#england... sweden... denmark... we have to end them

[magbeth]

i am dead serious we cannot let blond people win this tournament. i'll lose my mind

[hetalia-club]

How funny I think The Hetalia Cast is, This Is Based On Their Canon Personalities.

no bias in place yet again as is tradition, I'm not open to debates about these, I'm right and you know it.

Categories and what they mean: Intentionally funny- says funny things with the sole purpose of making people laugh, is aware that they are funny and others agree they are. Unintentionally funny- does not really try and make people laugh but it’s their tone and comments they make offhandedly. Very quick with retorts and jabs. The do not think they are necessary funny and don't laugh at their own remarks. Both- just very funny in general. Both tries to make people laugh and often says funny underhanded comments that are funny but they did not mean it to be necessarily. Not funny really at all- does not really try to make people laugh and doesn't. No one would describe them as 'funny'. They may have a good since of humor but they don't put the effort forward to show it enough or at all. Unintentionally not funny- tries to make jokes/zingers they don't land really, may get a couple chuckles or a groan but that’s about it. They think they are very funny. No one else does though. Always be saying some dumb shit. Will probably repeat the 'joke' over and over until someone says 'we heard you the first time'.

America- Intentionally Funny England- Both Canada- Intentionally Funny France- Unintentionally not funny China- Unintentionally funny Russia- Not Really Funny at All Italy- Intentionally Funny Romano- Both (but you can never really tell when he's joking and when he's not) Germany- Not Funny Really at All Prussia- Unintentionally Not Funny (He think's he's hilarious, I guess that's all that counts really at the end of the day) Austria- Unintentionally Funny (He does NOT think he is funny at ALL and is often irritated people laugh at things he says because he was being serious.) Japan- Unintentionally funny Latvia- Both (Everything he says is pure gold. I firmly believe he is the funniest guy any of them know.) Lithuania- Not Funny Really at All Poland- Both Estonia- Unintentionally Not Funny Sweden- Not Funny Really at All Finland- Intentionally Funny Norway- Unintentionally Funny Iceland- Unintentionally Funny Denmark- Intentionally Funny Spain- Intentionally Funny

[dreamswideawake]

🎸 Harlequin Carnival 🎤

All about Aatos' band and its members...

Harlequin Carnival was a Finnish rock band. Aatos was the lead singer.

During their time together, the band released two albums.

We know about Aatos...but what about the others? These are their stories.

Johannes Lehtinen (fc: Peter Franzen) 🎹 Keys

Johannes' father (Leevi Lehtinen) was an old childhood friend of Aatos' father (Torben Lampo). Although there were a few years difference in age between them, the boys got along very well in their childhood but grew apart in the years that followed.

Through a twist of fate, Johannes and Aatos met once again when Aatos was a young adult and reconnected over music. The two of them started composing together and the boys, having several connections to other musically talented individuals, began to form a band. At the same time, Johannes had plans to travel across Europe. Aatos, longing to see the world, persuaded him to let him and the band tag along.

Together, the five of them crammed into Johannes' worn down VW Camper Van and set off. After a long journey through Sweden, Norway, Denmark, Germany, Italy, Spain and France, they finally made it to England where the boys decided to stay for a while and try to make it big in the music industry.

Having known him from such a young age, Johannes acted like a big brother to Aatos and the others. A brusque, blunt and oftentimes flippant individual, Johannes' matter-of-fact attitude could be a source of vexation or comedy depending upon the situation.

After the accident on the stage, a piece of ironwork crushed Johannes' leg, resulting in it being amputated. Furious and grieving in his own, private way, he refused to speak to Aatos and completely severed all contact with him following the disaster.

------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Terje Anderson (fc: Olli Tukiainen) 🎸 Lead Guitarist

Terje was an old friend of Aatos' and the youngest of the group. Aatos first met Terje when he heard him playing guitar at the back of the bus during the Exchange Program to England held by several Secondary Schools. The teachers on the trip tried to scold Terje for bringing his guitar with him, but he could simply never be parted from his instrument.

Aatos and Terje bonded over music, composing songs together using Aatos' poetry and Terje's playing. After the program ended, they stayed in touch and Aatos later contacted him to ask about forming a band. Terje leapt at the chance and became the lead guitarist of Harlequin Carnival.

It was no secret that Aatos had a crush on Terje, but the guitarist had to let him down gently and explained he didn't reciprocate his feelings. Aatos was mortified and upset at first, but was able to battle his feelings and become close friends with Terje instead.

Oftentimes nicknamed "Koira" (Dog) for his willingness to sleep on the floor, Terje was a very relaxed, easy-going individual and liked to make a joke of pretending he didn't understand English or putting on "Rally English" to tease their English friends. In fact, Terje would often downplay how many languages he was fluent in, as his father was Swedish and his mother was Finnish.

Tragically, as a result of the accident, Terje was electrocuted while playing his signature "Flying V" guitar and lost his life.

------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Mikael Lindell (fc: Joonas Suotamo) Lead Bass 🎻

Mikael met Johannes during High School. The two of them were in the school band together and were a year apart. Mikael took part in the Exchange Programme with his younger brother, Matias, and met Terje and Aatos at the same time. The boys bonded during their time in England and became close friends, staying in touch once their time was over.

When Johannes called about starting a band, Mikael was thrilled that he would be able to take part and even more excited at the prospect of travelling with - whom he considered - some of the most talented people he had ever met in his life.

Often quietly contemplative, but happy to make conversation when spoken to, Mikael acted as another big brother to the younger members of the group, as well as his own brother.

Mikael was mortally wounded during the stage accident, sustaining several burns which led to him tragically dying in hospital a few days after the incident.

------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Matias Lindell (fc: Mikko Kauppila) Drummer 🥁

Matias was in the same year group as Aatos, their paths frequently crossing during drama performances. Matias was often called to play with the school band to give soundtracks to the productions, but could be scolded for his vigorous drumming. During free moments in the school hall, he could be heard drumming to Van Halen and System of a Down songs, which caught Aatos' attention.

Like the others, the boys bonded during their trip to England. The four boys would sing at the top of their lungs to the radio during their downtime and Matias would come up with makeshift drums to give a beat - from empty plastic tubs to doorframes. During the road trip around Europe, he would even drum on Johannes' dashboard, much to Johannes' very loud disapproval.

Matias was a fun-loving, flippant individual unafraid to voice his opinion, whether explicitly or through a gesture.

Much like the other members of Harlequin Carnival, Matias was, tragically, fatally electrocuted during the stage accident and was crushed beneath a falling beam.

[synintheraven]

Research Rabbit-hole Tag Game!

Rules: As writers, we all end up researching random things for our writing. Share the latest thing you've researched for your fic and tell us something you learned!

Haven't been into these tag games lately but I actually have something to say about this one so I'll jump in :p Thanks for the tag @lord-aldhelm <3

What I Researched:

Ragnar Lothbrok and his story

Sigurd Hringr (Ragnar's father)

King Arthur's sword and its legend

What I Found Out:

Half of what is said about Ragnar (as in, that he's done) has been historically proven it was done by someone else (King Horik among them), however there was a relatively popular Lord and raider named Ragnall which is believed was at some point mixed with the legendary Ragnar - Ragnall certainly didn't die in a pit of snakes (nor was it a common practice anyway) but most likely raiding the shores of England or Ireland. - Also I made myself a tumblr page so I could easily keep track of what I find about him so if you're curious >here< is a bit more about this legendary dude :p (wildly different to Vikings' version, I must add)

Not the one I'm the most interested in, but I was curious to learn about Ragnar's background and the fact that his father was king of Sweden and, eventually, of Denmark. Funnily enough, his father died (or presumably sailed to his own death by being on a pyre boat) after one of his younger lovers died/was killed.

I had no idea there was an alternative story as to how Arthur got the sword; the one I knew about all my life was that he got the sword from that rock, but apparently there's another version (or the same but later on the story?) where he finds the sword at the bottom of some pond/lake and had to prove himself worthy of it to a sort of protector/witch/nymph that was guarding the sword.

No pressure tags: @sihtricfedaraaahvicius @thenameswinter99 @foxyanon and uhm whoever else sees this and feels like doing it :p

[melancholytimes]

They first set of games of this window for the arsenal girls have been done. Almost everyone has played for their teams with various outcomes.

I wont lie it was weird to not include khul in this, i have to make peace with the fact that she’s gone. Manu played and kept a clean sheet for a 1-0 Austria win over Scotland. Stina played well and assisted the second and game winning goal for Sweden over Denmark to win 2-1. Mariona worked so hard all game but Belgium was really shutting her down but she did her part to carve out a very very last min 3-2 win over Belgium for Spain, Laia was an unused sub. Lia held down the midfield for Switzerland to hold Iceland to a 0-0 draw. Daphne was in goal for the Dutch, while the game ended 2-2 she definitely kept them in the match and made some beautiful saves. Englands performance was kind of flat tbh but Alessia was able to finish a cross from Lucy bronze to send the lionesses up in the first 15 mins. They couldn’t get the scoring going though and after Kika came on and bronze came off the Portuguese offence really kicked up. If it wasn’t for Leah putting in blocks England would not have finished with any points. The outcome would have been quite different. Kika was able to equalize and the game ended 1-1. Chloe Kelly came on really late and didn’t have much time to make an impact on the game. Frida played the full 90 against France but no Norwegians could find the back of the net. Katoto (future Arsenal forward i say with a hope and prayer) was able to find the net off of a Bacha corner to end in a 1-0 win over Norway. Katie McCabe had a rough time against Turkey but Ireland were able to pull off a 1-0 win to kick off their campaign in league B under a new coach.

On to the SheBelieves Cup! We have 5 players there and they’ve already played 2 games. The USA won 2-0 over Colombia to start off, Fox and Nighswonger held down the back line to help keep that clean sheet against a physical and fast Colombian team. Jenna had a really early strike rattle the crossbar. Australia on the other hand were absolutely battered by japan. I’ve already talked about how much i rate japan they’re such a good and dangerous team. All 3 Aussie’s started the game and while they were involved the struggle really came from what I’m calling a triangle of sadness. From hunt, Kennedy and Arnold. Caitlin could barely get the ball because Australia couldn’t maintain possession. The second game was between usa and Australia. Emily and Jenna rest!! Aussies no such luck because there are 6 people on that team apparently. Went much better because Steph was in center back with Winonah Heatley and Micah in goal. Started rough with an early USA goal but they were able to actually put up a challenge. foord and raso put up a lot of work but then the US got a second goal int he second half. Near the end Australia was able to put up one goal through a Hayman header from a Raso cross. They have one more game in this competition. Japan actually looks the most dangerous here but I’m sure all 5 of them will be playing again.

