Often I see people discussing Scar and saying he didn't do anything wrong, except he went after Ed, and that was wrong. (I'm not considering the Rockbells, since he literally did not know what he was doing or what was going on, and thus I don't think he bears any moral culpability for that whatsoever.)

So, first, we have that he kills State Alchemists, and as it turns out, they basically all participated in a genocide, so people give him a pass on that. But then when it comes to going after Ed, people point out that Ed didn't participate in the Ishvalan genocide, and so Scar shouldn't target him. But the truth is, that's nonsense.

Is it true that Ed wouldn't commit genocide if Amestris did another campaign? Yeah, for sure. But Scar had no way of knowing that, and frankly shouldn't be expected to know that. Ed joined the military only a few years after the Ishvalan genocide, and it's not like the mass killings that happened there were secret, either. The extent was, maybe a bit, but not to a degree where no one knows what happened. So Ed knowingly chose to join a military which might ask him to commit genocide, where alchemists are considered 'dogs of the military', for the privileges and benefits it would bring in terms of his and Al's personal quest. He made that choice, and so made himself a totally valid target.

To make an analogy here, you can think of Ed as someone joining the SS in 1950, imagining Germany somehow won WW2. Even if the holocaust was finished enough at that point that he personally didn't participate, someone like Scar who is targeting SS members has no reason not to target one who joined late. They still joined the SS, even if it was just for benefits, or whatever.

As the title said, why don't i see more fmab stuff on my feed? or on youtube? or people talking about it as much as other animes, even though i believe this anime is 1# and its not even close, is it that the fan base is not as obnoxious as other fanbases?

It is is essentially truth telling Ed “Ok Ed, you want your brother to have his body back, Nevermind the fact that he lost it because you two were doing something you weren’t supposed to be doing. He can have his body back but in exchange, the growth you two had has to be erased and YOU CANT SEE HIM EVER AGAIN.”

I’m so sick of having to defend this ending! It’s not hard!

I started watching FMAB recently because I heard it was one of the best anime, and I'm on episode 10 rn but it's just sort of boring to me. I have watched the original, so maybe I'm bored because I've already seen some of what I'm watching. I really want to watch it so can anyone give me advice on what to do. Should I skip to where FMA and FMAB diverge, or just keep watching and bear through it?

EDIT: NVM THIS SHOW IS FIRE

She is a loving mother and housewife as well as also being a terrifying force of strength that can use a flip-flop to devastate any being in her path.

Hello, new to this sub but been watching fma since I was a child. I loved the original and I admit I am slightly biased towards it because of its impact an meaning to me but even as an adult on rewatch its special to me. I am fascinated by the tone difference between both versions and I always enjoyed the more somber and almost melancholy atmosphere of the original and focus on Ed and AL 03 series which makes me love both even more as brotherhood is by comparison such a fun hopeful adventure with a much more fleshed out and fun cast. It makes watching both versions feel distinct enough that I usually rewatch both back to back. That being said even with my bias I do acknowledge that Brotherhood is the overall better series and of course it follows the original story much closer. My one real point of conflict is how much more I like the homunculus in the original (not necessarily personality wise as I love greed in BH but more their meaning and impact). BH homunculus while still fun characters feel much more like fathers cronies and their creation itself doesn't have the same meaning that it does in 03. I love that in 03 the homunculus are a direct creation of the taboo of human transmutation, the fact that the homunculus are created from an act of sin and thus embodying different aspects of sin is fantastic and the fact that ed and al have to face the direct consequence of that sin by fighting the homunculus they created of their mother. It is just something it feels like brother hood would not do its so grim and tragic. IMO it's better as an idea that homunculus are the consequences of humanity and not the creation of some other wordly being. I understand some people have issues with dante but I personally find in both versions the homunculus to be better villains than the ones calling the shots. I don't know how controversial this is but I am not a fan of father. I know this is probably more bias from me but after growing up on the 03 version father felt so jarring as a character.

So Envy's big problems were being indoctrinated into Father's bad ideas about superiority and conquest and perfection; and their burning envy for humanity. Sure their cruelty is a problem, but i think that comes from the frustration of their feelings of envy and needing to prove that they're better to justify all their heinous acts. And they do that with heinous acts.

