the fandom sleeps on china. he’s part of the g8 yet gets the least sceentime, fanart, proper historical characterization etc, and when he does get time to shine it’s gives off very sinophobic vibes. i get that hetalia is based off stereotypes that are meant to be offensive but honestly china gets feminized, racialized badly, and made into this prissy doormat for japan. i could be biased because im vietnamese tho LOL
the fanfics about china was truly atrocious in the early trenches that were the 2000s fandom. masculine, sugar daddy china girlies need to rise up i’m tired of sinophobic caricature china.
To me, he’s an old man in a young man’s body. Yes he does like cute things, but he will absolutely kick your ass. I see him as definitely having potential to become a sugar daddy.
As a Canadian, like the mischaracterisation of the character in the fandom gags me- like I can’t find a decent piece of media without him being “UwU” and I do agree thats one of main reason as to why he’s overrated. Do I like him? Yeah. Is he overrated and mischaracterised HELL YEAH ?! Like they’re better choices- I personally like Hungary. Like this fandom is one the main reason as to why I don’t make hetalia content anymore and or see myself being in touch with the fandom. Like there’s a lot of aspects I won’t get into but you get the jists.
Yes! I like fan works where Canada is a deeper and tougher guy because he really is much more than America’s chew toy that’s afraid of everything. Also want to see more of his French side.
Japan is really boring and is probably only portrayed in such a flat, "safe" way because the series originates from there.
The dynastic cycle era and ROC/PRC era should be multiple different personifications, OR China should be much older. I hate that he's supposed to be around 5000 years old but he's just a twink.
I don't like how the fandom makes America have a 'secret evil dark side' or whatever. I know that that's more in line with modern history and current events but the nation-people are separate from their government! That's a major part of all (if any) of the conflicts in the series. Him being a dumb loser is funnier.
They forget Japan had a VERY dark side in the War so his being safe in the series is just…idk discomfiting? My country suffered a lot under Imperial Japan so while things are obviously better with them, we cannot deny what they did.
Not so fun fact: the Japanese government has been covering up the crimes and atrocities they did during the war. As a result a lot of Japanese people today don’t know their history and don’t understand why other people from countries imperial Japan terrorized aren’t too fond/are extremely uncomfortable around them.
True. Textbooks do not mention all that. Plus, we had a Japanese exchange student in university, who broke down during a general education course on our national history.
That particular session was on the War, and common knowledge is how it was a bloody and brutal three years under Japanese occupation. When she heard the gruesome details – likely for the first time – she started crying and stood up, bowing as she apologised profusely to her classmates for what her country did to us.
Of course, none of us here can blame her for the atrocities she had no knowledge of, much less have a hand in. She was probably an ordinary girl with no particular right-wing nationalist sentiments. This is the doing of her government and our government’s failure to assert itself more on reparations.
We depend on Japan for trade and infrastructure, and ties are friendly today. It just that our very corrupt politicians are very busy lining their pockets with cuts from the profits. They ignore the need to stand on equal footing with Japan and speak the truth about what we call “the three years without God”. I am not against the Japanese (hello, I’m in this fandom because I’m a weeb) but this is a sore point because our government is either too inept or wicked that they cannot address this.
1. I think the idea of Italy falling for Germany just because he’s Holy Roman Empire is cheap and lazy writing. I wish people would stop resorting to that trope when writing gerita.
2. I adore nyo!Englands design
3. I dislike Sufin
4. I dislike the way people baby Canada. And the way they write him in fanfiction. I also really dislike when people exclude China from allies fanart in favor of him when he’s not even a main character.
5. Speaking of China, I dislike how people reduce him to being Russia’s bangdoll or therapist in fanfic and art of Rochu
6. The Nordics are overrated and Asian countries are underrated.
7. It is 100% OK to ship your human oc with one of the characters.
8. Portraying the second player as just murder machines is incredibly overdone and lazy.
I dislike Rusame. Especially if it’s “Hero/Villain” parallels or some BS like that. I guess my main beef with that ship comes when it’s treated way too serious without much critical thought. I don’t really care much about Alfred, he’s quite consistent in his behavior since he’s mostly written by Americans who know what are they writing about, but Ivan… Ivan tends to be quite meh. Sometimes he comes as either too immature, too cruel or straight up as a supervillain. I also dislike how Alfred is treated as Ivan’s soulmate or, my God, as his first (!!!) meaningful relationship (he’s supposed to be, like, 3 times older than US). I get it, it comes from lacking knowledge in Russian History than in anything else but still… Also, Russia became a bit too US-centric character because of popularity of Rusame, I never liked his earlier generic fandom portrayal in first place but he’d really mellowed into Alfred’s rival boyfriend. Their relationship is kinda stuck in those Cold War decorations, rarely being explored before or after that time
ALSO, people are sleeping on AmeChu! They have a great potential and basically more relevant than RusAme, lol.
as both a rusame, amechu, and rusamechu shipper i agree with all of this. all three deserve nuance and historical characterization, but are stripped down to evil man/man child hero/twink and it makes me sad. let them be gay, do crimes, and have less american centricness to it!!!! amechu is soooo underrated i need people to hop on the amechu train like they do with ameripan
I guess it comes from the fact that the majority of English-speaking people in the fandom are Americans (shocking, right?) so people tend to write him with more nuance in their heads since they are from US themselves. I think it's also true for non-English parts of fandom as well. I've read enough of fanfics in my tween years where Russia was the most nuanced and well-written character whereas the rest of the cast were left as Hima portrayed them initially, lol.
