Wooooooo~

[nekokoban]

Today, my father and I discovered the use of our digital camera -- its purpose, it seems, is to be around to take embarrassing photos of my mother, lying on the couch with ground-up cucumber on her face. XD Really, now. XD

Anyway, my LJ paid account expires today. Thank you again, jyuu_chan for buying me the two months♥♥♥♥♥♥ I will miss the extra iconage, I admit, but at least I still have my penguins♥♥ I had fun with my time, and now I'll say goodbye to the paid world~~~ XD

Also, downloaded and just finished watching Fullmetal Alchemist episode 43.

Now, I gotta admit -- I know a lot of people who were sort of "meh" for a large chunk in the middle, and while I was sort of like that, I mostly wasn't. This is seriously, in my opinion, one of the best stories I've seen in a long time, and there's just something nice about a quasi-wartime story that has its lighter moments, but doesn't actually shy away from the whole GOOD PEOPLE DO BAD THINGS, and vice-versa. I love how Ed is portrayed as a very failiable and sometimes weak human being, while still being strong enough to have survived his own horrible mistakes and still come out fighting for it.

Now, pretty much from the beginning -- my friends who've been in the fandom with me a long time -- I've had this peculiar fascination for the Elric parents, Hoenheim in particular. I've just watched episode 43, and he seems like a genuinely good guy -- a bit absent-minded, a bit out of date and goofy, but a good guy. This isn't someone you could picture deliberately leaving his wife and two young sons and then ignoring letters talking about Trisha's illness. The fact that he had to ask Winry how long Trisha's been dead indicates that there's a good chance those letters Ed and Al sent actually never reached him.

At the same time, Winry is probably Al's age, a year younger than Ed. The fact that Hoenheim keeps mistaking her for her mother, and the things the Ouroborous have implied about "that guy" -- and from Envy's rant, I'd say it's pretty damn obvious he's talking about Hoenheim -- you've got to wonder. Is the nice-guy thing a facade, that he's using to lull his sons into a false sense of security and into trusting him (though I wonder, truly, if Ed even can at this point) -- or was he, like Ed and Al, a good person who made some horrible mistakes, though perhaps on a grander scale?

The manga, at this point, has all but said that Hoenheim is the "Father" of the Ouroborous, and what we've seen of him isn't pleasant at all. In the manga, just from what I've seen, he comes across as a cold and calculating sort, with no mercy or kindness. He appears to be the kind of man Ed expects him to be -- an uncaring bastard who abandoned his family without a second thought.

At this point, we don't really know what Hoenheim's motives are, in either the anime or the manga. It could very well turn out that the pleasant attitude is just a mask, and that he's no different from his manga-self, under the surface. The manga-self could have some kind of noble ideal backing him -- one of my theories was perhaps that Hoenheim knew Trisha was ill (in the anime, at least, they say she must have been sick a very long time and hid the pain for years), and left to find the Philosopher's Stone to create a cure for her, and was corrupted by the search along the way.

Of course, there are vague implications here and there that Hoenheim is MUCH older than a human could be (like Dante, in the anime; if she ressurected Greed, but Greed's been sealed over a hundred years -- it lends to curiousity, how the two stories should intersect and tie together). I know in the manga, at least, there are still some theories that Hoenheim will be Pride, the last of the Ouroborous, and given how old the Ouroborus are implied to be, this could very well be the case.

The beautiful thing is the not knowing, though -- I want to know, I sure as well would love to have the secrets explained and the rationlizations given. I'd like Hoenheim to be a nice guy -- it's too late for him to give back anything to his sons, but at least there's the comfort of knowing he isn't evil. But I like the concept of him as a sick and twisted bastard, too, an "evil" character with selfish motives. (Because one can argue that in FMA there's no truly evil character; I'd say Envy comes the closest, but I also think Envy's bugfuck nuts, which doesn't excuse, but at least explains his attitude.)

