#and it feels like it's just because people is expecting the next fma

[zehecatl]

it's so sad that people nowadays expect everything they consume to be The Literal Bestest Thing Ever

like with video games it's super apparent, with A Lot of people expecting longevity, and for the game to reinvent the genre, and if that's not the case, it's just not worth your time or money. and i'd argue this is also a problem in other things, where it's like- there's no room for 'just good shows'

like i've seen the weirdest complaints about KNY, and it's like these people have to find something to nitpick, because it can't just be good!

Snake Eyes: G.I Joe Origins isn't a particular clever movie, but it's a fun time, and yet i saw nothing but complaints about it, and it's so sad, because it feels like people can't just enjoy things anymore. like who cares if the writing isn't the best thing ever, it doesn't have to be!

this one game, Haiku the Robot, is a super cute and pretty fun metroidvania. and yet, because it was heavily inspired by Hollow Knight, it had numerous reviews calling it 'a worse Hollow Knight' and therefore not worth your time

and that's just. why would you not want to play a game like Hollow Knight? like yeah, it's not gonna be HK, it's a literal fucking masterpiece, but who cares! don't you just want to have fun?

people have such high standards for media these days, and it's just kind of sad. like isn't the whole point about consumption to have a good time? to enjoy yourself? why are we expecting everything to be the new Shakespeare, or the new Dark Souls, or the new Hollow Knight, or so on and so on

can we not just have fun

[dainesanddaffodils]

okay so I think I have maybe like 2 mutuals who are ffxiv enthusiasts, but I gotta yell into the void about my warrior of light and the fact that, in true oc fashion, she went and did her own thing without my consent and now I gotta deal with all the feelings it is giving me

so, my partner finished endwalker last year and Had Many Emotions about it and afterword I said, sure, put me in Character Creation For Fun I Won't Do Anything About It

but then I made a cute little Au Ra and named her Cimorene to reference my fav childhood book series and I was like, oh no I love her I guess I'll have to put her through The Trauma that is this whole game

(I know there is much trauma, again, because I witnessed my partner finishing endwalker and she also would tell me things about what was going on, vague enough - and long ago enough - that I'm not like SUPER spoiled on what I have ahead of me, but like, enough that I know shit is Sad)

but ANYWAY I was still pretty casual about this because, friends, I am not a Gamer. The last game I played, that wasn't a Mariokart/Mario Party/Smash that I've played at a friend's house, was like... on my family game cube 15+ years ago. I want to be a gamer but my brain can't find time for it... until now

so I'm casually trucking along through a realm reborn doin my little white mage quests and meeting the characters my partner has cried about, especially this one guy called thancred - of whom I had heard quite a lot about and my brain had already decided, I want that one.

(he's voiced by Taliesin Jaffe at first, he's a pretty white haired anime boy with trauma, he's got horrible coping mechanisms, what was I supposed to do? to quote Richard Gansey, "Crushed and Broken, just the way women like 'em")

so that was like in the back of my mind because obviously my little baby wol has to go through a lot and he has to go through a lot (most of which I am well aware of) before that's going to take off and even then I already imagine it's going to be a sort of background tension they refuse to actually speak on but both just Know for like, ever (yes my favorite ship is Roy and Riza from FMA why do you ask)

but then I'm like a little over halfway through this first installment and a bunch of awful things happen to my baby for the first time and I'm kinda invested in how she's having a kind of terrible time and the first group of people she'd felt some kind of belonging with are in danger and she feels lost and helpless -

and my partner is sitting next to me watching me play and starts getting excited about the fact that I'm close to meeting another character

that character is haurchefant

and I had never heard them talk about him before so I didn't really know who he was, but he's the first person to be genuinely kind to my warrior after several very bad days. they're in a fortress in an eternal winter and he's still the warmest person she's met in a very long time...

and I thought, oh that's so nice I'm glad she got someone in her corner now after all that shit, anyway moving on

but then, like for the following few days I kept. thinking about it. about how much that would have meant to her, about how lonely she had been feeling before meeting him and how, now that she's found that, she kind of just, wants to be around him

and it hit me that, without my own consent on it, Cimorene had said, I want that one.

so now I have to deal with my baby's first love (which, judging by my partner and her friends reactions when I told all of this to them, is going to be a fucking tragic first love) when I hadn't expected to deal with that at all and now I'm like really really invested in this dumb game

(this got way longer than expected, I just had to Yell. also this is probably a precursor for things to come. I may be reblogging Final Fantasies up in here before long)

[fullmetalfears]

Hoenheim is one of my favorite characters in the OG FMA manga and Brotherhood. He made me love the sad immortal that hates themself trope, and in general I find the combination of failed father figure, gentle kind person, and the violence he accidently did to his people make for a dynamic character.

But I do 100% think FMA made the other characters far too quick to forgive Hoenheim for leaving the boys.

In the manga, it was directly said that Hoenheim wrote back home but in the anime you get NOTHING. Either way, the man left for a decade, during the most important period of his children's lives as children... because he felt like a monster. Not because he was actually doing things to his kids, but HE wanted to live like a human.

It's shitty. It's awful. One of the people that Ed and Al were supposed to rely on most left because he couldn't get over his own misery. Instead of waiting even a few years to make sure they could even take care of themselves better before leaving, he left before they could even really remember him at all.

I say this not because I don't think it was a good character decision. In fact I think it's tragic in a way that the series needs. The lack of clear lines between monsters and people, where one of Hoenheim's worst decisions is leaving his wife and kids, something that any person can do.

Hoenheim's real flaw when it comes to his family is not valuing that people want him to be there.

Which makes his final offer to Ed to sacrifice himself take on a different light.

In canon, the manga/anime make it clear that Ed calling Hoenheim a shitty father was meant to be as much Ed chastising Hoenheim for not understanding they won't use philosopher stones as it is an acknowledge that Ed accepts him as his father.

But to me, it shows that Hoenheim still hasn't learned why leaving was such an awful blow to the family. Yes, Trisha died because he wasn't there but even if he came back ten years later, did he still expect it to be from a loving family? Did Hoenheim expect the world to stand still while he left?

Hoenheim is still sacrificing himself after all this damn time. He still doesn't see that being there for his kids could invaluable. Maybe they grew up without him, and hell, maybe he doesn't deserve a second chance after so long, but for the boys, making sure you live to the next day is their entire philosophy. And Hoenheim, is willing to give that next day up.

In context, he's giving himself up for his boys after all this time of putting his own feelings first, but he would still be gone. What's worse, in Ed's perspective it's an impossible choice. If Ed couldn't have thought of another way to get Al back, Hoenheim basically offered Ed a chance to kill him in exchange for his brother.

You know. Killing. The one thing that Ed will not fucking do.

Hoenheim doesn't understand Ed. He also even after all this time doesn't get that living for them and to move forward would be the best thing he could do.

So yeah. I adore Hoenheim but the manga/anime kinda does a clumsy job with him. It does such a good job of setting Hoenheim up as looming negative premise in the beginning and then the story overcorrects in trying to make you like him that it forgets that, yeah, leaving your wife and kids for a decade is kinda bad actually!!!

It doesn't help that no one else is angry at Hoenheim. Izumi knew the boys as small children, presumably orphans and yet greets Hoenheim warmly. In the manga the people of Risembol are baffled on his arrival but otherwise move on. Pinako WHO BASICALLY HELPED RAISED THEM is just sorta neutral towards him. Even Al isn't angry. He just wants his dad back which is fine, but it leaves Ed's anger as an outlier, like it's childish of him not to understand.

By the time of his death, Hoenheim doesn't really learn anything. He's forgiven because he really was a good dude and he felt really bad about leaving for a decade so he can totally be forgiven by everyone right?

Right.

So yeah. Hoenheim? Great character, but awful dad which is part of why he's a good character but the story really pulls its punches about him.

~Luna

[lantur]

updates,

I haven't updated in a while!

Megan Thee Stallion concert on Tuesday night was incredible. She's a great performer and dancer. My favorite moment of the whole night was singing along to Savage as the closer - the song I played on repeat in winter 2020 while writing my royai fanfics ❤️ that song has a really special place in my heart because it was one of my first two Meg songs and I'm SO happy I got to enjoy it live!

Work this week was much better than work last week. I made progress on two projects I enjoy!

Things have been going really well at the gym. 4-mile runs feel easy, and I've upped my pace. I've gone up on all my lower body lifts too. Getting serious about strength training and building muscle for functional fitness purposes is absolutely the best thing I've done for myself physically, and the mental benefits are so real. There are so many times I wake up feeling off and my mind is totally cleared and my mood is so much better after the gym.

I finished reading the Dungeon Meshi manga this week, and I'm obsessed. I like it even more than FMA, and that's saying something! I'm also watching the anime with David. I can't get enough of Laios's party and all the characters and that whole dungeon.

I'm all caught up with season three of Abbott Elementary and I can't wait for the season three finale next week 👀

Book stuff has been exciting! My mother-in-law and my cousin-in-law both finished the novel and they were so kind and posted it on their IG pages. ❤️ I'm so happy they enjoyed it. Getting feedback has sparked so much joy. I'm also up to 44 paperback copies sold, which is so incredible. I never expected that. I won't have any idea about my April ebook sales until the first week of June unfortunately, thanks to IngramSpark's ebook sales reporting structure.

I enjoyed celebrating Mother's Day with my mother-in-law last weekend and emailing the moms in my work department, my friends' moms, and my sisters-in-law to wish them a happy day. I used to have such complicated and negative feelings about Mother's Day because of my own family issues, but I've really come around to seeing Mother's Day as a way of celebrating the people who do (and have done) the amazing and difficult work of raising the next generation (and our current generation). I perceive the holiday now as not just about my mom on an individual level of "celebrating my mom for Mother's Day", but about recognizing mothers on a societal level and I really appreciate that.

