That one friend who you can’t watch a movie with

Does it bother you that Russia and Germany are always made out to be the villains?

Yes and no. A good villain is a good villain to me so long as you characterize and develop them well. In fact, a difficult and rare trope to pull off but something that I’ve always loved is when an author is able to portray America as the villain despite his claim of being a hero. Now that’s interesting!

The series is based on stereotypes, bad and
good, although we could do without some. At the very least, this subject is
touched on in Volume 5.

Effects of the constant wars the nations have to go through or how they cope with them?

Sure, I think that’d be interesting to explore. The basic premise would be the normalization and adaption to precarious and dangerous circumstances.

Post coming up tonight!

Could mun Ella describe her appearance/ fashion?

Baggy, ripped jeans; nylons with jean shorts; turtle necks; baggy,
warm sweaters; combat boots; sneakers; unnecessarily long hair; eyebrows permanently furrowed from reading all the time; extremely pale-skinned [for a tan person, I don’t leave my house often]; lanky; uneven and catastrophic finger nails from cleaning; bruises on hips and
shins from bumping into things/ my blind dog obliviously smacking into me in greeting; and snacks always on hand.

Some opinion-related asks that I’ve neglected…

I would give it a solid
eight out of ten. Its strengths are the descriptive language and imagery that
the author invokes. I can still vividly imagine the trading posts and the smog/
discolouration of the polluted air.

The weakness for me was the dialogue, save for some very memorable scenes at
the end. I feel like they focused too much on the description that the dialogue
fell flat; overall, it wasn’t very engaging for me. I’m very much a dialogue
person over that of description, so this could just be my personal bias.

The manga OBVIOUSLY xD.

I’ve always liked to
think of the anime as the Wikipedia equivalent of the manga. So many
misconceptions, 2D portrayals, and people confusing the dub as canon…

Thank you!

Hands down, Hetaoni is
my favourite fanmade creation in this fandom. I’ve watched several play
throughs on Youtube and absolutely loved it!

Although, I think it
scarred me a little. I still have nightmares where I’ve been blinded in the
mansion. I either bump into bookcases, step on the broken pieces of America’s
glasses, or grab at something slimey and muscular… it would seem that ThEre’s No EsCAping THe NiGhTmaRE.

Yikes. That would be a
strong no from me.

Animated shows and comics can get away with a lot more than content that uses real
actors.

It’s not too personal,
no worries. I’m from Ottawa.

If you really want to be
a stickler, the general rule is that 1) political, social, and economic
developments cause a nation to grow 2) if the first factor is satisfied, only then
is the average height of the population taken into consideration.

Headcanon all ya want! I’m
not going to stop you 🙂

Q & A

If anything, this could also indicate how removed England
was from the effect that his taxation had on his colonies. Great addition,
thank you for sharing! [x].

It seems like Canada is America’s adopted
introvert.

Yes and no. Early on, it
was more of a resentful push-and-tug relationship. Their relationship in the
present lines up more with what you’re saying!

Sorry, I have to make
this distinction because you still see people bitterly posting on trope
websites that the two remain primarily resentful of each other, which isn’t
true! [x].

Is North Italy really a virgin? If he’s not,
why does the fandom believe so? I mean I know he used the “I’m a
virgin” lie to get out being harmed, as for some reason they sympathize
for virgins, but the dude has a black book full of women he has dated, he still
dates and flirts with girls. Given how old he is, doesn’t it make more sense
for them to have lost it at some point in time? Maybe n teen years. Oh, that
time he ran home for sexual needs during war. So y proclaim it canon if 1 is
not sure

(Not sure why this
really matters lol but…)

It’s messy because you’re
leaping through several time periods here. They don’t occur simultaneously.

WW1–He plays the
sympathy card and states that he’s a virgin to prevent Germany from shooting
him. This also could have just been a spur of the moment thing he said to avoid being harmed.

We also know from this
character chart that Italy officially becomes an adult in the 20^th
century [x].

The third comic you
referenced is from Comic Diary 2. It
takes place in WW2. Italy cites that fight or flight instincts in war create an
urge in men to reproduce, hence the greater occurrence of sexual intercourse
between men since no women are available. As you mentioned, he leaves to
presumably have sex [x].

The second strip you
mentioned is from volume 2 and seems to take place in WW2. It doesn’t actually confirm whether he’s had sexual
intercourse with these women but rather that he’s met them over the years from
his time spent in war (i.e., “battles). He could have, but it’s not made explicit.

Presently, there’s a
strip where Italy uses a sexual innuendo in front of an attractive girl at an
anime convention [x].

