FMA: BH ep 9 - Created Feelings

[lettered]

This episode didn't have any action or really any plot moving forward, but it had everyone dealing with feelings, which I like. It also did a lot of everyone reacting way too largely with goofy art, of which I am less a fan.

I forgot to mention much about Brosh and Ross last episode. My main thought about them last ep was that Brosh mentioned that Armstrong would take off his shirt and yell at them, which means that Armstrong takes his short off in-universe? I sort of hoped it was kind of non-diegetic, like chibi art. I still don't get Armstrong. As for Brosh and Ross, I did enjoy that Ross knew exactly where the Elrics went, and that when they showed up at the lab, they proved quite competent.

That played into this episode, in which Ross chews out Edward for going to the lab. I liked how she and Brosh felt the need to do this despite the fact that they might get reprimanded by Edward. I didn't think the slap was necessary, but it lends credence to Ross's comment (which I very much enjoyed): "You can trust adults, you know."

This reminds me a little of the conversation I had with either staranise or likeadeuce. I was complaining in a previous episode about how much sympathy and understanding everyone has for Edward. I like people having sympathy and understanding; I just also want people to remind Edward once in a while that he can be a douche. I don't want all of his douchey behavior to be excused and forgiven--yes, he's had it hard; I can sympathize, but it's still not okay to be a douchey. The main thing I was annoyed about when I mentioned that was how everyone seemed to forget that Alphonse has it even harder; Edward is not the deepest point of this tragedy, imo, even though he's the character that I relate to more.

Anyway, I made a comparison to Harry Potter, who frequently got reprimanded for being douchely. What the person (I can't remember which of you it was) said in reply was that you really appreciated that some of the people around Edward actually understand what he's going through, and support him. I remembered that when Ross said what she did about adults, because I really do appreciate that while this show is about Special Kids, so far there seem to be adults who want to work with them and help them, instead of manipulate them like Dumbledore, lie to them like Snape, help them but irresponsibly like Sirius, or stand in their way like almost all the professors (except Remus. Lovely, lovely Remus.)

Edward has to call up Winry to fix his arm. The screw she found in the tag to one ep turned out to be important, so as someone mentioned, I have to watch the tags. I was very very confused about Winry and Edward's main interaction here. I get that Winry forgot the screw, so she felt really guilty because Edward got hurt. Then she found out that he didn't even realize the screw had been missing, and everything was fine again. That all makes sense, but I didn't get Edward's reaction. He seemed really, really intent on reassuring her that it was all his fault. I guess because he didn't want her to feel guilty? But there was so much OTT going on here with the art--non-diegetic comic touches that I think were meant to convey emotions but actually made the whole thing that much more incomprehensible--that I actually really don't get anything the art and voice actors were trying to convey.

Hughes shows up and says suggestive things about Winry/Edward. I still assume this show is eventually boarding that ship, but anyway it proves Hughes is a great big gossip. Hughes also wants to take Winry home with him, which also makes other things more comprehensible--maybe he's just really hospitable. He likes having people over and sharing his home. As inexplicable as it is to me, there are real people like this! Anyway, I still don't get why Winry resists, or why he literally drags her out of the room and forces her to stay with him against her will.

Anyway, Winry falls for the cute that is Elicia, and Winry and Hughes have a conversation. This might have been a nice moment--for one thing, the art finally settled down, and people actually talk calmly and seriously instead of in the vocal and artistic equivalent of all caps. Winry complains about how the Elrics won't tell her what happened, how Alphonse is in a funk, Edward won't talk about why, etc. Hughes talks about how some people don't want to talk about their emotions because they don't want to burden other people--but what made this conversation suck for me was Hughes says that men don't talk about their emotions.

I realize that Hughes is just one character who might be the sort to make vast generalizations, but I hate this. I really hate this. I hate it when people talk about who men are and what is male, because I usually very strongly identify with it, but I identify as female; I'm a cis-gendered female; I know what being female is, please stop lumping males together as if they think a certain way or are a certain way and females together as if they are another way. It's not a binary, you idiots. Anyway, talk like that is always gonna press my buttons the wrong way unless it's there to be shot down, and this didn't appear to be.

Even though the Elrics eventually sort out their problems by talking about it, Winry says at the end, "Oh! I guess you don't need to talk about it!" And Hughes agrees, which seemed like they wanted to validate his point, even though they had thoroughly and quite neatly defeated his point. Anyway, I just really disliked the whole conversation.

