Personne
Personality:
France lives her life as though there's always someone watching her- and loves every bit of it. No matter the situation, she makes sure she looks absolutely chic, if she's dishevelled she's artistically dishevelled, maintaining the style and sex appeal she considers crucial to the character of le Français. Just about anything is excusable, so long as it's done big and with the dramatic flair that captivates her interest. Failure is acceptable and can lead to improvement. Boredom is unforgivable. As such, she loves to keep up with the latest fashions, while experimenting with the avant-garde, and has no patience for anything passé, even if she herself was wearing it less than a year ago. You don't see her wearing it now, do you?
She's utterly in love with her own image as a sexy, confident, intelligent, mature woman. Though she's proudly feminist in philosophy, she relishes her femininity and fully expects men to hold doors open for her, carry her bags and compliment her beauty. While other feminists might see this as disrespectful and a sign of the man considering women weak, France considers it simply what is done and what she deserves. Equal rights are crucial, of course, but it'll be a cold day in hell before she gives up the few benefits chivalry has given her over the centuries. Besides, she knows that true sex appeal cannot exist without a sexy mind and assumes all men worth considering know the same.
Despite appearing rather superficial, France values intelligence and debate above all else. Les discours (debate and conversation) are vital for any social interaction and she'll happily argue any concept- from philosophy to politics to food- for hours before reaching any decision, by which point the conversation will have gone off on such a tangent that it's likely all members of the conversation- by now including every Frenchman or woman within a five mile radius- will have completely forgotten the original topic and no longer care anyway. Everyone in France is a philosopher and Marianne herself is no exception. She has an opinion on everything and is always willing to share it. Rude to a fault, France sees no problem in insulting strangers, friends and enemies and she's brutally forward with her opinions on people. Casual rudeness is perfectly acceptable to her, and respect is something to be earned- a privilege rather than a right.
One of her main flaws is definitely her sense of entitlement and ego, she cares very little for anyone's opinion of her since she knows she's magnificent. While this certainly benefits her sense of self-worth, it does little towards helping her make friends. Nevertheless, she simply tells herself that only a truly important nation could have so many enemies. Though, she may be fairly unmovable and appears unaffected by most things, dismissing anything that displeases her, once one of her buttons has been pressed she becomes very emotional. This involves either extreme rage, bursting into tears or cold and calculated revenge, depending on what said button was and who was pushing it. She's actually quite malicious and has been described as a “poor winner” that “does not take her victories well”, probably because of her love of being incredibly harsh on the loser. France can be quite cruel to anyone that scorns her.
Of course, if there's one thing you would associate with France, it's l'amour. There's really no way around it. For France, love, romance and sex are all part of every day life. There is no escaping it and it fills all aspects of her character. She has a soft spot for unrequited, tragic love affairs in fiction, seeing beauty in love that continues on even after rejection and heart break. However, in her own life, this fondness for l'amour usually finds itself in the form of short lived love affairs, one night stands and occasionally molesting her fellow nations. They generally don't appreciate this very much, but she loves flirting and harassing even her enemies. She's more restrained with humans and much more charming. She's attracted to men and women, but only beautiful ones. “Beautiful” is a flexible thing, since for France it's more about sex appeal than purely aesthetics, but she's far pickier than her male counterpart.
She does value true romance when she sees it, and encourages it as best she can, but considers herself too old and too free to settle down herself. Besides, consistency is boring, and being boring is the worst thing she can think of. It's probably no coincidence that all her closest friendships are frequently interrupted by some kind of angst or ferocious warfare. It keeps things interesting.
After World War II, France isn't really known for her military prowess (“cheese-eating surrender monkeys” as the English say) and she's mostly content with being known for her philosophers and artists, war has lost the appeal it had in her younger years. However, she is capable of being quite brutal and in her day she was a highly sought after ally and a worrisome enemy. Many of her former colonies can attest to her ruthlessness and by her memory, Napoleon was not so long ago. Today she'd rather avoid war if she can though, lately it really hasn't brought her anything but trouble. She likes to think she's matured a lot since the end of the Great War, though your mileage may vary when it comes to how true this is. Though she's often insulted and called a coward, in reality she is simply a survivalist. Centuries of warfare, being invaded and just the harsh realities of life in general have made her surprisingly pragmatic in her heart of hearts and she'll do just about anything to ensure her own survival.
Since going through the beginning of the 20th Century with not enough children (contributing to her surrender in WW2, she insists) her already strong maternal instincts have gone into overdrive. She adores children and pampers them to a ridiculous degree. She enjoys mothering not only children but her “younger siblings”, other nations. Even England experiences it when she gets sick, though only after France makes fun of her a bit until she realises it's serious. She likes forcing food onto people, showering them in hugs and kisses and giving them the advice you'd expect from a cool older sis. Sometimes she gives good advice. Sometimes she gives terrible advice. She does express far more platonic affection than her male counterpart (which isn't to say she shows any less of the other kind) and often gets carried away with her “big sister” image of herself.
