Ex: During the Second Industrial
Revolution, Italy breaks down crying when England asks him for help, citing
that it had been a long time since someone had last trusted him. At the time,
he had just unified with Romano, so their relations were even rockier than they
are now.
Fear of being useless and
unwanted, abandonment–
Ex: When Germany makes an
alliance with Russia, Italy gets anxious and suffers from a nightmare. He imagines that his allies, Germany and Japan, want nothing to do with him.
Ex: He makes Germany reassure
him several times that he’s not hated.
Discontentment with looks–
Ex: Italy panics when he gains
weight. Germany has to reassure him by drawing up a poll that confirms that it’s okay for handsome Italian men to have a bit of stomach.
Ex: He worries that he’s not
macho enough.
Prussia:
Fear of being alone + single–
Ex: He never married.
As such, no matter how much he
tries to convince himself that he likes being alone, the fact that he cries
when he sees Austria and Hungary on Christmas proves otherwise.
Fear of being weak + inferior–
Prussia’s life cycle is full
of peak and weak moments.
When he’s weak, he’s meek and
down in spirits.
When he has power, he becomes
cocky and will degrade others to make himself feel better.
Romano:
Inferiority over being
compared to his brother–
Russia:
Fear of being alone +
inability to make friends–
Ex: He’s put-off by America’s ability to make friends.
Ex: He grows disheartened
when many nations are unable/ choose not to visit him during the New Years’ break. A blizzard plays a part in this too.
Ex: He’ll call anyone his
friend, even General Winter who abuses and attacks him on an annual basis.
Ukraine:
Discontentment over looks–
She doesn’t like her big
chest. One strip in Volume 2 is literally titled:
“I Hate my Big Boobs!”
Ex: During the 2013-2014 Halloween
Event, others point out that her costume is too tight and restraining. (It’s to prevent
them from bouncing).
When other nations point this out, she grows uncomfortable and tells them not to mention it.
That said, you can’t say that
these characters don’t have their flaws or complexes, hardly any of which that
you see depicted in the anime. So no, Hetalia isn’t simple. The fandom didn’t
make it any deeper than what it already was.
*plans to manage time well*
*ends up leaving it to the last minute anyway*
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 🙂
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…
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]
Ex: A lot of this stems from the
fact that she first existed as an equestrian tribe and used to hunt with a bow
and arrow.
Under Austria’s rule, notice how
conflicted she is when she says that she has “no interest in hunting.”
Nevertheless, this shouldn’t be
any reason for worry considering that Hungary’s also noted to be one of the manliest
characters in the comic…
…and for a damn good reason
too.
Hungary: I’m not the pettier one, you are.
Prussia: *scoffs*
There’s a profound lack of clarity when it comes to Germany’s
knowledge of the past, including his own. That said, let’s go over a brief
run-down of what we know that he knows.
Knowledge of his
Past/ Ancestors + Fabrications:
Prussia is the one that tells Germany all about his past.
What makes lots of people, including me, believe that Prussia is hiding Germany’s
unconfirmed past as Holy Rome is that the stories he tells Germany are
inaccurate. He’s an unreliable story-teller.
In this case, the stories have to do with Prussia’s own past, as he lies about how “cool” or “rugged” he used to be. Germany’s understanding of what Prussia used to be is very different from reality.
Regardless, Japan is the one who gives us the best insight on this, as
he’s able to pick up on the fact that Germany believes everything that he’s
told about the past.
On the other hand, what’s strange is in another strip where
Prussia begins telling Germany about his past, Germany is completely
uninterested. He’s more focused on chores than he is on his own genealogy.
There is no explicit discussion of Germany’s relation to
Germania either. It mostly focuses on his older brothers – the German states.
However, despite the inconsistencies in Germania’s relation
to Germany, recent strips claim that Germany is his son. Again, what I find
strange is that Germany doesn’t inquire about his past far enough to at least
know about Germania.
He knows about Rome and even encounters the latter when he
visits down from Heaven and yet there’s no interaction/ discussion of Germania.
I’m of the mindset that Hima’s left things unclear and
undetailed on purpose. That way, he has more leeway to work with if he wants to
confirm in later chapters that Germany is, in fact, Holy Rome. Please remember
that this is all theory, none of this is confirmed.
Research:
Despite all this, Germany has been shown on several
occasions to possess knowledge about the past, full of holes and vague as it
may be when we do see this depicted.
