timepiececlock (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
timepiececlock) wrote2008-05-12 02:23 am
timepiececlock) wrote2008-05-12 02:23 am
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FMA anime ships? TALK TO ME. [also: MOVIE SPOILERS]
Warning: I haven't read the manga, am not spoiled, but plan to some day when it's completely finished.
I have this really strong desire to talk to someone about FMA anime pairings, specifically Ed/Noa, of which like 7 people in the entire internet ship and I'm one of them. I have other pairings I ship (Roy/Riza, Scar/Lust), but this one hardly anyone ever wants to talk about.
Noa was only in the movie and, if you've seen the movie, you know how she has a complicated relationship with Edward that isn't precisely romantic but certainly has sexual undertones, and you know how it ends.
I am sort of vaguely aware that the entire fandom hates her. I get why... she is a passive character in many ways, and she takes up "valuable screentime" that could have been used on Mustang or Winry, and in the end her role in events is somewhat negative (gray-area at best) and ineffectual.
So why do I like her? Why do I ship her with Edward? Even though the shipping is really just in my head because I've only ever written a drabble for them, and there's like no fanfic whatsoever to read.
I don't know precisely why I like her, instead of being pissed off at her for being a damsel in distress, but I just do. I have, however, figured out why I like her with Edward: she's not perfect, and Edward is drawn to imperfect people. I think this is why it works for me. Not only did I like the vibes in the movie, and what Ed represented to Noa and what Noa represented to Edward, but I can just see it happening, you know? Edward's character throughout the series (and Alphonse's too) has been drawn to imperfect people. A lot of the "good guys" in the show that he allies himself with are morally suspect or outright killers themselves, or are reformed killers, or will be later. Edward manages to be extremely moral while also being intimately familiar with sin, guilt, responsibility, and death. He navigates a world of imperfect people who make mistakes and suffer extreme consequences for those mistakes.
The way the FMA movie ended made perfect sense to me: of course Ed and Al would drive off into the sunset with the gypsies, with Rose and the reincarnated versions of Scar and Lust, to an uncertain future in a war-torn world. They're wanderers, adventurers, and will never be happy if they're not questing. Ed and Al (but Edward especially, because I think Alphonse is more adaptable to domesticity) have been adventurers since they were kids and it only makes sense to me that they would continue that way for the rest of their lives. Of course, they won't spend all that time with the gypsies, but for now I can easily see the gyspies/Ishbalans being exactly what Ed and Al need for adventure. Ed/Noa feels like a natural extension of that to me... they had tension in the movie, and Edward seemed to react to her in a way that was not explicity sexual but also not completely platonic, and she certainly reacted to him.
The fact that she betrayed him (against her will, or not) and that she wanted him to point her to a better place/idealized his origins... none of that actually stops me from shipping them. Not "epic love eternally" kind of shipping, but a "this makes a lot of sense for these characters in the here and now" kind of shipping. Normally I wouldn't be drawn to a character like Noa at all, given that she's weak-minded, and she has this "victim" vibe. But hell, those are the kind of people Edward is always trying to help. Edward Elric makes people better, braver, stronger. He did it with his own brother, with Mustang, with Scar, with Rose, with Winry, with the other two alchemist brothers, with Wrath, with various townsfolk along the way, even with Greed in a twisted and backward way. Noa at the end of the movie is happier and freer for knowing him.
I look at Noa in the anime movie, and I see an imperfect character, yeah, but I also see exactly the kind of person Edward would (and does) go out of his way to attach himself to, help, get involved with, etc. And I still positively adore that shot in the movie's climax, when he's in the airplane and he looks out the cockpit window and, however improbably, locks eyes with Noa. That shot was so intense, and the stuff communicated in that scene so layered and complex, that I loved it. That shot sold me on a pairing when up until that point I didn't ship Edward with ANYONE. I liked their dynamic even if you don't look at with a romantic/sexual angle, but I thought the movie conveyed a definite (if clouded) subtext of sexual tension with them, and to ignore it would be ignoring part of their character dynamic.
