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Fullmetal Alchemist (Chapters 43-50)
IT HAS COME TO THIS. I have been driven to liveblog (or whatever) my FMA consumption. Also, Choir Director let us have a rehearsal off after Easter last night, so I, uh, took the opportunity to read a lot more.
So, um. By my estimation major MAJOR PLOT REVEALS are happening every other chapter or so!
Chapter 44: The Nameless Grave
-Okay, I would like to make sure I understand this, and I am wary on clicking on a wiki because last time I did this I got totally spoiled. So is the idea that it is flat-out impossible to transmute a dead body to a living one that is the same as the dead, so what resulted from Izumi's transmutation of her baby and the Elrics' transmutation of their mother were other zombie people who were NOT the baby or the mother? But now Ed knows that Al's body is still alive somewhere, and the proof of this is that Al really did come back, and he wouldn't have if he'd been dead. Correct? Totally off base?
-This chapter was super emotional and I may have cried a lot and I may know kind of how it feels to be relieved about something that is actually kind of terrible :(
-...Ed is growing on me. I really like his relationship with Al.
Chapter 45: Scar's Return
-...Huh. I have to say, knowing spoilers makes Selim's wanting to go see Ed do stuff in the street... much more menacing than if I hadn't known.
-Ed dancing and doing alchemy in the street was actually awfully cute.
-"So you're using me? You have a lot of guts!" Roy's smile as he says that is also very cute. Ha, I suddenly see why so much of the fandom is Ed/Roy. (Although... Ed codes to me as young enough that I can't really ship him with anyone except one of the other kids, that is to say, Winry. I ship Ed-Roy grudging partnership like crazy, though!)
-I didn't get what happened when Scar and Edward's hands met.
-Wait, whaaat? Bradley, you are suddenly not nearly as amusing anymore! Fan Lan, be okay!
Chapter 46: The Distant Image of Their Backs
-WAIT WHAT? Hohenheim is a HOMUNCULUS? WHAT. WHAT. HOW COULD THIS BE. *flails wildly at plot twist* *is really glad that at least I was not spoiled for that* *am super duper unhappy about being spoiled for the others now that I see how amazing it is not to have known* Wait, would this make him Sloth? HEE.
-Am I ever going to be able to spell Homunculus correctly the first time through? Not yet.
-OH WINRY. WINRY. (Also, awwww Eric, I have a soft spot for characters who are so focused on what they're doing that they... totally... don't realize that Now Is Not The Time.)
Chapter 47: A Girl in the Grip of Battles Past and Present (really??)
-"They are the hands that save people's lives." AUGH. I think that just tipped me over into where I can only inarticulately say OH WINRY and OH EDWARD. (I mean... I understand that Winry should be allowed to be just as hardcore as everyone else! And I dearly wish people would TELL her things once in a while! (This is maybe the single biggest complaint I have with FMA right now.) But I also kinda find all the generational VENDETTAS kind of... stupid... and feel that she's well out of it... and that her parents would not have chosen for her to shoot at Scar. Especially given that his next move would be to destroy her. Also, on thinking about it more, apparently one of my bulletproof kinks has always been the hero who eschews revenge. AUGH.)
-"Crap! I forgot to talk to him with enough respect!" Okay, also, hee. (I really love how the drama and humor are always going back and forth.)
-Lan Fan, what?? What are you doing??
-LAN FAN. WHOA. Now YOU are hardcore.
Chapter 48: A Promise Made By Those Who Wait (great title!)
-Ha. If anyone would understand going after a fallen comrade, it's Hawkeye, no?
-I... okay, it is now giving me the creeps that Bradley is being so solicitous of Winry. CREEPY.
-Yay everyone demanding WINRY. Because she is AWESOME.
-OH HAVOC. OH WINRY. So I'll endure. AUGH.
-DR KNOX. How can random minor characters be so MADE OF AWESOME?
