polypolyanna

[polypolyanna]

I’m on a 60+ minute bus ride, so here’s a long ramble on my feelings about the Dwarf in the flask as a character and me as a person! (822 words).

Warnings for dehumanisation/objectification, apathy and general cynicism.

When I first watched through FMA:B, I (like a lot of people I think) thought Hohenheim and Father were the same person, I also accidentally skipped the Xerxes episode entirely on my first watch through. Despite that, I still immediately saw myself in the character of Father, after watching the Xerxes episode and reading some fan theories and essays about the character, even more so.

I find that for antagonistic characters to really appeal to me I have to be able to still envision them getting better despite the state their story ended it. Father’s character literally ticked all my boxes: non-human trying to be human, severe repression, a questionable relationship with a character from his past and I could absolutely imagine him getting better despite his significantly flawed ways of thinking.

From the start we see that Father, in this case Homunculus, is a cynic. A cynic because the humans that brought him to ‘life’ all treated him as less than, as an object to be used for knowledge, a creature that served a means to an end and not much else. Homunculus’ cynicism serves him a purpose, it keeps him at an emotional distance from what’s hurting him, until someone comes along and completely shatters that preconceived notion of humans. Slave 23. The boy’s unrelenting generosity and kindness despite being treated as less than human by quite literally everyone, a virtue among vices, Homunculus couldn’t loop him in with everything he believed about humans. So, Van Hohenheim became his exception and by extension his only friend. Homunculus had extensive theoretical knowledge, but in practice he knew nothing. He had no emotional intelligence, making him a nuisance and occasionally irritatingly tone deaf. He’d make mistakes that he had no idea of and no one is bothering to tell him what he’s saying wrong, driving his cynical nature even deeper into the need for connection. Homunculus sacrificed all of Xerxes for selfishly selfless reason (if that makes any sense), he thought gifting Hohenheim what he saw as the ultimate gift would be a perfect sign of admiration and respect. Alas, he’s left alone. Angry, confused and probably unbelievably lonely, Father drags himself in the opposite direction. If even the one person he managed to care for was going to leave him in the dust, he might as well not try. Ever again. His grief, yearning and ego start to get into his way of achieving perfection; a human being without all those icky, difficult and miserable emotions. But even after ridding himself of all vices, completely apathetic, because without vices there’s also no virtues. To achieve his desire for perfection, Father essentially made himself nothing more than a statue. Then in the finale, he’s experiencing the emotions he tried so hard to rid himself of because of Hohenheim’s confrontation. Anger, grief, envy, desire, pride, and as if that wasn’t already bad enough to him, Hohenheim rubs salt in the wound by reminding him of the deep seated loneliness he caused himself. In the end, nothing mattered, his conquest for freedom and knowledge is cut off by the Truth. He started alone and he will end alone if he doesn’t learn from his mistakes.

I, unfortunately, can relate immensely to his character. Maybe it’s being autistic and ADHD, but I was taught from a young age that my intelligence and ability to perform tasks were all that I was good for, people rarely treated me with anymore decency than one would treat a dog that knew a few tricks. Resentment and cynicism come naturally at that point. I was generally unpleasant to be around because I couldn’t imagine that people could be kind or genuine, but after four years of psychotherapy… I’m still a cynic, but I’m a cynic that’s learnt that I can’t be an asshole because I think others will be assholes to me. I have learnt to wait and observe. I had to learn how to ‘Human’ from scratch much like Homunculus did, although I definitely did it better lmao. His relationship with Hohenheim reminded me of my own journey of trying to be a better person, but shutting down at every reminder that people can be absolute wankers, it’s a fucking excruciating and draining process to force yourself through. It takes a lot of reflection and reasoning.

Do I think Father would’ve been okay if he got four year of psychotherapy? No, probably not, but I do think that Father’s character motivations, deeply rooted flaws and the result of those things in combination without facing any grave consequences for his actions are very, very realistic. I love that dork. He’s so me for real and some times that bites me in the ass.

[polypolyanna]

After 5+ hours, they’re finally here. The official Cleodora reference sheet. Holy fuck that took so so long. Enjoy! :D

Close ups + pointing out details I want to talk about under the cut.

> General rank in the army displayed on their shoulders. Obviously, they didn’t have this rank at fifteen, but I wanted to point out their rank in Amestris in some way. The rank is just acquired later than depicted here.

> 24-25ish is when Cleodora met Father, freshly discharged from their position in the army with a dislocated shoulder and several broken ribs. They still carry their blood stained claymore with pride.

