Books: FMA 107

[nebroadwe]

And then there was one ...

I suppose I should admit up front that the whole "Everyone ... GET THE VILLAIN!" trope has been one of my favorites since I watched the climax of Filmation's Flash Gordon cartoon back in the Pleistocene. So watching the next wave of Everyone throw their talents at Father had me standing up in my seat to cheer, with a particular shout-out to Roy and Riza. Go, team! I loved everything about their little scene, from Roy smirking as he insisted on bringing her along to her utter calm as she called out firing (heh) solutions to Roy grumping about the unfamiliarity of clap alchemy. Whee! Canon 'ships rock!

I will now alienate half my f-list by admitting that I was pleased to see Greed win the argument to leave Olivier Armstrong behind. Her character just hasn't grown on me, despite her many virtues. (Strong female characters FTW, normally.) Some people groan when Mei walks into shot; my eyelids droop when Olivier starts going on about strength. With respect to Greed himself, I liked the idea of his argument with Ling -- that what he really needs to fill the emptiness inside him is not power, but love -- but I wish it had been expressed more metaphorically, as the desire to hear people calling his name with the same fervor they use to cheer on Ed. It's the writer in me. Then again, the fact that everyone cheering on Ed has nothing to do with Ed's own power-up is a delightful change to ring on that trope. Al trading himself for Ed was always in the cards (even the first anime saw that one coming), but his entire self for just one arm? Seems a little lopsided; you'd think our half-seen friend would have thrown in the leg. Ed, of course, would cheerfully trade his life for Al's in return, but Al wouldn't let him do that in any literal sense, if he could prevent it. I wonder now whether Ed is going to trade, or try to trade, Father for Al -- and what will come of that.

I still think both our heroes will survive, but I'd be willing to bet that Ed doesn't get his leg back. (With a side bet on Roy remaining blind. Arakawa is pretty ruthless.) I see no need to back off on my prediction of an epilogue featuring the Elric brothers, or at least Ed, at home in Resembool with Granny, Winry and Den, Cincinnatus-like, though. And I'm quite chuffed that my original prediction of ~100 chapters for the full story looks like being on the money. I knew Ed and Ling's underworld journey marked the story's midpoint. We English majors have a sixth sense about these things.

ETA: Oh, and Sig backing off without argument, asking only that Alex Louis look after Izumi? That's MANLY. :-) Those two totally have to be sitting down having a beer together (or flexing their muscles for the edification of the neighborhood together) somewhere in the epilogue, too.

One more month! [taps foot impatiently]

Comments

[evil-little-dog.livejournal.com]

Just finished reading and...

No comments yet.

[nebroadwe.livejournal.com]

Arakawa has rendered you speechless? (And has KITT just run into the TARDIS in your icon, or am I misreading the images?)

[evil-little-dog.livejournal.com]

The DeLorean from Back to the Future.

Actually, I'm gloating because I posted in one of the FMA comms that Riza should be able to guide Roy's fire strikes. And everyone said, "No, no, pooh, pooh."

BOOOYAAAAH.

[nebroadwe.livejournal.com]

The DeLorean from Back to the Future.

Aha! (Though I can hear William Daniels' voice complaining about how it wasn't his fault that police box just appeared out of nowhere ...)

Actually, I'm gloating because I posted in one of the FMA comms that Riza should be able to guide Roy's fire strikes. And everyone said, "No, no, pooh, pooh."

What? That's such a logical development at this point -- I mean, if we had twenty more chapters for Roy to go through adjusting to his disability, one might expect a short arc where he and Riza work out how to be a team (with initial failures to make the final success stand out), but it's the climax. Do or die! There is no try! Etc.

[evil-little-dog.livejournal.com]

:D I call that icon "Time Travel Rocks!"

I know. But nooo, I got naysayers saying (a) Riza was too weak, (b) It'd take away from Roy, (c) Roy's too weak, (d) it'll never happen....

BOOYAH.

[nebroadwe.livejournal.com]

The ability of otherwise intelligent readers to completely miss the oncoming clue-by-four always amazes me.

