Disclaimer: I do not own Hetalia
Dark. That's what people saw them as. Nothing more than evil, second-rate knock-offs of their more sociolizeable counterparts.
And that was it. They were locked away as best as was able, because they were nothing more than a blemish. That's what people thought they were at most - a stain, besmirching the "good name" of whatever country they represented.
Barely even actual beings, through that view. Sub-human, and undeserving of the basic respect one would grant another person - because through all eyes but their own, they weren't people.
And it hurt, you know? Because they still felt pain, as much as they and others liked to pretend otherwise. But you know what they say - like feds like, hate feeds hate, and so on and so forth.
And, well - the shackles that bound them weren't infallible. They did escape, and when they did, they did things. Things like, well -
- Like Kuro stabbing Kiku's brother in the back. But then again, it wasn't really "Kuro" and "Kiku", was it? After all, they were really one and the same. And apt analogy would be to the two sides of the coin that is Japan.
Such goes for all representatives and their counterparts. After all, one merely represents what the other does not. They are supposed to be opposites, and yet they are similar in that they are each other's worst nightmares.
Those bathed in light and paraded in public fear those cloaked in shadow for what they could do.
Those cloaked in shadow and shut away fear those bathed in light for what they have done.
After all, would you not fear the ones who have trapped you within the walls of their own mind, ultimately yours as well?