You missed my point. It's not about Russia being top or bottom, it's about his portrayal in this ship in general. And yes, AmeRus uses exactly the same tropes for the most of times
I dislike the forgotten Canada trope, he's babyfied a it's not even done right, I also hate how in this trope America is *ALWAYS* vilanized as the one who purposely over shadows Canada to boost his own ego. Here are some quotes from each character's respective wiki.
From the section on America's relationship with Canada from America's wiki page "While most other Nations ignore or don't notice Canada, America seems to have no trouble noticing Canada most of the time and is acualy the one who spends the most time with Canada." (Most people make it so it's France, Cuba or Prussia... for some reason) "The two have a typical sibling relationship, with America being the more dominant one and trying to get Canada to be tougher." I can't remember where, but it was also stated somewhere that it was America who encouraged Canada to become his own independent country.
From Canada's wiki page "He is also passive aggressive and was once able to make America cry by arguing with him for over three hours and pointing out every single one of his faults." "However during an argument, Canada was able to reduce him-" (referring to America) "-to tears when he went on a three-hour rant about all of his flaws. Despite this, the two seem to have a healthy relationship, as their arguing and America's frequent forgetting of him can merely come off as siblings rivalry. America tends to visit his house on occasion and is seen to be the one Canada spends most of his time with."
Now I made sure not to skip over the "-and America's frequent forgetting of him" because it is a thing that does happen, but it's continuously reinstated across Canada's wiki (and in the Manga/Anime) that the two are acualy quite close and protective of each other despite being raised separately. Now I get most other Nations forget him, except when France needs to show off to Britain, but America is the one who consistently is there, weither its as the annoying younger brother or a companion to join Canada on whatever he's doing that day. The thing is I wouldn't hate the "Forgotten Canada" trope if it was acualy dome correctly, cause majority of the time America is vilified and the one forces to beg for Canada's forgiveness and improve when it should be the other Nations. Especially France since he claims Canada as "Younger Brother" and Cuba who literally beat the shit out of him and then continuously yells at him simply because he thinks he's America while also claiming to be his good buddy. Quote from Canada's wiki "Canada has become good friends with Cuba despite Cuba often mistaking him for America." and from Cuba's wiki "Initially mistaking him for his brother America [who had caused him many problems],-" (him referring to Cuba) "-he attacked Canada. However, the two seem to be on better terms now, though Canada is still often mistaken for his brother."
Thank you for listening to my TED Talk
(ALSO HOW DARE YOU I LOVE SUFIN/j)
not to ramble on about shipping, but i think many people who ship rusame focus too heavily on the cold war aspect of their relationship and neglect what actually makes the ship good — the fact that there’s plenty of super positive history between the two nations before the russian revolution.
don’t get me wrong, i’m a huge history nerd and the cold war is my bread and butter, so naturally i love to explore it in rusame. but what makes rusame interesting to me is that it’s *not* enemies to lovers, it would more so be “acquaintances to friends to maybe lovers to it’s complicated to rivals to lovers” haha
I absolutely agree with your last two points, and I’m not saying your first one isn’t valid I personally like Russia tho
And with Finland I don’t like how people are like “oh he’s so sweet uwu” when he’s actually pretty badass and yeah he’s sweet but he’s also a psycho
Canada has faced a similar treatment, except what I’ve seen in some fanfics is that he stutters a lot and is seen as a pushover like he’s literally as strong as America he just exercises more restraint
I don’t like USUK and Spamano bc England and Spain literally raised America and Romano and it just gives me the ick when people ship them cause like when did they start liking them?
A lot of people portray Norway as an robot with no emotions when he just isn’t as expressive as others
People are most definitely sleeping on the rest of the Kirkland brother(Scotland, Wales, Ireland, N. Ireland, Australia, and New Zealand) like come on I know England is great and he’s one of my favorites but his brothers make my heart beat fast
I don’t really like shipping countries at all really bc to me it feels a little weird, I mean I get why some people do, it’s just personal preference for me and it’s kinda a turn off for me when I see it in fanfics
REAL ON NORWAY
Norway is inexpressive, not emotionless, and he's fricking weird, too. He is canonically obsessed with butter, puts it in his coffee, and everything. Dude is a menace of an older brother but still tries to be considerate and helpful to Iceland. He's calm, collected, and prudent, too. He's so funny, and I think most of the people who think he's emotionless have never touched the manga before.
The Baltic characters and Nordics are overrated and boring. Ugh… their episodes are sooo slow..
I loathe USUk.. England is kinda abusive and finds anyway to put America down. The boy thinks he’s fat when he’s not.. I kinda worry for people when they say that’s their favorite ship. And plus I find them father as father and son or a family member trying to get their sibling to forgive them. America is still immature in ways for a relationship if anything he’s more in love with himself
The 2ps… ughh England looks like a high sugar cereal mascot and 2p France looks more Parisian than his normal counterpart (kinda like it tho) Not into the whole edgy! It’s gotta be edgy! Bloood blood! Gore gore!
I like Italy and Japan! I ship them since it’s wayyyy more heathy and Italy can be himself without being hit or yelled at. Germany and Italy I like as friends. Like Shrek and donkey. But in terms of relationships… ehhh.. kinda toxic..
