Sibling Yin-Yang: Holland and Belgium: Belgium is all smiles when Netherlands shows up in Spain's home, but he's all growls instead. Double in the anime, which adds the contrast between Belgium's cheery and somewhat high-pitched voice and Netherlands's much deeper tone. Also, according to Vol 3 notes:
"Both seem to have had completely different personalities but their roots suggested they had dexterous hands skillful in diplomacy."
Team Mom: Belgium sometimes plays this in fanworks and seems to have shades of this in the Drama CD.
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Belgium
I'm sorry for teasing you, I'll give you some tarte au matons from my place!
Adaptation Dye Job: Inverted, early illustrations portrayed her with blond hair, but since her appearance in the anime with very yellow blond hair, she has been portrayed as a brunette. Or a dirty blond.
Beware the Nice Ones: Her profile in the third volume describes her as being scary when she's mad.
Cute Little Fangs: Not as common in fanart as her Cat Smile, but it still shows up from time to time. These actually appear in-comic in Volume Four.
Fan Nickname: Because Belgium has no official human name, many fans refer to her as "Belle" or "Bella." Also, some fans of late have started to refer to her as "Alice", a pretty popular name in the Belgian land. Some fans will affectionately refer to her as "Belbel" on occasion.
A recent blog post also listed Laura, Emma, Anri, and Manon as fan-suggested names for her.
Belgium: When I look back, I feel bad that I didn't try a little harder.
Ukraine: Belgium did try hard!
Huge Schoolgirl: While Belgium has no official height, she may possibly be this. An old profile of hers mentions that she's tall, and some early anime art◊ makes her appear to be about the same height as France and Austria. In a recent blog sketch, she seems to tower over North Italy.
On the other hand,the most recent manga Volume 4 showed she barely comes up past Netherlands' shoulder.
Belgium: With all these strong guys around me, I may appear a bit plain, but I'm doing my best!
Incest Subtext: According to some fans, Netherlands argues with Belgium while he wants her to become one with him again, like how Belarus wants to be one with Russia, except Netherlands is just pushy instead of Yandere. As a result, the fanon pairing of Belgium/Netherlands has a small but very loyal fandom corner.
Ms. Fanservice: Humorously subverted. Fans specifically request Fanservice from the girls, then Himaruya draws a Belgium who is wrapped in a mantle and apparently only wearing bra/panties underneath... while openly complaining about her "nudity".
This is played sort of straight in the actual strip, however, in that she's the only girl we see in her bra.
Nice Girl: Her first reaction to seeing a naked Parallel Spain out on Christmas is to give him her scarf. In later strips, she's seen trying to get her older brother to be nicer to others and get her younger brother to join in the Halloween party. Despite her efforts, she bemoans that she doesn't stand out.
The Ojou: Zig-zagged. The original anime sketches◊ and both the first panel◊ of "Meeting of the World" and the first episode of the anime series (based on said strip) show her wearing a light blue dress, a pink bolero, jewelry and a pink headband. Even when her first portrait◊ and this post had her looking more like a Bokukko. Then the translations of the profiles provided in the third volume, explaining she dresses simply and inconspicuously.
She played it straighter when younger, though. While teen!Netherlands is shown in very simple village clothing due to his current poverty, little!Belgium wears a very cute dress and shiny Mary Jane shoes since she's a Child Prodigy in business trades and thus has more money than he does. Later, when the first Ned strip mentions how she has recently left their home, there's a drawing with both siblings in which a sullen-looking Belgium wears a rather pretty Pimped Out Dress.
Shorttank: She seems to be the adult version of this trope. As well, despite looking like The Ojou when she was younger, her personality seems more suited to this.
Trickster Mentor: Possibly. Her profile describes her as being meddlesome and she did tease Romano in her first speaking role.
Tsurime: While not nearly as pronounced as Netherlands' Belgium's eyes are often drawn a bit sharper than the other girls'. This is especially apparent when comparing her to Hungary, Liechtenstein, or Taiwan.
The Netherlands
Stop being a nuisance. Hurry and gimme snacks, tea, and Japan.
Anime Hair: As far as this series goes, his spiky hair stands out as one of the odder hairstyles. Justified Trope, as in Real Life that hairstyle is rather common in the Netherlands.
The Big Guy: Arguably the tallest nation after Russia.
Truth in Television, since the Dutch are some of the tallest people in the world.
For his human name, "Lars" and "Wilhem" seem to have caught on in Western fandom. Himaruya has also listed Tim, Govert, Abel, and Morgens as various names suggested for him, though none of them are official.
Neat Freak: His profile describes him as one, and it's confirmed in the fourth manga volume where Poland and Lithuania comment on how tidy his house is and Netherlands responds that he tidies it every day and then forbids Poland from using his kitchen because he fears that he will make it dirty.
Non-Idle Rich: You can bet that any strip that centers around the Netherlands is going to be about him trying to make (or avoiding to spend) money.
OC Stand In: For a period of time, fans had his FIFA sketch to base his appearance on but very little to base his actual personality on, and he was most commonly depicted in fanworks as a boisterous, easygoing, not-too-bright, pot-smoking guy - in other words, a pot-smoking version of Denmark. Even after he was shown in canon to be more of a blunt, no-nonsense, somewhat stoic and unsmiling guy, the Denmark-like fanon portrayal for him lingered on for some time in fanfic.
Perpetual Frowner: He always seems to have a scowl or disinterested expression on his face, especially when contrasted with his sister Belgium who's always smiling and cheerful.
Rags to Riches: He's seen as a rather poor and struggling teenaged nation (while his younger sister Belgium is a Child Prodigy businesswoman), then he's seen as kinda more affluent but under Spain's wing (that he's not too happy about), and later he has become quite the overseas empire... and a stoic, penny-pinching Non-Idle Rich.
Tsundere: He is described as a Type A. Might have been confirmed in canon, as Netherlands speaks and acts very roughly but is still willing to keep contact with isolationist!Japan, putting up with his Hikiko Mori quirks rather patiently and bringing his pet bunny around. In fandom with Spain, this is his main characteristic.