FINALLY Laid My Hands Upon The Physical Copy. Life Is Alright Again Guys. Haven’t Been This Happy For

☝🏼☝🏼☝🏼

so another anon mentioned how fanart and fanfic on russia-ukraine war should be call out more often. with all the debate on this blog about political-apolitical hetalia, let's talk about it, shall we?

personally i don't remember seeing many direct portrayals of the war in the fandom. it's few and far between and back in the first months of 2022 there were a lot of callouts for that. though it faded away as people started paying less attention to the war.

that being said, a part of the fandom still portrays russia ukraine and belarus as this happy little family and any care for how insensitive that is has been thrown out of the window. there's been few callouts for that and mostly by ukrainians. sometimes it's justified with "portraying the people, not the government". and yet ukrainians are vocally against it! so when the fandom continues to portray it that way, is it still about "the people"? or is it about the idea of a fluffy family regardless of any connection it has to reality?

honestly just wish these people would make their own non-hetalia ocs and spare me and my compatriots the indignity of having our country portrayed by a character who's all lovey-dovey with its oppressor. it's not cute, it's not a "coping mechanism", it's not "in the name of peace", and it's not even "apolitical". it's disrespectful and it directly stems from the statements used by the russian government to justify this war. so it's a good confirmation if any was needed that hetalia doesn't exist in isolation from real life events.

but i don't want to be all negative. there has been a change in how people treat ukraine as a character and it's blatantly clear by browsing the tag. "east slavic siblings" used to be most of the art with her to be found but that's far from it anymore and i don't think that's just the result curating my fandom experience. ukraine is much more of her own character now and i thank all the creators responsible for it. you make this corner of the fandom a much more bearable and comfortable place, keep up the great work.

~ (¯´★`¯)

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

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

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

Does Prussia have ptsd from his childhood marriage with brandenburg

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

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

headcanon: despite ireland's loud cheery nature and ukraine's sweet motherly demeanor, these two can get serious if you make them angry

he looks a bit shocked

worst honeymoon ever

Gilbert at some point hoped that Johann was dead for good, not even purely because he hated being tied up in a personal union so much, but in that moment mainly because seeing first-hand that a nation could simply live in an un-healed body like a gravely injured human would makes him fear for his safety in a way he never did before

I have a question for ukraine: is prussia a friend of yours?? 👀

Hah. I’m glad you asked. They used to be my shits and giggles crackship but I kind of drifted away from it and they’re friendos now.

They’ve got things in common if you think about it.

An almost textless version under the cut

There u go 💥💥💥

I kinda forgot it was an ask for Ukraine and just ranted uhhh sorry. sorry not sorry

you said your opinion on russia, belarus, and ukraine being related, but what would you think about just belarus and ukraine being sisters?

ehhh…

First of all, I’m really confused by the entire sibling/families thing in Hetalia. It’s complicated as hell, so I prefer none of them being siblings by blood, and those who are close in that way becoming siblings in spirit if they want too

I mentioned this already briefly (unless you know me on Discord. then not briefly, haha), but I’ve got a vision how different principalities of the medieval feudal union of tribes/city states, Ruthenia/Kyivan Rus, evolved, which I’ll elaborate one day if you’re interested✋🏼

As for those two:

– Principality of Kyiv – became Ukraine

– Principality of Polatsk – became Belarus

Kyiv and Polatsk grew up together as friends-rivals-frenemies occasionally allying and infighting depending on the situation. They joined Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth together. They rebelled together (although still fought for power a bit amidst the uprising), and fell under russian rule together. They had their independence movements, cultural revival, although it’s sad how the Beloruthian one is barely talked of. And finally, Beloruthian language it the closest related to Ukrainian.

They share much more than appears. So, whether they would want to consider themselves sisters in spirit nowardays?

Heh. Mayhaps

It is another headcanon, but occasionally, Belarus snaps, wakes up from how she usually acts, and just stares to the front: "what am I even doing?"

And then Ivan hits her on a head with somethin' and she goes back to 'normal'

when the meeting is going so bad you gotta pull out a song and dance that wont exist for another 61 years. (A v cool song that i didnt use fully so click here to listen to it!!!)

Edit : FUCK I FORGOR TO SAY THANKS TO @hetaestoniahq FOR THE ESTONIAN TRANSLATION! THANK U SM!!! THE ACTUAL ESTONIAN U SEE IN THE ANIMATIC IS THANKS TO THEM!!

(historical notes under read more)

Ok! The animatic is mostly comedic and very much started out as a shitpost (hence the fact that nobodys clothes are era apropriate etc) , but i did make it with history in mind so heres some history!

the Bulduru conference of 1920 was a conference that lasted from the 6th of august to the 6th of september 1920 in Bulduri (a part of the city of Jūrmala), Latvia. (Latvia was the host which is the reason i'm having Latvia be the main one who talks to ppl through the animatic)

It was a conference between Latvia, Lithuania, Finland, Estonia, Poland and Ukraine (Ukrainian Peoples's Republic) (sort of. Ukraine was either a member or an observer depending on the source.)

