The thing about Edward Elric in S5 E11, just after he punches pseudogod to death and just before he sacrifices his alchemy, he is a scared 15-year-old boy and he just lost his brother. There are people around him who love him and who have put the weight of the world in his too-capable hands (which he used to kill pseudogod). He didn’t get to have a badass walk-away-from-an-explosion-with-no-remorse moment. The writers gave him a moment to be a scared, traumatized, lonely little boy, standing in front of the crumpled body of the baby brother that he did everything in his human power to protect—even going as far as violating his one constant moral to kill nobody. In that brief moment, even with having just saved the world, he failed to save his brother. His world is falling apart and he has enough breath to tell his deadbeat dad to fuck off. And he’s allowed to cry for just a moment. And the people around him love him. And he’s scared. And this is the supreme anime.
