DysPros App
Jun. 1st, 2013 11:36 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
mostlymarriedOOC
IC
IC
NAME: Belarus
CANON: Axis Powers Hetalia
CANON POINT: June 2013
AGE: 21 (appearance), somewhere around 1200-1300 actual (though see a note on this; she has essentially had a VERY LONG childhood).
APPEARANCE: This image is basically Belarus in a nutshell
PERSONALITY: Cranky, angry and more than a bit weird, Belarus is probably the least sane of the Slavic nations (assuming we're not counting Russia). Fond of knives, able to see ghosts and possessing an interest in the haunted and supernatural, Belarus is creepy enough without her crazy fixation on her equally insane brother, the aforementioned Russia.
I tried several times to try and summarize the history of Belarus and how it affected her personality, but it's kind of hard to do without turning this app into an oversized history lesson. Tried breaking it down into a timeline but it still turned out to be huge; you can find it here if you want.
The key points are that after forming an early proto-state in the 880s with the Principality of Polotsk, after its collapse she basically bounced around under the control of various major factions until finally, finally achieving independence in 1991. She developed under the wing of Kievan Rus' (the early form of her sister Ukraine), fell under the control of Lithuania and later Poland after a 13th century Mongol invasion, was essentially the rope in a tug-of-war between Poland and Russia from the 1400s all the way to the 1917 Russian Revolution, was almost completely destroyed by the Second World War and then was then a founding member of the USSR up until its dissolution in 1991, her canonical birth date.
Of note is the etymology at work here; 'Belarus' is short for 'Belarussia' / 'Belaya Rus' / 'Belorusia' (there's about a billion and one ways of romanising it), which basically means 'White Russia'. Belarus has always been considered (by the Tsars) as western Russia; a troubled area to be kept out of the grips of Lithuania and Poland. You could even see her personality as something of a pun; she's like her psychopathic brother Russia, only colder.
So what does all this mean for Belarus, as a person? Canonically, she is described (by Russia) as '[having] a very strong heart and equally strong will, but they only seem to manifest in negative ways'. She has a cool and pessimistic personality, is prone to wielding knives when provoked and is utterly obsessed with marrying her Brother, and to a lesser extent with making Lithuania's life pain.
A lot of this isheadcanon HISTORICAL CONJECTURE but I believe Belarus was initially, during the Polotsk and Lithuanian Commonwealth period, a fairly decent, ordinary cute kid (traces of which remain in how she totally considers them still to be married), only to be stolen away by Russia and progressively brainwashed by Russification and later Sovietization (the various attempts by Russia over the centuries to enforce cultural unity, at first to deny it from Poland and later from the Western Powers) into the crazy obsessive she is now. She is violent towards Poland and Lithuania and adoring towards her brother because she is programmed to, to the point where - as like most things in Eastern Europe - it has all gone spectacularly wrong and out of control; even Russia (or possibly, especially Russia) is terrified of her. She's been fought over and passed around so many times the result is a... confused mess, firm in her own identity and independence but lost in her allegiances, having been raised by her sister Ukraine, then Lithuania and Poland, then mostly Poland, then Russia, then Germany, then Russia again, then even America for a very short period of time before finally having her own autonomy.
Though she is obsessed with Russia now it's clear she wasn't always; the many uprisings and attempts to break free are indicative of that. She has always been unruly and prone to ignoring the wishes of the other nations even whilst trying to support them. Belarus's strong association with partisans in its history (against the Nazi occupation) also supports this. Rebellion is in her blood, even when she's trying to form a Union (note how she's trying to marry him despite him finding the concept of this terrifying), it's in her nature to resist.
She had something of a relapse from the Russification and became an adopted younger sister to America after the fall of the USSR, 1991, only to fall out favour again - probably around 1994 when Lukashenko happened and go back to being obsessed with Russia. She views the rest of Eastern Europe - particularly the Baltic States as competitors for her Brother's affections, Lithuania especially and even Ukraine to an extent, though her sister is easily her best relation in all of EE from lack of invasions, counter invasions and fighting save the very early period of Kievan Rus' and that incident with Chernobyl. Ukraine is easily Belarus' most 'normal' relationship and grounding force. Of course, that said she does still hold Ukraine as the reason Russia hates her (completely missing the issue at work entirely).