The team went well in the countries. I’m glad to see. I just want everyone back safely

[unitedbydevils]

Amorim's United: Who makes the cut?

With United having suffered five defeats in December alone, and conceded 9 goals in the last 3 games - all notably without De Ligt due to illness - there's some big cracks visible in the United squad.

This prompts me to pose the question: who, in this current United squad, makes the cut. Below I'll break out into five categories:

Sell

Monitor

Keep

Promote

Buy

SELL

United have ELEVEN players who need to be moved on. This isn't necessarily because they haven't pulled their weight and performed, but there's an issue with them being in the squad and that needs addressing.

Jonny Evans - A veteran player who I'd love to see stick around as a coach, but the reality is he's ageing and was a surprise signing under Erik Ten Hag. He has been useful at times but he's slowing, and a third season should not be a thing. Maybe an U21s player/coach at most.

Casemiro - Good player, especially with Ugarte now to partner him in CM, but he's on a huge wage and it seems like either INEOS don't want that bill or Amorim doesn't really rate him. Either way, time to part ways.

Harry Maguire - The former captain has had something of a renaissance under Ruben Amorim in the back 3, which reduces his ball-playing duties and allows him to showcase his better traits. That said, he's not first choice ahead of De Ligt, and with INEOS tightening up on contracts... he might decide it's time to move on and bag one last big deal to be a guaranteed starter.

Victor Lindelöf - A good bloke, a defender I like, but he has always been lightweight and doesn't suit Amorim's defence. Like Maguire, his contract is running out so it's time to say thanks and best wishes.

Altay Bayindir - He wasn't especially rated before we signed him as our backup keeper, and he hasn't done anything to impress since signing. I'd rather promote from the academy to be understudy.

Marcus Rashford - This one hurts. There's rumours about drink and gambling, but how much of that is exaggeration of a black man's socialising? Who knows. Either way, we can say that Rashy has looked unhappy at United for a while, and the rumours of INEOS wanting to sell him, his chat with Henry Winter about being ready for a new challenge, and hints from Amorim about him not being up-to-scratch and thus not in the match squads... it feels like game over for United x Marcus. A real shame, but he's on huge wages that are not consistent with his output. He's no Mo Salah. That's not on him - you get offered big money, you take it, but it's poor from the Glazers and former management to "retain" him on such money and to bring that pressure.

Christian Eriksen - Like Juan Mata, Eriksen is an incredibly talented and intelligent player, but he just does not have the legs to do more than the offensive work for the team, and that's not viable in this rebuild. In an established team, you can handle 1-2 players like that, but United are not established. We're an expensive, clumsily assembled squad. A return to Brentford would be a fun move to see - let him be that attacking mid playmaker for another 2 seasons and then go wind down in Sweden or Denmark.

Luke Shaw - A talented defender no doubt, and a LB/LWB that would suit Amorim's system well, but the best ability is availability and Shaw is out more than he's in. His decision to go play for England in the summer was admirable for England fans but dire for United fans - setting his fitness/recovery back by months after struggling through at the end of the Euros. We pay his wages, and he disrespected that, and sale is the punishment.

Mason Mount - I like him, but he's also an injury failure like Luke Shaw. It's a crying shame, because his pressing style is perfect for an Amorim 10 and a bit of form/rhythm would get the goals + assists out of him, but he can't do it. His last full 90 was before Inter Miami was launched ffs. Thanks but goodbye.

Tyrell Malacia - Back from injury, Malacia is slowly working back to fitness. He did well vs Saka and Arsenal but has been poor aside. Form and match fitness take time, so maybe he'll come good, but at best I feel Malacia is a back up LWB to somebody, and given we have Amass coming through and Diego Leon getting signed… it feels like the end of the road and back to the Eredivisie.

Antony - A left footed right-winger that doesn't beat his man and offers very little goal threat, crossing, or set piece talent. He moves and grafts, but that's the bare minimum, and he cost an absolute fortune (not his fault). Cut our losses and move him on, because Pellistri would do more and our academy kids will do more.

MONITOR

To add insult to injury, there are SEVEN players who are on the watch list for Amorim and his coaches, due to failing to meet the required standards of quality or consistency.

Andre Onana - Last season he was iffy, especially in the Champions League. This season, Onana started well but has recently began shitting the bed. Conceding two direct corners in the space of a week is vile. Here's hoping it's a blip and he returns to form, but if it's not... that's two wonky seasons and sale worthy.

Diogo Dalot - The RB/RWB should suit Amorim's formation to a tee. He hasn't played at RWB enough, helping deputise at LWB, but wherever he has played he has been poor. Maybe a run of games at RWB would fix this, but that's why he's monitored not sold. A hard worker, but not that smart, Dalot might be a future sale once United are tidied up a bit.

Lissandro Martinez - I like The Butcher, but this season he has been sub-par. Maybe a back three doesn't suit him, but the LCB seems to be ideal for his left foot and ball-playing, so I think it's just a poor spell of form. He needs to stop losing his markers and all should be well.

Bruno Fernandes - He's not Captain Fantastic (god I'd love Robbo in this team) but he has a lot to offer. The problem is we're not seeing it. We're missing the goals and instead getting treated to silly bookings (three reds this season already). Bruno needs to lead by example or he'll be made to leave as an example.

Joshua Zirkzee - He's new, and evidently a clever, technical player, but he seems languid and has delivered... nothing, so far. We need more goals or assists in the second half of the season, else next season is make-or-break for him.

Toby Collyer - The youngster is on the fringes of the first team, and making many matchday squads. I wonder if he'll get game time, so it's hard to judge his readiness just yet as he isn't playing. Toby's at the point of play or sell though come the end of next season.

Harry Amass - A talent we robbed from Watford's academy and we teased in the pre-season. Offensively lovely, defensively flawed, but an ideal LWB. I think he's ready to be tried, but it's unclear if Amorim sees anything there yet.

KEEP

Thankfully we have some people to keep.

Kobbie Mainoo - Kid's mint, even if his form at the moment is meh. This is where squad depth should allow him to be benched.

Manuel Ugarte - YES LAD. Proper bruising midfield destroyer, god bless.

Matthijs De Ligt - My captain. I'd move it to him from Bruno next summer. He's not world class but he's very good.

Noussair Mazraoui - This guy might be world class, but his form has just tailed off. Hopefully it's a blip like the others, but still, he's reliable even on a bad day.

Rasmus Hojlund - Not first-choice quality, yet, but certainly one for the future so he should stay. It's not his fault we couldn't get Kane.

Alejandro Garnacho - Same. Decision making is poor but he's good.

Amad Diallo - Boy Wonder. Love this kid and i'm so glad he's finally getting his just rewards. A bit of a dip - like so many - of late but otherwise he has been very impressive this season.

Leny Yoro - Back from injury and looking alright, the kid has a high ceiling to his play. A few mistakes in there at the moment, but Rio had that at his age too. Playtime will iron out the kinks.

Tom Heaton - Third choice keeper, academy graduate, reliable dude. No point in shifting on people with the United mentality and the right attitude. Maybe a player/coach setup in the U21s, and bump Dermot Mee to no2 keeper.

PROMOTE

Only two obvious ones here: Dan Gore and Godwill Kukonki.

The latter is a tall, strong, technically proficient LB/LCB which is flexibility that has evidently pleased Ruben Amorim.

Dan Gore at CM flirted with the first team previously under Ole and ETH but injury set him back. Now he's back at it for the U21s and looking sharp, and his box-to-box style will allow him to play in that midfield pairing. He has a bit of Keano bite in him as well as a knack for shooting from distance and good passing range. I'd even go so far to try him alongside Ugarte as soon as possible, to let Mainoo rest and shape up.

BUY OR LOAN

United under Amorim are struggling at both wing back positions and in the front three.

Diego León (Cerro Porteño) - The 17 year old has reportedly agreed a pre-contract with United ahead of signing officially for a small fee next summer. He's strong, fast, and reportedly good technically, but he's a kid and an unknown. That said, this seems a done deal, so I think he's going to be our backup LWB and moulded in the image of Amorim.

Tyler Dibling (Southampton) - Another teenager, the 18 year old is in his breakthrough season and looks electric up and down the right wing. He's good on the ball, he's not afraid to be in possession, and he offers valuable width. He'd very much suit the RWB position and could form a lovely dovetail partnership with Amad in the right 10 and play swapsies positionally to lose markers. Mmmm, tasty.

Evan Ferguson (Brighton) - The Irish CF is a class player and a proper leading man, but he is injury prone. Brighton are losing patience, and United are desperate for goals. The lad's a United fan, so it could be a good trial to earn a summer transfer.

Matheus Cunha (Wolves) - I told friends that today is the game that sealed his move to United. He's himself liked comments linking us with him on Instagram, and to be honest... I like him. I think he offers us similar quality on the ball to Amad Diallo and that dazzle and guile is something we need to inspire the team and give confidence. His pace and agility makes him a mean goal threat, and we greatly lack that. He'll be 26 next spring too, so he's entering his prime and this would be a perfect time for a big move.

Milos Kerkez (Bournemouth) - LWB is a flawed position for us, and Kerkez (also rumoured a United fan) is playing well for Bournemouth and would solve a lot of our issues there. With Terminator-level stamina, strong marking, and very competent passing... to me this is a no-brainer signing.

Patrick Dorgu (Lecce) - The one thing stopping Kerkez being the definitive LWB rumour for United. Dorgu the Dane is a starlet at Lecce in Serie A and has shown great potential. He's a big specimen and boasts strong ball carrying and technical skills. He can play LWB, RWB and LCB, but my only concern is a lack of assists. Versatility is nice but we also need end product, which is where I'd punt for Kerkez, but we'll see.

Alvaro Fernandez (Benfica) - We have a buyback on our former academy player, but I wouldn't blame him for not wanting to come back after our disrespect. A talented prospect, Alvaro excelled in the very physical Championship, picking up accolades along the way, and yet United didn't see him as a worthwhile prospect versus the injured Luke Shaw and unproven/then injured Tyrell Malacia. Wild. He's good on the ball, pacey, has good crossing, and isn't afraid to tackle. There might be better players, but he's still rather good and has a long way to go until his ceiling.

