#sorry if I made some mistakes with BH - I am not as familiar with it

[zetalial]

Random thoughts on differences between 03 and Brotherhood

Wrote this a while ago, and figured why not post it? 

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I was thinking about the differences between FMA 03 and BH as you do. I’ve seen all sorts of viewpoints on what bits people like from each version and I recall one person mentioning at some point that they didn’t like the third episode of FMA 03, Mother, that much, preferring what’s done in BH. That came as a surprise to me as Mother is one of my favourite episodes and while episode 2 of BH is pretty decent too - the Elrics backstory is interesting - it’s not nearly so powerful to me. That’s fine of course, everyone has their preferences.

They remarked on how BH included Riza’s presence and spent some time with her (including her conversation with Winry) and Mustang, making him far more sympathetic. So they saw it as a bit of a flaw that 03 left these parts out, as Riza and Roy are such important characters to the story and its bad that they aren’t being properly introduced here. 

I countered that 03 spent a lot more time fleshing out Trisha and the Elric family and they agreed that this was indeed the case, of course, but that Trisha isn’t a very important character and she’s not exactly hard to understand so spending extra time on her at the expense of Roy and Riza was a bit of a waste (even given the whole Sloth thing). 

Anyway, this got me thinking about some of the differences in each series and here’s some thoughts:

03 is more of a character study of Edward Elric where BH shows us Ed’s story. So basically, Brotherhood attempts to show us the important events in Edward’s childhood and show how he became part of the military and how he met people like Roy and Riza, what his relationship to Winry, Al etc is. So we learn that he performed a human transmutation and the fallout of it. It’s already understood that a kid could love their mother so you don’t need to delve into this motive.

In contrast, 03 spends time attempting to show how a person can be driven to the extremes of attempting a human transmutation and the fallout. Therefore, far more time is spent showing Ed’s relationship with his mother, his fear of death, his feelings at having a missing father, his obsessive love of alchemy and how he sees it as a solution to his problems. His closeness to Al is also shown a lot. 

So, in BH it is a given that Ed is a person that would perform a human transmutation and we learn all about it where in 03, it attempts to show us how he became this sort of person. Roy and Riza are therefore less important to 03′s character driven tale so their presence is reduced. whereas Ed’s relationship to his mother is vitally important so it’s the focus. 

What we do see of Mustang is colder and more distant as we’re basically in Ed’s perspective* and he is wary of him and the military he represents. This establishes the severity of Ed’s choice to join the military which he seems to view with distaste but is determined enough to go through with it anyway, revealing more about the kind of person Ed is through Roy’s presence.

BH presents Roy as more caring, especially with the nice Riza beside him, as this is an opportunity to introduce Roy as a likeable main character. His conversation with Ed about joining the military is more about providing a ray of hope to Ed who is in despair after his great failure - and we see Roy’s own thoughts showing he meant it as a genuinely kind gesture where we’re more in the dark about Roy’s motives in 03. I’d say the vileness of the military is meant to be more of a twist so Ed’s choice is presented as a good, logical thing in BH. 

Anyway those are some of my thoughts. There are those who find 03 to be rather slow and that’s probably because it’s more focused on exploring the characters’ - usually Ed’s - thoughts and feelings, rather than letting the story unfold. That’s why you’ll get things like an episode that revolves around a conversation about loss and the idea of equivalent exchange - this contributes nothing to the plot or world-building but seriously helps to explore Ed’s feelings and beliefs. (Not that BH never does stuff like this either but it’s less frequent.) Likewise, there’s more self-contained episodes where the main contribution to the story is about fleshing out Ed’s character and his relationship with Al. They’re very entertaining if that’s your sort of thing but if you’re looking for a great story and an interesting world, 03 will leave you waiting a little longer than you may like. And if you have no interest in Ed as a character, then yeah, I can see it being less appealing. 

*Note that we’re not literally in Ed’s perspective but Mustang’s real personality is being held back from the audience at this point to better keep the focus on the Elrics and to give us an idea of how they view him. Mustang’s character is only important in regards to the impact he has on Ed at this point. Later, when the Elrics have become better established, we’ll get a better understanding of Roy inviting you to compare and contrast from what we see here.

[sheyshen]

Today’s short ramble fic brought to you by my thinking about Koren and Theron back during the class stories, shortly after they had broken up because of work pulling them in separate directions. This takes place during chap 1 of the BH class story, before Tatooine but after DK, back when they were still pulling each other out of the fire on occasion.

Hope you all enjoy! :3

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He was in a tough spot, to say the least. Theron grunted in pain as he shoved the door open enough that he could squeeze through. His right arm was dislocated at the shoulder, his implants were fried, and his nose was broken. That likely wasn’t the full extent of his injuries, but it was the most immediate of them at the moment. He cursed his luck as his comm beeped an incoming call. Such terrible timing.

Ignoring the pinging device, the spy sprinted down the hallway. He didn’t have time to see to the dislocation properly so he yanked off his jacket as best he could and used it to brace the wounded arm to him for the time being. He’d worry about it as soon as he was safe for more than a few seconds.

The lights of the hall flickered on, the power to the station cycling and restarting and he quickened his pace. The pinging continued and finally, Theron grabbed the device, debated on just tossing it to use as a distraction, but ended up answering it instead. Without his implants working the comm was his only way to get contact off the station. The red emergency lights flickered and shifted to the blinding white as the station finished it’s reboot as he hit the button and shouted at his comm.

“Now’s not a great time!” He ground out as he banked down a hall and headed to where the shuttle bay was located.

