History ShipToShipCombat / AxisPowersHetalia

''Manga/AxisPowersHetalia'' didn't use to be as bad as some other fandoms about this, as shippers can find foundation for virtually any ship if they're good at Wiki-fu, and multishipping and ShipMates are common practices in the fandom. Key words: '''''used to be.'''''

Of course, when you've got [[LoadsAndLoadsOfCharacters Loads And Loads Of]] [[AnthropomorphicPersonification Anthropomorphic Nations]], a fair amount of ShipTease, and a distinct lack of [[OfficialCouple Official Couples]], you can justify pretty much ''any'' pairing under the sun. The result is that people who ship Nation X with Nation Y will find themselves at odds with those who ship either X or Y with another character.

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* The most prominent example is the struggle between America/England fans and anti-fans. America/England is easily the most popular ship in fandom, but its massive popularity has caused many fans to attack it as [[ItsPopularNowItSucks "too popular"]] and "taking attention away from the much more interesting ships" (which sometimes means "gets more attention than ''my'' ship", considering that Russia/America and France/England fans tend to be the loudest about this) It's reached the point where some America/England fans don't even post their fanfic/artwork at the main Hetalia community on LJ and many fans avoid the community as a whole because they feel ''that'' uneasy about the general attitude there.
** In regards to Russia/America, France/England and America/England, it isn't uncommon to see one of [[DieForOurShip the characters portrayed as a "villain" of sorts]] to give the shipper's OTP that "push". Examples include turning the "potential threat" into a rapist or {{Domestic Abuse}}r, [[RonTheDeathEater bloodying up the character]] or taking negative stereotypes and using them to their advantage.
** You just know a fandom has a serious case of Ship-To-Ship Combat when the ''very first reaction'' to Portugal's prospect appearance is people using the character to attack America/England, claiming that Portugal is England's "true partner" and the pairing will "take down" America/England. Poor Portugal only exists as ''experimental sketches'' and ''doesn't even have a personality yet'', and people are already gearing up for a shipping war, much to the annoyance of those who just want to ship in peace.
** There are even some ''explicitly'' anti-America/England fanfics out there that are essentially [[WriterOnBoard rants placed in the characters' mouths]] about how America/England deserves to be hated/bashed for ''daring'' to be too popular.
** The anti-America/England fringe try to cash on the IncestSubtext betwen them, falsely claiming that their relationship would be ParentalIncest. This is despite how England refers to himself as "this child's older brother" in the "Battle for America" strips, and America saying "I'm not your little brother" anymore in "Cleaning Out the Storage", thus making this relative squick lower as they do ''not'' consider themselves as adoptive father and child.
** Suggestions that America/England might be canon have fueled someone to spread rumours about the pairing being actually canon. Eventually, many fans of the pairing used it to claim some sort of superiority over Russia/America and France/England shippers. Needless to say, this sort of caused mass indignation on Website/{{Tumblr}} and similar media, and some fans who disliked the pairing actually ''dropped out of the fandom'' out of hate towards it.
* Rabid Poland/Lithuania and Russia/Lithuania shippers engage in DieForOurShip against the other's preferred Liet suitor regularly. The former camp cashing in on Russia's status as the local PsychopathicManchild ''and'' MemeticMolester to turn him into a bastard and ignore his tragic backstory as well as his DespairEventHorizon; the latter camp [[CharacterExaggeration exaggerates Poland's]] [[SpoiledBrat initial selfishness]] to JerkAss levels and accuse him of being [[DumbBlonde too shallow and brainless]] for Lithuania, erasing Poland's CharacterDevelopment. (In case you're wondering what happens to Belarus in all this, she's usually just ignored completely because of her not being a major character and the Belarus/Russia and Belarus/Lithuania camps being much smaller and less vocal than the other, more popular rival ships like Russia/America, Russia/China, etc. But yes, STSC between the latter group of ships and Russia/Lithuania has been spotted from time to time, with Russia/Liet fans either making Belarus a monster who would rape Liet to make him too "impure" for Russia, or blaming '''her''' for Russia's inability to make friends.)
** Sometimes Russia/Lithuania can go head to head with America/Lithuania, over which partner would be the healthier or more historically important for Liet. And sometimes Russia/Lithuania winds up bashed because it's felt Lithuania is "getting in the way" of Russia/America.
* In Japan where England/Japan is one of the most popular pairings, there was a huge conflict between ''rabid'' shippers (most of them were actually trolls) of Japan/England and America/England that involved trolling, personal attacks, deleting each other's videos in Nico Nico Douga under false accusations, etc. Note, though, that it was essentially a 2ch shipwar getting out of hand and the majority of shippers (the sane ones) on both sides were dismayed by it. (In fact, America/England shippers on both fandoms generally either regard Japan as a best friend to both America and England or having one-sided feelings for England that he's not planning to act on; and England/Japan fans either ignore America altogether or use England's America-related angst as great opportunity for some [[HurtComfortFic hurt/comfort]]). A few America/Japan shippers got mixed up in that mess too, although in smaller numbers (America/Japan fans tend to portray England as the sympathetic unlucky rival and/or friend). Funnily enough, soon after the combat died out, there was a boom of fanart and doujinshi for the Outcasts OT3 (America/Japan/England). Coincidence? I think not.
