Good job leading that ship onto the rocks, high-five!
That’s was a fun project I got myself into on a self-dare. The title comes from that tiny tiny figure on the lighthouse getting a high-five from the Chtulhu-like creature. Sadly this picture was a victim of the 2017 computer crash that caused the loss of several of my original HD files, so the zoom-ins (old WIP screenshots I had made and posted on instagram) are the last proof of this even being the case.
pic that started as doodle turned seaweed wampire fic from Nony and then I harnessed the power from that to finish it!!! yay!!!! they’re having a great time 🥳!!!!!
Ling, Lan Fan, Fu, and Mei speak in extremely proper and formal Amestrian. Particularly Ling and Mei, because they were taught Amestrian (and several other languages) for diplomatic purposes. Prior to travelling to the country, their experience with the language had been limited to pretty much teachers and textbooks.
With Mei it kinda fits. I mean, it is kind of strange that she addresses kids just a couple of years older than her as “Mr.” but her demeanor overall (even when she’s angry or fighting and demonstrating how fierce she is) is so polite that it’s not that incongruous.
Fu is old and has this air about him, like he’s nobility but not, so that checks out. And you can see Lan Fan’s stickler attitude to protocol for miles.
But Ling.
Ling talks like he’s writing a business email and it’s so fucking weird. It clashes with the everything about him so badly. He eventually adapts and his speech turns far more informal (particularly after he shares a brain with Greed for months), but when he meets the Elrics in Rush Valley he’s only been in Amestris for a couple of weeks and is still going off what he’d been taught by his Amestrian tutor. It’s actually the first thing that clues them in the fact that this guy’s probably rich, even before Fu and Lan Fan appear and address him as “my lord,” because no one without money would use fucking “whom” in a casual context.
Those early days, sometimes he does throw in the rare slang expression, except it’s something he’d picked up from a literary classic that he’d had to read and it’s several decades (or centuries) outdated, so Ed just. Stares at him. Wondering why the fuck Ling’s talking like he’s on stage for a play set in the 1700’s all of a sudden.
I just finished my most recent rewatch of FMAB, and as with every time I rewatch this show I’m left with more thoughts that I just need to get out of my brain. Warning: this post is going to contain hella spoilers for Fullmetal Alchemist: Brotherhood, so if you haven’t seen it yet, pease go watch it! And then come back and read this.
The first time I watched Fullmetal Alchemist: Brotherhood, I didn’t think much about Hohenheim as a character. On the first watch, viewers are being introduced to Hohenheim through Ed and Al’s interpretation of him. When you first meet him, your thoughts are the same as Ed’s: here’s that scummy father of theirs who skipped out on them when they needed him most. And Hohenheim, being the awkward weirdo that he is, definitely did not handle his reunion with Ed very well (just off of the top of my head, I think he calls Ed a coward for burning down their house??? bro). Which really just reinforces the idea that he sucks. But after watching the whole series, it becomes clear that Hohenheim is more complicated than he initially seems.
I primarily wanted to write this because I think Hohenheim as a character is wildly misunderstood by a lot of the people who watch this show. A lot of them seem to shove him into the “shitty anime dads” category without a second thought, and while I do not think he was a good dad, to put him on the same level as Gendo Ikari or something is… a bit rude honestly.
Was Hohenheim a good dad? No. But he was trying to be. The whole reason he left his family was because he wanted to find a way to halt his immortality so he could grow old with them! He wasn’t just ditching out on them for funsies!
To be clear, I absolutely think Ed and Al (although it was mostly just Ed) have every right to be mad at their father, because he was absent when they needed him most, but I also don’t think the audience villainizing Hohenheim is the correct response to that. Hohenheim is an interesting character because he’s complicated. He isn’t a good dad, but he is a good person. I think it’s important for newer anime fans to think about all fictional characters in a complicated way and realize not every character is going to be 100% good or bad.
One time I was talking to a friend about how I think Hohenheim is the best character in FMAB and they were like “really? he doesn’t do much. stuff just happens to him.” and I initially disagreed with that frankly dismissive interpretation of his character but after thinking about it, honestly, I think that’s kind of the point? Hohenheim didn’t ask for this, he didn’t make some big mistake, he was quite literally an enslaved person whose blood was used in experimentation without his consent, and now he has to deal with the incredible dire consequences of a choice he didn’t even make.
In conclusion, I truly believe Hohenheim is one of the most heartbreaking characters in the whole show. All he wanted in life was to grow old with his wife and raise his children and he didn’t get to do either of those things. And it breaks my heart that Ed never fully understood how much love his father had for him. At Trisha’s grave in the finale, Hohenheim noted how special and important it was to him that Ed called him ‘dad’ on the promised day. Even though Ed was literally calling him “rotten”, he didn’t care, he just wanted to receive a modicum of affection from his son. That part really fucked me up.
Let me know your thoughts on Hohenheim, or his relationship with Ed and Al! Thanks for reading,
one thing ive always loved about fullmetal alchemist brotherhood is that it never begrudges a person their revenge. it never paints them as evil or worse than the object of their outrage. fullmetal alchemist will never tell a victim they have not earned their anger, or that it is not right. it does not speak against revenge because your anger is wrong. it only says that you must be careful - that vengeance may destroy you and the ones you care for if you let it consume you. when mustang hears that scar is ishvalan, he says that, in many ways, his killing of state alchemists is justified, although he’s still not keen to become a victim of it. when scar is faced with the daughter of the doctors he killed, he bows his head and tells her that justice is hers to deliver, and that he will not fight if she chooses to bestow it. roy is never told that he must forgive envy, or that hes wrong to want them dead; only that, should he choose to kill them, he will no longer be the kind of man he wants to be. the kind of man he can be. they all agree that envy must die - ed never says that roys anger or grief is unjustified, that his vengeance wouldnt be deserved. instead, he asks “is that the face you plan to wear when you lead this country?” he says your anger is earned, your violence is justified. if you burned them to death like you wanted to, no one would saythey did not do it to themself. but is a man who burns a defenseless person to death the kind of man you want to be? when scar finally decides to stop killing state alchemists, he doesnt do it because he has learned to forgive, or because they do not deserve it. there is no forgiveness for the things amestris has done to his people, and arakawa never suggests that there could be. rather, he stops killing state alchemists because he cannot build a better world on top of more corpses. his anger is justified, but his violence will breed more violence, his hatred more hatred. it will kill him if he does not stop it first, and it will lead his people to even further ruin if he cannot escape it. fullmetal alchemist never says that revenge is evil, or that your anger is not reasonable. it only asks, do you know the cost of taking that vengeance? is that the kind of man you want to be?
