#STOP DOING THAT ARAKAWA

[todayisafridaynight]

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bonus:

[bbqhooligan]

is th3 "omg this mangaka is so evil they hate every character we love and kill them off😭😭😭😭" phenomenon worth writing 9 pages about. dont answer

[oatmealaddiction]

Okay but the weirdest thing about the whole "Brotherhood is better you should skip 03" discourse that's become commonplace now, it sort of forgets the world Brotherhood came out in and why you should watch the original Fullmetal Alchemist. When Brotherhood came out, the original Fullmetal Alchemist was one of the most beloved and most watched animes of all time. Brotherhood assumes you the audience have already seen it because of course you have, everyone has seen it, so it skips important information and speeds the story up because it doesn't want to bore you with things you already know. Have you ever wondered "hey why does the first episode of Brotherhood kind of suck, and why am I being introduced to like 50 new characters, and why are they acting like I know what the hell an alchemist is?" It's because Brotherhood thinks you've seen 03.

The first 7 or so episodes of Brotherhood constitute dozens of chapters in the manga, and the first 25 or so episodes of the original Fullmetal Alchemist. The Nina Tucker episode in Brotherhood, in FMA 03 takes up nearly three episodes. Yoki gets a backstory in 03 and it's genuinely one of the best episodes and taken directly from the manga and Brotherhood glosses over it because: duh, you've already seen it. And so if you skip the original you miss out on dozens of really great character building episodes like Ed and Al meeting Hughes for the first time and getting to spend a whole episode helping him free a train from terrorists, or Ed and Roy having a duel that expands on the relationship they have, or episodes where the brothers just help out random people in towns before the major story gets going.

The original also paces itself quite a bit better than Brotherhood and is more in line with the mangas storytelling. In the manga we don't find out about The Gate until nearly two dozen chapters in, and the same goes for the original anime. Like, that's a twist reveal in those stories, and it's weird that the most watched series is the one where they tell you all about The Gate in the first two episodes because they assume you've already seen the original show.

What's more, people don't know that Hiromu Arakawa helped write for the anime while she was still in the middle of writing the manga, and as a result was inspired to write scenes in Brotherhood that the anime did first. That scene of Edward getting impaled by a falling beam? Directly inspired by a similar scene in the original anime. There's a lot of little instances of that and they're great when you can recognize parallels and things in Brotherhood that are direct references to the original anime, but people don't notice any of that anymore. Because the original anime is just an automatic skip these days, and it's a bummer because people don't realize what a giant it was back before Brotherhood was released. They treat it as *bad,* not realizing it was one of the most beloved anime of its time and the problems people take issue with have a lot more to do with personal taste than any kind of actual flaw in the writing. Brotherhood was never meant to dethrone it, and the original anime was always supposed to be part of the viewing experience which is why those first few episodes of Brotherhood are so fast paced. So like, please stop telling people Fullmetal Alchemist 2003 is a skip, or it's bad, or you don't need it because Brotherhood is better. Regardless if you think Brotherhood is better or not, the original wrote Brotherhood's check. It was huge, it was beloved, and Brotherhood is *banking* on the knowledge you've seen all of it and loved it. And trust me when I say there is so much to love about the original series. It's still my favorite branch of the FMA franchise, and it's worth your time, I promise you.

[revenantghost]

Please stop everything you're doing and look at this Vash the Stampede drawing by FMA manga-ka Hiromu Arakawa

[fullmetal-scar-simping]

Here's my fma 2003 (featuring Conqueror of Shambala) character tierlist. If I had to sum up my perception of the 03 cast vs the bhood one, it would be 1) 03 is focused and interwoven, and 2) quality >>>>>>>> quantity.

To be clear: because I feel that the 03 adaptation does not labour under a desperate need to pity and empathize with its war criminals and antagonists (though it does make sure its core antagonists are more than stock-standard villains), there aren't really any characters I vehemently reject the way I did for the Brotherhood tier list. Even the characters that don't particularly catch my interest or are fairly mundane in the grand scheme of the show I see more favourably than the characters in a similar tier level in Brotherhood. Where I find the 09 anime's character lows are abysmally low, 03 highs are imho astronomical.

There are some very, very minor characters that I didn't feel the need to include (my Broho tier list similarly eschewed equally highly minor faces too). I didn't feel like such inclusions would really be in the spirit of a tierlist.

Anyway, here we go:

Lengthy breakdown below the cut [not spoiler free]:

First tier: The SSS-tier. What do I even say about these two that I haven't already repeatedly expressed on this blog? These are the characters I can't stop thinking about. Whose stories, personalities, character arcs, and tragedies I've been mentally unwell about for over a decade+. They're my obsession and they're the highlight of every rewatch for me. Whenever they're onscreen I am rendered into a rabid howling ape (joyful).

Me @ 03 Scar and 03 Lust 5ever:

Scar: My sweetie-pie honeybear sugar-muffin sillymittens babygirl. Look at my damn username. Do you think I'm normal about Scar, especially THIS version of him? A character like him, handled the way the 03 team wrote him, is not only a rarity but a fucking achievement. In a media landscape that relies on regurgitated, jagged strawmen of the violent resistance of the oppressed, of revolutionaries/radicals who exist solely for the writers to strike down with great punitivity, 03 Scar breaks the mould. He manages to subvert every derogatory caricature that a character like him should have fully fallen into, and come out a nuanced, three dimensional character who never truly relents in the fight against the state military. Where Arakawa writes Scar to be yet another in a long line of fictional radicals made to heel at the boots of the military, the fma 03 writers wrote Scar to show why the people who are targets of imperial violence fight back to the bitter end. And, man, the sensitivity they imbue him with on top of that! They allow him to be vulnerable, to struggle with his place in a world that wants everyone like him fully eradicated while also experiencing what it's like to be a pariah amongst his own people; to grapple with his past and also have the capacity to feel for those who have suffered similarly as well. He grasps that there is no half-freedoms. If Ishbal isn't free than Liore isn't free and neither will anyone else be free. He witnesses numerous times that without direct violent action the system carries on its project of wanton human misery. And it often goes unacknowledged, but this Scar does attempt the route of (relative) peace. He renounces his homicide of state alchemists, he joins a group of Ishbalan refugees and follows his master. Yet without fail they are beset by tremendous violence: state-hired mercenaries enact a slaughter of Ishbalans and destabilizing the camp, they're accosted by a racist biker gang solely because the Ishbalans stepped out of their state-designated grounds, and Yoki rats the now-nomadic Ishbalans to the state, resulting in the feds rounding them up and carting them off to a concentration camp. At that point he can no longer stomach this ineffectual path. If the victims of this systemic oppression fail to bite the hand that beats them, then the perpetuation of their suffering never ends. If he must renounce any future he could have had, if it means he must suffer and relinquish his own life, if he must turn away from Ishbala, then he will. "My sympathy will not be spent on soldiers. Neither should yours," SIR. SIR YOU DROPPED YOUR CROWN. SIR. This line alone makes me INSANE.

We get glimpses of his adolescence, the loss he and his brother suffered, and we really get to understand what solidifies Scar's hatred of alchemy early on in his life. It's not just a cultural and religious dictate against the practice (seriously, can we blame the Ishbalan religion for being anti-alchemy), and it's not just the fact that alchemy is a lethal tool of mass destruction that can be used to wipe out an entire country: it's the fact that he witnessed a writhing mass made from the corpse of someone he and his brother cared for, and the loss of his brother's sanity as he pursued the philosopher's stone to undo this travesty he committed. And yet Scar is gifted that same detested alchemy by the brother he rejects, and he has to find some greater purpose that somehow straddles his previous beliefs. He's a resistance fighter struck down, aimless since barely escaping the massacre years ago. He would have died if he stayed back, should have died when Kimbly tracked down their particular group of fleeing Ishbalans, and in a sense [name unknown] has indeed long since perished. And for so long he was unable to face the pockets of Ishbalan refugees with any confidence due to the indelible taboo that is his right arm. He's displaced and homeless, wandering the streets of his oppressors, trying to find answers to the insignia of his sibling's arm, and finally he's snapped back into action upon encountering yet one more soul perverted into an agonized form by alchemy and the state. He's principled to the core, yet not as a flawless messianic figure. His final victory, his moment of reclaiming personal love alongside obliterating an armada, is also the endpoint of his tragedy. His triumph is his grave, and god. fucking. damn it. that is so---- !!! The way he connects, reflects, and contrasts with other core characters and the overall themes of the narrative too, I-!!!

Listen, I love the mangahood Scars even with the reformist liberal bullcrap tacked onto their arc, but when I say I simp for fma Scar, THIS is the fictional man I simp the hardest for. When I say Scar is right? All versions of Scar were right to kill state alchemists, but it's 03 Scar who was never once wrong. Accept no substitutes, because no one is doin' it like him.

Lust: My darling WIFE. I would make a Philosopher's Stone just for her and no one would be able to stop me. She was one of the earliest characters I latched onto during my first watch of this show 100 years ago. No matter who I introduce to fma 03, they all walk away having fallen in love with her. She's a treasure, my sopping wet meow meow who's also more than capable of tearing anyone to ribbons. Yet more than that, I wish she could have had the tranquil human life she deserved. She's everything to me. And no matter how many times I rewatch this adaptation, Lust and her arc, her internal struggles, and the philosophical dilemma of what constitutes humanity and what are the consequences of creating a dehumanized class of people leaves me on knees. And god, the way the writers very slowly develop this growing dilemma and her individuality is astonishing. From one of the first shadows we see stalking the Elric's journey, a mysterious and malevolent femme fatale pulling the strings, a woman whose face Scar can't shake, to her assuredness in her humanity and her goal to reclaim as such, a being whose patchwork memories of who she once was slowly upending her allegiances, her having a strong knowledge in alchemy even when she literally cannot perform it because she will stop at nothing to shed her shackles, to her rebellion against Dante and the other homunculi, and- ok, you know how we watch Lust gaze at human beings and ponder at their futile existence? Seeing them as alien, and to an extent lesser? And how she can no longer deny wanting to return to humanity as her memories continue to gnaw at her? To the point that she embraces people as people? How she counters Sloth's disparaging, dehumanizing remarks against Tucker's mindless Nina clones and states "She's his daughter"? She defends the humanity even in those that the world would write off as subhumans or objects? She was an Ishbalan woman repurposed into a tool by the very people who destroyed her homeland and she will no longer be their puppet. She was never just a femme fatal, she was never just a humanoid monster, she is never treated like just another villain to be annihilated for the benefit of the protags. Like. Do you understand? Do you understand the finesse with which the 03 team wrote this character? Do you understand why people go crazy for her? Do you understand why she's a platinum-tier baddie? God, Lust is just incredible and I weep just thinking about her! Her despair causing her to desire mortality, and connection to the one remaining person from a past that many could debate was never entirely her own? UGHHHH, my HEART. Is obtaining mortality a drawn-out suicide of its own? If for a homunculus the only way to become human is to die, then was that locket Scar dredged from the grave that never possessed her body his unintentional way of making her human after all? I wonder, as her consciousness faded away once more, if she felt relief. If she felt peace. I always hope that she did.

Second tier: S-tier. Our protagonists, and a worthy centrefold for this adaptation. They're phenomenally written: their journeys and inner demons are so compelling. The way love is the fount of their hopes and traumas, what keeps them clawing through the horrors of the world, to hang tight to each other. All the while this codependence being a self-imposed punishment. Shunting out everyone else and hurting themselves and others as a result. They so desperately want to do right, but their self-destructiveness and alliance with the military leaves pain in their wake. There is no comforting and morally convenient writing contrivances to shield them from the repercussions of their beliefs and actions. These boys grow and part of that growth into adulthood is understanding that the flow of everything, that inherent and unshakable interconnectivity of life and lives, of systemic violence via state and alchemy, means they cannot live as though in a vacuum, doing as they wish and remaining ignorant and, as a result, becoming wretched. If they want to rise above destroying others, they must take responsibility, and how that differs between them is fine-tuned to their idiosyncrasies. How each brother partook in committing alchemy's greatest taboo informs how they view violence and sacrifice.

Like the entire cast, Ed and Al are so human. It's both beautiful and heartbreaking, and one of the many reasons why I always come back to this anime. I couldn't ask for better versions of the Elric brothers and I'm glad that this version of them are the ones permanently embedded in my mind as THE Edward and Alphonse Elrics.

Note: I place the CoS versions in this tier not because I see them as different characters but rather to highlight that I do love what is shown of their outcomes, and that I appreciate the way it ties well with where we last see them in the show.

Ed: A boy steeped in the dogma of his father's science. His hubris and his love tears apart what remains of his dying idyllic life, and it's something he truly never returns to. And yet, it's not all his fault. He's an orphaned child alongside his little brother, with a mind too sheltered from the true ugliness of the world yet brimming with the capacity to perform feats that few can master. His circumstances and choices lead him down a rabbit hole he can only escape by moving forward and changing. He can't flee to the past, he can't remake the present into whatever he wishes, the world carries on despite what he and his brother go through, and if he wants to be more than the monstrous humans he encounters than he has to actually fucking reflect and reconsider his perspective constantly. And he's not perfect at changing either! Some part of him still clings to what could have been, that maybe it could be possible to at least restore Al's body. He's one of the most dogmatic characters in this entire show, and the narrative does not allow him to simply remain as such and parade it around like hot shit. It's not science vs religion, it's scientism and the hegemony of the state (which can include religious institutions and beliefs) vs those seen as subjects or material for the whims of those in power. Ed actually has to contend with his bigotry too! He shoulders a sisyphean grief and guilt, and you know deep down that he will never truly be rid of that curse. Yet he shows signs in the end that he understands that he can't eternally stagnate in it; returning to a world he struggled to see as real and getting on that caravan at the end with Al and Noah felt like he could at least adapt to the task of living, even if that dream of perfect redemption remains elusive. I could babble on and on, but this all to say: I love fma 03 Ed and no bog standard shonen-ass racist is ever gonna usurp his spot for me.

Al: This version of Al is not stuck as a yes-man to his brother, and he isn't sidelined until it's convenient to wheel him back into the plot. Al's perspective on nearly everything tends to differ from Ed's. Whether it's on more inconsequential matters to, in time, major issues, Al often sees things differently from his older sibling. The 03 writers leaned heavily on the solitude and confinement of being the final vestige of a human's existence tethered to an inanimate object, and they explore this existential crisis and dysmorphia not just in the one arc everyone fails to empathize with (you know the one), but all throughout the show. There's a reason Al has an easier time understanding the perspectives of his fellows who have been literally and figuratively dehumanized. He's compassionate and sweet, and this trips people up. So many see him as a nothing more than a cinnamon roll when he's got a much harder edge than that. Far more so. Al suffers a waking nightmare 24/7, without break since he can't sleep. Though he doesn't allow that to destroy his capacity for kindness, it doesn't mean he handles every problem and obstacle with unceasing grace. He sees the utility in violence, he gets why people lash out, he wants to be fully human again and he still wants to preserve lives when he can. Al wants to think of others, but his memory is chipped in places, and his lack of bodily functions, flesh, and nervous system means he feels that others have lost sight of him too. It's a struggle to feel real when your current circumstances have you caged and alienated. You end up wanting Al's body back as badly as he and Ed do, that finally seeing him physically restored to the 10 year old body he last occupied is both a relief and utterly surreal. And without his memories, he was doomed to repeat the self-centered actions that he and his brother had to learn from over those many years. I can't see him regaining his memories being a wholly jubilous outcome for him, but having the one person who mattered more than everyone else back in his life is a trade I'm sure he would make time and again.

Third tier: The A tier. Love 'em to the bone, and even love to hate one in particular here (it's Dante. Of course). This anime has no shortage of excellent characters, and I love 'em to bits.

