#but there's a lot of continuity in fmab

[doctormichaelaquinn]

I love the consistency of having the scar on Mustang's hand where he carved the transmutation circle still visible a few episodes later. Like Bradley is sitting there threatening Hawkeye and he still has the visual evidence on his body of what he'll do to protect her. Sorry Bradley you simply can not win against that energy.

[smoothshine]

Finally! Publishing these shots I started a while ago and just couldn't decide which versions I like better, but here they are!

(The last shot is based on a scene from a "Lethal weapon" series, definitely more bloody than the original source material though, hehe)

[cloudzoro]

Getting Caught | One Piece ♡

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Getting caught having sex with your man by one of his friends.

reaction/headcanon requests for jjk, one piece, haikyuu, fmab & death note (male & female characters) are OPEN!

masterlist | request rules

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genre: smut (minors dni)

characters included: ace, crocodile, zoro

cw: dirty talk, pet names, threesome, size kink, public sex, voyeurism, big dick!zoro, possessive behaviour, Zoros one kinda made me 💦🤭🥵💫 while I was writing it

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Ace

Ace has been visiting your home a lot recently. Since the two of you started dating, he promised not to be gone too long. When you do finally get him back, you're all over him.

He's sitting on your couch while you're on his lap. You grind down against his cock, which he had pulled out of his shorts. The brim of his hat presses against the back of the sofa and prevents him from getting comfortable, so he takes it off of himself and places it on your head. The sight of you stripped naked in just his hat has him bucking his hips up into you.

“sit on my cock, pretty girl,” he says. “Let me fuck you, baby.”

You reach down and guide his cock into your hole. He helps you sink all the way down onto him, and when he finally bottoms out, you moan in his ear. He holds you still as you clench around him. He knows if you start moving now, he'll cum almost immediately.

“Please fuck me, Ace”, you whine before kissing him. He hums into your mouth and slowly ruts upwards. As soon as he moves, the door swings open. Ace is quick enough to grab a nearby blanket and wrap it around you while pulling you to his chest, blocking any possibility of whoever just walked in seeing you naked.

You look to the doorway to see Marco standing there. He seems embarrassed and as if he's trying not to laugh.

“I was just coming by to see how your reunion is going”, he says, a smug grin plastered on his face.

“It's doing fine; now beat it!” yells Ace, throwing a pillow in his direction. Marco runs, but not before yelling through the now-closed door.

“Nice hat, y/n!”

Crocodile

He has you on your back, legs pushed up to your chest as he fucks you. He's so deep inside you and so big that he attacks all your senses. You couldn't focus on anything else if you tried. You can feel his palm pressing against the tiny bulge in your stomach.

“Can you feel that baby? Feel me deep in your pussy?” his voice has you clenching around him. The room smells of smoke and sex, and it makes you so dizzy that you can barely respond to him. You let out a long whine and nod. Crocodile laughs from above you. “Can I flip you over?” he asks. You whine a yes, and he flips you onto your hands and knees.

A large, heavy hand pushes you down against the sheets. He pushes back into you and the new angle makes you scream into the fabric beneath you. Every thrust sends you forward into the mattress, and Crocodile does absolutely nothing to hide your moaning.

A few minutes later, you hear a loud banging at the door, and before either of you can move, Mihawk swings the door open as if he's completely unaware of what you are doing.

Your husband pulls you upwards so your back is against his chest and wraps his big arms around you, covering your most intimate parts. There's a beat of silence before Mihawk launches into a flustered tirade.

“You two are completely inconsiderate. Do you ever fucking shut up?” While he continues ranting, Crocodile leans down to speak in your ear.

“Look at him; he wants us so bad,” he whispers. He's not wrong if the flushed skin and raging boner are anything to go by. “Do you wanna invite him in?” he asks, paying no mind to Mihawk's scolding. When you nod, your husband drops his hands away from your chest and between your legs. Mihawk goes silent now that your body is exposed to him. “She has another hole for you,” says Crocodile, pressing his fingers against your lips. You obey his silent command and open your mouth to suck on his fingers. “y'know if you want help with that,” smirks your husband, gesturing to the tent pitched in Mihawk's trousers.

Mihawk considers the offer for a minute before approaching the bed. Crocodile lets go of your body and pushes you back down as Mihawk pulls his cock free from his trousers. You lick up the underside of his cock and then take him into your mouth, relaxing into taking as much of him as you can. You can hear verbal encouragement from both men, but you're not focusing on the words at all; you're too busy being stuffed with cock.

Zoro

Zoro can't keep his hands off of you, you've been at a bar for all of ten minutes and he's itching to pull into the nearest bathroom and fuck you stupid.

“Baby, come on,” Zoro says, pulling your back against his chest as you stand at the bar. “No one will even notice we're gone.”

Your boyfriend is impossible to resist and you let him drag you to the bathroom. He pins you against the wall, kissing you as he pulls his cock free. He holds his hand in front of your face, instructing you to spit in his palm. He uses your saliva to lube up his cock before lining himself up with your cunt and pushing in. You pull Zoro into another kiss, much nastier and messier than the last. His hips rock into you, cock dragging against your sensitive walls.

“Hold on to me, pretty girl”, he groans as you cling to his shoulders. He fuckss you harder, intending to make you cum as quickly as possible so he can get you home and really take his time with you. Neither of you realise that you didn't lock the door until you notice a blonde man with a familiar pair of eyebrows staring at you in shock.

“Zoro, Sanji's here,” You whine, slightly embarrassed. He knows; he heard Sanji coming in. He just doesn't care. At this point, almost nothing could stop him from making you cum.

“Let him watch. Let that shitty cook see what he'll never have” The cocky smile on his face makes your pussy drool. Zoro isn't jealous; he has no reason to be, but he has one of the nastiest possessive streaks you've ever seen in your life. “This pretty pussy is all mine, right baby?”

“uh-huh” is the only pair of syllables you can form as he fucks you so hard you fear you might crack the wall. You're not lying, though. Every part of your mind, body, and soul belongs to Zoro and vice versa. Sanji tries to focus on glaring at the swordsman, but he keeps getting distracted by your exposed skin and pretty noises.

“Cum for me” He emphasises the word ‘me’ reminding both you and Sanji that every drop of cum that leaks from your sweet pussy is his. Your body follows through on the command, shaking in his grasp as you cum. Both men stare at you in awe. Zoro cums soon after, unable to stand the way your cunt pulses around his sensitive cock any longer. “Get out of here,” Zoro growls, voice startling Sanji back to reality and he hurries off so you and Zoro can clean up in privacy.

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thank you for reading! I hope you enjoyed :)

comments and reblogs are massively appreciated ♡

[russenoire]

i just finished fullmetal alchemist 2003...

and i have words about this.

while both series have lovely scores, courtesy of michiru ooshima here and akira senju for FMAB, FMAB's OPs and EPs are almost all far too good to skip, ever. (if i have to hear pornograffiti's 'melissa' one more time, i will scream.) both series rely pretty heavily on slapstick humor to leaven the surrounding darkness, and the massive chip on edward's shoulder about his height, grating in brotherhood, also wears on my patience here.

i liked this story's approach to alchemy and how it works. but the creators' vision of homunculi here, where each homunculus arises as a result of a single alchemist's hubris and becomes their sin to answer for? i prefer it a little more than the admittedly more cohesive explanation of a single being splitting off aspects of himself.

we get to spend more time with scar and maes hughes (my favorite character; i adore his hazel eyes in this adaptation and hearing the late keiji fujiwara's silky pipes voice him twice is a joy). i still can't decide which kimblee i like best.

both fullmetals are examples of satisfyingly meaty storytelling and full of awesome animation. i suspect a dislike of canon divergence behind a lot of the hate for the first series, and a preference for deeper character study and pathos behind hate for the second.

i'm usually wary of adaptations continuing after creators run out of source material myself, but the story shō aikawa and seiji mizushima constructed out of whole cloth offers up a feast of philosophy, character study, mindfuckery and intricate military-political intrigue. and for the most part, it holds up under its own weight.

here scieszka, winry and rose are more instrumental to the story's plot. dante the cursed shapeshifting genius alchemist is a brilliant addition to the story, as is archer (more on him below). lust becomes an almost sympathetic character, what with having loved and lost multiple times as she manipulates mankind into seeking knowledge while being only a tool herself. alphonse is a formidable alchemist and a prodigy in his own right. here that's not just hinted at; both boys could have passed the state alchemist exam with ease. i loved seeing the elric brothers use alchemy to squabble with each other, not just fists and limbs. and edward... he's a double amputee, but his prosthetic limbs work well enough to rid him of any real functional impairment (bless winry's fantastic engineering!). i'm not going to get into the fucked-up implications of that in this post, but i will say that FMA '03 makes his disability much clearer. we see how painful attaching his automail limbs is, repeatedly. a character pries them off of him at one point and he's almost helpless until he can get them back. it's now obvious why he wears gloves most of the time.

the brutality and pervasive racism of the military dictatorship running amestris is given far more focus here. (edward himself gets checked on his own racist assumptions quite a few times.) we see more of the armed forces in the act of genocide, not just flashbacks in haunted soldier memories. officers openly call people savages; kimblee is sent in as an exterminator because of his amorality and solipsism; shou tucker's sick research is allowed to continue, even though the military already has a more efficient method to make chimerae. while making the situation the elric brothers left behind in liore worse, the shady lt col archer sustains what would have been fatal wounds. he gets rebuilt into some sort of robocop hybrid sentient killing machine with no qualms about gunning down his own men. rose is traumatized to mutism raped by the military for having led a rebellion and still leads her people.

whether this feels heavy-handed to you may depend on your tolerance for darkness and cognitive dissonance; i'm still processing how i feel about it. both takes on arakawa-sensei's story present their main and supporting cast as capable of cruelty and kindness, but FMA '03 foregrounds that evil a bit more alongside the good. it made the kindness less palatable for me, in a good way.

also i spoiled myself a bit by watching the conqueror of shamballa before finishing this series. when i learned that mizushima-san is a huge fan of hideaki anno's work, FMA '03's 'inconclusive' ending made even more sense.

