Matthew Williams

### Eye color

Blond/Orange (manga), Dark Blond (Axis Powers and World Series anime), Blond (Beautiful World anime)

### Hair color

Violet (manga, Beautiful World), Blue (Axis Powers, World Series)

**Matthew Williams** is Alfred F. Jones' younger brother in the manga series, *Hetalia*, and the *Tea Leaves* series. He is in the allies, but is always ignored by them. He is the personification of Canada.

## Appearance and Personality

### Appearance

His hair is wavy, and depicted at times as being two-toned: a lighter blond on top, with more of an orange (or darker blond) shade on the bottom and tips. He has violet eyes, though they have also been colored blue in some official art. At least one figurine depicts him with completely orange hair. He also sports a curly ahoge off the top of his head.

Matthew wears a heavy tan winter coat and pants as his military uniform, though when he is dressed casually, he is usually shown wearing a hoodie (sometimes depicted with the Canadian flag emblem on it), and a pair of jeans. Like his brother, Matthew wears glasses, though he also sports a pair of goggles on his head at times (such as when wearing his uniform).

Although often drawn as shorter in fanart, official art makes it clear that he is either the same height/build as his brother, or very close to it.

### Personality

In contrast to his brother, Matthew is calm, shy, sensitive, and hates fighting but, it is said that he is a very strong fighter. Despite this, he is often mistaken for his brother and has found himself in trouble for incidents that Alfred has caused. When he is not being mistaken for his brother, other nations tend to forget that he exists. He is also passive aggressive and was once able to make Alfred cry by arguing with him for over three hours and pointing out every single one of his faults. It is also implied in a chapter he loves maple syrup as he is shown offering Alfred some for his coffee. According to Himaruya, he's always been a rather good tactician, and this was displayed in a comic set during the Revolutionary War in which Matthew assisted Arthur, whose letters to Alfred were normally not accepted, by writing on a note attached to the letter, "there are snacks inside," strongly tempting Alfred to accept and open the letter. Matthew also likes to play ice hockey and lacrosse, and drives a tractor on his days off.

He also has a pet bear named Kumajirou, who, unfortunately, always forgets Matthew's name. In return, Matthew always forgets Kumajirou's name as well.

## Back Story

Matthew and Kumajirou appear in Episode 19, at an Allied Forces meeting. But due to his "invisibility effect", the other Allies do not realize that he's there with them.

His design was slightly altered for the first four seasons of the anime, with his violet eyes changed to a blue, and the gradient effect of his hair removed. His hair is drawn slightly shorter and straighter as well. Both Matthew's hair and eyes are a darker shade than his brother's. His casual hoodie, often assumed to be red (though colored light green in one official picture), is also colored teal. In *Hetalia: The Beautiful World*, his hair is changed to be a regular blond color, while his eyes became a light violet.

## Storyline History

### Tea Leaves and Opal Necklaces

Matthew is starting to have dreams of his past life as a neglected child in the 90's in a house that was falling apart. Like the other countries, he doesn't know why he is having these dreams.

### Tea Leaves and Diamonds Bracelets

Matthew has a vision of an endless crowd of displaced and homeless people walking into his house for a place to stay. The endless number shocks him to his core. One even looks back and tells him that they have nowhere to go.

### Tea Leaves and Sapphire Earrings

Alfred comes by his place to talk about his problem with Florence. Matthew shares the vision of his past life with his brother which causes the American man to be shocked about this.

## Relationships

### Alfred F. Jones

*Main Article: Alfred F. Jones*

The two brothers grew up separately as children, until Arthur eventually took Matthew on a trip to meet Alfred, who wound up becoming bored with him and forgetting him shortly into their first meeting. While they are later shown to have gotten along quite well, Matthew could not match Alfred's rapid growth and development and he was not able to mature at the same time as his brother, causing him to remain a child while Alfred began to reach his adolescence. A rift occurred between the two after Matthew refused to join Alfred's side during the American Revolution. In the years that followed their own relationships with England caused their relationship to be tense. During the War of 1812, Matthew felt conflicted fighting America, but did so to do his best for Arthur. Although their relations improved later on, Matthew thought it would be too difficult to speak to Alfred, and used Arthur as his "speaker," which only baffled Alfred.

