#it makes me think of that post talking how the narrative in fmab made it ok to kill nina fused with alexander cause she could never recover | Explore Tumblr Posts and Blogs

fullscoreshenanigans · 1 year

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I appreciate that Shirai didn’t think this was a satisfactory conclusion to a conflict that had been simmering in the background for twenty-five chapters, but this was still one of the most disappointing moments of the back half of the series for me, especially when he notes Ayshe contributed to saving Norman in chapter 6 of the mystic code book.

“Recover from the stigma of slaughter” is an interesting way of phrasing it because as @hylialeia concisely phrases it in this post, Norman and the Lambda kids do deserve the chance to do this:

#this is why I feel he's so similar to scar from fmab #like I love the demon characters in tpn but it would have been extremely iffy if the writing had decided they were all suddenly innocent #overall the narrative does a good job of balancing that complexity #without veering off into that self-righteous bs so many stories try to pull #like. the demons commit genocide. actively farmed humans.experimented on them. brainwashed and enslaved a good portion of them.and that happened when there were alternatives! #even the more sympathetic demons are guilty of complacency in the face of this #and the reason I'm still able to root for them is because that sympathy #doesn't require norman or the other lambda kids to be demonized (pun not intended) #so yeah I'm not onboard with the idea that norman didn't ~suffer enough~ for his actions #the kid was raised as food and turned into a human experiment and tortured #the idea that like. musica or sonju should have been meaner to him or whatever leaves such a bad taste in my mouth #(ayshe is valid tho.)

But Ayshe is only given one impassioned sentence in response to her father being slaughtered that’s enough to make her fist clench in anger before the narrative pushes onward.

(Chapter 139 & Mystic Code Book Chapter 6 Q&A)

And it’s made even more tragic because Ayshe’s father was largely reclusive already after a lifetime of being made fun of for his misshapen face

Adopting Ayshe pushed him further to demon society’s outskirts, potentially not speaking to any other demons after quitting his job except possibly at the rare market exchange for goods he might need for her. There was no one he was going to tell about the Lambda escapees.

(Shirai does state he was part of the aristocracy at some point to explain why he knew the demon language:)

(So between that and working at the farm, he did implicitly uphold the system without questioning it, but by the time he leaves his job we can assume he’s only eating humans to maintain his sanity, or he’s somehow related to the group of aristocrats who drank Mujika’s blood 700 years prior so he has no need for it. He wasn’t actively fighting against it, but he wasn’t contributing to it in the last twelve years of his life.)

But while most of the Lambda crew doesn’t know any of this backstory, Shirai also notes that Norman knew the demon language by the point they meet Ayshe thanks to Smee:

So he knows exactly what she’s saying as he stands before her in the wake of her father’s murder. He doesn’t make any attempts to correct the others’ inferences based on their own experiences with the demons at Lambda. Ayshe either quickly composes herself and goes along with them without a fight or another word, or Norman plays her reaction off as her not being in the right mind after being her held captive by a demon for however long as they carry her off to the paradise hideout (I’m assuming it’s the former though because her dogs would likely attack in the latter scenario). And he lets all of this simmer for potentially months (the timeline’s not exactly clear on how long Ayshe has been with them)

(Mystic Code Book Chapter 7)

instead of talking to her about any of this despite knowing they made a mistake. Upon meeting with her again after the events at the imperial capital, he takes a few panels to collect himself before deciding on a single sentence to say to her, and then moves on. Ayshe contributed to saving him per Shirai, but we’re not privy to any attempts at him repaying her or trying to make amends. It’s a shame such a promising, nuanced conflict that should not have an easy, immediate answer was sidestepped to save on page space and expedite the series finale.

I do think it’s interesting that despite whatever he said being infuriating to her, Ayshe is willing to be in physical proximity to him during the timeskip, and her and her dogs allow him to hold a puppy.

(Chapter 181; fucking rip Vincent getting a new scar on his head)

Like many people I’m defaulting to him providing her with some form of a short apology in that chapter 160 exchange. He’s accepted that Ayshe might kill him one day, though after everything he’s gone through in his arc about the flawed thinking of sacrificing your life in pursuit of a cause, I don’t believe he offered her his life in exchange as part of any honor customs, or at least not while he’s still able to do some good in the world. Ayshe has accepted this, albeit not happily by any means.