[otaku553]

How goes the fma x albedo fic? I hope that doesn't sound pushy, I'm genuinely curious. And in that vein, do you have any little drabbles you may have written or want to write? Especially with your recent kny ocs/yourself and your siblings. That'd be super fun to read about! Your art AND your writing is so freaking good, the moment I see you've posted something new on your blog I'm clicking it so fast. Same with your ao3 account ❤️

Thank you for the kind words!!! Currently not working on any fics, since I just came out of 10 weeks of summer research where my days began at 8 am and ended at 9 pm for probably less than minimum wage hahaha (doing research is a Bit Sad but I get a whole month to relax before classes start again so thank goodness for that)

I do however!!! Have a lot of plans!!! If you’re interested you can read more below!

Plans include but are not limited to:

Finally working on Homuncular Nature again!! I definitely do have a lot of plans and cool scenes playing out in my head for the next chapter, it’ll just come down to when I actually put pen to paper (or stylus to iPad) to actually organize and write them all. The road block I think is that I have seen neither Albedo nor fmab very recently and all my concrete ideas are for around the 30 episode mark for fmab, the turning point with the first actual confrontation against father and the subsequent Briggs arc.

Rewriting Ten Thousand Maple Leaves! A lot of people have been very kind but I think I missed the mark with my first chapter to be honest. My writing has gotten a lot wordier and less succinct, which feels like I’m filling a chapter more with fluff and unnecessary description than actual content. I think I also dislike how I characterized Sanemi and how quickly Kazuha was willing to agree with things. Writing both of them is kind of a difficult challenge tbh! I think in rewriting it I want to give back to Kazuha more of his vagrant role in the games, where he is avoiding the law for reasons somewhat out of his control.

Ebisu siblings content! I think it might be fun to try having them interact with more of the canon characters in kny but I also think there’s some value in a complete sort of outsider point of view when inserting characters into a piece of media. I feel like whenever I see self inserts I see a lot of ocs making themselves indispensable and making meaningful relationships with existing characters that way and that’s totally valid! That’s a lot of what I do for crossovers as well. I think when it comes to my own ocs though, I want them to feel grounded in some form and the reality of it is that none of the characters I make based on myself or real people are that impressive or remarkable. But I also think there’s a lot of value in showing smaller scale things outside of the main interactions and plot to show that even though we aren’t remarkable, we still have our own meaningful connections and ideologies and stories :) in the end the Ebisu siblings are a lot more visual though so I may just continue making doodles and art without writing anything haha

Kirby & Meta Knight ageswap AU: I was mostly doing this on my ask-gikabi sideblog in short form comics, but I lost sight of what I wanted to do after making the discord and starting to interact with some of the people who followed it. I think a lot of people are inspired and have their own very cool ideas that I wanted to take into account but then eventually it was no longer my story or the story I wanted to tell, which is why I’m thinking of restarting it as a fic. This one is still in very rough idea stage though, I have honestly no clue how I’m even going to begin organizing it

Yanfei ace attorney crossover: this one’s just pure crack lmao I would definitely write it as crack taken seriously but I think this is fun to explore just for small ideas that pop up every now and then, i.e. yanfei is semi-immortal because she’s half adeptus so it would be Really Funny to me if she showed up in dgs era, got her attorney’s license, went into hiding after it became obvious that she wasn’t aging, and then re-emerged after rebranding herself as her own daughter or granddaughter. That, and I have a lot of fun imagining someone as pragmatic as yanfei trying to get through the sheer chaos of aa despite being otherworldly

Continuing winter weather advisory: I got to a really good point in that fic and was rereading it today like,,, damn I wrote that? And it would be fun to see where I planned on going with it so I do want to also try working on that a bit if I can

Kazuha & Kunikuzushi role swap au: this is something I posted about a Long While ago but it’s an idea I continue to be fascinated with :) I especially enjoy how these two characters could have had completely different roles and personalities depending on how their pasts happened (with wanderer being so nice and turning so bitter and kazuha growing up so spoiled (for lack of a better word) and turning out so weary and yet kind

Link click and mha crossover: this one is honestly just a very recent idea but I think it would be fun to make a drabble on how lightime photo studio would be able to continue operating even in another world and the trouble they might get into for illegal quirk usage and what using cheng xiaoshi’s powers in a world where being able to tell the future is canonically possible would entail

I have!! So many ideas!! And not enough time or motivation to actually write any of them most of the time :’)

But I’m very glad to hear that you enjoy them and look forward to my posts!! :D I really hope I can work on some of these over the last month of summer vacation that I have :)

[the-catmans-offical-2]

Here is the consensus of the Chimera! Ed AU;

Be warned there's spoilers I'm pretty sure.

This AU starts out just like the Canon sources: Ed and Al doing human transmutation, it leading to Ed loosing his leg and only moments later his arm due to bonding Al's soul to a suit of armor as Al lost his physical form to the gate, Mustang and Hawkeye coming to Resembool looking for two adult Alchemists only to find out their sources were wrong and learned of the human transmutation as well as the fact that Ed and Al are like 11-10, Ed getting the automail surgery and then a year later getting into the military, Barry the chopper shit; Y'know, everything up to where FMA 03 diverges itself from Brotherhood and manga. At that point the Chimera! Ed AU diverges as well.

(*Giovi note: As much as I'd like to mix elements of FMA 03 and FMAB for this AU, this AU will follow FMAB more as honestly I remember more from Brotherhood; I need to rewatch both 03 and Brotherhood if I'll be honest, but yeah.)

The trip to Lab 5 doesn't go as planned. Ed and Al go, fight both the newly soul possessing armor Barry the chopper as well as the slicer brothers, the homunculi show up and incompacitate Ed. Blah, blah, blah. But, instead of giving Ed to Al; They put him in the hands of some of the scientists who were working on Chimera research and creation in the 5th lab (They most likely moved to a different location to continue their work after it was destroyed by Envy, and Lust.) as to monitor their sacrifice more closely. In turn keeping him from getting killed if he went on more missions as well as just to 'have fun' with him, in a sense.

This would lead to the eventual transmutation experiments that lead to Ed becoming a Chimera.

(*Giovi note: I know most people probably think of cats or dogs in terms of animals to use for chimeras, when I was first thinking of this AU I actually went over other people's works on AO3 of their Chimera Ed's as to see how most would view him behavior wise as well as which animal to pair him with. I saw a few of Ed with dog/wolf, at least one of him transmuted as a cat Chimera; So my assumption that people typically chose such was correct. However, I personally am straying away from that thought. For starters, I don't think they'd believe it to be a good idea that the Fullmetal Alchemist, known for his temper and being a protector, to have a predatory animal mixed into his mindset and body. If anything, that could make him more dangerous to the people working on him, or even the homunculi themselves. Therefore I believe they'd mix him with a prey-animal. As means to both humiliate him, reducing him to a panicked, skittish mindset as well as smaller attributes to be taken even less seriously if he were to go out into public again. This is why I chose an armadillo for Ed, a prey-animal known to curl up and hide when in distress and act rather docile in most situations unless cornered as well as to eat bugs. An animal seen as diseased by most. Honestly, I do think the armidillo is very fitting of Ed. But I digress.)

So, yeah, he goes through various experiments; Having his automail crudely removed as to keep him from preforming Alchemy as well as to keep him from hurting the scientists too badly. When the homunculi aren't constantly hovering over the experiments, possibly going to check over Alphonse to make sure he's still kicking in his rust bucket, Ed is able to make his escape. He had tried to escape a few times in the past, but without his automail, that'd probably make it a lot harder. So he'd try escaping, hiding out within the vents and such of the lab or building they chose to turn into a lab as he finds his automail; Promptly attaching the leg automail limb to his body, of course after getting some basic tools as he wandered the vents into different rooms. It is already painful to have someone else attach automail, let alone reattach, now it is probably a lot worse when its done all by himself; Him being an amateur at best, with only one usable arm and lack of energy from however long he had been hiding in the vents before finding and therefore reattached his limbs. He most likely vomited from the pain alone, shockingly not passing out (But it's Ed, with his determined ass he probably would keep himself from passing out for as long as he could; Especially with such an adrenaline high he probably got on from the pain.)

He most likely reattached the limb wrong, probably not connecting a good few of his nerves; But enough to still allow some movement, to help him escape faster. But not enough to help him out if he were to get into a fight, probably shorting out. His arm was practically useless, having frozen up back initially in the 5th lab when Envy approached him, so he never attached the limb. He just tied it to his back; With a cloth of some sort, taking some hanging up scientists coats and putting them on as well.

When he did make his escape, he was nearly found out, having ran through a corridor he had watched scientists leave through even through days of the initial transmutation and the experiments that shortly followed that. If it weren't for Havoc conveniently searching the area for a different threat (Scar probably, he had split up from Mustang to search. But they also had been searching for Ed after he went missing, it being much harder to do with how tight lipped Al, Ross, and Brosh were being about the whole situation. They still had their jobs to do though); Ed probably wouldn't of escaped successfully.

The only issue was, Havoc's first instinct when seeing Ed was to point a gun at him; At first unknowing that it was indeed Ed.

Ed's appearance had greatly changed after the experiments occurred. These experiments being much lower budget, most likely kept from Bradley himself given Ed was "called dibs on" by him, and probably were to conclude whether or not Chimeras could be made using cheaper methods. (So unlike the Devil's Nest gang) Ed now looked more animalistic and smaller, his back unnaturally curved like a macaroni noodle, his face furry and almost shrew like with little whiskers and a snout, his eyes cataracted and white like Nina's had been when she was transmuted with Alexander, his right arm now only containing three fingers with long claws at the end of them. Rounded ears on top of his head. Yet he still had his long, golden hair with golden bangs. Still had that, although much dimmed out, fire in his eyes that inexplicably made everyone know who he was. And his voice. His voice sounded just like his own, yet with a bit more squeakiness to it. In the back of his throat, he seemed to emit a squeaking, almost beeping sound. Especially as he looked over Havoc when he was found.

So yeah, that's basically sumerizes the context you'll need of the AU once I start drawing out it's comic. It may take me a bit to draw the comic out, however, please be patient with me. All posts with the tag "#Chimera ed au" , "#Chimera ed" all pertain to this AU. That is going to be how ill organize the posts for now.

Anyway, if you have any questions, wanna give suggestions for the AU, or even just wanna tell me to stfu about the AUs; Use the ask box on my acc or just comment. I'll answer whatever I can. :)

[iremi678]

FMAB X HP OotP

So this idea has been floating around my head rent free for a while and demanded to be written.

