#to kill me with hammers. and various other implements of destruction.

[bugmistake]

one thing about me . if i know that an event will occur at some point in the next few months i will be thinking about it and preparing for it like it's happening in 2 hours

[avehi-the-adamant]

The Chosen Champion

[[ Co-written with @kidcatgemini​ / @kaiekasunwhisper​. ]]

Acclimating to Maldraxxian life was easy. Scary easy. It wasn’t a scene Avehi ever thought she’d feel so accustomed to, but here she was; working with the Necrolords to unite Maldraxxus again for the good of the Shadowlands. A realm like this, dedicated to protecting all other realms beyond the veil, couldn’t do so divided. Avehi had worked hard to that end, making great progress with the House of Rituals during an ongoing entanglement with Revendreth. She’d leave for that realm soon enough, but not until this mysterious Champion of the House of the Chosen Melosh had told her about was dealt with. 

She scowled at the thought; who from Azeroth would support the enemies of unity, rather than fight against them? It infuriated her that someone from her world - another Death Knight, no less - would voluntarily be so detrimental to the already-daunting task that lay before them. But that’d be set straight soon enough.

Epitaph made for the Theatre of Pain with haste; they served Avehi well on Azeroth, and just as well here beyond the veil. Such were the benefits of a spectral steed, she supposed. The familiarity was a boon in this strange and unsettling land. Which… wasn’t all too unsettling, as she looked around. Gruesome and savage, but… familiar, somehow. She couldn’t explain it, but she felt she belonged here.

Was this where her soul would’ve ended up, if her death were permanent?

Finding the answer to that question would have to come at a later time. Epitaph came to a stop at the entrance to the Theatre-- the cheering and clattering of bone and steel filling the air around her. She dismounted, sending her steed to vanish once more into nothingness, before stepping inside.

~*~

Blood gushed out into the Champion’s face as a hooked blade tore through her opponent’s neck, slicing open the artery. She kept her momentum going, spinning around completely as the challenger grasped at the fatal wound, pathetically trying to stop the bleed. Not that they’d have time to bleed to death. Both of the Champions blades came in horizontally now. The first hit cut through the midsection, while the second cleaved the upper half of the body clean off with a sickening crack! 

Kai’eka grinned. She couldn’t have wished for a better time in the afterlife than this! Winning her benefactors the anima they needed time and time again to help mend the Shadowlands? Oh, how she loved when violence was the answer to everything.

She harnessed her blade, before slamming a plated boot into the dead body’s neck, coating it in ice. The warrior then reached down, grabbed the head by the hair and, with unholy strength, broke the head off and held it up into the air in victory. 

The crowd went wild!

“KAI! KAI! KAI!”

The Draenei’s brow raised as she wove through the crowd. It couldn’t be… could it? As the chanting grew more and more feverish and excited, Avehi hastened to get a better look. She began to push, knocking patrons aside or pulling them back to give way as she slipped between them. She was… stunned… when she finally laid eyes on the champion in the center of the ring. Yep-- it was Kai’eka alright. She wasn’t entirely sure if she should be amazed, disappointed, or proud of the fellow Death Knight she’d raised. Regardless, she wasn’t surprised.

“The Indomitable Champion of the House of Chosen claims another hapless victim!” 

Announced the Grandmaster, feeding the crowd’s frenzied excitement. 

“Is there none who can stop this master of disaster? This whirl of blades? Who dares to challenge Kai’eka the Butcher?”

‘Tch…’ For a moment, Avehi forgot this was why she’d come. The traitorous House of the Chosen had recruited Kai’eka, it seemed. Surely she simply didn’t know the true intention of her newfound allies. Kai’eka had to be set straight. But in an environment like this, she was unapproachable in all but one manner. Avehi contemplated simply waiting until the day’s fighting was over. And yet her body continued to move as it had been, cutting through the crowd to get to the stairs.

“I do!” she declared, unabashed.

The crowd’s eye turned from Kai’eka to the challenger as she descended the bloodied and fractured stairs leading into the heart of the amphitheatre. Free from the tightly-packed mess of spectators, Avehi was free to draw her hammer as she focused her gaze on Kai’eka. A smirk tugged at the corner of her lips, the memory of the first time she’d faced this unusually muscular elf crossing her mind. Kai’eka had only grown stronger since then, in undeath. 

This would be fun.

