Russia's sexuality - Notes and Headcanon
» Orientation:
When hearing from someone that "it is a misconception that he says 'ex'", I was very surprised and set out to figure out what he *actually* says. ...After having consulted the fan translation at the Hetalia index which provided me with the translation that I knew, the shoutwiki Hetalia Wiki misconceptions page which did not say anything about it, and tried to look at a couple of Japanese dictionaries which did not help me any, either, I asked a friend of mine to ask her Japanese friend to have a look at it. Below you can see what I discovered:
Friend's Japanese friend, who was asked through my friend, who looked at the strip: Well, 「僕のお古だけどさ」 is essentially "he's my ex, after all"-- there's a connotation of kind of 'sloppy seconds', BUT ANYWAY, 「お古」 translates roughly to "second-hand items", which is a term that can be used for people, too (even though it's not the kindest of terms)! It's a word to denote 'my ex', so that is a correct translation *^*
Me: It really is ex as in "my ex-boyfriend/husband/something like that?
Friend: Yes. What he's saying is that whoever is with him now is getting Russia's leftovers.
Most of the fandom considers Russia to be gay, based on their interpretation of a few hints in canon. In particular, two arguments are often made.
1) The only het ship involving him that one usually encounters in the fandom (and that we have any canon moments for) is Belarus/Russia. It is extremely onesided, since Russia goes to lengths to avoid it, such as running from her, hiding, and even getting depressed just thinking about it.
From this, people assume that he isn't into girls.
2) In the end of the outsourcing strips, he calls Lithuania his "ex".
Be these things as they may:
1) Belarus is a) his sister, and while he seems to love his sisters as much as he's able to love anyone, they are just that to him - sisters. It is very likely that he is just not into incest. Also, maybe even more importantly, b) Belarus is batshit insane when it comes to their desired marriage (not that she is entirely sane normally, but Russia isn't either). She hurts people, goes berserk, and turns into an even creepier person than Russia himself, and that should tell you something.
Also: If we assume that he loves his sisters as sisters and just that, every nation that he interacts with is either his sister, male, or taken (Hungary). It makes sense that he'd choose males.
2) Though Lithuania being the only person that we've ever seen him intersted in, and that he happens to be male, that doesn't mean that he's necessarily the only one Russia is interested in at all. But much more importantly, here comes the interesting fact:
We've seen Russia drop comments and hints about why, and more importantly, in what way he likes Lithuania, at a couple of occasions.
- Asked what he wants, Russia, instead of saying anything relevant to the conversation/fight/whatever you call the mess that APH UN conferences are, tells Spain that he "Wants to see Lithuania's troubled face". And judging from everyone's reactions, that isn't the first time that he says that, and he's made some effort and taken action to be able to see it before.
- At their very first meeting, he says that "they will become friends when he's stronger, when he's a big country, because he's not strong enough yet", implying that "friendships" are about strenght and domination/submission.
And then it would makes sense that he likes Lithuania. Because a) Lithuania was strong once, and beat Russia at more than one point. Because of this, there was some adoration that Russia felt for Poland-Lithuania despite of what they did to him, and despite of them being at war almost every time they met. b) Later on, he managed to turn the tables, and now he's the one dominating Lithuania, but c) Lithuania is still resisiting. There were three major rebellions before Lithuania left his house for the first time, which he apparently translated to "breaking up" (God alone knows what actually happened between them, and if there was anything that could be called a loving relationship or not - seeing how Russia's mind works, it would at least not have been a steady one); and Lithuania, unlike both his sisters and the other two Baltics, used to be independent before he came into Russia's house. He didn't just exchange one owner for another one - and that still shows.
And that is where my reasoning comes to an conclusion:
A) Yes, Russia's main (maybe only) love interest is most likely Lithuania
B) No, it's not because he's gay. He's pansexual, or let's rather say, powersexual. He's attracted by the struggle for domination, and victory in that struggle, not the physical sex of the other person.
» Headcanon
Russia has a rather low sex drive. He is not completely asexual and enjoys (pleasurable) intercourse if it happens, but he doesn't get randomly turned on, and there has to be a strong emotional basis for anything connected to sex to happen - at least if he can control it.
This fanfic perfectly fits my headcanon and I will just put it here. |D
His only long-term, desired sexual partner was Lithuania, whom he blackmailed into his bed a couple of years after the brunet entered the Slav's household. Because he loves Lithuania, and thinks blackmail is an okay part of courting. The fact that he likes Lithuania's troubled face and also the fight that the Baltic has in him does not make him desire the other nation any less, it rather fuels it.
Russia's first encounter with sex was the rape of women when their villages or towns were raided, and it should take centuries until he started to understand that there is more to sex than humiliation and pain.
