Another thing I appreciate about 2003 is the backstory of the Grand Arcanum as an Ishvalan practice that was pretty clearly imperialistic and/or sacrificing its own citizens for the “prosperity” of the culture. And yet this is treated as kind of a frank fact; There isn’t some moment of OMG indigenous people can be evil too!!! So Amestris’ genocide is secretly justified or nuanced!!!
In fact the focus of this revelation was still about white racism, with how Ed’s takeaway was that he couldn’t imagine Ishbalans being capable of advanced alchemy, rather than him realizing Ishbalans Bad too. Because the point is that he’s already operating off of this idea deep down, and that PoC IRL don’t need more reminders by white people about how we’re degenerate.
I like this because you cannot discuss how PoC and indigenous cultures have also done slavery and empires, how you can’t support a PoC spearheading genocide, without Whataboutism idiots who believe in reverse racism crawling from the woodworks to use this as a rallying point to deflect any criticism towards white peoples, because ummm actually PoC do it too this is just a human thing and we’re absolved because of it! Maybe those PoC secretly had it coming!!!
And it’s telling because these people don’t give a fuck that these indigenous empires were bad because of what they did to (indigenous) victims, or that said victims were also slaughtered by white settlers too, even betrayed after making an alliance. They act as if those white settlers didn’t also believe in empire, and that any condemnation of indigenous empires would’ve been hypocritical with they’ve done, did, and would do. They don’t care about victims at all, just making themselves look less guilty as if that’s how it works.
They can’t let PoC have flaws while still having the full range and depth of the human experience, whereas white people obviously do because Not All White People. They can’t be normal about PoC also having problems without being in abject denial over their broken pedestal, or smug because now they can drag us down to their level! Never mind that the issues they bring up are no longer/less relevant, unlike white people’s continued, global-scale imperialism that I’m sure any brown cultures could also do under the right circumstances, but we’re not here about What Ifs are we???
Because when you talk about the actual victims caught between white and brown empires, it makes me think of how the Ishvalan revolution against the Grand Arcanum system wasn’t done by white saviors. It was done by Ishvalan folk who were likely chosen as sacrifices themselves. Ishvalan folk got themselves out of it too.
And those Amestrian dogs deserve to die just as much for their genocide because damn, it’s not like they know about the Grand Arcanum, it’s not as if they have any right to throw stones, it’s not as if genocide is okay under any circumstance. The Ishvalans were allowed to have an f’ed up system in the past without the narrative having them bend over backwards to repent for it amidst persecution, or acknowledge that this is proof both sides are humans too. Fuck those white people for their genocide.
Whites IRL still saw PoC as uniquely and unusually dangerous and not in the same way they as white people also are, so they didn’t take prisoners. White people were so horrified from killing other white people in WW1 that they devised the Geneva convention, and then in the same breath turned around and continued to exploit natives with the exact same ruthlessness, because it can't be a war crime if we're not at war!!! We cannot be good at all without a constant reminder by whites that we’re bad too btw. When white countries pull off a W you don’t have other whites immediately scrambling to remind you of their war crimes, meaning you can’t even enjoy it for a moment.
“You know, in movies and books it’s always the ones who go on and on about their loved ones that have the higher likelihood of being killed.”
Riza said it first to Roy to try to deflect when he asked if she would write to him while he was in Ishbal. Roy says is to Hughes when he's bragging about Gracia, because he's thinking of Riza.
If you're enjoying my Headcanon of the Day posts, please consider checking out my Royai Fanfiction series, "Stolen Moments" on A03! Most of the headcanons here feature in the series. I'm hoping to post the first chapter of my newest story "Angel With a Shotgun" all about Ishbal in the next day or two!
An Archive of Our Own, a project of the
Organization for Transformative Works
An Archive of Our Own, a project of the
Organization for Transformative Works
I rewatched Fullmetal Alchemist again (It's been nine years since watched it last time lol). For some reason, Ishvalans seem quite attractive to me now... I didn't find any art with Ishvalans (Scar doesn't count), so I decided to draw these sweet boys myself
Summary : "Man ? There were no men in the Amestrian military. Not any more. Not after Ishval. Edward, perhaps, was the only "man" in the military. The rest were either dogs or rabid wolves with blood on their fangs
There used to be another man in the military... but he was dead now, and his memory was all that remained. A ghost of the past, like so many before him.... and Mustang knew what he must do."
After the funeral of Maes Hughes, Roy Mustang sits in his office, contemplating his past, and the many, many tragedies he has both caused and endured.
Some of the designs/info here is outdated but basically. Ishavl is sooo fucking cool and Arakawa really should have focused it more and I love my Ishvalan OCs and all the Ishvalan cultural HCs I have. Random story tidbits and HCs under the cut
Drawing 1: Roni is actually a chimera and was the youngest person in Greeds gang for a while. after, Y'Know, she made her way to a refugee camp where she met Mirigli her future wife ^^. Later on after the reconstruction of Ishval Li Pei, their kid, and a number of other Xing migrants moved in and she joined the relationship.
