#kahlotus23

[hartage]

gimme mother (erzsi)

i am trying my best not to turn this into a long-winded aushun post, but aushun is one of the central ships that i focus on & hungary is a huge component in my own canon / historical hetalia stuff ?? 

but here a few things i think about:

the relationship between both rodi and ersz​é​bet is very complex and runs deep -  the two of them know each other incredibly well, but that doesn’t mean that they weren’t like cat and dog in their younger years. 

ersz​é​bet genuinely saw rodi as a means to an end when she married him, and vice versa. the 1848 revolution i think was a turning point for both of them. before, hungarian nobles did convince the hapsburg government that they were a “...special unit of hapsburg land and had to be ruled in conformity with its own special laws.” but, it was clear that rodi didn’t take that seriously, and worked for cultural hegemony rather than accepting erszi for who she is. a central theme to all of is this is that erszi is a victim of her own soul searching. she desperately wants to be accepted for who she is, and all of her-- not just bits and pieces. 

erszi is a woman who’s brash, rude, ‘unladylike’ (in victorian standards at least), and a non-conformist. she is a beautiful representation of being the complete opposite of rodi, who constantly seeks to keep the status quo. erszi had always known that rodi did things for his own interest, and out of his own self-preservation. but she saw him as a means to an end, that to dabble with rodi was the only way to give herself autonomy. 

rodi is a complex man himself, and i could go into his own thought process later, but its clear that rodi’s self-preservation cannot allow any provisional ‘thorns in his side’. he’ll get what he wants, even if that means ruining whoever or whatever is trapped in between. 

however, post 1848, rodi was at a point where he knew that the situation between himself, and the rest of europe was dire. rodi performed horribly during the deutscher bruderkrieg (austro-prussian war), and now with the aspect of ludwig (a young child at this time) being a central theme in gilbert’s motivations, it meant that rodi and erszi had to act fast. marriage for them was their only solution.

i think people often like to say that both of them hated each other throughout their marriage, and that rodi’s marriage to erszi was the last of his ‘political marriages’, which the latter is true. 

however, a political marriage does not mean that there wasn’t any mutual feelings between the two. the complexity of keeping a relationship during the mid 1800’s-- a time of significant societal and political upheaval, is central to how ersz​é​bet changed. i think erszi became a completely different person between the time of 1873-1914. i say 1873 rather than 1870, or even 1867 because there was a bit of time where erszi intensely loathed rodi, and throughout their marriage felt a tad bit of remorse for being the ‘preferred one’ compared to her counterparts like nikoleta (czech), or other nations in the empire. she went from a complete life of struggle and hardship to a luxurious lifestyle that made even some of the biggest world powers envious. her lifestyle back allowed her the comfort to let those things go to her head.

however, during the fin de siècle, i believe rodi’s attitude began to bother ersz​é​bet. she saw him go completely neutral during crimea, and it left her hopeful that rodi had grown from the militarism that dominated their relationship in the early days. however, after the mayerling crisis, and the assassination of empress sisi, ersz​é​bet began to see roderich’s attitude change wildly. he became obsessed with revenge, to the point where erszi grew arguably a terrible coping mechanism-- forcing herself to become indifferent to rodi’s worsening mental health issues, and ignoring his abysmal actions in the balkans. 

 much like the PM at the time (istván tisza), erszi was originally opposed to the war. i think at this point, specifically during the july crisis, it brought erszi to realize that rodi once again was only doing this for his own self-interest, that his selfishness was not sagacious, nor was it even resourceful to the betterment of their peers at all. tisza is quoted with saying "it was a difficult decision to take a stand to propose war, but now i am firmly convinced of its necessity", while still being against the annexation of serbia. it was clear that erszi had become parsimonious with her opinions, because even if she didn’t solely believe in the things rodi was doing, she perpetuated it. she never spoke up. 

erszi probably would argue with people like nikoleta that she was afraid to speak up against rodi at the time, but i think it’s quite obvious that erszi wanted to have the best of both worlds-- the luxurious lifestyle she gained from rodi, coupled with the idea of holding enough power to never be controlled again. 

“tough to those above and humane to those below" is the best way i could explain erszi in one sentence, but this sentence doesn’t mean that erszi was always like that. she fell victim to her own ego, like many of us do.

in 1918, woodrow wilson was intentionally vague with his tenth point, “the people of austria-hungary, whose place among the nations we wish to see safeguarded and assured, should be accorded the freest opportunity to autonomous development.”

wilson saught compromise between the two goals that he had. to keep stability-- but also giving each nationality the choice to decide their fate; a wink towards revolution, and the beginning of the end to ersz​é​bet’s relationship with rodi and the emergence of her (and other nations’) independence.