All this can be summed up to say the following: When it comes to FMA and Edward Elric, I ship no one at all or the most unpopular, least-discussed pairing out there. Hell, even Ed/Envy has a massive following in comparison. I've even seen more Ed/Riza fic than I've seen Ed/Noa.
Side discussion regarding Ed/Winry: I know a lot of people don't ship Ed with any of the other female characters because they ship him with Winry, but by the end of the tv show (and certainly the end of the movie) I was much more sold on the Eternal Friendship/Family vibe of Winry/Ed/Al than I was on anything romantic. There was potential early on, but it looked to me like by the end Winry knew she would never be That Girl for Edward, and instead would be his friend, and she seemed okay with that. As I hate the idea of a strong-minded character like Winry waiting around to be the Trisha to Ed's Hohenheim, I'd rather she moved on too. I just don't find the "I'll wait for him tragically" thing to be either romantic or in-character for her. I don't have a problem with putting them together *in* the series timeline, but somehow I can't imagine them together by the end of it, or in the future.
I have this really strong desire to talk to someone about FMA anime pairings, specifically Ed/Noa, of which like 7 people in the entire internet ship and I'm one of them. I have other pairings I ship (Roy/Riza, Scar/Lust), but this one hardly anyone ever wants to talk about.
Noa was only in the movie and, if you've seen the movie, you know how she has a complicated relationship with Edward that isn't precisely romantic but certainly has sexual undertones, and you know how it ends.
I am sort of vaguely aware that the entire fandom hates her. I get why... she is a passive character in many ways, and she takes up "valuable screentime" that could have been used on Mustang or Winry, and in the end her role in events is somewhat negative (gray-area at best) and ineffectual.
So why do I like her? Why do I ship her with Edward? Even though the shipping is really just in my head because I've only ever written a drabble for them, and there's like no fanfic whatsoever to read.
I don't know precisely why I like her, instead of being pissed off at her for being a damsel in distress, but I just do. I have, however, figured out why I like her with Edward: she's not perfect, and Edward is drawn to imperfect people. I think this is why it works for me. Not only did I like the vibes in the movie, and what Ed represented to Noa and what Noa represented to Edward, but I can just see it happening, you know? Edward's character throughout the series (and Alphonse's too) has been drawn to imperfect people. A lot of the "good guys" in the show that he allies himself with are morally suspect or outright killers themselves, or are reformed killers, or will be later. Edward manages to be extremely moral while also being intimately familiar with sin, guilt, responsibility, and death. He navigates a world of imperfect people who make mistakes and suffer extreme consequences for those mistakes.
The way the FMA movie ended made perfect sense to me: of course Ed and Al would drive off into the sunset with the gypsies, with Rose and the reincarnated versions of Scar and Lust, to an uncertain future in a war-torn world. They're wanderers, adventurers, and will never be happy if they're not questing. Ed and Al (but Edward especially, because I think Alphonse is more adaptable to domesticity) have been adventurers since they were kids and it only makes sense to me that they would continue that way for the rest of their lives. Of course, they won't spend all that time with the gypsies, but for now I can easily see the gyspies/Ishbalans being exactly what Ed and Al need for adventure. Ed/Noa feels like a natural extension of that to me... they had tension in the movie, and Edward seemed to react to her in a way that was not explicity sexual but also not completely platonic, and she certainly reacted to him.
The fact that she betrayed him (against her will, or not) and that she wanted him to point her to a better place/idealized his origins... none of that actually stops me from shipping them. Not "epic love eternally" kind of shipping, but a "this makes a lot of sense for these characters in the here and now" kind of shipping. Normally I wouldn't be drawn to a character like Noa at all, given that she's weak-minded, and she has this "victim" vibe. But hell, those are the kind of people Edward is always trying to help. Edward Elric makes people better, braver, stronger. He did it with his own brother, with Mustang, with Scar, with Rose, with Winry, with the other two alchemist brothers, with Wrath, with various townsfolk along the way, even with Greed in a twisted and backward way. Noa at the end of the movie is happier and freer for knowing him.
