Fullmetal Alchemist, ep. 43-51 (intial reaction)

[oyceter]

GIANT SPOILERS

This is totally an initial reaction because I am really not coherent right now, largely because I spent the last episode sobbing. Oh, my boys. I was so scared something like this would happen, but at least they're still there and still looking for each other.

*sobs*

Is the movie worth watching?

But oh, my god.

Comments

[katie-m.livejournal.com]

The show is evil! It sneaks up on you! Well, Al did not sneak up on me. I loved Al from the beginning. But then suddenly I loved Ed too, a lot! Even when I wanted to smack him!

Sweet boys.

[oyceter]

Al I loved from the start as well. I mean... kittens! And I love his whole "But Nii-san, stealing is wrong" thing. But then Ed, and oh, I love their relationship so, so much (as a gen thing, just to clarify). I just want to hug both of them, and Ed sacrificing himself again for his brother. *sniff*

And they're looking for each other.

[evil-kat.livejournal.com]

I thought the movie was pretty terrible, actually. Visually, it's beautiful, and you might like to see it just for closure, but I found the characters to be waaaaaaaay out of character, and I disagreed with the vast majority of their actions and final decisions.

..buuut, that's just how I feel!

[oyceter]

Hrm, ok. Sounds like opinions are 50/50, so maybe I'll just check it out.

[octopedingenue]

I adored the movie and thought it was a fitting finale; everyone else I know seems to be 50/50 on loving it/hating it. Proceed at your own risk?

Oh, my darlings. Nothing has broken me like the Fullmetal Alchemist anime did.

[oyceter]

Sounds good!

I am still so broken, and I can't think straight (and really haven't been able to for a few days now, thanks to obsessively watching 30 episodes in three days).

[rilina.livejournal.com]

The movie is deeply flawed. I loved seeing more of the characters that I love, but the tv series ending seems more fitting/appropriate to the overall themes/characters.

[oyceter]

Hrm, ok.

I think I'll end up watching it anyway because I need to see more of the world right now. Am also searching desperately for fic and possibly contemplating even writing some.

Gah. I miss my boys.

[rachelmanija.livejournal.com]

Write some! And let me know if you like any that you find. I have mostly been avoiding it because just seeing the word "Elricest" freaks me out, on many levels including but not limited to one of them being a giant empty suit of armor.

[oyceter]

Uh yeah. And the second being Al being 10 later on.

I keep thinking I need to write happier fic, but obviously the FMA idea percolating is going to be ANGST ANGST ANGST galore.

[rachelmanija.livejournal.com]

Pedophilic incest armor porn-- just my kink. Not.

I now want to read super-angsty Roy & co at Ishbal fic. There could possibly be sweaty, momentarily escaping the horrors through physical passion-type sex. If you don't find anything like that or write it yourself, I might be obliged to write some. (Mely remembers the Roy-in-tent-with-a-gun scene, by the way.)

[rilina.livejournal.com]

I've seen a fair bit of this (sorry, not ones that I've bookmarked), but most of it tends to be based on manga canon. (There's much more backstory there, especially in recent chapters.)

[oyceter]

Gack. For a second I thought you were talking about pedophilic incest armor porn!

I think I need to read the manga now as well.

Still haven't been able to type up a summary post because my brain just keeps short-circuiting (and work is insane).

A summary of all Roy/anyone fic ever (oddly missing angsty comfort sex in Ishbal, why?)

[rachelmanija.livejournal.com]

http://ignition.flame-alchemist.net/ignition.php?action=05

Re: A summary of all Roy/anyone fic ever (oddly missing angsty comfort sex in Ishbal, why?)

[oyceter]

*snort*

That's awesome!

I think you may have to make up your own category of angsty comfort Ishbal sex. *eggs on*

[oyceter]

Huh, maybe the Roy-angst scene was much earlier on in ep. 25? I totally want Roy/Hughes angsty post-Ishbal/during-Ishbal/something angsty fic as well. I think you should write it!

I am, of course, doing my normal thing in which I totally freak out at the end of the series and quickly write happy correction fic that still manages to turn out angsty (aka Al remembering and not-remembering Ed).

[rachelmanija.livejournal.com]

I found the Roy-with-gun scene! Or rather, Kate did: http://pics.livejournal.com/kate_nepveu/pic/000h1t62/g49

[oyceter]

Oh yeah! Wow, that was really early on! Was that in the scene where he shoots the Rockbells? I think I wasn't sure if that was him at the time, since he actually has an expression on his face.

[grendelity.livejournal.com]

I thought the movie was pretty good - especially considering that the original series is a pretty damn hard act to follow. Al just about broke my heart in the movie.

But Ed in the series totally did it for me. I think I shrieked when he died. XD

[oyceter]

I started bawling when it did the blank screen on Ed's eye. I mean, I sort of figured he'd end up ok because there was one episode left, but then Al did his thing, and I bawled more, and then Ed came back and started drawing another transmutation circle and I may have just lost it at that point.

[rachelmanija.livejournal.com]

And, and! The waltz of DOOM! The underground city! Ed's "don't worry about me, Rose!" grin! Riza screaming over Roy's body!

