No. This is a common headcanon/ misconception that I’ve noticed in the fandom.
The Italy Brothers don’t run the Mafia, nor do they work for
them. Instead, they’re often victimized by them.
Since mobsters are more of a problem in the Southern half of
the country, Romano’s respectively more affected by their activities. [x]
Ex: Romano is frequently coerced into doing favors for the Mafia
against his will. He complies because he’s terrified of them.
Nonetheless, Romano has proven to be capable of standing up
to them.
Ex: With Spain’s life hanging on the line due to an economic recession, Romano refuses to hand over the imports he intends to use in saving Spain’s
economy.
Typically, however, he’s seen as easy prey for the Mafia to
get him to do their bidding.
It’s only in the above circumstance where he becomes “stronger”
than usual. Put another way, Spain’s potential death kicked in Romano’s fight
or flight instinct.
How They’re Affected:
Both Italy brothers are frequently stolen from. While some
of this is from regular pickpocketers…
Ex: Romano is well-trained in guarding himself against being
pickpocketed. [x]
…the Mafia [and corrupt politicians] also steal from the
Italy brothers, albeit indirectly.
The personification’s income, as in how much money they have
available to them in their wallet, is dependent on how wealthy their country
is. If the government is corrupt and funds are being frauded/ embezzled, the personification
doesn’t receive as much money as they should.
Ex: Veneziano’s wallet runs thin as a result of corruption
in the Italian government, specifically in the South.
It’s not like they’re not aware of this corruption either,
because they are.
Ex: Veneziano comments on the corruption within Rome’s
municipal government and casts his vote for Virginia Elena Raggi, whose
campaign ran on combatting corruption. [x]
The problem is that because the nations have little
influence in how their government
runs, they don’t have the means or resources to tackle this corruption.
Spain: If you had to describe yourself in one word, what would it be?
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!
[On the topic of Romano’s hostility toward Veneziano.]
Anon 1: It does help, thank you for sharing your experience.
From what I’ve learned and researched, Italy is sparsely different depending on which region you’re from. This is especially the case with how divided and uncooperative the gov’t is. There are so many parties that the failed coalitions get nowhere.
Anon 2: Yes, it is. That’s exactly the reason I gave in my last answer.
Either way, it can’t hurt to cite these strips again. Hima’s highlighted their differences consistently throughout the series, both in old and new strips.
They used to be considered as countries in their own right before unification, where they still both represent Italy. The differences in the regions are deeper than location.
Here are a few last examples detailing their differences / hostilities.
Ex: Romano moving to America to avoid having to rely on his brother during the Second Industrial Revolution.
[On the topic of
Romano referring to Veneziano as stupid/ idiot little brother]
While that may be the
case for most siblings, Romano doesn’t use insults to show his affection. I
know it’s nice to imagine Romano and Veneziano to be like that, but from what
we’ve seen in the manga, they just don’t have that type of relationship dynamic.
You work from what’s
seen in the strips, not what you interpret a character to be like – especially if
canon has already proven the contrary.
If anything, Romano uses actions, regardless
of the insults that fly out of his mouth, to show his affection.
Ex: He’s still calling
Spain an asshole or bastard as he sends imports to help with the Spanish
economic recession.
On the other hand,
with Veneziano, Romano doesn’t ever use insults to refer to the latter in an
affectionate way. They don’t have a good face-to-face relationship, and there’s
a ton of hostility and resentment on Romano’s side of things. In this case,
Romano’s insults do in fact have to do with inferiority.
The suddenness of
their unification is noted to have caused a tension between them.
Romano is also noted
to detest North Italy “a bit.”
As such, he has a much
better relationship with Spain than he does with Veneziano.
Romano’s inferiority
complex is most seen when he uses insults to undermine Veneziano’s accomplishments.
Ex: Veneziano’s
engineering feats during the Industrial Revolution.
It’s like this in
present strips too. The complex hasn’t gone away.
In the Annoy Romano
series, one of the prompts is to be surrounded by Veneziano, his mochi, and his
nekotalia counterpart.
Similarly, Romano
hates to be referred to as Italy’s older brother, as it lacks individual
differentiation.
Again, his insults toward
Veneziano don’t possess any affection to them. Romano refuses to work with Veneziano.
