Hetalia Bloodbath 2010
Part of a very special holiday tradition that may have made the single largest impact on the western Hetalia fandom in a matter of several days due to the large fanbase and live updates, the 2010 event lasted a grand total of five days and has spawned a Fountain of Memes on the LiveJournal community.
Finland hosts a live stream of the Christmas season in the world of Hetalia, answering fan’s questions and requests until a mysterious shadow looms over the broadcast. Suddenly, nations begin disappearing one by one and the remaining characters gather together in an attempt to solve the mystery and find the culprit.
You can read the scanlations here.
For the 2011 Bloodbath, click here.
- Alcohol Hic: Turkey does this a few times after getting drunk.
- All Just a Dream: What the non-kidnapped nations are trying to convince themselves. See What Do You Mean It Wasn't Made on Drugs? below.
- Alternate Universe
- Ascended Extra: Quite a number of minor characters appear during this event and become a major part of the unravelling storyline, including the Nordics, Cuba, Belgium, Hong Kong, Cameroon, Osaka, Monaco, and a cameo by Bulgaria.
- Aw, Look -- They Really Do Love Each Other: Doubles as a Crowning Moment of Heartwarming...
- Iceland worrying about the rest of the Nordics, to the point of collapsing.
- Russia crying at General Winter's defeat and General Winter gently touching the sleeping Russia's cheek.
- In general, the amount of care and concern between nations as others are attacked. Poland warning Lithuania and waiting by him as he sleeps, Germany and Hungary's reaction to Prussia's kidnapping, Osaka trying to aid Japan even though he's useless etc. And keep in mind that some of these nations don't actually like each other but are willing to set their grievances aside should the need arise.
- When everyone finally finds out what's going on from Sealand, the entire world bands together and cooperates to help save the Parallel!world. World peace, brought about to help a bunch of total strangers.
- Badass Adorable: Sealand anybody?
- Badass Normal: One of the attackers try to get Cuba, only to be knocked out by Cuba's boss.
- Whether said boss is Raul or Fidel Castro, this could also be a case of Badass Grandpa.
- Battle Aura: The way the mysterious figure actually defeat the nations.
- Beware the Nice Ones: Finland's reaction to Sweden's defeat against the mysterious shadow shows shades of this.
- Big Damn Heroes: Germany and Hungary showing up to rescue Prussia. Also counts as a Crowning Moment of Awesome.
- Big No: Canada's reaction to Cuba's news about everyone disappearing. Sealand also gives a smaller one when he finds out he gets no presents.
- Brick Joke: Mainly about where Denmark and the real France were during the entire event.
- Changing Clothes Is a Free Action: Hong Kong’s reaction when China says that the maid costume is distracting. Then China tells him to Please Put Some Clothes On...
- Children Are Innocent: Dear God, not Sealand! ANYONE BUT SEALAND!!
- LATVIAAAAA!!!!!
- Christmas Special
- The Chosen One: Romano.
- Clothing Damage
- Continuity Nod: During an argument with Cuba, Germany mentions that England would have teleported himself to freedom if he could, vaguely alluding to the Can’t Escape From Italy strip.
- Cry Cute: Russia, upon seeing General Winter being defeated.
- Cute Bruiser: Arguably, Finland and Norway.
- Cute Kitten: Played straight and subverted several times. One of the requests is a picture of the Nekotalia Allies, and Greece gives some philosophical encouragement using a cat as a metaphor, then the cat-eared shadow shows up and starts kidnapping everyone.
- It gets even better when Denmark and the real France, who have been missing throughout the whole thing, finally appear wearing cat ears.
- Defeat Means Friendship: What happens to Paralell!France #23 after Sealand defeats him.
- Destination Defenestration: Germany and Hungary knocks Prussia's attacker out of the window only for the attacker to come back and drag Prussia out a different window.
- Dynamic Entry: Iceland arriving with Finland's sleigh.
- The End of the World as We Know It: If they don't find a nation with a marking on their body, the parallel world would explode and everyone would die.
- Evil Is Hammy
- Evil Phone: At one point during the broadcast, everyone's phones begin ringing for no reason. Turns out it was Russia who has hijacked the Nordics' communication signals.
- Failed a Spot Check: Belgium and Spain (at first) have no idea the shadow that appeared before them is dangerous at all. Belgium even gives her attacker the scarf that she had bought, subduing him at the same time.
- Failure Is the Only Option: Considering that most of the previous special events (including April Fool's and the 2007 Christmas) were celebrated by stripping every nation possible, fans were definitely not disappointed when the creator delivered for 2010.