[evil-little-dog.livejournal.com]

I know. And, of course, we get to feel all justified and proud of ourselves for noticing them.

[nebroadwe.livejournal.com]

BOOYAH.

[evil-little-dog.livejournal.com]

It's a good word to say, isn't it? :D

[nebroadwe.livejournal.com]

It conveys so much. :-)

[jennawaterford.livejournal.com]

That whole chapter was made of win. SO MUCH WIN! Ed has become such an amazing bad ass, and he started out pretty amazingly bad ass, but he's EPIC now.

This book never disappoints. I've been calling it the best steampunk SF novel I've ever read for ages, and it is.

*gibbers with delight and adrenaline*

[nebroadwe.livejournal.com]

And not only epic bad ass, but he's now completely the surrounding cast's bad ass -- even Roy isn't snarking at him. I really like the idea that, having started out all alone and at odds with much of the community around him, he's now the head of the spear, with the whole community behind him. Which is quite shounen (rather like Greed's revelation about love over power), but tied into a rather more sophisticated narrative than your usual shounen manga. It really should stand up as a classic of the genre, I think.

[artemisrae.livejournal.com]

....Nnnngh at this point I was just gonna hold out and read it all at once but. Maybe I should catch up now?

[juxtaposie.livejournal.com]

YEAH MAYBE YOU SHOULD. WAIT DID YOU ALREADY? I THINK SO...

[artemisrae.livejournal.com]

OKAY HEY WAIT LETS BE FAIR. I LITERALLY ONLY CAUGHT UP ON 107. LIKE THAT ONE COMPARTMENTALIZED CHAPTER.

[nebroadwe.livejournal.com]

Where'd you leave off?

[artemisrae.livejournal.com]

*sigh* Roy went blind.

[nebroadwe.livejournal.com]

I suggest catching up. There's some great stuff in there, and then we can all gnash our teeth waiting for 108 together.

[artemisrae.livejournal.com]

Yeah I'm probably going to go back to like, 84 or 85 and start back from there and read in a large chunk what I'd previously only read one at a time. I notice things in the story better that way, and I think having things in one big chunk helps me gloss over anything I might not like as much (see: my general assessment that season 2 of Avatar is PERFECT NO SERIOUSLY ITS PERFECT and that season 3 has story telling issues, and however much of both opinions is true, the fact is I watched season 2 in one big chunk and season 3 one at a time, which I'm sure affected it.)

I ended up caving last night because juxtaposie was having a total freak attack over it and, well, it's not like I was getting anything else done THEN.

[nebroadwe.livejournal.com]

I prefer marathoning to chapter-by-chapter reading myself, so I can relate. (I just dropped back and am rereading from the Ishbal flashback, wherever that is, because I want me some deep context.)

[artemisrae.livejournal.com]

I'm actually tempted to go all the way back to like chapter 70, because that's where I picked the manga up in the first place. Back in 2007. I still can't believe I've been writing FMA for three years, wibble.

[nebroadwe.livejournal.com]

FMA being over is going to leave a void in my fannish life (not that the fandom will fold its tent after the manga ends, but there's a difference between fandoms that follow works-in-progress and ones that follow completed stuff). I wrote my very first 'fics ever back in the spring of 2006, for this very fandom, and met just about my entire f-list through it. Sniffle. I remember picking up the manga after I'd seen the first anime and discovering, first, that they stopped overlapping after a bit, and second, that Arakawa had a very headly approach to plotting that I liked an awful lot. I still enjoy the first anime (lovely pictures! great voice acting! fantastic soundtrack!), but I have to say that I think the manga's storytelling is superior.

[cornerofmadness.livejournal.com]

Olivia took a long time to grow on me but yes, in this fight she has nothing to bring to it. I did like Armstrong and Sig's interaction.

I agree Al's trade is highly lopsided but always has been. Al was consumed whole and Ed only lost a piece of a leg. That never seemed particularly fair but maybe the gate was judging how much human it wanted to equal that thing.