She is fiercely proactive in trying to marry Russia (despite his many objections) and fiercely proactive in defending him; if the EE countries object to his proposals it's usually Belarus that threatens them (her first appearance is quite literally intimidating Latvia with a knife during a World Meeting) and she threw a coathanger at Denmark for proclaiming he'd won a costume test her brother was also attending that one time. Her concepts of love, war and peace are all fundamentally broken; to her love is demanded, war is normal and peace is strife. Independence is a very new, very strange thing for her (even though she subconsciously strives for it) and a lot of her odd behaviour is a result of an inability to acclimatise and her attempts to emulate Russia after all the Russification and Sovietization programming she's been through. Basically, she suffers from severe long term Stockholm Syndrome to the point she now terrifies and wants to rejoin her original kidnapper. Russia himself never intended for her to become that way.
When Countries in Hetalia are under occupation / taken over by others they are taken to live in the occupier's house; for example Lithuania is commonly seen in Russia's house as a sort of secretary for most of the Empire and Soviet periods. Equally, they also 'age' as their country develops; from 880 to 1991 is essentially her 'childhood' as she slowly develops a cultural identity despite constant suppression. This manifests in her largely childish mentality and behaviour despite her apparent age, and her very simplistic view of the world.
Regarding her own life and that of ordinary humans, she is a pessimist; often getting philosophical and wondering how much longer she'll exist and why she does in the first place. She contends that '"humans are a series of misfortunes and hardships" and they're constantly filled with misfortune and make others suffer without realizing it by constantly striving for eternal happiness' (quoting the Hetalia wiki since I doubt I could put it better). Her relations with the Western Powers are tainted by the Cold War, and with the Eastern Europeans muddled and confused by her own chaotic history.
Her economy is in shambles and still to a large degree in recovery mode; it's been called 'Soviet style' for a reason. Character-wise this translates to a fondness for potatoes; "as long as we have something to eat, it's fine", she is spectacularly unfussed when it comes to food and can survive off even the very basic. Though even she probably still can't handle England's cooking. She has no real care for food and drink.
She is developing external interests slowly; she can apparently see ghosts, has a love for folk and rock music, the occult, acrobatics and performing arts. She's still quite caught up in the past; reading Pavda and finding her traditional clothes cute. Interestingly, throughout most of Belarus' history the aristocracy / ruling bodies were either Polish or Russian, with Belarusian developing amongst the working class / peasantry. This too factors into Belarus' personality; she's incredibly working class and often vulgar in her language and speech, though her interests have developed some sophistication (gymnastics, theatre and so forth).
Finally, the programming has clearly left some detrimental side effects; she is noted as being prone to sit around watching or doing nothing for hours on end (spending three hours staring at the white noise on a TV for example). She also prank calls Lithuania and Poland from time to time.
Though she appears to be a constant, icy calm she is aggressive, violent, prone to using vulgar language in that same calm manner and generally unstable. Basically, she's icy cool right up until the point something makes her snap - the something in question usually being Russia and the insulting thereof, though she will still prioritise the EE countries over the rest (Lithuania and Poland excepted).
PROJECTED CLASS: This was a toss up between Assassin, Punisher and Berserker; in the end I went with Punisher. Whilst she has the history of armed rebellion (the many revolts, the Belarussian partisans), personality wise she lacks the subtlety for it. Whilst she'd fit right in as a Berserker at the same time I'd doubt she'd sign herself up for it; it's just not how she sees herself. This leaves Punisher; they follow their own code (where hers is basically 'Russia'), still beat things up with brute strength but are not particularly sneaky; Belarus isn't the backstabbing type, she's the type to barge through a wall. Thus, she'd make a good but tad uncontrollable Punisher. Berserker and Assassin would probably be her subclasses, which will make for an... interesting combination.
That this coincidentally puts her in Lithuania's guild just adds to the potential hilarity.
OTHER: N/A
SAMPLES
CANON: Axis Powers Hetalia
CANON POINT: June 2013
AGE: 21 (appearance), somewhere around 1200-1300 actual (though see a note on this; she has essentially had a VERY LONG childhood).
APPEARANCE: This image is basically Belarus in a nutshell
PERSONALITY: Cranky, angry and more than a bit weird, Belarus is probably the least sane of the Slavic nations (assuming we're not counting Russia). Fond of knives, able to see ghosts and possessing an interest in the haunted and supernatural, Belarus is creepy enough without her crazy fixation on her equally insane brother, the aforementioned Russia.