I look at Noa in the anime movie, and I see an imperfect character, yeah, but I also see exactly the kind of person Edward would (and does) go out of his way to attach himself to, help, get involved with, etc. And I still positively adore that shot in the movie's climax, when he's in the airplane and he looks out the cockpit window and, however improbably, locks eyes with Noa. That shot was so intense, and the stuff communicated in that scene so layered and complex, that I loved it. That shot sold me on a pairing when up until that point I didn't ship Edward with ANYONE. I liked their dynamic even if you don't look at with a romantic/sexual angle, but I thought the movie conveyed a definite (if clouded) subtext of sexual tension with them, and to ignore it would be ignoring part of their character dynamic.
All this can be summed up to say the following: When it comes to FMA and Edward Elric, I ship no one at all or the most unpopular, least-discussed pairing out there. Hell, even Ed/Envy has a massive following in comparison. I've even seen more Ed/Riza fic than I've seen Ed/Noa.
Side discussion regarding Ed/Winry: I know a lot of people don't ship Ed with any of the other female characters because they ship him with Winry, but by the end of the tv show (and certainly the end of the movie) I was much more sold on the Eternal Friendship/Family vibe of Winry/Ed/Al than I was on anything romantic. There was potential early on, but it looked to me like by the end Winry knew she would never be That Girl for Edward, and instead would be his friend, and she seemed okay with that. As I hate the idea of a strong-minded character like Winry waiting around to be the Trisha to Ed's Hohenheim, I'd rather she moved on too. I just don't find the "I'll wait for him tragically" thing to be either romantic or in-character for her. I don't have a problem with putting them together *in* the series timeline, but somehow I can't imagine them together by the end of it, or in the future.
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The movie isn't as good as the tv show because it rushes some things (everything with Mustang and Amestris-world) but there's a lot it does well, and it definitely gives a taste of Ed-as-18, as well as being fun for "spot the reincarnation!" game. The Ed/Al stuff is handled perfectly, and since that's what I *really* wanted out of the movie, I loved it.
I tried reading a couple Ed/Winry post-anime fics but they all seemed to involve her waiting stoically or him magically coming back a few years later and she's just happy as clams to see him, which felt massively unfair to her character, to me. I'm sure there's plenty of fic out there that's better and I just haven't crossed it.
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Also, the main plot is interspersed with great one-shots; "Gods of War and Glory," in which somebody spikes the punch at a military party and things degenerate to the point of Hughes (I think) toasting the god of overdue library books, is worth the price of admission alone. ♥
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I don't really ship Ed with Noa but I can see where it would work - I see that with a lot of FMA ships. I don't particularly think I *ship* any ships - I like RoyEd a lot, but only when certain people write it. I guess it's kinda the default for the fandom. What I end up shipping doesn't even exist, so I don't know what that says about me except that I like my novelty.
Ed and Winry are already family, to me - I can't ship EdWin no matter how hard I try. Al and Winry, on the other hand, seems to work for me.
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Ed/Roy is one of those ships I just can't like at all, despite being open to far more unconventional Ed ships. My brain rebels when it comes to the idea of Ed/Roy being romantic or sexual.
I liked the idea of Al/Winry when the show started, but after the age-change at the end of the tv series, it lost interest for me. If he had stayed, I could see it.
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I'm generally easy-going with ships with Ed too, except that I don't really see Ed/Roy at all. Ed/Winry I can be okay with provided it doesn't make Winry stupid, but I don't get that excited about it.
but he probably outlives Noa anyway.