* Poor Italy and the pairing Germany/Italy are also targets of much hatred by rabid Prussia/Germany and Austria/Germany shippers. The former are especially loud about it, with some of these fans becoming notorious for whining about how their ship is so "oppressed" or how Germany/Italy is so "unfairly popular", even in communities where Prussia/Germany gets as much attention and fanworks as Germany/Italy does, if not more. In fact, there was an '''''epic''''' event when a mod in the Germancest comm tried to go PlayingTheVictimCard by [[WoundedGazelleGambit framing people who had called her out on her rabidness and then claiming they had hacked into the comm]]. [[http://www.mediafire.com/?ed4cni94ynciwh8 Screencaps are here!]]
* And there's the ongoing feud between rabid Austria/Hungary and Prussia/Hungary fans. Apparently, you either think that Austria and Hungary's love [[HappilyMarried is so ultra]] [[SickeninglySweethearts sacred]] that they should not even be allowed to ''think'' of looking at other potential partners lest rabid fangirl dreams will be ruined and True Love will not survive ([[InsaneTrollLogic eeeeeh?]]), or you think that Austria [[DomesticAbuse is a snobbish, boring, abusive, rapist asshole]] whom Hungary got "StrangledByTheRedString" with via [[ArrangedMarriage the Austro-Hungarian Imperial Compromise]] and ''must'' dump like a hot potato so she can "reaffirm her feminist stance" by throwing herself into the arms of the [[AllGirlsWantBadBoys "more fun, manly, passionate and entertaining"]] Prussia ([[InsaneTrollLogic wut?]]).
** Let's not forget the rabid Prussia/Austria fans who insist that Prussia and Austria are obviously passionately in love with each other in canon and that Hungary is a second thought to them at best and an [[DieForOurShip annoying obstacle]] / [[HetIsEw woman]] at worst.
** There's also the potential of a ''third'' faction in this war: [[ThirdOptionLoveInterest the Hungary/Romania shippers]]. Up until now they seem to be [[TrueNeutral content with staying in their their currently-small-but-constantly-growing corner]], shipping the Eastern-european Hungary with the [[BlackMagic spell-casting]] [[OurVampiresAreDifferent possible-vampire]] Romania in a FoeYay-tastic way, but should they decide to pick bones with Aus/Hun and/or Pru/Hun supporters…
* Fans are divided on whether Greece should be with his rival Turkey or his friend Japan, with the respective viewpoints boiling down to "[[{{Tsundere}} Greece]] and Turkey obviously have BelligerentSexualTension in canon and they make for a [[FoeYay far hotter and more interesting]] ship than [[TheStoic Japan]] ever could with Greece" vs. "Greece and Turkey obviously [[SitcomArchnemesis hate each other's guts]] in canon and [[YamatoNadeshiko Japan]] is the [[BirdsOfAFeather perfect match]] for [[KindheartedCatLover Greece]]." Though it's really just the VocalMinority of Turkey/Greece shippers who look down on Greece/Japan as "boring and non-historical" and Greece/Japan shippers who look down on Turkey/Greece as "abusive and non-canonical" who can get a bit snarky at times.
** The worst by a mile, however, are the militant Turkey/Greece fans who attack Japan as a RelationshipSue with little to no evidence, the anime as promoting a "historically unimportant" pairing over a "historically important" one (but never the webcomic or manga, funnily enough), and/or the Greece/Japan ship as "unfairly popular" (even though Greece/Japan, while somewhat more popular than Turkey/Greece, gets ''nowhere'' near the popularity of the F/A/C/E ships, which makes the "gets more attention than my ship" sentiment behind this claim even more obvious). The majority of Turkey/Greece fans are not like this, of course, with many of them even shipping ''both'' Turkey/Greece and Greece/Japan, and the VocalMinority is at least merciful enough to leave Japan alone in their fanworks, but that doesn't make the minority's accusations any less embarrassing.
* Regarding Japan ships in general, there's some division between those who think Greece/Japan is a MoeCouplet and those who think it's just a snoozefest, those who think England/Japan is the true MoeCouplet and those who think it really isn't, and those who find China/Japan or Japan/Taiwan more interesting and "historically canon" than the aforementioned ships and those who find them {{squick}}y due to the conflicted history between them. Like with the Turkey/Greece vs. Greece/Japan debate mentioned above, it isn't ''too'' bad as multishipping is accepted. So long as you leave out the minority who like throwing around the terms "CrackPairing" and "unfairly popular" in regards to the top two Japan pairings with little to no logic behind them, that is.
** Japan/Taiwan seems to have a pretty bad reputation in the West. As it's the most popular pairing for Taiwan in J-Fandom and pretty much the only het choice for Japan that is mildly aknowledged, many W-fans side-eye it hard and extrapolate their issues with Taiwan's characterization in many artworks ''to their real opinion on Taiwan the character'', accusing her of being a RelationshipSue and being harsh to everyone who ships it, saying that the Japan/Taiwan shippers are "creeps who ignore the issues of the Japanese colonization to imagine themselves as Taiwan" among other things.
* Spain/Romano has also been under fire lately, as they're often accused of pushing their couple into other shippers' faces due to some Himaruya notes, or hating on America/England shippers for their pairing's popularity and accusing England of being a pedophile. Of course this isn't always the case and the latter accusation was actually exaggerated and used in propaganda by some anti-fans to discredit the pairing--but the VocalMinority of jealous Spamano fans didn't help the pairing's case with their own pushiness and make the generalized accusations all too closer to reality to ruin it for everyone else.
