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fumblingmusings · 2 years ago

Note

what do you think/like about (romantic) usuk in historical hetalia? how do you see their dynamics? im curious

I like how they can be one of those relationships where its hard to define what they are to each other, because they have been so much at varying points. They are everything. You know? You know.

Oh look. This turned into a bit of an essay. USUK let's go.

They are genuinely one of my favourite ships and have been for like 15 years at this point. I'm a sucker for them being soft on each other. You know when a fic allows Arthur to say 'my love' or 'my darling'? Or Alfred dropping a 'sweetheart?'

You can find me on the floor like

It's the way in which they grow from 'you never fucking understood me' to 'you know me better than most anyone' and what they see and understand is in equal parts gorgeous and horrifying, and yet they still pick the other.

The fact that getting there for the two of them took a lot of hard work too! It took rivers of blood and trenches of soldiers and burning of cities and the promise of 'no-one can hurt you without also hurting me'. The willingness to end isolationism for the other.

The way the past for both of them holds nearly nothing but grief, and despite this, they still think their futures are entirely entangled and genuinely believe it to be the right course of action. The formation of an unconditional affection from what was - for Alfred - a series of targets he never had a chance of hitting and - for Arthur - the projection of a love which never truly existed in the first place because they just did not understand each other.

Arthur maybe puts in more work than Alfred in the early years, but its his fault their relationship is in tatters to begin with, so...

Personally, and this leans into what I think canon tries to show, is they go through the following stages :

Arthur is a teenager pretending to be an adult to big himself up as this big powerful nation but at the end of the day he is pretty much still a child himself. He completely fails to connect and understand Alfred to the cost of any warmth the two may have had for each other.

Alfred tries once to salvage something from the ashes, but is blocked by Matthew (I don't blame Matthew for doing so, Alfred was barging in unannounced to his house and Mattie was trying to do right by a sick Arthur) and thus Alfred resolves not to try again. Their relationship thereafter is purely economic and formal, and as Arthur retreats into isolationism, Alfred goes West, and they do not think about each other. They don't see each other for a long time. That wound festers and weeps, becoming infected at the back of their minds.

Arthur thinks, lying to himself that, 'I never loved him. Not once,' and focuses his attention elsewhere. Alfred knows he made the right choice and that expecting anything from Arthur is just an exercise in disappointment.

When the 19th century begins to end, and Arthur is realising that A) his power is fading as much as America's is rising B) he has no pals to soften the fall and C) he is lonely. Him being rejected by Germany and then his response to that is to ask Alfred is interesting to me. He's angling it from the perspective of 'who are the nations that I deem as my equal' at this point, but that shows how Alfred has risen in his estimations, even passively. He immediately recognises that Alfred is lonely, too. They mirror each other, except Arthur is initially far more willing to be emotionally vulnerable. Almost running opposite to what you would expect, but Arthur is an emotionally vulnerable character. He always has been. Especially with Alfred.

But Alfred, as we know, shoots him down rather harshly (for a whale... jokingly. i think). It's the way that Arthur continuously trusts Alfred with those moments of emotional vulnerability even though the man is far more likely to laugh in his face about it.

I flip flop on when they genuinely truly start to reconcile. Maybe in the trenches, the muddy foundations are laid. They are still cautious around each other, but maybe Alfred breaks, just for a moment, and Arthur is privileged enough to be allowed to watch (but not to comfort). Maybe in the 20s, when they are both very drunk, they admit that what they were to each other was not real necessarily and the regret of such a realisation. Was it really just a label they assigned to pretend they weren't crippingly lonely even in the other's presence? But they go no further than that. They don't voice out loud that that moment felt more real and genuine than a thousand new suits or toys or dance lessons or taxes. They're not quite there yet.

Then honestly Lying in that Sound, Tonight does such an impeccable job of writing the two coming (not saying you have to read a 100,000 word fic to understand why I love them but it don't hurt) together that I really cannot see it any other way at this point - the argument where Arthur has to point out it's Alfred who is stuck on the past, not Arthur. Arthur, meanwhile, is very much struggling to see a future worth living for at that point and really isn't worried about what they were two hundred years ago.

Arthur, who at some points is struggling to remember why he is even fighting because he is so goshdang tired. And Alfred is young, and strong, and bright, and I think Arthur maybe still has rose tinted glasses on when it comes to Alfred and sees him as 'better' than old Europe in many ways. I mean he'll scoff at whatever spiel Alfred regurgitates about being the hero but... well he is Arthur's. Just a bit.

I think though by the 70s those glasses well and truly crack. He sees that Alfred can be ambitious for the sake of ambition, can be cruel for the sake of being cruel, etc. etc. Like Alfred is just a man. A bright, beautiful, spiteful, self absorbed, joyful, kind man. And Arthur is always just a little in awe of him. I think for Alfred, Arthur represents quiet, steady, cautious and un-conditionality, all of which are things he lacks or craves. Arthur is not some great towering giant (you used to be so big). He's just... tired damp little Arthur.

So yeah. I like that there's no masking around each other. They have learned through experience exactly who the other is, whilst still believing that the better version of the other is their true self. They have genuinely seen the other at their absolute worst and most monstrous, and decided I still want you and I am not afraid and... I just like it.

Yeah.