[oyceter]

I know! And that final image of the two reaching out to each other, in completely different worlds, and the knowledge that Al DOESN'T REMEMBER any of the past four years! That kills me. Because he doesn't remember Hughes or Marta or Nina or what Ed did or all the things they did together, wah!

[rachelmanija.livejournal.com]

And Wrath is out there, furious and automailed, and Al doesn't even remember him. Al never met Roy, or Sciezka, or any of them. Winry can tell him about the military people, and she and Izumi can fill him in a bit on the homunculi and his adventures with Ed, but only Ed knows everything, and Ed isn't there.

Leaving Ed out of the equation, I wonder if Al would trade his human body to get his memories back...

However, the whole thrust of the story was that the truth will out, even if some of the people who discover it aren't able to reveal it or pass it on: Hughes is killed before he can reveal what he knows, but Scieska and Winry figure it out based on their knowledge that he learned something, and then Roy is finally able to use that knowledge-- with the consequence that, though the cost is high, the socio-political situation improves drastically, with Ishbalans not being persecuted any more and the government switching to a less warmongering model.

All that suggests to me that even if Al doesn't get his memories back, he will learn what happened in some other way, even if he has to interview everyone he and Ed ever met... which might recreate some of the lost bonds. Even, in a weird proxy way, the ones with Hughes and Martel and Nina.

[oyceter]

Yes, I keep thinking that Al will end up getting his memories back, just because I don't think something like that will stay buried. Also, I am quite convinced that the two will meet again, given their mutual stubbornness, but it still kills me to think about it.

I think one of my favorite parts in the montage (besides the obvious Ed and Al stuff) was finding out that Roy ended up losing an eye. Even though usually I'd think it was the writers copping out, I am so not complaining this time about anyone making it out alive. Plus, I doubt he will ever be Fuhrer, and I love that the eye matches the Fuhrer's eye, only gained through pain and sacrifice and the willingness to fight, even though it may be for a lost cause.

I love Sheska as a symbol of lost information coming back; her memory is what "resurrects" all the books lost when Scar burnt down the library, and she's the one who pieces together what Hughes found out as well.

[octopedingenue]

I think the thought that Al doesn't remember Hughes-san or Scar-san hurt me the most.

[oyceter]

Oh man, I didn't even remember that he wouldn't remember Scar. That really does hurt.

[hysteriachan.livejournal.com]

I really disliked the movie, although to be fair I did see a rough fansub of footage taped by a handheld camera in a theatre. >.> I bounced and squeed over seeing the boys in motion again, but that was about all I got out of it.

[oyceter]

Hee, that's never a good way to watch! I think I'm just goign to see for myself, but also because I miss the Elrics so much and am pretty much willing to see anything. Ergo, I may have yet another series of manga to buy now...

[hysteriachan.livejournal.com]

It really wasn't the best exposure, but it mananged to put me off bothering to see it again--and given how excited I was to see it in the first place, that's saying something. :/

I picked up all of the out-so-far English manga last summer. It's adorable, and I'm liking it a lot. ^_^ I do think this is a story that fundamentally wanted to be animated, though. I'm quite annoyed at FUNimation releasing it over so many dvds, esp. right after they put Furuba out as 26 eps. on four discs and *proved* that they could be reasonable and just chose not to be with FMA. *grr*

[(Anonymous)]

I'm so glad you loved it. This series overwhelmed me. I was watching it week by week on Cartoon Network. I actually started posting recaps on rec.arts.anime.misc because I was so obsessed with it. You're lucky to have only become obsessed once it was all out on DVD. I invite you all to take a look at my posts on rec.arts.anime.misc through Google groups. Just do a search for the group, FMA and elsie.

I discovered your site while I've been starting to figure out where to start a blog that would do literary analysis of anime and manga. Given the wonderful posts I've seen on LJ, I think I may start it here.

--Elsie

[oyceter]

I think it may have fried my brain! Thanks for the tip about rec.arts.anime.misc.

I'm glad I had the DVDs, although once I hit ep. 25, Netflix wasn't sending them out fast enough so I ended up watching them on my computer.

Also, yes, do join LJ ^_^. And thank you!

[marfisa.livejournal.com]

The plot of the movie sounds like--and basically is--total crack. However, they did manage to make it work/make sense in context a lot better than I would have thought possible under the circumstances. Of course, as somebody else already said, I was expecting it to be a visually appealing but incoherent disaster, so I may be unduly biased in its favor out of sheer relief. I actually wrote a review/article about "FMA: Conqueror of Shambala" and its (very) limited theatrical release in the October issue of the comics and pop culture fanzine *Sequential Tart*. The url is http://www.sequentialtart.com/article.php?id=285, but serious spoilers for the movie start in about the ninth or tenth paragraph, so you might want to wait until after you've seen "Conqueror of Shambala" to read it.

[oyceter]

Hee! Maybe I'll just pretend it's very high-end AU fic or something. Also, I'm getting used to anime movies after the series that make absolutely no sense.

Thanks for the link!