MW: A year and a day ago, I updated with the sequel preview. Now, I update with the symbolism cheat sheet. Yeah, I figured that instead of doing a sequel preview for the last installment, I would instead do symbolism cheat sheets for both this and The Fanboy. I'm telling you all this because Sherry does come back to play a major role in this one. Unfortunately, you need to read The Fanboy to understand it.

So sit back and relax. It's been a long while, so I probably missed a few things. Also, this is just my ideas. If you see something completely different in this then go ahead and fly with it. I matter not here.

The Fangirl: Symbolism Cheat Sheet~

Theme

This should be pretty obvious, but for those who do not know the theme of this story is simply to respect others, especially when you do not see eye to eye. I feel as though that moral is something that would improve the overall vibe of most, if not all, fandoms. If everyone respected each other's ships/favorites/headcanons then there would be no fandom wars. Respect is key.

Sherry Sue

I think that everyone knows that Sherry is supposed to be the insane fangirl. She shoves her ideals for shipping and characters down other people's throats with no regard for their opinions and such. Her general personality is based upon the posts these insane fangirls make and the kind of person I believe would be behind them.

Turkey/Sadiq

Sadiq actually represents the average cannon main character. He is the cause of everything that happened and he is forced to deal with the consequences of it. In fact, I sometimes think that he is a bigger character than Sherry. Turkey is also a very misunderstood character as well, thus making him and Seychelles a partnership of hated characters.

The Voice/Hidekaz Himaruya/Estonia

Himaruya is the 'insane fan who claims they are sane.' In simpler terms, he is the person who says that they are the 'proper' fan but really are just a bully. If he sees something that he does not like, say a slightly different character representation, he will bully the person and harshly tell that they are wrong. This can be seen in his treatment of PolandXTurkeyXSwitzerland. He obviously did not like seeing Sadiq with these men and he, therefore, changed them into his liking. Another form of this can be seen in his hatred for the Seychelles haters. He may have good intentions, but he approaches them the wrong way and becomes the villain himself.

Iceland/Ari

Ari is our sane fan. When he first finds out about Hetalia, he is absolutely fascinated by it. He probably has opinions of it, but he keeps it to himself.

His sudden fascination with Seychelles, however, follows along a completely different tangent. Himaruya changed his sexuality for his own means, much like how fanbases will change a character's trait (and sexuaility) for their own headcanons and fanworks.

Bella Moon

Not only is she our stereotypical Mary Sue with overly perfect traits and a rather sad backstory, but she also represents a fangirl herself. If you didn't guess from the opening of chapter 11, she is the aspiring fan. She sees the problems in a fandom and talks about changing them. She's one of those people who would make the critique and help blogs.

As I discussed in the scene, it's questionable whether or not it's worth it.

IcelandXSherry and TurkeyXSherry

Alright, part one of the relationship explanation.

So what is the relationship of Ari and Sherry (ShAri)? Well besides being the most popular among the fans, these two represent two things: fans with each other and fan to canon characters.

Overall, the insane and sane fans get along really well. They kind of live off of one another in order to make a good fandom. But people often associate insane fangirls falling in love with canon characters as well, hence their love life.

What about TurkeyXSherry?

Turkey's the character Sherry slowly learns to love. We all have that character that we start out hating but eventually grow to like. This is shown with how Sherry started out being afraid and irritated of him. I also do a bit of the fangirls to canon character relationships in this but unlike ShAri, it's completely up to your interpretation.

Need proof? Go reread some scenes with either those two liking each other as daughter-father or as lovers. They go either way.

TurkeyXPolandXSwitzerlandXEstoniaXSherryXSeychelles VS AriXSherryXSadiq

Turkey has so many admirers that it's not even funny. Sherry, meanwhile, only had two that either failed or not exactly canon. So which one do you think people complained about?

That's right, this was an experiment. I could have made everyone in the school fall in love with Turkey and no one would have cared. But if I even give Sherry a shimmer of a love life, people throw a fit. Why? Because she's an OC and apparently they need to stay away from the canon characters.

The Movies

Remember the chapter where Sherry and Turkey watched a bunch of movies? Well I actually stuck a little bit of symbolism in there. I take that back- it's mostly foreshadowing but it's worth pointing out.

Howl's Moving Castle- The villain in this loves the male lead so much that she wants to have his heart. Kind of like Estonia and Turkey.

The Little Mermaid- It shares some plot similarities to The Fangirl. Person makes a twisted contract and only has a set amount of time before it runs out. Plus I can totally imagine Estonia singing "Poor Unfortunate Souls"

"Titanic"- The whole sacrifice for love thing. Helps explain why Turkey did what he did.

The Crack Pairings

As Pimp with a chainsaw said, "[The crack pairings helped] Sherry find out that not everything in her favorite series can [be] the way she wants, including not all of her OTPs… Most of the pairings don't make any sense, but [she] still needs to accept it as it is."

Gakuen Hetalia Setting

The school setting was chosen for two reasons. One, it's a very common setting for OC stories. I figured that when it came down to it, The Fangirl had two missions on its hands, which were the satire of the fandom and the fresh take on the OC Falls into Hetalia trope. The best way to reform the trope is to go back to some of its origins, one being the OC going to school with Hetalia characters.

The second reason, and the more commonly known one, is the Gakuen Hetalia game. It made Seychelles gain infamy in the fandom and as a fanfiction that does its best to take part in gaining fans for her; it naturally seemed like the perfect setting for this fic.

Pangaea

Pangaea takes on many forms within the story and is often perceived as being the symbol of my laziness and not wanting to do a new character for every small role. She is, but there is more to her. Let's consider two of her forms: Principal Pangaea and Bartender Pangaea. They're different, but yet they are the same person. How?

Consider this: in my drafts, she was originally referred to as Principal!Pangaea and Bartender!Pangaea.

Pangaea shows how different forms of a character can make a completely different character altogether.

Sexuality Roles

The reversal of heterosexuality and homosexuality in society were switched as a comment on the majority of the fandom. Many people have said that Hetalia is yaoi due to the mainly male cast and often fail to recognize any of the female characters or the genderbends. Thus, in this universe, heterosexuality is frowned upon and everyone, even the females, is homosexuals.

I am not sure how anyone in this world reproduces.

The last installment of the Fanseries, The Fandom, will come out tomorrow. That's right, November 29, 2013. See you there.