“Now.” The toad continues after trying to shove her bullshit down their throats. “If there are no questions, you may begin to read chapter one.”

Ed raises his hand at the same time as Hermione.

“Yes Mr. Elric” She calls on him, deliberately ignoring Hermione. Ed’s sure she’ll come to regret that.

“I’m curious, is there going to be a practical portion of class?”

“Of course not!” She exclaims, affronted by the very idea of actually learning something useful.

“Then the only material that will be covered is in the book?”

“Yes. The ministry feels there is no need to teach you something so dangerous.”

“I’ll be sure to inform the Fuhrer of this. I’m sure he’ll be very interested in the Ministries method of teaching.”

She has the nerve to look proud of herself.

“Especially since the ministry seems to be hellbent on sabotaging your next generation.” That wiped the grin off her face. Ed gives her a smug smile.

“Why- why I’d never!” She exclaims indignantly at the accusation.

Ed lounges back and gives his best imitation of Mustang’s, you poor stupid person look. And seeing he’s often on the receiving end of it, there is a lot of source material to pull from.

“Your ministry is knowingly and intentionally ensuring the students have no way to protect themselves.”

“And what, Mr. Elric, would they need to defend themselves from?”

It’s a dare. She’s trying to bait him into saying Lord Asshat is back. But Ed has played this game too often to take the bait when it doesn’t benefit him in any way.

Harry, however, hasn’t learned that lesson yet.

“Oh I don’t know?” Harry interrupts, and Ed just wants to bang his head against a wall at the boy’s stupidity. “Voldemort?”

The toad's face turns this interesting shade of reddish purple that’s very unflattering. Well-- more unflattering than her normal face at least. “How dare you spread such lies and slander. Detention Mr. Potter. You are perfectly safe, the ministry will not tolerate such lies.” “Then I suppose Cedric dropped dead of his own accord.” Ed suppressed a groan, why does Harry insist on digging himself into a bigger hole? It may be hypocritical considering how often he’s done the same, but at least he either outranks the asshole, or they’re too terrified of him, Mustang or both of them to do anything. The first person who gave him trouble when he first joined was suddenly arrested for corruption.

It doesn’t take a genius to figure out how that happened. But Harry has none of these and is only going to make things worse for himself. 

“What happened to Mr. Diggory was a tradg-”

“It was murder!”

“Not to interrupt” Ed breaks in before things get any more heated. “But the danger I was referring to wasn’t lord what’s his face.”

“There is nothing you need to be afraid of Mr. Elric. The ministry is perfectly capable of protecting you and the students.” “So you plan to assign every student a bodyguard?” He mockingly raises an eyebrow at her. “I wasn’t aware you had such resources.”

“Why ever would we do that?”

“Well, that’s the only conceivable way I can imagine the ministry being able to protect students who aren’t allowed to defend themselves.”

“I’ve told you repeatedly Mr.Elric” Her irritation leaking into her voice. “That there is nothing you need to worry about.”

“And you seem to forget, Professor, that I am a State Alchemist. Meaning I work for the government, and have done so for years. I’m the one they send to catch the crackpot serial killer of the week. I’m the one they send to other countries to fight their wars. They send me, because I am the best they have. And in all the countries I’ve been to, people tend to be generally horrible to each other. Murder, rape, torture, human experimentation. I’ve seen it all. And if you think the wizarding world is somehow exempt from that, you and the ministry are incredibly naive. But if you want to bury your head in the sand and pretend all is well, then that's your prerogative. It’s not my dumpster fire, I’m returning to Amestris after this year. You’re the ones who’ll have to deal with the inevitable fall out.”

“Detention Mr. Elric!”

Ed leans back and shrugs. “Doesn’t make what I said any less true.”

“I’ll be informing the minister of this.”

“You go right ahead.” He waves off her threat uncaringly. Like Mustang will actually do anything. 

 “I doubt the Fuhrer will be pleased with your attitude.” She tries again, caught off guard by his lack of care.

“Hey it's been almost a week and I haven’t caused obscene amounts of property damage or an international incident yet. The bastard’ll probably make it a national holiday. I can see the headlines now, ‘Hero of the People goes one week without destroying anything, it’s a miracle’ or some such bullshit. You level a mountain once and they’ll never let you live it down.”

“A mountain?”

“It was in the way.”

“Of what?!” She asks incredulously.

“The idiot emperor was tired of people fighting over it, something about mining rights, so he decided if they couldn’t act like adults, then he’d just get rid of the problem. So he asked me to destroy the mountain and make a new city out of the material. No more mountain, no more annoying whining. It also had the added benefit of creating a new trade route.” 

It was also a not so subtle threat to the other clans to keep them in line. Because, ‘do what I tell you to or I’ll call that insane alchemist who destroyed a mountain because I asked him to��, is great motivation to stop dumbasses from getting any ideas. That and the constipated look the bastard got when he realized he couldn’t yell at him about it was fucking hilarious.

[rachelsquill]

a couple thoughts for this morninv

yay yuri is feeling a lot better hes still weak but hes been eating like those lil delectables squeeze ups and my dad is gonna get him some baby food bcuz its probably more nutritious than the treats. Hopefully tonight or tomorrow he’ll be back to full yuri mode

i cannot decide what i want to watch rn Do i watch snow white with the red hair bcuz its been a while and Lainey reminded me it exists, do i want to watch Mob Psycho bcuz its one of the best animes, do i wanna watch FMAB for the same reason asMP100, do i wanna watch chainsaw man bcuz i never finished it, do i wanna continue rewatching charlotte, do i wanna get back into Noragami, or do i wanna say fuck all the anime and watch Psych instead

the couches my parents bought are so uncomfortable and irritating that is hard for me to enjoy being out in the TV room. Like why would you make a recliner that doesnt lock so if i move even a little bit the recliner comes with me like bro also the like back of the couch to the front of the couch seating area is too short so i feel like im always on the edge. idk i just wish my parents had consulted me and my sisters before impulse buying a new set of couches

final thought is i want to create something today. literally anything

[adrift-in-thyme]

FMAB discussion (continued):

Roy Mustang. I love how his character is borderline villain, yknow? Like how he’s clearly a hero but his ability to follow orders and common sense makes him deadly and vaguely evil. But also he’s the good guy so like. Hdhfbebsjfjdjnajd his character is amazing and unique!! Idk that a see a lot of people like Roy. And the way that he does everything, calculated to a T, and the way he has Riza keep him in check???? Ndjfnend just. Fabulous

And then Riza is amazing, I love how she follows Mustang’s orders but she was never just a soldier, she was sharp and like. That cunningness was something that she never dropped. Like even just standing there, you felt like she was acutely aware of everything. Roy treated her like his equal, and used her status as his subordinate to protect her, to the best of his abilities. He did that with his whole team, and I love how much Roy loves and respected them. Like he really is a great leader, intelligent and compassionate and empathetic.

(Also, on the subject of choosing Legend whump details…how about like, poison? Poison and something to do with difficulty breathing/ coughing up blood/broken ribs. Is that okay? Is that too many? Feel free to change them if you need/want to :3 thank you so much im so hyped :333 <3)

YESSS HE’S SUCH A GOOD CHARACTER. I’m with you. I don’t see many like Roy. He’s built like an antihero and yet he’s…not. He’s committed atrocities yet keeps going to ensure no one ever does such things again. And his cold ambition is used for that purpose and not for his own benefit. At the end of the day he’s…kinda a dreamer. And an optimist??? A calculated optimistic dreamer?? Like how does that even add up?? 😅 He’s very complex and multifaceted and never ceases to surprise me. I love him so much

Oh I LOVE Riza!! Like Roy she honestly just kept surprising me. Her cold calculating, her intelligence and cunning, her skill, but also her kindness and sensitivity. One moment she’s a cold blooded killer and the next she’s giving Ed advice like a cool aunt or something 😅 And her and Roy’s relationship is everything to me.

Roy really is a great leader! That’s another thing about him that kinda baffles me. He seems like he keeps everyone at a distance and yet here’s this team of people who would die for him but he’d never allow them to. He cares deeply for them…so much so that Bradley knows he’ll falter without his little found family

(About the Legend whump…you choosing those tropes makes me so happy you’ve got no idea. I LOVE the poisoning trope. And to get to combine it with other forms of whump? AWESOME. The more pain the better XD So YES absolutely ok! I’ll get started! I’m so excited!!)

[iamafanofcartoons]

RWBY is a good show that suffers too much hatred: The weird concept of taking hatred of a piece of media, and calling it criticism, or "Expectations vs Headcanons" type of criticism. Or: Why having nothing nice to say is the equivalent of hating rather than criticizing.

OPENING REMARKS

Nobody is saying that RWBY is on the same level of ATLA, or FMAB, or stuff like that.

But many people who watch RWBY past Volume 3 still have an appreciation for the show. But when we try to discuss our love for the show? How many people have told us that we are wrong for watching RWBY past volume 3?

Many people who refuse to watch RWBY, do so simply because they were told by people who came up with one reason or another why they didn't like the show, those people proceeded to then dislike RWBY without ever having watched it.

Comparisons of Other Media

Taking things out of context is not criticism, but criticizing things from an out of context perspective IS HATRED

Bumbleby: Criticism Vs Hate

Expectations? Or Headcanons? And the difference between them.

Cake Analogy

Criticism by itself is not bad, but what is the difference between criticism and hatred?

The Hatedom exists, it is not a boogeyman, and the defenders of RWBY are NOT “Toxic positivity”

Conclusion

COMPARISONS OF OTHER MEDIA THAT HAVE SIMILAR THEMES AND SIMILAR TREATMENT ON SOCIAL MEDIA

If you've watched shows like "She-Hulk" or "The Sandman" maybe you've noticed a lot of people complaining that "Shows these days have become too woke"...but what is woke?

