#ishbalans

[farawaydoe]

Fullmetal Alchemist 2003 : episode 51

Smiling faces in the ending

[harley-rose25]

AOT, FMA, Naruto; Some commentary on morality and perspective.

I've seen some people argue that we only support Eren and Paradis because we've been watching from there perspective and if we started the series from Marley's perspective with Gabi, Falco, etc,, then we would support them. and yes This may be true for some people but I know for a fact it wouldn't be true for me, because I have examples of media where I view the main protagonists as the bad guy even when they are portrayed as the good guys; or the evil shit they did is downplayed.

One very good example from another one of my favorite animes of all time (which i dont think ive ever mentioned on here) Fullmetal alchemist, and fullmetal alchemist brotherhood; we go through the series from the perspective of a nation and primarily the military of that nation that's responsible for committing a genocide against the Ishvalan people. We get to know and like several of the people who were directly involved in the massacre of the Ishvalans. We feel like we know these characters more personally we are shown their humanity, their sense of humor, how they care for each other, they feel like good people to us because of this; but, the reality is that they still chose to commit a genocide of a another group of people, even if they didn't like doing it, and even if they feel bad about it afterwards. They are the bad guys

another example is Konoha, The village hidden in the leaves, from Naruto. which, we also spend most of our time with, and all of our main characters are from Konoha.. Konoha, along with several other hidden villages, used the village hidden in the rain as a battle ground for their wars and left their nation in ruin, also brainwashed a 13 year old into committing genocide against his own people in order to protect the ruling class and the status quo. Yes Itachi would say it was to prevent another war but lets be real here the people in charge had him do that so they could maintain power. also Unlike FMA/FMAB where some of the main characters actually do acknowledge what they did was wrong, and their nation and military as a whole isn't portrayed in the best light, Konoha is portrayed primarily as the good guys. But, to me, they're actually kinda evil.

So yea, no a character or group of character being the protagonist doesn't make me blind to whatever evil shits their doing or whatever evils going on around them. even if you make them super nice and friendly with each other and have great humor or whatever.

Like if we started AOT in Marley and didn't switch to Paradis perspective till season 4 if wouldn't take me long to figure out that Marley is the bad guy. Like, I'd hear about Eldian internment zones and immediately know something aint right, also Marley sending entire families to be turned into titans, Eldians being harassed and assaulted.

Like I'm really sure how I'm supposed to see any of that from their POV and be like yea actually all that wasn't that bad actually, its fine, really they're the victims here, actually.

But seems many people have somehow managed to make Marley the victims in all this, and act like the Eldians really did deserve to be treated like that because their ancestors were very bad.

[sepublic]

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.

[snorlaxlovesme]

I love how when they are on the train to go retrieve Scar from the Ishbalan (man, I like it better when it's spelled with a "v") refugee camp, he mentions that some past squabbles with the military might make the refugees not trust the Colonel and his team.

Um, HELLO? WHAT ABOUT THAT HUGE ISHBALAN WAR OF EXTERMINATION HUH? WHERE THE AMESTRIAN MILITARY MERCILESSLY KILLED THOUSANDS OF ISHBALANS, HOPING TO WIPE THEM ALL OUT. MAYBE THAT'S WHY THEY DON'T TRUST YOU GUYS RIGHT NOW.

MORONS.