#meta text

I think that's bullshit.

Not because I have anything against 03. Oh, I think 03 is a perfectly valid interpretation of the text with a few absolutely genius moments thrown in there that make Brotherhood pale in comparison.

But it is an interpretation of the text.

Don't get me wrong, so is Brotherhood.

And while Brotherhood is a lot more faithful to the text, especially later on, that anime as well cuts out a lot of important worldbuilding in the beginning. Which is where this idea of inter-cutting those two animes even stems from.

But these two stories have wildly different interpretations of the same characters! The depth of characterization in both 03 and Brotherhood gets undercut by a mix and match that does both a disservice.

Ed is a lot more vulnerable in 03 - he is the tragic hero we follow who will make horrible choices in order to save his brother only to suffer and fail and break. The anime establishes this by introducing him to us at the age of 12, when he's only just starting in his journey. Many of his first adventures (the train, meeting Hughes, Nina and Alexander) take place at a point where Ed is a lot softer, a lot less hard, a lot less broken - they are what breaks him in a way. What eventually leads him down the path he takes.

That is a hugely different interpretation of the text as Brotherhood offers it to us.

In Brotherhood we meet Ed when he's at the top. The priest of Liore is no problem for him, he's been doing this for years, he's internalized a lot of the hurt he grew up with. Getting hurt doesn't faze him, his biggest hindrance is his urge to finally get this done and over with. He's cocky and self-assured and oh, so insecure. Which is why we need Nina, to remind him of the fragility in life and his own powerlessness. In Brotherhood Nina is the linchpin that leads to Ed finding out about Philosopher's Stones.

In many ways this interpretation of the text is a lot closer to the source material, but, yes, it is still an interpretation. Someone once said the biggest mistake Brotherhood made was include the Elrics' backstory in episode two and I agree - it is often what hooks first time viewers with the stark horror of what these kids went through, but it stands at odds with the original purpose of the backstory only being revealed in vol.6 of the manga.

Because in the original story, up to that point, we don't know why Ed and Al are the way we are. We've seen flashes, we know Ed has nightmares, we know certain things spook them, and we know they committed a taboo whatever the hell that means. And only when we meet Izumi, only when Ed has to forcibly drop all the walls he spend the last three years building, do we see what actually happen. It's also the closest Ed comes to crying - clinging to Izumi and begging her for forgiveness.

These are three very different ways to tell the same story.

All of these are valid. All of these can be fun.

But they hold fundamentally different approaches to the characters within them, which makes them not interchangeable.

The same is true for Hughes, who - in 03 - is a presence in the Elrics' lives from the very beginning, their friend and confidant in ways not even Mustang is. He helps them during the train hijacking and Elicia shares Ed's birthday.

That's a significant switch-up from the manga, where Ed and Al only meet him once they go to Central to search through the First Library - and in which only Winry ever really grows close to Hughes as a person, and not as a mistake made by the brothers.

And Brotherhood tells a different story again, by having Ed and Al meet Hughes in the first episode, as they visit Central to catch the Freezer and befriend Mustang's ally who invites them home - placing that relationship somewhere in the middle of coworkers and close, intimate friends.

These are three different characters, who are connected to our main duo in three different ways.

There's overlaps and I am not keeping anyone from having fun (03 Roy Mustang being the one to kill Winry's parenty, my beloved) but to really enjoy these stories, they need to be understood as three different texts.

03 stands strong in its originality, Brotherhood in its closeness to the source material, but if you want the OG experience just read the manga. It shouldn't stop you from enjoying the other two as well.

Wheels within Wheels - Frank Lantz

My contribution as a binder for the Renegade Guild's Tiny Books Bang 2024 The idea is to split typesetter and bookbinder so I got the chance to bind 2 copies of this text. One for the wonderful @simply-sithel as the typesetter, one for myself.

Deleted Scene #1 (from Cinder)

Deleted Scene #2 (from Cinder)

Deleted Scene #3 (from Scarlet)

Deleted Scene #4 (from Scarlet) 

Deleted Scene #5 (from Winter) 

Deleted Scene #6 (from Winter)

Deleted Scene #7  (from Winter)

Deleted Scene #8  (from Winter)

Deleted Scene #9 (from Cress)

You could put every character into a trope, people have types of characters they love, superhero stories are about having the ability to do good, superhero stories are about systems of corruption and how any value given can bring out the worst in people, sci fi is equally philosophical of the nature of humanity and the worst of our flaws, fantasy is the ache of living beyond your loved ones or the journey to get them back, stories about the internet or games is walking the line between our over reaching need to be heard in the void while craving human interaction with hundreds of eyes on you, horror is your emotions and your relationship with your body mind and heart, romance offers the understanding of role and how cultures play with or understand gender.

So, apparently there are people who have some thoughts about Mary’s initials in the table before Cas’ and it’s become a thing....

And since I am a glutton for punishment, here is my hot-take:

First, everyone chill on Cas being a Winchester. Technically, he isn’t. Yes, he is part of the family, no question. But the label of Winchester isn’t something I think it would even occur to him to assign himself. Taking it from an angelic psychological perspective (because that is totally a thing I just made up), being a Winchester is almost a state of being. It’s a classification, kind of like being an angel. It’s a set of immutable characteristics that define something that just is. Cas, for as human as he’s become, is still an angel not a Winchester. He just happens to be an angel whose found family with the Winchesters. Jack, on the other hand, is part human and so the significance of the name as a means of denoting his tribe/family unit (ie who he is) is not lost on him or the audience.

Now, here’s why Mary’s initials are important. There are a handful of icons in the show that harken to specific people, places, and themes in the lives of Sam & Dean. One everyone jumps to because it’s really easy to recall is the Samulet. But it’s not the only one.

For me the first that actually comes to mind is John’s journal. It’s John’s indelible mark on the series. A source of both information and secrets. A complicated symbol for a complicated man. Likewise, John also gave us Baby, without whom the world would cease to exist.

As Chuck so beautifully puts it, with her the boys were never homeless. Except, a decade down the road, they now have a home: the Bunker. Sam and Dean’s initials tie these two places together. It’s their personal mark of legacy, of owership. This is how they identify their home.

So, what about Mary?

There are two Marys in the series. There’s the mother Dean grew up with and there’s the mother he knew as an adult. The mother Dean grew up with has always been a construct of a grieving child revering a lost parent. More importantly a child who at the same time lost the only home he’d ever known. It’s no wonder, then, in the very episode titled “Home” the boys would receive their old family photos. These pictures, perfect images of a perfect family, have shown up several times in the series but more specifically in relation to Dean’s complicated image of Mary and the life lost following her death. They’re also, notably, used as a symbol of Dean accepting the Bunker as the first stable home he’s had since childhood.

It’s no coincidence that the actual Mary is present and becomes intrinsically linked to a very domestic phase of the series. She’s there when the boys defend the Bunker from the BMOL invasion, a literal establishment of roots by the Sam & Dean. She’s there when they build a family within it by taking care of Jack and saving the alt-world hunters. John, and his icons, will always be associated with the open road. The hunter’s nomadic lifestyle. Idealized or not, Mary herself is always associated with a location of stability for the boys. Roots. A home.

Her initials in the Bunker are, at least in my opinion, the best way of honoring that connection. Tying her permanently to both the location and the boys’ means of literally leaving a mark on the world. Something like a picture wouldn’t do these themes justice, because pictures belong to the past (which also makes Sam burning her photo extra sad because it’s a way of letting both Marys go).