He does a lot of research for someone that seems to be
uninterested in his past.
Ex: He has a deep interest in Roman culture and history.
Ex: He’s conducted research in fixing historical records of Ancient Rome to make the narratives more accurate.
Ex: He once referenced the Dancing Conference, which occurred
right after the Napoleonic Wars. The point to emphasize here is that Holy Rome
was dissolved because of Napoleon.
If he has knowledge
about this figure, it inevitably means that he’s aware of the Holy Roman
Empire (duh). Likewise, historically, he would have to given what the Third Reich was
predicated on reviving…
Lastly, what’s interesting is that despite his knowledge of
Roman History, Germany doesn’t know much about Italy’s past.
Ex: He does his initial research in finding out that Italy
is a descendant of Rome.
However, in modern strips, he’s surprised to find out that
Chibitalia was able to ward off the Ottoman Empire on his own. He’s so used to
seeing Italy as a ‘hetare’ that he can’t imagine him in any other way.
Has Germany Recovered Memories of His Past?
There are two theories that I have in making the assumption
that a) Germany is an amnesiac Holy Rome, and b) he’s gaining his memories.
One position I take is that Germany has already recovered
his memories of Holy Rome but refuses to acknowledge the past and doesn’t tell
anyone about this. This would explain his lack of interest when Prussia brings
up their past. He already knows but doesn’t want to confront it.
This is well substantiated given that Germany has a strong
belief in data, and doesn’t believe in the supernatural. Even though Holy Rome
didn’t die right after dissolution, the fact that he didn’t is unexplainable.
Germany is of a scientific mindset and would therefore
probably ride it off. It’s not something he would accept. The surprise at
Chibitalia’s strength in earlier panels is simply because Holy Rome never got
to see Italy be that strong.
The other position I take is that Germany is just beginning
to recover his memories of Holy Rome, having previously repressed them from
before to guard against being re-traumatized.
Ex: In Buon San Valentino, Germany’s stress causes him to
blackout. During this panic episode, fuzzy images of Chibitalia appear, almost
as if they were semi-inaccessible memories.
Ex: Germany is once depicted to be holding Chibitalia.
Take note of the question mark and the phrase “it’s me”.
To me, this seems like
Chibitalia is an unconscious aspect of Germany’s mind trying to pierce his conscious memory.
Ex: There’s also the strange occurrence where a child that
looks exactly like Holy Rome/ Germany is pressing to be ‘acknowledged.’ From a
psychological lens, this would be interpreted as repressed memories of Germany’s
childhood trying to reach his conscious mind.
Ex: Germany’s love for Italian culture and life can be seen
as him unconsciously remembering how much Holy Rome wanted to have Chibitalia
be part of his house.
However you want to see it, you have to admit that the
amount of questions left unanswered with regards to Germany’s past is done for
a reason. We just don’t know why exactly that is just yet.
Prussia: Why do you keep telling people I’m dead?
Germany: If you’re dead, then you don’t have to pay taxes and we save money.
To understand Russia’s brutal and violent side, it’s
important to step into his mindset, warped as it is. I go into this in greater
detail in another post [x], but to put it briefly here…
During his childhood, Russia experienced severe repression
and violence. As such, he wrongly learned to equate violence as both a show of
love and a solution to his problems. Not only that, but this violence continued
into his adulthood.
Ex: Russia considers General Winter and anyone he meets to be his friend. The key point to keep in mind here is that while General Winter
protects Russia, he also attacks him every year.
Ex: Russia naïvely refers to the other Allied powers are his
friends. Meanwhile, Lithuania has a more realistic view, stating that nations
operate on principles of self-interest.
Russia becomes saddened after hearing this.
Ex: Russia’s bosses are so notoriously cruel that they
torture him when they’re bored.
They once asked him to stop a tank with his own body.
Again, I’m not justifying any of what I’m about to show. I’m
providing an explanation and in doing so, I’m shedding light on how Russia’s
warped sense of mentality makes him incapable of differentiating between right
and wrong. In other words, he’s not able to possess any morals, despite often
having good intentions.
This amorality and confusion of what true friendship, or
rather, what a healthy relationship with another person entails ,are what caused
nations in the USSR a lot of pain, suffering, and fear.
