Comments: 48
Morrigansfury [2015-02-12 00:59:04 +0000 UTC]
And this is why I prefer the Assassins
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Morrigansfury [2014-08-12 20:57:47 +0000 UTC]
I know all about the Mafia
In fact a member of my mom's family married a member of a family called the Bambino family
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statiqueSagitta [2013-05-25 18:44:54 +0000 UTC]
The stereotype Mafioso, I must admit, has a captivating personality, captivating, not fascinating or admirable. By 'captivating' I mean the fact that his mosaic of traits makes you spend a lot of time thinking. Idiots imagine romance stories to that and those sell well, it's all controlled by the media and for the money . Many people mistake this attractive intellectual trial with "coolness" or whatsoever. Especially the young ones, their personality still growing on a weak foundation of morals nowadays, take subjects like the Mafia way too lightly... In a truly disrespectful way
Drawing the Hetalia Italy brothers as part of the Mafia, but only in a well-founded context, is ok for me... But drawing them like this just for fanservice, calling them "awesome" and "hot" and so on... Personally I'd feel offended.
no worries from East Europe though~ this subject is more like a tabu here...
b-but this is just my little explanation I love your 'Ask Italy' comics! Thank you so much for sharing actually true infos!
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jjblue1 In reply to statiqueSagitta [2013-05-25 19:07:42 +0000 UTC]
I've hard time being captivated by the mafia. In the end they're just people who do the worst things possible taking advantage of who's weak and they do them feeling it's their right to do so.
For me it's hard to see the Italies portrayed as Mafia and be okay with it. The Italies represent all the Italians and so seeing them portrayed as such is like seeing someone implying Italians are the scum of Earth.
After all they're different things even in the APH canon, in which even Himaruya represented the Mafia as something that's not Romano.
Though this is just my opinion. As the comic say for me the cool part of Italy is represented not by Mafia but by those who fought against it and it's pretty sad that the APH fandom completely ignore those brave people.
... sorry, I fear I've rambled too much so I apologize.
I'm so happy you love 'Ask Italy'. When I draw it I feared no one would be interested in it!
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statiqueSagitta In reply to jjblue1 [2013-05-25 19:46:02 +0000 UTC]
well, as much as I see it, the Mafia seems "cool" only for those who don't know a single thing about real life and politics (and I cannot take this subject lightly since, for example, Romania's educational system is like a Mafia itself............... and it brings down any intellectual. Inclusively me.).
I can only agree, it's disgusting how superficial our fandom can be... even so, I can't be one of those fans, my favourite countries are strictly because of the best of the people...
oh, by the way... what do you think of the 2P!Italies?
don't worry, I love to hear you talk (I write way too much myself, รฎmi pare rฤu ) you can write as much as you feel like! hearing your opinion helps me understand everything a bit more~
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jjblue1 In reply to statiqueSagitta [2013-05-25 21:30:08 +0000 UTC]
I guess you're right.
Well, I think the fandom is misguided in certain things. Movies really like to represent it as cool so if you're not into what really is you can be easily mistaken...
Well, Himaruya didn't really give the 2p a character although, as the rest of the fandom, I also think they seem either evil or insane.
The idea to use them to represent the dark side of a country is interesting as it helps to solve the problem of countries being formed by many kinds of people.
Romano's 2p version doesn't exist in the canon, Veneziano's is... well, pretty different from his usual self, and somewhat cool looking...
I'm not really sure how I should feel toward him. I'm not particularly fond of the Italies' portray in Hetalia (not mentioning their characters got switched) but I dislike the idea that Himaruya might have thought that if Italy is nice he's an idiot, while if he's evil he's cool especially because all this sharp contrast, that's not present in the other characters (Germany seems cool in both versions), seems to lead people to think that 2p!Italy is cool and evil because he's insane.
But well, as Himaruya never really showed the 2p in actions maybe it's just a fan interpretation and the 2p, more than evil, are just more aggressive.
