#especially winry

Okay, I acknowledge that spending too much time lurking in the original FMA fandom during my impressionable teenage years has pretty much left me incapable of responding to Winry hate with anything more rational than a desire to kick people in the teeth, but I seriously cannot BELIEVE people are still staying all this shit about her being a useless crybaby. And saying it regularly!

Because I continue to see this erroneous accusation so often, I've taken the liberty of listing every time Winry has actually cried throughout Fullmetal Alchemist, in chronological order (obviously, SPOILERS):

when, as a young child, she found out that both of her parents have died in a war

when her two best friends, who are only 11 and 12 years old, burn down their home and leave to join the military that already took away her parents and begin what is sure to be a long and painful journey

when Al accuses Ed of fabricating his soul and she has to explain just how much guilt Ed has felt over the years, something he confided in her during his automail surgery as a child

when she discovers that Ed keeps a reminder of the day he burned his house down with him at all times because he thinks he'll lose his resolve otherwise (AKA "I'm crying because you two won't let yourselves cry")

when she discovers the man she admits she had been projecting the memory of her father on was murdered

when she winds up suddenly face to face with the man who killed her parents and is very nearly upset enough to shoot him

and finally, tears of joy when Ed and Al finally return home alive and well, with their original bodies, after helping to save the country

(by the way, there's a gap of 61 chapters between the last two, and Winry still appears just as frequently, if not more often)

Wait, what's going on? There's only that many? In 108 chapters of content? And they all appear to be extremely emotional moments where crying is a normal, expected human response? CRAZY.

For fun, I've also provided a brief list of some of the moments Winry DOESN'T cry. Bear in mind, this is just a sampling (and more SPOILERS):

when her two best friends show up at her door in the middle of the night, one stuck in a different body and the other trying very hard to bleed to death

when she personally helps in the surgery and recovery of her best friend, TWICE, when she's 11-12 years old

when she repeatedly finds her best friends hospitalized with serious injuries and/or literally falling apart

when she has to take charge of delivering a child, with no practical experience, in the middle of a storm with only a bunch of panicky teenagers and the panicky father to help

after realizing she's being used as a hostage to keep Ed and Al in line

while confronting the man who killed her parents a second time and deciding to let go of her anger and treat his injuries instead

while refusing to leave her home, friends, and family despite knowing the extreme danger the entire country is in

I'm not even going to bother with the 'useless' thing, because if you can't see how important Winry is to the overall story and to the other characters, there's just no helping you.