Hello! It's Always Great To Meet Another Taang Shipper!

Note: This post can be very triggering for some people. Please take care of yourself and don’t read this if you are sensitive to the topic of eating disorders.

To start, let’s lay out one ground rule. We know that population statistics respectively affect the nations’ behaviours, habits, and personalities. When something is common in the population, the personification adopts it too.

For example, America’s people strongly believe in aliens and conspiracy theories.

As such, America also believes in aliens and conspiracy theories.

It would follow, then, that given how big the fast food and dieting industries are in America –what a massive contradiction that is – he would also be affected by this.

Well, he is.

While I can’t attest to how accurate this statistic is, Hima cites that 60% of Americans are overweight. What matters here is that this statistic explains why America is also ‘overweight’. He’s not actually. I’ll get back to that in a minute.

Point is, America has been struggling with weight and dieting issues from some of the earliest strips. Of course, this is because the fast-food industry really took off after WW2. The dieting industry came a bit afterward when people began realizing how much weight they were gaining by eating so much processed food.

The same thing happens to America. Initially, he doesn’t realize the effect that constantly eating burgers has on his metabolism.

This then leads him to inquire about the eating habits of other nations as well as how they maintain their thin figures.

The problem with America is that this obsession with dieting becomes unhealthy, exactly as it is with the American population. Eating disorders and crash diets are chronic in North America. It’s a major problem that isn’t really talked about. Hima, on the other hand, characterizes America to accurately reflect this.

In his introductory chapter of World Stars (chapter 23), the topic of his dieting session is immediately brought up. I don’t think this would be done unless it was something pivotal to his characterization.

The character note claims that America’s gotten over his dieting craze and has accepted that he’s not actually fat but rather muscular and big-boned.

That’s the mental illness aspect of eating disorders. You claim that you’re better despite the fact that you keep relapsing into unhealthy habits. This thought process can be very convincing, as some people with eating disorders truly believe that they’re healthy and that there’s nothing wrong with what they’re doing.

Expectedly, later chapters contradict this.

Not even that, literally the next chapter depicts him struggling with his weight. When he measures himself on the scale and a large number turns up, he convinces himself that it’s broken. If that wasn’t enough, he also calls Germany to fix the scale.

How I interpret this is that America is in denial and is stubbornly fighting with himself over the number on the scale.

In the same chapter, he falls back to his old dieting tactics and asks Italy about his eating habits.

This isn’t the first time the insecurity over his weight is shown either.

Ex: In the strips depicting what each country is known for, America is shown to be painting over the American stereotype of being “fat.” As someone who seems to be struggling with his body image, it makes sense that he wouldn’t want to be known as an obese country.

The problem with America is that he overeats, sets unrealistic body goals, and then doesn’t follow through with these goals. This, in turn, leads to a rigorous cycle of dieting and feeling poor about himself.

Ex: One of his New Year’s Resolution to “take better care of his health” is to have a body fat percentage of 3%. Obviously, this isn’t a realistic goal. It’s far from healthy.

Notice how being slimmer has been his resolution for the past 30 years. It’s not something that’s gone away, as it’s a problem that’s persistently affected Americans over the years.

The cycle continues when, in the same strip, he treats himself to a hamburger and milkshake.

The last that we see of this problem is when he trains China to help him lose weight. [Chinese obesity rates have been on the rise lately.]

Regardless of the fact that America possesses super strength and possesses more physical endurance than normal, a 10,000 corkscrew punch workout is not normal. If anything, this is indicative of another unhealthy dieting tactic.

In sum, America’s dieting/ workout habits and overconsumption of junk food are owed to the prevalence of the fast food and dieting industries of his country. Given the evidence I just presented, it’s not a stretch to claim that he suffers from body issues and has an eating disorder.

Your blog is so lovely 😭😭😭 i esp love your cardverse and the little twins aww! 🥺🥺🥺❤️❤️❤️❤️

aww thank you!! i do indeed love the twins as well, and i will take this as the perfect time to yap about them.

Alexei:

He is the bigger twin, and the reason why Alfred had to get an emergency c-section. He's always been big for his age, inheriting Ivan's size.

From Ivan, he got: hair color, skin color, size (height and build), quiet, stoic, cold, resilient, responsible, shy and awkward. Loves the cold, hates the heat.