Thank you, I was afraid I've annoyed you! No, you don't write too much, it's nice to hear you talk!
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jjblue1 In reply to statiqueSagitta [2013-05-26 14:00:42 +0000 UTC]
I'm not that much into the fandom because... well, I got in Hetalia due to the history potential and so far most of the fandom is moving away from it so... well, we're going toward different directions.
However in the past the fandom had no problems in representing Rome as the family boss with Veneziano and Romano as his heirs so I guess the fandom have no problems believing the stereotype that whoever is from Italy is Mafia, even Rome that existed prior to Mafia.
Honestly, despite what he says, I think Himaruya doesn't like Italians that much. He gives them all the faults Japanese people seem to dislike and, expecially in the beginning, Veneziano was quite... disgusting, honestly.
Later on, as Hetalia grew in success, he gave him a cute side and painted him as somewhat better even though he continued to show a serious lack of knowledge for Italian history, made worse by his will to represent the history of so many different Italian states as if they were a single unit.
It'll be like trying to portray Europe's history as if it was a single thing right from beginning.
I fear he created south Italy merely to represent the 'kingdom of the south', the southern part of Italy that, in WW2, joined the allies into fighting against Germany.
In fact Romano in the beginning seems to hate 'poor Germany' for no reason at all, looking like an ungrateful person as kind Germany is helping them.
From here the idea he had to have a personality like that, instead of the typical sunny one that stereotypically given to southerns and that Himaruya had, anyway, already given to north Italy, regardless of the fact north Italians are usually 'the grumpy ones' probably because, when he created north Italy, in truth he planned for Italy to be a single one.
But, after all, Veneziano's portray is very southern, down to his love for the lute/mandolin that's actually typical of the south and lack of northern characteristics down to the food he ate (why is he never shown eating polenta? it's a typical northern dish!).
Honestly I haven't searched that much for it but I'm not sure it'll be that bad.
Prior to the 2p versions there was already who had Germany act like its darker self. Having a 2p version probably would make things better as whatever wrong Germany did could be blamed to its insane and/or evil version... leaving normal Germany as a caring yet competent character.
In short the difference between the two would be only in the willingness with which they'll follow certain orders, while in Italy's case they're really represented as complete opposite.
I don't think the same is applied to 2p Germany.
Though this is mostly my speculation looking at fanarts as it's a while from the last time I've read a fic...
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statiqueSagitta In reply to jjblue1 [2013-05-26 14:34:30 +0000 UTC]
Ohhh, that is what I feared the most: the fact that Veneziano behaves more southern than northern! I guessed that before, but I didn't want to believe it So it is true after all...
What am I going to do now? I love a lie
* don't take me too seriously Hetalia doesn't change a thing anyway *
Italians are way too different from the Japanese, I think they are really too much for them to understand... And yes, I was thinking the same, that Feli was actually meant to represent Italy as a single state. That couldn't have been done, since the Italian unification is pretty recent.
Romano's hate for Germany is normal and correct, but the one thing I truly dislike about Romano's character is his tsundereness towards Spain, pointless Japanese cliche, (...I guess I have to read a lot more about the years South Italy and Rome were part of the Spanish Empire to see how big the influences really were...)
I am thankful that the 2P!Hetalians were created, it's better to separate the good and the bad from each country rather than suddenly portray them as mentally-unstable criminals.
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statiqueSagitta In reply to jjblue1 [2013-05-26 16:25:34 +0000 UTC]
you Italians are great, honestly-honestly. but your television is... ugh... just like ours...
It can't be worse than how the world thinks of Romanians! Precisely so! they don't know anything about us...
Yep, here too, I've got 4 more weeks to go, then I'll have the whole summer for me.
well, actually...
