Me: I can run on three hours of sleep

*the next morning*

Also me:

I don’t know if this is insensitive but due to recent tensions would America get racist thoughts in his head and have to fight against them?

Asfklkdvgsfg no!!!!

The nations are representations of their people, ALL of
them. It’s not in their nature to discriminate against one particular group of
their population, even if their government has/ continues to do so in the
present.

Simply put, the nations represent their people. The irony
and complexity of the series is that by being forced to work for their
government [a populational minority], the nations may not serve their peoples’
best interest. Post on that here [x].

If anything, in canon, these tensions would cause America’s health to decline. If it’s serious enough, he would also feel pain. In canon, the stability of a nation’s politics affects the personification’s health. If their political affairs aren’t stable – e.g., there’s a large political divide and tensions are high – then the personification will become unwell [x].

Anyways, this strip is so important. I can’t stress it
enough [x].

Do you have any hetalia headcanons for any characters? You’re always pointing out canon facts(thank you so much for that, btw), and it would be cool to see your own ideas and impressions on the characters :D

I’m not particularly big on headcanons, but I sometimes do charts like this 😀

Most insecure nations

–

America, Canada, England, Germany, Italy,
Romano, and Poland.

Loneliest nations

–

America, England, Iceland, Prussia, and Russia.

Happiest nations

–

Denmark, Finland, Seychelles, and Sweden.

Most sarcastic nations

–

England, France, Norway, and Romano.

Nations we need more of

–

Belgium, Belarus, India, and Vietnam.

Do you think that America is still afraid to be alone?

I did a post on that here! [x].

There’s also this example, where America asks Japan to sleep with him after they watch a horror movie together

– he’s terrified of ghosts and doesn’t want to be alone.

Japan bolting away is one of the most iconic moments in the manga [x].

Not much is known about
this phenomenon, especially since most of the coverage of these events are
glossed/ skipped over. On the other hand, there are some things that I can potentially
clarify and shed light on.

First, let’s go over
some examples.

America:

We get a brief – albeit shallow
–depiction of America’s Civil War in chapter 211 of World Stars. No insight is
given, other than the fact that America is visibly distressed [x].

Spain:

We get two strips that
cover Spain’s Civil War.

One involves Romano
getting mad at Spain for not participating in WW2. Romano had fought in the Spanish
Civil War and got shot in the butt during the conflict. Meanwhile, Spain is too
poor to give a significant contribution to the war effort [x].

Another strip involves
Romano calling Spain after he and Veneziano were taken as prisoners of war by
England. Spain explains that he can’t bail the two out because he was too busy
making roses. This seems to occur at the end of the Spanish
Civil War [x].

Russia:

We get a brief look at
Russia’s title change from Russia to the USSR in this panel here. It’s from one of
the first original webcomics [x].

Unpacking this information:

It’s a common headcanon
that during civil wars, a separate personification develops. For example, the
US Confederates would have developed their own personification.

While this hasn’t been
shown, rules in canon can potentially support this.

In chapter 1 of World
Stars, it’s stated that personifications can exist for as little as a few days
to several centuries – or millennia if you consider the Ancients, China, Japan,
and Turkey [x].

There’s also the
hypothetical example where Canada dreams of Quebec becoming an actual country [x]. What’s important is that the new nation is born after the secession is
legally recognized, thus differentiating the situation from the American Civil
War.

Something that’s always
puzzled me about this scene is its ambiguity. When Canada states “anything but
Montreal” it could easily be interpreted as Montreal – as a municipal personification
– evolving to represent Quebec as a nation. Given that states and Japanese
prefectures are personified, it’s not far-fetched for a city to be personified
as well. We just haven’t seen this yet in canon.

On the other hand, we
also know from the above panel that personifications can change their personalities
as a result of a title change.

In that case, when two gov’ts fight for power in
a civil war, there isn’t a need for a second personification except in the case
where two legitimate states form. The end result is that if a new gov’t assumes
power and changes the name of the country, the personification can undergo a
personality change.