-WAIT. Homunculi can't reproduce?? Then... but... Hohenheim... what... is going on? Are Al and Elric also homunculi? But no, they can't be, Pinako said she saw them being born. So they must not be Hohenheim's children? WHO IS THEIR FATHER. WHAT.
Chapter 49: The Monster Within
-I LOVE MARCOH SO MUCH
-What is up with this "human sacrifice" thing anyway? Why would alchemists make good sacrifices at all? "See something fun"??
-WHOA. WHOA. WAIT. A GIANT TRANSMUTATION CIRCLE. MADE UP OF WARS. WHOA. I think I need something bigger than capslock, but I'm too lazy to think of anything. Anyway: WHOA. Talk about BIG PLOTS.
-Wow, fire doesn't work... how would you kill Gluttony? Starve him to death?
-"I can't die in these completely random monster battles!" I laughed out loud. YOU TELL THEM, DR. KNOX. <3
-"You really are pretty useless, Colonel!!" HEE. RIZA <3
-"Hey, I don't know the details, but don't you have something more important to do?" LING <3 I adore how he is so nonchalant about everything!
-I... must say that after my impassioned defense of Winry not firing the gun, Edward taking Riza's gun kind of... doesn't work for me. Plus which, my point about how guns are pretty much completely useless against any of the enemies they're up against still stands! Although, I guess, I can get behind the interpretation (which I think is fully supported by the text!) that Edward is just not as cool as Winry.
Chapter 50:
-Wait... I thought Knox told Roy that he was divorced, not that his wife and kids were dead?
-"I'm just doing what a doctor should do." WHY SO AWESOME, KNOX.
-Ahahaha. Hawkeye always obeys orders! Unless she doesn't like them.
-Roy... you think you're so slick. YOU ARE NOT. Hee. (I would not think this was nearly so funny except that I'm pretty sure he survives to the end...don't spoil me if I'm wrong!)
So, um. By my estimation major MAJOR PLOT REVEALS are happening every other chapter or so!
Chapter 44: The Nameless Grave
-Okay, I would like to make sure I understand this, and I am wary on clicking on a wiki because last time I did this I got totally spoiled. So is the idea that it is flat-out impossible to transmute a dead body to a living one that is the same as the dead, so what resulted from Izumi's transmutation of her baby and the Elrics' transmutation of their mother were other zombie people who were NOT the baby or the mother? But now Ed knows that Al's body is still alive somewhere, and the proof of this is that Al really did come back, and he wouldn't have if he'd been dead. Correct? Totally off base?
-This chapter was super emotional and I may have cried a lot and I may know kind of how it feels to be relieved about something that is actually kind of terrible :(
-...Ed is growing on me. I really like his relationship with Al.
Chapter 45: Scar's Return
-...Huh. I have to say, knowing spoilers makes Selim's wanting to go see Ed do stuff in the street... much more menacing than if I hadn't known.
-Ed dancing and doing alchemy in the street was actually awfully cute.
-"So you're using me? You have a lot of guts!" Roy's smile as he says that is also very cute. Ha, I suddenly see why so much of the fandom is Ed/Roy. (Although... Ed codes to me as young enough that I can't really ship him with anyone except one of the other kids, that is to say, Winry. I ship Ed-Roy grudging partnership like crazy, though!)
-I didn't get what happened when Scar and Edward's hands met.
-Wait, whaaat? Bradley, you are suddenly not nearly as amusing anymore! Fan Lan, be okay!
Chapter 46: The Distant Image of Their Backs
-WAIT WHAT? Hohenheim is a HOMUNCULUS? WHAT. WHAT. HOW COULD THIS BE. *flails wildly at plot twist* *is really glad that at least I was not spoiled for that* *am super duper unhappy about being spoiled for the others now that I see how amazing it is not to have known* Wait, would this make him Sloth? HEE.
-Am I ever going to be able to spell Homunculus correctly the first time through? Not yet.
-OH WINRY. WINRY. (Also, awwww Eric, I have a soft spot for characters who are so focused on what they're doing that they... totally... don't realize that Now Is Not The Time.)
