I like how Arakawa is inconsistent on their height difference... honey I shrunk my lieutenant

Hand...

Close your eyes, listen to the Heavens, and tell us what says the great star, 𝖃𝖊𝖗𝖝𝖎𝖆𝖓 𝕾𝖚𝖓!

The interest check for our new FMAB tarot zine closes in 4 days! HERE!

⚜️Roche/Ciri🌹 is golden, but the witcher's fandom is blind sheep.

Ma’am I think you dialed the wrong number...

drawing process :’3

I cannot decide if I like Riza being shorter than average because it’s fun and it would be cute if even Ed outgrew her, or if I like her taller than average and most important taller than me so I can dream about hugging her and resting my head on her [REDACTED]

good lookings

giving mustang eyebags/lines under his eyes look good actually 🤔

Thinking about things that are popular interpretations but not really ‘canon’, Amestris is not ‘literally Germany’ and trying to parallel everything only with Germany or critiquing it on the basis of how good it represents (historic) Germany comes off as.... tunnel vision, in my opinion. Even in 03 were they actually interact with Germans, Amestris is still it’s own country with a different history. It’s another country in another universe, not a parallel version of a real one.

Yes Amestris has European aesthetics as inspiration, that does include Germany too. Yes Arakawa researched early 1900s and WW2 era political situations around the world, including Germany. But also, in a large part Japans history and politics which she has talked about in interviews.

Even on the European aesthetics of Amestris. It has a more broad inspiration too. They canonically speak English, they have London style telephone booths, their military wears blue uniforms like France in ww1. Their military has an American ranking system (at least some of the Dutch military ranks don’t have an english translation so ranking is not always universal). A large part of Amestris is covered by desert and (bryce) mesa/badland biomes or open grasslands. They are land-locked. Despite it being 1914 they dress in modern western clothes. The population is multi ethnic. The life-action movie was filmed in Italy (iirc). The Armstrongs being an old noble family implies a past monarchy. Go wild!

Yeah Mustang is fantasy-asian, but it’s a fanon idea that (some) his ancestors could be (partially) from Xing. Makes sense to pick that for derivative work purpose since we already have other characters from there. You gotta pick something if that’s something specific to explorer. But there are more countries to the east of Amestris that are not Xing. And Amestris has various ethnic groups already, it was formed by conquering other countries and territories over centuries. Light skin/blue or green eyes/blond-brown hair is the most common, Amestris does have a lot of European aesthetic inspiration. They speak english canonically. But ‘Izumi’ isn’t a euro name like most other characters have either. No one in universe ever comments about her or Roy either way. Who knows. Maybe i’m just a fan of things being vague and unconfirmed and going against popular grain. Zzz

I feel like there is some sort of metaphor about puberty and growing up as a late bloomer VS early bloomer with the Elrics. Ed wants to be treated and taken serious as a grown-up and alchemist, so he laments being short and young looking. But Alphonse got a huge body overnight and gets treated as a grown man for it with matching expectations, but he wants to be seen as a kid his actual age.

I don’t really care that much about what could or ‘should’ happen to Roy and Riza post-canon in mangahood or what they do and don’t ‘deserve’. But I dislike the popular fandom version of them living in endless (romanticised) misery-wank feeling sorry for themselves. I was gonna write a longass rant about it but I cannot gather my thoughts.

Yea!! I was looking for that page but did not find it

I think it is cool when they give roy (dark) blue eyes in official art

Favorite Aspect about Royai? Mine is definitely how Loyal they are to each other and always trying to look out for one another.

I like that too!

Personally, while shipping is a fun hobby/fantasy, when I am looking for media to enjoy, I am not that much of a romance enjoyer for the sake of the romance. I want there to be be a moving plot, stakes and interesting setting. With that context, I like pairs who’s relationship is the biggest strength they have navigating the world and it’s challenges, but it is also their biggest weakness. 

These characters love each other, they depend on each other. Their success is the direct result of their teamwork. Even everyone around them knows they are inseparable and need them to keep working together for the greater good. But at the same time, the love is an exploitable weakness. It crosses a professional boundary. They take needless risks for each other and may constantly get into trouble. They might harm others that get in their way. It can go bad really fast for everyone and every bystander. 