I tried several times to try and summarize the history of Belarus and how it affected her personality, but it's kind of hard to do without turning this app into an oversized history lesson. Tried breaking it down into a timeline but it still turned out to be huge; you can find it here if you want.
The key points are that after forming an early proto-state in the 880s with the Principality of Polotsk, after its collapse she basically bounced around under the control of various major factions until finally, finally achieving independence in 1991. She developed under the wing of Kievan Rus' (the early form of her sister Ukraine), fell under the control of Lithuania and later Poland after a 13th century Mongol invasion, was essentially the rope in a tug-of-war between Poland and Russia from the 1400s all the way to the 1917 Russian Revolution, was almost completely destroyed by the Second World War and then was then a founding member of the USSR up until its dissolution in 1991, her canonical birth date.
Of note is the etymology at work here; 'Belarus' is short for 'Belarussia' / 'Belaya Rus' / 'Belorusia' (there's about a billion and one ways of romanising it), which basically means 'White Russia'. Belarus has always been considered (by the Tsars) as western Russia; a troubled area to be kept out of the grips of Lithuania and Poland. You could even see her personality as something of a pun; she's like her psychopathic brother Russia, only colder.
So what does all this mean for Belarus, as a person? Canonically, she is described (by Russia) as '[having] a very strong heart and equally strong will, but they only seem to manifest in negative ways'. She has a cool and pessimistic personality, is prone to wielding knives when provoked and is utterly obsessed with marrying her Brother, and to a lesser extent with making Lithuania's life pain.
A lot of this is
Though she is obsessed with Russia now it's clear she wasn't always; the many uprisings and attempts to break free are indicative of that. She has always been unruly and prone to ignoring the wishes of the other nations even whilst trying to support them. Belarus's strong association with partisans in its history (against the Nazi occupation) also supports this. Rebellion is in her blood, even when she's trying to form a Union (note how she's trying to marry him despite him finding the concept of this terrifying), it's in her nature to resist.
She had something of a relapse from the Russification and became an adopted younger sister to America after the fall of the USSR, 1991, only to fall out favour again - probably around 1994 when Lukashenko happened and go back to being obsessed with Russia. She views the rest of Eastern Europe - particularly the Baltic States as competitors for her Brother's affections, Lithuania especially and even Ukraine to an extent, though her sister is easily her best relation in all of EE from lack of invasions, counter invasions and fighting save the very early period of Kievan Rus' and that incident with Chernobyl. Ukraine is easily Belarus' most 'normal' relationship and grounding force. Of course, that said she does still hold Ukraine as the reason Russia hates her (completely missing the issue at work entirely).
She is fiercely proactive in trying to marry Russia (despite his many objections) and fiercely proactive in defending him; if the EE countries object to his proposals it's usually Belarus that threatens them (her first appearance is quite literally intimidating Latvia with a knife during a World Meeting) and she threw a coathanger at Denmark for proclaiming he'd won a costume test her brother was also attending that one time. Her concepts of love, war and peace are all fundamentally broken; to her love is demanded, war is normal and peace is strife. Independence is a very new, very strange thing for her (even though she subconsciously strives for it) and a lot of her odd behaviour is a result of an inability to acclimatise and her attempts to emulate Russia after all the Russification and Sovietization programming she's been through. Basically, she suffers from severe long term Stockholm Syndrome to the point she now terrifies and wants to rejoin her original kidnapper. Russia himself never intended for her to become that way.
When Countries in Hetalia are under occupation / taken over by others they are taken to live in the occupier's house; for example Lithuania is commonly seen in Russia's house as a sort of secretary for most of the Empire and Soviet periods. Equally, they also 'age' as their country develops; from 880 to 1991 is essentially her 'childhood' as she slowly develops a cultural identity despite constant suppression. This manifests in her largely childish mentality and behaviour despite her apparent age, and her very simplistic view of the world.
Regarding her own life and that of ordinary humans, she is a pessimist; often getting philosophical and wondering how much longer she'll exist and why she does in the first place. She contends that '"humans are a series of misfortunes and hardships" and they're constantly filled with misfortune and make others suffer without realizing it by constantly striving for eternal happiness' (quoting the Hetalia wiki since I doubt I could put it better). Her relations with the Western Powers are tainted by the Cold War, and with the Eastern Europeans muddled and confused by her own chaotic history.
