Full Metal Alchemist General

Paninya steals Ed's pocket watch. It's like a driver license except 100 times more important and has sentimental values

Ling threatens the brothers to fish out the secrets of the Stone. The brothers want to keep the jerk who just swindled them from knowing how to sacrifice people for immortality.

Anyway, Vol 19 highlights!

Author Note: If God asked me what I wanted the most, I'd say "I want the ''Japan's National Diet Library!""

I gather that Arakawa loves food. Understandable since she's from a farmer family. Heck, Silver Spoon is probably an excuse for her to draw more food.

The cover is rather well-colored. This surprise me because most of the time Arakawa's coloring is okay at best (she seems to get better if The Heroic Legend of Arslan is any indication).

The Xerxians "created" Father by accident. What kind of alchemy did this civilization have that they pulled out a piece of God by accident?

Did the Homunculi forget to tell Kimblee to keep the brothers alive? Or did Kiimblee just get Genre Savvy and assumed that Protagonist Power will save Ed?

I see that Kimblee inherits Littlefinger's teleporting abilities. In a matter of a few days, dude sneaks out from Briggs, presumably traveling to the capital, talked to the leaders, planned out an attack, and then mobilizes an army to march in the snow, possibly without train!

Where there's life, there's hope.

Kimblee doesn't truly give a fuck about anything other than his own amusement.

PSN ID: FateSeraph | Switch friendcode: SW-0145-8835-0610 Congratulations! She/They

Well that and sticking to your principles.

He's got mad respect for people who aren't hypocrites and stick to their guns.

It's probably flexible enough for "people change their ideals and principles upon new info" compared to the Homunculi Pride deciding "Don't wanna die, gonna become human".

I kind of like both versions of Kimblee for how they contrast.

Manga Kimblee is charming, dashing and can't be pinned down. It works well as an antagonist, but also comes close to glorifying a mass murderer.

While 2003 Kimblee doesn't bother with games or sympathy and just shows him as the creepy monster such a person would most likely be.

Stories don't tell us monsters exist; we knew that already. They show us that monsters can be trademarked and milked for years.

Technically wouldn't glorifying soldiers who participated in a genocide (like Amestris has done) be counted as glorifying mass murderers?

I'd argue that the way Kimblee is treated is pretty consistent with Amestris.

Oh please, it wouldn't be good fiction if it didn't glorify mass murderers.

edited 28th Jun '17 4:13:00 PM by RAlexa21th

Where there's life, there's hope.

Just because it shows that Kimblee has a personal code doesn't mean it's glorifying a mass murderer. Character traits do not represent authorial beliefs, and the fact that Kimblee has a personal belief system just makes him more rounded of a character, rather than making him morally right. His code notably doesn't have a moral bent to it, since it's his own personal belief that people should stick to their guns, so while he judges people he's never shown to be morally correct compared to any of the heroes, only another murderer who happened to offend his moral code.

http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/lb_i.php?lb_id=13239183440B34964700 Alfric's Fire Emblem Liveblog Encyclopedia!

I never got the impression Brotherhood was trying to glamorize him or show his behavior as acceptable. His Blue-and-Orange Morality was just there to make him more interesting, like how Bradley is a genuinely terrible and cruel person but genuinely cares for his wife.

Villains don't have to be one note evil.

That's what we have Father for. He made himself one note evil.

When he scolds Pride for going back on his beliefs, we're supposed to agree with Kimblee, and cheer for him having a moral code even if he is otherwise evil. I just couldn't bring myself to care. Like, Brotherhood (not sure about the manga) wants us to respect Kimblee while still seeing him as a villain, if that makes any sense. It doesn't glorify him, but it likes him.

Regardless. he is miles away better than the 2003 anime Kimblee, who was just boring. Brotherhood Kimble is more rounded and complex, and more interesting.

edited 30th Jun '17 12:47:52 AM by SilentColossus

It's okay to like villains.

Where there's life, there's hope.