Lacy was like a big sis/auntie figure for Roni back in Dublith, Colette was a girl Roni crashed with for a while untill they had a falling out (have since reconnected)
Drawing 2: concept art for wedding clothes! I like the idea that Fire marks most important transitions periods in a persons life in Ishval (birth, name givings, death) so for weddings they dance around one. Also wedding tattoos cause I like the idea of Ishvalans having a tattoo culture
Drawing 3: ideas for traditional Ishvalan carpets (pottery is probably also a big part of th culture), plus scar refs for the girls. Plus coming of age tattoos (3 dots represent the three pillars of Ishavalan society: Homeland, Religion, and People. The three points beneath are a stylized fire representing Ishval)
Drawing 4: random sketches and outdated wedding dress
Drawing 5: Miriglis found family. Most of them aren't related, but they all banded together when fleeing Ishval
I kinda like the concept of Ishbalan Elrics at least in theory, but so damn many of the fics about it end up focusing on the following:
1: Poor UWU Roy feels bad about the genocide and Ed has to help him through it or otherwise assuage the guilty conscience of soldiers.
2: Ed being super fucking judgy with Scar, like more-so than canon Ed but seemingly with even less reason.
3: Basically keeping Ed’s relationship to religion utterly identicale to canon; like even if he’s an athiest, I feel his relationship would not be exactly the same ya know?
There’s some good one’s, and they are really good, some even manage to explore his relationship with the military well.
But way too many are just soldier comfort crap or a chance to wax poetic about it not being right to fight the people who enacted genocide on your people or just switching in Ishvala’s name in place of a vaguely defined god.
I spent entirely too long looking at screenshots of Ishvalan architecture. Please enjoy the fruits of my labor.
[ID: A shot from Fullmetal Alchemist: Brotherhood of troops marching toward a city in the desert with mountains in the distance. The soldiers carry rifles and wear backpacks and are dressed in light cloaks. The shot is in black and white except for the Netflix progress bar visible at the bottom.]
First, here’s a zip file with a bunch of cropped screenshots that I used for reference. I’m not up to doing image descriptions for these right now, but if anyone else is interested please let me know.
And down below are my notes on what I saw, as well as a bunch my thoughts on the implications.
Observations
Right angles are the order of the day in both architecture (windows, doors, roofs) and placement of buildings and blocks. Larger sections of blocks at different angles seem to be a thing, though. I saw all of two instances of rounded architecture.
There isn't much furniture shown other crates, a couple bookcases, scarbro's low table/desk. In the Rockbell clinic, Scar is lying on what could be a low cot or a larger low table with a sheet on it. We never actually see any of what would be called Western-style beds in our world.
We see both wooden doors and cloth curtains covering the entrances to buildings.
Walls seem to always be the same stone blocks. They’re sometimes plastered over, either from top to bottom or with a section of stone exposed at the bottom (kind of like wainscoting).
The stone used seems to be all the same kind. It reminds me of Jerusalem stone, which buildings in Jerusalem are legally required to be faced with.
I counted a single lightbulb, a single tree, and two chimneys. The tree was not in good shape.
The streets are paved with flagstones, but the pattern seems irregular.
Most buildings without towers are two stories, with any towers sticking up an extra story. Those towers are pretty frequent.
There are generally friezes of some variety at the border between each floor. Patterns: plain, circles, “U” shapes open at the bottom, diagonal lines, chevrons pointing sideways.
Cornices are a thing.
Wooden beams support ceilings and sometimes stick out into the exterior of the building, kind of like you sometimes see in the southwest USA. I have learned these are called vigas.
A few buildings have first floors that stick out further than their second floors.
Quoins are a thing. Apparently that’s what it’s called when you have visible stone on the corner of a building.
In the distance of one panoramic shot of the intact city, there’s a building that’s much larger than any other and at least somewhat taller. It has one tower and a smaller top floor. IDK how to describe it. See the blurry picture in the zip file labeled “maybe a temple.”
I spotted zero staircases.
I’m not sure where the stepped platform where Bradley stands while Mustang tries to kill him with eye lasers is, but it’s unusual.
My Thoughts
There’s very little furniture. I think this is probably an aesthetic choice for the anime (and manga? I haven’t looked at this in the manga) for the most part, but it could be used as a cool cultural detail. It could also be related to the war somehow, like all the wooden stuff that can be spare being used for, idk, barricades?
In general, Ishvalans may use low furniture and sit on cushions as is traditional in Japan. However, their buildings are flush with the ground. Do they not have scorpions or snakes? I hope not, for their sake.
Unless the whole “no alchemy” thing was a lie, they must have a source of wood somewhere. To me, this points to there being areas that are at least somewhat more lush than what we see.
That big building in the middle of the city is clearly important. Given what we know about Ishvalan culture, I assume it’s a temple. I wouldn’t be surprised if it was also a government/administration center, at least Ishval was independent. The high priest with the name I don’t know how to spell may well have had a secular leadership role, judging by his attempt to negotiate with Bradley. Of course, the chaos of the war could have shaken up those kind of social structures
It’s worth noting that in the countryside around Resembool the roads are unpaved (need to see if I can find out more about the actual town). Interesting sign of Ishval’s level of infrastructure development and economic prosperity, possibly from before the annexation.
While it’s possible the lack of stairs is due to all the damage in the only shots that have even a glimpse of a floorplan, it’s also possible Ishvalans don’t generally do stairs. That probably means a lot of ladders, but I prefer to think they used indoor slides, because the episodes I rewatched for this are depressing and I want a nap.