I have to practise English for the Proficiency exam I'd like to take next year, while the exercise books are extremely expensive ... I want to go deeper into my Art History studies , also read books in German and English, not to mention lots in Romanian... and when I count my urge to know the true history of the world in... So little time. So many things I would like to do... I wonder how many I will accomplish.
except the Art History thing. That one is inevitable. It's the air I breathe daily
I think it's one of the most important things, to know your own country's history. (personally, I look down on whoever doesn't know our national anthem, national poet or how our Great Union took place )
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statiqueSagitta In reply to jjblue1 [2013-05-26 19:51:21 +0000 UTC]
Hmm, just curious, what do Italians think of Romania?
because, for example, the French and the British generally think of us as miserable thieves because of the gypsies that emigrate there from here. But they call us all gypsies. They forget that Romanians ARE NOT the same with gypsies. Gypsies (or Rromas) are like a totally different nation within our own. We look different, we act differently, we speak different languages even. Yet, everyone sees us as gypsies, as thieves, as dirty good-for-nothings...
We really did nothing to deserve this wicked generalization... We're a land of poets, fairy-tales, historical heroes and love for nature...
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jjblue1 In reply to statiqueSagitta [2013-05-26 20:52:45 +0000 UTC]
Although gypsies (here they're called 'zingari') are often not looked upon favorably I don't think they're generally associated with Romania though being Romania pretty far from Italy it's seen as a somewhat mysterious country... and if you're a fan of horror movies it can look a tad scary (*cough* Dracula *cough*)... which generates a mix of fear and fascination for the place.
More than everything else I think Italians are curious about it as we're told really little about it in school due to a lack of common history and tv tends to overlook it, to present us movies about USA and anime about Japan. For us most of the eastern countries are somewhat mysterious though, rumored to have interesting history and traditions of which we only catch glimpses if we're careful.
Maybe it's just me but in the world there's too much stereotyping of other countries just because they base their judgment of those countries on the people that emigrated from them... or, what's worse, on the children and grandchildren and grandgrandchildren of the people that emigrated from them and that never lived in them.
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jjblue1 In reply to statiqueSagitta [2013-06-08 20:18:58 +0000 UTC]
Thank you so much!
If the internet connection will manage to last I'll run to read it immediately! (today, it kept failing for some reasons after few time...)
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BlackNyappy [2013-04-06 16:48:11 +0000 UTC]
Ahah, le " ciao bella!" bags! X'D E' vero si vedono ancora in giro per Roma, ma io sento dire "ciao bella" piรน spesso dagli stranieri che dagli italiani...sarร uno scambio di usanze? XP
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jjblue1 In reply to BlackNyappy [2013-04-06 17:02:13 +0000 UTC]
Ho notato anch'io... sembra che gli stranieri siano convinti che gli italiani lo dicano spessissimo e che usino la parola 'bella' un sacco... per cui quando vengono qui DEVONO usarlo anche loro... un po' come quando si dichiarano convinti che diciamo tutti 'capeesh'...
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BlackNyappy In reply to jjblue1 [2013-04-06 17:39:36 +0000 UTC]
Mamma mia, ma che stereotipi hanno diffuso all' estero...? XD Eppure di italiani che vivono fuori dall' Italia ce ne sono parecchi, possibile che non servano a sfatare certi miti?
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jjblue1 In reply to BlackNyappy [2013-04-06 17:45:46 +0000 UTC]
Ringrazia Hollywood. Se vuoi saperne di piรน qui c'รจ come veniamo rappresentati di solito in tv...
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BlackNyappy In reply to jjblue1 [2013-04-06 18:34:53 +0000 UTC]
Oh, grazie. ^_^ Mi toglierรฒ un pรฒ di dubbi. XD
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jjblue1 In reply to BlackNyappy [2013-04-06 18:42:40 +0000 UTC]
Piรน che altro temo ti farai un viaggio nell'orrore... certe cose sono cosรฌ... non so nemmeno come definirle...
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BlackNyappy In reply to jjblue1 [2013-04-06 22:06:15 +0000 UTC]
L'ho letto...devo dire che a pensarci mi viene da ridere ma subito dopo mi dico "ma che davvero?"