[barkboat]

King. I have to say I have very mixed feelings on Scar’s arc overall. My main issues with it are how he agrees to work with people like Mustang to complete his goals, he is chatised for his desire for revenge more than characters like Mustang and in the end, he is allowed to rebuild from the remains of his people, but key players in the destroying of his nation are still allowed to run free and Scar is expected to just get along with them cause they feel bad or whatever. I think that’s it’s also unfair that next to no non-Ishvalan characters are allowed to sympathise with Scar because well, he’s right.

That being said there are some things I like about it. I think Scar is an interesting idea for a character and I’m glad he’s in the story to begin with as a voice for the victim’s of the militaries violence (I wish people like Ed and Al were allowed to sympathise with him though :/). I also like how he learns to find life worth living again while still being angry and not forgiving the Amestrians for what they’ve done and that is the part of Scar’s story that really speaks to me. I think if I were writing FMA I would’ve preferred for Scar to, instead of giving up killing state alchemists altogether, learned to organize with like minded people (which he kind of does but it’s for Amestrian interests primarily) and dismantled the oppressive system as a whole while also being allowed to serve justice to people like Mustang. I think it could’ve been interesting if Scar was able to radicalize Ed and Al in a way rather than be an ally who they don’t entirely agree with. Idk! I have a lot to think about with this character

[bleezebrew]

20 Questions for Fic Writers

Thanks for the tag @candyskiez! I am…bad at this internet thing, so I'm not sure who to tag. Anyone who wants to can jump in.

1. How many fics do you have on Ao3?

46 total so far. 38 are fanfictions and 8 are original works but I'm going to be ignoring the latter from this point onwards where possible.

2. What's your total Ao3 word count?

271,996. The majority of that is because of "Above Board." That series was not what I expected to write at the time, but 2020 was…odd.

3. What fandoms do you write for?

Good question. I don't know. Whatever I am feeling in the moment, mostly.

In the past I've written for Hogan's Heroes and Fullmetal Alchemist. Recently I've finished a sizeable Star Trek Next Gen series. I am currently working on a number of Nimona fanfics and I expect to return to Leverage at some point after that. Beyond that, couldn't say.

4. What are your top 5 fics by kudos?

"Trust Fall", "Golf Blues", "Inventory", "Only the Best", and "Challenges in Rhetoric". A mix of Leverage and FMA. Somehow I'm not surprised to find the Waterworld story hasn't gotten a lot of kudos, lol. Glad to see "Inventory" up there, it was a lot of fun to write. Outsider POV usually is.

5. Do you respond to comments? Why or why not?

I try really hard to. I adore getting comments, and I want to communicate that, but I can start to overthink my reply and spiral over them pretty easy.

6. What's the fic you wrote with the angstiest ending?

Uhhh…. Gonna have to give that one to either "Lies Will Out" or "Confessions" I think, even though "Lies Will Out" has a hopeful final scene. (Both Star Trek Next Gen)

"Love Like a Rain" (Nimona 2023) is a strong contender, but with the context of the movie, it gets resolved pretty much instantly and ends well. "Bones on Bones" (Waterworld 1995) is also a contender but is more impersonal over all.

Getting a proper resolution from "Lies Will Out" takes all 54K of "Wheat with the Chaff," and "Confessions" is a straight up tragedy.

7. What's the fic you wrote with the happiest ending?

"we are such vicious, wild things" is very domestic in spite of the title, probably that one. Runner up is "Trust Fall." I love my OT3's it seems.

8. Do you get hate on fics?

Not yet. I did start on ffn though, and the commenting etiquette there would be considered rude on Ao3.

9. Do you write smut? If so, what kind?

I only wrote some recently, and I haven't posted any as of yet. Generally not my thing, but this one grew a plot I'm excited about. What can you do?

10. Do you write crossovers? What's the craziest one you've written?

I write them, but I don't post them, because I've never actually finished one. I was working on an FMA x Star Wars Prequels thing for a while, got a third of the way through and scrapped it, though that isn't the craziest one. That's probably the unfinished FMA x Megamind Community Theatre AU I want to finish someday.

11. Have you ever had a fic stolen?

Not that I know of.

12. Have you ever had a fic translated?

No. Would love if it happened but it's very unlikely to.

13. Have you ever co-written a fic before?

No. Love brainstorming with people, hate actually writing with people. I'm a little bit of a control freak about the execution.

14. What's your all-time favourite ship?

How dare you make me pick one. I'm going to say Leverage OT3, but really it's tied between Goldenheart and Royai.

15. What's a WIP you want to finish, but doubt you ever will?

Question 18 made me think of it--Tower of Babble.

I started a Next Gen fic where the universal translator goes off-line. I planned out the personnel dynamics based on who spoke what and the fact that the computer would revert to Vulcan and we see no Vulcans on the Enterprise D. I was going to have Geordi speak Creole specifically to fuck with Picard. I was going to have Riker and Barclay both speak German. Worf would speak Russian and people would reply to him in tourist Klingon with absolutely no idea what he just said. It was going to be gold but also I can't just use google translate for the whole thing. I really only speak French and English, which does mean I can fake competence for a few different languages if I do my research well, but that's really only the romance languages and…well. I just don't think it's happening, unfortunately, as cool as it would be. Idea is free to a good home, doesn't have to be Next Gen or even Star Trek, would love to see it if someone makes it.

16. What's your writing strengths?

I have gotten a lot of compliments for getting character voice right and for providing an emotional journey, so…those. I think I manage to balance OCs pretty well so that they stay secondary characters at most, and that I'm a fair hand at tension.

17. What's your writing weaknesses?

I am allergic to mystery plots. Hate them. Loathe them. Don't want to write them ever, ever, ever. I will give you dramatic irony all day every day, but mysteries are just. The worst. I don't actually know if I could be good at them because I have honestly never tried.

Fight scenes also, because fight scenes are of course really hard to write and I always make the mistake of making my characters competent so that I have to actually do choreography and not just Vibes. Uggggghhhhh.

18. Thoughts on writing dialogue in another language for a fic?

I have done it in some of my fics, I usually try to do it in a way that the meaning can be intuited easily and it doesn't detract from the fic if you don't know it, or so that the translation is provided by the characters in the main body if it is plot relevant.

Mad respect for people who use it to drive the plot and do full translations in their end notes or hover text, you are incredible and I love you.

19. First fandom you wrote for?

Hogan's Heroes. In 2018, I'm pretty sure. As far as I know that fandom still does like 3-5 annual events over on ffn. They're cool.

20. Favorite fic you've ever written?

Noooooo I have to pick??? I love them all for different reasons.

If I have to pick, then probably "Build Them Up, Let Them Go." Outsider POV is always a delight. I would consider saying "Wheat with the Chaff" but it was a COMPLETE AND UTTER BITCH TO WRITE, so no, no it doesn't get to be my favourite. :) Ever. :)

"Trust Fall" is a very solid runner up though.

By the time I finish it, I think some of the other stories in the "Love Like" series are probably going to jump ahead of these. I am still deeply in love with the character dynamics in Nimona.

My Ao3, if you're interested in an eclectic mix.

[kingofthewilderwest]

As the trailers and images come for the next installments of the FMA:LA, I feel hype. It looks so good as it’s displayed!

I know it’s probably going to be the same caliber as the first live action. I have no blinders there. I’m not going in with the expectation it’ll be The End All adaptation. But that doesn’t make me less excited.

In many ways, it makes me more excited, because it means I can Just Have Fun with whatever Is.

Once upon a time, years ago, I argued there should be no FMA live action because I doubted it could be done justice and would only lead to disappointment. Why adapt something in mediocre quality, a mere shadow of the brilliant original?

But now, at this point, I’m just here to have fun. The first LA gave me fun, didn’t need to be perfect, wouldn’t have even needed to be halfway good for me, could have been the worst thing in the world; it gives me the opportunity to kick back with one of my all-time favorite franchises. Simply seeing a live action Hughes or Riza on screen for a few seconds is a contribution to the world of FMA and my imagination.

It’s just like the video games and movies and books and everything else, good and bad, are contributions: they provide me a richer landscape of constantly delving and exploring FMA without exhausting the media. I love franchises wherein I can always fish for more. I might rant how much I dislike the Sacred Star of Milos, but I would much rather have rich franchises that pound out the occasional dud or two! My life and fandom experience was still enriched for Milos being there. It gives me more facts, more discussion points, more angles by which to engage the world of Fullmetal Alchemist.

To be clear: I think franchises go bad when they wear the world out too thin and exhaust the story beyond what should be exhausted. There are start points and end points. If you force beyond the narrative end point, you’re breaking the heart and soul of the story. Some stories can only be small, whereas other franchises are a giant playbox wherein you can imagine many new things. FMA is somewhere in the middle, so a contribution of new materials is... a contribution!

Ergo now, seeing all these characters from the show and manga be portrayed by live action people... that’s an excitement and a positive in itself. No matter how good or bad these movies are, it’s an addition I celebrate and will keep celebrating.

