Battles of Lexington & Concord

Something a bit angsty. Arthur thinking he sees a ghost from his past across the battlefield, but it’s just Alfred

Proud of how this turned out, mostly wanted to play with like color and texture idk I like the feel of this. Also boring a mystery character from @dolceminerva97 in this.

BRAZILIAN HETACITIES CONTENT!!!!

I was talking about Rio de Janeiro (city) with my friends, and my friend reminded me of one of the BIGGEST crimes Rio committed. He stole our traditional food, Acarajé. 💀

Salvador is cursing RioCity, SPCity is just enjoying himself cuz he has a complicated relationship with RioCity. Ahhahahaa.

As a proud citizen of Bahia, I am angry so fucking angry.

Also, do you know that blue parrots from RIO? 🥰 THEY'RE OURS, NOT RIO'S, NEITHER AMAZONA'S THEY'RE FROM BAHIA'S CAATINGA BIOME

STOP STEALING FROM US RIO, THEY EVEN STOLE SALVADOR'S PLACE AS A CAPITAL

AND NOW OF OUR MF ACARAJÉ 💀💀💀💀💀💀💀💀💀💀💀☠☠☠☠☠☠☠☠☠

CHARACTERS:

Salvador (capital of Bahia) is mine

São Paulo (capital of São Paulo), Rio de Janeiro (capital of Rio de Janeiro) are of my friend Let, and RJCity is shared with Juh

EX-BRAZILIAN CAPITALS FIGHT: SALVADOR VS RIOCITY

/reminding you that this is just a silly joke, there is no hate, ofc, but I am ofc pissed off about the Acarajé thing dkdnsksjjs

please tell me I’m not the only person who sees this

in true canadian fashion: sorry i'm late

although, in some ways, i'm actually early. You know what I realized doing this ambitious painting? this year is going to be the 15th anniversary of IAMP.

The call for auditions was uploaded September 22, 2009, and if I recall correctly my audition as artist and VA was accepted around October or November of that same year. I've grown a lot as an artist and as a person in that long time and for some weird reason I just can't let these guys go.

anyway, thanks for everyone who participated in the roulette, I know it doesn't seem like a big deal but I really struggle drawing all of these guys without losing steam. it really helped! especially since I don't do a lot of gouache work and I second guessed myself a lot. It warms my heart a little to see you guys engaged in this silly game.

what else is there to say. oh yeah, I put two types of maple leafs. the stereotypical sugar maple is in the upper right of course, but I also put a manitoba maple in the lower left because that's the kind of maple I'm most familar with where I'm from. it's long been my mission to bring the western rep in whatever I do, so it's kind of my love letter signature to my own constantly changing understanding of Who Am I and Where Am I From.

anyway. enjoy :) i enjoyed making it. thanks to ctcsherry for creating these guys

My version of Alfred is incredibly well-educated much like his cousins Henry/Massachusetts, Rosalie/ Rhode Island, & Josh/ Connecticut cause the Puritans were quite big on education. They actually had the most literate colonies. So Alfred is familiar Greek, Latin, the classics, mathematics etc.

However also like his cousins, at heart, he’s a stubborn asshole of a New Englander and can be adverse to new ideas, or new ways of understanding. And also this stubbornness leads him to thinking he’s always right, and he will get attached to stupid ideas and stupid things and just dig himself further into a hole. Also Alfred is a bit of a hyperactive person so he wasn’t really the best student of all time.

ANYWAYS THIS IS TO SAY. In theory, Alfred can tell you all he knows of philosophers of antiquity, name all the English kings, and of ancient Roman emperors and their battle strategies, but in the same breath he will tell you with full confidence that they speak Mexican in Mexico, and Brazilian in Brazil. And it’d be real hard to convince him otherwise.