From Alfred, he got: eyes, nose, easily embarrassed and flustered (he was a shy crybaby when he was a toddler), prudish, hardworking in the good and honest way, strong morals, always takes the high road, never says no when someone needs help.

He is the oldest (by a few minutes lol) and takes the role very seriously. As a mama's boy, he takes it upon himself to help Alfred. Even when he was a toddler, he'd waddle after Alfred in the supermarkets, carrying the basket and being very proud of himself for helping his mom.

He respects his father so much to the point that they're awkward around each other. Ivan and Alexei are a bit distant because Alexei doesn't want to seem weak or emotional in front of his strong father. He takes pressure silently and resiliently.

He looks after his siblings, and among his brothers, he is the one who does most of the chores around the house. Partly because Viktor shrugs his work off to him often and Alexei can't say no. He also never asks his parents for anything because he feels bad, so he just uses his things until they can't be used. His laptop is hanging by a thread. When his airpods broke he soldered the wires and fixed it himself. His phone case is chipping at the edges, and he had to double-side tape it to the phone. His bag has a broken strap so he used a handkerchief to tie a knot and reconnect it to the bag instead of asking for a new bag.

He's very awkward. People think he's cold and serious, but really, its just that he freezes up when people talk to him and doesn't know what to say, so he ends up saying nothing at all.

As a baby, he adored the crunching leaves of fall, as he was born around early November, and he associates it with his birthday season. When he was a baby, Alfred would take him out in the fall, and Alexei would squeal in delight every time his stroller wheels crunched the leaves. He also loves the snow, and often crawled out the backdoor when he was a baby just to bury himself in it. A maximum of an hour would pass before his frazzled parents find him.

He is extremely susceptible to the heat and easily gets heatstrokes. It was especially bad when he was a baby, as his parents couldn't take him out of the house during the summer without him burning up and needing to be in front of an aircon immediately or he'd faint from the heat. The first time it happened, Alfred never left the house until he was old enough to withstand heat longer. Alfred coddled him so much as a baby that daycare was a literal nightmare for both of them.

Viktor:

The polar opposite of his brother in every way. From a young age, he already had the self-assured confidence of a baddie

From Ivan: hair color, eye color, skin color, arrogance, cunning, manipulative cleverness, dubious morals, a hint of sadism, nonchalant

From Alfred: facial features (eye shape, nose shape, basically his entire face), build, extroversion, social butterfly, sympathetic, outgoing, rebellious

He's like, the cool one. He's not obnoxiously loud, but he certainly talks more than his brother and is more suave. He's not emotional like Alexei, who is easily provoked. He is also less up-tight and more go-with-the flow, never stressing about anything because to him, everything works out eventually.

A papa's boy through and through. He clung to Ivan like a barnacle when he was a baby.

He could be independent, but selectively chooses not to be. He could handle things on his own, but why do that when there are other people to do it for you? He calls Ivan and Alexei for everything at the drop of a hat. He's lazy and prefers to work smarter, not harder. He's too clever to live such a simple life, but he doesn't want to give himself more work.

He has a sadistic side where he enjoys watching people struggle. This means making Alexei's life harder for the fun of watching him stress out. But don't worry, most of the time he helps Alexei with anything he needs him for. Whether this means talking to the cashier when Alexei is too shy, helping him cover up a mistake, helping him socialize, or trying to bridge the gap between Alexei and Ivan.

Very clever. Uses it for the wrong reasons. He uses these abilities to get his parents to spoil him. Ivan knows what Viktor is doing but still pays for him anyway. Alfred is the one Viktor can't fool.

As a baby, Viktor loves the spring. He loves the flowers and the rain of this season. As a baby, Viktor was fond of wandering off in parks only to return with flowers for his parents.

More independent than Alexei when he was a baby. He thrived in daycare and made it his own personal kingdom. He was holding up his own bottle at three months old, when Alexei refused to drink anything but mother's milk until after he was one years old.

He's very fun and caring despite his flaws, considered as the "cool" older brother by Aurel (the baby of the family).

Overall, I'd say both twins are a perfect mix of their parents, it's hard to say which one they take after the most.

今年もお世話になりました。

You said you’re rewriting your fic but I would love to hear some of the ideas you had that didn’t make it into the rewrite if you had any honestly. I love ur fic sm it’s like one of my favorite aus

aw thank u for the nice words!! and omg there's sm that didn't make it into the final cut it feels impossible to talk about them all. Half of them I scrapped because I plan to reuse them in the sequel, which I'm already drafting the outline of

There were many scrapped ideas. Most were about Alfred and Ivan's interactions. I was supposed to make them kiss earlier on in the story but scrapped it in favor of a more slow-burn pace.

