fullmetalirin

[fullmetalirin]

Re: Nina, I think it's also worth pointing out that Nina was much more developed in 2003. In the manga she shows up just to immediately die, in 2003 she gets an additional episode of normal life and the Elrics live with her for months. It's still a fridging, but she no longer exists just to be a tragic victim. The characters and audience have actual investment in her.

while searching for fma 03 posts on Twitter I saw someone claim fma 03s female characters are worse than fmabs bc it puts them thru so much pain and trauma w no recovery but like, that's just not true?

Rose stands out as pushing the envelope a bit and fair enough, but even then she moves forward and survives and gets a happy ending. Izumi dying off-screen is not great but that's more emblematic of COS production problems than misogyny. Lust and Sloth come to tragic ends, but so do the male Homunculi, and Lust dies in the process of fighting to reclaim her autonomy, not as a helpless victim. Winry, sheska, riza, Noa all get happy endings. Nina is perhaps the closest to just flat out fridging but that came from the manga.

I just don't think it's true that every female character is subjected to nothing but trauma with no hope of salvation, but also, fma 03 is just as relentless towards its male characters? Where exsctly are the male characters not touched by pain and suffering in this series - Fuery? Havoc? it's just a bizarre take all around

#fma03 #representation #feminism #nina tucker

[fullmetalirin]

What is it? You did say you wanted to see my real face, didn’t you?

#meta #envy #van hoenheim

[fullmetalirin]

[Image: Tumblr reply reading “huh?? what sexy content did the original anime cut out?”]

It genuinely boggles my mind how every FMAB fan seems to have perfectly erased Lust’s death from their memory.

#fullmetal alchemist #FMA #fullmetal alchemist brotherhood #fmab #fma 2003 #lust (fullmetal alchemist)

[fullmetalirin]

hughes: *is part of a military imperialistic government and has actually taken lives of thousands ppl of color*

fans: he's so nice and pure!!!! he's perfect!!!! <3

scar: *is a victim of genocide, his brother died protecting him, has likely lost his entire family to the massacre, thus decides to kill all those participant in the genocide of his people*

fans: he's a meanie who kills war criminals :/// scar needs to "redeem" himself and forgive the racists and murderers bc violence is bad :////

#scar #maes hughes

[fullmetalirin]

when do we get to discuss how als determination to study alchemy and equivalency to get his brother back at the end of 03 is just. The cycle starting again. The snake eating its tail. There is nothing new under the sun. This story will repeat and repeat and repeat and there is nothing we can do to stop it

#conqueror of shambala #cos

[fullmetalirin]

You did this to her [killed Dante] didn’t you?

Greed: Blame me if you want. I really don’t care.

Ed: How could you? She was helpless!

Tell me Edward Elric how could you go so far to protect your little brother?

And what does that have to do with anything?!

Feelings can be hard to explain.

oh my god i get it. this little exchange always confused me too. so greed knows that dante isn’t actually dead, and has just set him up to die. and she set him up so he’d be killed specifically by edward when ed comes in and sees dante’s dead body. greed knows this. but he doesn’t plead innocence or rat dante out because he still has complicated feelings towards her. he still loves her. and he’s willing to die for her to protect her. holy shit. “feelings can be hard to describe” followed by that frown, knowing he’s about to be killed and accepting it. i think he’s also just giving up here. his friends just gave themselves up for him, the person he still loves wants him dead and he knows fighting her would be fruitless, so he just. lets this happen. he fights edward knowing the outcome. wow.

“how could you sacrifice your own needs so recklessly for the benefit of someone else?” because love. even when its messy and complicated.

