#this is so wholesome though...

[mooreaux]

Love Undying

[inzuinzudesu]

A Christmas gift for @kawkawsrii! Happy holidays!

Bonus: they went to the grandline and will come back in part 2???? i hope so?????????

Bonus 2: cute ass lil shits whom i desperately wanted to put in but couldn't cuz i'm silly like that

[tardis-technician]

this sucks so bad i need to [remembers suicide jokes only worsen my mental health] punch through an azbantium wall

[galaxyinacup]

Would you/ have you ever drawn Flower Ranchers fanart? (Jimmy×Tango×Scott)

I have drawn them before and I have done so again for you all!!!

I was originally just going to repost my previous art of them but my bestie gave me this banger idea for them and I needed to get it out there! (Also that art is like a year old now)

I've grown fond of snowbugs... they are so pretty!

I'll still leave my other art of them under the cut, as well as close ups of this one:

[shishuri]

This guy.. this fucking guy is bragging about the game he had with his wife, during a damn meeting..

[madbard]

Headcanon that Dust absolutely resents how much he resembles Classic. There are elements of this back in Dusttale, with how Dust prefers to hide his face and identity while building his LV, but this is more out of practicality (and even shame) than anything else. He doesn’t want his victims to recognize him because it’ll make it harder for him to sneak up on people, and a part of him really doesn’t want them to know that he was the one who killed him. The longer this goes on, the more his disguise transforms from a way of hiding his shame to a way of distancing himself from who he used to be. Sans would never kill all those people, but he isn’t Sans anymore. He’s not really a person anymore, he is the act of murder itself. He is Dust.

I think this would get way worse when Dust leaves his AU and enters the multiverse though, because right off the bat he encounters murderers, just like him… who don’t look innocent. Horror, Killer and even Cross are set completely apart from who they used to be. They are scarred and twisted and nightmarish. Looking at them doesn’t trigger memories of a happier, innocent past. They have renamed themselves, taken on a new identity - but for them, this change was physical as well. No one will ever mistake them for Sans.

So Dust wears his hood. He hides his face. He keeps his magic burning constantly, because if he stops his eyes will darken and there will be nothing setting him apart from the monster who died, years ago, the first time a knife ripped through his chest. The others realize it, too… Horror probably wouldn’t care either way. Cross would understand the desire to distance oneself from an old identity, but would ultimately be in a similar boat as Horror. Killer would bring this up to taunt Dust once he realized it bothered him - and would quickly get bored with it. Ultimately, the others would just accept Dust’s refusal to show his face, his hatred of his own voice and reflection, as part of who he is.

I like to imagine that one day, the gang get into a serious combat. It’s vicious and close; both sides are bloody and exhausted by the time it’s over. If one side wins, it’s by a hair, and not much of a victory. In the dazed silence following the battle, Nightmare slowly assesses each of his acolytes, ensuring that they are still alive and intact. When he reaches Dust, he pauses. The assassin is bloodied, slumped over. His HP is steady but low; he’s taken a lot of hits - more than most monsters would have been able to survive. His hand vanishes beneath his hood, carefully inspecting his face. That night, back at the castle, Dust steps in front of a mirror. He takes a deep breath and, for the first time in years, removes his hood to look his reflection in the eye. The combat left deep wounds across his face, injuries that would never heal completely, that would leave him permanently scarred.

Dust looks at his battered reflection and smiles.

[gothamite-rambler]

"Tim, you slipped up eventually," Bernard said.

---Next morning---

Tim woke up the next morning. Last night felt like a dream, it had to be he reasoned. There was no way Bernard discovered he was Robin, sat on this information for a long time, or that Bernard kissed him once he started panicking. It was a dream... a really good dream.

Tim (reasoned): It was a ... dream. I was exhausted. Dog tired, took off my suit which... Is scattered on the floor, totally normal. Me being naked, trying something new. Did that myself.

Bernard (calling from the kitchen): Tim, you awake?

Tim smelled bacon and eggs from the kitchen. Bernard was making breakfast, he was in his place and Tim was naked in bed. Not connected.

