#van hoenheim

[the-phantom-peach]

fullmetal alchemist art i promised i would post 🙏

[schroedingers-gay]

Okay, so we all know that Hoenheim is the Golden Man from the Xing dynasty, right?

What I wanna know is when/if the Elric boys figure it out.

I figure that Al would be the first since he probably actually paid attention to the infodump Hoenhein gave him in Reole, and he went east at the end to hang in Xing and do research.

I just want a mini comic or maybe I'll write a fic that is basically:

Al: *Bursting into throne room with history scrolls flying from his arms as he runs right up to Ling's throne* I think my dad was your god.

Ling: I'm sorry what?

[lazarusundo]

fullmetal alchemist brotherhood where everything is the exact same but instead they all have thick new york accents

[wynsomeart]

wet man with his emotional support academic rival ft. Van Hotenheim

[ninjadeathblade]

(Trying to explain Hoenheim's dream in FMAB episode 27, Interlude Party)

Me: So that's Father

Friend: What, that's literally [Hoenheim]. Is that his brother or something?

Me: No, he just- he duplicated his body

*bursts into laughter*

[fullmetalfears]

Hoenheim is one of my favorite characters in the OG FMA manga and Brotherhood. He made me love the sad immortal that hates themself trope, and in general I find the combination of failed father figure, gentle kind person, and the violence he accidently did to his people make for a dynamic character.

But I do 100% think FMA made the other characters far too quick to forgive Hoenheim for leaving the boys.

In the manga, it was directly said that Hoenheim wrote back home but in the anime you get NOTHING. Either way, the man left for a decade, during the most important period of his children's lives as children... because he felt like a monster. Not because he was actually doing things to his kids, but HE wanted to live like a human.

It's shitty. It's awful. One of the people that Ed and Al were supposed to rely on most left because he couldn't get over his own misery. Instead of waiting even a few years to make sure they could even take care of themselves better before leaving, he left before they could even really remember him at all.

I say this not because I don't think it was a good character decision. In fact I think it's tragic in a way that the series needs. The lack of clear lines between monsters and people, where one of Hoenheim's worst decisions is leaving his wife and kids, something that any person can do.

Hoenheim's real flaw when it comes to his family is not valuing that people want him to be there.

Which makes his final offer to Ed to sacrifice himself take on a different light.

In canon, the manga/anime make it clear that Ed calling Hoenheim a shitty father was meant to be as much Ed chastising Hoenheim for not understanding they won't use philosopher stones as it is an acknowledge that Ed accepts him as his father.

But to me, it shows that Hoenheim still hasn't learned why leaving was such an awful blow to the family. Yes, Trisha died because he wasn't there but even if he came back ten years later, did he still expect it to be from a loving family? Did Hoenheim expect the world to stand still while he left?

Hoenheim is still sacrificing himself after all this damn time. He still doesn't see that being there for his kids could invaluable. Maybe they grew up without him, and hell, maybe he doesn't deserve a second chance after so long, but for the boys, making sure you live to the next day is their entire philosophy. And Hoenheim, is willing to give that next day up.

In context, he's giving himself up for his boys after all this time of putting his own feelings first, but he would still be gone. What's worse, in Ed's perspective it's an impossible choice. If Ed couldn't have thought of another way to get Al back, Hoenheim basically offered Ed a chance to kill him in exchange for his brother.

You know. Killing. The one thing that Ed will not fucking do.

Hoenheim doesn't understand Ed. He also even after all this time doesn't get that living for them and to move forward would be the best thing he could do.

So yeah. I adore Hoenheim but the manga/anime kinda does a clumsy job with him. It does such a good job of setting Hoenheim up as looming negative premise in the beginning and then the story overcorrects in trying to make you like him that it forgets that, yeah, leaving your wife and kids for a decade is kinda bad actually!!!

It doesn't help that no one else is angry at Hoenheim. Izumi knew the boys as small children, presumably orphans and yet greets Hoenheim warmly. In the manga the people of Risembol are baffled on his arrival but otherwise move on. Pinako WHO BASICALLY HELPED RAISED THEM is just sorta neutral towards him. Even Al isn't angry. He just wants his dad back which is fine, but it leaves Ed's anger as an outlier, like it's childish of him not to understand.

By the time of his death, Hoenheim doesn't really learn anything. He's forgiven because he really was a good dude and he felt really bad about leaving for a decade so he can totally be forgiven by everyone right?

Right.

So yeah. Hoenheim? Great character, but awful dad which is part of why he's a good character but the story really pulls its punches about him.

~Luna

[amokslime]

I visited the Van Hoenheim FMAB wiki page:

Get his ass !

[surfinthehighway]

Okay so living through the Billford renaissance and watching FMAB for the first time is revealing to me that a Hoenheim/Homunculus (or Hoenheim/Pride) ship would be the toxic extradimensional being/old man yaoi equivalent.

[royaigarbage]

Can a slave preach freedom?

Can a captive take hold…

… of what they believe in?

x

[girlpog-productions]

Late October 3rd post to practice my painting :)

[kaethefangirl]

If Xerxes was a desert civilization then Hoenheim should have been dark skinned🙄

[butchywolf]

[axeofsuns]

When your trying to find fics about a character you really like and you have to spend like 5 minutes sorting out tags about them being shitty and you've reduced the number of fics drastically

[redspaceangst]

i'd deign to say the lyrics "i was not always a monster / once i was somebodies muse" doesnt just fit gravity falls. it is ABSOLUTELY also hoenheim and the dwarf. and i WILL cry myself to sleep thinking about that

(edit: im pretty sure its a bendy and the ink machine fan song, but, cmon... its so hoenheim and the dwarf coded...)

[wynsomeart]

a couple good boys ft. takizawas emotional support academic rival

[sir-racha-ioli]

A trope that makes me fucking sick to my stomach is when the immortal character/someone who's been alive for a really fucking long time and has been apathetic/wanting to die and at the end wishes they had more time. They've found something or someone that makes them wish they had just a little bit more time. Sure, they've had an eternity and arguably enough time as it is, but now at the end it feels selfish to ask for just a little bit more. God.