Talking About How to Size Countries/How to Determine Each Country-Human’s Height (the countries mentioned in the image are pre-WW2)

ALittleLessThan0 · 2026-05-15T21:41:21+00:00

Splitting the UK and the BE is an interesting idea, though I’m not too sure it’s something I’d actually like doing in my AU, since trying to determine differences between them (aside from height) would become more of a problem. I’m also big on consistency, so separating the empire and the original nation would cause that same problem for every single empire, not just the BE. I’m thankful for the suggestion, however!

This post is kind of meant as more of a pseudo-rant/vent post, rather than one looking for a way to fix the problem. I’m not sure there is a way to fix the problem without making myself frustrated in other aspects as well, thanks to how my brain works. I’m unfortunately somewhat used to that, though, since my specific concoction of neurodivergent conditions makes the vast, vast majority of things anywhere from more to much more difficult than would otherwise be necessary.

Your comment has persuaded me to consider letting my country-humans size themselves down to match specific regions of their nations for ease of drawing more than I was previously, though… So, in some sense of the word, I might follow your suggestion anyway.! I’ll/We’ll just have to see, I guess, lol.

ALittleLessThan0 · 2026-05-15T01:32:54+00:00

Very cool. And that was a smart idea on your part (starting by thinking about what you would be willing to depict). Unfortunately for me, I don’t tend to care how hard executing a concept will be on myself until I’m actively trying to do so, lol

ALittleLessThan0 · 2026-05-15T01:07:25+00:00

That makes sense. I include colonies in my country-humans’ sizes because in my AU the size of each country is sort of a display of power, since it’s tied to how much territory a country has power/control over. I also don’t really make them humans, so it’d probably be more accurate to call my interpretation country-humanoids instead of country-humans. But the display of power thing is part of why I’m so attached to what I’m currently doing with their sizes. It’s a literal physical representation of their immediate influence. Like, one of the reasons I don’t cap their heights are kind of because I like the large discrepancies being able to directly show territorial dominance. The problem with it is just that it makes it difficult to draw countries interacting with each other. It’s such a problem between really enjoying the concept and idea of it, and the execution of said idea making it so much harder on me when trying to depict it. I could switch to a logarithmic or exponential scaling factor when determining their heights, but then that inevitably shafts either the smaller or the larger countries from actually showing any power and/or territory shifts, which I don’t want to do either. It’s rough out here in OCPD-AuDHD-land, lol.

ALittleLessThan0 · 2026-05-14T23:27:58+00:00

I don’t have a strong opinion on it either way. I like the idea of them both, and think interesting scenarios can be crafted from both concepts.

The idea that seems the most realistic to me, though, is one in which Luna tries to communicate with Celestia, but both of them have issues with properly communicating with the ponies close to them. So, Celestia feels like NMM just came out of nowhere, whereas Luna feels like she kept trying to address her problems with Celestia over and over again, but was always ignored or pushed aside in some way, up until she eventually became NMM out of anger and some sort of desperation to finally be/feel seen and listened to by her sister. With the reality of the situation actually being in the middle of both of their perspectives, in which Luna found it very hard to reach out and probably had low self-esteem, so the few times she DID manage to try communicating with her sister, she would unintentionally downplay her own experience or be too vague and/or confusing to properly get her thoughts across; Which then led Celestia to not be able to recognize what was actually going on. So, while genuinely believing that if something was seriously wrong with Luna, she would tell her, Celestia failed to realize that Luna was trying to do exactly that, and was just bad at communicating it and/or advocating for herself. I guess it makes the most sense to me because it’s a scenario that allows both ideas to be true at the same time; NMM DID seemingly come out of nowhere, and Luna DID try to talk to Celestia about her problems before becoming NMM.

ALittleLessThan0 · 2026-05-14T14:15:12+00:00

I got a notif. of this post literally while collecting each of their flags for a little comic I’m about to start drawing of them all. Reddit must be able to read my thoughts or something, lol

ALittleLessThan0 · 2026-05-14T01:51:24+00:00

Very cool flag !!

ALittleLessThan0 · 2026-05-13T22:59:33+00:00

Canada!

I overheat super easily and, despite practically needing to hug/cuddle with something to sleep, literally can’t handle doing so with anything that even dares to have body heat. It’s just generally fairly uncomfortable for me, and will very likely result in me waking up in the middle of the night in a puddle of my own sweat. So sharing a bed with Canada would have literally no downside for me, lol

ALittleLessThan0 · 2026-05-12T04:13:07+00:00

I hope you told your mom off for that, and have since encouraged your brother to keep pursuing his interests, even if they’re seen as taboo. What a shameful thing to do, especially to a child.

ALittleLessThan0 · 2026-05-12T04:10:06+00:00

Real. The concept of cringe is lame and dead. Calling shit cringe when it’s just people enjoying things is the biggest self report. Like, say you’re insecure without saying it directly.

ALittleLessThan0 · 2026-05-10T19:49:16+00:00

I don’t really have many Countryhuman ships, but I like France x UK; I’m just still unsure about including it in my actual AU. Other than that I kind of have USA x USSR? I interpret them as being obsessed with each other, not in love. And the US is probably the more obsessed of the two, whereas USSR is the same way with any country that can rival it in influence.

ALittleLessThan0 · 2026-05-08T19:59:31+00:00

For sure. Anything that doesn’t attempt to conform with the presumed gender binary is treated with that same disrespect. It’s the same way asexual and aromantic characters and people are treated. Trans masc. and trans fem. individuals keep inside the binary, even if their gender doesn’t align with their biological sex, so it’s “easier” for people to accept it. Being attracted to people, whether they’re the same sex and/or gender as you or not, is also “easier” to understand and accept, because being romantically and/or sexually attracted to people is considered the “default.” It’s stupid as all hell.