2003!Kimblee is devoid of character features, but I rather liked that. It made him into an unstoppable abomination, even more than the homunculi. While Manga!Kimblee loves to strike poses for the camera, I got the feeling that if someone dramatically faced off against 2003!Kimblee during a cold opening, he would kill them during the credits. And real sociopaths can be very flat and predictable.

The trouble is that inhuman villains work best when paired with a more human, relatable one. Yet the only other antagonists in the Amestrian military are Archer and Bradley, who have barely any more depth. Had Archer had a sympathetic side, the two could have worked very well in a "who would use a person like this?" dynamic.

And since Manga!Kimblee's schtick is sticking to principles, he had to be shown acting on them against his masters, which implies some kind of respect. Either that or show it to be a façade.

Stories don't tell us monsters exist; we knew that already. They show us that monsters can be trademarked and milked for years.

I'm still kind of surprised that 2003 Kimblee was voiced by Yuji Ueda, the guy who voices Brock in Pokémon. Never expected to hear the voice of Brock belt out such psychotic laughter.

This was somehow addressed by Hohenheim. It would seem that Ed and Al didn't get anything in return for sacrificing their bodies during human transmutation, but Hohenheim says that their journey, the things they learned and the people they met was what they got as equivalent exchange. Since Al got his whole body back, his sacrifice was invalidated, and thus he also lost the memories and experiences gained through that sacrifice.

Though this can be read as simply symbolic. It may be just that Ed's body exchange turned out more imperfect than Al's because he doesn't have the Philosopher's Stone.

http://m.ign.com/articles/2017/07/01/anime-expo-2017-fullmetal-alchemist-manga-hardcover-collectors-edition-announced

Dang it, just when my collection is about to be completed.

Where there's life, there's hope.

Joyous day! Today the rest of the manga has arrived to me. This is my first completed manga collection!

Where there's life, there's hope.

edited 12th Jul '17 10:11:44 PM by Mizerous

Mileena Madness

Doesn't look too bad. I wanna see more of the automail prosthetic makeup

PSA, we have a thread for the live action film.

Where there's life, there's hope.

So the Better on DVD page mentions that Brotherhood flows like an extra long movie, and after analyzing things a bit, yes, the manga is a giant three act structure.

Act 1 (Cornello - the aftermath of Devil's Nest): We learn about the setting, the rules of magic, the main characters and their motivations, and the villain. By the end of Act 1, we get a good look at Father and all seven Homunculi. The Elrics also become aware of the Homunculi's biological makeup and regenerative power.

Act 2 - First half (Xingese arrival - Ed gets out of Gluttony's belly): The heroes become more proactive. They gain more allies and clash with Team Bad Guys multiple time, with minor victories and failures.

Midpoint (Showdown in Father's Lair): Team Bad Guy flex their muscle and show how threatening they are. Just when the heroes think they have a chance against Team Bad Guy, they encounter a massive setback.

Act 2 - Second half (The brothers begin searching for May - Team Greed fights Pride): The heroes scramble to recover from their losses while continuing to make progress. Both side prepare themselves for the final showdown.

Act 3 - (The Promised Day - Journey's End): Team Heroes and Team Bad Guy brings everything they have for a final battle. All plot threads converge in a series of escalating setpieces. Finally, all loose ends are tied up and the main characters have their closure.

edited 18th Jul '17 9:04:57 PM by RAlexa21th

Where there's life, there's hope.

Pretty much, oh one of my favorite ways to describe FMA is "Oh my god they're all gonna die. Oh my god they're all dead..."

Mileena Madness

Not really related. What I said was best used to describe the ending arc and final battle leadup.

edited 19th Jul '17 12:50:47 PM by EchoingSilence

I meant to say this is how everyone felt when Edward kicked Father's ass. :P

Mileena Madness

I like that although you called it a three-act structure, you described five acts, the way Film Crit Hulk once argued that there are really five acts in a typical movie story.