peonycats

[peonycats]

I've been staring at Iran for two hours now...

Would Iran be a girl?? A boy?? Gnc?? I've not seen u use any pronouns for them up until now idfk how to compliment the way u draw Iran 💀

AH..... IM SO FLATTERED 🥺 you're too kind anonymous, im sure however your compliment them iran will take it smugly graciously! Here's something i drew of them recently!

as always transp below the read more!

#to answer the question my iran is intersex and likes to randomly switch up their gender presentation from era to era #so really feel free to compliment them however you like! any pronouns are okay for them too tehe #hws iran #ask #anonymous #i might have to draw another full body portrait for iran tbh bc i fucked up iran's height and made them too short #historically inaccurate hair is historically inaccurate #aph iran #hws persia #aph persia

[peonycats]

Are Mongolia’s sons dead in modern day?

Yes 😔

#though some of their descendants survive to this day- Kazakhstan is one such example! #ask #anonymous #hetalia #hws mongolia

[peonycats]

I was today years old when i found out someone made a character.ai of my saudi arabia...

#hey man at least use some of my newer art for him this is embarassing BAHAHA #thoughts tm #hws saudi arabia #hetalia

[peonycats]

Rather proud of the post I made for JVP Boston for Holocaust Remembrance Day!

Antizionist Jewish Shoah survivors have always been some of my heroes.

And every one of them has been attacked and discredited by Zionists.

#rb #not hetalia #// current events #// genocide #// ethnic cleansing #// war

[peonycats]

What about Turkmon??

it gets a chuckle out of me.... i like them but not all that seriously, turkmon to me is all about turkey spamming mongolias comments about being #steppenomads stronk together tengri's bravest warriors running brave and free on the pastures forever and ever and mongolia going "okay...?"

#who1kio #hetalia #ask #hws turkey #hws mongolia #turkey is so embarassing (affectionate) #ask game

[peonycats]

About my Siberia ocs...

So I think it's important to balance their characterisation in a way in which they are distinctive characters with interesting personalities and backstories but also acknowledges the challenges they face without making their entire character essentially "They're sad all the time because of Russia" or "Stop talking about their struggles under Russia I don't like politics."

I think both ate problematic however I find the latter to be far more distasteful because well. This is a nation personification OC we're talking about and not only that, they're essentially nations within a nation (Russia) by virtue of colonisation and so are minority groups within the larger nation. Hell - because of displacement and immigration from European Russia , a lot of these groups are minorities within their own lands. It's a special case when dealing with minority groups/occupied people personifications and it's particularly egregious when someone wants to forgo any kind of acknowledgement of these power imbalances yet still insists that their interpretation is sensitive.

I've seen some pretty bad OCs of Siberian groups which are the product of the creator going "I hate politics stop talking about politics!" or, an almost direct quote, "I hate when people shove politics into historical hetalia." Which... Is an interesting take to say the least considering how history feeds into politics and vice versa. Historical hetalia is a beast in an of itself and is one of the only hetalia communities/bubbles in which "no politics" will get you laughed out the door from what I've seen considering *gestures to my previous statement*. If you've ever taken a history course - you'll know how much history and politics are intertwined.

This is how you get interps which consists of the likes of "Russia was wandering around the empty lands of Siberia" which not only blatantly disregards the brutality of the Russian colonisation of Siberia but also promotes the concept of "Terra Nullius" or "Virgin Land". I'm quoting myself from an even bigger post I have in store which focuses on anti Mongolian sentiment however stereotypes about Mongolians and Siberian groups often overlap because of their placement in Northern Asia, hence why it applies to both,

"In addition, to hone in on Mongolia being an "untouched, pristine" land - this is also a common trope that is launched towards traditionally nomadic "unsettled groups” (such as Siberian and Native American groups). The concept of "Terra Nullius", a Latin word meaning "nobody's land". It completely disregards the presence and rights of the people who inhabit the land and has been historically used to justify the colonisation and displacement of such groups - their land belonged to "nobody" so it was essentially up for grabs...It divorces the people from their landscape and paves the way for dangerous misconceptions and justifications to blossom.

Here is an example of "Terra Nullius" in action in a Russian propaganda poster, encouraging Russians to move to Kazakhstan."

Or interps such as "[Siberian group] has forgiven Russia for everything he did/most things he did and is in love with him" which implies that the mistreatment of the Siberian groups is merely something in the past when it is in fact ongoing. The mistreatment of Siberian groups such as the Sakha, Buryats, Chukchi and Tuvans has been all the more highlighted in their disproportionate mobilisation in the invasion of Ukraine - and the heaps of scapegoating that was subsequently shovelled onto them.

