I have been mulling this over again, so below is a further addition to the German or Baltic Gilbert debate
we know I have many thoughts on the debate of german or baltic Gilbert, but I am always confused at the born in acre thing. Cuz he’s then somehow German while not being born anywhere near Germany. So then he’s neither German nor Prussian? Just… Teutonic? It is completely unlike the logic of every other nation backstory I’ve encountered in hetalia. So then Gilbert is BECOMING german by the influence of whoever is taking care of him (German knights?). German via osmosis (lol). But then the majority of the peasants in the order were not native Germans but native Prussians (or other native Balts) until eventually they were taken over in population, a good few centuries after. So, he is becoming German because the ruling class in the area overtaken by the Order is largely German. Interesting. Nation reps are again inherent to whoever the ruling class is? I wonder how this works for a “Celtic” Arthur, whose ruling class becomes Anglo Saxon, and then after that Norman. Have there been several Arthur’s, or people before him? Is Arthur a Norman who killed off whoever was there before him, and is Norman because the ruling class is Norman? It is a strange logic, in my mind.
Gilbert being born in Acre establishes a logic that a colonizer representation could then be implanted from abroad to a completely different area if the population is over time replaced by the colonizer population. Okay, I can buy it, this would actually make sense for a European Matthew or Alfred; born in Europe and transplanted to the Americas. But it does leave a lot of other logics to consider, and is a very sinister notion. How many others would this be? Nation reps being inherently tied to colonial projects is pretty sinister in my mind. There are many other ways this logic can go. What necessitates the birth of nation reps? Who else is born this way? Why does a militant religious order who obtains land from a native population through extreme violence and through divine right or whatever nonsense, get a nation rep? Why can’t the native rep also transform?
I make my Gilbert Baltic because I just do not want to write something that seems, to me, so gratifying and congratulating to colonialism….
As well, I do stand by the idea that Gilbert arriving in Prussia and immediately or within even the first century of arrival killing off whoever native Prussia is, to be a stretch. If Gilbert is German and of Acre also, and a separate Prussia exists too, that person will be alive for a long time also. The Order was not successful in a few days or years, they had at least a century of consistent struggle and even after, the native Balts were struggling against and within the order for their rights and so on so forth. I really hate the idea of the colonizer nation murdering the colonized nation, it is too congratulatory of colonialism overall imo.
But then again it’s just hetalia so it’s not that deep - BUT If you’re going to make Hetalia deep and try to draw heavily from history, I think it’s good to question these things.
