Let's get to know each other!

I get the feeling that we're all waiting for everyone else to make the first move, so to speak, and after my friend voiced the same thoughts I decided to make this thread! 

Just a couple of simple questions to break the ice, I guess? Get the conversation flowing!

• How did you find Hetalia?
  
• How long have you been in the fandom?
  
• What was your first ship? Is that ship your OTP or did you start shipping something else?
  
• What else do you ship besides your OTP? Any OT3s?
  
• Your first favourite character? Are they still your favourite? Who else from the series do you like?
  
• Do you have any favourite AUs, or ones you'd love to see that haven't received any fanwork yet?
  
• And last, but not least: What's your favourite thing about Hetalia?
  

I guess I should get the ball rolling and answer these myself! Heheh...

How did you find Hetalia? Back in the day (cough four years ago cough) I had traversed the internet far and wide but had yet to really come into contact with any anime... somehow. I had been spending the summer of '11 marathoning the Beyblade series in its entirety (all three seasons--152 episodes!), and at the end of it fervently delved into all the Beyblade fanfiction I could get my hands on. (Again... how I had exposed myself to so much fanwork and yet have little to no contact with anime is beyond me.) One day, out of curiosity, I checked out the crossover section and saw one crossed over with 'Hetalia Axis Powers'. I had no idea what that was, but the summary mentioned the characters' country of origin so my curiosity had been piqued. Reading the thing was, naturally, totally confusing so I went ahead and google'd Hetalia and read the Wikipedia entry. HOWEVER, I didn't go on to watch it just then. For some reason I got the impression that it was about an all boys' school where they had a mock-UN club, which didn't interest me in the slightest at the time. It was only a few months later, when I remembered that crossover and decided to check it out again that I discovered the magic I'd been missing out on. I read the Wiki article again and finally understood what it was about this time, and having watched the entire Beyblade series on Youtube, decided to check to see if Hetalia was on there too. It was! For some reason I will never understand I clicked on a random episode instead of going back to watch episode 1, and that fateful episode was episode 38 from season 2. The (in)famous boob scene. Absolutely amazing. (As you can imagine, from that I got the impression that the series was far more lewd than it actually was... Me? Disappointed? Naw maybe.)

How long have you been in the fandom? Oh whoops I went on such a tangent up there I already answered this question. XD Just shy of 3 years!

What was your first ship? Is that ship your OTP or did you start shipping something else? Well, I kinda hinted at the end there... but it was PruHun. I barely knew who they were but just from that scene I was like "wow I hope they get together later" (MUFFLED AND DISTANT SOBBING FROM BEHIND A PILLOW). Starting the series from the beginning though, I shipped USUK first. Totally original answer, I know.

What else do you ship besides your OTP? Any OT3s? Oh man I ship everything. Literally everything. Think of a paring and I ship it. Some of the more obscure ones I enjoy thinking about are Sweden/Spain, Norway/China, Italy/Vietnam + Romano/Taiwan or vice versa (it's a set deal ok, can't have one without the other) and Russia/Seychelles! As for OT3s, Frying Pangle is my Forever And Always. Although even more than that I enjoy Nyo!Austria/Hungary/Nyo!Prussia. Give me all the lesbians. Oh yeah, speaking of which, I'm a huge BelaLiech shipper, too.

Your first favourite character? Are they still your favourite? Who else from the series do you like? I can never remember if it was England or Romano, but it was definitely one of those two. My favourite now is Hungary. (Gee, I wonder what gave that away!  ) I also adore Belarus, and I still love England and Romano, as well as Romania, Spain, Russia, Vietnam, Hong Kong, Iceland, China... okay I basically love a lot of characters haha.

Do you have any favourite AUs, or ones you'd love to see that haven't received any fanwork yet? I don't actually think of AUs that often, surprisingly! I mean I character-cast stuff in my head as I'm watching or reading something new but outside of that I'm pretty content with the canon setting. The biggest AU I've been stuck on though is a crossover with Pacific Rim. I also Pottertalia though I've yet to read any good fic for it. Crossovers aside, I really love the idea of a Little Mermaid-esque plot with merman!Prussia falling in love with Hungary, because I'm a sap. I also have this pretty developed urban fantasy AU in my head that was inspired by a dream I had like, a year and a half? maybe two years ago? I keep telling myself I need to write but I'm laaaaazy. It has magic and vampires and shapeshifters and all that junk in it.