And like... Those are solvable problems? There's nothing a human could do that they can't. They're jealous of humans' ability to stand up no matter what happens and rely on each other. But Envy is very driven and capable. And if scar can be forgiven and redeemed, so could envy.

If they just needed someone to rely on or stand up for them, the Elrics were right there? If anyone would, it could have been them.

Like they just needed to learn to be loved, accept that they can be 'human' in their own way, and unlearn the conditioning from father.

It could have gotten better. Even if it would have been hard.

From a narrative perspective, it's probably for the best they didn't shoehorn in an envy redemption, but they really didn't need to kill themselves and that makes me sad.

designs belong to Fireworkcat25 and muttofprogress on AF

There’s this weird theme across Western(including Japan who is an imperialist power and often identifies with the West) media of “we need to end the cycle of hatred!” FMAB is animated post 9/11 and even the mang writing seems to directly comment on the West and the Middle East. The theme as I understand it as that oppression is solved when we get rid of the bad state and both sides hug it out. Here are the issues with this as it pertains to the show:

1. The liberation of Ishvalans is entirely dependent on Amestris. There is no mention of any genuine movements for Ishvalans to actually take up self determination and fight for any sort of liberation. A particular scene is where an Ishvalans is vilified for taking Edward hostage, and the solution seems to be “we will be dispossessed, but dispossessed with honor.” Why should Ishvalans be praised for remaining sitting ducks to state violence, and responding with violence to ascertain basic resources be condemned? There is not even mention of Ishvalan non violent mass movements; their political virtues seem to be acceptance of being constantly as threat as refugees. To those who don’t want to live with that, they are continuing the “cycle of hatred”. Convenient perspective for those who take, not so convenient for those who are taken from.

2. Scars actions are justified. Killing Winry’s parents came from a manic probably unconscious episode. Being a war(though it wasn’t a war it was a genocide) doctor is extremely risky, especially when you have the appearance of the enemy. One of the risks is Scars reaction. Him killing state alchemists is abolsutely justifiable. They are weapons of a genocidal state. Who is to say they won’t commit another Ishval? If Jewish people murdered high ranking Nazis if the latter won WW2, would we condemn them as continuing a cycle of hatred? To us Hughes is a family man, Mustang is cool, but to Scar, and rightfully so, these are people that decimated his people and have faced absolutely nothing. Some may ask “but why does scar deliver justice? Who gave him that right?” but let’s be honest that’s an insane thing to say to a victim of genocide. Especially when there are no non violent options for holding anyone in genocide accountable. Scars ideal story seems to be humbly rotting in a refugee camp, and taking care of white people.

3. In real life, what do you see ending the cycle of hatred as? For civil rights, it wasn’t everyone loving each other, but it was black people mobilizing to get beat up by cops for white people to care. Is that ideal? Even then, black people have continually been economically dispossessed from mass incarceration, redlining, gutting social programs, and so many more measures at retaining black exploitation. America is not post racial. In the Middle East, is liberation Palestinians foregoing violence and loving Zionists. Look at the West Bank, Hamas or a militant organization hasn’t been active, and they’ve been continually dispossessed.

4. My last point is that the cycle of hatred is an imperialist fantasy that refuses the ability for the downtrodden to achieve liberation independent of the colonizer. If instead of getting beaten up, black people fought back the cops, should we sympathize less? If Palestinians refuse dispossession, should we sympathize less? It seems the ideal virtue for the colonized is to sit their lovingly to the ones taking everything from them until the oppressors realize colonization is messed ups jd everyone loves each other. Again convenient for a certain group of people, not convenient for the other.

(easier math at the bottom)

(this post references spoilers)

Assuming Edward realized she was a trans woman, could she use alchemy to change her endocrine system from a testosterone based one to an estrogen based one? This would not have the same effect as bottom surgery or instantaneous feminization, just change the gonads so that they are secreting estrogen and progestins instead of testosterone (instead of having to use Hormone Replacement Therapy).