Alternately, I've been thinking about this too damn much. XD But I freaking LOVE this series, man, and next week's episode is 「光のホーエンヘイム」 which just makes me excited because we're gonna learn MORE yay and eek what's going to happen NEXT and DUDE, what's going to happen to Lust? O___O

It's great, man. Love this show. XD

Comments

[nekokoban]

(Using the heyheyheyhey! icon in honor of you~ XD)

Now, personally, I still think that the snake Cornello saw in his dream was more of his own subconscious speaking -- we don't know what kind of effect the false Stone might have been having on him (because Magwar seemed balanced enough, but look at how nutso he went once he had enough of the Red Water stones) -- I mean, he's the only one we've seen the false Stone rebound THAT badly on. Then again, you're right in that Envy had to be SOMEWHERE in the city, just we don't know where.

The interesting thing with Anime!Wrath is that, even now fully aware of what happened to him, and his choices in the situation (I wonder if the Red Water stones, made the way they were, wouldn't retain some of the toxic qualities the water itself had, thus lending itself to Wrath losing it), he STILL seems to maintain some clinging to the mother-son bond. When Ed tries to attack Sloth, Wrath flips out and shrieks DON'T TOUCH THAT PERSON!, to the point where he leaves off trying to kill Rose and her crying baby (who triggered memories in him of when he was put back through the gate).

Greed, I think, was the only Homonculus that wanted true immortality, and he wanted it beyond simply just going on; I think there was the implication that he didn't want the weakness that his tied mortal remains presented to him. And it's interesting because he still seems to me that he's the "nicest" (alternately, the "most human") of the Sins -- as much as any of them can be called nice -- because his people followed him out of true loyalty rather than intimidation.

.. man, your intelligence > mine. XD SO not my area of expertise that I stumble and fall, and it's always interesting to hear you ramble off, don't worry♥

[harukami]

Awww, thank you! :D :D YAYICON!

re: the snake -- It COULD well be his own subconcious, especially the way it's rearing up to bite him, and the image of the orouborus is one that he's seen already on Lust's chest. I'm not exactly sure WHY I got the "!!! Is that ENVY?!" feeling from it, except that I know he's got to be there somewhere, but we get no hint of it until he takes Cornello's form. XD I'm fairly sure I'm reading way too much into this, though.

Whoa, the thought that the partial stones might still be toxic... CREEPY. But I LIKE that -- becaues they ARE, in some level, corrupting the homunculi who take them, and... whoa. o.o And yeah -- I love how whenever it's the *closest* bond -- in fact, the person who tried to bring them back -- there's some recognition. For Lust, it's the Lover, for Wrath, it's the Mother, and for Sloth, it's the Children. HUH.

[nods] I find it SO VERY FASCINATING that the 'most human' of the sins is the one who wants to be human the least, and the least human ones of them are the one who want to be it the most. [flails] It's very symbolic of the 'humans are such a gray area' thing, no black or white, and... yeah. [flails]

Dude, my intelligence is SO not greater than yours, what're you talking about?? One of the reasons I posted that here is 'cause I knew you'd have something to say in return and, lo, you did -- I've got the talent to BS connections, but you NOTICE things. Okay? Nyah. [noogies]

[nekokoban]

It would make a degree of sense if Envy were the snake Cornello saw -- but we don't know if Envy CAN even switch to animal forms (he seems to be able to take on the shape of any human, but humans and animals are quite different), and the fact that Cornello awoke and saw only Lust indicates Envy must have hidden *somehow* before, and yeah. XD I like the idea, but then I start wondering about logistics and I can't quite see it happening. XD It makes more sense to me that Cornello, as a religious man, would recognize the symbolism in the winged snake on Lust's chest, and paired with any effects that might have stemmed from the Stone could have easily conspired to give him that nightmare.

Like you said, though -- the Stones in a way seem to parallel the apple that the Snake used to tempt Eve, and it would be interesting, to me, if this one thing that Ed and Al seem to have focused on as the ultimate panacea might turn out to be dangerous and corruptive in a slightly different form (this happens in real life chemistry too, so it's entirely possible -- oxygen is O2, necessary to human life, but O3, still the same element, is ozone and toxic in large amounts). And the thing that interests me most is that, at least in the people we KNOW have tried the transmutation and failed (as Chira pointed out), they seem to lose body parts corresponding to the TYPE of person they're trying to ressurect: your mother gives you your body, and is your support -- Al loses his entire body, Ed his leg. Your brother will be your "right hand," by your side; Ed loses his arm for Al's soul. You carry your child in the womb; Izumi loses her internal organs. You have sex with your lover, and it's fairly implicative that Scar's brother was, in effect, castrated by his failed experiment.

