Toris Laurinaitis

**Toris Laurinaitis** is one of three men who work for Ivan Braginski in the manga/anime *Hetalia* and the *Tea Leaves* series. He is the oldest of the Baltic states and the personification of Lithuania.

## Appearance and Personality

### Appearance

He has shoulder-length brown hair and green eyes. In his WWII appearances, he wears a green military uniform with tall boots (or simple shoes, depending on the reference image). Toris sometimes wears his hair tied back into a ponytail, such as when he worked as a housekeeper or when he was younger.

In the strip While You Were Gone, Toris is shown to have deep scars covering his back.

### Personality

The eldest of the three Baltics, Toris controlled Middle and Eastern Europe during the Middle Ages, and was a formidable nation that once beat Gilbert, until he was taken by Ivan. Though he managed to get away for a time, he always wound up back under his control. After the Soviet Union fell, he fully regained his independence and went to rehabilitate with Poland.

He is a bit of a serious introvert, winds up being easy to take advantage of, and is the type who will welcome one into his heart once he knows the person. He also tends to depress himself so much that he gets a stomachache. Toris is also said to be interested in martial arts and literature, and drives a second-hand car.

In a rare strip, it is shown that the other two Baltics think highly of him, but resent that he ignores them in favor of spending time with Feliks.

## Back Story

Toris first briefly appears at the meeting in Episode 01, as Ivan states that he only wants to see him come running back to him with a troubled face.

He shows up later on in Episode 17: America's Cleaning Of The Storage, Part 1, which marks his first formal appearance in the anime and his first speaking part.

His character design was relatively unchanged in the anime adaptation, aside from his green eyes being changed to a shade of blue and his hair color lightened slightly.

## Storyline History

### Tea Leaves and Red Silk

Ivan had Toris look up information about Junjie for Yao Wang to bring him to justice for raping Szu.

### Tea Leaves and Silver Rings

Where he was only mentioned in the previous season, Toris actually makes an appearance in season five. Ivan asks him to show Lin Yi and Wang Ja to their new rooms in his house. The Lithaunian man and the other Baltic states pity Wang Ja for they know what's to come for him.

Later, Toris is kept out of Ivan's office during the private meeting. However, he spots Katyusha listening outside of the door looking worried. He asks her what's wrong and she hushes him. Toris takes a listen as well and learns that the Woman in Red is coming back and that Ivan might be involved with some sort of game with her. Like Katyusha, he too becomes worried.

In "Entrückung", Toris is seen talking to Feliks. The Polish man showed off his gun, talking about using it for protection. Toris had his doubts that would be effective against the Woman in Red. Feliks asks him where he could purchase bullets for his gun, claiming it was to "scare away some pesky kids from harassing his ponies". Again, Toris had his doubts.

### Tea Leaves and Diamond Bracelets

Toris tells Wang Ja that they and the Baltic States never know about Ivan's business and warns him not to pry too deeply. Later, he asks Wang Ja who he's talking to in his room and asks him to keep it down. Toris remembers a strange monster in the woods during a war in the past. Feliks was the one who brought it up. Back then, Toris got lost in the woods and heard singing. He came to a clearing where a woman was floating off of the ground with his back to him. After trying to get her attention, the woman turns and reveals her nightmarish face. Toris is so freaked out that he turns around and runs away. Feliks catches him and asks him what's wrong. The young soldier doesn't answer.

## Relationships

### Alfred F. Jones

*Main Article: Alfred F. Jones*

After becoming poor due to the fallout of WWI, Toris lived with Alfred for a brief period of time and worked for him as his housekeeper. He proclaimed it was 'heaven' and was fond of Alfred. He was well received by Alfred's whale friend and Tony, who often beamed him up into his spaceship out of jealousy when Toris paid attention to the whale. When Toris started living and working for Alfred, Alfred asked Toris where his place was and pulled out a map of the United States. Arthur shouted at Alfred to get a world map, to which Alfred said that the map of the United States was a world map. Toris, however, seemed unphased and proceeded to show Alfred where his house was near Alfred's place.

After the Great Depression hit and poverty spread throughout the nations, Toris had to return to Ivan. In a more present-day strip, Toris returned to Alfred's house to celebrate his birthday.

### Natalia Arlovskaya

*Main Article: Natalia Arlovskaya*

Toris holds a crush on Ivan's younger sister though it isn't returned, for she only has eyes for her brother and harbors hatred for Toris.

When he finally succeeded in going on a date with her for three minutes, it ended with her breaking all of his fingers though he continued to remain oblivious to her harsh nature and simply stated that his fingers were broken because he could bend them like that.

It is implied that Natalia's hatred of him comes from the fact that her brother considers him to be his favorite but it´s revealed in a deleted version of the Comic Diary 11 that she has been hurting him since childhood and before he became Ivan´s subordinate (having a young Natalia strangling Toris as a terrified young Feliks stares at them and another in which she breaks his leg) with Toris not acknowledging it or thinking little of it as well.

### Feliks Łukasiewicz

*Main Article: Feliks Łukasiewicz*

The two have been rather close friends, though Feliks can be self-centered (as shown in the earlier strips where their relationship seemed to be more one-sided). However, their relationship is much less one-sided over the years than it was in initial strips. They were partners in the days of the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth, before Ivan split them apart and took Toris under his control. When they managed to meet up again, Feliks attempted to play a prank on Toris with a water gun but wound up discovering the scars on his back.

Feliks refers to Lithuania as "Liet" (short for Lietuva, the Lithuanian word for Lithuania), and won't stand for him being bullied by Ivan, as revealed in both versions of Meeting Of The World (yet to different extents in each version). In The Legend of the Iron Wolf strip, the two share stories about the creation of their capitals, although it can be questioned whether Feliks heard Toris' story.

### Ivan Braginski

*Main Article: Ivan Braginski*

After the partitions of the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth, Toris became Ivan's subordinate. It is suggested that he was Ivan's "favourite" and so is often the target of Ivan's bullying. After gaining independence in 1918, Toris had spent eleven years working at Alfred's house, but had to return to Ivan after the Great Depression.

Ivan visits at one point during Toris' outsourcing to tell Alfred to take good care of him because "He is my ex, after all."

In the modern times, Toris is shown as sometimes being nervous of Ivan, whose approach towards him seems rather unchanged. It is often speculated that the deep scars covering his back were inflicted by Ivan because he was the main target of his harsh treatment. Ivan once confided to Toris that his dream was to be in a warm place surrounded by sunflowers.

A comic from Volume 3 of the manga shows that the two of them met as small children while Ivan was under the Tatar's rule. Ivan immediately declared Toris his friend, much to his confusion.

## Trivia

* His birthday corresponds with the date of Lithuania's declaration of independence from Russia, on February 16th, 1918, but Lithuania would wind up occupied by both the Soviet Union and Nazi Germany in 1940, then reoccupied by Soviets in 1944. It would become the first Soviet republic to declare its renewed independence on March 11th, 1990, although no country would recognize Lithuania's independence for another year.
* In a series continuity error, Lithuania is shown as a teenager (along with Poland) when fighting in the Battle of Grunwald, but later is shown to be a small child after the Italian Wars have taken place in Chibitalia, in a Comic Diary strip set during that timeframe (and written at around the same time as the Grunwald strip).
* It should be noted that the United States of America never acknowledged Lithuania's incorporation into the Soviet Union, and so recognized Lithuanian independence even when Lithuania was not independent.
* Due to a translation error in Episode 1, the name above Lithuania's flag switched to "Latvia" when Poland stepped in front of him.

## Source

* Basic Information: http://hetalia.kitawiki.net/index.php?title=Lithuania