YMMV / Scandinavia and the World

• Alternative Character Interpretation: By Humon herself. At one point she re-interpreted Sweden as a Depraved Homosexual Manipulative Bastard who tried to seduce Finland and abandoned him when he resisted, did... something to Denmark that destroyed his mind and left him as a Manchild, and secretly collaborated with Nazi Germany.
• Aluminum Christmas Trees: The red-and-white pig shown here? That's an actual breed. And yes, the Danes did breed it just to give a big middle finger to the Germans for banning their flag.
• Crazy Is Cool:
  • Australia. He brought his surfboard up north and when there were no waves to ride he rode his wombat instead!
  • Iceland regularly sky-dives into volcanoes for fun.
• Common Knowledge: In this comic, the golden orb and cross at the base of Italy's throne is a globus cruciger, a symbol of authority held by European leaders. However, the majority of people in the comments have mistaken it for the Holy Hand Grenade of Antioch.
• Creepy Awesome: Denmark is really creepy in the Eurovision 2014 comic strip, to emphasize the media's tendencies to give Danes villanious, stalkerish roles.
• Draco in Leather Pants: Finland. He's not villainous, but he's an unkempt, antisocial Psycho Knife Nut. The fans tend to drop the "unkempt" part and forget the others are bad things.
• Ensemble Dark Horse:
  • France. She only appeared in 21 strips so far out of hundreds (as of September 2023) but the sheer amount of fanart and cosplay of her decidedly makes her one of the most popular minor characters.
  • Mexico, whose character design is loved for parodying the Spicy Latina stereotype, appeared with America in the "Fan Couple Art" after being used in just one strip, as a joke no less. The author note seems to indicate that the pairing is genuine on both sides.
  • Sister Japan. Before being introduced, the fan club had a large number of submissions speculating what she'd look like; Humon introduced her just to get it out of the way, and a popular character was born.
  • After Coat Of Arms came out, the other lions were quickly forgotten, but Special Lion became a fan favorite and has stuck around. There's even official merch with him on it! When Finland joined NATO, the comic celebrating it had him riding the Special Lion, in a parody of a professional wrestling entrance.
• Fandom Rivalry: With Hetalia: Axis Powers. While they have many similar elements, they're very different in execution on the whole, with more than a few Hetalia fans accusing Scandinavia of sugarcoating history and of pandering to Yaoi Fangirls. Scandinavia fans, meanwhile, shoot back that Hetalia is unimaginative and full of sugarcoating politics.
• Friendly Fandoms: With Polandball due to sharing a similar premise and tone. It also helps that both series are united in a shared dislike for the aforementioned Hetalia.
• Germans Love David Hasselhoff: According to this comic, Danes are very fond of Rufus Gifford, U.S. ambassador, and his husband. "They even got their own TV show, and the queen threw a big goodbye party for them where Rufus was knighted.", writ Humon.
• Harsher in Hindsight:
  • Humon's portrayal of a drunken Russia stumbling around banging on the doors of his former territories, begging them to come back (though in the comic itself he went after Finland, not Ukraine).
  • This comic is, with the Crimean Crisis, quite... unfortunately relevant.
• Hilarious in Hindsight:
  • Don't Mess With Aland after Russia's infamous new policies against homosexual propaganda.
  • North Pole, a white haired Ice Queen with her hair in a braid, looks surprisingly similar to Elsa or Weiss.
  • "Never say never", where Iceland grows bananas using heat. The world of Stand Still, Stay Silent is subject to Black Market Produce because Icelandic greenhouses are heavily implied to be the only places growing fruit. The page mentioning the greenhouses (please be warned it's also the comic's only page to have gotten its comment section shut down due to getting overwhelmed with virulent comments) was published after "Never say never".
  • "There's a Nordic impostor Among Us!"