That's not to say ethnic minority soldiers in the Russian army shouldn't be held accountable for their crimes - however that and the fact that they themselves are victims of Russian imperialism can both exist as true statements. The scapegoating is so bad that even Pope Francis joined in, blaming the brunt of the war crimes committed onto "Non Russians" such as Buryats and Chechens, as they do not come from "Russian culture."

Back to my main point... I think the resistance to do research on and publicly acknowledge how these groups live under Russia and what kind of struggles they face in some kind of bid to "not paint them as victims!!11" is sorely misinformed and ignorant. Because well. They are victims.

Not in the sense that you should portray them as sad, pitiful, weak little meow meows but in the sense that yes they are living under Russian occupation and are an occupied people who's been subjected to centuries of Russification, and so compared to making an OC of Mongolia who is an independent nation state at least I think there is far less room to be hauling around "leave politics out of historical hetalia!" "don't talk to me about politics!" "stop victimising them!!" because then it leads to tone deaf interpretations such as "They've forgiven Russia for everything and is in love with him ♥️💖", "Russia is actually [Siberia groups] father", "Here is my singular Siberia OC who represents ALL Siberian groups and by the way Russia is their father" (yes these are all real interpretations I've seen and I've made a separate really strongly worded post ranting about it) and worse. I mean I've literally seen an "aph Siberia oc" who was Russia and France's love child. Terra Nullius executed Hetalia-style.

I don't really think I need to elaborate on why a singular Siberia OC is problematic - Siberia is filled with a myriad of different groups who speak different languages, have different origins and ways of lives and practices, different religions, who've experienced eras of peace and conflict with each other, etc and yeah to shove them all into one personification is an erasure of the sheer diversity that is in Siberia. I definitely don't need to elaborate on why making Russia a father to any of these groups is problematic, to say very the least.

On the point of "don't only portray them in a victimising lense", I think making Siberian groups all depressed all the time is also a Russia-centric perspective. Of course it's ignorant at best to not acknowledge their shared suffering because of Russia however when this point and this point alone is central to their character I believe in a way that it strips them of their autonomy and ability to feel things and do things outside of Russia's gaze. There is absolutely a lot of joy to be had despite their current situation, perhaps even in spite of their current situation. It's ok to give them odd quirks and put them in funny situations as well as acknowledge that they are an occupied people and approach that territory carefully when need be.

For example, I made my Buryatia bubbly and loud but made my Tuva a bit more deadpan because I see them as a pair who often associate with each other and I think the dynamic is funny. I also made Buryatia an overbearing "husband" to Soyot who is perpetually tired™ from all the se- .

I made a crack dynamic between Sakha, Evenkia and Dolgan where Evenkia was Sakha's teacher at first but then became a deadbeat dad leaving Sakha to primarily raise Dolgan, thus Dolgan takes after Sakha and is uh lawyermaxxing👍. Yukaghir is the little old lady of the group who is often forgetful but very nifty and Chukotka acts like a big sister to people which Koryak (who I see as her brother) always finds annoying and they often bicker. Ket is on the slightly edgy side and is extremely particular about his routines and Nganasan terrifies Nenet because he eats reindeer whereas Nenet doesn't.

All of these quirks/ more lighthearted interpretations and "they are an occupied people under Russia" can coexist. One should not be thrown out for the sake of the other.

I think there's also problem - though I've seen this far less, in making Siberia ocs purely as a middle finger at Russia. As in, you made the OC because you wanted to say loud and proud FUCK RUSSIA which well yeah, fuck Russia, but I highly doubt your interest in this group lies outside of wanting to #own the Russians which is dehumanising in and of itself. At least pretend to care about the history and culture instead of using an entire group of people to make a virtue-signally oc purely to try and upset some Russians.

Anyways yeah Siberia 👍

#you are so real for this king #this is just my advice but if you want to get into personifying less well known nations that have suffered colonization and oppression #characterize them as fully realized people and not just as tools to dunk on other characters or bolster up your faves #make them complex ppl who dealt w great hardship in the past and tried not helpless vessels to project gratuitous suffering upon #hetalia #rb #hetalia ocs

[peonycats]

Giripan for the ask game

i have absolutely no interest in this ship im afraid... i never really got why it was so popular, outside of canon showing greece and japan hanging out LOL

#ask #anonymous #hetalia #ask game

[peonycats]

Miss World Philippines 2022 National Costume Contest, with costumes inspired by Santacruzan, a parade held on the last day of Flores de Mayo festival, which includes personifications of religious and historical figures

#these are so gorgeous omg #i love the use of gradients and metallic hues all throughout the outfits just mwuah #rb #not hetalia