Finally, all that said,

(TPN Exhibition Booklet: Tracks to the Neverland (Dec. 2020) Interview)

Really fucking glad these didn’t happen ldskfslk

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kob131 · 4 years

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https://rwdestuffs.tumblr.com/post/621470359799119872/i-had-to-shut-down-my-blog-because-kob-was

So remember that Epicblabbering guy? The one who deleted their account after I bitched out two of his posts? Well it seems he immediately ran off to Dudeblade.

had to shut down my blog because KOB was rallying the RWBY Stan mob after one of my posts, he even accused me of demanding the writers to do what I want for simply stating my reasons of disliking of the show. I won’t say what my political alignment is, but for KOB calling out SJWs, he throws it all out the window when talking to someone who dislikes the way the show is going

Not only is that “I was rallying the RWBY stan crowd’ not true with what I said in the post”

https://kob131.tumblr.com/post/621283132458614784/rwde-the-rwby-stans-part-1-stop-acting-so

https://kob131.tumblr.com/post/621287561282945024/rwde-the-rwby-stans-part-2-the-idea-police

Not only in the same day I had an ask celebrating you deleting your whole blog and I talked them down.

https://kob131.tumblr.com/post/621296617584230400/epicblabbering-straight-up-deactivated-after-that

I’m not even gonna entertain that video.

I did not want him to deactivate. At all. In fact, I would have loved it if he could make an ACTUAL series and not a fanfic. I’ve never wanted someone to deactivate their account. I didn’t even want anything from him: it was just me calling him out.

But I also stated I hated EVERYONE in the RWBY fandom.

Well considering my experiences and my lack of a bias here considering I hate just about everyone in the RWBY fandom: I’m calling bullshit.

Same with the ‘he even accued me of demanding the writers to do what I want for simply stating my reasons of disliking the show.’

This makes sense...until you remember what I specifically said (Meanwhile, you demand to writers ‘If I involve any of these characters in a ship, you cannot kill them. You cannot sink my ships or else.’ You know, considering all of these are bullshit and unfounded and are based off you shipping Arkos and that getting torpedo’d.)

That he started off his compliant with listing Arkos getting torpedo’d and thinking his other ships will as well.

(Now everyone here probably knows about RWBY, I used to like the show. I really did have an affection for the main girls, as well as team JNPR and team SSSN and even Oscar.In fact there is some ships I really enjoyed from this Arkos Renora Black Sun And Arctic Water(Weiss and Neptune) - Then, V3 and it’s tone shift happened. I just didn’t like it. I did not like that Roman was hacked off And I REALLY hated was how the romance of Arkos was built up to be smashed down at the end. And after checking up on the other couples, I feel like this is gonna happen again with them)

That his list of characters he list as ‘must die’ is just his ship list AGAIN (’Couples like Arkos and if so, Renora, Arctic Water/iceberg/whatever(more or less, it really didn’t go anywhere so I’m meh about it), and Black Sun have to end tragically, any characters who are like Jaune and Pyrrha, Ren and Nora, Sun and Blake, or Weiss and Neptune must end up dead in the end.‘)

And that his story he’s championing is all about ships too. (But these people try to twist it an say its the fact that these franchises tried to write an expansive storytelling universe in which heroes rise, get married, and have children and pass their wisdom onto them is what allegedly made these stories so terrible, thus making the perfect straw man against these kinds of stories.)

Not to mention the examples he gives for what is good (like Soul Eater, FMAB and Lord of the Rings) don’t make sense with his argument (that shows get too dark) since they’re all either as dark or DARKER.

His response in his now deleted reblog also supports this, as when I called out that he never listed anything except ships that he actually cared about, he said ‘Nope’ and never elaborated on what he actually liked. Or when I called out his examples and he said ‘I guess I’m just picky then.’ even though that conflicts with what he said.

Then we have SJWs thing, which is just an extension of the political bullshit. Now that comment doesn’t really make sense as me not liking people who are demanding and controlling people fits both him and SJWs, to say nothing of how I never mentioned a thing about politics...except if you remember Dudeblade is RABIDLY on that side of the political spectrum so dropping that would be a perfect way of riling him up.

This entire ask is full of manipulative bullshit, which shouldn’t be here if this were the TRUTH.

Well, we will miss you. Sadly, kkkob is a massive hypocrite. For free speech when it’s hate speech like a fucking nazi flag, tries suppressing it when it’s criticism of rvvby.

