Another Fullmetal Alchemist manifesto.

[hieronymousb]

Title: The Flipped Tide
Author: Ambre [hieronymousb]
E-mail: perjautse@gmail.com
Fandom: Fullmetal Alchemist
Pairing: Ed x Envy.
Spoilers: End of series, series, movie.
Special Thanks: Thank you to cryogenia for looking over this essay and giving me a critical, unbiased opinion from a non-shipper; thank you to everyone who helped make this manifesto possible, and thank

Comments

[pinkpaladin]

Ah, I finally got to read it. Yay.

I do understand a lot more on why you like the pairing, and the points you noted on Ed's and Envy's respective psychologies and backgrounds were fascinating. You actually make good sense of how the two could greatly benefit from each other, and overall the essay ties any loose ends nicely. I'm very much into essays myself, and you organized your thoughts in this one very well.

[herongale]

And because she won't say it herself, hieronymousb is a wonderful writer in her own right. I believe all of her fics can be found here, and although she dabbles in other pairings for FMA, Ed/Envy is by far her most robustly explored pairing. Note: she breaks fandom stereotypes, and often likes to put Ed clearly and unequivocally in charge in that relationship. Her fics are not to be missed.

[militsa]

[dogstardreams]

Wow, this was amazing to read. And your thoughts on this pairing really inspired me to take a good look at EdxEnvy and see exactly why I like it. Do you mind if I put a link to this in my community we were talking about? Because it really helped me to understand the exact dynamics and now, when I write this pairing, I can really get into the characters. And thank you for sending me to this, because it really was inspiring.

[hieronymousb]

No problem. You can link it as you wish. *g* Thanks. I'm glad the manifesto was inspirational for you. I mostly wrote it with the hopes of analyzing what I like so much about the pairing, and relating it in a way that might make sense to others.

[numi_nami]

Well, I've been thinking of this pair's contradictions for a long time now, taking everything of the anime into consideration. For me it's a rather hard pairing to write if the fic takes place post-series, because for some reason I keep thinking how Envy killed Hughes, and how Ed would never forgive him for that. Or that sort of thing.

But then, AU-wise, or otherwise series-continuation fanfiction, you've explained very well the dynamics of this rather frustrating pairing.

The notion of Envy the id to Ed's personality cleared up a lot of things for me. Edward as a substitute for Hohenheim, I think, has been touched upon by a lot of fanfics that I've read but have never been analyzed like some of your fic recs.

Wow, really, thanks for posting this!

[hieronymousb]

The Hughes issue -- good point; props to you for bringing it up. I've thought of that before, too. My way of dealing with that, as a post-series author, is to simply make it so the Ed x Envy pairing still retains a dark and angry and unforgiving element.

I do like/prefer consensual Ed/Envy, but I still think that even with the grain of hope I outlined here, the relationship is not entirely positive and the two will vent their anger and lust and hate on one another. So I think Ed doesn't forgive Envy for Hughes; it just adds more anger into the mixing pot. I wouldn't mind seeing more fics which tackled the issue of Hughes's murder directly, though.

[numi_nami]

In line with the Hughes issue, consensual Edvy would be very hard, seeing that normally you don't forgive the murderer of somebody who had been very close to you, annoying as he may be. Given Ed's temperamental personality, something remotely consensual would involve a pairing borne out of frustration.

Wow. They seem really mad at each other, don't they?

'The two will vent their anger and lust and hate on one another'.
Ah. I presume this is where most of those PWP's come from. Is it possible for these two to have some fluff? I mean, cuddly, sweet, toothache-inducing fluff, set in a canon environment?

[hieronymousb]

I think, if it counts, it's possible to have softer Ed/Envy moments. Myself, I like to write the pairing as a mixture. Yes, I like to write them venting their frustrations and what not onto one another, but I do like to write moments where they're tired and curl up together because they're too spent to be irritable, too. I'm not sure that is 'fluff' per se, but I guess for Ed/Envy, that's the other end of the spectrum to me.

I think it's possible that Envy could grow to care about Ed or to even become freakishly dependent on him. I think Ed caring for Envy is also possible. What is more difficult for me to swallow is the notion that either would be very...expressive about this. In fact, I think they'd both be in denial, largely, and that denial is something I have a lot of fun with, since it produces a fuckload of UST