General anime thoughts/discussion thread.

Oh yeah I do get that getting Alphonse's body back is the other, and probably more important, half and of that quest, but it's always "we're going to find a way to get our bodies back, Al", which indicates Ed's clearly gunning to get his original parts back too, even though thus far the show hasn't shown Ed hindered in any way due to his loss. Although, as I mentioned, I do get why he probably would want them to be restored anyway, but I think the implementation of the ed's loss has been done in a typically cack handed cheap shonen style so far.
 
I think it's a minor nitpick to be fair. Without spoiling anything, the focus leans away from that side of things a little more as the show goes on so I wouldn't let it bother you too much.
 
Well I'm sure it won't ruin the show for me, but it is a bit of a, admittedly somewhat expected, disappointment that someone who could have been such a unique shonen protagonist ended up so typical.

The show is certainly fun so far though. And that ep with the girl and the dog was pretty heartbreaking.
 
^fair enough, I haven't even got that far yet.

Oh yeah, another weird thing about the show though: why the hell is Ed an atheist when he's personally met and received secret alchemy knowledge from god himself. It was even God who took his leg! When he reveled he was an atheist I was like :?
 
The mysterious being who has the key to all knowledge in the universe actually says "I am the universe, I am all, I am one, some call me god" and then gives him special knowledge and then takes his leg!
 
I haven't seen the Brotherhood anime yet but I do recall there being a few episodes in the previous anime where Ed's replacement limbs and dependence on them were looked at. I guess Brotherhood has something similar.

It can be tough to write characters with disabilities, if they focussed too much on it then Ed could be less of a character and more a vehicle to look at disability. With the assistance he can get on with life reasonably well and you might not notice his disability at all and that's true for a lot of people with disabilities (especially if their disability is not something with an obvious sign like needing a wheelchair). You could argue that showing him being able to get on with his life is a positive in representing disabled people in itself, since he doesn't let his loss define him.

As for the Athiest thing, I think the previous anime did the beginning a bit differently so I can't say from experience but if some being claiming to be god stole my limbs then I'd probably refuse to believe in them as god too.
 
vashdaman said:
Oh yeah I do get that getting Alphonse's body back is the other, and probably more important, half and of that quest, but it's always "we're going to find a way to get our bodies back, Al", which indicates Ed's clearly gunning to get his original parts back too, even though thus far the show hasn't shown Ed hindered in any way due to his loss. Although, as I mentioned, I do get why he probably would want them to be restored anyway, but I think the implementation of the ed's loss has been done in a typically cack handed cheap shonen style so far.
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Not only do Ed's automail limbs cost money, but they require regular maintenance, replacements to match growth, a qualified mechanic to fix them if needed and are susceptible to temperature changes, so they are a considerable inconvenience. Besides, if he's actively searching for a way to get Alphonse's body back, he might as well get his original limbs back while he's at it, right?

I'd love to go into more detail, but I'd end up spoiling quite a lot of the series!

vashdaman said:
^fair enough, I haven't even got that far yet.

Oh yeah, another weird thing about the show though: why the hell is Ed an atheist when he's personally met and received secret alchemy knowledge from god himself. It was even God who took his leg! When he reveled he was an atheist I was like :?
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It's worth remembering that in the world of Fullmetal Alchemist, alchemy is a developed science with defined laws and limitations. One thing you'll quickly learn as the series goes on is that Edward Elric is a very stubborn boy; so my personal analysis would be that for Ed, humouring the concept of an all-knowing and all-powerful God would be tantamount to him admitting that there are things beyond the realms of alchemy's defined rules - which in turn would be the same as admitting that the ability to defy that (regaining what was lost), would be beyond those rules and thus, shatter the only motivation the Elric brothers have to keep moving forward. Remember how downtrodden Ed looking at the Rockbell's House before Mustang and Hawkeye visited? That's how Ed would have likely remained without that motivation.
 
Smeelia said:
I haven't seen the Brotherhood anime yet but I do recall there being a few episodes in the previous anime where Ed's replacement limbs and dependence on them were looked at. I guess Brotherhood has something similar.

It can be tough to write characters with disabilities, if they focussed too much on it then Ed could be less of a character and more a vehicle to look at disability. With the assistance he can get on with life reasonably well and you might not notice his disability at all and that's true for a lot of people with disabilities (especially if their disability is not something with an obvious sign like needing a wheelchair). You could argue that showing him being able to get on with his life is a positive in representing disabled people in itself, since he doesn't let his loss define him.
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The problem is, in my opinion, that Ed does somewhat let his loss define him since he's always banging on about "just watch, we'll get our bodies back one day", regaining his lost limbs (albeit along with his brothers lost whole body) is explicitly one the reason behind his whole journey becoming a state alchemist. He's constantly being defined by it: his title of "full metal", the way he reveals his arm and says "this is the body of a sinner" ridiculously in one episode, ect, ect. And yet at the same time, so far it's all been window dressing, it doesn't add anything meaningful or believable, it's just something to spice up Ed's character design. It's his equivalent of amnesia and an eye patch.
I'm not saying it should be all downer stuff, but it sounds to me like the series will show almost no hardships related to Ed's loss. He goes from a broken looking kid in a wheel chair to jumping about punching and kicking in literally 30 seconds. We don't see any of the rehabilitation. Nor do we see how Ed overcomes any limitations, because he doesn't have any at all! It's all superficial fluff.

Of course, I will reserve full judgement until I watch more.

As for the Athiest thing, I think the previous anime did the beginning a bit differently so I can't say from experience but if some being claiming to be god stole my limbs then I'd probably refuse to believe in them as god too.
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supernaturally stole your limbs, gave you peek at all the knowledge in the world, and dumped a hot steaming monster demon mother on your floor? That's pretty convincing deity behavior, it's either that or an alien!
 
vashdaman said:
supernaturally stole your limbs, gave you peek at all the knowledge in the world, and dumped a hot steaming monster demon mother on your floor? That's pretty convincing deity behavior, it's either that or an alien!
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I guess "any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic" kind of applies. Everything that happens is related to alchemy, which has it's own set of rules and isn't treated as supernatural or magical in the world, it may just happen to involve some high level aspects that aren't commonly understood. Also, since Ed doesn't retain all the knowledge in the world (presumably) then thinking that he might have had access to it for a time doesn't necessarily mean that he really did. At the very least, there's plenty of room for doubt about whether anything supernatural was really involved and it doesn't seem unreasonable to suspect that it could ultimately be explained/understood through research (which is kind of Ed's ultimate goal).

I could also just be very skeptical (though so might Ed).

I might not be remembering correctly but I thought it was more that he got a deeper insight into how alchemy works rather than all knowledge, though that could also be something that's different between the anime versions.
 
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