I guess it’s not really sad, persay, it’s just infuriating.

You didn’t even check a thing Dudeblade. If you did, you would have seen that’s full of shit.

Then again, why bother when it fits your narrative?

Remember when Takeashit0 accused me of harassing this one Camp Camp blog I didn’t know existed before him and his cult of RWBY apologists feigned outrage about their harassment to demonize everyone critical of some shitty web-anime? Wild how he associates with people who are actually doing harassment.

Considering that A. You react violently to the mere mention of white people B. You’re part of a group with a vendetta against Miles Luna C. That Camp Camp blog was thought be run by Miles and D. You clearly don't do research: that’s reasonable to suspect.

Also I distinctly remember talking to them and them NAME DROPPING you. Everyone else in RWDE was probably okay (maybe not Dudeblade).

I remember that. I was honestly tempted to make a baseless accusation about him and his group claiming that I had the exact same amount of proof the he had for his claim.

You mean like everything you do, including here?

You’re a fucking puppet at this point.

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hootpoop12 · 5 years

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Do you y’all ever feel like you would’ve been better off just watching the 2003 fma because fmab was just Too Much for y’all? Cuz like I cannot handle that Ed lost his alchemy in the end... it’s so Sad to me. Losing something vital or important makes me so fuckin Sad. Very Very Sad. Do you feel the same way? Is there anything else in fma that makes you real Sad?

OK, this post is obviously gonna have a bunch of Fullmetal Alchemist spoilers so if you haven’t watched/read it please keep scrolling:

First of all: Thanks for the FMA ask I have a shit ton of thoughts on it and rarely get to talk about it in real life. The core of this ask confuses me a little as both 2003 and Brotherhood has Ed losing Alchemy at the end? Ed ends up in a different universe or ends up trading it. Honestly, the loss of the alchemy is something I super appreciate from both shows but I SO fucking get the pain that stems from it. Whenever I think about it I, too, get like this sad ache because it was such a big part of Ed’s identity and it’s like why can’t he have both? A happy ending AND alchemy? Maybe it’s cause there’s no such thing in the real world but the thought of losing something as magical as Alchemy feels like.......losing a limb lmao ok got the obligatory joke out of the way. Though, in the end a large part of the show delves into the concept of Equivalent Exchange.

Despite the sadness that comes with it I like that it makes me feel that sort of grief because it makes us feel like we lost it somehow? Makes the trade off have an actual magnitude of importance? It’s narrative-wise well written, too, unlike a certain media that just turned into torture porn out of no where.

For the 2003 version the loss is a little out of Ed’s control and it’s rather sad he’s in a world where it doesn’t even exist? Like, at least he can still study it in Brotherhood but I think it adds to the depth of just how strong the bond is for Ed and Al’s relationship? Ed and Al were both literally willing to give up every single person they had ever met and part of their identity because they meant more to each other than some power. You can be in a new, strange place and you can have lost nearly everything but if you’re with someone who cares then you are going to be OK. Relationships and the choice to make the right decision is so much more important than feeling like a God. Also, we have science in our world, like, they have that even if it’s less flashy.

For Brotherhood it was reminiscent of Mob Psycho to me? The “just because you have some special skill doesn’t mean you're worth more” strikes super hard because Ed has always been such an arrogant dude and to have the conclusion be that giving up a part of your pride for the sake of the bonds he’s made and to help his brother, especially because this is the skill that fucked him up to begin with, will always strike me as something more beautiful than sad. Do I want Ed to have magic powers? Yeah. Do I think he’s actually Ok with losing it for what he’s gained in return? Absolutely.

What makes me sad about Fullmetal is that people shit on the 2003 version. It’s so insanely underrated.

#I know no one asked but the argument of is Equivalent exchange even real is another one of my favorite things about the show #fullmetal alchemist #personal #asks #Anonymous

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splashdragon · 6 years

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I FINISHED FMAB SO LET ME TELL YOU WHAT I THOUGHT

it’s taken me the better part of a week to figure out what I wanted to say, but here it finally is. this is gonna be a frickin’ essay guys so buckle up

Favorite things:

all of it

Okay but jokes aside:

The first thing I want to say is they hit every mark of a good pilot with the first episode. . . and the storytelling somehow got better from there. All the necessary backstory was given in appropriate pieces. Infodumps were actually entertaining, instead of a bunch of slog-worthy dialogue or narrative. Main characters were killed off because they were absolutely necessary alive and even more important dead. Character arcs finished in the reverse order of their introductions. I could write pages and pages of analysis on this (which I will, but one thing at a time) and honestly? 10/10 for storytelling mechanics alone. I’ve never experienced a story I trusted this much, and I probably never will again.