** Spain/Romano vs. Romano/Belgium has started to become this trope, due to a few fans on both sides having tendencies to tear down the rival pairing and invalidate it as "incestuous and sick". Anti-Shipping Goggles also play heavily into the debates of who Romano ''really'' likes. To some, a third option doesn't even exist [[SarcasmMode because there's just no possibility]] [[NoBisexuals of him being bisexual]]--not to mention, it adds more fuel to the HetIsEw camp's unfair "Belgium and the other Hetalia girls are only stupid and anti-feminist {{Relationship Sue}}s!" accusations. Throwing in [[FoeYay Spain/Netherlands]] may or may not softened this, as it offers a chance to get Spain away from Romano without recurring to DieForOurShip.
** Spain/Romano vs. Spain/Belgium is another bit of a feud similar to the above. The Spamano diehards claim that Belgium is "in the way" of their pairing, claim that she's nothing but a MarySue, and direct immature hate at anyone shipping her with Spain. The diehard [=SpaBel=] fans claim that Belgium is more important in Spain's life than Romano, that he "canonically" would like her more since his alternate universe counterpart liked her, and that Spamano is promoting incest.
** Some France/Spain fans do not take too kindly to Romano's abrasive personality and the idea that Spain would be more attached to a "historically insignificant" colony of his than a "healthier" relationship with [[LoveableSexManiac France]], who he was said to have an [[WithFriendsLikeThese undesirable yet inseparable]] relationship with. Though it's still yet to reach a toxic level like with America/England's involvement in shipping combat, a vocal group of fans have thrown potshots at Romano and accuse him of being in the way of Spain's happiness with France or any male that's not "[[DieForOurShip an abusive, heartless psychopath]]" that Spain is too dumb to see the bad in. Oh, and don't forget the Romano bashers who insist on Romano being a bigot and an homophobe '''in canon''' too.
** Prussia/Romano has become a recent rival for Spain/Romano, with certain fans from the Prumano camp perpetuating claims that Spain's a pedophile and too idiotic to truly love Romano and that Prussia would be a kinder and more supportive lover. Those against Prumano believe that Prussia and Romano would be too dysfunctional for each other, based off of Romano's dislike-to-absolute LOATHING of Germanic nations (although Spamano isn't exactly a dysfunction-free pairing in itself).
* The biggest victim of these ship wars, ATM? Seychelles, the local NubileSavage and PluckyGirl. She was a minor character with a mere cameo in the comics… then she became an AscendedExtra in [[HighSchoolAU Gakuen Hetalia]] (both the original script and the PSP game), and then the poor girl started getting shit from ''everyone'' coming from ''everywhere''. The HetIsEw camp called her a RelationshipSue, the "fandom feminists" accused her of being "offensive" and "submissive to males", and the USUK and FRUK rabidshippers accused her of standing in between their beaus because she had some degree of ShipTease with both England and France. Nevermind that France is after AnythingThatMoves, that Gakuen Hetalia isn't that centered in romance but more in ThePowerOfFriendship, that Seychelles [[PluckyGirl isn't exactly shown]] as submissive or an ExtremeDoormat to either France or England, and that in the PSP game itself [[spoiler: Sey actually ''helps'' America to regain England's attention and affections after a fight, which can easily be interpreted as her PlayingCyrano for them.]]
* Prussia/Canada gets this from both sides, thanks to garnering both rabid fans who tout it as indisputably canon and interpret ''everything'' remotely related to either character as ironclad proof that Himaruya is shipping the two together '''and''' rabid haters who attack it as an insultingly baseless pairing that only shallow fangirls who don't give a whit about history or canon would think is remotely plausible. The first camp ''is'' definitely annoying considering that they've done things like declare that Prussia's character song was obviously a love song to Canada on absolutely no evidence or applying DieForOurShip treatment to [[BigFun Cuba]] and [[LovableSexManiac France]] for no other reason than feeling "threatened" by their bonds with Canada, [[NotSoDifferent but so is the second camp]] who often acts as if the mere popularity of Prussia/Canada is an affront to the entire fandom in spite of it being far from the only Hetalia pairing that gets little support in canon or history.
* Sometimes there's fighting with countries that haven't even been officially represented yet. Scotland, a country only mentioned in the anime with a bird and in vague sketches by the creator, has caused fan arguments with the France/England shippers. You can either get the France-Scotland fans, who says they were married in a way similar to Hungary and Austria, due to the Auld Alliance the countries had, and that France and Scotland still have feelings for one another, or you have the Scotland-England fans, who say due to the alliance that created the UK means the two of them are married. It's not huge arguments yet, but there's definitely been strong debates and feelings on the pairing, even without Scotland being an official character. You also have arguments for characters vaguely mentioned, like Rome-Ancient Greece, Rome-Germania, Turkey/OttomanEmpire-Ancient Greece, Canada-Netherlands,and Sweden-Native America or characters that hardly interact like Canada-Ukraine.
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And this used to be such a ''nice'' fandom…