Tim (trying to play it cool): I'm up... Wh- When did you get in?

Bernard (heard chuckling from the kitchen): I spent the night here, silly. You hit your head during your Robin job?

Tim (sighing at the inevitable truth): Oh crap baskets.

Tim got out of bed debating what to say, how to handle this, should he pay Bernard to keep the secret, move towns, get plastic surgery-

Bernard (unintentionally interrupting his boyfriends ruminating thoughts): Tim, I'm making your favorite! I also left an outfit on the bed, and I placed your mask on the table.

Tim groaned at his boyfriend's saccharine jovial tone. Bernard sounded so used to this, but Tim couldn't figure out when he actually figured out he was Red Robin. All he could do now was get dressed.

Tim: Th- Thanks.

Tim took a deep breath, changing into the blue shirt and blue jeans Bear left out for him. Leaving his bedroom, he went to the table and sat down. Bernard placed a plate of eggs, bacon and avocado toast in front of him. Bear kissed him on the head then sat down with a plate of his own food.

Bernard scooched his chair closer to Tim, laughing softly seeing his flushed face.

Bernard (eating a strip of bacon): Last night was fun, I'm glad I got to do that with you in your Robin suit. Kind of wanted to do after I connected the dots on my metaphorical evidence board.

Tim groaned, rubbing his forehead.

Bernard (a soft smile): If you're worried I'm going to tell anyone or leave you or want money to keep it secret let me make this clear, I won't. I wouldn't do that if we weren't dating. That type of betrayal isn't my thing.

Tim: Yeah, but... Why?

Bernard: (calm) Did you threaten to do that when you wanted to become Robin? Because I know how smart you are and that you figured out who Batman was.

Tim (shaking his head): It was a tough start, but I never wanted to tell the world the information once I learned it. I didn't think I'd have this happen to me though. I was so careful.

Bernard chuckled, patting Tim on the shoulder.

Bernard (placing a hand on Tim's arm): Timmy, my prince, you suck at hiding it at a certain point. You left your eye mask in random places, you left a batarang in my car once, I'm keeping that by the way, one of your Robin suits is in the closet-

Tim (lying badly): I told you that was a halloween costume.

Bernard: Tim you have it labeled 'Property of Red Robin'. I believed it was a cool halloween costume... that we used for roleplay, eventually I connected the dots and the tights.

Tim sighed, holding his head down and eating his breakfast.

Tim: Continue.

Bernard (beaming): Thank you, let's see... you left your laptop open one time and there were blueprints for the batmobile, the microwave incident and again your upper arm tattoo.

Tim checked the tattoo he got dedicated to his mom.

Tim: Yeah, I-

Bernard: I told you to get the tattoo on a different spot for that reason, yeah. To be honest, the mask and tattoo made me teeter on if I was right, but it was when you snapped me out of the kissed chaos monster's control that made me realize... you're the same person. No one kisses me like that except you.

Tim: That was a weird night, I still have no idea how I woke up first.

Bernard kissed Tim on the cheek.

Bernard: You didn't kiss me once that night. The important thing is I don't care if you're Red Robin. I love you and will always love you. I was waiting for you to tell me, but... let's just say I got a little impatient.

Tim: That's what I love about you, you are my better half. I... love you too.

Bernard: Aww, you're making me blush. Your secret is safe with me though, okay?

Tim nodded, eating his toast.

Tim: Thanks, question though, did you figure out who Batman is?

Bernard (chuckling): Yeah that took me like five minutes. Having trouble with Nightwing and Red Hood though.

Tim: Seriously?

Bernard (honest): Yeah, can you tell me?

Tim: Oh, no, no, you gotta figure that out on your own.

Bernard: You'll keep that secret from me? The utter betrayal.

Bernard and Tim laughed and then shared a quick kiss then went to eating breakfast with a new bond between them.

Previous chapter ->Last night

First chapter -> He already knew

[captorcorp]

two normal virtual buddies hanging out that want to be your friend :)

[ecoterrorist-katara]

Ka/taang: friends-to-lovers or the Friend Zone?

