Hopeless romantic

Sweden and Finland’s real life history does seem to be rather turbulent, and it’s interesting that Hima still decided to ship them. But I think he did acknowledge to an extent Finland’s painful history under Sweden’s subjugation.

Although Hima portrays Sweden to be sweet towards Finland, he also does show that Sweden was overbearing and controlling of him as well. Sweden did his own thing without asking Finland, whether it was hugging him without his permission, or calling him as his wife without any prior hint of reciprocation, all the while scaring Finland with his actions. Finland was actively scared of and uncomfortable with Sweden for a large portion of their interactions in the past, feeling more free even under Russia.

I think it’s interesting Hima decided to take these two nations and still show Sweden to have romantic feelings for Finland from the start, while also acknowledging the harm he dealt to him. While living under Russia, Finland is seen eating with Sweden and its kinda confusing why he would do that, especially since he’s still shown being scared of Sweden, and it makes a bit more sense when I consider maybe Hima was being clever with Stockholm being Sweden’s capital. Sweden does try to be helpful towards Finland and though his actions for the most part terrify him Finland still somewhat acknowledges Sweden does try. This kinda fear + appreciation probably would develop something akin to stockholm syndrome?

Their relationship continues to evolve though and I think Finland’s freedom under Russian rule was the beginning to the change in their dynamic. Sweden can’t physically be overbearing and politically demanding to Finland anymore, and that distance between them probably helped them to reflect a lot, especially Sweden. In the modern times, he’s a lot more considerate towards Finland. His personal feelings for him never disappeared but now he respects Finland’s autonomy and thoughts as an equal. When Denmark asks him if he’s lonely without a wife in 2013, Sweden doesn’t immediately claim Finland as a “wife” and instead simply says he would like to be married but if it’s okay if he isn’t, and Denmark asks if he’s just being patient and not saying his true feelings. And when Finland says his back itches in a space where it’s suspiciously just the two of them with Sweden even reading a book, Sweden doesn’t immediately touch him like he did in the past. He asks if he wants a back scratch and Finland politely rejects it.

I think in the present Finland no longer has stockholm syndrome, as Sweden is no longer feeding into the cycle of fear and extreme actions, showing that he respects Finland’s boundaries and treats him as an equal. He’s become more emotionally mature and learned to be more emotionally attuned to Finland. What’s left now is an appreciation for their shared history and a quiet forgiveness from Finland to Sweden. Finland, now his own autonomous nation under nobody’s rule, chooses to spend time with Sweden not out of fear or unhealthy attachment but because of the comfort and happiness he finds in being around him.

Hetalia isn’t always historically accurate and Himaruya doesn’t actually intend on portraying countries exactly like their real life counterparts but also humanizes them, and he also doesn’t delve into the most painful real life events for nations, even for Japan. But I think he did a good job with hinting at Sweden and Finland’s imbalanced and painful history through Sweden’s actions towards Finland and Finland’s discomfort with it all. And at the same time, they are more than a representation of their real life counterparts. They grow and evolve, yes motivated by political events, but also by their more personal feelings for each other.

In the modern day, both Finland and Sweden have changed, for the better. Finland’s relationship with Sweden is much more healthy as they navigate their new dynamic, with centuries of shared history and complicated feelings towards each other. There is a sense of hope, and love, forgiveness, and comfort and warmth in the way that Finland seeks Sweden’s attention in the modern day. Sweden is still facially unexpressive but much more considerate of Finland’s feelings and boundaries than before, while still trying to be helpful towards him. Finland still acknowledges Sweden can be intimidating but it’s not from anything Sweden does to him, just the way he looks. Finland gets excited to talk to Sweden about a Finnish ghost and they talk about this for three days, noted by Iceland as being something strange. Finland’s comfortable being in Sweden’s space, and doesn’t worry about his reactions, instead seeming to be more intrigued by Sweden’s shy and reading his inexpressive nature than afraid.

I do like Hima’s interpretations of them throughout their time together and I think it’s done pretty well, but that’s just my uneducated opinion. They’ve known and been close to each other for centuries, and their dynamic has changed into something so incredibly sweet and comforting, healthy and supporting, and still growing. Sweden as Denmark noted is being patient and giving Finland the space that he needs and Finland in turn senses the changes in Mr. Sweden and seeks out his presence and attention in turn, not out of a fearful attachment but because he genuinely enjoys being around Sweden. Their dynamic is like a couple who’ve known each other for a long time, involving a lot of forgiveness for past hurts, complicated by being countries. And now they’ve also got two kids and a dog.

