CONCRIT POST!

[dasschlechtende]

CONCRIT MESeriously, I am a history nut and a perfectionist and I will not hate you for correcting me to improve my game. Also, I am not of German heritage in any way (I think) and thus have been researching LIKE MAD so that I can get Prussia's history down and play him as he is as a nation and as a person. I will also be posting up some of the

Comments

[anoathkept]

According to what you wrote in the previous post, plus that confirmation, I think you're still misunderstanding some of the key parts of the medieval stuff. The way I see Hetalia is this: it's a simplification that's not a simplification that is a simplification? As a history major, I often experienced my professors simplifying history in ways that were hilariously similar to how Hetalia is written. I don't think Hetalia discounts the events, but doesn't include the documents, the middle-men, and so forth, which is why it often seems offensive to an outsider. I actually see Hetalia as accurate in its own way as a result of this, but I think playing it as an oversimplification is probably what offends people. It might be better not to do that, which I think you're trying to do, but as someone familiar with Europe during the era in which Prussia was "developed," I think you need a different perspective on the matter.

As a bit of advice, I would look at the development of Europe-"Europe"-from the fall of the Roman Empire (this has an inaccurate date, but I would pinpoint around the late fifth century and early sixth century). Note the progression of the Carolingians and the eventual takeover of Charlemagne. This, too, is simplifying it, but understanding the development of Europe is important to understand the spread of religion, the fact that not everywhere was religious-it was just a major power-and the height of the medieval period, which was when the crusades happened. The crusades themselves are a tricky thing to consider, and understanding the nature of them as connected to the Teutonic Knights is going to be very important to understanding the source of Prussia's creation. I really wish I had my notes on this to give you specifics, but there were a lot of crusades, and the base understanding of "paganism" and "stamping it out" and all those ... words is a lot more complicated than even Wikipedia touches on (though its explanations aren't terrible).

Before attacking head canon for his development as a nation and the eventual progression to being adapted into Germany and all the complicated stuff around that, I'd suggest studying religion in the medieval period, war, and then the progression of these ideas as it worked toward the 18th and 19th centuries. Focus on the major intellectual movements as you go, as they do actually play a part in the development of nations-or the development of nations influenced them. It goes both ways.

Annnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnd finally, when I read the strips, I do admit I see a Prussia very different from the one I see in threads you've linked. According to your portrayal and headcanon, he's a lot more "sad and alone" and "daunted and put down" (I don't know why that's in quotes, er) than he appears to be in the comic. Prussia, as a nation, is portrayed rather well for what I thought he would be like. When I first read the strips a while ago to see how Austria was represented (I'd initially thought Austria should be a woman, so I wanted to see how it was handled), and the first strips I read were with Prussia. It'd make sense that Prussia would be a country that's basically a shounen retard of I AM FUCKING AWESOME, and I see a lot of "boo hoo I'm forgotten" within your development. This may be a camp thing, but it confuses me. I may also just be reading the wrong threads.

In conclusion, I have read Hetalia (actually-mostly the stuff involving your country, Austria, and a couple of others, as I'm quite fond of them as a historian, so it's probably why I'm being harder on you), but I think I'm looking at it differently, possibly because I'm coming in as a history major who's spent a lot of time with this. I think I have a bigger problem with people interpreting Hetalia as "oversimplified" rather than a "concise summary." They're very different ways of looking at it. Yes, it's a light-hearted canon, but you can make history light-hearted while studying it seriously.