Q & A

Do you think that their canon heights are
meaningful in anyway at all (besides being shorter/younger to represent how
developed they are)? They seem inconsistent throughout the series when compared
to each other *during “adulthood”

I’ve done a few posts on
this. It first has to do with economic and political developments. Only then is
the average demographic height taken into consideration [x] [x].

How do you think
the countries view humans? as temporary pawns? good? bad? indifferent?

It’s definitely not
as radical and dramatic as you’re framing it.

These posts discuss what you’re talking about. To boil
it down, the nations don’t view humans as pawns but rather they serve their
bosses to the very letter. For other humans, they tend to keep their distance.
When a human spends too much time around a nation, their perception of time
gets so warped that they become insane. I also want to point out that the nations are
very friendly with humans. It’s their people, after all [x] [x] [x]

Last year, my
history teacher mentioned something about a theory that America gets its
greatness from its German roots and recently I realized that America embodies a
lot of the traits an Anglo-Saxon warrior is supposed to have in order to become
famous and, therefore, immoral. I’m sure this is just some stupid coincidence
but I was wondering what you think of it

I’m living for the enthusiasm but I think you’re
overthinking it. The stereotype model is based on sociological perceptions. In
other words, America embodies the generalization of what the world perceives Americans
to be. The stereotypical American is the blond-haired blue-eyed golden boy
whose prevailing belief in justice makes them the ‘super-hero’ of the world. Most people wouldn’t know about the Anglo-Saxon warrior.

Side note: I shouldn’t have to mention this, but
stereotypes are not the Truth (capital T) but a truth (a different construction
of reality).

Source: Hetascanlations, World Stars Chapter 23.

A lot of people seem to think Germany has
aspergers or some form of autism, any thoughts on that?

Personally, I don’t
think he has autism. My biases from therapeutic training sees someone who has repressed
certain emotions/ memories and is socially inept as a result of his chaotic
childhood. Post here [x].

However, that does not
mean you can’t interpret him that way! You can use a lot of Germany’s behaviours
and other idiosyncrasies to make a convincing characterization as someone who’s a high-functioning autistic.

If Hima is on a
hiatus, he might be going somewhere too, I guess. Does he have an active blog
now? I wonder if he uploads some pics. I noticed some pics on his
not-active-anymore blog but those were veeery old. What do you think?

Himaruya does have a
history of travelling during breaks. He doesn’t have an active blog, but
Hetarchive posts English translations of his WordPress blog. The posts aren’t old, though???

Holy Rome Talk

First, I just want to thank you both for participating. I really
appreciate it 😀

My theory accounts
for this:

1)
The nations are
cultural personifications

“Usually, when the culture or the country’s personality dies/ disappears, the country would gradually disappear or entrust him/ herself to the country that takes over him/ her.

There are also cases that him/her is not a country but continues to live leisurely as a representative of a region.”

Source: Hetarchive, It’s a Treasure Box of
Countries.

The nations are cultural personifications. They
exist when people unite under a common cultural identity. As such, this may
account for the reasons why there are separate personifications for Ancient Egypt
and Greece and Ancient Greece and Greece etc. However, I do agree that the
rules of this are arbitrary and inconsistent if you look at nations like China
and Japan, who don’t have ancient counterparts. Which brings me to my next
point:

2)
The nations are
described as “strange beings.”

Because of this, not everything that happens can be explained with an ascribed logic. It’s canon for nations to arbitrarily last
for as short as a few days to 1000s of years. Nations can also keep living and
change their titles over time. For example: Hungary was originally born as an equestrian
tribe and Prussia was originally born as a catholic order.

Therefore, it’s not an easy fix because no rules
were broken.

Source: Hetascanlations, World Stars
Chapter 1 + Hetarchive, Notes & Etc + Volume 2 Character profiles.

On the other hand, given that World Stars is
recent, the “easy fix” argument can still be countered. Himaruya’s been hinting
of the Holy Rome = Germany connection since the first original web chapters
(2006).

