#fmab spoilers

[littleogreboii]

i see a lot of people talk about edward being disabled in fma, but it's less often talked about how alphonse is also disabled. i think it's partially because alphonse doesn't experience physical pain like edward so for a majority of the series, he's not having any of those kind of symptoms, but he is still disabled. also because alphonse's experiences are unique. like you don't see ant walking, talking suits of armour in real life (unless they're piloted by a human being physically inside them) and in world, there are about 3 others like alphonse).

alphonse is dependent on edward's survival to function. after fighting scar for the first time, alphonse is literally in pieces. he can't walk or anything until edward is in a position to fix him. similarly his body is dependent on nutrients from edward's body. like there's the point towards the end where edward gets impaled and alphonse collapses. furthermore, these periods where alphonse collapses start to become debilitating towards the end of the series and massively alter his daily living.

also, alphonse constantly talks about how upsetting it is for him to not feel any physical sensations. yeah, he's not feeling physical pain, but he's also not feeling the warmth of a fire, the sun on his face, or the fluffiness of the cats he keeps petting. he talks a lot about not being able to eat or sleep, and how there's a lot of foods he wants to try.

there's another thing that highlighted by edward at one point. alphonse's body doesn't regenerate at all. the parts scar destroys are gone forever; edward stretches out the metal that alphonse has left to repair his body. and obviously human beings don't regrow limbs, but imagine if your skin didn't ever heal over a cut. how long would your body last?

also alphonse gets told several times that his body is great throughout the series, and he literally argues against it every time, because to him it is shit. like he is missing some of his senses just for some supposedly immortal body that isn't even immortal.

even once alphonse gets his own body back, the amount of physical therapy the boy has to go through. his body has essentially been doing nothing and only receiving what nutrients it can get from edward for years. by the end of the series, he's still using a cane as a walking aid. it's unknown whether he requires that cane for the years to come, but for at least a period of time he requires a mobility aid. I don't know enough to say what effect muscle decay from inactivity and severe malnourishment during a major portion of his teenage years would have long term.

[cuchufletapl]

I've been thinking about them again (they never stopped thinking about them)

[starstrider]

bond forged in flames

vgen | patreon | kofi

[jewishdragon]

every time i re-watch FMAB i wanna SCREAM ABOUT IT WITH SOMEONE

i need to talk about the complexity of this show, how the heroes goals change as they gain information about the world, how they make HUGE mistakes and we the viewers learn that we made the mistake of thinking that the main characters were important, that this story was about them, when they are simply the vehicle to deliver the story of a war, a conspiracy, MULTIPLE tragedies including genocides. the show shifts halfway through to broaden the viewpoints, we get flashbacks from the genocide that MOST OF THE MAIN CHARACTERS PARTICIPATED IN (yes the fandom favorites), and its horrific. it's disgustingly realistic even in a world where people casually use magic powers. Can we talk abotu Riza? how she learned that the entire "civil war" was orchestrated by one person who wanted to consume god, and the main characters were like "so it wasnt your fault! it was the conspirators!" and Riza said "No, it doesnt matter who started the fighting, we soldiers still pulled those triggers"

there's SO MUCH more to say i have so many emotions and thoughts about this. About how even if shit was mostly going down in one country, other countries were involved. royals from other countries trying to steal taboo magic, conflicts along boarders that arent resolved, and that if somehow this one country didnt get its shit together its founder and secret leader would consume god and wouldnt stop until it consumed the world.

oh and how that monster who wanted to consume god was created? that history and that tragedy? holy shit i have SO MANY THOUGHTS i cannot say more.

i watched the 2003 FMA, in which the conflict was... smaller, between individuals. it was good but it wasn't as impactful, and it's ending soured it for me. (i did like the lore for creation of homunculi better in 2003 though! and I maintain that position)

[metamatronic]

getting validation for my FMAB AU in 2023 is such a weird happy feeling.

anyways it’s basically maes hughes wakes up as a homunculus 2 years post promise day and tries to re-integrate into his normal life with a little chaos as possible + greed is there too for some reason (moral support?? certainly not. my man’s just trying to get to xing)

[sorcery-fight]

ID: An edited version of a tumblr post changed have Fullmetal Alchemist Characters. The OP’s been changed to Father. The post is an image of Selim Bradley next to an image of original Greed. it says “My son Pride n his brother Greed.” 

Next is a reblog with the reblogger changed to Edward Elric that says “are they not both your sons? Why is Greed not given the son title.”

Last is another reblog by Father that says “I dont ljke him”/End ID

[lonelyquail]

happy pride everyone

[ninjadeathblade]

I'll never not be sad when I remember that both times he died (03 and Brotherhood) was while doing a vaguely selfless act.

