a winter-frozen bee

They don’t want me. (Hey, I don’t want me, either, but I’m stuck with me.)

There are a lot of shonen shows that fall under the category of “protagonist joins some organization, travels around the world on missions, is working toward some general Ultimate Goal™ that falls in and out of focus.” And this format makes writing a lengthy shonen story easier because it allows the main characters to be passive in moving from one arc to another. The characters get sent on their missions by third parties, and the author can write as many non-sequitur mission arcs as they want, or until the Jump money runs out.

Naruto gets assigned one ninja mission, then the next, then the next, filler, non-filler, filler, non-filler. Kentaro Monjiro Tanjiro gets assigned new demons to target and kill by the master of the demon slayer organization, one arc ends, a new order comes down, the next arc begins. Deku is literally in school his teachers just tell him what’s next. And sure, sometimes the main characters are the instigators. Sometimes Naruto goes after Sasuke of his own will. Sometimes Deku goes after Sasuke Bakugou of his own will too. But those are the exceptions, rather than the rule.

And again, I get it. It’s strategic to keep a series running indefinitely. You can stitch together as many unrelated arcs as you want. And it’s probably a necessary crutch to have when forced to produce manga at the rate these publications need to.

But then there’s FMA

Which, mind you, set itself up in the exact same manner. Ed joins the Goddamn Alchemist Military. That’s absolutely the FMA universe version of the Ninja Alliance/Pro Heroes/Demon Slayers. All of FMA’s arcs could have been the military telling Ed “this is your new mission go do this” while Ed and All just stumble through 200 chapters, following mission orders, vaguely acting with the ultimate goal of regaining their original bodies.

FMA doesn’t do that. FMA doesn’t take the easy route. Hiromu Arakawa pointed to Ed and said “see this fucking 15 year old gremlin? He’s gonna go instigate everything that happens to him, and he’s gonna like it.” The military tried asking Ed a favor once and Ed hated it so much that instead of following orders he fucked off down a mineshaft.

DOWN A FUCKING MINESHAFT. 

Leore? Ed and Al went there on their own. Robbery on the Train? They just happened to be on the same train. Shou Tucker? Mustang introduced them as a favor for Ed handling the train incident (Brotherhood says it repayment for Leore since they cut the Train Robbery, shame). Dublith and Greed? they were there to see Izumi. Central? There to see Hughes, then saw too much, got dragged to Xerxes, stopped by home to do some grave robbing, decided to catch a homunculus for the lulz, got eaten and went to hell, met god, came back. Briggs? They decided alkehestry was their best lead so they followed Mei to Briggs. Leore again, cuz Al wanted to. Resembool, cuz Edward needed to hide after fucking off down a mineshaft. Slums of the Kanama region. Central again. Hell 2.0. God 2.0. Central. God again but the first one. Xing. Resembool.

Every SINGLE place these two chaotic hell-mongers go, every SINGLE mission they take up is a self-motivated, self-imposed, self-actuated logical follow-up to however the previous arc ended, to the point that the lines between the “arcs” begin to blur and transition into a brilliantly woven narrative of cause and effect. Where the instigators are never “mission-assigners said so” and instead are always the characters themselves spinning strategy, forming covert alliances and plans, making use of gathered knowledge to be their own driving force of actions, sieges, subterfuges, and the occasional overthrowing of the government from an Ice Cream Truck.

i think i found my new favorite artist on twitter

But I think FMA does also does an excellent job choosing when to not let Ed come out on top. We just had the Nina episode and now Ed is in the middle of processing his first "catastrophic failure to save someone" type of failure since attempting to bring his mom back. He's dealing with a low that's absolutely hampering his abilities and the tonal shift hits for me in the way that 1) he doesn't notice Scar's initial attack against him (Al has to pull him away) and 2) Ed absolutely freezes up just thinking "This is bad."

This is, perhaps, baby's first "someone is coming at you with the full, concentrated, explicit intention of killing you" and Ed is so genuinely out of his depth with it. He really does try. He gets immediately bested. He's staring at a situation where Al is directly in harm's way. And Ed just lies down to die like a dog...

Lord of the Rings fanart! I watched for the first time recently and loved it

Your wife is a wonderful, caring planetary leader and scientist <3

She goes on what's meant to be a mundane planetary survey expedition

this turns into a corporate death trap she and her team just barely escape with their lives

after the death trap she gets kidnapped by the corporation that made the death trap due to them not wanting to pay damages

again. she and her team miraculously escape with their lives

after what easily had to be 6+ months she finally arrives home

Your wife is traumatized, unwilling to talk about or address this trauma, and now has a co-dependent relationship with a rogue SecUnit

You and the family are really trying not to hold the 'rogue SecUnit' thing against the Rogue SecUnit. Not its fault. But it is sarcastic and glares a lot and is non-social and has installed literal spydrones everywhere. It's willing to kill anyone who hurts your wife or her extended family. This is, to put it bluntly, a bit of an Adjustment for everyone.

Your wife decides to retire from being a planetary leader. One one hand, you think it's a good idea for her to take the time to focus on her mental health and be with her loved ones. On the other hand, it's concerning all of this has made her give up one of her passions.

One of your older children is going on her first off-planetary survey. This is good, obviously :) It's just. you are all still stressing from the trauma of your last family member's planetary survey.

It's fine. It's going to be fine. Your brother-in-law is going to be with her, and a bunch of your wife's long-standing colleagues, and-- you have complex feelings about this-- the SecUnit. it will be fine.

It is not fine.

