fandomsecrets | (no subject)

⌈ Secret Post #1140 ⌋

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

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Notes:

Some out of order because LJ's being REALLY slow.

Secrets Left to Post: 03 pages, 057 secrets from Secret Submission Post #163.
Secrets Not Posted: [ 0 - broken links ], [ 1 2 - not!secrets ], [ 0 - not!fandom ], [ 0 - too big ], [ 0 - repeat ].
Current Secret Submissions Post: here.
Suggestions, comments, and concerns should go here.

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

Naw, you don't owe me an apology or any such nonsense. ♥

It's just a matter of taste - I love both series and both have things that I find awesome and find irritating. I liked how the first anime had more characterization, and it was more serious than Brotherhood. Edward's character was more mature in the first anime, so it took me a while to get used to him being more of a brat. Those things did grate on me with Brotherhood at first, but the series takes an amazing turn probably at about episode 20 or so. It's an almost completely different story from the first anime, and since I haven't read the manga yet, I have no idea what to expect. (I saw a huge spoiler via AMV where Edward got killed by Envy. Neverminding I hadn't gotten past episode 13 in the anime yet!)

TL;DR it doesn't really bother me so much as make me wonder if I'm missing something huge! It's just a matter of preferences - there's nothing to be angry at or anything that's worth an apology from anyone. :D

Hmm, I just feel bad about it. It's the entire notion of having someone else stomp all over something you love while not being able to really say anything back because most of fandom - likes to stomp all over it anyways, what with everybody saying such things like, "Oh, fans of Brotherhood don't exist, it's just that horrible." It's a bit of a shame, I think, and is a little insensitive of everyone. (Again, me included, though I just try to ignore Brotherhood most of the time. That said, I find most of the OPs to be gorgeous. Hah, yay for shallowness!)

I dropped Brotherhood after Episode 15. Ed's characterization in the show grated on me, not because it was different, but because I found it to be very unfaithful to the core of his character as presented in both the first anime and the manga (that is, the common area) in one of the scenes. (And since I'm a cranky ol' viewer, I still haven't quite forgiven them for it yet.) The Rush Valley episode made me want to put my head through the window out of exasperation.

*shrugs* It'd be different if someone was calling me a dumb cunt or something for liking it, but it's just been a polite "I disagree", which I'm totally okay with. To be honest, I was VERY hesitant to watch Brotherhood because I'd heard less than savory things about it, and I loved the first anime so immensely. That, and the art style initially bugged me because... well, while Arakawa's art is far from terrible, the artwork in the first anime was gorgeous; I could have sat through all the episodes for the animation alone. I don't really see people who bring up the negative aspects (or simply why they dislike it) as being insensitive - it's not a perfect series, and the points they bring up are as valid as my points as to why I enjoy it.

... what with everybody saying such things like, "Oh, fans of Brotherhood don't exist, it's just that horrible."

Maybe I'm in a different part of the fandom? I dunno, I've never really heard anything scathing about it - in one of the FMA comms I'm in, there were at least three or four posts squeeing when they were airing Brotherhood on Adult Swim.

If I may ask, what part? I don't mean it as a challenge, I'm just curious to see where there was a huge change in his character. I'm still working on getting through the manga, so I can only compare the two different versions of the anime with one another. I admit that while I like Edward's more stubborn nature in Brotherhood, his characterization as being more thoughtful and serious was something that I've always preferred in the first anime. I know that he's a bit of a bratty teenager to begin with, but I think that sometimes it's done a biiiiiit too much in Brotherhood for certain situations.

Actually, I'm a first anime fan myself. (More specifically, manga-turned-first-anime fan after the mess that was Chapter 95. Oi, I'll keep from spoiling you.) The animation is indeed very beautiful, though the quality did start dropping quite a bit as it went on. Shame.

(. . . on that note, have you ever watched Mushishi? If you haven't, go to YouTube and just find a random clip, at any point in the series, because, damn, that anime has the most beautiful art I have ever seen in an anime. If you consider FMA's animation gorgeous, you'll probably love Mushishi's.)

Maybe I'm in a different part of the fandom?

I must be spending too much time on

fandomsecrets. There were several comments to this effect in the last FMA-related secret thread.

As to what part: Rush Valley, when what's-her-face is giving birth, and Ed actually comes out and says, "God, if you exist, then please help." (Or something similar.) In the manga, he doesn't explicitly pray. Instead he just sits there outside the door and says to Al: "All we can do now is 'pray to God'." The interior quotation marks are marked in the manga, by the way, lending it more of a sarcastic or ironic air to his words, while in Brotherhood, he's clearly holding true to the "no atheists in foxholes" trope. I would brush this episode aside, since it's so minor, but Ed praying to God anytime (whether or not you consider him an atheist or an agnostic, it doesn't actually matter) goes so much against his personal self-help philosophy that I can't overlook it. I figure if Brotherhood is this blatantly sloppy with characterization, then there's the chance it can get worse - so I dropped it a few episodes later.

I... I dunno. I don't hate Arakawa's artwork, but it's definitely not the best. Roy looks really off in a lot of it, which confuses the shit out of me. He looks attractive in Brotherhood and even better in the first anime, but he looks a gene short of caveman in what I've seen in the manga. D:

LOL I get what you're talkin' about. I'm so used to someone jumping down my throat if we *gasp* disagree or something.

CHRIST ON A CRACKER. That part pissed me off in Brotherhood. I mean, I have nothing against religion, so long as you don't shove it down my throat. Whatever makes you happy, y'know? But the key thing in the series is that Edward is a firm atheist - he never once shows any belief in God and even jokes that even if God did exist, he probably hates Edward anyway. Him praying to God when Gracia was giving birth just... I dunno, it felt really out of character. I could understand if it was Alphonse, since he's not really as firm in his beliefs and even suggests to Edward that there could be something out there that neither of them can explain away with science. BUT IT'S EDWARD. He doesn't want anyone to help him, let alone a god. I consider him atheist - I think he outright says it in the manga (I read that far at least, lol).

I think Roy's face is difficult to get right. In all of the mediums (first anime, second anime, and manga), you often have some really awkward shots. Arakawa has the tendency to make him a little moon-faced, for instance, and the same goes for Brotherhood. (Also, Arakawa's art has gotten sloppier in the later chapters of the manga.) In the first anime, there were some scenes in which his nose is too long or some parts of his features aren't actually centered very well. Granted, it's been some time since I watched the first anime, so my memory may be going bad.

This fandom has a lot of potential wank just stewing beneath the surface. Mostly I just lurk to avoid all the confrontation.

I think it's quite possible to argue that Ed's an agnostic, actually, so much so that I generally let comments regarding him being agnostic slide by without thinking about it too much. But we won't get into that, because that would take way too long to explain. (And Arakawa clearly wants us to see him as an atheist, in any case, if only to set up a science-religion dichotomy - or as foreshadowing for some later event. There's a shot in the manga in which Ed claps his hands together, and you have Arakawa noting that the hand-clapping is oddly similar to praying.)

In any case, the entire issue with that scene is that it goes deeper than just "Ed is an atheist, he would never pray," in my opinion. It's that Ed is fundamentally opposed to the idea of religion, because it contradicts his most basic belief regarding how people should not give up, how they should always strive to help themselves regardless of the situation. And I feel that Ed finds religion to be a little too much like throwing in the towel, saying, "All right, there's nothing more I can do, let me pray to some immaterial being in the sky that may or may not exist for help" - basically giving up and shoving your responsibilities onto someone else. The complete opposite of what Ed believes to be the "correct" conduct, essentially.