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characters recognising a doppelganger/evil twin/shapeshifting imposter because they know the original so well is such a good trope

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kudos to this video for having the funniest thumbnail ever

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Fullmetal Alchemist // Hiromu Arakawa

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Okay but the weirdest thing about the whole "Brotherhood is better you should skip 03" discourse that's become commonplace now, it sort of forgets the world Brotherhood came out in and why you should watch the original Fullmetal Alchemist. When Brotherhood came out, the original Fullmetal Alchemist was one of the most beloved and most watched animes of all time. Brotherhood assumes you the audience have already seen it because of course you have, everyone has seen it, so it skips important information and speeds the story up because it doesn't want to bore you with things you already know. Have you ever wondered "hey why does the first episode of Brotherhood kind of suck, and why am I being introduced to like 50 new characters, and why are they acting like I know what the hell an alchemist is?" It's because Brotherhood thinks you've seen 03.

The first 7 or so episodes of Brotherhood constitute dozens of chapters in the manga, and the first 25 or so episodes of the original Fullmetal Alchemist. The Nina Tucker episode in Brotherhood, in FMA 03 takes up nearly three episodes. Yoki gets a backstory in 03 and it's genuinely one of the best episodes and taken directly from the manga and Brotherhood glosses over it because: duh, you've already seen it. And so if you skip the original you miss out on dozens of really great character building episodes like Ed and Al meeting Hughes for the first time and getting to spend a whole episode helping him free a train from terrorists, or Ed and Roy having a duel that expands on the relationship they have, or episodes where the brothers just help out random people in towns before the major story gets going.

The original also paces itself quite a bit better than Brotherhood and is more in line with the mangas storytelling. In the manga we don't find out about The Gate until nearly two dozen chapters in, and the same goes for the original anime. Like, that's a twist reveal in those stories, and it's weird that the most watched series is the one where they tell you all about The Gate in the first two episodes because they assume you've already seen the original show.

What's more, people don't know that Hiromu Arakawa helped write for the anime while she was still in the middle of writing the manga, and as a result was inspired to write scenes in Brotherhood that the anime did first. That scene of Edward getting impaled by a falling beam? Directly inspired by a similar scene in the original anime. There's a lot of little instances of that and they're great when you can recognize parallels and things in Brotherhood that are direct references to the original anime, but people don't notice any of that anymore. Because the original anime is just an automatic skip these days, and it's a bummer because people don't realize what a giant it was back before Brotherhood was released. They treat it as *bad,* not realizing it was one of the most beloved anime of its time and the problems people take issue with have a lot more to do with personal taste than any kind of actual flaw in the writing. Brotherhood was never meant to dethrone it, and the original anime was always supposed to be part of the viewing experience which is why those first few episodes of Brotherhood are so fast paced. So like, please stop telling people Fullmetal Alchemist 2003 is a skip, or it's bad, or you don't need it because Brotherhood is better. Regardless if you think Brotherhood is better or not, the original wrote Brotherhood's check. It was huge, it was beloved, and Brotherhood is *banking* on the knowledge you've seen all of it and loved it. And trust me when I say there is so much to love about the original series. It's still my favorite branch of the FMA franchise, and it's worth your time, I promise you.

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Absolutely obsessed with the concept of the trend of the Elrics being mistaken for each other continuing even as adults, but in a very different way—i.e., they’re traveling in the east and they’ll walk into a town and the locals will see this guy with blonde hair, golden eyes, and a confident swagger sticking out like a sore thumb in the crowd and run up to him and say “sir, sir, I think I’ve heard of you!!! Aren’t you the consort to the Xingese princess?” (Somebody in the crowd yells, “Can I get your autograph?”) And Ed will slump his shoulders, sighing, “No, that’s him,” and jerk his thumb over his shoulder at the guy standing behind him who looks like he just stumbled out of a university library, who then proceeds to give an awkward wave

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one of my favorite things they do in fullmetal alchemist is when ed goes around central doing good deeds in order to lure out this guy who wants to kill him, in order to lure out these other guys who want to kill him, but like, only in a very specific time and way, so that they'd show up and stop the first guy, so that ed and co could kidnap one of the second guys. and it ends with him in a stomach purgatory

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the combo of ling's "it's my duty to protect and take care of the people I consider my own" + greed's "everything is mine, including people" to create the extremely potent philosophy "everything is mine, including people, so it's my duty to protect as many people as possible"

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I like the "settle down, get married, have kids" ending for Ed in "Fullmetal Alchemist" because it suits the themes and the characters well. But also because there's still plenty of room for adventure beyond the joys of a simple life (it is fun to imagine Ed picking up a million homesteading-related hobbies with all his usual competitive spirit); Winry has a thriving career! She and Ed can travel around the country, visit people, and probably even visit Xing before kids or when their kids are old enough for travel.

But I also like it fine because I feel 100% certain that Edward Elric would not have children unless he was 100% certain that he wanted them and was ready to be a good dad. He would not bring life into this world recklessly. I feel like he would have asked himself, "Is there any chance I might be a deadbeat dad?" and that he was absolutely ruthless with his analysis of his character, like, to the degree that it quickly stopped being funny or embarrassing and started being sad. He'd try and get his own Riza Hawkeye about this: "If it ever looks like I'm being a shitty father or husband, I need you to kill me," he says, sleep-deprived and panicking, and Alphonse can only be like, "Brother... No..."

Also, I feel like we shouldn't leave Winry out of this. This woman is driven and successful and was orphaned because her parents left her for a good cause. She and Ed would sit their asses down and have an excruciatingly thorough and detailed conversation about parenthood and their future. I could buy an AU where they mutually decided to be childfree, sure, but I cannot be fully convinced that they as a team would be reckless about children and parenthood.

I'm sure they'd make mistakes, of course, as all parents do. (I also feel like they would try and make plans with the same focus as automail schematics and alchemic circles, which would often be immediately ruined upon contact with the "enemy". And that Uncle Alphonse would shamelessly and mischievously spoil his niblings against parental wishes whenever his brother's back was turned. Traitor.) But they're also one of those couples where I see them in the cliché "happily ever after" and I can genuinely be like, "Yeah, they're fine."

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Solar eclipse today, you know what that means

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Just want to warn any inhabitants of suspiciously round countries to look out tomorrow.

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ed the shrimpede

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I’m not immune to characters with even the smallest hint of a wing motif

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help him

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comfy :)

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Reblog if you write fic and people can inbox you random-ass questions about your stories, itemized number lists be damned.

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This was supposed to be simple, but I have to overthink and overdraw everything. The slowest woman to ever draw returns.

How I don't hate Edward after drawing him way too many times, I don't know. The power of a trully well written character, I guess. ---

ko-fi // redbubble