See: Hetare 4, Pact of Steel + Hetare 5, Lietuvis.

My theory also
accounts for this:

1) France never killed
Holy Rome in the deleted strip.

He only notified Italy that Holy Rome had died.

Source: Hetarchive, Holy
Rome is no more

2) Cultural personifications
x 2

I’m going to sum up my main points, as I’ve already
written and explained this in greater detail:

Basically, because the nations are cultural personifications, the switch
from Germany to Holy Rome didn’t consist of a significant change in culture.
They both represented the German people. Germany represented the consolidated nation
of the previous sovereign states that Holy Rome represented.
Holy Rome didn’t die right away after his dissolution–this ties in
with the fact that as long as the culture exists, the personification won’t die
right away.

Source: Hetarchive, It’s
a treasure box of countries + Hetascanlations, World Stars Chapter 187.

Holy Rome became sick because of fragmentation
and disunity but nonetheless existed because of the culture. This is consistent
with the rule where nations get sick if their economy or political situation
isn’t stable

Source: Hetarchive, In
just two minutes you can grasp the exterior of the European Economy.

This then escalated to him being on his deathbed after dissolution. On
top of the culture still existing, it’s still possible for personifications not
to die even after their culture/ personality (essence) disappears

Source: Hetarchive, It’s a Treasure Box of Countries.

The switch from Germany to Holy Rome is consistent with the rule of
personifications being able to change titles.

Linking them again:

(All posts can be found in my directory).

Holy Rome theory posts: [x] [x] [x] [x] [x] [x] [x].

Prussia theory posts: [x] [x] [x] [x].

Nationhood posts: [x] [x].

What affects a nation’s health?: [x].

Germany during Buon San Valentino be like:

Even if Germany was okay with having romantic feelings for Italy, it doesn’t mean that the series is okay with homosexuality.

Listen. I’m not here to argue about this.

The series is open to all types of sexual and romantic
orientations + gender identities. End of story.

For more evidence, you can check out these posts.

[x] [x] [x] [x]

Source: Hetarchive, Buon San Valentino Aftermath.

So… what the actual heck happened in Buon San Valentino?

Germany mistook Italy’s feelings for him as romantic,
confused himself more by reading friendship/ romantic guides that listed Italy’s
‘unique’ behaviour as something indicative of romance, fully—and I truly do mean ‘fully’, he
was completely okay with it—committed himself to dating and proposing to
Italy, only to realize that he had misinterpreted Italy’s feelings/ behaviours
the whole time.

Source: Hetarchive, Buon San Valentino.

I got a challenge for you, inspired by the buzzfeed challenge. Don’t worry, it’s not another one of those. How about a good argument against the HRE is Germany theory? (Sorry if this sounds rude btw)

It doesn’t sound rude!

New Challenge:

Okay,
so here’s the thing. As someone who has read the manga countless times and has picked
up on all the hints, foreshadowing, parallels, and conjoining logics, I don’t and
presently cannot see that as a possibility. I haven’t seen anyone use good
concrete evidence to prove against the theory. And then there’s those who don’t
believe the theory just because everyone else believes it…

So,
tell you what: you guys put forward your evidence as to why you don’t think
Germany is Holy Rome and I’ll see if I can counter it. This way, it tests the
strength of my theory. This post here outlines a lot of my main counters to the
most common arguments, so please read it over first [x].

Also
note that you have to back up your points with evidence from the manga. It can’t
just be based on what you ‘think.’ What you think has to be supported with
proof and examples. Show me how you
reached your conclusions ^^

Please submit it in ask form!

Does India have bushy Eyebrows?

He does. You’re absolutely right. Thank you for bringing that to my attention!

