Anonymous asked: Best thing about FMA:B is that Nina is still remembered and a very defining part of a lot of their convictions towards people and alchemy. Al's conversation with Gracia highlights even some of the seemingly unimportant plot-related arcs from the very beginning still have large ripples through the FMA storyline. Because Nina originally felt like a lesson in human cruelty, but ended up being a lesson on humanitarianism.
This is also one of my absolute favorite little details. The biggest complaint I have about a lot of long-running, save-the-world type shows is that the characters will go through so many traumatic experiences that–for the sake of convenience–the writers just start to forget the early ones. There will be something so vital, so life-changing that happens in early episodes that just kinda gets…phased out. The writers are bored of it. The writers have decided bigger/cooler things need to happen instead. The writers just frigging forget, or change their minds, because that was still test-phase stuff for their characters and they want to renege on the characters caring so much about “early traumatic event”
Not Fullmetal Alchemist.
Not Nina.
The impact she has on the Elrics is lasting. It’s consistent. It’s real. It’s never. damn. forgotten.
The final chapter. Within the final 20 pages of the entire series, we get this
Here Al is trying to overhaul his and Ed’s entire life philosophy. He is attempting to reject the core ideas of alchemy. He’s trying to prove an entire different system of equivalence. Because he has not forgotten Nina. Because Ed has not forgotten. Because they refuse to forget.
Nina died in chapter 5.
And it is her memory that motivates the boys’ final actions in the final chapter: chapter 108
Because the consequences in this series are real, and the effects are lasting, and nothing is done just for shock, and nothing is thrown away
and nothing
is ever
forgotten
You are so…so right
This is Ed’s crowning moment in the entire series. This is his greatest break-through, his largest accomplishment, his most defining moment. Far more than beating Father! Far more than his transmutation! This is the culmination of everything Ed’s been though. This is Ed accepting humanity over power, and love over status, and family over his own most prized ability. That is everything Father refused to do, and the reason Father was punished. Ed was punished early on too for seeking the impossible, but Truth left open a window for redemption. Truth gave Ed the chance to do right. Truth gave Ed the opportunity to beat it, and win.
And Ed does.
And he does, in some fraction, because he’s refused to forget Nina. In his defining moments, in the transmutation that saves his little brother’s life, that lets him regain everything of value he’d lost, at the cost of his alchemy which he knows is worthless compared to all else–he is thinking of Nina.
Nina has been dead since chapter 5. That impact lasts through the most vital pieces of 108.
harry potter starts a youtube channel and all of his videos are called like:
“STORY TIME: I WAS A TEENAGE CHOSEN ONE”
“BABYSITTING MY FRIEND’S WEIRD DEAD HORSE (INVISIBLE)”
“THERE ARE DARK WIZARDS TRYING TO KILL ME BUT ONLY THREE PEOPLE KNOW ABOUT MY HOUSE”
would like to add to this post and say that harry is uploading these videos to standard muggle youtube. people see this kind of scruffy, obviously Fucked Up kid rambling nonsense into his deskptop camera and just think he is really really good at shitposting
Harry, *filming himself with one hand, throwing raw meat at a seemingly empty space with the other*: “So anyways, you guys probably can’t see him through the camera lens but this weird fuck belongs to my best friend Luna who can’t actually take care of him right now because she’s out riding drag- er, um she’s on vacation in Romania so I have to do it. Um, the only reason I can see him is because I watched my close friend get murdered by an evil wizard when I was fourteen which, by the way, was around the same time I started to think I might be gay. Anyone else?”
Teens on tumblr who have no idea he’s being completely serious: “This is the only man alive who truly Gets me.”
Hermione finds out about his channel because someone she went to primary school with posts it to Facebook and then she marathons his entire channel overnight to make sure he’s not going to get arrested for breaking the statute of secrecy
Hot Take: they can’t arrest him for jackshit because Hermione shows them Muggle memes and demonstrates that the Youtube audience legitimately has no reason to believe he’s anything but an elaborate shitposter.
People who are old enough to remember ad free YouTube, FB, Twitter and Instagram believing that capitalism drives innovation are fucking hilarious.
Like, all of those platforms were still profitable…massively profitable before they had targeted ads on your feed and unskippable ads before videos. They didn’t need to bring them in. They weren’t going to go under, their CEOs weren’t living in the backseats of their cars, they were living in mansions already. They just wanted more money.
Greed was the only reason. Capitalism is the reason they made their platforms and the user experience worse. That’s it.
I think the coolest thing about the FMA fandom is the understanding of spoilers when it comes to the show.
Tbh I’ve never seen any problems with the FMA crowd spoiling anything for newcomers, and that might be because of like how old the show itself is but I just find it funny.
Like my sister and I were in a theatre waiting for a movie talking about FMA. She’s watching 03 first and someone commented “Oh is she not starting with Brotherhood?” And I said “No I think 03 2just handles certain parts better then Brotherhood. They hit harder ya know?” “Has she gotten to uh…THAT part yet?” “She hasn’t gotten to ANY part yet.” And that understanding floored me. To the point where a dude sitting completely separate from the conversation in the row below us told someone sitting with him “No we can’t talk about it her sister hasn’t gotten to the good parts.” And that was respected. Idk maybe I’ve become cynical but it was kinda crazy the understanding there that I just haven’t seen with other fandoms.
Which THAT part were you talking about? the first THAT part or the second THAT part?
