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The Bulbagarden Conversational Chat Thread Vol 4

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Goodbye Blue Monday

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LOL. We don't mean to be scary. Homestuck fans are scarier.

Maybe I've just gotten the better half of the Homestuck fandom since a lot of my friends are into it, although I've never been able to get into it myself. (I have seen the crazy ones on Tumblr who think they have Karkat as a "headmate" or whatever, but those people do that with every fandom.)

The thing about Hetalia is I have some friends who are really into history or international relations, as much as I am, who really like it, so I feel like I should give it a chance. But then there are the people who dress up in Nazi regalia and do the "Heil Hitler" salute at Anime Boston. And I don't know, the whole idea sort of rubs me the wrong way, like it's fetishizing this really awful period in history (and not just talking about the Holocaust, the other two Axis Powers were terrible in their own ways - especially Japan - and the Allies were hardly saints) by turning the countries into cute bishies.

But some of the people I know who are into it are just as sensitive about that stuff as I am, some even more so; like one friend who found Inglourious Basterds offensive, while obviously (just look at my profile picture) I loved that movie. So maybe my impression is completely off. It just weirds me out when people are squeeing over some bishie version of Nazi Germany or Fascist Italy.
 

Niji

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I'm being dog-piled on by cold dachshunds again :3 .
You have dachshunds?! Lucky! I've always wanted one of those, they're so small and cute! ;w; I had a Yorkshire terrier when I was really young, she was adorable. She died when I was six though. :c

I would participate in the avatar changing extravaganza, but I've got my only little scheme under my sleeve. >:3
Awe :( . Small and cute doesn't mean nice O_O' . I'm pretty sure they're demons XD . They do have a lot of personality, though. I want a bull terrier, or some kind of ridgeback dog.
 

pokemoll

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The Hetalia fandom, like every other fandom, has a bad side, ours is just a very very bad one. I don't agree with the fetishising of Nazi Germany/Prussia or Fascist Italy, and neither does a considerable amount of the fandom. There's no Nazi glorifying in the actual show, most of the bad stuff is just fanon and man-oh-man is it annoying. If you don't like stereotypes however, Hetalia is a bad move, because the whole thing is based of sterotyping countries.
 

Goodbye Blue Monday

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And I feel like I just have a kneejerk reaction to a lot of anime portrayals of WWII. Just because Japan's government has been the most loathe of the three former Axis powers to apologize for the shit they did in WWII. And it seems like a lot of the stuff about Hiroshima and Nagasaki, while obviously a horrible atrocity, are created in a way as though it "makes up" for what they did, when, um, it doesn't. And while obviously not every Japanese person agrees with their government, and I've seen some anime that really dealt with it well (Fullmetal Alchemist, if you interpret Ishval as such - which I do, regardless of what Arakawa says, you don't get to call your military dictator the "Führer" and not invite those comparisons) there does seem to be a general tendency in Japanese media dealing with WWII to be like "oh, look, the Americans were so awful to us! so let's totally not acknowledge Nanjing/Bataan/comfort women/Unit 731 AT ALL!"

The Hetalia fandom, like every other fandom, has a bad side, ours is just a very very bad one. I don't agree with the fetishising of Nazi Germany/Prussia or Fascist Italy, and neither does a considerable amount of the fandom. There's no Nazi glorifying in the actual show, most of the bad stuff is just fanon and man-oh-man is it annoying. If you don't like stereotypes however, Hetalia is a bad move, because the whole thing is based of sterotyping countries.

I'll give it a chance, then. I don't mind the stereotypes - I get that that's kind of the whole point when you're doing anthropomorphized countries - it's more about what seems like fetishizing an awful period of history. But if it's really just the fans doing that, I'll take your word for it and check it out. I mean, there are plenty of characters that authors go out of their way to portray as 100% evil and creepy and fans still want to screw them. Look at Envy from FMA. Or Bellatrix Lestrange from Harry Potter.

Anyway, I'm a fan of Wagnerian opera, which has literal Nazis in its fandoms considering Hitler was a huge admirer of it. So, you know. Maybe I should just accept that this is inevitable for someone who is as big of a German history and German classical music obsessive as I am, that many of the things I like will also be liked by Nazis.
 
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Mijzelffan

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Anyway, I'm a fan of Wagnerian opera, which has literal Nazis in its fandoms considering Hitler was a huge admirer of it. So, you know. Maybe I should just accept that this is inevitable for someone who is as big of a German history and German classical music obsessive as I am, that many of the things I like will also be liked by Nazis.

Who cares if you like what nazis or hitler liked. Hitler loved his dogs, doesn't mean it's bad if you do. :p This is actually the basis of a logical fallacy.
 

Goodbye Blue Monday

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Anyway, I'm a fan of Wagnerian opera, which has literal Nazis in its fandoms considering Hitler was a huge admirer of it. So, you know. Maybe I should just accept that this is inevitable for someone who is as big of a German history and German classical music obsessive as I am, that many of the things I like will also be liked by Nazis.