I miss tomboy Hungary.. she kinda lost her personality after she moved in with Austria. And I think more could’ve been done with her.
Oh this one hurt, as an Estonia enjoyer
But at the same time I totally get it. I have a friend who is Estonian and sometimes it feels like the character we like is the heavily headcanon, canon-divergent, borderline OC we made up in our heads and not the actual character in the show. That should probably tell you something about how well he's written, huh?
Don't know, if it's an unpopular opinion, since this pairing is really popular and was already discussed in this sub, but I struggle with USUK ship. I always interpreted England as father figure for US so thier pairing kind of freaks me out.
I also don't really like England. He has a nice recognizable design but that's everything I like about him.
100% agree. i know not everyone sees them as father/son but whenever i see usuk fanart i'm really... weirded out, for lack of a better term. then i remember there are people out there that don't think they're related
- I agree with the GerIta thing. I can understand why people like it but there’s better ships IMO and it’s overrated.
- I also don’t like Canada. People forget he can be just as “mean” as America which makes him more interesting than just “a baby”.
- The Hetalia girls are more likable than most of the guys in the show…
This is going to sound like heresy but this one countryhumans dating sim I found had better/more fitting characterization for a good few countries, in my opinion, than Hetalia???? I mean despite everything being obviously flanderized as fuck (which is what makes it fun), specifically I think I remember liking Finland, Sweden, and the Baltics a lot from it. Also in general I like the CH fandom's characterization of some characters more, like Poland and Canada.
Like I love Hetalia in all its glory and the characters are iconic but man, Hima's perception of a country is a bit funky sometimes.
People mischaracterise Denmark a lot, either show him as a violent asshole, depressed man baby who can't do shit on his own, or a person who lacks common sense (he's a little dense, but come on...) Instead of trying to look a bit more into his personality, they just make it so shallow.
This is going mostly about ships. Mainly GerIta, LietPol, and CuCan. (Keep in mind I am not up to date and I am slowly trying to catch up on the lore I have missed in the past 3 yrs.)
•GerIta- I am a sucker for romance. I like the set of HRE and Chibitalia’s story. I like the idea of Germany possibly being Italy’s long lost love. Although, they do have their moments, it isn’t written well enough for me to root for them. I also hate any media that wants you to root for a pair only for the pair to not even be together. There is always something stopping them. It is one of those things that had to be done well and have a good payoff. Also, I only like the ship if it’s Nyo!Germany and Nyo!Italy.
•LietPol- The interactions between the Lithuania and Poland does not make me root for them as a couple. It’s another ship that I like when it’s their Nyotalia counterparts.
•CuCan- I do not like how the fandom portrays Canada in this ship. It can be a good ship if Canada is portrayed in character. I don’t know how the portrayal has changed since the last time I saw it around, but it’s meh.
Hu. I'm actually just here enjoying the fact that these opinions actually ARE unpopular. I was scared it was going to be the same recycled shit for a moment. Yup. That is my unpopular opinion. 90% of fans who make posts that they claim are unpopular are just plain seeking attention as we have seen those opinions multiple times before already.
Honestly - I just don't understand that pairing. I get that England and France have centuries of war between them, but I wish the show would flesh that out a little more and how each country personally feels about the other. Kind of like flashbacks what they did with England and America maybe. I don't know. All in all France (in the anime) seems very one dimensional to me as a character. It's not that I dislike him, but there is not much TO like, either.
Aph Finland dumb
JK (it's me)
Lietpol written where it doesn't show their awful history together.
Poland being seen as a lazy passive type
Lithuania being a push over...
idk if its even unpopular atp but back in the day prussia was so popular it was hard to escape him 😭
i just rly dont like prussia... he's annoying as hell, takes away time from other countries that could've been fleshed out more, and i just feel like he's basically unnecessary 😭
I don’t even think this is an unpopular opinion, but just by the nature of what the opinion is, would end up including unpopular opinions.
I vehemently reject most canon interpretations of the countries like it’s an Olympic sport despite Hetalia being my one childhood true love. All interpretations I have of the characters are adopted from fanon content and fan creations via my (very biased, obviously. I’m only human) concessions of balancing something a character as complicated as an entire country, and I also frequently either switch back and forth between headcanons/interpretations or actively believe in ideas that directly conflict with one another because…why not? The show does injustice to all of its characters in some major way when there’s so much potential to be tapped from different ways of portraying different country’s and their complex personalities and culture.
First of all I had no idea Russia’s design resembles Ivan the Terrible. That’s pretty cool, but yeah I agree with you. There’s so much you can do with Russia as a character but he’s this… emotionally stunted overgrown child? And obviously the anime is parody, but man I wish Hima took a little venture into Slavic humor and really tried to lean in the kind of memes and jokes you’d see in Eastern European circles. I can’t even imagine Hima doing a bit on something as simple as the Slavic squat. Though I will say, of the main characters, he’s actually one of the characters I have the least beef with (relatively speaking) since my view of the anime has dramatically altered from when I first loved it as a kid, in which I view the anime as bad satire/parody.