[curligurl0896]

So getting to read @thejakeformerlyknownasprince 's FMA AU reminded me of my own ideas for a FMA/Animorphs fic. A crossover, in this case, a Megamorphs of sorts (complete with rotating narration) because I really want an excuse to have the Animorphs interact with the characters of the FMA universe. I don't have enough ideas worked out to confidently write a whole fanfic yet, so I think I'll just share some of my ideas so that at least they don't stay inside my head forever like the vast majority of ideas that I either never finish enough to post it or just never get around to at all, especially when my brain is always generating new plot bunnies instead of focusing on developing the ones I already have, it's so distracting lol

(Also maybe y'all could give some suggestions if you wanna, I'd definitely appreciate it lol)

Anyway, here it is:

First off, the answer as to how exactly the Animorphs end up in the FMA universe: I was kicking around a few ideas for this, and was originally thinking something along the lines of like, a freak accident that somehow results in them ending up in front of the Gate of Truth, but I think a better idea would be for an alchemist (or perhaps even several alchemists) to end up in the Aniverse, get Yeerkified, and the Yeerk (or Yeerks, as it may be), intrigued by the memories and knowledge of an alternate Earth where you can manipulate matter and shape it according to your will with nothing more than a well drawn chalk circle (or even less than that if you've been through the Gate, as the Yeerk(s) will eventually discover), lured in by the idea of a legendary object that supposedly can be used to circumvent a pesky little law known as Equivalent Exchange, decides to pull something of a "Tom's Yeerk and his Yeerk buddies a la book 52" deciding to start their own colony in the FMAverse where they won't have to answer to the Council of Thirteen or the Visserarchy (well, at least the ones higher ranked than the Yeerk in charge, who, I imagine, would have to be a Sub-Visser at the very least to have the power to arrange all this) in addition to being able to use alchemy, which, much like the morphing power, can be used for a massive variety of things, ranging from merely convenient to pretty damn useful in a pinch to OP as fuck to even just downright terrifying.

It takes a lot of time and meticulous planning, of course, as they have to find a way to transport the Yeerks, their ship, and all the other stuff they'll need to thrive over there through the Gate and into the FMAverse-- all while in a universe where alchemy flat out doesn't work. The Yeerks have to figure out how to get around that issue, and it takes at least a year of research and using their new hosts' alchemical knowledge to work out a solution, but they work it out, and soon enough they get everything set up and ready to go. At some point, the Chee find out about this secret unknown project going on, inform the Animorphs about it, and Jake decides that they should at least check it out on the off chance that it's something big.

That's where the story officially starts: with our team of traumatized teenage shapeshifters at the location where this thing is being set up (haven't figured out the where yet). They've spent the past several days spying on these Yeerks, but still aren't sure what exactly is going on-- they keep talking about opening a gate-- and aren't sure if it's worth it. Marco's convinced the whole thing is ridiculous, especially after overhearing a human Controller mention something about a "Philosopher's Stone" ("What is this, Harry Potter? Are they gonna wave wooden sticks around and yell in Latin?") . Rachel is bored at this point, and just wants to kick ass and call it a day-- they were probably up to no good anyway. Cassie isn't particularly keen on the asskicking part, but she's been having a bad feeling about all this that she can't shake, and Tobias agrees that something fishy is going on and says they should wait a few days-- after all, from what they've gleaned, whatever plans these Yeerks had would be set in motion very soon. Ax, being Ax, declares as usual that he'll just go along with whatever Prince Jake orders, though when Jake presses him about his opinion, he just says he isn't sure what to make of it. In the end, they keep it up for a couple more days, and sure enough, the time comes for the Yeerks to "open the gate", whatever that means.

After all the time they'd spent spying on the Yeerks, it is conveniently now, when the Yeerks are about to do their thing, that they're discovered. It quickly turns into a fight, and the Animorphs attempt to bail as they're soon overwhelmed-- and then the Gate is opened.

None of them had any idea what to expect next. They certainly weren't expecting the blue lightning that erupted around them in a massive circle, seeming to originate from the curving lines that had been so painstakingly carved into the floor. They aren't expecting the atmosphere to turn dark and purple and creepy, or for a giant grey eye to suddenly appear beneath them, or for wavy black tentacle arms to come out of that eye. And they definitely were NOT expecting to abruptly find themselves in the white void of Zerospace.

Only they aren't in Z-space, exactly. Surrounded by it, sure, but somehow they stand there, as if on solid ground, surrounded by the eerie blankness that had once nearly suffocated them to death.

Each Animorph is utterly alone, with nothing and no one else in sight. That is, until they hear a voice, one that sounds like several voices speaking in unison, and suddenly they see a figure-- or, more accurately, an outline of a figure, with only shadows to mark where the figure ended and the void began. The figure is shaped like a human in all but Ax and Tobias's case: the figure Ax sees is shaped like an Andalite, and Tobias's version takes the form of a bird.

Truth gives the whole "I am God, I am the world, and I am also you" speech, then informs them they can't pass through the Gate without payment. Suddenly, there's a huge gateway where previously there was nothing. Truth is unconcerned with the fact that these "A-ni-morphs" have zero clue what's going on-- it simply takes the required toll and sends them on their way.

Except the toll is literal body parts-- which, even then, isn't usually a big deal for an Animorph, but in this case it absolutely is a big deal, because, as they'll soon discover, there's no way they're going to just replace their lost limbs through morphing. It's expressly forbidden for one to simply have nice things in this universe; in other words, Truth isn't letting them off the hook that easily.

The discovery that they're not able to replace their lost body parts through morphing is especially horrifying to Ax, because, well, y'know... book 40. The one that every Ax fan, and really anyone who otherwise genuinely enjoys Ax's character, would like to pretend never fucking happened.

In fact, given Truth's precedent for irony when extracting payment from people who've opened/been through the Gate in the series, I have no doubt in my mind that Ax would end up suffering the exact same fate as Mertil. Andalites, after all, place high value on their tail blades, especially the warriors; it's their number one go-to weapon when shit hits the fan. Ax himself is such a warrior, in fact it's a huge part of who he is as a person. Needless to say I think yeeting Ax's tail blade would be the exact kind of twisted irony that Truth would employ.

He gets over himself eventually-- well, sort of. However, it takes him a long time to truly come to terms with it-- instead of accepting that the attitudes he'd been taught his whole life regarding those who aren't fully able-bodied are actually shit, I feel like he'd be more likely to double down on them, internalizing them, and actually go into full-on self loathing as a result.

He holds his metaphorical tongue, though, upon seeing that Tobias has suffered a payment that is arguably far more cruelly ironic-- given that Tobias is a bird, given that his initial attraction to the morph that eventually became his default body came from the sense of freedom and escapism only provided through flying, I think it's fairly obvious what Truth would take: his wings.

As for the others: Rachel has lost her arm (for basically the same reason Ed did), Cassie loses her hands (which she uses to, you know, help injured animals and stuff), and as for Jake... well, it was a bit of a struggle, the best I could come up with is the idea of him going blind much like Mustang did after being forced to open the Gate (though maybe not for the same reason, though... idk. If anyone has any better suggestions, please let me know lol, I couldn't think of any solid ideas for what body part would be ironic for Jake to lose). Marco is the only one who doesn't lose any outwardly visible body parts-- what he loses is his voice.

At some point, they are discovered, taken into custody by the Amestrian military, and eventually they end up in Colonel Mustang's office. Mustang listens to their story with a massive dose of skepticism. He isn't sure what to make of these bizarre barefoot children, nor their claims of fighting bodysnatching slugs from outer space by turning into animals, nor their wingless pet hawk, nor... well, he could only assume the other creature was some sort of chimera, although he had zero clue what animals could have possibly been used to make something with blue fur and extra eyes.

At this point, they're about to do a morphing demonstration to prove to the Colonel that they aren't completely batshit, when suddenly the door is slammed open, and a teenage boy with blond hair and sharp golden eyes comes sauntering in, accompanied by a hulking giant covered head to toe in a suit of armor.

The boy immediately starts shouting at Mustang, calling him a bastard and accusing him of wasting his time, to which Mustang responds by merely rolling his eyes and sighing, as if this sort of thing happens all the time (spoiler alert: it does). After a moment, the kid stops as he takes notice of the other kids standing in the room.

"So," he says, calmly, as if he wasn't yelling at his superior just a moment ago, "what's the deal with these fuckers?"

The casual use of the kind of language that would have surely landed them in hot water back home was quite shocking, but they don't comment on it. Instead, Rachel says, in a voice sweet as honey, "Oh, look, Marco. He's just as short as you are."

Before Marco could turn to glare daggers at her (come on, it wasn't like he could argue back in that moment), the boy goes absolutely ballistic, and the armored guy has to physically restrain him as he screams obscenities at Rachel ("The fuck did you just call me, you freakishly oversized bitch? I'll show you too-fucking-short-to-fucking-sit-at-the-fucking-table-without-a-fucking-booster-seat! Call me short one more fucking time, I fucking dare you to! You think I give a shit that you're a girl? I'll fuck that pretty face of yours right up, just you fucking wait--")

"Brother!" The armored guy cries. "Calm down!" Then, to the Animorphs: "I'm sorry about my brother's behavior. He's, um, a bit sensitive about his height."

"A bit sensitive" is the understatement of the century, but none of the Animorphs call him out on it. They're too dumbfounded by the sound of his voice, which sounds sweet, innocent, and, despite his size, sounds like it belonged to a boy no more than nine or ten years old.

And that's where I'm going to leave it for now, since I've spent way too long on this post already. I have a few other ideas, but mostly in bits and pieces, not really any more comprehensive plot points beyond this point. Please do let me know what you think!

[ayushipop]

I posted 18,159 times in 2021

9 posts created (0%)

18150 posts reblogged (100%)

For every post I created, I reblogged 2016.7 posts.

I added 195 tags in 2021

#sparks joy - 79 posts

#ref - 69 posts

#:) - 8 posts

#homecha - 8 posts

#hometown cha cha cha - 8 posts

#superstitious posts - 5 posts

#hong du shik - 5 posts

#yoon hyejin - 5 posts

#kdrama - 4 posts

#fma - 4 posts

Longest Tag: 138 characters

#pls n all of them warning her about strangers and being out alone.... it's about the protection u feel towards people u dont even know....

