In a world where everything is subjective and polarizing opinions are the norm, where anti-fans and trolls take ‘love to hate’ a little too far, and where any story popular enough to become a pop-culture phenomenon is almost guaranteed to have a small-but-vocal minority that can’t see what all the fuss is about, I have never once seen, read, or heard of anyone say that Fullmetal Alchemist is a bad story.
None.
I’m sure they exist, but during the course of its run Fullmetal Alchemist reached the rarefied air of being almost universally beloved within the manga/anime community and being critically acclaimed as a damn good story. This success is wholly deserved. Arakawa was able to do something that a lot of shonen mangaka can’t, and as a result Fullmetal Alchemist is one of the best plotted, tightly written manga I have ever read.
Others have and will write about the philosophy Arakawa presents, point out the incredible amount of research she was able to cram into her series, extrapolate on the world building better than I could, but today I want to talk about something I’ve not seen anyone else touch on, and that’s how she integrates her themes into her characterization in order to really drive the point she’s trying to make home.
So what’s the main theme of Fullmetal Alchemist? Luckily Arakawa tells us directly on the next to last page of the series.
i haven’t watched it im sending you my support, that dress looked so underwhelming? Hey, what did you think of the guy who plays the beast, was he okay?
Dan Stevens! which- weirded me out because I didn’t connect it until transformation happened and I went: “Hey David!” The problem is the CGI Beast was terrible and had a bland design- it looked like a bad fursuit, no animation just painting over the actor. And they changed/removed scenes so their Beast was bland and characterless
The yellow dress was worse than thought (CHEAP looking fabric, pinking edges, it looked like a decent prom dress you buy in a mall), the white dress at the end- the doll version was better and fooled me into thinking it was a nice 18th gown instead of a nice 1950s frock. and half the time her blue dress she had half the skirt tucked up so her entire bloomer left leg was showing. Most of the other costumes were fine or great
two years late i finally watched all of the live-action remake of Beauty and the Beast. And rolled my eyes, scoffed, mostly complained throughout. I made sure to note the few changes I did like, and I won’t bother listing out every single dislike- but if nothing else, Emma Waston was bad, the yellow dress was bad and the dance looked like a father-daughter dance- sadly when that was the only cover of an original song that was as good as the original and without a weird break in momentum- her white dress at the end almost as bad, you had to depend on the animate object servants for emotional connection and romance because the leads didn’t have chemistry/removed and reworked the scenes that would have given them it. And missed Gaston’s character.
and yeah, I have the original memorized. That didn’t help
Lance as Lone Wolf | Allura as Brains Shiro as Prince | Pidge as Sunshine Hunk as Loverboy | Keith as Survivor Matt as Advisor (here) Coran as Rebel (here)
Talk about three of the most important ships throughout your life.
What’s your current OTP?
What’s your current NOTP?
Do you have any poly ships?
How do you feel about love triangles?
How do you feel about RPF?
Have you ever shipped yourself with a character?
Do you have many ships that never got together at all?
Do you ship any characters that have never met?
Talk about your favorite first kiss.
Have you ever been disappointed when your ship finally got together?
Has a ship ever broken your heart?
How do you feel about will they/won’t they?
Have you ever “shipped at first sight”?
Talk about a ship you initially disliked.
Talk about a pairing you’ve stopped shipping romantically.
Talk about a moment which made you question an entire ship.
Have you ever shipped something despite yourself?
Talk about a ship you feel alone in shipping.
Is there a ship you just don’t get, but have nothing against?
Which of your ships have the best chemistry?
Which of your ships deserve better writing?
Do you mostly ship canon pairings?
Have you ever shipped a pairing before you even started watching the show/movie simply because of gifs and graphics or similar?
Have you noticed a pattern in your shipping? Is there a romantic dynamic you’re more drawn to?
Is there a ship you’ve shipped for most of your life?
Does shipping come easily to you?
Do you need to ship something to really enjoy a movie/book/tv show/comic?
Name a couple of fandoms in which you have no ships.
Talk about one of your favorite headcanons for a ship you love.
Share five must-read fics.
Name your favorite fanartist(s).
Share your favorite fanmix for your OTP.
Recommend 1-5 shipper blogs.
Do you create fanmixes/gif sets/fanart/fic/fanvids and so on for you ships?
Do you have a favorite trope and/or AU for your OTP?
Do you like and use ship names?
Is there a fictional relationship you’d really want for yourself?
If you could change one thing about your OTP, what would that be?
Finished VLD season 6. glad I watched 5 and 6 back to back. Ugh now the long wait. Altogether a stronger season than ¾, and the goofy filler D&D episode was genuinely amusing the entire time and great callback nods and foreshadowing.
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