#(I have only watched fmab and dont know much about fma03 but I will watch it someday)

[empty-blog-for-lurking]

Rewatching some clips of King Bradley fight scenes(fmab, particularly the ones during the end) and i am sorry for this but Zarkon deserved that- he deserved a climatic fight to the death at the end of the series with his character foil (who themself had a character arc and introspection throughout the series symbolically shown during this fight), he deserved to go down fighting where it took blood, sweat and tears of several people to get here and has audience knowing this was not a fair fight and if he had been in his top condition and not wounded he would have won but still cheering for his death. He deserved death at the hands of all those whom he hurt and he deserved to be remember as a monster he was

[jewishdragon]

#I will agree the ending is a bit depressing#(But you haven't watched the real ending if you haven't seen the epilogue movie The Conqueror of Shamballa) (selected tags from @purple-turtle-21 )

i do want to clarify something here because I think folks might not understand what I didnt like about FMA03's ending.

(note: im only copying this part of your tags because its something I want to address. The rest of your tags are a very nice ramble restating and expanding on points I made and I agree with them! I also want to state that my opinions and feelings on the ending/lore reveal of FAM03 are opinions and feelings and not objective. People can like the ending/extended ending. It just was not for me)

I wasnt just disappointed, i was infuriated. The nazi allegory of the militant country with a Führer as the leader committing genocide against a ethno-religious minority was very very clear to me (I have read that it also represents other genocides/tragedies, i dont have authority to comment on that. I'm just stating here that I understand it represents multiple real world tragedies. but to ME, a jewish person, the holocaust was the most obvious one). And the world of FMAB/manga that Arakawa built was very respectful of this, it explored so much about what leads a country and people to end up in the situation of committing massive tragedies, something that takes decades if not centuries (in this case, 500 years of Father systematically seeding the culture towards anti-ishvalen attitudes, though it was likely attitudes were already like that and he just made it worse)

Connecting that fantasy world directly to a soon to be nazi germany (i know the parallel time was WWI, but that's close enough for me). Hohenheim speaks directly about of our world's europe has many parallels to events in amestris. so while the ishavlan genocide happened in amestris, similar events were soon to happen in our world and they hint about it with the state germany is in during the final episode (also hohenhiem was in some sort of nazi cult??? wtf???) It felt like it meant shit was inevitable, it was going to happen because a genocide happened in FMA03 world, not because of how our world's history went completely un-influenced by ANOTHER UNIVERSE. Giving reason for tragedy in our world to some outside force... fuck that. And that was the soured the entire thing completely, i was baffled, i was angry. It was so cheap and thoughtless to me (i understand that others experienced this differently, this is how i felt watching it)

Unless the Conquerer of Shamballa retcons that ending, the mere fact that our world and the world of FMA03 are directly connected parallels (while the fantasy world of FMAB to me is a very deep and thoughtful allegory and representation of real world tragedies), I dont think it will care much about the events in that movie.

I really liked FMA03 literally up until the final 2 episodes.

Sorry for the rant Purple-Turtle. I am not ranting at you, or shouting at you specifically. your tags merely gave me the excuse to voice more of my feelings.

every time i re-watch FMAB i wanna SCREAM ABOUT IT WITH SOMEONE

i need to talk about the complexity of this show, how the heroes goals change as they gain information about the world, how they make HUGE mistakes and we the viewers learn that we made the mistake of thinking that the main characters were important, that this story was about them, when they are simply the vehicle to deliver the story of a war, a conspiracy, MULTIPLE tragedies including genocides. the show shifts halfway through to broaden the viewpoints, we get flashbacks from the genocide that MOST OF THE MAIN CHARACTERS PARTICIPATED IN (yes the fandom favorites), and its horrific. it's disgustingly realistic even in a world where people casually use magic powers. Can we talk abotu Riza? how she learned that the entire "civil war" was orchestrated by one person who wanted to consume god, and the main characters were like "so it wasnt your fault! it was the conspirators!" and Riza said "No, it doesnt matter who started the fighting, we soldiers still pulled those triggers"

there's SO MUCH more to say i have so many emotions and thoughts about this. About how even if shit was mostly going down in one country, other countries were involved. royals from other countries trying to steal taboo magic, conflicts along boarders that arent resolved, and that if somehow this one country didnt get its shit together its founder and secret leader would consume god and wouldnt stop until it consumed the world.

