zetalial

[zetalial]

i have rule i semi-adhere to for media criticism which is to ideologically meet shit where it's at (or where it's presented to me). i like to call it the "i didn't make you market it that way" rule--like, if lancer's union was just presented as a sci-fi setting, that would be fine. i don't expect all sci-fi settings to be communist utopias! but when the creators of lancer use the word utopia like 20 times & bandy around words like 'mutual aid' and 'post-scarcity' and 'anticapitalist' when describing it, then to me that becomes absolutely fair game. similarly if someone says 'stardew valley is fun i like farming :)' then i'm not gonna reply with a long post about how it's ideologically petty-bourgeois--but if they say 'stardew valley is anticapitalist', then they've opened up that can of worms and it's fair for me to point out that the worms exist.

[zetalial]

This moment is golden. 

[zetalial]

dreaming in a dream world

[zetalial]

Original FMA vs. Brotherhood: Shot for Shot Art Comparison

Making this a text post so I can hide all this nonsense under a Read More and not annoy the heck out of my followers who don’t care for FMA.

Keep reading

[zetalial]

03’s ending...

Hey there, it’s been done to death but I like writing things out in my own words so here’s a little rant about everything annoying (for me) about FMA 03′s ending. I’m not going to talk about Conqueror of Shamballa here, that would be it’s own separate rant. I do like it overall, I just enjoy making fun of it. 

After Sloth is defeated, Envy appears (disguised as Winry), Ed quickly recognises that’s they’re a fake. Then Envy just grabs Alphonse, picks him up and walks away with him with barely any trouble. Ed just watches helplessly until he’s distracted by a distraught Wrath. Envy gets away. (Wrath actually slows Envy down more than Ed!) 

This guy. Yeah, this was just a little too ridiculous for me. 

It’s nice to see these guys again! It’s nice that they come to just help out. But it’s also super convenient that they appear just to lead Ed to this church just when he needs to from an old letter. Couldn’t Lust or Sloth given him the hint instead? These two can still wave him goodbye.

I love Pride’s defeat at the hands of Mustang and I appreciate the irony of him keeping his weakness like a treasured possession only to be undone by his own son. But Selim was only introduced an episode ago and he just idiotically brings Pride his weakness just before Mustang is killed.

What is up with Rose in these final episodes? It’s like she’s in some sort of weird trance and it’s not explained. She just kind of floats around, detached. Come on! Dante’s going to steal her body so she can seduce Ed with it. That might be the most awful thing in FMA, could we get some emotion?

I can’t believe Ed got killed by a blimp of all things!

I mean… that other world stuff came out of nowhere. I understand that there are little bits of foreshadowing but, like, not nearly enough. It’s an interesting concept to explore sure, but you’d need like an entire extra series to do it justice or something. Otherwise it just feels weird.  

The Philosopher’s stone was this ultimate goal and it was made out of thousands of lives. Dante and Hohenheim lived for hundreds of years using the Philosopher’s stone. Alphonse uses the entire thing up to save Ed. And it’s not just the stone either, as Al is lost as well. Okay, I know the theme of the series is that equivalent exchange isn’t always true and that human life is expensive but it just feels so frustrating. The whole quest feels almost pointless?

Al is restored without his memories! How could you do this to me, show? The close relationship between the brothers, all the memories, all the growth and struggle, it’s all gone. He’s not even got Ed there with him to share all the stories. Al’s entire character is basically gone, replaced with this younger version who will group up differently. I can accept the brother’s being separate, Al being a kid again but missing memories is too much for me. How did he even narrate the series if he doesn’t remember?

WHY? 

————————-

Okay that’s the full list, I think? There was also maybe a little too much talking. The scene with the spinning camera was a little too spinny for me. I loved everything else. If anyone has any different issues with the ending I’d be curious to hear them. Next, I’m going to do a post listing everything that annoyed me about Brotherhood’s ending.

#fma 03 #thinking about this again

[zetalial]

((Edit. Whoops made a mistake on the first one with the title. This is the real poll.

#okay why are people voting for the lust one? #like of course she's well-written. why would that be a lie? #the hawkeye one is from the chibi party ova so it's the most obscure fact

[zetalial]

COS Ed sketches

[zetalial]

i understand the appeal of publishing "fic with the serial numbers filed off" as original work but i also feel like. what makes something a good fic is at odds with what makes something a good original story.

[zetalial]

One big difference between fanfiction and other forms of fiction is that in fanfiction the reader typically knows more than the characters. They already know the answers to any canon mysteries and details. This means that stuff like dramatic irony and playing with readers expectations can be uniquely effective in fanfic.

In most fiction, the characters are more familiar with the setting than you are as you're learning about it for the first time.

#meta #fanfiction #fanfiction meta

[zetalial]

Last interaction certain characters had with Ed.

#FMA 2003 #fma

[zetalial]

Ahhh, there's so much cool stuff with Ed's character in FMA 03. One thing I do love is his ego-driven curiosity for that darker side to alchemy. It doesn't come up all that often but it's always there.

Obviously, it's there when they first try to bring their mother back using human transmutation. He's driven to do it because he can't accept she's gone but there's also that part of him who wants to do the impossible with alchemy. Like when Al says it's forbidden and no one's ever done it, Ed suggests it's just because of alchemists covering up their failures and it can be done.

Then in Episode 7, Night of the Chimera's cry, we've got Tucker who we see deciding to turn his daughter into a chimera. Before that, there's this moment of empathy with Ed who had collapsed at the sight of a dead woman who reminded him of his mother. Tucker deduces that Ed performed forbidden alchemy and his brother is a suit of armour and he's non judgemental. Sure it was human transmutation with horrifying results but when you have that power, it's difficult not to try, right? Ed's silent in this scene.

Then after he's turned Nina into a chimera and Ed confronts him, Ed's of course disgusted and horrified at what he's done especially as Tucker admits he did it deep down just to see if it could be done. And suggests that Ed too, has toyed with people's lives with alchemy. Is turning Nina into that thing not like what Ed did, turning his brother into a hollow suit of armour with alchemy? Ed starts viciously punching him down, having lost all reason as he punches him as if to reject the words that really have gotten under his skin. He can't be anything like Tucker - no part of him can be similar to this monstrous figure - right?

But we meet Tucker again in lab 5. Tucker's conducting more experiments, creating more chimeras now out of the eyes of the public. Truly its despicable that there's a secret part of the military that publicly condemned this man but then allowed him to live in secret and continue his awful studies, now presumably free to conduct them without worrying about morality. Ed's angry to see him alive again but as Tucker hints that the philosopher's stone is close, Ed becomes curious once more instead.

He lets Tucker guide him into the red room, listens to him as he describes making a stone out of the red liquid and is very genuinely tempted to go through it. For Al's sake, yes. But also maybe he really wants to create that mythical philosopher's stone to see if he can.

#fma #fma 2003 #meta #analysis #edward elric #he's endlessly curious #and also never satisfied #unable to accept what he's been given always digging deeper #he's very determined for good and for bad #he does also have morals and they do drive him away from becoming like tucker #after lab 5 and he's made his decision not to make a stone there he never gets so close to the edge again

[zetalial]

[zetalial]

FMA valentines day and white day official art ♡

[zetalial]

Fullmetal Alchemist 2003

[zetalial]

BEST SCENE EVER

[zetalial]

if you had to choose one pokemon to be your absolute favorite out of every pokemon which one would you choose. its okay to choose a "basic" one

#leavanny

[zetalial]

Alphonse comes to a realization once his head is no longer spinning from the chaos.