Female protagonists doing the same things and going through the same struggles as what male protagonists have done? Okay, sure, that doesn't mean the writing is going to be perfect, but why do so many people claim that Jennifer Walters in She-Hulk "emasculates men?"

https://www.forbes.com/sites/paultassi/2022/08/18/she-hulk-is-getting-review-bombed-even-harder-than-ms-marvel/

Let's go over Ms. Marvel, a Muslim female super hero.

https://thedirect.com/article/ms-marvel-review-bombing-actress

Review Bombing

Captain Marvel

https://www.inverse.com/article/53523-captain-marvel-rotten-tomatoes-review-bombing-explained

More Review Bombing

over 200 people review-bombed RWBY Volume 8 on IMDB.

A show with female protagonists and LGBT themes included apparently gets attacked. This is a common theme here.

On Social media (excluding Tumblr), you can't scroll past the posts/videos on RWBY without seeing at least one or several of the following:

A. Monty wouldn't want this (it's been 7 freaking years and they still use this one)

B. Let RT and the show die once and for all

C. Make it a real anime

D. The fanfiction of this male character is better than the LGBT or female ones

E. The cries about the male villains and the sheer misogyny from men and women towards fictional female characters.

Very few shows have a sub market of people making 2 hour criticism videos or have to separate out a criticism subreddit, and most of these shows have a much larger viewership than RWBY. Is there an overprotectiveness, sure, but its also kinda obvious that RWBY also gets more hate than other shows of its popularity.

And it should be mentioned that R/RWBY allows R/RWBYCritics to flood it and R/FNKI with hatred regularly. You know which two people I am referring to.

Since season 4 one of the accusations has been that continuing to like the show is insulting Monty Oum. Some of the hate against the show was dual hate against the creators, and so naturally the defenders of the show also defended the creators.

So then does that make the fandoms of one piece, attack on titan, tower of god, etc overprotective, or is it a re-occurring thing where these subs are usually made out of good intentions that have easily dissolved into attack the show/it’s creators?

I don’t know of many communities where the hate and dislike of where the series is going is so prevalent that Subreddit mods have to make a rule to prevent people from saying that “the show goes against the creator’s wish” and have YouTubers that constantly make post about any little thing happening and turn it into “that’s why this series and it’s company is dying #356”(hero hei for example). The community isn’t against criticism as much as the RWDE community thinks, but the way it’s worded. If most arguments and criticisms were made to be respectful and include the good in a show, instead of being “this is why crwby is inept dumbasses that should sell the series to someone else and anyone that enjoys *x sis equally as stupid” than this problem wouldn’t be as prevalent, but most criticisms made are ones that regularly attack the crew or audience for certain aspects. Even some of the most analytical criticisms of other weird treat the people that enjoy it and it’s creators with some level of respect.

Generalizations are made by what is usually seen by the majority. Not to disagree that we should see these more case by case but it’s seen as such a problem because of the influx of situations like the one I’ve mention above, whether on here or other platform. People like “all you write” who make great analysis/ critic videos are perfect examples of how these discussions should go: explain the fact, talk about the good and bad done(because criticisms should contain both, not just what is bad/disliked) and separate parts for how they feel about certain moments. Most criticisms just come off like eruptionfang’s: crass, missing the point most of the time with actual bits of criticisms littered in between.

Any time RWBY comes up unprompted by myself or a fan of the show, I always see people chime in negatively. I do not see that with practically any other popular but criticized show. I think the only other one that comes to mind is Sword Art Online. That kind of response to something you like everywhere you go is rough, no matter how you slice it. It can make you feel unwelcome or wrong just for liking/loving what you like/love.

Even if you know you have every right to enjoy it, seeing that gut reaction as the prevailing mentality starts to make you feel like something is wrong with you. This is a fact of human psychology. The negative response is also so common because you can't speak up in defense of it without being "shouted down." It allows this behavior to continue to occur while it leaves those who enjoy it and don't blow a gasket to sit in silence while people mock their interests. 2 years ago Hbomberguy ripped open a can of hate against RWBY and its writers that left the worldwide web mocking everyone for enjoying RWBY even 2 years after that hate video was aired. Try talking about RWBY in R/RWBY while defending it? R/RWBYCritics will harass, and then post your post, to their subreddit, encouraging hate against you.

Consider the fact that of all of the people who do nothing but post negativity about the show, it's a person who disagrees with that negativity whom Critics take issue with.

Objectively speaking, the level of hate I see the show get from some viewers is not proportional to their actual valid criticisms of the show or otherwise.

TAKING THINGS OUT OF CONTEXT IS NOT CRITICISM, BUT CRITICIZING SOMETHING FROM AN OUT OF CONTEXT PERSPECTIVE IS HATRED

So a female protagonist defeating a male villain is bad writing? Remember how Yang and Blake fought Adam? Adam had destroyed their school, tried to destroy another one, tried to have Blake's parents killed for getting in his way, had stabbed Blake through the stomach for leaving his violent faction, had cut off Yang's arm, and had tried to blow up a train of unarmed civilians.In V6, Adam tried to kill them both. Both Yang and Blake kept offering him the opportunity to leave them alone. Adam was so eager for revenge (aka, NOT stalking ex, but just wanting revenge) that he refuses all offers.Yang and Blake had no choice but to kill him.

How many times have you heard people claiming that Adam should have been spared, or taken to Atlas, or that Yang and Blake were wrong? It just doesn't make sense.

Now we go to Volume 7-8.

RWBY had made several plans based off of Ironwood's single plan.

Let's use the Train analogy. The city of Atlas is the train. Mantle is the people on a single track, there is no second track. And Salem's faction are people trying to get on board the train while attacking and threatening the people of mantle on that track.Ironwood, in wanting to Abandon Mantle, we'll say is willing to roll through them. RWBY halts the train because she wants to protect all of those people, but Ironwood refuses at all costs.RWBY's strategy since Ironwood had no interest in the very people he had taken dust and resources from while quarantining them and not only refusing to protect them, but refusing to allow them to protect themselves?RWBY decided to transport everyone to the train station that is vacuo, with the passengers.Sure, the train was destroyed, but what would you rather save? A Train? Or its passengers?Or in terms of RWBY? Would you rather save a city while abandoning the people? Or would you rather save the people, who represent the kingdom?A kingdom is composed of people, not structures. This was a theme in Thor: Ragnarock.And I must admit, while Hela was indeed a villain, she was in fact a sympathetic one.

BUMBLEBY: CRITICISM VS HATE

Let me state that, as a Bumbleby fan, I DO wish there was more build-up, and more dialogue.

THAT is a valid criticism echoed by many.

Calling Bumbleby an SJW Agenda? Saying it was "forced?" Or saying that "The writers were bullied by the shippers into making Bumbleby Canon?"

That's not criticism...or at the very least, its not valid criticism.

What is valid criticism? Insulting RWBY and CRWBY is not valid, it accomplishes nothing other than hatred.

And just hating on something? Is not criticism, its hate.

Wishing harm onto female fictional characters? Is not criticism.

If you want to make suggestions to the writers, that's fine. But let me ask this?

How many of these people have insulted the writers, called their insults "suggestions," and when the writers refused to listen to people who were insulting the writers, these people then claimed that "the writers couldn't handle criticism"

When I went to college, as part of our Electives, we were required to take part in discourse.

That required acknowledging the good and bad of a show, and respecting the good while politely and respectfully discussing the bad.

The reason people say RWBY is overhated is due to so many videos and blogs and posts that do nothing but promote negativity against the show, while refusing to speak well of the good in its writing, its characters, its worldbuilding, etc.

Here.

https://allagesofgeek.com/this-just-in/show-review/a-review-of-rwby-volume-8-spoilers/

A positive look...criticism was included, but the good in the show was also covered.

A balanced take.

For me, Valid criticism has to include positivity towards what you are criticizing. You need to be respectful when you give a critique.

But while respectful criticism of RWBY exists, it is drowned out by bad-faith criticism that is more focused on talking about how they dislike the show, or that people should not watch the show.

If you're telling somebody "This show sucks, don't watch it"....Is that criticism? Or Hatred?

If lots of people are doing their best to try to stop others from watching RWBY? I would call that hatred.

And so we have to come to the conclusion that RWBY is a victim of a lot of bad-faith criticism.

That makes it over-hated.

Do we have slurs or insults for the Blacksun shippers? No. But the Blacksun shippers have multiple insults for us. Hornet, Wasp, Crotch Snot (That was Eruption Fang, btw)

You can count the number of RWBY Critics who are Bumbleby fans? On 1-2 hands.

RWBY Critics who are blacksun shippers? Try counting the grains of sand at the beach.

EXPECTATIONS? OR HEADCANONS?

People saw Adam Taurus, a "cool dude" who tried to blow up a train of innocent passengers, and immediately people had headcanons about him, made fanart, and worshipped him as some morally ambiguous character.

His first scene was in Volume 2, where he told Cinder that while many of his men had died, he could convince them to still follow her.

In other words, ADAM NEVER CARED FOR THE FAUNUS. All he cared about was himself.

Then in V3, we see that the man who had no problem trying to kill innocent civilians, had no problem sacrificing his followers for somebody else's goals? Was in fact a very evil man.

People suffered the truth: Adam Taurus was not what they imagined. So they claimed character assassination, or bad writing. Because it was easier to claim that, rather than admit that RWBY simply did not do what they demanded the show do for them.

Just because we watch RWBY? Does not mean we are entitled to make demands of the writers.

And just because we’re not paying attention? DOES NOT mean something is bad writing.

CAKE ANALOGY

Let's say that a store advertised a cake with chocolate frosting, and some people interpreted the cake as being entirely chocolate.When they discovered the cake itself was vanilla, they insisted that it was a poorly-made cake...even though the cake was indeed advertised as a vanilla cake with chocolate frosting.That the product was not what you wanted it to be does not mean it was incorrectly advertised, or that it is a bad cake for not being the cake you want.

CRITICISM BY ITSELF IS NOT BAD, BUT WHAT IS THE DIFFERENCE BETWEEN CRITICISM AND HATRED?

The term Hatedom was coined due to there being people in the fandom who literally had nothing nice to say about the show, and were literally there just to hate.How many people have you spoken to who left the fandom due to the negativity?Was that really criticism? Or was it hate?A lot of people have said hate.

NOBODY is villainizing criticism. But if you're going to put effort into "criticizing" a show, at least put in a respectable amount of effort into respecting the show.

We are the only show I know of where there is a subreddit for critics. Arcane, Legend of Korra, Captain Marvel, She-Hulk, etc? None of them have such a subreddit.