The SecUnit and your brother-in-law and your daughter have all been kidnapped by a mysterious force for mysterious reasons.

Now your wife-- who is meant to be on indefinite mental health leave-- is off to save them.

You and your third partner want to go with her. You want to. But you have no skills for this, and family at home you need to care for. So you stay on the sidelines, waiting, waiting, waiting.

THEY'RE OKAY EVERYONE IS OKAY

thank fuck. phew. okay. now they're going to come home and--

what do you meant they're not coming home

what do you mean your child has decided to go to university off world at the school that kidnapped her

what do you mean your wife, instead of retiring, has decided to become some sort of anti-corporate activist

Yeah okay. This is not a conversation to have over the feed with a 2+ month time delay. You need to have an in-person conversation. You'll make a family trip of it; Nana and Sofia will come with. This is a good, normal, family visit

Been a while since I've done art. Since I've been rewatching Nirvana in Fire for the like 6th time, I decided to do some studies to ease back into things and get some practice in.

I kinda just picked some screenshots I took at random of some characters, and it was fun seeing the way I slowly started messing with colors more and more with each one, so by the time I got to Qin Banrou I was just going kinda crazy with picking colors.

In order here we have:

Marquis Yan, Prince Yu

We stood in the Roman ruins that, like patchwork, stitch so remarkably through the village of Caer-went, and dutifully read the information boards. The Romans had forcibly built and established Venta Silurum with the intention of Pacifying the Silurians, the local tribe.

“I think I feel weird now, about the Doctor Who aliens being called Silurians,” I said, “it’s sort of uncomfortable having ‘lizard people from the dawn of time’ being named after Celts. Tips into that bad-faith lizard-person space.”

“The BBC would have only been thinking of the Silurian period,” Dr Glass said neutrally. “That’s a fair siting for a ‘dawn of time.’ The Cambrian would’ve been uncomfortable and impractical.”

“Was the geological period of Palaeozoic life named after the tribe?” I said. “Hey, given that the Cambrian period is the Cambrian period! It must’ve been.”

“Haha - wait - look - look at the north!!”

“Damn! The whole-ass Ordovician period?!”

“Over to England for the Devonian,” Dr Glass, who claims Devonshire heritage on one side, said thoughtfully. “Permian, that’s Perm - probably the mountain range.”

Anyway, this proceeded to amuse me for a few days, and will be required to enjoy these jokes

Jaime Lannister- this bitch was stuck there for a book and a half and WHAT did he do as SOON as he got home? Gentle reader??? What did he do????? That man walked RIGHT BACK in there. Did nottttttt learn his lesson from the last time he went to the Riverlands to help his family out. Has been to Harrenhal too many times. No-hoper!

Brienne of Tarth- ever since Renly died she has been stuck in the Riverlands. Runs around in circles saving orphans, who are ALSO stuck in the Riverlands. Oxygen masks, my friends ☝️

Catelyn Tully Stark- we thought she could do it!! We thought she could get out!! She married out and everything!!! And THEN she even DIED!!!! But even death will not save you from Getting Stuck In the Riverlands. Let this be a lesson…

Beric Dondarrion- got stuck in the Riverlands and could not be freed by death until he passed on the curse to someone else. But don’t worry! He’s still there. In the minds of the Riverlanders he lingers yet…

The Brotherhood Without Banners- stuck in the Riverlands. Loras Tyrell, Ned did you a favor by not letting you go with them!!!

Various and sundry orphans- inclusive Gendry, Edric D, Willow, etc: STUCK!!!!!!

Pod- I understand the instinct to flee King’s Landing to the Riverlands, much as I understand the instinct to flee Scylla’s heads in favor of Charybdis. I really do understand it. But the thing is that Charybdis is actually a lot more certain to kill you than Scylla is. Because Scylla is not sucking you in, she’s just kinda jabbing and bobbing and weaving and taking your head off if she can, while Charybdis will Swallow You Whole. STUCK!

Sandor Clegane- you can all but die, renounce your name and your life, and start over on an island that is very nearly not even IN the Riverlands! and all it will do is prove that you are not getting out of the fucking Riverlands.

Arya Stark- spends TWO WHOLE BOOKS and crucial parts of another in the Riverlands and even now that she is ACROSS THE FUCKING OCEAN from the Riverlands her soul is still. roaming around the Riverlands.

Vargo Hoat & co.- proving that the Riverlands eat everyone, good and bad alike!

Daemon Targaryen- got so stuck in the Riverlands he and his double murder-suicided each other

Aemond Targaryen- see above

Robb Stark- got stuck in the Riverlands!! Despite valiant attempts to a) go West, and b) go back home, HE GOT STUCK in the glue trap known as the Riverlands!!!

Rhaena Targaryen (Rhaena the Lesbian)- she seems to have been chill about it but she did in fact get stuck in the Riverlands at crucial points in her life, such as notably the end of it

Red Wedding “guests”- big long list but this includes current prisoners, current dead people, the bride, the groom, and the entirety of House Frey, barring the ones running around getting cannibalized up north who I will concede did get out of the Riverlands.

Harrenhal’s ghosts- as seen with Rhaena, Daemon, Aemond, the Curse of Harrenhal, the Tourney of Harrenhal, etc, one of the best ways for the Riverlands to Get You is through Harrenhal, a big fucking haunted house-ass castle which is like the black hole in the middle of the Riverlands glue trap. If you get sucked in you are NOT getting out. Cumulative effect! The more people get trapped by Harrenhal, the better Harrenhal is at Getting You. WATCH OUT!!!