Misconception:
She’s not a pervert or presently maintaining that she’s a raging pervert.

Reality: Old tropes
pretty much characterized her as a fujoshi. The latter has since been
discarded, although some, much tamer elements of it remain.

Ex: Due to the high volume of gay porn videos in her country,
Himaruya depicted her to be obsessed with “cute boys,” [x].

Later in the series, we still see her getting excited over similar
things, but it’s much in the same way that any girl fawns over a cute boy—butts,
abs, muscles, or in this case, a fan request steering Austria onto the topic of
underwear.

Misconception:
She and Austria hated each other; therefore, a romantic relationship between
them is impossible.

Reality: Hungary possessed
“defiant feelings” over being under Austria’s rule, but also held “complicated,
yearning-like feelings towards him,” [x]. Evidence suggests that they still have
romantic feelings for each other.

The point of differentiation here is how the nations are
able to separate their political and personal selves. How I interpret this is
that she was defiant towards Austria the country, not Austria the person
whom she lived with in the same house.

A further substantiation would be a character note claiming
that Hungary is fond of Austria because he was the first person to treat her
with kindness, as opposed to other nations in the past who treated her very
poorly (Vol 1).

Nonetheless, the two still fought a lot until they formed a dual monarchy.

As for hints of romance, there are several [x].

Ex: Austria ‘anonymously’ sends Hungary flowers for
Valentine’s day [x].

Ex: They spend their holidays together seemingly as a
couple. Prussia actually tears up at the sight of them, a likely mix of
jealousy and lamenting over his own loneliness [x].

Ex: Not necessarily romantic per say, but Hungary secretly
cleaned up after Austria despite their marriage (empire) having been dissolved.

Misconception:
She and Prussia hate each other.

Reality: 9/10 times,
they’ll be fighting, but they don’t truly hate each other. It’s more like they really don’t get along.

Ex: She’s said to hate Prussia due to him “making fun of her
hardships in childhood,” [x].

This bickering dynamic doesn’t go away as they mature [x].

Ex: They consider each other to be family during the
holidays. Of course, that doesn’t stop Prussia from finding an excuse to initially bar her and Austria entry into his and Germany’s home. He was just being an ass,
nothing more.

Still, this shouldn’t
negate the fact that they worked with each other on several occasions.

Strips even allude to the fact that Prussia has unreturned
feelings for her.

Misconception:
Hungary gave up everything for Austria and rendered herself weak and feminine.
In other words, she copped-out.

Reality: While
Hungary had a complex over settling down with Austria and feared that her
battle skills would get rusty, she did anything but cop-out [x].

Even though she bore stereotypical feminine household
chores, she still holds the title as the “manliest” country in the comic (Vol 2).

Ex: She didn’t hesitate to aid Austrian troops and kicked
some ass while doing so [x].

Bonus facts:

She used to represent an equestrian tribe [x].

She was raised to be like a man by Magyar and initially
identified as such. This only changed when she matured and realized
that she was actually a girl [x].

She and Romania get along like dogs and monkeys (the
Japanese equivalent of the saying “like cats and dogs”).

She’s described as a big sister-type (e.g., she acts maternally
towards Italy and Germany) [x].

Me: *says something remotely political*

Internet:

Wait, how did Hungary even manage to convince herself that she was a boy, like???

She was raised to be like a male by Magyar [x] and was surrounded by males as she matured. She had no females to compare her physiology to either. It was only until her physical differences (i.e., her breasts, strength, and stamina) become more noticeable that she recognized her sex.

(I’m less inclined to believe the whole difference in strength and stamina aspects, because it’s stereotypical, but that’s the logic used in the manga).

Sure, I love her too!

Characterization post on Hungary coming up tonight!

The following post is to give a snapshot of
examples in the series that support these ships. Not all examples used are
romantic per say, but they are useful tools should you wish to incorporate them
when depicting these ships.