There is this belief that everyone is allowed to criticize RWBY...but who criticizes the critics?

Who is allowed to criticize a critic for making a false analogy or an inaccurate statement?

The accusation that Ruby has a messiah complex? When she's repeatedly shown taking criticism and listening to others advice and just wanting to help people?Compared to Ironwood who constantly claims to have an answer for everything, removes anyone in his way including Ozpin, constantly talks about how he sees the big picture, and cries about how nobody understands the "sacrifices" he has to make?That's a messiah complex, yet how many videos do you see treating RWBY as war criminals, and Ironwood as a victim of some agenda, whether it be "anti-military" or "anti-male?"

Have you tried to speak up about it, only to be silenced?

Back in September on Twitter, a girl spoke about how she was watching RWBY with a friend. A well-known critic in the fandom QRT'd her tweet, and mocked her by accusing her of having rent issues.

Several people tried to speak up about it...they were all silenced for criticizing the individual harassing the girl.

Communication is a two-way street. If you're not allowed to criticize the criticism? Then its basically an echo chamber of hatred.

Do you really believe that the people defending RWBY live in an echo chamber of positivity? Who told you that? No, we who love RWBY criticize the show as well! We just don't hate it or the people loving and defending it.

I would literally give RWBY a 7.0-7.8 out of 10. Yeah, I can criticize the show.

But I'm not going to hate it and claim it is somehow the worst thing in existence.Because saying that, is not criticism but hatred.

Try scrolling through a YouTube comment section and you notice that somebody had briefly mentioned RWBY in a completely neutral manner... They had six replies and all six of those replies where people either talking bad about the show or mocking them for even mentioning the show at all.

There are so many examples of that every day, every week.

The fact thatact that six people still went out of their way to attack someone just mentioning something they didn't like.

Even if RWDE were objectively right they are not going to bridge any gap by simply dismissing the feelings of a fandom has as a mere boogie man they dreamed up.

That might as well be gaslighting. 

The problem with RWBY Critics is always the same thing.

Even when they acknowledge somebody else's argument or reasoning it comes with a but.   RWDE can't just agree with someone its always "I agree but here's why RWBY is still bad....."

The problem is that the "critics" believe that word entitles them to be as caustic about the show, the creators, and even the fandom (as these countless threads attest to...) as they want to be—

—but no one is allowed to criticize them in turn.

Anyone can go to the RWBYcritics subreddit and see what constitutes "criticism" to these folks. They can go to FNKI and see the kind of "memes" that RWBYcritics users post there.

THE HATEDOM EXISTS, IT IS NOT A BOOGEYMAN

Say you like a show. You may not love everything about it, but there's plenty of good things in it for you to appreciate. There are people who voice criticisms of the work, but in your mind, all of their ideas of what's bad about it and what would make it better are poor ideas.

Would you believe that people who criticize a work you enjoy are more important than the people like yourself who enjoy it?

Because that's fundamentally why a lot of people use the word HTDM to describe bad faith criticism regarding RWBY: there are people who are constantly complaining about the show and its fandom, yet at the same time have the attitude that the show needs to cater to their specific tastes and desires, instead of what the writers have decided. These people can just move on, and go for a different media. Yet such people remain to claim that they are not haters, that there is no hatedom, and the people defending RWBY are somehow toxic? It is not toxic to defend a show. And hating on a show and wishing for it to be canceled or rebooted according to your specific tastes and ideas is not criticism.

I'm under no delusions that RWBY has faults. However a lot of criticism hinges on literally ignoring things characters have said, done or observations made about them in the show before something happened. Aka , Adam Taurus and James Ironwood.

Critics can say that haters don't represent them, but they don't really care that much about that side of the problem as much as they care to point out the problems they see in the "enjoyers" side. Truth of the matter is, they are completely free to write about whatever they want, and no one forces them to address that if they don't want to, that said, let it be known that as long as that pattern continues the "outsiders' stigma" will continue indefinitely because in the eyes of most of the fandom they will be seen as nothing more than another person victimized or complaining because "x person didn't agree with x argument" even if it isn't the case.

When you accuse the fandom of “manufacturing its own  Boogeyman”...you’re basically denying that the hate against the actually exists.

I'm also not talking about alternate interpretation. I'm talking about something like if Ruby says she really loves cats and then, after having a positive interaction and liking a cat, people saying "But Ruby likes Dogs because Zwei! She can't like a cat."

If the show tells you something about a character, you should listen

Alternately they don't like the character arc of someone, which is fine. But calling it bad writing because you don't like it is ridiculous. (This isn't specific to a character) Idiot ball is bad writing, ignoring multiple indications a character is a moron then calling it bad writing when they do something stupid is you having a lack of narrative comprehension.

All I ask is that people please look around, see how many posts there are complaining about or disliking the show. See how many memes are posted in the associate subreddit R/Fnki that are complaining about the show, the writers, and the female characters. There is so much hatred against RWBY and its fans, and I am stunned that there are people denying its existence. The RWBY fandom did not create its own boogeyman or boogeywoman. That would require that bad-faith criticism does not exist, but it does exist and it thrives.

I am going to do my best to not only promote positivity about RWBY, but also promote good-faith criticism, that will critique RWBY in a respectful manner. Because if we are not being respectful in our criticisms, if we refuse to say nice things about the show's writing that we are critiquing? Then what are we doing? Because its certainly not criticism.

What I have noticed that RWBY seems to function like a number of shows sort of like Steven Universe, where people who haven’t seen the show will go into it with negative thoughts due to the popularity of negative accessible content on RWBY.

Take a look at RWBY on Twitter, YouTube, etc. many videos on the show are very negative. Especially ones talking about the series overall. People who haven’t seen the show and want to see if it’s worth their time won’t exactly be getting positive vibes about the show from the people around them.

A RWBY Fan will you tell you to watch RWBY. A RWBY Critic will tell you to drop the show after the 3rd season, and just write fanfiction about Jaune, Adam, Roman...aka the men.

This isn’t to say its wrong that this is happening. It’s just a fact that this is the way it is, and it’s part of the reason why RWBY has such an intrinsically negative vibe to it in the eyes of so many people.

Once again it’s like the countless number of random strangers who dogpile shows like Steven Universe without even watching it. Of course this also doesn’t mean RWBY is some special snowflake in this instance. Plenty of shows suffer from this, however I do believe that this leads to a pretty huge upward climb for these types of media to take to be loved by audiences. Much more than some other media.

SpaceBattlesforum there was a user saying things about how the RWBY fandom was a hatedom. Or about not wanting to be considered part of the fandom due to all its critiques and bad faith towards the series. As, if, in most of the fandom the popular opinion was of hate towards the series.

It's true a lot of the fandom goes too far with hatedom but RWBY is also part of culture war and an easy target for incels/misogynists to sh*t on RWBY

A lot of incels hate RWBY just for having women and will deadname certain groups and characters in the of criticism. Cough Cough Unicorn of War.

Conclusion, RWBY IS OVERHATED

If you want to hate a show? Fine, but don't call your hatred criticism.

If you want to criticize a show, at least be prepared to have nice things to say when you make a critique, otherwise don't be surprised if people call your material "hatred."

A critic is NOT a victim of a fandom, nor are they persecuted for not liking the show. But they do harass and persecute others for liking the show. Cough Cough, FatmanFalling harassing people for enjoying RWBY, and every single RWBY Youtuber defending his behavior.

If you feel that a show could be better? That's fine, but don't claim that means the show is bad because it does not cater to your tastes or desires.

If somebody does not share your dislike of a show, that's fine, but allow them to like the show, and don't accuse them of toxic positivity, simply because they're defending something you dislike.

If somebody wants to watch a show you don't like? Please allow them to see the show for themselves, don't try to stop them from watching a show just because you're not happy with said show.

And if you don't like RWBY for its writing or plot? Move On! There are so many shows out there, PLEASE let us enjoy this one!

I think the critics of RWBY are full of it. While RWBY isn’t perfect and the show does deserves criticism, there is a obsessive and parasitic part of the fanbase that does everything it can to tear down ever little detail they can find while ignoring any good parts, there are legitimate criticisms and and analysis but acting like it’s not over-hated is ignoring a very real abusive part of the fandom. And I’ve never met a RWBY Critic who didn’t try to defend that abusive part of the fanbase by whining that saying “RWBY SUCKS!” is criticism and we should just be grateful that they’re shoving it down our throats.

I'm not kidding about the 7.5 out of 10. RWBY is a mid-show, but its an enjoyable show to me and many others. So yes, I'll say nice things about it.

FYI, this post was well-received on r/RWBY, till r/RWBYCritics had it removed from r/RWBY through pressure.

r/RWBYCritics does not allow discourse. They silence you, and then claim to be victims of the fandom.

I don't think anyone seriously expects a RWBY Critic to take responsibility for them but rather acknowledge that they do exist.

You can't expect the fandom to get better if you're just going to dismiss their concerns by calling it a boogie man that they made up.

And if you spread lies about the people defending the show, making up false statements, and half-truths? Then RWDE community has established itself as a culture that tries to silence positivity and healthy discussion, rather than respect it.

[flameleads]

Upon further analysis of his transmutations, there is a pattern to what fingers Roy uses when he transmutes. A previous analysis, which is GIF heavy, can be found here. I’m making some slight adjustments to it in this post.

Roy does not actually snap his fingers when he performs his transmutation. The snap sound itself comes from the alchemical reaction when he manipulates the oxygen atoms in the air. What he actually does with his fingers is rubs or taps them together. However, which finger he uses matters: his index versus his middle.

This post is going to get image heavy, so I will put it under a readmore.

(Chapter 4: Battle on the Train)

In the manga, this is the first transmutation we ever see Roy perform. Roy taps his fingers before rubbing them together. He uses his index finger and thumb to perform what he would consider a simple transmutation and create a small explosion. From what we can see, he did not use his alchemy directly on Bald (his target) but in front of him in order to knock him back.

