Hetalia fandom ramble
Because it's been ages since I last had a fandom rambling of any kind, and maybe this will help me get back into fic-writing gear.
To get the annoying part out of the way, I'll start with some personal pet peeves of mine.
Like, non-canon canon. As usual, with any fandom, there are things people assume canon that are just not canon. No, it isn't canon that Sealand is being raised by both Sweden and Finland together, the only strip that even slightly implies that, seems more implicating of Finland as an uncle-role or friend of the father. (Heck, Sweden doesn't even seem to be raising Sealand period, since this strip, the adoption-strip and one mention from Sealand about Sweden-papa's assistance in Canada-disguising, are the only ones with Sweden as Sealand's papa, and Sealand lives by his own all of the rest of the time. And well, it's not like Piratebay actually did follow through with that purchase, so Sealand is still as free as an unrecognised micronation can get.)
Also, people seem to keep forgetting that the whole "England can't swim" was about how English characters are portrayed in American movies. Of course, in spite of what people against that idea think, England doesn't need to be able to swim just because he has a long naval history and is an island, so I'm generally okay with a head-canon thing there. Basically whether he can swim or not isn't really decided.
Then there are the Japanese nicknames in English fandom. No, I just don't see America refering to England as Iggy, especially since he never refers to him as Igirisu in English fics. And I wish I had a good nickname for Finland to call Sweden, because while Su-san is out for so many reasons, I still think that Finland has to have some nickname for Sweden and heck, every country he has some interaction with. It is pretty self-evident. Hmmm, you know, Su-san might work if I just decide that it's short for "Surströmmings Santa Claus". Okay, new head-canon.
The good thing about having these pet-peeves is that it makes sorting fics as readable or not so much easier. While the canon-matter isn't something I pay that much attention to, although I do prefer it when people don't make Finland into Sealand's mama, it's easy to spot some of the worst things, like Sweden-speak. I find his short speach to work well with the character, but people? Don't take Sweden's vowels away. He loves those. He has three more vowels than the latin alphabet, and in actual shortened Swedish, it's the consonants that disappear first and foremost. Plus, he doesn't make a difference between w and v, and y is only used as a vowel.
S' th's k'nd' wr't'ng 's n't th't 'cc'r't' 'nd m'stl' 'nn'''ng, b't 's th'nkf'll' ''s' t' sp't s' 'n' c'n j'st d'sr'g'rd th' f'c 'n q''st''n 'nd m'v' 'n t' 'th'rs th't 'r' 'ct''lly r''d'bl'.
(Yes, I've seen pretty much this exact type of writing. The fandom is just that plain insane.) (Also, the first commenter to decipher the full text with all the right vowels in place, gets a drabble written by me, any fandom/topic.)
I kinda realised an interesting irony with me.
*flashback to Shantari in Junior High, long before she ever got into online fandom*
Me: Why does anyone watch X-files? It just seems creepy with the aliens and stuff...*)
Girl: Well, people most watch it because they're interested in what will happen between Scully and Mulder.
Me: Then you might as well just watch a romance series, how stupid.
*flash forward*
Me: I don't have any fandom I don't ship something or other in. Heck, looking back on it, I shipped Pooh and Piglet together when I was half the age I was in prior flashback.
*)I have never really watched X-files, maybe seen one or two episodes in their full, but that was the impression I had of the show.
And now I'm in Hetalia and I have very few things I don't ship, and barely anything I anti-ship. Feels very refreshing after having become such an anti-shipper in the HP fandom. (My love for my fanon ships is still stronger than my hate has ever been for my anti-ships, so there's a plus, I guess.) I like pretty much everything, but somehow I mostly end up writing England/America. I don't even know why them, maybe they're just that entertaining to write?
And yeah, it does feel good to ship a popular pairing, even if it has some backlash. Of course, for a veteran from the HP-shipwar, like myself, the backlash is hardly noticable. Best part is that I've never seen a USUK-shipper respond with anything but good will towards people expressing their being tired of the "constant USUK-bias". No one "has to" like anything, it's great!
And while I think there are more than ample ship tease and hints, it's not a canon pairing. I don't consider any Hetalia-pairing to be canon, not even Austria/Hungary, since well... This series is a bit all over the place as far as potential time-lines are concerned, and even so there's also the matter that relationship upgrades either don't exist or could end up with weird implications. You could basically argue that the only thing canon about any pairings are the feelings in one direction or the other or both. It also strikes me as weird whenever people pinpoint nation sexualities as distinct in some, usually monosexual way. I guess to me it just makes more sense for the nations to be pansexual, because they're anyway nations so general view of gender/sex does not apply, but your milage may vary.
I mean, I know Sweden was at one point canonically homosexual until Himaruya changed his mind, but the fact that he deleted that entry just furthers the idea of all-nation-pansexuality to me.