Rose: One of the bravest characters in this entire show's roster. An orphaned teenage girl who adheres to Letoism in the hopes that her faith and work for the church will lead to the miracle of her partner returning from the dead. After the curtain gets pulled back on Cornello, Rose has to learn to rise above the pain and live. All with the dawning riots and military invasion that will challenge her in ways most hope never befalls themselves but is a reality for the targets of imperial aggression. She doesn't back down to armed soldiers and generals, she helps plan a massive retaliation against the invading forces, and she goes on to care for Liore's orphans while working to restore a liberated Liore. (Unfortunately CoS does flanderize her. I know in my heart she would never accept the military or the Armstrong family colonizing Liore, and she wouldn't see Armstrong's alchemy as preferable to the plan she herself was a pivotal part of executing to stop Amestris.) For as feminist as everyone claims to be, post-2010 fma fans sure love writing 03 Rose off because of the horrific rape she suffers. This is not the be-all end-all of this character, and it's sus af that someone being a victim of this specific type of war crime means there is nothing else to her, and that the writers are simply racist misogynists. The story never reduces her to a "pitiable" victim, nor does it salivate at the very real sexual violence that militaries routinely employ. Fuck you if you look down on Rose. Rose is everything.

Noah: I will defend Noah to the death, and I'm taking her haters down with me. Her pain from a lifetime of being an outcast, used for her gifts and tossed into the clutches of fascists breaks me everytime. Her desperation to escape a racist hell to a fantasy world (that would have ultimately been no less cruel to her) makes sense. She gets confirmation of the impossible, of something that should have been nothing more than speculative fiction. Like the Elrics and so many others in this series, she learns the hard way that paradise doesn't lie behind fantasies. She's sullen and introverted, and this is no doubt an armour for having seen the most hidden secrets, darkness, and fragile dreams of everyone who pays the going price for her skill. How can she connect with others consciously and mutually when people pull away/avoid her once they learn she can peer into their truths? Facing the scorn of anti-Roma racism as well as the scorn for being a seer would tear anyone down. She's perpetually alienated from everyone, and she just wants to be free to exist in peace. Man, I just love her so much and want endless happiness for her. I've said it before and I'll say it forever: I love you, Noah fma!

Winry: Now this is my Winry! I never understood why the fandom pre-09 hated her so much (besides bog standard misogyny) but I was always in her corner. She has a great, balanced personality: physically and mentally strong, capable of being soft and caring, boisterous and contemplative, absolutely willing to shirk rules and laws, with a mischievous streak too. She's not a moralizing package deal to the Elrics, she's not reduced to ship fodder for Ed nor a future doting wife, she's an automail freak and she's damn proud of it. Her having her childhood friends pull away until they're no longer reachable is sad, but she has so many people in her life that she'll be able to carry on into the future. Whether the Elrics are in her life has nothing to do with the quality of her characterization here, and I stand by that forever. Also, her consistent gentle kindness towards Wrath? Providing him with automail and remaining calm even when it falls to disrepair? 03 Winry best Winry.

Sciezka: 03 Sciezka is a gift. This bookworm becoming close friends with Winry, the two of them teaming up to do some sleuthing for state secrets was some grade A stuff. She's bubbly, intelligent while still believing in the paranormal (can you blame her). I love how she stays in contact with Gracia and Elicia, and how she uses her photographic memory to continually help others. She'll trespass into a military facility, go on the run from the feds, crawl into an underground city all with Winry because damn it all, she might be terrified but she ain't spineless. Cheers, girlie. Cheers

Envy: The 03 homunculi and the necropolitics between them and the human beings who make them was the og hook for me the first time I watched Fullmetal Alchemist. And listen, who hasn't been entranced by Envy at least to some extent one time or another? Yeah, he/they/she is so gender, and we gotta recognize that. But what really gives 03 Envy their staying power imho is his far more intimate reason for being dubbed 'Envy' by his horrible mother. For 400 years they have been made a pawn, transmuted by scientist parents who likely never showed him the care and love one would want from their progenitors even when he was alive as a human being. For 400 years they helped sow misery and chaos, grew to reflect Dante's misanthropy and delight in seeing themself as superior to those who can die, those who are not banished to the underbelly of society, those who aren't seen as fundamental sins like he is. All the same, they desperately want revenge against a father who not only mistreated and abandoned them, but who then goes on to form a family he more obviously loves and humanizes. To be discarded when you wanted that love after all, and learn that the person who did this to you was indeed very capable of treating others with affection and respect, just not you! It was you who 'had' to be your father's roadbump to his own self-improvement. And that stings. Envy's anger issues make so much sense. And what I appreciate so much is that the 03 writers don't insult your intelligence here. They are not desperately trying to get the audience to forgive or excuse Envy for their hand in untold slaughter and atrocities. They present his tragedy without demanding you empathize with them at the cost of dehumanizing the victims of genocide. (I hate you forever Brotherhood). And bless the 03 crew for not making Envy a cackling, bumbling buffoon either (seriously, wtf was all of that???) Envy isn't an idiot, but they are barely able to withhold the fury that bubbles under the surface. Also leviathan-dragon Envy's design absolutely fucks and I will not entertain any argument to the contrary.

Sloth: Sho Aikawa et al, thank you. Thank you for taking the snippets of manga Ed's nightmare and making it so, SO real. And thank you, 03 team, for not settling on a one-dimensional interpretation of the definition of sloth. You gave us the perfect antithesis of the fridged mother, of the perfect martyred madonna who is nothing more than fuel for the boy/man characters and their pain. Sloth reveals the lack of autonomy and consent that comes with human transmutation. Creating a homunculus may often be done out of a despairing love due to death, but it is an act of exceptional hubris that disregards not only the pitfalls in that ritual itself but also in the desecration inherent to transmuting a being who can never be the one who died. Sloth's memories do not goad her into racing to reclaim herself, they are a toxin driving her resentment. If her previous self's love and flaws as a person led her children to pervert the rhythms of life and death, to defy the cycle of one is all and all is one and eject her from that belonging, and now she has to exist as a quiet abomination embedded in a racist fascist dictatorship? Then why should she ever accept and forgive her creators? She's one of the homunculi I grew to be utterly fascinated and awed by with each rewatch. And as a bonus, she's a solid reminder that fma 03 was doing it's own thing right from the very beginning: because we see her by Bradley's side. And we see Ed recognize what he has done the moment he spots her. Sloth's final words are some of the most haunting in this entire anime, and I will never be able to land on a solid interpretation of her intent. Her words take on just the right form to slip from your grasp, denying the Elric boys and the audience any ease of mind.

Izumi: Izumiiiiiiiiiiiii! Buddy, listen. If I can fawn over Scar who almost murders Ed and Al, I can fawn over Izumi even despite her having (non-lethally) beaten Ed and Al's asses. She has two solid reasons for being incensed by their actions since they parted ways, after finding out that the Elrics 1) joined a fascist militia, and 2) performed the one thing she hoped, taught, and demanded they never do. I'm not arguing that beating them to the extent she does is necessarily justified, but damn man, I get where she's coming from. And she treats them more sternly because, although she does see them as her children, she also understands that they have entered an adult world. If they're going to shoulder such power and responsibility, they must expect to be addressed as such. She's my imperfect acab queen. And that's another thing I love about Izumi! She repeatedly fights head-on against the state and shows them no deference whatsoever. She'll barge into a hospital and demand info from Mustang, she'll barge into the facility that kidnapped her homunculus child, hell she'll kidnap a state alchemist (Ed), and she'll partake in a coup too. All the while she never stops badmouthing the military. Izumi having performed human transmutation, training kids who go on to do the same, and having been trained by one of the alchemists who pioneered this horrid practice is *chef's kiss* storytelling. Her mangled viscera and its disabling effect on her life is never played for laughs, and we're not constantly encouraged to giggle at the "crazy strong & violent housewife". Watching her fight is also just so enjoyable, her moves are so fluid and succinct. She's a badass without feeling like a flat character. She deserved far better than to be die offscreen, but her embrace of her baby at the Gate gut punches me without fail.

Dante: Our absolutely rancid antagonist, inside and out, literally and figuratively. One of the world's most formidable alchemists who, in spite of that potential title, wishes to live a rather hermetic life. And why wouldn't she? She cannot stand her fellow humans, she believes herself to be above them while no less saddled with their qualities. Even when she can see the truth about alchemy and how it functions, she still lived a grotesque life of treating everything and everyone like pawns to be played. Lives are material and souls are fuel. Why shouldn't she get to do as she pleases when surely the human existence is too putrid to consider worthy of regard. If one is all, and people are a part of this equation, and they're so foolish and malleable, then what part of this world should she see as off limits? And the way the dead religion of Christianity becomes a decorative set-piece for her: how she views homunculi as sins of their creators, the mangled adams and eves of careless non-gods; they have the comparatively effortless immortality that she wants but she has the skeleton key to manipulating matter and energy that homunculi cannot possess. So she's their ring leader, the one who plants the seeds to ensure they continue to be birthed from The Gate. Surely she must have found in her studies of this extinct theology that apocalypses are a means of reconstituting flawed, sinful people and places. And surely she was behind the Mother Mary, Baby Jesus, and Joseph imagery that she manipulates from the 'holy' Lioran girl and her child, and the man who wasn't responsible for said child but arrives in time with a fury that can be made useful to her, who can act as a rallying zealot for the Liorans and play to a culturally religious predisposition. It's all one big, twisted morality play only she can see. Dante is obsessed with symbolism and oozes it herself. She isn't interested in the things that a woman seeking immortality normally would by your average hack writers either, and I love that! This is what makes her both so interesting to analyze and so fun to despise. And her main theme alongside songs that use her theme's motif are so fucking good! She deserves the demise she gets, a thousand-fold, but I'm glad she's the major villain this anime gives us.

Maria Ross: The one military officer I actually like with little to no reservations in this entire franchise. She takes the safety of Ed and Al so seriously that Ed, in his red water alchemic-surge state, mistakes her for Trisha when she embraces him. She goes to bat for Winry and Sciezka by helping them escape Sloth, she busts out Russell and Fletcher when they're arrested and sentenced to death, and she teams up with Izumi to fight her fellow military personnel and Archer. This Maria Ross is why I was losing my mind when Brotherhood sikes the audience out about Mustang "killing" her (though yhe Broho Maria Ross is. Eh. Nothing special). I really l love this character and her kindness. Now leave the military, girl.

Fourth tier: Yet more characters I love. These first four tiers are really for the characters that make me feel "Oh hell yeah, so-and-so is onscreen!"

Paninya: Fuck yeah, Paninya! I always want more of her, but what we see of her makes her memorable even beyond her single episode. Her appreciation for Dominic providing her with the automail that brought her back from rotting away in alleyways, and how she tries to prove the quality of his work to others makes me love her. As I mentioned in the Broho tierlist, I appreciate Paninya's mischievousness, agility, softness, and brazenness. Seeing her in the aftermath of the accident that killed her parents, with all but one of her limbs destroyed will always put my heart into a blender. There'll be times when I haven't touched fma for awhile, and she'll just spring to mind unprompted. If there's a Paninya-centric spinoff or light novel, then lemme know so I can get more of her! Thankfully in this adaptation Winry isn't some white chick berating her to follow the law, but instead a partner in crime and fast friend. If I got just a liiiiittle bit more of her in this anime, she would easily be one tier up.

Greed: Straight up the coolest homunculus. He doesn't get nearly enough time in the spotlight, but god does he leave a lasting impression. His care for the rejects of society will never not make his particular style of objectification of others oddly charming. I love how each of the English VAs for both fma anime play him, but 03's is the one I associate most with this character across continuities. I feel like Chris Patton best captures some of the skeeviness that clings to Greed's personality without making him an outright asshole. He comes across as just a bit more grimy, a bit sketchy, and it works so well with his contrasting earnestness. You can definitely feel that although Greed was never intended to be around until the end of the show, there must have been some time cut from his arc. If only his human self's romantic involvement with Dante had been a bit more expounded upon in the show, rather than being moderately hinted at and more outright stated in additional materials. But hey, what we get is so tasty that he still sits high on the list for me. Also, major shoutout to that legendary final fight between Ed and Greed. The animation, choreography, and artistry are magnificent and deserves a spotlight for being so downright addictive to watch. His death is a crater in Ed's psyche, and his melting form unforgettable to me.

Wrath: Man, I'll absolutely defend Wrath from the naysayers. Poor feral kid wanted to return to a mother, any mother, but most of all Izumi. The slim potential for Izumi, Sig, and Wrath to have lived peacefully together was there, so tantalizingly close to being realized. Then Envy and Dante catch up to him. His corruption via the red stones subtly points to what may potentially allow Dante to keep the minds of homunculi so malleable to her desires, and why she can lock and unlock their attributes and autonomy. Furthermore, Wrath highlights that to exist inside the Gate with a human(-adjacent) mind is a horrifying, inexplicable experience. He fears returning to it, he wants a mother, he has no malice until he's taught it, and he has the rare gift of alchemy he obtained from the same boys ready to tear it back from him. His propensity to wail given everything he went through and everything he lacks, with the mind of a child, isn't some "annoying" character flaw, it's an understandable reaction to a bizarre set of circumstances from one raised in hell and who escapes into the Yock Island woods for years. Wrath, you're cute as a button and I support you.

Hohenheim: Wow, this dude is mega fucked up. And I genuinely love that about Hohenheim of Light. He's an enigma, and unlike a lot of other characters whose time is brief in this anime, I rather like that he remains as such. We get hints towards the monstrous person he was for the majority of his 400+ years of existence, and the numerous atrocities and lives he extinguished in order to keep himself and Dante perpetually living. His original appearance being, as it turns out, that of the future design for Father has an interesting meta-textual crunch to it, but back before the manga even got to its own big bad, it seemed as though Hohenheim sought men who looked most like his original physical form to inhabit. Which has intriguing implications on his view of bodysnatching and what he wants of himself versus Dante's more flexible choice in new bodies. His heel turn towards trying to live as a normal person and raise a family, only to have to (poorly) come to terms that his newfound outlook means he has to accept his rapidly rotting flesh and his soul's depleting capacity to maintain a body. So he abandons his family, which sends his wife and two new children down the path of ruin. He's no angel even with this change of heart, as he sees no issue with working alongside fascist occultists on Earth to return to Amestris. We only get so much out of him regarding his acknowledgement of how he destroyed Envy's life/unlife, but the fact that he willingly forces Envy's fangs through himself as both an apology to a dying son of old, and in an attempt to reunite his two living sons makes me crazy. I love what a mess this scumbag of a man is.

Russell: The Tringham brothers are defo faves. I do have to place Russell above his little brother since I find his flaws and smarmy characterization quite enjoyable, especially as it bounces off of Ed's abrasive, equally smarmy ass. His struggle with the ethics of his studies crashing against his goals very nicely mirror the Elric's, just at a smaller scale. Love the fact that he continues to steal Ed's identity even long after moving on from Xenotime, and that it nearly lands him and his little brother the death penalty. If we could have somehow gotten more of him and his bro, they'd both be higher on the list, but hey. His plant alchemy and what that infers for all bio alchemies (chimeric vs human transmutation vs plants vs what little we get hinted at regarding non-human resurrection) makes my brain whir in the best way possible. As a plant lover myself, I gotta give props to Russell for his expertise in the area.

The Slicer Brothers: Where this homicidal pair fall flat for me in Brotherhood, they hit so much harder in fma 03. The entire Lab 5 arc shakes me to my core, no matter how many times I watch it. The quandaries on the prison industrial complex, on mass murder and the humanity of its perpetrators (which never reaches levels of maddening preachiness in favour of perpetrators ala mangahood), and the power states hold over those it incarcerates and what science is in the hands of the state were formative for me. Or rather, growing up as a teen already questioning why this world and its societies can wield so much power over people, even in circumstances where we're taught to see criminals (let alone accept such a classification) as worthy sites of state-backed torture, this arc in an anime of all things would be one of the many grains that would eventually lead me to understand why states must be opposed and prisons abolished. This pair of brothers are not ethical souls. They have done so much harm, and all the same they should never have been sentenced to an eternity of enslavement by the state. And how does their predicament mirror and contrast Al's purgatory? How does their predicament mirror Ed and Al's contribution to the deaths and suffering of others, especially as dog's of (and in Al's case, an affiliate of) the state? The suicide of the younger brother, and the murder of the eldest manage to evoke sympathy and heartache, even where they are certainly unsympathetic otherwise.

