Books: FMA 108th and last

[nebroadwe]

Must record my impressions, tendinitis in my dominant wrist be hanged! [makes ill-considered emphatic gesture] (Ow.)

I'm surprised at how much of the end I managed to call -- e.g. Ed forfeiting his alchemical abilities as the price of getting Al back, Al choosing to study Xingese alchemy, Grumman as Fuehrer -- and less surprised at how much of it I didn't see coming, or not in the form it took. One thing I've enjoyed about this series is its capacity to take the road less traveled. So Ed getting on the train at the end after his proposal to Winry, heading west as Al heads east, was not in my playbook (I'd always seen him back in Resembool, though I admit it wasn't clear to me what he'd be doing). The context of Hohenheim's death took me by surprise; I was actually kind of disappointed that he laid down his life so immediately. I had expected him to go, but if I were Arakawa [pause for sarcastic laughter], I'd've sent him home to Pinako and then reported his passing sometime during that two-year time skip -- fading away, after all the adventuring was done and his responsibility for the homunculus ended. The way it was handled, particularly after Ed had just dressed him down for offering his own life as a sacrifice, struck me as awkward. I may have to read that bit again more slowly to see if it makes better sense. Greed's status as a dangling plot participle was resolved nicely, if a bit sentimentally. And I suppose the best person to send back to Xing as emperor with the secret of immortality is someone who knows that the price to be paid for it is too high.

Some favorite moments:

Ed walking right by Invisible Truth Guy to make his sacrifice and the right answer being the renunciation of the will to power.

Scar renouncing his name along with his past motivations. I wrote my undergraduate thesis on literary onomastics; the shift from the namelessness of the vigilante avenger to the namelessness of the newborn self makes my inner literary critic roll over and purr with thematic delight.

Okay, that page where Winry gives Ed and Al their welcome home hugs? That's just -- that's just so -- help, I'm being ambushed by my fourth function ... [sniffle, weep, awwww ...]

[recovers] Also, Ed realizing on the roof that he has time now, and doesn't have to go full-tilt at everything, was a wonderful piece of character maturity. So is Al looking at the view and seeing how wonderful it is. The fact that neither brother is ready to give up the wide world yet -- just to take it in at a different pace, with different motivations -- also works much better than my Cincinnatus trope, character-wise. All hail the Great Cow!

Canon Ed/Win for the win! But boy, that's one shounen proposal, there. (Also, are we to assume from that snapshot of the Elric family, so nicely reminiscent of that earlier awkward family portrait, that Al and Mei ...? I can hear cornerofmadness's teeth grinding from half a continent away -- and there goes the Al/OC idea I had for that Al-in-Xing novel I'll never write.) But where's my Royai? I guess you can't have everything, even in an extra-long chapter with tons of falling action.

All in all, a satisfying read and a good ending. And now I shall go back to chapter one and start over, because I don't want the fun to end ...

Hey, does anyone remember what happened to that letter from Trisha Pinako gave Ed to give Hohenheim? Was that dangling plot participle ever resolved -- and if so, when? You'd think I wouldn't lose track of these things, being an English major, but I do. [hangs head in shame]

Comments

[cornerofmadness.livejournal.com]

don't get me started on Al and Mei.

If there was anything I was disappointed in it was what you said about Hohenheim and the fact that Roy and Riza just disappear halfway through.

And I think that plotline was never resolved, the one with the letter

[evil-little-dog.livejournal.com]

RE: The letter: There wasn't any. It was a message and Ed delivered it to Hohenheim when they met up outside of Central. And Ed made Hohenheim cry.

I also liked the image of Ed and Al on the roof and how that compared with the shadow profiles of Ling on the roof, saying there's something rotten in the state of Amestris. :D

Scar renouncing his name - I called that one! *dances*

Al and Mei...I'm chanting, "She's just visiting, she's just visiting!" over here in my corner.

Hohenheim...er...um.

Roy and Riza HAVE NO RESOLUTION. Good thing there's fanfic. STILL, A RESOLUTION WOULD BE NICE. Because the slashers will say he's not marrying Riza because he's waiting on Ed to get over Winry....

