things that aren't funny.
So. About that preview of dub!America. More specifically, about that line dub!America gets, where he tells England to do a suicide charge "like the Light Brigade" and tells Russia to "keep sending us your cannon fodder!"
I don't like it. I don't think it's in keeping with the tone of the series, and I don't like what it does to America's character.
Hetalia is a satire, yes. But Hetalia's a very different kind of satire than, say, Dr. Strangelove, where you do get jokes about the nuclear annihilation of the human race. Hetalia mostly restricts its jokes to the ways in which various nations fail.
I don't want to get into the argument about Dead Baby Comedy here and whether you can make jokes about truly awful things, because the point I'm making here is that Hetalia is not Dead Baby Comedy. Himaruya stopped the main storyline before the invasion of Poland for a reason; Himaruya is absolutely silent on the Holocaust for a reason; Himaruya makes jokes about Italians making pasta in the desert and not about underequipped Italian troops charging armored tanks with little to no armed support for a reason. When mass murder does appear in canon, in the Bloody Sunday strip, it's one of the most serious moments in the strips, and it's used to give Russia a more human side than we've previously gotten to see of him. Regardless of whether or not you can or should joke about such things, Himaruya doesn't. Why? I suspect you'd have to ask him, but I think it's because he has a fairly specific idea of what the Nations are. Often bumbling, often misguided, failing more often than not, but sympathetic. Not bad sorts, really. Stereotypes not only anthropomorphized but humanized.
"You guys are my sidekicks, which makes me the hero!" is a different joke than "you guys send your troops to go off and die so I can claim all the glory!" It worries me that Funi didn't get that. This isn't fanwork; this is the canon. Funi's going against the grain of the canon, the intent behind the series, and is presenting a version of Hetalia that dehumanizes the Nations instead of portraying them sympathetically. And maybe there is room for that kind of black comedy somewhere, but it's not why I started reading the series, and it's not what the series is.
As for what actually transpired in history, or making jokes more historically accurate -- Hetalia's not a textbook, and it never has been. You can draw on history to influence and lend nuance to your characterization of the Nations -- in fanwork. But the canon itself has rather specific characterizations for the Nations, a rather specific outlook on history as a whole, one drawn from twenty-first century stereotypes a Japanese man studying in America was conversant with, and regardless of whether or not they're period-accurate, that's what the canon is. And you know what, I'm fine with what the canon is. Doesn't mean I won't do different stuff in fic, at least tonally, but again, that's fic. I don't like Funi messing around with the characterization because it changes what the series is, it changes who the characters are, and it's being presented not as interpretation but as authoritative version. As canon. And honestly, if America acted like that in Hetalia canon, I'd like him a hell of a lot less. I like Hetalia's America because in spite of his obliviousness and thoughtlessness, he's not malicious. He wants the best for people, and he thinks he's the person best-equipped to give people that. He's wrong, but his intentions are good. I don't see that good nature, that generosity, that desire to help and to save people, in this version of America. He's not trying to be a real hero (and failing), he's some kind of Iron-Age-tinged middle-finger to the concept of heroism, and it pisses me off.
And that's the thing; the Nations in Hetalia aren't malicious, generally. They want the best for their people, and even for each other, they just fail a lot in getting it. They're not jerks, they're losers.
The character in that preview clip isn't the character I've been writing for nearly two years.
Comments are enabled on this post, but please keep it civil.
.
I don't like it. I don't think it's in keeping with the tone of the series, and I don't like what it does to America's character.
Hetalia is a satire, yes. But Hetalia's a very different kind of satire than, say, Dr. Strangelove, where you do get jokes about the nuclear annihilation of the human race. Hetalia mostly restricts its jokes to the ways in which various nations fail.
I don't want to get into the argument about Dead Baby Comedy here and whether you can make jokes about truly awful things, because the point I'm making here is that Hetalia is not Dead Baby Comedy. Himaruya stopped the main storyline before the invasion of Poland for a reason; Himaruya is absolutely silent on the Holocaust for a reason; Himaruya makes jokes about Italians making pasta in the desert and not about underequipped Italian troops charging armored tanks with little to no armed support for a reason. When mass murder does appear in canon, in the Bloody Sunday strip, it's one of the most serious moments in the strips, and it's used to give Russia a more human side than we've previously gotten to see of him. Regardless of whether or not you can or should joke about such things, Himaruya doesn't. Why? I suspect you'd have to ask him, but I think it's because he has a fairly specific idea of what the Nations are. Often bumbling, often misguided, failing more often than not, but sympathetic. Not bad sorts, really. Stereotypes not only anthropomorphized but humanized.
"You guys are my sidekicks, which makes me the hero!" is a different joke than "you guys send your troops to go off and die so I can claim all the glory!" It worries me that Funi didn't get that. This isn't fanwork; this is the canon. Funi's going against the grain of the canon, the intent behind the series, and is presenting a version of Hetalia that dehumanizes the Nations instead of portraying them sympathetically. And maybe there is room for that kind of black comedy somewhere, but it's not why I started reading the series, and it's not what the series is.
As for what actually transpired in history, or making jokes more historically accurate -- Hetalia's not a textbook, and it never has been. You can draw on history to influence and lend nuance to your characterization of the Nations -- in fanwork. But the canon itself has rather specific characterizations for the Nations, a rather specific outlook on history as a whole, one drawn from twenty-first century stereotypes a Japanese man studying in America was conversant with, and regardless of whether or not they're period-accurate, that's what the canon is. And you know what, I'm fine with what the canon is. Doesn't mean I won't do different stuff in fic, at least tonally, but again, that's fic. I don't like Funi messing around with the characterization because it changes what the series is, it changes who the characters are, and it's being presented not as interpretation but as authoritative version. As canon. And honestly, if America acted like that in Hetalia canon, I'd like him a hell of a lot less. I like Hetalia's America because in spite of his obliviousness and thoughtlessness, he's not malicious. He wants the best for people, and he thinks he's the person best-equipped to give people that. He's wrong, but his intentions are good. I don't see that good nature, that generosity, that desire to help and to save people, in this version of America. He's not trying to be a real hero (and failing), he's some kind of Iron-Age-tinged middle-finger to the concept of heroism, and it pisses me off.
And that's the thing; the Nations in Hetalia aren't malicious, generally. They want the best for their people, and even for each other, they just fail a lot in getting it. They're not jerks, they're losers.
The character in that preview clip isn't the character I've been writing for nearly two years.
Comments are enabled on this post, but please keep it civil.
.