[ SECRET POST #695 ]

[case]

⌈ Secret Post #695 ⌋

Warning: Some secrets are NOT worksafe and may contain SPOILERS.

101.


__________________________________________________



102.


__________________________________________________



103.


__________________________________________________



104.


__________________________________________________



105.


__________________________________________________



106.


__________________________________________________



107.


__________________________________________________



108.


__________________________________________________



109.


__________________________________________________



110.


__________________________________________________



111.


__________________________________________________



112.


__________________________________________________



113.


__________________________________________________



114.
[resized]


__________________________________________________



115.
[row row fight da powah]


__________________________________________________



116.


__________________________________________________



117.
[Stargate Atlantis]


__________________________________________________



118.


__________________________________________________



119.
[Metal Gear Solid, Iron Man, House, Silence of the Lambs, Lord of the Rings, Batman, American Psycho, Dexter, Silent Hill]


__________________________________________________



120.
[Panic! At The Disco/Flash Flash Revolution]


__________________________________________________



121.


__________________________________________________



122.


__________________________________________________



123.


__________________________________________________



124.


__________________________________________________



125.


__________________________________________________



126.


__________________________________________________



127.
[Death Note, resized]


__________________________________________________



128.


__________________________________________________



129.


__________________________________________________



130. [repeat]


__________________________________________________



131.


__________________________________________________



132.


__________________________________________________



133.


__________________________________________________



134.


__________________________________________________



135.
[Dr. Who]


__________________________________________________



136.


__________________________________________________



137.


__________________________________________________



138.


__________________________________________________



139.


__________________________________________________



140.


__________________________________________________



141.


__________________________________________________



142.


__________________________________________________



143.
[they're poets from WWI]


__________________________________________________



144.


__________________________________________________



145.
[Metal Gear Solid: TWINS LINKED BY CURSED GEEEEEEEEEEENES]


__________________________________________________



146.


__________________________________________________



147.


__________________________________________________



148.


__________________________________________________



149.
[Kuroshitsuji]


__________________________________________________



150.


__________________________________________________



151.


__________________________________________________



152.


__________________________________________________



153.


__________________________________________________



154. [repeat]


__________________________________________________



155.


__________________________________________________



156.


__________________________________________________



157.


__________________________________________________



158.


__________________________________________________



159.


__________________________________________________



160.



Notes:

CITY STUFF → http://lolbuttsex.myminicity.com/

Secrets Left to Post: 15 pages, 361 secrets from Secret Submission Post #100.
Secrets Not Posted: [ 1 - broken links ], [ 1 2 - not!secrets ], [ 1 - not!fandom ], [ 1 2 3 4 5 - too big ], [ 1 2 3 - repeat ], [ 1 - doing it wrong ].
Current Secret Submissions Post: here.
Suggestions, comments, and concerns should go here.

Comments

[milo1047.livejournal.com]

139. Don't watch The Producers then. Seriously, I'm all for respect and dignity being given to history, and I'm not a fan of that particular manga either...but lighten up.


150. We don't even know who the new Doctor is going to be yet. Jeezus.

[milo1047.livejournal.com]

HELO THAR PAGE 7

[milo1047.livejournal.com]

Addendum to 139. I can see your point though. The Japanese of all people making light of WWII...hooboy. That's a bit iffy for me, personally.

[etherealtsuki.livejournal.com]

It's that unfair to say it's iffy because the author is Japanese?

[milo1047.livejournal.com]

The Japanese have yet to officially (or any capacity I'm aware of) admit that they did anything wrong in the Second World War. They ignore the atrocities committed by their soldiers. Frankly, I don't think they have the right to make fun of the war. Not until the face the music and man up to what they did.

[pikabot]

Yeah, but...'The Japanese' are not a monolithic entity. You can't hold the entire population of a country responsible for their government being assy.

[agnes-perdita.livejournal.com]

Butting in here, but if we're going to deal with specifics rather than the hegemony, then didn't the author of the comic admit that he wasn't very aware of the Sino-Japanese conflict part of WW2? I mean, I agree you can't generalize and dismiss an entire nation of creators from writing their perspective on these events, but doesn't his actual ignorance on that particular subject qualify Hetalia as a bit 'iffy'?

[pikabot]

Entirely possible. I don't actually know all that much about Hetalia. It just irks me the way (throughout the comments, not just here), people refer to "the Japanese" as if all Japanese people have the same level of historical knowledge, acknowledgement and validity.

[agnes-perdita.livejournal.com]

Yeah, fair call. Although given the history of drama surrounding the portrayal of the country's actions during the second world war in Japanese school text books, I do think that it's fair to at least question the level of knowledge and possible bias. Of course, ideally, we would do that with everyone else in the world as well.

[kuromitsu.livejournal.com]

Not really, IMO, simply because the author deliberately avoids touching on the really sensitive topics that would make people flip out. Say, there's a Korea character but there's no mention of the ah, strained relations between Korea and Japan. There's a Taiwan character but (afaik) there's no mention of the relationship between him (or her?) and China, etc. Also, there's no mention of ideologies, the Holocaust, racism on any country's side (well, aside of the usual gags about Britain and France hating on each other - but there's no mention of the rampant racism among say Japanese, Koreans and Chinese), the real serious consequences, etc.