I also need to include the obligatory symbolism mention. There’s a lot of it, and I love how the story gets richer with every post I read on the subject. But since I have to be hit over the head with a proverbial shovel to notice the stuff on my own, I’m gonna keep things to a mention and talk about something else instead: Arakawa’s incredible grasp on cause and effect.

This is not a thing that’s limited to the art of the fight scenes, the magic system, or even the political machinations. No, I’m talking about how the characters influence each other, whether they spend years together or only meet once.

This is about how Ed and Al wear the symbol they do because Izumi was their teacher.

This is about how Rose spent one or two (albeit very intense) days with the Elric brothers and completely changed her life as a result.

This is about how Winry decided to fight just as hard as Ed did because Riza shot people to protect someone.

This is about all the times we’ve met people, even in passing, and they’ve left some sort of effect on us. This is about how we are, to some extent, a conglomeration of the people we’ve met.

This is about how Arakawa made sure her characters were people first and stories second.

The result? They’re sympathetic and human and accessible. All of them are.

And when I say all of them, I mean all of them. Ed and Al, absolutely, but also Winry and Pinoko. Roy Mustang and Riza Hawkeye. Ling and Greed. Lieutenant Hughes. Scar. Maria Ross and everyone else. This story was one of those rare things where I not only tolerated but downright loved the entire cast (with the exception of Kimblee, because he’s a freaking cockroach whose only semi-redeeming action was motivated by spite).

Case in point: do you know how many times I’ve watched shows where they left the title character’s fight for a separate fight with supporting characters? You know how many times that hasn’t left me bored or angry? None. That is the number of fingers on no hands. And yet, this show did it more than once for multiple episodes at a time and I was perfectly content to just go along with it. I cared about the others outside of the Elric brothers, so when they needed to jump from them to other character arcs. . . well, I watched those fight scenes at the end because I frickin’ wanted to, not because they were plot centric and I couldn’t skip them.

And that’s the tea. They made me care about the other characters beyond who they were with Ed and Al.

Obviously the writers wouldn’t kill the pacing like this, but If they’d had a filler episode where Ed and Al were either presumed dead or off doing something important? Fine. I’ll watch an episode where Mustang and his team do nothing but get drunk in a bar, or an episode where Greed and Ling argue about the ethics of flirting because Ling’s already got someone and Greed is. . . well, he’s Greed. Of course I’d be wondering what the Elrics were up to, but watching everybody else interact for an episode or five wouldn’t be any sort of inconvenience whatsoever.

All of this attention to character pays off in more than just one way. There’s none of that “unattainable mythicality” that so often plagues the competent. There are no heroes on pedestals or exemplars of perfect ideals, just simple truths and people trying their best. The lessons are all the more powerful for the example.

I also appreciate the specificity because it gives me a much better-than-usual grasp on who the characters are. For someone who tends to treat canon like its sacred and has a really hard time doing fan content because she’s scared of screwing the characters up or making them OOC, this is a Big Deal. I’m grateful for the freedom.

The last thing I have to say is for the fandom. To the people I follow who love this show with all their hearts: You’re freaking wonderful and amazing and I thank you for existing. I fell in love with this because you guys loved it first, and you love it with a sense of humor that cracks me up. If you ever stop being yourselves, I’m going to shave my head and move to a Mongolian nunnery, where I will waste away and have my body fed to the local wildlife.

So that’s everything, for the moment. The verdict? FMAB breaks the roof of the rating graph and soars straight into the Door of Truth itself. It’s the kind of story that I’m gonna be analyzing until the sun goes down on eternity, and if I can ever write anything half as good, I will die of satisfaction on the spot. The day I stop loving it will be the day I’ve ceased to exist.

And that is what I think.

#so there you have it #a ridiculously long analysis of why I completely adored this story #it took me forever to write but that's okay #also #if you read this whole thing i'm giving you a badge or something #or #you know what #just award yourself something appropriate #fma #fmab #reeeeeeeallly long post #journal tag #ramble tag #post tag #writing tag

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