#sirchenchen

[kattythingz]

I know what I’m getting into by asking this for the ask game, but I gotta know: 03 Ed AND Broho Ed.

Chen you know the language of my HEART

(red for 03 and yellow for broho)

So 03 Ed's chart speaks for itself. No notes, perfect character. I love love LOVE his tragic development, I love that he's called out to fix his goddamn prejudices and I LOVE THAT HE DOES. I LOVE THAT HE GROWS TO UNDERSTAND SCAR'S MOTIVATIONS AND MR. MILITARY BOY DOESN'T PREACH TO THE BROWN MAN BUT MURDER IS WRONG!!

03 Ed is frequently schooled and he just keeps and keeps growing from it, and he never feels stagnant. I adore him to pieces.

Broho Ed is... less great to me.

He reeks of privileged White boy energy and I know the manga claims to tackle the nuances of war and racism—but it sure fucking flops at it. Ed's sheer audacity to tell Miles, AN ISHVALAN, that bombing one station was just as bad AS AN ENTIRE MASSACRE AGAINST HIS PEOPLE??? ED BEING FUCKING PRAISED FOR THE SOOOO COOL CLAP-BACK? I WOULD'VE SLAPPED ED FOR THAT SHIT NO JOKE.

If 03 Ed is challenged and grows from it, broho Ed's prejudices are PRAISED and never once corrected as a result. I'm also just not a fan of how he ends up... marrying, having kids, and settling down VERY young? Like yes yes Ed does deserve to settle down after what he's been through—but he LOST HIS ALCHEMY. It's incredibly idealistic to assume he'll adjust well to settling down so soon as a simple househusband? He has to be even a little depressed about the abrupt shift. And that's not even mentioning how he looks NOTHING like himself anymore. The new clothes I can excuse, 03 does the same, whatever. But WHY did he need to grow taller? In fact, why does the manga hate him being short so much? Why is it such a gag? Legit WHAT is wrong with Winry loving her short king as he is?

The constant jabs at Ed's height just start to feel so mean-spirited after the first few times, and I despise it. I swear he only got taller because Winry said she'd only marry someone taller than her so it was supposed to come full circle or sth. I dunno. Winry going from independent work in Rush Valley to naggy wife in the last few episodes didn't help my opinion of edwin and Ed in relation.

I UNDERSTAND that a character arc is supposed to change a character even in looks. No shit. But the changes broho Ed visually goes through in the end are so extreme. I don't look at that and think Edward Elric. I look at that and think Hohenheim 2.0.

It's not great. I can't even rewatch broho anymore for edling's sake :/

[rendoesthedoodle]

Revenge for sirchenchen on Artfight!

[ID: It’s a Mawile (the Pokemon) pirate character on a light blue background. His name is Sharkbait, and he’s swinging into battle with a sword! He’s wearing a black jacket, pale blue vest, white shirt. and a blue scarf worn like a belt. He also has a pirate hat with a Cubone skull perched on his head-mouth. He’s got a huge grin and red eyes. /END ID]

[kattythingz]

13, 20, and 24!

Anything for you <3

13. What’s a common writing tip that you almost always follow?

Using commas to emphasize pauses! It's not a technique I see often utilized in fics—which is a shame, because nothing hits like a creatively placed comma that forces you to stop and put weight on a word. Much sexier than overusing italics, in my opinion.

20. Have you noticed any patterns in your fics? Words/expressions that appear a lot, themes, common settings, etc?

I almost never write in the povs of my actual favorite characters. If I'm writing about my fav, then you best bet I'll be doing it through the eyes of someone else JUST for the excuse to wax poetic about the fav. This has also meant, however, that literally every one of my fics turned into character studies along the way. It doesn't matter whether I love or hate the pov in question, I WILL get to the bottom of Why That Bitch Is That Way or so help me.

24. Worst writing advice anyone ever gave you?

See, the funny thing about advice is that, some of it is just not for everyone. The best advice to someone could be someone else's worst. In my case, the worst advice I personally could've received was to stop editing as I write.

I understand, obv, that this is a very real issue that can halt writers in their tracks and get them to never get out of wip hell—but it's honestly the reverse for me. If I leave off a scene feeling extremely that it sucks or that it just isn't what I want, I cannot just walk away from it. I can keep bulldozing forward and get a couple thousand more words in, but I know damn well in my chest that I will hate what I've written and that it WILL be scrapped.

It's just better for my personal sanity to edit as I go.

[kattythingz]

🍄❄️🌸

🍄 - share a head canon for one of your favorite ships or pairings.

Ohohoho. WELL, since you asked! I've talked at length about edling, so giving a little love to edgreed instead (because I love them so, so, SO much, god)... Mild nsfw warning, but, two words: body worship.