#fma greed #fma 2003

[fullmetalirin]

can’t stop thinking about how ed’s relationship to his creation is the biggest showcase of his deadly sin. how sloth (the homunculus) brings out ed’s own sloth.

episode 13 is the first time they run into each other. there’s a clear shot of ed staring at her and at that point the gears are already turning.

then, a few episodes later, she shows up once again, and al makes a comment about “hearing mom’s voice” and it cuts to ed looking like THIS.

ed’s a smart kid. he’s already starting to put two and two together at this point. and yet it still takes dozens of episodes for the reveal to happen. and in between, we had a scene where al begins talking to ed about the possibility of their creation becoming a homonculus. and what does ed do? he cuts him off and changes the subject.

so, if ed’s had a suspicion about who sloth really was, why does he shut out al’s mention of it? why does he shut down when she reveals herself as a homunculus?

because even if ed knows the truth deep down, he doesn’t accept it. he can’t accept it until he has to, until he’s forced to hear sloth ask him why he didn’t make her right. and then, he freezes.

and how ironic is it. not only did ed’s sloth lead him to bottle up / ignore the hints about sloth herself, but when he finally does see her, he’s catatonic.

#fullmetal alchemist #fma #fma 2003 #fma meta #meta #edward elric

[fullmetalirin]

rewatching fullmetal alchemist after you know that selim is pride is the funniest thing in the fucking world

#brotherhood #selim bradley

[fullmetalirin]

2003 also understands how to use lighting instead of making everything discordantly oversaturated.

"bRothErHoOd hAs bEtTer aNiMAtiOn--"

Shut the fuck up, 2003 gave Edward BICEPS and DEFINED MUSCLES all in dramatic lighting. Show some respect.

#fullmetal alchemist #comparisons

[fullmetalirin]

Scar got plenty of development in 03 and ended his arc at an appropriate, climactic point. I feel like the only way someone can think otherwise is indeed if they think that they only way to “develop” a character like him is to strip him of the extremism that made him interesting in the first place.

Greed didn't need development either, for the record. BH's cast gets way too bloated; I appreciate 03!Greed's willingness to serve his role and exit the stage on a reasonable timescale.

I watched one video comparing fma 2003 and brotherhood and it had many things I had issues with, but since you're a Scar enthusiast I want to ask what do you think of "FMA 2003 Scar and Greed die before they have any proper development, while in brotherhood Scar changes sides and sees the error of his ways" ?

to be perfectly honest, at this point in twenty fucking twenty-one, if you still think Scar was fundamentally wrong and needed “development” because he was being mean to the genocidal racists, you should probably sit in a few high school literature classes before you continue trying to analyze media in public.

#brotherhood #scar #greed

[fullmetalirin]

#edward elric #scar #rose thomas

[fullmetalirin]

Look, if 2003 Scar met fmab Scar, he would be APALLED at the shit Mustang gets in the end.

03 Scar: So, what punishment does the "Hero of Ishval" receive in this world? Surely, it will be well deserved.

Fmab Scar: Roy Mustang, "Hero of Ishval" aka a legit war criminal and aid in our peoples genocide? Oh he got off SCOTT FREE. They didn't even charge him with war crimes. :)

03 Scar: .....but....he still will have to live without his eyesight, thus his alchemy will be useless....right?

Fmab Scar: Funny story, he got his eyesight returned to him using a Philosopher stone made of ISHVALAN LIVES, thus gaining more alchemy knowledge for free. He doesn't even need his gloves now or a circle. :) :)

03 Scar: it can't get worse. How is this possible?

Fmab Scar: after I killed the Füher responsible for our genocide, guess what.....Mustang becomes the new Füher of Amestris. Ah, don't worry though, he put me in charge of rebuilding Ishval with an Ishvalan soilder in his no longer corrupt facist military! :) :) :)

03 Scar:

#scar #fmab

[fullmetalirin]

His last words in 03 are literally saying his vengeance will never die and he will never rest until his enemies are destroyed. His plan was always to destroy the Amestrian military; saving Alphonse was an unplanned opportunity. Don't really understand how people can miss that.

Scar in 2003: I died after creating a philosopher's stone to save Alphonse Elric, Edward Elric's younger brother. They remind me of me and my older brother--and I couldn't let them sit there and die. I can never forgive the Amestrian military, but I was wrong to try and harm them. Now, I die satisfied with my work.

Scar in fmab: *long drag of a cigarette* I shoulda smacked the FUCK outta people I chose to forgive.