In their adulthood and in most cases of the Axis Powers series, Alfred is the source of Matthew's constant troubles, due to the fact that people get their identities mixed up; he is blamed for fights that Alfred started or is spoken to as Alfred. However, during an argument, Matthew was able to reduce him to tears when he went on a 3-hour rant about all of his flaws. Despite this, the two seem to have a healthy relationship, as their arguing and Alfred's frequent forgetting of him can merely come off as sibling rivalry. Alfred tends to visit his house on occasion and is seen to be the one Matthew spends the most time with.

In World☆Stars, When Alfred catches Matthew behaving out of character, he tells him he was fine just the way he is, a statement which Matthew takes offense to. While Matthew envies Alfred's image, believing him to be indifferent to his pain, Alfred walks away believing that "he doesn't know how blessed he is" to have a rare personality to get along with everyone and not understanding why he would want to change it. Alfred is also found to be taken aback that Matthew knows so much about his politics and entertainment, but in truth, he knows little about Matthew's.

Alfred is also shown to be jealous of the fact that Matthew simply asked Arthur for his independence, and thinks that Matthew is not ready for it. When they both confront each other, Alfred and Matthew seem to be insulting one another about it, but it is revealed that was all in their head, and Alfred congratulates Matthew.

### Carlos Machado

*Main Article: Carlos Machado*

Carlos initially mistook Matthew for Alfred and attacked him. He later apologized with a peace offering of ice cream and an invite to his place. When Matthew arrived, however, Carlos once again mistook him for his brother.

During the Christmas 2010 event, Carlos was the one to call Matthew, warning him of the disappearance of countries and suggesting that they stick together. Later on Matthew, instead of searching for the missing nations, decides to take pictures of himself with Carlos and Kumajirou in silly positions. The two get along well, though Carlos still confuses Matthew with Alfred.

### Arthur Kirkland

*Main Article: Arthur Kirkland*

Arthur gained Matthew as his own territory after a tough battle with Francis and tells him that he would be his family from now on. Excited that someone was looking at and talking to him, Matthew promises to be loyal and do his best for Arthur. During the American Revolution, Matthew was unable to be Alfred's ally because he was unwilling to take sides and turn against Arthur, which angered Alfred, believing he liked him too much. When Arthur fell gravely ill after losing to Alfred and losing much of his support from other European countries, Matthew was shown to be his caretaker, and Arthur was extremely grateful for his presence and loyalty. Matthew's loyalty was so strong that it allowed him to fight on Arthur's side against his brother with little conflict. Later on, Matthew would use Arthur as his speaker and negotiator when talking to Alfred, due to his belief that their relations were not strong enough and he would not be able to approach Alfred so easily.

### Francis Bonnefoy

*Main Article: Francis Bonnefoy*

Francis was the one who originally held authority of Matthew and his house before losing it to Arthur, but the extent of their relationship during the time is not revealed. However, when Arthur first meets Matthew, he notes that his hair looked liked it was inherited from Francis.

### Seychelles

*Main Article: Seychelles*

In *World☆Stars*, Seychelles is shown to remember him and his place in the G8. This makes Matthew excited, and he decides to make a large and lavish "impact" to thank her and make sure she always remembers him. However, Matthew's strange and out-of-character behavior frightens her, and she doesn't see who he is because she could never believe Matthew would be such a "show off."

## Trivia

* His birthday, July 1st, corresponds to the national holiday of Canada Day, when Canada first became independent on July 1st, 1867, though full independence was not gained until April 17, 1982.
* It is a source of debate among fans as to whether it is America or Canada that is the older of the two brothers (with Hidekaz Himaruya having not confirmed a set age difference between the two). A common fanon assumption is that the two are twins, due to their similarities and the fact that Canada is easily mistaken for America (due to having the same face), though the two do not share the same day of birth. Supporters of this theory point out the nations' birthdays merely refer to their date of independence or unification, and that a "nation" may not have an official birthday in the same sense as humans. However, years later in the serialization of World Stars, this is finally addressed, with Arthur saying he did not know, and quickly decides it was whoever learned the alphabet first. This statement singles out Matthew as "the oldest," but note that it is still not entirely confirmed.
* Canada was one of the Allied Forces during the second world war, which would bring the total of Allied powers in the story to six. Canada was the third strongest western power, and contributed a lot in the war, but being under so much British influence much of Canada's efforts were considered British efforts. This can be considered a contribution to Matthew's invisibility. This could also explain why Matthew is not often seen amongst the others when the Allies are acting together.

## Source

* http://hetalia.kitawiki.net/index.php?title=Canada