#fullmetal alchemist mention

[bojangos]

jaster mereel has maes hughes energy. 

I don’t make the rules. he just does.

[sassydefendorflower]

Something I don't see discussed often is the absolute genius dichotomy between dialogue and background scene during the conversation between Roy and Hughes in Ishval.

No, not that one.

I mean the one where they talk about the letter Hughes got from Garcia - one of the only "comedic" moments in all of episode 30 (and issue 15 of the manga).

Because it's horrendous.

In the anime (which unfortunately cut most of the juiciest and most fucked up stuff out of the chapters about the Ishvalen genocide) the scene begins with an establishing shot of Roy in which we see this:

Blood on the ground, covering an Ishvalen garment (and probably a body just out of frame) with a smiling Roy in front of it, since Hughes just got mail and Roy probably knows what his best friend is about to talk about. The conversation continues, the camera focused on their faces as if to make us forget just where we're at, and then, as their banter comes to a close we get this:

A wide shot of Roy and Hughes next to each other, now from the other side of the camera. Where before, we could only see their faces, alight with a rare smile, talking about the love of Hughes' life and joking around, we now see what scenery this is happening in front of. One of destruction. One of death.

Just as they ignored the dead body on the floor as they started talking about Hughes having to defend his girl back home, neither of them are really looking at Ishval in the end either. Hughes and Roy are still looking at the letter in Hughes hand - not the buildings Roy himself probably burned down only hours earlier.

It's framed a bit differently in the manga, though not by much. If anything the implications are only much darker.

(please excuse the German text, I only have the manga in German and Japanese)

But in the manga, this scene is not framed by a destroyed Ishvalen town, but by literal mountains of dead people. The speech bubbles in the left corner reference Hughes asking Roy when he'll get a girl to write home about.

I think it is very telling that Arakawa focused on the dead bodies in the foreground. I think it is incredibly clever and smart to show us Hughes and Roy only as dark shadows, as we see arms and faces stick out of the dirt.

Because as much as this moment of levity both in the manga and anime is a human one (people adapt to all kind of horrors, and most soldiers are known for a rather dark sense of humor), it is also a reminder that Hughes and Roy get to go home.

They both survive the war (even if Hughes dies later on), unlike the people over whose dead bodies they are sharing jokes.

It is a haunting imagery, but an effective one.

It's not overly aggressive, and it's easy to miss the bloody garment, especially in the anime version, but I do think it is a deliberate part of storytelling.

Because no matter how much Hughes claims he fights to survive (and i believe him, I really do), there is a difference between the Amestrians fighting and the Ishvalens they are killing.

And it's probably the fact that only one side is getting letters from back home, promising them a family and a future once they get back. Because the other side is lying dead on the floor, their blood a backdrop for two people to reminisce about humanity.

[wickedcriminal]

SNATCH

[cnsrbox]

Greed(ling) 🤚💥

[thefaeriecreek]

The Return to the Ancient Sky

[manga-and-stuff]

Source: Fullmetal Alchemist Hagane no Renkinjutsushi 鋼の錬金術師

by Hiromu Arakawa

[cable-salamdr]

Actually one of my favorite things about fma/b will always be that you get all of these short jokes thrown at Edward and it could have just been that that’s it: he’s just short for some reason (because he doesn’t drink his milk)

But then Arakawa went “No no, Ed is short because actually he’s been feeding his own nutrients to his brother’s body (which has been in limbo & chilling with god this entire time btw), and as soon as that connection begins to waver he does actually end up growing quite a bit still, until he’s taller than Winry.” and she just expected me to feel normal about that

[littler0b1n]

Thought I’d join in lol

[shocotate]

Info about Stopover Town & Resembool in FMA Perfect Guide 2 (2005), page 136, for @chrysopoeias. Page about Dublith here.

Page 143.

