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On the Hetalia Fandom

broughtbackcat:

Something that I think drives a lot of people away from good series is the fanon more than the canon. 

Since I’m most familiar with this phenomenon with Hetalia and Homestuck, let’s go with Hetalia. 

Something that most people probably don’t know about Hetalia (or know and choose to ignore):

  • Sweden is the only canonically gay character. 
  • The anime is a Seinen, which is a sub-genre directed to 18-30 year old males. 
  • The anime started as a webcomic, became a manga, and then later on became an anime.
  • The history displayed in the anime is not meant to be history targeted to any one culture.
  • This anime is a satire.

Now. I could go on and on on Hetalia, I honestly could, and I can list some very good reasons that you should read or watch it, but I won’t. I could also probably go on about how we’re one of the nicest, most accepting and intelligent fandoms out there, but I won’t because honestly (in my opinion) that would be a lie.

Something that frustrates the ever-living hell out of me is that ninety percent of this fandom is in it for the yaoi shipping that can take place. 

The cast is dominantly male (as when the comic first started Himaruya couldn’t draw females so most countries were male) and as such is bound to attract yaoi fangirls. 

The thing about the fandom that frustrates me on more than one occasion is that a lot of times the shipping gets so out of hand (especially lately with so many new episodes) that people completely disregard any other event or information that might appear in the episode. 

My favorite example is the recent Episode 8, where we meet Estonia. When the episode came out I did not hear one peep about:

  • Estonia entered (and won) a wife carrying competition.
  • Hundreds (if not thousands) of blogs were hacked to become fansites for Russia.
  • Estonia was actually assertive to Russia when confronting him about his suspicions of Russia hacking his blog. 
  • Russia called his faucet pipe (his main weapon) the Magic Cane…
  • Lithuania actually talks with America, implying that either he’s living and working for America or that they are close friends.
  • America used Internet Explorer.
  • America wanted to one-up Russia.
  • There was an entire paragraph of information on Estonia’s slow connection and America’s flash-heavy pages.
  • America actually found the culprit.
  • Estonia was wrong in his assumption that Russia was the one to violate his blog. 
  • Russia actually enjoys reading Estonia’s blog.

What I did hear and drown in when the episode came out:

  • Russia was wearing an apron with usa-chan written on it (which is most likely a reference to the Japanese anime Usavich, a Japanese cartoon about Russian bunnies). So obviously it’s a reference to his pet name for America (for those of you not in the know, -chan is added to the ends of little girl’s names to make them cuter) and they’re obviously in a relationship.
  • How hot America was in the end credits. 

Let’s point out a few fanon things about these three characters:

  • Estonia: Nerd, fanboy, is always twitchy and scared, is a coward, is physically inactive, is an internet guru, is Russia’s punching bag.
  • Russia: Rapist, is cold and cruel, is completely aware of the others’ fear for him and enjoys it.
  • America: Hottie, is the hero, always eats, is going to solve everyone’s problems, is a ditz, and (depending on who you talk to but the vicious majority will say) is in love with his father figure (England). 

NOW. 

There will always be character distortion. Always. It is a simple fact of being part of a fandom. However, this episode alone blatantly showed just how distorted these perceptions of the characters are. 

Sadly, fanon has more rule in this fandom than actual canon does, and the shippers are more likely to have voice during an update than the people who actually looked at the facts of the episode. 

I’m not saying that Hetalia is a perfect series, but I am saying that there is probably ten percent of the fandom that actually cares more about the facts, characters and history than about the shipping and that when you talk to a hetalia fan to not be an asshole about it.

It’s gotten better with Fandomstuck that people are accepting Hetalians more, and our series might not be the cup of tea that others would want, but if you’re avoiding the series because it’s “all about gay nations and ew gross” then you should probably actually watch a couple of episodes rather than rely on the fandom’s interpretation of them, as the fandom tends to be a bit biased. 

(Source: eclectillector)

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