Jeremie Frimpong (Bayer Leverkusen) - The ideal RWB choice with all the pace, crossing, finishing you could want... but probably not likely. Rumour has it he is a United fan, but why would a player of his calibre join a shitshow like us, especially if we don't make Europe? Fandom only goes so far.

Éderson (Atalanta) - The CM is very likely to move next summer thanks to the amazing season he, and his team, are having in Serie A and Europe. Statman Dave and Ste Howson have both picked the lad out as an ideal acquisition to partner Ugarte thanks to his rounded game of passing, pitch coverage, strength in duels, and creativity. This would be a perfect signing for Dan Gore to understudy.

Angel Gomes (Lille) - The former United academy CM was and is hugely technically proficient and his performances in France recently earned him a call-up to the England squad. He'll be 25 in the summer when he's out of contract (we do like freebies) and could prove a useful squad player in that sitting CM role, dictating the play.

Jonathan David (Lille) - Another one from Lille available on a free, David is a Canadian international with a similar fast, agile style to Rashford, Martial, and Garnacho. I'm unsure if he'd work in the Premier League, but again, free is a good price and could be a safe punt for a season or two for squad depth.

Tyrick Mitchell (Crystal Palace) - Mitchell is on the cusp of an England call-up and will be 26 shortly after the start of next season. A good age, Mitchell offers decent attacking prowess and solid defensive skills. He could prove a good foil for a more offensive RWB choice like Dibling, to avoid United being too gung-ho. Rumour has it he's available on a free as well, but I wouldn't be surprised if there's a cheeky +1 on his contract to bag a few quid.

Dominic Calvert-Lewin (Everton) - The final freebie on the list, DCL has had his injury issues but is still evidently a top PL striker stuck in a meh team. Come and join a different disappointing north-west side, kid. He's a good leading man, scores good goals, has the proper movement in the box and all the right instincts. He's solid in the air and on the ground and wouldn't be losing duels like Hojlund - an ideal tutor for the young lad.

One that's getting added here but is NOT someone I want to add into the mix is Victor Osimhen. A very talented striker that would rip the Premier League a new arsehole, for sure, but he's on a HUGE bag of wages. Losing Marcus and Case would help fund that with some change spare, but then with Rasmus and Zirkzee and kids in the academy... is he the right signing? If he flops he's hard to move on... a nice choice but personally no. Let him go to Chelsea and win them the league. Upset Pep next season as Liverpool are this time, and keep denying Arsenal and Arteta lol.

Time to wrap up then. My must-buy four for the summer are:

Kerkez to solve LWB

Cunha to be a starting 10

Ederson, to start ahead of Mainoo in the CM pairing

Dibling at RWB

How much will the above cost? Probably around £150-160 million. It's not a cheap summer transfer window, but it's necessary repair work. The big challenge for Jason Wilcox and Omar Berrada is to get people out the door and to get money for them. The more we can sell our dross for, the greater the chance of bagging these improvements, especially if we miss out on European football which is... likely. Fuck.

United's biggest flaw is a lack of goals. If we can solidify CM and solve the wing-back positions then we can guarantee the patterns of play to create more chances and build the strikers' confidence. Cunha and Amad flanking A striker... I'm already salivating.

Let me know in the comments if you agree, disagree, or players you'd like to see.

[that-soccer-guru]

HELLO THE 3 STRAGGLERS THAT ARE PROBABLY SEEING MY POSTS STILL, I HAVE MISSED THOU!

Happy world cup month, it is time for the biggest stage of the game and time for be to drop my obnoxious predictions that no one asked for but I'm gonna give anyways!

Here are my group predictions and notes

GROUP A:

I think Norway is gonna make a comeback and come in at #2 behind local New Zealand. The Swiss are great if they can rise to the occasion, and the Philippines has a great young core. They'll give us some very fun games going forward.

A1: New Zealand, A2: Norway.

GROUP B:

Honestly I think this is one of the TIGHTEST groups of this cup. With a fight down to the end I think it'll come down to goals and Fairplay. Depending on the result of Day 1 Canada vs Nigeria my picks are switching depending on the light with which I look at the table. SO.

B1: Australia (2W, 1D), B2: Nigeria (2D, 1W, Goal difference leaving Canada behind by ONE goal in a total group heartbreaker)

Group C:

Despite the big players refusing to play I think Spain has it in the tank for a great cup. If the Ticas can show some discipline they might surprise, but they're up against the TITANS of discipline so.

C1: Spain, C2: Japan

Group D:

Euro winners have one hell of a team. No notes for them today, second place is what is up for grabs. Haiti is always a dark horse pick but I think mettle and the money for great player health and conditioning will draw this one out so.

D1: England, D2: Denmark.

Group E:

One hell of a group here. Without Viv Midema the Netherlands is missing that finishing punch, but if they can bank on winning their other 2 games and forcing a draw or a one goal win with the US, they can go for first. Portugal is good but they have a lot of youth to adjust to the big stage. Vietnam has a delightful proposal and they play some very fun futbol, but they had the unfortunate luck of drawing 2 titans of the women's game.

E1: USA, E2: Netherlands

Group F:

The elderly stateswomen meet the bright eyed newcomers. Brazil is the titan of South America but they've proven to be way too rigid in their team selection. France is shaking off the cobwebs of a shit coach to see how far they can take it this time. Jamaica and Panama have everything to prove to show that 1. they belong here and 2. their federations NEED to stand in this fight with them. Despite the great teams I think this group is gonna be one of those low scoring ones where teams are making adjustments on the fly and we might get a surprise or two from some games.

F1: France, F2: Brazil (but just narrowly edging out Jamaica)

Group G:

Youth and a desire to prove that it's not only their men's team that know what's up. Argentina is pulling one hell of a legacy behind them, Italy is building a beautiful squad, South Africa comes up from fighting a war of speed and strength, Sweden has a chip on their shoulder. One hell of a group!

G1: Italy, G2: Argentina

Group H:

QUE VIVA COLOMBIA HP! An aging titan in Germany with some key injuries, a very disciplined squad that has been testing some amazing set plays and learning how to play through the lines in South Korea (but that tire out quickly), a fast and tough team that plays a fun midfield game with a solid defense in Morocco. And finally, a team composed of the women who paved the way for the youngsters, the maximum scorer in a Colombia jersey, a midfield filled with aggression and experience, a promising defense all led by the most promising young international that already took one team to a world cup final, Colombia promises a LOT to her fans. If Abadia can get his head out of his ass and learn how to make changes before exhaustion takes hold, this team can take it far!

H1: Germany, H2: Colombia

It's an amazing time to be a woso fan!

[minimag1c]

Finally another historical one-shot woooo

Enjoy while it's still there-

I'm on my own now (partially)

Basically a cringe retelling of a glimpse on how Norway ended up with Sweden (not romantically)

➪Tw: cigarettes, brief description of bodies, blood and injuries (Kind of), implied/referred derealization

➪Time for the Nordic countries wooo!

➪As always: I used Google translate for Danish, Norwegian and Swedish. If you ever speak those languages or want to correct the spelling, fell free! I'll gladly take the help and credit you 🙏🏾

➪Fun fact: during the forbidden era (2020lol), one of my favorites were Norway, either among the nordic territories or in general, alongside Madagascar, of course. Don't ask why, somehow during that period whom we should not bring often, I thought to myself:

"Putain ce serait trop drôle d'apprendre le Norvégien genre lol"

I was dumber than now, really it was worrying.

Anyway.

➪Enjoy because I actually like this one! ^^ despite- you know- the lack of actual historical context-

God damnit I should really do something about it-

➪Update: upon further retrospection on myself and what I've wrote in the past, I decided to eventually add the historical accuracy as much as my simpleton attire could procure towards anyone who lay their eyes upon the following words that will succeed shortly.

➪Also yes. I used once more the wannabe sophisticated vocabulary I did a year ago. Oops I guess.

Uhm- anywise (finding thesaurus because I myself get tired of constantly using anyway) let's just- move on to the story in question.

_______________________________________

-ˋˏ1810ˎˊ-

It all started during the Napoleonic wars.

Norway wasn't supposed to even play a role in those messy conflicts and alliances, his main occupation was about taking care of Iceland as much as he could. If Denmark wasn't known for actually being negligent, or at least known for trying to be respectable and being respectable, when it cames to war, the Danish was easily overwhelmed.

Thus, it wasn't that much of a surprise if he did ended allying himself with the French empire, despite being neutral during those raging campaigns all across Europe.

Unfortunately, it seemed that England somehow found the Danish like a menace and decided to abduct the fleet from Copenhagen. A way to secure any escalating dystopian french system and gain more advantages for the opponent or, in that case, Russia.

And that damned Sweden.

Actually? If Norway was more honest with himself, it was, through the majority of it, Carl John, the elected heir of Sweden with french origins. And for some forsaken reasons, decided that the anthropomorphic representative of the swedish territory would ally themselves with Russia and the one who fought back against Napoleon.

Was it a traitorous act against the french? Just a strategic plan to not lose more ressources? Who really knew, the only thing sure was another defeat added to Imperial France's list.

And Denmark included in it.

How unfortunate.

That Norway was primary the one who would be the center of attention and the one who will endure the consequences of it.

⊱ ────── {⋅. ♪ .⋅} ────── ⊰

-ˋˏ14th January 1814 ˎˊ-

"So what are you going to do with him now?" A voice coated with an heavy British accent rang out, muffled, behind the heavy wooden doors of the opulent place of the duche of Holstein, in Kiel.

"Upon my statement earlier, I suggest that we-" A feminine, Scandinavian voice chimed in as her words got drowned out by thicker grunts of approval and arguments.

"We have already established this-"

"Carl John have depicted-"

"Hører du overhovedet hvad de siger??(Do you even hear what they are saying??)" A sudden, very close voice shushed near Iceland's ear as she yelped in fear and instinctively tried to hit whoever it was only to caught Faeroe Islands meeting her tiny fist. Still, they hissed in pain and rubbed their eyes.

Iceland only glared at them, not even bothering herself to directly apologize as she crossed her arms.

"Hvad laver du overhovedet her?? (What are you even doing here??)" She accused as Faeroe immediately imitated her expression, even jabbing a finger at her.

"Jeg burde være den, der spørger dig om dette! (I should be the one asking you this!)" He said, pouting slightly as Island sighed heavily, rolling her eyes as she massaged the area near it. Eventually, she answered.

"Jeg er her faktisk, fordi det er vigtigt. Det vedrører Norge. (I'm actually here because it's important. It's about Norway.)"

