Thank you ❤ and I will, no worries. I have close to sixty pages of notes, ooops. I won’t be running out of ideas any time soon, especially since I have you guys helping me out with requests.
Indeed, he deserves a lot more recognition. Canada’s character is actually really disturbing regarding his childhood and the inferiorities he’s internalized. Anyways, I have a few upcoming posts on him, his insecurities, as well as his relationship with America so stay tuned!
Chapter 1 of World Stars is crucial in establishing the
rules of nationhood.
The strip outlines how personifications can live for a few
days or several centuries, can disappear unexpectedly, can change their names
and personalities, and if they’ve died, a single person’s memory has the
potential to bring them back.
It would follow, then, that this strip also opens the
possibility for reincarnation/ resurrection.
Either way, sounds pretty simple, right?
That’s how it’s supposed to be.
What’s frustrating is that there’s a massive hint in this
strip that’s so simple, it’s pretty much gone unnoticed. Knowing Hima, he 100%
did this on purpose – just to troll with us.
The answer that, yes,
Germany is in fact Holy Rome has already been revealed, albeit not explicitly. At least, in my opinion.
Now, I want you to look at the first panel again. It says: “They
can live for a few days or for several centuries.”
Okay. Take note of how the being in this panel has an
inverse form.
The one who’s upright has a similar hairstyle to Holy Rome (and Germany). Still, we see Holy Rome with his hair down more.
Meanwhile, let’s flip this image.
Boom. It’s the military hat that gives Germany away.
There’s also the cloak worn by the being on top that could be a reference to Holy Rome.
Take what you want from this, but for Hima to possibly include Germany and Holy Rome
in a strip where they’re literally mirror images of each other pretty much confirms
to me that Germany was reincarnated from Holy Rome.
If that’s the case, then Holy Rome kept his promise and
eventually came back to Italy.
Happy Valentine’s Day~!
France: What’s wrong? You look like you’ve just seen a
ghost.
America: I think England’s part of a cult.
France: Ah, oui. The Brewminati.
I am literally speechless at the overwhelming amount of
support I’ve received from you guys. Given how rough my personal life is, I’m
really awkward at responding to compliments haha. All I can do is say thank you
a million times over and be forever grateful.
You’re all way too
sweet! Just knowing that people are able to get enjoyment or take something
from my posts really keeps me going.
Recommendations are still
open by the way 😉
No, but now I have.
Note: This
theory will make use of Freudian theory. While I recognize that Freud’s ideas
do not bear much contemporary relevance, that shouldn’t take away from the fact
that many of his concepts (i.e erogenous zones, child-hood memory repression,
catharsis) are nonetheless employed by Hima in the series. The purpose of this
post is to give some insight into the psychologies of the characters.
Terminology I’ll go over: Psychosexual stages,
causality, regression, fixation.
Yes, that’s right. Freud’s ideas are very much prevalent in the
series. A big area of his work was analyzing the impact of childhood on
personality development. Freud believed in causality, meaning that who you are as
an adult can be directly traced back to your childhood.
How you’re parented and brought
up is the most crucial factor. I don’t need to go into this in too much detail,
but basically, we go through five stages of development titled: Oral, anal,
phallic, latency, and genital.
For this specific post, we
only need to focus on the early stages of development, which focus on sensual
(sensory) pleasure and stimulation, often for the purposes of soothing and
experiencing relief.
Each stage has corresponding needs. If these needs are not met (under-gratification) or
if they are too easily met (over-gratification), then the person develops a
fixation.
A fixation essentially means that the person is
stuck at that level of development, which causes them to develop a problematic
personality type.
However, it’s only when that individual is met with confrontation
or a stressful situation that they regress back to the stage in which they developed
this fixation. The stress causes them to revert back to the age where their
needs weren’t met, and as such, adopt childish behaviours.
