#hetaliahottakes

Personally, I believe it’s less about supporting independence in general and more about the specific country in question.

In modern times, Taiwan and Japan have a strong and supportive relationship. And in the manga, Taiwan often reflectes the pop culture enthusiasm found across East Asia: She loves cosplay, is a big fan of anime, and enjoys aspects of Japanese "cute culture" like making chocolate. As a result, she's portrayed as friendly toward Japan. Despite being a minor character, she even received a character song, likely because Japan values its diplomatic relationship with Taiwan. In my opinion, Himaruya wants to maintain a good image with Taiwanese fans. That’s the most plausible explanation.

In contrast, characters like Belarus (and Ukraine, to an extent) were created with a very different intent: they exist primarily as female characters obsessed with Russia, rather than independent representations of their nations like Taiwan. Consequently, they’re portrayed as extensions of Russia, rather than as individuals with their own political and cultural identity.

Hetalia Belarus, in particular, represents the government, not the people.

No matter how much real-life Belarusians protest or suffer under the regime, it would fall on deaf ears, since that is what the authoritarian governments do. A good example is the 2010 re-election of Lukashenko and the subsequent "silent protest" movement in 2011. And what did Himaruya tell us that same year? That Belarus was afraid she might die young, so she clings to what she finds precious: Lukashenko. She even made a fansite for him. (Do people realise how heavily she loves him supported by the fact that she thinks she will pass away soon?)

Meanwhile, in the real world, people were arrested, beaten, and even killed according to some reports. Yet Hetalia Belarus sat on her desk and told the world how amazing her boss was.

Furthermore, she shows little to no empathy. Her worldview is disturbingly bleak:

"She believes humans are a series of misery and hardship and cause suffering to others."

She lacks empathy and is a selfish person since she cannot acknowledge the fact that she also caused suffering by chasing her own happiness.

"As long as people have something to eat, there's nothing to worry about."

Someone needs to tell her that her own people are not animals who only live in pure instinct

And while Belarusians work hard to preserve their culture despite risks of it being erased, Hetalia Belarus contributes nothing to that portrayal. She doesn’t reflect Belarusian culture at all; not even in subtle ways:

_Her appearance has no clear Belarusian references: her iconic dress is a random Lolita outfit given to her by Russia. (And no, it’s not the Last Bell uniform—feel free to debate me on that.)

_I love Russian so much I almost forget how to speak Belarusian ❤️

_ She has never shown any real pride in her heritage. While most other characters who display their culture proudly, she turns her existence only to worship Russia.

While the people try their best and live in the risk of their culture being erased, Hetalia Belarus herself makes little to no effort to preserve the heritage. She neglects, forgets, and erases it.

So tell me: Do you honestly believe she would shed a single tear while people protest for their rights? Do you really think she cares about her people?

And before anyone argues, “Well, maybe she was written this way before things got worse in real life" the truth is:

Himaruya is overly confident in his fixed canon.

You’d expect Ukraine’s portrayal to change after the 2014 occupation of Crimea and being labelled an “unfriendly” country. But instead, Himaruya used it as an opportunity to show Ukraine as a "yandere" for Russia (!). Regardless of real-world events, both Himaruya and much of the fandom cling to the idea that

"it’s the government’s fault

We’re focusing on the people, not the politics.”

But we all know what would happen if Ukraine had a pro-Russia leader: Hetalia Ukraine would be so happy, while real Ukrainians take to the streets in protest. So who exactly are these characters supposed to represent: the people, or the politics?

Himaruya only stopped updating during the full-scale war. Can you really blame anyone for not wanting Belarus to appear again when the creator is so stubborn and the fandom so blindly loyal to canon? (We still see fanart of Ukraine being obsessed with Russia, even now.)

It’s a very different situation when a (male) character is underdeveloped or unpleasant. They might be jerk but it's not the same as political offensive. Don't take people out of context and claim to be a femimist when people disappointed in Belarus's writing and not others.

The real thing is: stop drawing him with a basic fucking nose. That bitch has a huge fucking nose and I'm so tired of seeing fanart where he has a dainty, upturned nose. If you cannot draw any other nose other than thin, perfect ones, then you fucking suck as an artist and need to get out of your comfort zone. If you cannot make physical characteristics look "good" or "right" in your art style and use that to justify why every character you make has the same face, maybe you should learn how to i corporate them better instead of fucking coping.

Frankly? Agreed. Practice drawing noses or don't draw faces at all. Same-face is a bad thing for a reason. It's ugly, boring, and also aligns with WhiteSup/other racist ideals.

I know this is a rather weird topic but it’s been bothering me lately, and I know this has been around since the 2010’s (as far back as 2016) but uhhh yeah….

I love Mexico fan designs as much as the next person! I love when people make Mexico a woman because there aren’t much women in hetalia! I love Latin America rep in hetalia bc Hima basically hates us lol!