* Regarding Japan ships in general, there's some division between those who think Greece/Japan is a MoeCouplet and those who think it's just a snoozefest, those who think England/Japan is the true MoeCouplet and those who think it really isn't, and those who find China/Japan or Japan/Taiwan more interesting and "historically canon" than the aforementioned ships and those who find them {{squick}}y due to the conflicted history between them. Like with the Turkey/Greece vs. Greece/Japan debate mentioned above, it isn't ''too'' bad as multishipping is accepted. So long as you leave out the minority of FanDumb who like throwing around the terms "CrackPairing" and "unfairly popular" in regards to the top two Japan pairings with little to no logic behind them, that is.

* Prussia/Canada gets FanDumb from both sides, thanks to garnering both rabid fans who tout it as indisputably canon and interpret ''everything'' remotely related to either character as ironclad proof that Himaruya is shipping the two together '''and''' rabid haters who attack it as an insultingly baseless pairing that only shallow fangirls who don't give a whit about history or canon would think is remotely plausible. The first camp ''is'' definitely annoying considering that they've done things like declare that Prussia's character song was obviously a love song to Canada on absolutely no evidence or applying DieForOurShip treatment to [[BigFun Cuba]] and [[LovableSexManiac France]] for no other reason than feeling "threatened" by their bonds with Canada, [[NotSoDifferent but so is the second camp]] who often acts as if the mere popularity of Prussia/Canada is an affront to the entire fandom in spite of it being far from the only Hetalia pairing that gets little support in canon or history.

''Manga/AxisPowersHetalia'' didn't used to be as bad as some other fandoms about this, as shippers can find foundation for virtually any ship if they're good at Wiki-fu, and multishipping and ShipMates are common practices in the fandom. Key words: '''''used to be.'''''

** In regards to Russia/America, France/England and America/England, it isn't uncommon to see one of [[DieForOurShip the characters portrayed as a "villain" of sorts]] to give the shipper's OTP that "push". Examples include turning the "potential threat" into a rapist or DomesticAbuser, [[RonTheDeathEater bloodying up the character]] or taking negative stereotypes and using them to their advantage.

* And there's the ongoing feud between rabid Austria/Hungary and Prussia/Hungary fans. Apparently, you either think that Austria and Hungary's love [[HappilyMarried is so ultra]] [[SickeninglySweethearts sacred]] that they should not even be allowed to ''think'' of looking at other potential partners lest rabid fangirl dreams will be ruined and True Love will not survive ([[InsaneTrollLogic eeeeeh?]]), or you think that Austria [[DomesticAbuser is a snobbish, boring, abusive, rapist asshole]] whom Hungary got "StrangledByTheRedString" with via [[ArrangedMarriage the Austro-Hungarian Imperial Compromise]] and ''must'' dump like a hot potato so she can "reaffirm her feminist stance" by throwing herself into the arms of the [[AllGirlsWantBadBoys "more fun, manly, passionate and entertaining"]] Prussia ([[InsaneTrollLogic wut?]]).