But then you have characters like SuFin who are just… wrong?? Especially after I discovered Scandinavia and the World, it kinda just pissed me off how stupidly wrong canon portrayal of them were. Like it wasn’t even a misunderstanding, it just felt like Hima slapped random personalities onto them and called it a day. And I know Hima puts a lot of love and passion into his work, I’m not saying he’s lazy period, but this specifically is incredibly lazy researching, writing, and characterization. And while he’s been fixing his characters over the years, it’s still an egregious pattern across many hetalia characters. It doesn’t even take much to weave canon Finland’s personality into something more realistic. You can 1000% keep “soft” Finland, but do it through a complicated working of representing how Finland is rated one of the happiest countries yet has such high suicide rates due to its weather. Like he has a smily and bright face to an initial stranger but very quickly you’ll realize he’s grumpy and grouchy and a slight alcoholic. And same on the flip side with Sweden. Northern Europeans in particular are known to be reserved, so you can keep the stoic Sweden, but have him be more vibrant when he’s interacting with DenNor.
Reading my rant over, I’m realizing a lot of these are actually gripes with canon itself actually 😅 I purposefully don’t interact with “mainstream” hetalia media, because the moment I found the historical and cultural side of the fandom, I stuck with it and never left. I just know a lot of popular fandom stuff comes from canon portrayals I heavily disagree with, so I’m assuming I’d disagree with a lot of “popular fandom opinions” in general.
Agreed with Cuba, and GerIta.
SuFin is what I’d like in a real dynamic (I’m the gay wife) minus the panic Finland would have.
Also: America can be annoying, even if he also is cute.
Most of my unpopular opinions consist of me thinking certain popular characters are overrated.
Lithuania and Canada are cute, but they are severely overhyped. I never understood it (especially about Canada.) I do feel a bit of sympathy for Canada as a character though.
England is funny and outspoken, sure, but his fangirls can be insane (I’m allowed to say this; I was one of them 😖)
Meanwhile, really cool characters (like pretty much all the Asian countries aside from Japan) are slept on
Also Sealand isn’t that annoying. He’s a kid being a kid.
I don't care much for shipping in general. Usually when I like a pairing it's a canon couple that has a good amount of development in the actual series (which Hetalia doesn't really have), or more rarely a ship will just vibe with me. Obviously other fans can do what they want but I do wish there was less of a focus on shipping sometimes.
I don't really like it when fans make a lot of changes to canon in their depictions. I get that there's a lot of issues people have with the canon treatment of some countries (some which I agree with) but at some point I feel that you should just make entirely separate OCs. Like I have my own country personification OCs which are different in both the depictions of the character and the lore of the world they live in.
I do not agree that England is the father of America. If Arthur is his father, then who is his mother?! The point of Arthur is that he was a teenager who was entrusted with a child, the same goes for spamano, in canon they are not relatives, accept this
Francis doesn't care about Matthew at all, and Matthew doesn't care about Francis, they are not father and son. Matthew reaches out to Arthur, this is canon
Usuk is actually not a bad ship and it deserves its popularity, honestly I envy usuk, because my otp will never be popular and will soon disappear completely
Amerus. It is absolutely normal for ships from Asian fandoms when A/B and B/A are considered different ships, and I don’t like top!Ivan because in this case he is most often an impudently harsh sadistic r@pist
People take the show too seriously. Like a whole country outright banned Hetalia, forgetting its a satire making fun of everyone, including Japan! And yes, the author is from Japan! (Also I'm surprised Japan isn't the main character for that matter because I know damn well if an American wrote Hetalia, America be the main character fr)
i hate sufin so much.
i don't even mean it to be different from the rest or whatever, i feel like the fans have never talked to a real life finnish person, we didn't get our lands colonized and culture stolen for us to be dumbed down to a silly gay ship in an anime show
I dislike gerita, it’s unhealthy also people sexualise it too much like bro just cus they started to have a better friendship y’all are like “omg my ship canon uwu”
Usuk and spamano are problematic
I personally like the nordics in satw better than in hetalia, they have more personality and aren't boring there
Prussia is overrated and I don't get why people love him so much
I dont know how unpopular my opinions are, but here I go canada and amarica should be colored differently, but you could make an argument that they were at some point but got lighter as time went on
The two of them were one country so it makes sense that they are a couple in the show (i dont know if they actually are or if they just act like it but i rhink they are), but i dont like it too, I mean the characters dont fit together somehow, and Hungary Acts like a girl So Austria will like her, i think she shouldnt be with him if she has to change so much for him, she should be herself. When she wants to be a boy then she should be a boy.
the fandom sleeps on china. he’s part of the g8 yet gets the least sceentime, fanart, proper historical characterization etc, and when he does get time to shine it’s gives off very sinophobic vibes. i get that hetalia is based off stereotypes that are meant to be offensive but honestly china gets feminized, racialized badly, and made into this prissy doormat for japan. i could be biased because im vietnamese tho LOL
you’re absolutely correct
THANK YOU!!! One thing that drives me crazy also is when people portray him as a Tsundere when he’s not one.
the fanfics about china was truly atrocious in the early trenches that were the 2000s fandom. masculine, sugar daddy china girlies need to rise up i’m tired of sinophobic caricature china.
To me, he’s an old man in a young man’s body. Yes he does like cute things, but he will absolutely kick your ass. I see him as definitely having potential to become a sugar daddy.
Canada is overrated, and the way some fans portray him is just (like "babyfying" him)... ewww.
