Well both you could say, they're humanized personifications of literal countries to be specific.
However Season 5 especially shows that they can actually be in their country and interact with the people in it while still being called by their country name...if that makes any sense.... just watch S5 ep15 and you'll see what I mean....
We also see that they have "bosses" which would suggest that they, while representing their countries, still don't make all the decisions (they themselves do not make up the whole government of the country they represent)
What your asking I think can kinda vary a little from fan to fan, basically I see it as their more representation, they literally represent their countries culture and history (and stereotypes for that matter)
But I guess the show does show that they can actually be in their countries while being the country...which would make them more representations I guess...yeah like I said watch Season 5 and it'll probably make more sense...
hope this helped, I don't think I made any sense ^^"
You might have mistaken the characters to be some sort of citizen ambassadors of the respective countries they came from but no. They are the countries themselves. The human version of the countries.
I think that the Hetalia countries are personifications of the morale, attitude and culture of the people of the real country. This means that the characters are different individuals from the actual landmass (as some countries can appear on their own landmass so they can't be the same entity) or the country's foreign politics (which is symbolized by the country's boss).
posted over a year ago
Profound idea you got there. That made me reflect. It's true that they embody the culture of the country but they also include the territory in their representation (for example, the curls of several countries represent a geographical area like Nantucket, Mariazelle, Seoul, Seborga rocky terrain, and even the US glasses represent Texas) so we can presume that the body of the countries represent the territory as a whole, but not only that. Viewers should also study the concept of "state" as it best explains what the hetalia characters represent (not to be confused with “State” as in the 50 States of the US, or that of German landeren). Usually, we synonymously or interchangeably use the terms "state" and "country", as the latter is the more commonly known term, but in its strictest sense, country just refers to the “tangible, concrete” geographical territory, on the other hand “state” is an “intangible, abstract” concept which holistically includes: territory, sovereignty, people (this is where culture comes in), and govn’t - combined. But here in hetalia, what was “intangible”, “abstract” concept in textbooks are now made “concretely imaginable” through their manganized human personification as hetalia characters. Countries not only represent the territory, it is true. The author himself would have a hard time since a "state's" territory is not definite - they may lose or accumulate other territories. And even some territories have an anthropomorphic entity of their own (e.g. France's Picardy, Japan's perfectures, Germany's brothers, England's brothers, the US' Molossia, etc.)... In fact, not necessarily do they have to have a definite territory. Let’s take a look at Prussia’s case: Before he even secured the Prussian territories and settle down as a real “state”, he was already in existence, only as a religious-military organization as he was once called the Teutonic Knights (Order of St. Maria). So despite me saying that Hetalia characters is the embodiment of the concept “state”, it seems, they may also exist even when they are incomplete of the 4 elements enumerated. In fact nowadays, Prussia lack the element of govn’t and sovereignty, yet he exist. Let’s take a look at baby America and baby Canada, they still didn’t have govn’t of their own back then (they weren’t officially “state” back then) and they used not to have as much territory as they have in the present-day. Then here’s another complicated case, that of Germany and HRE. In the Hetalia world, the anthropomorphized representation of the territories (as of HRE – the German states/kingdom/duchies, Austria-Hungary, etc. ; while as of Germany – his brothers Prussia, Hesse, Bavaria, etc.) were already in existence prior to the birth of (human version) HRE and then of (human version) Germany. So what do the 2 represent then? It’s the totality of the Holy Roman Empire and Germany as a state, complete with the 4 elements: territory, sovereignty, people, and govn’t. To summarize it all: First we can have the presumption that hetalia characters are the anthropomorphic representation of their respective “state” (countries during the WWII timeskip qualify to that). Then we can sort out throughout the course of the story which characters may be identified as exemptions to that “presumption”, that is to say, the ones who don’t possess all the 4 elements of “state” and may only be representing a: a.) territory (e.g. Molossia, Picardy, Japanese prefectures [himaruya made character designs for the prefectures], Germany’s brothers in the present-day, etc.); b.) people (Prussia back when he was still the Order of St. Maria he represented the fraternity of the Teutonic crusaders rather than an actual kingdom, so I guess we can say he only represented a group of “people” back then.); c.) sovereignty and govn’t (to which I would categorize the HRE as a political entity, and Germany representing the union of Germanic states/kingdoms…. In Hetalia world, I imagine the concept of “sovereignty” represented as personified character being whatever “power” or “force” (the mutual sentiment of a Germanic union or Empire building maybe and its charter, represented by Germany and HRE.) it is that commands solidarity, loyalty and obedience to its components. While when I say govn’t being represented by a character, I only pertain to the governmental set up like the HRE being an Empire that prevails over its member-states or Germany being a federal republic that prevails over its landeren. Although the people who operates the govn’t [which is more accurately called as the “administration”] are the citizen-officials and their boss. ) . On the side note, it is their culture and stereotypical traits that describes their personality. Although, sometimes a hetalia character/country don’t reflect the sentiment or prevalent attitude, or public opinion (as distinguished to established culture) of the people. Example, during Jean d’Arcs’s inquisition, Frenchmen were less sympathetic for Her. On the contrary, France (the hetalian country) in fact felt thoroughly devastated deep inside. Present-day UK has already gotten over a long time ago how they lost their American colonies but here in the series England the character can’t still get over. What else… There are other instances there, I don’t remember them all. I think Himaruya also said something about why Belarus wanted to unite with Russia when their national govn’t or the public opinion (either of that. I forgot which one exactly) was against it. Another one I remember. I was expecting Taiwan would be antagonistic to China vice versa, considering the dispute on territory/sovereignty, but there in the series, you see them in good terms. It seems Taiwan don’t hate China while her people and govn’t are actually against mainland encroachment.
I don't know that much about history, but I think Belarus and Taiwan like Russia and China due to their governments being left-winged. Belarus negotiated with Russia to unify into the Union State of Russia and Belarus in real life. As for Taiwan, their current "boss" is left-winged. The truth is both Belarus and Taiwan need to form diplomatic relationships with Russia and China respectively as these two superpowers are much more powerful. The military forces of Belarus and Taiwan are also weaker in comparison. They could not afford going to war against these two larger nations (although the US would probably back them up as in what’s happening in Ukraine right now).
I should thank you for sharing that. I don't know about the history of Belarus, to be honest. So if the national govn't negotiated then it could be that Himaruya was pertaining to the public opinion being against union with Russia (I'm not sure. It seems absurd that the nat. govn't did something against public opinion. I might have to check it on the webcomic.)... As of Taiwan, well, you know it better. But during the time when Himaruya first created Taiwan I just don't know if Taiwanese govn't was already left-wingers back then or were they anti-mainland (?)... I was expecting hetalia Taiwan would be like Hong Kong who is not as congenial and lighhearted as that to China like there's no problem or issue between them. I mean, if Hong Kong is naughty to China, and he’s even an official territory of China, why not Taiwan whom had also a shaky past with China? Well, maybe Taiwan from Hetalia should not be portrayed as bluntly antagonistic for the sake of maintaining diplomatic relations, but I was imagining she’d rather be just civil to him (while being nice to others), not that sister-like and friendly like that around China. As how Taiwan is portrayed, it seems she's nice around China not just because she wanted to establish smooth diplomatic relations with him but simply because Himaruya gave her the bubbly personality. She doesn't seem to care about politics, it was just because she's nice. Just my opinion though. As of Belarus, I think it's because she's also just obsessed with Russia whether her people approves it or not. Her feeling go way back when they were still kids, as shown in Hetalia episode/strips. I remember the case of Ukraine in Hetalia when his boss prohibits Russian interaction but Ukraine (the character) really wanted to see his brother again and was concerned of him (so I guess Ukraine (the character) don’t really reflect the will of her boss/govn’t.).... As of Belarus and Taiwan, what you said is true. That’s quite what the reality is. But when it comes to China, I’m not sure if the US is up against real fight with China considering that the US is already in a whooping debt and trade-deficit as it is, it’ll be disastrous if China impose economic sanction. But then again, will the US let itself be pushed around by China?
