Before I start, it’s important to lay out some ground rules.

Thanks to Finland we know that the nations aren’t that
different from humans with regards to their physical strength and anatomy (with
the exceptions of Russia and America who are exceptionally strong).

The point in this is that the “not-so-different from a human
rule” pertains to their basic physiological structure. On the other hand, there
are immortal perks of nationhood, such as being impervious to experiencing the fatality of illnesses. They still can
fall ill, though. This happens when they’re….

1) Suffering from political instability.

2) They’re experiencing an economic recession.

3) There’s a rampant illness in their population (i.e Romano’s
Chorea).

With that said, we know that the nations are stronger than
normal humans regardless. They don’t age as fast, and as such, their memories
don’t deteriorate at nearly the same rate.

What this post will explore are the different examples where
nations have been shown to have gaps in their memories.

The thesis I’m putting forward includes a variety of
reasons to account for this:

One, older nations such as Japan and China have even larger gaps
in their memories as a result of their physical bodies aging. They’re therefore
unable to recall memories as fast as younger nations [This in part goes with my
third argument].

Two, the influence of their citizens pertaining to whether
or not the nations can see and therefore remember the existence of magical creatures.

Three, the nations simply aren’t able to remember
everything; it would be impossible.

And four, some
nations actively repress bad memories to minimize the anxiety and trauma they
previously experienced.

Without further ado, let’s go over some of these examples.

Age:

As stated above, the nations’ chronological age, while
influenced by their economic and political affluence, also seems to be affected
in part by how long they’ve lived (I.e. Both Japan and China refer to
themselves as old men.)

If Japan is shown to have higher blood pressure levels and hip pains as a
result of his old age, then it wouldn’t be too farfetched to assume that his
memory wouldn’t be as up to par as it would be in comparison to a nation younger
than him. Put another way, his age would cause him to have greater slips in his
memory.

It’s the body that’s old, despite not looking like it.

Ex: He’s unable
to remember who Lithuania is, and almost mistakes the latter to be Livonia.

Ex: While looking
through an album of him and Pochi throughout different periods, Japan
mistakenly recalls the chronology of them.

Likewise, China’s also referred to as an old man.

Ex: He admits to
being forgetful.

The Ability to See Magical Creatures:

We’ve also seen the impact on how a population’s belief in
magical creatures respectively influences whether or not the nation will be
able to see them.

Ex: During the
Meiji Era, England could see the kappa and youkai spirits, meanwhile Japan couldn’t
as a result of his people no longer believing in them as strongly.

However, just as a nation can forget about magical
creatures, they can also re-remember them if popular culture strongly believes
in them again – presumably it would have to go past folklore superstitions.

While enjoying Japan’s hot springs, the two talk about
folklore.

Notice how Italy spots a strange creature beginning to approach them.
Although it’s not shown, the discussion of the topic could possibly mean that
Japan [and not just Italy] is also able to see the creature.

There’s also an exact replica of this hot spring scene
dating back to when they first met during WW2. I don’t think Hima did this for
no reason:

Repression of Traumatic/Guilt-Ridden Memories:

As Russia darkly puts it, perhaps it’s a good thing that the
nations don’t remember everything.

When Lithuania and Germany allegedly meet for the first time
during WW2, Lithuania expresses relief over Germany not remembering him. It’s
noted that Lithuania once beat-up one of Germany’s family members. This is
possibly a reference to when Prussia became a lackey to Poland under the
Lithuanian and Polish Commonwealth.

This is highly indicative of Germany existing well before
his ‘birth’ in 1871 given that Lithuania is fearful of being remembered and/or triggering
Germany’s memory. If anything, Lithuania’s fear of this points further in the
direction of Germany suffering from amnesia.

Why else is there a childhood version of Germany/Holy Rome pushing to be acknowledged in older strips? I’ve theorized before that this is
simply a part of his unconscious mind trying to get him to remember about his
forgotten childhood.

Or why is it that he’s seen to confusedly hold up Chibitalia in another strip?

“It’s me.” Jogging his memory much?