That made Faeroe perked up, his eyes widening in anticipation and, if honest, slight fear.

"Vent. De taler om ham? Men hvorfor?? (Wait. They're talking about him? But why??)" He asked, incredulous. The icelandic girl only proceeded to shrug her shoulders, now growing a tad concerned upon seeing the younger's gaze bore on her.

"Jeg-jeg ved ikke. Det er– (I-i don't know. It's–)" She, at first, hesitated until she felt adrenaline rushing in her veins when the heavy craved door started to get unlocked and pushed from the other room, another wave of the same familiar voices getting louder when the most known personification of Europe came out of the meeting room.

Iceland instantly took Faeroe's hand and dragged him away, earning a yelp from the latter albeit he only proceeded to clung onto her even more, quickening her pace. The two smaller representatives hid behind one of the wooden, polished table who was imposing enough for the both of them to settle behind it.

It wasn't long before the last countryhuman came out from the meeting room, a distant and indescribable yet exhausted look on their face.

Denmark.

He didn't seemed to be that eager or motivated enough to follow the rest of the group, his prideful and high posture a contract to the conflicting feelings that flashed in their eyes.

However, when the Danish noticed with the corner of his eyes the icelandic girl peeking from her hiding spot with her Faeroese sibling behind, his gazed softened.

Hesitantly, Iceland was the first to actually accost him, her tone unusually hushering.

"Danmark. Hvad- hvad skete der..? (Denmark. What- what happened...?)" She asked tentatively.

The concerned one, at first, only opened his mouth slightly before closing it again, not knowing what to really say.

But when Faeroe tentatively went next to his sister with big, doe eyes, almost innocent, something broke in him.

Without anymore hesitation, Denmark knelt down on one knee and spreaded his arms. Faeroe immediately fell in first then, with more stiffness, Iceland followed.

She didn't knew how long did the three held each other, in such closeness. However, she wasn't dumb. She knew something was wrong when she felt the older trembling barely, his face soaking her shoulder as the icelandic territory held on tighter unconsciously.

⊱ ────── {⋅. ♪ .⋅} ────── ⊰

-ˋˏ25th January 1814 ˎˊ-

"Ah. Representative of the territory of Norway, pleasure to be meeting you." The diplomate who came from Denmark greeted formally at the brune haired man in front him.

Said Norway scrunched up his nose at the appellation with the tone that the human used towards him.

"Just Norway. For now. It will be... Enough." He managed to say before breathing out as calm as he could, straightening his back as he cleared his throat. "You must be the diplomate who have been send by my fellow anthropomorphic territory, Denmark, am I wrong?" He asked.

The diplomate only frowned. Just slightly.

"Actually, I was send by Sweden and her current monarch, Carl John."

Now that made Norway perked up, his eyes widening in anticipation and, if honest, slight fear. Nonetheless, and surprisingly, he kept his tone coolheaded, almost completely calm.

"Oh. So you're been sent by Charles XIV John of Sweden. Alone?" The Norwegian asked, raising an eyebrow in inquisitiveness.

The diplomat barely nodded, his posture similar to a word as equal as regal. "Unfortunately. You must be aware how quite difficult it is to actually gather any representative from any territory, a personification or member of the monarchy speaking."

"Abel Servien?" Norway quipped in, a thick french accent butting in his words.

"N'en parlons même pas. (Let's not even talk about it.)" And, with a bit of daringness, the human cracked a small, barely visible smile before going back to his stoic facade.

"But that's not the main topic on the current. Since his majesty the king of Sweden have expressed his sincerest apologies for not coming to this sign of treaty by his own person, Sir Charlie XIV John have decided to share his own decreet and what has been decided by the anthropomorphic territory of England and Russia concerning the loss of Denmark." The diplomatist explained, gathering letters from the swedish king in question before smoothly pushing it across the table, below the confused gaze of Norway.

A few of the papers were slightly folded from the travel from Sweden to his territory. Although, thank the Lord boats made it easier rather than horses, it was odd how it was in such state despite the two States being neighbors. The ink was fresh on some, other were dried and even falling on a few words, as if it has been written long before this instant.

That only made Norway's unsettling feeling grow even more.

"All are mixed it up unfortunately." The plenipotentiary added, his posture and face not betraying any of what he was currently feelings. Or, perhaps, he just wasn't that intimidated nor felt any fear, unlike the literal anthropomorphic country in front of him.

Once again, bizarre.

Then the human continued. "Both His Majesty and Madam Sweden have decided to write about the whole situation. Sir Denmark's defeat against the English, the treaty and so on."

Norway was halfway listening to him, already unpacking one of the letter and reading it, conflicting emotions bumping in his swirling mind.

┏━━━ ━━━┓

𝓖𝓻𝓮𝓮𝓽𝓲𝓷𝓰𝓼, 𝓝𝓸𝓻𝔀𝓪𝔂.

ℱ𝒾𝓇𝓈𝓉𝓁𝓎, ℐ 𝓌𝑜𝓊𝓁𝒹 𝓁𝒾𝓀𝑒 𝓉𝑜

𝒶𝓅𝑜𝓁𝑜𝑔𝒾𝓏𝑒𝒻𝑜𝓇 𝓉𝒽𝒾𝓈 𝓁𝑒𝓉𝓉𝑒𝓇 𝓂𝒶𝓎

𝓇𝑒𝒶𝒸𝒽 𝓎𝑜𝓊 𝑜𝓃𝓁𝓎 𝓌𝒽𝑒𝓃 𝓉𝒽𝑒 𝓃𝑒𝓍𝓉

𝓈𝓊𝓂𝓂𝑒𝓇 𝓌𝒾𝓁𝓁 𝒸𝑜𝓂𝑒.

┗━━━ ━━━┛

"At least she started with sincere excuses." The Norwegian thought to himself, albeit a hint of uncertainty was still feverishly bubbling inside. He continued his reading.

┏━━━ ━━━┓

𝒮𝑒𝒸𝑜𝓃𝒹𝓁𝓎, 𝒶𝓈 ℐ 𝒶𝓂 𝒸𝓊𝓇𝓇𝑒𝓃𝓉𝓁𝓎

𝓌𝓇𝒾𝓉𝒾𝓃𝑔 𝓉𝒽𝒾𝓈, 𝓌𝒽𝒶𝓉 𝓌𝒶𝓈 𝒶𝒷𝑜𝓊𝓉

𝓉𝑜 𝒸𝑜𝓂𝑒 𝒽𝒶𝓋𝑒 𝒶𝓁𝓇𝑒𝒶𝒹𝓎 𝒷𝑒𝑒𝓃

𝒹𝑒𝒸𝒾𝒹𝑒𝒹 𝒶𝓃𝒹 𝓇𝒶𝓉𝒾𝒻𝒾𝑒𝒹 𝒷𝓎 𝓉𝒽𝑒

𝒾𝓃𝓋𝑜𝓁𝓋𝒾𝓃𝑔 𝓃𝒶𝓉𝒾𝑜𝓃𝓈 𝒾𝓃 ℴ𝓊𝓇

𝒸𝓊𝓇𝓇𝑒𝓃𝓉 𝓌𝒶𝓇𝓈.

┗━━━ ━━━┛

Now that's where Norway actually started to feel goosebumps on his skin, already knowing where this was going. And it was not good.

┏━━━ ━━━┓

ℋ𝑒𝓃𝒸𝑒, 𝒶𝓈 𝒶 𝓂𝒶𝓉𝓉𝑒𝓇 𝑜𝒻 𝒻𝒶𝒸𝓉,

𝓎𝑜𝓊 𝓂𝓊𝓈𝓉 𝒷𝑒 𝒶𝓌𝒶𝓇𝑒 𝑜𝒻 𝓉𝒽𝑒 𝓁𝑜𝓈𝓈

𝑜𝒻 𝓉𝒽𝑒 𝓀𝒾𝓃𝑔 ℱ𝓇𝑒𝒹𝑒𝓇𝒾𝒸𝓀 ℐ𝒱 𝒶𝓃𝒹

𝒾𝓃 𝑒𝓍𝓉𝑒𝓃𝓉𝓈, 𝒟𝑒𝓃𝓂𝒶𝓇𝓀 𝒽𝒾𝓂𝓈𝑒𝓁𝒻.

𝓦𝓱𝓪𝓽 𝓱𝓪𝓼 𝓫𝓮𝓮𝓷 𝓭𝓮𝓬𝓲𝓭𝓮𝓭 𝓱𝓪𝓼

𝓫𝓮𝓮𝓷 𝓭𝓮𝓬𝓲𝓭𝓮𝓭 𝓪𝓽 𝓚𝓲𝓮𝓵. 𝓐𝓵𝓵

𝓷𝓪𝓽𝓲𝓸𝓷𝓼 𝓱𝓪𝓿𝓮 𝓻𝓪𝓽𝓲𝓯𝓲𝓮𝓭 𝓽𝓱𝓮

𝓽𝓻𝓮𝓪𝓽𝔂 𝓪𝓷𝓭, 𝓷𝓸𝔀, 𝓲𝓽 𝓲𝓼 𝓷𝓸𝔀

𝓸𝓯𝓯𝓲𝓬𝓲𝓪𝓵.

𝓣𝓱𝓮 𝓻𝓮𝓹𝓻𝓮𝓼𝓮𝓷𝓽𝓪𝓽𝓲𝓿𝓮 𝓸𝓯 𝓽𝓱𝓮

𝓽𝓮𝓻𝓻𝓲𝓽𝓸𝓻𝔂 𝓸𝓯 𝓝𝓸𝓻𝔀𝓪𝔂 𝓪𝓵𝓸𝓷𝓰𝓼𝓲𝓭𝓮

𝔀𝓲𝓽𝓱 𝓲𝓽𝓼 𝓹𝓮𝓸𝓹𝓵𝓮 𝓪𝓷𝓭 𝓬𝓾𝓵𝓽𝓾𝓻𝓮

𝓷𝓸𝔀 𝓸𝓯𝓯𝓲𝓬𝓲𝓪𝓵𝓵��� 𝓫𝓮𝓵𝓸𝓷𝓰𝓼 𝓪𝓷𝓭

𝓹𝓪𝓻𝓽 𝓸𝓯 𝓽𝓱𝓮 𝓼𝔀𝓮𝓭𝓲𝓼𝓱 𝓶𝓸𝓷𝓪𝓻𝓬𝓱𝔂.