> ‘Forever 39’, willingly they took sixty lives to obtain immortality, needing little convincing. Cleodora’s upbringing already made them callous and being given a new sense of purpose with Father around, they are an unstoppable force paired with an immovable object. (Despite this, Cleodora has something Father wishes he had, humanity. They adapt to their situation with ease, knowing when to say what and when to hold their tongue, who is useful and who to discard.)

> ‘Etheline’ from old English and German can be interpreted to mean “noble serpent”. Cleodora regards themself to be honourable, while those around them would disagree, they can be conniving and manipulative.

> The quote is to illustrate the way Cleodora typically speaks, using dated words and generally dismissive vocabulary. Their identity was never something of their own, always determined by someone else, Cleodora opted to adopt that into who they are.

> Post-canon in this scenario means after the canonical ending of FMA:B, where both Hohenheim and Father die. Unfortunately, Cleodora doesn’t despite losing most of their life. Not sure what to do with themself with the few decades that remain, they adopted a stray white cat and got Greed’s old bar back up in his honour.

> Post-canon in this scenario is in regard to my fan fiction, in which (almost) everyone lives. Forcing both Father and Cleodora to face the consequences of their actions, behaviour and come to terms with their respective humanity (and each other). I don’t want to say too much, since the writing is still in the works, but Cleodora is a bartender at Greed’s bar and tries their best to make up for lost time with the homunculi, their children. (If you noticed the ring, it’s indeed an engagement ring, but that doesn’t become relevant for a while.)

> Bonus Homunculus drawing. I just love him, what can I say?

So yeah, that’s my FMA OC. They and Father do not leave my head, everything can be and will be about them.

[polypolyanna]

I do not know how, but I made this and I am so fucking proud.

[polypolyanna]

I'm calling him Meowculus

[polypolyanna]

I made him a while ago, but like… I carry him around with me everywhere. Either as a phone chain or on my water bottle or just in my hand. He’s always with me so I have a reason to just yap at people about him.

He is a menace to my functioning in society.

[polypolyanna]

I have more art. Because of course I do.

Aren’t they adorable? They’re matching :3

I love them so much.

[polypolyanna]

bad containers

[polypolyanna]

REPOSTOBER, DAY 7: Van Hohenheim

yet another drawing that I didn't post on tumblr (because I did not have a Tumblr account in 2014)!

I was OBSESSED with FMA when I was a kid!

[polypolyanna]

Ahhhh it's done! And clip studio here tells me it took over 26 hours. It was fun though, maybe I'll do illustrations for more fma characters

[polypolyanna]

[polypolyanna]

The Courtship (3564 words) by Polymatheia Chapters: 1/5 Fandom: Fullmetal Alchemist: Brotherhood & Manga Rating: Teen And Up Audiences Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply Relationships: Trisha Elric/Van Hohenheim, Sara Rockbell/Urey Rockbell, Van Hohenheim & Pinako Rockbell Characters: Trisha Elric, Van Hohenheim, Pinako Rockbell, Sara Rockbell, Urey Rockbell, Souls of Xerxes Additional Tags: Hohenheim gets bullied by the voices in his head, In which Trisha shows us where Ed's bullheadedness comes from Summary:

It’s never been officially stated how the courtship between Hohenheim and Trisha went down, but let’s be real here, Trisha was the one to pursue Hohenheim, not the other way around.

[polypolyanna]

This was supposed to be a fun little doodle with Hohenheim giving Homunculus a pat on the flask. I'm not sure what happened but the next thing I know, its been nearly twelve hours and now I've got a painting.

[polypolyanna]

FMABruary2025 - Destroy

"FUCKING SWEET!!!"

For Destroy, there was no better character I could think of.

[polypolyanna]

FMAbruary Day 28: Truth

The final drawing! Wow I can't believe it's finally done. That was a lot of drawing. Thank to hyolks for hosting this, it was a lot of fun! And shout out to chattoeart for doing this with me! Now if you excuse me, I'm going to go play monster hunter wilds with my palico I've named Homunculus.

[polypolyanna]

FMABruary2025 - Truth and Sacrifice

"Five"

Was terribly ill the last couple of days, but I'm going to cram as much as I can, before February is over.

The Five Sacrifices, with the Eye of Truth looking on from the eclipse.

[polypolyanna]

FMAbruary Day 27: Sacrifice

Sanchi. Sura. Theodore. Donatous. Rhinemile. Poswell. Gianni. Coran. Toni. Willard. Ripley. Mehitilt. Meiyo. I'm sorry. I'm going to have to use of all you.

[polypolyanna]

FMAbruary Day 26: Destroy

I was going to draw Xerxes being destroyed but then I realized that I didn't want to draw a bunch of buildings. Perspective hard.