[ SECRET POST #1126 ]

[case]

⌈ Secret Post #1126 ⌋

Warning: Some secrets are NOT worksafe and may contain SPOILERS.

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Notes:

Secrets Left to Post: 04 pages, 078 secrets from Secret Submission Post #161.
Secrets Not Posted: [ 0 - broken links ], [ 0 - not!secrets ], [ 1 - not!fandom ], [ 1 2 3 4 - too big ], [ 0 - repeat ], [ 1 - take it to comments ], [ 1 - posted twice ].
Current Secret Submissions Post: here.
Suggestions, comments, and concerns should go here.

Comments

[(Anonymous)]

I actually think Al is much more Stuish than Ed by a longshot. Ed's become a bit Stuish in the latest chapters, TBH, but Al has always been a little too flawless, grounded and competent. The one time he actually seemed to display some kind of flaw, it was gone quickly and never spoken of again.

Riza has Sueish traits, and it's silly to try and deny it. If you can name me a single flaw that has any real impact on her characterization, I'd be happy to hear them.

That said, I agree that people use the term too flippantly, and that it's often used to describe any character (usually female) that somebody just doesn't like.

[(Anonymous)]

I don't see how she's any more Sueish than any other character in the main cast, and that in itself argues against her being a Sue; in the FMAverse, she is not a particularly unusual or unrealistic character.

[(Anonymous)]

When did I say she was more Sueish than anyone else? Al definitely beats her in that respect, since he gets significantly more spotlight.

in the FMAverse, she is not a particularly unusual or unrealistic character.

That's not a good thing. It means that most of the characters are underdeveloped and not sufficiently flawed. I'll agree with Herongale on this one: Arakawa is good with plot, but tends to fall short on characterization a lot of the time.

[(Anonymous)]

When did I say she was more Sueish than anyone else?

Sorry, I didn't mean to imply that; what I'm saying is that if everyone in the canon has "Sueish" traits, then I don't think that those traits are Sueish in that canon. For a more extreme example, one character in, say, Ouran, being able to perform alchemy would be extremely Sueish, but since alchemy is an accepted part of FMA, it's not a Sueish trait there.

That's not a good thing. It means that most of the characters are underdeveloped and not sufficiently flawed.

I disagree, but I think this is mainly a matter of taste. (For example, I really enjoy Cardcaptor Sakura, in which none of the characters have significant flaws, but I can understand why someone would dislike it for that reason.) I also think that Riza does have flaws, chief among them being her reliance on Roy; this is both her weakness and her strength.

[(Anonymous)]

When you say "All the characters are a little sueish" it completely waters down the use of the term "sueish." Any given Twilight character has "sueish" tendencies, for example. Does FMA portray it's characters in such a lovingly purple prose-y way? Of course not!

Also, flaws don't make a character- too humans aren't perfect, but too many flaws just gives you someone unlikeable. Or Yoki.

[(Anonymous)]

I never said that all the characters are Sueish, but some of them definitely are--insofar as they have traits generally attributed to "Mary Sues".

Also, flaws don't make a character- too humans aren't perfect, but too many flaws just gives you someone unlikeable. Or Yoki.

Flaws don't have to be things that make somebody unlikeable; they just have to be traits that cause the characters difficultly in some way. Things that we think of as strengths can in fact be flaws. Determination warping into obsession, far example, or kindness warping into condescension. And what if that kindness stems from a desire to feel better about oneself? Self-hatred is also a flaw.

That said, strengths don't make a character, either. What makes a good, well-rounded character is having both strengths and weaknesses. Edward and Roy are well-rounded characters.

[adraekh.livejournal.com]

Slightly OT: One thing that strikes me about the FMA manga is how much of it is a story about the reaffirmation of positive, moral values. Ed has the resolve not to kill, Roy has the resolve to make it to the top (and sacrifices his chance for revenge to hold onto this dream). So on, so forth. There are so many examples of this throughout the manga. Many of the characters thus have what I call the strength of resolve, and this is embedded firmly in the canon.

What surprises me is how few writers have taken advantage of this theme. You can find fanfic everywhere about this reaffirmation, again and again, but it's difficult to find the opposite. That is, I think that FMA is great tragedy fodder. You have these heroes who can easily become tragic heroes just by honing in on one of their "strengths" and turning it into a tragic flaw. Ed doesn't want to kill? Have it bite him in the ass, somehow, someday. And maybe I haven't searched around enough, but I just can't find these stories, which is a shame. So much wasted potential there, IMHO.