𝓢𝓲𝓷𝓬𝓮𝓻𝓮𝓵𝔂, 𝓽𝓱𝓮 𝓻𝓮𝓹𝓻𝓮𝓼𝓮𝓷𝓽𝓪𝓽𝓲𝓿𝓮

𝓸𝓯 𝓢𝔀𝓮𝓭𝓲𝓼𝓱 𝓽𝓮𝓻𝓻𝓲𝓽𝓸𝓻𝔂 𝓪𝓷𝓭

𝓹𝓮𝓸𝓹𝓵𝓮.

┗━━━ ━━━┛

The diplomate immediately added something just when Norway was about to reach the end of the letter. Probably because he noticed how tights the countryhuman's fists were as they gripped the paper. "What has been decided has already been applied since yesterday. All is under the supervision of the rising power, the representative territory of England herself—"

"You did all of this without even consulting my own opinion?"

Norway wanted his voice to be calm and composed, similar to his interlocutor. Really, he wanted it badly. But it was obvious on a few notes he was clearly on edge. Either by the sudden revelation or more history and depth behind his unbalanced camaraderie with Sweden, it's all up to you to decide.

But one thing was sure, the Norwegian was not 𝙥𝙡𝙚𝙖𝙨𝙚𝙙 by the news.

The plenipotentiary, however, merely joined his fingers on the table, his demeanor betraying no hint of uncertainty or whatever else he was currently feeling. Keeping it all professional, nothing less, nothing more.

"I do apologize on behalf of my nation if this decision has ever been too brusque, which I understand. However, every aspects of the treaty has already been applied cannot be undone unless the belligerents in question engaged in the war can discuss about exceptions—"

This time, Norway lifted up his hand to shut the human up. The latter shamefully and reculantly did so.

"You said every belligerents during the Napoleonic wars?" The countryhuman asked, raising an eyebrow.

The diplomat didn't liked where this was going.

"Well yes but-"

"-Then I refuse."

"Excuse me?"

The whole room fell silent, the atmosphere growing weary and tense. As if it wasn't enough, Norway added.

"I think I was clear enough. I refuse to apply the treaty as a territory who partook in the war." Norway said, now firmer. If he didn't knew better, the latter would have thought that he won against the human was seemed too stunned to speak.

However, Norway did knew better and the diplomat, after a small but painful silence, eventually found his voice back.

"I'm sorry. Could you repeat that?"

The personification fought ever viber of his being to not get haughty and roll his eyes at the human. Although the plenipotentiary continued, despite giving Norway the will to speak.

"When it came to the ratification of it with its conditions, representative of the territory of Norway, with all due respect, those were independent powers and nations."

"But I still send ressource to help Denmark, was it not enough??"

"Denmark is a monarchy with its own conquest and territories, all somewhat linked and dependant to the Danish crown. And you, once again respectfully, are one of them. Not a nation on its own but an expansion of the Danish monarchy's territory."

Norway clenched on the table, his fists shaking and tight.

"Therefore, I assume I don't have any says to it? And that's the only reason why you have called me here and nothing else? To strip away the identity of my predecessor and brag on my face, with letters even, that I don't belong no more??" The Norwegian almost let his emotions get the better of him as he eventually did his best to calm down.

The human's response however didn't helped to keep his cool at all.

"You are now officially part of the Swedish monarchy, representative of the territory of Norway, alongside with your people and culture. Your flag will shortly be changed to a more fitting one for a Swedish expansion."

Well, bitch the pot. Just when he was starting to tolerate Denmark's simpleton flag.

⊱ ────── {⋅. ♪ .⋅} ────── ⊰

-ˋˏAugust 1814 ˎˊ-

Repressions were always necessary. At least for the repressors.

It was obvious Norway wasn't the only one who didn't took kindly this new ordeal and it wasn't also surprising that it was the population itself who were outraged at it.

Which goes to show that a country's personification indeed reflected from time to time its people.

Or so that's what history would tell us. Did the actual population wanted to declare war or it was at first a simple light that has been forcefully transformed into a raging bonfire? No one will ever know.

But one thing was sure, Sweden's own ressources and army was bigger and stronger than Norway's. Despite its own ripostes and attacks, the Swedish were rapidly gaining forces and territories. Despite their defenses at Lier and their victories on the North, swedes still managed to reach out the capital, although their numbers decreasing with it.

It was clear: Sweden wasn't as ready as Norway when it came to the war and both parties wanted to ended it as quick as possible. Only each monarch was the one who insisted and Norway would almost blame Christian Frederick and the general Haxthausen for the restless assaults and, although victorious battles, ensured loss of numerous lives.

Which lead us to Norway himself, sitting on a big hard rock in the middle of a snowy battlefield, the aftermath of a campaign in Langnens where Norwegian soldiers have surpassed the Swedish.

And obviously, a bloodbath followed on.

Alright. It wasn't as violent or awful as the aftermaths of Napoleon's campaigns. But, nonetheless, it was never a pretty sight to see corpses lingering on the ground, some still in one piece, other with a missing limb.

There a just a few but they were still humans. Souls who have been lost.

"Hej (hey)"

The sudden feminine voice made Norway jump a bit on his natural and burned down chair as he looked up to see the dead eyes of Sweden.

The woman herself was also covered in blood, her uniform all wrinkled with a torn up sleeve, showing her muscled blue skin.

And, despite all, she was smiling. An emotionless, cold smile but still a smile nonetheless.

"Är det upptaget här? (Is this seat taken?)" Sweden asked, pointing at the large rock the other was sitting on. Norway frowned at the question, clearly taken aback by the whole interaction in general.

Although, despite the clear message shining on the man's face, the swedish woman still insisted, her unsettling smile going wider against all odds.

"Ou bien vous voulez que je vous parle en français? J'ai l'impression que vous aviez du mal à assimiler ce que je vous dis. (Or do you want to talk with you in French? I seemed to notice that you have difficulties when it comes to understand me.)"

"Jag förstår dig perfekt. Tack för att du frågar. (I can understand you perfectly. Thank you for asking.)" Norway quickly answered back, his tone a bit dry if not downright cold, ironically, at Sweden.

However, the latter didn't seemed to really mind the way her new—companion tensed around her.

I mean, it's not as if she and her monarch invaded his land.

Sweden shrugged slightly, sitting anyway next to Norway who, reculantly but did anyway, pushed himself a bit on the side as to giver more space for her rear. A heavy, oppressive silence then settled between the two, the frozen wind fluttering around as snow fell on their shoulders.

Once more, Sweden eventually spoke up first, her eyes droopy and... Devoid. As if she wasn't there.

And yet at the same time she was present. Was it a sign for her to go to the asylum? Or get a lobotomy? Who knows.

"Ditt ansikte blöder. Precis som min näsa.(Your face is bleeding. Just like my nose.)" She said bluntly, jabbing a finger at Norway who merely touched his forehead and felt a warm sticky liquid running down near his temple.

Odd. He didn't even felt the injury in the first place.

"Oh." He merely admitted. Sweden snorted before pulling out from her intact military pocket a small box of wooden matches. Norway squinted his eyes at the trinket but the swedish personification was faster than him. As always.

"Vill ha lite (Want some?)" She proposed, this time pulling from another pocket a few cigarettes, tobacco pwoder coating her dirty and calloused fingers. The Norwegian widened his eyes.

"Bar du detta under striden?? (You carried this during the battle??)" He asked incredulously as Sweden lit up one of the matches, a cigarette already between her teeth.

"Får jag inte det? (Am I not allowed to?)" She asked back, not eyeing Norway in the eyes and instead concentrate herself on the tip of her nails who were slightly burnt by the fire.

Norway opened then shut his mouth, honestly having no idea of counter argument or any denial. In the end, he slumped his shoulders, his breath coming in fog as he lended his hand. Sweden smiled, the cigarette dangling on her lips before she gave him the box of wooden matches as well as one rolled tobacco.

Soon, the snow who fell with thin molecules was followed with thicker trails of smoke coming from the two anthropomorphic countries. Norway, in particular, took a deep breath from the cigarette before letting out a heavy huff with a puff of smoke. Sweden's smile got thinner yet wider at the same time.

"Någon var ivrig. (Someone was eager.)" She stated, earning a glare from the other concerned.

However, the Norwegian merely hummed behind his own cigarette, probably too tired to even hold a short conversation. It was only a few seconds after that he judged that the silence was too thick for his liking.

"Antingen var det det, eller så skulle du bara sluta med att flåsa ut varenda cigarettpaket med dig. (It was either that or you would just end up puffing out every pack of cigarettes with you.)" Norway argued back, his attention focusing back on the one he had, taking a large puff before putting both of his hands on his lapw exhaling alongside a large puff of cool air from the snowy weather.

"Jag röker. Men bara under stressiga stunder.(Well. I do smoke. But only during stressful moments.)" Sweden eventually admitted, shrugging her shoulders, ignoring how her arm seemed to bend slightly upward.

Norway eyed the swedish woman with that same wariness that he held ever since he was now officially part of her own jig.

After all, he didn't need two brains to understand what the distant, abysmal look in her eyes meant. Countryhumans sure were used to war, blood, rampage and corpses at this point and Napoleonic wars had greater loss or gruesome aftermath compared to those small campaigns. Still, it was never a pretty sight to bear on, knowing your scars and psyche would carry on the countless bullets you have shots or the slashes that your sword has done to humans.

Only the pain tolerance was nothing compared to being, respectfully, blow up by a cannon. Norway could bear five people's disembodied wounds for all he cared that was a mere inconvenience.

In the end, after a small but deep retrospection, Norway just decided to turn his head back to the endless landscape, hearing Sweden's shallow breaths from occasional times.

After all, after a battle, they always needed a truce.

⊱ ────── {⋅. ♪ .⋅} ────── ⊰

-ˋˏSeptember 1814 ˎˊ-

"Några nyheter från din prins än? (Any news from your prince yet?)" Sweden eagerly asked, sipping on her hot beverage while munching on some sweet biscuits. Norway looked at her, raising his eyes from the recent letter he just had from Iceland.

"Han... hanterar väl antar jag. Prins Fredrik av Danmark försöker fortfarande anpassa sig till förändringarna trots allt. (He's... Managing I suppose. Prince Frederick of Denmark is still trying to accommodate himself on the changes after all.)" Norway explained in a calm voice as Sweden smiled wider, pushing the Norwegian's tea cup towards him. The man only raised an eyebrow at his new colleague, already anticipating what she was going to ask.