** There's also the potential of a ''third'' faction in this war: [[CherylBlossom the Hungary/Romania shippers]]. Up until now they seem to be [[TrueNeutral content with staying in their their currently-small-but-constantly-growing corner]], shipping the Eastern-european Hungary with the [[BlackMagic spell-casting]] [[OurVampiresAreDifferent possible-vampire]] Romania in a FoeYay-tastic way, but should they decide to pick bones with Aus/Hun and/or Pru/Hun supporters…

** There are even some ''explicitly'' anti-America/England fanfics out there that are essentially [[WriterOnBoard rants placed in the characters' mouths]] about how America/England deserves to be hated/bashed for ''daring'' to be too popular. Truly, America/England is ''the'' BaseBreaker ship of APH fandom.

* The most prominent example is the struggle between America/England fans and anti-fans. America/England is easily the most popular ship in fandom, but its massive popularity has caused many fans to attack it as "[[ItsPopularNowItSucks too popular]]" and "taking attention away from the much more interesting ships" (which sometimes means "gets more attention than MY ship", considering that Russia/America and France/England fans tend to be the loudest about this) It's reached the point where some America/England fans don't even post their fanfic/artwork at the main Hetalia community on LJ and many fans avoid the community as a whole because they feel ''that'' uneasy about the general attitude there.
** In regards to Russia/America, France/England and America/England, it isn't uncommon to see one of [[DieForOurShip the characters portrayed as a 'villain' of sorts]] to give the shipper's OTP that 'push'. Examples include turning the 'potential threat' into a rapist or DomesticAbuser, [[RonTheDeathEater bloodying up the character]] or taking negative stereotypes and using them to their advantage.

* And there's the ongoing feud between rabid Austria/Hungary and Prussia/Hungary fans. Apparently, you either think that Austria and Hungary's love [[HappilyMarried is so ultra]] [[SickeninglySweethearts sacred]] that they should not even be allowed to ''think'' of looking at other potential partners lest rabid fangirl dreams will be ruined and True Love will not survive ([[InsaneTrollLogic eeeeeh?]]), or you think that Austria [[DomesticAbuser is a snobbish, boring, abusive, rapist asshole]] whom Hungary got "StrangledByTheRedString" with via [[ArrangedMarriage the Austro-Hungarian Imperial Compromise]] and MUST dump like a hot potato so she can "reaffirm her feminist stance" by throwing herself into the arms of the [[AllGirlsWantBadBoys "more fun, manly, passionate and entertaining"]] Prussia ([[InsaneTrollLogic wut?]]).

** There's also the potential of a ''third'' faction in this war: [[CherylBlossom the Hungary/Romania shippers]]. Up until now they seem to be [[TrueNeutral content with staying in their their currently-small-but-constantly-growing corner]], shipping the Eastern-european Hungary with the [[BlackMagic spell-casting]] [[OurVampiresAreDifferent possible-vampire]] Romania in a FoeYay-tastic way, but should they decide to pick bones with Aus/Hun and/or Pru/Hun supporters...

* Spain/Romano has also been under fire lately, as they're often accused of pushing their couple into other shippers' faces due to some Himaruya notes, or hating on America/England shippers for their pairing's popularity and accusing England of being a pedophile. Of course this isn't always the case and the latter accusation was actually exaggerated and used in propaganda by some anti-fans to discredit the pairing -- but the VocalMinority of jealous Spamano fans didn't help the pairing's case with their own pushiness and make the generalized accusations all too closer to reality to ruin it for everyone else.
** Spain/Romano vs. Romano/Belgium has started to become this trope, due to a few fans on both sides having tendencies to tear down the rival pairing and invalidate it as "incestuous and sick". Anti-Shipping Goggles also play heavily into the debates of who Romano ''really'' likes. To some, a third option doesn't even exist [[SarcasmMode because there's just no possibility]] [[NoBisexuals of him being bisexual]] -- not to mention, it adds more fuel to the HetIsEw camp's unfair "Belgium and the other Hetalia girls are only stupid and anti-feminist {{Relationship Sue}}s!" accusations. Throwing in [[FoeYay Spain/Netherlands]] may or may not softened this, as it offers a chance to get Spain away from Romano without recurring to DieForOurShip.