Most of the time, when we see Roy transmute, he uses his index finger. Here are some examples:

(Chapter 35: Sacrificial Lamb; Chapter 49: A Monster Among Men; Chapter 59; The Immoral Alchemist; Chapter 89: Soldiers’ Return; Chapter 93: Archenemy; Chapter 94: Flames of Vengeance; Chapter 107: The Last Battle)

It’s his default, and there is a reason for it: restraint. Even against Immortal Soldiers, Envy, and Father, Roy used only his index finger. In the case of Father, there are two good explanations: pain and lack of sight. With Envy, however, he used two hands because, while he still wanted to temper his flames, he wanted a lot of them and quickly. Outside of someone who has gone through the portal (the Elrics and Izumi), or those such as Father and Hohenheim, Roy has the fastest transmutations in Fullmetal Alchemist. Kimblee comes in a close second.

Addition to that: When going through the manga, I will say I couldn’t analyze several of Roy’s transmutation scenes too closely simply because Arakawa drew his hand moving too fast. If you watch him in 03 or FMAB, you run into a similar problem. Roy has incredible reflexes, likely developed during his time in Ishval.

Now, is there ever an instance in the manga where he uses his middle finger to transmute? I found one, and it is telling:

(Chapter 38: Signal to Strike)

The circumstances at play that cause Roy to react stronger: PTSD and his first interaction with a Homunculus. We know from the previous chapter that he recalled his last phone call with Hughes as he heard Hawkeye not answer. His emotions are heightened. He’s triggered. He enters the scene to see Hawkeye and Fuery fighting for their lives, and he did not hesitate to use more force. They were not going to take anyone else from him today.

From what I could find, that is the only time in the manga we see him use his middle finger to transmute. Why does the finger difference matter? My theory is that the middle finger gives him more ignition cloth to work with. No, it’s not a big difference to us, but Roy’s alchemy requires a lot of finesse, fine control, and pinpoint accuracy. The slightest change makes a huge difference.

My not-serious theory is he’s flipping off his enemies. Anyway.

When it comes to 03 or FMAB, Roy continues to use his index finger for most transmutations. I’m going to try and go chronologically here starting in Ishval.

In Ishval, where he was ordered to be at his full strength, he refused to do more than simple transmutations. Yet, look at how powerful those simple movements were. Two fingers can cause that much damage.

From the 03 anime, this is Roy during Fullmetal vs. Flame, which is canonical to the manga. He has quick movement, makes upturn of the wrist, and he’s using his index finger and thumb to transmute.

From the same fight, this is another simple transmutation, and he did it with the intent of not hurting Edward. Again, he uses his index finger.

Against Freezer’s ice in the first episode of FMAB, he uses his index finger and thumb to transmute. Artillery fire and guns couldn’t handle it. Roy’s flames could.

This is on the Promised Day. It’s hard to see because he’s moving so fast, and the camera pans as well, but he’s using his index and thumb. His goal is not to cause injuries, but to disable his enemies.

Ignore the text. I didn’t want to go hunting for new GIFs, and I think it’s funny anyway.

That one is against Father. Again, he is still using his index finger and thumb, but for good reason. He can’t see what he’s doing, and it would hurt him more to use his middle finger. The only person he wants to aim his flames at is Father, so he still restrains himself. He still holds back.

Now, there are fourinstances in particular that stand out for him using his middle finger to transmute in FMAB. None of them are against Gluttony like in the manga, and they line up chronologically.

#1: When Roy “kills” Maria Ross, this particular transmutation is a performance. To everyone else, Roy brutally kills the person who killed Brigadier General Maes Hughes, his friend. The transmutation could be seen from a distance: Edward could see the fire and smoke from the explosion in the sky when he was streets away. According to Knox, who performed the autopsy, the corpse was burned almost beyond recognition save for the dental records.

Why does Roy do this? He does this to make a point to everyone watching, especially the Homunculi. He’s aware that something is foul in the state of Amestris when Maria Ross is named the primary suspect in Maes Hughes’s murder, but he is not aware the Homunculi are behind it. So, he sets out to control the narrative. He wants there to be no questions possible about whether or not Maria Ross is dead, and he wants to show that he is willing to do that to his friend’s killer.

This was not meant to be okay. It was meant to be upsetting and alarming because he wanted it to be. And it worked.

Directly after, we know that Roy makes his moves against the Homunculi. But, it all started here.

(I did not have a GIF for this one, so I used stills)

#2: Episode 49: Filial Affection: Roy blows up a car near a Central soldier. It does not appear to be the same vehicle that he and the team drove in with, but another vehicle used by military police. The aim here is likely to send a message: "pay attention to me and what I'm doing." He wants eyes on him because he has Mrs. Bradley with him, and he wants to make it clear that the military is corrupt. The military does the rest of the work for him from there.

Now, as this is not a human, he needs to use more force. Cars are made of much tougher material, and he needs the transmutation to be more powerful. The explosion is loud, but short. It's not a showy transmutation by any means.

#3: The Immortal Soldiers. I emphasized this in my previous post about Roy’s alchemy, but I think it bears repeating: this is an incredibly powerful transmutation. The Immortal Soldiers were not weak enemies. Edward and Co, along with the soldiers upstairs like Olivier, struggled with them. They are powered by Philosopher’s Stones. Edward Elric is a skilled fighter, and so is Scar. So is everyone there. The fact that it took Roy seconds to take the Immortal Soldiers out with a single transmutation should not only be impressive, but it should be terrifying. Edward’s reaction encapsulates the proper reaction to Roy’s alchemy (and what’s to come).

What’s to come:

#4: Envy.

It’s difficult to see because of the speed, but, if one looks closely, what fingers are Roy using on both of his hands when he transmutes against Envy? His middle fingers. Not only is Roy using two hands, which we have never seen him do throughout the entire series, but he is not holding back. Like I mentioned in my previous post as well, Roy is also putting in every bit of effort he has to transmute with his arm movements.

This isn’t a show. This is pure, untamed fury. Envy killed a man he loved, so they deserved the worst death possible.

Slower, but you can see the middle finger as he transmutes. There is no restraint or mercy here like there was with Lust. In his mind, Envy doesn’t deserve it.

Now you see what had Edward concerned and why it took three people to talk this man down, and it was a good thing they did. A good leader shows restraint. Edward, Scar, and Hawkeye reminded Roy who he needed to be.

So, what have we learned today?

Roy Mustang restrains himself when he transmutes most of the time. In the manga, it looks like the only time he didn’t was with Gluttony. In FMAB, we see it at least twice, and those two instances are also telling of what’s going on and what kind of man he is. All of that should also tell just how powerful flame alchemy is.

From the creator of flame alchemy himself: “My technique is the GREATEST and most powerful form of alchemy, but in the wrong hands, it would bring naught but ill fortune.”

There can only be one Flame Alchemist, and that Flame Alchemist has to be Roy Mustang.

[onthearrow]

If you're wondering where The Harder the Rain, the Sweeter the Sun is going, I regret to inform you that I've pulled out Fullmetal Alchemist volume 15 for continuity purposes in some of the later scenes.

If you only ever watched the FMAB anime, I highly recommend reading this volume--there's a lot that the anime cut out or glossed over, probably in part because of the difficulty of the material. But Arakawa really poured her soul into this one. If you're interested in some of the differences, I'll reblog a fantastic meta about this volume in particular after posting this that you can read!! I'll also link it here.

Anyway Rain/Sun has a happy ending and honestly it really doesn't go that deep into Ishval, but I do think FMA 15 is a volume every royai fan should have--I referenced it a lot for Ego/Soul too!

[maguro13-2]

FMAB : BONES' FIRST REBOOT EXPLAINED.

Bones : Okay...So I made a couple of Gecko Endings. I mean...I've been messing up lately and the industry couldn't make me a better good job. I can't believe the writer of Soul Eater has make original storyline for the show. I guess that was a total embarrassment.

Hiromu Arakawa : Well, I have no idea why you are upset. Why don't you have yourself a drink? That's how failure tastes.

Bones : Maybe, if I wouldn't been a bad studio, I could make things right for the shows that I made, I mean...I lacked the Soul Eater storyline and thought that it would be popular again so...what am I going to get, nothing? I mean...I spent quality time on making a lot of sales then magical girls shows from one of these days. Back in 2008, I adapted SE manga to make it look good, but lacked the storyline.

Hiromu Arakawa : What about the final episode of it?

Bones : Oh Goodie. I just realized that final episode of Soul Eater where this kid named Maka is a weapon that realize that she's not in the manga and I forgot tell you that the Demon Weapons are made out of bones with alchemy! *bangs table* What am I gonna do something good for other anime studios that could do? Studio Madhouse has made propers animations like when they were adapting NEEDLESS with a bunch of Gecko endings like Gainax Endings. Man oh, Man! I mean, Gainax? Yeah, that legendary studio had made a ending that drove Shinji insane and went to a mental hospital! Come on, people! I just wished that I could have a cooler show. But I don't if I'm willing make one myself

Hiromu Arakawa : Well...There is a better reason since I was co-writer of my chinese manga Hero Tales. Honestly, Hero Tales haven't gotten much more popularity when it comes to Chinese warriors, in a Shounen Manga.

Bones : And how does Spike Spiegel, saying that I would relive the ways saying no to no man? I guess some people can't make a proper reboot. Unlike Hellsing, that got a reboot, but it's really an Original Video Animation by Madhouse. That's the one way ticket having shows to get their selves a reboot and--

Hiromu Arakawa : Wait, hold that thought! Did you say "reboot"?

Bones : Yeah, why?

Hiromu Arakawa : Then why don't you just reboot any show like you did with the original adaptation of FMA back in 2003. Although the original FMA in 2003 had a gecko ending along with it's movie and games. So what we needed is something to get a reboot, like all the characters in the manga that I needed recast. I got Elric brothers on the line and I have my agent ready to reboot the show.

Bones : *spits out the coffee* That's it! I got it! Since Soul Eater did a good job on having the gecko endings, I decided that I'll make a reboot that will be cannon enough to make it look like that was in the manga! Piece of cake.

Hiromu Arakawa : (sighs)

*scene changes*

Bones : Alrighty then, now that Maka Albarn's out of the way, I can finally reboot the ones that are all needed to make my newest and incredible masterpiece," Fullmetal Alchemist : BROTHERHOOD." Well, I might as well start it now! *Presses the reboot button* Oh boy...!

*ZAP!*

Bones : *screaming* WOAAAAAAAAAAAHHH!!!

*stops to take a soda break*

Bones : *continues screaming and engulfs the camera*

Hiromu Arakawa : Hey, hey, wake up!