- Fan Service: The entire Christmas 'bloodbath' is based around Himaruya fulfilling requests that fans send.
- Female Gaze
- Fridge Brilliance: When America casually remarks that he's jealous of all of the little boys who get Christmas presents from their daddies. At first, this just seems like another childish remark from a very whimsical character. It takes a darker turn when you remember that America's only father figure in life had to go across the ocean [dead link] and ended up accidentally missing most of his childhood. Alternatively, all of America's "Founding Fathers" have been dead for many years.
- Functional Genre Savvy: Iceland, Cuba, and most surprisingly Poland had a feeling that this Christmas isn't going to be a normal one. Their attempts to warn the others usually don’t go so well.
- Funny Background Event: As Iceland was talking to Turkey about getting a feeling about something bad happening, that something was attacking the rest of the Nordics and kidnapping them.
- Girlish Pigtails: China was forced to wear these.
- Handsome Lech: Parallel!America
- I Feel Angry: Japan summons all his rage so he wouldn't get defeated by the shadow.
- Improvised Weapon: Spain grabbing whatever he could to protect Netherlands. *squee*
- Japan uses a poster sword to ward off his attacker. Osaka was not impressed.
- Infant Immortality: Subverted and played straight. Hong Kong and Latvia are taken away pretty early during the event, but Iceland and Sealand manage to escape just as they were about to be attacked.
- Instant Cosplay Surprise: China and Hong Kong wake up to find themselves in girls' clothing.7
- Intergenerational Friendship: Iceland and Turkey can seem like this, seeing how much older Turkey is compared to Iceland. If seen in a romantic sense, it would be a May-December Romance.
- Intoxication Ensues: Turkey, after getting drunk, spouts off a bunch of random stuff along with being a bit too buddy-buddy with Iceland.
- Hong Kong purposely did this to China. But it backfires spectacularly on him as Hong Kong Can't Hold His Liquor and doing a Non Sequitur Thud on the ground.
- It Got Worse: Dear Lord, did it ever.
- Kidnapped Mid Sentence: Poland warning Lithuania about his bad feeling. Cue a shadowed figure looming over Lithuania when he tries to ask Poland what it was. The next panel shows his cell phone falling to the ground with a confused Poland on the other end of the line.
- Similar with Prussia, who has just been saved by Germany and Hungary and about to thank them before being dragged away by his attacker.
- Like Is, Like, a Comma: Hong Kong uses 'like' a lot in his speech, but not enough that it veers into Valley Girl territory. This is to illustrate that he is a teenager.
- Love At First Sight: Parallel!Spain falls in love with Belgium after being given a scarf.
- Made of Iron: Sealand, quite literally. This helps him beat the mysterious figure attacking him.
- Madness Mantra: BritishEmpireBritishEmpireBritishEmpire...
- Magic Countdown: Norway invokes this while the rest of the Nordics were panicking about Denmark being missing.
- Meido: Hong Kong gets to wear this.
- Mind Screw
- Misfit Mobilization Moment: Iceland, Turkey, Germany, Hungary, England, Cuba, and Canada. In the end, the entire world gets motivated to work together in order to solve the mystery.
- Mythology Gag: Germany and Cuba brings up Hetalia Fantasia 2 during their argument, and Norway mentions that Finland sounds like Denmark, also related to Hetalia Fantasia 2.
- Nakama: The family that was formed between the fans on the main Livejournal community, Captalia, and even the Anon Meme is very touching.
- Naked People Are Funny
- Never Split the Party: After realizing that they are in danger, the remaining nations take this course of action. Ironically in Iceland and Turkey's case, they were safer when they were apart from the main group.
- Noodle Incident: The Nordics have had 6780 other meetings in random strange places.
- "I'm the emperor of the banana boat!"
- Offscreen Teleportation: Lampshaded, Cuba thinks it's possible, Germany is quick to point out otherwise.
- Mainly this seems to poke fun at the early days of the fandom, back when people sincerely questioned whether nations utilized teleportation of some sort, since in some strips nations would apparently reach one another's houses in a day on foot, while in others characters like England would be seen boarding ships with humans to travel the seas for months at a time. In the end the more realistic "nations have to go through the same hassle as regular humans" won over offscreen teleportation for the most part, especially after seeing consistent use in canon.
- Oh Crap: The general reaction, both in-verse and the audience's, as Sweden, Russia and General Winter easily get defeated by the ominious shadow.
- Padding: Canada and Cuba's photo shoot.
- Panty Shot: Many fans were happy that they got to see England's underwear.
