#italia veneziano did you mean king of complex characters???

[urmomsstuntdouble]

can we get a north italy character analysis too?? congrats on the 100 followers!! 💖💖💖

absolutely! i feel like im a bit unnecessarily hard on him sometimes...I really do love Veneziano as a character though. he’s so complex and well written! also thank you! 

insecurity

So it probably comes as no surprise that I think Vene is very insecure. I think some of the sources of his insecurity are survivor’s guilt, how a lot of people see him as being useless and only good at art/fashion/food, and that he feels like nobody would care about him if he wasnt the grandson of Rome. 

Where his survivor’s guilt is concerned, I think that there used to be a lot more personifications for Italy (and the entire world tbh), for all the city-states. Because of the strength of the “national” identity, i don’t think it’s out of the question for there to have been other personifications (see the war of the bucket), although only Veneto and Sicily are left by now. This is one explanation for why he seems so extroverted- Because he grew up surrounded by other people, and now he feels very much alone in comparison. 

As for the only being good at art/fashion/food, he doesn’t like that people reduce him down to these traits. I think it makes him feel very weak, or like he’s bad at being a nation. Yeah, nobody knows what the purpose of the nations is, but the expectation coming from both the other nations and all their people is that they must be strong. So Feli really doesn’t like that nobody sees him as being strong- partially because in his mind, not being strong means he’s a failure. Part of this is just because that’s how it was for much of European history, but I think some of it is also because of how Rome treated him when he was a kid. More on that later. But yeah, it feels like nobody acknowledges him for anything other than the fun parts of his country. And that’s cool and all, one does like being known for fun times, but it makes him feel a bit insecure and he gets self-deprecating a lot because history ain’t pretty, ya know? More importantly, no one person is pretty all the time, and the way people see him as being so fun and cute and quirky and all makes him feel like he’s not allowed to express his negative emotions. That’s no good no matter who you are but for an immortal it’s just so much worse, because while you may have. idk 10 years of baggage. he has literal centuries. 

I also think him being the grandson of Rome makes him really insecure and shaky in his identity. Such big shoes to fill, ya know? He’s not terrible at filling them- Venice being so incredibly welthy during the Renaissance and all- but the way that Rome treated him as a child didn’t help. I think that the way Rome’s parenting is viewed is often through the lens of neglecting Romano, but (and this is a bit of a while hc time) i dont think it was actually like that? or at least not super clear cut. I think that Rome tried to create some competition between his grandsons, maybe to prevent them from rising up as nations and lessening some of his power, or to keep them from developing a strong enough bond to topple him. Veneziano and Romano were definitely his two favorite kids, if favorite is the right word. He paid the most attention to them, and manufactured some of the basis for their present day relationship- Such as Romano’s jealousy, which isn’t as intense in the present day, but definitely stems from being made to feel like he wasn’t as worthy of parental love. The way this affected Vene, on the other hand, is that he suddenly felt like he had to be perfect at all times or his grandpa would cast him aside, just as he did with Romano and their other siblings. It also created Veneziano’s need for constant validation, as there was a constant fear that his paternal figure hated him for just existing (because Rome definitely made the other Italian personifications feel like that..and other Roman provinces, like Spain and France, but i think that’s a little off topic). All this is to say that his relationship with Rome set up a lot of his present day insecurities about how nobody loves him or needs him- Because as a little baby country, he definitely needed someone to care for him, but Rome didn’t need him back. This mindset that was established during his youth is very much still prevalent, down to him not being able to hold grudges. Because when Vene was young, his grandpa was the main person who had wronged him, but he couldn’t make himself hold a grudge against Rome- That’s his grandfather and his protector, so he didn’t feel like it was okay for him to hate him. 

manipulative tendencies

A lot of people think that Veneziano is manipulative, and I would have to agree. I think that some of this is inherited from Rome, and some of it is due to his career as a businessman. Where Rome is concerned, the way that he raised his grandkids was super toxic, especially with how he turned Veneziano into someone constantly worrying about what other think of him. But...if Vene could control how others thought of him...he wouldn’t have to worry...and yeah that’s basically where I think him being manipulative came from. It’s also a little bit based on Machiavelli’s The Prince, as Veneziano wants very much to be loved, but the only way he knows how to make people like him is through fear, as that’s how his grandfather did that. 

need to be useful

So, going back to what I said earlier about how his angsty childhood with Rome made him feel like he always had to be perfect- I think that might’ve contributed somewhat to this idea he has that he must be helpful and useful Or Else. This is seen throughout the comic, although I think it’s most obvious where Romano is concerned. He wants to make things easier for his brother, which is mostly done in the form of making sure Romano can relax and doesn’t stress himself out too much with work and all that. However, he doesn’t do this with other characters he’s close with, like Germany and Japan- Because he doesn’t think he can be of any use to them. I mean, he would like to be, but he’s not out here trying to do all their work for them and save them from stress. In fact, he more often relies on them for those things. But Romano is at his same level, sort of, so he could be useful for Romano. Of course Romano has an entirely different perception of this. 

I think there’s also some lingering stuff from Youth that makes him need to be useful, other than just you are the heir of the roman empire and you are an utter FAILURE if you can’t be great on your own. I think his fear of abandonment stems from his upbringing too, which is why he’s so clingy and always trying to please others. He knows what might happen to him if he doesn’t, and if he’s in the situation of fighting for someone’s approval, he will play dirty. 

Anyway, I think that’s about it! A bit longer than I anticipated, but ah well. analysis bb. I hope you liked it, and thank you for the request! 

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