* The biggest victim of these ship wars, ATM? Seychelles, the local NubileSavage and PluckyGirl. She was a minor character with a mere cameo in the comics... then she became an AscendedExtra in [[HighSchoolAU Gakuen Hetalia]] (both the original script and the PSP game), and then the poor girl started getting shit from ''everyone'' coming from ''everywhere''. The HetIsEw camp called her a RelationshipSue, the "fandom feminists" accused her of being "offensive" and "submissive to males", and the USUK and FRUK rabidshippers accused her of standing in between their beaus because she had some degree of ShipTease with both England and France. Nevermind that France is after AnythingThatMoves, that Gakuen Hetalia isn't that centered in romance but more in ThePowerOfFriendship, that Seychelles [[PluckyGirl isn't exactly shown]] as submissive or an ExtremeDoormat to either France or England, and that in the PSP game itself [[spoiler: Sey actually ''helps'' America to regain England's attention and affections after a fight, which can easily be interpreted as her PlayingCyrano for them.]]

And this used to be such a ''nice'' fandom...

** Japan/Taiwan seems to have a pretty bad reputation in the West, however. As it's the most popular pairing for Taiwan in J-Fandom and pretty much the only het choice for Japan that is mildly aknowledged, many W-fans side-eye it hard and extrapolate their issues with Taiwan's characterization in many artworks ''to their real opinion on Taiwan the character'', accusing her of being a RelationshipSue and being harsh to everyone who ships it, saying that the Japan/Taiwan shippers are "creeps who ignore the issues of the Japanese colonization to imagine themselves as Taiwan" among other things.

** Spain/Romano vs. Romano/Belgium has started to become this trope, due to a few fans on both sides having tendencies to tear down the rival pairing and invalidate it as "incestuous and sick". Anti-Shipping Goggles also play heavily into the debates of who Romano ''really'' likes. To some, a third option doesn't even exist [[SarcasmMode because there's just no possibility]] [[NoBisexuals of him being bisexual]] -- not to mention, it adds more fuel to the HetIsEw camp's unfair "Belgium and the other Hetalia girls are only stupid and anti-feminist {{Relationship Sue}}s!" accusations. Throw in [[FoeYay Spain/Netherlands]] may or may not softened this.
** Spain/Romano vs. Spain/Belgium is another bit of a feud similar to the above. The Spamano diehards claim that Belgium is "in the way" of their pairing, claim that she's nothing but a Mary Sue, and direct immature hate at anyone shipping her with Spain. The diehard [=SpaBel=] fans claim that Belgium is more important in Spain's life than Romano, that he "canonically" would like her more since his alternate universe counterpart liked her, and that Spamano is promoting incest.

* Prussia/Canada gets FanDumb from both sides, thanks to garnering both rabid fans who tout it as indisputably canon and interpret ''everything'' remotely related to either character as ironclad proof that Himaruya is shipping the two together and rabid haters who attack it as an insultingly baseless pairing that only shallow fangirls who don't give a whit about history or canon would think is remotely plausible. The first camp ''is'' definitely annoying considering that they've done things like declare that Prussia's character song was obviously a love song to Canada on absolutely no evidence or applying DieForOurShip treatment to [[BigFun Cuba]] and LovableSexManiac for no other reason than feeling "threatened" by their bonds with Canada, [[NotSoDifferent but so is the second camp]] who often acts as if the mere popularity of Prussia/Canada is an affront to the entire fandom in spite of it being far from the only Hetalia pairing that gets little support in canon or history.

And this used to be such a ''nice'' fandom... :( But don't worry. We're working on it.

** Suggestions that America/England might be canon have fueled someone to spread rumours about the pairing being actually canon. Eventually, many fans of the pairing used it to claim some sort of superiority over Russia/America and France/England shippers. Needless to say, this sort of caused mass indignation on {{Tumblr}} and similar media, and some fans who disliked the pairing actually ''dropped out of the fandom'' out of hate towards it.

And this used to be such a ''nice'' fandom... :(

* The most prominent example is the struggle between America/England fans and anti-fans. America/England is easily the most popular ship in fandom, but its massive popularity has caused many fans to attack it as "[[ItsPopularNowItSucks too popular]]" and "taking attention away from the much more interesting ships" (which usually means "gets more attention than MY ship", considering that Russia/America and France/England fans tend to be the loudest about this) It's reached the point where some America/England fans don't even post their fanfic/artwork at the main Hetalia community on LJ and many fans avoid the community as a whole because they feel ''that'' uneasy about the general attitude there.