E' una sorta di incredulita'. O__O
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jjblue1 In reply to BlackNyappy [2013-04-06 23:22:51 +0000 UTC]
Beh, indubbiamente fa uno strano effetto... tipo, ma stanno parlando di un'Italia in una dimensione parallela?
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BlackNyappy In reply to jjblue1 [2013-04-07 07:34:28 +0000 UTC]
Ahah, e' vero!
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jjblue1 In reply to G3nny [2013-04-06 16:39:32 +0000 UTC]
Allora, le domande per questo episodio sono basate su cose che ho sentito in rete... insomma, non sono vere domande fatte a me ma disinformazione sull'Italia che ho letto in giro e che ho trasformato in domande.
In breve ho incontrato davvero gente che pensa che gli italiani abbiano tutti i capelli neri e guai a dire il contrario, che mangino pasta per colazione, che dicano sempre 'ciao, bella' (per alcuni sembra proprio che non facciamo nient'altro che chiamare 'bella' tutte le ragazze, in qualsiasi occasione e anche quando ne conosciamo il nome...), che non c'รจ niente di male a rappresentarci come mafiosi perchรจ tanto lo siamo tutti e che tirando su la cornetta diciamo subito 'ciao' invece di 'pronto'...
E cosรฌ ho usato questa disinformazione e l'ho trasformata in domande pensando che potesse essere interessante per la gente sapere la veritร .
Nel secondo episodio perรฒ una delle domande mi รจ stata veramente fatta da un 'ascoltatore' e nel terzo, se lo finisco, ce ne saranno 3 fatte da 'ascoltatori'...
Lo si puรฒ definire un progresso...
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InuLoverNr1Hitomi [2013-03-16 13:17:08 +0000 UTC]
That mafia thing really makes me sad. I don't know much about it but I've never liked that sort of thing. I do admit that I'm pretty much inlove with the costumes the italies wear in fanart but I don't like the mafia because of that. ;__;
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jjblue1 In reply to InuLoverNr1Hitomi [2013-03-16 17:09:29 +0000 UTC]
Same here. There's really nothing cool in it.
The costumes? Well, I guess the italies can wear them without necessarily being mafia...
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Dustfish [2013-03-07 00:12:22 +0000 UTC]
American interest in the Mafia is due mostly to the Godfather movies (and maybe more recently the Sapranos). Being a nation with a history of social outcasts we tend to admire the under dog, even if he is the bad guy, when he has a strong independant streak, loves his family, and periodically steps over that line of what is legal. Don't be at all surprised to see that stereotype continue (and even stregnthen) in the near future.
And, as an American that lived in Italia for six years, I am deeply sorry my fellow citizens are idiots.
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jjblue1 In reply to Dustfish [2013-03-07 00:31:19 +0000 UTC]
So I've read (as I said in the notes I had to search for an explanation). I'll admit it's hard for me to understand it as Mafia isn't a fantasy character like Darth Vader or Raistlin Majere, both bad guy yet charming, but a real menace. It's as if you were finding cool the guy who really might chose to ruin your business, kidnap you, kill you or someone you hold dear and so on.
I won't be. I haven't seen the Sopranos but from what I've heard they're further promoting this stereotype of 'cool mafia'. It's rather depressing.
Don't be. Movies are a powerful tool to manipulate people's opinion... I'm just sad they end up promoting such a thing.
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Dustfish In reply to jjblue1 [2013-03-07 04:02:25 +0000 UTC]
*nods*
(You're not missing anything with the Sopranos. It was just Sex in the City with the story revovling around a mob family.)
I think you've hit on something with your last comment. I'm not one of those folks who thinks movies turns people into killers or pyscopaths, but I do believe that if one watches a steady diet of movies that glorify those sort of people it eventaully does lead to believing that mobsters are "cool". As antiquated as this makes me sound, I miss the 'good old days' when movies had a good guy (a goody two shoes boy scout) and a bad guy, and you knew in the end that the bad guy was going to get his comeuppance. ...Maybe that's why I like the Bond movies so much. Bad guys usually meet with a bad ending.