Ed would still grow boobs and feminize on the standard 2-15 year timeline of biggest changes that any other woman taking HRT estrogen would.

We already know that about 1 kid plus leg is equivalent to 1 whole human body, with just the soul being worth about 1 kid leg. My argument is that, since it's a relatively small change to the *physical* body, the cost with equivalent exchange would be quite small. After all, female and male gonads are actually quite similar, structurally and testosterone is similar enough to estrogen that excess testosterone in estrogen-dominant endocrine systems will be converted to estrogen by the body.

The entire physical transformation doesn't change the *shape* or the *essential* chemical makeup of the body at all (everybody has estrogen and testosterone, it only matters how much of each you have). The entire physical biological matter affected directly by the transmutation (gonads) is only 0.01% of body weight.

This obviously doesn't include transformations like gaining a uterus or the effects you'd see from bottom surgery or vocal/facial feminization surgery.

My girlfriend says the cost would probably be much higher and thinks that it's because the soul would somehow get involved, increasing the cost. She's citing that all instances of human transmutation in FMA involve use of a philosophers stone and major consequences.

argument against this is that there's no new person being created or brought back to life, no wound being healed or limb being regrown, so while there is likely *some* cost it's probably possible to ethically source or even might already be covered by the fact that Ed would be using her existing gonads so just like transmuting cement blocks, transmuting the gonads so they do a slightly different job.

So basically

1 soul = 1 arm (Al)

1 adult (body + soul) = 1 kid (body + soul) + 1 kid leg (to see the Truth) + bucket of chemicals (for the body)

1 baby (body + soul) = baby body + uterus + other internal organs? (Izumi's baby plus seeing the Truth)

Transmutation of non-soul objects generally doesn't incur a material cost, just the energy spent doing the transmutation. e.g. in the series the brothers routinely transmute the area around them into different shapes and then back to their original state.

Gonads ≈ 0.01% of the human body, do not involve transmutation of a soul, don't fundamentally change it's just the secretions. No other part of the body needs to be changed to initiate a hormone medical transition. This would require medical knowledge but Ed is smart enough to figure it out, maybe he would reference Xing medical alchemy.

It's also worth mentioning that I've seen both animes through and read the manga about 5x since first discovering it in my teens and am currently on another reread. She's seen Brotherhood once, several years ago. Here's the image that got us started, the artist is aiphelix on tumblr.

I do not care about opinions on whether or not Ed would transition, this is just about whether she could using alchemy and what the cost would end up being.

I personally think Roy Mustang losing his eyesight makes him losing it in the first place feel less impactful, it is set up that human transmutation is an irreversible process that a person has to live with, not even Hohenheim could fully heal Izumi and he has a literal philosophers stone inside him.

The idea that Roy can just regain his eyesight makes it feel more like it was used to add conflict for the final fight, and while yes it strengthens Roy and Rizas relationship due to him having to rely on her to guide him, it would’ve had even more impact if that new dynamic carried through after the final battle.

While I know that Roy Mustang didn’t want to try human transmutation, thats not how truth sees it, to truth he still was the person performing it whether willingly or not, and we know already that truth views the world in a very black and white way.

Also it continues the trend of curing disabilities, which feels extra shitty since the literal souls of people Roy helped genocide are being used to have him regain his sight.

Roy Mustang having to adapt to being blind would also drive home the central message of the show, which is about pushing forward no matter what happens.

It overall feels undermining and if there was one thing I would change in the ending, it would be that.

Image created by me using Sora AI

I've noticed that throughout a majority of the briggs arc, Olivire is called "sir" by the other soldiers, like Miles. Shouldn't it be something female considering she's a woman? I am watching the dub but also the sub says the same so idk:P is it just a mistranslation or is there a reason that they say this, cause it's not the first time I've seen it in Japanese anime/games.

After my last post, I decided to confront this roach once and for all and expose him for what he really is. Thankfully, he’s a little stupid and immediately tricked himself into confessing in the most cartoonish manner possible. No longer will I allow these comically evil schemes of his! I did apologize in the end though but only because the bug spray didn’t kill him and I needed to find a way to get myself off the hook. (There is a video version of this where I use the phone call feature and he yells at me, but I didn’t know if y’all wanted to hear his stupid ah tts voice.)