What I don’t see a lot of people mention is that these nations
are fully aware of the fact that Russia is incapable of making these distinctions.
While they may be scarred and still fearful of Russia in present times, not all
of them hold this against him. There’s meaning and reason behind this abuse,
foul and irrational as the reasoning may seem to a normal person.
That said, let’s tie this back to the strips.
What living in Russia’s Home was like:
Nations under Russian control became servants to Russia.
They were indoctrinated into saying what Russia wanted to
hear. There was no tolerance for dissent.
Similarly, while Russia represented them at world
conferences, the controlled nations would either stay home or act as servants
during these meetings.
Just like Russia was forced to build a waterway in impoverished
conditions, Latvia was tasked with building an entire railway on his own.
Notice how Russia pushes down on Latvia’s head when he protests to this.
Prussia is noted to have worked unprofitable jobs during his
time spent in the USSR. [x]
How they were affected:
Lithuania received many scars on his back. This can be both
as a result of violent historical events marking themselves on his body and
Russia physically causing these marks. It’s left open-ended.
The trauma of Russia’s abuse is enough to have him experience
flashbacks.
Ex: Lithuania recalls declaring independence from the USSR. As
he imagines this, he remembers Russia squeezing his shoulders. Still immersed
in the memory, Lithuania begins squeezing Latvia’s and Estonia’s shoulders
without realizing it. He squeezes hard enough to cause them both pain.
In a volume 2 character note, Lithuania is said to be rehabilitating
from his time spent in the USSR.
I’ve said this before, but Russia pushing down on Latvia’s
head is likely a metaphor for political repression. Latvia’s growth was stunted
in the process.
What is of more relevance here is how ignorant Russia is to
Latvia’s suffering. He doesn’t connect Latvia’s trembling to feelings of fear
[of him].
To get Latvia to stop trembling, Russia’s solution is to
snap Latvia’s neck. You can’t honestly tell me that this is the rationality of
a sane person. This isn’t calculated pain; it’s irrational.
The imposition of Russian culture was so strong that Belarus
once forgot her own language.
How they get along now:
The tension and fear are still there, but most of it has to do with the fact that
Russia’s personality is still unstable and unpredictable. He perceived the USSR
as an opportunity to keep and make new friends.
You can imagine how hard Russia took this separation,
childish and unrealistic as his conception of reality is. He was all alone
again.
Latvia is still scared of Russia and is not keen to visit him
on New Years when invited.
Estonia also remains fearful of Russia but is not afraid to
stand up to him if needed.
Ex: Estonia confronts Russia when he believes that the
latter hacked his blog.
Ex: Estonia has no problem hanging up on Russia during the
2010 Christmas event.
Prussia holds a strong resentment toward Russia. The hatred
is so deep that he’ll puke if Russia even so much as lays a finger on him.
With all that in mind, I’d like to end this by pointing out
that while history may have divided the nations [personifications], they don’t only let this effect how they interact
with each other in the present. They may still resent and be fearful of him; however, it doesn’t stop most of them from making peace and acting as if they’re a unit again.
This is seen in the 2011 Halloween event, where most of the
ex-Soviet nations coordinated their costumes together. Perhaps this is one
stride closer to obtaining the true friendship that Russia had originally
sought in them.
On the wiki page it
states that, but when you go to the actual translated source on Bamboo Thicket
it’s quite different. It talks about how Germany’s brothers, aside from Prussia,
may have retired and/or disappeared. [x]
The rule is that when one nation falls under another nation’s jurisdiction, they become part of the
latter’s house. So, yes, some of the Eastern-most states, like Prussia, would
have been under Polish-Lithuanian rule. We only see this with Prussia, though,
who was once a lackey to Poland.
Either way, no one’s
perfect, and everyone makes mistakes. That’s why it’s important to check the sources
yourself just to be sure!
Quick side note, the
baton Hima is talking about likely has to do with the flute that Prussia gives
to Germany in the “Private Concert strip.” [x]. [x] I also did a few posts on this
in greater detail.
Oh lala ~ Are you
talking about Alfred Adler? If that’s the case then Prussia most definitely has
a superiority complex!
*Although this is more relevant to the past than it is for the present.
“A condition that
develops when a person overcompensates for normal inferiority. Such individuals
can become vain, boastful, self-centered, and often have a tendency to denigrate
others.”
Ellawritesficssometimes 