Proud of how this came out. Anyways some revolutionary war Alfred. I’ll share some thoughts I have about him in regards to my au lore beneath the cut

He’s a stubborn angry irresponsible kid from New England when the war begins, and tbh he’s like this until the American Civil War. He accepted a lot of responsibility at a young age, was rather insecure, too stubborn to really admit he needs help, and deferred a lot to his states - eventually his irresponsibility catches up with him. And he’s also later forced to change his disposition to be more friendly and diplomatic.

He barely gains the support of his own states. He was initially Plymouth colony, existed as basically nothing except as a ward of his cousin Henry/Massachusetts. The states just tbh saw him as the most neutral option amongst themselves given he has no real role & all the other states have great qualms with each other. But they do admire his commitment, and his battle expertise, and also pure strength. They do however see him as an irresponsible kid so they think he’ll be easy to control (they’re not much that older than him)

His cousin Henry is quite supportive of him and sees his potential so he’s really the one pushing Alfred forth. Alfred just agrees to appease his cousin, whom has taken good care of him up until this point. He’s a kid who accepts way too much responsibility and is way in over his head.

Alfred isn’t a stranger to war or violence prior to the Revolution. However during the revolution, I think under the guidance of General Washington he refines his battle skills and learns to better channel his anger into battle rather than being sporadic. He comes to view General Washington as a father-like figure.

ok gang I just need to know, what beer do you think Alfred drinks regularly?

I’m arguing PBR just cause it’s so iconically American imo more so than Coors, or Budweiser. But also maybe this is cause the version of Alfred that lives in my head rent free is has the vibes of a male manipulator who listens to dad rock and country with a sprinkling of toxic masculinity (Ik I have cursed thoughts). However I think in regards to favorite beers, Alfred is a Masshole to me so he’s gotta represent so he’s partial to a Sam Adams larger.

Also while I’m here spewing my cursed ideas, what beer do you guys think Matt drinks regularly? I think Matt’s go-to would be a Molson just cause it’s like the Canadian beer. However in terms of favorites, I think Matt is an IPA type of guy cause in my head he’s lowkey a bit of a male manipulator but in this outdoorsy Toronto hipster ass way so I think I he likes a good Amsterdam Boneshaker.

Also if you’re not a beer person, like what alcoholic drinks do you think they drink and why?

Wanted to share a bit about Matt in the context of my Nor’easter lore, but I’ll share the less canon-divergent stuff above the cut. (Also all Canadian province ocs c. @gardenkeeper ):

Matt is initially raised in what’s now Nova Scotia. He was born right around Queen Anne’s War. He’s more representative of the beginning of a formal English presence in what’s now Canada. He later is moved to what’s now Ontario and has lived there ever since.

Matt nowadays lives in Ottawa. He’s friendly, and personable, but he’s not very easy to get to know beyond a surface level. He tends to have this emotional wall up so good luck getting through that. He can also be so fucking passive aggressive. The only people to really know him deeply are Alexander/ Ontario and perhaps Paula/ British Columbia. But TBH, I think Matt can put up conversations when he needs to but he’s much happier being alone or just hanging out with Alexander. Like I don’t think he personally looks for social situations.

Matt himself is a natural-born politician. I think when he’s younger he’s not the most physically strong cause he isn’t as strongly tied to a lands or people like everyone else around him is. So he can’t be strong in the way Alfred uses brute force and what not. For example, Alfred has a war with basically every single indigenous nation. Meanwhile Matt doesn’t cause he 1) doesn’t have the money for it or 2) force so that’s why he immediately takes the treaty-making route. However much like his relative, he subsequently fails to uphold said treaties in favor of his own colonial interests. Matt quickly learns social cues, how to make people feel extremely comfortable around him, how to appease others and how to make people do what he wants especially as he’s learning how to basically survive given Arthur is highly suspicious of him initially and that his relative is always trying to invade and end Matt or one of Matt’s provinces. The main difference between Matt & Alfred in this regard is Matt observes and quickly learns - Alfred actually really struggled being more diplomatic (and tbh still does).

He grew the mustache during the pandemic. Before that he could not grow the mustache 😢🎻

Ok now more for the canon divergent stuff below the cut.

