What’s your favourite insult that Romano’s ever used?

He once called the mafia evil muffins. [x]

All right! Just a quick disclaimer, unlike many headcanons I’ve seen, the Italy brothers don’t work for/ run the mafia. It’s a serious problem in the country.

If anything, the Italy brothers are routinely stolen from. Or, in Romano’s case, he’s sometimes forced to do things that he doesn’t want to do.

Guide on the Italian mafia in the series coming up tonight!

Without exaggerating
and as I’ve proven in other posts, the nations suffer from a lot of things; to
name a few, anxiety, depression, and PTSD. One thing that they don’t have and
have never suffered from is Stockholm Syndrome.

Of course, the whole unequal power dynamic between the conquered country and
their conqueror makes for an unhealthy relationship, no doubt. However, it’s
within these relations, problematic as they may be, that the conquered
countries are able to form better personal relationships with their ruling
country.

What needs to be
differentiated here is that the nations have a persona as well as a person. Put
another way, they relate to each other both politically and on a personal
level. This is why you’ll see nations fight over one seeking to obtain sovereignty
and yet still attempt to befriend each other despite their hostile political
relations.

Ex: America wanting
to visit a sick England after the American Revolution.

Regardless if the
nation is conquered and ruled over, what I’ll argue is that they’re still able to
exercise agency and free will. Not only that, but they don’t wholeheartedly
comply, have their own opinions, and their survival is never threatened should
they oppose their ruling nation. It’s for this reason that Stockholm Syndrome
doesn’t compare to what we see in Hetalia.

There are many
problems with the characterization in these earlier strips [x]. Stockholm Syndrome
isn’t one of them.

What is Stockholm Syndrome?:

Stockholm Syndrome
occurs when a hostage forms an emotional bond with their captor. This, in turn,
is at first a survival response that eventually becomes internalized and warped
into an unhealthy attachment. [x]

The victim’s response
occurs in four stages; shock, denial, traumatic depression and recrimination,
and resolution and integration.

The shock stage
occurs when the victim realizes that their life is in danger. On a surface
level, their behaviour appears to be cooperative and friendly when they abide
by their captor. In reality, they’re only trying to stay alive.

The denial stage occurs
as this cooperative rationality further moulds itself into the victim’s
thinking. The victim minimizes and dismisses the abuse committed by their
captor as they spend more time with them.

The traumatic
depression and recrimination stage occurs when the victim begins to see their
captor more and more as a provider. This is called traumatic infantilism, which
entails the victim’s becoming increasingly compliant, obedient, submissive, and
more sympathetic toward their captor. It’s a survival tactic whereby children
are engrained to cling to their caregivers for protection.

The last stage, resolution
and integration, occurs when the victim loses their agency [identity] and
identifies with their captor. In their eyes, their captor gives them life. This
is especially in cases where the victim’s life is saved by the captor.

The attachment grows
so strong that being released from their captor is now seen as the danger
rather than being with them. Again, it’s like a child being separated from
their parent. The trauma causes the victim to develop an infantized mentality. They cling to the figure with the most power, someone who can offer the most protection.

That said, let’s tie
this back to the strips.

Why Italy didn’t have Stockholme Syndrome:

Don’t get me wrong.

The trauma that both
Italy brothers went through in being conquered and fought over by other
countries is not healthy at all.

Holy Rome attempting
to drag Chibitalia against his will is not healthy.

Austria’s harsh
punishments of Chibitalia are not healthy.

Despite all this,
Chibitalia does not have Stockholm Syndrome.

I’ve said this
before, but a lot of the older characterizations of the nations are cruder,
more exaggerated, and not up to par as they are now. Hima’s grown as a
content creator, and it’s important to recognize that.

I acknowledge the
problems of these earlier storylines. All I’m aiming to do is prove that
Chibitalia isn’t a victim of Stockholm Syndrome.

Chibitalia’s life isn’t
ever in danger, unlike a victim of Stockholm Syndrome. Although, he is
a hostage in that he has no choice but to live in Austria’s house.

It’s bullying that
Chibitalia fears, not a fear for his life.

The boss and house
system that the series depicts involves the conquered nations acting as a
servant to the ruling nation.

Despite this power differential, they live together and have been seen
to treat each other as family members.

Chibitalia still
exercises agency and opposes Austria and Holy Rome on several occasions.

If Chibitalia’s life
was truly in danger, he wouldn’t have drawn a mustache on Austria’s portrait.

Nor would he have painted,
dressed up in costumes, or spent more time with Holy Rome than he absolutely
had to. Politics and nationhood personas aside, they’re people living in one
house, dysfunctional as the reason that brought them all together was.

Not to mention that
Chibitalia refuses to form an empire with Holy Rome.

However little power that
he had, Chibitalia wasn’t wholeheartedly complying to demands in order to
survive. He didn’t sympathize or adopt Holy Rome/ Austria’s perspective as his
own. Instead, he maintained his individuality and held firm on his opinions.

If anything, Holy
Rome learns from Chibitalia and apologizes for all that he’s done before he leaves for war.

