#countryfandom

Personal Country Personification Pet Peeve #5309:

Something I’ve taken issue with for a long time now is family in Country Personification; partially because it’s a mess, and partially because how it is done a lot of the time, I feel like it takes away the autonomy of many countries. Most commonly, in Countryhumans especially, the former Axis countries are portrayed with their versions from that period of time as their parents. Or, even, as possessive spirits? Sometimes both. This goes for every country, though. This is just a particularly bad case. I have always found this to be a horrible idea. It removes the responsibility from the modern versions of these countries, even if their real life counterparts still deny serious war crimes.

Making them their parents makes them almost completely unrelated to the actions committed, only connected by blood. It makes them too human. Human familial structures, and the way trauma is dealt with in them, does not work in these situations appropriately.

I can see what a lot of artists are trying to do when they go with this idea. It... could, maybe, under a very very careful hand, be done well. But I just do not see why one would. It almost always comes across as a fan service type of thing to me. It is done for the theatrics, and not for accuracy or explanation. I love theatrics! But ’country family trauma’ is usually used in situations far too sensitive to actually have any effect. The only thing I'm thinking when I see art that involves the German family line, is ’oh my god man. you didnt need to do this.’

[RR4 #93/195~] Algeria | Complex Countries