aro culture is celebrating arizona statehood day on feb 14 lol
So a new proposal was introduced to make New Mexico and Arizona one state. New Mexico was all for it. Arizona, not so much.
"There was a great of hesitation because they didn’t want to associate with the Hispanic culture and people of New Mexico. There was fear that this would be a very negative development for the people of Arizona," Southard explained.
More than 100 years ago, Arizona became the last of the contiguous U.S. states to be signed into statehood, but it did not happen so easily
consider, instead of celebrating the statehood, celebrating the Hispanic and Navajo people who owned and resided in the land prior to that! also, the murder of Captain James Cook, rest in piss.
aro culture is the decolonization of lands, listening to the indigenous people in your area and supporting them, and also direct action :)
to #♥️💫, the china from hetalia who keeps writing in:
before i start, i want to say that i'm not scolding you, i PROMISE. just trying to inform you, and point out some problems with your canon that you unfortunately have to deal with as one of its inhabitants. i have weird canons along those lines also, and i am NOT judging you for the lives you have lived or the way that your mangaka here/now decided to tell your story. i am of the firm belief that our sources existing in this lifetime is the result of the creators being in tune with the canon somehow (be it being kin themself and not realizing it as is the case with SO many old souls, or other means), so please know that everything i say here is NOT a condemnation of you as a person or even you as the personification of a country.
that being said, i would *really* like to encourage you to look into the real life history of your country, because i need you to understand that in the history of this world, china was kind of an insane colonial force and they hurt a lot of people. the people of actual real life hong kong are suffering to this day, because of the decisions of the chinese governing party. taiwan as a whole even existing is a fascinating and complicated history. PLEASE learn your real life country counterpart's history, because a lot of the issues i have with your asks are how accidentally you're cooing over colonialist war crimes.
a *really simple* way to fix this is: because i'm familiar with your source, i know that most of you have human names. i highly encourage you to use this instead of country names, especially when speaking about yourself and your children, because of the colonialist history of the real life country of china. i can assume (based on what i know of you from here, and what i know of your canon) that this will feel uncomfortable, and i'm really sorry, but the fact of the matter is that our memories matter very little in the face of thousands of years of human history. i very much understand that you were a figurehead in your canon, and that your country's leadership still made the decisions, while you had the incredibly heavy burden of doing as they said and also bearing all the blame. i understand that being a country was very complex, and that your love and care for your children was as sincere as it is possible to be—but the places those children are have suffered, in this universe, because of the actual colonialist country of china. very seriously, if you would use y'all's people names instead of your country names, so much of this problem would instantly be fixed. (please do still learn about chinese history from sources which are not afraid to point out their issues. it is entirely possible to criticize the chinese government without being racist to chinese civilians living under their rule!)
...sorry! that was a lot. um. tldr: using your person-names instead of your country-names will kill a lot of the issues with the asks you send in, and so will learning the history of the real life country of china. i would like to note that i feel like if you have any issues untangling your canon from your source, it will help that as well. - literally just some dude who also cannot control his shitty sources, who really wants to see you thrive and be able to talk about stuff without feeling afraid people are gonna jump on you
S+ tier, ultra OTP. idc if that rank isn't on the list. Oh man, how do I even start.
Short explanation here, long historic one under the readmore
I will preface this by saying it's a ship with a tumultuous history of imperialism and very real suffering, a perpetrator x victim ship, a 'dark' ship, etc. Keep that in mind as a general warning. I am personally rather confident in my ability to treat it carefully as a Chinese person and someone with a fairly solid background in early modern Chinese history, and I personally am rather laissez-faire with shipping, but YMMV
I think the main appeal to me really is the history. Like, it's my OTP that got me back into Hetalia like 2 years ago (and I met my darling gf thru it) so of course I love the ship as is and I love AUs, but the history hits all the points of tension and power imbalance and 'divorce' and crushed dreams that I love so much. I love both characters separately as well and I love how explosively they come together and fall apart. I think their personalities could fit surprisingly well in another world, another life, where they could have a quiet moment over tea and Wang Yao would appreciate Arthur's quiet grace and Arthur Wang Yao's pragmatism and beauty, but now and for the foreseeable future their interactions will always be tainted with smoke and pain and wars that Arthur doesn't even truly remember.