HEAR ME OUT, OKAY. WE ALREADY KNOW EDGREED WOULD HAVE THE HOTTEST SEX, THAT'S JUST FACTS. BUT. BUT. GREED'S GREED. He's nothing if not shamelessly proud of his possessions. And why would that be different in sex, ESPECIALLY when it comes to the boy made of literal fucking gold to him? GREED BODY-WORSHIPS THE SHIT OUT OF ED, AND THAT'S THAT.

❄️ - what's your dream theme/plot for a fic, and who would write it best?

Bold of you to assume I only have one. It's really only a matter of what today's flavor is. And to that I answer: dark Ling. Just, listen. I've had this daydream for AGES, where post-canon Ed loses his alchemy blah blah, but the military still seeks to use him as some precious asset. Ling catches wind of this while he's Emperor, and how Ed's had a hard time finding a real purpose after everything and the domestic life really isn't for him, but he feels so useless as he is so he's just drifting, and he's easy pickings. Ling worries for Ed in that state, deeply. So he does what any sane guy does and invites Ed to Xing. Then kinda maybe. Locks him in a room. Sets up a political strain where the military cannot intervene and steal Ed from Ling's own land, thus protecting Ed (in Ling's eyes). But Ed doesn't want this, and he keeps beseeching with Ling to let him go, he'll be careful, he's not that naiive, Ling, come on—

Ling hears none of it, a latent part of him—unearthed by Greed—telling him that this is the right thing to do. Ling isn't insane. He's just deeply and unreasonably protective (a topic that I've touched on in Crown, actually! Teehee). But Ed can't really see that so. It's all a mess.

Still, Ling won't back down. He vows instead that he'll make Ed as happy as he can here, in Xing, under Ling's protection.

... Can you tell I like dark fics.

I dunno who else aside from myself would be able to deliver this premise exactly how I want it. I've read just about every "dark" edling fic I could get my hands on, and I still think they're being too nice. If you're gonna write a dark fic then BUCKLE DOWN AND COMMIT TO IT LIKE MEN, YOU FOOLS.

I volunteer myself, tragically.

🌸 - do you have any pets? if you do, post some pictures of them.

It tears my very soul apart to confess that I have no pets 😔 In a perfect world where I do, I'd have a black cat, and I'd name it Layl/Layla, or Amir/Amira. And they'd own my entire heart.

[kattythingz]

I was doing some character studies with Edward today and decided your Hades AU Ed would be great for practicing alternate hairstyles to his braid! I was supposed to just be doing sketches but I got carried away in the process with this one.

OH MY FUCKING GOD WAIT. WAIT. WAAAAAIT

AAAAAAAH THAT LOOKS AMAZING WHAT THE FUCK??? I LOVE HIS EYE SHAPE??? AND THE SPEAAAAAR, THE SPEAR LOOKS SO GOOD. AND AND AND THE BELT. ALL THE GOLD HONESTLY, SO SHINY AND RPETTY??

I'm gonna cry you have no idea how near and dear this au is to my heart, so this is making me SO EMOTIONAL. AAAAAAAAAAAAAAA

[kattythingz]

For the ask game thing, J K R X!

Hoooh? You're approaching me? Well, if you dare...

J - what’s your favorite fanfic trope? Have you written it?

I ADORE A VERY SPECIFIC FLAVOR OF CANON REWRITES. Basically: what if canon but my blorbo was treated as the love interest (and all the cliches that come with that, yes, hello I love whump) and my ship is endgame?

Think literally just Crown. The entire concept came to me years ago because I wanted, so desperately, to see a world where Ed was basically treated as Ling's love interest. And how that would change the plot! How would their relationship develop? How would they act AFTER they're dating? Blorbo treated as love interest + established relationship MY FUCKING BELOVED.

I did it to Ed again with Reliable Conclusion; I did it long before that to Stiles with Sweet Disaster; and I've most definitely contemplated doing it to Shinichi in a kaishin "what if Shinichi played Aoko's role in Magic Kaito" au.

If this trope has no fans left, it's because I'm DEAD.

K - do you have a guilty pleasures in fic (reading or writing)?

Oh, dude, SO MANY. SO SO MANY. I've already said I like my favs being treated as love interests, so you can imagine all the "stupid cliche" positions that I like to write said favs into. I CAN'T HELP IT MAN. I know my blorbos are competent in canon, and I'll never erase that! Any "weak" situation I ever write them into HAS to make canonical sense to me, otherwise I just. I can't.

But also, what's wrong with a strong character needing to be saved? Ed, for example, altho yes yes he's disabled, is also just human. Even without his automail kicking his ass, as a human he can still inherently be weak! You just need to know where to apply that weakness!