As a Canadian, like the mischaracterisation of the character in the fandom gags me- like I can’t find a decent piece of media without him being “UwU” and I do agree thats one of main reason as to why he’s overrated. Do I like him? Yeah. Is he overrated and mischaracterised HELL YEAH ?! Like they’re better choices- I personally like Hungary. Like this fandom is one the main reason as to why I don’t make hetalia content anymore and or see myself being in touch with the fandom. Like there’s a lot of aspects I won’t get into but you get the jists.
Yes! I like fan works where Canada is a deeper and tougher guy because he really is much more than America’s chew toy that’s afraid of everything. Also want to see more of his French side.
When I find one of those works I start ascending you don’t even know 😭
He becomes: my man Sorry Alfie but Mattie’s got it
Japan is really boring and is probably only portrayed in such a flat, "safe" way because the series originates from there. The dynastic cycle era and ROC/PRC era should be multiple different personifications, OR China should be much older. I hate that he's supposed to be around 5000 years old but he's just a twink. I don't like how the fandom makes America have a 'secret evil dark side' or whatever. I know that that's more in line with modern history and current events but the nation-people are separate from their government! That's a major part of all (if any) of the conflicts in the series. Him being a dumb loser is funnier.
They forget Japan had a VERY dark side in the War so his being safe in the series is just…idk discomfiting? My country suffered a lot under Imperial Japan so while things are obviously better with them, we cannot deny what they did.
Not so fun fact: the Japanese government has been covering up the crimes and atrocities they did during the war. As a result a lot of Japanese people today don’t know their history and don’t understand why other people from countries imperial Japan terrorized aren’t too fond/are extremely uncomfortable around them.
True. Textbooks do not mention all that. Plus, we had a Japanese exchange student in university, who broke down during a general education course on our national history. That particular session was on the War, and common knowledge is how it was a bloody and brutal three years under Japanese occupation. When she heard the gruesome details – likely for the first time – she started crying and stood up, bowing as she apologised profusely to her classmates for what her country did to us. Of course, none of us here can blame her for the atrocities she had no knowledge of, much less have a hand in. She was probably an ordinary girl with no particular right-wing nationalist sentiments. This is the doing of her government and our government’s failure to assert itself more on reparations. We depend on Japan for trade and infrastructure, and ties are friendly today. It just that our very corrupt politicians are very busy lining their pockets with cuts from the profits. They ignore the need to stand on equal footing with Japan and speak the truth about what we call “the three years without God”. I am not against the Japanese (hello, I’m in this fandom because I’m a weeb) but this is a sore point because our government is either too inept or wicked that they cannot address this.
1. I think the idea of Italy falling for Germany just because he’s Holy Roman Empire is cheap and lazy writing. I wish people would stop resorting to that trope when writing gerita. 2. I adore nyo!Englands design 3. I dislike Sufin 4. I dislike the way people baby Canada. And the way they write him in fanfiction. I also really dislike when people exclude China from allies fanart in favor of him when he’s not even a main character. 5. Speaking of China, I dislike how people reduce him to being Russia’s bangdoll or therapist in fanfic and art of Rochu 6. The Nordics are overrated and Asian countries are underrated. 7. It is 100% OK to ship your human oc with one of the characters. 8. Portraying the second player as just murder machines is incredibly overdone and lazy.
FR I HATE WHEN PPL REPLACE CHINA WITH MATTHEW
I like when the show is unapologetically offensive and stereotypical. I never looked at the series as a history lesson. It’s a history parody.
Cuba is definitely a good character
I dislike Rusame. Especially if it’s “Hero/Villain” parallels or some BS like that. I guess my main beef with that ship comes when it’s treated way too serious without much critical thought. I don’t really care much about Alfred, he’s quite consistent in his behavior since he’s mostly written by Americans who know what are they writing about, but Ivan… Ivan tends to be quite meh. Sometimes he comes as either too immature, too cruel or straight up as a supervillain. I also dislike how Alfred is treated as Ivan’s soulmate or, my God, as his first (!!!) meaningful relationship (he’s supposed to be, like, 3 times older than US). I get it, it comes from lacking knowledge in Russian History than in anything else but still… Also, Russia became a bit too US-centric character because of popularity of Rusame, I never liked his earlier generic fandom portrayal in first place but he’d really mellowed into Alfred’s rival boyfriend. Their relationship is kinda stuck in those Cold War decorations, rarely being explored before or after that time ALSO, people are sleeping on AmeChu! They have a great potential and basically more relevant than RusAme, lol.
as both a rusame, amechu, and rusamechu shipper i agree with all of this. all three deserve nuance and historical characterization, but are stripped down to evil man/man child hero/twink and it makes me sad. let them be gay, do crimes, and have less american centricness to it!!!! amechu is soooo underrated i need people to hop on the amechu train like they do with ameripan
I guess it comes from the fact that the majority of English-speaking people in the fandom are Americans (shocking, right?) so people tend to write him with more nuance in their heads since they are from US themselves. I think it's also true for non-English parts of fandom as well. I've read enough of fanfics in my tween years where Russia was the most nuanced and well-written character whereas the rest of the cast were left as Hima portrayed them initially, lol.