To put things more into perspective, Romano’s hostility of Veneziano is bad enough for Rome to visit him in his dreams, chiding him for this.
Of course, this doesn’t
mean that Romano doesn’t care about Veneziano either. He’s just not direct with
it.
Ex: He looks after Veneziano during WW2, regardless if he degrades him while doing it.
Like I said, they lack a solid face-to-face relationship.
Q: What I really want to know is why people ship Canada and
Netherlands,,, I’m not judging it, it looks quite cute but I don’t??
Understand???? Could you help out?
A: It’s a historically-based ship. During WW2, the Dutch Royal Family fled to Canada. When Princess Margriet was born, they declared the maternity to be Dutch territory so that she would retain her Dutch citizenship. Every year as thanks, the Dutch government sends close to a million tulips, and in return, Ottawa hosts a tulip festival every year. I’ll make sure to take some pictures since I live there.
Q: Hey, sorry to bother you, but do you have any information on
Ireland, Scotland, or Wales? I know they’re not official characters yet, but is
there anything on them?
A: You’re not bothering me! However, I’m not an information blog. If you’d like access to information, there’s an English translation of Hima’s blog, Bamboo Thicket. It’s an excellent resource if you’re looking for facts about specific characters.
Scotland and Ireland are undesigned characters but do have some character notes [x]
England is the son of four siblings, which includes North Ireland, Scotland, and Wales. He also doubles as the UK in representing them [x]
Q: For characters like Iceland, Latvia, Lichtenstein, Estonia
, micronations and other young/ teen characters ;do you think they live by
themselves or with a physically older nation and would they go to school or no?
A: The only school that all nations attend is the World Academy. It’s like a mini AU within the series. [x] Nations only live with each other if they lack independence.
Q: England is my least favourite Hetalia character. Enlighten
me and change my opinion, I don’t want to be the only tea-hating heathen in the
fandom!
A: I’ve done a lot of posts about this 😉 [x] [x][x][x]
You’re not a heathen, by the way. Everyone’s entitled to their opinion.
Q: It looks like Romano is getting over his inferiority complex
in recent years, in Liechtenstein strip he certainly is confident even when
Veneziano points out their grandpa’s inheritance to both of them.
A: I’m not so sure about that. Romano still consistently refers to Veneziano in a demeaning manner. He needs to stop calling Veneziano “stupid/ idiot little brother” if he’s to truly get over his inferiority complex.
On top of aspects of Freudian theory, I’m also of the
mindset that Hima has incorporated aspects of attachment theory. The dialogue
at one point directly makes reference to it, as I’ll soon reveal.
What this post will explore is how Romano’s inconsistent upbringing
caused him to develop hostile feelings and a distrust of others when he was a
young child.
What is Attachment Theory?:
Attachment theory focuses on the relationship between a
child and their caregiver. Central to the theory is the concept of needs. A
child relies on their caregiver to protect them, provide for them, and care for
them. If all these needs are consistently met, the child develops a healthy attachment
to their parents. This healthy attachment style positively affects both the
child’s personality and their capability to establish and maintain healthy
relationships as they grow older.
However, if needs are not met at all, or are sometimes met
and at other times are not, this inconsistency causes the child to develop unhealthy attachment styles. As such, they develop unhealthy personalities and
form unhealthy relationships with others.
The Ainsworth experiment was where this theory originated.
To test the attachment styles between toddlers and their caregivers, they would
put them in a room together at first. After a while, the parent would leave and
the child would be left on their own. Then, a stranger would be introduced to the
room and leave after the toddler had a chance to react. The last part of the
experiment analyzed the toddler’s reaction once they were reunited with their
parents again.
Being in a “strange situation” – a foreign room, absence of a parent, and meeting a stranger [danger] –
created a lot of stress in the child. Since children seek protection from their
caregivers, this stress and fear would typically cause the child to become
upset and seek reassurance from their caregiver. It’s a survival instinct that
innately kicks in.
Those with a secure [healthy] attachment style would cry or
be upset for a bit but would be easily calmed once their caregiver soothed
them. The healthiness of this attachment style means that the child knows that
the parent is there for them – they can be relied on to satisfy their needs.