I'm also interested in the fact that, well -- I've always kind of thought of lust as a very human sin/emotion. It can twist people, make them appear inhuman and frightening, but in the end, it's a very basic and base human response; and the way Lust's transformation during the series -- going from appearing to be the mastermind to humanized and weakened -- parallels this fascinates me. I want Hoenheim-Ed confrontation, but I REALLY want to see what's going to happen to her, now she's let Ed and Al go.

I do not notice things! XD; I think so slowly and have to say it in the most ponderous and roundabout LONG-WINDED way possible, anything I might've seen first has probably already been said, like, fifty gajillion times before, ah. XD I'm glad for debate when I can get it though, so thank you♥

[harukami]

This is SO true, and I hadn't even taken Cornello's role as a religious figure to heart -- even if he was a crazy bastard planning on taking the place over, he'd clearly had enough religious training to *pass* as this guy, and I have to wonder if the partial stone hadn't driven him to that as well, with your theory that the stones corrupt -- I mean, Cornello is a religious figure but he's gone nuts, what's his name the Koyasu character is at a level of obsession over Lust I'd say isn't healthy (but then, he's a Koyasu character), and... I'm having trouble thinking of others beyond Magwar (Who we know had the goal of restoring the city but was going about it in a pretty assheaded way). Marcoh worked with the red stone a LOT, but he kept it in glass containers when he wasn't, so possibly he protected himself from it a little -- and there's no proof that SOME of his paranoia wasn't caused by that (when people really ARE out to get you, it's hard to tell how much might be disorder and how much is just natural response.) On that note, Kimberly was fucked up, as was Basque Grahn, though they were to START -- but while Roy and Armstrong also used the stones, we know they didn't LIKE doing it, which means I can project that they probably took them off/didn't use them at every possible opportunity. (and it was only one night of wearing it for them, iirc.)

That was an entirely off topic ramble as my brain sprang off along your theory, and I've totally forgotten where I was, so I'm just gonna move onto the next part? XD Oh wait, right, yeah, Cornello the religious figure -- Agreed, and didn't think of that at ALL.

[nods] I had hints Scar's brother was castrated when I saw the white scarring that scene we saw him naked, but I think it gave us biiig proof with the bloody pants and... yeah. That's so symbolic... off topic again (my mind jumped from "I wonder what body parts the people who raised the other sins are missing!), but I wonder who tried to raise the other sins. They're probably dead by now, but.. (And on that note -- what did DANTE lose? She created a homunculus, so she has to have FAILED at human transmutation, but...)

[nods] You're right about lust -- I mean, I think the SIN of lust is supposed to be, like gluttony, about *over*-indulging... but fact is that it's been condemned by so many religious figures that it's ended up being that the NATURAL impulse of lust is condemned as a sin. And so... Yeah, I DO find that humanizing of lust VERY very symbolic and interesting -- actually, you know what always struck me as weird? Lust is the only sin we ever see wearing an outfit that's not her sin!Outfit. She wears this white peasant dress (and it doesn't look like it's OVER her outfit) when talking to Magwar. I took screencaps if you want them.

BAH. You do TOO notice things, and you said so many things here that I hadn't even THOUGHT about, so... [NOOGIES] And thank YOU for the debate!

[nekokoban]

I mean, given that Cornello was the first "villain" of the series (introduced even before the Sins), it may be that he simply wasn't given the sort of depth that the other "villains" later got -- but it could very well be the whole corruption of power thing we've seen time and again in the series, Yoki, at Yousewell, Hakuro to an extent -- even, in some ways, Ed and Roy, who've all changed and done some unpleasant things because of the power they have. (Less Al, because Al, as we pointed out before, was willing to NOT have his body restored if it meant sacrificing people, even though he, like his brother, probably has the capacity to transmute the Stone out of prisoners.) Uh, anyway -- it could be anything like, say, the Crusades or a harken to the dark ages, where corruption of the church existed, Cornello wanting to take over the country to ostensibly spread the rightness of his religious beliefs. Add on the Koyasu character (I want to say Luciferas, but I suspect that's because I was rereading Haunted Junction manga recently, and that was the name of a powerful character in that, haha XD) desperately wanting a cure for the fossil plague, Magwar wanting to revive his city (and likely fill his coffers) -- ALL of these men directly handled the stone; Marcoh, as far as we can see, only directly handled it for a short while, from when Ed broke the vial to when it got absorbed into Scar. (And, you know, Scar.) Going beyond that -- well, we don't know where/how Armstrong wore his enhancer, or Grahn, but we can very likely guess that Armstrong wore his somewhere on his knuckle guards, and Roy, we see, wears it on a ring over his gloves. Neither of these would have much, if any, direct contact with the skin -- Kimberly, though, we see has a necklace, which he could very easily have been handling or wearing under his shirt until air from the explosions yanked it out.