Moment 1:

Context: Ran away from Denmark, Sweden holding Finland to keep him warm at night when he said he was cold. We stan a proactive hubby. Source: Crunchyroll, World Series, episode 17 For comparison:

Moment 2:

Context: Finland says it's lonely so Sweden goes to find some friends for him, starting with Estonia and when Sweden introduces himself, he claims Finland as his wife. His wife! What other country has actively called another country their wife or husband? Source: Crunchyroll, World Series episode 18 Moment 3:

Context: Sweden put a cardboard box over Sealand's head because he wants him to play with his papa and stop watching so much TV. They look like a married couple with a child, and Finland responds with Don't ask me, like he realizes if he gives his opinion it'll seem like he's accepting the mama role. Source: Crunchyroll, The Beautiful World, episode 16 Moment 4:

Context: Estonia talks about the weird festivals that Finland throws, and Finland's back becomes itchy from the gossip. And then Sweden puts down his book to care for his wife Finland. This is the seventh season from 2021, it seems like they're hinted to be living together in 2021? This whole scene makes it look like they’re a married couple who’s been together for a long time who’s very comfortable and loving with each other, just chilling at home with a considerate and attentive husband who wants to make sure his wife is comfortable. If his wife Finland shows even the slightest amount of discomfort, the supportive husband Sweden is there to offer his assistance. Actually it seems to be an overarching pattern for Sweden, if Finland wants something he tries his best to seek it out for him (shelter from cold, a child, more friends). Ahhh... May this kind of love find all of us 🥹 Source: Crunchyroll season 7, World Stars Ep 12

Bonus:

Source: Hetarchive 2013 Halloween part3 and 6

I wonder if it’s ever crossed Italy’s mind that Germany looks similar to HRE. He shows absolutely no indication of this unless Im missing it somewhere.

Germany x Italy has been my ship since day 1 over a decade ago in 2014. And yet here we are still no confirmation about Italy’s thoughts on Germany and even though it’s almost pieced together, no explicit explanation on HRE’s relation to Germany. It’s so frustrating. Hima is such a tease. I wonder if he ever will reveal it and if he does, how he would change the dynamic between Germany and Italy?

Also think it’s kinda crazy that Germany was all in for a romantic relationship with Italy and this was just never brought up again. And Italy is never shown acknowledging that Germany was ready to pursue a relationship with him lol. Like I wanna knoooooow the aftermath.

Also, I love that Hima has to point out Germany is a virgin every chance he gets lol, first being shamed by Grandpa Rome for not having girls in his bed, and then having to admit to Austria he has absolutely no experience in the BSV strip. It’s not a lot but it’s still funny it happened at least twice.

I do think it fits his character pretty well though. Assuming he is HRE reborn, he kept his old self’s promise to Italy, that no matter how many centuries pass by he will always love him the most ❤️

That makes me think though, maybe HRE knew he would be reborn so he never said goodbye to Italy because he knew he would meet him again and was confident he would love him in that life too?

Hetalia for all its problematic portrayals esp towards South Korea and Eurocentric focus, is still very entertaining to watch and rewatch. I’ve been a fan since 2014, over a decade ago. Rewatching it again for the new year made me feel so nostalgic and it’s such a fun way to start the new year.

Rewatching it made me think about how I felt about USUK too. I remember when I first watched it, I was leaning towards FrUk, thinking oh, these two are the enemies to lovers trope. Though I didn't really care about any ships outside of AusHun and GerIta. For the first four seasons of Hetalia, I did not consider a romantic relationship between America and England. It wasn't until season 5 that I began to question the relationship between them. America prank calls England, and they have annual Halloween scares, and America is always trying to rile England up? That made me rewatch the previous seasons trying to understand their interactions and begin reading the manga. The manga made it 100x worse for me and my shipper brain. And then it was just been downhill from there, I'm now still a hardcore USUK shipper.

There's a certain longing between them that gets brought up here and there, masked under banter and competition. And America is always trying to get England's attention, and only exclusively from England. He visits other countries and forms relationships with them but his interactions with England alone seemed to be special because he seemed to be always seeking him out. He prank calls England every new year, has annual scare competitions with him on Halloween, and he seeks him out to dress up with him as Batman and Robin for Halloween and Himaruya specifically points out that their costumes are from different versions Batman and Robin, with the Robin that America chose for England being one that didn't have pants. America is not known for teasing any other country, and certainly not the kind to try to get other people to show skin, and this attention is reserved only for England. My question for Hima is why? Why develop America's relationship with England in this way? I can't see it as siblings or parents, there's no hecking way you would choose a costume specifically to show off skin for a family member and then tell them to show off their legs??? Maybe if they were sisters and if America was trying to find a bf for England but I don't get that sense at all.

