Hetalia, Hetalia, Hetalia~
In relation to my Become One With Canada multi-“chapter” story, I’ve found the need to write down my thoughts on human-nation relations in the Hetalia-verse. Mostly for my own sake, but also to let those who read those of my fanfics which deals with the issue in on how I see things, and make it easier (hopefully) to follow them.
Note: These are my opinions, and I am not by any means trying to force or persuade anyone to abandon their own views to agree with me instead.
---Firstly, on the topic of human names.
I happen to be a real slut for canon facts, and thus, I always look to canon first when it comes to how to treat a character within fic. I could never have someone do something that’s been spoken against in the actual series, and the issue of the Hetalia nations’ names is a perfect example for this. In fandom, many people seem to have taken to using their human names quite often, for some nations more often than others. While I have absolutely nothing against others doing this, and enjoy a great number of fanfics which exclusively uses the human names, it’s not how I chose to write myself.
My own way to see the usage of human names is this: They’re there for the nations’ convenience sake. It would get a bit problematic to book a table for ‘Sweden’ or a room at a hotel for ‘Greece’. I’m figuring that it would be quite acceptable for England to sign an official document as ‘England’, at least in the few cases his signature were required for national issues (more on this in the human relations, interactions and bosses part of what’s turning into a real essay already XD), but not when buying a new TV, for example.
In canon, we’ve heard the nations refer to each other by name once that I can recall; when Southern Italy calls Northern Italy ‘Feliciano’ (or Veneciano, depending on the interpretion). However, when N. Italy introduces his brother to Germany in the Drama CDs, he explains that his own human name is Feliciano, while S. Italy is still only said to be ‘Romano’, which isn’t his human name but another way to name his national embodiment, sort of. This is what I base my belief that using the human names or not is a habit that varies from nation to nation; as I imagine it, it is a tad bit more familiar to use the human names; kind of like a nickname. Thus, I think that the ones who would be inclined to use the human names would be those who
(1) have a closer relationship to each other and portrays this by being more informal and use human names in non-politic situations/all the time. (Nations who I count as belonging to the first group is; England, America, Canada, Spain, Romano/S. Italy, France and Hungary.)
or
(2) are simply more inclined to use nicknames on a regular basis. (Nations who I count as belonging to this group is Denmark, Prussia and Finland, amongst others.)
---Secondly, on interaction with humans and bosses.
It’s been clearly stated through canon that the Hetalia nations’ bosses are well aware of their countries’ more human-like existence, and interact with them on a regular basis. By ‘bosses’, one means the people-elected (and sometimes self-appointed; dictators) leaders for each country. Exactly how much of the fandom’s interpretation that the nations answer to their bosses and has to obey their orders of the time that comes from canon, I am not sure about, but it seems plausible enough to me. As I see it, the close relationship between the nation’s bosses and their nation could mean either that
(1) the existence of the people-nations can be a kind of national secret, revealed only to the elected/appointed leader of a nation
or that
(2) the existence of the people-nations is a well-known fact to everyone
As I see it, it can go either way, depending on the author. I’ve been toying around with both concepts in several of my fics (haven’t posted all of them yet, if you’re wondering why you’re not getting what I’m referring to ^^;), and I find that both work rather well. However, I do have a favourite concept which has been presented to me through campfuckudie (like so many of my other theories in so many fandoms):
The people of each nation would be able to feel, if not directly identify, their own father/mother nation. Depending on how strong their sense of patriotism is. It is an undeniable fact that the Hetalia-nations are, in fact, nations. If you met your own nation, you may be able to tell right away, and even if you didn’t, you’d be intrigued by the feeling of familiarity that they emit. If they also presented themselves as Sweden, for example, my common sense would probably like to laugh at the whole idea, while my gut feeling would let me know that it is the truth. However, if the nations were to go around and introduce themselves to every new person as “I am Japan, please regard me kindly”, there’d probably be a big hassle for the poor embodiment, as I figure a lot of people would like to get friendly with someone as important as their own father/mother nation (this also refers back to the issue with the names).
This is part of my own delusion that the Hetalia-verse shouldn't necessary have to be a different one from ours. Kinda childish, but well. A fanboy has his rights to dream, right? XD
---Thirdly, on the nations’ relations to their people
Actually, most of fandom seem to have a rather unified opinion on this, but I thought I should bring this up anyway. Because there are those who have voiced other opinions as well, so I wanna make sure I myself know where I stand, kinda.
I believe the Hetalia-nations to be embodiments not only of a nation’s culture, history, stereotypes and landmasses, as canon has made sure we know, but also of the people’s heart and will. There are several good examples in fanfiction out there which describes this phenomenon, but I believe that the best one I’ve found so far, which shows this extremely clearly, is “Exodus” by ghostofthemotif. Go read it and you’ll know what I mean right away, without me needing to explain anything more at all. It’s an amazingly good fic.
Exodus
Part 1
Part 2
Part 3
Part 4
Epilogue
This theory makes me speculate further upon the relationships between the nations and they bosses. Because wouldn’t it be convenient for a leader to have his people’s will in practically in black-and-white, represented as a simple person, with him/her all the time? However, in canon, the bosses relationships to the nations doesn’t seem like this at all. Though I must admit that most of the time, the portrayal of the ‘bosses’ are even more ridiculous to me than the actual nations, so I don’t think I should go further into this less I’ll get a severe headache trying to figure it out ^^;
That is basically all I felt I needed to bring up at the moment. I might/will probably add more later on.