Nina: When it comes to Nina and the entire tragedy of the Tucker family arc, I am no contrarian. This poor girl, her dog, and her murdered mother, and what this does to the Elrics is a permanent point of sorrow. The memetic treatment of her story has some fma fans shrugging at her impact, but I was there when this was the version that people (outside of Japan) were introduced to her story for the first time. Her story fucking hurts. Nina was like a little sister to the Elrics, and they got to spend some time growing up with her. She was family! She was the only person in the entire world, in the entire series, nay, in the entire franchise, who could get away with calling Ed 'little' (Al was 'big brother', and Ed was 'little big brother'). The scene of the Elrics walking into Tucker's lab... The way the 03 team executes this hellish revelation is without compare. The manga's version is nothing, and Brotherhood's is a pale version to 03's. Ed, without recourse to the state's recuperation of chimera Nina, desperately releases her from the military van, only to have granted her a freedom that leads her into Scar's palm (and thereby setting him on his path to avenge the forsaken by killing those who destroy lives via the state and it's weaponized alchemy). She is liberated quickly and painlessly, yet the almost-sacred splatter of her long-gone body will forever haunt me. This story is pivotal in ways that I feel I cannot do justice describing. And her innumerable chimeric clones derived from a chimera-Tucker's pathetic attempts to undo the transmutation of his daughter, and how her philsopher's stone-rejuvenated body is truly, genuinely soulless and unmoving, unthinking, destined to rot- unlike the homunculi, unlike Al and other soul-transmuted people- speaks volumes on how the ideologies of alchemists is what actually informs their perspective on who possesses a soul and who doesn't. Nina (and the Elrics) being present to help Gracia deliver Elicia was also very sweet; she could have been Elicia's friend or even big sister, damn it! 😭 I hope that Nina, her mom, and Alexander get to coalesce into some existence of joy and peace.

Earth!Scar & Earth!Lust: Yeah that's right, a pair of cameo characters we see at the end of CoS, who have no names, no lines, and who we know nothing about beyond seeing them heading a caravan together are placed on par with major characters. Why? Because I am forever overjoyed that, in their own way, Lust and Scar aren't forgotten. Seeing alt versions who get to live together is so satisfying (especially if you're ScarLust-brained like I am). I certainly can't reasonably place them higher on the list, and any lower would betray how giddy I get when they cap off this fma continuity. So fuck it, it's my tierlist and I'll slap my 3 second fanservice characters wherever the hell I want lol.

Hughes: A character who, over the years, I have grown to have quite complicated opinions on. Long before even learning about the overtly-genocidal version of this character in the mangahood canon, I would eventually understand that even military bureaucrats and desk jockeys are required for states and their militaries to carry out their heinous projects. Regardless of his position Hughes, like all members of the state and the military, do not have clean records in the grand scheme of things. 03 Hughes never directly bloodies his hands, and thankfully we're spared from that noxious, insulting sob story about "[committing genocide] so he can live" ala mangahood. But that isn't enough to abdicate his class position against the subjects of Amestris' imperial rule. But where my bias lies, and where 03 succeeds in characterizing him, is that he manages to be interesting and lovable without being as detestable as those who were directly involved in the "Eastern Rebellion" (genocide). All the same, he is a bastard. But we get more time to cook with him, we don't get gags with this dude going cop-mode on fucking toddlers, and avenging his death is hardly a core priority to any of the central cast members when there are far, far bigger issues going down. Unfortunately I do like 03 Amestrian Hughes. But he is a fascist like all the military characters here. As mixed as I am on this dude, I can't completely hate him. Depending on the day I might bump him at least two tiers down, but that would belie my having been more positive about him for most of the time I have loved this show. The man is fun and charming! Sigh. My opinion here is a mess in part from nostalgia. At least he's fictional, but unfortunately the real world is run by millions of this exact person.

Martel: Pretty much the only true war criminal in any version of fma I just can't help but like. I can appreciate that she had no idea what it was that the state was cooking by lying to her and her cohorts about why they sent them all to Ishbal (to incite the 'right' conditions in order to manufacture consent and legal recourse to invade the country). And after realizing that they had been set-up, that they're the useful scapegoats for the state to clear itself of its political sabotage, thus earning a lifelong enemy of Amestris from her and her former colleagues-turned-chimeras is a quality use of her and the former military members of The Devil's Nest. Martel of course gets the lion's share of the spotlight compared to Roa and Dolcetto, let alone the other denizens of The Devil's Nest, and that gives the audience a chance to grow attached to her before she gets killed. I really love the friendship that grows between Al and Marta, as well as her and The Devil's Nest gang's dedication towards Greed. And the fact that she respects Greed's choice to return to the person who created him, and to accept that Ed having murdered Greed was also a choice in part made by her liberator is so mature and honourable. She's complex and fearsome, and I love her. Plain and simple.

Fifth tier: Like it says on the package, these are the people who are long gone, whose impact on numerous characters leads the living into so much suffering. What we make of those we've lost, our sense of ownership to those memories and that love, and what becomes of us in the march of time- if we could remake those we miss, they truly would not be our dearly departed. Even with alchemy death is final. And how do we respond to the agony of a death drenched in bad blood? Can we forgive them? Can we forgive ourselves? Can they ever forgive us?

I can't really slot these three higher up but without any of them this entire story would be nothing. Much like my appreciation for Hohenheim of Light being an enigma, these three remaining as such lends them a force that we have to experience through the characters left behind and the characters transmuted in the vain wish to create those you never owned. I'm compelled to want more of them, but the haze that cloaks them is an integral feature here.

The greatest lesson with these three is that alchemy does not make you a god in a sandbox world, it makes you a fool.

Scar Bro: I really respect the decision to widen the age difference between Scar and his older brother. Having him be the sole adult guardian to a young adolescent who relies on him to do right means that Scar Bro's foray into human alchemy is one of deep selfishness. It's a betrayal that irrevocably sends him into spiralling isolation, exiled yet without care for the world beyond his studies. This singular mindset and his taboo act obliterates his little brother's trust in him, their relationship basically shredded down to a single frayed thread that, only once a genocide is enacted, does Scar try to tug at to rescue him. Scar Bro is smart enough to decipher the Grand Arcanum, and his hubris so deep that he inscribes it upon his flesh. His despair that, perhaps on a grander scale, Ishbal's fall was his own doing for going against the order of the world and seeking the philosopher's stone speaks to how far he has sunk. A portend for what becomes of alchemists who seek the legend and lose perspective on the world around them. But no matter how deranged by his pursuit he had become, he still tried to save Scar. Sacrificing himself was his final apology, his right arm was both his final gift and slight against his little brother. Scar Bro is everything Scar never wants to be, the very figure of all that he rejects, and much of it for good reason. This man is intriguing as hell to me. I'm glad that Scar's final moments, his time with Lust, and what he experienced around the Elrics, ultimately helps him to reclaim his love for his older brother.

The mysterious, alluring woman whose body Lust is constructed from. She haunted Scar Bro, she haunts Lust, and she haunts Scar. We are forever left wondering what we the audience would make of her if we got to experience her beyond the perception of a pair of brothers, and the dappled perception of her undying doppleganger who would become her, or closer to being her, if she could. Would Lust have become 1:1 with this woman if she could be reconstituted into a 'True' human? Can anyone ever inhabit the outline of a progenitor, an ideal, a corpse? All we know is that she was loved. If you step into the shoes of those who knew her, it's hard not to somehow feel a little bit of that love too.

Trisha: The beloved mother of the Elric boys. She's almost angelic when we look into their recollection of her. And still, we can pick out the subtle ways that she was human all along. She is stuck in her heartache for Hohenheim, forever wishing for his return and rewarding her children for emulating his prowess in alchemy. Trisha was a young woman who had to balance raising a pair of younglings while nursing a broken heart. I don't want to see her as merely the perfect mother archetype nor the "abusive" mother simply for failing to restrain her own humanity from intermingling with how she tended to her children. She was wholly human, with all the attending layers that constitute our beings. Like Scar Bro's fiancee, she was dearly loved. And for that she is desecrated. Her homunculus wants nothing to do with her and those who would create her to become this dead woman. Her boys gave her so much happiness but that didn't save her from languishing in her own solitude. Her dying words are a testament to that perpetual depression. The gorgeous track, Bratja, is just as much about her as it is about the sins of her sons.

Sixth tier: Not much preamble for this tier. Let's get into it:

Pinako: All around cool-ass granny. I dig her design, I dig her no-nonsense demeanour, and I dig the tiny peak into the bombastic mechanic babe she was in her youth (younger Pinako was cool in mangahood too but 03's funky light hair is such an eye-catching design choice). She too hates the military to some extent, and I respect that. She opens her home to the extended family Winry brings in, and it warms my shriveled soul that Rose, her little boy, and the Lioran orphans she tends to are a part of that family too.

Psiren: Okokok, listen. Here me out. I know a lot of people shit on the Aquoroia ep (I like it, dammit) for being "meaningless filler" (it's not, it allows the Elric's journey some levity before things deepen, and it also explores grey morality and how the law cannot save people from impending disaster, AND that illegal actions can provide more relief than lying down and quietly suffering in denial). And Psiren gets hate for being a fanservicey character. People accuse her of hitting on Ed and like- yes, she does. But she's a conwoman! She manipulates cops, investigators, and little state alchemists who are actively trying to get in her way. She can see plain as day that her appearance, with a played up sexuality, can trip up the men pursuing her for her crimes. It's no less effective against a pipsqueak teen boy. Personally I never took her actions at face value; it never felt like she actually intended to do shit with Ed, she just wanted to prevent him from thinking clearly. (I don't fault anyone for still not liking that part of the ep tho, but I see this get flattened to "Psiren is a pedo" which imo is silly.) I love her conning and thievery, her design is great especially her cat burglar fit, and that she's a not-quite Robinhood figure (she steals from the rich, but she's not really giving it back to anyone more destitute). I appreciate that despite some of the good she has done for the city itself, she's quite inscrutable in her motivation. Cheers to her for evading the cops to the end. Hope she robbed the police force's coffers repeatedly too.

Rick & Leo: Love these two kids. Having them pop up throughout the show to weave in more Ishbalan perspectives into the story, while serving as yet another thematic exploration of familial dedication and forgiveness was a smart call. Contrasting their ableism with Ed's racism was also interesting, and I appreciate that it's not done as a way to neutralize Ed contending with his own bigotry at all. (This isn't mangahood; we're not playing that ridiculous fucking game where Ed wins a conversation by going "You guys suffer racism? Well my village was affected by the racism you suffer, which is your people's fault actually. Checkmate, Ishvalans.") It's sad when they learn to reject Ishbalans who partake in alchemy, thereby telling Scar to fuck off from the camp. But seeing them help the elderly Exiled Ishbalan at the end of the show was a nice way to show their growth.

Fletcher: Just such a sweet little kid. He has a good heart, and he desperately wants to save his brother from Mugear's corruption. He can't pretend like Russell wasn't poisoning an entire town so he reaches out to the alchemists they had been impersonating. I'm tickled that the Tringham brothers are inverse heights to Ed and Al. Fletcher's just a little guy!

Sig: Top tier husband material. He never blames Izumi for what she had done to the remains of their baby and he won't ever leave her simply because she can no longer bare children. This man loves her so much. Soft spoken, doting without being overbearing, what's not to love? And hell, Meat Day wouldn't be the same without Sig's spectacular form.

Armstrong: A war criminal who, mercifully, does not have some bullshit arc about needing to learn how to be a more obedient genocider. If we focus only on the anime and not CoS, we're shown a character who does regret his involvement in the Ishbal Massacre, but we're not drowning in some perpetual self-aggrandizing pity. Unfortunately how he's written in CoS, "helping to restore" Liore (read: colonize Liore via philanthropy) is a massive backslide on his character. They thought this showed some sort of atonement and reparation, but given his visage getting plastered all over the new city, ignoring the input of the Liorans, and his continued involvement in the military, this is anything but. At least I like him well enough in the show only (CoS Armstrong would be firmly situated in the final tier). Also, of all the military officers in fma, Hughes, Ross, and Armstrong are the only ones I can reasonably buy as caring for the Elrics. The others being far less friendly/'familial' makes sense, and Armstrong having this nosey gentleman's disposition maps better with his time escorting the brothers. Still wish Scar managed to turn his brain into slush when he got the chance, but whaddaya gonna do.

Fritz Lang: This was a pretty funny move on Studio Bones' part. Make an actual well-known real man a mirror to one of the fictional characters in another universe takes some gall. I can understand why some critique Bradley's Earth version being a Jewish man as being in poor taste (that it can be read as antisemitic to imply that a fascist non-human would be Jewish in another dimension), but, for what little it's worth, I interpreted this to be an attempt to contrast class and political positions rather than imply that Jewish people are non-humans in a convincing human disguise (which, ironically, mangahood stumbles assbackwards into playing that trope straight). Earth!Bradley's portrayal managed to feel grounded enough, and given the movie's condemnation of antisemitism and Nazism, it does appear to have been done with good intentions. (This doesn't quite eliminate the bigoted trope being both present and worth acknowledging.) Where Bradley is transmuted into a homunculus (let's recall that whoever Bradley was when he was alive was, in fact, a human and not a "humanoid pretending to be a person" all along) and used to help run Amestris as a fascist dictatorship, it feels as though the writers wanted to show that this isn't some inherent characteristic of every version of this person. I won't dictate how anyone else, let alone how a Jewish person, interprets and feels about this choice. As for myself, I enjoyed his discussions with Ed, and seeing the more introspective, softer, and more artistic representation of someone who looks like Bradley. Hope Ed checks out one of his films someday.

Alfons Heidrich: Unlike a lot of the fandom I never latched onto Heidrich, but I like him well enough. He's so blinded by his passion for rocketry that he doesn't care about working for fascist benefactors. Picture perfect example of the 'apolitical' citizenry who treat their lives and goals as without consequence in the schemes of their society's exploitative machinations. What a great example of what Ed and Roy discuss in the end of the show! The themes of the sciences as institutions that reimburse societal ills and military hegemony are crucial here. As Ed had learned in the show, an apolitical scientific lens only serves to oppress the downtrodden and treat people as obstacles or mere resources for 'progress'. Heidrich is yet another exploration of this issue. The fact that Ed finds someone who looks eerily like Al to latch onto in his Earthly purgatory is some solid mindfuckery for the severely depressed young man and the audience alike. Their dynamic is interesting for that reason. Also he's friendly towards Noah and shows her hospitality when she has nowhere to turn to. Rip, you foolish German boy.

