D:
Oh ... oh my GOD.
If there's one thing I utterly enjoy about Arakawa, it's that she's not afraid to cripple her characters. So many other writers flinch at the last second, but she's not afraid to BLIND ROY FOR LIFE. But the problem I worry about Arakawa is that she might just magically fix it later with convenient alchemy (I SEE U THAR, MEI). Before I had real faith in her as a writer, but other previous opportunities for real risk and death have been handwaved for a nicer outcome. For example, I do goddamn love Riza, but it'd be so much better storywise, in both character development and for putting Roy through hell, for her to have died back there. (And she's still tagging along instead of going to a damn HOSPITAL. Can these little hangers-on go away, please?)
Because everyone else has suffered greatly because of what they've lost. I'm afraid that Roy's has come too late in the series for me to really connect with it, and if he does get his sight back, he hasn't 'earned' it the way the others have. Ed and Al were going to get their bodies back by 'wading through a river of mud'. Roy isn't going to get the chance. But if he is blinded for life and his ending is done well, I can accept that.
On the other hand, I really do like the goddamn UNFAIRNESS of it all. He's the only one out of all of them to have enough common sense to refuse to perform human transmutation, and he STILL loses something. Even worse, while the other characters did lose something important, they're at least still functional - being blind in pre-modern times means that Roy will need aid for the rest of his life. He's even useless in battle, which turns that running joke into something tragic. One of the major themes of FMA is how goddamn unfair life is, like how Izumi lost her child or how the Elrics lost their mother, and you just have to deal with it. Roy losing his 'visionary' eyes just to be used as a pawn by the very people he was trying to get rid of is definate unfairness.
Maybe that's why Riza lived, then? Having her die AND having him lose his eyes might have been too much pathos, and we know he had to lose SOMETHING going in the gate. His eyes ARE the most important thing to him - people guessed it'd be his hands because that's how he uses alchemy, but that'd be too easily fixed with automail. Making him blind cuts to the core of his character.
So the options would be Roy losing Riza AND his eyes, Riza being healed and just losing his eyes, or not having Riza in danger at all and lose his eyes. Hrm. Maybe Roy losing something and me just not connecting with it is just a necessary part of the story - we know he needed to go through the gate before the endgame, so I'm not going to blame Arakawa for logical storytime constraints.
(Also I wonder, would this make Jean into his seeing-eye-person? XD There's something tragic and heartbreaking of two crippled people helping each other. Oh god, I think raja815 has infected me with her Roy/Jean pairing. ACK.)
AND ONTO MORE DEPRESSING NEWS
Alphone 'meeting' his body was so utterly inspiring and heart-wrenching at the same time. We know Al wants his body back, but we've never seen the true WANT before. It's only when you see him falling to his knees do we finally realize just HOW BADLY Al has DREAMED about this moment. It's like a dying man in want of water. And he throws it away to go save the people his cares about. Because while Ed and Al did want to restore themselves, they don't want to do it at ANY cost - not by using the stone, and not by abandoning your brother while he's facing down an extremely dangerous Eldritch Abomination. Alphonse has said it before, like back when Hughes died, but this is the most tangable example; he wants it so badly, but he still choses to do the right thing.
On another note, I liked King Bradley in this one. Like someone mentioned on hagaren_manga, the battle between two nameless warriors forsaken of their homes is pretty damn awesome. I even like how King Bradley is even accepting of his fate - that he'd still rather die like a warrior. Considering that most of his characterization is 'ZOMFG KING BRADLEY KILLING SHIT' I like the chance to see deeper into his character.
And now we can FINALLY get to the endgame. The pace of the ending chapters has been bugging over time, so I'm glad we can finally get on with it. I want some damn explainations of what the sacrifices are for, what Father really wants, everything.
(Which, honestly, I think is my major problem with this endgame - too much focus on Crowning Moments Of Awesome and not concise storytelling. Yes, we all wanted to see our favorite characters kicking ass. Except there's a lot of them and it's bogging the story down. But then, there's been so much build-up and quite a few characters needed their character development. Maybe when the graphic novels come out and I can blast through all the issues in one sitting I can see the problems more easily.)