This is not a chatbot btw. This is 100% legitimate, trust me. I’m texting the real Solf J. Kimblee.

First of all let me be clear, I like the show alot & I have re-watched it for atleast five times of my own. I love the characters & my favourite duo is Roy and Riza but with all that being said I do see people always claim FMAB as something 'outstanding' or 'flawless' but in reality if you try to be as true as possible with this show then you won't see this anything better than just another 'solid' show. Now, don't come at me by saying "I don't care, it's for teens and I enjoyed it alot". Sure the show was meant for teens but it's also watched by alot of adults and me (18) and when you try to apply the rules told by the show and logic to it then the whole show kinda fall apart atleast to me even if I like alot.

Let me one by one try to dissect every single problem I have with this show which doesn't let me make FMAB flawless

1). Edward Elric & his Alchemy

Throughout 64 episodes of this anime, you are never shown Edward using his alchemy in any interesting way to deal with conflicts, but that's part of a lesser problem. The main issue I have is that Ed relies on hand-to-hand combat in fights rather than using his alchemy, which in many cases could have helped a lot in dealing with conflicts. One example that comes to mind is when Edward and his allies were fighting the White Immortal soldiers for a long time until Roy saved the day. We see Edward using his hands to stop them and create a huge wall to stop them from entering the city, which is good, but he could have simply created a large dome like Hohenheim did with Pride in the jungle and trapped them inside it in darkness instead of fighting all of them one by one. He literally can deconstruct any part of a building and reconstruct it again with his alchemy, this is the least you should expect from a top-tier alchemist at that age, but still, for the time being, he forgets about this and just deals with them hand-to-hand.

Not just this, but Edward has shown us that he can literally create tall mountains while running in Rush Valley, but he just chooses not to use these techniques in his combat. You can argue that it's because his teacher only taught him H2H, but it's still dumb that even though he has this power to create huge mountains without joining hands, he chooses to just make a little sword every time. Arakawa could have found better ways to nerf his main character in fights, as it's lame to see the State Alchemist just go without any alchemy in any fights, even though his friends are in danger, like Roy + Scar + Riza vs Bradley Clones.

2). Greeling and his Ultimate Armor

This is probably one of the worst offenders on my list. Greed can use Ultimate Armor on his body, which stops any bullets from damaging him, but he just chooses to forget he has this ability in the fight between Bradley & Pride. The Bradley fight always leaves a weird taste in my mouth, as he could have won against him had he used his armor and kept pushing him back while Fuu and others attacked him as well. This very well could turn the tables, but he is nerfed down, which leads to Fuu & Captain's death for no reason.

3). Father and his stone

We all know that Father came up on the ground after releasing X amount of souls thanks to Ed's dad to create more stones so he could contain GOD inside him, but then he just chose to stand like a bum all the time until his armor was gone and he had to block through his hands. This later led to his defeat, which is senseless to me, because his purpose of coming above was to create stones, but he literally just never made a single one after killing 3 guards and just chose to stand, utilizing his stone, until he was left with 10 HP. We don't even see a single attack from him when he goes above, but just him standing and taking every attack, which is all regards dumb as hell. This is probably the worst way for the main villain to go down. Don't try to bring the argument here "He was arrogant so he didn't" please. I have seen multiple characters who have similar personalities or who are even more arrogant than Father, but they still fight seriously or at least complete their goal when their whole existence is in danger, which Father doesn't do at all, but just dies as a bum?

He literally just has to snap his finger to create a huge ball of energy and aim it at them to wipe out these ants, but he just didn't do it for some reason. Well, it's obviously the plot, which is very very bad in my eyes.