** There are even some ''explicitly'' anti-America/England fanfics out there that are essentially [[WriterOnBoard rants placed in the characters' mouths]] about how America/England deserves to be hated/bashed for ''daring'' to be too popular (read: more popular than the author's preferred pairings). Truly, America/England is ''the'' BaseBreaker ship of APH fandom.

* The most prominent example is the struggle between America/England fans and anti-fans. America/England is easily the most popular ship in fandom, but its massive popularity has caused many fans to attack it as "[[ItsPopularNowItSucks too popular]]" and "taking attention away from the much more interesting ships" (which usually means "gets more attention than MY ship", considering that Russia/America and France/England fans tend to be the loudest about this) and the APH {{Hatedom}} and {{Fan Hater}}s to make it their main target. It's reached the point where some America/England fans don't even post their fanfic/artwork at the main Hetalia community on LJ and many fans avoid the community as a whole because they feel ''that'' uneasy about the general attitude there.

** Prussia/Romano has become a recent rival for Spain/Romano, with certain fans from the Prumano camp perpetuating claims that Spain's a pedophile and too idiotic to truly love Romano and that Prussia would be a kinder and more supportive lover. Those against Prumano believe that Prussia and Romano would be too dysfunctional for each other, based off of Romano's dislike of Germanic nations (although Spamano isn't exactly a dysfunction-free pairing in itself).

* Spain/Romano has also been under fire lately, as they're often accused of pushing their couple into other shippers' faces due to some Himaruya notes, or hating on America/England shippers and accusing England of being a pedophile. Of course this isn't always the case and the latter accusation was actually exaggerated and used in propaganda by some anti-fans to discredit the pairing -- but the VocalMinority of Spamano fans don't help the pairing's case with their own pushiness and make the generalized accusations all too closer to reality to ruin it for everyone else.

** Wait... how does England or America/England have any impact on the Spain/Romano pairing?
*** Easy: the VocalMinority of the Spain/Romano fandom were jealous of the massive popularity of America/Engand, so they started to hate on it to make their pairing look better. Not that Spamano is bad on its own, but the insecurity of these rabid fans in regards to the merits and popularity of ''their own couple'' is what sells it.
*** Wait, by that logic, all shippers of one pairing should hate all the other pairings in order to make theirs seem more... [[InsaneTrollLogic we're going down the rabbit hole now]][[hottip:*:Without jetpack, anti-gravity boots or a parachute. [[{{Metaphorgotten}} Or any of those in-flight movies that you just saw at the cinemas last week and now have to sit through for the next hour and a half]].

*** Wait, by that logic, all shippers of one pairing should hate all the other pairings in order to make theirs seem more... [[InsaneTrollLogic we're going down the rabbit hole now]][[hottip:*:Without jetpack, anti-gravity boots or a parachute. [[{{Metaphorgotten}} Or any of those in-flight movies that you just saw at the cinemas last week and now have to sit through for the next hour and a half]]]].

** Spain/Romano vs. Romano/Belgium has started to become this trope, due to a few fans on both sides having tendencies to tear down the rival pairing and invalidate it as "incestuous and sick". Anti-Shipping Goggles also play heavily into the debates of who Romano ''really'' likes. To some, a third option doesn't even exist [[SarcasmMode because there's just no possibility]] [[NoBisexuals of him being bisexual]] -- not to mention, it adds more fuel to the HetIsEw camp's unfair "Belgium and the other Hetalia girls are only stupid and anti-feminist {{Relationship Sue}}s!" accusations.

** Rabid Poland/Lithuania and Russia/Lithuania shippers engage in DieForOurShip against the other's preferred Liet suitor regularly. The former camp cashing in on Russia's status as the local PsychopathicManchild ''and'' MemeticMolester to turn him into a bastard and ignore his tragic backstory as well as his DespairEventHorizon; the latter camp [[CharacterExaggeration exaggerates Poland's]] [[SpoiledBrat initial selfishness]] to JerkAss levels and accuse him of being [[DumbBlonde too shallow and brainless]] for Lithuania, erasing Poland's CharacterDevelopment. (In case you're wondering what happens to Belarus in all this, she's usually just ignored completely because of her not being a major character and the Belarus/Russia and Belarus/Lithuania camps being much smaller and less vocal than the other, more popular rival ships like Russia/America, Russia/China, etc. But yes, STSC between the latter group of ships and Russia/Lithuania has been spotted from time to time, with Russia/Liet fans either making Belarus a monster who would rape Liet to make him too "impure" for Russia, or blaming '''her''' for Russia's inability to make friends.)