The UK and France were observers and Belarus (Belarusian Democratic Republic) was an unofficial observer (again. some sources say they were just an observer and some say they were unofficial).

Belarus and Ukraine at that moment held none of their land.

(Ukraine had lost the Polish-Ukranian war and was losing the Ukranian-Soviet war due to a lot of reasons that I'm not the best person to explian)

(one of them was France favouring Poland - a reason that i am mentioning bcs one of the things that i held in my mind during this whole animatic was the complex relations between the Baltic+Co countries and France and UK. both sides understood very much that they were just using eachother to get what they want. to France and UK these seperatist countries were needed as a shield against the Soviets (but they would have really prefered the Russian Empire to still exist and win the Russian civil war instead) and the Baltic+Co needed the wests guns and resources to win against the Soviets and/or Germans when they were involved.)

(Belarus, from what I can tell, lost all of its land to its Soviet alternative Socialist Soviet Republic of Byelorussia very fast after German troops left its teritory. People who know Belarussian history better than me please correct me if im wrong.)

The Bulduru conferences whole deal was creating a Baltic Union between Poland, Finland, Lithuania, Latvia and Estonia.

A goal that was ultimatly hopeless due to Polands and Lithuanians disagreements over Vilnius and their subsequent war.

A war the others tried really hard to be neutral on - wanting both the Poles and the Lithuanians as allies. (Latvia once asked Estonia to make a Baltic Entente with them and Lithuania (and Finland if they wanted) - to which Estonia declined because they didn't want to get on Polands bad side (also Lithuania was also against the idea bcs their whole plan was trying to befriend the Soviet and German states in the interwar period while Latvia and Estonia saw them as a danger). Later in 1934 a Baltic Entente would still be made - but as history would later tell - it didn't really acomplish much, due to lots and lots of reasons that i wont bore you with atm)

(also - just in general - if im wrong abt any of this history feel free to correct me. i did do reasearch but all of it was in latvian and english so i can very much be wrong abt things that consern the other nations)

None of the agreements that were signed during the Bulduru conference were ever ratified.

At some kind of negotiations, except they share a singular braincell and they fight each other who gets to use it.

[Loads of yapping under the cut.]

This was supposed to be set in 1605-ish, around the outsets of Jülich succession crisis. Let’s pretend a fucking lamp is not there okay??Prussia is still a Polish fief duchy, so kinda irrelevant? Well, nevermind, he got dragged in as it is Anna of Prussia who carried Brandenburg‘s Electors‘ claim to Jülich-Kleve. And along with her husband, the Elector‘s son, she was in favour of more decisive actions regarding Jülich, as far as a pre-emptive strike. Whereas the Elector himself hesitated, supporting a more cautious approach.

At that point Prussia knows what is coming.(okay, maybe Brandenburg‘s Elector marrying the younger sister of his own son‘s wife juuuuust to make sure no other family ever gets a chance to claim Prussia was a bit too— nevermind). He got the point. He knows he has no other option really, and that he and Johann are kind of…stuck in this ever since the Grand Master of the Teutonic Order happened to be a Hohenzollern. And thus he makes what he can out of it, trying out what strings he can pull and when.

After all, he‘s painfully aware that Johann may seem like a schemer with a long-term plan, but in fact? Will hesitate and push for neutrality when a firm decision is most needed. If Brandenburg is good at something, that is masking his indecisiveness with cautiousness. And Prussia wonders how, or rather when he will be able to use this to his advantage…

[this writing stuff is very experimental and very much a WIP and both interpretations and characterisations are subject to change !!! Be warned !!!]

Oh, yeah looks like I have my time to create stuff back? I was just testing that one technique when you draw stuff in grayscale and then colour it. It‘s torture, but damn, I like the result. Shit took 4 days to render. And I just gave up on the bg sorry not sorry.

Meh, It’s always „how do you get along?” and not „how do you even get. there. at the first place.” I was just thinking – 700-ish km between Berlin and Königsberg. Imagine. 2-3 weeks horseback through swamp sand and shit and you’re there except it’s too late and noone cares. Must’ve been hell.

By the way physically they‘re..? 15-16, I would say here? Brandenburg is a bit older, not really much, but he‘s taller lol.

Other versions because YES ITS HARD TO CHOOSE A FILTER RRRAH

Rewatching hetalia did this to me. So here we are.

Hetalia! Ukraine

This might be tricky to understand unless you grew up in Ukraine; but as we know, she is often depicted in hetalia holding a giant pitchfork. So around when the anime was made, there was a (marginal) politician in Ukraine, in charge of the radical party, Oleh Lyashko (Олег Ляшко), known for his striking appearance with a pitchfork during campaigns; (the dude behind her)

SO AS A UKIE I HAD TO DRAW THIS RAWRJKDSWCHRDSKJD

(The stuff she is saying comes from an insult phrase Lyashko often said as well about his rivals, «скотиняки» [skotyniáky], translating to something like «stupid animals»)