#fma meta

"it's ironic that Lust was killed by a womanizer" "Lust was killed by a man who lusted after power" NO! Lust was killed by a man who did it because of love.

It's ironic that she was killed by a man who uses his (false!) public reputation as a womanizer to conceal the fact that he is one of the most steadfastly loyal people in Amestris. It's ironic she was killed by someone whose entire motivation revolved around gaining the power to help others. It's ironic that he killed her for threatening his people.

for all his power, for all of the souls he sacrifices to create Philosopher's Stones, he can never actually achieve Godhood and that's the point

in fact one of the BIGGEST themes in FMA is how ultimately impossible and also disastrous it is for mortal beings to play God, whether that comes in the form of trying to reverse death, using alchemy to experiment with and twist human beings, or seeking immortality

Ed and Al trying to reverse the natural process of death, Father Cornello making himself a god in the eyes of his followers, Shou Tucker playing with his daughter's life in the name of creating a new creature, the attempt to create life leads to the main villains of the series, the king of Xerxes's search for immortality leading to the destruction of his nation, Father's plan to create more Philsopher's stones leading to constant bloodshed, the implication that the emperor of Xing's search for immortality could do the same to Xing, etc. etc. etc.

every single character that tries to play God faces consequences - either for themselves or for others - and Ed is only able to reverse his and Al's consequences because he finally recognizes that alchemy can't ever make him more than human. "Well done, Edward Elric," Truth says after he expresses this - as a direct opposition to his introduction in the Cornello arc, in which he claims that alchemists are the closest thing there is to God

Because Ed is Hohenheim's mirror!

Ed's narrative parallel is his own father (oh, how he would hate knowing that - how he fights against that realization) - Ed is the one who leaves Winry behind, just as Hohenheim left Trisha and the kids. Ed is the one who burns their childhood home down, just as Xerxes is destroyed in the wake of Hohenheim's naiveté. Ed is the one who commits an unforgivable sin and seeks atonement following his own shortcomings, just as Hohenheim unknowingly helps the Dwarf in a Flask destroy an entire civilization and carries that responsibility with him for the rest of his (long, long) life.

Hell, Hohenheim telling Ed that him burning the house down because he is running away from his past - while horribly cruel - is really just Hohenheim talking to himself. He wasn't lying when he said that Ed reminded him an awful lot of himself at that age!

And in every choice Ed makes throughout the show, he's always trying to be unlike his father, while unwillingly playing into the same pattern. Ed's complete disregard for Hohenheim, his hurt in the face of the father that left, is what ultimately pushes Ed to make similar choices - he doesn't want to see himself in his father, so he doesn't see the similarities of leaving Winry behind to Hohenheim walking out the door without ever looking back. There's a reason Winry has a thing about "backs in the distance" - and there's a reason why the Openings and Endings of fma Brotherhood often position the boys as walking away, only showing the audience their backs as they walk off.

But in the end?

Ed mirrors Hohenheim. Hell, they even stand in the same spot in the two family pictures. Hohenheim and Ed, both on the left side, both holding the oldest of their two kids, both- well, Hohenheim is crying, while Ed is the happiest he's ever been.

And that's only because Ed stopped running from his past - Ed found happiness in the end, and part of that was accepting Hohenheim as his father. It's not a story about forgiveness, but acknowledgement. Just Edward calling Hohenheim "his rotten father" in the end is enough for him to move past his refusal to engage with the realities of Hohenheim. The realities of his own father leaving in relation to him growing up.

By the end of the story, Ed dresses more conservatively and still travels - he looks more like Hohenheim than ever. But unlike before in the story, when Ed was fighting this relation, he is now happier than ever before. Happier than Hohenheim ever was. Because with Ed accepting all the qualities he shares with the man, he can also embrace all the differences between them.

Ed managed to grow alongside his guilt. He found happiness in his family, a loving wife, children, research and travel, philosophy and friendship. Edward gets to be happy. He gets to learn from his mistakes (from Hohenheim's mistakes) and return home.

And that's where the mirror breaks.

I don't know if it's western/american puritanism or a foundational belief that Good Men Wouldn't Do That or what.

Like, yeah, he calls a bunch of Chris's employees his sisters but they're not really related and not every employee is going to be that to him. Chris will have hired on new girls since he moved out, for one.

Personally, I figure the mystique around sex and prostitution would have long worn off and he would have a very practical view on the matter. You hire a plumber to update the pipes, a mechanic to change your tires, an accountant to do your taxes, and a prostitute for sex. They're professionals, its just a job.

In my fic, Roy really only ever has sex with professionals after Ishval. He sees sex as transactional and so is perfectly happy to pay for it. Keeping sex as a business transaction also protects him from anyone catching feelings or becoming a liability to his ambitions.

It seems that Roy and Riza are destined to bring destruction, while Ed and Winry are meant to create and build. From the very beginning of Roy’s alchemy career, his goal has been to protect his friends by rising to the top of the hierarchy. In a military government like Amestris, he realizes that the only way to achieve this is by becoming the strongest force available, as he cannot rely on democracy or other means. Riza fully supports his mission.

However, as they navigate the fine line between war and sanity, they come to the startling realization that they have become the very monsters they sought to combat. Now that they are entrenched in that system, they plan to dismantle it, even if it means they will go down in flames alongside it—even if they descend into hell.

Ed, on the other hand, has always been inclined toward building and restoration. He creates an apple, a birdcage, and even attempts to resurrect his mother. Winry's profession involves making automail prosthetics, and she even helped a stranger give birth to a child.

Considering this premise, it reveals much about their future trajectory.

hohenheim, 400 years ago, created the first homunculus trying to bring back his dead son. izumi curtis tried to bring back her own child. ed and al followed both their father and their mentor's footsteps and tried to bring back their mother. time and time again, it is always about love and grief, and you can never learn, because you can never stop loving. you can never stop fully giving yourself to someone and being willing to do anything to bring them back. maybe ed and al didn't know their mother would have lost something important, being brought back to life after death, but izumi and hohenheim must have, in the back of their minds, known, lost as they were to grief and uncaring for the consequences.

This is Vanessa, the girl whose name was assigned to Falman.

That means there's an actual Elizabeth — with whom Roy would talk to over the phone, and go on "dates" with — who is not Riza. That's exactly what makes the codenames effective. At any point Roy can just go on that fishing trip with the real Elizabeth to throw off anyone suspicious.

Also, all the selected girls' names share one or more of the Japanese syllables (kana character) with the person they have been assigned to:

Name (Japanese spelling)

Riza (ri-za) = Elizabeth (e-ri-za-be-su)

Jean (jya-n) = Jacqueline (jya-ku-ri-i-n)

Breda (bu-re-da) = Braidykins (bu-re-i-di-ki-n-su)

Vato (va-to) = Vanessa (va-ne-s-sa)

Kain (ke-i-n) = Kate (ke-i-to)

like, from the outset, the entire premise is a cure narrative. that's where it starts, that's what it *is*. they want to get their bodies back because their disabilities are too much to bear as well as the trauma around them. and the reason i'm underlining this so much is that they *do not achieve that goal*. The Al that Ed brings back from the Gate is not really the same person that Ed's been traveling with -- he doesn't have those memories and he's behind everyone else as a result. Ed only briefly gets his limbs back and even then, at what cost? And even when he transmutes himself wholly through the Gate, he loses them again and he's back to being a double amputee -- where, I would argue, he probably is more comfortable at this point. He's spent most of his grown life missing two limbs by the end of COS.