[I’ve explained this before, but I’ll use an older example
just to prove the consistency in characterization]
Yes.
Italy used to be composed of several city-states, which were
considered to be something similar to sovereign nations in their own right. The
concept of what consisted of a nation was different then.
While the name Veneziano is clearly a tribute to the city of
Venice, we know that it’s possible for the nations to evolve and gain new
territories/titles as understandings of nationhood and borders change.
In other words, he
could have been born as a personification of Venice, but evolved to represent
North Italy as it was conquered, divided, and amalgamated into being seen as
one region of the country. It was predicated more on where the foreign rulers’
jurisdiction over Northern Italy ended rather than how the people organized and
identified themselves.
Here, Chibitalia is taken over by France via his conquests
in Florence and Naples (this is Romano’s territory, so he was also conquered here too).
Milan, a northern city-state, is also mentioned.
Hima also explicitly refers to him as already representing
several parts of Italy here.
I don’t know, we’re straying into speculative territory here. I like to work from the strips, and base my interpretation on the facts presented. Personally, I find it hard to believe that America wouldn’t know what a cold is, let alone being able to experience the symptoms and yet not link it to illness.
[Just a side note I forgot to mention before]:
In “In just 2 minutes you can grasp the exterior of the European economy,” we learn that the nations get sick as a result of recessions. It doesn’t say anything on whether or not they can get sick as a result of exposure to it.
However, I concur, as @guiltipanda pointed out, Romano contracted Chorea as a result of its prevalence within Southern Italy. But, my addition to that point would be that it has to be a significant political/societal problem as stated in the strip listed above. Remember that the nations have a stronger immune system than your average person.
In other words, the nations can contract illnesses from their people, it just has to be major.
[My speculation] While we haven’t seen it depicted where America directly views illness within his population, he would have had to.
1) Consider previous leaders who died of illness.
2) Consider how prevalent illness was without modern medicine + during times of war (especially in the trenches).
Likewise, although Canada barred America from seeing England when he acquired a cold after the Revolution, he was still aware of the existence and possibility of personification illness. He’s naïve and inexperienced, sure, but not to that degree. That’s why I would attribute it to both a consistency error and a logistical fallacy.
As for Hungary, unfortunately, I still have a ton of requests to get to beforehand! I’ve often see people claim that her love for yaoi is fanon. It’s…canon, not that it makes it anymore right. It’s not a mischaracterization, but is more of a miscalculation in how she’s depicted.
That’s why I mentioned the possibility of it being a consistency error in the post. Otherwise, it wouldn’t make sense given the lack of strength America has shown when he experiences economic depressions.
I.e. During the Great Depression, he’s visibly weaker, low in spirits, and is lacking in confidence to the point that he shivers in the face of the other nations’ anger. That’s not something you would typically see from him.
Misconception: He was an ungrateful child.
In reality, Romano
didn’t realize how much Spain had sacrificed for him until well into his
adulthood. In that sense, he can be even more oblivious than Spain at times.
Spain and Romano share
a very close relationship. What happens is that Romano often gets irritated with
Spain because they tend to switch from completely understanding one other to
not understanding each other at all.
Remember that when he
moved to America for work, Spain was the first person Romano called. He was in
a scary and unfamiliar environment and was all on his own. The fact that he
calls Spain is most telling of the less expressive but nonetheless strong bond they
share together.
Misconception: Romano’s
lazy
Yes, but not all the time. Romano’s a very competent worker when he puts his mind to it.
The truth is that there’s an evident tension between Romano and Veneziano
as a result of their rushed and sudden unification. They were separated for
centuries with minimal contact, and as such, have had a difficult time
reconciling.
Romano grudgingly moves
to America to sustain himself, as he didn’t want to rely on
Veneziano.
While he does complain
frequently, he’s still an exceptionally hard worker. Here, he’s even shown to
be above paying for shoes. Arguably, he’s the harder worker out of the two brothers. I’ll
get back to this in a moment.
There’s also an
interesting conflict regarding how the two Italy brothers share their workload. Romano wants Veneziano to work in order for him to work too while Veneziano wants Romano to “work properly.”
