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#I've long given up on ever leaving the hetalia fandom
autistichwsamerica · 2 years
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S. Italy is literally such an interesting character and he gets treated so poorly by people outside of the few that view him as a favorite and its so...I hate to say ironic but...
Like 90% of the time when the people hes "mean" to are people who are either actively mean to him or have hurt him in the past. Hes also like...not even that mean in canon? Hes just blunt with a swearing habit lol. Like the only reason why he "dislikes" Germany is because hes being protective of his brother. When its just the two of them interacting without N. Italy being implied in any context they actually seem to get a long well, I mean he trusts Germany enough to give(*cough* demand *cough*) him a ride and Germany tolerates/is friends enough with him to do so without putting up a fight.
I think he also embodies/deals a lot with that side of mental illness that people like to avoid or pretend is not there when they romanticize it, which unfortunately tends to happen a lot IRL and in fandom/content spaces(as your aware lol). Like he obviously has Issues(tm) but seems to be the only one that really gets put down on by the fandom for having, despite other characters also dealing with some Issues(tm).
And like yeah its super sus the way he gets treated when compared to N. Italy and England. Like all three usually get treated with that stereotypical infintalization especially in shipping spaces. But unlike the two S. Italy is hardly ever given a break by the fans. Like he hardly exists out of shipping zones and when he does its usually that Flat "Im an asshole! grr, Im gonna be mean to my brother who has done nothing wrong ever!" type of vibe lol or its still shipping in SOME context. Like N. Italy stans get REAL mad about any /pos S. Italy content especially when you do it by pointing out N. Italy being a bit of a shit head (which is canon).
Unfortunately I think the fact that he is canonically mixed has a little bit to do with it :(.
Im not in the fandom anymore but the way he gets treated still bugs me lol.
Yeah, like...Romano's always been a base breaking character. It's a shame because he's so interesting, but it is what it is. It's not as bad as it was back in the old fandom, but he's still pretty polarizing.
Exactly. Like...Spain tried to trade him for Veneziano that one time, and Veneziano isn't all that nice to Romano. Both Romano and Veneziano are at fault for their relationship being bad. And yeah, blunt and swearing a lot =/= mean. And he has reasons for disliking Germany. It's not like Romano hates Germany for no reason lmao. And people ignore that there have been instances of them getting along.
And god YES. Romano definitely has some of the "uglier" traits of mental illness, so people aren't as willing to give him a pass, since they can't/won't romanticize it (of course, they shouldn't be romanticizing mental illness at all). Hetalia fandom being ableist? It's more likely than you think.
Yeah, when he's not being shipped with America/Spain/Belgium/whoever, it's almost like people just...ignore him, or turn him into a caricature of himself. And yeah, I've noticed that people act like he's the only one in the wrong with his relationship with Veneziano...like no??? Like I said before, Veneziano really isn't all that nice to Romano (remember that one time he couldn't bring himself to say one nice thing about Romano), and both of them are at fault for the lousy state of their relationship.
And in regards to England...the reasons the person who made the post on r/hetalia for disliking Romano were traits that Romano had in common with England, with the sole exception of hating Germany specifically. It really didn't leave a good taste in my mouth that they singled out Romano in particular.
I...figured it had something to do with the fact that Romano is canonically mixed. Though if you point that out, these people will act like you just threatened them.
This fandom is honestly such a hypocritical mess a makes me want to scream.
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crispyliza · 4 years
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I can't breathe
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hws-cernunnos · 3 years
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Following an advice given by my friend @flamaflavio I've decided to dedicate a series of posts on Northern Italy(because there's a serious lack of them in the fandom:(),whether they might be about culture,history,folklore,stereotypes(could be an interesting addition to characterization)or misconceptions*? Maybe even cuisine ahah
In this post I'll expain what we intend for North Italy, why it doesn't line up perfectly with canon and most importantly why Feli gets called "Italy" way more often than Mano.
Let's start by stating that in our country by North Italy we mean the regions of: Aosta Valley (Valle d'Aosta), Emilia-Romagna, Friuli-Venezia Giulia, Liguria(the region your girl's from), Lombardy(Lombardia), Piedmont (Piemonte), Veneto and Trentino Alto-Adige.
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So you might ask me, why is it that in Hetalia Chibitalia has been shown as Florence as well??? Is it a mistake made by Hima?? Yes.. But actually no ahah! In this post I'll cover how we came to such a perception of the North in our country and why Tuscany and the rest of Central Italy, isn't included in it and doesn't consider themselves part of it :D
I won't talk about all history until nowadays of course (I'll definitely make future historical posts) I'll simply give you basic information based on early history to have an understanding of how us italians divide our country and why in canon other nations refer to Feliciano as Italy more commonly than they do with Romano(it is indeed based in history, it's not mean spirited!!).
So during the centuries prior to romanization North Italy was inhabited by a different bunch of cultures, among them the long haired Ligures(whose origin is unsure,Celtic?? Or simply celtified by their neighbors uhmm?? Talking about them in detail would take a whole ass post) the Veneti who were known for their commerce of amber and horse breeding, the Etruscans who, coming from Tuscany, colonised parts of the North and founded cities such as Bologna and in a later period a swarm of Gaulish tribes(generally referred to as the Celts).
The latter(most likely the Insubres) founded Milan in 590 BC, naming it Medhelan(the place in the middle of the plain, or among rivers) or Mediolanum as the Roman would call it later(Meśiolano as a Celtic engraving informs us) keep Milan in mind we'll come back to her later. Their domain extended from the Alps to the Adriatic sea.