And last, but not least: What's your favourite thing about Hetalia? There's a lot of things I love about Hetalia, but it boils down to 3 main points: 1. the diversity of the fandom. Because there's so many characters and sooo much to play with, you get literally hundreds of pairings, so many ideas for stories and fanart, and I personally love hearing other people's interpretation of a character! 2. How it gets you to connect to history and even things currently happening in the world. 3. The characters!!! There are so many characters to love in this series, no matter what your 'type' is. Particularly I love the women and their designs, even if there are nowhere near enough of them in the series!  Fingers crossed we'll see a new addition some time this year, though!

Whoooooah that was long-winded. Sorry.

First of all, I really want to thank you for breaking the ice!!! I was gonna do it but things came up etc.. so thanks!

How did you find Hetalia?

Someone in my school brought in the printed hetalia manga and she had me read it..... and I was like this england guy reminds me of me.... he's a god damn loser

Jk I'm really aph england

How long have you been in the fandom?

since 2011 or maybe 2010... I forget..

What was your first ship? Is that ship your OTP or did you start shipping something else?

I've been USUK for 3-4 years CRIES OTP UNTIL THE GRAVE MAN

USUK helped me find the best person I could ever hope to find so I'm attached to it ha ha.. I'm very lucky....

What else do you ship besides your OTP? Any OT3s?

I like most everything.. FRUK is cute especially when I think about it but I don't really pay attention to a lot of ships LOL

Your first favourite character? Are they still your favourite? Who else from the series do you like?

it was actually APH China bc I think I was attached to him bc of culture stuff, etc, was kind of glad to see a dude who engaged in the raucous chinese mahjong fests I'm familiar with HAHA

but very quickly I gravitated towards APH England mostly because... idk... I identified with him in like 2011 and now I don't all the time but I still like him a lot so shrugola

Do you have any favourite AUs, or ones you'd love to see that haven't received any fanwork yet?
none really come to mind but I have seen a lot of really good AU's!!! I just don't get invested maybe

And last, but not least: What's your favourite thing about Hetalia?
aph england Who am I kidding it's aph england

wowza this is really cool! I've never actually rp'ed or done anything like thi before so I just wanna say that i'll try my best...
How did you find Hetalia?
Well...this really annoying homophobic guy at my school actually recomendded it to me (oh the irony) at first I was like whateva dude mainly because he's one of those people whos always lamenting their art skills and why they can't be as good as I am even though they are, they really just annoy me. I just ignored it for a few months and then I was like, why not? And I gave it a shot and loved it! It was short, sweet and funny to the point of addiction.

How long have you been  in the fandom?
I know people are always suprised whwn I say this but I've been in the fandom (sorry lurking in the fandom) for a little less than a year though it feels like a decade.

What was your first ship? Is that your OTP or did you start shipping something else?
At first it was SuFin and teneative USUK and now? Now I am a hardcore USUK shipper and UKUS if it's done right

What else do you ship besides your OTP? Any OT3s?
I really liked SpaMano and PruCan for awhile I also really like PruMano and HongIce (which I like to call 'spicy snow cone') I ship Sufin aswell. OT3s...well I really like USUK2p!US (I blame this on lovesickengland) and ACE family...but I think my ultimate OT3 I have yet to find anything for would be RomanoXnyo!CanadaXnyo!Prussia its obscure and weird and thats why I like it.

Your first favorite character?Are they still your favorite? Who else from the series do you like?
Hmmm...I think my first favorite was America and he still is but I also really like Latvia, Canada, England and Wy

Do you have any favorite AU's, or ones you'd love to see but haven't received any fanwork yet?
oh boy here I go...
I love olympic AU's, really obscure historical AU's, crossdressing AU's, paranormal AU's, spy AU's, stripper AU's, Fashion AU's, Sports AU's (dancing, track, football, etc.), AU's with disabilities, hopitals, and over arching deaths...I'm just a sucker for the weird ones so basiclly anything but canon, guaken, carverse, and ww2 (not that I won't read them)

There isn't any that I'm upset abut not having fan work so I'll talk about a couple that i'm working on, I'm writing a USUK art gllery AU with mute!Arthur and one set in Hawaii where Al and Alfred are surfer dudes Arthurs a suicidal ballerina and Olivers a gender fluid fashion model.