The welcome home; Ed's proposal; the final picture of the Rezembool Trio...*siiiigh*

[cornerofmadness.livejournal.com]

just visiting, I like that.

The Royai thing is the one thing making me scream there had best be a gaiden to follow this up

[nebroadwe.livejournal.com]

Or maybe Mei's taken Al on as a student (which also destroys my Al-in-Xing novel, argh!) and gotten over her crush on him and they're just good friends (and Ed thinks it's ridiculous that All calls Mei sensei and keeps snortling every time it happens and has to have his foot stomped by Winry to keep from being insulting. Yeah, I can see that ...)

It occurred to me on the bus going home yesterday that maybe Roy's personal plotline didn't have as much to do with his feelings for Riza as hers did with her feelings for him. I'm going to have to reread to confirm this, but I'm wondering if Roy's personal plot was about resolving his guilt and anger over Hughes's death; going by that last chapter, his relationships to his subordinates, even Riza, are part of his political plotline (the whole "Tell them to follow me!" thing in the medical tent). After all, her personal plotline had a lot to do with NOT allowing her feelings for him to get in the way of the military/political work that needed doing, and arguably the apotheosis of their relationship takes place as a working one on the battlefield, rather than an exchange-of-care off it (compare Ed and Winry). If that's so (more reasons to reread!), the slashers will probably have a lot more justification for Roy/Hughes and swoopy "I'll never love another as I loved you" 'fic, canonically, than they would for Roy/Ed. That said, canon doesn't stop 'ficcers -- they march right past while it's reloading. :-)

[cornerofmadness.livejournal.com]

I can buy that take on Al and Mei. It works for me

I suppose that could be true also of Roy and Riza though I would like to think not.Mostly because I AM a shipper and I want it to be more than that. And In many ways to me, the getting Roy to the top was more Hughes' idea than it ever was Roy's. Roy seemed to embraceit out of guilt and shame.

but yes I think you'd find far more hints for Roy/Maes than Roy/Ed (but then again that's how I roll...)

[nebroadwe.livejournal.com]

I suppose that could be true also of Roy and Riza though I would like to think not.Mostly because I AM a shipper and I want it to be more than that. And In many ways to me, the getting Roy to the top was more Hughes' idea than it ever was Roy's. Roy seemed to embrace it out of guilt and shame.

And, on the positive side, a developing sense of responsibility for others -- I like it that it's his words (and Riza's) that Ed recalls to make him realize that everyone has always pushed him and Al forward and never told them to give up, even when their quest seemed impossibly dangerous. It's all this linking of Roy and Riza together over the finale that makes their drop out of sight feel so weird to my inner shipper English major. Baby-Pride's fate gets explained but not theirs? Grumman couldn't even mention his granddaughter when Mustang's name came up? Honestly ... but I guess page counts are a pain. And gaiden are our friends. [mentally nudges Arakawa-sensei -- hey, psychic cow-tipping! who's with me?]

[cornerofmadness.livejournal.com]

Baby-Pride's fate gets explained but not theirs? Grumman couldn't even mention his granddaughter when Mustang's name came up? Honestly ... but I guess page counts are a pain. And gaiden are our friends. [mentally nudges Arakawa-sensei -- hey, psychic cow-tipping! who's with me?]

Yes that's was REALLY bothered me. I didn't need a scene with Grumman.

I'm all for the cow tipping

[nebroadwe.livejournal.com]

Meet you in Hokkaido at midnight. (Arakawa has to have gone home for a vacation, right?)

[cornerofmadness.livejournal.com]

and even if she hasn't, we'll still be in Hokkaido so we're ahead

[nebroadwe.livejournal.com]

Ha! Just let me borrow my hunter friend's ghillie suit, and we can take her completely by surprise!

[cornerofmadness.livejournal.com]

now that'll be fun

[evil-little-dog.livejournal.com]

I'd like a few gaidens. *nods* That's one of them.

[cornerofmadness.livejournal.com]

Al inXing being at least one of the others

[evil-little-dog.livejournal.com]

Oh, yes. And an emphasis on Ling/Ran Fan.