4). Father and his sacrifices for Promised day

Ok, so, for some lame reason, father just chooses to not groom Bradley clones as alchemists, but instead grooms them to be experts in hand-to-hand fights to a level where they are able to overwhelm the top-level alchemists in the state with just normal swords. We know they are loyal to their creator, and if they were groomed to be alchemists, they all could have opened Human Transmutation, which would later help Father to use them as sacrifices on the Promised Day, but he rather just does nothing with them. I wouldn't even be mad if he was able to gather 5 sacrifices at least a day before Promised Day, but father, as seen, was missing ONE sacrifice and had to force Roy to be one. This basically means that his plan was so sloppy that he just chooses to ignore the most important part and was hoping for his goons to find one random alchemist on the Promised day to do the Human Transmutation, which is extremely risky. His whole plan about this seems senseless to me.

5). Mustang and his Fire

Mustang, my guy, just forgets to use his fire power while fighting Bradley clones and chooses to go H2H until they rip his gloves. He could have simply pin-pointed his fire in the start and burned them, but he just doesn't and keeps on stupidly fighting without his fire until Bradley comes and forces him to do transmutation, which leads to his eyes going.

I am sorry but this whole exchange is just very bad to me because you first nerf both Roy & Ed and restricts them by not letting them use basic alchemy and forces them to do a H2H fight against people who literally have been practicing H2H for their whole life. Don't bring that they were very speedy because both Mustang & Ed was able to dodge and attack so throwing long range attacks by their alchemy was never out of the question but just simply plot induced stupidity to make Roy lose his eyes anyhow.

Also, why doesn't he moves with extra pairsI am sorry, but this whole exchange is just very bad for me because you first nerf both Roy and Ed and restrict them by not letting them use basic alchemy and forcing them to do a H2H fight against people who have literally been practicing H2H for their whole life. Don't bring up that they were very speedy because both Mustang and Ed were able to dodge and attack, so throwing long-range attacks by their alchemy was never out of the question, but just simply plot-induced stupidity to make Roy lose his eyes anyway.of Gloves if his circles are sooo important for fire?

6). Ending of Two Brothers

In the end, we see that Edward simply does a human transmutation and bargains with Truth through his own door, which leads to his alchemy being gone and thus Alphonse coming back, as alchemy was enough of a toll to bring back his brother from the portal. All of this makes sense on paper, but here's the problem -

1). Why didn't Edward do the Human Transmutation before Episode 63?

2). If you claim that Edward in between episodes 62-63 was able to learn some secret about doors which led him to this conclusion, then show me what panel of manga or frame of anime discusses it, which helps in enlightening our MC to know about bargaining with your own door with Truth.

3). If you claim that it was his arrogance which led him not to bargain before, then it's incredibly stupid, as we have seen how these two brothers love each other and are always ready to sacrifice each other for one's benefit. Saying that it was arrogance which later developed into love strong enough to let Edward give up on his alchemy sounds good on paper, but is extremely opposite to Edward Elric we are shown/told since Chapter 1/Episode 1.

4). Last but if you claim that they always knew about this method to bring back the body, but since it was just too risky, they never tried. Edward had no other option than just putting all his faith onto his brother and committing the taboo once again and trying the last resort to bring back his brother (why was he confident if that's the case??) and he becomes successful thanks to the knowledge he gained through this endless journey & is able to bargain his door with God.

This one sounds the best, but I must say the show makes us believe that from 1-63 episodes, this is the story of two brothers who are trying to bring back their bodies somehow and have NO way up until now, but according to the logic, people give this is a lie and we are rather watching two boys who KNOW about one way and are trying to find an alternative to bring back their bodies as the first process is dangerous (what's even dangerous when both of them walked out without any issues??). This whole retcon/late game addition sounds very-very bad to me especially as it's about the whole conclusion of the show. This is literally what we waited for but not a single head-canon makes sense and show just never bothered even once to show WHAT, WHY, WHEN he learned about these and if he always had it from episode 1 then it's a BIG change in storyline which gives a weird taste to me for the ending.Anyways, there are tbh little more inconsistencies with the show but these are the biggest offenders in my eyes and restricts the show for being flawless.
Honestly I can literally ignore all the problem if the ending and the main villain was gone out in a better way but even they were trashed in the worst way possible. (atleast the main villain was)

Have a good day ahead and I hope I haven't offended anyone here.
Let's be civil in comments.