Whats your favorite thing about Hetalia?
Can I say the fandom? Because it's deffinately the fandom that made this show great for me

•How did you find Hetalia?
My friend showed it to me and I fell in love with it!

•How long have you been in the fandom?
Ummm.... I think 4-5 months or so. But not too long, I am pretty new.

•What was your first ship? Is that ship your OTP or did you start shipping something else?
USxUK was my OTP and for a while I didn't care about the other ships. Slightly because I was forced into it, but I don't mind and love the ship more than life it's self.
•What else do you ship besides your OTP? Any OT3s?
I really love all of them if they are all done right. I am not to picky really. I like PruCan and Sufin a LOT though.

•Your first favourite character? Are they still your favourite? Who else from the series do you like?
America, in real life that is where I live and he acted just like a true American would. He is also a big dork and out out-going and I love that about him. I also love France, Italy, Romano, Germany, and Greece.
•Do you have any favourite AUs, or ones you'd love to see that haven't received any fanwork yet?
I love high school AUs the most! I also like, fancy (fairies, and werewolf's and all that jazz.), I also really like WW2 ones a lot.
•And last, but not least: What's your favourite thing about Hetalia?
That for the first time in forever (Now Frozen is going to get stuck in my head...) that I found a fandom with gay ships. I love Doctor Who, don't get me wrong, however you can't really ship anyone. Also I love it because I opened me up to the gay community, and to be honest I never knew it was their for a long time. I didn't know for a while that it was ok to like different things. That not only helped me come out a little but now I wasn't afraid anymore; because in a way through fanart and fanfictions I felt like the characters where going through the stuff I was going through. And to me I felt like I wasn't so alone anymore. And made me proud, because if they could do it, so could I.

Aaahhh, this is lovely. I'm excited to be a part of this new community.


How did you find Hetalia? Back in highschool a friend and I were looking for a good site for roleplaying, because the last one we would group or single roleplay on was taken down. I came across an avatar site which had a Hetalia group in it, and out of curiosity I started talking to them. I then watched the anime and read the webcomics and RPed Hetalia with that group for years, and still RP with some of them off of that site.

How long have you been in the fandom? Hm, maybe since late 2009? So a bit under five years.

What was your first ship? Is that ship your OTP or did you start shipping something else? Since I mostly RPed an Australia muse at first, I fell in love with OzNZ. Though I still love them, I love them as a brOTP just as much, if not more-so. Relationships always developed and changed within my RP group and so it's hard to keep track. But I also then fell in love with DenNor when my love for the Nordics grew. I still love both pairings.

What else do you ship besides your OTP? Any OT3s? Wow, I ship a lot . . . I'm a bit of a shipping-enthusiast when it comes to Australia and Denmark, (I love OzUS and NedDen as brOTPs too) but I also love SuFin a lot. PruHun and FrUK are really nice. I'd say I have more bro-pairings than romantic pairings, actually. NedDenNor is probably my biggest OT3. I also love the Bad Touch Trio and the Awesome Trio as brOT3s.

Your first favourite character? Are they still your favourite? Who else from the series do you like? I loved Australia as a muse, but he was more of an OC than anything else because he had nothing but a few sketches at the time. I did love Germany and England, though, and still do. And of course then came the Nordics - I love them to death, especially Denmark.

Do you have any favourite AUs, or ones you'd love to see that haven't received any fanwork yet? I will always be in love with post-apocalyptic AUs, like post-WWIII and zombie apocalypses and the like. The fanfiction Gutters absolutely ruined me. Mermaid AUs are super awesome, and I love fanart, roleplaying and fanfiction of the Viking period with the Viking Trio (Denmark, Norway and Sweden).

And last, but not least: What's your favourite thing about Hetalia? The global togetherness it brings. Through Hetalia you meet so many people from so many different places, and learn more about history and culture from different places. I love it.

This is great! Hi everyone!

