Review: FMA 86

[nebroadwe]

Oh, wonderful. Best line of the chapter: "No one beats me the same way twice." Here on display is one of the reasons I'm so impressed by Arakawa's work -- she doesn't repeat herself. Her characters can confound each other's expectations (and ours), learning from their history and solving their problems not with magical power-ups, sudden accesses of skill under emotional pressure, or di ex machinae, but with logic and attention to the strengths and weaknesses of themselves and their enemies.

(The second best lines? "Don't go running away with my body." "Screw you! It was my body to begin with!" :-)

I continue to have good feelings about where this story is going. I also think it's going to run about a hundred chapters, give or take. We're in the endgame ...

Comments

[jennawaterford.livejournal.com]

This chapter was... *so*... fantastic. I was cheering and clapping during the last few pages. And I was blithering about how wonderful Arakaway is at Denvention this weekend. She is--and I mean this unequivocally--one of the best SF writers working right now. Period.

I agree we're wrapping, up, and I both can [because I don't want it to end] and cannot [because the awesome just keeps out-awesoming itself] wait.

[nebroadwe.livejournal.com]

And I was blithering about how wonderful Arakawa is at Denvention this weekend. She is--and I mean this unequivocally--one of the best SF writers working right now. Period.

No arguments here. She knows how to tell a story PROPERLY. The shounen cliches never seduce her into dumbing down the narrative.

(May I say that I also envy you your trip to the WorldCon? I so wanted to hear Lois McMaster Bujold read from "her new Vorkosigan novel," as her schedule had it. I'm boggled that I can't seem to track down any report of what she read. My google-fu cannot lose!)

I agree we're wrapping, up, and I both can [because I don't want it to end] and cannot [because the awesome just keeps out-awesoming itself] wait.

Ditto. I also can't quite see how everything is likely to wrap up. I have some guesses about individuals, but there are so many wild cards in the deck that I'm hard pressed to spin scenarios that cover the entire conclusion.

[ishte.livejournal.com]

The expected run is supposed to be 88 chapters I think, but I don't see how it can finish in 2 more chapters. I think it'll take more. And I agree, an awesome chapter. I loved Ed "fixing" things... and then walking around while everyone else can do stuff complaining "I can't see". *snicker* So Ed.

[nebroadwe.livejournal.com]

The expected run is supposed to be 88 chapters I think, but I don't see how it can finish in 2 more chapters.

That comes from an interview Arakawa gave very early on -- I think she simply underestimated, but that's not unusual for a long piece. (J.R.R. Tolkien, frex, wrote five times to his publisher if he wrote once that he was almost done with LOTR -- only another few chapters and he'd have the whole thing wrapped up. :-) I'm basing my estimate on the fact that Ed and Ling's "underworld journey" into Gluttony's stomach/alternate dimension takes place in the 50s and seems to be the structural midpoint of the story.

I loved Ed "fixing" things... and then walking around while everyone else can do stuff complaining "I can't see". *snicker* So Ed.

Oh, yes. I love how he's intermittently a good tactician, but overall too gung-ho to be a real battle-leader (nor yet the kind of strategic thinker we see in Roy or, eep, Grumman). He really wants to fight all the battles himself, but Arakawa's sensibly not letting him do it ...

[my-edward-elric.livejournal.com]

Hee. I love that assessment of Ed. And I do like that Arakawa doesn't allow him to be the quintessential hero, perfect in every way. Instead his ideas get them into more trouble than it's often worth, and yet they still manage to move forward somehow despite that... and somehow because of it too.

[nebroadwe.livejournal.com]

Yep. He's entertainingly smart-and-dumb -- or, rather, smart and inexperienced, so he gets himself in over his head and can't always bull his way through on his own. But then he learns and goes on to make different mistakes, as do his adversaries. I like smart villains. I like them a lot.

Are you wearing a sock? :-)

[ishte.livejournal.com]

That was totally me. haha! I forgot I was in my RP Ed's account. Sometimes he likes to send a dirty email to his Winry RP counterpart. hahaha. I forgot Firefox was logged in as him when I replied.

(a sock?)

Click 'em (http://dragcave.net/viewdragon/SgUY)   (http://dragcave.net/viewdragon/7GQA) Help 'em grow!

[nebroadwe.livejournal.com]

That was totally me. haha! I forgot I was in my RP Ed's account.

I do that all the time with my other account.

(a sock?)

Sockpuppet account. As opposed to mun. See, it's funny, because ... [slinks away]