My Top Posts in 2021

#5

me and pyo miseon at mark 1:01:42 of episode 16:

38 notes • Posted 2021-10-18 06:02:25 GMT

#4

obsessed w how hyejin was humming that DOS song to herself while making dushik soup shes a hacker first and dushiks gf second

73 notes • Posted 2021-10-12 05:07:30 GMT

#3

something about the way dushik just looks at hyejin and says "you've changed a lot, you're a different person" and the scene getting interrupted makes me feel like there's a purposeful imbalance in the dialogue.... we're expecting hyejin to have the chance to say something about the kind of person HE is, whether he's changed or remained the same, but we don't get that. (almost feels like he's narratively refusing to be commented on, when he's the one to have an opinion on everything else) lines of dialogue like that, i think, usually have the context of a check-in, a moment for characters to reminisce or reflect on their current position compared to where they began.

given the characteristic back-and-forth of their interactions, we're left with a similar feeling to what hyejin feels and seems to express in the preview for the next ep: "why are you becoming a stranger?"

but the thing is, they still don't fully know each other. it's weird, because the points of connection they do have are very deeply rooted: the trust they've built from the ground up, their loneliness, the polar bear and penguin—but they don't talk much about those. they remain mostly unsaid but understood.

even some things they don't know about, they have an odd parallel-connection: hyejin being the one to walk away from her college boyfriend, who implicitly rejected her, but SHE took the initiative to dump him. whereas dushik's line about "everyone who's left me, it's my fault that they did." despite not knowing everything about his past, we know that a lot of his family has died, often in unavoidable ways like heart attacks, and he's twisted that around to blame himself for it despite DEFINITELY not having an active role in them "leaving" him.

dushik and hyejin talk a lot to each other. not just talk, communicate and comprehend. most of the time, they recognize when they're acting petty or childish or narrow-minded and they don't gloss it over or hold grudges or overcomplicate. but they're yet to talk about the deepest, most painful and yet most integral parts of themselves and their pasts.*

in other words: sikhye traumadump WHEN

*dushik knows about the shit from hyejins childhood, but an interesting observation i saw is that her dad was the one to tell him that, not her. as viewers we're clued into her past, but within the narrative hyejin herself hasn't opened up about it

104 notes • Posted 2021-10-06 06:43:35 GMT

#2

dusik + being chosen is something that can be so personal.... like i know the moment where hyejin sits next to him (after pd-nim pulls out a WHOLE CHAIR FOR HER LMFAOOOO) is SO good already but putting it in the context of dusik feeling replacable, like the only reason he was anyone's choice before was just because he was There, and hyejin's instinct being to sit next to him (i could go on about how physically comfortable they are with each other because AAAA it feels so good and natural to watch), share a menu with him... her unconsciously "choosing" him for these little things feels so warm & right. and the reciprocity they have with each other in this ep in particular--the sickness and herniated disc, soup and tea--and in general (relying on each other when they're drunk and vulnerable, showing each other the depths of their kindness but also the bad, petty parts and calling each other out to better themselves) is so... like she doesn't have several years' time of knowing and trusting him like the other townspeople. what they have now isn't reliant on years of familiarity, wherein sometimes a habit to take good things for granted can grow. i just love how they feel like they're on equal footing, both being able to lean on the other, i just love that two deeply lonely people who are coping with it in different ways can look at each other and say hey. i see you. i see your ugly and your petty and your warmth. here's mine. here's how we can both be better for ourselves and everyone else.

263 notes • Posted 2021-09-20 15:36:07 GMT

#1

the whole THING of hyejin wincing after every sip of the tea but still drinking it all the way and dushik laughing in awe of how bad the porridge is but still eating every last bite...... i can't get over it. them giving each other their sourness and bitterness and the other says, "man, this is awful. i have to finish every last bite, and i'll do it with only token complaints the whole way. i'll thank you, and i won't do it with words." MAN!!!!!!!!!

the way they are when they're alone together and vulnerable + the fact that they eat/drink the porridge & tea alone but the other's presence is so very clearly There in the food & drink. wish i had more coherent thoughts on this but AAAAA

289 notes • Posted 2021-09-19 19:48:20 GMT

Get your Tumblr 2021 Year in Review →

[incorrectfmaquotes]

Hey, I love your blog! I'm sorry to bother you but I was just wondering if you got my submissions and if you've approved of them and will post them?

(Long Post; press ‘j’ to skip past if on desktop)

Hello! Thank you for loving the blog! I did get your submissions, and they have been approved. I will post them, but with the way I run this blog, the earliest one of your submissions would show up would be mid-February at this point.

(And now a little behind-the-scenes look if you want a more in-depth explanation for why that is, or if you’re just curious.)

How that works is that I like to fill the queue all the way up to the max (which is 300 posts) with quotes and other fma posts all at once when it is a few days from running out. I press the ‘shuffle’ button a couple times to thoroughly scramble the order in which I have entered the posts, so there is a better mix between new original incquotes, new submitted incquotes, old reblogged incquotes, and other fma posts. I set up the queue to post 3 times a day, so that gives me the next 100 days to make new incquotes and find other fma posts and receive submissions, and I put all of that in the drafts. Hopefully, by the end of the 100 days, I have over 300 new posts waiting in the drafts.

The last time I filled up the queue was a couple days before last Halloween, so the submissions that have been posting in that time were submitted before the last week of October.

I do apologize for how long it takes to see your submissions. I have thought about maybe changing the timeline in which I post submissions, but because no one else has brought it up before, I thought it was something that only I had some issue with and therefore, not worth changing.

And if you are still concerned about having quotes approved, well, here are some things that have made me reject submissions, or change them, or just keep them in my inbox because I don’t know what to do with them:

Biggest No-No: Absolutely no quotes that support pedophilic or incestual ships! This is the one I have made sure to put down in the submissions page. It says before the submission box that even if you did not intend for it to be romantic, if it can conceivably be perceived that way and tagged as a pedophilic or incestual ship by someone reblogging, then I will alter it in a way that would make it more not like that, like adding another character. I feel incredibly guilty changing someone else’s submissions though, especially in this case, because they are clearly going for a wholesome platonic, familial vibe. Unfortunately, what ends up happening sometimes is that some of those submissions just end up sitting in my inbox longer as I wrestle with that guilt and how to potentially change it.

Offensive shock humor/humor rooted in bigotry. Not too long ago, I had to delete multiple submissions with humor based in transphobia and sexual violence. It was incredibly disheartening to receive, and I am not gonna force anyone else to read them or anything like that. I rarely get this type of stuff, which I am grateful for.

Quotes that are graphically NSFW, especially if they involve the teenage characters. These are INCREDIBLY uncomfortable for me to read. I’m usually fine with posting some dirty humor, but either the lines are too blurred with these submissions, or they are just waaayyy too inappropriate out the gate. I have actually posted some of these because I thought that maybe I was having an overreaction to these quotes, maybe I’m being too prudish, maybe they actually are that funny to more people. I don’t know if others are having the same reaction to them that I do, but they usually end up being some of the least popular quotes, so I’m probably just gonna reject them now. I will admit, there are a few quotes that I had posted in the very early days of this blog that are more NSFW than I would think to make now. I’m honestly surprised that I did make those, I think I was just excited to find more quotes for this blog, my mind has changed now.

Quotes that I have already done before.  Even if you have submitted it with different characters, chances are that I’m still gonna delete it unless it is really different. If you happen to submit a quote that I have not posted yet, but I do have it waiting in my queue or drafts, I won’t add the submission. I know this is harder to check for anyone submitting, especially because this blog has almost 5,000 posts, but yeah, this is just one of the things that make me reject a submission.

More specifically, do not send me that quote from Brooklyn 99 where Jake accidentally calls Holt “Dad”. This is, without a doubt, the quote I keep getting sent the most. At one point, I had 7 submissions of it from different people in my inbox all at once before I deleted them. I still get submissions of it that I delete on sight at this point. Y’all. That is one of this blog’s earliest quotes. I’m pretty sure it’s within the first 100 posts. It’s already been done. Please stop sending me this quote.

I don’t think you were expecting such a hefty response, but I hope you have the necessary information.

[meggannn]

Riza x Roy ofc!!!

What made you ship it?

i shipped royai coming out of the womb, next

no, i think the first thing that attracted me was the maturity of it, because when i first watched it i guess i was used to relationship-bait either having a firm “yes” or “no” by the ending, so royai was a nice disparity. there are a few couples that get together officially by the end of FMA, ed/winry and al/mei, but roy/riza were such a big ship that has so much subtext, support, and narrative emphasis, that it seemed odd to not canonize it... until i went over episode 30 again (the ishvallan war of extermination) and realized, oh, that’s the point of it. these are two adults who have decided to commit their lives to something more important than themselves. because they did awful things, and if they were to get together the way they clearly want to, it would jeopardize their careers, and therefore their goals, and therefore other people’s lives, and after what they’ve done, that’s unthinkable to them. if i want them to be the characters i think they are, their pining/“forbidden” love angle is a necessary part of the story to show how far they’re willing to go to try to restore ishval.

plus, also, sometimes a relationship just doesn’t happen in real life. sometimes you circle someone else for ages but neither of you makes the first move. sometimes they’re your best friend and they feel the same way but just nothing ever comes of it. of course, we can pretend what we want to happen post-canon because arakawa never set it in stone. but i did like that royai didn’t have a “happy ever after” for them because in one way, they couldn’t—they feel they don’t deserve it—so in a way the way they left off just feels more realistic and practical. roy mustang and riza hawkeye will keep going to work, day after day, and keep doing their best to right the wrongs they made (you cannot "fix" a genocide, but it doesn't mean they can't work to make things better). it’s not a happy ever after, but it is a fitting ending for them, because it’s an ending they chose for themselves years ago, and they must keep doing it if they truly believe in a better future.