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jjblue1 In reply to Dustfish [2013-03-07 17:57:01 +0000 UTC]
(oh, okay, thanks for warning me)
Well, we can only hope we'll get better movies in the future and that people will grow tired of watching stuffs in which the bad guy is presented as the role model everyone should aim to follow.
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Dustfish In reply to jjblue1 [2013-03-07 21:13:33 +0000 UTC]
Agreed.
Oh, and the survey? I don't remember where all the different provinces are located, but I'd bet that the further south you go, the more likely you are to find black hair. Incidentally, since a huge bulk of Italian immigration to the United States came from Sicily and the southern extremities of the peninsula, that may have something to do with the presumption that all Italians have black hair. Given Sicily's strategic position in the Medeterranian Sea, it makes sense as both an area of trade and conquest.
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jjblue1 In reply to Dustfish [2013-03-07 21:41:54 +0000 UTC]
Yes, it's very likely that the most of the Italians that came to America were dark haired and this generated the stereotype... though I've discovered that some people turned into into a rule about how Italians are supposed to be...
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Dustfish In reply to jjblue1 [2013-03-08 15:16:45 +0000 UTC]
Well, just remember that stereotypes (that 'rule' you talked about) work both ways. 'Muricans might have one (rather incorrect) veiw of Italians, but many Italians also have a very 'Hollywood' image of Americans.
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jjblue1 In reply to Dustfish [2013-03-08 16:36:35 +0000 UTC]
If it can be of some comfort the Italian stereotype for Americans is rather nice. Generally an Italian is more prone to think that people from countries that he doesn't know directly are cool and live in a cool place with a wonderful governement and no problems at all.
(Is 'Muricans supposed to be how Americans think we call them? Or how 'Americani' sound to their ears?)
Also, an Hollywood image is well, an image Americans created to present themselves to the world so I don't really think it can be that unfavourable to America.
I seriously doubt though that Americans have a Cinecittร image of Italians... (which still wouldn't be flattering as Italians are more prone to criticize themselves than to praise...)
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Dustfish In reply to jjblue1 [2013-03-08 17:15:12 +0000 UTC]
Well, my rather fond memories of Italia were peppered with locals being wonderfully inclusive to my folks and my sister and I, although I do remember more than one of them wanting to know if my parents owned a gun. But as my parents were both Navy officers, I don't know if that was because of Hollywood or being associated with the military. (My parents were medical personal.)
('Murican is a term we use to describe ourselves, given that the accent, particularly in the the South and southwest of the US tends to soften vowels and add a bit of a drawl.)
Heh, you clearly haven't seen a lot of the movies that have come out in recent years. There is a distinct... tone in Hollywood, particularly in the last ten years, where the patriot is an ignorant, almost fascistic, hyper reglious gun fanatic. It's very... sad, that movie writers think that just because someone if proud of their national heritage that they are idiots, worthy only of ridicule.
Given the large number of Italian Americans in the US, I think we tend to have a favorble veiw of them, Mafia aside. If nothing else, all those Italian mamas make an amazing dinner~
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jjblue1 In reply to Dustfish [2013-03-08 22:27:36 +0000 UTC]
Well, if your parents are associated to the military it's pretty normal they were assumed to possibly own a gun and since it's not so common to own a gun in many parts of Italy, it draws curiosity no matter if you're Italian or American.
(When I was a child during a holiday it turned out one of our neighbours had asked for the permission to own a gun as he wanted to do some shooting sport and he got a lot of questions about why he wanted to do such thing and how it worked and what else by all the adults in our really small condominium... my feeling at the time was that if he'd said he wanted to raise a baby rhino they would have probably found it less weird...)
(Oh, okay, I've no idea...)
I'm a bit out of the loop in regards to movies recently. I loved to go to the cinema and watch them to the tv but as of now I've mostly dropped doing it unless there's a movie that really intrigues me...
That's sad this is the new trend. I think to love your country is a wonderful thing, not something to be laughed of.
Well, let's hope so...
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