#budgefma

[thecrimsonmonster-a]

Three beautiful pins from the lovely @budgefma / @budgebuttons from AAC! They are an excellent artist and person—please check them out!

[cardassiangoodreads]

The way FMA fandom ignores Ishbal and Scar (a major event and character, both of which the story would not be the same without) gets at a larger thing with fandom that makes me uncomfortable.

Fandom focuses on the same several topics for pretty much every series: shipping, crossovers and (the same set of) AUs, lore, and increasingly, identity headcanons. They do it without regard to how much the series actually concerns itself with any of those things, to a point where far from being creative, it feels like they’re trying to force every series into their mold.

And that’s really uncomfortable when it comes to media that does actually have something progressive (in 03's case, anyway) and important to say. Too often, the fandom completely ignores that to instead focus on their pansexual or autistic headcanons. I think we need to start questioning if that’s actually a “progressive” thing.

Representation is great and creating it yourself in fandom is awesome. But why does fandom always zero in on the same kind? And why just about labels and how the character is just like you , and less about how those experiences would actually contribute to the character’s arc and narrative? And how come it so often goes hand-in-hand with ignoring the social justice content that’s already there? Why are the same people who trumpet their “feminist analyses” and reading everyone as queer so unconcerned with the racism themes in FMA?

Are you sure you’re doing it out of some deep need for representation… or just to avoid themes that make you uncomfortable? Or that aren’t about you?