• Ho Yay:
  • Norway and Denmark, who have the best friendship between any two of the characters, with Denmark frequently doing things like clinging to Norway, frequently worrying about him and even sleeping in the same bed when one or both of them is/are drunk. This one is probably intentional on Denmark's part. There even exists a photo of Denmark being "pounded by a big blond bear of a man" which Norway nervously tore apart when Denmark showed it to him.
  • Sweden and Åland. They were confirmed to be a couple in later strips.
  • America becomes ecstatically happy when Canada sits on his head.
  • Nazi Germany and Denmark, mostly on Nazi's side (eh...) as he constantly invades Denmark's personal space.
  • England apparently still sleeps in the same bed as all of his grown sons in their underwear (plus New Zealand).
  • The relationship between Netherland / Denmark / Germany seems to parody this, as it frequently involves the first two lifting Germany's shirt as a joke, usually in front of Sister Japan.
• Les Yay:
  • Sister Norway and Sister Denmark. Sister Sweden and... well, everyone.
  • Also, it's strongly implied in this comic that Sister America and Sister Denmark slept together, and were quite happy about it.
• Mexicans Love Speedy Gonzales: Pretty much any fan of the comic, since all the characters are based on national stereotypes. As far as non-nation characters go, Special Lion is this for the Finnish. Most Finns think the whole "retarded lion" joke is funny, to the point that one posted "go go retarded lion!" after Finland won the World Hockey Championships.
• Nightmare Fuel:
  • Sister China's first appearance.
  • Japan in the last panel of Poke Go Where Nobody Has Gone Before. One of the comments went one better◊ and gave him a Slasher Smile.
  • Sweden going psychotic when his Yule Goat is burned down yet again.
  • The one time Russia isn't Played for Laughs.
  • Sweden as a party clown somehow managed to leave Fennoswede, Kven and Sealand traumatised and Christiania missing An Arm and a Leg. The kids' reactions implied this is a Shout-Out to Pennywise being played by a Swedish actor in the 2017 reboot of It.
• Portmanteau Couple Name: Fans who ship Denmark/Norway tend to refer to it as "Dennor". The Hetalia fandom also shares this ship name for their Nations as People, though their depictions of the countries/nations are quite different from the SATW ones.
• Replacement Scrappy: Trump!America is widely considered by many comic readers to be inferior to the original Brother America, not only because of the fact that he isn't as funny, he also stands out like a sore thumb whenever he appears due to being an embodiment of a political meme that will likely age badly. Humon herself admits that Trump!America is too limiting for writing America and decided to bring him back much sooner than she intended.
• Squick: Norway is pretty squicked out here when he learns New South Wales' parentage... Denmark just asks why he hasn't banged a sheep yet.
• Unconventional Learning Experience: For many non-Scandinavian readers, this comic is their first introduction to Nordic culture.
• Viewer Gender Confusion:
  • Christiania is a boy with long hair. Lampshaded when Denmark is surprised that Japan can tell (since he has seen plenty of Bishonens in anime).
  • Iceland. He sparkles, for crying out loud.
  • Austria, who has very long hair and even eyelashes but also a moustache and lacks boobs. Guess this was to go along with him being a mad scientist.
  • Both in and out of universe with the Denmark siblings. They look extremely similar, with the only difference being that Sis has longer hair, slightly more feminine eyelashes, and the whole sex schebang.
• What Do You Mean, It's for Kids?: Played for laughs in the Children Will Love It comic, making a joke on the Danish amusement park BonBon Land's mascots that are viewed as incredibly sexual by tourists. The park is mostly for children.
• The Woobie:
  • Greenland had his life ruined by Denmark.
  • Modern Germany, too, in sharp contrast to Jerkass Nazi Germany (yes, they're separate characters here).
  • Word of God is that Poland is the country you go to to abuse. Poor guy.
  • Estonia practically is the mayor of woobieland: SATW division. She just wants to join the Nordics, but they won't let her.
  • Finland wasn't always Axe-Crazy...

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