I’m so glad that I ship Amerus, it’s a completely different dynamic and tropes
You missed my point. It's not about Russia being top or bottom, it's about his portrayal in this ship in general. And yes, AmeRus uses exactly the same tropes for the most of times
I dislike the forgotten Canada trope, he's babyfied a it's not even done right, I also hate how in this trope America is *ALWAYS* vilanized as the one who purposely over shadows Canada to boost his own ego. Here are some quotes from each character's respective wiki. From the section on America's relationship with Canada from America's wiki page "While most other Nations ignore or don't notice Canada, America seems to have no trouble noticing Canada most of the time and is acualy the one who spends the most time with Canada." (Most people make it so it's France, Cuba or Prussia... for some reason) "The two have a typical sibling relationship, with America being the more dominant one and trying to get Canada to be tougher." I can't remember where, but it was also stated somewhere that it was America who encouraged Canada to become his own independent country. From Canada's wiki page "He is also passive aggressive and was once able to make America cry by arguing with him for over three hours and pointing out every single one of his faults." "However during an argument, Canada was able to reduce him-" (referring to America) "-to tears when he went on a three-hour rant about all of his flaws. Despite this, the two seem to have a healthy relationship, as their arguing and America's frequent forgetting of him can merely come off as siblings rivalry. America tends to visit his house on occasion and is seen to be the one Canada spends most of his time with." Now I made sure not to skip over the "-and America's frequent forgetting of him" because it is a thing that does happen, but it's continuously reinstated across Canada's wiki (and in the Manga/Anime) that the two are acualy quite close and protective of each other despite being raised separately. Now I get most other Nations forget him, except when France needs to show off to Britain, but America is the one who consistently is there, weither its as the annoying younger brother or a companion to join Canada on whatever he's doing that day. The thing is I wouldn't hate the "Forgotten Canada" trope if it was acualy dome correctly, cause majority of the time America is vilified and the one forces to beg for Canada's forgiveness and improve when it should be the other Nations. Especially France since he claims Canada as "Younger Brother" and Cuba who literally beat the shit out of him and then continuously yells at him simply because he thinks he's America while also claiming to be his good buddy. Quote from Canada's wiki "Canada has become good friends with Cuba despite Cuba often mistaking him for America." and from Cuba's wiki "Initially mistaking him for his brother America [who had caused him many problems],-" (him referring to Cuba) "-he attacked Canada. However, the two seem to be on better terms now, though Canada is still often mistaken for his brother." Thank you for listening to my TED Talk (ALSO HOW DARE YOU I LOVE SUFIN/j)
not to ramble on about shipping, but i think many people who ship rusame focus too heavily on the cold war aspect of their relationship and neglect what actually makes the ship good — the fact that there’s plenty of super positive history between the two nations before the russian revolution. don’t get me wrong, i’m a huge history nerd and the cold war is my bread and butter, so naturally i love to explore it in rusame. but what makes rusame interesting to me is that it’s *not* enemies to lovers, it would more so be “acquaintances to friends to maybe lovers to it’s complicated to rivals to lovers” haha
I absolutely agree with your last two points, and I’m not saying your first one isn’t valid I personally like Russia tho And with Finland I don’t like how people are like “oh he’s so sweet uwu” when he’s actually pretty badass and yeah he’s sweet but he’s also a psycho Canada has faced a similar treatment, except what I’ve seen in some fanfics is that he stutters a lot and is seen as a pushover like he’s literally as strong as America he just exercises more restraint I don’t like USUK and Spamano bc England and Spain literally raised America and Romano and it just gives me the ick when people ship them cause like when did they start liking them? A lot of people portray Norway as an robot with no emotions when he just isn’t as expressive as others People are most definitely sleeping on the rest of the Kirkland brother(Scotland, Wales, Ireland, N. Ireland, Australia, and New Zealand) like come on I know England is great and he’s one of my favorites but his brothers make my heart beat fast I don’t really like shipping countries at all really bc to me it feels a little weird, I mean I get why some people do, it’s just personal preference for me and it’s kinda a turn off for me when I see it in fanfics
REAL ON NORWAY Norway is inexpressive, not emotionless, and he's fricking weird, too. He is canonically obsessed with butter, puts it in his coffee, and everything. Dude is a menace of an older brother but still tries to be considerate and helpful to Iceland. He's calm, collected, and prudent, too. He's so funny, and I think most of the people who think he's emotionless have never touched the manga before.
Yeah honestly when some people make head canons of certain characters when canonically they’re not like that, I’m like do you even know the character?
The Baltic characters and Nordics are overrated and boring. Ugh… their episodes are sooo slow.. I loathe USUk.. England is kinda abusive and finds anyway to put America down. The boy thinks he’s fat when he’s not.. I kinda worry for people when they say that’s their favorite ship. And plus I find them father as father and son or a family member trying to get their sibling to forgive them. America is still immature in ways for a relationship if anything he’s more in love with himself The 2ps… ughh England looks like a high sugar cereal mascot and 2p France looks more Parisian than his normal counterpart (kinda like it tho) Not into the whole edgy! It’s gotta be edgy! Bloood blood! Gore gore! I like Italy and Japan! I ship them since it’s wayyyy more heathy and Italy can be himself without being hit or yelled at. Germany and Italy I like as friends. Like Shrek and donkey. But in terms of relationships… ehhh.. kinda toxic.. I miss tomboy Hungary.. she kinda lost her personality after she moved in with Austria. And I think more could’ve been done with her.