[nebroadwe.livejournal.com]

Clandestine Ling/Ran Fan. He can't marry her; it would never fly politically.

[evil-little-dog.livejournal.com]

Well, yes...sadly. *pouts*

[evil-little-dog.livejournal.com]

AIGH. LJ ATE MY COMMENT.

[nebroadwe.livejournal.com]

I HATE IT WHEN THAT HAPPENS. (Last night, something ate my home Internet connection, so I couldn't spend a pleasant evening trading FMA impressions but had to listen to my baseball team lose yet another game, bleah.)

[evil-little-dog.livejournal.com]

IAEE.

As opposed to me, who was actually at the hometown baseball game and wondering if my inbox/LJ had exploded (they did).

[nebroadwe.livejournal.com]

I think the Internet outage was the universe's way of telling me to KEEP RESTING THE WRIST. It has to be better by the time I go on the writing vacation at the end of the month, or it won't be a writing vacation ...

[evil-little-dog.livejournal.com]

Does an ace bandage help at all? (having dealt with wrist problems in the past)

[nebroadwe.livejournal.com]

I'm wearing one at this very moment. Also taking my NSAIDs. It's hard to tell whether it's getting better because I don't tend to notice that it's wonkled unless I'm using it, but I'm not using it (much) at the moment, so ...

My medical friends tell me to give it a month of rest and then see. THEY'D BETTER BE RIGHT. I HATE IT WHEN MY BODY DECIDES TO BREAK.

[evil-little-dog.livejournal.com]

A month of rest.

That's very nearly an eternity.

I TOTALLY KNOW YOUR PAIN ABOUT BODY BREAKAGE. *glares at left knee. Again.*

[nebroadwe.livejournal.com]

LET US BEWAIL OUR BREAKAGE TOGETHER AND ANNOY THE NEIGHBORS.

[evil-little-dog.livejournal.com]

*WAAAAAAILS*

It's hurty, too. That's the really annoying part.

[nebroadwe.livejournal.com]

I hate the hurty. WEEP, WEEP.

[evil-little-dog.livejournal.com]

*SNIFFLE* I may have to take aspirin or something. *gack*

[marynachaotica.livejournal.com]

Is okay hon. I'm a criminal justice major and I am ALWAYS losing track of things!!!

[nebroadwe.livejournal.com]

As long as you can keep track of the criminals ... :-)

[marynachaotica.livejournal.com]

When it finally comes to that part of my life, putting to use what I have studied for....I BETTER be able to keep track and find them. Or else UOP (University of Phoenix) will be truly embarrassed that one of their own flubbed up.

Right now I'd LOVE to find the lowlife creep who stole one of my personal checks, in a round about way. Lawn people took care of my lawn yesterday (hey cheaper and easier to have someone else do it), I paid them by check...and off they went to the next spot on their to-do list. Which, oddly enough, was at a bank up in Lees Summit. The nimrods left the truck unlocked, keys on floor board...got to the doors of the bank, heard a noise and turned around only to see the truck with ALL the equipment leaving said parking lot at a high rate of speed. The owner of the company is furious, and that is a mild understatement let me tell ya! So I had to call my bank manager at home last night to advise him of the situation, met him at the bank at 8 AM this morning (faintthud) and got the check stopped plus had a flag put on my account for close monitoring. PLUS I had to advise the post office to not do a darn thing to my box unless I personally showed up to authorize it. This is why I refused to put my social security number, drivers license number, phone number, or personal physical address on my checks. A gal cannot be too careful!

Will I join in the prosecution IF the dingbat Lees Summit police department catches the crook(s) OH YEAH!

[nebroadwe.livejournal.com]

Ouch. Not fun at all. Hope they catch the crooks and hang them upside-down in the scorpion pit.

The local radio station that carries my team's ballgames is running a series of PSAs about the need to lock one's car. I -- what? Don't people know to do this already? Particularly in populated areas and any era later than 1955? Oy.

[marynachaotica.livejournal.com]

OOOH scorpion pit! I like how you think!!! *beaming*

Heck I lock my car even when it's in my driveway or garage!