It’s almost axiomatic, in any ATLA shipping discussion, that Ka/taang is the friends-to-lovers ship while Zutara is the enemies-to-lovers ship, and that differences in shipping tastes can be boiled down to whether you prefer FTL or ETL.

My first ship was Percabeth. My biggest ship was Klaine. It took me until Mockingjay to let go of my Gale-and-Katniss-are-childhood-friends rose-tinted goggles and start liking Everlark. I started dabbling in ETL because of Zutara, but I’m incredibly picky about it (do not ask me how many Dramione fanfics made me irrationally, disproportionately mad).

All this to say: as a longtime friends-to-lovers enthusiast, I should theoretically love Ka/taang. But…

My difficulty with Ka/taang as a friends-to-lovers ship boils down to this: Aang and Katara’s friendship was always narratively framed as insufficient, because Aang liked her from the start and always wanted a romantic relationship. And imo that dynamic really colours their entire friendship.

I like to think Aang would’ve been a ride-or-die friend — the type to give up the Avatar State to rescue her, the type to commit ecoterrorism and help her get arrested, the type to make her a flower necklace to cheer her up — even if he didn’t have a crush on her, but I will never know that. We never got to see the pure friendship part of friends-to-lovers, because the spectre of the romantic relationship was always there. Before the last five minutes of the show, Katara’s feelings for Aang range from “plausibly interested” (The Headband, Cave of Two Lovers) to “doesn’t hate it” (Day of the Black Sun, The Fortuneteller) to “no” (Ember Island Players). Yet Katara’s eventual capitulation to reciprocation of Aang’s feelings was always depicted as inevitable, starting from s1 when the prisoners during Avatar Day reassured him that she’d “come around” because he’s a catch. It’s as if friendship, even one full of devotion and mutual love like the one they share, is not enough.

And that’s just totally antithetical to what I love about a friends-to-lovers dynamic. I love romances where characters value each other outside of attraction, when they see each other for who they are (this goes double for pretty characters like Katara, whose complexity and imperfections are just as important as her beauty and her care for others). I love the idiots in love sub-trope, where they’re obviously into each other, yet do a bunch of mental gymnastics to remain in comfortable denial (we got a little bit of this earlier in the series, but by s3 we were firmly in Aang-pines-and-Katara-deflects territory). In every friends-to-lovers story I’m simply obsessed with the confess-and-kiss scene, but the version we got in ATLA was ruined by the lack of reciprocation, twice.

Over time, because Aang was written as so insistent about his affections, Ka/taang went from a friends-to-lovers story to a Nice Guy Friend Zone “why doesn’t she like me” story. I mentioned Everlark earlier: I got the same ick for Gale in Mockingjay as I did for Aang in s3, where the woman is not interested yet he still badgers her about it. (And considering Gale is canonically hot, I don’t think the relative attractiveness of Aang is the issue here). But Gale’s insistence was presented as his problem, his lack of empathy, his self-righteousness; Aang’s insistence was just a part of his quest to get the girl.

A lot of people say Zutara is a female fantasy, whether they mean it in a positive or pejorative way. Nobody says the same about Ka/taang, even though women definitely have friends-to-lovers fantasies too. A good friends-to-lovers story reminds me of all the times when I was an idiot before getting together with a friend I was actually head-over-heels for. Ka/taang reminds me of all the times when I was not interested in a friend and they didn’t respect my preference. Friends-to-lovers is a delicate balance, maintained only by unerring mutual respect and unconditional care for each other, and it can veer into Nice Guyism if the writers aren’t thoughtful about why this dynamic is so appealing. Which is exactly what happened with Ka/taang.

[d0d0-b0i]

mimicry

[varpusvaras]

The whole base was already in a wild, celebratory frenzy as they got there.

Fox did prefer it that way. He did not wish to draw too much attention to himself. It would be for the best if he handled any and all reunions in a more private setting, and slipping away from everybody was much easier when everyone were busy celebrating their victory.

That plan did vanish the moment he stepped off the bridge and saw Breha standing there, looking directly at him.

Fox looked back. He had learned to read her quite well over the years, but right now, it was rather difficult to tell what was the leading emotion on her face at the moment. Perhaps it was needless for him to even try to decipher any of them. He was going to have to face her and whatever she had for him anyway.

