Note: This post
is making the assumption that Germany was reincarnated from Holy Rome. The rest
is all canon material.

All right! In canon, we know that reincarnation is possible.
The most obvious example would be Jeanne d’Arc and her American reincarnation,
Lisa.

What people often forget is that Hima explicitly states that
it’s possible for the nations to be reincarnated too.

In these panels, Hima makes it clear for us what a nation’s
existence and lifespan is like. They can last for really short or really long
periods of time and can be brought back by a sudden memory. More importantly, is
that nations can change their titles and ultimately, their personalities.

Following this logic, this would explain why Holy Rome and
Germany share some personality differences.

Where Germany is more clear-headed, rational,
and organized, Holy Rome is emotional and sensitive, irrational, impulsive, and
disorganized. I think Hima does this on purpose as a pun to contrast how at
first, Holy Rome was a disorganized collection of nation-states and then became more organized after unification and the subsequent formation of Germany.

Just to highlight this, I’ll go over some quick examples. We
see some of Holy Rome’s impulsiveness not only with his obsession and
compulsion in getting Chibitalia to live in his house, but also in his
interactions with other countries.

What immediately comes to mind for me is how Holy Rome built
an Italian home in England, without even considering how the architecture
wasn’t designed to endure the harsher English climate.

It would be unprecedented for Germany to pull off something
like that, as he’s always rationalizing and thinking things through enough
times to drive anyone crazy.

You see the organization pun come to life with Germany’s
love for schedules, manuals, and the scientific method. Overall, he’s a much
deeper and rational thinker than Holy Rome.

Further, with unity, comes a stronger sense of national
duty.

On the other hand, due to the fragmentation in his empire,
Holy Rome doesn’t seem to care what happens to it and is more focused on
chasing after Italy. He’s even scolded for neglecting his duties by
Switzerland. Tell me, have you ever seen Germany slack off?

That said, there are more similarities between them than
differences, and Hima sure loves to stress this all throughout the series. They
both share a love for the Italian culture and climate, are flustered easily,
love sweets, own dogs, have Prussia as on older brother, and…

there’s also the obvious fact that they look exactly alike.

Okay, if Germany was reincarnated from Holy Rome, how come their personalities are so different?

Again, this isn’t a theory and the answer can be found in the
strips. Either way, I don’t mind answering it in a little more depth. Post coming up soon!

Before, I’ve speculated that the reason Italy has his eyes
closed is that he doesn’t see the truth of the world. First, he was sheltered
by the protection his grandfather provided for him and didn’t realize how
brutal the world truly was.

Then, I argued that after the traumas of being conquered and
losing Holy Rome, Italy kept his eyes shut as a conscious decision. In other
words, he refused to see the truth around him.

Following said logic, this would explain why Italy rarely
opens his eyes in front of Germany. Perhaps this is him not wanting to
acknowledge his uncanny appearance to Holy Rome. He may even realize that
Germany is connected to Holy Rome in some way or another, but chooses to ignore
it, sparing himself from the painful reminder of his first true love.

However, that’s not what I want to talk about in this post.
What I do want to talk about is that the Italy we know and love is hinted at
hiding another side of himself…a scary one too.

In the Christmas 2011 event, Italy is requested to keep his
eyes open for a long period of time. Italy’s shocked response prompts Germany
to comment that it can’t be that difficult for him to do so.

What I find suspicious is that Italy conveniently falls
asleep in the following panel, almost as if he doesn’t want to open his eyes.
Given the context, it also wouldn’t make sense for him to fall asleep during Christmas,
as he’s known to love being around people and adores any kind of festivities.
This is completely out of character for him.

Even stranger is that when Italy does open his eyes, he
later remarks that it’s best if he keeps them closed. Okay…

So, what about this side of himself he’s hiding? Well,
there’s one strip that disturbs me every time I think about it, that being
“Mind-reading Binoculars.”

Here, Japan invents binoculars that reveal what
people are thinking. After pointing it at Italy, Japan doesn’t believe what he
sees and concludes that the binoculars are defective. On the contrary, I think
this was purposefully done and that they do in fact work properly.

Scary, right? And yet, it also makes sense for Italy to
possess such a dark side (rather than his excessively cheerful, albeit insecure
one) to him given how brutal his history has been. Once again, we return to
this motif of truth and hidden secrets. Hima’s definitely going somewhere with
this…but…

Would you believe it if I said he’s been planning this other
side of Italy right from the very start?

When Germany first meets Italy, Italy is hiding in an empty
tomato crate and pretends to be a fairy. Germany’s word choice is quite eerie
in this particular scene.

I’m sorry, but “show your true self” (?!). Why so
specific? That is, unless the word “true” has an alternate meaning in terms of
Italy hiding parts of himself.

If so, that’s quite possibly the most brilliant
foreshadowing I’ve ever seen.

I’ve also noticed that when Italy opens both
eyes, it functions as him reassuring someone and/or telling them the truth of
his intentions/ actions. Roughly speaking, it’s comparable to Pinnochio…
Pin-eye-chio… Nah, it doesn’t have quite the same ring to it.

Back to the Christmas Event, this also might explain why
Germany immediately covers Italy’s face once he opens his eyes. How I see it is
that it symbolizes how Germany may indeed know about the truth of his past, but
decides to cover it up and ignore it as opposed to confronting it.

Anyways, every time Italy tells the truth, his eyes open.
So, is he living a lie then? I really do think Hima’s going somewhere with
this, and encourage all of you to look at any examples where Italy opens both eyes.

Any more stuff or hints about Holy Rome? Your blog is the best at explanations !

Oh my. You guys really like this stuff, huh? Okay! More hints that Germany = Holy Rome coming right up!

I wonder how was chibitalia’s life after Ancient Rome died and before the Italian Wars. After that, he lived with Austria, Hungary and HRE. I think that the first scene of chibitalia in APH episode 2 was a reference of when the Frankish Kingdom divided in 3 parts after Treaty of Verdun.

Since
it’s unclear when Ancient Rome died, as we don’t know whether he personifies
the Byzantine empire or not, it’s hard to say how Italy’s life was afterwards.

As for your second point: that
seems about right. Basically, in very generic terms, the Treaty of Verdun (843)
broke up the Carolingian empire.

When Louis the Pious died – son
of Charlemagne – his sons began fighting for his inheritance. One son, Charles
the Bald received the Kingdom of the West Franks (France). Louis the
German received the East Franks (Germany),
and Lothair – who kept the title of Holy Roman Emperor – gained the middle
strip which included the Papal States (part of Italy) and Lorraine (part of France).
In short, it created rough boundaries that would later develop into France and
Germany, but not quite Italy yet, as it still consisted of several smaller
states at the time.

Let’s tie this back to Hetalia.
I’m pretty sure the scene you’re referring to is when Austria, Spain, Holy
Rome, and France are kicking around Chibitalia (and Romano) like they’re soccer
balls, right? This can be seen as the brothers fighting for inheritance/
dominance over the land, despite none of them receiving Venice right away,
which I’ll get into in a second. I should also mention why Spain and Austria were
there: Spain was part of the house of Hapsburg, and Austria pretty much
controlled the Holy Roman empire.

Anyways,
Venice (Italy Veneziano) was a politically independent state at the time of the
treaty. Eventually, Austria succeeded in acquiring Chibitalia. Holy Rome’s
obsession with Chibitalia has a lot to do with the fact that despite
controlling Italian territory, Venice wasn’t under his jurisdiction until
Austria assumed control over Chibitalia.

Thank you for sharing your
thoughts 🙂 Given the history, your theory is very well
supported. I definitely believe it!