[smol-ackerman]

"Welcome home, dummies..."

FULLMETAL ALCHEMIST: BROTHERHOOD - Ep. 64

[the-shrimp-alchemist]

the end of hohenheim's story was so wonderful and good but also i'm so sad he and ed and al never got the chance to develop a good relationship and be a family

[fma-character-takes]

[Spoilers for FMAB] I think one of my favorite things about FMA is the fact that Maes Hughes intentionally acts like an idiot in order to get people to lower their expectations of his capability. Hughes is one of the most intelligent characters in the series, he’s very good at noticing all the small details. He figured out a piece of information by episode ten that could have helped defeat the homunculi much quicker, and he was killed for it. He was able to piece together everything and figure out the transmutation circle, even though it was alchemy, which he doesn’t really understand at all.

He does love his wife and daughter more than anything in the world, but he’s completely aware of the fact that everyone thinks he’s just an idiot obsessed with his family and he uses it to his advantage.

[littleogreboii]

ok so just let me cook for a second.

so fma (b and the manga) address that the reason ed is kind of short is that he's essentially been providing nutrients for al's body the entire time al's in the armour. but just think for a moment how whack that actually is.

so when else do people's bodies tend to provide nutrients for another? during pregnancy. but normally during pregnancy your growing a baby, ed was trying to grow a fucking teenager, and this was during his early to mid teens. like pregnancy in itself is fucking risky as shit, but this shit? it's a miracle that ed and al both made it to the end of the series especially when you consider how ed was living.

like ed and al were constantly travelling and sure sometimes they ate good when they stopped with the hughes family or with pinako or winry, but fuck most of the time? ed was definitely living off takeout, which isn't exactly going to provide the most balanced diet. so like nutritionally ed's already shot himself in the foot.

physical exercise is a hard one to judge because some of the reasons pregnant people are told to avoid strenuous exercise as it can lead to the baby overheating or risk causing physical harm to the baby, so there's some factors that probably won't affect al's body as it's not likely to experience the same physical sensations as ed. but exercising while malnourished is probably the bigger issue.

we add in the fact that ed wears heavy automail especially earlier on. to the point that dominic was like "you know these can stunt your growth right." so like ed's body was probably just screaming like 'how the fuck do you expect me to grow under these shitty conditions'

but it's just like no wonder this fucking bitch was so cranky all the time. he's hungry, constantly pushing his body past his physical limits, and he's got the threat of the end of the world hanging over him. god it's amazing that mustang only ever got yelled at by ed because bruhhhhh I would have stabbed mustang on my first day.

yeah I bet that ed has the deepest sleep of his life after the promised day. like he's got one less automail arm, and his brother's no longer stealing all his nutrients. yeah man's gonna be waking up from that sleep so whacked out that he doesn't even know what year it is.

[calimaricutlery]

mrs bradley really is the most powerful fmab character bc she not only made One, but Two of the homunculi love her as family,, like. forget being the most powerful alchemist or whatever bc both wrath and pride genuinely liked spending time with her!!!

pride saying “i liked playing house with her it was… pleasant” when all they do otherwise is bitch and talk down at anyone else in the show is so meaningful!!! wrath saying “my wife is the one thing about my life that i chose” when his entire way of thinking has been dictated to be focused around just being a weapon and running the country means so much!!!

and she doesn’t even know anything!!! she never even finds out (i mean i assume they probably tell her when selim’s fetus is brought out but like we never hear it) that her husband and son were homunculi. she just loves them as regular people!!!

mrs bradley goes through so much and i love her, she’s just a really good example of the whole message about the power of ordinary humans

also the (innaccurate but funny so shh) image of her being like “yes my husband took down a tank :) like its hard?” or “oh yes my son is doing shadow alchemy again oh children are so funny sometimes :)” sends me into hysterics

[jewishdragon]

Fullmetal Alchemist (manga) and FMA brotherhood (anime), is like. it's amazing.

most of the conspiracy/reveal is halfway through the show, the villains just go "oh fuck these two kids and the military personnel they hang with are about to figure everything out so lets just tell them"

AND THEY DO. THEY TELL THEM. they tell them and do everything they can to shut the heroes up and split them up

and the rest of the anime if them having to sneak around more and get back together because the conspiracy is that the entire country was created for a Creature that was pulled from the void to try and eat god and they have to STOP THAT

and it slaps

[metamatronic]

got a friend into FMAB and now i’m back on my bullshit (loving greed)

sorry for the hiatus, life is hectic ATM

[damnsparce]

damn Maes Hughes was only 29? He shoulda been at the clubb