Note: Gerita is not confirmed in canon and should not be taken as such. What this post intends to do is show some of the hints revealing a possibility of the ship.
Since it’s the most well-known hint of the ship, I’ll begin with the Buon San Valentino strips. Context is extremely important here, especially considering that it takes place during WW2.
The main premise is that Germany misinterprets Italy’s ‘strange’ behaviours— for lack of a better word—as romantic. The running joke of the series is that Germany goes to Austria asking for help in figuring out his relationship with Italy. When he tells Austria that they sleep, eat, hug, and kiss (on the cheek) each other, Austria immediately dismisses the relationship as vulgar. It’s this perceived vulgarity that leads Germany to mistakenly conclude that Italy has romantic feelings for him rather than the two of them being friends.
The running gag is that Austria later realizes that Germany is talking about Italy, who’s seen as an exception to this rule in that his behaviours aren’t indicative of romantic feelings. It’s just how he acts to show affection.
Source: Hetarchive, Buon san Valentino pt. 1
In other words, Germany and Italy are on two completely different wavelengths.
Ex: The individual strip titles with the series.
Italy and Germany: So close and yet so far – pt. 1
-We Misunderstand Each Other Way Too Much – pt 1
Meanwhile, Germany has completely committed himself to the idea that Italy has romantic feelings for him and takes it upon himself to buy a guide on dating. Other blunders that feed Germany’s misunderstanding is that Italy gives him roses for Valentine’s day and admits that his first love was a boy.
Source: Hetarchive, Buon San Valentino pt 1 & 2.
We then skip forward to the dinner where Germany thinks that he’s on a date with Italy. Another point to stress is Italy’s confusion. He doesn’t know that Germany thinks he has feelings for him, hence the confusion when Germany gets mad at Italy for flirting with girls on their ‘date’, the flowers he brings for Italy, and his awkward marriage proposal later on in the strip. I know this all sounds ridiculous but that’s because it is.
Even though Italy wasn’t reciprocating Germany’s actions, it’s the fact that Germany was ready to fully commit himself to Italy that lends substantiation to the ship.
Source: Hetarchive, Buon San Valentino pt 3.
Now, this next part strays from canon, so you can either disregard it or take it as such. If we’re working with the Holy Rome = Germany theory in addition to Italy’s admission that his first love was a boy, it’s possible that Holy Rome was the boy he was talking about.
It’s for this reason that many people think Himaruya dropped a hint of this connection at the end of Buon san Valentino. Germany becomes so stressed that he blacks out. The reader is given a panned-in scene of Germany’s brain, where entities operating it begin to panic with the emergence of new emotions such as ‘heart’ and ‘happy.’ The scene ends with panels depicting fuzzy images of Chibitalia, possibly revealing that these are memories that Germany has lost from his time as Holy Rome. In that case, in his moment of stupor, Germany may have briefly recalled these last memories.
Moving on, there are two pertinent moments in World Stars that also gives credibility to the ship.
One, there’s the scene from Chapter 40 that is often a source of debate.
Italy and Germany are sightseeing together when they come across a statue of Juliet, from the Shakespearean play Romeo and Juliet. Italy mentions that if a couple touches the right breast, they’ll become happily married. Germany then replies, claiming that they can’t get married.
Gerita skeptics tend to use this as definitive proof that the ship can’t and won’t exist. I disagree and interpret it differently. If you consider how politics and the concept of sovereignty have changed over times, nations don’t form unions anymore. For example, Austria was notorious for marrying to solve his political problems and was married to both Hungary and Spain. What I believe that Germany is saying is that the likelihood of Germany and Italy forming a political union won’t ever happen, not that the two of them can’t be in a relationship.
Source: Hetascanlations, World Stars Chapter 40.
Lastly, there’s also this scene in the arc where they go sightseeing. Germany witnesses Italy flirting with a girl and then asks how Italy would act if he were flirting with a guy. Some, including myself, have interpreted this as Germany prompting Italy to see if he’s into men. It all seems a bit off for Germany’s character, which adds to the subtlety of the hint.
Source: Hetascanlations, World Stars Chapter 4.
That said, I think that there are enough grounds for the Gerita ship. Of course, this doesn’t mean to say that a ship needs canon material to legitimize it either. What I mean is that the ship is a lot more possible than what skeptics have previously posited.
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