What are your favorite things about the ship?

THE PARTNERSHIPPPP

one of my favorite quotes to describe them: “Love does not consist of gazing at each other, but in looking outward together in the same direction.” —Antoine de Saint-Exupéry

i like that we’re introduced to them as a professional, competent team, and no matter what else we find out about them, that understanding never changes, it only grows. even when roy is shown to be a moron, OH turns out that was a front, so even if he’s a goofball sometimes, he is still an ambitious man with goals who trusts his right hand to straight-up murder him in cold blood if he ever steps out of line.

i like that they also find themselves looking out for two vulnerable kids (while they continue doing their very dangerous work that would get them both executed if they were found out, a juxtaposition that would be funny if the kids weren’t also wrapped up in the mess). and even as roy argues with ed, even as he and riza disagree on having ed, a literal teenager, join the military, both he and riza would be willing to take a bullet for those kids. one interesting disparity between them is how roy was willing to sign this boy up into the service, but even though he recognized ed had “fire in his eyes,” he still ultimately views him as a kid, like when he tries to cover up hughes’s death; but riza understood exactly what ed was getting into and knew they couldn’t hide him from it. she told ed what happened at ishval when he asked and didn’t shy away from the fact that she’s a war criminal who expects to eventually—and wants—be put on trial. she gives ed a gun to defend himself when he runs off to fight gluttony and envy with ling and al. and the thing is that roy knows she’s right to do these things, he just doesn’t have the volition sometimes to follow through, but that’s why she’s there, to make sure he follows through on the things he signed up for.

Is there an unpopular opinion you have on your ship?

hm, i’m not sure! maybe the opinion that i’m fine with them never getting together for the reasons above? lmaoo that’s not to say i’d be opposed to arakawa writing them happily married at 80...

[panharmonium]

16 (FMA), 22 (Merlin), and 25 (Teen Wolf) for salty asks? Obviously, feel free to answer for whatever fandom you want- merely suggestions.

16. If you could change anything in the show, what would you change? (FMA)

I’ll have to wait until after my second watch to answer this more accurately, but from what I remember of my first time, I don’t think I would change much, haha.  Watching this was an overall positive experience for me.  I guess I remember being a little confused at the very beginning - as far as I recall, we’re kind of dropped into two “missions” that are kind of dark in tone and confusing, and I didn’t fully get hooked on the story until 6-10 episodes in, but I’ll have to watch it again to see how much of that was me just not being in anime mode yet vs me being confronted with actual confusing material. X)

22. Popular character you hate? (Merlin)

I actually don’t think there is a single character in Merlin I hate as a character - obviously there are characters we might hate as people, because they do terrible things, but I love them as characters and feel that they dramatically enrich the story (eg Uther).  

In general, I often find myself on the opposite end of this spectrum, wherein I love characters that everybody else loves to hate (eg, Kilgharrah, Gaius, etc).  This is particularly true in BBC Merlin, which is a show that I think asks the audience to interpret all of its characters from a place of compassion/generosity (because this is BBC Merlin, and that’s what Merlin’s essential nature is), whereas in the fandom sometimes it feels like a competition to see who can condemn/cancel which character most completely.  I don’t feel like that’s the spirit in which the story is best enjoyed (for me; others may have fun in different ways), so I often wind up continuing to love characters that other people stop engaging with.

25. How would you end XXX/Would you change the ending of XXX? (Teen Wolf)

(putting the rest of this under a cut because my sister and I are currently getting her caught up and I don’t want to spoil her)

*SIGHS LOUDLY ABOUT THE END OF 3B*

Teen Wolf is, as far as I can tell, plagued by the “actor leaving before it’s time for their character to leave” issue, so it’s almost like...I can’t even criticize Teen Wolf when its story struggles.  The story SHOULD struggle, when key characters keep being unexpectedly deleted.  That being said, I still feel like killing Allison was a huge mistake.  Whatever flimsy, transparent reason they would’ve needed to invent to write her off the show in a non-lethal way (ie the way Jackson was shipped off to London for no apparent reason)....they should have just gone for it.  Yes, it would have been stupid, but it wouldn’t have had the effect of making me so angry that I stopped watching the show for two years.

I think Allison’s death was a great example of that George Lucas quote re: “by killing somebody, I think you alienate the audience.”  They pushed too far and changed the tone to something shockingly grim and hopeless and as a result I checked out for multiple years, and even now that I’m back (right now we’re working our way through S3 so I can get padmerrie caught up and then finally finish the show for myself), my investment level is very different than what it was before 3B happened.  I don’t trust the show anymore, and I don’t really...care what happens next, if that makes sense?  I’m still going to watch it until the end, and I still love the characters, but I just...don’t have any expectations anymore, and I feel a certain distance between myself and whatever might be happening onscreen.  The emotional investment just isn’t there, which was not the case before I was betrayed by that decision (and by the disaster season that followed).

[cloudy-reverie]

Hello I want to ask you something about Mars Red (I don't mind about spoilers) tell me what happened with Maeda and Yamagami-san in chapter 13 and also, do you think the anime was good enough? Thanks.

Hi there! I’ll answer both of your questions under the cut, as this will be a long post.

Do I think the anime was good enough? Well, I have mixed feelings about it, and I’ve been thinking of doing a full post of my thoughts after I’ve watched it all a second time now that it’s complete and easy to marathon. I enjoyed the anime immensely, but I’m not above critiquing things I like, either.

I started reading the Mars Red manga last year, and even now after the anime, I still prefer the manga’s version of events. I haven’t seen the stage play, the original source of material, so I can’t account for how accurately the manga or the anime adapted its events. As I understand it, the anime gained attention just for being an adaptation of a stage play, which doesn’t happen very often. Usually, it’s the other way around. That explains the interesting use of cinematography in the anime, the emphasis on drama and soliloquys and so forth. Some people might find the anime pretentious in that way, but, well, it is what it is, being adapted from theatre. Being an English Literature major, I didn’t mind it, and I also like the occasional artsy series.

Anyway, as a manga reader, I had different expectations going into the anime. The manga is more character-driven, whereas I feel the anime was more plot-driven, and the addition of anime-only characters – as interesting as they are – made the series seem crowded with only 12 episodes to pack everything in. The manga fleshes out the regular cast more (the anime didn't fully touch upon Defrott and Suwa’s pasts, left out Takeuchi’s shock over a revelation, erased parts of Maeda’s personality, left out some fun Code Zero moments, Aoi encountering Code Zero early on, etc.), and it definitely toned down the violence for a more mainstream audience because Shutaro’s manga rescue of Yamagami was far bloodier and terrifying, as Shutaro, agonizingly, begins to realize what he’s capable of and who he may become.

And one example that I still complain about (lol) is that in the manga, Shutaro and Aoi’s relationship is highlighted in the first chapter alone and emphasized in subsequent chapters. It’s clear they care for each other. It’s clear they’re among the main stage players. It’s easier to be emotionally invested in what happens to them by the end.

In the anime, Maeda takes centre stage instead, with the first episode introducing us to his fiancée, Misaki, whom he has never met in-person until she becomes a vampire. From that point onward, their what-if relationship and Maeda’s regret is frequently alluded to, culminating in the final episode.

Typically, whoever you introduce in the first chapter/episode are the characters that you’ll be going on a journey with, so it was a bit jarring for me when I realized Shutaro and Aoi and the rest of Code Zero wouldn’t be introduced until the second episode (well, Aoi did make an appearance, but they had her interact with Maeda more). We never get to see all of the flashbacks of Aoi and Shutaro, never are shown how much Aoi is determined to find Shutaro. We never even get to see Shutaro's “dream visit,” and then that silly vampire (sorry, Shutaro, I still love ya) left visible footprints in her yard after claiming he was a ghost, and she definitely noticed, so she knows something is up. Had if we had received all of that, perhaps the rescue and the finale would’ve been far more emotional for anime-only viewers invested in their relationship.

Instead, there was more feeling for Maeda and Misaki because the anime took care in telling their story. The anime was good in that aspect because they made Maeda and Misaki’s tragic relationship the focus, and so we were able to reach full circle by the end. Meanwhile, with Shutaro and Aoi practically being sidelined, I saw comments from anime-only viewers confused about why they were suddenly a main couple or getting the spotlight in the end. The anime could’ve avoided that confusion by tightening up their storytelling and fleshing out Aoi and Shutaro more as characters.

I also feel the anime focused a lot more on the politics and military, too. There were so many lengthy meeting scenes when it’s more balanced in the manga, I find. Also, just the other day, I was rereading some exchanges between Shutaro and Yamagami, and laughing, and thinking about why the anime didn’t include those because they were funny daily life scenes. There are also anime reviews complaining about the pacing, the random tone changes, and other things that might’ve compelled them to rate the anime higher.

So, do I think the anime is good? I might be biased, but I enjoyed it; it wasn’t a masterpiece, but it was good for what it intended to deliver. Also, I like series based in the Taisho era, so that was a bonus for me. The manga isn’t 100% perfect, either; it might disappoint Maeda fans, for one thing, and it does tell its story quickly (I wish it was longer). I personally prefer the manga over the anime, but I love both.

The way I view Mars Red anime and manga is like this: Fullmetal Alchemist (2003) and Fullmetal Alchemist: Brotherhood (2009) are both favourite series of mine. FMAB is prefered by most people, and is widely considered one of the greatest anime series ever, a modern masterpiece. It adapted the manga completely – only because the manga had finished by then, and I absolutely love the manga. However, it doesn’t mean FMA ’03 is bad in comparison; it just has a different but no less unique storyline that Arakawa also liked. With the manga still running at the time, FMA '03, being as popular as it was, had no choice but to go its own way for completion's sake.

