DISCLAIMER: Before I begin I wanna re-establish that NOBODY has to agree with or even like my Lore, especially since this particular post is on a Canon Character. These are purely my headcanons and my thoughts as to how this canon character would fit into my lore, I am not about to force these ideas/headcanons onto anyone. Okay? Ooookay.
On the 18th of January, over three hundred years ago, Elector Frederick III promoted Prussia from a Duchy to a Kingdom.
I’ve had this idea for a little while, but because of real life and me being the Queen of Procrastination, I haven’t had the chance to write it down into a post. But since today is Gilbert’s birthday, I thought it would be good to write down why I think his eyes and hair look the way they do! (Granted, my HC appearance for Gilbert’s eyes are a very pale brownish-pink buuuut… Artistic license I guess?) SO, because I like being mean to these guys, a Representative’s physical appearance can be (and often are) altered by a change in status; such as growing taller, their healing rate getting a boost, etc.
With any kind of change, people are going to react differently to it; some people will deal with change well while other people will deal with change terribly. For example; I am terrible at dealing with change, getting my dog recently has been a colossal change in my life, and though it’s a lovely one, it did take me a while to get used to having him around. So, taking that, we can come to the logical conclusion that some Representatives deal with changes far better than others.
Some, unfortunately, don’t deal with a status change very well.
Since it’s such a big change, and a change that affects them physically and ultimately mentally, sometimes it can come as a really big shock, even if they think they’ve prepared for it. Gilbert strikes me as a person who runs headfirst into most things, he’s someone who knows his strengths; so when faced with this “promotion” I can definitely see him insisting that he’ll handle the changes juuust fine.
So, I imagine him being knocked down with twice as much force once he realises that his body isn’t dealing with the change quite as well as his mind.
I get the feeling that the reason why his hair is pure white is because the strain of undergoing the physical changes of going from a Duchy to a Kingdom Representative literally bleached him.
Much like with the pulling pains, a change in status can range from being absolutely bearable to feeling like Hell on earth, and no matter how tough or strong-willed a Representative thinks they are, they can be completely beaten down by it. No amount of preparation can really help the way their body reacts, they just have to take it in their stride as best they can, and deal with the consequences afterwards, no matter how unfortunate said consequences are.