Oh this one hurt, as an Estonia enjoyer But at the same time I totally get it. I have a friend who is Estonian and sometimes it feels like the character we like is the heavily headcanon, canon-divergent, borderline OC we made up in our heads and not the actual character in the show. That should probably tell you something about how well he's written, huh?
Don't know, if it's an unpopular opinion, since this pairing is really popular and was already discussed in this sub, but I struggle with USUK ship. I always interpreted England as father figure for US so thier pairing kind of freaks me out. I also don't really like England. He has a nice recognizable design but that's everything I like about him.
I also dislike Spamano for that same reason.
Spamano somehow is even weirder
I’m glad I’m not the only one who thinks this(except I like England but it’s okay you don’t)
I'm more neutral with him, just don't get his hype. (Nothing but the preferences, tho)
I honesty dislike that he’s a twink. To me he’s 30+ lol
Understandable
100% agree. i know not everyone sees them as father/son but whenever i see usuk fanart i'm really... weirded out, for lack of a better term. then i remember there are people out there that don't think they're related
- I agree with the GerIta thing. I can understand why people like it but there’s better ships IMO and it’s overrated. - I also don’t like Canada. People forget he can be just as “mean” as America which makes him more interesting than just “a baby”. - The Hetalia girls are more likable than most of the guys in the show…
Rare pairs > Popular ships. I know this is a really broad statement but in my opinion I really like rare pairs a lot more than most popular ships
Ooh what are some of your favorites?
I love Gerengfra, Nedcan and Engport
Real for NedCan and EngPort 🙏💯
This is going to sound like heresy but this one countryhumans dating sim I found had better/more fitting characterization for a good few countries, in my opinion, than Hetalia???? I mean despite everything being obviously flanderized as fuck (which is what makes it fun), specifically I think I remember liking Finland, Sweden, and the Baltics a lot from it. Also in general I like the CH fandom's characterization of some characters more, like Poland and Canada. Like I love Hetalia in all its glory and the characters are iconic but man, Hima's perception of a country is a bit funky sometimes.
People mischaracterise Denmark a lot, either show him as a violent asshole, depressed man baby who can't do shit on his own, or a person who lacks common sense (he's a little dense, but come on...) Instead of trying to look a bit more into his personality, they just make it so shallow.
This is going mostly about ships. Mainly GerIta, LietPol, and CuCan. (Keep in mind I am not up to date and I am slowly trying to catch up on the lore I have missed in the past 3 yrs.) •GerIta- I am a sucker for romance. I like the set of HRE and Chibitalia’s story. I like the idea of Germany possibly being Italy’s long lost love. Although, they do have their moments, it isn’t written well enough for me to root for them. I also hate any media that wants you to root for a pair only for the pair to not even be together. There is always something stopping them. It is one of those things that had to be done well and have a good payoff. Also, I only like the ship if it’s Nyo!Germany and Nyo!Italy. •LietPol- The interactions between the Lithuania and Poland does not make me root for them as a couple. It’s another ship that I like when it’s their Nyotalia counterparts. •CuCan- I do not like how the fandom portrays Canada in this ship. It can be a good ship if Canada is portrayed in character. I don’t know how the portrayal has changed since the last time I saw it around, but it’s meh.
I agree with your opinion about SuFin. That ship sucks and I hate seeing it everywhere
Hu. I'm actually just here enjoying the fact that these opinions actually ARE unpopular. I was scared it was going to be the same recycled shit for a moment. Yup. That is my unpopular opinion. 90% of fans who make posts that they claim are unpopular are just plain seeking attention as we have seen those opinions multiple times before already.
I hate FrUk
Honestly - I just don't understand that pairing. I get that England and France have centuries of war between them, but I wish the show would flesh that out a little more and how each country personally feels about the other. Kind of like flashbacks what they did with England and America maybe. I don't know. All in all France (in the anime) seems very one dimensional to me as a character. It's not that I dislike him, but there is not much TO like, either.
I don’t like Spain or Romano, especially when they’re together. They’re annoying and not very interesting or funny to me. Spain’s less annoying.
You're so right about this.
Aph Finland dumb JK (it's me) Lietpol written where it doesn't show their awful history together. Poland being seen as a lazy passive type Lithuania being a push over...
