FMA chapter 101
I'm sorry, octopedingenue; I know your instructions not to read this month's FMA were very clear, but I did it anyway.
Well, there's Al's body with his armor. I know it's just a splash page, but dude. Dude.
Oh god Sig, you're breaking my heart, here.
Armstrong reacted to Buccaneer's death pretty much exactly the way I had imagined. And...it's breaking my heart, here.
"I've been ordered not to die, you see." A meaningful echo! I see what you did there!
Okay, Doctor Goldtooth is clearly completely out of touch with reality if he seriously believes that letting Hawkeye die for any amount of time is any sort of viable option. I am disappointed in him.
Pages 18 and 19 are pure slapstick comedy gold and I can not wait to see them animated.
Mei and the chimeras are big damn heroes! I mean, the timing is almost laughably convenient...but no! Must suspend disbelief. Big damn heroes are cool by definition.
So, okay, my position on Roy/Hawkeye in brief: on principle, I ship Hawkeye with everybody. Generally, I also ship my favorite character in any given fandom with the person they seem most suited to in canon (most chemistry, greatest likelihood of becoming canon, best lulz--as was the case with L and Light--and that sort of thing), and because each has always been presented as the other's closest confidant and neither has ever been linked romantically to anyone else outside of the context of gags, and then with that ending to the first anime, I've just naturally been partial to shipping Hawkeye mainly with Roy. However, I've never thought they were just made for each other or had particularly smoldering chemistry*, and in fact, when the extent of their codependence began to reveal itself in the manga, the "Unhealthy! Unhealthy! Do not want!" klaxons began wailing in my head and kind of ruined the ship for me. The thing is, though, I love them both so much and want only good things for them, and since it's too late for them to have things like good parents (Madam Christmas was probably fine; she's not the one I'm thinking of) or the good fortune not to go to war, all that's left is really for them to get a happy ending in which they're alive and together, so damn it, that's what I want.
Given all that, I am not impressed with the supposed shippiness of this chapter. Roy cradling Hawkeye in his arms? Completely adorable and sweet. Did not strike me as shippy. What did impress me was the fact that they can apparently have coherent conversations with their eyes from across a room. It's just like the code in chapter 74 where Hawkeye tells Roy that Selim is a homunculus. Roy and Hawkeye are a well-oiled communication machine.
Aww! Mei could have gotten the Philosopher's Stone, but she saved Hawkeye instead! Mei is so awesome. I really think she should be a medical alchemist when she grows up.
The ending of this chapter is just fucked up beyond words. I'm not even sure what there is to be said about it. Although, and maybe this makes me sound a little callous, but the only thing I could think of when I saw Selim and Bradley and Roy disappear was what it would look like when they reappeared with everyone else. Like, here's poor Ed, trying to revive Al and bring Izumi up to speed and yell at the homunculus all at the same time and oh look, here comes the Colonel, flat on his back with swords through his hands, why the hell not. And then Roy looks around and sees the Homunculus/Hohenheim Hybrid Horror. It's almost like a sitcom.
*Although, did you see the most recent episode of Brotherhood? Damn. It was like, here's Roy in his office, and oh look, here's Hawkeye coming through the door, closely followed by their good buddy Sexual Tension. It was almost kind of awkward to watch.
Well, there's Al's body with his armor. I know it's just a splash page, but dude. Dude.
Oh god Sig, you're breaking my heart, here.
Armstrong reacted to Buccaneer's death pretty much exactly the way I had imagined. And...it's breaking my heart, here.
"I've been ordered not to die, you see." A meaningful echo! I see what you did there!
Okay, Doctor Goldtooth is clearly completely out of touch with reality if he seriously believes that letting Hawkeye die for any amount of time is any sort of viable option. I am disappointed in him.
Pages 18 and 19 are pure slapstick comedy gold and I can not wait to see them animated.
Mei and the chimeras are big damn heroes! I mean, the timing is almost laughably convenient...but no! Must suspend disbelief. Big damn heroes are cool by definition.
So, okay, my position on Roy/Hawkeye in brief: on principle, I ship Hawkeye with everybody. Generally, I also ship my favorite character in any given fandom with the person they seem most suited to in canon (most chemistry, greatest likelihood of becoming canon, best lulz--as was the case with L and Light--and that sort of thing), and because each has always been presented as the other's closest confidant and neither has ever been linked romantically to anyone else outside of the context of gags, and then with that ending to the first anime, I've just naturally been partial to shipping Hawkeye mainly with Roy. However, I've never thought they were just made for each other or had particularly smoldering chemistry*, and in fact, when the extent of their codependence began to reveal itself in the manga, the "Unhealthy! Unhealthy! Do not want!" klaxons began wailing in my head and kind of ruined the ship for me. The thing is, though, I love them both so much and want only good things for them, and since it's too late for them to have things like good parents (Madam Christmas was probably fine; she's not the one I'm thinking of) or the good fortune not to go to war, all that's left is really for them to get a happy ending in which they're alive and together, so damn it, that's what I want.
Given all that, I am not impressed with the supposed shippiness of this chapter. Roy cradling Hawkeye in his arms? Completely adorable and sweet. Did not strike me as shippy. What did impress me was the fact that they can apparently have coherent conversations with their eyes from across a room. It's just like the code in chapter 74 where Hawkeye tells Roy that Selim is a homunculus. Roy and Hawkeye are a well-oiled communication machine.
Aww! Mei could have gotten the Philosopher's Stone, but she saved Hawkeye instead! Mei is so awesome. I really think she should be a medical alchemist when she grows up.
The ending of this chapter is just fucked up beyond words. I'm not even sure what there is to be said about it. Although, and maybe this makes me sound a little callous, but the only thing I could think of when I saw Selim and Bradley and Roy disappear was what it would look like when they reappeared with everyone else. Like, here's poor Ed, trying to revive Al and bring Izumi up to speed and yell at the homunculus all at the same time and oh look, here comes the Colonel, flat on his back with swords through his hands, why the hell not. And then Roy looks around and sees the Homunculus/Hohenheim Hybrid Horror. It's almost like a sitcom.
*Although, did you see the most recent episode of Brotherhood? Damn. It was like, here's Roy in his office, and oh look, here's Hawkeye coming through the door, closely followed by their good buddy Sexual Tension. It was almost kind of awkward to watch.