Considering all the things that make her life dangerous, and that world war II is starting in a few years, that could very well be true. Or, she could live to be 90, telling fortunes and stuff and have stories to tell about old world europe. I wouldn't expect them to last as a lifelong couple anyway.
I secretly think he marries Our World Winry to have those adorable great-grandbabies,
I *am* all for grandbabies, but Our World Winry... that could be great or that could be creepy. In principle, it's sound.... but if you think about it it's also kind of creepy, marrying the alternate-world version of the girlfriend you left behind. If it were happening to me personally I'd probably be severely creeped out, but I can read about it happening to fictional characters and be okay with it, you know?
*except
Re: *except
Also, it wouldn't be creepy by virtue of the fact that both parts of the relationship would know about the alternative versions. In most, the replacement wouldn't believe it even in the person who know told, which you know they never do.
Re: *except
it wouldn't be creepy by virtue of the fact that both parts of the relationship would know about the alternative versions.
Yes. Because if Rose did meet him and love him again, she of course would tell him, and the Doctor would probably figure it out even if she tried to hide it. And the Doctor's one of the few characters who probably *wouldn't* have scruples about this kind of thing, being not prone to human fussiness about certain things.
In most, the replacement wouldn't believe it even in the person who know told, which you know they never do.
I wouldn't tell. Who would? I can't imagine telling if it wasn't to someone like The Doctor, who was predisposed to believing in and understanding this stuff both literally and emotionally. And if you can't share a secret that huge, then there's a disturbing lack of trust there.
In fact, the only show that made this kind of thing really work for me was Farscape (again--FS does so many things right, despite the occasional detours into wrong) with having Aeryn love first one version of John, then the other. And it only worked in that show because they pounded into the audience the fact that both Johns were exactly. the. same. That's not even touching on the idea of souls, and soul mates, and how that goes across universes, if it does.
Re: *except
Oh, I'm not saying not telling is surprising or unreasonable, but it does an a layer of deceit that can make the reader flinch.
On Farscape - my mother and are are stalled out on that at the moment. We're in the middle, and good!John has just died, and asshole!wormhole!obsessed!John is on Moya, and we're like, 'you killed the nice one? Seriously?' I think we haven't watching anything past The Choice, because that way we can pretend that Aeryn goes off with Krase (? spelling?) and Talan and has adventures while asshole!John continues to torture eveyone else on Moya.
Re: *except
THe tricky about the two johns is that John is both an asshole and kind.
I am sorry I just spoiled a bit for you! Really sorry! I thought I was being vague enough that if you hadn't watched it you wouldn't care, but looks like you were at just that moment. ::cringes:: I'm so sorry!
Um... finish Farscape! I can't believe you STOPPED. And RIGHT THERE! That whole period is badness for everyone. That's not even season 4, and season 4 rocked my brain with it's crazy ambition and wacky fun times and heartbreaking angst. Seriously, I have yet to meet a show that is simultaneously so painfully angsty and so incredibly weird-funny as Farscape. For every giggle, they also want an operatic tear. **loves so much**
I can tell you that the show ends in a fantastically awesome miniseries that will meet all your tv-watching expectations for drama quotient and explosion count (because in Farscape anything that can explode will explode) and you should finish it now OMG.
If you trust me as a tv fan, sit down with your mom and watch it.
Crais (spelled like so) became an awesome character in seasons 2 and 3, way more than I expected of him in season 1.
Re: *except
And don't worry - Farscapes on of the few shows where I go spoiled before I went in, and ended up watching things out of order so, no harm no foul.
*nods* I'm really loving Crais' journey, and I hope he sticks around for a while. He was such a great foil for Aeryn and John and Talon.