The warrior tossed the head aside and turned to face the new challenger. She was surprised to see Avehi, though the only indication of such was a raised eyebrow. A grin tugged at the corner of her lips, though. 

Avehi had been the one to kill her, and raise her. Kai’eka knew how strong the Draenei was, and wouldn’t underestimate her again. The thought of facing her again in battle was an exciting one. A test to see how far she’d come in her training as an Ebon Knight.

Kicking the top half of the fresh corpse aside, she made her way to the centre of the ring to meet her opponent.

“Didn’t know you were in Maldraxxus too. Surprised the Chosen haven’t recruited you as well,” she spoke simply, honestly. 

Though, the more she thought about it, the more she realized she never really spent much time outside the Theatre. 

"Kai'eka." Avehi nodded, stopping short of the elf in the center of the arena. "Is this the start of a trend? Or have you always been so careless to whom you pledge your allegiances?"

She slung her hammer up over her shoulder, loosely counter-weighing the glowing crystalline head by draping her forearm over the hilt. Her lichfire eyes flared, the neurotic energy welling up within her. As it always did before a fight. There wasn't a choice here; even if she could talk Kai'eka back from her error in judgement, the Maldraxxi were here to see a fight! The notion immediately reinforced as the Grandmaster's booming voice filled the stadium once again.

"How exciting! These two tiny titans know one another from distant mortal planes! Reunited here, in the crucible of destruction and glory! I couldn't have arranged a better matchup, myself!"

The chanting reached a fevered pitch, as the various denizens shouted and roar with excitement! Clearly Kai'eka had impressed them greatly; what would another like her be like as her opponent? 

The warrior raised an eyebrow. Avehi’s words piqued her interest.

“What the fuck are you talking about?”

The question was asked, but it was time to fight. The crowd would most likely get upset if all they did was talk. A blade in each hand, Kai’eka shifted her stance, and charged at the Draenei.

“I win fights, they get anima to help protect the Shadowlands,” she informed Avehi as she swung her blades at the Draenei’s knees, “It’s not complicated.”

Avehi leapt back, playing it safe for now as the two conversed. Shrugging her hammer from her shoulder, she took a ready stance and frowned.

"You're under the misconception that the House of the Chosen are protecting the Shadowlands!" she replied, as Rokaa's crystalline head began to swirl with neurotic energy. "Margrave Krexus is dead. And Vyraz killed him!"

Before letting Kai'eka reply, Avehi thrust her hammer forward, sending a death coil at her! It moved quickly, aimed squarely for the center of the elf's chest!

Kai’eka didn’t try to dodge the blast, but instead brought her large sword up to intercept it. The runes on the weapon glowed as it absorbed the necrotic energy, before the warrior swung it and deployed it back towards Avehi, her other blade following up with a horizontal strike for the Draenei’s midsection. 

“What the fuck’s a Margrave?!”

Seriously? Avehi was less shocked as her death coil was returned-- able to lean out of its trajectory without much trouble. But Kai’eka couldn’t be so… clueless, could she? She was starting to think Kai’eka joined the Twilight Cult by accident! The House of the Chosen were at least former allies. But is that as far into it as she read? No question as to who led the House? Sloppy and foolish. Something she’d expect of Raetos, certainly-- but not Kai’eka!

Momentarily baffled by the show of overall situational unawareness, the elf’s follow-up strike landed! For being so poorly informed, she still fought well; Therein was the problem, after all! Her strength needed to be properly implemented, not wasted here working for the enemy! 

Avehi hissed, powering through the sudden pain as the runeblade sliced into her armor to retaliate immediately. She thrust the head of her hammer out to bash Kai’eka’s face!

“Fool! I’m telling you that you’re on the wrong side! Again!”

“Since wh—“

Kai’eka barely managed to lean back on time to avoid a broken nose.

“Son of a bitch…”

She continued with the momentum, jumping up to kick Avehi in the jaw as she performed a backflip and landed on her feet. Immediately, she took on a defensive position.

“Since when?!” She growled, “That Baroness chick, Draka, she led me to them herself. I’ve been doing all the fighting for them here ever since! Where the fuck have you been?!”

Avehi snarled, bringing her gauntlet to her mouth. She eyed a bit of blood her fingers had connected from her lips; courtesy of Kai’eka’s parting kick. Her grip about her hammer tensed.

“If you had peeked your head out of this arena every once in a while, you would’ve seen what I’m talking about!” she scolded the elf! “The other Baron, Vyraz, killed the Chosen’s leader in a power grab! He’s in league with the Jailer, you idiot!”