リゼンブールの小学校

エドたちが通った小学校. イシュヴァール内乱で攻撃を受け破壊されたのか、校舎がないバラーック式の青空学校だ。

Primary school in Resembool

The primary school that Ed and his friends attended. It's a barrack-style blue sky school with no school buildings, perhaps attacked and destroyed during the Ishval Civil War.

My Scans and Scanlations

[digitalprophetsworld]

This anime is consuming me

Oh yeah these guys too. OC's me and my friend (the one you see in green on the doodles) have ♡ c: Bugs when you lift up a rock @sagedearest

[the-catmans-offical-2]

I've been seeeing a lot of these so I did my own take

(I'll edit this post once I find the post that inspired me to make this)

Do not tag as royed.

[number1greedlingfan]

do you guys think ling yao doesn't wear shirts with collars by choice because the tight circle of fabric reminds him of that one night he woke up to a thin wire cutting into his neck and constricting his breathing and making his vision go spotty and he knows would've died if lan fan had gotten there a second later than she had? or is it because he's freaky

[ovium-sheep]

The Cost of Immortality

Other versions 👍

[elliott-forgott]

He and Riza have so much to talk about—

He’s got his gun here because he’s in a violent insurgent kind of mood and he’s helping Greed’s crew and Wolfie commandeer a secret military chimera base.

More of my thoughts:

Ed’s automail is actually helpful to him. All Bird chimeras have trouble getting off the ground due to their weight and will usually use a cable and reel on their belt to “launch” off the back of a truck or train going full throttle, kind of like a kid getting a kite up. Once they’re up, they’re going, and Ed is no different, even with his automail— it mostly just wears on his stamina, and his harness (I forgot to draw it) helps mitigate that too, so he’s fine.

Other chimeras, due to the size of their wings, have trouble making quick turns or adjustments. Meanwhile Ed can turn on a dime by twisting around and kicking his automail leg really hard.

The only real problem that his automail presents is in his port system actually; in the fact that his ports are built off of and bolted into his bones, except that his bones are hollow now, so if he jostles his arm or leg wrong he could shatter the bone and disconnect his automail, and likely damage his remaining limb so badly in the process that he’d never be able to get a new port system/new automail.

[suzu-kun22]

Sequel movie of FMA 2003 was actually supposed to be a trilogy. That's why the one movie sucks so bad

Bro this makes, SO much sense.

The biggest problem with Conqueror of Shamballa is that it feels like they rushed through everything that is actually interesting. The plot makes very little sense and the villain is pretty incomprehensible because I have no idea what she wants outside of the superficial.

Tbh I do think one movie could have worked fine if it wasn't trying to juggle so many things at once.

Like, a movie that's just a character drama/study about Edward stuck in 1930s Germany would have been really interesting. Add Alphonse showing up around the halfway point because he figured out a way to get through the gate, and Edward having to make the choice of if he wants to go back or not. Ultimately, maybe he decides that he can't go back. Edward Elric died in Amestris, and the fact that he's alive at all is already a miracle. Maybe he decides that he's a different person now. He isn't meant for his own world. Alphonse still decides to stay with him, because Alphonse wants to stay by his brother's side now that he's found him again. (You could even ignore the whole "going back" plot. Maybe Alphonse figures out a way to get through the gate and he can't go back either, now. He's just happy to have Ed with him again, and the two of them navigate our world together).

I'm very normal. Just cut out the nonsense plot and the villain and it would be a much more interesting movie. 100%.

Or make it a trilogy, or a series, and give all the stuff they crammed into that 1:45 room to breathe jfc

[peapodsinspace]

Drawings I made in EFFIE’S SKETCHBOOK??

All fma cus. Yk

[Image ID in alt text]

The last two go together ofc !!! And effie drew the first two riza chibis :]

(Also the text, if yall can’t read it:

“Trade offer:

I receive: a kissy

You (Riza Hawkeye) receive: a kissy”)

You can find more drawings from Effie’s sketchbook (not done by me!) by looking through @scarymonsters-andsupercreeps ‘ epic blog