Similarly, Italy also dreams of a childhood version of
himself pushing to be acknowledged by him, only for Italy to refuse in doing so. Like
Germany, it seems that Italy has actively striven to forget his childhood.

Lastly, the most obvious hint of repressed childhood
memories is found in Buon San Valentino, where Germany appears to recall fuzzy
images of Chibitalia.

They Can Only Remember So Much:

Prussia is the one to confirm this rule, considering that he’s
taken to recording every experience as a method in circumventing the inability
to recall them. It’s simply a matter of jogging his memory.

In sum, while the nation’s memories are limited, there are
different factors and contexts that account for this phenomenon. Age, trauma,
civilian belief, and limited physiological brain capacity seem to be the most
common reasons in accounting for this.

Don’t the nations also have special attack powers?

Yes, but it’s
just a comic gag.

Some
examples would be Romano’s “Neapolitan Tornado” or Japan’s “The Final Arcanum…Sincere Regret” [whatever that means].

My personal
favourite is France’s “Eiffel Attack.”

Can we talk about how funny Romano is? He’s not just a bitter grump all the time.

Definitely. He’s one of the biggest goofs out there.

During his teen years, he went through a fictional obsession
with medieval chivalric romances and began dressing up for the part.

“Thou son of a bitch” will always resonate with me.

You touched on the Italy brothers not really getting along. What about during their childhood? I know they were isolated from each other, but is their any strip where they actually act like brothers?

You’re right. They didn’t have much interaction, but there
is this one strip where Austria and Spain host a playdate.

Things weren’t really that tense between them until after Unification.
Even so, I think the fact that their curls lock together might hint at how deep
down, they’ll still always love each other.

Dear me

It’s almost as if

Hima didn’t make a
strip explicitly explaining why both
of them still exist…

Oops.

Friends…

VS best friends…

It’s because they are

is
drowning in work

Person: How’s
school?

Me: Good.

My brain:

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 are nonetheless employed by Hima in the series. The purpose of
this post is to give some insight into the psychologies of the characters.

Terminology I’ll go
over: Psychosexual stages, causality, regression, fixation.

Yes, that’s right. Freud’s ideas are very much prevalent in
the series. A big area of his work analyzed 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 psychosexual development titled: Oral, anal, phallic, latency, and genital.

For this specific post, we only need to focus on the early
stages of development, which focus on sensual (sensory, not sexual) pleasure and
stimulation, often for the purposes of soothing and experiencing relief.

Each stage has corresponding needs. If these needs are not
met (under-gratification) or if they are too easily met (over-gratification),
then the person develops a fixation.

A fixation essentially
means that the person is stuck at that level of development, which causes them
to develop a problematic personality type.

However, it’s only when that individual is met with confrontation
or a stressful situation that they regress back to the stage in which they
developed this fixation. The stress causes them to revert back to the age where
their needs weren’t met, and as such, adopt childish behaviours.

For example, if you get into an argument with someone and
they start behaving selfishly, like a
toddler, then you have every right to poke fun at them for having Daddy or
Mommy issues. Or, there are those who bite their nails and pick at their lips,
something akin to the soothing acquired from sucking one’s thumb as a child.

The stage that the Italy brothers appear to be fixated on is
the first stage: Oral.

The Oral stage involves the stimulation and pleasure of the
mouth. It’s where babies get their nourishment. The feeding phase within the oral stage of development is labelled
as Incorporative.

Thus, if the baby is given too much nourishment, they’ll
develop an Oral Incorporative personality type.

An Oral Incorporative personality type is someone who’s fixated
on activities that involve the use of the mouth. This can include being
extremely talkative, as well as excessive drinking, smoking, and chewing. In a figurative sense, they’re also
extremely gullible as they will “swallow” anything they’re told.

Sound familiar? If you thought of Italy, then you’d be
correct. Because Ancient Rome coddled and spoiled him, Italy’s needs were overgratified.

Italy’s extremely talkative and social, flirting with girls
left and right.

He’s also quite gullible.

Lastly, he absolutely loves to eat.

