper classes were easily converted to the side of the Russians, they were bribed with gold, money and promises of great careers, but in many areas the peasantry and ordinary people fought on in a guerilla campaign, refusing initially to swear an oath of allegiance to the new emperor.
In the city of Turku, Finland's former capital, Russian's were welcomed by the upper class, because they needed protection from the peasants who threatened to kill them because they went to the side of the enemy. And in the end, the decision of joining the empire wasn't Finland's to make, he wasn't asked did he want that or not.
Russia straight up sits on top of Canada in one strip, people. Canada is totally invisible to him.
But it's almost as he did that on purpose and just pretended that he didn't even noticed him ^^'. And almost everybody treats Canada that way and in the end they still know who he is.
no subject
Date: 2010-08-09 06:11 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2010-08-10 07:46 am (UTC)And Finnish elite swore an oath of allegiance even during the Great Northern War (and during the Hats' Russian War) when Finland was occupied for the first time. Back then, they wanted to save their own skin by doing so, not to join the empire.
no subject
Date: 2010-08-22 06:23 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2010-08-23 08:24 am (UTC)But Finland (which didn't have any special position in the Swedish kingdom and was just one of Sweden's four historical lands among Götaland, Svealand and Norrland. Only difference was that most of its people were speaking Finnish instead of Swedish), didn't actively seek to join to the Russian empire or to be independent, only exception was the Anjala conspiracy group and some other smaller groups. Without that attack in 1809, it's the possibility that Finland would have never been "born".
But most of Americans, they wanted to be independent and were willing to fight against England. Most of them had already a clear national identity (at least I guess so), when in Finland it was mostly Russians who decided who are Finns and who are Swedes. Finns were those who were born in the area they occupied and Swedes those who, well weren't born there. Language or anything else didn't matter, those who spoke Swedish were also Finns. Finland's northern parts are in reality parts of Norrland but they become parts of Finland, tsar Alexander didn't think it's necessary to create a Finnish army, because there it could be fighting only against Sweden and he was sure Finns wouldn't do it etc. Even years later it was a problem for Russia; if Sweden attacks, Finland wouldn't do any resistance against it. Of course nobody knows what Finland would have done in a situation like that, but that's what they suspected.
Hm... I'm not sure did that have any logic. It sounded a lot better when I wrote it ^^'. But then there's one point; in one strip, Finland said to Sweden he was forced to live with Russia for a while and that Russia didn't do anything to him because he only wanted one port from him.