She rushed at Kai’eka, before jumping up into the air. She spun, bringing her hammer up from behind her-- at the same time, reaching out for Kai’eka with a deathgrip. But rather than rip the elf towards her, the shadows coiled around the elf’s boot to pull and trip her down into a vulnerable position for the blow to land! 

“Why would—“

Kai braced herself for the grip, but not for where it was aimed. She cursed as her foot was yanked and she lost her balance, but her quick reflexes saved her from the blow as she rolled to her right.

“Fuck! Why would I leave the arena?!” 

She growled, literally throwing one of her large blades at Avehi as she continued the rolling momentum and got to a crouching position. 

“All I need to do here is rest, train and fight! I’m perfect for this! You should see all the anima I’ve won!”

It was the last thing she expected Kai’eka to do; mostly, because it was foolish! While the blow landed as intended-- cutting into Avehi’s shoulder-- throwing one’s weapon was a desperation tactic. Ill advised for anyone, especially a Death Knight. As the Draenei staggered back from the force of the blow, she picked up the tossed blade and stared Kai’eka down. Her hand tensed around the hilt of the broadsword as its tip dug into the ground at her feet. The other tightened around the grip of her hammer. It seemed there were two lessons she’d have to teach her, today.

“Are you truly so short-sighted? I’m not arguing that you’re earning anima here.” she snarled. “But you’re doing it for the enemy!”

She brought her hammer up, and swung down hard onto the blade. It cracked… then shattered from the impact in front of the Draenei!

Kai’eka’s eyes grew wide as she realized her mistake, too late. In life, throwing her swords had worked exceptionally well as a surprise attack. She’d forgotten, however, how important a rune blade was to a Death Knight.

She took a few steps, hand outreached as the weapon shattered. The effects were felt immediately. She cried out, falling to her knees as pain coursed through her system. The pain was followed by what she could only describe as ‘void’. Part of her had been torn away as her runeblade was destroyed. Her hand tightened on the hilt of her remaining weapon as her body trembled under the shock of what had just happened. 

“F-fucking bitch…” she growled, but was otherwise too weak to continue.

The crowd went silent.

Avehi cast the hilt of the blade down, freeing her hand to grip her shoulder. Violet blood oozed from her arm, the perforation in her armor cutting clean and deep. It wasn’t all her blood anymore, but still retained its bluish hue just the same. Slowly, her hemomancy set to mending the gash as she stepped towards Kai’eka.

The silence was deafening in a place like this. Thankfully it didn’t last long, replaced soon with hushed murmurs and whispers from confused and anxious fans. Avehi didn’t want to do that to Kai’eka. She knew the pain of a shattered blade all too well-- it was a pain she’d inflicted upon herself once, in misguided desperation. Both then and now were lessons, at least. She stood over Kai’eka frowning in disappointment.

“I know you’re smarter than this, Kai. And if you weren’t before… you are now.” she berated the elf. “You’re here to help-- not to be another problem I have to deal with. You want to fight in the arena? Fine. You want to earn anima? Great. Just have the cognizance to know who you’re really fighting for. Understand?”

With that, she pulled her hand from her wound, and extended it out for Kai’eka in an offer to help her back up.

Kai’eka glared up as Avehi spoke, teeth clenched as she struggled against the aftershocks of losing her blade. Thankfully, she had two, and she didn’t even want to think about how horrible it would have been if that had been her only one. 

To say she was angry and frustrated would be an understatement. Not necessarily towards Avehi, but towards herself. She’d made a horrible mistake in dedicating her entire life to the Twilight Cult, and she’d just found out she’d been doing the same since her arrival in the Shadowlands. Twice now, she’d fought for what she thought was the right cause, only for Avehi to keep coming in to correct her. 

She hated it. Hated being wrong. Hated that she couldn’t trust herself to know the good guys from the bad. 

Of course… admitting all of that out loud wasn’t about to happen. Having been beaten in battle was bad enough.

Her  hand reached out to grab Avehi’s. The woman who had raised her seemed to have a full picture of things.

“Fine,” she growled, the closest she would get to admitting she was wrong, “Then point me in the direction of whoever’s ass I need to kick.”

Once she tugged Kai’eka up out of the dirt, she placed her hand over her arm once more to sustain the healing. She nodded, relaxing a bit, and offering the elf a more amicable expression. Not quite a smile, but… hints of one.