I’ll start off with the fact that Matt & Alfred aren’t brothers. Rather they’re distant relatives. Here’s a quick family tree illustrating that. I’ll try to keep this as short as possible cause LOL I have a lot to say

Ok so basically Matt & Alfred are cousins. They’re removed by a few generations. They share the same human family members. They know they’re related cause Puritan New England only admitted “good-standing” Puritan families so usually these families migrated as a whole group. So basically at this time, it’s a small population, you kind of would know most of the families within.

Now Matt is actually born right before Queen Anne’s War (the War of Spanish Succession) so his mother is an Englishwoman from an old New England BUT he’s born around the 1690s/1700s in what’s disputed French/ English territory around Acadia. It being the 1690s, the puritans are basically non-existent as a group*, so his mother is an Anglican. Anyways she’s most likely part of a group of English settlers from New England that are asserting land claims for y’know Great Britain. Except she gets wooed by Poitou, and ends up having Matt (& tbh Matt is more representative of British rule at this point)

I mentioned I don’t think the main national rep is the one doing the colonizing directly, so Poitou was sent out. Matt is supposed to be half Acadian / half English ( but clearly leans more into being English). Many Acadians trace their ancestry to Poitou so Poitou is his father. Matt is the youngest of his siblings.

Matt’s childhood (nor Alfred’s) isn’t particularly free of violence there’s a lot of major border disputes between the French and British this culminates in wars between them and also Indigenous nations in the region. I’ll touch on this another time

Matt lived with his siblings up until the end of the American Revolution where he was moved to Ontario. Basically the tldr is Arthur was suspicious of Matt in the sense he reminded him of Alfred in the sense it wasn’t quite clear what Alfred/ Matt represented and also he’s Alfred’s relative. Plus the Acadian bit wasn’t helping. Arthur was also taking governing seriously post-revolution. Anyways he sent Matt to live in Ontario away from his siblings.

Matt was aware of the situation he was in so he began to double down on his Englishness lol.

Matt has a brotherly relationship with Alfred nowadays following World War I. But historically no lol. Arthur and Matt get along, Matt just likes Arthur way more than Arthur likes him.

As matt gained more power, he lowkey left his siblings behind and ignored them — their relationship is tense, and rather estranged nowadays.

Later Matt is chosen to represent Canada just cause amongst his provinces he’s the most neutral choice. And he later gains good favor with Arthur cause Matt has repeatedly demonstrated his loyalty (and desire to not American). However this would require another discussion so I’ll save that for another time.

I wondered how I could update Arthur's style to current trends so he isn't wearing that godforsaken green sweater with a red tie that he's had since fucking 1930 lmao. A looser fit for his clothes esp his trousers and white sneakers for a casual look will do the job without losing his essence. Then I got carried away and gave him two more fits

Together they're the Rowdyruff boys 🫶 daft cunts, all of them

oh whoops realizing I never shared this here, but it’s mostly a sketch page of my New York girlies ❤️🫶 Jennie/ NY State & Lynn/ Manhattan, NYC.

I’ve had Lynn for nearly ten years. Honestly I love her so much as a character, her ascent to power is messy and her decisions are highly questionable but that makes her fun (and a bit of an evil girlboss). Similar with Jennie. I’ll save this for another time tho lol

I’ll explain some of the sketches but I don’t have anything errr super important to say in regards to my au lore and what not in this post. I’m just very proud of how this page came out :) !

Right side

Jennie in a more abstract style

Lynn in this more pencil based style in red

Testing out colors with Jennie

Lynn x Will/ Albany, NY kissing 😳 circa the gilded age maybe doing a little more than that

Left side

Lynn smoking

My hand with my claggadah

WWII Jennie letting Henry/Massachusetts kindly know that she will in fact bully him if he gets hurt

Early Appalachian frontiersman Alfred in buckskin circa 1790- 1810s. I’m trying to figure out how to paint like NC Wyeth digitally (so lol the background is Wyeth’s).