#scar #comparisons

[fullmetalirin]

The Dublith arc was even sloppier in Brotherhood, I’d argue. Greed just happens to be hanging out in the same neighborhood as Izumi for no reason. 03 creates a connection by tying Dante to Izumi, and also foreshadows Greed in the previous arc.

some more disorganized thoughts from my fma 03 rewatch:

the arc in dublith is…really sloppy. which i knew, but still. there’s no connection between wrath and greed, and the two arcs clash instead of complementing one another. they spend too much time on yock island, which isn’t a very good location, and i found the whole thing kind of boring and haphazard. 

i wanted more greed. he’s such a memorable character and left such a huge impression that i’m always surprised by how little screen time he actually has. 

i actually prefer how far 03 takes the oppression of the ishbalans. like, oh, look, it’s your buddies havoc and fuery! they’re uhhhhh packing traumatized genocide survivors onto a train and sending them to “designated camps.” those funny soldier characters you’ve been enjoying are instruments of a horrible fascist society, what did you expect? in brotherhood, the atrocities of the soldiers are pretty much all in the past. roy and riza did Bad Things, but that’s over now and they’re ready to atone for their sins. 03′s like, these guys are still in the military, so why shouldn’t they still be doing this stuff? sure, roy’s not shooting doctors and burning people alive, but he’s not exactly making life easier for the ishbalan survivors.

scar is so much better in 03 than brotherhood. he’s an actual character right up until the end.

there’s way way way more insight into a) ishbalan society and b) the mindset and trauma of ishbalan survivors than br/otherhood ever provided. 

them explaining that ishbal actually does have its own historical version of alchemy that’s only fallen out of favor relatively recently, pointing out that a) just because a society isn’t industrialized doesn’t mean it’s simpler than yours and b) religions and societies aren’t stagnant monoliths….chef kiss.

#comparisons

[fullmetalirin]

they really made edward elric say he “didn’t see color” in fmab while in 03 he said “i was scared of scar the first time i saw him, only because of his red eyes and brown skin. but then i learned i didn’t know anything about ishbalans except what my country told me, so i realized we all have to go out there and learn for ourselves” and people still out here defending brohood

#comparisons

[fullmetalirin]

Y'know what really gets me about Scar's brother in 2003 fma? This scene here

Take into consideration all that's led up to here. He's lost the love of his life. He lost part of his body trying to bring her back. He was exiled from his people for doing so. And in trying to save those same people by making a philosopher's stone--his mind broke. In other words, he nearly lost himself. The war is supposedly through now, and he's watched countless friends and fellow Ishvalans die, and is marked as an outcast. And when Kimblee is about to kill Scar, to take the one last shred of his life away from him, he does the only thing he can. He shields him. Even though he sacrifices his arm and life later in this scene, this one act makes me the saddest.

At this point, all he has left is his own life and body, barely a functioning mind and he's probably terrified of Kimblee. He knows he coule die doing this. It probably won't even stop Kimblee. But he shields his brother. All he could think about in that moment was him. Even his facial expression seems strained, scared, borderline crazy--but he puts it all asside to do what he can for Scar.

His brother is the only thing left for him. So, he either hopes that

A.) He'll somehow save Scar from Kimblee (which he does, but he doesn't know this yet).

Or

B.) He'll die with him in his arms. He'll die before his little brother. He'll look death in the eye before his little brother has to.

He'll loose his entire being before even thinking about loosing his little brother.

#scar

[fullmetalirin]

Nnnot really. FMAB gives Scar long lectures about how ~you can’t fight hate with hate~ and ends with him being forced to make common cause with state alchemists and join the reformists in making incremental change. It’s a step up from writing him off entirely, but it’s still a demonization of violent revolution.

He’s better in FMA03, where the lecture scene is reframed to portray the lecturers as wrong and Scar’s arc ends with him murdering a legion of Amestrian soldiers and being affirmed in that choice.

Have you ever noticed a show or movie or comic where the villain is someone who’s challenging the existing power structure or something and it’s like “oh maybe they have a point?” but then the villain does something incredibly morally abhorrent like kill their own troops or something and the story is like “they let their lust for revenge take over” and so now it’s okay for the hero to oppose them and, in the process, uphold the preexisting flawed system?

I call it “pulling an MCU Villain”

#scar #fullmetal alchemist brotherhood