Bones : Huh? What happened? Did the reboot work?

Hiromu Arakawa : Not quite, but you did reboot their memories in the 2003 show.

Edward : Hey, Al. What's going on? I don't feel like we're in Europe anymore.

Roy : And I'm not clearly wearing an eyepatch.

Scar : Why does my face look like this?

Edward : *scared yell* Scar what are you doing here!? What's going on? And Al...why are you back as an armor?

Alphonse I'll tell you what happened, the entire studio just rebooted us! Re-Arrange our looks from 2003! And for Rose, that dark-skinned girl, they whitewashed her.

Edward : WHAT!?!

Rose : It's true, they did what they told me. Actually, I'm the new Rose, the Rose from the 2003 show is gone. So it's cool that we decided to become friends now.

Edward : Oh great! Now I'm friendzoned!

Alphonse : Totally bummer!

Bones : I don't believe it. The reboot of FMA worked! I AM FINALLY BACK IN THE GAME! TAKE THAT SOUL EATER!!! YOU WON'T BE GETTING A REBOOT FROM ME THIS TIME!

Alphonse : Hey, where's Winry?

Winry : Hey, guys. How's it going?

Edward : Winry! Where you when the reboot happened?

Winry : I just got back from PGC after the 2003 show, my 2003 look with the red bandana on my head, I changed it to a green bandana.

Edward : PGC? What's PGC?

Winry : Prince George's County

Edward : Uh, what?

Winry : Yeah, I've been working out and hand-crafting things earlier in the past 5 years. I just got back from Prince George's County. That's only in Maryland, eh?

Edward : Oh...I get it. You went to the State of Maryland, all by yourself. But we came to Prince George's County on the way to give your new fresh pair of clothing that Mrs Arakawa gave it to you. This is your 2009 clothing.

Winry : Wow...This looks great ed. I'm finally getting the whole 2009 thing since when did you get to see me guys?

Edward : When we decided to drop by...A MILES FROM ALL THE WAY FROM SAN-FRANCISCO TO THE STATES OF THE MID-ATLANTIC! I HAD TO GO FROM PLANES, TRAINS, AND AUTOMOBILES! DO YOU KNOW HOW MANY MILES WAS IT TO GET FROM JAPAN TO AMERICA!?

Alphonse : We've been traveling along the way to meet you for the recasting of our show! It was a gorgeous travel to see the wonders of America.

Winry : Yeah...But that was Lan Fan that we met at Moco. I don't even know that you never been to PGC and Moco too, Edward?

Edward : Moco...I have no idea what Moco is and who is this Lan Fan person you met?

Winry : Come on, stop being a smarty pants. We met at Bethesda. Gaithersburg or even Rockville, you know, I met Lan Fan in Montgomery County. That's also a place in Maryland. Come on, Edward. You know I was the only girl who was the first automail to visit a state of the real world.

Edward : How did you know?

Winry : Let's just say that her arm was amputated in a freakish accident.

King Bradley : *looking at his sword+whistles*

Edward : So...What did you do with her arm?

Winry : I had her to get a new one with the amazing skills of my hand-crafty work.

Lan Fan : Hey, thanks for giving me a new arm. I won't be in such pain.

Edward : There's more where that came from. Rush Valley. Do you know paninya? That girl who pick-pocketed me?

Paninya : Whoops. Sorry that I had to figure it out that this was yours. I was wondering if I could get a little more screen time. But that's all I can ever do.

Edward : Any sign of Zolf J Kimblee?

Kimblee : That's Solf J Kimblee to you. And Zolf was just the name of my brother.

Edward : Well it's a good thing that we had the female members of the Homonculus, or Homonculi, the group led by Dante.

Pride : Actually, long hair Pride, was just a kid with long hair, my name is Selim Bradley, the kid with short hair, you dolt. Also, female sloth isn't your mom, it's this guy.

*The original/Real Sloth appears to be sleeping*

Edward & Alphonse : THIS ONE'S THE REAL SLOTH AND HE IS SLEEPING!?

Edward : No offense, sloth was a female and of course, a total hot babe. I had some rizz with that.

Alphonse : I'm sorry, but Dante was not the one who did it.

Dante : Wait a sec, I was not the one who did it? Oh man! I gotta turn myself in! *Spindash legs+runs off*

*Sonic Adventure SFX : Wall smash*

Edward : So that wasn't Dante who did all of this just make us the fool, I wonder who started of all this!

Father : DANTE WAS NOT THE ONE, YOU BABOON!

Edward : She's not? Then who did?

*RIP!*

Father/Homonculus : I DID!!!

Lust : Do you really have to be that grouchy? I mean we are all here for the reboot. And we even had to regroup from Prison. Eventually, we paroled Envy to get out of Jail. Prison was too tough for him. Oh. here he comes now.

*Envy appears in a straight jacket*

Envy : You're lucky that bailing me out would put me in place for the reboot. I even had to start making sense that I committed a felony. I was usually with a pair of street thugs. Where were you at the 2003 show?

Lust : Well, I think I was in contact with someone that I've known about back at the bar.

*Back at outside the bar*

Lust : (drunken) Okay...Blondie, you think that I have what it takes to be at the finest of the finest... Blondie.

Riza : (drunken) Same goes to you...I think we should get along with ourselves, I'm saying you got Envy into custody and went into prison. That's what really happened during the 2003 show. What are you going to do now, My selfish enemy?

Lust : (drunken) Only one way to find out quickly. Let's settle this woman to woman...!

Riza : (drunken) It's on...!

*the two starts making out each other*

Riza & Lust : (moaning)

Greed : I didn't realize that was a Gay bar.

*scene changes back to the present*

Lust : We had a good clean fight last night.

Riza : It was really a good clean fight.

Greed : Oh yeah, I remember the time that you were making out each other at the--*Lust grabs his lips to silence him*

Lust : We just had a friendly fight that's all. I mean...We were just doing pleasures.

Riza : It was our pleasures. Well, Roy. I see you don't have that "I patch" of yours anymore. Since Black Hayate licked my feet to get the dirt off.

Lust : Uhh, what?

Van Hoenheim : Hey, Edward. Listen...about dating Ross, I feel like that I decided to become single now.

Edward : Don't believe in anything that I did. Since mom died and we tried to bring her back to life...

Van Hoenheim : By burning our house to the ground? But... all of my belongings were in there.

Edward : Yeah I forgot to mention to get that memory wiped out.

Alphonse : I haven't forget to mention the whole thing in the 2003 show. Except for one thing.

Yoki : Me! Of course! I was in the 2003 show alright! That little weasel ruined everything for me! He even made me buy fake Gold and lose my job!

Edward : HEY! WHO ARE YOU CALLING A LITTLE WEASEL!?

Scar : So listen, girl who makes a metal arm for this kid. I have something to tell you. This guy named Roy did not kill your parents, I did that on purpose and I was given to this apology sandwich and who says revenge was not the answer?

Winry : That's okay. I thought getting away with murder was not okay, but apology sandwich it is!

Edward : Why apology sandwiches!? We don't do apology sandwiches!

*Winry Bashes Edward with her wrench*

Edward : Okay! I'm getting the apology sandwich!

Bones : Now that I have everyone back in showbiz! Let the reboot begin!

*14 years later...*

Edward : Hey, Al!

Alphonse : Hiya, brother! Gosh it's been 14 years since we made the biggest reboot of our show in history! Guess what on our mind! And it was satisfying way to end. Look, we even got kids now, Bookends with you and Winry having kids.

Edward : That's what I wanted to hear about. And don't forget to remember that Fullmetal Alchemist Reboot is number one! Too bad that the idol girl and titan dude has no guts to be number one, I can't wait to show them in their place! Now that I have finally ease up the pain, I can rethink about Hiromu Arakawa's new guy, he's from the manga of the Gangan comics line since Hero Tales.

Alphonse : Whoop de doo, Edward. I wonder if there is a recommandation about him on front page?

Edward : Although this takes me back alot of memories.

*BEEP*

Voice : You got Mail...from "MyAnimeList.com"!

Edward : Oh sweet! I'm finally got mail! Must be the news update that I'm still number one in the competition. *click*

*Rumbling*

Edward : (outbursts) WHAAAAAAAAT!?!

*Alphonse shaking*

Alphonse : Bad news brother?

Edward : I don't believe it. The first rebooted show of all in history has been 2nd place! But who did it to replace me as number one!?

Winry : Let's see.

*Winry Reads E-Mail letter*

Winry : "Hi, Edward Elric. This is the owner and creator of MAL.com that we are reinforming you that your show is no longer the number one show in all of history, and we have decided that a new show been now the newest number one show in the world. Permantely".

Edward : But who did I lose?

Winry : Second place goes to Fullmet Alchemist : Brotherhood. But first place goes to...

Edward : Is it that titan dude or that idol girl?

Winry : No...It's this one.

*Frieren's face is shown on the computer*

Edward : I've lost to that pointy-eared girl...?

*Edwards falls on his knees*

Edward : (with darth vader's voice) NOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!

Alphonse : I feel your loss, brother.

Winry : Me too.

Edward : Unsecond thought, I'm kinda weed out. Let's go have us a party, a BBQ party!

Alphonse : Yeah, we could throws ourselves a feast for the party!

Winry : I'm glad that no one asked this. I wonder what happened to those fellas that used to be number one?

*Meanwhile at the bar...*

Eren : I was number one. Can't believe we've been dethroned. F***ing Chuck Norris.

Ai Hoshino : I'm glad that nothing's too worry about. If only that was some kind of clue that this would be alright if we lost. We would be in much of a pickle.

Maka : You think that I was number one in the first place? Nobody even remembers me anymore.

Eren : Who the heck are you?

[wlwinry]

Hi! I recently got into fmab and I've been reading a lot of your fics and I adore your writing!!! I expecially love the fics where Ling gets taken care of by Mustang and Hawkeye, (Ling gets the care he deserves!!! :) <3) and also your edlingwin fics!!! (there is nowhere NEAR enough content for those three tysm for providing <3 <3) thank you for sharing your work! have a great day :] (<-also btw im immortal_universe on ao3, im the one who left some comments! <3)

hey im so sorry i havent responded to this lovely ask for. like. years??? months???? but tysm! im glad you enjoy them <3 unfortunately the loss of my old computer and all its files means im kinda shit outta luck when it comes to continuing them but if it ever cycles around to be my main interest again you bet i'm gonna be back and better than ever with more ideas!

