Fullmetal Alchemist, which I once loved
Yeah, I was going to be watching Honey and Clover, but then I was mentally exhausted and wanted something nicer. I ended up re-watching Fullmetal Alchemist instead. I don't know if all the blood and difficult moral questions qualify as 'nicer', but it's a lot more fun.
- I still can't see how the writing supposedly gets awful in the second half, unless it's the part where they spend three episodes or something fighting the homunculi in a warehouse?
- Well, there's that Lust episode with the alchemist doctor in that village. Seriously, what the hell happened there. A disease that kills people by turning them into wood? Healing only works as long as the doctor who used alchemy to heal them is still alive? The Elrics and Winry discovering the village full of petrified corpses after witnessing their friend-of-the-day die of the same illness and never again speaking about the most horrifying epedemic ever heard of!? Yeah, right.
- The pacing is a bit odd: Plot doesn't really start happening until Hughes' death, which is a quarter into the story. Most of what goes on before that is flashbacks and fillers. But I love how the show brought back character introduced thirty episodes before, by which I mean the Tringham brothers. There should have been at least five episodes more with the Tringham brothers.
- Singularly most epic scene of the whole story: Ed and Izumi storming the country's military headquarter in order to take down King Bradley, bickering along the way. And then Ross and Brosch joins in. Out of everything, I think I loved that Ross and Izumi got to exchange words.
- In general, I'll have to say that I love how comparatively full of women this story is. Sure, it's all about men saving the future (from a female supervillain, no less), but oh good lord, Izumi and Hawkeye and Ross. Winry's a walking stereotype of the motherly big sister type, but at least they didn't make her hook up with Ed and I love her for all her predictability. I love Sheska. I love Rose. And Pinako, oh my god.
- That said, I could've done without Hawkeye and Ross being the serious ones among a crowd of goofy men. But then there's Sheska, who's plenty goofy on her own glorious own.
- If people can write 100 000 word fic about Ed/Russel, there should be at least twice as many about Winry/Sheska. Why isn't there. Why. Why.
- Aaaaand I still ship Ed/Rose simply because I love the idea of him having a carried a torch for her all that time. And yes, I'm still into the Winry/Roy.
- Colonel Archer. Oh, Colonel Archer. On the one hand, I really liked that we got at least one bad guy who wasn't there because alchemy can be used for evil, but because he simply was a bad person. I remember never quite getting what he was doing there way back, but now I really liked him! Except for, good God, his automailed design. Again: What the hell happened there. I love that he becomes the military mirror to Scar (both reflect Ed re. alchemy and automail, but they both use it for bad purposes), but could we have tried to give him a plausible design?
- Roy Mustang has a smaller presence in canon than what you'd guess from the fandom way back when. It's only in the last opening that he gets a solo shot, and his appearances before the battle of Liore are surprisingly small and far between.
- The reverse goes for Armstrong, who I'm pretty sure has as much screentime as Roy, or at least very close to it. I guess fandom ignored him because he's such a goofy character, but I really loved him and his conflicted loyalties about being placed under Archer's command.
- Speaking about Roy and that solo shot: It goes like "Roy drinking and thinking about Hughes at night" ---> "Winry looking out of a window" ---> "Hawkeye watching her dog". Why the everloving is Winry between Roy and Hawkeye there, unless a Point is being made about hers and Roy's reconciliation with their common past?
- I still can't see how the writing supposedly gets awful in the second half, unless it's the part where they spend three episodes or something fighting the homunculi in a warehouse?
- Well, there's that Lust episode with the alchemist doctor in that village. Seriously, what the hell happened there. A disease that kills people by turning them into wood? Healing only works as long as the doctor who used alchemy to heal them is still alive? The Elrics and Winry discovering the village full of petrified corpses after witnessing their friend-of-the-day die of the same illness and never again speaking about the most horrifying epedemic ever heard of!? Yeah, right.
- The pacing is a bit odd: Plot doesn't really start happening until Hughes' death, which is a quarter into the story. Most of what goes on before that is flashbacks and fillers. But I love how the show brought back character introduced thirty episodes before, by which I mean the Tringham brothers. There should have been at least five episodes more with the Tringham brothers.
- Singularly most epic scene of the whole story: Ed and Izumi storming the country's military headquarter in order to take down King Bradley, bickering along the way. And then Ross and Brosch joins in. Out of everything, I think I loved that Ross and Izumi got to exchange words.
- In general, I'll have to say that I love how comparatively full of women this story is. Sure, it's all about men saving the future (from a female supervillain, no less), but oh good lord, Izumi and Hawkeye and Ross. Winry's a walking stereotype of the motherly big sister type, but at least they didn't make her hook up with Ed and I love her for all her predictability. I love Sheska. I love Rose. And Pinako, oh my god.
- That said, I could've done without Hawkeye and Ross being the serious ones among a crowd of goofy men. But then there's Sheska, who's plenty goofy on her own glorious own.
- If people can write 100 000 word fic about Ed/Russel, there should be at least twice as many about Winry/Sheska. Why isn't there. Why. Why.
- Aaaaand I still ship Ed/Rose simply because I love the idea of him having a carried a torch for her all that time. And yes, I'm still into the Winry/Roy.
- Colonel Archer. Oh, Colonel Archer. On the one hand, I really liked that we got at least one bad guy who wasn't there because alchemy can be used for evil, but because he simply was a bad person. I remember never quite getting what he was doing there way back, but now I really liked him! Except for, good God, his automailed design. Again: What the hell happened there. I love that he becomes the military mirror to Scar (both reflect Ed re. alchemy and automail, but they both use it for bad purposes), but could we have tried to give him a plausible design?
- Roy Mustang has a smaller presence in canon than what you'd guess from the fandom way back when. It's only in the last opening that he gets a solo shot, and his appearances before the battle of Liore are surprisingly small and far between.
- The reverse goes for Armstrong, who I'm pretty sure has as much screentime as Roy, or at least very close to it. I guess fandom ignored him because he's such a goofy character, but I really loved him and his conflicted loyalties about being placed under Archer's command.
- Speaking about Roy and that solo shot: It goes like "Roy drinking and thinking about Hughes at night" ---> "Winry looking out of a window" ---> "Hawkeye watching her dog". Why the everloving is Winry between Roy and Hawkeye there, unless a Point is being made about hers and Roy's reconciliation with their common past?