This is the case for me here: I like the Mars Red anime and manga for different reasons. I’d probably recommend the manga first due to my preference for deeper character development. But the anime also tells an interesting version, though it could’ve done with a more streamlined focus. Karakara Kemuri adapted Fujisawa Bun-o’s stage play in her own way, presumably keeping to the general storyline but also adding personal touches of her own (you’ll know if you’ve read any of her works before); Signal M.D. studio handled the anime adaptation with their own team of writers while striving for the theatrical atmosphere of its roots. They accomplish different results.

And now that there’s a game with more information about the characters, the Mars Red universe seems so much bigger in an exciting way.

Now, to your second question:

MAGComi is a monthly manga magazine, and you can read chapters online for free for a limited time. They made chapter 13 available to read while the final chapter 14, newly released, is for premium subscribers. Chapter 12 is still available to view, as well.

Since I can’t read Japanese, I will be excitedly awaiting a translation from Laughing in Quarantine scanlations until I get my officially licensed volumes in English this year and next. Thus, I can only make guesses based on visuals alone while factoring in the anime’s events.

So, in the previous chapter 12, Code Zero encounter Nakajima, as they do in the anime, though the context differs slightly. It’s more menacing, and Maeda is revealed to be inside one of those vampire unit mechanical suits, already a vampire himself, near mindless. Yamagami is enraged. A fight ensues. Then, the Great Kanto Earthquake occurs, as it does in the anime.

In chapter 13, as you can see, the fight continues, dangerously close to shafts of sunlight; the rest seem trapped by the rubble, unable to get to the two in time. Yamagami sees Maeda shed a tear, and they exchange words, and Yamagami seems determined to save Maeda’s humanity. Yamagami then pushes himself and Maeda into the sunlight. They grin at each other, exchanging more words, as they are both swept up into flames, dying together.

Then more incredible stuff happens in the rest of the chapter, as you can see! We’ll have to wait for the scanlation team to provide us more solid answers.

[azure7539arts]

Beacon

Pairing: Q/James Bond (00Q)

Prompt(s): Blaze + Reverse a common trope

Warning: Angst, hurt/comfort, canon typical violence, possession, idiots

Summary: One day, perhaps people will forget that a Flame Alchemist has ever existed, but the same can never be said of his subordinates. And today is not that day anyway.

Or: 00Q but Fullmetal Alchemist: Brotherhood AU

A/N: this was supposed to be a drabble… And here we are. Again. If you find this intro familiar, thanks for reading Sword! If you have no idea what Sword is and just know my penchant for biting off more than I can chew, please refer to my previous post. Thanks!

Also, look, @solarmorrigan​, pyrokinesis! And @opalescentgold​, because you know the fandom and may appreciate some references. Damn, I have been dying for a FMA AU for. so. long. And now I’ve managed to somehow realize it into fruition. Jeez. Anyway, I hope you all enjoy this!

-

Q couldn’t stand. The rush of adrenaline and sheer agony were urging his heart into overdrive, as if in beating a punishing pace right then, it would somehow make up for the gaping hole wedged in his side.

He bit back a sharp cry, alchemy flaring as bright as the pulsing pain invading his system. In what was either an eternity or no time at all, the wound was cauterized in a fit of smoke and sizzling burnt flesh, effectively staunching the intolerable amount of blood loss in a matter of seconds. His head spun.

(For as long as he’d lived, Q had wished for a lot of things. Right then, though, there was only one thought that kept repeating itself in the confines of his mind—)

Footsteps were approaching. Q scrambled to get to his feet with whatever remaining strength he had left and snapped his fingers again. Vicious ropes of flames sprang forth like spiteful cobras, eliciting an intense wall of fire that stood guard between him and his would-be captor.

One steel arm shot out from among the blaze and seized him by the throat.

Q choked.

The rest of that body stepped through quickly enough, like an emerging monster materializing from the depths of hellfire.

“Ultimate shield, remember?”

Q clawed uselessly at the still squeezing hand around his throat. “L–Lieutenant—” he wheezed, bitter reluctance warring with his struggling will to survive. “Bond—”

“Hm?” The steel receded, and Bond looked back at him now, head tilting to the side. “What, the old owner of this body?” He tutted, visibly frustrated despite the good humor gleaming in those too sharp eyes. “I told you: He’s gone—he’s become one with the stone. I’m the one in charge now, and the name is Greed.”

He grinned, and Q’s guts twisted at the sight, eyes watering from the lack of oxygen. (He could still hear the sound of Bond’s screams piercing all the way down the long corridors. The way his body had writhed and bucked in violent pain as it died and regenerated again and again, rejecting the philosopher’s stone that had been wrongfully injected into it. The way he had suddenly gone lax while Q had done his best to burn through the literal living wall of obstacles out of existence to get to him.)

He gathered all his strength to curl up his legs and kick Bond in the stomach.

No, not Bond. (But that was still his face.)

Not anymore. (Still his eyes, his voice, the low gravel of his laughter, chest-deep and oh so warm.)

Just Greed.

(What if he was still in there?)

The momentum of that kick thrusted Q out of the vice-like grip as he landed onto the ground with a dull thud. A twang of stabbing pain in his side knocked the air out of his lungs, distracting him from the stings of having steel claws dug long strips into either side of his throat.

(The thing was that: if he really was still in there…)

“Damn it,” Bond—Greed—hissed, staggering back before steadying himself with an annoyed huff of breath.

Like this, Q recognized that whoever was in front of him then, despite appearing and sounding exactly like him, didn’t have the firm stance that Bond had always maintained, edged into his bones from all the arduous training he’d put himself through.

The red Ouroboros tattoo on the back of his left hand seared into Q’s vision like a brand, as though sealing a death sentence.

(... If he really was still in there, Bond wouldn’t have willingly punched a hole straight through Q.)

Once the thought sank in, Q’s stomach plummeted.

“Could you stop being such a nuisance?” Greed clicked his tongue.

When he tried to reach out again, molten fire engulfed the room at another snap of the fingers.

And in the roaring flames, Q screamed.

-

He wakes with a startled gasp, cold sweat breaking all over.

It takes a moment, but the familiar ceiling of his office finally shifts into focus once more, and Q lets out a shuddered sigh. The documents he was looking at lie strewn across the littered desk surface right where he left them, and at this very moment, the phone rings, shattering the disquiet that has settled over his foggy mind.

He doesn’t notice the long overcoat that’s, apparently, been laid over his person while he slept until he reaches over to make a grab for the handset. It slides down from over his shoulders and pools in the middle of his lap with a rustling of fabric.

Q purses his lips and picks up, free hand settling over his now healed side to ease the aching phantom pain.

“Yes.”

“Brigadier General, sir,” the operator greets. “Major General Moneypenny is on the line for you.”

“Put her through.”

The line clicks after a final ‘yes, sir,’ and instantly, Eve’s voice filters through from the other side. “Why am I not surprised that you’re still there despite the atrocious hours.” It isn’t a question, and he smiles.

“Hypocrite,” he replies without heat, thumb smoothing along the raised ridges of those scars that he can still feel even through the thick layers of his uniform. “How has Briggs been welcoming you back?”

“Oh, you know, the usual warmth and sunshine,” she says, a joking lilt to her tone, and Q winces just from imagining the howling gales of a normal Briggs snowstorm that must be sweeping through the barracks even as they speak. “Now, enough of your diversion scheme. How are things on your side?”

Q thinks he’s too tired to do much of anything else and chooses the easy way out. “I’m fine.”

“Right,” Eve hums, entirely unconvinced, but doesn’t point out that his answer isn’t all that she asked. She knows him too well by now to press. “Sometimes, though, I do wonder if you should’ve just retired and gone to Rush Valley to do whatever it is that you automail enthusiasts do.”

The sentiment sends a soft snort through his nose. Not that he doesn’t wish to be a simple automail mechanic from time to time, especially when the price paid doesn’t seem equivalent to subsequent results, but in life, simple wants and actual needs are two different things.

They’ve all learnt this the hard way.

Even so, Q appreciates Eve looking out for him. Thousands of miles away, she’s still one of the few people who truly know and understand him. One of the few whom he trusts with his life. “Oh, definitely—once I find someone suitable to man the post for me, that is,” he muses, only half-serious. “No promises otherwise.”

There’s a knock on the door. “Sir.”

“Come in,” he calls and straightens up, popping the crick in his neck. “Gotta go now. Send my regards to Captain Tanner, would you? God knows the length that man’s gone to to keep up with you.”

Eve laughs, and he smiles, too, just as Bond walks in and closes the door behind him.

(There’s no Ouroboros tattoo on his hand, Q notes and subconsciously relaxes.)

(He shouldn’t feel bad for it—but he does anyway. Just the same as Bond, who didn’t mean to lose control long enough for Greed to hurt Q the way he did.

Emotions are fickle things.)

Eve has gone quiet for a long second as well, probably considering her words. In a way, Q feels he already knows what they are going to be, and grim satisfaction paints his tongue when what she says next is precisely just that, “How’s First Lieutenant Bond?”

How are things between you two, goes unsaid, but he hears it loud and clear nonetheless.

Bond is patiently waiting for him—hands tucked behind his back, perfect military posture, too proper and formal to bear—and Q squeezes the coat that remains in his lap.

(He misses the casual dynamics, easy tandem they used to have. One not laden with guilt and second-guessing.

It’s just one more hurdle for them to work through, he supposes.

Together.)

“We’re… getting there,” he replies, mildly surprised by his own honesty. “Talk to you later. Goodbye, Major General.”

He hangs up, and Bond has gotten closer, despite maintaining a minimum distance of three steps.

Q crosses his arms in front of his chest and waits, eyes expectant.