That said, since very little information is known about civil wars in Hetalia, it’s difficult to draw anything conclusive about them.

Q & A

Q: Why are there so many cats? Like not just Nekotalia, but all
the random cats everywhere. Is there some deep meaning to them or does Hima
just really like cats?

A: He just really likes cats lol.

Q: Absolutely no idea if you touched on this
topic before. But do you have a theory on why there is an Ancient Greece and
Egypt and current Greece and Egypt. If it’s because of cultural difference,
shouldn’t other nations be in a similar situation? A example could be the
Nordics. I don’t know, I just thought it was curious. (By the way, huge fan!)

A: I haven’t, no worries! Anyways, it’s simpler
than you think. They perished because the culture and organization of people they represented was
taken over and replaced. In this case, they were conquered by Rome. Greece and
Egypt represent the inherited relics of their mothers’ cultures. It’s all in the name, really. Ex: Ancient Greece represented Ancient Greek civilization.

As for the
Nordics, I can see where you’re coming from. However, so far, no Scandinavian
Ancient has been created. It would make perfect sense, though.

Q: For South Korea’s and Seychelles’ profiles
it mentions that korea likes studying abroad and Seychelles is a model student
. Does that mean some nations go to school or college ?

A: As stated in one of South Korea’s character
notes, it is possible for them to attend school on their own volition [x].

What people often confuse and take literally is
the World Academy. It’s an AU within canon. It’s not a legitimate school that
the nations attend.

Lastly, when nations are referred to as model/honour
students, it’s most often a figure of speech. For example, because Finland is
so successful in the EU, he’s referred to as an honour student [x].

In Seychelles’ case, she’s an honour student in
Africa in the sense that she’s economically successful in her tourism and
fishing industries. She’s better off in comparison to other African nations.

Q: You know how Norway and Iceland knew they were
brothers and could sense each other’s presence. And how Iceland could feel 🇸🇨(sorry I forgot how to spell her
name) relating to him. Can all countries do this? Can they also feel their
fates a-line with other countries who they end up in “marriages” with? Do you
know the answer or have hypothesis for this?

A: *Seychelles.

There’s no canon evidence about the marriage part,
but…

Nations can sense each other and distinguish
themselves from humans.

Ex: Colonizing nations knew that America was one of
them [x].

Ex: When he’s born, Iceland instinctively knows that
he’s not human [x].

Q: Where can I find a list of the human names?

A: I try to be patient with this question, I
really do, but google is your friend!

All you
have to do is search up a Hetalia country and a Hetarchive Wiki page pops up in the first
few results. The mods at Hetarchive have put a lot of time and effort to make a ton of information about the characters accessible. Don’t let their years
of hard work be in vain.

That said, the original post including the
nations’ human names was taken down from Kitayume, so some people don’t take
them as canon.

To make things easier, there’s this page here
with character profiles should you want to look up their human names
[x].

They’re all massive nerds when it comes to
Japanese culture/ anime. Not all of these attempts are successful either.

France:

America:

England:

Canada:

Bonus:

When your OTP hits you just right.

The Rules:

Before, I used to dismiss the idea of time travel in
Hetalia. Looking back, I can see that this limited my understanding of several
bizarre and inexplicable occurrences in the manga.

In a fictional series
where the nations are immortal, being referred to as “strange” and “odd”
beings, it’s honestly not that far-fetched to consider that they’re capable of
time travel.

This is especially true given the facts that…

1) Time is experienced differently by the nations.

Ex: Canada spends an entire weekend staring at Kumajiro’s
eyelashes. It passes by without him realizing this [x].

Ex: If a human were to spend enough time around a nation,
their perception of time would become so warped that they’d go mad.

Ex: Pets don’t go mad when they’re around their nation
owners. Instead, their lifespans increase. Should they separate from the
nation, however, they would become normal pets again and resume aging [x].

2) Some nations are capable of magic,
fortune-telling, clairvoyance and other supernatural abilities.

Ex: England’s and Romania’s ability to cast spells.

Ex: Japan’s powers of clairvoyance and mind-reading [x]– I’ll
get back to this later.