How did you find Hetalia?
I honestly have no clue how I came across this fandom; I think it was recommended to me by a friend. I know that I quickly fell into the livejournal Hetalia communities (this was back when livejournal was A Big Thing; tumblr, not so much) and got involved in a RP forum that one of my closer online friends was creating for Hetalia.  I started roleplaying as France, and here I am, still roleplaying as France...

How long have you been in the fandom?
Probably since early 2009, which makes it... five years?  Wow.

What was your first ship? Is that ship your OTP or did you start shipping something else?
Again, I can't quite remember what my first ship was, but I've always been very fond of France (unsurprisingly) and back in my RP-ing days on that old forum, I loved FrUS, FrUK, and France/Germany.  And I still love them! I'd say my biggest Hetalia OTP is FrUK.

What else do you ship besides your OTP? Any OT3s?
I'm probably into 98% of the France-related pairings and have a huge weakness for Turkey/France and Russia/France.  I'm sorry this is literally just me talking about France.  Aside from that, I like... most other things, probably. Oh and I also have a weakness for America/China!!  My OT3s include the Bad Friends trio, the Spain/Romano/Belgium trio, probably America/Russia/China, who knows...

Your first favorite character? Are they still your favorite?  Who else from the series do you like?
Um it was France is anyone surprised at this point?  And he's still my favorite.  I also have a soft spot for Austria because I have a thing for cravat-wearing, dark-haired stuffy gentlemen.  Also Romano! Unfortunately he is me in real life. And I love Seychelles and I'm going to cut myself off there before I list nearly every Hetalia character in this section.

Do you have any favorite AUs, or ones you'd love to see that haven't received any fanwork yet?
I can't think of many AUs I'd like that haven't been made into fanwork in some way or another.  I'm always fond of college/coffeeshop AUs, but I also love AUs in general.  My go-to ones include space pirates, vampires/vampire hunters, tattoo artists... the super clichéd usual.  I also love French Revolution/Napoleonic Wars/post-WWI stuff.

And last, but not least: What's your favorite thing about Hetalia?
Honestly, embarrassingly enough, Hetalia is probably one of the main reasons why I became so enthusiastic about history.  Learning about the characters forced me to do research about countries' histories in general; when I was writing specific fanworks I had to do more focused research about certain time periods.  My interest in Hetalia came about the same time as my interest in the French Revolution (I'm not sure which came first) and that's largely the reason I'm studying history right now.  So I love how you learn so much from participating in a super cute show and fandom!

How did you find Hetalia?
I think I stumbled across youtube videos of it and got curious...
How long have you been in the fandom?
Since 2010!  I rp'd a lot on Omegle when that was still a thing.  
What was your first ship? Is that ship your OTP or did you start shipping something else?
Pruhun, definitely.   USUK and Pruhun are my definite OTPS.
What else do you ship besides your OTP? Any OT3s?
HAha, yeah.  I'm pretty much good with any ship.
Your first favourite character? Are they still your favourite? Who else from the series do you like?
Prussia. I liked him because I knew I could have some fun with him writing him!  I also really like Alfred F Jones, national doofus.
Do you have any favourite AUs, or ones you'd love to see that haven't received any fanwork yet?
Superhero AUs are my weakness. Especially when they're dystopian.
And last, but not least: What's your favourite thing about Hetalia?
My GF, of course!  She and I met through hetalia!

How did you find Hetalia?
I knew about it vaguely back in 09 because I watched a ton of anime and it came up in convos. But then in high school I met someone really into the series so I was like ok...ok...im gonna get into it..frick i can't go back anymore it's consumed me. And then I went on iscribble regularly and that feeling multiplied tenfold.

How long have you been in the fandom?
Since '11

What was your first ship? Is that ship your OTP or did you start shipping something else?
MAN that was so long ago I think I really started shipping FRUK after a friend linked me something? Like HARDCORE. But before I kinda was into the stuff my friends were into like yongsoo x anyone or like spamano or rochu idk man i thought all ships were rad B). Uh I primarily ship Pruhun nowdays but like gosh you can make any ship really nice if you've got enough ppl making content for it.