So Fox walked towards her, never looking away, and Breha stood there, her eyes just as much unflichingly looking at him.

Fox stopped a couple of paces in front of her. She didn't say anything yet, just kept looking at him, and Fox knew that whatever it was she was about to say to him, he still had one thing to do regardless.

So he bowed his head and bend his knee.

"I offer you my deepest apology", he said. "For disobeying your word, and for forcing orders upon you, Your Majesty."

He barely got the words out, when Breha was already dropping on her knees as well, and Fox quickly straightened up, just in time to catch her in his arms.

Breha buried her face against his shoulder, not at all caring about anyone around them seeing it all. She was shaking, and Fox wasn't sure if she was crying, or if everything that had happened during the day had finally caught up on her.

It was all certainly cathing up on Fox. He was tired, like he had been running up and down a mountain for the whole day, and his legs and arms were starting to sting in that exact way that always prefaced them going slightly numb and weak for a while.

Still, he held onto Breha, pressing the side of his face on top of her head, and let her take her time.

"I am so, so angry at you", Breha said into Fox's shoulder. Her voice was definitely a little thick, but it didn't sound like she was yet crying. "Do you understand?"

"Yes", Fox said. He held her a little tighter. "I understand."

---

Bail was talking with Dodonna when they got to the War Room.

Fox looked around a bit. He didn't see Leia there, which he was at the same time a bit disappointed and relieved about. He did want to see her. Breha had told him that she was relatively fine, with few minor surface injuries, and a light headache from a mind probe, but Fox wanted to make sure himself.

But he also owed her an apology as well, and he wasn't sure if he could handle more than one of them at a time.

He didn't wish to interrupt the conversation, but Dodonna noticed him and Breha first, and he quickly tapped Bail on the arm. Bail raised a brow at him.

"What is it?" Fox heard him ask over the noise of the rest of the base, that was very much reaching the Room as well. Bail's head turned around as he followed Dodonna's eyes. "Is something- Fox!"

Fox felt weirdly almost giddy from the way Bail's face lit up as he saw him. Bail rounded the command table and crossed the rest of the room quickly in long strides, and Fox had barely the time to do anything before Bail had wrapped his arms around him and pulled him close.

Yes, Fox was definitely tired. He carefully pulled his arms a little more apart from where they were pressed against Bail's body, and he leaned his head against his chest. His arms were definitely a bit more tingly than they had been a moment ago, but not yet numb. His feet were, for the most part, but he could still stand on them, so Fox ignored them for the time being.

For now, he simply closed his eyes and breathed in deep.

"I was so worried", Bail said.

"I know", Fox said. "I'm sorry."

Bail didn't day anything to that. Fox just felt him breathe in a little deeper as well, and his arms tightened ever so slightly around Fox.

They stayed like that for a while, before someone carefully cleared their throat somewhere behind Bail.

"My apologies, Senator Organa, but we need you in the command center."

"Of course." Bail loosened his hold on Fox and leaned away a bit, and that was the moment Fox's legs decided to not let themselves be ignored anymore, and made very clear the fact that leaning most of his weight onto Bail had been the only thing that had kept him upwards still.

His weight shifted forwards as Bail leaned back, and his knees buckled immediately. Bail was very quick to step back towards him and tighten his hold again, so Fox's didn't go crashing down onto the floor. He probably wouldn't have been able to stop his fall himself, as he couldn't feel currently anything below his knees and elbows.

Breha was quick to step in as well, as her hands came to keep Fox upright from his side, and together they managed to keep him somewhat upright still.

"Are you alright?" Breha asked. Fox felt a little guilty for being relieved over the fact that she didn't sound upset at him anymore.

"Yes", he said. He was a little out of breath now, despite the physical support. "I'm just a little tired."

They both knew what that meant. Bail let out a deep sigh.

"I think you are a bit more than a little tired, my love", he said. "I'll be in the command center in a moment. I'm just going to take my husband to our rooms to rest."