Likewise, there’s the
problem of North Italy infantilizing Romano and his capacity to work and be productive. He has a tendency to alleviate Romano’s workload, much to the latter’s annoyance.
Misconception: He
hates North Italy.
Not quite – he detests
him “a bit.”
The two don’t share
the greatest relationship. This likely stems from the fact that Romano suffers
from an inferiority complex in comparison to his brother, who was spoiled and
tended to more by their grandfather. Combine that with a rushed unification,
and there’s inevitably going to be some tension between them.
What you’ll see is
that Romano will insult Veneziano face-to-face– admittedly, quite spitefully and
rudely– only to discreetly look after his well-being behind his back.
Misconception: He’s
got an emotionally-strong backbone
Romano’s an even
bigger crybaby than Veneziano. He’s extremely sensitive.
Ex: He’s insecure
about his height.
Hopefully this sheds more light on Romano’s character. He’s not the stiff, rude, and unmotivated jerk that I often see him portrayed as in fanon.
While he can act like this, this isn’t how he always is. There’s a deeply emotional, anxious, caring, motivated, and passionate side of him that also needs to be recognized.
Friend: You should get rid of the fandom merchandise you have lying around. It’s taking up too much space.
Sure! I’ll save Hungary, my idol, for another time.
Let’s go over some misconceptions about Romano, shall we? Post coming up tonight!
I’ve briefly talked about America’s naivety before, but
given how prevalent it is throughout the series, it deserves its own post.
For one thing, it’s important to define what I mean by
naivety. It’s not so much that America is gullible, as he’s more than capable
of reading the atmosphere, especially if it means getting what he wants.
Instead, this naivety has more to do with how inexperienced and childish
America can be, often without realizing it.
Likewise, I’ve also explained the role that America’s
isolation has played in this childishness. As a result of a lack of interaction
with other nations, America unintentionally comes off as egotistical. He grew
accustomed to only looking after himself, and this way of interacting with the
world stuck with him.
It’s hard for him to think about and put others first. Even
when he calls himself a hero and ‘saves’ others, it’s self-validating. Of
course, this doesn’t mean that he doesn’t have good intentions, because he
does. He’s a giant sweetheart, don’t get me wrong.
On the other hand, like an inexperienced child, America
lacks a balanced understanding between ability and expectancy. He often has
grand, unrealistic plans that involve him taking the lead in saving something
or someone.
That’s what this post will focus on; how, despite possessing
the ability to make calculated decisions, America still holds some pretty naïve
and unpragmatic beliefs on how life works.
All of this equates to the fact that he’s still relatively
childish.
For one thing, in WW2, he thought that a map of his country was a world map. This is possibly a play on the fact that children often think that the world revolves around them.
This childlike imagery appears again as America proposes
unrealistic world defense plans.
On another note, we also see that he’s not great at planning
for the future. Mass production led to inflation and plummets in stocks,
which ultimately resulted in the Great Depression.
However, during WW2, this mass production starts up again.
What’s interesting is that England remarks to himself that America might have
been traumatized during his childhood due to a lack of belongings and experienced poverty whilst
expanding settlements in his nation– it’s hinted that America overcompensates
for this by producing things in bulk.
Regardless of these economic downturns, America is revealed
to have never had a cold before WW2. Remember that nations acquire colds during
recessions. If this is the case, and it’s not just a consistency error, then
being spared from illness up to this point in time would have also influenced
his naive perception of the world.
Lastly, although possessing benign intentions to give
financial aid to smaller developing nations, America doesn’t seem to grasp at
the fact that loans are more economically harmful than good. Once again, this reveals how unrealistic he
is in being able to match his expectations with a likely outcome.
That said, it’s important to realize that America’s childish
naivety and unintentional egocentrism is only one side of his person. He’s
extremely intelligent and is crafty in getting what he wants.
Most of the time, however, he doesn’t have to use wit and instead
resorts to the easier route of relying on physical force. It’s for the latter
reason that I believe his character is often misinterpreted.
America: I’m going to make a historical documentary about my independence!
Also America: ↑
Never forget that America’s dub actor once sounded like this.
Ellawritesficssometimes 