#fmab analysis

[lucky-me-envy]

What are your thoughts about the idea that the homunculi were raised in a cult?

Thank you for asking me this! It’s a topic I plan on writing about in length at some point and I really love having any chance I can get to talk about it! I’ve got an essay planned out to be written, but for now I’ll just write a few bulletpoints.

Before that I want to link to this addition as I thought @jupiterprincesshouou’s analysis put it very well!

Father and his seven children to me resemble a religious cult that each of the seven deadly sins homunculi were born into as. I do plan on researching more into cults when I write out my essay, though from what I know the manipulation tactics they typically use are all ones that Father utilizes as well. Here are a few examples:

•Religious Figurehead: Father has pretty much posed himself up as more of a religious figure to the homunculi rather than that of an actual dad. He genuinely does have substantial amounts of power, being literally able to control the alchemy of Amestris. As well he’s justified to his children that he is worthy enough to actually fully attain godhood, and that it is their purpose to aid him in this. He also has taught his children to reject any other belief system vehemently, and has sort of his own dogma the homunculi are meant to follow.

•Authority: We don’t see much of how the homunculis’ interactions with Father, but the ones we do see go a long way of showing how they view him as having unquestionable jurisdiction over them. I do plan on elaborating on this later.

•Deception: The homunculi have been taught by Father a grave amount of generalizations and falsehoods about those outside the cult, that being all of humanity. Lust, Pride, Envy, and Wrath often parrot these narratives they’ve been taught, but close to their deaths sort of end up contradicting those ideas. Again, I’ll write more on this in my essay.

•Isolation: We see this tactic mostly demonstrated through the killing of the original Greed. Father first asks Greed to come back, but of course Greed rejects this. He knows returning to the cult would mean being once again isolated from “outsiders” which is why he left in the first place. Which gets me into my next point…

•Severe Punishment: When Greed rejects Father’s demand for work for him again, Father has Greed painfully killed and humiliated, and when he does bring Greed back, Greed’s memories are purposely removed. We know Father has the ability to recreate the homunculi with their memories, as he does so with Gluttony. The difference being that Gluttony “died” still loyal to the cult, so he won’t be punished.

•Religious Ritual: Greed’s original death was heavily tied in with religious imagery, especially in the original manga where he is literally crucified. I can’t remember exactly if in the manga it was obvious that the liquid Greed was dropped into resembled lava, but it can then be viewed in two differing religious iconographies: if it were boiling water, then baptism, or if it were lava, then similar to traditional depictions of hell. When Father returns him to his body, it’s by drinking the pure form of Greed’s philosopher’s stone, which resembles wine. It’s very akin to a communion ceremony. As well, Father made sure to gather all of the other homunculi to be present, and praises them for their loyalty and dedication.

•Display of Power: The other homunculi being present also is significant, as them being there for Greed’s demise can be viewed as a threat for stepping out of line or failure. It’s Father’s way of both showing that what Greed did was wrong and deserving of punishment, but it also is a way for him to let the other homunculi know that should he so choose so, he can and will have them killed in the same way.

•Purpose: Father has taught the homunculi that they are especially unique, and they can all even see this for themselves. They’ve learned through him that they are supposedly “the next phase of human evolution” to loosely quote Lust. They also believe that it is their responsibility to aid Father in furthering his plan of becoming God, and that they should have no ambitions outside of this. Father hardly seems to view the homunculi as anymore than tools, and certainly not as individuals. In fact the homunculi demonstrating even having sense of personhood outside of him greatly angers Father.

I have a lot more points than this that I’ll go over and explain in more depth, and I’ll expand on all of these points as well. Honestly this could even end up being a series of essays. I’ll be sure to post what I’ve written once it’s all actually complete. Again thanks for sending me this, it actually helped a lot to get my thoughts all out on paper so to speak.

[kiingleoturtles]

Okay but post canon Edward has got to have mobility issues in his right shoulder (and probably his whole right arm in general).

During the final fight, the automail attachment zone on his shoulder is still there when he regains his arm and you can literally see bits of the metal sticking out of his flesh.

Not to mention that the whole time he had lost that right arm, it was atrophying in the Portal of Truth (or whatever else you wish to call that location).

So Edward's right arm has to be a whole lot weaker than his left.

[hounneybuonney]

A big difference I've noticed between FMA03! Edward and FMAB! Edward is that FMAB! Edward is like the spokesperson for what's good and bad. While, FMA03! Edward's morals are challenged and his consequences follow him to the depths of the earth.