“Still plenty of asses to kick here in the arena. But make it clear you’re not fighting for the Chosen anymore.” she replied, motioning to the crowd-- still murmuring and whispering in confusion. “Your anima winnings should go to support restoring order to the Shadowlands. You fight for the unity of Maldraxxus. You fight for the Undying Army!”

“The Undying Army,” Kai’eka repeated the name before giving a firm nod, “Well, sign me the fuck up.”

[creative-type]

How Fullmetal Alchemist Integrates Theme and Character

In a world where everything is subjective and polarizing opinions are the norm, where anti-fans and trolls take ‘love to hate’ a little too far, and where any story popular enough to become a pop-culture phenomenon is almost guaranteed to have a small-but-vocal minority that can’t see what all the fuss is about, I have never once seen, read, or heard of anyone say that Fullmetal Alchemist is a bad story. 

None. 

I’m sure they exist, but during the course of its run Fullmetal Alchemist reached the rarefied air of being almost universally beloved within the manga/anime community and being critically acclaimed as a damn good story. This success is wholly deserved. Arakawa was able to do something that a lot of shonen mangaka can’t, and as a result Fullmetal Alchemist is one of the best plotted, tightly written manga I have ever read. 

Others have and will write about the philosophy Arakawa presents, point out the incredible amount of research she was able to cram into her series, extrapolate on the world building better than I could, but today I want to talk about something I’ve not seen anyone else touch on, and that’s how she integrates her themes into her characterization in order to really drive the point she’s trying to make home. 

So what’s the main theme of Fullmetal Alchemist? Luckily Arakawa tells us directly on the next to last page of the series. 

So let’s pick this apart a little bit

There is nothing to be learned in a lesson without pain, because you can’t gain anything without losing something in exchange. But when you overcome that pain and make the lesson your own you will obtain an infallible, irreplaceable fullmetal heart.

Now since this is a comic we also have to take the image itself into account. None of the photos are of just one person. Even the dog managed to have puppies. So we can assume that the idea of community is also integral to what Arakawa’s trying to say here (I hesitate to say friendship, because, well, not all of these guys are friends, lol). Also, during Edward’s final showdown with Truth he states he’ll make due without his alchemy so long as he’s still got other people he can rely on

And Truth’s response is basically “Ding ding! You finally get it! Go claim your prize at the door, I never want to see your ugly mug again.”

(I don’t know Japanese, but I’m pretty sure that’s an accurate translation)

At its barest bones Fullmetal Alchemist is about overcoming past mistakes with the help of others. This is all fine and dandy, but without proper execution they just become empty words pasted onto the final pages in a halfhearted attempt at depth. I think most people know of stories about sacrificial love where there is neither meaningful sacrifice nor a healthy portrayal of love, or stories about overcoming overwhelming odds through the power of hard work and effort where every victory is handed over on a silver platter of asspulls and accelerated training arcs. It doesn’t matter how good something sounds if the execution sucks.

With that in mind, let’s look at some of the characters of Fullmetal Achemist and the mistakes they’ve made.

Fullmetal Alchemist: A Series of Terrible People Trying to Become Less Terrible

So this one is super easy. We’re presented with our lovable protagonists’s first major screw up on chapter 1, page 1

Oh look, it’s that quote again. Golly gee willikers, it’s almost as if Awakara knew what story she wanted to tell and integrated the main theme from the very beginning.

It’s not terribly uncommon for a manga to make some sort of thesis statement during their first chapter, but from the (few) long-running serializations I’ve read, the longer a series runs the more muddled these things get as far as theme and narrative go. It’s one of the difficult things about trying to keep an audience engaged over a long period of time. 

Fullmetal Alchemist is more tightly plotted than most shonen affairs, but there’s another thing that helps it keep from undercutting its own themes, and that’s that it lets its protagonists actually make terrible mistakes, and more importantly makes them suffer because of it.

The Elric’s attempt to resurrect their mother is never treated as anything but a horrible thing that never should have happened. Yes, the boys’s plight is sympathetic and the loss of their mother after their father abandoned the family was a tragedy, but they were told time and time again that human transformation was not only impossible, but forbidden

Of course the Elric brothers don’t listen, because otherwise there wouldn’t be a series. It cannot be overstated that they purposefully kept their plans secret. They didn’t tell Winry or Izumi or any one else that they were going to try to revive their mother. Perhaps they don’t feel like they can talk to anyone about their grief, but there’s also a definite hubris involved. Edward and Alphonse -- but especially Edward -- think they can accomplish something “adults” have found impossible.