Also I really like dressing my favs pretty, heh. I FIND THEM PRETTY AND THUS THEY DESERVE TO LOOK THE PRETTIEST. TIS THE LAW!!!

R - which writers (fanfic or otherwise) do you consider the biggest influence on you and your writing?

Right off the top of my head, SiryyGray from Capra comes to mind. The way they tied Ed's flashbacks into the narrative so time feels WACK. The way their writing style is so damn atmospheric and vintage somehow, like you're IN those 1940s with Ed. THE WAY THEY TIED THAT WHOLE BOY WITH A COMPASS STORY INTO THE LARGER NARRATIVE AND IT HELD THEMATIC MEANING? I ATE THAT SHIT UP.

Their writing style definitely directly influenced mine! Honestly, I've caught myself thinking back on Capra a lot whenever I'm trying to write certain scenes in my own fics.

I can also cite The Map to Everywhere book series (highly recommend) as direct inspo that taught me to just, have FUN with formatting! Even in a published book! That series is my favorite in the whole world and it has so much fun with its visuals and formatting! I really admire it.

X - how would you categorize your fanfic reading? Are you a voracious reader? Do you carefully pick and choose? Something in between?

Oh, god no, I am DEFINITELY picky. Like, "I'm striving to become a professional literary editor" picky. I try so hard but unless your premise is EXTREMELY captivating and ticks all my trope boxes, then even slightly mediocre writing will turn me off at times. I can't unsee if there's a dialogue tag every single line; if the punctuation's bad; if two characters speak in the same paragraph. Every fanfic pet peeve you can think of, I've clicked off a fic from.

It's unfortunate, because I remember being 12 and reading every cool sounding fic I could get my hands on. But my writing's evolved a lot over the years. And so have my expectations for fics because of that. It's not rlly sth I can turn off in my brain anymore, as much as I wish I could sometimes.

[kattythingz]

❤💔💕💀 (for some controversial FMA takes, of course!)

Hello!!! I already answered the first one, but as for the other three...

💔 - if you had to remove one major character from the series, who would you choose?

Hmmmm so I have an answer for both series. For fmab, pretty much everyone is relevant in some manner, but fmab's greatest sin to me has always been that it's drama overall lacked interpersonal stakes? So, with that in mind—I have to get rid of Sloth. The guy dug the underground circle, but when his big fight came up, it was just randomly against... the Armstrongs??? It felt absolutely unnecessary. In fact, you could write out Sloth and replace him with just a team of miners and the story Would Not be affected. Which is Not Good.

For 03, Archer's gotta go. Dude played a good role in chasing down the Elrics, but his whole subplot with turning into a cyborg was—what?? Where did that come from?? Honestly, Kimblee could've easily played Archer's part AND spied on Greed & Co., all while still building up to what happens in Liore. Sorry buddy.

💕 - what is an unpopular ship that you like?

OHOHO. WEEEEEEEEEEELL... I've actually got several ships for Ed lmao, I am tragically a multi-shipper and am constantly one well-written fic away from shipping absolutely anything with him that tickles me. I dunno if you'd call this unpopular in fma, but—it's pretty popular to ship edgreedling as a threesome that goes all three ways. And there's nothing wrong with that! I absolutely see it! But personally I've always manned the platonic soulmates greedling boat (plz plz plz), so my preferred take on the ship is pretty uncommon with Ed being the only connector between Greed and Ling. Ed has two hands (technically), and greedling gotta learn to share <3

💀 - if you had to choose one major character to die, who would you choose?

See, what's wild about this question is that, anyone I thought of in both series was already dead. Fma's great at killing off characters when necessary, mad respect for that tbh. I'll give fmab a rare kudos on this cuz I got nothing, shit.

[kattythingz]

You are so real for ace Lust, I totally see it even with her mangahood presentation where she still doesn’t really do the whole sexual lust thing. She’ll use others’ against them, sure, but she never does anything or goes out of her way to do anything, and she’s definitely more bloodlust than anything else. I’m only mildly familiar with 03 Lust and I could be wrong since I’ve only seen snippets, but isn’t she prone to wandering? It would tie her in well with the concept of wanderlust, I think.

Also, it is curious to wonder about how the other homunculi would’ve handled sharing a body Greedling style. Or if they even could.

Less on the wandering and moreso that she's a lone spirit with lots of self-reflection to do on her own. But I can definitely see her having some manner of wanderlust!!! In an ideal au where she lives and gets to be real friends with Ed, I imagine they travel together, hehe.

And, yeah, right??? (In terms of fmab) Sloth is easily too lazy to even bother. Pride would be too overwhelming I think and so "sharing" is out of the question; whatever soul he possesses is gone immediately. Gluttony is the reverse in which he isn't aware enough as his own person to be possessing others. Wrath and Envy could maybe manage something.