Overall, my guess is
that he probably was a virgin during WW1 having just become an adult but lost
it sometime during or before WW2.

Why does no nation (other than his family) look
behind Russia’s cruelty and see he’s very lonely? (While Russia has done very
questionable things in the past…)

It’s easy to say that from an outsider’s perspective. Even
though Russia wasn’t psychologically aware of the depth and extent of his
cruelty, he was still an abuser. Loneliness isn’t exactly going to make those
whom he tortured instantly want to be friends with him. They’re big enough to
empathize and feel some compassion from him, but none of that will negate the
terrible experiences they endured in his household. I don’t blame them [x].

It’ll take a long time to heal (as we saw with China and
Japan), but I do believe it’s possible that their relationship will
improve in the future.

I’m too disturbed by the fact that Germany
can’t drink beer legally because he’s underage. he’s 20. he became an adult a
few years ago. he literally killed a man in his sleep, but he can’t drink beer
yet / he’s just too mature for his age??? he’s still a bby boy???? he can still
grow a little at this age??? he’s so young???

He’s 20 physiologically but not chronologically and became
an adult decades ago. Drinking ages also vary from country to country.

I know there are a few occasions where nations
physiologically young are barred from drinking (Deleted strip:

America’s Brewster F2A Buffalo), but for
the most part, it doesn’t seem to matter [x].

If a nation ages, it’s usually a mesh between their
chronological age, and political, social, and economic developments.

Leaving a family reunion like…

Q & A

Thank you 😀

Most canon? I’m not sure
what you mean by that, but this is Okinawa’s character [x].

Do you think Czechoslovakia could be considered canon? I
mean, they were married and all and the split was called a divorce, so…

While it is hinted that they miss living with each
other, (i.e., Czechia not having Slovakia to hand her a towel when she takes a
shower and Slovakia realizing that Czechia makes better toast), as well as the
fact that they both get flustered and embarrassed whenever this topic arises,
they haven’t explicitly confirmed feelings for each other. Therefore, it’s not
canon [x].

Additionally something I’ve noticed, in the post where
America grumbles that England didn’t give him any chocolate: Not only was
America eating it in a gluttonous seeming manner to show England he didn’t
care, he had a whole bucket of it. That kind of ideology ‘if i have much more
of ___ then i can be happier and better than other people’ seems excessively
America-esque.

The strip [x]:

It is very much “America-esque!” It’s part of his
characterization. He hoards things in bulk due to being poor and not having had a
lot of possessions when he was younger—notice the link with the chocolate again! [x].

If you want to analyze this psychologically, he filled the void of his loneliness with material objects that would only fulfill him temporarily. It didn’t adress his lacking interpersonal life.

Is there a reason
for why a nation’s immortality can spread to other living beings?

Not that I can recall. My guess is that because time functions differently for them, an
invisible forcefield envelops around their body. Humans or pets that get close
to the nation and the different pace of this time forcefield for prolonged
periods of time subsequently causes them to experience time differently too.

I also forgot to mention something! We do have an instance
of a nation’s immortality rubbing off on a human: Howard the Spy from volume 3 [x].

Himaruya notes that while England took precautions not to spend
too much time with Howard, it’s possible that he may have lived and stayed
youthful longer than the average human [x].

Hey, do you remember the time where himaruya
promised that the story of chibitalia and holy rome will have a happy ending?
What do you think about that?

I’ve done a longer post on this, but I’m 90% sure that the
Chibitalia storyline mimics Disney’s version of Cinderella [x].

Making the unconfirmed assumption that Holy Rome is, in
fact, Germany, I think the big reveal is going to pan out with Germany finding
the old pair of panties that Chibitalia gave to Holy Rome as a parting gift [x].

Since objects in the manga have proven to trigger repressed
memories [x], I think that’s how Germany’s officially going to find out/ not
being able to deny anymore that he’s Holy Rome.

I mean, how else would they have a happy ending if Holy Rome isn’t alive?

Q & A

For those curious,
it’s 116 f or more up there. Yikes. I’ll take our 83 to 96 f later today. I
wanted to ask yesterday, but the ask box didn’t seem to
be connected to the server (at least that’s what it told). How do you think the
Republic of Ireland is related to the UK brothers? It’s not been stated they
are a sibling, or even a relative, so that makes me curious. Happy Canada Day
up there 🎆

[Thank you! The ask box situation has been fixed, but the
read more coding issue still hasn’t been resolved! I’m so sorry, but I can’t
always answer asks right away….]

Himaruya isn’t sure what to do with Ireland, so no relation
has been confirmed [x]. Thus far, we only know that England is the son of four
siblings, including Scotland, Wales, and Northern Ireland [x].