Who cares if you like what nazis or hitler liked. Hitler loved his dogs, doesn't mean it's bad if you do. :p This is actually the basis of a logical fallacy.

Yeah, I'm aware of that logical fallacy, that was kind of my point. I can't judge a thing based on its fans.

Although with Wagner, I don't think it completely applies, because Wagner himself was very anti-Semitic. To what extent that anti-Semitism shows up in his operas is an endless debate among musicologists, but it definitely showed up in many of his writings. And it was certainly a part of the reason that Hitler admired him so much. He also used a lot of Wagner's music to bolster Nazi propaganda.
 

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That Hitler, eh? What a character. I'd say he was the most significant man of the 20th century.

or James Brown.
 

Goodbye Blue Monday

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That Hitler, eh? What a character. I'd wager to say he was the most significant man of the 20th century.

or James Brown.

Haha.

I'd say Stalin and Mao had probably more of an ongoing impact than Hitler. People forget Nazi Germany was only 12 years.

Also hey what does everyone think of my new avatar? I decided Pride was my fav homunculus because I'm about 90% sure that Hiromu Arakawa was on LSD when she came up with his powers. Or something equally awesome.
 

dig

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That Hitler, eh? What a character. I'd wager to say he was the most significant man of the 20th century.

or James Brown.

Haha.

I'd say Stalin and Mao had probably more of an ongoing impact than Hitler. People forget Nazi Germany was only 12 years.

Yeah they had a larger impact, but Hitler had the glitz and the drama. He was man's best enemy. He got all the girls and killed all the boys.

Heard he was an anti-Semite though.

Also, your av's a'ight. I have no idea what you're talking about though, might be because I'm drunker than Hemingway at an open bar.

But not really.
 

Goodbye Blue Monday

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I know you're joking and shit, but Hitler was actually pretty un-glitzy - he was a vegetarian who didn't drink (iirc) and he didn't get many ladies, I think Eva Braun was his long-term girlfriend and she was about it.

Anyway, this whole discussion is just reminding me of my pitch for the Weimar Republic drama TV show I mentioned in this thread a couple days ago. I think I should write up a pilot and get HBO interested, what do y'all think? Would definitely help pay for the rest of my grad school lol. I just need to, you know, come up with some interesting characters and shit.
 

DerMißingno

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I know you're joking and shit, but Hitler was actually pretty un-glitzy - he was a vegetarian who didn't drink (iirc) and he didn't get many ladies, I think Eva Braun was his long-term girlfriend and she was about it.

It was Rasputin who got all the ladies.

Anyway, this whole discussion is just reminding me of my pitch for the Weimar Republic drama TV show I mentioned in this thread a couple days ago. I think I should write up a pilot and get HBO interested, what do y'all think? Would definitely help pay for the rest of my grad school lol. I just need to, you know, come up with some interesting characters and shit.

What exactly would it be about?

All of the talk in this thread about novels and writing and shit inspired me to dig up the novel i wrote for nanowrimo 2011. Rereading it, it is garbage. It was good for a laugh though I guess.
 

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I know you're joking and shit, but Hitler was actually pretty un-glitzy - he was a vegetarian who didn't drink (iirc) and he didn't get many ladies, I think Eva Braun was his long-term girlfriend and she was about it.

Anyway, this whole discussion is just reminding me of my pitch for the Weimar Republic drama TV show I mentioned in this thread a couple days ago. I think I should write up a pilot and get HBO interested, what do y'all think? Would definitely help pay for the rest of my grad school lol. I just need to, you know, come up with some interesting characters and shit.

I seem to recall their being a British sitcom about Hitler and Eva living at home and having Jewish neighbours. On further googling, it was called Heil Honey I'm Home
 

Goodbye Blue Monday

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What exactly would it be about?

See, I HAVE NO IDEA but I was just telling my mom on the phone, after I mentioned it in this thread, about how there are all these historical dramas set in the interwar period these days but NONE IN THE WEIMAR REPUBLIC AND WHAT THE FUCK IS THAT. Because there's so much potential for shit going down! Nazis and communists and cabaret singers and silent filmmakers and avant-garde composers and gloomy expat writers and lots and lots and lots of boozin'!

Way more than, like, stuffy British people having fluttery headaches from afar when they read in the paper about the Beer Hall Putsch. (Actually, I wish Downton Abbey was that interesting these days, that show has really turned into a hot mess.)
 

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I laugh when I think that Stalin was only 5 feet tall.

If we're having. dictator competition, I think Hitler takes the cake.
 

Goodbye Blue Monday

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I thought Napoleon was the one who was made fun of his size. Now that guy...

IIRC Napoleon actually wasn't that short compared to other French men of the time.

Anyway, there actually was a girl in undergrad who was really short, and may or may not have been insecure about it, and everybody called her "Fun Size." I think it got to the point where more people knew her by that than by her actual name.
 

pokemoll

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I thought short and short-fused people were said to have a "Napoleon Complex" because he was short and made angry easily, or am I mistaken?

I've never really had to worry about being called short or anything because I'm pretty tall, but my best friend in primary school was tiny. She got bullied for it all the time, poor girl. :c
 
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