[threecheersforinking]

FMAB Analysis: female characters

Fullmetal Alchemist: Brotherhood gets praised pretty often for being one of the only shonen anime with actually good female characters, and I really wanted to talk about what that means to me personally. In general, I think the concept of ‘well-written’ or ‘strong’ female characters often gets watered down to meaning just “a woman who is good at fighting” or “a woman who doesn’t show many emotions or feminine traits”. So, I want to evaluate my personal definition of a ‘strong female character’ using FMAB ladies as examples. Let’s begin!

Winry Rockbell

I wanted to start off by talking a bit about Winry! Something I love about Winry is that in the FMAB universe she’s just a normal girl. Well, as normal as a prodigy mechanic can be. Right off the bat, I absolutely love that this teenage girl is considered one of the best mechanics (which is typically considered a male dominated profession) in the whole show. That already is a subversion of gender roles that just feels pretty neat.

But going back to the fact that she’s a ‘normal girl’, Winry is not a fighter, and that is okay. She is a humble resident of Resembool and has no business getting into gun fights or alchemic battles the way Ed, Al, and the adult military officers do. And this aspect of her character leads to the very emotional scene where Ed tells Winry her hands are made for healing people, not hurting them. If Winry were the only female character in the show and she was told she shouldn’t fight people, that might be a problem. But fortunately, she is not! Which is a great transition into our next character.

Riza Hawkeye

Riza, an incredible skilled marksman and sniper (another skill that could be considered traditionally ‘masculine’) is pretty stoic for the majority of the show, but when she shows emotion, she shows emotion. When the person she loves is in danger, she does not put on a brave front, she full on sobs and screams and reacts appropriately, which is great. She is proof that you do not need to suppress your emotions to be strong and competent.

(Also, her relationship with Mustang is a whole other thing I’d love to praise, but that really deserves its own post)

General Olivier Mira Armstrong

At first glance, the hardened and ruthless General Armstrong seems like she would fit neatly into the ‘strong women don’t show emotion’ stereotype, but I want to talk about why I think she rises above that.

Yes General Armstrong is a badass, but her main thing is that loyalty and trust are essential for leadership, and that having a strong bond with her subordinates gives her a huge advantage over other military officials. The reason why the Briggs soldiers are a cohesive, trustworthy group is because they know that Armstrong has their back and genuinely cares about them. Compared to other higher up officers we see in the show who have subordinates who full on hate them or distrust them, it’s clear that Armstrong is the most efficient at leading due to her genuine care.

Later on in the show, Armstrong also has a moment where she acknowledges that resting after being hurt is the smart thing to do, rather than pushing through your injuries to try and seem strong. I really loved that Armstrong in particular was the one to make that statement.

May Chang

Something I really love about May is that she is very ‘feminine’ in a lot of ways. She is cute, she is very bubbly and positive, she isn’t afraid to cry or to fangirl over the Elric brothers. However, she is also one of the most skilled fighters in the show, and is incredibly humble about it as well. I think May is one of the best examples in the show of not having to forego your femininity to be a badass.

Teacher/Izumi Curtis

Though it is used as a recurring joke (especially when she mentions it after using incredible feats of alchemy) the fact that Izumi self identifies as a housewife is what I like the most about her. It’s not used as an insult, she is a housewife; she takes care of the house while her husband runs their business. But her being a housewife is not a bad thing, that’s literally just what she wants to do and there’s nothing wrong with that. Women don’t have to completely brush aside traditionally feminine roles to be really cool and strong.

In conclusion, imo what makes the girls of FMAB ‘good’ or ‘strong’ is that 1. they are their own people who have their own goals outside of the main characters’ lives, 2. they are able to fight and defend themselves if they so desire to, and 3. they can have feminine traits that have nothing to do with their ability to fight or achieve their goals. Also, the fact that there are so many of them. When discussing any kind of representation, having more than just one person with the trait you’d like to represent is the way to go.

Anyway, I’d like to hear your thoughts! this is obviously just my personal opinion, as I’m using my own cultural concepts of femininity and womanhood as a basis here. So if you have anything to add from a different perspective I’d love to hear it.

Thanks for reading!

-threecheersforinking

[fullmetalanalyst]

Royai and Edwin Parallelism

Choice and Worth

[EPISODE 2] Riza tells Winry she can call her by her first name instead of her rank. Despite her friendly approach, Winry seems to judge Riza for being a soldier. 

