What I think I look like in the morning

What I actually look like

I can’t remember if this is fanon but is it because of France’s influence that America and Canada don’t have bushy brows?

Not fanon, canon. It affected Seychelles too [x].

What this post aims to
do is examine the ways in which the nations are impacted by the chronicity of
the wars they’ve endured as well as the coping mechanisms that they employ to bear
these hardships. Aside from the predictability of physical pain and illness,
there is a disturbing sense of normalization and domesticity in how the nations
negotiate their lifestyles in war. It’s
maladaptive.

That said, let’s go over
some examples.

Physical Pain and Illness:

The most obvious impact
of war and political struggles—both
domestic and international—is the physical strain that it puts on a nation’s body.

Ex: During the Second World War, Germany and Italy are both taken as
prisoners of war. Germany compares the pain of torture to a mosquito bite, as
his daily life is far more painful.

Ex: England falls ill on several occasions following major political conflicts
(e.g., the American Revolution, the Napoleonic Wars, World War II) [x].

Ex: China complains of body aches, stemming from political infighting
in his country [x] [x].

Sense of Helplessness:

Of course, smaller
powers are rendered vulnerable and pliable to the discretion of larger powers.

Ex: Belgium and Luxembourg discuss their inability to protect themselves
during both World Wars [x].

Ex: The conditions that Russian soldiers experienced were so bad that
Russia becomes ecstatic when Germany takes him as a prisoner of war. He
compares the German POW camps to heaven.

Ex: England’s normalized being captured by
the Axis and pre-preemptively brought a spare change of clothes [x].

Suspicion and Hostility:

War is a breeding ground
for distrust and betrayal. As such, the nations must always be ready to fight
for their lives, even in seemingly innocuous circumstances.

Ex: When the two first
meet in World War I, Germany second guesses himself several times on whether
Italy poses a threat to him.

Ex: Russia shares his tea
ration with England. While skeptical at first, England accepts. The sweetness
of the tea initially causes England to conclude that Russia poisoned him. What
matters here is the fact that England rationalized this outcome as a legitimate
possibility…[x].

Domesticity, Normalization, and Adaptation:

As horrible and gruesome
as war may be, there are still moments where the nations are able to enjoy
themselves and share a good laugh. The problem, then, is that having had
experienced countless wars, the nations bring the domestic into the world of
war—i.e., war becomes their home and the private
and public sphere divide becomes muddled.

Ex: England drinks tea in
the middle of the battlefield. Trivial as this may appear, on a latent level,
he’s attempting to include a routine and sense of normalcy in an environment
that is otherwise chaotic and unpredictable.

Ex: After infiltrating
America’s war camp, Prussia teases Germany for his impression of an American.

Ex:Having just occupied
Rome, America asks the terrified Italy Brothers if they could make him
authentic Italian cuisine [x].

The casualness in the way
America speaks is disturbing considering that from his perspective, taking over
another country is normal. It’s not
something that should produce fear but rather should be accepted as is. He
doesn’t consider the Italy Brothers to be his personal enemies. The personal is not political in this case.

Relief:

The best nations that
illustrate the burdens of war are those who have passed on. Rome and Germania
visit Earth together and upon reflecting on their lives, they reach a similar
conclusion: death gave them a sense of liberation.

They’re no
longer bound by their bosses’ orders and aren’t forced to participate in wars
they have no interest in being involved in [x].

That one friend who you can’t watch a movie with

Does it bother you that Russia and Germany are always made out to be the villains?

Yes and no. A good villain is a good villain to me so long as you characterize and develop them well. In fact, a difficult and rare trope to pull off but something that I’ve always loved is when an author is able to portray America as the villain despite his claim of being a hero. Now that’s interesting!

The series is based on stereotypes, bad and
good, although we could do without some. At the very least, this subject is
touched on in Volume 5.

Effects of the constant wars the nations have to go through or how they cope with them?

Sure, I think that’d be interesting to explore. The basic premise would be the normalization and adaption to precarious and dangerous circumstances.

Post coming up tonight!

Q & A

If anything, this could also indicate how removed England
was from the effect that his taxation had on his colonies. Great addition,
thank you for sharing! [x].

It seems like Canada is America’s adopted
introvert.

Yes and no. Early on, it
was more of a resentful push-and-tug relationship. Their relationship in the
present lines up more with what you’re saying!

Sorry, I have to make
this distinction because you still see people bitterly posting on trope
websites that the two remain primarily resentful of each other, which isn’t
true! [x].