Boss/subordinate, bodyguard crush, fellow coworker romance, fellow knights, king/favourite knight, mage/familiar, things like that, those type of relationships all kinda describe pairs that I liked the most. Royai is just the one for me that has a little of it all and the one I got into the hardest 😌😌

I also appreciate about royai it’s subtle. Yet they function as an established relationship. They have already known each other for many years. There is no awkward getting to know each other, the will they/won’t they, the ‘i hope senpai likes me too’, or any discomfort like that going on. 

🤍❤️ ☺️

🤍: Which character is not as morally bad as everyone else seems to think?

I’m really struggling with an answer, maybe I just do not disagree with any common opinions regarding this topic? I have seen many interesting discussions about Scar for example! 

❤: Which character do you think is the most egregiously mischaracterized by the fandom?

Uncharacteristically going to talk about Roy again. He is often made way more goofy than he actually is. Almost every character in the series has humorous moments sure, but Roy is not nearly as much the silly comic relief guy as he is often portrait in fanworks. He’s pretty damn serious almost the whole time.

If you do really like the skilled charming colonel who’s also the team’s comic relief guy, just get into stargate sg-1. Colonel O’Neill is actually as silly as people wish colonel Mustang was. Bonus point for O’Neill also hating paperwork and having a series long maybe-romance with his short blonde haired, black shirt wearing subordinate, and both have a past of desert wars. (Although that’s pretty much were the similarities end so don’t go looking into it expect them to be too similar LOL).

here comes little zachy 6 hours late to the ask game party but ❤️ fma if ur still inclined ^_^

❤: Which character do you think is the most egregiously mischaracterized by the fandom?

I’ve talked about it before too, but I’ll say Roy gets it a lot. I don’t like when he is not allowed to have negative character traits. Or when his bad traits and actions are explained away with sympathetic reasoning. For example that he did not mean to do something bad, feels very guilty about it, or the situation he was in forced him to act in a negative way.

While Roy’s motivations and goal are sympathetic and he is incredibly charming and cunning, he is also canonically seen by others as a difficult asshole. Like for example he punched Ed in the face when he could, and provokes Ed constantly for fun. I do not think Roy ever felt bad about that. 

Other times it goes too far in the other direction and I think people make him too mean. Like Roy loves Hughes, a lot. Yes Roy gets annoyed when Hughes doesn’t get to the point and gets side tracked talking about his family. His gushing is a bit cringe and off-putting and Roy will tell him to shut up like an ass. But Hughes is still his best friend. Roy being portrayed as always only annoyed with Hughes makes me feel bad for Hughes. If you are always annoyed by your friend, maybe you should not be friends. When there is not an important pressing work issue to discuss, I think Roy is interested in his best friend’s life and does like listening to him. 

💙?

💙: Which character is not as hot as everyone else seems to think?

None of the teenage protagonists. Even when I was their age first getting into the series, I liked them and I like them a lot still, but they never appealed to me as hot.

💀 for FMA, if you don't mind! Thanks!

I said Riza last night, but actually I will take it back. If she had died that late in the game we would all be writing like feminist critiques about how her death was only added as fuel for Roy’s manpain and that there were no episodes left to properly deal with the impact.

But she really did survive with plot armour and the power of love. Once in a blue moon in freak accidents ice skaters get this neck injury. Even when rushed to the hospital for immediate surgery and blood transfusion with modern tools, those who survive it are very, very lucky. All Riza got was the alchemical equivalent of a bandage and she kept walking. The blood transfusion and possible repair surgery was later (manga only). Especially in the anime they make it look like she lost so much blood. How was she not in hypovolemic shock dying from organ failure? Luckily fiction does not need to be realistic and has the power of love and friendship :)

Idunno who else to pick. Maybe Selim? He’s a homunculus fused with a human like Bradley, who has been fused with the baby for much longer than Bradley has been alive. Yet Bradley dies dead and Selim could be separated and lived... why 🤔

💀💙

💀: If you had to choose one major character to die, who would you choose?

Hawkeye should have died from major bloodloss. Unironically, it could have been interesting for such a major character to actually die dead so late in the series, and what would have happened then. But she is like a pokémon with max affection stats that toughed it out on 1 hp so you wouldn’t be sad.

💙: Which character is not as hot as everyone else seems to think?

Mustang. At least I’m in good company because allegedly Arakawa also thinks he is just Some Guy and was surprised by fans thinking he’s hot LOL.

I know I’m the blonde women enjoyer, so this is wild, but i’m neutral on Olivier’s appeal... I cannot even explain why.