Gonna ramble a bit about my nor’easter au and Alfred below the cut

Following the American Revolution, Alfred is immediately sent out to squash any rebellions (like whiskey rebellion) and to partake in wars against Indigenous nations like the Cherokee. I’ll save a discussion about the Cherokee wars for another time because that’ll take a long time to explain + I’m still working on my Cherokee oc and I need to understand Cherokee history and perspective more before I go forward with talking about this topic.

Now the many of the east coast states are older than Alfred, and they mostly supported him during the revolution because they thought he’d be easy to control given at the time of the revolution he wasn’t tied down as any colony or city. However, he was a New Englander and very obviously so

He was once Plymouth colony and he grew up alongside his cousin Henry/Massachusetts, but by the time the revolution occurred, his status was unclear and he was simply living with his cousin (who’s his earliest and most fierce supporter) .

These states operated like countries and part of why the had the revolution was to continue to self-govern and maintain their regional cultures. It’s also part of why the federal government initially was rather weak. Given Alfred’s closeness to his cousin, and his very staunch New England identity, I think the states would be hesitant over a strong New England national control. And so I think they especially Jennie/NY & Rich/Virginia encouraged Alfred to leave his cousin for a while, and partake in military campaigns (+ he was good at battle).

Also Alfred was like 14, and I don’t think he’s ever been the type to sit down and do paperwork. Honestly he was always a bad student, who was far more interested in the outdoors, horses, sailing and hunting. While he won the war, and he was fine with being head of state, he still didn’t 1) have confidence in himself to make non-military related decisions 2) he just wasn’t mentally ready to take on the responsibilities and was fine deferring it to his states like Jennie, Rich, or Henry to figure out matters that weren’t military related. He was irresponsible and it would come back to bite him in the ass during the Civil War.

Alfred on a personal level it was probably good for him to get away from his overly critical cousin who can be overbearing, but also so he would get more experience to deeply get to know his states.

Also Alfred, growing up in New England, he was a little ball of rage as a kid and he has a difficult time managing his emotions. He wasn’t exactly the personable seemingly fun loving Alfred of the present. Not that he couldn’t crack a joke, but ok I’m not from New England, but in the northeast I find we’re rather cynical, un-filtered and sarcastic and tbh kind of asssholes in the way we have fun and in our humor. That’s how he was, which is like fine unless you’re trying to appeal to the rest of the nation lol which he would have to

I think his time spent in Appalachia and the south did help him learn more about his other states especially Maisie/ North Carolina. But also helped him learn more how to let go some of this intense New England rage, and how to better control his emotions. But also let loose in a way that isn’t so dark and cynical. Also I think this helped him slowly learn how to speak with less of a New England specific accent

He was also able to observe states like Rich and Carl/ South Carolina and gain an understanding of how being able to control your emotions, can help control your image and how others perceive you. So these are the origins of how he slowly began to shape and become at least in public this overly friendly happy go lucky Alfred.

I’ll save a discussion about his interactions with the Appalachian states more explicitly another time I’m just tired😴 fr rn

I see Alfred as being more informed by his interactions with his states, sometimes cities, and also with Indigenous nations.

This is not to say that his interactions with European nations are unimportant especially his interactions with Arthur, Francis, or Ivan.

But when I look at US history, I understand the creation of the US as:

1. An agreement of states, who viewed themselves more of as nations, to form the United States. Before he can even begin to try and sway Francis to helping him in his revolution, he needs to convince his states to join him first, and not all of them were eager for Revolution. Especially given the fact, these British colonies operated differently from one another and were culturally distinct because they operated under salutary neglect (AKA Arthur wasn’t super present cause he was constantly getting involved in wars & was cash-strapped)

2. The US being a settler colonial state used war against Indigenous nations to expand its borders through violence.

I find this second point is lost on the fandom especially in narratives regarding American expansion, but also the American Revolution. It always irks me a bit to see the American Revolution as describes as Alfred’s first war, when it wouldn’t have been, especially if you are assuming he’s existed prior to the revolution. There were many different wars even prior to the revolution with Indigenous nations involved.