Is North Italy really a virgin? If he’s not,
why does the fandom believe so? I mean I know he used the “I’m a
virgin” lie to get out being harmed, as for some reason they sympathize
for virgins, but the dude has a black book full of women he has dated, he still
dates and flirts with girls. Given how old he is, doesn’t it make more sense
for them to have lost it at some point in time? Maybe n teen years. Oh, that
time he ran home for sexual needs during war. So y proclaim it canon if 1 is
not sure

(Not sure why this
really matters lol but…)

It’s messy because you’re
leaping through several time periods here. They don’t occur simultaneously.

WW1–He plays the
sympathy card and states that he’s a virgin to prevent Germany from shooting
him. This also could have just been a spur of the moment thing he said to avoid being harmed.

We also know from this
character chart that Italy officially becomes an adult in the 20^th
century [x].

The third comic you
referenced is from Comic Diary 2. It
takes place in WW2. Italy cites that fight or flight instincts in war create an
urge in men to reproduce, hence the greater occurrence of sexual intercourse
between men since no women are available. As you mentioned, he leaves to
presumably have sex [x].

The second strip you
mentioned is from volume 2 and seems to take place in WW2. It doesn’t actually confirm whether he’s had sexual
intercourse with these women but rather that he’s met them over the years from
his time spent in war (i.e., “battles). He could have, but it’s not made explicit.

Presently, there’s a
strip where Italy uses a sexual innuendo in front of an attractive girl at an
anime convention [x].

Overall, my guess is
that he probably was a virgin during WW1 having just become an adult but lost
it sometime during or before WW2.

Why does no nation (other than his family) look
behind Russia’s cruelty and see he’s very lonely? (While Russia has done very
questionable things in the past…)

It’s easy to say that from an outsider’s perspective. Even
though Russia wasn’t psychologically aware of the depth and extent of his
cruelty, he was still an abuser. Loneliness isn’t exactly going to make those
whom he tortured instantly want to be friends with him. They’re big enough to
empathize and feel some compassion from him, but none of that will negate the
terrible experiences they endured in his household. I don’t blame them [x].

It’ll take a long time to heal (as we saw with China and
Japan), but I do believe it’s possible that their relationship will
improve in the future.

I’m too disturbed by the fact that Germany
can’t drink beer legally because he’s underage. he’s 20. he became an adult a
few years ago. he literally killed a man in his sleep, but he can’t drink beer
yet / he’s just too mature for his age??? he’s still a bby boy???? he can still
grow a little at this age??? he’s so young???

He’s 20 physiologically but not chronologically and became
an adult decades ago. Drinking ages also vary from country to country.

I know there are a few occasions where nations
physiologically young are barred from drinking (Deleted strip:

America’s Brewster F2A Buffalo), but for
the most part, it doesn’t seem to matter [x].

If a nation ages, it’s usually a mesh between their
chronological age, and political, social, and economic developments.

Leaving a family reunion like…

Q & A

Thank you 😀

Most canon? I’m not sure
what you mean by that, but this is Okinawa’s character [x].

Do you think Czechoslovakia could be considered canon? I
mean, they were married and all and the split was called a divorce, so…

While it is hinted that they miss living with each
other, (i.e., Czechia not having Slovakia to hand her a towel when she takes a
shower and Slovakia realizing that Czechia makes better toast), as well as the
fact that they both get flustered and embarrassed whenever this topic arises,
they haven’t explicitly confirmed feelings for each other. Therefore, it’s not
canon [x].

Additionally something I’ve noticed, in the post where
America grumbles that England didn’t give him any chocolate: Not only was
America eating it in a gluttonous seeming manner to show England he didn’t
care, he had a whole bucket of it. That kind of ideology ‘if i have much more
of ___ then i can be happier and better than other people’ seems excessively
America-esque.

The strip [x]:

It is very much “America-esque!” It’s part of his
characterization. He hoards things in bulk due to being poor and not having had a
lot of possessions when he was younger—notice the link with the chocolate again! [x].

If you want to analyze this psychologically, he filled the void of his loneliness with material objects that would only fulfill him temporarily. It didn’t adress his lacking interpersonal life.

Is there a reason
for why a nation’s immortality can spread to other living beings?

Not that I can recall. My guess is that because time functions differently for them, an
invisible forcefield envelops around their body. Humans or pets that get close
to the nation and the different pace of this time forcefield for prolonged
periods of time subsequently causes them to experience time differently too.

