#im v curious how ill feel abt this compared to mangahood when i get to it bc i suspect mangahood will not have many of the things i wish

[gayleviticus]

fma 03 TV ending thoughts

finished rewatching FMA 03 for the first time in about 8 years today

FMA 03 was the first anime I ever properly got into, all the way back in 2015, so it’s one I have a ton of feelings about. Unfortunately for various reasons at the time my only way of watching the show was DVDs from the library, which meant I never got a chance to watch Conqueror of Shamballa. Instead I pieced together whatever desperate fragments of plot summaries I could find, but there was always this lingering, unsatisfying sense of unfinished business and heartbreak that i never got to see the elrics reunite

Eventually I got interested in other stuff and forgot about FMA, so I still haven’t seen Shamballa to this day (I will though. Soon). I read the manga and watched Brotherhood intermittently, and I enjoyed it, but it didn’t scratch the itch 03 left. Something about it’s more straightforwardly happy ending rang hollow to me.

Anyway, when I rewatched 03 recently I found my love for it largely vindicated, and even deepened. Arcs that felt meandering gained a little bit more clarity knowing the big picture, and I really loved the shows emphasis on character and its melancholy tone instead of epic shounen battles.

There are aspects I think are awkwardly handled – I don’t feel like the writers knew entirely what to do with the Greed arc – but for the most part I really enjoyed it. It’s messy, but in the way that anything dealing with really interesting ideas that can’t be confined to a 51-episode anime has to be – the Homunculi alone have so much potential.

However, there was one thing that sticks unsatisfyingly in my mind – the ending. Now, to be fair, it’s clear to me now that you can’t really judge 03s ending independent of Shamballa. Not having seen 03 for 8 years, not having actually seen Shamballa ever, and also not being able to cope with ambiguity well at that age had drawn a vastly sharper line between the two than I ever remembered.

03’s TV ending is so obviously, optimistically gesturing towards a continuation. At the time I overly-literally misread this open-endedness, even knowing full well that Shamballa existed. I had this weird mindset of ‘If I don’t see them reunite, it doesn’t happen’. But watching it now, it’s very clear the intent of the ending is to establish that Ed and Al will meet again – even if Shamballa had never seen the light of day.

But it leaves me with weird feelings about the TV ending nonetheless. It has its flaws – not giving enough space to key emotional beats, a final episode that feels like it speeds directly past the climax to an epilogue without a strong sense of denouement.

All the plot beats themselves are fine imo. I think the reveals about the alternate world or the souls of the dead as fuel for alchemy are really thematically rich, the small-scale confrontation between Ed and Dante and its accompanying battle of ideals is great, and there’s a kindve sense of melancholy and dread as we descend towards our finale in the ruins of a dead city. But I think there’s something a bit off about the pacing of these beats and the framing.

A better version of the 03 ending for me would look basically identical on a Wikipedia plot summary. But I think it would emphasise what to me feel like the core strengths of 03s interpretation of Fullmetal Alchemist – the character drama, the emotion, the existential melancholy, the deep brotherly love Ed and Al have for each other but also the weight of all the horrors they’ve endured, the bitter truth of a world where equivalent exchange is not absolute versus these boys’ ideals.

This feels like where 03 was heading. And of course, it’s really not that far off. But I dunno, I feel like the emotion of Al resurrecting Ed, and then Ed sacrificing himself in turn isn’t given the space it so desperately needs. And this too would be fine if 03 was willing to sit with the ambiguity, I think, but after quickly dispensing with the necessary sacrifices it then proceeds to a pretty optimistic ending that basically flat-out assures us everything will be OK.

It’s funny, because I found it so unbearably sad when I first watched it (granted, amplified by the IRL sadness of not being able to watch Shamballa), but now I think it’s not angsty enough? these children should never know happiness (kidding. a little)

BUT with all that said – obviously I am missing out on the actual proper ending not watching Shamballa so!!! We will see how that final piece of the puzzle slots in. tldr is that fma 03 is not really a complete ending in itself anyway but i underestimated how much so