There were also many European wars with North American theaters — the French and Indian War which is the Seven Year’s War was the precursor to the revolution. Actually lol the amount of European wars with North American theaters did influence this push for isolationism (as in from Europe) following the revolution.

Anyways this confusing ramble is to say, I find the overemphasis on Alfred’s relationship to European nations like Arthur, or Francis, tends to gloss over the settler-colonial violence in North America due to European colonization. Also I find ignoring, or stating Alfred’s first war as being the revolution a bit…icky ? In the sense that it’s like people do not seem to view Indigenous nations as sovereign of the settler colonial state thus they’re not viewing the wars between indigenous nations and the settler colonial state as not being “true” wars as they view wars between the US & European nations.

I also find the fandom tends to just generalize the US as being broadly English in nature, and fails to further examine regional English identities that but also non-English identities that later come form various different cultural groups in different US states. And idk this also leads me into another conversation of why I’m not a fan of like putting a lot of different identities especially marginalized ones into Alfred’s character but that opens another can of worms that I do not wish to open right now LOL.

also this goes without saying, but im not saying you have to agree with me, nor am I saying if you never had this thought you’re like bad or whatever, I’m just stating my views lol

inspired by the dungeon meshi busts i saw hehe

The Beginning of the End

The beginning of the French & Indian War (North American Theatre of the Seven Years' War) ft Rich/Virginia, Jonah/West Virginia, & Charles/New France (c. @gardenkeeper)

In my lore, Alfred was by no means the favored colony, and Arthur, while he sort of cared for his colonies in a way, he was just too busy to properly keep track of them (hence the salutary neglect). Alfred is a staunch New Englander, and quite frankly it makes sense. New England always had more of a bone to pick with the British Empire than the tidewater south ever did...so this brings me to Rich/Virginia...

I like to think of Rich as the favorite of Arthur's British colonies given that Rich is more influenced by this southern English gentry culture that I see Arthur being influenced by too. Alfred is more eastern English in nature.

Rich has this typical southern gentleman attitude. Takes life too easily, quite the flirt, and quite charming, but he can be quite entitled especially given the fact he's basically the favorite out of the 13 and Alfred. ANYWAYS, what's happening in this picture?:

For context, neither Alfred, or his states' "first war" was the American Revolution-- quite frankly I dislike this hc because it ignores wars with Indigenous nations, and also ignores some of the reasoning behind isolationism. Also it sometimes come off as if you do not view Indigenous nations as sovereign and separate entities of the settler-colonial project.

Essentially these colonies were getting dragged into European fights albeit it in the North American theatre ex: Queen Anne's War/War of Spanish Succession. Some were getting tired of being in these fights because they were not reaping the benefits aka gaining more land....this led to Rich thinking he could get away with anything. Right? Arthur wouldn't care much if Rich, and his half-brother Jonah, roughed up some French colony asshole, Charles and just took his land because after all, they all hate the French anyways. Or so that's what Rich thought....he would come to find out he overstepped with Arthur because he essentially forced Arthur's hand into the Seven Years' War by getting Arthur further embroiled into another conflict with Francis.

This would lead Arthur to become more harsh with his colonies (ex trying to enforce one english national culture rather than let them proliferate with different english + some other cultural backgrounds) and would lead him to more closely govern.

I'd like to think that we ruled the world for a short moment in time.

femslash february day 1: POWER

i and anyone can post in the hetalia tag with greatly canon divergent thoughts, we can talk about our disdain for the show we watched as teenagers and don't really care about at all anymore, we can say the creator is a melon if we so please, we can ignore any developments in canon or what was already established, we can do all this and more because it is a free country..... and if people don't like that they do not have to interact.....why are people upset that others don't enjoy their silly yaoi anime the same way, is it not just silly yaoi...????

Today I bring you this tiny creachure 🤏 good evening