[foxy-the-silly-little-hooligan]

The TMA x FMA AU

Hey! For those who don’t know, I’m Jay! I’m one of Luna’s (@thevoidcannotbefilled) partners and a longtime friend~

We’ve been working on an updated version of this AU together, and thought it’d be fun to ruminate on the new ideas we’ve written together thus far.

A LOT OF SPOILERS FOR TMA, FMA 03, FMAB, AND THE FMA MANGA AHEAD!!!

To start, we’ve kept the original setting of 1914 Amestris and alchemy is still a large part of the universe and story. After all, alchemy is treated as an objective science in the world of FMA. We’ve kept many of the major plot points too!

So… what’s really changed in the AU?

The fall of Xerxes was the birth of the first philosophers’ stones, inhabiting the bodies of two men. One brought the science of alchemy to the West, the other the science of alkahestry to the East. These men were hailed as myths and prophets - the founders of modern alchemic science.

But something else came through the Gates of Truth that day.

Something big and evil and crushing and invisible to the men of this land.

But, to the two injured men that awoke on the outskirts of a dead city, they were well aware of what followed them.

They, too, learn the secrets of alchemy.

400 years pass. Amestris was founded. Alchemy became a leading science for both military and industrial uses, and the country continues to expand over the decades. The East has perfected alkahestry for medical uses.

And in Resembool, a small, rural hamlet in the southeastern region of Amestris, a small family lives alongside a lonely old man covered in scars, and a doctor and his own small family.

None are unfamiliar with loss.

Hoenheim leaves behind two young boys and his kind, forgiving wife. She shortly passes away after.

The doctor and his wife are taken by war, an uprising in the East.

The lonely old man, Jon, lost his husband centuries before, along with his sight.

As the story goes, the orphan boys, the Elric brothers, learn alchemy. They study whatever they can get their hands on. They ask the old blind man to teach them. They find a teacher in Dublith that trains their minds and bodies for their craft. They commit the ultimate sin, and try to bring their mother back from the dead.

Humans are not gods.

And such powerful science has laws to abide by.

Edward Elric, the older brother, lost his right arm and left leg, and replaces them both with limbs of iron. Alphonse Elric, the younger brother, lost his body, and now exists in the failed remnants of their transmutation.

Now, with Edward becoming a State Alchemist, a ‘dog of the military,’ a human weapon for the country of Amestris, he and his brother pursue one thing - the philosopher’s stone - to restore their old bodies.

But old gods and evil forces won’t let them get it that easily. And Fear is one hell of a powerful element.

Ok, ok, that’s out of my system. Let’s break some stuff down a bit.

We’re borrowing a few different ideas for this AU - not only the canon story from Brotherhood and the manga, but also a few bits and pieces from 03. And, of course, plenty from The Magnus Archives.

So, let’s start at the beginning with the end of TMA. The fears, along with Jon and Martin, are implied to have been sent Elsewhere. Elsewhere happened to be Amestris, or, more specifically, Xerxes, right after its fall.

With that first transmutation, the science of alchemy was irreversibly corrupted, tied to the Fears. The Fears, over time, also took new forms.

There are 7*:

Fear of The Fractured - loss of identity

Fear of Conflict - devastation and war

Fear of the Maker - what results from science going too far

Fear of Oblivion - ceasing to be

Fear of Decay - disease, starvation, poverty, etc

Fear of Confinement - being trapped or manipulated

Fear of Disconnection - losing humanity, connection, or empathy

*Obviously, in line with TMA, there’s some additional room for interpretation for each.

Each fear is tied to one of the 7 homunculi created, or taken in, by Father:

Fear of The Fractured - Envy

Fear of Conflict - Wrath

Fear of the Maker - Pride

Fear of Oblivion - Sloth

Fear of Decay - Gluttony

Fear of Confinement - Greed

Fear of Disconnection - Lust

Now, I said we’d be borrowing some aspects of 03, and the creation of homunculi is one of those things. Despite its many flaws, I think 03 had a few interesting ideas to explore, particularly the concept of homunculi being the result of human transmutation. So, while some homunculi keep their canon roots (Pride, Gluttony, and Wrath for example), others have a shift in their backstories. Lust and Greed were willing human siblings who agreed to take the stone, but Greed has decided he doesn’t wish to keep his end of the bargain with Father. Envy (and this is probably gonna piss some people off I’m so sorry) is Izumi’s lost child, found then stabilized, and now resentful of typical humans.

Sloth is Martin. Blame Luna for that one.

It should be noted that human transmutation is Still Impossible in the AU. What results is an unstable mess that needs a philosopher stone core or Fear to keep them stable, And while a philosopher's stone is a refined, perfect combination of alchemical ingredients, Fear can also be refined and crystalized (such as in 03’s version of the philosopher's stone) which can and will corrupt the user over time.

A perfect stone refines both. A perfect stone can elevate you beyond an avatar. A perfect stone can turn one into a god.

And that’s precisely what Father’s after.

Alright that’s fine and fun and dandy, but what’s this about Al’s body??? And Jon teaches them alchemy???

Ok, ok… Al’s body is indeed flesh and blood in this version, what you may call an incomplete homunculi or somewhere between human and homunculi. After all, he’s the soul that ended up in their failed attempt to bring back their mother.

The manga and Brotherhood explain how this is possible fairly well, both in The Blind Alchemist - a side story in the manga and Brotherhood anime - and in a few chapters/episodes of the story proper. In canon, Al’s soul briefly entered the body of their failed transmutation attempt before it was rejected. The referenced side story further expands by implying that a soul might still inhabit the transmuted girl (though it's left up to interpretation whether there is someone inside or if it's even the original soul), as the body was stable and presumed to be living.

Human transmutation, as is its intended use, is still impossible. But a working body can hold a soul - see Al’s armor in canon.

His body is unstable and often-times unreliable. The armor helps keep him together, and frequent transmutations help to re-stabilize him (explained further down). While he doesn’t face as many issues with his soul being rejected from his body - and it's still a risk - he does face many issues that a living body that isn’t working properly can face: sleep is unneeded but he can feel fatigue, he can’t feel pain and is much stronger than he should be, but he can still get hurt (takes a lot to risk killing him though), he needs food but it often doesn’t taste like much of anything, etc.

Instead of wondering if he’s real, Al often grapples with the question of if he’s human (or WHAT he is in general).

I mentioned frequent transmutations to keep Al in tact, but to explain that, I need to explain Jon.

Jon and Martin arrived 400 years ago, we know that much. The figure out the situation rather quickly, all things considered, and manage to settle down in what would eventually become Amestris (after, of course, some stumbling from place to place and recovery from their injuries with what help they could find).

Strangely enough, things settle down for the two of them. They grow old together, build a farm and a happy life, travel and learn new things - Jon takes a particular interest in alchemy as a new science to explore (and, possibly, he’s drawn to the Fear attached to it). They raise cows! They meet and befriend a man named Hoenheim, who seems to relate to their story and helps expand their knowledge on alchemy and its uses. Jon uses what he knows of modern medicine and his studies of alchemy and alkahestry (with Hoenheim’s help) to develop his own form of alchemy, one that expands on the ideas of medical alchemy - the same alchemy he eventually teaches to the brothers to keep Al together.

After a happy several decades, he loses Martin to old age. It's a peaceful death, one Jon saw coming long before it happened. Jon’s barely aged by comparison - though he’s no longer tied to the Eye, some effects still linger. He promises Martin he’d live as a human, and die like one, when the time was right.

But, Jon isn’t ready to let go - not of life, not of Martin. Fear still works to keep him alive.

The transmutation to bring Martin back, however, fails horribly, and Jon loses his eyesight. It's a bit ironic, isn’t it? The Avatar of the Beholding loses the ability to see the world around him.

Hoenheim’s an old friend. If anyone understands what he’s going through, it's him.

So it's not so surprising that Jon eventually settles down in the quiet village of Resembool.

Aaaaand that’s the basics really! We’re still figuring out a more specific plot and exploring different ideas because the lore we ended up with for this baby is Hefty, and this isn’t even everything we discussed or the individual relationships between the characters!

If my dear Luna wishes to expand or ruminate on ideas, they are more than welcome to add.

They helped me write this, after all! This is as much their fault as mine. lol

If you made it through this, thanks for reading! And uhhhh… wow, you’re patient, have a cookie.

[reading-stains]

So you started FMA...thoughts so far? I might rejoin. (I started and dropped it because Lust wasn't there. You can tell I'm biased.)

okay but i JUST started it, im on episode 4

i'd like to credit @lotus-pear for being the sole inspirer to watch this

but anyways, i like the fundamental aspects introduced. it's interesting to make them so powerful, but still recognize the price they paid to be that skilled. i'm excited to see where they go, whether they get back their bodies, and wtf is the difference between fmab (which is the one i started) and regular fma.

also, i just genuinely enjoy the animation? much of the animes previous to the 2010s make me wanna stop watching simply because i don't want to deal with the style and character design. i actually struggled with watching naruto at first because of this. but i think there's a lot of visual development in fmab that i wasn't expecting, which makes me excited to keep watching.

i will say, i've realized that the only way i finish tv shows these days is if i have someone continuously telling me they're invested in talking about these shows. but i actually haven't been able to find anyone to talk about fma or bsd, which is why ive struggled so much in continuing my watch (plus, i haven't continued any of the animes i wanted to watch like demon slayer, jjk, dr stone) despite really enjoying their first season. i think one of the best parts of getting into new shows is building a good conversation with people. but as i get more busy with my life, i fail to make new circles in order to have them. see, i'd love it if i could do watch parties sometimes, or just rant about my surprise. but the person that prompted bsd stopped at s3 and has not looked back. demon slayer wasnt continued by my best friend. no one i know comfortably has watched dr stone or fma at all... and jjk is the only option i think i could have that experience, but it's just not as interesting to me as the other shows are in my head. plus that friend didnt even like it that much.

so i guess what im saying is, i like it, i want to continue, but i'll probably struggle to get to a place where i can expand into a more nuance opinion when i feel like i have very little incentive to watch