Note: This
theory will make use of Freudian theory. While I recognize that Freud’s ideas
do not bear much contemporary relevance, that shouldn’t take away from the fact
that many of his concepts (e.g., erogenous zones, childhood memory repression,
catharsis) are nonetheless employed by Hima in the series. The purpose of this
post is to give some insight into the psychologies of the characters.

Terms I’ll go over: Psychosexual stages of development, Causality, Oedipus
Complex, Electra Complex, Penis Envy, Castration Anxiety.

Yes, that’s right. Freud’s ideas are very much prevalent in the
series. A big area of his work was analyzing the impact of childhood on
personality development. Freud believed in causality, meaning that who you are as
an adult can be directly traced back to your childhood.

How you’re parented and
brought up is the most crucial factor. I don’t need to go into this in too much
detail, but basically, we go through five stages of development titled: Oral,
anal, phallic, latency, and genital.

For the purposes of this
post, I only need to talk about the phallic stage of development.

The phallic stage occurs
between 3-4 until 6-7 years of age. This stage involves the awakening of sexual
desires. However, I cannot stress this enough that the sexual desires are
autoerotic, meaning that the child does not derive any sexual pleasure or
stimulation.

Basically, the child merely
becomes aware of the fact that their genitalia differentiates them physiologically.
This would involve them developing a curiosity of their genitalia given that
they’ve gained a newfound awareness of it.

Another tenet of the stage
involves the child being unconsciously attracted – again, not sexually – to their opposite-sex parent and developing a
hostility toward their same-sex parent.

For example, it’s common for
little boys to claim that they want to marry their mothers when they’re older. The
love isn’t sexual, at all. It’s predicated on the child wanting to be closer to
their opposite-sex parent.

If anything, the stage
involves a perceived competition between the child and their same-sex parent
for the attention of the opposite-sex parent. Put another way, a little boy
would perceive his father as a barrier to receiving his mother’s full love and
affection and would thus develop a hostility toward the father.

It’s all unconscious. The child
doesn’t realize why they feel this way, but they do. Another example of this
would be children hopping into bed with their parents. They unconsciously split
up the parents without realizing the meaning behind their actions.

Boys develop an Oedipus Complex,
which involves them desiring to possess their mothers and replace their
fathers.

Girls develop an Electra
Complex, which involves them desiring to possess their fathers and replace
their mothers.

For this hostility/ stage to
be resolved, the child must learn to identify with their same-sex parent.

If this hostility/ stage goes
unresolved, however, the child can develop another complex depending on their
perceived gender.

Boys develop castration
anxiety, a fear of losing their penis resulting from the jealousy and
competitiveness they feel toward their father.

Just to unpack that a little,
Freud’s theories are allegorical. The child doesn’t actually fear losing their
penis. What they do fear is losing the power associated with it. That said, it’s
critical to situate the context in which Freud came up with these theories.

A little boy perceives his
father in the family to be the most powerful figure – that’s because at the
time, society was strictly patriarchal. Those with power at the time had penises;
male genitalia and power are unconsciously equated together. In competing for
his mother’s affection, the little boy wants to overthrow the father’s power in
the family dynamic.

If the Oedipus Complex goes
unresolved, and the male child fails to identify – form an alliance – with their
father, then they perceive this competition to be lost. As such, they lose
power.

Castration Anxiety at its
core has to do with the male child perceiving themselves to have lost against
their father as opposed to forming a bond with them.

On the other hand, girls who
fail to form an alliance with their mothers develop feelings of Penis [power] Envy.
They are unhappy with the lack of power they have and don’t identify with their
mothers and their respective social position.

Where Hungary Fits Into This: 

Hungary’s tricky, because she
originally didn’t identify as a girl. She thought she was a boy for centuries
and therefore identified as such. Regardless, what you’ll see with Hima is that
he purposefully makes references to Hungary’s confusion over her genitalia.
That’s what really locks her into this stage of development.

Castration Anxiety: 

To begin with, Hungary was
raised as a man by Magyar. He taught her how to fight.

That’s why, when she loses to
Turkey on several occasions, she questions whether she’s strong enough. Her
strength is seen as a sign of manhood. This would be her experience of
castration anxiety… of losing power and being weak.

Power Envy:

The penis envy complex with
Hungary doesn’t develop right away. She [He] identified with her same-sex
parent without any problem despite the fact that she lacked a mother figure. Point
is, Hungary, as a boy, identified with Magyar, the father-figure.

The complex develops as
Hungary slowly begins to realize that she’s different physiologically from
other boys.

She develops chest pains but
is quick to wave this off. (Her breasts are growing, but she doesn’t realize this.)

The differentiation stage
begins when Hungary mistakenly tells Prussia that men grow penises when they’re
older. 

Prussia, of course, tells her that that’s not how the male genitalia
works.

What’s important here is that
Hungary’s conceptions are beginning to shift, even if she doesn’t believe it
right away.

Right before she settles down
in Austria’s house is the last that we see of her dismissing her physiological differences. Prussia’s reaction to her exposed chest as he fixes her injuries is what does it for her.

It’s tentative, but she still recognizes her physiological difference.

One joke in particular from this scene is
important, silly as the surface of it may be. Prussia offers to treat Hungary’s injuries by ripping off his crotch cloth.

The symbolism of this is that by refusing the crotch cloth, Hungary’s embraced her womanhood.

I don’t think Hima did this
for strictly comical purposes.

Not to mention that one of
her character notes explicitly states that she developed a complex over
worrying about her fighting skills getting rusty after settling down. [x]

Ex: A lot of this stems from the
fact that she first existed as an equestrian tribe and used to hunt with a bow
and arrow. 

[x]

Under Austria’s rule, notice how
conflicted she is when she says that she has “no interest in hunting.”

Nevertheless, this shouldn’t be
any reason for worry considering that Hungary’s also noted to be one of the manliest
characters in the comic…

…and for a damn good reason
too.