Rewatching Brotherhood, and one of the things Iāve always loved is how Team Mustang always treated Ed like the kid he was, despite his State Alchemist qualification.
I mean, donāt get me wrong, they respect himābut they respect him as aĀ personĀ rather than respecting for the title. When Maria Ross and Denny Brosh first meet the boys, they address Ed as they would a superior. Even when they reprimand him, they apologize to him for it and are afraid theyāll be punished since he technically has the rank of āmajor.ā But Team Mustang never did that. In fact, the first time we see them interact with Ed (that is, the full team, rather than just Roy or Riza), we see that Fuery just addresses them by name:
Iām pretty sure Ed outranks Fuery, being a State Alchemist and all, but you wouldnāt know that by the way Fuery addresses him by name like that. The others are the same, too, for the most part. This one is from Havoc:
And while, yes, both of those nicknames use the word āboss,ā they sound far more like terms of endearment rather than respect. (Especially since Breda followed that comment with, āI hope heās okay,ā and Falman followed it up with, āAs do I.ā)Ā
Falman, as far as I can recall, always addresses them by name (and addresses them as āThe Elric brothers?!ā when he reunites with them at Briggs). Riza calls them by name, Roy calls Al by name (IĀ think) and always calls Ed āFullmetalā ā¦ theyāre nicknames, terms of endearment. Theyāre shown respect, but theyāre also treated like ā¦ well, letās put it this way: if Team Mustang really is a ragtag sort of family (and letās be real, it is), then Ed and Al are the kids of that family and have always been treated as such.
I mean, remember the Scar incident?
Havoc helping Ed up and making sure heās okay (with some other faceless soldier, sure, but look at how concerned Havoc looks).
Mustangāof all people,Ā MUSTANGāsmiling like that as the brothers reconcile (after Al yells at Ed for almost throwing his life away and the two calm down and say, āyeah, weāre still aliveā). And yes, Hughes looks all put-out, but itās okay, a moment later and heās in on it too:
And then Riza gives Ed her jacket:
And justāwould you just look at them:
Even Armstrong gets in on it and heās not even a member of Team Mustang (but heās kind of like an honorary member in the sense that heās on Team Mustangās side from the start, just like Hughes, though Hughes is even more of an honorary member of Team Mustang than Armstrong).
Iāve always just really, really, really loved the way Team Mustang treats Ed and Al, like theyāre kids/family/part of the time, how theyĀ really, genuinely care about themĀ and always have. Itās not just that Ed outranks them, but more that Ed isĀ EdĀ and they care about him for that reason (and care about Al because Al is Al). It really shows, and Iāve always loved it.
(And you know? I would guarantee you that Ed and Al love it too, even if Ed is a bit more reluctant to admit/talk about it.)
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