Gluttony: This homunculus gets the least character development of all the homunculi, despite being the longest lasting member of the Seven Sins. We see him from the very start all the way to the midpoint of CoS. Just before Dante lobotomizes him she reveals that she transmuted him specifically to serve as a philosopher's stone refinery; was his human self someone she felt would be useful for such a thing? If we're to believe Dante, it's unlikely that Gluttony had been a wayward homunculus ala Lust, who escapes/is abandoned by their creator and eventually found by Dante. Because then she wouldn't have made him for that express purpose, she would have merely aligned him to be so. And that doesn't seem likely, given that the philosopher's stone is her key to an unnaturally long life, so she would indeed learn to craft a homunculus who can properly act as a factory for stones once fed the real deal. So, was she running experiments across societal derelicts, people who were either already on death's door, or those no one would miss if they disappeared, until she was satisfied at her success? Or did she know his human-self and found something she could exploit to that end? Gluttony appears to have a simpler capacity for understanding the world: is this Dante's doing, or was his human-self a person with a cognitive disabilities that Dante preyed upon? Unless there's supplemental material or interviews I'm unaware of, we will never know and can only infer what skeletons are in his past. I do really love his friendship with Lust tho. That she almost always had him by her side, that she feels hurt that Gluttony was too scared to join her in helping Scar and disobeying Dante, how much he hates Scar for paralyzing Lust with the blue locket, and how distraught he is when Lust is missing- god, when he's told that she's dead? My heart actually aches at his pain. Dante wiping his capacity for conscious thought (disturbing Envy in turn) being the misstep that finally ends her life? Perfect. Also Stone Refinery Gluttony's design in CoS is SO GOOD. It's both fucking terrifying and manages to make me feel even worse for Gluttony (and Wrath, holy shit that fight was rough). And all along, Dante had indeed succeeded in her experiment. Good thing she wasn't able to reap the benefits.

Gracia & Elicia: Not much to say about these two. I appreciate that Ed, Al, and Nina help Gracia deliver Elicia when she goes into labour while at her house. She has an open door for the Elrics, Nina, Sciezka, and Winry, which is delightful. You can understand a little bit of Hughes' enthusiasm for her. And Elicia's an adorable toddler. Can't go wrong with that.

Barry the Chopper: I for one prefer the fact that Barry terrorizes Ed and Winry as a flesh-and-blood human before getting detained, given the death penalty, and used as a soul-tethered guard for Lab 5. That episode is intense, dark, and highlights just how dangerous Ed's journey will be. Without the use of his right arm and thus alchemy itself, Ed is completely helpless: which is excellent foreshadowing for the future. Surviving Barry is when Ed really closes himself off from everyone except Al, and pushes Winry away as well as anyone else he feels is endangered by his quest. And then of course armour-Barry plucking at Al's dysmorphia, which almost tears the brothers apart, means he's managed to traumatize these boys in ways particular to each's darkest fears. However we really didn't need the transmisogynist bullcrap ala the "deranged serial killer who feigns being a woman to lure in his victims" that the writers threw in there. That's a serious blunder on the part of the showrunners. Fuck that noise. But I love how he gets offed: after helping to kidnap Rick and unwittingly leading to the Elric's reuniting and making amends with one another, Barry runs in to kill Ed. Al steps forward to protect his brother, and in swoops Scar to end the fight altogether. Having someone who nearly murders the Elrics but who has sworn off pursuing them after seeing their potential to resist the Amestrian regime, step in to murder a different serial killer who has repeatedly attempted to murder those same boys? Ooh that's good.

Denny: Maria Ross' kinda-simping sidekick lol. He's friendly enough, if not a little innocuous compared to Ross. He's goofy, which is fun. Thankfully it's not overdone either. Poor guy gets cucked by Hohenheim though lol

Lujon: This man's bargain with, and deluded love for, the devil only bought the village doomed by her master's foul play some time and nothing more. The story of his village is one of fma 03's gems. Lust herself never once entertains the sexual desires of others, and in Lujon's case, his attachment to her reads both as too familiar ala her scant memories of Scar Bro, and perhaps insincere on his part. He would abandon his own fiancee and almost-wife at the alter for someone who has been manipulating him into creating a philosopher's stone. Killing him is Lust's way of severing what others project onto her, now that she is growing closer to reclaiming herself. It may even be argued: this is her rejection of Scar Bro and what he did to her. Lujon could not save his village, he could not cure Dante's utterly horrific contagion, and so he becomes a symbol for the limitations of alchemy in most people's hands. And he could never have cared for Lust for reasons outside of himself. That's why I find him so interesting.

The Exiled Ishbalan: The man who tears open the Elric's unexamined racism. I wish he was given a proper name, but in this case, where he is rejected by his fellow Ishbalans for practicing a forbidden science, it thematically fits that he is simply known for being a pariah. He reveals to Scar the Grand Arcanum, its Ishbalan history, and its use in creating a philosopher's stone. I'm glad he gets re-integrated with the Ishbalan refugees as they're all freed to rebuild Ishbal.

Claus: I have a soft-spot for this one-off character. She's a brash little butch kid who leads the local gaggle of boys, how could I not like her? She's trying to figure out why girls and young women are going missing, and what's behind the strange sightings of ghostly women around town. Motivated by her desire to find her older sister, her bravery and cocksure attitude are a treat. It's the rare instance of familial sisterly love in this show, which slots nicely with the focus on sibling bonds overall. Though Claus must live with the terrible revelation that her sister had indeed been murdered, unlike the Elrics she will not drown in grief forever. She moves forward, at least with the knowledge that there won't be any further losses for the other villagers. Really wish her arc wasn't concluded by having her adopt a "properly" feminine presentation thanks to Ed's goading (stfu Ed, your effeminate ass does not get to lecture others about conforming to gendered expectations). Claus, get that crew cut, don that paperboy cap, vest, and pants again, and don't let anyone shame you for living the way you want.

Belsio: I like his design. And he's a pretty chill dude all around too. Smart of him to not embrace Xenotime's philosopher's stone mania as a plague sweeps through the town. He's willing to provide shelter to travellers even when they may be frauds (they're not, but he doesn't turn away the Tringhams either once he learns who they are). Solid guy all around. But woe! Lemon stealing whores upon thy.

Seventh tier: Once again, critters! And although these pups certainly aren't characters comparable to the entire human and homunculus roster, they still get to rep the middle tier. A more lateral tier to the tierlist than anything else, but they'll sit here. Den is the goodest girl, Alexander is our tragic best boy, and Black Hayate is the cutest almost-meal.

Eighth tier: Ok so. Mustang. He's in a category of his own due to my very, very mixed feelings about him. I forever want to punt this man into the sun, but where mangahood makes me want to do so with exceptional viciousness, I can actually appreciate 03 Mustang's character and where the narrative takes him. I don't think he's a crap-quality character in this anime at all (this is not the same as arguing whether he's moral or not; he's not). Where mangahood Mustang feels so performative, plastic and convenient for gaining the approval of an audience despite his prowess in ethnic cleansing and rewarding himself for feeling """sufficiently""" sad about it, this Mustang isn't depicted as the Golden Boy Colonel who gets his government leadership dreams granted. He isn't the "doting father figure" many want of him based on their perception of the mangahood version. He's cold, calculating, a conniving ladder climbing fascist who can't square his dreams of power with what power actually does to its subjects. I can actually believe that this guy is actually internally hounded by being one of the most effective individual genociders amongst genociders. And this doesn't absolve him either. Within the 2003 anime we get no false promises about Mustang doing 'right' once he sits as the head of the nation. He also never leads Amestris, period. By his own hands he wipes away this possibility, rejecting the system altogether. His smaller scale, more clandestine coup actually does help loosen the military's grip on the state (though let's remember, a state is inherently oppressive and is not cleared of its ability to wage war and violence simply because the military is not officially running it). Of course, for reasons I can only speculate about, Conqueror of Shambala retcons this ending and tries to shove Roy back into the still-functional military. It's a shit decision, even where it's left to interpretation just how far he's willing to go back within the military ranks. One of CoS' big negatives. Setting that aside, I appreciate his final convo with Ed. It's a fantastic thesis statement on both Ed and Roy's arcs, as well as tying a bow on fma 2003's themes. Best thing I can do with this guy is to imagine he forever avoids the military and state after he renounces it all post-killing Bradley.

Ninth tier: Hey, they work as villains. I wouldn't change them since we need them as is. What more can I say?

Bradley/Pride: If the 03 team had been allotted more funds and time to continue the anime, I have no doubt they would have given Bradley more time to cook with a firmer backstory. As is though, he works well as the dictator trained in juggling the affairs of a ruthless state while aiding his creator's goals. His seemingly easy and affable demeanour always felt suspect, making himself seem approachable to his subordinates while keeping an eye on useful alchemists. The subtle evidence of the iron hand he wields under that facade kept me intrigued all those years ago. So once we finally get to the revelation of what he is, and when we hear him espouse his fascist beliefs during his showdown with Mustang, it hits! Bradley highlights the hideous ideology underpinning Amestrian governance and its society. And he's not the only character who is shown to believe in their "superiority" over those they deem lesser. Fascism doesn't begin and end with Bradley, or Dante for that matter. I much prefer that we get the reveal of him being a homunculus in the latter half of the show and, imho, him being granted the title of Pride makes a bit more sense given his dictatorship and nationalism. Also, I'm glad we don't have this Bradley characterized as a wife-guy. I'm sorry but I don't need yet another example of the 'redeeming' qualities of normative cishetero nuclear coupling. He strangles his (very human) adopted son to conceal himself and would burn his mansion down around his wife without a second thought if it meant he could settle a match and keep his hold over Amestris.

Cornello: So Cornello isn't some big shot villain but his place in kick-starting the show and the fantastic execution of those first two eps really lays the groundwork for the political and philosophical tensions 03 works with. The start of the show, and the payoffs in plot, character, and world development absolutely would not have hit as well if we didn't begin this odyssey with a white Amestrian theocratic puppet installed to lead Liore. And bless the writers for not having injected 56 different fucking gags smack in the middle of the serious moments and the standoff between Ed and Cornello (or that stupid Hulk Cornello that got tossed into Brotherhood). The chimeric avian abomination he makes and then looses on Rose left a lasting impression. He was well utilized, and his story harkens towards the real life actions of major empires like the USA and its global sabotage in supplanting American-backed leaders into target nations. So I really appreciate the role this colonizer conman (a redundancy in terms but hey) has for all of fma 03.

Tenth tier: There are interesting bits to these characters, but not enough to really propel them into the higher ranks.

Lyra: A hardcore state bootlicker who dreams of becoming an enforcer someday. She never improves as a person, but that's in some ways the point. I would have loved to get a little bit more out of her, but what could be more fitting for someone who gleefully wears her patriotism and love of mass oppression on her sleeve than to have her life snuffed out by a rotting body-snatcher who plays a role in maintaining that very systemic oppression? Also her character design slaps.

Havoc: Like most of the Amestrian soldiers in this adaptation, we aren't fed some version of Havoc who is noble, nor doting or kind to the Elrics. He's (say it with me now) a dog of the military and we accept that as his role. His personality is amusing, as is his eternal failures in getting laid. There really wouldn't have been much point in developing his character tbh, even if the show got a few more episodes to cook. He works as is. And thankfully he isn't injected into Lust's story whatsoever (she is infinitely better than him and would never fail to actually kill his ass <3333).

Riza: Tbh I just don't have much to say about 03 Riza. I could easily compare and contrast her to her mangahood counterparts (as I've done with many characters so far), but I'd rather convey that she (like 90% of Mustang's entourage) never stood out to me. Her actions in rounding up the Ishbalans so that the state can maintain them again in its refugee (concentration) camps is the most despicable thing we see her do. Despite what a lot of 03's promo art may lead some to believe, she doesn't have much of a role within this adaptation at all. Her biggest moment was helping Mustang infiltrate Bradley's mansion and killing Archer. And after finally seeing the absolute Royai-obsessed genocidal angsty-romance shit that is apparently the lifeblood of the mangahood canon (and much of the fma fandom too), I'll take this less relevant, less detestable use of Riza instead. I don't hate her, I don't like her, but she's juuuust interesting enough for me to plop her (slightly) above the neutral tier.

Eleventh tier: Don't take this as a "hate" tier. I don't dislike these characters. This is a collection of characters that are either too brief and simple to gain my attention beyond what they serve in the story, or they serve their role well and are memorable for that particular episode but lack the staying power or charisma to make me think more highly of 'em.

It's a bit of a grab-bag tier since I could make a sub-tier of everyone pictured:

I prefer Rick and Leo's mom, Lujon's fiancee, the mining town dad and his son, Mason, Dominic, the Devil's Nest crew above -> Scar's master and human!Selim, who in turn are above -> Majahal's "long lost" sweetheart, the remainder of Mustang's underlings, Grumman, and Bald.

For the characters I simply didn't even put on this entire tierlist you can feasibly toss them into the neutral pile as well.

Twelfth tier: Characters I would gladly shank to death if given the opportunity. Not because there aren't others in the above tiers who I wouldn't want to stab, but this lot don't click for me as standalone characters. However, I don't begrudge their existence in the show and their utility for the tone, themes, and progression of the show/movie. Thankfully we're never berated over the head to somehow sympathize with these guys, let alone feel for them on par with or above the genuinely more sympathetic characters. We aren't made to eat the military's shit and call it gourmet here, and that's why I still appreciate what these characters bring to the table. I wouldn't remove them from the story, but I'm glad they all get theirs eventually.

Yoki: A perfect example of the class benefits of statesmen and their enforcers, and how the bureaucracy of the state is itself oppressive. It will exploit resource-rich locales, extracting wealth from a captured labour force. Ed knocking him down from his cushy position, and Lust puncturing his cranium were some quality moments. Of course, fuck Yoki for alerting the state to round up the Ishbalans. At least it made his death that much more satisfying.

Majahal: The episode we encounter this acquaintance of Hohenheim's was one of the very, very few I would agree to call a mess, but it foreshadowed some very important truths about alchemy and alchemists through the vehicle of this aging serial killer. Although he does not perform human transmutation, he does kill young women and girls to tether them to mannequins sculpted after his 'lost' love. Despite the ep's problems with pacing and wonky storytelling (it really feels like the writers were still getting a hang of things), I like how awful this alchemist was. Majahal's actions and his beliefs helps cast some serious doubts on alchemists as a class and alchemy as a practice, on Hohenheim's connections, on what seeing people as objects for you to mold to your exact liking leads to, and that the scientism of alchemy should indeed be questioned. And hey, he gets the dubious honour of being Ed's first manslaughter! Woo!

Mugear: A piece of shit mayor who willingly poisons the populace of his town in order to create red stones at the behest of the homunculi. He wants more power than what he gets from his station, and has no qualms with how many people suffer and die. That he wants to use the placentas from the increased miscarriages that are occurring because of the red water is some next level evil. Yet another example of science wielded by power in order to exploit the masses.

Marco: A war criminal who defected from the military here too, but one who isn't given the opportunity to aid a future Fuhrer with yet another war crime. He was better off quietly living as a doctor for a small town who had no other medical professionals to tend to the townsfolk. Even though he reveals the truth to the Elrics about what the "Eastern Rebellion" really was (an invasion and a massacre), there's a certain poetry to Dr.Marco having been party to the Rockbells' murders. This version of him doesn't infuriate me the same way mangahood Marcoh does, but I'm not mad about him ending up as a solid meal for Gluttony either.

Shou Tucker: To reiterate what I said in my Broho tierlist: He's a monster (in this anime, figuratively and eventually literally too), everyone rightfully despises him, and he still performed fewer atrocities than the average soldier, let alone the war criminals in this series. Seeing him used as a secret scientist in Lab 5 as a warped chimera, and slowly growing mad from his desperate urge to, like the Elrics, undo his desecration of a family member is poignant and disturbing. He is truly what Ed could have become. If not his father or Dante, or any of the state alchemist war criminals, Ed could have become Tucker.

