i cant. Stop thinking about hetaoni. its classic literature. i just sit in the dark and think about hetaoni italy for hours at a time.
it's shown in veneziano's scenes in vol 1 that his struggles are:
1) that he doesnt have Any friends (that don't benefit from/use him in some way); he hates being alone
2) that he is a massive coward (probably because he's been kicked around so much) and is VERY easily sent into hysterics
3) that he is a terrible liar and could not be less suited to combat/espionage/military management. this is stated outright (credit hetarchive)
ok. do you understand this character? now put him in a situation where he is forced to
be alone all the time. because . yknow. his friends keep dying in the timeloop. also his friends don't remember that they ever became his friends because, again, they keep dying in the timeloop
2. keep a cool head IN SPITE OF everyone else panicking, face a giant horrific monster time and time again, and deal with things that he is, to speak frankly, used to delegating to other people.
3. LIE. lie to his friends, lie to himself. lie about what he does and doesn't know. lie not just in what he says, but in how he acts. he also has to try and coordinate not his own actions, but the others' actions too, and keep them "on script" (idk if you know this but the nations are a bunch of hotheaded and arrogant people, and they're not really eager to be "directed" by their Actual Enemy, esp one they think so little of as italy, so this is a miserably difficult task)
literally NO ONE could be less qualified for the role of ryuuzu than italy. and a huge portion of the (delicious) tragedy of hetaoni is that the expectation of "maybe it will help italy mature!! y'know, character development through horrific trauma!!" is never realized. he HASN'T evolved into a suave, detached time-loop master. he's tired and frustrated and in grief and so so confused and completely and utterly hopeless... AND HE'S NOT EVEN GOOD AT TIME-LOOPING. HE CONSTANTLY MAKES MISTAKES AND GETS PEOPLE KILLED.
the reason it works is BECAUSE italy is in the wrong genre here. when you think "timeloop protag" you think of a certain jaded, cool character. italy is neither of these things. he's hysterical and the furthest thing from collected. he doesn't have answers. he doesn't have a concrete plan. he barely knows how to tie his shoes.
it's so delicious. veneziano's flaws and weaknesses come into play as running jokes in the original series, but in this kind of situation they leave him directly to blame for so much of the events of hetaoni -- and he knows this -- and it's such a sick twist. i love it !!