Damn, that's long.
Note: These are my opinions, and I am not by any means trying to force or persuade anyone to abandon their own views to agree with me instead.
---Firstly, on the topic of human names.
I happen to be a real slut for canon facts, and thus, I always look to canon first when it comes to how to treat a character within fic. I could never have someone do something that’s been spoken against in the actual series, and the issue of the Hetalia nations’ names is a perfect example for this. In fandom, many people seem to have taken to using their human names quite often, for some nations more often than others. While I have absolutely nothing against others doing this, and enjoy a great number of fanfics which exclusively uses the human names, it’s not how I chose to write myself.
My own way to see the usage of human names is this: They’re there for the nations’ convenience sake. It would get a bit problematic to book a table for ‘Sweden’ or a room at a hotel for ‘Greece’. I’m figuring that it would be quite acceptable for England to sign an official document as ‘England’, at least in the few cases his signature were required for national issues (more on this in the human relations, interactions and bosses part of what’s turning into a real essay already XD), but not when buying a new TV, for example.
In canon, we’ve heard the nations refer to each other by name once that I can recall; when Southern Italy calls Northern Italy ‘Feliciano’ (or Veneciano, depending on the interpretion). However, when N. Italy introduces his brother to Germany in the Drama CDs, he explains that his own human name is Feliciano, while S. Italy is still only said to be ‘Romano’, which isn’t his human name but another way to name his national embodiment, sort of. This is what I base my belief that using the human names or not is a habit that varies from nation to nation; as I imagine it, it is a tad bit more familiar to use the human names; kind of like a nickname. Thus, I think that the ones who would be inclined to use the human names would be those who
(1) have a closer relationship to each other and portrays this by being more informal and use human names in non-politic situations/all the time. (Nations who I count as belonging to the first group is; England, America, Canada, Spain, Romano/S. Italy, France and Hungary.)
or
(2) are simply more inclined to use nicknames on a regular basis. (Nations who I count as belonging to this group is Denmark, Prussia and Finland, amongst others.)
---Secondly, on interaction with humans and bosses.
It’s been clearly stated through canon that the Hetalia nations’ bosses are well aware of their countries’ more human-like existence, and interact with them on a regular basis. By ‘bosses’, one means the people-elected (and sometimes self-appointed; dictators) leaders for each country. Exactly how much of the fandom’s interpretation that the nations answer to their bosses and has to obey their orders of the time that comes from canon, I am not sure about, but it seems plausible enough to me. As I see it, the close relationship between the nation’s bosses and their nation could mean either that
(1) the existence of the people-nations can be a kind of national secret, revealed only to the elected/appointed leader of a nation
or that
(2) the existence of the people-nations is a well-known fact to everyone
As I see it, it can go either way, depending on the author. I’ve been toying around with both concepts in several of my fics (haven’t posted all of them yet, if you’re wondering why you’re not getting what I’m referring to ^^;), and I find that both work rather well. However, I do have a favourite concept which has been presented to me through campfuckudie (like so many of my other theories in so many fandoms):
The people of each nation would be able to feel, if not directly identify, their own father/mother nation. Depending on how strong their sense of patriotism is. It is an undeniable fact that the Hetalia-nations are, in fact, nations. If you met your own nation, you may be able to tell right away, and even if you didn’t, you’d be intrigued by the feeling of familiarity that they emit. If they also presented themselves as Sweden, for example, my common sense would probably like to laugh at the whole idea, while my gut feeling would let me know that it is the truth. However, if the nations were to go around and introduce themselves to every new person as “I am Japan, please regard me kindly”, there’d probably be a big hassle for the poor embodiment, as I figure a lot of people would like to get friendly with someone as important as their own father/mother nation (this also refers back to the issue with the names).
This is part of my own delusion that the Hetalia-verse shouldn't necessary have to be a different one from ours. Kinda childish, but well. A fanboy has his rights to dream, right? XD
---Thirdly, on the nations’ relations to their people
Actually, most of fandom seem to have a rather unified opinion on this, but I thought I should bring this up anyway. Because there are those who have voiced other opinions as well, so I wanna make sure I myself know where I stand, kinda.
I believe the Hetalia-nations to be embodiments not only of a nation’s culture, history, stereotypes and landmasses, as canon has made sure we know, but also of the people’s heart and will. There are several good examples in fanfiction out there which describes this phenomenon, but I believe that the best one I’ve found so far, which shows this extremely clearly, is “Exodus” by ghostofthemotif. Go read it and you’ll know what I mean right away, without me needing to explain anything more at all. It’s an amazingly good fic.
Exodus
Part 1
Part 2
Part 3
Part 4
Epilogue
This theory makes me speculate further upon the relationships between the nations and they bosses. Because wouldn’t it be convenient for a leader to have his people’s will in practically in black-and-white, represented as a simple person, with him/her all the time? However, in canon, the bosses relationships to the nations doesn’t seem like this at all. Though I must admit that most of the time, the portrayal of the ‘bosses’ are even more ridiculous to me than the actual nations, so I don’t think I should go further into this less I’ll get a severe headache trying to figure it out ^^;
That is basically all I felt I needed to bring up at the moment. I might/will probably add more later on.
Damn, that's long.