Earth!Hughes: For fuck's sake. Yes, he's a Nazi. No, this isn't some massive departure from what Amestrian!Hughes was. The nexus of the 03/Cos/Mangahood Hughes' are a fantastic litmus test for whether or not any given person has the political acuity regarding what the material realities of fascism, nationalism, and ethnosupremacy are versus a basal reliance on optics (bad to be a Nazi, fine to willingly join the institution of an imperialist state whose purpose is to capture land and people, and commit ethnic cleansing). Unfortunately the mass of fma fans (regardless of preference for any given media or continuities) absolutely fucking fails this test in spectacular fashion. In a sick bit of irony, Earth!Hughes hasn't done any genocide yet (as the Nazi party hadn't yet gained a solid foothold in German governance), but mangahood Hughes? Oh boy. Wow, does that beloved piece of crap mass murder Ishvalans. Mangahood!Hughes literally performs more overt fascist/imperialist violence compared to Nazi!Hughes. So I'm glad this specific, extremely relevant alternative version of this character exists. Because he lays bare the gaps in people's understanding of what fascism even is, and what societal structures create the foundation for said fascism to develop, and how none of you understood Fullmetal Alchemist to begin with. Which, shockingly, includes the original mangaka too lmao

Eckhart: CoS' Nazi big bad. I can't really say I feel anything particular about her as a character since she's more a cumulative picture of a ring leader to a fascist occultist subgroup than a character in her own right. She's the exact piece of shit one would expect, and for the purpose she serves in CoS that's all well and good. There isn't any time to really develop her further than that, but I will say that her breakdown into despising and fearing the people on the other side of the Gate was entertaining. Some may say it's a bit on the nose, and they're not wrong, but it flings back into Ed's face that all people have full lives and interiority; they're all real, and as always your actions ripple far beyond your little inner world. That, and the fact that deep-seated societal racism has its roots in governance, and that it will rear up into full scale destruction. It's everyone's responsibility to fight against this. So Eckhart is a useful tool for reiterating this topic. Oh, and the way she dies, covered in the mass of beings who inhabit the Gate, causing her to appear as though she walked out of a scifi horror flick? Love it.

Hakuro: Fuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuck Hakuro, man. I'm glad we get to see him as some peaceful family man before witnessing his hand in the Lioran invasion and, likely, the instigator of Rose's gang rape. Why do I appreciate that framing? Because it undermines a common and often very successful propagandistic framing device that encourages people to humanize genociders and soldiers. It's a counterbalance to Hughes being the "military family man, so how bad can any of this really be?" This thematic tension reveals that propaganda: "Soldiers have families too! They're just trying to protect the most important and innocent assets members of the nation! Join the front to shield loved ones from the [foreign] scourge! All militarymen are people with grand ideals and pride in their people! How can you fault them for that?" It's a consistent way to embolden a nation's populace to not only sign up for service, but to rabidly defend their troops. Look at the very real fma fans who do this, pavlov style, for both their military blorbos and real life militaries! It works! But what I think is quite clever with what 03 does with him is two-fold: 1) he is not held up as a uniquely ~evil~ member of the military, in fact he's quite average. This is what the military is. The banality of evil is that it is carried out by people who join these institutions for xyz reasons and carry out their orders without qualms (and in fact he's just as much a rank climber as Mustang). And 2) We don't focus in on him as one of the select military/government officials that, if taken down, will suddenly render the military into an ethical, positive entity. Bradley is the closest to falling into this trope, and even then this show doesn't center that thinking. So Hakuro, and all the nameless scum who fill out the military ranks, are not an extra special breed of awful. They are human cogs of the machine, and anyone can be Hakuro. Not because "all humans are evil" (thereby equivocating genociders and their targets/victims), but because signing up to be a cog means you will grind people in your gears.

Basque Grand: The brigadier general who oversees much of the military's branches in Eastern and Lab 5 in Central. He made good use of the red stones to obliterate enough of Ishbal to propel him to his current (and final) rank. The man cares only about keeping everything running accordingly and securing his standing. After everything he does to Ishbal, to Nina, to the Elrics, and learning about the experiments run in Lab 5, seeing this jackass get his brain splattered by Scar, in public, in broad daylight, while moments before gloating about the stone he was going to use to kill Scar? Absolutely one of my fave moments in this show.

Archer: A proud war mongerer thrilled by every opportunity to send an armada in to stamp their boots over a populace. He's a scumbag through and through. Having half of his body disintegrated into the Liore philosopher's stone did give us a great shot of him screaming in pure agony, and on the other hand it gave us Terminator Archer. Granted, I can absolutely see the Amestrian state scientists and alchemists toying with mechanizing human beings (it's no less horrific and unethical than all the other bio-alchemical atrocities they routinely perform). And I can see them taking the opportunity to use any of their barely-surviving military personnel as fodder; if they could roll out even more dangerous pigs why wouldn't they? But the execution of this was haphazard. The design alone is a mess, but I can see what they were going for. If anything, his design should have been pushed into emphasizing that grotesque, industrial melding of metal to flesh. Like a dehumanization of the automail artisanship, have Archer be less cognizant, have us question if he can even be said to be human/alive/the same person, hell, have him be largely incapable of speech due to having half his throat missing. Let his communication be dictated by the sounds of machine functions, with a guttural, tortured noise as a subtle backdrop to each attempt at speech. So much potential for some quality machine-human body horror, unfulfilled. Though by this point the show was in full throttle to the finish line, so there wasn't much time or money left to flesh (heh) this out in such a way that it lands. I can't totally fault the team for having this be wasted potential. And not like it would have made me like the guy, but that's the point. He serves his narrative purpose well. Get wrecked, Archer.

Kimbly: Fascist supreme, but unlike in mangahood, he isn't positioned as a strange outlier to your average Amestrian citizen, militarymen, or statesmen. He's more violent insofar that he's willing to harm his fellow soldiers (and even that's not unique given what we're shown of Archer and Basque Grand), but he's not held up as an example of the "few bad apples poisoning the jackbooted bunch". I didn't know how good I had it with 03 regarding this version of this character! He doesn't get a ton of focus, he isn't made to be an "evil badass" to the extent Brotherhood does, and we don't get this douchebag having a moment in the spotlight to help Ed defeat a homunculus after giving his version of a friendship speech. Best of all, Scar gets his revenge against the man who maimed him and murdered his brother (let alone countless other Ishbalans). Fuck this dude, but I'm glad I can stand to see this asshole in this version thanks to far less insulting writing choices!

God, I love this anime. Everytime I rewatch this show I find so many new things to appreciate. Ruminating on the subtle characterization, politics, and storytelling that each watch-through uncovers really lets me savour the passion that Studio Bones poured into Fullmetal Alchemist 2003. And as my own perspectives on the world and my political philosophy itself matured I become all the more impressed with what they cooked all those years ago. I adore stories that make me feel, and it's all the more fantastic when its done with sincerity. They weren't afraid to tell hard stories. 03 doesn't try to run it back or serve you easy outs. Yet it never feels cynical, at least not to me. Not because cynicism would be unwarranted, but because this show truly feels for the strife of its world and characters.

I'll always come back to this adaptation. Even if most people forget it exists, I'll have something truly wonderful to remember and revisit for many more years to come.

[thatweirdguyinthebushes]

one thing ive always loved about fullmetal alchemist brotherhood is that it never begrudges a person their revenge. it never paints them as evil or worse than the object of their outrage. fullmetal alchemist will never tell a victim they have not earned their anger, or that it is not right. it does not speak against revenge because your anger is wrong. it only says that you must be careful - that vengeance may destroy you and the ones you care for if you let it consume you.

when mustang hears that scar is ishvalan, he says that, in many ways, his killing of state alchemists is justified, although he's still not keen to become a victim of it. when scar is faced with the daughter of the doctors he killed, he bows his head and tells her that justice is hers to deliver, and that he will not fight if she chooses to bestow it. roy is never told that he must forgive envy, or that hes wrong to want them dead; only that, should he choose to kill them, he will no longer be the kind of man he wants to be. the kind of man he can be. they all agree that envy must die - ed never says that roys anger or grief is unjustified, that his vengeance wouldnt be deserved. instead, he asks "is that the face you plan to wear when you lead this country?" he says your anger is earned, your violence is justified. if you burned them to death like you wanted to, no one would say they did not do it to themself. but is a man who burns a defeated enemy to death the kind of man you want to be?

when scar finally decides to stop killing state alchemists, he doesnt do it because he has learned to forgive, or because they do not deserve it. there is no forgiveness for the things amestris has done to his people, and arakawa never suggests that there could be. rather, he stops killing state alchemists because he cannot build a better world on top of more corpses. his anger is justified, but his violence will breed more violence, his hatred more hatred. it will kill him if he does not stop it first, and it will lead his people to even further ruin if he cannot escape it.

fullmetal alchemist never says that revenge is evil, or that your anger is not reasonable. it only asks, do you know the cost of taking that vengeance? is that the kind of man you want to be?

[stackslip]

your post about fma03 are good and i'm stuck thinking about scar for hours at a time again. stories talking about 'revenge' can read really bad to me because a lot use 'this oppressed minority trying to fight state violence is bad' plotline. fma03 was honestly pretty unique in that scar was this tragic hero instead. it's sad, it's clearly difficult for him and he see him struggle, but everything he does was also necessary to prevent further genocide.

YEAH, it's a trope i absolutely loathe and scar in the og manga is its poster boy and everyone and their mom loves to pretend it's super progressive or something lol. there are aspects to scar's manga character i wish i could have enjoyed more were he not constantly scolded by half the cast for being an Evil Murderer when the war criminals' redemption arcs are assumed to be done by now and they're good people we should all root for. bc like. i genuinely LIKE the idea of scar's brother's other arm being about reconstruction. i LIKE the concept of scar holding destruction and rebuilding at once, and being able to one day move on and participate in the rebuilding of ishbal! but it comes with the idea that he is wrong for wanting to destroy amestris's military and the people who've murdered his people in the first place, it comes with him calling himself scum for being a Bad Murderer, it comes with the only other major talking ishbalan character BEING A MEMBER OF AMESTRIS'S MILITARY, UNDER THE COMMAND OF A WOMAN WHO CURSES HER BROTHER OUT FOR NOT HAVING JOINED IN THE GENOCIDE, basically scolding scar in turn for daring to want revenge. lol. i likewise would like the thing between him and mei a lot better if it didn't feel like it didn't play in tropes of "this big brown scary man is actually sweet bc this cute pale skinned girl makes him Soft" which.... i'm not fond of. i like mei and his relationship to her a lot, I Do Not Like The Framing. i do not like what arakawa does with scar in the manga, and this will always, ALWAYS be my biggest contention with fma, my line in the sand that i refuse to back down. so many things i can chalk up to taste, but i'm never not going to argue that scar's treatment in the og manga is absolutely abysmal.

in comparison, the way 03 reframes scar from his very first appearance as someone a lot more vulnerable/human and understandable, how his violence is put into context for what amestris has done to him and how al and him have this direct connection and mutual understanding, down to al flat out saying "if someone killed my brother i'd probably want to burn down the world too".... it's just. really good all around. scar's arc does not revolve around the elrics' plot, but when he does encounter them it's not so ed can scold him for being a murderer--because scar can and does bite back ed for participating in the military in the first place. his encounter with lust, the dynamic between him, his brother and his brother's love and how all three of them have been denied even their very names and identity in the aftermath of the genocide..... unbelievably bleak. how lust and scar likewise are trying to reclaim an identity as specifically Ishbalan in different ways too! lust by remembering what she was made from, going against dante and realizing what has been taken away from her, dying while proclaiming I WAS A WOMAN FROM ISHBAL. and then you have scar, who refuses his past name because he died with his brother and he died with the old ishbal. amestris murdered him along his people. there's no coming back from this. and like.... it's tragic, because it means scar is doomed from the start. he sees himself as a ghost and he is unable to not be one. but he also *chooses* to do something of it. to not simply pursue revenge but to actively stop amestris's military from repeating the genocide in liore! he is STILL enacting violence, he is using ishbal's own old alchemy and usurping amestris's claims so he can turn their own weapon back on them. ishbal was murdered for amestris's principles, and likewise scar is going to destroy as much of the amestrian military as he can in the name of not only avenging ishbal but stopping it from ever happening again! and his plan works. it works, and it's tragic, but also triumphant. it's tragic because scar was a good man.

that's the difference between the treatment of scar in og fma and 03. in the former, scar is the one character who has to Grow Into A Good Person, because it is assumed that no good person should use violence even to defend their people and avenge genocide. because violence is the prerogative of the protagonists, and because it is easy to remove the "bad people" from the premise--you can just excise them as a tumour, and then amestris is no longer a fascist and genocidal hell state. never mind that a sympathetic character (one often touted as a feminist icon ffs) is actively defending her choice to participate in the genocide to the end and derides another for NOT participating in it, but apparently she's fine! but scar has to Learn To Forgive and becoming a good person means settling down and things will magically improve. and scar has to learn this from the elrics, even as they talk down to him and see him in a very negative light, because apparently the two blonde protagonists understand violence better than a survivor of genocide does.

in 03, scar is a good person. or at the very least, he's entirely justified. and he might not be right 100% of the time, but he is from the beginning considered to understand a lot more of the world than the elrics are! he is a tragic hero because he died long ago, and there was no other path for him. and he isn't.... wrong. it's been shown in 03 that ishbalan survivors literally get hunted and displaced wherever they go. they can't rebuild, as long as amestris is as it is! you can't just spout platitudes about how violence is bad, because even if you give up violence it will show up at your door and burn your refugee camp and the only way to counter is meeting it with violence yourself. where ed sacrifices himself at the end for his brother in another tragic hero ending, scar sacrifices himself for not only the memory of his brother but for all of ishbal AND liore to be able to live. and he's right! he's destabilized the military enough that when roy makes his choice and kills bradley, the military has been crippled and is forced to take a step back, and amestris is suddenly on the defensive and no longer able to take on offensive wars. ishbalans and liorites are shown rebuilding in peace, as amestrian soldiers are no longer able to attack them. scar's sacrifice worked. he took on the identity of old ishbal's avenging ghost, and he pushed it to the end. he finally accepted his brother's love and sacrifice, and sacrificed himself in turn--like the elrics do! his last words are words of love. they're tender. in the moment that he kills hundreds of amestrian soldiers, music swells. yes, it's tragic. fma 03 isn't saying that justified violence is all glory and roses, it's still painful--the soldiers' death isn't a fun happy time, but.... they were coming in to murder thousands of liorites, possibly rape some of them like they did rose. their lives, 03 says again and again, are *not* more important than the lives of marginalized people. they've made their choice. violence here was the right call, it was an act of love, and it is framed as such. scar's final act is mirrored by the final act of the protagonists, there too an act of love. scar in 03 is so much more humanized and respected a character than he is in the manga, and regardless of 03's other failings or differences in taste, i will argue that his story in 03 is more relevant and real as ever today as it was during the political context of 2003-04

[poniko-w]

i hate being the most nonconfrontational person Rver someone followed me &i decided to be social and maybe send randomdrawings (i like doing that) and then they drew nsfwof the marikinchimera .(its .well not exactly cropped but i can tell whats going on)well anyways i guess ill gjust stress Hey guys im a little child a little more now 😦.ok

sorry kf thats out of nowhere im stil kidnd of in shock over that.And had to type What!!!!!!.man

what,??? why would someone do that *scratches head* thats so weird to do.. this is making me angry,i want to draw a normal marikinchimera for you now, im going to stop cooking just to make this..heres a mo3 arakawa to look at:

[bookqueen1755]

Or Else -

- Synopsis: When Liv Olson, a cynical, ambitious photographer, is given the chance of a life time to come to Tokyo and start her career, she finds that she may have bitten off more then she can chew, especially when she discovers Tokyo's superhero in the form of a large metal man is actually famous baseball player, Ken Sato. Things get even crazier when her best friend is kidnapped by a secret organization known as Nebula and it seems the only one she can turn to is Ultraman. But his arrogance and ginormous ego means Liv is less then enthusiastic to trust the guy, and how's the best way to secure someone's trust? Simple: blackmail. Forced to work together, Liv and Ken must join forces to stop Nebula, realizing they may share a common goal. But can they push aside their differences and rivaling egos to save the people they love most and work as a team...and possibly more?

- Content warnings: None in particular. Just a bit of violence and the occasional cussing, nothing that wasn't in Ultraman: Rising. - Quick Side note: This story takes place after the events of Ultraman: Rising and acts like a sequel.

