Fic rec - Tell Me A Piece Of Your History

[sakura_no_miko]

Title: Tell Me A Piece of Your History

Author: cultureandseptember

Fandom: Hetalia: Axis Powers

Rating: PG-13

Pairing: none, gen

Warnings: violence, character injury, terrorism, discussion of war and genocide, sexism

Other notes: social media, identity reveal

Length: 16k

Summary: An account of the media reactions to the reveal of Nations (anthropomorphic national embodiments) with scholarly commentary.

 

 

Oh my god, in this day and age I am reading a serious Hetalia fic (!) and enjoying it (!!).

First, an aside: have you ever considered why there are some fandoms you instantly want fic for, and some where you never consider it? Personally, I can’t quite pinpoint why. I know satisfaction is an issue — CW dramas have always been prime material for fic for me, because I like the actors but the plots tend to be lacking. I want to write my own plots and pairings for these characters I love. Yet I don’t feel the same about Doctor Who. Still like the characters, still feel there’s a lot of plots that go nowhere, but I feel a sense of contentment with Doctor Who, so I don’t feel a need for fic. I dunno.

So, Hetalia. I tend to miss fandom wank, because I’m not super active online. But, oh, I did not miss this particular wank. Whew. Shoot, you can read TvTropes or Fanlore, but, suffice to say, this is a mostly cutesy comedy based on questionable stereotypes that also happens to take place during World War 2, and the lead characters are a group of…friends…who are the anthropomorphic embodiments of Japan, Germany, and, of course, Italy (the hetare, or useless, Italia of the title). Or…at least a World War 2 that apparently doesn’t have the Holocaust going on? They kind of just skip over that whole thing for wacky hijinks with the Axis Powers. ??? I still don’t get it.

(Admittedly, I have a higher tolerance for questionable stuff in anime. I’ve got too many shows where it’s like, I totally recommend watching this — except there’s this one character who is a stereotype. Or this questionable amount of fanservice. Yeah… it’s a weakness. I admit it.)

But, anyway, Hetalia is still mostly a a show with quick jokes and very little plot, occasionally interspersed with cute friend and family moments. Like Italy and Grandpa Roman Empire, or the flashbacks to how well Britain and his baby brother America used to get along before America hit his rebellious phase and rejected him. And a host of adorable ear-worm-y ending songs.

There’s not a lot of substance, so, yeah, I never felt the urge to look at fic. Also the fandom drama was scary.

Still, here I am, reading a dead-serious fic about these comedic characters getting outed to the world at large. I’m sitting here, spending way too much time thinking about, yeah, how would a single character actually embody the totality of an entire country? Is this like some American Gods style form of deity? How do you look at the entire history of a country, all its wars and persecution and conquering, and judge all that?

The best part of this is that we’re mostly following Alfred/America, who is mostly a doofy side character, from what I remember. Although a quick glance at the other fics on AO3 are telling me that he’s possibly the most popular dude, especially when shipped with — Britain? Um, I guess take that earlier reference to them being brothers with a grain of salt. I thought they were brothers, ha. Then again, when has that ever stopped shippers.

Shoot. Too much backstory, not enough fic reccing. So, this is another social media based fic, and heavily influenced by the last fic I rec’ced, US v Barnes. Again, I love it when social media makes the world seem so much more realistic.

It’s just — okay, I know it’s far from an original concept to do a serious/realistic/dark take on a comedy. At the same time, there’s probably a reason why I really enjoyed this fic, but I don’t have the urge to go and read any other Hetalia stuff. Because this is a fairly out there take on the characters and their lives, and much more nuanced and morally dubious than what you’ll see in the source material.

On the one hand, it’s a story about how crappy humans can be. I mean, of course, of course, America immediately riots against their Nation. Shoot, of course it was Americans who managed to declassify the existence of the nations at all. Again we get a lot of very violent douches on Twitter. I’m kind of glad I don’t use Twitter. Man.

Yet — the more dark and violent parts are the most fascinating to me. The Nations getting outed and having to band together to save themselves, not unlike The Winter of Banked Fires. The mixture of horror, like China’s interview about his vast and violent history; anger, like the female states rising up against sexism; and comedy, when we cap it off with America doing and interview with Stephen Colbert.

(Actually I’m sure I’ve seen Captain America do that in fic. Shoot. I can’t remember which one, but I’ve seen it. Actually, there’s probably a Stephen Colbert tag on AO3. Hmm. Maybe I’ll browse that later. I can only imagine what’s in there. Of course, I’ve also seen fic where Cap talks with Kim Kardashian. Lot of real world figures in Marvel fic.)

Maybe is just comes down to all the meta aspects — like I said, America is a doof, but here he gets to be a bit more heroic. China — I don’t remember a huge amount about China in the canon, but here he gets to be old and wise and just a little bitchy. Canada’s main joke is that people ignore him to the point where he’s invisible. Here he gets a heroic moment. The female characters actually get to do something!

So I do wonder if this is an even-handed review, because it’s all coming from a meta perspective. I mean, I do think this fic is innovative and well-written, uses a ton of narrative voices and takes a very unique take on the characters. I suppose that’s an issue with all fanfiction, though — you usually bring the meta to it. You can judge a fic based on how it specifically interacts with canon, or you can try to judge it as a story on it’s own, but fic is unique in that you will always have that meta level.

Um, my favorite part:

“If you could say anything to the humans condemning your existence? The ones that are shouting for your condemnation?”

Wang Yao: ...Respect your elders.

 

BenBen Smith @BenBenBen

RESPECT YOUR ELDERS sounded a lot like f-you, didn’t it? #ChinaSpeaks

Like Spock—Live long and prosper.

I love China, but I also love the Twitter response that drops casual Star Trek.

To conclude, because this is too Long: first, I lied. I did actually read one other Hetalia fic I enjoyed: In Hell, The Simultaneous Translators Are Swiss. It was cute. But also I skipped over 95% of the fics I looked at, so I’m still counting this as an exception.

Aside from US v Barnes, I’m very reminded of The Fourth Estate, which is still being updated and I am still glued to my seat, so read that too.

Though — America aside, most of what I remember from Hetalia was Germany being grumpy and Italy being a doof, which actually makes me think of another fandom. Yup. I’m getting some Eroica flashbacks. Also some Petshop of Horrors flashbacks. Hmm. Ideas…

(Also, the title is from Bastille, and I love them, so I was probably cheering for this fic from the beginning.)

(Looking for more fic recs?)

Originally posted on pillowfort on 01/06/19