For example, if you get into an argument with someone and they
start behaving selfishly, like a toddler, then you have every right to poke fun
at them for having Daddy or Mommy issues. Or, there are those who bite their
nails and pick at their lips, something akin to the soothing acquired from
sucking one’s thumb as a child.
England appears to be fixated
at the anal stage of development, yes anal – ahem, moving on. During this
stage, children from 18 months to about 3-4 years undergo a struggle for
autonomy. This is the first point at a child’s life that they have control and
awareness over the body, and what Freud specifically focused on was bowel
movements; a biological need.
Potty training, for most
toddlers, threatens to impinge on the control they’ve only just recently gained
over their body. Some toddlers refuse to let themselves be potty trained and
just go whenever they want, as if they were an infant. Others, through the
encouragement and praise of supportive parents, learn to regulate themselves
when they go to the bathroom.
How a child is parented during this phase is crucial to the type
of personality they’ll develop later in adulthood. Children who are shamed and
ridiculed if they have “accidents” develop an anal-explosive personality type. A
child who is over-gratified, then, doesn’t just have accidents, but rather they
do it intentionally.
For the purposes of Hetalia,
we’ll only be focusing on the shame and ridicule that England experienced
during his childhood, as his personality neatly falls in line with the characteristics
of this personality type.
England was ostracized, shamed, and ridiculed by his older brothers, who
would send curses or arrows his way if he ever tried to approach them. This, in
turn, relinquished him a larger sense of autonomy and more freedom to do whatever he wanted, when he wanted.
France too shamed young
England, although it was more in a sense of teasing. Regardless, England still
took France’s criticisms of his appearance to heart…
Essentially, a person who has
an anal-explosive personality type is cruel, messy, and destructive. They can
also be classified as kind, generous, and creative.
Cruel: We all know how scathing England can be towards America.
Messy:
He’s also quite scatterbrained, and frequently loses things.
Destructive: Because
of his poor treatment of them, England is often isolated from the other
nations.
Now, for the more benevolent
aspects of his character.
Kind: A perfectly hospitable butler if you ask me. (He’s role-playing, by the way.)
Generous:
Believe it or not, he’s not always an asshole to France.
Creative: He’s
fairly decent at art too.
That
said, Hima’s characterization of the nations fits in scarily well with Freud’s
personality chart. It would be hard to believe that he hasn’t included some
of these concepts into his writing.
England: How many Frances does it take to screw a light bulb?
England: None. He’s too busy screwing everything else.
Of course, love
💗 I’m honestly so flattered that I’ve been able to get people to engage and discuss all things Hetalia. All I ask is that if you post them elsewhere, please give me credit 🙂 Thank you!!!
We know that Prussia’s been diligently recording diary
entries ever since his birth, taking note of his moments of “awesomeness.”
We also know that the nations’ memories aren’t limitless, as
they don’t remember everything.
Now, what would you say if I told you that Prussia’s diaries
are purposed to prevent him from forgetting his past lives?
Roughly speaking, he started out as St. Maria’s order,
became the Teutonic Knights, somehow evolved into Prussia, and is now
presumably – and obviously – East Germany.
But, there’s one particular strip that hints at and makes me
believe that the nations lose their memories from past personifications.
If it’s possible for them to adopt new personalities upon
acquiring a new title or land, then wouldn’t it follow that they also lose all
memories from their past personifications?
Your personality is very much grounded in your interactions
and experiences in the world, so to possess a new one would imply that you have
new experiences to shape who you are. It would also imply that your old
experiences have had little impact on your character; either they’re discarded
or repressed from your conscious memory.
Here’s where things get cryptic. Assuming that Holy Rome is
Germany’s past personification, this means that Hima has an active motif of
memories present, one that covertly threads the German brothers’ storylines together.
On one hand, you have Prussia, brother #1, who records
memories from previous personifications to maintain and keep his “awesome”
sense of self consistent.
On the other hand, you have Germany, brother #2, who has
possibly had a past life, but is unable to recall it.
Ellawritesficssometimes 