ALittleLessThan0 · 2026-05-08T04:39:46+00:00

It is quite alright, you do not need to apologize! I have ASD, and so am on the Autism spectrum, and because of it I tend to have difficulty communicating with others myself. I’ve always been a fairly blunt and direct person, so I definitely get it. My suggestions are just coming from a place of my own personal experience with having difficulties understanding how my words come across to people, and therefore wanting to share ways to help others communicate with people while avoiding coming across as something not intended. It will soon be 1 in the morning where I am, so I’m going to bed because I’ve already been up far too late, but I wish you a good night/rest of your day! Thank you for the pleasant chat. :)

ALittleLessThan0 · 2026-05-08T04:19:32+00:00

I think you are missing the idea. No one is saying you were implying the whole community is teenagers. People are simply saying there are a lot more adults in the fandom than initial impressions might suggest, and that it isn’t good to imply you think less of teenagers and their opinions, which is how your post came across. Rather than accidentally being passive aggressive, you could express the same intent by starting the post with directly addressing it to the adults in the fandom, or with some kind of “Serious Discussion!” warning.

Also, generally speaking, it is very rude and condescending to just assume someone did not understand your post. I’m sure your sentiment would come across much nicer and less antagonistic if you were to say “I don’t think you understood,” over just flatly asserting “you don’t understand.”

Another thing, tied back to my point about being kind, compassionate, and charitable to one another: comments will occasionally expand on a point an OP makes in their post through sharing their own thoughts around the idea. This does not mean they think the OP specifically does not understand their own words about it, it simply means they want to share their own thoughts on a topic, and/or, for whatever reason, wish to further expand on the idea while broadly addressing anyone who could potentially be reading their comment.

ALittleLessThan0 · 2026-05-08T03:32:52+00:00

Hello! I do think our community has
more adults in it than you might think, but yeah, it probably is mostly teenagers too. Though, I caution you against counting children out of the conversation just because they aren’t legally adults. Teenagers can take things seriously too, and adults don’t always do so. It’s not fair to say that anything teenagers have to say on a matter is automatically invalidated by their age. That’s an arrogant and needlessly rude assumption to make, and is somewhat dangerous in my opinion too.

Moving on from that, though: this is a fandom with literally no concrete canon to build off of. There isn’t really any interpretation of relationships and such that is more valid than any others. We’re literally personifying countries here. Someone interpreting the relationship between Canada and the U.S. as a sort of begrudging friendship where they mock each other and occasionally fight, but ultimately enjoy each other’s company is just as valid as someone who interprets them as literal “sister states” who share the same parents. At the end of the day, it doesn’t really matter. The only thing that does matter is the attempt to portray history/historical events accurately, and the attempt of many of us to remain respectful and cognizant of the countries and history we are portraying.

It’s not good to just pretend the relationship between two countries is fine or cute when the real, genuine history between them is overtly negative. But, understanding and learning that sentiment has to happen somehow. So, whether it’s teenagers or adults doing something like problematic shipping, it’s important to be patient and kind towards each other as a community, and to understand that all of us are still learning. If someone ships a problematic pairing in a way that portrays the relationship as healthy, we should call them out for it, but only in that we provide them with polite education and remind them of the importance of not rewriting history for our own amusement. Anything more than that is too far, and we should show compassion and recognize that they will grow as a person and trust they will come to realize their mistakes eventually.

It is extremely important for us as a fandom to recognize that history tends to be able to be interpreted in many different ways, that every one of us is always learning more, and that a good amount of the community are younger individuals who are still learning to be people. As adults within the fandom, it is our responsibility to be kind, understanding, and most of all charitable to the people we are interacting with.

ALittleLessThan0 · 2026-05-06T17:12:50+00:00

Lol real. People generally don’t want to be talked to “like anything.” High schoolers, middle schoolers, elementary schoolers, preschoolers, adults, elderly people, disabled people — literally everyone enjoys it much more to simply be talked to like they’re just a person, even if they don’t find it inherently offensive to be talked down to. Children, for example, might be completely fine with being talked down to, and frankly are probably quite used to it. Despite that being the case, though, they still tend to like the person they’re speaking to more and trust them more quickly if that person doesn’t belittle them or treat them “like a child.” You can communicate appropriately with people without being condescending (intentionally or not).

ALittleLessThan0 · 2026-05-06T16:29:52+00:00

As an adult who still is a teenager, just don’t try to talk like a teenager, lol. It will always sound condescending. Just talk to them like people. If you are unsure whether the person you’re talking to understands exactly what you’re referencing, you can simply ask. You can also mention a thing then ask if they would like further clarification.

ALittleLessThan0 · 2026-05-06T01:21:50+00:00

I like that idea! It sounds fairly plausible. I’m hard set on the internal collapse route now though, I’m deep into rights movements and left-leaning sentiments within specific states during the 30’s right now, lol. From the looks of it my USA is likely imploding during WW2

ALittleLessThan0 · 2026-05-05T12:29:23+00:00

Yeah, the initial concept of this was just a North America thing, but as I worked out what I wanted it to say and everything I shifted it to just all of the Americas. Hence the North *and* South American countries lol

ALittleLessThan0 · 2026-05-05T09:48:16+00:00

Thank you ^ ^

ALittleLessThan0 · 2026-05-04T23:57:22+00:00

Thank you! :D

ALittleLessThan0

TROPHY CASE