"Yes, Sir." Breha pushed him up a little more, so that Bail could more easily let go of him in order to bend down enough to lift Fox's legs on his arms.

"Watch your back", Fox reminded him.

"You watch your back", Bail shot back at him. He got his other arm properly around Fox's back and hoisted him up.

"Both of you watch it", Breha said. She put her hand on Fox's knee and patted it gently, before turning around. "It's better if we take you to our rooms anyway. Leia will hear sooner than later that you are here as well."

"I don't doubt that", Fox said. He leaned his head back against Bail as they started to make their way down the hall. It wasn't thankfully a long way to the lift from the Room, nor would it be from the lift to their quarters, if Fox had understood the layout of the base correctly. This was the first time he had been there in person, after all, so his only frame of reference were the drawings he had seen of the layout, and what Bail and Leia had told him about it. "I'm a bit surprised that she isn't already here."

"She is a bit busy at the moment", Breha said. "She has become quick friends with the pilot that made the final shot. He was the one who saved her from the battle station as well."

"Really?" Fox had not been able to see who he had communicated with, and General Kenobi that been the one to sign the messages between them, so Fox hadn't known who else exactly was there. "I should extend my gratitude to him as well."

"Yes." Breha hummed, thinking for a moment as they walked towards the lift. "You should meet him. His name is Luke Skywalker."

Fox's heart made a couple of extra beats.

He swallowed.

"I really should, then", he said.

They stepped into the lift.

"We should also warn you", Breha said, as the doors closed. "The moment Leia knows that you are here, everyone else is also going to know."

"Who is this 'everyone else' we are talking about?" Fox asked.

There was a strange sense of foreboding creeping up on him, now.

"There were others, too, going in to save Leia from the Death Star, and to sabotage the station", Breha said. "Some of them are here now, too. Including your brother."

This time, Fox's heart left out a couple of beats.

There was only one brother that Breha could refer to with such gravitas as she did now.

"Cody?" Fox managed to ask around the piece in his throat that had suddenly formed there. "Is Cody here?"

Breha breathed in, and nodded, and Fox realised that the day was far from being over for him.

[ssaseaprince]

Can we talk about how Derek obviously has a type because Spencer and Penelope are so similar.

[josyuss]

[nonexistent memory]

[esmiara]

Reading time

[crimeronan]

i was explaining ronanessy to tera yesterday (who has not read trc OR tdt) and i've woken up still thinking this is hilarious:

sorry for thinking it's delightful that everyone becomes the worst possible version of themselves as soon as gansey blue and noah are gone. as if it's my fault.

[fullmetal-scar-simping]

seeing you mention mangahood purists liking manga/broho bc it's "pure" got me thinking: whenever i see someone shit on 03, they'll say "oh it's too 'dark', scary, depressing" (sorry having to confront/acknowledge imperialism is "dark and scary" lmao) and yet, in the same breath, i've seen several turn around and praise mangahood/broho for its "mature themes" and its handling of "dark topics" and it's like... are the mature themes in the room with us?? this is pure speculation and i'm sure i'm not saying anything new here, but i think a large part of why mangahood purists hate 03 is bc it makes them uncomfortable. 03 does not give the viewer the luxury of turning away from the atrocities amestris commits to liore/ishval; they're forced to confront it head-on throughout the show (see: ed standing among a graveyard of liorians, ishvalans getting targeted no matter where they go, etc) and there's no "the military was controlled by supernatural monsters all along!!!" to conveniently pin the blame on either. it's the military itself that's the problem and needs to be taken down. and mangahood/broho purists just don't like that i think.

The critical eye towards the military absolutely makes them uncomfortable and you're right to say it. In fact, it's 03's focus on the suffering begotten by the military and the relative centering of its racialized victims that spoils the fun for a lot of people.

[Because I have a pathological need to ramble for eternity, here's a readmore:]

Without fail most fans who hold Brotherhood and/or the fma manga up to be this dark, mature, incisive piece of entertainment will then levy the weight and severity of the topics they think mangahood adeptly tackles (lol) as a strike against the first anime adaptation. It's practically rote at this point.

