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tenduw · 4 years

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How not to make a terrible Hetalia OC

Hi y’all, I feel like this really needs to be said, cause I was looking at different hetalia OCs the other day, and ngl many of them were, well, terrible.

First off, before I begin with my guide to making a decent oc, can I just say that any one of us can create an oc, in fact I would encourage people to. One problem with the hetalia fandom is that other than Scotland, Yugotalia and South America (somewhat) we haven’t really done our research when it comes to creating ocs and it really shows.

1) Research – I do feel like some of you spend too much time looking at stereotypes of different countries and not enough time doing actual research. I am going to show you 2 different pictures here (Example 1 and 2 are below.) Notice the difference? Someone clearly researched into the issues faced by South Africa and decided on a way to come to a neutral outcome, whilst someone else didn’t do any research and decided that a White person was the best way to represent an entire population in Africa. Please research into the culture and history of the country when deciding to create the OC as if anything that would help you to try and understand the character you are attempting to draw or write. Also look at the hetalia tumblr or Instagram tag for the character as there might be an OC that you really like! I did so, and found really cool ocs by @disaster-fruit and @portu-cale! Then if this happens, there's already an oc you can see as the country! Just make sure to contact and credit the artist in any art you may produce.

2) Ask - Also remember that research doesn’t just apply to the internet! If you have a friend or some of your family members are from that country and have been there, then ask them about the culture! Not only that, but I’d suggest you also check out the country’s reddit, as there is a bunch of stuff you can find there which helps to gain a general understanding about what might actually be offensive and what won’t be. Also, I’d check out the tumblr tag for the country as well – really interesting facts about the country tend to come up.

3) What you are creating the oc for – Are you creating an OC for a fanfiction or fanart? Depending on which one you are looking at then your research differs. Fanart requires you to be respectful towards the country, and obviously this is where most people in the fandom fall short – as you are literally drawing a representation of the country. Fanfiction in contrast tends to be more about characterisation, so rather than just make up a personality for the country, I would suggest that you read the history and facts about the country before creating a character for them. The thing about personified nations is that none of them are good or bad – they’re morally grey, so it’s important to do your research when deciding how exactly they are in this category. Patient Harmony on Fanfiction.net actually does this really well, and if you’re over 16 and are into the darker side of the fandom, I’d suggest checking them out!

4) Think – Please think about what you are creating. This is most important when it comes to two areas – Colouring and Controversy. I’ll cover those in the next two points. Just remember to think before you create – what countries should I draw cutesy fanart for and which ones should I not draw it for? Also, think about the human names for the countries. You do have to look at names from the country you are creating an oc for – why the hell would Wales’ name be Victoria or Israel’s name Tal Haviv? Giving a oc of a nation an anglicised or Americanised name or making up a name because it sounds like the nation’s capital is just plain disrespectful. Also, please do research whatever name you do end up using as for example if Mexico was called Porfirio, you might not realise the problem with the name, but most Mexican fans of the show would. So do think about what you’re coming up with – And if something doesn’t feel right, then research it!

5) Colouring – What skin tone are they? This seems to be the hardest thing for the hetalia fandom to comprehend and I can empathise to an extent. Of course, if the country is particularly diverse, such as Uganda then it will be somewhat challenging to come up with a skin tone for them. However completely whitewashing the country, like an ungodly amount of people have done with aph Mexico is ridiculous. Not everyone is white, in fact most people aren’t white – Just because you and your neighbourhood may be doesn’t mean that the entire world is! If you think that everyone is one skin tone then you need to get the hell out of whatever special rock you were living under. There are hundreds if not thousands of skin tones out there, and people do not either look like this: (is below) Or this: (is below) So if the OC you’re going to create is black, you don’t need to paint them the darkest shade of brown that you have. You also should avoid making them orange – If someone is from Africa, they are not orange! Likewise if someone is from Native America then don’t make their skin yellow! One thing in general that might help y’all out is if when creating your oc, you search on google images ‘X country people’ and see the results. JUST DON’T MAKE THE CHARACTER WHITE CAUSE YOU DON’T KNOW WHAT TO DO.

Also, I don't know why someone created an entire south America oc, nor do I understand why people keep making statetalia ocs

6) Controversy – Now this one is going to be kind of long, but it really needs to be addressed. Just because you’re creating ocs for hetalia doesn’t mean that ALL stereotypes about the country need to be the main thing about the oc. Stereotypes about Italians loving pasta or the English loving tea are NOT the same as Mexicans being fence hoppers or the entire continent of Africa being malnourished. Like I’ve said many times already, do your research. An important thing to note, is that most of these stereotypes were made by 1st world countries and so naturally the most offensive ones are about the ethnicities that struggle to get any form of positive representation in the media. Another thing that needs to be addressed – Would you make fanart about any recent terror attacks? No? Then don’t make ocs that would have solely come about as a result of a disastrous event (e.g. Chernobyl). Also, you have to be reaaalllly careful when it comes to quite a few nations. Like Yemen and Palestine. It just feels really insensitive to draw cutesy fanart when their people are being targeted and insensitivity already is a major problem with the fandom. It’s 2020, not 2010 and it’s important to remember that!

7) Try – Another problem with the hetalia fandom is that most people just stray away from non-european countries. On google, it says there are 196 countries in the world and if you add all of the micronations, you easily have more than 200 ‘nations’. The thing is, the countries that we keep missing out all have their own histories and cultures – this is a constant. I personally see hetalia as a series which serves to show that not all history is depressing and gory – it can be funny and amusing too! And it’s not just Europe that has amusing aspects to it’s history and culture. Where’s the jollof rice war between Nigeria and Ghana? Or the confusion surrounding how many islands Indonesia has? Creating ocs for the world’s countries literally means that what you draw doesn’t need to be as limited – You can have a BRICS meeting, or have a meeting between the African Union. Hetalia literally has a worldwide fanbase and wouldn’t it be interesting if we could spread more countries to the fans outside of the canon countries in the show? Shouldn’t it be our goal as fans of a show about different nations and cultures to introduce people to as many cultures as possible? So I encourage you guys to try with hetalia OCs – Just maybe run it by other people before making it public and MAKE SURE YOU DO YOUR RESEARCH.

It isn’t hard to create an OC, in fact I’d say it’s a bit easier for hetalia because we have access to everything we need to make one.

I hope this helps ^^

#hetalia #hetalia oc #fandom #hetalia axis powers #aph ocs #aph south africa #aph israel #aph wales

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