Misconception: He’s
weak.

Reality: Austria
was born a fighter [x], but as he turned to marriage to solve his political
problems, he lost shape and became accustomed to home life. He’s actually quite
lazy now [x]. 

Misconception: He
was cruel and heartless when he ruled over Chibitalia.

Reality: While he
was strict and stern with Chibitalia, a lot of this can be attributed to the extreme
and exaggerated humour employed by Himaruya in the series’ early days.

Even with the strict punishments, Chibitalia still shared
many fond moments with Austria—nations living in Holy Rome’s household
considered each other to be family and even maintained this sense of closeness
decades afterwards [x] [x]. 

Misconception:
Due to historical tensions, it’s impossible that he and Hungary were able to
possess such a strong relationship under their empire. [x]. 

Reality: Yes and
no.

You have to remember that the nations are people too. They
have a political self and a personal self. It’s for this reason that while
Hungary has “defiant” feelings from her time spent under Austrian rule, she also
has “complicated, yearning-like” feelings for him [x]. 

How I interpret this is that she despised Austria for what
Austria the country stood for at the time but not who he stood for as a
concrete and separate person.

Lest we forget all the times where it’s hinted that the
two still have feelings for each other. The most notable panel that substantiates
this claim is from Buon San Valentino. There, Hungary receives a Valentine’s
day gift from someone with “glasses and one hair standing up,” [x]. 

“He hides his name but not his Mariazell.” 

Misconception:
Austria and Prussia hate each other.

Reality: Again,
yes and no. It depends on the time period. The ‘hatred’ isn’t deep-set but
rather it’s temporary. Himaruya once said that it would be fun to draw Austria, Germany, and Prussia as a “chaotic sort of family,” [x]. 

Undoubtedly, Prussia gets on Austria’s nerves…a lot [x]. (Another good reference would be the Maria Theresa series).

Still, the strips have also shown that they don’t truly hate each other.

Ex: Austria
receives a censored letter from Prussia (who was under Soviet rule at the time)
and reads it out of pity [x]. 

Ex: The two still
consider each other to be ‘family’ and spend their holidays together despite
all the fighting it causes (Christmas 2010 Event). 

(Prussia initially didn’t want to let Austria spend
Christmas with him because he was a “lesser German”. He was just being an ass;
I wouldn’t take it seriously, especially given Germany’s response). 

Bonus Facts:

He’s considerably self-critical.

Ex: He wears his glasses to avoid looking plain. It’s not
from poor eyesight. Instead, they represent his “musical something,” [x]. 

Ex: Being unsatisfied with his appearance is enough to make
him feel discontented [x].

Similar to Freud’s “anal-retentive” personality-type,
Austria is a stingy [x] perfectionist [x].

His mole acts as an erogenous zone, not his ahoge
[Mariazell] [x].

He gets grumpy when he doesn’t have coffee. 

He spent part of his life in a wheelchair [x]. 

He doesn’t have a sense of direction.

He once avoided fighting with Prussia because he didn’t want
to harm young Germany [x].