SO... THAT HAPPENED.

[genarti]

Today is (well, was, unless you're in a timezone where it's still the 5th) bookelfe's birthday! In celebration of this august occasion, we decided to do the logical thing: spend the day kicking around a library, come home and make assorted junk food from the freezer, and watch episodes of the first Fullmetal Alchemist anime. With alcohol. (Not a lot of

Comments

[evil_little_dog]

I want to come back and read this when I'm more coherent/don't have sisters telling me I need to help with Mom's yardwork/etc.

BUT YAY.

Such yay.

(And yes, I still don't get the Roy/Ed stuff, despite the first anime. Seriously? A couple of looks and we build a relationship? Why isn't there more Maes/Roy, then?)

[genarti]

Hee hee hee. ENJOY! Our notes, on the other hand, will be no more coherent when you come back.

(Ahaha oh my god yes. I mean, I don't ship Maes/Roy, because Maes is canonically the happiest married man ever, even aside from the fact that I am an unabashed Hawkeye/Mustang shipper. But... uh... if you feel like having slash goggles in this instance, THERE'S A LOT TO BUILD FROM THERE. Way more than I saw for Roy/Ed even in this version! Although I will admit that there's more to build from in the first anime than in the manga, I suppose.

[evil_little_dog]

I ship Maes/Roy but only if Riza and Gracia know about it and they are okay happy completely involved with it. Because the OT4 is a fun way to go. Just sayin'. (Not that I'm a mod for that comm on LJ, or anything. *cough*)

Now, the art that the anime magazines put out for the first anime is so blatantly Roy/Ed shippy, you can't wedge a piece of paper between the two (which really creeps me out but, you know, having to deal with pedophiles in previous jobs, etc).

And let's go on the art thing, too - WHY IS ED SO PRETTY and Winry so plain? Seriously? Why?

[genarti]

Yeah -- that's not how I read the relationships, and it's not how I write them, but I have no problem with consenting polyamory in fic! Discreetly shuffling somebody's canonical spouse offscreen or making their canonically happy relationship an unhappier one, however, I do mind.

I have heard this about the shippy art! I haven't seen any of it, though. (And yeah, I gotta say, I do not expect to ever get over the age difference there. Roy is 30ish! Ed is 15! This matters to me, and it should matter to them.)

As for the Ed pretty and Winry plain thing, either this is in art I haven't seen or I just don't read it the same way, because I haven't run across any such. I'm okay with that, however.

[evil_little_dog]

The art exists. It's scary, though there are some cute Ed and Winry scenes here and there. *points to icon* It's just far more slanted to Roy/Ed. Even the original postage stamp set contained all the characters but Winry, which made me want the FMA:B postage stamp set all the more (Not only is Winry included in the set, she and Ed are in the same scene).

I think that Arakawa had a bit more say-so in the second anime as well.

[bookelfe]

(Needless to say, I ALSO FIND ROY/ED CONFUSING.)

[evil_little_dog]

(Yeah, I find most Ed/ confusing...Al, on the other hand....)

[marfisa]

I think it's the Beatrice and Benedick/"Moonlighting" theory of romance. If two people snark endlessly at each other whenever they're in the same room, and/or at least one of them obsessively rants about how much he/she hates the other whenever the hate-ee's name is mentioned in passing, they must be madly in love. Plus, the way First Anime Roy obviously gets a big kick out of teasing Ed about his height, etc., does lend itself to comparisons with a boy pulling the pigtails of the girl he likes to get her attention

[evil_little_dog]

I didn't even know it was based off of a manga until I'd seen most of the series. Roy always struck me more as an older brother figure - my big brother definitely treated/treats me the same way Roy treats Ed in the first anime.

the Roy/Ed slash is obviously largely the producers' idea

Making Ed so very very pretty probably had something to do with it, too.

[genarti]

Yeah, I'm definitely familiar with the snark-therefore-true-love theory! It's not one I tend to gravitate towards, though. And in any case, there's some bickering that I read as flirty, and other bickering that I read as... well... just bickering.

The way I read the Roy-Ed relationship as a rule is that it's about one part bickering shonen guys, one part mentor-protege, and one part big brother-little brother (or occasionally even vaguely-quasi-paternal, although both Mustang and Ed would react vehemently if you ever described it that way to them.) Again, though, I imprinted on the manga and Brotherhood, and those are the characterizations I think with.