I do also love AUs btw I really do think they'd suit each other in another world, another time, without all the history hanging over them.
Rundown of relationship through the lens of chronological history: Fair warning, it's 1.5k words
Ok. Okokokok. So. Let's start from the beginning. I want to post this before bed so no references. Sorry if I get any history details wrong, it's been a second and this is all off the top of my head.
WARNINGS: abuse, drug use, nonconsent/assault, imperialism, the works. This is not a happy pair nor do they get a happy ending.
So initially, I imagine their first meeting to be the classic Macacartney Embassy of 1793, it's the classic (if rather orientalist) trope, Arthur marching in with the retinue after a year of exhausting travel, having finally reached the celestial kingdom, and Wang Yao there to greet him in resplendent deep blue robes. China was known in Europe through a variety of lenses, from the fascination with the exotic - Marco Polo's adventure to 'Cathay', Chinoiserie which had reached a fever pitch in the 1700s when China was both close and unknown - to the respect of philosophers for the faraway empire's imagined orderly way of rule. Arthur and his crew have been mistreated and pushed aside by official after official, but here they are now, and Arthur catches a glimpse of silky dark hair and frosty amber eyes and easy, effortless power and he's infatuated.
Wang Yao is, for his part, equally fascinated. Qianlong is wary despite his own fascination with European technology, Manchuria - will call him Erdeni - is even more wary, but Wang Yao's been screwing around the palace for a long time without much real political power outside the symbolic, and Arthur is a lovely surprise, finally he has a glimpse of those British who've been causing so much trouble in Canton! Arthur is a little rough around the edges, but certainly more refined than Wang Yao was expecting. His face lights up when he gets a moment with Wang Yao, he kisses Wang Yao's hand and tells him it's custom, Wang Yao allows it all with a sort of giddy amusement.
Their first meeting is like that, mutual fascination. Now, the British were already running something of a deficit and selling opium, however they were not the only ones at this point - the Dutch were the ones to introduce opium mixed with tobacco as recreational iirc, so although the dynasty had something of a problem they were trying and failing to deal with, it wasn't blamed on the British at this point. Qianlong is suspicious and a little tired, he knows he British have gunships (Macartney made sure to sail up on a big one) and he has to deal with stirrings of rebellion on top of Macartney's demands for more trade and land, Erdeni is horribly stressed, and Wang Yao is... kinda dreamy ngl! Likewise, Macartney leaves in an angry huff, but Arthur is just a little lovesick.
Now let's watch it fall apart! This part of the story is fairly straight forward, many issues happen in Canton including another failed embassy, the British East India Company losing their monopoly on Canton trade opening the shores up to private businesses both British and American, opium sales shoot up, rebellions shake the Qing, not helped by an aging Qianlong and a severely corrupt government willing to lie to his face, Arthur and Wang Yao are quite busy with their own affairs and only give each other a passing thought. Maybe there are letters, though, every once in a while, playful at the beginning but increasingly snippy as relations, what little there were, worsen. Their views of each other, developed within their own countries and politics, would likewise worsen.
By the time Arthur was invited to a debate in the British House of Commons discussing whether or not to declare war against China for all the chests of British opium dumped by Commissioner Lin into the sea, his view of Wang Yao was decidedly negative. Irritating, arrogant, backward, childish, and wholly unable to show any respect to his own, much less 'barbarians'. That pretty face is wasted, he thinks viciously, on a child tyrant in arrested development since before Rome, in desperate need of correction. On Wang Yao's part, he's starting to feel a bit of the rot, both the opium epidemic in its early stages and the rebellions that shook the latter part of Qianlong's reign leading to long decades of violence and famine, by the time the Daoguang emperor attempts ever more desperately to crack down on opium in the 1820s, both Wang Yao and Erdeni are nearly bedridden. In his periods of lucidity, Wang Yao curses his past self who giggled and allowed Arthur to kiss his hand.