This would be stopped by roman conquest that would culminate in 194 BC in the foundation of a province under the name of Gallia Cisalpina**,Cisalpine Gaul, id est Gaul on the hither side of the Alps(from the Romans point of view) that pretty much contained the regions which nowadays we consider North Italy.
The area became one of the most influential and rich provinces in the empire and it's strategic role is emphasized by the fact that in 286 the capital of the Western Roman Empire is moved from Rome to,guess where, Milan the main city in Gallia Cisalpina(and later on in Ravenna from 402 to the fall).
Is this why Grandpa is shown to leave poor Romano behind in canon in favour of his little brother??? Most likely!!! Btw if you're interested in the subject you should totally check out jjblue's Italia Annonaria (baby Feli) and Italia Suburbicaria (baby Mano) profiles on DA.
It's really unfair that the other characters call only Feliciano Italy:/ It's actually not true, as my friend flama has talked about in one her posts both Germany and America have called him Italy in the past. The fact that this behavior hurts Romano is long lasting misunderstanding in the fandom: he really doesn't care.
What annoys him it's that he's often referred to as "Italy's older brother" but not because he's Italy as well, but because that takes away his individuality: he's peeved by the fact he's only considered in relation to his brother, he's Romano besides being Feliciano's older brother ahah.
If his identity as Italy truly mattered to him he would have some kind of reaction out of being called Italy, especially by someone he has a bad relationship with like Germany, but he was left completely indifferent by that. I've often seen fanfictions where he's moved to tears by such action by it actually seems like he doesn't mind. He just wants people to understand he has a persona outside being Feli's big brother ahah.
There's actually a reason why Feli is "Italy" and it has been actually brought up recently in the fandom. Let's go back to history ahah.
A germanic general named Odoacer overthrew the last Roman Emperor, whose name for some reason I always found funnee, Romulus Augustulus.
Now the Eastern Roman Empire was having none of that and decided to invite Theodoric the Great of the Ostrogoths to rule over Italy under their approval(btw if you'll ever visit Ravenna do check out Sant'Apollinare Nuovo and Theodoric's Mausoleum). Ostrogothic rule was short lived (lasted pretty much Theodoric's reign) but greatly improved the economy and the arts. . . Too good to be true of course, because Justinian I(Eastern Roman emperor)decided he wanted to revive the glory ™ of the empire and this brings us to Gothic Wars.
Italy, especially the North, was left devastated by them, as they brought death(duh),poverty and were accompanied by a good dose of famine and plague. Byzantine rule wouldn't last long as a Germanic tribe***, the Lombards, took advantage of their weakness and took over italy and gave birth to a reign, which had Pavia as capital.
Said reign was called Langobardia, in particular North and Central Italy were named Langobardia Maior(The great Langobardia), which is the name under which North italy would be known as for a good part of the middle age and that gives the name to the modern region Milan and Pavia are located, Lombardia/Lombardy.
For example Boccaccio in his Decameron(in particular in the first novella) uses Lombards when referring to Italian merchants because that's the name they were given even if most of them came from Piedmont and Tuscany.
Lombard language and culture slowly was assimilated into the previous one and that can be seen in names, words and laws created in that period. This came to an end in 774 when Charles the Great, king of the Franks(and future Holy Roman Emperor), conquered Pavia and annexed the Lombard kingdom... Under the name of Kingdom of Italy!
So in other words the reason why our boy is the one who's called Italy the most is because he's simply been "Italy" for longer or more specifically for more than once(as I explain in the notes:)!!). Mano on the other hand would have most likely known as Kingdom of Sicily, Kingdom of Naples or Kingdom of the two Sicilies :). And I'm very much sure he would have been proud of such identity.
But what about central Italy??? You see the Papal States forged a document the Donation of Constantine, according to which Emperor Constantine assured Pope Silvester I(in 321) and his successors the exclusive domain over the city of Rome(btw Rome isn't part of southern Italy!!the fact South Italy is called Romano is really weird and so is North Italy as Veneziano ngl). This gave the Church access to "temporal power",id est material power and with it came territorial power. And so little by little (with the exception of Tuscany that flourished on it's own) it ate up the whole of Central Italy, which would develop a linguistic group, a culture and history of its own.
And that's pretty much what you need to know to understand Hetalia's confusing lore ahah. It's not everything I could go on explaining the era of the Commons and the Renaissance and go all through medieval and modern history to make you fully grasp it but I think it's enough for today:D let me know if you want me to talk about the subjects I mentioned in detail and if you want me to go on. Read the notes :)!!!
*I've often seen Feli wearing tarantella clothes, because it's probably assumed as the italian™ traditional dance and the music is misused in videos about Italy(all of Italy!!)when it's really characteristic of the South:)! Would be nice to see more fan arts of Mano in those garments lol really nice
**Napoleon would found in the 18th century the Cisalpine Republic in North Italy, a sister republic of France, that would later become known as the Italian Republic and then the (napoleonic!!!)Kingdom of Italy:) not to be confused with the Kingdom of Italy that would be born on the 17th of March 1861,ring a bell ahah???Read Hetalia's Risorgimento strips if you want to know about that:)))Milan djdbdb was once again the capital of all these.
***considering Romano is stated to have Arabic blood which is definitely brought by the moorish occupation, I'd assume Feli's Germanic one has to do with daddy Lombards. The longobards ruled over the South as well so ehhh, but hey it's Hima we're talking about. Genetics work in a weird way in hetalia, they're like acquired??? Hima explains that Canada, America and Seychelles don't have England's bushy eyebrows because of France's influence. Wtf. Oh btw if you might be interested in the Lombards' origin in Historia Langobardorum Paulus Diaconus informs us they came from Scania(a region in Sweden) and the settled in "Scoringa".
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