[laughs] My friends and I didn't make the castration connection at first, though there was a LOT of "uhhh ... wow, wonder how HE tans himself" comments going on when he wandered out naked and with that large white patch. XD And you know, given my theory about Dante = Lila? And how Dante being alivecan't match with her raising Greed, who's been sealed for over a hundred years? It could very well be she lost something so important in the original body she switched her awareness -- in essence, the ORIGINAL Dante would be missing something related to raising Greed, but because of the theory of her soul-hopping, these NEW bodies she's hosted in obviously are not missing whatever it was. Does that make sense?

[nods] I mean, okay, the hallmark of the "Sin" outfit seems to be black, with the red circles with their 'veins' going down arms or other limbs. We've finally seen Sloth in her outfit (which looks very similiar to Lust's, by the by), but -- we know Greed wears something completely unrelated to that, and anime!Pride (though that's probably as much out of necessity, being who/what he is) -- but, yeah. Lust has worn other things -- and when she goes to meet Marcoh, she's wearing that fur-lined coat, and then I want to say she was wearing other stuff when she was working with the Koyasu character, though I forget what. XD;

It's interesting, damnit. I really want to see how it'll pan out with her -- she remembers a lot of herself, now (she even asks Scar a few pointed questions about her past life), and it's obviously weakening her, which the Sins can't seem to allow at this point -- I really want to know how it'll gooooooo. ToT

[harukami]

[nods] Considering how IMPORTANT Liore and even Cornello is LATER in the series, I don't think it's irrelevant. I mean, I actually don't much 'like' Ed's actions in those episodes (I think they make sense with Ed's CHARACTER, but I think they're more harmful than 'good' actions) -- because Ed's essentially trying to get the stone as a selfish measure. ("I don't care one bit about military order!") Al makes the excuse that he thinks Ed did it for Roze -- but I think if Ed DID do it for Roze it's because his beliefs clashed with hers and he wanted her to see it HIS way, if that makes sense. (like, "You're being duped! And you're okay with being duped! I'm going to open your eyes so you can't deny it any more! You can take it from there.") There IS this corruption of power feeling from those episodes, and not just on Cornello's side, I think. This is Ed BEFORE he realizes the level of sacrifice -- but people will still die from how rashly and wildly he wanted the stone.

(I think the Koyasu character had a two-syllable name. >_< Can't remember it, though.) And you're right- I mean, of course ROy needs the gloves, since he's got his spark-array on it, but Yikes. The gloves might well be a shield as well as a weapon in that case. [thinks] Huh. It works disturbingly well.

[laughs at the tan thing] See, I almost thought that, but it was so distinct, and SCAR's scar went white, so I thought...yeah. XD And, oh yeah, you mentioned the Dante thing! (Though if *I* were the god of Alchemy, i'd be cheesed and think that was cheating a bit.) It makes sense with the NAME Dante, though, as the guide through the underworld -- The name is *inherantly* referring to someone who passes through death without touching it.

About the hallmark sin outfit -- Doesn't Greed's 'real' form (the monstrous one) also have the 'vein' markings? And Lust's -- when she's wearing th efur coat, she has her sin outfit on underneath (you can see her gloves and stuff), and with the Koyasu character, she DOES juts wear the sin outfit (I know, because Cyth remarked on it when we watched that episode, so I watched for it) XD but... I'm pretty sure she's not wearing the sin outfit under the one in Magwar's mines and I'm ont sure why that stands out to me ,because she's still definately the sin there. XD

It IS interesting [flails] I WANT 41!!!