And I think I'll stop here. Is a pretty sizeable piece of ramble already.
To get the annoying part out of the way, I'll start with some personal pet peeves of mine.
Like, non-canon canon. As usual, with any fandom, there are things people assume canon that are just not canon. No, it isn't canon that Sealand is being raised by both Sweden and Finland together, the only strip that even slightly implies that, seems more implicating of Finland as an uncle-role or friend of the father. (Heck, Sweden doesn't even seem to be raising Sealand period, since this strip, the adoption-strip and one mention from Sealand about Sweden-papa's assistance in Canada-disguising, are the only ones with Sweden as Sealand's papa, and Sealand lives by his own all of the rest of the time. And well, it's not like Piratebay actually did follow through with that purchase, so Sealand is still as free as an unrecognised micronation can get.)
Also, people seem to keep forgetting that the whole "England can't swim" was about how English characters are portrayed in American movies. Of course, in spite of what people against that idea think, England doesn't need to be able to swim just because he has a long naval history and is an island, so I'm generally okay with a head-canon thing there. Basically whether he can swim or not isn't really decided.
Then there are the Japanese nicknames in English fandom. No, I just don't see America refering to England as Iggy, especially since he never refers to him as Igirisu in English fics. And I wish I had a good nickname for Finland to call Sweden, because while Su-san is out for so many reasons, I still think that Finland has to have some nickname for Sweden and heck, every country he has some interaction with. It is pretty self-evident. Hmmm, you know, Su-san might work if I just decide that it's short for "Surströmmings Santa Claus". Okay, new head-canon.
The good thing about having these pet-peeves is that it makes sorting fics as readable or not so much easier. While the canon-matter isn't something I pay that much attention to, although I do prefer it when people don't make Finland into Sealand's mama, it's easy to spot some of the worst things, like Sweden-speak. I find his short speach to work well with the character, but people? Don't take Sweden's vowels away. He loves those. He has three more vowels than the latin alphabet, and in actual shortened Swedish, it's the consonants that disappear first and foremost. Plus, he doesn't make a difference between w and v, and y is only used as a vowel.
S' th's k'nd' wr't'ng 's n't th't 'cc'r't' 'nd m'stl' 'nn'''ng, b't 's th'nkf'll' ''s' t' sp't s' 'n' c'n j'st d'sr'g'rd th' f'c 'n q''st''n 'nd m'v' 'n t' 'th'rs th't 'r' 'ct''lly r''d'bl'.
(Yes, I've seen pretty much this exact type of writing. The fandom is just that plain insane.) (Also, the first commenter to decipher the full text with all the right vowels in place, gets a drabble written by me, any fandom/topic.)
I kinda realised an interesting irony with me.
*flashback to Shantari in Junior High, long before she ever got into online fandom*
Me: Why does anyone watch X-files? It just seems creepy with the aliens and stuff...*)
Girl: Well, people most watch it because they're interested in what will happen between Scully and Mulder.
Me: Then you might as well just watch a romance series, how stupid.
*flash forward*
Me: I don't have any fandom I don't ship something or other in. Heck, looking back on it, I shipped Pooh and Piglet together when I was half the age I was in prior flashback.
*)I have never really watched X-files, maybe seen one or two episodes in their full, but that was the impression I had of the show.
And now I'm in Hetalia and I have very few things I don't ship, and barely anything I anti-ship. Feels very refreshing after having become such an anti-shipper in the HP fandom. (My love for my fanon ships is still stronger than my hate has ever been for my anti-ships, so there's a plus, I guess.) I like pretty much everything, but somehow I mostly end up writing England/America. I don't even know why them, maybe they're just that entertaining to write?
And yeah, it does feel good to ship a popular pairing, even if it has some backlash. Of course, for a veteran from the HP-shipwar, like myself, the backlash is hardly noticable. Best part is that I've never seen a USUK-shipper respond with anything but good will towards people expressing their being tired of the "constant USUK-bias". No one "has to" like anything, it's great!
And while I think there are more than ample ship tease and hints, it's not a canon pairing. I don't consider any Hetalia-pairing to be canon, not even Austria/Hungary, since well... This series is a bit all over the place as far as potential time-lines are concerned, and even so there's also the matter that relationship upgrades either don't exist or could end up with weird implications. You could basically argue that the only thing canon about any pairings are the feelings in one direction or the other or both. It also strikes me as weird whenever people pinpoint nation sexualities as distinct in some, usually monosexual way. I guess to me it just makes more sense for the nations to be pansexual, because they're anyway nations so general view of gender/sex does not apply, but your milage may vary.
I mean, I know Sweden was at one point canonically homosexual until Himaruya changed his mind, but the fact that he deleted that entry just furthers the idea of all-nation-pansexuality to me.
And I think I'll stop here. Is a pretty sizeable piece of ramble already.