Perhaps if they had talked to Izumi more she would have been able to guide them through their time of grief, but it goes back to one of the main themes of the series: Camaraderie, doing things together, trusting your friends, community as apposed to isolation. The Elric brothers lock themselves away to their father’s dark library and perform illegal experiments in their basement -- hidden from anyone who might try to stop them. 

And they suffer for it. 

(Keep in mind the word ignorant. We’ll be coming back to it later.)

This in and of itself is good, but this message is hammered home by the supporting cast, especially the characters from the military. Remember Roy Mustang, suave up-and-comer who wants to completely reform the government from the inside out for the betterment of the people?

Complicit in genocide

His number 2, all around team mom, and rescuer of cute puppies?

Complicit in genocide

Husband of the year and eternal winner of Best Dad Joke?

Complicit in genocide

Human teddy bear, series aesthete, and walking meme generator?

Complicit in genocide

The beloved small-town doctor?

Complicit in genocide and human experimentation

The grumpy curmudgeon with a hidden heart of gold?

Say it with me now, complicit in  freaking genocide.

That’s just looking at Armestrian military during the civil war. When the series jumps to the present day we see Scar has become a serial killer, while midway through the series Ling willingly becomes the vessel for an inhuman monster, nearly loosing his identity in the process. Hohenheim abandoned his family and was (unwittingly) complicit in a genocide of his own. In her grief Izumi tried to bring back her dead child via human transmutation, violating one of the fundamental laws of alchemy. The list goes on. 

It is impossible to fully implement a theme of overcoming past mistakes without having characters be fully responsible for said mistakes. I feel like it’s a common trap to sacrifice likability for pathos. How easy would it have been to say that Ed and Al couldn’t be held responsible for their actions because they weren’t aware of the consequences, or had never been told that human transformation was forbidden? How easy would it have been to say that the military made Roy and Riza and the rest participate in the Ishvalan massacre?

Luckily the writing never goes this route. While the various characters might not fully understand the ultimate outcome of their choices they never have their agency stripped away by something outside of their control. Each and every character in the series thinks they’re doing the right thing by acting the way they do, which not only makes them feel human as characters but brings me neatly into my second point.

Overcoming Ignorance and Finding Truth

During the Ishvalan flashback we see both Roy and Riza give their initial reason for joining the military, citing their desire to protect others as one of their main motivations.

Edward and Alphonse were young children when their mother died, and their desire to bring her back stems from a child’s love. Izumi and Sig had struggled for years for a child, and the grief of losing a baby after longing for a family for so long led her to try to resurrect her child.

None of these desires are in and of themselves bad, but they stem from a place of ignorance. Attempting human transmutation was forbidden for a reason. The military ended up not being as altruistic as the young soldiers were led to believe. The world, which our main characters looked at as a simple, understandable thing, turned out to be complex, and hard, and unforgiving.

With their worldviews essentially shattered it would have been easy to give up or give in to the darkness that they had seen, but instead each main character decides to take full ownership of their mistakes and takes steps to correct them.

There are very few irredeemable bad guys in Fullmetal Alchemist, and it’s a series that ultimately has a very hopeful view on humanity. Because of this underlying philosophy people are not ruined or broken by their pasts, but rather learn from them. 

This is the Truth that is presented. It’s not facts or book knowledge, which any alchemist capable of performing human transmutation would have in spades, but growth through life experience. Ed and Al see firsthand the evils alchemy can commit and strive to correct them. Roy and Riza stare down the barrel of the military machine and seek to dismantle it, even if it results in their own undoing. Ling learns to recognize the futility of his country’s current clan system and seeks to protect even the weakest of his people. It takes awhile, but Scar realizes that vengeance can only breed violence and strives to rebuild his people instead of the destruction of those who killed them in the first place.

None of these goals can be accomplished alone, building on the theme of camaraderie, but there’s also the side effect of preventing others from going down their path. 

That is Fullmetal Alchemist in a nutshell. It’s a series about flawed people making horrible mistakes, overcoming them with the help of their friends and in turn preventing others going down that dark path of destruction. It’s not a smooth transition, and the lessons learned are full of pain, but in the end you’ll find your own Truth and come out the other side a better person. The rest is just gravy. 

Although I will concede that having a main character who can turn his arm into a knife probably helps.