oh and how that monster who wanted to consume god was created? that history and that tragedy? holy shit i have SO MANY THOUGHTS i cannot say more.

i watched the 2003 FMA, in which the conflict was... smaller, between individuals. it was good but it wasn't as impactful, and it's ending soured it for me. (i did like the lore for creation of homunculi better in 2003 though! and I maintain that position)

[calangkoh]

I'm n 09 fan but you hit the nail on the head with the Ed review tbh. 03 got a lot right, the intensity, the tragedy, color, framing, and Ed's characterization, and I feel like 09s biggest weakness is that Bones didnt see it worth the time to put that buildup and care back in the series. Like there's some assumption you've seen 03 so they didnt need to build those things up again. I cant stand the first arc of 09 because 03 did everything better and the conclusion to 09 is more satisfying when -

-when the early bits hit harder. Feels more earned than just hopeful. I really wish they'd just combined the two to get that really emotional impact alongside the earned happy ending.

thank you, anon, for the back up here. i know this is just one, definitely unpopular, opinion, and i don’t expect people to agree with me, but it is nice when people do. 

i understand why they had to rush it, because then the already long 64 episodes would be around 75-80, and only so much time had passed between the two series that it would be tedious to retread the same material. but when most people now skip the 03 series, they dont know what theyre missing with that intensity and characterization and its really unfortunate. then they hear bad things about 03 and assume theyre true. 

i would agree that fmab is the Technically better (as in, from an actual technical standpoint...its more polished, but that doesn’t mean it’s overall better) but i think 03 is still equal to it in terms of quality and impact, and in many (but not all) areas exceeds it in emotional weight and depth. and as far as the happy ending goes, i agree. the fmab ending (the general climax/resolution: ed beats father, gives up his alchemy, beats truth, and reclaims what he lost and got even more than he started with) is amazing and clever and satisfying. but parts of it while watching, like when he mentions nina, im like...wait really? you’re mentioning nina? i hardly remember her in this series. 

and ed has learned this huge lesson in fmab leading to him beating truth, but in comparison to 03 ed i feel...what did he really learn? fmab ed learned friendship is the real alchemy lol (that’s very reductive i apologize. it is a really good lesson--that we’re simple humans and that’s okay because the bonds we make are worth the weakness--and i love that scene so so much). i feel fmab didnt earn much because in comparison to 03 (and again, i only feel this negativity toward fmab because ive seen 03. the comparison is the real enemy here, because otherwise i wouldn’t have a problem with fmab beyond maybe just not caring for ed because he’s just not my kind of character, but i wouldn’t have much backing to WHY i dont care for him. 03 gives me the specific reasons by having what fmab doesnt.) 

he didnt truly get challenged. 03 ed had all his beliefs, morals, and worldview challenged, while fmab ed was usually just right about everything. the lesson he learned was one he should have learned after he transmuted his mother. it was an obvious lesson “hey youre just a human accept it. one is all and all is one.” while 03 ed learned that lesson long ago. the lessons ed learns are more extensions of accepting that he’s a small human. he learns about what that means. what his impact on the world is. what consequences are. what the value of believing in something is. what it means to lose something. the flaws of equivalent exchange as a philosophy of life. etc. his lessons are far more applicable to real life and honestly, at the risk of sounding pretentious because “blah blah mature story = better” which is something i don’t generally believe (though it is case by case), are more mature. 

i probably went on a tangent, but point is, fmab good, but i do find 03 to be more mature, deeper, and have a more compelling interpretation of edward. and i agree with anon that the rushed beginning of fmab (remember fmab covers what happened over 33 episodes of fma03 in a measly 12!! fma 03 had fillers and anime-original plotlines, sure, but they were good--except for episode 4 i fucking hate that episode. and the tree people episode is a little weird but was important for lust’s character--and all added something. “fillers” arent bad! they’re important for pacing and development!) contribute to why fmab ed as a character falls flat to me (but there’s also a lot more than just the beginning as to why he does).