Q & A

Hey there, love your blog! What do you have on Belarus and
Ukraine’s relationship?

Thank you!

To be honest, I get a lot of mixed messages from it.

Since Belarus is obsessed with Russia, you get panels like this
(i.e., she’s indifferent to Ukraine).

But then you have panels like this…

Sources: Hetarchive (Bamboo Thicket, eng trans., Nov 10th, 2011 + Jan 6th 2010).Ā 


It is a silly thought I’ve had but I have to
ask an opinion. Do you think our hetalia ladies experience menstruation? Did
they experience it very shortly or extended due to the fact that they are
countries? Do they experience at all??? Strange thought. What do you think?

No idea. There’s no canon
material that would be indicative of it.

Although, we do know
that biologically, the personifications aren’t that much different from humans.

Source: Hetarchive, Christmas 2010 Event.

Still, there isn’t
reproduction in Hetalia, so I’m not sure. The nations—with the exception of
Germany—are born as babies.Ā 

Source: Hetascanlations, World Stars Chapter 12.

Iceland’s birth depicts this rule.

Source: Hetascanlations, World Stars Chapter 114.


Hello there miss ellawritesficssometimes hope
you are in good health. I have a query Is it possible for a nation to have
attributes similar to that if their people such as smoking, drinking, usage if
caffeine etc. Because I was reading some statistics and this thought struck me.

I’m in good health,
thank you ^^

I’ve already done a
longer post going into the details of the relationship between personifications
and their populations’ demographics if you’d like to check it out [x].


Hi there! I was
just wondering, but wasn’t there a whole strip of comics dedicated to Romano
wanting to be a cat?

Ā There are, yes! Starting
from World Stars Chapter 353.

Source: Hetascanlations.


It’s been years
since I saw the anime, but am I right that England says France & Italy
share a love for smoking? Was that the dub? I know Hima drew Italy with a
cigar, but I don’t recall France smoking anywhere, tho it’s a big stereotype

None are depicted smoking, but France and England
both love their alcohol (France = wine, England’s just a messy drunk). Thus
far, while it does make sense for the stereotype model, they haven’t been
depicted that way. I think it would be a good addition for a more accurate
fanon characterization, though.

The sketch with the cigar is just him and Romano
dressing up as fake mafia members.

Source: Hetarchive (Bamboo Thicket, eng trans., Nov 6th, 2013).

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Misconception: She’s weak and unassertive

Reality: Even though we don’t get much canon material of her, her
character notes state otherwise.

Those who wish to
accurately depict her should take note of the fact that she’s described as a
smart girl with a strong mind—I’ll get more into that in a little bit.

Source: Volume 2.

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Ex: There’s an old
sketch where she stands up to China and tells him to back off from Japan. The
panel seems to take place in the period where China still held a wartime grudge
against Japan.

Source: Hetarchive, Taiwan’s profile.

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Ex: Her appropriate
reaction to Italy requesting to place his head on her chest. Please note that
this took place during the Chest Test series, where Italy places his head on the
chests of all complying nations. The intentions weren’t perverted in nature…it’s
more reminiscent of Goldilocks and the Three Bears.

Source: Hetarchive (Bamboo Thicket, eng trans., Nov 8th, 2013).

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Misconception: She doesn’t get along with other Asian nations and is
reclusive.

Reality: She’s on very friendly terms with other Asian nations.

I know that her
history is complicated, but it’s also important to recognize that Hetalia is a
series that promotes worldwide peace and solidarity.

While it does avoid certain topics—as necessitated
by its comedic and satirical genre—that doesn’t mean they’re trivialized. The
series has shown that in spite of experiencing rocky political relationships,
the personifications are nonetheless able to maintain a personal life separate from
it.

Ex: In the present, Taiwan
is a regular visitor of China’s home.

Source: Volume 4,Ā Ilha Formosa ~Beautiful Island~ + Volume 5.

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Ex: She’s on good
terms with Hong Kong. He visits her, and she visits him.Ā 

Source: Hetarchive (Bamboo Thicket, Nov 25th, 2013).

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Besides that, she’s
particularly close with Vietnam.

Ex: She chooses
Vietnam’s Halloween outfit, much to the latter’s dismay.

Source: Hetarchive, Halloween 2013-2014 Event.

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Ex: She convinced
Vietnam to take a photo with her. The significance of the moment rests with the
fact that Vietnam is insecure about her inability to smile.

Source: Volume 4,Ā 

Ilha Formosa ~Beautiful Island~.

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Misconception: She’s
a flat character with no personality.

Reality: She could definitely
use more development, but she still has unique attributes.

While Taiwan’s
character is due for some fleshing out, as is the case with most female nations
[unfortunately], the facts that we do receive about her are enough to work with. The
information is all there; you just have to look for it.