"Aaaand... Nothing else? Any interesting news in his place?" She asked in an impatient tone, now surprisingly switching to English much to the Norwegian's surprise. However, he only let out a chuckle, rolling his eyes.

"If you think about any secrets then you may as well just ask the shopkeeper next step any dramas he and his wife have heard."

Sweden immediately huffed, crossing her arms as Norway smiled wider.

"Although I heard..."

"Bitch the pot now." Sweden went back to her eager emotions, leaning towards Norway who only barked out a laugh.

Oh how this union was sure not anticipated although, against all odds, was pleasant.

_______________________________________

☞︎︎︎As to note a few historical inaccuracies:

-The common language of that time was french. Basically, it was what we consider as English in today's world. It was used as a linguistic tool for diplomatic negociations and agreements across Western European countries. English was also present but as Napoleon conquered more territories and, with the rise of nationalists, french was the main language to use during internationals exchanges.

-The treaty of Kiel and its signatures with its representatives happened on the 14th January 1815, as Norway was already an official part of the Swedish Kingdom. The main reason why the admission for Norway for this new decision was delayed was for the sake of the story. More drama let's say, despite the obvious lack of it.

-Unfortunately, I didn't found any informations concerning the fact that every nations who partook in the treaty of Kiel actually ratified it. For a matter of fact, it is certain all of them signed, other reculantly obviously, and the Norwegian war was the only concrete piece of evidence that there has been opposition to it. Aside, even Denmark only signed the treaty and that's the last time we hear from the country.

-I have no clue who was the swedish diplomat/plenipotentiary during that time so I just decided to keep his identity anonymous. Was it me being also slothful to not motivate myself enough to do researchs? Maybe.

-I've only realized now that the weather was inaccurate here so I decided, for the plothole, that this is set where climate change also happened in the North yikes.

-I couldn't bring myself to fully motivate myself into writing in a victorian like discussion for shit.

Look I'm finally starting to do professional one-shots. Albeit with a gazillion of inaccuracies there and there or a blink it and you miss it aspects of what actually didn't happened and was just fanservices or straight up lazy writing lol.

Anyway that's the last you'll see of me... For now. Working on other gazillion of incorrect grammar tissues that we call requests which I do appreciate but as previously stated numerous times before, speed is not my forte.

So I'll leave be and hope you have liked this one :>

Veloma daholo 🌺🥥

-Miranto

Posted: 12/05/2025

{4239 words}

----

Archive of our own version

Wattpad version

[littlesistersti]

1/2 } Self-insert OCs / personas tend to date the author’s anime crush …

and yet that only happened once for Stine Køhler.

Let’s start from the beginning. [word count 746]

I don’t know how obvious it is to the mass internet fandom consumer when it comes to self-insert OCs and personas but the pattern persists enough to be obvious. Whoever your anime crush is, your self-insert will end up dating them, as wish-fulfilment, or in some melodramatic mutual pining a la mode romance soap.

For a long time, I saw loads of people flaming on self-inserts and oc x canon, especially if it’s an obvious self-insert x canon, and called them mary sue. So I was afraid to be one of them and denied myself on, well, everything. Denied having a self-insert OC, instead I called her “my muse” or “my persona.” Denied even giving her a romantic partner to really be safe. I even denied having an anime crush worth giving to her. I did have anime crushes, but I also was in heavy denial of that. “I don’t have a crush,” I tell myself when I click on another reader-insert fanfic, “it’s just me appreciating one of my favorite characters.” Yeah, favorite character.

>> My favorite character in Hetalia is Denmark. I do not have a crush on him. That is the truth. I loved the idea of being family with him so I made Stine his younger sister (or adopted daughter, but that’s a separate lore post). She is a member of the Nordic family. Sweden and Finland are her uncles and Sealand is her cousin. What about Norway and Iceland? Well…

Back in 6th grade, someone asked me if I had a crush on anybody. I thought about it and said no. They said, “you hesitated.” If I was smarter then, I would’ve said “yeah because I thought about it and nothing came up,” but instead I convinced myself I had to have an anime crush then and there. I told them, “Iceland.” Somehow, I convinced a small number of people (who knew of Hetalia) and myself that I had a thing for Iceland. Even read all the Iceland x reader.

In retrospect, I don’t think I did have anything on him … or maybe I misunderstood what I was feeling back then. (If I turn out to be misunderstanding all of my feelings from then until 2050…) I did have some feelings about HongIce, especially those Teenage Dream AMVs, but that should be a separate post.

>> For Stine Køhler, she doesn’t have anything on Iceland. He’s technically her cousin or uncle anyways. She thinks he’s so emo, stop hiding it, you’re so obvious, everybody can tell. (He’s not “hiding” or “doing it on purpose.”) He thinks she’s too much of a copy of both Denmark and Norway, it’s weird like you’re their love child ew gross, pick your own personality. (She’s also not “doing it on purpose,” if anything, she also compares easily with Sealand but Iceland conveniently never witnesses them together.) Sooner or later, the adults will realize these 2 teens are alike enough, it would be so funny if we send them to Camp Half-Blood together.

For the longest time, I had a strong attraction for Norway but never told anyone. I denied to myself too. It felt forbidden? There isn’t much of a story to this, sorry. I did read loads and loads of Norway x reader. RIP that one quotev book about them being soulmates with a tome that magically writes everything they ever said aloud. I lost the tab before I could finish it and I can’t find it again because the title was Norwegian for sweetheart or something cheesy like that.

>> yeah, Norway is Stine’s neighbor and uncle figure. Plus he teaches her magic so shipping them would be a teacher x student situation that I’m not unraveling. He secretly cares for her but hides it with his harshness, like how Red Forman treats Eric. She thinks he should stop punching Denmark.

Call me overrated but first time watching Hetalia, England was my favorite. My friend who introduced me to Hetalia teased me and claimed he must be my crush by that logic.

>> it’s quite unlikely Stine meets England. They could only cross paths at W Academy and maybe at world meetings if Denmark brought her along. They’ve seen each other in the wild plenty and could get away with “yeah that’s a classmate” but at the end of the day, they’re strangers.

Post is already long so I’ll make a separate one for the characters outside of Hetalia. Those are AUs anyways.

[nie7027]

At the end I couldn't resist I need to list all of them because I really need to know who are the ones I'm missing so here we go

( I would do it in the tags but yeah not enough tags for that):

[NikoNiko - NikoNiko Jr - Molossia - Aerica - Slojamastan - Domain and Realms of the Shadows and the Darkness - Stomaria]

[Ladonia - Sealand - Wy - Hutt River - Kugelmugel - Seborga - Northern Cyprus]

[Finland - Sweden - Denmark - Norway - Iceland - Canada - America - Cuba - Ecuador]

[Estonia - Latvia - Lithuania - Poland - Ukraine - Belarus - Russia]

[Slovakia - Czech Republic - Hungary - Croatia - Serbia - Bulgaria - Romania - Moldova]

[Liechtenstein - Switzerland - Austria - Prussia - Germany - Belgium - Netherlands - Luxembourg]

[Wales - England - France - North Italy - South Italy - Spain - Portugal]

[Scotland - Northern Ireland - Ireland - Monaco - Cyprus - Turkey - Greece - Egypt]

[New Zealand - Australia - Kenya - Uganda - Botswana - Zimbabwe - Ghana - Cameroon - Seychelles]

[Indonesia - Malasya - Singapur - Taiwan - Hong Kong - China - Japan]

[ Philippines - Thailand - Vietnam - India - Mongolia - Tibet - Macau - South Korea]

[Templar Knights - HRE - Germania - Rome - Ancient Egypt - Ancient Greece - Pontus - Persia]

I must admit I'm confused with the three lady ancients ( as far as I knew there were only two) so if anyone knows let me know.

Once I know who they are I'll edit this with the missing ones.

Edit: All the ancient ladies have been accounted for and the missing nations corrected so now the list is complete.

Thank you @ellmovy for telling me who were the ones I was missing and for drawing this 😭♥️

no way! I actually did it!! here's all 93 hetalia characters, my beloved

the last time I did one of these was like 7 years ago 🥲 here's the previous ones: 2016//Sept 2015//Feb 2015

hope you all enjoy, this is my little treat to the hetalia fandom, also the last digital art I'll do for the next 5 months but I've got something else big to post in a while plus sketchbook stuff!

[fireandiceland]

Face family vs Nordics volley ball match 🥰

[gowoelfinneniguess]

Do you know every type of fruit? Who Knows More with Feli Rauch and Pia Wolter

Feli: *sings suspenseful music from Who Wants to Be a Millionaire*

Pia: Yes, this is like Who Wants to be a Millionaire!

Felix: Welcome to Who Knows More? Let’s start with a nice little round of rock paper scissors to determine who gets to make the first bid.

Feli & Pia: Schnick, schnack, schnuck!

Felix: Feli goes first! In the first round we are looking for the countries who participated in the 2022 European Championships! How many can you name?

Feli: …

Pia: You played there, didn’t you? You should know all of them, and the strengths and weaknesses of each team.

Are you trying to remember how many even participated?

Feli: 16…

Pia: Okay, let’s hear it. I can’t say any more.

Feli: Why can't you?

Felix: So you say 16?

Feli: I say 16. I watched every game, so I should remember…

Pia: But you have to talk fast, right, you only have 30 seconds.

Feli: Oh, right. Hmm.

Pia: But now you’ve said 16.

Felix: You’ve said 16. Now we cannot wait to hear them.

Feli: Will you give me a sign if I repeat myself or do I have to pay attention to that?

Felix: Pia will watch out for that.

Pia: Will I?!

Feli: Come on, that would be nice of you.

Pia: Alright, I’ll watch out for you. I don’t want to get in trouble.

Felix: Your 30 seconds start now!

Feli: Germany, Belgium, Iceland, France, Norway, Sweden, Holland, Denmark, Spain, Finland–is that 11?

Pia: No, 10.

Feli: Uhh… argh!

Felix: 15 seconds.

Pia: One from France’s group is missing.

Feli: Uhm…

Pia: I’m being pretty nice!

Feli: Italy, uhh, England, Switzerland, Austria…

Pia: Two more.

Felix: Pia gets the first point!

Feli: Aw, crap.

Pia: I couldn’t remember any more either. Which group was missing? Let me think. You got England’s group, Austria, Norway… ah, you forgot Northern Ireland!

Feli: Northern Ireland! And Portugal!

Felix: Correct! The first point goes to Pia!

Feli: Okay, congratulations.

Pia: I can’t even be happy about it, this sucks.