Chapter 47: A Girl in the Grip of Battles Past and Present (really??)
-"They are the hands that save people's lives." AUGH. I think that just tipped me over into where I can only inarticulately say OH WINRY and OH EDWARD. (I mean... I understand that Winry should be allowed to be just as hardcore as everyone else! And I dearly wish people would TELL her things once in a while! (This is maybe the single biggest complaint I have with FMA right now.) But I also kinda find all the generational VENDETTAS kind of... stupid... and feel that she's well out of it... and that her parents would not have chosen for her to shoot at Scar. Especially given that his next move would be to destroy her. Also, on thinking about it more, apparently one of my bulletproof kinks has always been the hero who eschews revenge. AUGH.)
-"Crap! I forgot to talk to him with enough respect!" Okay, also, hee. (I really love how the drama and humor are always going back and forth.)
-Lan Fan, what?? What are you doing??
-LAN FAN. WHOA. Now YOU are hardcore.
Chapter 48: A Promise Made By Those Who Wait (great title!)
-Ha. If anyone would understand going after a fallen comrade, it's Hawkeye, no?
-I... okay, it is now giving me the creeps that Bradley is being so solicitous of Winry. CREEPY.
-Yay everyone demanding WINRY. Because she is AWESOME.
-OH HAVOC. OH WINRY. So I'll endure. AUGH.
-DR KNOX. How can random minor characters be so MADE OF AWESOME?
-WAIT. Homunculi can't reproduce?? Then... but... Hohenheim... what... is going on? Are Al and Elric also homunculi? But no, they can't be, Pinako said she saw them being born. So they must not be Hohenheim's children? WHO IS THEIR FATHER. WHAT.
Chapter 49: The Monster Within
-I LOVE MARCOH SO MUCH
-What is up with this "human sacrifice" thing anyway? Why would alchemists make good sacrifices at all? "See something fun"??
-WHOA. WHOA. WAIT. A GIANT TRANSMUTATION CIRCLE. MADE UP OF WARS. WHOA. I think I need something bigger than capslock, but I'm too lazy to think of anything. Anyway: WHOA. Talk about BIG PLOTS.
-Wow, fire doesn't work... how would you kill Gluttony? Starve him to death?
-"I can't die in these completely random monster battles!" I laughed out loud. YOU TELL THEM, DR. KNOX. <3
-"You really are pretty useless, Colonel!!" HEE. RIZA <3
-"Hey, I don't know the details, but don't you have something more important to do?" LING <3 I adore how he is so nonchalant about everything!
-I... must say that after my impassioned defense of Winry not firing the gun, Edward taking Riza's gun kind of... doesn't work for me. Plus which, my point about how guns are pretty much completely useless against any of the enemies they're up against still stands! Although, I guess, I can get behind the interpretation (which I think is fully supported by the text!) that Edward is just not as cool as Winry.
Chapter 50:
-Wait... I thought Knox told Roy that he was divorced, not that his wife and kids were dead?
-"I'm just doing what a doctor should do." WHY SO AWESOME, KNOX.
-Ahahaha. Hawkeye always obeys orders! Unless she doesn't like them.
-Roy... you think you're so slick. YOU ARE NOT. Hee. (I would not think this was nearly so funny except that I'm pretty sure he survives to the end...don't spoil me if I'm wrong!)
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Also, after Lan Fan, I just started generally keeping track of ALL THE LOST LIMBS in this manga. Between Ed, Paninya, Lan Fan, and [spoiler] it works out to a PRETTY HIGH NUMBER ... or so I thought. Then I read more shonen manga and I realized that by comparison, FMA was tactful and restrained.
no subject
Um, I am holding you to coming back and tell me what you were going to! (Or if you want to comment using only what knowledge you would have known up to this point, I am all up for that! :) Or being cryptic!)
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I am not a manga expert, but I think Winry falls into a particular female character type. But I'm basing this on, um, FMA and Oh! My Goddess, so I would not hold this up as an example of rigorous analysis.
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