Oh lordy lordy, it has been so long since I have looked through the new scanlations of Hetalia. For a while there is slowed down to the point of maybe one a year. Even after a 2-3 year break from the scanlations and even the anime, I have very quickly caught up to everything I missed.

Those of you who know anything about me know that Hetalia entered my life at a really dark time. I have suffered with chronic depression for 8-12 years and it has been quite constant. I have always never known what to strive for or work towards, so I sat in that funk for many many years, and slipped ever further into the pit. Not long before finding Hetalia, I would self harm weekly and attempted suicide various times.

Hetalia was at first an escape. It was bright, cheerful, funny. It fostered my love for history and over time, I realized that Hetalia was more than History and puns. Hence why I started this series of essays, trying to find these real characters. These people and find out what makes them tick, understand how someone, a human, can be so happy. They have all suffered hardships, loss, corruption and fear. They should be as miserable as I am, no, worse! They should have no hope like I do. They have no control over their own lives. Every few decades they are forced to fight and kill or watch people be killed. They aren't holed away from society and the world, but walk freely through it, meeting people like you and me; they talk to us, stand by us, smile and laugh with us, even cry with us. How can they be so happy?

To a point, I feel it is unfair. Maybe because they are not real, that is why they are so happy despite it all, but every time I start to let that belief sink in, Himaruya reminds me, you, us, that even though they aren't real, even though they have lived much longer than you or I and have witnessed more horrors than we will ever know, they are still entirely relate-able and human. First there was America and England with the cleaning shed, then there was Lithuania's scarred back, Russia's mental break, France's re-meeting with Joan de Arc, and now this.

To those of you who do not keep up with scanlations and/or only keep up with the English dub of Hetalia, please, I implore you, read the scanlations. Some of these strips contain more information, emotion and personality than the anime can ever capture in 5 minutes, and definitely more than the English dub even bothers to keep. While Fanfiction does not allow links to be placed in the stories written any longer, if you go to my account page, I will have a link to a site that you can read all translated scanlations written by Himaruya and are 100% canon.

This scanlation I am addressing today is called Private Concert, and it appears really simple and light-hearted. Prussia performs a private little concert for Germany, playing the flute. It is seen in this scanlation that Himaruya may be strongly hinting even more that HRE and Germany are one in the same, merely missing his memories, but that is merely implied. Gilbert than passes his flute off to Ludwig, telling him that they will one day perform together, he just needs to practice, but that he can have his "Sacred Flute", to which he is passing on.

This is not stated anywhere in the scanlation, but it is pretty obvious to any Hetalia fan that Prussia most likely learnt to play by Frederick. As such, there is a high probability that the flute Prussia plays was either one given to him by Frederick, or his beloved king's own flute. Again, however, this is a lot of speculation. But the way Prussia calls it sacred gives some very good backing that it may be so.

This is where the story takes a very sharp turn.

Prussia hands over the flute and Ludwig notices a bite on his hand. Apparently one of their dogs got fed up with Prussia's antics and bit him. Understandable, Gilbert even says he's bored out of his mind, so aside from playing the flute, playing first person shooters and terrorizing the dogs, he really doesn't have much to do. Ludwig sighs, but shrugs it off saying, "It'll heal up quickly on its own anyway." This is confirmation of the fan belief that Countries heal at a much faster rate than humans. Since there was an obvious wound and Ludwig showed mild concern over it, we can assume the injury was enough to draw blood when it first occurred, but by the time Ludwig saw it, it had already started to heal.

In the next few panels we follow the perspective of the culprit who bit Gilbert, complaining about how Prussia asked for it and deserved what he got. But then, wait for it... It is revealed that Prussia had been bitten a week ago. And in that same panel, Gilbert is holding his wounded hand to his chest, his smile and upbeat, almost cartoony, personality is gone. He is trying to keep that smile, but it is wavering. His eyes are adverted away and he has his back to the dog as if he knows what it is thinking. Apparently he doesn't, so who else would he be hiding the truth from?

Germany.

This is Hetalia at its realist, at the most human. Gilbert is fading, he's losing his country privileges and, sooner or later, he'll merely disappear and no longer exist. Despite all that, he doesn't tell anyone. Not Germany, not Italy, not France or Spain or Hungary. The only two people who know are him and the dog. In front of everyone else, he is the same as ever, there is nothing wrong.

I stated before in my other dissections that Prussia is scared of dying. His own impending mortality hanging over him, except unlike humans he won't know when or how long. He is still untouched by age and possibly always will be, like Grandpa Rome and Germania who retain their youthful looks, Prussia will remain the same as always until, one day, he is just gone. This scanlation is his deepest fears coming true.

Passing off his flute to Ludwig, telling him to practice and take good care of it. That's Gilbert saying, "Please remember me". He's preparing for his own death. He doesn't know when it will happen, but he has seen it so many times. He refuses to sulk, wanting to keep his image in front of his brother and the world. He has to stay strong, because he doesn't want to be remembered as weak, or perhaps he feels like he can't be weak. He can't ask for help. Everyone else around him is so busy, they have other things to do. They are still countries with duties and work, he doesn't want to be a burden.

I know this is a short chapter, but I felt it had to be shared. If you have your own interpretations, feel free to post them in a review.