Admittedly, there is
one moment where Italy is taken hostage by Spain in the Maria Theresa Series. When given a choice between
the two, Italy chooses to stay with Austria. This is the closest that we come
to an aspect of Stockholm Syndrome, and yet, it’s distinctly not the same.

Just imagine it.
Italy loses his grandfather, his security blanket and protector, and is living in
a new house with big, scary adult nations. Eventually, they warm up to them and
he grows accustomed to the new niche he’s found. Being conquered and having to
move again would disrupt that environment – his comfort zone.

That’s why I believe
that Italy chose Austria. It didn’t have to do with survival. Spain would have
taken good care of him, probably even better than Austria in terms of emotional availbility. Italy
simply wanted to stick with what he was familiar with, with those whom he had
formed a close personal bond.

It’s also important to mention that Italy is still a child in this strip. He’s
terrified and respectively clings to Austria because that’s who he’s been
raised by ever since Rome’s passing.

Lastly, when he’s not
forced to choose between who he’s ruled by, Italy doesn’t perceive his freedom
from Austria to be dangerous, as would someone with Stockholm Syndrome. He
zealously fights for his autonomy.

In sum, while many
aspects of the older strips are questionable and problematic, applying a label as severe as
Stockholm Syndrome is not warranted. It actually detracts from the discussion
acknowledging how the series has evolved for the better…

There’s nothing wrong with
acknowledging past mishaps of a content creator if they’ve already proven to
have learned from these mistakes.

Are you mad? That would involve pulling up every strip he’s in…

You know where the nations are sometimes shown to be working regular jobs, like America working as a model for hair products? What’s your favourite one?

Romano, the exorcist. [x]

This is a lot to unpack, but, to put it briefly for now,
Chibitalia/ Italy does NOT have Stockholm Syndrome. If you research the
definition and the respective components required for it, the situation with Holy
Rome and Austria doesn’t even come close to fitting it.

Yes, there are some
very unhealthy aspects regarding the power dynamic of being conquered and
forced to live under someone else’s roof. I’ll go into more depth of that later. Still,
while Italy may have bonded with Austria and Holy Rome, none of it comes from a
need for survival.

Not only that, but Italy opposed Austria and Holy Rome’s viewpoints
on several occasions rather than wholeheartedly agreeing with them. Stockholm
Syndrome involves no agency on the part of the victim. Italy, on the other
hand, exercised his own agency and independence regardless of how restrained
his freedom was.

This disorder isn’t something to be applied as lightly and
easily as it has been in the fandom. It lends the series a lot of unnecessary
bad rep.

Anyways, post on young Italy’s home environment coming up
tonight.

Anon 1: Well, I’m not going to get into the messiness of the politics, but we do see Hungary messing with France diplomatically when it comes to her wine.

On what you mentioned, we actually have a brief hint of corruption in the EU. Hima touches on the conspiracy that Germany knew letting Greece into the EU would cause the economy to crash.

France also refers to Germany as his #1 partner in the EU.

Which Disney princess is Hungary?: Those are all good choices for Disney princesses! My addition would be Mulan. She’s not technically a princess, but she’s franchised as such 🙂

@petri-choir

I disagree. Here’s why.

We already know from canon that Hungary has a complex over settling down and letting her fighting skills get rusty. [x]

As a previous hunting tribe, for her to say that she has no interest in hunting is clearly tough on her, not to mention a contradiction if we compare this to the above piece of canon information.

Notice how Prussia expresses confusion at her “Girly get-up.” They used to go hunting together. The look on her face doesn’t come across as annoyance to me. Prussia’s egging her on, but she doesn’t snap like she usually would.

Instead, her expression seems more stuck than anything. She wants to hunt but can’t if she’s to fulfill her new role at Austria’s house.

I say this because Hungary’s known to have a short temper with Prussia given their rough history together.

This is what Hungary looks like when she’s annoyed with him.

Here’s a side-by-side comparison…

First of all, welcome! 🙂

Uhh.. this is just from the top of my head. We have many talented people.

@alfredtalia @rosentraume @tudiodeen @artokaie @captainjellyroll @kyuhu

@amooki @ask-gerita

Anon 1: Hmmm. I’m a mix. I’m Lithuania in the sense that I’m a soft-spoken pushover. I don’t like relying on others, but ironically have trouble saying no to people. I’ll go out of my way to help them, often at my own expense. I don’t like to disappoint.

I’ve grown pretty patient over the last two years, but I used to have a temperament comparable to England or Romano. They still come out sometimes if someone pisses me off enough. That’s when the heads start turning, considering how small I am. I can have a pretty bad potty mouth if I don’t watch it.

I’m also a bit of a Germany in the sense that I’m anal with my schedule. I keep an agenda detailing when I work-out, write, eat, etc. I tend to overshoot with what I want to accomplish in a day.

Anon 2: You’re very welcome, and oh! If you ever feel like it, do share with us when you do publish your fics!