When hearing from someone that "it is a misconception that he says 'ex'", I was very surprised and set out to figure out what he *actually* says. ...After having consulted the fan translation at the Hetalia index which provided me with the translation that I knew, the shoutwiki Hetalia Wiki misconceptions page which did not say anything about it, and tried to look at a couple of Japanese dictionaries which did not help me any, either, I asked a friend of mine to ask her Japanese friend to have a look at it. Below you can see what I discovered:
Friend's Japanese friend, who was asked through my friend, who looked at the strip: Well, 「僕のお古だけどさ」 is essentially "he's my ex, after all"-- there's a connotation of kind of 'sloppy seconds', BUT ANYWAY, 「お古」 translates roughly to "second-hand items", which is a term that can be used for people, too (even though it's not the kindest of terms)! It's a word to denote 'my ex', so that is a correct translation *^*
Me: It really is ex as in "my ex-boyfriend/husband/something like that?
Friend: Yes. What he's saying is that whoever is with him now is getting Russia's leftovers.
Most of the fandom considers Russia to be gay, based on their interpretation of a few hints in canon. In particular, two arguments are often made.
1) The only het ship involving him that one usually encounters in the fandom (and that we have any canon moments for) is Belarus/Russia. It is extremely onesided, since Russia goes to lengths to avoid it, such as running from her, hiding, and even getting depressed just thinking about it.
From this, people assume that he isn't into girls.
2) In the end of the outsourcing strips, he calls Lithuania his "ex".
Be these things as they may:
1) Belarus is a) his sister, and while he seems to love his sisters as much as he's able to love anyone, they are just that to him - sisters. It is very likely that he is just not into incest. Also, maybe even more importantly, b) Belarus is batshit insane when it comes to their desired marriage (not that she is entirely sane normally, but Russia isn't either). She hurts people, goes berserk, and turns into an even creepier person than Russia himself, and that should tell you something.
Also: If we assume that he loves his sisters as sisters and just that, every nation that he interacts with is either his sister, male, or taken (Hungary). It makes sense that he'd choose males.
2) Though Lithuania being the only person that we've ever seen him intersted in, and that he happens to be male, that doesn't mean that he's necessarily the only one Russia is interested in at all. But much more importantly, here comes the interesting fact:
We've seen Russia drop comments and hints about why, and more importantly, in what way he likes Lithuania, at a couple of occasions.
- Asked what he wants, Russia, instead of saying anything relevant to the conversation/fight/whatever you call the mess that APH UN conferences are, tells Spain that he "Wants to see Lithuania's troubled face". And judging from everyone's reactions, that isn't the first time that he says that, and he's made some effort and taken action to be able to see it before.
- At their very first meeting, he says that "they will become friends when he's stronger, when he's a big country, because he's not strong enough yet", implying that "friendships" are about strenght and domination/submission.
And then it would makes sense that he likes Lithuania. Because a) Lithuania was strong once, and beat Russia at more than one point. Because of this, there was some adoration that Russia felt for Poland-Lithuania despite of what they did to him, and despite of them being at war almost every time they met. b) Later on, he managed to turn the tables, and now he's the one dominating Lithuania, but c) Lithuania is still resisiting. There were three major rebellions before Lithuania left his house for the first time, which he apparently translated to "breaking up" (God alone knows what actually happened between them, and if there was anything that could be called a loving relationship or not - seeing how Russia's mind works, it would at least not have been a steady one); and Lithuania, unlike both his sisters and the other two Baltics, used to be independent before he came into Russia's house. He didn't just exchange one owner for another one - and that still shows.
And that is where my reasoning comes to an conclusion:
A) Yes, Russia's main (maybe only) love interest is most likely Lithuania
B) No, it's not because he's gay. He's pansexual, or let's rather say, powersexual. He's attracted by the struggle for domination, and victory in that struggle, not the physical sex of the other person.
» Headcanon
Russia has a rather low sex drive. He is not completely asexual and enjoys (pleasurable) intercourse if it happens, but he doesn't get randomly turned on, and there has to be a strong emotional basis for anything connected to sex to happen - at least if he can control it.
This fanfic perfectly fits my headcanon and I will just put it here. |D
His only long-term, desired sexual partner was Lithuania, whom he blackmailed into his bed a couple of years after the brunet entered the Slav's household. Because he loves Lithuania, and thinks blackmail is an okay part of courting. The fact that he likes Lithuania's troubled face and also the fight that the Baltic has in him does not make him desire the other nation any less, it rather fuels it.
Russia's first encounter with sex was the rape of women when their villages or towns were raided, and it should take centuries until he started to understand that there is more to sex than humiliation and pain.