fandomsecrets | [ SECRET POST #725 ]

[ SECRET POST #725 ]

⌈ Secret Post #725 ⌋

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

101.

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102.

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103.

[Frankie Boyle]

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104.

[A Little Night Music; Henrik]

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105. [not a secret]

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106.

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107.

[Joe Biden, Political RPS]

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108.

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109.

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110.

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111.

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112.

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113.

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114.

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115.

[Fairy Tail]

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120.

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121.

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125.

[Pirates of the Caribbean]

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126.

[Supernatural]

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127.

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128.

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129.

[Gunnerkrigg Court]

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130.

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131.

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132.

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133.

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135.

[Team America: World Police]

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136.

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138.

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143.

[Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat]

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144.

[Soul Eater]

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145.

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146.

[Heroes]

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147.

[Gurren Lagann]

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148.

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149.

[The Sound of Music]

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150.

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151.

[Code Geass, Diethard Reid]

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152.

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156.

\
[Zane/Jackman]

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Notes:

Secrets Left to Post: 08 pages, 179 secrets from Secret Submission Post #103.
Secrets Not Posted: [ 1 - broken links ], [ 1 2 3 4 5 - not!secrets ], [ 0 - not!fandom ], [ 1 2- too big ], [ 1 - repeat ], [ 1 - take it to comments ].
Current Secret Submissions Post: here.
Suggestions, comments, and concerns should go here.

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

The characters in the series are nuanced plenty. I wish people would actually use those characters instead of what they think they're like. If I have to read one more ridiculously OOC America, I think I'm gonna cry.

What's wrong with at least trying to keep the balance between pathos and humor the original series had? Oh, wait, that's sort of tricky so I'll just make the characters do whatever the hell I want!

which fics make america ooc exactly, and how?

The ones where people have him as nothing but a dope, or alternately a borderline sociopath that doesn't care about anyone else? The ones where he sits there and plays endless, tedious--I mean "sexy" mind games with Russia? The ones were he and other countries have endless "meaningful" conversations about where he's going in the world that have to be explained by the footnotes at the bottom? Pretty much every single fic featuring him on the kink meme?

Well, I suppose Canada has it even worse than America, in all fairness, since he's either a wuss who couldn't say boo to a goose or a sekrit badass.

About the only character the fandom seems to be able to get right is Russia.

so how would YOU characterize him really? i don't think all fics of him make him act different than the comic

I'd love to see some more of his mischievous side, for starters. I don't think a lot of people pay attention to how many strips he's shown up in just to tease the other characters--especially England. I think his insensitivity is an important part of his characterization, but the "Cleaning Out the Storage" strip alone should indicate that he's not a "borderline sociopath" any more than, oh say, Poland is. Some focus on the goofier inventions and ideas he has would be nice too.

America's insensitivity (deliberate or not) is part of his official character info for Pete's sake. And yeah, I'd also like to see more of the loud, insensitive, childish attention whore that he
normally is. When was the last story where he freaked out over a ghost or a horror movie? Or gorged himself on hamburgers? Angst and introspection is more than welcome but authors should remember what the character is actually like. (I don't even ask people to remember his actual speech patterns.)

And while we're at it, I don't remember reading even one English language fanfic that characterized England as the foul-mouthed former hooligan that he is in canon. Or him being tsundere with America - that's one of the most obvious aspects of the America/England interaction, yet it's always ignored. Sure, the concept of "tsundere" may be difficult to grasp for some people but I think what it means is pretty damn obvious from canon.

There are some great fanfics out there but the characterization trends are getting worse.

America might be insensitive at times but he has shown to be sensitive when the time calls for it (see his birthday strip, the clean out the storage, and that strip about England's scones). The "Clean Out the Storage" one shows that America is capable of a meaningful conversation.

I think you give Hidekaz's character less credit than its due.

I'm not saying he's not intelligent or not capable of being introspective, but that's definitely not his default modus operandi. I don't mind it when people write stories in which he's sensitive (but I want a damn good reason for that) but I'd like to see more of America being his usual, normal self. Say, an America/England story where he's actually teasing England and enjoys his angry reactions. Or something.

(By the way, I think his birthday strip is not a very good example of sensitive!America... "Me, I always feel so happy at this time of the year, especially when I remember seeing you defeated..." "What?!" "Just joking! :DDDD")

Then I fail to see the problem. As long America is capable of being like that, you can't really say that he's OOC.

And I see a good amount of stories that he does tease England around... at least in the kink meme.

I think it is because when America is usually teasing England, he wouldn't usually say, "just kidding." as to be somewhat considerate of England's feelings.

(Different anon; man we really do need a separate comm for this stuff to spare the rest of F!S.)

I won't bicker with you about those almost-specific examples (though I will say that I personally enjoy those "endless conversation" fics most of the time), but I'd just like to throw my two cents in and say that I'm pretty sure fanworks for comedy series are some of the trickiest things to do. Either the canon feels so complete on its own that there's really nothing to write about and "serious" fic would feel borderline sacrilegious, or everybody who writes tries too hard to emulate the original and everything feels stale and derivative.

Hetalia's sort of a unique case in that it's funny, but has enough serious moments and such a huge context that there's always something for the fandom to play with without boring itself to tears. America is always America and France is always France, but the story changes depending on what era they're in and yes, the same people can react differently in different situations and not be wildly OOC. I don't know, I just think something would be off if the fandom for a series based on history and stereotypes weren't allowed a little freedom of interpretation.

Mind you, I'm here for the history, entertainment, and Hidekaz's own crazy narrative, so I'm not very choosy. I respect your right to be, though.