Liv couldn’t stop her eyes from flitting to the blank page of her notepad and the view outside her plane window. They still had a few hours left until they arrived in Tokyo, but Liv knew deep down it wouldn’t matter. They could keep flying for days and her brain would still be unable to conjure up a single imaginative thought.

She bit her lip, restlessly tapping her pencil against the top of her notebook with her middle and index finger. “Are you punishing yourself or the book?” Liv narrowed her eyes at Dean who was smirking in the seat next to her with his laptop opened up in front of him.

“Unless you can conjure up a creative idea of what the hell I could give Mrs. Arakawa to show at her exhibition in a month’s time I don’t want to hear a single snide remark come out of your mouth.” She ripped out the blank page she had been staring at and balled it up into a ball, aiming it at his head.

“Hey, take it easy, I’m only teasing!” He insisted though Liv could tell he was trying to suppress a laugh.

Liv groaned and hit her head on the back of her head rest. “We’ve been on a plane for nine hours and I still have no idea what to do for this piece that Mrs. Arakawa assigned me to make. I’ve already gone over all my old photos hoping to get inspired, but I’ve come up completely dry. Why is this so hard?”

“Because your entire future and career as a photographer hinges on you making a grand piece that is going to be put up in one of the most famous art museums in the whole world?”

Liv shot daggers at him. “Wow, thank you so much Dean, that was very helpful.” She turned away from him and went back to glaring at her notepad.

“Okay, okay I get it, I’m not helping, I’m sorry.” Liv didn’t bother to look up at him again and pretended she hadn’t heard him. A moment later he snatched her notebook out of her hands, holding it out of arms reach.

“Hey give that back!”

“Why, so you can go back to staring at it for the next three hours?”

“Dean I swear to God, I will stab you with this pencil if you don’t give me my notebook back right-”

“Liv.”

She finally looked at him only to see his warm brown eyes crinkled in concern, his mouth pulled into a frown, all earlier traces of teasing gone. The look melted some of her earlier irritation away and Liv fell back against her chair with a huff, crossing her arms over chest.

Sensing it safe to talk again, Dean said softly, “your being way too hard on yourself. You’ve been stressing over this photo for the last week, and you look exhausted. Let’s just focus on getting to Tokyo, we’ll do some sightseeing, check out some places, get your creative juices flowing and by the time the exhibition rolls around, you’ll have conjured up the best photo the whole of Tokyo has ever seen, and Mrs. Arakawa will be so impressed she’ll have no choice but to give you that recommendation to be sponsored by the LA Art Museum so that you can become the world’s greatest photographer ever.”

Liv raised an eyebrow at him, skeptical. He smiled back, his face full of conviction and determination, leaving no room for doubt. Liv found his optimism contagious, and a small smile tugged at her lips as she sighed, leaning her head against his shoulder. “Thanks D, you’re the best.”

Dean and Liv had met at the University of Southern California six years ago when they’d shared a dorm. He’d been the closest thing she had ever had to a brother and had treated her like family. More than her own family in recent years anyway. He’d at least been there for her. Through exams, late night study sessions, graduation, apartment hunting, failed gallery openings, debt, he’d always been there. They’d been inseparable ever since.

“I know, it’s about time you acknowledge my brilliance.”

She pulled back, shoving his shoulder. “Never mind, I take back everything I said, you’ve ruined it.” He cackled and she took the opportunity to swipe her notepad back, shoving it into the backpack at her feet. She caught sight of her phone floating around inside and fighting all common sense, she picked it up and decided to check to see if she had any new messages. They’d been in such a rush this morning, packing the last of their belongings before booking it to the airport that she hadn’t had time to check, and even though she knew it was pointless, she scrolled through her notifications. Nothing. Typical. She shoved her phone back into her bag and kicked it back underneath her chair, slumping down into her seat. She didn’t know what she had expected. It’s not like her dad had cared when she opened her first art gallery, or when she’d brought her first apartment, or when she’d gotten her degree and graduated. God, she was pathetic. She had just gotten a huge career opportunity, was on her way to becoming a real photographer and finally making something of herself, and she was sitting here sulking and thinking about her dad who clearly hadn’t spared her a single thought in the last seven years.

Dean must have noticed her sour mood because when he looked up from his laptop, his eyes searched her grimace, his expression softening recognizing the look on her face all to well. “Your dad?”

“No response. Not surprising.”

“Have you talked to him recently?”

“No. I didn’t even get the apology call with the usual list of excuses. Not a peep.”

He rested a comforting hand on her shoulder, squeezing. “Sorry Liv.”

She just shrugged, her disappointment melting into exhaustion at the amount of energy she put towards having faith in her father. “Whatever. Who needs him right?”

Dean gave her a confident nod, his eyes burning with resolve. “Yeah, you’ll show him. When you become a famous photographer, I bet he’ll come crawling right back.”

Liv snorted, smirking at him. “Now that would be a picture worth a millions dollars.”

[one-vivid-judgment]

Hello! Stubborn patients hcs time or taking care of the boys (Sawashiro, Takabe, Ebina and Tomi) when they're sick 🤒 Thank you as always! 💕

Sawashiro AND Tomi??? Oh, hell yeah, you bet I'm gonna do it 🤧

Jo Sawashiro

Will try to hide the fact that he is sick to the very end. Even when he’s coughing up a storm, having sneezing fits every other hour, stuffy nose and teary-eyed. You will have to physically drag him to bed and force him to take a nap so he feels better. He does not feel better. In fact, he feels even worse: heavy-boned and dizzy, his throat dry, his ears itching.

He will try to insist he doesn’t need any medicine and that it’ll all go away on its own. Please, drill it through his skull that he needs it. If he sees that you are genuinely worried about his health (and, let’s be honest, he’s getting old; you are right to be worrying), he will stop and reconsider. Then, he’ll finally give in and take his medicine.

A home-cooked, warm meal is not something he’s had often. Usually, he just resorted to convenience store food or go to restaurants with Arakawa and/or his subordinates. His eating habits have gotten a lot better since he met you, honestly. Even now that he is sick and can barely taste it, he knows your food is delicious. Better than anything he could ever cook, really. If he smiles around a spoonful of chicken broth, it’s his own business.

Mamoru Takabe

Committed chairman is still committed even when he is sick. No turning off his phone, if his boys call for help, he’s going to them still. Which sadly means even the lightest of colds can easily get way worse in a matter of hours because he won’t stop pushing himself.

When he inevitably ends up having to stay in bed, he will still try to sneak some work in. You’ll have to scold him and take his phone and his laptop away so he can sleep it off. Oh, he’ll try to protest and argue that he can do some lighter tasks and paperwork, but he doesn’t sound convincing at all when a coughing fit interrupts his rant.

Once he’s gotten over the initial frustration of feeling ‘useless’ (yes, he may be sort of a workaholic when put like that), he will give the most earnest apology you’ve ever heard. He really appreciates everything you do for him—he would kiss you and thank you properly, but it’s probably not the best idea considering he is sick. Oh well, on the to-do list it goes.

Masataka Ebina

Accepts being sick surprisingly easy, considering who he is. If he doesn’t feel good, he won’t have any problems leaving the paperwork on the table and going to bed himself. He is 100% gonna call you (and maybe exaggerate how sick he actually is just a tiny bit) to take care of him though. Expect reciprocity when you are the one sick in bed, of course. You’re no less than royalty for him.

Even if he has a very sore throat, he’ll make sure to compliment your food. It’s not just mindless flattery nor is he trying to butter you up so you cook more often, it’s just how he feels, and he’ll be damned if he keeps quiet. Fuck the sore throat.

He knows it’s kind of irresponsible to kiss you when he’s sick; the virus could get you too if he does. But like... just a tiny kiss couldn’t hurt, right? It’s the least he can do to thank you for your service the whole time—honestly, he would rather get you under the covers and give you a ‘proper thanks’, but he might throw up if he pushes himself too hard. So, just a kiss will have to do. For now.

Eric Tomizawa

He is kind of a big baby when he gets sick. He can’t pretend he’s not happy to get out of work for a day or two, but also, not working means no money coming in, and considering he’s barely scrapping by as is... Yeah, it’s not ideal. You manage to soothe his anxieties away for the most part though, and that’s when he’s back to being a drama queen.

He’ll take the medicine no problem, but you bet he is going to complain all the time about how bitter it is. Why can’t adult medicine taste sweet like kids’ medicine, huh? The warm soup is very good though—he is a man of simple tastes, some chicken noodle soup and you’ll have him pretty much purring.

He also has no problem with sleeping in. Considering he hates getting out of bed in the morning, every excuse that allows him to laze around in bed for longer that usual is welcome. He’ll even try to convince you to cuddle with him. “Just for a bit,” he says, “you won’t get sick if it’s only for a bit!” he says. He makes a very convincing case.

[lwh-writing]

I was just contemplating Fullmetal Alchemist (as one does), thinking about the absolute peak hilarity that is Ed, Al, and Havoc, the certified Country Boys(TM), teaming up to bully Mustang, the certified City Boy(TM), when I was struck with an epiphany.

Riza Hawkeye is the OG Country Girl.

Like....

Lived in the middle of nowhere with her father in a 1900ish setting. In THAT time period and THAT location, she and Hawkeye Sr. would've had to have at least a homestead type of deal. Something small that they could work on and live off of on their own, unless they hired farmhands (which I doubt).

So a two-person homestead. I would love to claim they cultivated dairy to go with Arakawa's background, but to make that livable, it would be too many cows for 2 people to realistically handle on their own. So either they did a smaller animal, like, say, sheep and goats, or they harvested corn, wheat, or tobacco. Midwesterner here, so let's say corn and wheat.

Anyway, Riza and her father living it rough on a homestead.

Money's a bit tight at times, but Hawkeye Sr. can take care of most of the repairs with his alchemy, so they always get by.

They've got chickens, two cows, and a lovely mare who pulls the cart whenever they need to go to town.

Three-year-old Riza being super excited about feeding the chickens for the very first time, giggling and squealing with joy as she throws feed everywhere.

Five-year-old Riza walking five miles into town to attend classes at the little one-room schoolhouse. There are a little more than thirty total students, only eight of which are anywhere near her age.

Seven-year-old Riza holding back tears when Hawkeye Sr. teaches her how to pluck and prep a fresh chicken. She can do it all on her own with a dry eye by the time she's eight.

Eleven-year-old Riza finding a goat one day on the farm, and after checking with the neighbors to see if they're missing one, decides she might as well keep it.

This is a mistake. The goat and Riza are mortal enemies. The thing will refuse to stop nipping at Riza whenever she goes out to milk it. But it keeps giving milk and sneaking away only to come back with baby goats, so she's left to suffer in silence.

Twelve-year-old Riza waking up at dawn in the summer to go detassel corn. Comes back around noon with scrapes all up and down her arms and eats enough to feed an army.

Thirteen-year-old Riza learning how to shoot and being known as the best shot for miles around before the year is up.

Fourteen-year-old Riza coming home from school only to find a sharp-looking, sweet-talking, soft-handed City Boy who her father claims is going to be his alchemist apprentice from now on.

Riza despairing about Roy-Fucking-Mustang and his complete and utter incompetence at everything that isn't alchemy. The boy can't cook, can't hunt, and wouldn't know the first thing about farm animal care if Bessie the Demon Goat bit him in the eye.

Eventually, Riza puts Mustang on cleaning and laundry duty, because that, at least, he can do. (Thank God for his three-dozen sisters and their insistence that Roy pulls his weight with chores.)

Riza's schoolhouse friends sighing over "that handsome Roy" and Riza blanches because she could never see herself falling for someone who thought milking the cows hurt them somehow. (It doesn't. Refusing to milk an animal is extremely harmful to the critter involved, and it's very likely that they could get an infection and seriously injure themselves and/or die. Don't let the radicalized vegans fool you)

Riza, to her chagrin, does develop a crush on Roy-Fucking-Mustang, who wouldn't know farm animal care if Bessie the Demon Goat bit him in the eye.

Roy, for his part, has long been crushing on Riza Hawkeye, the swol farmer's daughter who could pick him up with one hand a shoot a goose out of the sky with the other.

Neither admits it though because Roy has long since embarrassed himself past the point of no return, and Riza has complained too much to the folks in town that if she were to romance Roy now.... Well. Ain't either of the kids going to make the first move, so no move is made.

Fast forward a decade or so and Team Mustang is investigating something in the country.

Ed, Al, and Havoc are giving Mustang shit about approaching a horse wrongly and how there ain't no fancy cars out here.

Roy tries to refute it and shut them down, but Riza snorts and idly says something about him still not knowing jack about farming despite living on hers for two years.

Riza exposes Roy. Ed, Al, and Havoc rejoice. Roy despairs about his secrets being out, and Maes demands any and all pictures once he finds out.

And that's how Roy Mustang spent the rest of his days being bullied by four blond-haired Country Folk(TM).

[todayisafridaynight]

[asordinaryppl]

A3! Main Story: Part 4 - Act 13: Budding Spring - Episode 1: New Prologue

Towa: (So this is Veludo Station~ It’s much smaller than I imagined. The exit should be around here somewhere…)

Towa: (Uhhh, gotta open the map…)

Towa: Yup, this way.

-

Towa: This is Veludo Way…

Towa: (The theater center with the most operating theater companies all over Japan… There are companies of all sorts and sizes here.)

Towa: (I’d only seen it on video before, but there’s for real only theaters all around.)

Towa: (There are theaters as far as the eye can see, it’s amazing.)

Towa: And right ahead… That Holy Land…!

Towa: *gasp* Gotta calm down, gotta calm down. That’s right.

Towa: (I gotta report back to everyone…)

momo has entered the chat momo: on veludo way rn

Iv: graaats. been a while since you updated us w shiki: so that’s veludo way? Kar: Judging for AI momo: it’s real! Kar: ain’t it kinda blurry shiki: congratulations on your long-awaited pilgrimage! good for you! momo: i haven’t started my pilgrimage yet. i gotta calm down first Iv: just get in there w momo: this holy land is a sacred place you don’t just casually dip your feet into. if you step there lightly, it’d be rude. Kar: sudden essay lol Iv: hardcore otaku so cutieful shiki: you’ve worked hard to get there, so enjoy it to the fullest momo: i will! i'm going!

[Towa bumps into Shift]

Towa: !?

???: “--Ouch.”

Towa: Eh…

Towa: (Are they crouching? Because I bumped into them…? Are they okay?)

???: “What are you doing. For God’s sake.”

Towa: (Huh? I think I’ve heard this voice before…)

???: “Come on, lean on my shoulder.”

Towa: …G-GOD-za’s Haruto Asuka and Shift Arakawa!?

Shift: “I’m done for~... I can’t walk any more~...”

Haruto: “You drank too much.”

Shift: “My whole life’s done for… I can’t take a single step forward…”

Haruto: “You just got dumped, don’t exaggerate so much!”

Towa: (Ah, could this be… Veludo Way’s infamous…)

Shift: “I’m not exaggerating! I’m always just someone else’s foil! At best, I’m the second choice, I’m never gonna be the center!”

Shift: “If I keep living like this, my only role will be to support someone else’s life.”

Shift: “Is there even a point living like this…”

Haruto: “Then live your life for yourself. Stop thinking of other people as the protagonists.”

Haruto: “Your life’s protagonist is you, yourself. Only you can decide what kinda life you’ll lead.”

Shift: “My life’s protagonist is me, myself…”

Towa: (I can’t believe this is a play with no script…)

Towa: (I’d only seen Street ACTS in videos before, to think they do it so naturally… Amazing…)

Haruto: Thank you very much~!

Towa: — —

Shift: GOD-za’s past performances will be streamin’ till tomorrow! It’s a limited-time campaign! 