They love dark stuff! Except when it's actually dark. Which is therefore too dark. And fma 2003 commits the sin of being dark in ways that the manga isn't, so it's obviously edgy fanfiction for immature sickos who rage against happiness and friendship. It's immature to like adaptations that depicts difficult topics, and genocide as a topic should be an inspiring romp with quirky pals! 😒

It's very telling too. Because the way homunculi are created and societally and personally (mis)function in this version of the world is a mixture of horror storytelling and allegory (for the most hidden and reviled classes of people). It's dark! Certainly I've seen some people complain about the gore and blood associated with the homunculi, their appearances, and their actions. But that's not the truly petrifying darkness that 03 haters gripe the most about. Sometimes they even celebrate that specific element of the 2003 adaptation! No, it's as you said: the highlighted hideousness of the military and its imperialism is what makes them balk in revulsion.

How dare a show about real topics like genocide and fascism not bury the travesties under a thick layer of positive gusto! It should be dripping in sludgey shonen bravado, perhaps even carry the cutesy-kid friendly veneer akin to an 80s GI Joe cartoon instead. Make soldiers fun again! What's with all of this death and misery? Why are people being shown as rightfully disgusted by and against the State?! How come these characters can't overcome their idiosyncrasies, ideologies, and traumas to win the day?? Wait, our military guys aren't even being lauded for feeling sad and get everything they want as a reward??? Scar is willing to sacrifice himself for liberation and we're not fed some pap that helps us despise him and feel suitably smug and comfortable in our own privileged lives while he condemns our propensity for siding with soldiers? That's not right, Scar's a villain! Soldiers are honest good guys! Hold up, there's RAPE?! In my silly anime about imperialism?!!? UM?!

Time and again I find posts ranting about how the 03 writers "had no idea what to do with Scar, so they waste his entire character". Once I get over the initial offense that this causes me (lol), I'm left sitting here wondering what the fuck they're talking about. Did they even watch this show? How can anyone even so much as think this, when he's a pivotal character? And increasingly I have come to realize it's because he doesn't have that fuck-awful ~redemption arc~ (excuse me while I throw up) that everyone looooooooves in mangahood. It's because he would sooner obliterate every single Amestrian soldier across the land than renounce liberation and buddy up to the pigs. He dies accomplishing his greatest act of love for the survivors of genocide, but since these people turned their brains off as soon as "03 diverged from the manga" (which the show does from episode 01 but don't let that get in the way of their manga-purity) they think the Liore arc is random happenstance, with no rhyme or reason, and Scar is still a """""""villain""""""" AND he dies (character deaths always means you wasted a character btw), so therefore fma 2003 is pointless darkness that spits on Arakawa personally.

Never gonna forget the posts that gripe about Scar being "disrespected" in 03 because he... dies on the ground. Guess we're throwing context and analysis to the wind and just misrepresenting scenes for cheap points. Better to make Scar feel like human garbage because he killed genociders! Now THAT'S respectful!

People don't like it when a character dies for their principles and is lauded by the narrative for it too. All of this is too much for the enlightened mangahood purist! It paints such a dire image of what the colonized have to do to push back against their colonizers! Can't we all just get along (and both-sides the invasion of Ishbal)?

Guess there aren't enough tone-annihilating chibi gags interspersed between every other shot of Ishbalans being rounded up into prison vehicles by Mustang and Riza to assuage viewers that all is well, actually. Concentration camps are total bummers. Aren't the Ishbalans supposed to be living tranquil, idyllic lives in the slums ala mangahood?

That's the other piece of the hate against 03: that it doesn't mercilessly break the melancholic, tragic, violent, and ethical/philosophical tones and quandaries with incessant jokes. The majority of the time, you are meant to stew in it, ask yourself hard questions too, while peeling away some of the mysteries presented and seeing how multiple factors play into the actions and circumstances of these characters. None of these factors absolve anything, they are merely another string in the show's web. Levity is mostly sparing. It does exist! Mostly in the earlier eps, with the odd palette cleanser in the middle of the show. But it's hardly as over the top as your average Brotherhood episode, which is incessantly brimming with jokes, gags, chibi/cartoon style shifts, quips, and buddy-buddy comradery, over and over forever. Are we even beginning to feel the tendril of despair from something that happened in Broho? Nope no worries, here's a goofy-whatever suddenly thrown at the viewer 3 seconds into any emotional state that is less than hopeful and cheery.

are the mature themes in the room with us??