Ex: She’s a skilled
businesswoman.

Source: Hetarchive, Halloween 2013-2014 Event.

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Ex: She likes
fortune-telling.

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Source: Hetscanlations, World Stars Chapter 239.

Ex: She’s a good cook
and likes fashion.

Source: Volume 5.Ā 

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Bonus facts:

Strips suggest that
Taiwan may be attracted to both men and women.

i.e., she gives
Valentine’s Chocolates to Japan (France and Italy’s suggestive looks are
important) + she purposefully convinces Vietnam to wear a tight Halloween
costume and oggles at Belarus and Ukraine.

Source: Hetascanlations, World Stars Chapter 42 + Hetarchive, Halloween 2013-2014 Event.

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She’s a bird
lover.Ā 

Source: Volume 5 + Hetarchive (Bamboo Thicket, eng trans., Jan 22nd 2011).

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She’s an avid fan of
anime.

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Tbh, I wouldn’t call England the ‘most hated’ character. He surely receives a lot of (often, grossly exaggerated) critics, but on the other hand, there are also a lot of fans who like him and are ready to defend him, evidencing his positive sides. Austria instead, for example, receives hardly anything else than hate. Some critics are fair, but many very exaggerated. I have a hard time finding posts/fics depicting him in a positive light. Maybe it’s just the corner I lurk in though.

I think that’s it. To do
my characterization posts, I have to pile through all the little cliques and
corners in the English-speaking fandom. I have seen more anti-England blogs
than I have for any other character; he’s also one of the most popular
characters. It’s just basic numbers, the more blogs there are on a character,
the more negative ones there are going to be. Since England is involved in a
ton of ships, that also reels in a lot of controversy.

Likewise, I didn’t only
say he was the most hated. I also mentioned that he’s one of the most contested
characters too, which fits in with what you said regarding how people both like
and dislike him.

This is how I think of
it: When you think of Hetalia, do you think of Austria? Is Austria the face of
the fandom? Or what about the memes? Why do all the old memes mock England more
than any other character (e.g., the bacon eyebrows, the googly eyes, etc lmao)?
Obviously, England isn’t the only face of the fandom.

I disagree. While
Austria isn’t as popular as England, I would say he gets an even balance of
positive and negative depictions (similar to England minus the popularity).
There are those who spin the crude characterizations from the Chibitalia series
and then there are those who ship him with Hungary or Prussia, for the most part. Some of my favourite
fics in the fandom are AusHun oriented.

Hey umm i have noticed somethings, first why is Germany able to see the dead so easily even thought he doesn’t seem to have any supernatural abilities?(I know they might be visiting him but all visits we have seen (like from Rome) are usually on dreams). And if HRE is dead and not Germany why hasn’t he tried to visit Italy? technically if he is dead he could be able to do it.

So
much to break down, so I’ll try to be concise. (I can’t remember which post I already
wrote all this in).

Rome
visits the Italy brothers in their dreams, but Germany is the exception. That visit
takes place when the latter is awake.

Source: Hetarchive, Grandpa Rome’s Visit Home.

As
for the supernatural thing: I think that’s a purposeful complexity of Germany’s
character.

There’s
the irony of a supernatural ā€œstrange beingā€ strongly believing in empiricism and
scientific fact. While Germany is quick to discount ghosts, the fact that he
sees them is important.

Source: Hetascanlations, World Stars Chapter 1 + Hetarchive, Comic Diary 8.

Nations
don’t see ghosts unless they believe in them as a result of their people
holding these same beliefs. We’ve seen this with Japan, who lost his ability to
see youkai and other supernatural beings during the Meiji era. Longer post here
[x].

In
other words, if Germany sees them, the logic in the manga follows that he must believe
in them, regardless of how much he verbally discredits it.

For example: Even though he waves
off Quintillus—a Roman emperor—as a boy and not who he openly claims to be,
Germany refers to Quintillus as Roman afterwards. It doesn’t seem to be put sarcastically either.

If anything, on top of
revealing that Germany may have actually recognized Quintillus as a spirit,
this also ties in with the fact that Germany’s interest in Roman history is
putting him along a trajectory of recovering his roots; that is, if he is Holy
Rome.

Source: Hetascanlations, World Stars Chapter 41.

Since
we know that nations who have passed on live in heaven, Holy Rome not visiting
Italy supports the idea that he never died and had instead lived on to adopt
the title of Germany, albeit possessing no memory of his past life.Ā 

Chapter 1
of World Stars states that during title changes, it’s possible for the personification
to adopt a new personality. Since personality is heavily influenced by memory,
it could just be that the personality change is Germany losing his past
memories.