Felix: Pia now gets to place the first bid in the second category, which is: fruit!

Pia: Fruit?! How many different types are there?

I’ll say I know 12.

Feli: Then I’ll say I know 13. I say 13!

Pia: Just great! I say twi–no I don’t!

Felix: Did I hear 20?

Pia: Okay, 15.

Feli: 15? Would you say 17?

Pia: Look at my poker face.

Feli: Alright, come on, let her do a task for once.

Pia: Shit, now I’ve got to work for my points.

Felix: So 15 in 30 seconds. Pia?

Pia: That’s quite… I mean… yeah, okay.

Felix: Your time starts now!

Pia: Melon, strawberry, blueberry, raspberry, cherry, nectarine, apple, banana, pear, peach, uhh…shit! What did I not get? Clementine, plum, shit, what else is there? Do you know any more?

Feli: *hums game show music*

Pia: Is avocado a fruit? No!

Feli: I thought like you, but then I thought about different countries. I remembered mango, pineapple and stuff like that.

Pia: Shit! I tried to think of fruits you get in the summer first.

Feli: When you started I thought “Okay, bye.”

Pia: Me too! I had a good feeling.

Felix: Feli takes a 2:1 lead!

Feli: You were like “blueberry, raspberry, forest berry”

Felix: This game cannot end in a draw anymore. The last category grants you three points. Feli, your turn. We are looking for UWCL winners, any modes past or present.

Feli: So teams that have won the champions league. Does the women’s cup count?

Pia: Yes, any modes count. Yes, you went to a final.

Feli: I stop listening to Felix after the first part of his sentences.

Pia: You went to a final, we talked about it the other day.

Feli: Okay, rock paper scissors. Ah, no, I’m first!

Felix: You go first.

Pia: Oh god.

Feli: 5?

Felix: Do we hear 5?

Pia: Is that all? I tried to count them in my head and I got to 5 as well. The question is whether I can think of a sixth. You can get 5 too, easy. The first 5 are easy. Don’t you think?

Feli: Yes.

Pia: See? That’s why I need a sixth.

Feli: Don’t we have a time limit? Ref!

Felix: Yes, we have to cut this short.

Pia: I needed to win the first bid. Okay, fine! Shit. I thought, if I say 6 I’ll have 30 seconds to think. I just don’t know whether I’ll remember in those 30 seconds.

Feli: Only your brain may know.

Pia: Oh man!

Felix: 10 seconds left.

Pia: I still have time! One more–I’ll–ugh, okay Feli, you go ahead.

Felix: Okay, Feli!

Feli: Would be so bad if I don’t know them now!

Pia: That’s my last hope!

Feli: Alright then.

Felix: Your 30 seconds start now!

Feli: Barcelona, Wolfsburg, Lyon, Potsdam, Duisburg, Frankfurt. Are there any more? Yes, that Swedish team!

Pia: I couldn’t think of their name!

Feli: That would have been my seventh.

Pia: I didn’t think of Potsdam.

Felix: You got 6. All correct.

Feli: That means I’ve won the game! Yes!

Pia: Okay everyone, just let me say that I only lost for the good vibes in our flat tonight!

Feli: Alright.

Pia: So she’ll let me eat at the table.

[hetalia-club]

Does your baseball league have teams at all or is it just the stats.

HI YES BASEBALL! So I actually do have 2 teams. The team captains are Japan & America. I picked them because they were against each other in the world championships in the finals last year and thought they may want a rematch. I put them in a Character AI group chat and I gave them a list of characters and they took turns alternating picking who they wanted on their teams. They didn't know the stats and just went off who they wanted. I was pretty surprised actually by who they ended up going with

America's first pick was Romano. and Japan picked Spain for his first pick, which Spain is the reining European champ for baseball. So I can see the thought process there. Romano as a first pick is a very bold move my America but maybe he knows something we don't (Get you a homie who gives you a confidence boost like that) That being said here are their teams America's Team Japan's Team America Spain Romano Canada Germany China England France Russia Prussia Austria Finland Sweden Turkey Norway Scotland Ireland Greece Denmark Iceland Italy (he was the last pick lol) Japan

It's interesting because Japan seemed to be going for strategy looking for well rounded players while America picked all the heavy hitters. Japan seemed to have a plan in his team picking while America was just grabbing up power houses. very on brand for both of them tbh. America was the first pick and so Romano was chosen first, he would love that lmao. No one would hear the end of it.

(I forgot to add Turkey, Greece & Iceland I'll do that later)

[mask131]

Cold winter: Beowulf

BEOWULF

Category: Anglo-Saxon literature

There is an epic poem called “Beowulf”. It is one of the most famous works of Old English to have ever existed, written in a West Saxon dialect between the end of the 10th and the beginning of the 11th century. And yet… it features no English character, no English story and no English setting – as its story takes place in the 6th century Scandinavia and seems to be a variation of Norse and Germanic legends. Which makes the hero known as Beowulf a very unique and strange figure, one feet in Old England and another in pagan Scandinavia.

As the poem begins, we discover that Beowulf is a great warrior of the Geats (or Goths, inhabitants of modern day’s Sweden) – and the husband of the princess of the Geats. And news comes to the Geats of the troubles the king of the Danes (inhabitants of modern-day Denmark) face: apparently their king, Hrodgar, is being terrorized by a monster. Beowulf immediately asks for his own king to allow him to go help the Danes ruler – for you see, Hrothgar is a great friend of his family. When Beowulf’s father, a warrior of the clan of the Waegmundings, ended up killing a man from another prominent clan, he was imposed a “werewgild”. A “weregild” was an Old Norse tradition according to which the murder of a man had to be repaid to the family with a big sum of money (“werewild” being literally a “man price”). But the weregild being too high, Beowulf’s father had no choice but to flee and exile himself among the Danes – which is where he attracted the kindness of king Hrothgar, who generously paid Beowulf’s father debt. In exchange, Beowulf’s father swore an oath to help Hrothgar if he ever was in trouble – and now this oath was inherited by Beowulf. Which is why upon hearing the king’s harassment, he promptly leaves Geatland with fourteen warriors and sails towards the island of Zealand.

For you see… it is on this island that Hrothgar built for himself a great hall named Heorot, where he, his wife and his warriors spent their nights singing, drinking, feasting, celebrating... And unknown to them, the island had another resident. A monster, a man-eating creature known as “Grendel” that hates all sounds of joy, and so every night attacks Heorot and kills (plus eats) all the men he can find inside. Grendel has been haunting Heorot for twelve whole years as Beowulf arrives to put an end to his terror. Beowulf decides to stay with his men in Heorot, to attract the beast. He feigns sleep, but as soon as Grendel enters and tries to kill them, Beowulf launches at him and engages in a battle. A weaponless battle, for Beowulf considers himself the “equal” of Grendel and does not fear him (plus blades are useless against Grendel’s hyper-tough skin). Their wrestling match ends up with Beowulf ripping off one of Grendel’s arms – Grendel, mortally wounded, flees back to the marshes he comes from every night. Beowulf promptly places Grendel’s arm on the wall of Heorot as a trophy.

The next day the king himself with all his men came to Heorot to celebrate Beowulf’s victory: he was rewarded, compared to Sigmund himself, and then he was given a different lodging as Hrothgar and his men partied at Heorot. There was just… one problem. Grendel had a mother you see, and she was even more terrible than him. That very night, she came to Heorot to avenge her son. She sneaks in the hall, and kills the most loyal fighter of the king before escaping back into the night. The king, his men and Beowulf track back Grendel’s mother to her lair – under the same lake/bog Grendel came from. Beowulf decides to go fight and defeat Grendel’s mother on his own – but unlike earlier, he is much less confident. He is armed with a sword, and before jumping into the bog/lake he gives the king several instructs of what to do if he ever dies. Beowulf swims in the murky waters, fighting off several monsters swimming there, before finally reaching the cave where Grendel’s mother awaits him, with her son’s corpse by her side. The battle is ferocious – Grendel’s mother almost kills the hero with a small sword, but his armor prevents his death, and Beowulf’s sword cannot harm her… Until the warrior spots a “sword made for giants” in the lair, seizes it and beheads the mother with it. He also decides to behead Grendel, and he returns to the surface with two proofs of his victory: Grendel’s head, and the hilt of the giant-sword (for the blade melted due to Grendel’s extremely hot blood). After this victory, king Hrothgar rewards Beowulf with many prices – but also warns him… warns him to not let pride consume him, and to always reward his men.

Returning home to Geatland after these monstrous battles, Beowulf finds himself mixed in various military and political adventures. He takes part with his king to a raid against the Franks (the Germanic tribe seen as the ancestors of the first French people), where his king dies and Beowulf has to return to Geatland by swimming through the sea – not just in FULL ARMOR but also wearing THIRTY SETS OF ARMOR, for each of the fallen men. Quite a strong guy. There the queen of the Geats offers him the throne, but lets it to the king’s legitimate son. However the young prince later dies due to a Swedish invasion upon the Geats (as the young prince had welcomed in his land two young Swedish princes who fled their wicked uncle, who had usurped the Swedish throne). Since said wicked uncle had invaded Geatland and killed his new king, Beowulf agreed to take the crown of the Geats, and went to war against the wicked uncle, to slay him and put in his place one of the two exiled Swedish princes.

And so we jump in time… fifty years later – fifty years after Beowulf’s battle against Grendel’s mother. Beowulf is now the old king of the Geats, and has to face a new monster terrorizing his land: a dragon that has been angered by a slave’s stealing of a golden cup from his hoard. The dragon burns everything in the land, and Beowulf sets off with his men to vanquish the beast. Beowulf declares that he will fight the dragon alone, but that his men shall wait on a barrow nearby – however the old king turns out to be no match against the fearsome dragon, and his men, scared, flee and abandon him. Only one, seeing Beowulf’s distress, agrees to help him – the two end up killing the dragon, but Beowulf is mortally wounded – as it turns out, a dragon’s bite is filled with a deadly venom. Beowulf dies by the side of his faithful man, Wiglaf, who upon seeing the other warrior return accuses them of having caused Beowulf’s death by their cowardice. In his last breath Beowulf named Wiglaf his heir (having apparently never taken a wife himself). Beowulf’s body was burned on a funeral pyre, and his ashes buried in a barrow by the sea.