While there are several different unhealthy attachment
styles, only one is important for this post. An insecure ambivalent/
preoccupied attachment style is seen where the caregiver returns but is unable
to sooth the child. The child often responds with anger, and sometimes they can
even become aggressive.
The unhealthiness of this attachment style means that the
parent inconsistently meets the needs of the child. In other words, their care
for the child is inconsistent. They’re either overbearing when they meet the
child’s needs, or they’re completely unavailable and don’t meet them.
This inconsistency causes a sense of hostility and distrust
to develop in the child. They don’t want to rely on their parent, but know that
they have to if they want to survive… a love-hate relationship if you will. The
anger and aggression are symptoms of this contradiction.
Let’s tie this back to the strips.
What’s Romano’s attachment style?
What you’ll see with Romano is that he has an ambivalent/
preoccupied attachment style stemming from two parental relationships. His needs
were not consistently met since Ancient Rome spent most of his time rearing Veneziano. The unavailability of care.
Then, Romano falls under Spain’s rule, someone who goes out
of his way to care and provide for Romano. The
overbearingness of care.
Romano’s Hostility:
As stated above, children who don’t have their needs met
consistently react hostilely to their parents. This is especially the case when
the inconsistent parent attempts to provide or care for the child – the child
doesn’t receive it well.
Ancient Rome’s parenting style left a mark on Romano. He
developed a hostility towards parental figures. This is why I believe he
reacted to Spain so harshly at first.
Spain babied Romano. He cleaned for him, cooked for him, and
clothed him. Romano wasn’t used to having these needs being met and responded
with anger because it was the only feelings he had to express. It was likely
the first time he had received affection and care on a consistent basis.
This would explain what happened when Spain went out of his
way to buy Romano new clothes. He blushes, unsure of how to process this
foreign experience, and simultaneously insults Spain.
Why is it that Romano doesn’t clean and Veneziano does? It’s
the constant presence of a parental figure that I believe accounts for their
differences. Veneziano had someone to care for him more often, and as such, he
adopted the modelled behaviours that he was exposed to. Meanwhile, Romano doesn’t
know how to take care of himself because he wasn’t cared for.
[This doesn’t mean to say that Rome didn’t love Romano. Not at all.]
Spain changed that. He became Romano’s protector and
caregiver. Romano, while still possessing feelings of hostility, grew to accept
this given that, like a young child, he sought out protection in Spain during
the uncertain and dangerous circumstances of war.
This consistency in care eventually results in Romano
learning to trust Spain. The problem is that Spain was initially oblivious to
this. He refers to Romano’s outbursts as “uncute” and expresses confusion
over why Romano acts out like this.
More importantly, he questions why Romano isn’t attached to him.
What Spain grows to learn is that Romano’s anger is how he
expresses affection – his reciprocal need
for care and affection.
For example, when Spain meets with German soldiers, Romano
perceives them as the enemy and begins to attack them. He tells Spain to run
and ‘sacrifices’ himself. In his mind, he was returning the favor by assuming
the role of the protector.
When Spain reprimands Romano for this, the consistency in
care is broken.
Spain doesn’t recognize this right away, but Romano helps him
by expressing his frustration at having Spain getting angry with him.
This was a big step in Romano’s perspective. You have to
step into his mindset, childish as it is. He was putting Spain first by ‘sacrificing’
himself to the soldiers, only for Spain to criticize him for it. Of course, he’s
going to get upset.
What’s sad is that Romano doesn’t know how to process these
conflictual feelings. He feels both affection and hostility for Spain. Once
again, it’s the inconsistency of care in the relationship that’s causing this.
The beautiful part of this strip [x] is that Spain finally
enters Romano’s world and understands that Romano’s “uncute” behaviour is
actually how he expresses his affection.
Hence the teasing strip title of “Boss Spain Doesn’t
Understand.”
This understanding, where Spain apologizes for criticizing Romano’s
‘sacrifice’ allows the two to reconcile and meet each other half-way.
In sum, Romano’s hostility toward Spain was not him being an
ungrateful and spoiled brat. If anything, this behaviour stems from a child who
had nothing, only to receive everything and being confused as to how to react
to it.
Up next: How some of Romano’s childhood hostility and attachment
style still resides in his adulthood.
Ellawritesficssometimes 