hello...what do u think of amekor/korame as a ship...
caveat: pretty much all my Hetalia r/ships are dysfunctional in some manner 😔
i find it interesting actually, if it properly gets into the nuts and bolts of history, beyond a flat depiction of SKorea as an American ally. and only if it starts with the premise that Yong-soo is way older than Alfred. so a ‘Yong-soo who used to be ancient Silla, then Joseon—then, through the years of Japanese rule—coming out the other side of the Korean War as the Republic’ vs against Alfred, the young, dangerous new boy-king of the world. a situation where their age and power dynamics are at direct odds, rather than ‘Yong-soo was born in 1950 and is a teenager.’ there's the irony of Yong-soo for thousands of years being conscious of having to narrowly walk this tightrope of East Asian politics (especially being right next to the Chinese empire; and in the modern era, a powerful Japan) whereas Alfred...has a sliver of that experience but can just upend the entire chessboard. when you're 2000 years old, you know the world isn't fair, but that knowledge doesn't dull the bitterness easily!
personally, it only makes sense to me when Yong-soo's character is heavily foregrounded with having all this old history with Yao, Kiku and his brother (NKorea/Goguryeo), specifically because that’s exactly what’ll shape his worldview in his interactions with younger nations like Alfred. as well as the Cold War context that the alliance comes about in. Yong-soo and Alfred for me is a lot of like..if you think of the perspective of having to now be on the same side of the Cold War line as Japan, it's very much a 'Forced To Get Along With the Worst Person You Know by America' feeling for Yong-soo in the 1950s... so that’s where Older Yong-soo fits into the characterisation. Alfred is powerful, but East Asia is no blank slate he’s stepping into either; instead SKorea and Japan that have layers of history and memory older than before he was even an idea. for me, any Korame feels like it's done more justice where that asymmetrical power and age dynamic is acknowledged, through which other aspects of trans-Pacific cultural exchange, immigrant experiences can be contextualised, and then any more positive elements explored.