I also forgot to mention something! We do have an instance
of a nation’s immortality rubbing off on a human: Howard the Spy from volume 3 [x].

Himaruya notes that while England took precautions not to spend
too much time with Howard, it’s possible that he may have lived and stayed
youthful longer than the average human [x].

Hey, do you remember the time where himaruya
promised that the story of chibitalia and holy rome will have a happy ending?
What do you think about that?

I’ve done a longer post on this, but I’m 90% sure that the
Chibitalia storyline mimics Disney’s version of Cinderella [x].

Making the unconfirmed assumption that Holy Rome is, in
fact, Germany, I think the big reveal is going to pan out with Germany finding
the old pair of panties that Chibitalia gave to Holy Rome as a parting gift [x].

Since objects in the manga have proven to trigger repressed
memories [x], I think that’s how Germany’s officially going to find out/ not
being able to deny anymore that he’s Holy Rome.

I mean, how else would they have a happy ending if Holy Rome isn’t alive?

Q & A

For those curious,
it’s 116 f or more up there. Yikes. I’ll take our 83 to 96 f later today. I
wanted to ask yesterday, but the ask box didn’t seem to
be connected to the server (at least that’s what it told). How do you think the
Republic of Ireland is related to the UK brothers? It’s not been stated they
are a sibling, or even a relative, so that makes me curious. Happy Canada Day
up there 🎆

[Thank you! The ask box situation has been fixed, but the
read more coding issue still hasn’t been resolved! I’m so sorry, but I can’t
always answer asks right away….]

Himaruya isn’t sure what to do with Ireland, so no relation
has been confirmed [x]. Thus far, we only know that England is the son of four
siblings, including Scotland, Wales, and Northern Ireland [x].

If I’m to speculate here, they could be siblings if Himaruya ever decides to elaborate on the
character. Aside from historical relations, geographic proximity is
occasionally used as a defining factor for sibling relationships.

Given that Northern Ireland is England’s sibling and was originally
partitioned from Ireland, I don’t think this is too much of a stretch. Things get even
more complicated when you see that Northern Ireland is listed as England’s older brother… what a can of worms, eh?

Do you happen to know why people say APH
England doesn’t know how to swim? I’m pretty sure that was a joke in the comic
strips, but everyone seems to consider it canon.

Like you said, it is a joke, stemming from how British
people in horror films have a tendency of not being able to swim. I know I’ve
talked about this before, but my opinion has since shifted. I personally wouldn’t
consider it to be canon given the context [x].

Which Hetalia character has the biggest amount of
ships/harem? Why is it that a lot of the characters can be shipped with everything?
(including fridges apparently).

(Fridges aren’t even the
brink of some of the madness in the fandom :P)

In my experience of
reading fanfiction, I would probably say England. He’s very versatile and fits
well in several dynamics. (e.g., FrUk, UsUk, AsaKiku, EngSey, EngBel, EngIta, and SpUk).

People have different tastes; of course it’s going to vary.

How do you think the Eastern European countries (Ukraine and
Hungary in particular) would interact with their Romas/Gypsies? What would
their relationships be like?

From what I can recall, there is no canon
depiction of this. It’s difficult to say due to the fact that citizenship in one country
doesn’t have meaning in their way of life.

However, given that the nations
represent all people within their territories, including those of different
ethnicities, race, religion, and class, Hungary and Ukraine would personally treat them the same way as they
would with any other citizen, even if they don’t possess citizenship. Citizenship
is a social construction. I believe what’s more important is the fact that
these people live in certain jurisdictions.

I know you said Luxembourg was referring to Belgium and
Netherlands as older siblings are terms of endearment rather than him being
biologically related but, do you think he could at least be related to Belgium
considering that a lot of his former land now belongs to Belgium and their countries
have close relations? (sorry for this being long.)

(Please don’t be sorry!)

The corroborating source
I mentioned in an earlier post [x].

The post [x].

It’s complicated because
as I mentioned before, the Bamboo Thicket post and the corresponding Hetarchive
page state two different things. The post is listed as a rough
translation, but the fact that Himaruya refers to Luxembourg using terms of
endearment instead of directly confirming a sibling relationship to Netherlands
and Belgium in the question is pretty clear.

I don’t know what else
to say. If it doesn’t claim that they’re biological siblings, then they’re not. I’m not a translator and don’t speak Japanese either. Still, what I would like to look into more is why that translation is cited
as rough…