Hetalia: The Fifty Stars

Side Chapter 2: Human Ages

Hello, Readers ~

This side chapter is dedicated to explaining the human ages of my States of America OCs. Note that I'm not an expert when it comes to the aging of countries in Hetalia, and that disagreements are understandable, so long as it's respectful. Anyway, feel free to read this side chapter if interested.

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Human ages in Hetalia are more or less complicated. Sure, there are official ages for some characters like America being around 19 years old, and Italy and Germany being around 20 years old. As to why Himaruya chose such ages, I do not know. It's been estimated these human ages are based on the foundation of the country and how long that country existed. Even so, there's still some confusion as to how aging works in Hetalia. Overall, human ages in Hetalia is a complex topic worthy of discussion.

To begin, let's start with birthdays.

Birthdays for nations in Hetalia are simply listed as a month and a day. Such dates are usually significant to a nation's formation. For America, it's July 4th in relation to the day the Declaration of Independence was signed. For Italy, it's March 17th in relation to the day the Count of Cavour united the Italian Peninsula (most of it anyway). For Germany, it's October 3rd in relation to the reunification of Germany in 1990. While such dates are reasonable as birthdays, they don't necessarily explain a personification's exact birth or age.

Let's look at the historic timeline in Hetalia. Italy's youngest appearance was during the reign of the Roman Empire whose rule ended up getting split around 395 AD. As for America, his youngest appearance is assumed to be around the creation of Jamestown which happened in 1607. As for Germany, his youngest appearance should be around 1871 upon the creation of the German Empire. Note that Germany is a special case in a sense he (spoilers) was formerly known as the Holy Roman Empire (it's complicated) whom was formed around 800 AD. Plus, his birthday doesn't correspond to his creation which should've been on January 18th, but I digress.

Basically for those who are confused by those dates, let me put it this way. Despite being born over a thousand years before the foundation of America, Italy is only a year older than him. Exempting the Holy Roman Empire situation, Germany, having been created over two hundred years after the foundation of Jamestown, is a year older than America. In a weird way, it's even more shocking to know that the current Germany who started to pop up around the late 19th century is the same age as Italy who existed since the Roman Empire over a thousand years ago.

Like, what?

Once again, how and why Himaruya gave these characters their unique human ages is up for debate. I mean, he did list China as being 4000 years old while his birthday remains unclear so far. It's possible he hadn't thought this through, or, if he did have his reasons, it's currently unknown to me at least. One thing's certain, there aren't really any rules when it comes to giving characters and Hetalia OCs their human age.

Other than a significant date of their formation that's used for their birthday, Hetalia OCs come in an array of various human ages. For this side chapter, I'll be focusing on States of America OCs as this series is focused on the 50 States. Anyway, back to the subject at hand.

50 States OCs usually have young human ages. Most of them are depicted in their pre-teens with some being either younger or slightly older than that. Such ages are usually due to the fact such OCs to be America's children, thus it would make sense for them to be younger than the nation. However, I disagree with that headcanon. Instead, the 50 States OCs in this series are older than the ones depicted in the usual States of America fanfiction. This is mostly due to the fact some of these States were created prior or around America's creation, thus making them children didn't make sense to me.