No likey, no clicky.

Warning, some swearing ahead.


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Not too long ago, I saw a journal from a stamp maker I used to watch with a new, yet stupid, rule saying, "Any stamp requests regarding couples which are extremely offensive will be denied." My first reaction was "What??" and then my second was "What. The. Hell." with me facepalming at the utter stupidity of that new rule. And it was coming from a stamp maker of all people. She even went to say that HongPiri is offensive! Okay, there's the Manila tour bus hostage crisis back in August of 2010, but they settled the spat in April! What's up with that?!

First Hetalia's slammed for being racist, the anthropomorphized country gets slammed for being offensive, their Nyo counterparts get slammed for being offensive, I got slammed for being racist just because I hate a Hetalia character (*coughPrussiacough* and fuck off social justice warriors), and now Hetalia couples are offensive? That's like saying Seymour x Yuna from Final Fantasy X is offensive! (I don't ship those two together because Seymour is a villain.)

Going back to the HongPiri example, I have met a few Hongkongers and Filipinos on this site that don't find this couple offensive (I highly doubt they would even BEFORE or during the tour bus incident). And then there's FrUK! It's offensive, and yet the British and French Hetalia fandoms don't mind it one bit and ship it like crazy despite the sour history the two (in Hetalia and in real life) have! And NiChu! It's also offensive and the Chinese and Japanese Hetalia communities don't mind it! And there's USUK! And SuFin! And KorAme! And JapTai! SpaPiri! RusAme! RusPol! RusPru! HonChu! And shit tons of couples, crack or otherwise, that may be or are offensive! And yet nobody gives two shits about it! Why? Three reasons:

One: Hetalia isn't supposed to be taken seriously
First it gets slammed on for being racist, an anthropomorphized country gets slammed on as offensive, writers and fanartists get bashed on for drawing or writing out events that are offensive, I got slammed on for being racist just because I hate whatever Hetalia character represents his/her ethnicity and now someone's gonna whine about Hetalia pairings being offensive. Well then, let me tell you this: Hetalia crack pairings EX-FUCKING-SIST! No matter what, your country will always ALWAYS be paired up with another country yours has bad relations with, whether it's in the past or current. If you don't like the idea of two of your countries that hate or don't like each other being paired up together as lovers or otherwise, that's okay, I'm cool with that. But don't you dare say that it's offensive just because you don't like it, so shut the fuck up about it, grow a damn pair and move on. Besides, regarding the Hetalia anime itself and the relations of two countries, they do NOT have to necessarily reflect historical or political events in real life, thus further reasoning that Hetalia isn't supposed to be taken seriously.

One of the major examples is Hong Kong and China, my #1 bromance. In real life, their relations aren't that great and the Hongkongers there have been realizing that their "one country, two systems" policy is completely rigged according to a news article I've read a few weeks ago. In Hetalia's case, the two have a strong familial bond, somewhat of a parent-child relationship, that rivals that of England and a colonial America. Living proof that even though that countries are supposed to be human embodiments of themselves and have positive and negative stereotypes, they have their own personalities as is and most of their relationships don't necessarily reflect the actual countries' relations. Please note that I said most. (You guys get what I mean.)

Two: The Hetalia characters are HUMAN in form
The most OOOOOOBVIOUS in the Hetalia fandom and yet people overlook this. And no, I'm not counting their mochi and cat forms. Anyways, the Hetalia characters are EMBODIMENTS of whatever country they represent, thus classifying them as "immortal humans." They look like humans, act like humans, think like humans, feel emotions like humans, hell, they LOVE each other as humans, whether it's romantic, friendship or familial (leave incest out of this, please, it's never okay), it's TRUE LOVE they can get to just as easily as humans can. We can also hate or love the characters as humans (social justice warriors, if you think hating a Hetalia character is racist, grow a damn pair). We can also SHIP them as humans. And we can easily ship humans with humanoids and other species (extraterrestrial only, please), though whether the countries as humans can get married like humans can is up in the air. And I have this headcanon that all nations (except for the Ancients, China included) are naturally sterile...

Anyways, all the Hetalia characters are human in lots of ways (except for their immortality), and we can ship them as humans. Because we can. And we will not listen to whiny brats.

And lastly three: Hetalia ships are NEVER meant to be taken seriously
Going back to reason one, the anime itself is just Hetalia characters personified as countries just acting silly and playful, malicious or hostile to each other, or just being friends in this, as FUNimation puts it, "wildly inappropriate reality show." It's not supposed to be taken seriously. Neither is Hetalia pairings. Both of those will never be, just the same as both these things as "offensive." No matter what, when a movie or TV show comes up and made public, expect crap tons of ships to set sail, whether it's yaoi, yuri or hetero. Hetalia is no exception. Whether you like it or not. People ship Hetalia pairings with a passion, seriousness doesn't play a role here, and whether or not real-life relations, past or present, play a role depends on the ship.

For example, I ship USUK as lovers because of the real-life "Special Relationship" they have, and I don't ship FrUK nor will I do because of the bad relations they have in the past (I think they're on neutral terms nowadays?), and people ship TurkGreece despite the bad relations they have in the past BECAUSE THEY CAN! Not like I'll ever ship those two together as lovers or anything (GiriPan FTW and I support Turkey being single).

To sum it all up: no Hetalia pairing is OFFENSIVE. Just because someone ships your country with another even though they have bad relations, it will never mean that the ship is an insult to your country. The same goes for the latter. You social justice warriors and culture-loving fanatics never cease to amuse me (don't get me wrong, I'm just your average American Aspie girl who loves her culture). Hetalia's not offensive, any personified country with positive and negative stereotypes ins't offensive, any short story, fan fiction series or fanart regarding a historical event/disaster isn't offensive (except for weeaboos who make it seem to be), hating a Hetalia character isn't racist, AND Hetalia pairings and shipping two personified countries together is NOT offensive in ANY way. Never forget that.