To break the ice, I’d like to point out that
Prussia is equally as fond of Romano as he is Italy. Himaruya goes on to state
that Prussia’s attracted to their climate and topography [x]. Both ships are one-sided.

That said, let’s tie this back to the strips.

Italy:

In response to a fan question, Himaruya said
that Germany constantly worrying after Italy is a Prussian tradition [x].

In another Q & A, he claims that Prussia
likes Italy because “a lot of things happened when they fought together,” [x]. Take
that how you will.

Several years later, we also get this panel,
where Prussia declares that he likes Italy by virtue of the latter simply being
cute [x].

This could just be attributed to him being drunk, but Prussia might also be blushing and ogling at Italy here [x].

The most obvious and explicit example is that
Prussia literally asks Italy out on a date [x].

Romano:

Again, this isn’t romantic, but it serves as an
appropriate backdrop for their relationship. When they were younger, Romano
aspired to hit “Prussia’s smirky face someday,” but settled for verbal attacks because he was scared of him [x].

Of course, this doesn’t stop Prussia from taking an interest in Romano [x].

A more notable and sweet example of an
interaction between them is Prussia comforting Romano when he doesn’t get a
part in a movie. The two then decide to make a movie of their own [x].

Lastly, there’s also this strip, where Prussia unabashedly
admits to watching Romano on other occasions. In this instance, he’s watching
Romano work [x].

Germany: Brother, I’m
heading out. Want to come?

Prussia: mmmmmm nah.

Germany: The Italy
brothers will be there.

Prussia:

I just read the strip where Prussia read a letter to the Grimm brothers. Anything other hilarious quotes from him?

On the same topic…

“And thus, Mister Prussia was able to read a story that was
lovely like blue skies, sparkling brooks, and flapping birds.
And they lived happily ever after,” [x].

I think you might be looking too deeply into Russia and America’s interactions. There’s also some issues of honestly thinking they don’t hate each other even a little bit. There’s plenty of proof that they don’t exactly like each other too much. Plus, I know that the characters aren’t meant to depict their governments, but even Russian and American people aren’t exactly fond of each other.

1) I don’t think so at all. In the examples I provided, you can see them deliberately trying to piss each other off. Russia gets America a ticket to Siberia for his birthday and I believe XS condoms if it’s a reference to the “Reduce your opponent’s willpower strip!”.

America deliberately feigns ignorance judging by how oblivious his performance is despite the sarcasm it reads as. He then jokes that the [condoms] will only last him a month and that he’ll use the ticket to Siberia as a tissue.

That said, I don’t think I’m reading into that interaction too far by reaching the conclusion that America is calculatedly toying with Russia here. He’s able to match Russia’s passive-aggressiveness with ease. He didn’t just pull that whole scheme out of nowhere. He knew full-well what he was doing.

2) I never said that they didn’t dislike each other at all. [Hate is a strong word.]

“It’s a misconception that Russia and America don’t get along [x]. During the Cold War, their relationship was a myriad of passive-aggressiveness [x] and yes, dick jokes [x].Presently, the two get along really well. Although, the passive-aggressiveness remains.”

I then link to chapter 53 of world stars, which shows them in a café laughing and enjoying themselves and speak of how they still have a passive-aggressive dynamic going on.

Another post:

“Russia even admits that he sometimes wants to “smash his [America’s] glasses into ten equal parts.”

3) Even though you mentioned this, American and Russian people not getting along doesn’t necessarily impact the personification’s relationship with each other. They have a far deeper history than present relations. Also, you’re conflating Russian and American politicians with how civilians of each may relate to each other.

4) It’s not that they don’t like each other, period.

This is why I show both sides of the equation, because their relationship isn’t only defined by strips that depict them from WW2–end of the Cold War. Even then, they still didn’t outright hate each other.

Selectively using evidence can make it seem like they don’t like each other at all, but truth of the matter is, there’s just as much evidence showing that they get along and are fond of each other. Point is, it’s better to use both sides to capture their relationship.