** Regarding Japan ships in general, there's some division between those who think Greece/Japan is a MoeCouplet and those who think it's just a snoozefest, those who think England/Japan is the true MoeCouplet and those who think it really isn't, and those who find China/Japan or Japan/Taiwan more interesting and "historically canon" than the aforementioned ships and those who find them {{squick}}y due to the conflicted history between them. Like with the Turkey/Greece vs. Greece/Japan debate mentioned above, it isn't ''too'' bad as multishipping is accepted. So long as you leave out the minority of FanDumb who like throwing around the terms "CrackPairing" and "unfairly popular" in regards to the top two Japan pairings with little to no logic behind them, that is.
*** Japan/Taiwan seems to have a pretty bad reputation in the West, however. As it's the most popular pairing for Taiwan in J-Fandom and pretty much the only het choice for Japan that is mildly aknowledged, many W-fans side-eye it hard and extrapolate their issues with Taiwan's characterization in many artworks ''to their real opinion on Taiwan the character'', accusing her of being a RelationshipSue and being harsh to everyone who ships it, saying that the Japan/Taiwan shippers are "creeps who ignore the issues of the Japanese colonization to imagine themselves as Taiwan" among other things.

* The biggest victim of these ship wars, ATM? Seychelles, the local NubileSavage and PluckyGirl. She was a minor character with a mere cameo in the comics... then she became an AscendedExtra in [[HighSchoolAU Gakuen Hetalia]] (both the original script and the PSP game), and then the poor girl started getting shit from ''everyone'' coming from ''everywhere''. The HetIsEw camp called her a RelationshipSue, the "fandom feminists" accused her of being "offensive" and "submissive to males", and the USUK and FRUK rabidshippers accused her of standing in between their beaus because she had some degree of ShipTease with both England and France. (Nevermind that France is after AnythingThatMoves, that Gakuen Hetalia isn't that centered in romance but more in ThePowerOfFriendship, that Seychelles [[PluckyGirl isn't exactly shown as submissive or an]] ExtremeDoormat to either France or England, and that in the PSP game itself [[spoiler: Sey actually ''helps'' America to gain England's attention after a fight, which can easily be interpreted as her PlayingCyrano for them.]])

And this used to be such a ''nice'' fandom...

* Prussia/Canada gets FanDumb from both sides, thanks to garnering both rabid fans who tout it as indisputably canon and interpret ''everything'' remotely related to either character as ironclad proof that Himaruya is shipping the two together and rabid haters who attack it as an insultingly baseless pairing that only shallow fangirls who don't give a whit about history or canon would think is remotely plausible. The first camp ''is'' definitely annoying considering that they've done things like declare that Prussia's character song was obviously a love song to Canada on absolutely no evidence or applying DieForOurShip treatment to [[BigFun Cuba]] and LovableSexManiac for no other reason than feeling "threatened" by their bonds with Canada, [[NotSoDifferent but so is the second camp]] who often acts as if the mere popularity of Prussia/Canada is an affront to the entire fandom in spite of it being far from the only Hetalia pairing that gets little support in canon or history.

** Let's not forget how the anti-America/England fringe try to cash on the IncestSubtext betwen them, falsely claiming that their relationship would be ParentalIncest. This is despite how England refers to himself as "this child's older brother" in the "Battle for America" strips, and America saying "I'm not your little brother" anymore in "Cleaning Out the Storage", thus making this relative squick lower as they do ''not'' consider themselves as adoptive father and child.
** Rabid Poland/Lithuania and Russia/Lithuania shippers engage in DieForOurShip against the other's preferred Liet suitor regularly. The former camp cashing in on Russia's status as the local PsychopathicManchild ''and'' MemeticMolester to turn him into a CompleteMonster and ignore his tragic backstory as well as his DespairEventHorizon; the latter camp [[CharacterExaggeration exaggerates Poland's]] [[SpoiledBrat initial selfishness]] to JerkAss levels and accuse him of being [[DumbBlonde too shallow and brainless]] for Lithuania, erasing Poland's CharacterDevelopment. (In case you're wondering what happens to Belarus in all this, she's usually just ignored completely because of her not being a major character and the Belarus/Russia and Belarus/Lithuania camps being much smaller and less vocal than the other, more popular rival ships like Russia/America, Russia/China, etc. But yes, STSC between the latter group of ships and Russia/Lithuania has been spotted from time to time, with Russia/Liet fans either making Belarus a CompleteMonster who would rape Liet to make him too "impure" for Russia, or blaming '''her''' for Russia's inability to make friends.)

''AxisPowersHetalia'' didn't used to be as bad as some other fandoms about this, as shippers can find foundation for virtually any ship if they're good at Wiki-fu, and multishipping and ShipMates are common practices in the fandom. Key words: '''''used to be.'''''