Eventually, Bond can’t but break the silence. “Was that Major General Moneypenny, sir?”

Q suppresses a sigh and nods. “Yes. Just one of her usual check-ins.” He pauses. “She did ask about you, about us, and how we were doing. And I said we were getting there—you heard.”

When Bond doesn’t reply, Q narrows his eyes, shrewd. “So, are we, Lieutenant? Getting there?” Most likely, he’s coming off much harsher than he originally planned, but Q doesn’t give a damn about that. Not right now. “You said you were following me to the top. Is this how you intend on doing it? By pretending to be a good little model soldier while keeping me at arm’s length?”

At this, Bond seems to further straighten, if that’s still physically possible. There’s steel in his eyes, but not the lost, abandoned kind given into avarice like that of Greed.

It’s all just sheer solid nerve and hardened integrity. It’s all Bond and so much more.

“I will do whatever it takes to protect and help you reach your goal—”

“Don’t you get it? You can’t protect me for damn if you’re always three steps away from me! That only means we’re no longer the team you seem to think we are.” Q’s mouth twists into a snarl. “Do you understand what I’m getting at, Bond?”

Bond turns his head away, staring out into the endless expanse of the night through the large panel of Q’s windows. Bond has never liked them, these ‘uselessly big windows that Central Command seems to prefer for their offices.’ Makes his job harder than it already is, he said.

Q tears himself away from the sudden memory.

“My only mission is to protect you,” Bond grinds out, hands that have fallen to his sides clenching into fists.

“And you have not failed.” Q’s voice has somewhat softened as he stands and clears his throat. “What happened, back then. It just means that we need to update our measures of counterattacks.”

They stare at each other now, mutual challenge shining in their eyes like a beacon to safety in the middle of a raging storm.

(“Q. I’m sorry.” Bond said, desperation ripping his voice raw and vulnerable. Q had never heard him like this. “I–I’m so sorry. Please, forgive me.”

“James, there’s nothing to forgive.”)

“We can discuss that tomorrow, then.” Bond bends down to pick up Q’s coat from the floor and gives it a few perfunctory pats before handing it back over, a tentative smirk on his lips. “Are you ready to go home for the night, sir?”

Q scoffs and takes it, not hiding his own smile. “Just about.”

It’s a long road ahead, but they’re getting there all right.

-

-

Bonus art:

[angelselene]

Untitled FMA/CM Crossover

Ed didn’t exactly start out intending to hide his relationship with Roy from the rest of the BAU—it just kind of happens. Just like he just kind of happened to attend a guest lecture where Dave Rossi spoke about criminal psychology and behavioral science. Just like he happened to catch Rossi’s attention after the lecture when he told Rossi that they should go back and check missing persons from the next county over, because they might have caught the guy, but he had victims long before he the cops’ radar and to check with the Mennonite communities. Rossi had given him a strange look, took Ed’s name, and Ed had gone on his merry way because this college thing, where you could take as many classes as you wanted and just learn stuff all the time? It was fucking amazing. And there was so much to learn in this strange, alchemy-less world.

When Rossi showed back up on campus a few months later looking for him and with a potential job offer when he graduated, Ed wasn’t interested. He’d spent enough years hunting down psychos, he didn’t need to do it again. Besides, what Rossi was offering was government work, and while the forged backgrounds Ed and Roy had managed to cobble together held up well enough to get Ed into college and Roy an administrative role on Ed’s campus, Ed was under no illusions that it would stand under more thorough scrutiny.

This world is just so… connected. It honestly creeps Ed out at times and makes him want to go wholly off the grid. His background as the kid of paranoid off-the-grid, anti-technology parents excuses most of Ed’s odd knowledge gaps. Roy simply flounced and acted like he simply preferred older ways, and of course, 90% of everyone swooned and bought it. Roy was taking classes to allow him to teach after they both decided that the military was not the way to go in this world.

Still, Rossi was insistent. Ed took his card and his information and filed them away, not intending to do anything else with them.

But the idea had taken root. Not that he wasn’t still working on a way to get him and Roy back to Amestris, but Ed had really hit dead ends. Everything he could find was less hypothetical than pure speculation, and none of it jived with the Truth-cursed knowledge in Ed’s brain. Really, they just weren’t even close.

So five years after he and Roy had arrived, two more years after meeting Rossi, Ed had a half dozen degrees under his belt, job offers coming at him from left, right, and center, and no fucking idea what to do with any of it until he remembered Rossi’s offer.

Roy had finished his own program, so he can officially teach if he wanted to, and five years of basically living in the same place with minimal travel had Ed’s wanderlust acting up like a bitch. He and Roy tried to travel whenever they could, but it’s mostly long weekends because even though Ed’s got scholarships coming out of his ears, they both feel more comfortable with them both working. And it’s not like Ed doesn’t have a ton of experience tracking down and dealing with psychos. The ones the BAU deal with don’t even have alchemy.

He calls Rossi and asks about the position, the requirements. He expresses his concerns about his patchy background. Rossi pretty much says they’ll find a way to work around it.

And they did. It relocates Ed and Roy to Virginia, but that’s okay. Roy gets a job teaching community college science courses, which he is both better at than Ed would have expected, and enjoys more than he thinks either of them expected. In all of the time it takes Ed and Roy to make the decision to move and Ed to accept the job offer, somehow, it never occurs to Ed to tell Rossi about Roy.

It wasn’t intentional, exactly, but they’re very aware of how their world would have looked on their relationship, and that was with the bulletproof fact of Ed being a legal adult by virtue of his status as a State Alchemist. People wouldn’t have liked it, but that had more to do with the fact Ed was Roy’s subordinate than because of his age. If he was old enough to kill people and be killed, he was old enough, in the military’s eyes, to be having sex.

They don’t have that defense here, and even though Ed is twenty-two before he joins the BAU, and well beyond anyone’s ability to complain about how old his lover is, it only takes him a few days to realize that this group will psychoanalyze the hell out of his relationship. The unwritten rule of not profiling one another notwithstanding, they are going to look Ed, realize Roy has fourteen years on him and figure out pretty quickly that their relationship started when Ed was—to them—unacceptably young.

So, he just… doesn’t talk about Roy. It’s not that hard, really, just another of the thousand things about his life that he can’t allude to in any way, shape, or form. Prentiss knows that Roy is listed as Ed’s next-of-kin because she has access to his file, but he’s not the only one who doesn’t talk about his family a lot, so she probably assumes they’re not close.

It goes on for two years before Morgan catches him in a sour mood—it’s the anniversary, and this is one day a year that makes him willing to give up both arms and legs if it would give him his brother and his world back—and Morgan has recently taken to teasing him the way he does Reid about needing a relationship. Ed took the day off last year—the sixth year they’d been in this world—clinging to Roy as the only touchstone he had. This year, they had an emergency serial child killer pop up two days before it, and Ed hadn’t been able to make himself stay behind. Not with a child killer out there. The kids always get to him because every failure reminds him of Nina.

Something about those cases makes all of the knowledge in his head seem to come together and spit out solutions and clues that he shouldn’t have. After two years, the team kind of takes it in stride, but Ed sometimes wonder if this isn’t Truth trying to balance the scales a little bit. In this case, so close to the anniversary, the clues and answers unfold in Ed’s mind like a perfect array. In the end, they save three kids, and they’re on a plane back to Virginia in the evening of the anniversary.

He knows that Morgan is trying to distract both himself and Ed. Once they showed up, no more kids died, so this is considered a win in the BAU’s book. Ed’s head is filled with Nina’s sad eyes, her warped voice saying “It hurts, big brother,” getting tangled with memories of the monstrous thing he created instead of his mother and the images of the dead children they hadn’t been able to save.  

Morgan’s forced cheer and teasing is an unwelcome interruption. “Isn’t it about time we find someone for you, Ed? Someone for you to come home to.” he asks, plopping himself down in the seat across from Ed. It’s not the first time he’s said something along the same lines to Ed recently, it just hits a nerve today that it wouldn’t normally hit. Maybe it’s the day, maybe it’s because Morgan seems less teasing and more sincere this time. Whatever it is, it makes Ed snarl back.

“Pretty sure my partner would have an issue with you setting me up with someone.”

Morgan stares at him, shocked, and Ed can tell that he suddenly has the attention of the rest of the team. He sighs.

“You’re… seeing someone?” JJ asks, cautious and less intrusive, but still annoying. “You hadn’t mentioned it.”

Fuck. This is exactly why he hadn’t mentioned it. It isn’t any of their business anyway.

“Partner, huh?” Rossi asks, leaning over a seat to look at Ed. “How long has this been going on exactly? It couldn’t go back to why you didn’t want help moving, could it?”

Sometimes, it’s really fucking annoying working with profilers.

“More than two years?” JJ looks hurt, and fuck, Ed is useless against emotional women. “It’s not because…”

“It’s not because he’s a guy,” Ed says sighing, already over this.

“It’s because he’s so much older than you are,” Prentiss says. Of course she would figure out that his next-of-kin is his partner.

Morgan sits up, alert and looking almost alarmed. “How much—”

“Fucking hell,” Ed interrupts. “He’s fourteen years older than I am,” he admits, because Prentiss can and probably will look it up later if he doesn’t tell them now.

“Ed…” Morgan starts, his serious and concerned face on, and Ed is not even a little in the mood to listen to how the one good thing in his life is bad for him.

“Just stop,” he says, and his voice is cold in a way he hasn’t heard it in a long time. Even dealing with absolute scum he would happily beat to death with a wooden spoon, he knows this cold edge as the same one he got when defending Al, when condescending to people who thought they could play god. He knows it’s not one they’ve heard from him, because no matter how depraved and terrible people can be in this world, they don’t have alchemy; they can’t play god and unmake people. “I didn’t tell you because I didn’t want to deal with this.”