Winry condemns the military for attempting to take Ed and Al away from her, just like what it did to her parents.  Riza, however, tells her the choice is still theirs.

And here comes my favorite part. Roy and Riza lectures Ed and Winry about choice and moving forwards into life-- on separate but simultaneous occasions.

How is it that they have similar ideals about it? It’s because they speak from experience. In fact, when Winry asks Riza why she joined the military, Riza tells her it’s because she has someone she wants to protect. 

Just look at Riza’s small smile. And Roy? He came in as if it was all on cue.

[FMAB SPECIAL EPISODE 02] In a similar scenario, Riza tells Winry she was not forced to make that choice. It was her own.

However, she told a different reason to the person she wanted to protect.

(yeah it’s lengthy again please click keep reading if you want to read more!)

[EPISODE 30 & 54]

It was evident in her actions that Riza entrusts Roy the secrets of Flame Alchemy. She’s letting him guard her back, and even joins the military to support his goal. 

Interestingly, Roy still calls her by her last name in this scene. In the Japanese dub, he calls her “Hawkeye” as a formal pronoun that means ‘You’.

However, she never tells Roy directly that he’s the reason why she joined the military. She only told Roy that it was for the well-being of the people, which was his goal as well.

Scarred by the aftermath of the war, she asks Roy a favor: to burn the secrets of Flame Alchemy. She once again told him that she trusts him to protect her back from people who would become another Flame Alchemist.

Another interesting fact: this was the last time Riza calls him by his last name.

Riza puts the blame on herself for allowing so many lives to perish just by choosing to trust Roy. She must have felt worthless* that she caused him so much pain. Roy, on the other hand, feels the same. He was the one who led her to this path with his idealistic goal. To make matters worse, she wanted him to burn her back. 

[Heavily implied off-screen scene] Roy burnt her back. Riza felt free from the burden her Father placed upon her. She must have felt like she came back from the dead*. But they probably both felt they are indebted to each other. They feel unworthy to even speak of each other’s names. 

As many people left the military after Ishvalan war (I think this was mentioned in FMA 2003), Roy must have told Riza he’s not forcing her to continue working in the military. It’s still her own free choice. Whether or not she stands up on her own two feet or not.  Hence, the root of their simultaneous speech in [EPISODE 2].

Once they return to Eastern HQ, Riza approaches Roy and informs him of her decision.

It’s that same “muddy path” metaphor from [EPISODE 2]

[EPISODE 3 - onwards] Just as Riza and Roy got each other’s backs, Ed and Winry help each other stand up with their feet. Ed was given automail arm and legs by Winry (and Pinako). Just like Riza, it was the most that Winry can do to support Ed’s goal: to bring back their bodies. (We know how important Winry’s automail are). 

He even tells Rose to stand up and move forward [E3]

When Rose met Winry, she thanks her for giving Ed his arm and leg. [E44]

Even in the end, Ed decides to keep his leg. A symbolism of how much he relies on Winry for him to stand up and run to reach his ambitions. (there’s a separate post I found that shows how big of an influence Winry was to Ed in his decision to choose humanity over alchemy right here)

[EPISODE 11]

Ed also helped Winry stand up in several occasions. When Winry got tired from helping Dominique’s niece from giving birth, she asks Ed to help her stand up.

[EPISODE 23-24]

Most importantly, when Winry found out it was Scar who killed her parents, she was tempted to take on revenge. Ed saved her from taking the path of vengeance**. Winry cried after attempting to take revenge on Scar. Ed was there to help her stand up. He even promised that the next time Winry cries, it will be tears of joy. He tells her she doesn’t have the hands to kill. Her hands are meant to help people (just as how much she helped him).

[EPISODE 24] 

Ed thought of what he told to Winry when Riza lends her gun to him. Al reacts by saying it’s a tool to kill. Riza corrects him and says it’s for protection. 

[EPISODE 30]

When Ed told Riza he felt worthless for not understanding Winry’s feelings (on how much she wanted revenge), Riza tells him quite an answer. 

It was based from experience yet again. “You can only worry about [being worthless for someone] because *you came back alive” (similar to [Heavily implied off-screen scene])

Riza sees protection (her reason for joining the military) as love.

[EPISODE 54] Riza saved Roy from taking the path of vengeance, just like how Ed saved Winry.

BONUS: Hayate leaps over Edward. 