If I’m to speculate here, they could be siblings if Himaruya ever decides to elaborate on the
character. Aside from historical relations, geographic proximity is
occasionally used as a defining factor for sibling relationships.

Given that Northern Ireland is England’s sibling and was originally
partitioned from Ireland, I don’t think this is too much of a stretch. Things get even
more complicated when you see that Northern Ireland is listed as England’s older brother… what a can of worms, eh?

Do you happen to know why people say APH
England doesn’t know how to swim? I’m pretty sure that was a joke in the comic
strips, but everyone seems to consider it canon.

Like you said, it is a joke, stemming from how British
people in horror films have a tendency of not being able to swim. I know I’ve
talked about this before, but my opinion has since shifted. I personally wouldn’t
consider it to be canon given the context [x].

Which Hetalia character has the biggest amount of
ships/harem? Why is it that a lot of the characters can be shipped with everything?
(including fridges apparently).

(Fridges aren’t even the
brink of some of the madness in the fandom :P)

In my experience of
reading fanfiction, I would probably say England. He’s very versatile and fits
well in several dynamics. (e.g., FrUk, UsUk, AsaKiku, EngSey, EngBel, EngIta, and SpUk).

People have different tastes; of course it’s going to vary.

How do you think the Eastern European countries (Ukraine and
Hungary in particular) would interact with their Romas/Gypsies? What would
their relationships be like?

From what I can recall, there is no canon
depiction of this. It’s difficult to say due to the fact that citizenship in one country
doesn’t have meaning in their way of life.

However, given that the nations
represent all people within their territories, including those of different
ethnicities, race, religion, and class, Hungary and Ukraine would personally treat them the same way as they
would with any other citizen, even if they don’t possess citizenship. Citizenship
is a social construction. I believe what’s more important is the fact that
these people live in certain jurisdictions.

I know you said Luxembourg was referring to Belgium and
Netherlands as older siblings are terms of endearment rather than him being
biologically related but, do you think he could at least be related to Belgium
considering that a lot of his former land now belongs to Belgium and their countries
have close relations? (sorry for this being long.)

(Please don’t be sorry!)

The corroborating source
I mentioned in an earlier post [x].

The post [x].

It’s complicated because
as I mentioned before, the Bamboo Thicket post and the corresponding Hetarchive
page state two different things. The post is listed as a rough
translation, but the fact that Himaruya refers to Luxembourg using terms of
endearment instead of directly confirming a sibling relationship to Netherlands
and Belgium in the question is pretty clear.

I don’t know what else
to say. If it doesn’t claim that they’re biological siblings, then they’re not. I’m not a translator and don’t speak Japanese either. Still, what I would like to look into more is why that translation is cited
as rough…

Over the course of the series, I’ve
found several clever ways that Himaruya uses the nations physical bodies and
interactions to reflect wider historical, social, and political circumstances.

Political pressure and suppression:

Typically, I’ve noticed that the
use of physical force between a dominant and subordinate nation reflects
political pressure and suppression. Russia is a prime example of this. You’ll
often see him squeezing, bending, and pressing down on other nations—obliviously,
of course. Remember that he’s unaware of his cruelty [x].

Ex: I’ve speculated before that
the reason Latvia is so short is a symbolic representation of how he has been
politically marginalized and controlled for a significant part of his history [x].

In other words, he lacked the
independence and autonomy that would have allowed him to achieve growth and
flourish on his own. His growth was stunted by virtue of him being pushed down
into submission.

Latvia citing the reason for his
shortness as a result of Russia pushing down on his head, to me, acts as a
wider metaphor for political suppression.

Ex: Russia squeezes and hugs Czechia and Slovakia to end
their dispute over whether they should include a hyphen in their name. In this
context, the hug is Russia asserting pressure over not what he thinks should be
their name but rather what their name will be [x].

Ex: Russia hugs Bulgaria from behind [x].

Ex: In the strips depicting the Baltics path to independence
from the USSR, Russia squeezes Lithuania’s shoulders [x].

Conflicts:

Wars and battles can also be depicted in seemingly trivial
interactions between nations. The battles occur literally but are repeated figuratively
in these interactions.

Ex: To symbolize how France picked at the remains of some of
Austria’s lost territories after the War of Austrian Succession, France also
loots from Austria directly [x].

Servility and Class:

Different classes and social status are reflected in the
clothing that dominant and subordinate nations wear. Nations who are
conquered, annexed, or made to be under the control of another nation are
adorned in servants’/ maids’ clothing.

Ex: Chibitalia becomes a servant to Austria after being
conquered [x].