What else do you ship besides your OTP? Any OT3s?
Kortai (platonic), Nedcan, kimchiburger, kimchibun, spamano, gerita are the big ones yep

Your first favourite character? Are they still your favourite? Who else from the series do you like?
YAO WANG because I'm Chinese. I don't really like how he's portrayed unfortunately by both hima and fandom U_U. I just didn't relate to him?? I try to kind of reclaim the character myself. I'm still attached to him because I'm Chinese but arrgh he's kind of a problematic character. My fav now is actually Gil. I love p much everyone really everyone is a giant nerd. I like the main characters, hetalia asia, seychelles, 2ptalia. Anything's good as long as you portray it well!

Do you have any favourite AUs, or ones you'd love to see that haven't received any fanwork yet?
I love the What The Heart Forgets AU. I would love to see a racebending AU where there are versions of the eurocentric countries with the look of their minorities and just so much potential for good stuff and conflict and experiences there. I'd love to see a kid!AU. I have a giant UCLA/University AU personally that I'm trying to flesh out so I can either draw a comic about it later or like make fanfiction that deals with cultural diaspora and lgbtq issues and positive views about sex and romance and it's gonna be super great.

And last, but not least: What's your favourite thing about Hetalia?
I wrote a thing about it a while back:

I think Hetalia is perhaps the biggest example of fan interpretation and creative freedom leading its appeal  over the show/webcomic itself. As a standalone show, it’s not the most impressive, not in budget, or art style,  or even extreme depth in characterization. But the concept, of personified countries, their interactions with one another, the potential for so many different spin off stories, possible characterizations, creation of new characters, and scope of potential character interaction is incredibly vast. For Hetalia, you basically hold history in your hands, and a set of characters to enact stories that can sometimes be very personal to you through these characters BECAUSE these characters, or a portion of them connect to your heritage, or your history, or your country. Hetalia has definitely created a fanbase where everyone has their own niche and it still fits within the fandom. There is virtue when characters AREN’T developed enough, it can give the fans more freedom to give the characters a piece of their characterization and make the characters more personal to them.

Kesesesesesese... *nyoki*

"Just how awesome, oh awesome I am? I am as awesome as awesome me can be!"

Alright, I'll stop the randomness and on with the show!
Its sort of my first time here so do pardon me if I screw up, ja?

How did you find Hetalia?

Ironically it was a science camp and a long overdue reunion with an old friend of mine(at said camp ). We were talking about anime during break and she brought up Hetalia.  It all went downhill from then on.

But I don't regret it!   

How long have you been in the fandom?

I feel like one of the youngest here...only started at late last year, 2013. *hides in emo corner.*  

Kesesese. Nah. Kidding about the emo corner.  

What was your first ship? Is that ship your OTP or did you start shipping something else?

First ship...PruHun. And yup, its my OTP.

What else do you ship besides your OTP? Any OT3s?

I don't have many ships, but I do like PrUK friendship. The BTT is my favourite trio next to the FBT ( Failed Brothers ). But they aren't failed to me, their little brothers grew up.   

Your first favourite character? Are they still your favourite?

Germany. He was my first favourite character. However, as time passed and I went further down the awesome bunny trail of Hetalia, he dropped to third--tie with Switzerland-- and Prussia shot up the list to be the first.    Till this day I wonder how did that happen, but to be honest, I had actually liked Prussian stuff even before Hetalia--architecture especially.    Just never knew or realized that it was Prussian.

Who else from the series do you like?

Kesesesesesesesese...  

Hungary, Switzerland and England.

Hungary(2nd place) because I actually admire the Hungarians(actual history ) for their strength and will - - the revolutions and all during WWII and later in the Cold War.

Switzerland(3rd place), I've always loved the country for its history and culture. Then, after Hetalia, I just went:  

Last but not least in 4th position, England. I like him mostly for the cute moments in the anime and also his ' big brother ' moments. However, it does go beyond that as I look up to the British for their "keep calm and carry on attitude" during the Second World War.

Do you have any favourite AUs, or ones you'd love to see that haven't received any fanwork yet?

Well, I don't really favour any AU...although I do enjoy the Phantom of the Opera and anything *Historical.