“It’s fine it happens A LOT” but it only happened twice.

Riza comes into the picture. Riza, a daughter who became her father’s research experiment.

Sounds familiar?

I hope you all enjoyed it! Please do tell me what you think it’ll really mean a lot to me! Other FMA Blogs: Royai blog: @royriza FMA sh*tposts: @hawkeyebullets  Main blog: @meridianheroine​

[they-callme-ami]

Edward saying to Miles "Ishvalan, your people destroyed our countryside. And one (1) of you is responsible for murdering my friends parents. (...) my feelings for you are conflicted. I think people should ignore their race, and treat each other as equals." Is on god some of the dumbest shit I ever heard from fmab.

Okay, yeah, you have a right to be angry and hateful.....to Scar, a survivor of genocide (admitably, misguided and still guilty of murdering a few innocents, but nonetheless a survivor). The Ishvalan people didn't have jack SHIT to do with any of that. Replace the context with Ed being a German and the Ishvalans as Jewish people. Heck, it's a direct comparison in CoS.

That shit would definitely NOT fly.

Edward, my guy, your people comitted literal GENOCIDE. Murder is still murder, but you got no room to talk about "your people" to Miles.

Fmab really REALLY glosses over the Ishvalan extermination/genocide and it rubs me the wrong way.

[threecheersforinking]

WIL: Hohenheim from FMAB

**WIL = Why I Love**

I just finished my most recent rewatch of FMAB, and as with every time I rewatch this show I’m left with more thoughts that I just need to get out of my brain. Warning: this post is going to contain hella spoilers for Fullmetal Alchemist: Brotherhood, so if you haven’t seen it yet, pease go watch it! And then come back and read this.

The first time I watched Fullmetal Alchemist: Brotherhood, I didn’t think much about Hohenheim as a character. On the first watch, viewers are being introduced to Hohenheim through Ed and Al’s interpretation of him. When you first meet him, your thoughts are the same as Ed’s: here’s that scummy father of theirs who skipped out on them when they needed him most. And Hohenheim, being the awkward weirdo that he is, definitely did not handle his reunion with Ed very well (just off of the top of my head, I think he calls Ed a coward for burning down their house??? bro). Which really just reinforces the idea that he sucks. But after watching the whole series, it becomes clear that Hohenheim is more complicated than he initially seems.

I primarily wanted to write this because I think Hohenheim as a character is wildly misunderstood by a lot of the people who watch this show. A lot of them seem to shove him into the “shitty anime dads” category without a second thought, and while I do not think he was a good dad, to put him on the same level as Gendo Ikari or something is... a bit rude honestly.

Was Hohenheim a good dad? No. But he was trying to be. The whole reason he left his family was because he wanted to find a way to halt his immortality so he could grow old with them! He wasn’t just ditching out on them for funsies!

To be clear, I absolutely think Ed and Al (although it was mostly just Ed) have every right to be mad at their father, because he was absent when they needed him most, but I also don’t think the audience villainizing Hohenheim is the correct response to that. Hohenheim is an interesting character because he’s complicated. He isn’t a good dad, but he is a good person. I think it’s important for newer anime fans to think about all fictional characters in a complicated way and realize not every character is going to be 100% good or bad.

One time I was talking to a friend about how I think Hohenheim is the best character in FMAB and they were like “really? he doesn’t do much. stuff just happens to him.” and I initially disagreed with that frankly dismissive interpretation of his character but after thinking about it, honestly, I think that’s kind of the point? Hohenheim didn’t ask for this, he didn’t make some big mistake, he was quite literally an enslaved person whose blood was used in experimentation without his consent, and now he has to deal with the incredible dire consequences of a choice he didn’t even make.

In conclusion, I truly believe Hohenheim is one of the most heartbreaking characters in the whole show. All he wanted in life was to grow old with his wife and raise his children and he didn’t get to do either of those things. And it breaks my heart that Ed never fully understood how much love his father had for him. At Trisha’s grave in the finale, Hohenheim noted how special and important it was to him that Ed called him ‘dad’ on the promised day. Even though Ed was literally calling him “rotten”, he didn’t care, he just wanted to receive a modicum of affection from his son. That part really fucked me up.

Let me know your thoughts on Hohenheim, or his relationship with Ed and Al! Thanks for reading,

-threecheersforinking

[hounneybuonney]

Me, reading full- blown ESSAYS on my favorite animes & characters + ignoring the outside world for just a moment.