- - - - - -

Beowulf is truly… one of the kind. This poem is a strange piece of literature, that is still considered to this day extremely complicated to translate. Not just because it was written in a dialect, but also because the story is prone to many, many “digressions” going away from the main plotline, resulting in a convoluted form of story-telling – and because… we only have one manuscript of this story. One in the world, that on top of that was damaged during an 18th century fire – fifty years before it was even firstly transcribed, and seventy years before anybody tried a first translation. Of course, the strange nature of the story itself has also been an object of fascination: not just because it was a distinctively Germanic story told in ancient England, but also because it mixes elements of “Norse paganism” with Christian elements (Grendel and his mother are said to descend from Cain).

The Beowulf poem notably struck deeply the mind of J.R.R. Tolkien, who wrote an entire essay on the difficulties and complexities of translating the Beowulf poem, considered it a true testimony of Anglo-Saxon paganism written in the very end of the Christianization process of England (around the 8th century), and used it as a big inspiration for his own fantasy writings (for example he found the “orcs” and the “barrow-wights” in “Beowulf”).

In terms of more recent adaptations, Neil Gaiman, another famous fantasy author, tackled his own version of the Beowulf legend in a 2007 animated movie (it was part of those early computer-animated movies, done with the same techniques and producers as “The Polar Express” or “Monster House”). Well… Neil Gaiman co-wrote the movie alongside Roger Avary, and their take on the Beowulf legend wasn’t actually a faithful retelling, but a twist on the old story – deciding to present a less heroic, more flawed Beowulf, and to highlight some themes of the original story (such as the cyclical threat of monsters and the rise-and-fall of a great hero), while asking questions about the poem’s events… Such as “If Beowulf takes time to behead both Grendel and Grendel’s mother, why does he only brings back Grendel’s head as proof of having killed his mother?” or “How come the old king seemed to have some prophetic powers to tell Beowulf exactly how he would meet his demise?”.

Because… there is actually a final line in the poem that does make one look back at Beowulf differently. It is already pretty clear in the story itself that Beowulf’s story is one of… if we were Greek, we would say “hubris”. He keeps insisting on fighting threats and monsters alone, despite each battle against the three antagonists (Grendel, his mother, the dragon) proving more and more difficult, to the point of being deadly. He even is warned by the king of the Danes that pride might become his weakness and downfall… And so comes the final lines of the poem, after Beowulf’s funerals are described. “They said that, of all the kings upon the earth, he was the most gracious and fair-minded, kindest to his people and keenest to seek fame.” The last qualificative, “keenest to seek fame”, might seem like another positive quality – after all, the Norse men glorified war, bravery and courage, a man who seeks glory and fame was seen as a hero who wanted to make something out of his life, and in the story Beowulf is treated as a great king for fighting monsters alone – while his fleeing men are shamed as cowards… But “keenest to win fame” could actually also be a heavy criticism, as it is his desire for “fame”, to be the greatest hero, that led him to actually endanger himself by constantly throwing himself alone in battle, while not listening to the warnings of older and wiser figures. The last lines are very ambiguous, and can lead to two very different (but not contradictory) interpretations of the poem…

[yanxidarlings]

Hmmm I am thinking about the type of yanderes that really enjoys breaking and molding their darling to be perfect and obsessed with them. Like afterward, everything is pristine and perfect but what if they catch their darling staring longingly at the sky outside the windows every once awhile? The darling is playing the script and everything is great, but sometime they can sense the hesitancy before a kiss or some sort of falter before a smile. Idk I really like the idea of a darling that actually never completely breaks no matter how hard they try, a tiny shadow of a person that always reminds the yandere that the illusion is never real.

𝒴𝒜𝒩𝒟𝐸𝑅𝐸 𝐻𝐸𝒯𝒜𝐿𝐼𝒜 𝒜𝒩𝒟 𝒫𝒪𝑅𝒯𝒰𝒢𝒜𝐿 𝒳 𝐹𝒜𝒦𝐸 𝐵𝑅𝒪𝒦𝐸𝒩 𝑅𝐸𝒜𝒟𝐸𝑅

• i wasn't going to write anything today, but hats off to you anon because i couldn't go do anything without thinking of how i'd reply to this ask, so here we are. gosh there's alot to unpack here, but for starters, i'd like to go over the characters that would most want to break their darling. the most obvious in my writing is england, if his darling doesn't already fit his idea of a proper gentleperson, then you best bet he's going to put in the effort to turn them into one, germany, austria and hungary are also the same in this way. there are also yandere's who don't necessarily want to break their darling, but are likely too anyway. netherlands is a big one, i haven't written anything for him yet, but the one headcanon i have for him is that unless his darling is as rigid as he is, they're going to have a hard time. vietnam, russia and spain can also fall into this category. there is a middle ground, and this is where the yandere is the ask would fit into, even if they want to break their darling, they just don't have the heart or strength to do so, surprisingly, belarus won't want to make the same mistakes with her darling as she did with her brother, even if they misbehave, she doesn't want them to be terrified of her like russia is. but she's more likely to be able to follow through then romano, japan and iceland. another possible yandere the darling in the scenario could be with is india, he's still a character i'm learning about, but from what i know of his personality, he seems like a heavily manipulative yandere, i've been trying to figure out how to explain this for a while now, but macau, china and ukraine instead of ruining their darlings life, like certain people higher up on this list *cough* iggy *cough* ostrich *cough* would manipulate their darling have a sense of care or duty towards them. honestly this list is just a mess, but another possibility is the darling ending up with a yandere that uses fear as a way to 'break them', australia, will have his darling visit his home once, then boom, there's spiders everyone, it's too hot to travel, and before they know it, they're trapped and stuck obeying him if they don't want to become crocodile food. south korea, switzerland and denmark would also use this approach. finally, there are a few yandere that i cannot see ever wanting to or ever breaking their darling, france, would easily tell if his darling wasn't happy with him, pretending or not, and it wouldn't be something he could deal with greece, lithuania and sweden would also hate to see their darling only pretending to like them.

• now i was debating who to do some headcanons on, but i think by far the best yandere for this situation is portugal.

PORTUGAL

• okay so joão wouldn't be the most patient of yandere's, he'd also be quite insecure, which is why the dynamic of him and a darling that's only pretending to love him interests me. his insecurities stem from being compared and mistaken for spain, he's similar to romano but cuter jkjk but honestly can be worse when he's left to his own thoughts.

• joão notices how his dear darling doesn't even look him in the eye properly, every bit of affection he's trained them to show him is painfully obviously rehearsed, the only time he's seen them genuinely smile was when he caught them staring out the window, it hurts. it hurts because deep down he's starting to realise it's his fault.

• he would have started off as a delusional yandere, fully believing they love him or at least have interest in him. his delusions would run deep, and whenever they were broken, he would become violent, he's not as calm as spain is when it comes to words, another thing joão is insecure about. after his outbursts, it will never be him that apologises and comforts his darling, but his darling that has to comfort him, say they aren't mad, that they love him, eventually it'll become the only way to calm him down.

• i can imagine after a particularly bad argument, joão's darling will realise that going on like they are won't do them any good. maybe they revert to their rehearsed state as a way to get him to let his guard down, or maybe they genuinely give up.

• either way, portugal is elated at first, and he can stay like that for months, even years, but it won't be pretty once he realises. some yandere's might soften up, attempt to become less selfish and make their darling at least a little bit happy, bit it'd take a while for portugal to get there, he'd be angry rather, why can't they just love and be happy with him?, why are they making their life so unnecessarily miserable?, the only other yandere i can think of that would have this reaction is england. although i can imagine quite a few of them snapping at their darling like this after they try to pamper them into truely loving them, only to still be met with fake smiles and affection.

[sdlpp]

Female monarchs and Western civilization

Nowadays, there was a heated debated on how and why the European civilization gradually surpass other civilizations and dominated the world. When we come across this question, we may find different answers. We may find out that most of the largest and strongest European empires are highly associated with the rise of several female monarchs, including Isebella of Castile, whose marriage helps the union of modern Spanish nation and memorized for her contribution to the Reconquista and the ending of Moorish regimes in Iberia Peninsula and helping Christopher Columbus’s voyage by selling off her jewelry. We may also remember also think of Elizabeth I, who pacificated time-long religion conflicts in the England Kingdom, support British navy and pirates challenging Spain’s domination on sea, and pave the way to oversea colonization of the British Empire. We may also think of Catherine the Great, during her reign, Russian empire finally defeated Ottoman empire and gains the entirely north shore of Black Sea. She also participated in the Partition of Poland, ending the centuries-long superpower in Central Europe.

 Actually, contradicted to general belief, female monarchs witness more wars than their male counterparts, and their countries are mor likely to see victories in wars with foreign countries and get territory expansion. On the contrary, female monarchs are less likely to experience civil unrests. The possible reasons may lay behind:

Firstly, although compared to most of Eurasian civilizations, European civilizations have more female monarchs, the total numbers of female monarchs and their ruling length are still quite limited, only accounts to at most 15% of record history in European countries. The most outstanding female monarchs usually witness more difficulties and experience a tough time during their young age, which greatly enhance their governing skills and toughness. What is more, these successful female monarchs usually take advantage of social class conflicts to gain their throne, and thus helps them to be more willing to compromise during their governance and prevent potential internal conflicts.

 Secondly, female monarchs can get more help and advice from their partner. Their marriages can help expend their own kingdoms; examples abound. The marriage between Jadwiga of Poland and Władysław II Jagiełło paved the wave of Poland-Lithuanian Commonwealth’ creation, the marriage between Isabella of Castile and Ferdinand of Aragon helps the two kingdoms gradually formed the Spain Kingdom and Margaret of Denmark’s relationships helps her to united Norway, Denmark and Sweden as a whole. What is more, the husband of queen reigns can rely more on their husbands, but Kings and Emperors seldom turn to their wives for help in military and political actions. But such hypothesis has a critical issue- not all female monarchs have a descent husband. Some, like Elizabeth I have never get married, others like Catherine the Great‘s husband, former Tsar Peter I ,was very unreliable.

Although these female monarchs seldom have the awareness of gender empowerment, their undeniable contribution to history have paved the way for future female monarchs and political leaders. After the regime of Isabelle of Castile, Spain, England and Scotland witness several outstanding female monarchs, including Johanna the Madness, Mary of England, Lady Grey, Mary of Scotland and the most famous one-Elizabeth I of England. Combing with European’s contact with indigenous people in the New World and Africa, during which female monarchs in Africa and Oceania, like the queens in Kongo, Madagascar, Ethiopia, Hawaii are more willing in learning from Western civilization, Christianized and are more tough toward colonist invasions, people gradually found that women can play a equal role in political platform.