“So you don’t want a rescue I take it?” The voice on the other side hummed.

“Kor?” Theron practically squeaked the nickname out as he nearly slammed his head on a barrel of a blaster as the door in front of him opened. Dashing to the side and dodging the shot the spy scrambled away before continuing. “Wha- Where are you?”

“About to land, hopefully. Mako is trying to get the blast doors open, so get ready to hop on as soon as we get in.”

“Do I want to know how you knew where I was?”

Koren laughed, a sound that the spy had honestly missed. “Jonas.” He answered simply. “I’ll give you the full details as soon as your safe, Shey’s already prepping the med bay since knowing you you’re gonna need some patching up.”

“Am I still that predictable?” Theron glanced up as he slid into cover, watching the blast doors open. The sounds of alarm around him let him know that he was now the lesser of the two issues the station was now facing.

The rumble of engines was what he heard before the Mantis landed in the middle of the bay, ramp descending. Taking that as his cue to make himself scarce Theron ran for the ship. A woman stood on the ramp, taking shots at the enemy and covering for him as he ran up and into the open door.

“Sorry to crash your party.” She said as she followed after him and closed the door. Hitting the comm she shouted. “Alright Kor, he’s on, let’s get outta here.”

“Already on it Shey.” He returned as the ship’s engines revved and Theron could feel lift off as the woman led him further in.

“You’re a friend of Kor right?” She smiled at him, the red jacket and lipstick she wore standing out on her almost ghostly pale skin and hair. “I’m Shey, one of the team. The other is in the pit with him right now.”

“Theron.” He introduced. “I appreciate the save.”

“Did you think I wouldn’t show?” Koren grinned, leaning on the hand railing above.

Theron chuckled, “I didn’t know you were coming honestly. Might’ve made sure to grab a few more party favors if I had.”

“Ah, I’m sure you’ll make it up to me somehow.” The merc chuckled as he headed down the stairs. As soon as he stepped up to the spy he tsked, “You’re a mess.”

“The party got a little rowdy.”

“So I see, let’s get you patched up.” He urged him forward before turning his attention to Shey a moment. “Can you help Mako with the jump to Coruscant? Use the landing codes that are logged under Kole.”

“Sure thing.” She said as she headed up to the cockpit.

“Didn’t think you had landing codes for Republic planets.” Theron huffed a laugh as he sat on the padded table that lay on the far side of the med bay, letting Koren remove his jacket and shirt to tend to his wounds.

“I don’t, but my brothers do.” Koren hurried around the room retrieving various supplies and deposited them next to his ex. “Perks of being an identical brother of not one, but two, Jedi that are apparently well regarded in the Republic.” He grabbed Theron’s arm with one hand and braced the other on his back. “This is gonna hurt.” He warned.

Bracing himself, Theron bit back a shout as his arm was pushed back into the socket. Even though he grumbled in pain he held as still as possible as Koren worked, taping his shoulder for support and then went to tend the remaining injuries, saving the implant for last.

“Still no plans to come back to the Republic?” Theron asked as the pain subsided, replaced by a warm numbness from the anesthetic that the merc rubbed on the wounded shoulder.

“Not at present.” Koren glanced at him before returning his focus to his work. “I’m technically MIA, and you know I make a poor excuse of a Jedi.”

“I’m sure whoever would end up your master wouldn’t appreciate you puking whenever you use the Force.” Theron joked, earning a quiet laugh.

The familiarity between them was something he had missed. It had been a few months since they had broken up, his work with the SIS and Koren’s with the job this ‘Braden’ had offered taking them in different directions. But that he didn’t lose a friend in the process was nice.

“I’m sure my brothers are making enough trouble in the order without me anyway.” Koren stepped away to grab some more supplies, these more geared for cybernetics.

“Have the panic attacks gotten better?”

The merc paused a moment, taking a heavy breath, and returning to continue tending to Theron’s wounds. “No. And please don’t mention them to the other two.”

“They don’t know?” The spy winced as Koren cleaned and stitched a particularly deep gash on his arm.

“I haven’t mentioned it. They know I’m Force-sensitive, but that’s it. They don’t need to know the rest.”

“They’re your team, Kor. What if-” Theron watched him worriedly.

“They don’t need to know,” Koren repeated. “I made mistakes and I don’t need anyone to clean up after me, you know that.”

“Doesn’t mean you shouldn’t have someone looking out for you.”

The merc grinned, “That’s what I have you for isn’t it?” At the slight look of surprise on his friend’s face, he chuckled. “I know you’ve been tracking me. And I’m pretty sure the cover-up from the last job I took was done by you and not Kody.”

Theron laughed, “I was trying to be sneaky. Besides, I know that the Jedi that gave those troopers on Balmorra a run for their credits was you.”

“See, we both have someone looking out for us. Don’t need to involve anyone else.” Koren pulled up a chair and urged Theron to turn his head as he poked at the devices implanted around Theron’s eye. “Just going to give these a quick restart. I know the SIS wouldn’t want me messing with them.”

Theron hummed, closing his eyes and letting him work. It was a shame that he still refused to return to the Republic, but if he was being honest with himself he was also glad he didn’t. Koren seemed happier like this. He was a combat medic and preferred to stay neutral so traveling the stars as part of a team of bounty hunters suited him more than the spy would admit.

Maybe one day they’d be on the same team again, be able to grab a drink, and talk about their adventures without worrying that either could be at risk. Maybe they’d both meet someone new, have someone else to look out for them when they got in over their heads. But until then they had each other, and Theron would do everything in his power to keep his friend safe just as he knew Koren would do the same for him.