France lives her life as though there's always someone watching her- and loves every bit of it. No matter the situation, she makes sure she looks absolutely chic, if she's dishevelled she's artistically dishevelled, maintaining the style and sex appeal she considers crucial to the character of le Français. Just about anything is excusable, so long as it's done big and with the dramatic flair that captivates her interest. Failure is acceptable and can lead to improvement. Boredom is unforgivable. As such, she loves to keep up with the latest fashions, while experimenting with the avant-garde, and has no patience for anything passé, even if she herself was wearing it less than a year ago. You don't see her wearing it now, do you?
She's utterly in love with her own image as a sexy, confident, intelligent, mature woman. Though she's proudly feminist in philosophy, she relishes her femininity and fully expects men to hold doors open for her, carry her bags and compliment her beauty. While other feminists might see this as disrespectful and a sign of the man considering women weak, France considers it simply what is done and what she deserves. Equal rights are crucial, of course, but it'll be a cold day in hell before she gives up the few benefits chivalry has given her over the centuries. Besides, she knows that true sex appeal cannot exist without a sexy mind and assumes all men worth considering know the same.
Despite appearing rather superficial, France values intelligence and debate above all else. Les discours (debate and conversation) are vital for any social interaction and she'll happily argue any concept- from philosophy to politics to food- for hours before reaching any decision, by which point the conversation will have gone off on such a tangent that it's likely all members of the conversation- by now including every Frenchman or woman within a five mile radius- will have completely forgotten the original topic and no longer care anyway. Everyone in France is a philosopher and Marianne herself is no exception. She has an opinion on everything and is always willing to share it. Rude to a fault, France sees no problem in insulting strangers, friends and enemies and she's brutally forward with her opinions on people. Casual rudeness is perfectly acceptable to her, and respect is something to be earned- a privilege rather than a right.
One of her main flaws is definitely her sense of entitlement and ego, she cares very little for anyone's opinion of her since she knows she's magnificent. While this certainly benefits her sense of self-worth, it does little towards helping her make friends. Nevertheless, she simply tells herself that only a truly important nation could have so many enemies. Though, she may be fairly unmovable and appears unaffected by most things, dismissing anything that displeases her, once one of her buttons has been pressed she becomes very emotional. This involves either extreme rage, bursting into tears or cold and calculated revenge, depending on what said button was and who was pushing it. She's actually quite malicious and has been described as a “poor winner” that “does not take her victories well”, probably because of her love of being incredibly harsh on the loser. France can be quite cruel to anyone that scorns her.
Of course, if there's one thing you would associate with France, it's l'amour. There's really no way around it. For France, love, romance and sex are all part of every day life. There is no escaping it and it fills all aspects of her character. She has a soft spot for unrequited, tragic love affairs in fiction, seeing beauty in love that continues on even after rejection and heart break. However, in her own life, this fondness for l'amour usually finds itself in the form of short lived love affairs, one night stands and occasionally molesting her fellow nations. They generally don't appreciate this very much, but she loves flirting and harassing even her enemies. She's more restrained with humans and much more charming. She's attracted to men and women, but only beautiful ones. “Beautiful” is a flexible thing, since for France it's more about sex appeal than purely aesthetics, but she's far pickier than her male counterpart.
She does value true romance when she sees it, and encourages it as best she can, but considers herself too old and too free to settle down herself. Besides, consistency is boring, and being boring is the worst thing she can think of. It's probably no coincidence that all her closest friendships are frequently interrupted by some kind of angst or ferocious warfare. It keeps things interesting.
After World War II, France isn't really known for her military prowess (“cheese-eating surrender monkeys” as the English say) and she's mostly content with being known for her philosophers and artists, war has lost the appeal it had in her younger years. However, she is capable of being quite brutal and in her day she was a highly sought after ally and a worrisome enemy. Many of her former colonies can attest to her ruthlessness and by her memory, Napoleon was not so long ago. Today she'd rather avoid war if she can though, lately it really hasn't brought her anything but trouble. She likes to think she's matured a lot since the end of the Great War, though your mileage may vary when it comes to how true this is. Though she's often insulted and called a coward, in reality she is simply a survivalist. Centuries of warfare, being invaded and just the harsh realities of life in general have made her surprisingly pragmatic in her heart of hearts and she'll do just about anything to ensure her own survival.
Since going through the beginning of the 20th Century with not enough children (contributing to her surrender in WW2, she insists) her already strong maternal instincts have gone into overdrive. She adores children and pampers them to a ridiculous degree. She enjoys mothering not only children but her “younger siblings”, other nations. Even England experiences it when she gets sick, though only after France makes fun of her a bit until she realises it's serious. She likes forcing food onto people, showering them in hugs and kisses and giving them the advice you'd expect from a cool older sis. Sometimes she gives good advice. Sometimes she gives terrible advice. She does express far more platonic affection than her male counterpart (which isn't to say she shows any less of the other kind) and often gets carried away with her “big sister” image of herself.