[nebroadwe.livejournal.com]

I agree Al's trade is highly lopsided but always has been. Al was consumed whole and Ed only lost a piece of a leg. That never seemed particularly fair but maybe the gate was judging how much human it wanted to equal that thing.

The initial trade at least was closer to a whole human for a whole human, though I agree that the unfairness of it all was probably the point. It's odd: of all the mysteries Arakawa has thrown at us, one of the longest-standing (and least clue-dropped) is that Truth guy, and bedoggoned if I still can't figure out what's with him. Is he a proto-homunculus, Father's father, as it were? Or some projection of Ed's subconscious? Or an anthropomorphized spirit of alchemy? What? I haven't got the faintest guess yet.

[cornerofmadness.livejournal.com]

I can't argue with you here. I have no clue what Gate-truth is either

[a-big-apple.livejournal.com]

I love the "everyone get the villain" trope too, it always makes me cry happy tears of teamwork and togetherness--Ouran Host Club has been doing that really well recently, too, though in a sillier way. I'm a little nervous that everyone seems to be pinning all their hopes on Ed at the very end, though. I mean, even after all this...he's still just a kid with a metal leg and crazy alchemic genius. I worry for him. I wish Roy and Riza and Izumi would get in there and help him, in a cute parental sort of way.

Greed was a little too self-aware for my taste, I wish it his revelation had been metaphorical too. Still, I guess when you're hundreds of years old, maybe you can have sudden personal epiphanies like that--he's certainly had enough time to think about it.

I'm also betting on Ed keeping his new arm (I loved that it was way skinnier than his awesomely hot buff other arm, and that his fingernails on that hand were all long and broken, and that he still has a screw in his chest from the automail port) but also keeping the automail leg, and Roy staying blind. There have to be consequences or the whole story loses its power, and I think Arakawa knows that.

The one thing I worry about, though probably I'm overreacting, is the fact that early on in the chapter some military guy was yelling that they should shoot at the guy who looked like Fullmetal, but WITHOUT AUTOMAIL. Wouldn't it be a horrifying twist if Ed got taken out by friendly fire just because he has both arms now? Though even then I feel fairly certain of both Elric bros' survival. That sudden fear lessened as the chapter went on, but I'm sure it'll keep nagging at me until I've read the final chapter.

There needs to be some fic about Sig and Alex Louis and their studly bromance. It's so adorable....

Also, I think I am in love with Gate-emaciated Al. I have a deep and abiding desire to take him home and nurse him back to health on my couch, and play with his wild man hair. There's something a little wrong with that, but hey, that's what fanfiction is for...

[nebroadwe.livejournal.com]

I love the "everyone get the villain" trope too, it always makes me cry happy tears of teamwork and togetherness--Ouran Host Club has been doing that really well recently, too, though in a sillier way.

I enjoyed the Ouran anime and have been debating whether to check out the manga. I prefer storylines with defined end-points to repetitive serial narrative, and I haven't been able to figure out which category Ouran fits into (I'll take long-running character-based stuff organized around narrative arcs, but simple episodic comedy or slice-of-life doesn't really do it for me. kanja_177 and I, otherwise quite similar in our tastes, really diverge on this one.)

I'm a little nervous that everyone seems to be pinning all their hopes on Ed at the very end, though. I mean, even after all this...he's still just a kid with a metal leg and crazy alchemic genius. I worry for him. I wish Roy and Riza and Izumi would get in there and help him, in a cute parental sort of way.

They've had their shot, though, as far as I can tell -- that's in terms of doing things that are logical consequences of their own plot/character arcs. Me, I'm waiting to see what Hohenheim does -- it really is his story, at base, and I'm not sure the stepping up he did in the past couple of chapters exhausts his utility. We still need to get Al back from the Gate, and as evil_little_dog pointed out over on her LJ, somebody may need to trade his Philosopher's Stone for that. Greed, too, has had his character revelation, but it hasn't led to a corresponding plot action yet, so he may have something to throw in there still.