[peonycats]

what about a ship you like that someone hasn’t asked yet? I’m curious to see which ships you do enjoy

hmmm, i actually quite like mexphil!!! it's a small ship w not a lot of ppl behind it, but i do really enjoy the parallels between their stations and histories, such as feeling out of place from their respective regions :3c

#inshallah one of these days i can offer a humble contribution to the mexphil pile #ask #anonymous #hetalia #hws mexico #hws philippines #ask game

[peonycats]

finally, some aph uzb headcanons

i realize i've done some korea, amekor, and turkuzbek hcs but i've never actually done one of my blorbo uzbekistan. so thats changing right now

- she's of average uzbek woman height(167cm) and her hair is that shade of brown that looks almost black, but when the sunlight hits just right it looks like a faint shade of auburn. you know, that kind of hair shade.

- her name is "nargiza" which translates to "narcissus flower" or "daffodil." her close friends and family(and turkey too ig 🙄) call her nargiz for short.

- her hobbies are embroidery and quiltmaking with tajikistan, trying out new desserts to bake, reading, gossiping, piano playing and knitting(she picked up both from russia), drinking hot black tea in even hotter weather(she's a tea elitist and Will Not Consider iced tea to be part of the tea category)

- best cook. she's the best cook out of the central asians and they always try to have her cook dinner("it just hits different when you cook food for us apa")

- she has a resting scary/angry face. she looks like she's about to kill someone. but when you ask her a question she'll immediately smile and won't hesitate to help you in whatever way she can.

- has the best relationship with kazakhstan and tajikistan. though sometimes she has a habit of babying kazakhstan as an older sister. old habits from the uzbek khanate die hard i guess...

- has a weird relationship with uyghurstan, and they have a few very awkward phone calls per year. if you heard the minutes of silence sandwiched in between their conversations you'd experience second hand embarrassment.

- her relations with iran are interesting. she adopted persian as the official and court language of the bukharan khanate. but she's also tried to take parts of iran's land a few times. for a while iran even exerted control over the bukharan khanate for a few years by persian ruler nader shah until he died. there's been a lot of cultural exchange from iran to uzbekistan historically, and uzbekistan is also considered a part of the greater iran region(maybe i should give her the ahoge...). nowruz, for example, is a holiday that came from persia and is celebrated in the central asian countries, especially tajikistan and uzbekistan.

- she...doesn't like russia. not at all. it's one of the few things she and kyrgyzstan both agree on, and they've both fantasized about throwing themselves at him like rabid dogs for a while(kyrgyzstan was more serious about it, and uzbekistan had to stop him) but after her independence she had to suck up to him due to her economic reliance on him. recently, though, she's been moving away from russia in favor of spotting economic opportunities within uzbekistan that will help with self-growth(and also reaching out to turkey and china for mutual trading)

- she's not the most developed nation out there, but is still very prissy about her overall appearance. she knows how to clean up. don't even get me started on the things she wears to weddings. she isn't worried about competition because she IS the competition.

- at home, she'll wear the usual stuff you'd see an uzbek mom wear, a matching dress and pants cut from atlas fabric. she'll have a small scarf wrapped around her hair to pull it back, and has her hair up in a ponytail, bun, or braids.

- when she's out, she wears perfectly coordinated outfits every single time, hair and makeup perfectly done.

- dont be fooled though. she Will wear the definitely fake chanel sweaters and slippers with pride.

- she fake smiles a lot and tries to stop her habit of having a resting scary face. even though that's her default, she's gotten a lot of flack from old ladies throughout the centuries for it.

- generally, she's not a super expressive, bubbly person(that's her sister tajikistan). she's fine with small talk(and DEFINITELY gossiping) but depending on who it is and whether they're in her social circle or not, she'll either enjoy it or hate every agonizing second of it. When you ask about her house though, she'll tell you everything with a certain sparkle in her eyes.

- if you want her to go through all 44 feelings at once and watch her freak out and overheat like an old gaming PC just bring up turkey i guess

- to get into her social circle takes a lot of time and a lot of waiting for her to open up and talk about personal things. Think maybe...20 years at the very least.

- leading into the other headcanon of her being a little insecure. throughout the years, the uber-collectivist society of uzbekistan caused her to become more and more hyperaware of her actions and how others will think about them. the one exception is that she can't hide her disappointment.

- her predecessors are the khwarazmian empire and timurid empire. she barely knew the khwarazmian empire as uzbekistan was born as one of the few tribes to emerge after khwarazmi was engulfed by the mongols.

- she was old enough to remember timurid, however. he was like her older brother, albeit one with...skewed moral values. he'd always insist that this was all to rekindle the empire that the great genghis khan left behind, and to spread islam as a religion.

"besides," he'd add, "isn't samarqand looking absolutely beautiful lately?"