[Applause]

-

Towa: (I’m so lucky to get to watch a Street ACT by GOD-za’s top duo in a place like this…!)

Shift: Ah, sorry for bumping into you before.

Towa: !! No! It’s alright!

Shift: See ya.

Haruto: Thanks for watching~

Towa: *siiigh*~... I should’ve taken a video…

Towa: (So it’s true that all kinds of actors do Street ACTs on Veludo Way.)

Towa: (Then, they will, too…)

Towa: (I mean, I don’t think I’ll be this lucky two times in a row, but, but, if I could meet my oshi…)

Towa: —

[Paper rustling]

Towa: (I don’t think something that good will happen, but I’ve already decided that if I get to meet him, I’ll absolutely get him to sign this.)

Towa: (My most important treasure…)

Towa: Ah, did I even bring a pen…

Towa: (Huh, I don’t have one. Seriously? I forgot to bring one~?)

[Wind blows]

Towa: Wah—!

[Paper falls]

???: …?

masterpost | next episode

NOTES:

(1) w is a kind of laugh often used in japanese texts, resembling lol. i kept it as w because kar uses で草 (also resembles lol), which is actually said out loud and i assume people actually say lol out loud

(2) this was a great reminder i'm pushing 30

[tala-bez-i]

At first sight Chapter Thirty-Six

(m!reader x Bonten!Haruchiyo Sanzu)

Fluff/slash/reader is male/cursing/BontenTimeline/drugs and alcohol mentioned/violence/blood/death

All characters that appeared in the Tokyo Revengers manga and anime belong to Ken Wakui.

Words: 3697

------------------------------------------------------------------------------

You stared at the photo you held in both hands. It was the ID photo of a young man who was looking at you with piercing, cold eyes the color of storm clouds, which were both so similar and completely different from your father's eyes that it was hard for you to understand how you had managed to erase it from your memory for so many years. 

The photo itself was old. As your uncle, Tsuyoshi, had explained to you, it had been taken before your sister was found dead, and the longer you stared at the man's features, the more you began to feel uneasy. 

All sorts of thoughts were swirling in your head, and somewhere in the back of your mind there was an unpleasant pressure, as if someone was pushing with all their might against a closed door. As if your memories were trying to jump into their old places in your memory. 

Despite the passing years and his stay in a psychiatric hospital, you hoped that Yuji L/n hadn't changed much and now, thanks to the detective's help, you would be able to recognize him in the crowds of people that rolled through the busiest places in Tokyo every day. 

"So..." A man in his sixties spoke in a calm tone, sitting on a small sofa in your small office in the cafe, enjoying the coffee that one of your employees brought him. "Do you really think that my brother's firstborn son is responsible for Haruka Uchiyama's death?" 

"And who else comes to mind?" You replied in an equally calm tone, not taking your eyes off the photo. "I don't know what exactly you managed to find out in this whole mess, but I don't think you suspect anyone else." 

“They let me see the photos from where the body was found.” The man sighed and scratched his head. “There were the same marks on Emiko’s neck as Sachiko’s. She didn’t hang herself, that’s a hundred percent certain. He strangled her first, and only then pulled her onto a tree branch. Even her shoes were lying in a very similar way to your mother’s.” 

At these words, you raised your gaze to the man to take a closer look. His face, marked here and there with wrinkles, had a serious expression, as did his eyes. 

“It’s a shame they won’t be able to connect her to Daisuke Sugiyama’s death.” You spoke up after a moment. “The car she fled in was found, but there was no sign that she used it. There were only traces of blood left outside. It definitely belongs to her husband.” 

“I didn’t know anything about the car.” 

“Because it was in a different place than her body.” 

“So, he moved then.” Tsuyoshi leaned forward and clasped his hands to his mouth, pondering the new information. “Where did this take place?” 

“At Sumida in Arakawa.” 

“Near Edogawa.” Your uncle muttered. “We need to check for any missing persons or unexplained deaths from that district.” 

“You’re not suggesting that…” You began, concerned, as the man’s words began to confirm your earlier suspicions. 

“That’s not out of the question. Yuji was not only targeting your mother, but her family as well.” He interrupted you, his eyes once again landing on you. “He’s never had the chance to hurt them in any way. That is, of course, until he murdered Sachiko. He could have gotten it into his head that the best way to honor his own mother’s memory would be to get rid of all the members of the Okabe family.” 

“But some of them lived here, not just in Edogawa...” 

“Yes. Please don't forget that despite several migrations, your mother's family's hometown is Edogawa.” 

“That's sick.” You shook your head, feeling anger rising inside you. “Are you telling me that if we don't stop Yuji, he'll hunt down all people in any way related to the Okabe family?” 

“Let's hope only those related by blood.” You gave him a warning look, which he didn't care about at all. “You have to remember, boy, that Yuji is not a sane man. His mind is completely twisted, and he lives by his obsession. He won't rest until he destroys you all.” 

“I'm L/n, not Okabe.” 

“But you don't look like L/n.” The corners of his mouth lifted slightly, and the man spread his hands. “You can see for yourself that what's in my nephew's head, and your half-brother's, is completely devoid of logic. Sometimes I wonder if he'd want to hurt Yuuta...” 

“I don't want to find out.” 

“Me neither. Believe me, Y/n, me neither.” 

“Do you have any ideas where he might have his hideout?” You asked, hoping for some clue, but the man shook his head. 

“I thought about Setagaya at first, but with his movements over the past few hours, we can’t be sure anymore.” 

You let out a resigned sigh and leaned back in your chair, looking up at the ceiling. “What a pain in the ass.” 

Tsuyoshi laughed softly, and you heard him raise his cup again. 

“Yes, you could put it that way. You won’t find him unless he wants to.” 

“That’s what I’m afraid of. He’s got a lot of time and nothing to lose.” 

“Hmm...” 

You looked at the man, whose searching eyes were moving around the room with interest. 

"I hope my girls don't feed Yuuta only sugar." You threw it loosely, changing the subject to occupy your thoughts with something else for a moment. 

"My hope is even greater. God, I haven't seen a child's eyes shine like that at the sight of sweets in a long time." The other smiled. "Such a choice, his hands were clenching into fists. His brain must have been working at full speed when he had to choose anything." 

“The pleasure is all mine.” You joked and the man shook his finger at you playfully. 

“I'll send you the bills for the repairs for the damage he'll do when he's bursting with energy.” 

“I'll take full responsibility for it.” You replied with a smile, taking the photo of your stepbrother in your hand again. Your face became serious, although in addition to helplessness and anger, you felt a certain amount of sadness. “You know, uncle... I don't really remember him.” 

“Yuji?” 

“Yes. I don't understand why. I talked to my friend and she thought I preferred to forget about him because of the harm he did to Mai. I felt the same way about my father, although I remember him perfectly.” 

“Hmm.” The detective thought for a moment. “As for my nephew, I can agree. As for your memories of your father, I have to deny it.” 

You looked at him expectantly, not understanding what he meant at all. 

“Kenzou was always there for you when events important to you happened.” 

“Not at all...” 

“First day of kindergarten, first day of school... School plays, talent shows...” The man listed and you slowly started shaking your head. “Don't deny it. He was always around and never missed a single day. He was proud of you when you got the best score in target shooting at the festival. The stall owner said you were too small, but your father insisted and you were finally allowed to play.” 

You remembered that, but it always seemed to you that it was your mother's doing, not your father's. You bit the inside of your cheek gently when you remembered that you gave the teddy bear you won that day to Tomoko. She was angry and sad because her schoolmate, despite accepting her invitation to go to the festival together, ended up going with someone else, completely ignoring your sister. 

“When I was in a gang…” 

“When were you?” You pursed your lips at the sarcasm. “Please, continue, Y/n.” 

“So, when I was in the gang... In the first one, in the second one... In Valhalla. I know that the police dispersed our group several times. I know there were investigations, and a few went to juvenile detention. My friends knew who I was, but officers never knocked on our door to question me… Was my father behind this or were you?” 

“Did he ever talk to you about it?” 

“After your attempted intervention, no.” 

“You mean, after the attempted intervention that he banned me from coming to your house for?” He asked calmly and you winced. 

“Yeah... After that. Sorry about that.” 

“It doesn’t matter. It was hard for him, that’s true, but he understood your rebellion, even though it hurt him a lot.” 

“One of his sons went crazy, the other one was a failure. His only joy was his daughters...” 

“Yeah, hmm. One worked illegally as an escort instead of studying, and his only support was the other one, who wasn’t even his. His children were great.” Tsuyoshi’s tone was dripping with sarcasm so much that you instantly felt stupid. 

“But Tomoko studied...” You smiled uncertainly and your uncle gave you a cold look. 

“I guess not necessarily what she actually should have, because she abandoned any education at the age of 18.” 

“What?” Your eyes widened in shock. “I had no idea...” 

“You didn't go to college either.” 

“But I had a legal job.” You shrugged slightly. “I didn't know what I wanted to do after leaving the gang, so I didn't plan on going to college. I had something else on my mind.” 

“I’m sorry it didn’t work out for you. Although, on the other hand, maybe it’s better that you didn’t end up with that girl. You wouldn’t have enjoyed your marriage for very long.” 

“But maybe I would have had a chance to keep the baby.” 

“Maybe. There’s no point in guessing now, Y/n. You can’t turn back time.” The man finished his coffee, slapped his thighs, and stood up from the couch. The removal team is supposed to show up today and we have to be home at that time.” 

You walked up to him and shook his outstretched hand tightly. “I'm glad you agreed to meet with me again.” 

“We were going to be nearby anyway, so I didn’t see a problem with visiting your cafe. It’ll do the boy good. Keep the photo, it’s one of the copies, and you might find it useful.” 

You both left your small office and went back to the cafeteria hall where there were several customers, completely occupied with their own business. You easily found the table where Kiyoko and Yuuta were sitting, because from that part you could hear quiet, muffled laughter. 

Your two employees passed you and your uncle, blushing deeply and disappeared through the door leading to the back, where your small pastry shop was located, and you raised an eyebrow in surprise at their behavior. 

“What happened?” Tsuyoshi asked in astonishment as you pulled up at the appropriate table. 

“Yuuta is a real pick-up artist.” His wife laughed quietly, modestly covering her mouth with her hand to hide her wide smile. 

Your cheeks flushed when you heard her words and you looked at your offspring, who was unfazed, finishing eating a piece of fruit cake he had chosen. His face was adorably smeared with sweet cream, and his big eyes moved from Kiyoko's face to yours. 

“Pick-up artist?” You asked uncertainly and the boy gave you an innocent look. 

“He tried to feed Chiyoko-chan and Hanae-chan his cake.” The woman's eyes sparkled with amusement. “Oh, auntie! I've never seen so many beautiful blossoms in one place! Daddy must be so happy to work in a place like this!” She quoted the boy, who began to squirm in his seat, chewing on a piece of fruit. His cheeks flushed, and a shy smile played on his lips. “I don't know where he got those words from, because it definitely wasn't from our house.” 

“Sometimes something might slip out of my mouth.” The detective mumbled quietly, and you rubbed your neck with your hand, probably feeling more embarrassed than the little boy. 

“Children are more honest than adults.” You shrugged, watching another piece of fruit disappear into Yuuta’s mouth. “What are you eating, hmm?” 

“Honey melon.” He replied, leaving you and your uncle in quite amazement. 

“I thought that…” You started, but Kiyoko waved her hand. 

“Hanae-chan encouraged him with her warm words. A very sweet girl.” 

“Daddy?” 

“Yes?” You looked at your child and smiled gently. 

“Can I have some more melon? Takeaway, please?" He asked uncertainly and you patted his head. You reached for a napkin and began to gently wipe his sticky face. 

"Yes, of course. I’ll ask Hanae-chan to cut you some in a moment.” 

The little guy smiled broadly and began to happily swing his legs under the table. You nodded to your aunt and uncle and walked over to the counter, behind which Aina-chan stood with a dreamy expression. She blinked at you a few times and smiled. 

“I’ll allow myself a little impudence, boss, but you know how to make a cute baby.” 

“I only have one, so I don’t really have that knowledge.” You replied, trying to keep a straight face and asked her to pass on the little customer’s special order to Hanae. 

After a short while, she returned with a Styrofoam box containing some sliced fruit and a few dark chocolate decorations. You immediately thought about buying a special food box for the boy. The corners of your mouth turned up and you handed the treats to the patiently waiting child. 

You said goodbye to everyone and watched your son go to the door, and when he disappeared behind it, you felt a pang of sadness. You agreed with Tsuyoshi that you would only see Yuuta again once you had managed to deal with Yuji. Neither of you wanted to risk the child's safety, and with a heavy heart, you had to agree to it. It would be best that way. 

*bzzt, bzzt, bzzt* 

You pulled your phone out of your pocket and looked at the screen. You answered the call but didn't have time to say a single word. 

"How much longer will you be at the cafe?" Sanzu asked slightly irritated, and you pursed your lips. 

"I just finished talking to Tsuyoshi. I'll be on my way back in a few minutes." 

"You have to go back now, Y/n." 

"Give me a few more minutes..." 

"Now." 

“Sanzu...” 

“You’ve been there for almost two hours. That’s enough time to ask the guy about the things we want to know. Come back.” 

“Yuuta came with them.” You said, and there was a brief moment on the other end of the line. 

“Is he still there?” 

“No…” 

“Then you have no reason to be there any longer. Come. Back. To. Your. Home. Right. Now.” The man drawled coldly. “Or I'll come pick you up there and believe me, you don't want me to do that.” 

“What got into you, Sanzu?” You frowned as you left the building and headed to the small parking lot where you had left your car. “I’m getting in the car now, are you happy?” 

“I’ll be happy when you get here.” The gangster, still clearly irritated, grumbled. “You didn’t ask.” 

“I didn’t ask what?” You closed the car door and reached for your seat belt. 

“Do I want something from the café?” 

You froze, not believing your own ears. You looked at the lit screen of your phone and cursed under your breath. “I asked before I left the house. You said you didn’t want anything.” 

“I guess you're stupid after all. That was over two hours ago. You should ask again.” 

“Sanzu...” 

“Ask, Y/n.” 

You took a deep breath and closed your eyes for a moment. “Do you want anything from the cafe, honey?” 

“No.” Came the reply and you raised your free hand, feeling your irritation mix with amusement. “I want you home already.” 

“I'm on my way.” You turned the key in the ignition. “Are you sure you don't want anything?” 

“No. Rosie doesn't want anything either.” He added after a moment, and you nodded. 

“I'm on my way then. Be good, please.” 

“I'm always good.” Haru feigned indignation. 

“I love you.” You said fondly and heard the man's short laugh on the other end. 

“Of course you do. We have something to discuss. Bye-bye.” He ended the call, and you sighed heavily as you drove out of the parking lot. 

You couldn't understand Haruchiyo the night before. His behavior was very similar to when you both had to spend the night at the Bonten hideout, but it had some deviations. 

At first, he slid behind you while you were taking a shower, only to bite you a few times on the shoulder and back, then threatened to throw you out of bed if your hands roamed his body, getting close to his private parts. 

You had no intention of groping him and just wanted to cuddle, but it wasn't your fault that your hands started to gently move over his attractive body on their own. 

Eventually he elbowed you in the stomach, but as soon as you started to pull away from him, he grabbed your hand and pulled you back to him, mumbling under his breath that only he had the right to be the big spoon. Eventually, you fell asleep against his back, lulled by the scent of his clean body and shampoo. 

“Y/n...” 

Despite being half asleep, you could hear Haruchiyo's quiet voice perfectly. "Hmm..." 

"You're poking me." 

"Not at all." You mumbled, burying your nose deeper in his soft hair. Your arms tightened around his body, pulling the man closer to your chest. 

"Of course you do." He moved, and when his ass brushed against your crotch, you understood what he meant. 