So, then the wars start. Suffice to say, alongside war comes forced opium legalization, the taking of colonies (little Ka Lung, who's never known his older brother not surrounded by smoke and sickness, later on Weiwei, abandoned little coastal town left forgotten, Shanghai, Tianjin, etc) Arthur visits more, now.
Of course he does. Wang Yao can't say no.
He doesn't visit particularly often, however, despite personal interest, China has always been on the margins of British empire - only the China hands Truly cared about it, the central government did not. Arthur visits to oversee colonial development, visits imperial institutions the British had set up like the Imperial Maritimes Custom Service that control China's coast and later on postal system, etc. He drops by Wang Yao's place too, visits the bedridden fallen star living deep within the walls of a rotting imperial stronghold, does as he pleases because Wang Yao is barely awake enough to recognize him, anyways.
I won't go too deep into these few decades, just know they are excessively bleak. Rebellions come and go, Taiping and British involvement, Boxer rebellion sees Arthur marching in with a veritable army, Alfred, Ivan, Kiku, Ludwig, several others, Kiku jumps in headfirst and shakes hands with Arthur over Wang Yao's half-dead form, Arthur takes and takes and takes and when he's not taking he barely remembers Wang Yao is alive.
But Wang Yao... is alive. Alive, and responding to every desperate attempt by the emperor to reform and grow. Weihaiwei is a result of that, a coast where the Qing's first modern fleet were supposed to be docked, a child who was not a replacement for Ka Lung, but still an opportunity for Wang Yao to be better. Of course Weiwei gets taken away by Arthur in the end, but Wang Yao is far from finished.
I've let time get away from me, so lets quickly fast forward past the fall of the Qing and birth of the new republic, past ww1, when China sends workers to aid Britain and France, past May 4th 1919, all the way to 1922.
Wang Yao is a man reborn, Arthur is a man beaten down by an empire slipping away from him and a war that devastated his people and country on a never before seen scale. British imperialism in China has never been stronger, taking great economic concessions only to be bombarded with the ever-growing nationalism and anti-imperialism of the new Republic and then sending in the military to quell that. Arthur shows up periodically at this point, rolling his eyes at Wang Yao's arrogance and mourning the easy submission of the late 1800s - I've done Yao a disservice by allowing him to get these ridiculous thoughts of republic when he barely knows how to reason, he thinks, leaning pretty far right in his thinking due to all those personal emotions tangled in that he won't put a name to. Wang Yao though, Wang Yao only cares that he's above all that now, that Erdeni's dead by his own hand, that he's now Arthur's equal and WILL be treated as such. Wang Yao's also currently a little more preoccupied with, well, the constantly ramping up invasion on his shores, courtesy of Kiku.
Talking about that invasion, he certainly hasn't forgotten that Arthur had shaken hands with Kiku over his body and soul, splitting him up like a piece of meat. Arthur's relationship with Kiku has been deteriorating in the meanwhile, until, oh, Europe seems to be in some kind of war, and China's also at war with an ally of some of those Europeans, might as well formally declare an alliance!
1941. China is still riddled with colonies, colonial institutions, and concessions that would not start being returned until 1943-1999. The Republic of China joins the US, USSR, and Great Britain as the Four Powers. Wang Yao faces Arthur over tea and cookies, still bearing bruises from their last meeting (countries heal slowly when embroiled in civil war and invasion and chaos) and steels himself to talk strategy.
Nowadays? Arthur wouldn't be able to recall much about it all, Wang Yao rendered as just another pretty face in a long line of victims. Wang Yao still gets nightmares of opium haze and burning pain and Arthur's cheerful voice scolding him for taking on more than he can chew, and hides it behind a mask of nationalist fervour, lets it colour his vision so he will always remember what it feels like to be weak.
While we’re on the topic of some recent issues, also please pay attention to Palestine. They’re in need of massive help and our governments are doing nothing, as per usual.
Petition for US tax dollars to stop being used to support the ethnic cleansing happening in Palestine
Support the Palestinian Childrens Relief Fund
Petition to respond to Israeli actions against the Palestinians
Info on what’s happening rn ( from @ letstalkpalestine on insta )
If anyone has more info or has more links pls feel free to add to this! Everyone pls do your part and help support Palestinians, this is horrific. There’s a reason we say ‘Never again’.