The mature themes are dressed like low rent clowns who forgot their props, but I'm meant to play along like it's a mastercraft of artistic expression.

We could contrast 03's depictions of imperialism vs mangahood's, but I want to highlight a different, prime example of how paperthin Brotherhood's darkness is:

Ed and Al's human transmutation.

This moment in 03 has long lasting effects beyond what it did to the Elric brothers' bodies, with this act having created a tortured and exploited entity who can only envision escaping the pain by obtaining retribution against them. Ed lives in denial for as long as he can, until he's run up against a wall and has to dig up Trisha's grave. He has to kill his creation using a stolen piece of his mother's remains. Is this doppleganger truly his mother? Can she ever forgive him? Does he have the right to take an unlife just because he forced her into being, and abandoned her? He will grapple with that for the rest of his life, while having nearly torn his relationship to Al apart in the process. And for his own sake, he will dehumanize homunculi in order to survive his ever growing pain.

Meanwhile, in mangahood? Well, here's this heavy moment where Ed tells Pinako that he's going to face what he did and dig up the body he transmuted buried under the burned house. Things are tense. The mood is almost suffocating, the sky dark, the sound of dirt being shovelled almost sickening. Ed throws up, Pinako trying to help him persevere. He hits something. There's hair. He holds up these spare strands, looking shaken. This isn't his mother's hair? Oh thank goodness, he never harmed mom. In fact, what he transmuted was an empty fucked-up vessel that Al's soul briefly wiggled around in. Phew! Alright awesome, we're all good and all doubts have been wiped away. Mommy wasn't desecrated after all! Here's Trisha's soul later on being so super proud of her boys. Yippee!

So dark mangahood! What the hell was 03's problem tho? /s

Anti-03 posts can sometimes be fun if you're a jackass like me, because I can't help but feel like a smug dirtbag when someone admits to how hard they cried after watching the show- someone even admitted that's why they hate 03! It hurt too much. So odd to see this framed as a negative. I love the hurt. I love when a story challenges you, doesn't make it go down easy, when it has the guts to admit to the hideousness of what was intended to be taken for granted in other contemporaneous media.

I understand that having such emotional overflow and the weight of sadness can be very difficult for some folks. Sometimes you might not even be in the mood for it. But you would think that a show producing feelings of sorrow was a grand affront according to these more aggrieved critics. It's practically an insult to them! Yet when Brotherhood (somehow) renders people to tears, it's a plus. Guess Broho over-plays its saccharine assurances, so that the tears feel cathartic rather than challenging.

Although I have my opinions on the wealth of coddling stories, toothless entertainment, and all the propaganda barely hidden within so much of it; I don't necessarily look down on some people wanting more gentle or alleviating stories. Positivity is not a grievous need, nor am I immune from generally needing some form of it too. However I do think it ridiculous how desperately people in relatively powerful nations want stories about genocide that make them both feel as though they are baring witness to the darkness of the world (a reassuring pantomime to turn your brain off to), while still so sanitized and airy that it soothes their anxieties and ensures them that they shouldn't have to look in the mirror even once. If people simply liked Brotherhood because they like shonen battles or teenagers being friends or some shit, then at least it would be a more honest appraisal of what Brotherhood adequately offers.

However the repeated assertions that it's a mature story or has any aplomb to its surface-level use of challenging themes is comical. Alongside hailing Brotherhood as an anti-racist, anti-military story, but I've harped on about that hypocrisy more than enough times. We know the drill.

I just can't take this specific criticism against 03 seriously. Not because 03 is beyond critique, or that people can't be indifferent to it or dislike it, but it's a hell of a farce to boo it for the same reasons they claim to adore mangahood. They want a "brave noble soldier who solves everything" story. A fluffy copaganda battle anime with none of the ugliness of militarism from the viewpoint of its victims. That's it.