You inhaled his scent, feeling your face grow warmer. “Fuck…” 

“Do something about it.” Sanzu demanded, pulling away from you. 

You mumbled, rolling onto your back, and one of your hands disappeared under the covers you both slept under. You slid down your pajama bottoms and began to lazily move your hand over your erection. 

After a short while, you heard the rustle of the sheets and the mattress dipped slightly under the influence of your lover’s body, who changed position from lying to sitting. You gave him a quick look, not stopping to masturbate, and the sight of his face illuminated by the moonlight almost made you burst out laughing. 

When Sanzu turned on the night light, your lips stretched into a wicked smile. 

“Seriously, pervert? Here?” He asked, looking at you in disbelief. 

“Where exactly? I need a perfect view of you to get this done quickly.” Your voice was smooth as velvet as you began to caress the head of your penis with your hand. 

“Go to the bathroom and use your imagination, or take your phone with you...” 

“Nope. It's much better in person. Besides...” You bit your lower lip gently. “We already had sex and... Hgnn... You can join if you want to.” 

“Excuse me?” Sanzu leaned back slightly, looking at you with narrowed eyes. 

“Ah... You know what I mean.” You laughed quietly and started massaging your balls with your other hand. “I can see you blushing. Your breathing quickened... Relieve yourself, honey.” 

“You're cheeky.” His lips stretched into a mocking smile and shortly after you closed your eyes, you felt the pink-haired man approach you and a few seconds later his hand slipped under the covers, grabbing your wrist. 

“What are you doing?” You asked, looking at him in surprise. 

“What do you think?” He replied quietly and pulled your hand away from your cock while his other hand moved the covers away, revealing your swollen penis, which was leaning towards your thigh due to your arousal. “Let me help you a little and we can go back to sleep, okay baby?” 

He pinned your hand just above your head, leaned down and your lips met in a long kiss, during which his free hand began to slide over your bare stomach. 

At the same moment his slender fingers closed around your cock, his tongue slipped into your mouth, taking you completely by surprise. At first, he caressed your shaft at a similar pace as you had earlier, but as the kiss heated up, his hand began to move faster. 

He gently ran his thumbnail over the frenulum just below the head of your penis a few times and you moaned into his parted lips, which he took advantage of again by sliding his hot tongue into yours. 

You grabbed him by the neck with one hand and held him there, and his hand tightened around the tip of your manhood, massaging it rhythmically. You squeezed your eyes shut feeling how little you needed to climax, and another moan escaped your lips, muffled by your lover's reddened ones. 

Haruchiyo moved his hand faster and your hips jerked upward, releasing your orgasm with a sticky shot of your seed. His kisses lost their intensity, though they became more and more tender, and his hand moved slower and slower until it finally stilled, allowing your throbbing member to rest. 

You swallowed hard, catching your breath, and felt the man's lips stretch into a smile. He pulled away from you so he could look at your heated face and your heart skipped a beat at the sight of his beautiful eyes. 

"Better?" He asked in a slightly amused tone, and you nodded. 

“Better. Thank you, Haru.” 

He patted your thigh and got off the bed, leaving you alone on it and a little disappointed. 

“You need to change out of your pajamas, honey.” He said disappearing into the bathroom and you propped yourself up on your elbows to see how messy you had made yourself and after a moment you followed him. 

You pulled into the driveway in front of your garage and pulled out a photo of Yuji L/n from your jacket pocket. You felt a sudden surge of determination and were willing to do anything to get your hands on that son of a bitch and put an end to his reign of terror. 

<PREVIOUS/NEXT>

[kimetsu-chan]

~”I know sweetheart, I know.”~

A/N: LARZ ITS DOONEEE— *ahem* this is a Zeno Arakawa x reader pairing bc I said so and it’s period comfort bc I said so. I tried to keep it gender neutral to make it as inclusive as possible, but it was written with my friend(who is a girl) in mind, so i apologize if there are any slip ups.

This was written in 2nd pov and I apologize if it isn’t good, I don’t usually write in this format-

ENOUGH OF THAT, ONTO THE FIC

Word Count: 1,263 words

TWs ⚠️: menstruation, periods, comfort, reader cries bc ✨ pain ✨ please do not read if these topics are harmful to you or disturb you

The room was quiet. The blinds were all shut, the door was shut, and you were the only one in there. You had asked your guardian/parent if it was alright to stay home from school today because it felt like you have been punched then kicked repeatedly in the stomach. Thankfully, they said yes, you don’t think you would have survived school. You can barely survive the loud and chaotic building as normal.

Enough of that, what time is it?

You lifted your pillow that was covering your face and squinted your eyes as you tried to read the clock in the dark room.

4:06 pm, school was well over by now. You sighed as you flung the pillow back over your head. You were about to get up to grab some snacks, maybe some water too, when a massive wave of pure agony flashed through your abdomen the moment you moved.

You hissed in pain and coiled back up on your bed, tears pricking your eyes. You thought they went away?! A nap and painkillers was supposed to help!

You couldn't help the hot tears that started to roll down your cheeks, it wasn’t fair. You didn’t want to deal with this right now. You didn’t like being in pain. Especially not pain as bad as this.

You wished you could make it go away, you hated this.

Your thoughts were forcefully ripped away from you when your phone began to ring on your nightstand. You painfully reached over with a few small grunts and picked up the device. Your hands worked quickly to wipe your tears and accept the call when you saw that the caller ID told you that it was your boyfriend calling.

You picked up and tried to make your voice as steady as possible, but you couldn’t help the small cracks and strains here and there. When you finally picked up, Zeno began talking in a worried tone.

“[Name]? Why weren’t you at school today?”

Before you could even answer, the sound of a small smack came through the receiver and Zeno spoke in a way that made it seem like he was talking to himself. He quickly returned to addressing you as he made his voice as soft as possible.

“Oh, duh, period. Uhm… would you like me to stop by? I’ve already finished my homework and you can look at my notes from class today.”

You felt your eyes water all over again, you would really appreciate that. You did your best to once again hold our tears from seeping into your voice before you responded to his question. Maybe you could ask him to hold you when you were done, if that wouldn’t be too much of a bother.

“T-That would be okay..”

Zeno knew exactly what you meant by that. He knew you had trouble voicing what you wanted so you wouldn’t appear to be selfish. H wished he knew exactly how to help you with that, but that was another problem for another day.

You heard rummaging from the other side of the phone and assumed he was grabbing his stuff. He paused what he was doing and spoke once more.

“Okay, I’ll be there in fifteen.”

“Thank you… I love you…”

You could practically hear the smile from his voice as he responded.

“Love you too, hun.”

After exchanging goodbyes, he hung up the phone and you fell back on the bed. You held your breath as the ache kept up and didn’t show any signs of stopping at all.

You brought yourself to get up, no matter how much it hurt, because you didn’t want to have a messy room when Zeno came over. You fought through the intense pain to straighten your bed sheets and blankets. You opened the blinds, momentarily blinding yourself in the process, and made sure nothing was out of place.

Just as you were finishing, you heard the doorbell ring. Your mood instantly lifted when you looked out the window and recognized your boyfriend’s car sitting in the driveway.

You rushed downstairs as quickly as you could in your pain-filled state, which turned out to be faster than you would have thought, and slid to a stop at the front door. You undid the locks and swung the door open to reveal Zeno who was carrying a plastic bag and his book bag.

“Hey [Na—“

He didn’t even get to finish before you launched yourself on him. Thankfully, he caught you and hoisted his arms under your thighs to carry you. He didn’t question the surprise hug and just stepped inside the house, kicking the door closed behind him. He walked over to your kitchen and set you down on the counter with his bags before returning to the door to lock it.

When he returned he picked you back up along with the bags and began to carry you up the stairs.

You really appreciated not having to walk, staying still helped the cramps more than walking around did. Although, you couldn’t help but squirm a little from the discomfort, something Zeno did not miss.

Zeno set you down on your bed when you reached your room and began to pull things out of his book bag. He set his notebook down and opened it to the notes he took in class. Since he knew exactly where you kept your own school supplies, he pulled your notebook out for you and handed it to you along with a pencil.

You took both and began to copy down what his notes said but you were getting distracted. And Zeno noticed.

He toiled the way your hand would freeze over the paper and the way your eyebrows furrowed in such a way as if you were trying to make it appear that you were not in pain when you so obviously were. He also noticed the way you kept your hand on you abdomen, right on top of where you would experience the worst of your cramps.

He frowned and gently took the pencil from your hand, which elicited a confused glance from you. He gave you a sympathetic look before pulling your tired body towards him. He rested his chin atop your head as he stroked your back.

“How bad does it hurt.”

His question was sudden and you were not expecting it in the slightest. You knew you couldn’t lie or say it didn’t hurt at all, he would see right through you. The tears began to come back as you let yourself be comforted by him. Your voice was so obviously filled with distress and it broke his heart.

“A— A lot… it hurts really bad.”

His frown deepened at that. He wished he could take it away completely, but the only thing he could do was help ease the immense pain.

He shifted his position to comfortably hold you while pulling back your covers before laying you down and pressing a long and sweet kiss to your forehead.

He wiped your tears with his thumbs and pressed one more kiss to your face, this time to your lips, before slipping in bed beside you. He wrapped his arms around you and placed his warm hands on your abdomen to act as a heat source to help relieve the cramps. He made sure you were comfortable before finally speaking.

“I know sweetheart, I know…”

A/N: was the ending cringey— i hope it wasnt 😭

ALSO, LARZ, PREPARE TO BE SPAMMED WHENEVER YOU GET CRAMPS.

I hope you enjoyed reading this, i spent over an hour on it 🙃

Taglist: @larz-barz

[fullmetal-scar-simping]

Finding your blog is a blessing because I have ALWAYS been a Scar fan; and while I do generally prefer brotherhood's overall storyline, every time they bring up Ishvalans I have to prevent myself from committing violence because they bungled the imperial/genocide plotline so bad😭😭😭

And look not to be on the crazy agenda but it does deeply bother me that the only named Ishavalan we have in the series is Major Miles, whose father is likely Amestrian and that makes his surname also Amestrian.

And fine okay my babygirl Scar abandoned his name out of religious belief but damn...brotherhood gave me NOTHING about Ishvalans (except solidifying their ethnic features- after a lifetime of white silver-blond people in fantasy, it's sooo good to see brown people, who actually deserve white hair because they still have brows fhsjfj)

And look I like Miles. I genuinely do like him and enjoy the Briggs arc in mangahood, but he could have been such an interesting insight into the nuances of race politics because we know his Ishvalan grandfather and Ishvalan relatives were slaughtered during the war (and still he stays in the military😐); but what about his half-Ishvalan mother?

Was she spared the racial persecution because of her diluted blood in the same way Miles must have avoided going with the way of other Ishvalan soldiers? Or are you telling me Miles really hears that his Ishvalan family members, including his mother, were shot dead for being Ishvalans and decided that he's #different and he could totally liberal utopia his way into a Better Amestris😭

And I have the toughest life in the world because I am unfortunately a Miles/Scar shipper if only because I experience catharsis at the thought of Miles' third eye finally opening and he's no longer part of the Amestrian sheeple chsjdhsj

Again I do broadly speaking prefer mangahood (although I'll admit that opinion is changing with age), mangahood fans have to stop talking shit about 03 because that adaptation was phenomenal in its handling of the genocide that fmab conveniently forgets🙄

Chill mangahood fans who can recognize the pro-imperialism/militarism and racist politics in their fave media are always welcome here. I'm glad this blog feels like a blessing, even with how much I vent about mangahood and general fan wank. (o^-')b✨

I'll join you in committing violence on behalf of the Ishvalans. Hell, I'll encourage it even! I can never endure Broho again because of how they're treated, ignored, and written.

[Rant incoming]

Yeah, Arakawa, I have no doubt the various Ishvalan refugee settlements are living happily in spite of being displaced from their homes and carrying the horrors of a genocide fresh in their minds. Nothing bad happens to refugee camps and settlements at the hands of the dominant nation they've been forced to hide within. Scar's just unreasonably angry and violent, unlike all other Ishvalans who are nice and placid. (Being anti-racist is when you insist most people in an ethnic group would never raise a finger against fascists, right?)

Except also Scar states that the Ishvalans aiding the coup are "[H]ere to bring change... without resorting to terrorism." This both reads as Scar flagellating himself before his Amestrian 'allies', while simultaneously implying that all Ishvalan actions outside of quietly rotting in Amestris' margins was all terrorism (or more accurately, a 'negative' method of addressing their own oppression and occupation).

(This is why I argue that mangahood Scar's characterization once he's apprehended in Briggs is completely off. Arakawa derails the character she setup to instead force feed us a "redemption" arc that reforms the military. No one who watched their lives and loved ones get mercilessly slaughtered before their eyes would ever think that their murderers 'had some valid points' about how the relations between oppressor and oppressed ought to be run. This isn't what a character like Scar would say or believe, it's Arakawa's politic, boldly out in the open.)

Ahem.

For as much as I, rightfully, drag mangahood through the mud for how an ethnically oppressed group is (under)written, I do have to say that 03 could have also been better in many areas too! I wish there were more named Ishbalans, period. Especially named Ishbalan women with a major presence in the story (Lust is the only one we get, and as fantastic as her arc is, her Dante-gifted sin name is not her Ishbalan name). But I really appreciate that Ishbalans in 03 have diverse features AND opinions, unlike the Ishvalans in Broho. Both all have the unifying feature of red eyes, but for some reason Brotherhood makes it so that every single Ishvalan has the same hair colour and skin tone. They try to reflect this during the genocide flashbacks with the Amestrians being all blond and blue-eyed, but as we can see with both Amestrian civilians and the soldiers/war criminals, that's not true at all.

I'm on the same page regarding Scar (any version) relinquishing his previous name as working within motivations that align well with his character. On the one hand I like to think mangahood Scar does eventually take on a new name rather than giving others free real estate over how he's referred to. On the other, the sense of mystery is fun- until the recollection of the myriad ways he's dehumanized and mistreated throughout Broho come crashing in and I end up seeing his indifference towards deciding a name for himself as just another way to give ownership over himself to Amestris.

(Decent arguments can be made that this is his way to keep his future open, and that this could even be Scar intending to give himself space to create himself anew; only then would a new name become necessary. At least these are my more good faith theories on the matter.)

And hey, for all my ire about mangahood, Miles, and even Miles/Scar, I don't begrudge people liking any of the above. I'm not gonna shit on anyone for liking what I don't, even when I routinely express my dislike.

Miles is a maddening character for me precisely because of the incongruence of his backstory, familial line, his opinions on the military, his participation in their oppression, and how he sees Scar's actions in comparison to his own. I've said it before, but Miles feels less like a character to me and more like Arakawa's mouthpiece (one of many, Ed being the main one). There's no conflict in him regarding his position in the very military that destroyed his own family, no moment where he actually has to reassess everything he's done and believed, and make a decision on whether he wants to continue being Amestris' preaching lapdog or not. This is why I can't simply view him as a complex character with warped politics who makes atrocious decisions, but instead a token oppressed strawman for Arakawa to defend her fictitious militia.

Hard not to wonder though: how would Miles' arc go if he was written by someone who wasn't disturbed by radical actions against the state? There was potential for something far less insulting and racist, but that's not what we got. I can see why Miles fans like yourself would be conflicted with how he's used in mangahood, and I can also understand what potential he held that you folks see in him.

"I experience catharsis at the thought of Miles' third eye finally opening," honestly? Based. If Miles/Scar shippers have Miles finally enter his anti-military era, and both he and Scar shed their liberalism henceforth, then I'm here for it. May they both tear apart the ongoing Amestrian regime, brick-by-brick!

Anyway, bless you for this ask! I have no beef with mangahood enjoyers who aren't talking out their ass (in general and at us 03 fans). I may not post much about mangahood outside of my routine complaints, but we at least have a love of Scar to unite us. 🤝