Anime (FMA end, PoR)

[thistlechaser]

As there was so much I loved early and mid-way through the series, it's odd to find myself so dissatisfied with its ending. I could point to lots of little things I didn't like, but the bigger, over-arching thing is that it felt like they left it open for a FMA Part 2 on purpose. Also, very oddly, somehow the ending felt much much more like the ending of an American series instead of an anime one.

Mustang was my favorite character, yet I'm unhappy that he lived. (I think it was done more for "FMA Part Two" than for realistic story reasons.) It would have made for a better, stronger ending had he died.

Archer went from one of my favorite characters to someone I rolled my eyes at every time he appeared. It was like the Terminator stormed onto the FMA and wouldn't leave... but made worse by the whole gun-in-the-mouth thing.

I was fully ready to have Al die. I would have been sad, but it would have made sense in the story. To have him live (live and have NO painful memories at all) feels so much like cheating! Based on earlier story development, I suppose I sort of buy Ed not really dying, but still! It felt totally like cheating as well. Why do we need these forced happy endings? (Other than for FMA2?) Remember the earlier storylines? How painful deaths were? It's like they cheated and made everything easy and nice just to leave openings for another series/movie/whatever.

Even Wrath was a cheat. Why would they give him new limbs and just let him walk off? It's not like he's safe/sane to let loose out in the world...

A minor detail: In the wrapping up, they mentioned the military just GAVE AWAY power to non-military government people. BUH? BUH? BUH? Since when does a military-run country do that?

I'm really sad and surprised at how they ended things. The show had such potential and was so great early on! I'm amazed they were able to mess the ending up so badly...



I'm trying to catch up on PoT (again), so I watched a few eps today. I loved the one with Ryoma's father in America! (Other than the bad guy being a dork with ugly hair.) It was my favorite ep in a long, long time. (Minor detail: I do not believe the father should have said "mada mada dane". Before the storyline went twisting out of focus, Ryoma was trying to become better than his father. Why would he start using his father's catchphrase when he didn't even respect him?)

Comments

SPOILY!

[quasilemur.livejournal.com]

You know, all the happy-happy stuff only happened in the epilogue. At the end of the episode, everyone's been screwed, a la normal FMA procedure. Then in the epilogue, they go back and survivinate everyone. I was actually a little surprised that Mustang lived, considering he got The Big No from Hawkeye. To me, it almost seems as though they tacked on the ending at the last minute so as to end the series on a happier note. But there were some redeeming qualities to it. Mustang/Hawkeye shippers all got little hearts hemmorhaging in their brains. And the bit with Fury as Armstrong's protege was the best thing ever*.

Since when does a military-run country do that?

Gave away is a nice term for it, I believe. Prevented bloody revolution might be a better way of putting it. And it's happened in real life, without the expedience of narrative fiat.



* Not actually the best thing ever.

[chichiri.livejournal.com]

The Big No from Hawkeye.<---LOL I never heard it called that. I like it.

I just finished the series this morning and am still in shock.

I really really liked the ending. But, I can agree with you on some things. I think it would have been more powerful had Roy died. I was already crying my eyes out over that, and then when he lived I was SOOO Happy. ^^;;;; So, but you know what I mean. And it's just really weird that both brothers are alive...I thought it was FMA style to kill one of them. I thought Al was going to stay dead...and I wanted to see what Al was doing! how exactly he went through the gate. Because they never really explained what the gate WAS, and what's the difference between being IN the gate with the eyes (what are the eyes?) and the creepy things, vs going into our world. (This means Ed's in our world..weird, huh? er that was a long time ago though ;_; I wonder if there's a historical person they named him after. when I have time I'm going to go look up some names...) But it's still really painful for the brothers to be separated and for AL to lose his memories. I thought that fit in really well, because the whole point is trying to get us to cherish the memories and the JOURNEY they and we took together. ya know?