Full Circle, by Nike Femme (R)
Title: Full Circle
Fandom: Fullmetal Alchemist
Pairing: Ed/Roy, with background Al/Winry, Hawkeye/Havoc and Hawkeye --> Roy
Categories: AU, action, amnesia, drama, romance
Length: Epic [~141,000 words]
Warnings: implied past shota; violence; couple of narm scenes
Author on LJ: n/a
Website: On Fanfiction.net
Summary: Edward Elric returns with amnesia; he's lived the past four years as Auric, a Gatekeeper, and has become a hardened warrior. Will his friends be able to awaken Ed, and what happens to Auric if they do? They'll need both Auric and Ed to defeat the homunculi...
Review: Nike Femme does a good job with a plot that was very popular after the first FMA anime ended - namely, have Ed go somewhere other than the Other World depicted in the movie, and come back with a skills upgrade. Most of these fics were not great, lending themselves to Gary-Stu Edwards very easily, but Nike Femme pulls this one off with only one misstep.
I liked how the author built up Ed's new personality, "Auric". He came off as a real character, and as a plausible direction for an Edward with no memories to grow. Yes, Auric has a lot of power, but his skills seem more like a burden than a blessing, and almost everyone in his Order of Gatekeepers is doomed as per their job description to die horribly in some sort of battle. Auric interacts well with the FMA crew, and when the inevitable moment of memory-returning comes, he isn't swept under the carpet forever, thankfully. I also liked how Roy and Ed's romance was built up. I'm a sucker for separated lovers reuniting, and while Roy suffers quite a bit after realizing that Ed doesn't remember their relationship, it all comes out well. In addition, I thought the action scenes were well done, with good imagery, and I liked the mash-up of anime and manga canon. It worked very well to have the story continue past the action climax to the political maneuvering that is necessary for the winners to do, and to have a manga character show up at that stage to provide a new perspective on Ed and Roy's relationship.
I must throw in a caveat here, and that is the issue of "suddenly-songfic" moments. If I recall correctly, significant portions of two chapters had Ed and Winry singing songs that a) aren't songs that are known to exist in the FMA universe, b) aren't even accurate for the time period, and c) are clearly there only because the author really likes those songs. NO, no, just no. Do not do this, authors. Luckily, at least one of those scenes is completely skippable, and the other didn't make me wince too much - well, since I'm still reccing this, obviously I didn't think they spoiled the fic. Fair warning, though!
Full Circle
Fandom: Fullmetal Alchemist
Pairing: Ed/Roy, with background Al/Winry, Hawkeye/Havoc and Hawkeye --> Roy
Categories: AU, action, amnesia, drama, romance
Length: Epic [~141,000 words]
Warnings: implied past shota; violence; couple of narm scenes
Author on LJ: n/a
Website: On Fanfiction.net
Summary: Edward Elric returns with amnesia; he's lived the past four years as Auric, a Gatekeeper, and has become a hardened warrior. Will his friends be able to awaken Ed, and what happens to Auric if they do? They'll need both Auric and Ed to defeat the homunculi...
Review: Nike Femme does a good job with a plot that was very popular after the first FMA anime ended - namely, have Ed go somewhere other than the Other World depicted in the movie, and come back with a skills upgrade. Most of these fics were not great, lending themselves to Gary-Stu Edwards very easily, but Nike Femme pulls this one off with only one misstep.
I liked how the author built up Ed's new personality, "Auric". He came off as a real character, and as a plausible direction for an Edward with no memories to grow. Yes, Auric has a lot of power, but his skills seem more like a burden than a blessing, and almost everyone in his Order of Gatekeepers is doomed as per their job description to die horribly in some sort of battle. Auric interacts well with the FMA crew, and when the inevitable moment of memory-returning comes, he isn't swept under the carpet forever, thankfully. I also liked how Roy and Ed's romance was built up. I'm a sucker for separated lovers reuniting, and while Roy suffers quite a bit after realizing that Ed doesn't remember their relationship, it all comes out well. In addition, I thought the action scenes were well done, with good imagery, and I liked the mash-up of anime and manga canon. It worked very well to have the story continue past the action climax to the political maneuvering that is necessary for the winners to do, and to have a manga character show up at that stage to provide a new perspective on Ed and Roy's relationship.
I must throw in a caveat here, and that is the issue of "suddenly-songfic" moments. If I recall correctly, significant portions of two chapters had Ed and Winry singing songs that a) aren't songs that are known to exist in the FMA universe, b) aren't even accurate for the time period, and c) are clearly there only because the author really likes those songs. NO, no, just no. Do not do this, authors. Luckily, at least one of those scenes is completely skippable, and the other didn't make me wince too much - well, since I'm still reccing this, obviously I didn't think they spoiled the fic. Fair warning, though!
Full Circle