Her economy is in shambles and still to a large degree in recovery mode; it's been called 'Soviet style' for a reason. Character-wise this translates to a fondness for potatoes; "as long as we have something to eat, it's fine", she is spectacularly unfussed when it comes to food and can survive off even the very basic. Though even she probably still can't handle England's cooking. She has no real care for food and drink.
She is developing external interests slowly; she can apparently see ghosts, has a love for folk and rock music, the occult, acrobatics and performing arts. She's still quite caught up in the past; reading Pavda and finding her traditional clothes cute. Interestingly, throughout most of Belarus' history the aristocracy / ruling bodies were either Polish or Russian, with Belarusian developing amongst the working class / peasantry. This too factors into Belarus' personality; she's incredibly working class and often vulgar in her language and speech, though her interests have developed some sophistication (gymnastics, theatre and so forth).
Finally, the programming has clearly left some detrimental side effects; she is noted as being prone to sit around watching or doing nothing for hours on end (spending three hours staring at the white noise on a TV for example). She also prank calls Lithuania and Poland from time to time.
Though she appears to be a constant, icy calm she is aggressive, violent, prone to using vulgar language in that same calm manner and generally unstable. Basically, she's icy cool right up until the point something makes her snap - the something in question usually being Russia and the insulting thereof, though she will still prioritise the EE countries over the rest (Lithuania and Poland excepted).
PROJECTED CLASS: This was a toss up between Assassin, Punisher and Berserker; in the end I went with Punisher. Whilst she has the history of armed rebellion (the many revolts, the Belarussian partisans), personality wise she lacks the subtlety for it. Whilst she'd fit right in as a Berserker at the same time I'd doubt she'd sign herself up for it; it's just not how she sees herself. This leaves Punisher; they follow their own code (where hers is basically 'Russia'), still beat things up with brute strength but are not particularly sneaky; Belarus isn't the backstabbing type, she's the type to barge through a wall. Thus, she'd make a good but tad uncontrollable Punisher. Berserker and Assassin would probably be her subclasses, which will make for an... interesting combination.
That this coincidentally puts her in Lithuania's guild just adds to the potential hilarity.
OTHER: N/A
SAMPLES
FIRST PERSON SAMPLE:
'Test Drive' more like 'Car Accident'
THIRD PERSON SAMPLE:
This was pointless.
She'd dotted all their 'i's, ticked all their boxes and here she was, all signed up like a good tin soldier when her Brother wasn't even here. There was the wish, she supposed; the wish to be granted at the castle summit but...
...Somehow, all these little missions and errands didn't seem what the right way about it. Just too slow.
Of course her wish was without question. Entirely without question. The wish for which she'd always been raised. Always always always...
She sighed. Was there no way to make this faster? Dancing to a western tune just didn't sit right. She was Byelorussia! What she wanted, she took! It wasn't like the list was particularly long. Was this really, really the right thing to be doing?
The man she was holding up seemed happy to agree, despite the broken nose.
"Please! Please! I'll pay the debt, I'll pay the debt!"
"Are you sure?" She asked politely, fist still raised and dripping. At least the armour was useful. By the time she'd been big enough to wear any plate mail had fallen out of fashion...
"Yes! Yes I beg you!"
"Good."
He dropped to the floor with a thud.
First of four. Aaah, earning her Brother's love was taking far, far too long...
'Test Drive' more like 'Car Accident'
THIRD PERSON SAMPLE:
This was pointless.
She'd dotted all their 'i's, ticked all their boxes and here she was, all signed up like a good tin soldier when her Brother wasn't even here. There was the wish, she supposed; the wish to be granted at the castle summit but...
...Somehow, all these little missions and errands didn't seem what the right way about it. Just too slow.
Of course her wish was without question. Entirely without question. The wish for which she'd always been raised. Always always always...
She sighed. Was there no way to make this faster? Dancing to a western tune just didn't sit right. She was Byelorussia! What she wanted, she took! It wasn't like the list was particularly long. Was this really, really the right thing to be doing?
The man she was holding up seemed happy to agree, despite the broken nose.
"Please! Please! I'll pay the debt, I'll pay the debt!"
"Are you sure?" She asked politely, fist still raised and dripping. At least the armour was useful. By the time she'd been big enough to wear any plate mail had fallen out of fashion...
"Yes! Yes I beg you!"
"Good."
He dropped to the floor with a thud.
First of four. Aaah, earning her Brother's love was taking far, far too long...