No one stupid gets into the BAU, so he’s sure they’re all going to figure out that he and Roy have been together for a while just based on how defensive he is of it. If he had just started dating someone fourteen years older than he is, it might get some raised eyebrows but probably not much commentary. The only reason he would be defensive about it is if the relationship has been going on long enough to do more than raise eyebrows, and they are all smart enough to know that.

Again, it sometimes really sucks working with smart people.

He can practically feel them all trading looks over his head, and it’s annoying as fuck when all he wants to do is go home and sink into Roy.

Because everyone knows he’s got a weak spot for JJ—JJ who is a beautiful young mother, who has two boys, who is blonde and blue-eyed and so earnest it reminds him of Winry—she’s the one who says, “I think we’d like to meet him.”

She’s not asking, not really. Anyone who has a significant other pretty much has been introduced to the team at this point, except Ed keeping Roy out of it. He knows Roy would like to meet the team that Ed spends so much of his time with, but Ed is, justifiably, concerned about how they will react to Roy. They’ll profile him—they won’t be able to help it. Ed doesn’t know what they’ll see when they see him and Roy interacting, because Ed knows that he’s very different with them than he is with Roy. With them, he has to hide all his broken, jagged pieces. He has never had to with Roy. Roy has known his greatest sins and his deepest shames from the beginning.

Everyone is looking at him expectantly, and he knows he’s not getting out of this one unless he’s willing to quit over it, and even then, that doesn’t guarantee the team showing up at their doorstep.  

“Whatever,” he says. It’s been a long few days, it’s the anniversary, and he just doesn’t fucking have the energy to fight a losing battle right now. “Not when we get home. Maybe next weekend, or whatever.”

“We can have a barbeque at my place,” Morgan offers, and Ed knows he’s trying to be kind, but barbecuing tends to be a no-go for Roy, and Ed shakes his head.

There’s no winning scenario here, because Ed doesn’t want them in his home or around Roy, but he wants him and Roy to be outside their own environment even less. “I’ll cook or have it catered or something.” They have a decent-sized yard, so at least it won’t be too many people crammed in.

“We can do potluck?” JJ offers.

“Sure,” Ed says, just wanting this conversation over with. “Whatever.” He pointedly pulls out his phone and opens to the academic journals he’s subscribed to. “If you don’t mind.” He flicks his eyes up to them, and they slowly subside back to their own seats.

“Ed…” Morgan tries again.

“Reading,” Ed says, cutting him off. “Not listening. You can be judgy after you meet him.”

Morgan sighs but gets up. “Okay. If you ever—”

“Reading,” Ed says again.

Raising his hands in surrender, Morgan gets up, though he does pause in the aisle before he goes back to his own seat. “We’re here, you know. If you need us.”

What he needs is for his coworkers to stop trying to barge in on his life. He needs to find a way home. He needs to get back to Al.

But he can’t have any of that. Not yet. It’s starting to look like maybe not ever. In their lieu, he needs Roy. He needs Roy’s strength, his pragmatism, his understanding, and his warmth. Most of all, he needs Roy’s love. Ed might like his team, but he doesn’t need them. He won’t let himself need them. Because if he did and then found a way home, he’d miss them.

He ignores the voice in the back of his head that sounds like Truth and says it’s probably already too late for that.

[steve0discusses]

The Fullmetal Alchemist Live Action Movie Part 9: Ctrl-Z

Well guys, we did it, this is the last installment of the FMA movie. Probably forever because this movie hella bombed and I am 99% positive they will not bring it back (and if they do, it will be a complete reboot because this is a mess) We are left with one burning question--how the hell can you resolve any of this?

Especially this alley of human corpses that you have to keep secret from the public:

PS, I did not skip really anything other than some closeups of them shooting stuff. We just have to trust that Hawkeye can just shoot 60,000 dudes with that tiny gun that probably only holds 6 bullets. (12 bullets? I know nothing about guns.)

But we’ll just have to assume that the corpses are dealt with in their own special way, because the movie will never address these again. So, meanwhile, back at the stone, Ed is dealing with how his MacGuffin is a mix of dead people.

Like this is an aside but dude--the drama that’s still boiling off of whatever is left of the hot turd that became Bon Appetit, like HOT DAMN. People always say everything you like will be problematic in 10 years but MAN. Fully expected for Scott Adams to get problematic. But Bon Appetit? The seemingly innocent cooking show?

Yo, I’m not over it.

Yo, I’m not over how much Bon Appetit lied directly to my face: that freakin smokescreen illusion of a perfect working environment. Cannot wait for the Netflix documentary that will inevitably come out.

So glad I was too lazy to make any fanart of that show. Or that I was not good enough at art to make fanart of Dilbert.

(I say knowing full well that the original English voice actor of Ed Elric had a huge ass harassment coverup that spans 15+ years and the legal followup and trial has been a huge mess.)

Anyway, Ed doesn’t even know how problematic that rock is. He doesn’t even know that the dead people in that stone are his distant relatives and that he’s one of the only living Xerxes’ians (Xerxicans? What do you call people from Xerxes anyway?) that are left on the planet, but it still carries weight. Not as much, but it still carries weight.

What follows is what the movie decided was the most important character development of Fullmetal Alchemist, mostly because it’s the only thing in FMA left after they did this massive edit.

(read more under the cut)

(If the rock were still active then Lust would not be dead, she’d just reform, we’ve been over this. And youknow it’s been a minute for me, maybe this was also a thing in the anime where you can still use stones that are from leftover dead homunculi...it just doesn’t make sense to me. They would reform. But I will let this go.)

And if you were like “Hey back in the anime, it felt like it was a lot harder to get into Truth Hut--didn’t you have to kill a guy most of the time?” and you would be correct! I guess the idea is that Ed doesn’t want to kill the souls already in that rock in order to do the exchange--but this idea is never said out loud in the movie, although it was clearly indicated in the anime. Kind of...something they should have mentioned.

But anyway, now we’re back in truth hut but this time Ed can wear pants.

Over in the corner we have Al’s body, confirmation that he is still a real boy.

I guess they had to put this in, since Al’s only character angst in this movie is whether or not he’s real. They can now at least give us some closure about that.

And as the spectral deity decides to make a bargain, Ed realizes that profiting off of war crimes is a bad look.

PS I really don’t know if I should cover the ass on Al’s body over there. It’s kind of got feet in front of it.

We know that’s a dude in a speedo, right? I don’t have to cover that up? Cuz I’m not.

And while we have closure for Al as being a real boy, we really don’t have a lot of closure for Ed. I’m proud of him for not doing a war crime, but it’s not like he freed any of the souls in that stone and it’s not like he got to the bottom of the conspiracy, and it’s not like we got any payback for Hughes.

Ed is still in emotional limbo at the end of this movie, which is pretty disappointing. But again, I think they were REALLY gunning for a second movie, because most of the stuff at the end of this is them hinting that they’re going to continue the story another time...

but like...they knew they weren’t gonna get a second one. There’s just no way they couldn’t have known after how poorly it did in box offices.

Gotta love anime and their refusal to let the not even real people kiss.

They’re not real. They’re characters in a movie. Let them kiss. It’s fine. No one will get arrested.

But whatever.

This hurts my eyes.

But don’t worry, even though that looks like the end, with that sort of crazy ass flare that allows us to hide any of the background we didn’t feel like drawing, it’s not the very, very end.

It just can’t be, not without out one of these:

That’s right it’s trains!

And also, look at this movie segueing right back into Yugioh. Look at that. We got a cursed demon child and Some Basic Girl playing cards on a moving vehicle? Just the way it should be.

So, that’s over--and honestly--this was a hard movie to make. I think they made a lot of good choices, being honest--but I also think they made a lot of bad ones that overshadow the good stuff by a whole lot.

And since this isn’t really a critique but just a deep dive, lets talk about what we would have done differently. Because honestly? There’s no right answer. You have 130 minutes to tell the whole story. What would you do? See I asked bro what he would have done and his answer was “I would make the only villain Shou and that first villain” who’s name I didn’t remember either, so I decided to look it up on the FMA wiki and I saw a big surprise!

That Adolf Hitler is listed as one of the villains of Fullmetal Alchemist??? Guys did I...am I reading that right on this Wikipedia page?

Is this is not the only Fullmetal Alchemist movie???????

OMG, guys there’s another Fullmetal Alchemist movie and I kid you not, it has Hitler in it.

I mean I’m not going to cap it because I got a list of other things to cap (as I know several of you are patiently waiting for) but like..........why have I never heard of this?

Anyway, bro would just condense everything to just the first 4 episodes and include scar and all the rest. Me? I would do the opposite and start at the very end right when Ed and Al meet up with their Dad, and only talk about Xerxes and the Homunculi and their family relationship and no one else.

I dunno if either of our ideas would work because obvi writing a movie is a lot more than just having an idea. You gotta get that through marketing, through people in suits who don’t know how stories work, through actors who’s hair will not hold a braid, etc etc. I mean one person just decided to put Hitler in it, and that movie got way better reviews so...hell do I know about writing anything?

But overall, the movie served it’s purpose by distracting me from the real world for a little while. So, thanks all for sitting on on this nice little excursion from our typical programming, been a weird year, so I was grateful for this buffer. We will go back to our Yugioh routine in the next update which will go up-----at some point. No idea when, I don’t have a schedule anymore for obvious reasons. But we made it to the start of the last season! Bakura’s in it? We see Pharaoh in actual Egyptian wear? I’m looking forward to a lot of really botched and questionable history, so I’ll see you there.

If you just got here and want to read the beginning of this Fullmetal Alchemist Movie journey with me you can here:

https://steve0discusses.tumblr.com/tagged/fma/chrono