There's a Side of Korea I Didn't Know
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(I believe in men with MUSCLE MASS, ftw!)
Recently, I just re-read the strip where Poland finds out about Lithuania's scars, and was inspired to draw Korea. Everyone knows Korea as a chippy, happy-go-lucky, bumbling and lovable fool, but Korea's history is actually quite bloody as well.
So, as an act of patriotism, I decided that my first Hetalia LJ post would be Korea. To me, the big scar represents the Korean War, which lasted from 1950-1953 and literally split the peninsula in two along the 38th parallel. There was so much bloodshed as the peninsula vacillated from being almost completely taken over by the Communist north and then by the Capitalist/democratic South, and finally settling in the middle. My grandfather is actually North Korean; he fortunately fled to the South before they built the wall and everything, but the rest of his family never made it to the South. He doesn't even know if his sister is dead or alive. It's quite sad.
Not just the Korean War, but Korea has almost never waged an offensive war against other countries (I think the only offensive war we waged was like at 500 AD or something); almost every single war fought by Koreans were defensive. Korea suffered a LOT of invasions and most recently an annexation by Japan, where Koreans were massacred in large amounts and were forbidden to speak their own language. That's why there's still a very large resentment towards Japan because Koreans cannot quite forgive Japan of their atrocities yet (although I hope that we will become good friends, sometime). (think of the baltic states hating Russia...kind of like that).
But anyways -- that's why I wanted to portray a more serious side to Korea. I feel like the overly enthusiastic nature of Korea is sort of a defense mechanism against all the harms Koreans suffered in the 20th century, esp. the Korean War. Because it's so hard to deal with, we laugh! :)