Latvia

Latvia (ラトビア Ratobia), is a character in the series Hetalia: Axis Powers. In 2008, Himaruya gave out human names to some of the characters and Latvia received the name Raivis Galante (ライヴィス・ガランテ Raivisu Garante).

Appearance


Latvia has short, curly blond hair and violet eyes (sometimes colored dark blue). In his WWII appearances, he usually wears a maroon military uniform with brown epaulettes.

He is the shortest of the Baltic trio, though he was drawn somewhat taller in his earlier appearances in the webcomic and originally had thicker eyebrows. His uniform also originally had frog clasps in the front (rather than simple buttons) and he wore tall boots.

Personality And Interests
The youngest of the three Baltics, he is withdrawn and a crybaby due to the series of unfortunate events he's experienced in life. He is often pushed around by Russia, who he tried and failed to cut ties with. He loves poetry and romance novels.

Despite being rather young in physical age, Latvia's profile also states that he drinks a lot of alcohol. This is further elaborated on in the Hetalia Desktop Buddies, where he states that he is able to drink up to forty cups of alcohol at his best.

Sealand
Main article: Sealand

Though Latvia stabbed him with a flower when they first met at a world meeting, the two quickly managed to become close friends, due to their similarity of being small nations that weren't taken very seriously. Latvia's attempts to act as an older brother and mentor figure to Sealand, but his own insecurities and worries tend to get in the way.

In The Anime


Latvia first appeared in Episode 01 at the Meeting Of The World, where he was being bullied by Russia and Belarus, the latter holding a knife to his back. He officially appears in Episode 29 with the other two Baltics, speaking for the first time.

His design in the anime adaptation was altered slightly, with his light blond hair having been changed to a darker shade, while his violet eyes were changed to an aqua blue. Though Latvia was originally voiced by Rie Kugimiya in his appearance in Hetalia Drama CD: Volume 2, he is instead voiced by Kazutada Tanaka in the anime series.

Name
While Raivis is an actual Latvian name, his surname Galante is actually of Italian origin. Whether it is intentional or not, Latvia's human last name corresponds with that of the well-known opera singer Inessa Galante, who happens to be from Latvia herself.

Trivia

 * His birthday corresponds with the date for Latvia's declaration of independence from Russia and Germany, November 18th, 1918. Latvia would later wind up occupied by both Soviet and Nazi forces in 1940 and 1941 respectively, before being reoccupied by the Soviet Union in 1944. While it announced its renewed independence from the union in 1990, it took a year for it to actually be restored.


 * The "desktop mascot" of Latvia reveals that he has an apparent dislike for things such as the Livonian Order, Alexander Lukashenko, the Teutonic Order, and Cossacks.


 * Latvia has commented, after Russia asked why he was so short, that it was because of Russia pressing down on his head every day. If he did not, Latvia would be ten centimeters taller than he is now.