Evidence of time travel in Hetalia is either extremely
subtle or so right in your face that it’s easy to overlook.

Could it be that the pets don’t age because the nations are beings that are able to transcend space and time? In other
words, what if time is bent around the nations, which, in turn, causes their
pets not to age?

They’re timeless beings in that they’re immortal. While they
do age, it’s very incremental. They still remain youthful, likely because time
is slowed for them. In that case, the reason that the pets won’t go mad by
being around a nation is that they don’t perceive time the same way that humans
are able to.

Are the nations able to time travel then?

Evidence from the manga suggests that they’re indeed able
to.

Let’s go over some of these examples.

Bizarre and Casual Anachronisms:

If you factor in time travel, this would explain the sudden
appearance of anachronisms when you least expect it. I used to think that these
were silly comic gags. My opinion has since changed.

Ex: When America pulls out a computer to google where
Germany is in 1942, England isn’t surprised. Instead, he’s able to pinpoint
exactly how far into the future the model is and reprimands America for showing
off.

Ex: Why is it that during the 18^th century, Japan
appears to be listening to music…with earbuds? [x].

Ex: The Roman Emperor Nero is once depicted to be playing an
acoustic guitar.

They’re aware that it’s an
anachronism. Perhaps either Rome or Quintillus – another Roman Emperor who’s
canonically able to time travel – brought that there. I’ll get back to
Quintillus in a moment.

Japan’s Powers of Clairvoyance:

As mentioned above, Japan has been shown to be able to read
minds, see into the future, and establish contact with others without having
ever met them in person before.

Ex: Japan demonstrates his clairvoyant powers during the
Meiji Era. The fourth wall is broken as the scene pans in on
Himaruya scrambling to finish a comic.

Ex: When Japan first becomes acquainted with the Italy
brothers, they’re put off by how silent and reserved he is. Japan later admits
that he’s not used to speaking out loud with those whom he’s read the minds of [x].

If anything, this alludes to the fact that Italy and Japan
have technically met before.

Notice the title of the strip too. “A melody that transcends
history and reaches you…”

Japan’s ESP Contact with Italy + Dream Sequences:

After falling into bed with Holy Rome, Chibitalia has a
strange dream where he encounters a presumably divine being that leads him to –
yes, Japan. This confirms what Japan claims in World Stars. He did, in fact,
read the mind of Italy and communicated with him far before they formed their
alliance in WW2 [x].

That’s not it, either.

Italy in adulthood has a ‘unpleasant dream’ of a child that looks
exactly like him pressing to be acknowledged [x] [x].

How I’ve interpreted this before is that it symbolically
represents Italy’s unconscious mind repressing memories from his childhood. Put
another way, he’s refusing to remember – acknowledge – bits of his past.

Taken literally, this could also mean that Italy’s child
self is transcending time and space to get him to remember his past.

Or, what about this scene? Italy encounters his child self, recognizes this, and feels ashamed for
lying about how [not] strong he’s become [x].

Germany also appears to have these strange encounters with chibis.

Ex: In the same strip, a child that looks
exactly like Germany/ Holy Rome presses to be acknowledged as well [x].

Ex: Germany’s once shown to be holding up Chibitalia.

“It’s me!”

What if this is Chibitalia traveling into the future
to get Germany to remember about his past as Holy Rome? At the same time, it could symbolically represent childhood memory repression. Of course, this is all making the assumption that Germany is, in fact, Holy Rome.

Quintillus:

Most obvious of all is that there’s a real character in the series
who’s physically able to time travel.

The play on Quintillus’ time-traveling abilities is that
because historical records about him are shifty, his timeline leaps back and forth.
Himaruya took this, made it literal, and gave Quintillus time-traveling powers [x].

Ex: We see Quintillus visit Germany in modern times making
sure that the latter’s research and re-writing of Roman history are accurate [x].

With all the evidence I presented, I truly do believe that
the nations are able to time travel. It’s not just limited to their ability to
slow time for those around them. They seem to be able to manipulate it too, being able to disappear on
a whim…