Emi

I learned a bit about Italian civil war recently……… it was a hard time for italy literally between the devil and the deep sea i mean allies and um ex allies 😮‍💨

Also i love how romano actually represents resistance/ partisanship in wwii and thats why he often shames ita and openly hates germany

Also i love romano

I learned a bit about Italian civil war recently……… it was a hard time for italy literally between the devil and the deep sea i mean allies and um ex allies 😮‍💨

Also i love how romano actually represents resistance/ partisanship in wwii and thats why he often shames ita and openly hates germany

Also i love romano

i dont think either actively try to see each other outside of a professional setting. although erzsi doesn't carry an active bitterness toward what remains between them, that does not mean she has forgiven him. she has not forgotten the wreck of their marriage, the way it began with promises of equality he never intended to keep, the way he returned to treating her as inferior the moment it was convenient. nor has she absolved him of his collaboration with germany. she has simply chosen not to live inside those grievances anymore. she prioritizes the future over the past. if it is necessary, she will sit across from karl to discuss trade. she will accept coffee from him at eu proceedings. she is content with the distance he manufactures between them, even relieved by it.

still, his presence irritates her at times. karl remains petty in small, deliberate ways, such as in his refusal to speak to her in any language other than german.

it's more complicated when it comes to karl. he wants erzsi always at arm’s length, yet somehow another planet away. he remembers her separation from him as abandonment at the precise moment he was weakest, when the exhaustion of war was eating him alive. and he remembers her, too, as his worst mistake.

in his mind, his marriage to her became the moment defiance was normalized. it signaled weakness. it taught the other nations under his control that authority could be challenged, that rebellion against him worked. her struggles against him for equal power, her repeated acts of defiance, became, in his memory, the catalysts for his loss of control in the years leading up to franz’s and sisi’s deaths. he blames erzsi for the collapse of his empire. she fanned the flames of nationalism, legitimized fragmentation at a time when he was no longer strong enough to contain it, and doomed him.

to this day, karl internalizes her loss into a fixation over the need to control her, to reclaim whatever power he once held. so while he hates her, cannot stand the sight of her, and holds her responsible for the dissolution of his empire, he also wants her constantly within view: under scrutiny, under surveillance, under his eye. it is the only way a powerless man can feel powerful again.

so while they can "see" each other in professional settings, erszi's refusal to forgive him and karl's ongoing pettiness/weird dichotomy towards her, prevents them from connecting with each other outside of that.