#and winry’s parents’ death certainly wasn’t going to help their perception

[jostenneil]

fma just suffers so much from the fact that its two political mouthpieces are a war criminal with a god complex and a white liberal pacifist like if you look at it as a series made up by its emotional beats and character development alone it’s phenomenal but the politics of it are just so bad and it frustrates me that ed is painted as this person who cares too much about the suffering others undergo but somehow finds it difficult to sympathize with a man whose people were ruthlessly murdered nearly to extinction. it’s not just a disservice to his character arc but to readers of color who relate to scar’s plight and suffering and have to see their struggle so decentralized bc the militant perpetrators are ultimately more important and portrayed as more sympathetic characters

#fullmetal alchemist #fma #edward elric #mine:media analysis #like i think about this all the time and it drives me crazy! #i can’t believe arakawa didn’t have ed and al visit ishval even once #they were kids when the war happened ofc they weren’t going to fully understand #and winry’s parents’ death certainly wasn’t going to help their perception #but that she did hardly anything to alter their perception at all is so infuriating #esp since scar had to be the one to ‘prove’ himself like what the hell #ishval is at the center of everything and yet it’s so constantly othered #and tbh altogether these issues really do make ed look like a racist #as much as i love him #like obv it’s the influence of arakawa’s politics on her character writing #but i get why ppl don’t like him for that reason and it can’t be helped #he is a mouthpiece for her liberal milquetoast #and this doesn’t even get me started on roy oh my gooood