((So like. I’m trying to get some sleep, but my brain keeps thinking about this shit so. I can’t-
So I’m putting all this shit under read more because I am just rambling.
Alright, so first of all, what’s bothering me is like. The Tuffle War shit. And I know it was only brought up in filler and then later on became a thing in GT, which is non canon, but like it’s pretty widely accepted.
So anyways. Apparently the war was ended at most a decade before Prince Vegeta was born at most, and then King Cold found them and annexed them into the at the time Cold Force.
And before then the Saiyans and the Tuffles were kind of coexisting somewhat, with the Tuffles either enslaving the Saiyans or the Tuffles just wanting to mind their own businesses peacefully depending on who you ask. But either way the Saiyans were mostly relegated to the wastelands on at the time Planet Plant until they are led to war by King Vegeta.
Problem I have though is that Bardock more or less says that Saiyans were conquering planets long before Cold found them. And Jaco even said that Saiyan children tend to keep their youth until adulthood [hence why Goku was so babby for so long in Dragon Ball], in which they sorta rapidly age into adults. And the reason for that is that it’s a deceptive trait they gained from evolution so that they could look unassuming and make conquering the planet easier [Think how dogs over time evolved to be cuter so humans would feed and take care of them, but more asshole like]. Implying that these bastards have been doing this for so long that they gained that as an evolutionary trait.
So how were they doing this shit if they were barely scraping by in the wastelands of Planet Plant?
Also apparently the general Saiyan culture was established as much more than scavengers for a long ass time. After all, apparently Nappa was born into a nobel family. So clearly the cast system/heierarchy was very much alive back when at least Nappa was born. Which wouldn’t make much sense pre planetary take over. Especially since that kind of shit takes time to develop
Either A the Tuffles were conquerers that used the Saiyans as muscle for gaining territory [which would go against the notion of the Tuffles being peaceful or at the very least non violent], B the Saiyan Tuffle War happened a long ass time ago [meaning that King Vegeta would not have even been alive to lead the war, though an ancestor of his potentially could], or C the Tuffles never existed [At least not in the way Toriyama envisioned them too]. Either way, it’s fucking with me.
Personally leaning more towards a bit of a fusion between B and C, because the Saiyans did come from Planet Sadala before they had to flee to what is now known as Planet Vegeta. And something had to have been there before them. Who knows, maybe it was the first of their conquest.
And also while we’re at it, since Saiyans were conquerers long before Cold came in and brought them into the army, wouldn’t that mean that there were likely potential Saiyan colonies all over the place? As tends to happen with this type of shit? Granted, Cold probably gathered them up and sent them back to Planet Vegeta, but you really think stubborn fuckers would have gone quietly?
Though granted, could be why the Saiyan populations wasn’t very big even before Frieza decided “Yes, let’s genocide”. Not just because Saiyans are more interested in fighting than fucking, but also because Cold decided to kill off those that refused to leave the colonies to go back to Planet Vegeta?
And god, you got to imagine the potential culture shock for some of those that did go back depending on how long the colonies have been established before Cold decided to fuck it all up.
Either way, though, who’s to say some colonies or individuals didn’t slip through the cracks? Who’s to say that there weren’t Saiyan hybrids, because again, interracial breeding was pretty common with this shit.
So who’s to say there aren’t more Saiyans out in the universe. And I’m not just talking about those that didn’t go back to Planet Vegeta when the call was made.
Also, you think that “prince of all”/”king of all” Saiyans title came from the hypothetical multiple colonies? Because like. Would it really be necisarry in a universe where there’s rulers of entire planets otherwise?
Guys. Guys I’m so sorry I started this at like 1:30am and it’s almost 2:30am I should be asleep not doing this shit-))
Thinking about the Klingons’ reasons for the war in Discovery............like they are definitely a violent imperialist power but damn..............they had some Points about the Federation also being an imperialist power putting on a front of respectability...................T’Kuvma let’s get coffee sometime I just wanna Talk