Source: Hetarchive, Halloween 2014 + Hetascanlations, World Stars Chapter 195

The purpose of this post is to delineate the fact that
nations that have cultural influences on each other are not biologically
related. While the influencee may adopt traits from the influencer in some
cases, it doesn’t always constitute a biological relation. What’s even more
confusing is that there are specific adopted traits that the nations use to
mark a biological relation.

I know this sounds obscure, but it’ll make sense when I go
through some examples.

Romania and Bulgaria
vs Romano and Veneziano:

A gag with Romania in the series is that he claims that he’s
a descendant of Rome, and, therefore, an Italy brother.

However, even though Rome did, in fact, instill significant
cultural influence in Romania, Romano is quick to reject this claim. He
identifies the presence of a curl as proof of biological lineage from Rome.
Remember that Rome is said to have had many grandchildren and adopted
grandchildren.

Source: Hetascanlations, World Stars Chapter 163 + Hetarchive (Bamboo Thicket, eng trans., October 30th, 2014).

Later, we see the same rejection occur with Bulgaria, who
has Roman ruins.

Source: Hetarchive (Bamboo Thicket, eng trans., Oct 22nd, 2014).

England, America,
Finland, and France: (+ more)

As I’ve stated before, England and America are not
biologically related. England is stated to be the fourth and youngest sibling
in his family, consisting of Wales, Northern Ireland, and Scotland.

Source: Hetarchive (Bamboo Thicket, eng trans., Aug 4th 2010).

In the Battle for America, it’s explicitly stated that
England becomes America’s brother. We also learn that because America was a
“melting pot” of several cultures at the time, he inherited certain physical
traits from his colonizers.

Source: Hetarchive, The Battle of America.

For example, in the trio’s feud to make America their little
brother, Finland notices that America looks like him.

The distinction between cultural influence and blood
relation is necessary otherwise it would lead to a slippery slope where all
nations are related to each other. So, unless explicitly confirmed by Himaruya,
nations aren’t related to each other regardless of their histories. Arbitrary
as the biological relations may be, you work with what’s given to you.

Lastly, I’ve seen people comment that there’s a confirmed
biological relation between America and Finland. That’s not the case. Finland says that America has some genes from his people. Remember that America emerged as a personification representing several cultures. The genes are the traits, but because America has so many cultural influences, they don’t consider each other to be blood-related.

The fact that America didn’t identify with Finland as a
family member in the first place is telling of this cultural influence, as well
as the fact that Finland offers to become a father figure for America, who in
the context of the strip had been feeling jealous of kids who get presents from their fathers on Christmas.

Source: Hetarchive, Christmas 2010 Event.

France and Canada:

Similar to the situation with England and America, Canada
inherits France’s hair.

Source: Hetascanlations, World Stars Chapter 192.

France, America, Canada, and Seychelles vs England, Hong
Kong, India, Australia, New Zealand, Hutt River, Sealand, and Wy:

We learn that France’s cultural influence is a dominant trait
that prevents America, Canada, and Seychelles from inheriting England’s bushy
brows. Although, interestingly enough, Seychelles had initially been designed
to have one thick eyebrow and one bushy one to represent English and French influence.

Source: Hetarchive, Seychelles profile.

Meanwhile, without French influence, Hong Kong, Australia,
New Zealand, Hutt River, Sealand, & Wy inherited the bushy brows.

Source: Hetarchive (Bamboo Thicket, eng trans.,Nov 12th 2013) + Hetascanlations, World Stars Chapter 269.

Of most importance and what I can’t stress enough is the
example of Hong Kong. It proves, with the most clarity, that cultural influence
does not have a causal relationship with biological relation.

After becoming English territory, Hong Kong’s eyebrows grow
bushy from the resulting English influence on his culture.

Source: Volume 6, A wise man has no specialty.

It’s said that England put a curse on him to have his eyebrows become so thick, but you also have to remember that England’s eyebrows themselves are cursed. The implications would be that his influence caused the curse to pass on.

Source: Volume 5, Special Booklet.