I would, however, like to request that we put some kind of embargo on Russia smelling of vodka in every story ever. It's getting worse than Harry Potter's emerald eyes over here, folks.

I agree but canon has strips from many different timelines and while the characters do react in different ways their basic personality doesn't change - say, England is always tsundere, foul-mouthed and often rude (he's been like that ever since he was a child), adult America is always tsun-tsun with England, and he always has a well-mannered (though as an adult, somewhat condescending) speaking style, and so on.

As I said above (try finding out which anon I am! :D) I love angst and introspection and stories that explore various moments and events in history, and I'm all for freedom of interpretation, but as far as the characters go, sometimes I think that some authors don't even care about what they're interpreting. They're just writing their own ideas of the characters.

Ah, see, there I'm with you. I love the potential for diversity, but that also means playing in the canon sandbox sometimes and not getting stuck with one of the alternative interpretations as a fandom cliche.

Maybe some of this stems from the fact that so many writers for America are American. When people write for their own country, they do so with a whole other level of knowledge and perspective that can be hard to keep separate from the story. Personally, I write a lot for a few countries which aren't my own but which I know a lot about/have lived in/am focusing on in my studies, so I know that must color my characterization somewhat. Must watch out for that.

(Actually, I wonder if this is why Japan ends up as the straight man "observer" figure so often-- maybe Himaruya ran into the same issue at some point?)

This fandom has some strange debates.

Yeah, it probably has to do with people having different ideas about their own country (or other countries for that matter) than canon... which is fine, as is writing those different ideas in fanfic, but those are not Hetalia fanfics. Sure, fanfic is about exploring canon but in my opinion canon should always be used as sort of a compass and not as an alternative.

(For example, this is just a small pet peeve but my heart always hurts a little whenever I see America swearing left and right, or England being literary and formal, or Japan and Austria not being polite and formal, etc. It's possible to can explore their personalities without changing the way they speak. Though I'm sure that this is partly due to knowing canon via translations.)

As for Japan, I think it may be partly this, and partly the fact that Japan is an alien in this company, so to speak, so he falls naturally into this role. I mean, the European (and related) countries either share the same culture or at least are familiar with each other's habits, but for Japan it's all "what are these people on? I don't get it!" Like in the strip in which Japan freaks out over seeing Italy and Germany half-naked on a hot summer day. (Sure, China is in a similar position but we usually see him interacting with the Asian countries and Russia.)

I was under the impression that HISTORY was the canon and Hidekaz is making a webcomic that's basically a fanwork interpretation of history. I think it defeats the purpose of Hetalia if it in itself becomes "canon" and people aren't allowed to explore the countries that the characters are based on.

Hello? HISTORY is canon in Hetalia, genius. People can interpret it pretty freely within the realm of 'canon,' and frankly, I enjoy it when they do. Exploring the traits or history of a country in Hetalia doesn't have to be so limiting like you apparently think it needs to be.

Actually England isn't foul mouthed and rude all the time, he's usually is prim and proper unless provoked (usually by France or America). Remember, he basically worships the social mores of being a gentleman. Adult America isn't really tsun-tsun (a great example, funnily enough what England is to France), his teasing on England is more of a tsundere trait.

I think the authors are more into interpreting what the character would feel in a certain situation that their more comedic sides would not really fit and also taking the fact that the Nations' personality is partially made up of the countrymen's feelings for a certain event.

I mean, it's perfectly valid when it's situation when the humor calls for it, even when even the canon series take a step out of the usual humor and show glimpses of characters outside of their normal humorous selves, it's not surprising that the fandom would do the same for serious fics.

Well, I suppose Canada has it even worse than America, in all fairness, since he's either a wuss who couldn't say boo to a goose or a sekrit badass.

God yes. If anything is going to make me hate Hetalia fandom, it's how some butcher characterization. And I figure if I'm butthurt as a Canadian, it's got to be twice as worse for countries that actually have sensitive topics being portrayed.

My God, yes. I've been so vexed with the fandom about this. One of The Things about Hetalia is how Hidekaz somehow plopped a personality on a nation and make the same thing work across hundreds of years. The livelihood and attitudes may change depending on the era, but the personality? Always the same. Sengoku-era Japan and modern Japan are two very different countries, but Honda Kiku is very much the same person. (For example.) I wish more of the fandom would get that.

I started off adoring Canada, but all those fics of AWESOME BADASS or AWESOME UKE CANADA and all the squee on those fics turned me off by default. So sad, Canada!

I would say that their personality isn't the same, you forgot that a part of their personality is part of what their people's attitudes around that time. Yes, even Kiku has changed a bit from a country that was isolated to one that tried to make a name for itself on the world's stage and learning to adjust to the Western culture to one that seemingly can't form his own opinion (and that he's a otaku for cute things).

Canada, on the other hand, it's not surprising that he gets portrayed as an uke due to his passive-aggressiveness and backing down to speak for his self. He IS a woobie, ya know.

As much as we would all love to typecast countries into "one personality", you seem to forget that just because they keep the same attitudes during the eras that Hetalia actually covers doesn't mean they necessarily keep them during the ones it doesn't.

For example, America. Sure, he's cocky and arrogant and an attention whore NOW, but what about...hmmm, the whole period of time UP TO WORLD WAR I. You know, when he was ISOLATIONIST and trying his best NOT to meddle in Europe's affairs. It's not so easy to impose his Hetalia personality on that. Just because the author doesn't cover certain periods in a nation's history doesn't mean they're off-limits to interpretation.

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

[ SECRET POST #725 ]

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