But the particular designs where they make Mexico have a small SMALL waist with BIG hips/BBL and BIG breasts and skinny while making them be “feisty” is weird. I am an indigenous Mexican and I am extremely connected to my Mexican culture (Michoacan gang woo)

These designs are fetishizing not only Mexican women but Latina women in general and is very offensive, I won’t put specific examples because I don’t like bashing artists

And when the person only makes Mexico almost an accessory to America it also feels very fetish-y!!! This is not me saying that women can’t be curvy! And this is not me bashing on Amemex, ship whatever you like :)

Latino representation in hetalia is rare already, I imagine that good Latino representation in hetalia will be even harder, Ty for listening to my rant

It made me think of the undeniable homoerotic undertones of the show. Even if you’re a “normal” person who doesn’t ship anime characters, you will get the homoeroticism. I believe it exceeds Germany and Italy’s relationship, every character has eroticism with each other, this is why you don’t see straight dudes who’re into History being into Hetalia.

Germany as a character has an immense amount of unused character potential both in the canon and by the fans.

Before I start, I’ll take a small step back and go somewhere where canon rarely goes:

For the sake of this argument, I’m not primarily looking at Germany as a personified nation, but as an individual, immortal character who was born in the year 1871. Basically this is a very long character analysis based on taking the concept of Hetalia seriously and a fuckton of headcanons.

1. Germany had no time to grow up

Compared to most other Hetalia characters, he is incredibly young. Regardless of whether one subscribes to the Holy Rome theory or not, Germany as a person is „born“ on January 18th 1871 (of at least thats where his consciousness starts). From there, he has barely four decades before being thrust into World War I, a conflict whose scale and brutality far exceeded anything that came before it.

Forty years is nothing, especially for a Hetalia character who’s conscious existence we have seen start „on screen“, compared to other characters we‘ve seen act as „chibis“ (children) for approximately decades or centuries. Germany never truly had the time to develop naturally or just „live“ and slowly grow up figuring out what it means to live as a personified nation. Instead, he is forced into the role of a „country“ immediately.

2. He grew up under immense pressure

This is where the discussion of the german states becomes important, not as political entities but as individual characters.

Germany coming into existence as an individual person, that essentially means „mass death“ for most of the other german states. In Hetalia Canon, those states do not just merge in an abstract geopolitical sense, it means that they cease to exist as individual people. They die.

Canon briefly touches on this concept, albeit in „modern day“, in The Private Concert, where East Germany (Prussia) starts losing his powers as a nation. If that is how this regularly works, then it raises a much more unsettling implication for Germanys early life: Germany grows up watching that happen, knowing that the reason for his siblings deaths is not violence or old age. He grows up knowing that the deaths of people like him are a simple consequence of his own existence.

Another aspect of this is that even in Hetalia Canon, Germany is an outlier. He was created on purpose, not found in a random field like other Hetalia characters. And, depending on interpretation, Germanys existence probably was the result of a collective decision: All those individuals effectively chose unification, fully aware that it could or would mean they would die sooner or later. They chose for him to exist and for themselves not to. Germany grows up with the knowledge and pressure that he is expected to step into the place of dozens of others who existed before him. People who have lived for centuries and whose deaths are intrinsically tied to his own existence. He does not simply inherit their legacy, but he is, in a sense, indebted to it as an individual person.

3. His relationship with Prussia

Through this lense, I also strongly believe that his relationship with Prussia is more complex than fanon and canon makes it out to be. Prussia, a character having been shaped by constant warfare and survival, would have had every reason to push Germany to mature as quickly as possible, prioritizing strength, military knowledge, and resilience over emotional development. If one looks at how Prussia is shown to interact with America during the American Revolution, particularly in the context of military training, he seems to emphasize on harsh discipline and endurance, and shows little concern for emotional well-being.

If this approach is applied to Germany who, unlike America, would have been significantly younger at the time, it suggests an upbringing defined by pressure and military training rather than emotional support. If one considers the idea of learned behavior or generational patterns, where methods of upbringing and coping mechanisms are passed down, then Germanys treatment of Italy during their military training (even though the abusiveness is played as a joke in canon) can be read as a direct reflection of how he himself may have been raised.

This, in turn, offers a possible explanation for the noticeably uneven dynamic between Germany and Prussia in canon. While Prussia clearly frames their relationship in familiar, almost affectionate terms, Germany himself rarely reciprocates that emotional engagement. He acknowledges Prussia as his brother, but does not display a strong personal attachment.

Taken seriously, this could point toward a relationship shaped either by deliberate emotional detachment, possibly encouraged by Prussia himself, or by a form of previous emotional neglect that led Ludwig to withdraw on his own.

I guess bro…

Im pretty sure that none of my points are particularly new ideas. Ive seen that this interpretation of Germanys character through internal and external psychological pressure or his accelerated development has been touched on by fans before. However within fandom (and within canon) spaces, his character is overwhelmingly „reduced“ to his relationship with Italy, which I find very frustrating. Maybe I just hate shipping idk.