If there's one thing I utterly enjoy about Arakawa, it's that she's not afraid to cripple her characters. So many other writers flinch at the last second, but she's not afraid to BLIND ROY FOR LIFE. But the problem I worry about Arakawa is that she might just magically fix it later with convenient alchemy (I SEE U THAR, MEI). Before I had real faith in her as a writer, but other previous opportunities for real risk and death have been handwaved for a nicer outcome. For example, I do goddamn love Riza, but it'd be so much better storywise, in both character development and for putting Roy through hell, for her to have died back there. (And she's still tagging along instead of going to a damn HOSPITAL. Can these little hangers-on go away, please?)
Because everyone else has suffered greatly because of what they've lost. I'm afraid that Roy's has come too late in the series for me to really connect with it, and if he does get his sight back, he hasn't 'earned' it the way the others have. Ed and Al were going to get their bodies back by 'wading through a river of mud'. Roy isn't going to get the chance. But if he is blinded for life and his ending is done well, I can accept that.
On the other hand, I really do like the goddamn UNFAIRNESS of it all. He's the only one out of all of them to have enough common sense to refuse to perform human transmutation, and he STILL loses something. Even worse, while the other characters did lose something important, they're at least still functional - being blind in pre-modern times means that Roy will need aid for the rest of his life. He's even useless in battle, which turns that running joke into something tragic. One of the major themes of FMA is how goddamn unfair life is, like how Izumi lost her child or how the Elrics lost their mother, and you just have to deal with it. Roy losing his 'visionary' eyes just to be used as a pawn by the very people he was trying to get rid of is definate unfairness.
Maybe that's why Riza lived, then? Having her die AND having him lose his eyes might have been too much pathos, and we know he had to lose SOMETHING going in the gate. His eyes ARE the most important thing to him - people guessed it'd be his hands because that's how he uses alchemy, but that'd be too easily fixed with automail. Making him blind cuts to the core of his character.
So the options would be Roy losing Riza AND his eyes, Riza being healed and just losing his eyes, or not having Riza in danger at all and lose his eyes. Hrm. Maybe Roy losing something and me just not connecting with it is just a necessary part of the story - we know he needed to go through the gate before the endgame, so I'm not going to blame Arakawa for logical storytime constraints.
(Also I wonder, would this make Jean into his seeing-eye-person? XD There's something tragic and heartbreaking of two crippled people helping each other. Oh god, I think raja815 has infected me with her Roy/Jean pairing. ACK.)
AND ONTO MORE DEPRESSING NEWS
Alphone 'meeting' his body was so utterly inspiring and heart-wrenching at the same time. We know Al wants his body back, but we've never seen the true WANT before. It's only when you see him falling to his knees do we finally realize just HOW BADLY Al has DREAMED about this moment. It's like a dying man in want of water. And he throws it away to go save the people his cares about. Because while Ed and Al did want to restore themselves, they don't want to do it at ANY cost - not by using the stone, and not by abandoning your brother while he's facing down an extremely dangerous Eldritch Abomination. Alphonse has said it before, like back when Hughes died, but this is the most tangable example; he wants it so badly, but he still choses to do the right thing.
On another note, I liked King Bradley in this one. Like someone mentioned on hagaren_manga, the battle between two nameless warriors forsaken of their homes is pretty damn awesome. I even like how King Bradley is even accepting of his fate - that he'd still rather die like a warrior. Considering that most of his characterization is 'ZOMFG KING BRADLEY KILLING SHIT' I like the chance to see deeper into his character.
And now we can FINALLY get to the endgame. The pace of the ending chapters has been bugging over time, so I'm glad we can finally get on with it. I want some damn explainations of what the sacrifices are for, what Father really wants, everything.
(Which, honestly, I think is my major problem with this endgame - too much focus on Crowning Moments Of Awesome and not concise storytelling. Yes, we all wanted to see our favorite characters kicking ass. Except there's a lot of them and it's bogging the story down. But then, there's been so much build-up and quite a few characters needed their character development. Maybe when the graphic novels come out and I can blast through all the issues in one sitting I can see the problems more easily.)