Their feelings for each other are very complex and layered, and America definitely holds grudges against England as stated by Hima. But even so, he can't help but want England's attention, and doesn't seek it out like parental or sibling attention. He loves teasing him and I think his physical attraction to England was hinted at during the Hetaween event. And there was also that panel from the BSV strip showing that America wanted chocolate specifically from England. America has other friends, why doesn't he want chocolates from them? So I think that America probably has a crush on England, buried underneath all his other complex emotions towards him from both his toddler and colonial times. And I think America is indeed aware of his own romantic feelings but chooses to swallow them because he's still not over the Revolutionary War and he's still navigating how to interact positively with England post war. It's hard to say when those feelings for England developed but I headcanon that he's had them since his teenage colonial days but modern America is good at compartmentalizing his emotions so I imagine he must have been that way then too. For the sake of his people, he cannot let his feelings for England get in the way.

After the war, America is shown to have insomnia and wanted to see England after hearing he became sick. It absolutely haunts him how broken the relationship between them has become and how it affected England. England is also canonically heartbroken for over 100 years and although it's never revealed who, it's obvious who. England gets sick every year on America's birthday. I think America knows how fragile England is emotionally and how heavy his emotions are. So he avoids having to bring out those heavy emotions as much as he can now, by covering up his own.

As for England, I theorize that his feelings for America are a little less complicated. I don't think he necessarily has a crush on America, as he's shown to dream about little America from the time he treated him as his brother in WW2. He's a tsundere and he does love America and he longs for him but I don't think it's necessarily romantic. It's reminiscent of the love Yoojin has for Yoohyun in The S-Classes That I Raised, although those two are actually blood related brothers. But the point is, Yoojin's been very heartbroken because of Yoohyun before and to him, his brother is the most important person. That's how I see England's love towards America, although I think it is changing because England is starting to see America as more than his ex-brother because it's also hard for him to reconcile America's treatment of him as purely brotherly. Plus they're not real brothers.

I think it's hinted at that America has a crush on England. And it's delicious to see. Hima is surprisingly good at writing romance. He loves to incorporate angst and underlying romantic tension between characters and making readers wonder, will they/won't they? He hesitates to confirm anything but leaves out of place hints for couples that strongly imply romantic attraction that makes you wonder how deep these feelings run for the characters. He does this for GerIta, he does this for SuFin, he does this for AusHun, and he does this for USUK.

Recently after reading the bl manhwa, “Paladin’s Eden” by Grandpa Gwa Baek-Dong, I’ve been struck by how much it inspired me. It was obviously meant to be a very unserious short R18 story but there’s some aspects to the MC and the ML that I feel like had a lot of potential for more. The whole story was only a whopping six chapters but I couldn’t stop laughing throughout the whole thing and I love how morally gray and silly the MC is. But I also get the sense that he hides a great deal of inner strength, doing what he can to survive and having no real place to call home. The MC also seems to have wanted to start his own business at one point although this is never expanded on again. Versus the male lead who is a religious knight for a living, and yet the male lead is shown to be weak to one person, the MC, and because of his inability to control himself around the MC, does some very questionable things. He also doesn’t seem to say what he really means, ever, despite readers getting access to his thoughts here and there. Not to mention the whole meaning of the title, where the MC’s name is literally Eden? And he is the Paladin ML’s temptation?? It’s all so good.

I really wish there had been more from them, but even the ending was a cliff hanger and had me wondering if the ML really was going to be so heartless.

And thus because I want to explore more of the MC’s strength and resourcefulness to survive in his world, and the ML’s weakness for the MC, I want to create a fan series continuation of the short story that we got from Grandpa Gwa Baek-Dong.

I’m not sure when I’ll be able to put out a first chapter though, because I do have my full time job as a software developer, which unfortunately I’m not the best at so I end up having to work overtime to compensate(including right now at 8pm on Sunday night). And then taking care of both myself and my brother has been taking a bit of a toll on me, but he’s on extended winter break from uni now so he has time to make dinner for us both :).

Plus I don’t really have an art style of my own yet and have been tracing over the art styles of much more established artists, including the artist for “Paladins Eden”. But I do plan on creating art for this fan continuation, and have written down some scenes I want to incorporate as well as some notes on a few character traits seen in the manhwa. I’m also really new to art, having just gotten a drawing pad a few months ago, but I find that I really enjoy using it when I get the chance to.

I also want to continue drawing out a few more of the novel scenes between Yoojin and Hyunjae from “The S-Classes That I Raised” but that’s even further down my bucket list so who knows if I ever will again? If I do, it will be a long time down the line.

But I will be starting the fan continuation for “Paladin’s Eden”!

Here is a sketch I’ve made for them awhile back, when I had to do something about that ending or else I couldn’t sleep well:

Pg 1:

Pg 2:

There are several references in the manhwa to the Greek myth of Hades and Persephone. Much like how Hades kidnaps Persephone into the underworld and forces her to live with him, Heeseo kidnaps Taekyung and forces him to live with him. Taekyung cries and Heeseo asks him if he's crying because the thought of living with him felt like Hell? And while Persephone willingly eats the pomegranate seeds in the underworld, Heeseo force feeds Taekyung some seeds.