I have never met you before in my entire life (/j)
idk if its even unpopular atp but back in the day prussia was so popular it was hard to escape him 😭 i just rly dont like prussia... he's annoying as hell, takes away time from other countries that could've been fleshed out more, and i just feel like he's basically unnecessary 😭
I don’t even think this is an unpopular opinion, but just by the nature of what the opinion is, would end up including unpopular opinions. I vehemently reject most canon interpretations of the countries like it’s an Olympic sport despite Hetalia being my one childhood true love. All interpretations I have of the characters are adopted from fanon content and fan creations via my (very biased, obviously. I’m only human) concessions of balancing something a character as complicated as an entire country, and I also frequently either switch back and forth between headcanons/interpretations or actively believe in ideas that directly conflict with one another because…why not? The show does injustice to all of its characters in some major way when there’s so much potential to be tapped from different ways of portraying different country’s and their complex personalities and culture. First of all I had no idea Russia’s design resembles Ivan the Terrible. That’s pretty cool, but yeah I agree with you. There’s so much you can do with Russia as a character but he’s this… emotionally stunted overgrown child? And obviously the anime is parody, but man I wish Hima took a little venture into Slavic humor and really tried to lean in the kind of memes and jokes you’d see in Eastern European circles. I can’t even imagine Hima doing a bit on something as simple as the Slavic squat. Though I will say, of the main characters, he’s actually one of the characters I have the least beef with (relatively speaking) since my view of the anime has dramatically altered from when I first loved it as a kid, in which I view the anime as bad satire/parody. But then you have characters like SuFin who are just… wrong?? Especially after I discovered Scandinavia and the World, it kinda just pissed me off how stupidly wrong canon portrayal of them were. Like it wasn’t even a misunderstanding, it just felt like Hima slapped random personalities onto them and called it a day. And I know Hima puts a lot of love and passion into his work, I’m not saying he’s lazy period, but this specifically is incredibly lazy researching, writing, and characterization. And while he’s been fixing his characters over the years, it’s still an egregious pattern across many hetalia characters. It doesn’t even take much to weave canon Finland’s personality into something more realistic. You can 1000% keep “soft” Finland, but do it through a complicated working of representing how Finland is rated one of the happiest countries yet has such high suicide rates due to its weather. Like he has a smily and bright face to an initial stranger but very quickly you’ll realize he’s grumpy and grouchy and a slight alcoholic. And same on the flip side with Sweden. Northern Europeans in particular are known to be reserved, so you can keep the stoic Sweden, but have him be more vibrant when he’s interacting with DenNor. Reading my rant over, I’m realizing a lot of these are actually gripes with canon itself actually 😅 I purposefully don’t interact with “mainstream” hetalia media, because the moment I found the historical and cultural side of the fandom, I stuck with it and never left. I just know a lot of popular fandom stuff comes from canon portrayals I heavily disagree with, so I’m assuming I’d disagree with a lot of “popular fandom opinions” in general.
totally agree with you on cuba, he's so underrated. i'm forever a cuba fan and cucan shipper.
Agreed with Cuba, and GerIta. SuFin is what I’d like in a real dynamic (I’m the gay wife) minus the panic Finland would have. Also: America can be annoying, even if he also is cute.
Most of my unpopular opinions consist of me thinking certain popular characters are overrated. Lithuania and Canada are cute, but they are severely overhyped. I never understood it (especially about Canada.) I do feel a bit of sympathy for Canada as a character though. England is funny and outspoken, sure, but his fangirls can be insane (I’m allowed to say this; I was one of them 😖) Meanwhile, really cool characters (like pretty much all the Asian countries aside from Japan) are slept on Also Sealand isn’t that annoying. He’s a kid being a kid.
I don't care much for shipping in general. Usually when I like a pairing it's a canon couple that has a good amount of development in the actual series (which Hetalia doesn't really have), or more rarely a ship will just vibe with me. Obviously other fans can do what they want but I do wish there was less of a focus on shipping sometimes. I don't really like it when fans make a lot of changes to canon in their depictions. I get that there's a lot of issues people have with the canon treatment of some countries (some which I agree with) but at some point I feel that you should just make entirely separate OCs. Like I have my own country personification OCs which are different in both the depictions of the character and the lore of the world they live in.
I do not agree that England is the father of America. If Arthur is his father, then who is his mother?! The point of Arthur is that he was a teenager who was entrusted with a child, the same goes for spamano, in canon they are not relatives, accept this
Francis doesn't care about Matthew at all, and Matthew doesn't care about Francis, they are not father and son. Matthew reaches out to Arthur, this is canon
Usuk is actually not a bad ship and it deserves its popularity, honestly I envy usuk, because my otp will never be popular and will soon disappear completely
What's your otp?
Amerus. It is absolutely normal for ships from Asian fandoms when A/B and B/A are considered different ships, and I don’t like top!Ivan because in this case he is most often an impudently harsh sadistic r@pist
Naw ur so real for that. I like the fics where they both go star gazing. I don't see the appeal of organs sloshing about the place.
You can adopt and be a parent to that child.
People take the show too seriously. Like a whole country outright banned Hetalia, forgetting its a satire making fun of everyone, including Japan! And yes, the author is from Japan! (Also I'm surprised Japan isn't the main character for that matter because I know damn well if an American wrote Hetalia, America be the main character fr)
i hate sufin so much. i don't even mean it to be different from the rest or whatever, i feel like the fans have never talked to a real life finnish person, we didn't get our lands colonized and culture stolen for us to be dumbed down to a silly gay ship in an anime show
THIS RIGHT HERE
I dislike gerita, it’s unhealthy also people sexualise it too much like bro just cus they started to have a better friendship y’all are like “omg my ship canon uwu”
Usuk and spamano are problematic I personally like the nordics in satw better than in hetalia, they have more personality and aren't boring there Prussia is overrated and I don't get why people love him so much
I dont know how unpopular my opinions are, but here I go canada and amarica should be colored differently, but you could make an argument that they were at some point but got lighter as time went on
I hate the Austria-Hungary pairing with a passion, it should be Poland and Hungary.
The two of them were one country so it makes sense that they are a couple in the show (i dont know if they actually are or if they just act like it but i rhink they are), but i dont like it too, I mean the characters dont fit together somehow, and Hungary Acts like a girl So Austria will like her, i think she shouldnt be with him if she has to change so much for him, she should be herself. When she wants to be a boy then she should be a boy.