#and Ed

[sassydefendorflower]

No, but you don't understand! It is so important that (one of) the last pictures we see of Ed is him holding his son with the biggest fucking smile in the entire world on his face!

Because Ed is Hohenheim's mirror!

Ed's narrative parallel is his own father (oh, how he would hate knowing that - how he fights against that realization) - Ed is the one who leaves Winry behind, just as Hohenheim left Trisha and the kids. Ed is the one who burns their childhood home down, just as Xerxes is destroyed in the wake of Hohenheim's naiveté. Ed is the one who commits an unforgivable sin and seeks atonement following his own shortcomings, just as Hohenheim unknowingly helps the Dwarf in a Flask destroy an entire civilization and carries that responsibility with him for the rest of his (long, long) life.

Hell, Hohenheim telling Ed that him burning the house down because he is running away from his past - while horribly cruel - is really just Hohenheim talking to himself. He wasn't lying when he said that Ed reminded him an awful lot of himself at that age!

And in every choice Ed makes throughout the show, he's always trying to be unlike his father, while unwillingly playing into the same pattern. Ed's complete disregard for Hohenheim, his hurt in the face of the father that left, is what ultimately pushes Ed to make similar choices - he doesn't want to see himself in his father, so he doesn't see the similarities of leaving Winry behind to Hohenheim walking out the door without ever looking back. There's a reason Winry has a thing about "backs in the distance" - and there's a reason why the Openings and Endings of fma Brotherhood often position the boys as walking away, only showing the audience their backs as they walk off.

But in the end?

Ed mirrors Hohenheim. Hell, they even stand in the same spot in the two family pictures. Hohenheim and Ed, both on the left side, both holding the oldest of their two kids, both- well, Hohenheim is crying, while Ed is the happiest he's ever been.

And that's only because Ed stopped running from his past - Ed found happiness in the end, and part of that was accepting Hohenheim as his father. It's not a story about forgiveness, but acknowledgement. Just Edward calling Hohenheim "his rotten father" in the end is enough for him to move past his refusal to engage with the realities of Hohenheim. The realities of his own father leaving in relation to him growing up.

By the end of the story, Ed dresses more conservatively and still travels - he looks more like Hohenheim than ever. But unlike before in the story, when Ed was fighting this relation, he is now happier than ever before. Happier than Hohenheim ever was. Because with Ed accepting all the qualities he shares with the man, he can also embrace all the differences between them.

Ed managed to grow alongside his guilt. He found happiness in his family, a loving wife, children, research and travel, philosophy and friendship. Edward gets to be happy. He gets to learn from his mistakes (from Hohenheim's mistakes) and return home.

And that's where the mirror breaks.

As all mirrors are wont to do.

[sandwichmustbetasty]

stede fully embraced his 'cringe and bad decisions era' and i'm sitting there being like: my dude, even my autistic ass can read people better

[kilucore]

after the year and a half of imagining what ofmd season 2 is going to be like, actually watching it feels so surreal. like this isnt real to me

[adickaboutspoons]

SOMEONE FUCKING HUG FANG NOW!!!!!!!!!

[halfdeadwallfly]

I am in love with Jim

[poorlittlevampire]

kyoukai no kanata had such a good op

[the-catmans-offical-2]

Me when Wrath 03

I can imagine The Characters to any song

[skipppppy]

This has to be an AU already right? I’ve never seen it. I’m doing it. My city now

The angst potential alone haunts me. How long do you think he waited for Ford?? When did it start to sink in that nobody was coming to save him, that nobody would miss him? Would anybody even want him back? How long did it take for his anger, his heartbreak, his grief to turn into acceptance and a belief that this was divine retribution? How long did he work, how many jobs did he take, how much wealth did he accrue, how many brushes with death did he have until he believed he’d “earned” the right to go home and see his brother?? Many such questions. I need to go deeper

[allagashed]

whenever i say “screaming crying throwing up” this is what i mean

[saddi3grl]

[aropride]

when i was 17 and in the eating disorder trenches i saw people online talking abt how the fat liberation movement & unlearning fatphobia helped them recover and i did NOT like hearing that i was SO mad about it i was like well having an eating disorder doesnt mean im fatphobic!!! This is ableist etc etc. And then i learned abt the fat liberation movement and started unlearning fatphobia and guess what . it does help

[vietsoul]

Ed Dinakos & Jake Tanner Muscle Ranch, 1991 - Colt Studios, dir. Rip Colt

[onebadnoodle]

i've been rewatching ed edd n eddy and its got me thinking about what their unseen parents are like

[onevibrant]

Pants getting loose is so fun but also unsettling like wdym I used to be fat enough to fit into those?

[daddymidas]

orgasm denial but a dom that knows you can’t cum without clit stimulation so he just fucks you over and over again knowing you can’t cum while you turn into a whimpering mess desperate to have your clit played with