We see Taekyung swallow, presumably the seeds.

I’m curious as to how they will end, given this imagery as a representation of the well known Greek myth. Will Taekyung only be with Hee-Seo half of the year like Persephone is? Or is it simply a comparison, and to say that since Taekyung has eaten Hee-Seo’s food, he will now have to stay with him forever?

Going further with the idea that Hee-seo is Hades and Taekyung is Persephone, the place that Hee-Seo takes Taekyung to is described by Hee-Seo as “otherworldly”, “a magical bubble of space”.

It is completely separate, or at least feels completely separate from the real world. Hades rules over the underworld alone, gloomy and lonely. Heeseo says although it calms his mind, this place can also be overwhelmingly lonely. So what does he do? He does what Hades did, spied on the someone he loved, and dragged him into his world.

I think the pomegranates is to establish the similarity between the Greek couple and the situation between Taekyung and Hee-Seo, and to say that since Tae-kyung has eaten the seeds, he is bound to Hee-Seo forever. It’s not that he will only spend half the year with Hee-Seo and half the year with someone else. Tae-Kyung has never been able to let Hee-Seo go, hypocritically. Despite not wanting to get too close, he’s implied to have constantly looked for him the last seven years when Heeseo disappeared and Taekyung even masturbated to him. Him eating the pomegranate seeds only affirms that he will never leave Heeseo. I think it’s interesting that although Heeseo is the one to force him to eat the seeds and force him to be close to him, Taekyung has been the one keeping tabs on him all his life and constantly trying to look for him when he disappears.

I don’t believe this next point was intentional by the author but Hades is considered to be faithful to his wife. Heeseo has only ever slept with one person, that person being Tae-kyung, and in the seven years that they were apart, has never slept with anyone else. There’s several juxtapositions of Heeseo as Hades and Taekyung as Persephone.

There is an official merch of an acrylic stand that shows Heeseo and Taekyung with a pomegranate tree behind them.

But I believe the two images of pomegranates, the seeds in the manhwa and the pomegranate tree here is significant. The author has used a lot of symbolism in their artwork, and the now recurring theme of the pomegrante cannot be ignored. What does the pomegranate represent?

When asking google’s ai tool:

From the beginning, Taekyung’s fate is sealed. He is tied to Heeseo. The pomegranate imagery in the acrylic set and the chain around his foot shows that he will never be able to escape Heeseo, and I’m I’m if we take it more literally, that would mean at least half of the year every year now that he’s eaten some pomegranate seeds that Heeseo forcefed him, he will now be by his side. What does that mean? Perhaps Heeseo will never return to society as a normal person and remain in the underground world? But for half of the year Taekyung will come to stay by his side?

Not taken literally, I think the pomegranate simply adds to the idea that Taekyung is bound to Heeseo. We already see this in several representations in the manhwa:

1.) The tree scar on Taaekyung’s back. It is exactly a barren tree without roots. How did he get this scar? From saving Heeseo. By saving Heeseo, he was branded in a sense, never to forget Heeseo from the moment he saved him

2.) Daddy Long Legs - The book given to Taekyung by Heeseo’s mother is about a benefactor who financially supports an orphan girl through college. Much like the girl, Heeseo had no idea what her benefactor looked like. Taekyung like the benefactor in the book, supports Heeseo financially throughout his life. Taekyung keeps his distance from Heeseo but he never stops making sure his physical needs are met and that he is safe. Even after being stabbed by Heeseo, Taekyung our lovely crazy bottom is implied to have continued to search for Heeseo even after their terrible breakup, seven years later

And now the pomegranate imagery. The pomegranate really only serves to drive home the imagery that Taekyung is stuck with Heeseo for life. Although he was the one that chose to have a life long bond with Heeseo from the scar on his back and his benefactor relationship, now Heeseo is the one who will be the one to ensure that Taekyung will stay by his side - he forces him to eat the pomegranate seeds. Heeseo is not a powerless little kid anymore. Although to be honest, Taekyung wouldn’t have let him go anyway.

Persephone and Hades’ relationship is difficult to understand. She hates Hades for kidnapping her and taking her away. What Hades did was not right. He was crude and forceful. It’s difficult to say for sure if she came to love him but most interpretations seem to indicate that she did. I believe that their tale and the ending to Daddy Long Legs will be the ending for Taekyung and Heeseo as well. Taekyung will eventually return Heeseo’s feelings, despite their complicated and not ideal beginnings. He has a bond with Heeseo that has symbolically demonstrated to be insoluble and eternal.

Spoilers for Chapter 797, where Han Yoojin loses his memories and sees Sung Hyunjae again.