"yes, because you kidnapped the best artisans and craftsmen after looting their cities." she deadpanned.

- she was quite surprised(and impressed, by a sliver) when her brother managed to successfully siege ankara and cause a civil war in the ottoman empire. she knew timurid was growing, but she had no idea he got this strong. it almost didn't seem surprising when he announced his plans to go after china, before he died(and then respawned as the mughal empire, but that's another story.)

- "russia when i catch you russia" - uzbekistan since the 1870s

- she has a house in tashkent and bukhara, but mostly lives in tashkent now that it's the capital. since she's literally the center of central asia and borders everyone including afghanistan, they all stay at her house when traveling(turkey is stuck at a hotel whenever he visits tho...)

- her spice tolerance? dont even ask. its not there. completely gone. give her a little heinz chili sauce and she's scrambling to find water.

- once korea took her out on a date to a korean restaurant. one bite of the kimchi and it was over for her

- if you ever come over to her house, she'll spoil you with food and gifts. there will be a drama series playing on her tv as you two chat for hours. when you leave expect it to be about 8 hours after you arrived and for the walk home to be extremely heavy as she gives you 3 bags full of gifts and dried fruits and desserts.

#tokki you ate so hard with this i love these <3333 #also i just realized im just like miss uzbekistan i love drinking hot tea even during summer #the idea of miss uzbekistan naturally having an intimidating resting expression and having to push herself to smile is another commonality #she just like me fr fr #ONE OF THESE DAYS I GOTTA DRAW TIMURID....... #hetalia #hws uzbekistan #rb #hetalia headcanons

[peonycats]

hk x singapore and hk x macau? (as a hker these are probably the only hk ships that make sense to me aha)

hksg answered here!!

I don't know anything about it not do i know much about hong kong and macau's irl relationship with each other beyond the >former euro city colony that is not on good terms w china vs former euro city colony that is on good with china but if you or anyone else want to tell me the good word of hkmac do tell 👀👂

#hetalia #ask #anonymous #ask game

[peonycats]

as we’re watching palestinian heritage be destroyed, there are careers being built on the back of this genocide; academic careers, social media careers, art careers and filmmaking careers.. I can only again and again draw parallels to the genocide of my own people, where the stories of survivors were gutted to no ends by opportunistic people for documentaries and interviews and books, stories the survivors had shared in hopes to receive attention and justice, only to leave them struggling even a decade after in IDP camps while opportunists gained the reputation of being experts on the topic.. and I can just say so much, for survivors the genocide is ongoing with every missing person, with every su*cide attempt that follows as a consequence of the unbearable mental damage done, and with every passing day that they receive no material justice for the crimes that they suffered

#rb #not hetalia #// genocide #// current events

[peonycats]

Sons of the Empire

The Bastard, the Disappointment, the Runt

from top to bottom:

Golden Horde

Chagatai

Ilkhanate

OCs belong to @irithnova!!

#rb #hetalia #teehee thank you nova for writing these minibios for them!!! #hws ilkhanate #hws golden horde #hws chagatai #hetalia headcanons

[peonycats]

Sons of the Empire

The Bastard, the Disappointment, the Runt

from top to bottom:

Golden Horde

Chagatai

Ilkhanate

OCs belong to @irithnova!!

#hetalia #hetalia ocs #hws ilkhanate #hws chagatai #hws golden horde #aph ilkhanate #aph chagatai #aph golden horde #historically inaccurate hair is historically inaccurate #hetalia fanart #YIPPEE.... MONGOLIA SONS DONE #ty nova for letting me borrow em and giving me ur notes on their designs teehee

[peonycats]

for the ship asks hksg :3

the parallels....recognizing the other in each other... but the places where their perspectives and views diverge from each other... their differing fates.... i feel so normal when i think about them teehee

#hetalia #ask #ask game #hksg #luyous #hws hong kong #hws singapore

[peonycats]

One of the things that pisses me off most about this genocide and overall occupation is how many people say it's so complicated and there's so much nuance and there isn't one easy solution. This is one of the simplest things I have ever seen. Zionists invaded palestine in 1947-48. They have occupied it for 76 years while taking more and more land. They kidnap and torture and massacre Palestinians day in day out for those 76 years. They control every aspect of Palestinian life, including their water and medical care. And now they are committing another genocide against them. Where is the complication? What is hard to understand? "Well, Jewish people need a place where they won't be discriminated against" I absolutely agree. So make every country in the world safe for Jewish people. Fight against anti Semitism across the world. Don't commit a genocide and set up an ethnostate.

#not hetalia #rb #// current events #// genocide

[peonycats]

hey could you please warn tag the Sudan post as // genocide? thank you

ya sure!

#ask #anonymous #not hetalia