- Present Absence
- Punny Name: Parallel!France #23 is a pun on the Japanese pronunciation of the numbers 2 and 3, which is 'nii' and 'san' respectively.
- Say My Name:
- BROTHERRRRR!
- P...PRUSSIA!
- CANADAAAAAAAA!
- LATVIAAAAAA!!!
- Schedule Slip: So much that the fans have created HST (Himaruya Standard Time) to figure out when updates would occur.
- To make HST even more confusing, it had gotten steadily later as the event stretched on, starting off 20-30 minutes later than JST (Japan Standard Time), then becoming 30-40 minutes, then it was 5 minutes early, and afterwards closer to an hour.
- Sensitive Guy and Manly Man: Iceland and Turkey. Ship Tease ensues.
- Cuba and Canada as well, dynamic yoga included.
- Ship Tease: This has spawned SO MANY new OTPs: Turkey x Iceland, Germany x Iceland, Netherlands x Spain, Belgium x Spain, France x Spain, and Canada x Cuba.
- Russia after reminiscing about how he hasn't made any friends lately, remembers that China was a bit friendly to him and how he would visit China next year.
- Germany first lecturing Italy about being covered in snow and how he should have worn more layers, then telling him to take off his clothes.
- YMMV, but China telling Hong Kong that the maid outfit was distracting may have been a minor one.
- Shout-Out: America is that naked cowboy from N.Y.
- Show Within a Show: Finland hosting the 2010 Christmas Streeem.
- Sleep Cute: All the kidnapped nations are found sleeping in various places. Russia, Prussia and Austria's moeness is only exemplified.
- Slept Through the Apocalypse: Denmark and the real France.
- Splash of Color: As Sealand prepares to open the present he found in the cargo room, readers see an ominous shadow hovering behind him followed by Sealand's terrified expression. To make things worse, the strip in particular is colored in a deeper shade of red.
- Spot the Imposter
- Squee
- Stuff Blowing Up: The shadow rounding up the Nordics suddenly explodes with power just as Norway and Finland gets the upper hand.
- Super Strength: America and Russia are described as 'super humans' by Finland.
- Then Sealand successfully beats down a shadow by virtue of being made from iron and steel.
- Estonia also notes that both Finland and Norway should fall under this category.
- Talking Is a Free Action: Subverted. When Prussia is about to thank Germany and Hungary, the attacker appears at the window and promptly drags Prussia away.
- Take Off Your Clothes: A plot relevant device where the nations needed to see if a marking was on their bodies since that nation would apparently be the cause of The End of the World as We Know It. Cue nations stripping other nations and plenty of Fan Service!
- Tempting Fate: In the very beginning:
Finland: Ah, yes! We just want to say a simple thank you, to all those who support us, with presents of pictures and stories via live streaming.
Hanatamago: It always end up being a weird Christmas though...
- Teasing Creator: Was Not Funny Anymore when a fan actually threatened Himaruya with bodily harm and rape in case they didn't get updates when they wanted. The moderator's reaction was swift and severe.
- Trouser Space: Cuba apparently had tostones in his pants, while Canada had Swedish fish in his.
- Violently Protective Wife: Finland snapped when Sweden went down and managed to put up a good fight against the mysterious figure. Too bad it didn't last.
- It's worth noting that Norway reacted in the same way, though.
- Weather Dissonance: Because General Winter and Russia were beaten and taken by the mysterious figure, it is now summer in Russia.
- Webcomic Time: Fans are watching for updates on New Years Eve when in-story it's still Christmas day.
- What Did I Do Last Night?: Finland holds a meeting with the kidnapped Nordics and Estonia to figure out just what happened to them after getting knocked out by the shadow. The resulting Expo Speak only leaves them as confused as before.
- Netherlands' reaction when he wakes up to find himself on the ground, clothing torn, with a similarly disheveled sleeping Spain on top of him.
- What Do You Mean It Wasn't Made on Drugs?: Lampshaded towards the end where the Nations try to convince themselves that it was all just a dream. Or at least a very weird Christmas Day.
- What Happened to the Mouse?: Did Turkey ever get to pee?
- When She Smiles: A lot of fans requested smiles from nations that characteristically don't smile. Belarus has a wonderful smile for exactly 0.2 seconds before she beats Finland up, and so does Latvia before he's snatched up.
- Wild Mass Guessing
- The Worf Effect: Sweden is defeated without so much as a fight, then Russia and General Winter go down within two panels of each other.
- Workaholic: England would rather work during Christmas instead of spending the time with Sealand. Sealand then yells at him for not giving him a present and for almost getting attacked by the mysterious figure. Of course, for the latter, England has no idea what's going on.