True, Japan has an ah, slight problem with facing what they've done in WWII, but Hetalia is not any sort of revisionist propaganda or anything. Japan himself is often portrayed in an ironic or even negative light during and after WWII. It's just a comedy that is not meant to offend anyone.

139

[megglez13.livejournal.com]

THIS.

I have 'Springtime For Hitler' stuck in my head now, fyi. XD

Re: 139

[dragoon1940.livejournal.com]

Springtime, for Hitler and Germaaaaaany! Winter for Poland and Frannnnce!

Re: 139

[milo1047.livejournal.com]

Let's do the goosestep agaaaiin!

Re: 139

[milo1047.livejournal.com]

My evil plan is a success!

Re: 139

[revulo.livejournal.com]

SPRINGtime for HITler~~~

[basiatione.livejournal.com]

I thought that the (or most of the) fellows in The Producers were actively trying to be offensive and disgusting, though? Whereas Hetalia is just kind of avoiding the issue all together in favor of historical gags and jokes about national stereotypes, which...I can see how that could be offensive, honestly.

[kuromitsu.livejournal.com]

Dunno. 'Allo 'Allo also avoids the same issue altogether in favor of pretty much the same things and I've yet to see someone finding it offensive.

[basiatione.livejournal.com]

I've never seen 'Allo 'Allo, so I wouldn't know. :) I just don't think The Producers is a fair comparison, since the big joke in that movie/show only works because the material in question is meant to be just ridiculously over-the-top offensive.

But aren't Nazis at least present in that 'Allo 'Allo? I don't read Hetalia, but their absence is actually what keeps me from being interested in it, to be honest - not mentioning them at all (even in an admittedly comedic story about the Axis Powers) feels a bit too close to white-washing for my taste. Otherwise the series seems like it'd be right up my alley.

It doesn't really matter anyway. I can see why people would find it offensive regardless, and it is their prerogative to feel that way, despite other similar shows (etc.) existing without issue.

[kuromitsu.livejournal.com]

In Hetalia the Nazis are present only as much as they're the guys who run Germany at the time. (By the way, Stalin appears a few times, but for some reason people never mind him. Maybe because he was supposed to be one of the "good guys." Oh, the irony and western-centric worldview.) As for 'Allo 'Allo, which you should totally watch by the way, the Nazis are present but they're harmless caricatures, even the Gestapo officer. There's no mention of anything that might be considered offensive. Hell, one of the Nazi officers is openly gay and nobody has any problems with it (well, except for René whom he always hits on).

If Hetalia is whitewashing history (which it does not, IMO - it puts most everything on a different level, and actual humans rarely appear) then 'Allo 'Allo, etc. do the same. But these shows are meant to be comedies and if they ignore certain aspects of the war it's because if you mention them the fun is instantly over.

Look at it this way - there's a whole slew of movies/etc. out there set during the Cold War that may present the Soviets as baddies but at the same time ignore the horrors that went on in the Soviet Union at the time. There are films/books even today that have Nazis as the bad guys but even these avoid mentioning certain issues. Not because they're whitewashing - but because it would pull the audience out of the story and ruin the fun. Not to mention the fact that it's generally considered tasteless to drag such issues into "light entertainment."

If Hetalia interests you then I say give it a chance. If you find it offensive, well, then that's it. But I think people are really making a mountain out of a mole hill. Besides, Hetalia is not only about WWII. It has stories about practically everything that comes to the author's mind - some of the most recent strips are about England during the late Anglo-Saxon times (and as someone who majored in Medieval English history and literature, I loved them :D).

[basiatione.livejournal.com]

It's interesting that Stalin appears. I'm not surprised that people don't react too strongly to him, though - not only for the reasons you mentioned, but also because there aren't any mandates in the US about how and when young people must be educated about Stalinist Russia (as there are with the Holocaust). Many US readers - especially if they're not yet out of high school - might just be ignorant about what happened during Stalin's regime and why one might consider him a "bad guy" in world history.

I've done a bit of reading about 'Allo 'Allo now, and it sounds quite cute. I do like a good war comedy, especially if the funny stuff comes out of the knowledge that war in itself is pretty absurd (like Blackadder or Dr. Strangelove). I might just add it to my Netflix queue. ;)

I have to admit that I've been curious about Hetalia for a while now. Just going by what I've seen of it, I doubt it's more offensive than something like Astérix (which is to say, not really that offensive at all) - but I am just not sure I can separate the civilian and political aspects of WWII from the military parts so easily. I think part of the problem for me is the specific history of parts of WWII being systematically denied or explained out of existence. But I will give it a shot eventually, I'm sure.

People on both sides seem to be making way too big a deal of this, but that's the internet for you. And a lot of Hetalia fans around here are making me way uncomfortable, it's true, but I don't want that to influence how I feel about the series itself. Anyway, thanks for being so rational about it. :)

[gileonnen.livejournal.com]

Doesn't Stalin appear in the context of making Russia dig a canal that wound up being unusable? In miserable conditions, with inadequate tools ...?

[ryttu3k.livejournal.com]

I friggin' LOVE the Producers. So did my grandmother. Who's a Jew who had to escape from the Nazis in Austria in 1938 when she was twelve, travelling half-way across the world to a country where she didn't speak a word of the language. So if SHE can see how damn good the Producers is...

...and now I have We Can Do It stuck in my head. Dammit.