*warning: I can get extremely sensitive when I read stories where writers write historical fics but don't do proper research or do not show historical empathy. I get that in a story, the main point is to capture the reader and bring enjoyment, but do take into account others who may not find what you wrote very kindly.(Though they may not outright say it)

And last, but not least: What's your favourite thing about Hetalia?

Ok, I'll admit that I like Hetalia for similar reasons that Mei Wang has posted(I'm chinese too, btw; 你好! 其实我来自新加坡! 很高兴能与你谈话。希望能多多和你交流!   

That and its difficult to be depressed around Hetalia.   

That's all for now. Auf wiedersehen!

Wooo wee. I didn't check here for a while but here goes!
Looking forward to know you all and maybe start some RPing. Havne't done that in ages

How did you find Hetalia?
Fanart of it kept making the front pages of deviantART and I eventually got curious enough to check it out.

How long have you been in the fandom?
Fall of 2009 .... *laughs nervously* I've been in the fandom for 4 years now, wow

What was your first ship? Is that ship your OTP or did you start shipping something else?
My first ship was RusLiet. I still ship it but not as avidly anymore. My OTP(s) right now are RusAme, UKUS, USUK, in that order.

What else do you ship besides your OTP? Any OT3s?
I... love Americest. Ahahahaaa. Uh the Frying Pangle (AusPruHun), SuFin, DenNor, Bad Touch Trio, FraRus, idk I have lots of ship

Your first favourite character? Are they still your favourite? Who else from the series do you like?
My first favorite would be Russia. He's still my fav but America is also up there as number one with him.

Do you have any favourite AUs, or ones you'd love to see that haven't received any fanwork yet?
Favorite AUs are mostly supernatural ones like Werewolf/vampire, Nations (AU or Canon hmm), Mafia, and other action/fantasy type AUs. Would love to see more Robot AUs

And last, but not least: What's your favourite thing about Hetalia?
Compatible with everything XD Once you're in it you can't really escape

How did you find Hetalia?
That's a good question. Going by the first time I heard of it, someone mentioned it on a forum or it might've been a webcomic site in passing in 2006/2007. I had looked briefly into it, but the comics and such weren't as organized as they were now. I had never used livejournal either, so I pretty much gave up on checking it out, haha.

Come 2008, I think it was someone on my deviantart feed posted a fanart, which renewed my interest. There were some more resources at that point so it was a bit easier to get around haha. I think late 2008 the old nisecal site started and that's when I really managed to get up with the comic. (And essentially started what would be one of my longest fandom obsessions haha)

How long have you been in the fandom?
Like mentioned above, since 2008! I first contributed to fandom anonymously in 2008 on kink meme and iscribble and publicly later in early 2009 when I started adding pics on deviantart haha. So those would be my first involvements in fandom!

What was your first ship? Is that ship your OTP or did you start shipping something else?
The first ships that clicked in my mind was RusAme and FruK, though back in the day there was a bit of an only Gerita fandom, shipping wise haha. People had slowly started shipping usuk through the kink meme and fanart, so I became a lot more involved with usuk just because there was more fandom works.

I still ship all of those, but they're not quite at otp level anymore.

What else do you ship besides your OTP? Any OT3s?
I ship pretty much everything if I got enough convincing, with very few exceptions.
Same for OT3s, just need a good rp or fic or art to back it up.

Your first favourite character? Are they still your favourite? Who else from the series do you like?
Russia, then America. Not anymore on either of them, though I like both of them, my focus on favourites shifted haha.
It's hard to pick just one fave, but I like the Netherlands, Belgium, France, Estonia, Norway, Monaco and a bunch of the nyos quite a lot.

Do you have any favourite AUs, or ones you'd love to see that haven't received any fanwork yet?
I have an incredibly weak spot for fantasy based AUs. Anything from mermaids, steam or cyberpunk to harry potter or fairies or general crossovers. (Also poketalia!)

And last, but not least: What's your favourite thing about Hetalia?
It's weird to imagine how my life would be without Hetalia, since it had a huge impact on my past 6 years.
Some of my very closest friends I met through hetalia, people I still talk to to this day, either through internet or conventions.
And while most of them have moved on from aph it is still this fandom that led me to meet them and I'm so grateful for that haha.

I guess it's the way it helps you connect to people all around the world.