Plus, directly after it, a bunch of the kids wanted to play with Elicia. Specifically, two different boys wanted to play with Elicia, who is three. I think they were making a parallel to Winry and her two boys, and later the Elrics talk about fighting over which of them would marry her. I can see the Elrics doing that, but the two little boys fighting over Elicia seemed just very . . . I don't know, the parallel they were drawing kind of seemed icky to me; it had this weird heteronormative parents-pairing-off-their-prepubescent-children-vibe, except then of course the parent went ape-shit.

Hughes actually takes out his gun on this group of three year olds who want to play with his daughter, and says that none of them get to play with her. This is horrifying and terrifying and Hughes is obviously crazy and dangerous, and needs to be locked away. And yet somehow the next scene is not Winry going to the police saying, "You need to lock this guy away." I really think this was supposed to be humorous. It wasn't.

The biggest emotional point of the episode is when Alphonse finally tells Edward what's bothering him. Edward takes it badly, which I can understand, but I intensely disliked everything about how this was handled, and I intensely disliked Winry. Winry gets really mad at Alphonse for--for what the fuck? What, for not having a body? For being terrified? For having no way to touch or reach out or feel the wind on his face to know that he is real? What the fuck is wrong with these people, that they can't understand that?

I understand Edward not dealing with it well--I mean, what if all Edward thinks about is what he's done to Al, whether Al hates him; he thinks about it so much he can't stand it--of course Edward's going to be hurt that this is what Alphonse thinks of him. And of course, if Winry is in love with Edward, it makes sense that she would worry more about his feelings than Alphonse's--but that seems really immature. I mean, how fucked up must Alphonse be, to be thinking those things, having those thoughts? Do any of these other people understand what it's like to be incorporeal? Earlier in the episode, Edward even fucking jokes about it and wishes he was Alphonse--as if being Alphonse isn't like, pretty much the worst thing on Earth.

Except no, because this show is all about Edward and Edward's pain. I just--I understand all these people having sympathy for Edward, but I want the text, at least, to have some sympathy for Alphonse. Have someone just say, "Wow, buddy. It must suck never getting to go to sleep, or eat ice cream, or feel the sun on your skin, or to feel human skin, and not to have anyone touch you."

Anyway, the Elrics' fight afterwards and their conversation about all the fights they had was okay; I was just so annoyed by Winry and the show's obsession with Edward's manpain that I was only slightly mollified.

The end was a bit about Scar. He has a flashback to a dude who was sent to massacre the Ishvalans? I think. It looked like the guy from the prison with the marks on the palms of his hands, who I think might be the Crimson Alchemist. When Scar comes to, he's in a hut with other Ishvalan survivors. One has red eyes and one has white eyes. Mostly I'm writing this part so I remember to wonder what all this Ishvalan stuff is going to mean in future episodes.

I'm still enjoying the show; I'm just annoyed right now. Sorry for the text dump!

Comments

[lettered]

I still think it's dickly to rail on him for doubting them without any apparent sympathy for why he would do so.

[staranise]

Yes, good point. If I try to make sense of it in my head, it would be that this has tripped some old landmine for them--but the narrative doesn't make that clear.

I was really intrigued by Winry in this ep because she doesn't react the way I expected her to. I mean, if I'd screwed up my craft and then a friend got hurt in a somehow-related way, I would be mortified and apologetic no matter what. Winry's attitude is really different than mine, though. She's just like, "Phew, off the hook! Back to business as usual!" It might be different if she knew that the missing screw contributed to the damage, as opposed to "Ed being Ed again". But even as the perfectionist in me is apalled at her cavalier attitude, I am gaping in a not-negative way at the fact that we get a female character who can feel good about her abilities even when she screws up, just keeps on going even when she makes mistakes, and doesn't seem to doubt herself. So I don't get her, but I think I'd like to.

She's... as arrogant and nerdy about her abilities as Ed is about his. I never noticed that symmetry before.

[lettered]

I'm cool with Winry's reactions to Edward's armor and her mistake. I mean, I think that's dickly too, but I totally get it. I wouldn't hide my mistake like that, but like you, I appreciate a female character who gets to be morally complicated.

My frustration with Winry's reaction to Alphonse's doubt has more to do with the text's treatment of Alphonse than Winry herself.