My Thoughts on Why the Hetalia Fandom is Failing
A lot of people, including myself before have claimed that this fandom is ādyingā. My opinion has changed since joining tumblr. Ā I donāt think that things are that bad just yet because people are still very much in the fandom.
The problem is that we arenāt very active. This is what Iāve noticed so far.
1)Ā Ā Ā Ā Ā The Popular Blogs Arenāt Active: To have and keep your fans, you need to make consistent material, rather than posting occasionally. Itās what makes people excited and inspires them to create their own content. Even if itās just one post a day, itās still really important to post (if you can, of course), as it maintains peopleās interest. Especially when you have such a large platform of followers!
Donāt get me wrong, there are some amazing Hetalia blogs that post several times everyday, and Iām always looking for new ones to follow!
2)Ā Ā Ā Ā Ā Not All Fanart Is Equal: Another thing about our fandom is that new artists arenāt given a chance to thrive. There are amazing new artists out there, but people only reblog the work from the popular blogs. Why not all? Ā If you see great content, reblog it regardless of how much attention that blog has received.
3)Ā Ā Ā Ā Ā Reblog Reblog Reblog: Reblog everything, friends. The more you reblog, the more people see content and want to get into it. Simple!
Ā 4)Ā Ā Ā Ā Ā Fanfiction: The fanfiction community hardly has any responses nowadays, in comparison to what it used to be. Fanfic authors spend hours of their spare time for free to create stories for you to read and enjoy. Itās so important to follow, favourite, and review. Most of the time, authors reach out and post material to connect with their audience (as is with artists too). If there arenāt any responses, then they arenāt going to bother posting. Ā Good Fics have gotten a lot of people through some tough times, so I would hate to see that part of the community die out.
Ā If you have an account, support the stories you read. It makes no sense not to, and any comment, no matter how short, means the world to them. It doesnāt take you nearly as much time to support a story as it does to create one. Donāt be lazy if youāre a reader ā the stories arenāt going to create themselves, they need encouragement and praise to continue :)
5)Ā Ā Ā Ā Ā SUPPORT ALL CONTENT: All art, stories, head canons, RPGās, RPs, and anything else in this crazy fandom needs to be supported. If you love the fandom and want it to thrive, support is your greatest tool to make it happen.
I know some people are going to think Iām being melodramatic by writing this. Or perhaps I care too much. Still, I think the Hetalia fandom deserves better. Sure, thereās some really freaky content, but weāre a bunch of history nerds and weirdos anyways, so whatever, as long as youāre not being offensive.
This is the one fandom that I havenāt ever gotten bored with. The concept of countries being personified is just so ripe with creativity and potential. There is so much you can do with the large list of cast members, i.e. the mecca of ships and AUs. Weāve created a ton of content thus far, so why stop now?
Weāre a community, so donāt you think we should start acting like it by becoming active again and supporting each other? The fact that we trended last week makes this even more possible!
Hasta la Pasta, letās make Hetalia awesome again!