Romano, on the other hand, is the product of what happens to
a child that’s been weened off prematurely, meaning that the baby stops drinking
its mother’s milk too early. This second phase within the oral stage of
development entails teething, merely titled as Sadistic.

In the context of Hetalia this weening and subsequent
teething would be better fitted to parental neglect. Romano’s needs weren’t met
by Ancient Rome, as the latter focused most of his attention on Italy.

It’s this lack of nourishment/ care that results in an Oral Sadistic
Personality type.

An Oral Sadistic Personality type is someone that is
verbally abusive. They use “biting” sarcasm.

I mean, come on. That’s literally Romano. Cue montage.

That said, there can also be a mix of these personality
types. It isn’t just one or the other. I think we all know by now that the
characters in the series are extremely fleshed out. They remain likeable
despite bearing so many flaws.

Still, using Freud’s terminology, isn’t it uncanny how well
the Italy brother’s personality/ childhood experiences fit into this chart?

Marriage with the nations is a lot different than
traditional, primarily Western notions of it. It arises more out of a sense of
political duty, an arranged alliance or
partnership, and sometimes it just so happens that a romance forms between
the two countries involved.

Typically, what I’ve seen is that marriage at its core in
the series involves two countries merging together, either into a co-state empire,
a co-state kingdom, or a separate sovereign nation with distinct ethnic groups
and cultures. There aren’t any ceremonies, but rather, it entails a mutual dependence
and relative respect between two political entities.

That said, it’s important to mention that two countries joining
together via annexation does not fit into this marriage equation. There’s a
difference between being conquered and subordinated and forming a mutual
union. On the other hand, that doesn’t go to say that there’s perfect equality or
power balances in marriages between nations; Austria’s control over Hungary is
a perfect example of that.

All right. Let’s go over some examples of marriages, shall
we?

Austria’s character is known for his quirky tendency to
solve his problems through marriage.

First, there was arguably his early ties with Switzerland. I’m
counting this as a marriage mainly because it involves the use of the word
partnership and honeymoon (albeit jokingly).

Notice how as soon as one tries to control the other, the partnership ends. While Switzerland does
reveal some fondness over his early memories spent with Austria, there’s
nothing particularly romantic about it, especially given the fact that they
were young children at the time. Again, marriage for them is essentially the
joining together of nations.

Next, Austria marries Spain via the Hapsburgs Monarchy.
Here, you actually see a hint that Spain harboured romantic feelings for
Austria during the Austrian Wars of Succession. It was a political merger
that likely later involved the development of some intimacy between the two.

Then, you have Hungary. After the dissolution of the Austro-Hungarian
empire, it’s very heavily hinted that Austria still bears feelings for Hungary.
In Buon San Valentino, Hungary receives roses from an anonymous man that’s
conveniently described as having glasses and one hair sticking up.

On the other hand, there are marriages that involve little
or no romance at all. Take Czechoslovakia for example, two countries united by a
hyphen. Yes, that’s an actual joke in the series.

Still, what’s interesting is that when Bulgaria talks about
their separation in terms of a divorce, they’re quick to deny the claim, mainly
because of the romantic connotation marriage carries.

How I interpret this is that the two may have developed
feelings, but never told each other.

Bulgaria bringing up the topic of marriage in a casual political
sense merely may have caused them to get defensive because of these unvoiced feelings.
This isn’t confirmed, so don’t take it at canon value.

I know I’m repeating this, but it’s important that I make
this as clear as possible:

Marriage = a merger between two countries.

I say this because I’m going to apply these rules to Belarus
and Russia. Belarus wants to marry Russia and loves him to the point of obsession.
She’s even forgotten her own language at one point in favour of learning Russian.

But, does it ever say that Belarus loves Russia in a
romantic way?

No.

What it does say is that she wants to “become one” with him.
Sounds like a merger if you ask me.

When Belarus says marriage, she wants their countries to
join together. There’s nothing romantic about it, so hopefully this stops
people from misinterpreting their relationship.

In summary, marriage between the nations seems to involve a political
merger between two countries (partnership, co-ruled kingdom/empire). It can have
a romantic element to it, but this isn’t always the case.