Anon 3: I KID YOU NOT, I was fudging around with my school’s research data base one time and decided to search up anime. I found an article on tsundere’s and they also used Germany as an example

😂

@super-realistic-fiction Wow! Thank you so much! I’m so glad that you get enjoyment from it!

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 (e.g., erogenous zones, childhood 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.

Terms I’ll go over: Psychosexual stages of development, Causality, Oedipus
Complex, Electra Complex, Penis Envy, Castration Anxiety.

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 the purposes of this
post, I only need to talk about the phallic stage of development.

The phallic stage occurs
between 3-4 until 6-7 years of age. This stage involves the awakening of sexual
desires. However, I cannot stress this enough that the sexual desires are
autoerotic, meaning that the child does not derive any sexual pleasure or
stimulation.

Basically, the child merely
becomes aware of the fact that their genitalia differentiates them physiologically.
This would involve them developing a curiosity of their genitalia given that
they’ve gained a newfound awareness of it.

Another tenet of the stage
involves the child being unconsciously attracted – again, not sexually – to their opposite-sex parent and developing a
hostility toward their same-sex parent.

For example, it’s common for
little boys to claim that they want to marry their mothers when they’re older. The
love isn’t sexual, at all. It’s predicated on the child wanting to be closer to
their opposite-sex parent.

If anything, the stage
involves a perceived competition between the child and their same-sex parent
for the attention of the opposite-sex parent. Put another way, a little boy
would perceive his father as a barrier to receiving his mother’s full love and
affection and would thus develop a hostility toward the father.

It’s all unconscious. The child
doesn’t realize why they feel this way, but they do. Another example of this
would be children hopping into bed with their parents. They unconsciously split
up the parents without realizing the meaning behind their actions.

Boys develop an Oedipus Complex,
which involves them desiring to possess their mothers and replace their
fathers.

Girls develop an Electra
Complex, which involves them desiring to possess their fathers and replace
their mothers.

For this hostility/ stage to
be resolved, the child must learn to identify with their same-sex parent.

If this hostility/ stage goes
unresolved, however, the child can develop another complex depending on their
perceived gender.

Boys develop castration
anxiety, a fear of losing their penis resulting from the jealousy and
competitiveness they feel toward their father.

Just to unpack that a little,
Freud’s theories are allegorical. The child doesn’t actually fear losing their
penis. What they do fear is losing the power associated with it. That said, it’s
critical to situate the context in which Freud came up with these theories.

A little boy perceives his
father in the family to be the most powerful figure – that’s because at the
time, society was strictly patriarchal. Those with power at the time had penises;
male genitalia and power are unconsciously equated together. In competing for
his mother’s affection, the little boy wants to overthrow the father’s power in
the family dynamic.

If the Oedipus Complex goes
unresolved, and the male child fails to identify – form an alliance – with their
father, then they perceive this competition to be lost. As such, they lose
power.

Castration Anxiety at its
core has to do with the male child perceiving themselves to have lost against
their father as opposed to forming a bond with them.

On the other hand, girls who
fail to form an alliance with their mothers develop feelings of Penis [power] Envy.
They are unhappy with the lack of power they have and don’t identify with their
mothers and their respective social position.

Where Hungary Fits Into This:

Hungary’s tricky, because she
originally didn’t identify as a girl. She thought she was a boy for centuries
and therefore identified as such. Regardless, what you’ll see with Hima is that
he purposefully makes references to Hungary’s confusion over her genitalia.
That’s what really locks her into this stage of development.

Castration Anxiety:

To begin with, Hungary was
raised as a man by Magyar. He taught her how to fight.

That’s why, when she loses to
Turkey on several occasions, she questions whether she’s strong enough. Her
strength is seen as a sign of manhood. This would be her experience of
castration anxiety… of losing power and being weak.

Power Envy:

The penis envy complex with
Hungary doesn’t develop right away. She [He] identified with her same-sex
parent without any problem despite the fact that she lacked a mother figure. Point
is, Hungary, as a boy, identified with Magyar, the father-figure.

The complex develops as
Hungary slowly begins to realize that she’s different physiologically from
other boys.

She develops chest pains but
is quick to wave this off. (Her breasts are growing, but she doesn’t realize this.)

The differentiation stage
begins when Hungary mistakenly tells Prussia that men grow penises when they’re
older.

Prussia, of course, tells her that that’s not how the male genitalia
works.

What’s important here is that
Hungary’s conceptions are beginning to shift, even if she doesn’t believe it
right away.

Right before she settles down
in Austria’s house is the last that we see of her dismissing her physiological differences. Prussia’s reaction to her exposed chest as he fixes her injuries is what does it for her.

It’s tentative, but she still recognizes her physiological difference.

One joke in particular from this scene is
important, silly as the surface of it may be. Prussia offers to treat Hungary’s injuries by ripping off his crotch cloth.

The symbolism of this is that by refusing the crotch cloth, Hungary’s embraced her womanhood.

I don’t think Hima did this
for strictly comical purposes.

Not to mention that one of
her character notes explicitly states that she developed a complex over
worrying about her fighting skills getting rusty after settling down. [x]