I'm also betting on Ed keeping his new arm (I loved that it was way skinnier than his awesomely hot buff other arm, and that his fingernails on that hand were all long and broken, and that he still has a screw in his chest from the automail port) but also keeping the automail leg, and Roy staying blind. There have to be consequences or the whole story loses its power, and I think Arakawa knows that.

I hadn't noticed that screw! Maybe that's why cornerofmadness is more annoyed by the restoration than I am -- I wasn't focusing on the little details. I may have to become slightly bothered now, but let's face it -- dealing with the anatomical consequences of her science fantasy has never been Arakawa's strong point. Just look at the explanation of what happened to Izumi. But I agree with you about the consequences -- the adherence to the "what's dead, stays dead" rule makes this story strong (and makes the few exceptions really stand out ...)

Also, I think I am in love with Gate-emaciated Al. I have a deep and abiding desire to take him home and nurse him back to health on my couch, and play with his wild man hair. There's something a little wrong with that, but hey, that's what fanfiction is for...

[grin] I've always wanted to take Al home and look after him, but I'd probably give him a haircut. I got hooked on Balance of Power when it put Al in the hospital and had people taking care of him ...

[a-big-apple.livejournal.com]

The Ouran manga is...well, I love it, though the art isn't really my favorite style. It's a little flowery, visually. The plotlines do have arcs, though they're mostly school-story kind of things, and sometimes it wanders aimlessly. But now that it's ending (the next chapter will be the last), there's definitely some wacky rallying together to tie up large loose ends. I'm hoping for a love confession in the final installment. ;)

I try not to think too much about the reattachment of Ed's arm...I agree that logically it shouldn't really work, but I try not to get caught up in stuff like that. I just get incredibly pleased by little visual things like the screw and that railroad track scar next to it.

Ooh, Balance of Power...I keep hoping there will be a new chapter of that soon! I totally loved Al in the hospital. XD

[artemisrae.livejournal.com]

OURAN IS ENDING?!

(I uh... clearly have not been paying attention.)

I know what you mean about the art. It's...busy, is the best way I can put it.

[nebroadwe.livejournal.com]

Huh. When I read "flowery" I thought, "Ah, typical shoujo backgrounds" -- but perhaps that isn't what was meant? (And if Ouran is ending, that's almost more incentive for me to have a look at it. I love endings.)

I used to beta for the BoP people, but I had to give it up -- RL.

[a-big-apple.livejournal.com]

I think "flowery" still applies, but artemisrae is right, "busy" is maybe a better term. It's hard to figure out what to focus on, and there's often all sorts of toning and stuff in the background that makes the foreground sort of blend. But that's never really prevented me from enjoying it. I'd say give it a shot--it's got the charm of the anime, just with a little more wandering around before the big ending arrives. ;)

Oh, that must've been exciting though, to get to read new chapters before they were posted! XD

[nebroadwe.livejournal.com]

I think "flowery" still applies, but artemisrae is right, "busy" is maybe a better term.

That's one of the most difficult things for me to get past when reading manga (or Western graphic novels, come to that). I'm not naturally visually-minded, so busy layouts can really impede my ability to grasp what's afoot. CLAMP's battle scenes have been driving me nuts in Tsubasa: Reservoir Chronicle and while I liked the story in Anno's Sugar Sugar Rune (at least up until the last volume, when it collapsed a bit), the combination of her ugly-pretty character designs and PANELS FILLED WITH STUFF made it a bit of a chore to follow. One of the things I like about Arakawa's art is that she makes it detailed without losing its cleanness. I can get bored pretty fast by those artists (usually shoujo) who draw half their panels with blank backgrounds or random floral patterns ...

Oh, that must've been exciting though, to get to read new chapters before they were posted! XD

It was. The discussions I had with the authors about the worldbuilding were lots of fun, too.

[a-big-apple.livejournal.com]

Yup, Ouran is ending... *sob* The chapter that just came out a week or two ago was the second-to-last, and then there's going to be a hiatus until...June, I think?

Maybe busy is a better word for it, you're right.