Also, the world originally wasn't steampunk, but rather a more HOTD-like world. As in there was no technology, just medieval settings, but there were dragons and magic. Alfred was initially supposed to be a witch, but a very clumsy one. Dragons play an essential part of life, highly integrated into civilization, kinda like HTTYD. This came into use in the plot when Ivan's dragon escaped and landed in Alfred's village, and the villagers were too scared to approach a dragon of the royal family, but Alfred (not knowing it was a royal dragon cuz he's dumb like that) rushed forward to help. However his magic is faulty and he ended up making a big boom, but dw the dragon was unharmed. Instead of simply healing the dragon, Alfred accidentally seeped his magic into its scales. He didn't think much of it tho and continued to properly heal the dragon until it finally was able to fly away. But when it returned to the palace, the dragon no longer responded to Ivan because of Alfred's magic inside it, so they sent guards to hunt down the witch who marked a royal dragon, and that's how Alfred was found and dragged to the palace.

This was scrapped for a more high-stakes and much, much darker plot, as the original is so whimsy and fairy-tale like. I plan to reuse that kind of world-building though just not for Spades HAHAHA

There were many others, but most of them are in the bin to be reused, so I won't be spoiling them hehe

taang in the comics part 1 they look so good together even tho theyre arguing

tbh i have rlly mixed feelings about the comics. ESPECIALLY about the rift. Like on one hand, I enjoy having extra content about the characters. On the other hand, the whole comic was so bad. Like that is NOT my toph wtf. She has never been disrespectful about Aang's culture—to my knowledge, whenever Aang meditates, Toph is the only one who's been quiet. She also isn't against spirituality?? She literally spent her old years in the swamp, a place that is spiritual in itself. And she is actually quite knowledgeable about the philosophical aspect of bending, such as talking about its not only a power, but a way of life. Also, she has NEVER been this mean?? Aang is literally her first friend, she would never be cruel like this. She's snarky and pushes him to stand his ground, but she's never been like this. Also her very first dialogue in the Rift is an immediate red flag.

"Fire Nation alongside Earth Kingdom...You really think those people will get along well enough to govern this place, Twinkletoes?"

Like?? Okay maybe its possible to have doubts, but her expression and the way this is phrased implies she clearly doesn't believe it and is lowkey disdainful of it. Is this the same Toph who advocated to have Zuko join their team?? The same Toph who befriended Iroh, had tea with him in the middle of the war, and was friendly and welcoming to him in Ba Sing Se even after knowing he's part of the Fire Nation Royal Family??? that is NOT my girl omg

Aang...Imma be honest, the comics with this artstyle are the ones he's actually in-character for. That's why he's kinda insufferable in these im ngl. Imbalance Aang was SOOOO good, but he was clearly way better in that comic compared to the show. Show Aang is the same Aang as the GLY comics,, which is probably why I don't like him there LMAO

al has got the biggest thighs ive ever seen hes such a bombshell blonde omg😭

HETALIA ☆ WORLD STARS (523)

Is there a problem/error? Please say so! And thank you for your support!

Hello! sorry for the bothering! May I can I repost your rusame art on Xiaohongshu=rednote?(If you can’t, that’s okay!）bec Chinese people ABSOLUTELY LOVE that ship!! THANKS🌟💓

YES OFC just with credit pls🙏

keep voting for alfred guys🙏🙏🙏 ur damn RIGHT hes the most attractive any other answer is loudly wrong

something ive been curious abt

My anatomy reference for Yaokins. Jacks are the right-hands of the Queens, and are supposed to act like their boydguard. So despite having a quite "feminine" appearance, Yao is really strong and fierce. You may also notice the lack of muscles, despite him being "strong". Physically, he is weak. He couldn't win an arm-wrestling match to save his life. But his swordsmanship is the best in his kingdom and he specializes in medicine and poison. So while he is too weak to win in hand-to-hand combat, his strategies in battles win him his victories. His sword is covered in poison. Touching it is fine, nothing will happen, but if it slashes through your skin, the poison gets into your blood stream and poisons you from within. He is also built more for speed rather than strength, and can slash five times in one second so thats a pretty brutal poisoning. He's the shortest in the cast at 5"0/153 cm.