Doctor Who alterverse stuff
There was no ambiguity in the script, but there was ambiguity in the acting. I will love the writers FOREVER for that beach conversation. Rose mentions "the baby" and the Doctor gets this indecipherable look and asks if its her, and Rose tells him it's Jackie's. Then he says "Aah" and they continue on, and nothing is ever explained. Did the Doctor have that look because of jealousy? Because he and Rose might have possibly done something to result in babies? WE WILL NEVER KNOW. And that, friend, is the ambiguity. You can read that scene however you want.
I like to take the reading that they totally *did* sleep together and the Doctor's reaction was the closest we'll ever get to seeing that admitted on screen, and additionally I like toying with the idea that she totally lied to him, and she was pregnant. She was wearing a pretty thick jacket, after all.
That's the problem with having Rose potentially make a cameo... knowing how she is and who she is just *wrecks* the beauty of possibilities rampant in that beach conversation. It's like we got cake, and now the show wants the cake back, and we look at our tummies and go, "But... but I already ATE the cake... how can you ask for it BACK?"
DW Fics you must read:
great post doomsday drabble: http://rabid1st.livejournal.com/83573.html
Somewhat longer one-shot, my favorite DW fic *ever*, kind of a glimpse into a future if Rose and The Doctor were never separately, and she lived out her life with him. Seriously, this shit makes me smile and cry and is the best Doctor/Rose fic ever, also with a winning last line:
http://community.livejournal.com/time_and_chips/1693191.html
It's on ff.net, somewhere, too.
This is the one I described in the earlier comment, 4000 word oneshot:
http://community.livejournal.com/time_and_chips/2290465.html
THAT IS MY MENTAL CANON. COMPLETELY.
Here's my memories for good Doctor/Rose stuff... a few individual fic links and some rec lists:
http://www.livejournal.com/tools/memories.bml?user=rashaka&keyword=Dr.+Who+fic+-+Rose/Nine&filter=all
Re: Doctor Who alterverse stuff
And I agree about her cameo. As much as I love Rose, nothing they could do would be as awesome as the adventures she's having in my head.
COMMENT MONTHS LATER
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And the Doctor's one of the few characters who probably *wouldn't* have scruples about this kind of thing, being not prone to human fussiness about certain things.
...and it made me think, "Why haven't more fanfics taken this view of it?" I've read a decent amount (though not even 1/20th of what's out there) since the s4 finale and while I agree Rose would have issues, I'd almost like to see more with the Doctor being cavalier instead of angsting about his identity confusion all the time. (which isn't to say I haven't read some great fics, though.)
oh my god it has been a thousand thousand years since I've watched fma
Re: oh my god it has been a thousand thousand years since I've watched fma
Re: oh my god it has been a thousand thousand years since I've watched fma
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By which I mean, I don't ship Noa/Ed, [mainly because I don't really ship Edward with anyone, and if he's got to be pairing with someone, I prefer Winry (she wants him so much and totally deserves to get him) or Riza (strange, yet strangly hot and plausible in good hands.)] HOWEVER I totally see where you're seeing subtext for them (and hello, that forehead touching scene in his freakin' bed?)
random ship babble:
I always shipped Winry/Al because Ed seems to just scream 'will break her heart'. That scene in Rush Valley where she's crying and basically saying 'what's wrong with my automail that you have to kill yourself to get your body back' and he just lies there with his back to her? Oh man. I about hit the screen in an attempt to get him to hug her. So I think Al would end up making her happier.
That said, even if I was OTP about Ed/Winry, there is no way she's waiting docily at home for him - the fact that her way of dealing with her grief is to go improve her skills says it all right there.
The people I really ship in that show are Roy/Riza (so awesome) and Lust/Scar. I adore Lust to pieces (she's the character for which I wrote my first NC-17 fic for) and love the interwovenness of her and Scar's stories. I don't go into doomed relationships much, but there is something so beautiful about how broken and fucked up that scrap of potential love is.
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I totally see where you're seeing subtext for them (and hello, that forehead touching scene in his freakin' bed?)
That scene was hot and unsettling because she's totally violating his trust, but there's a vibe to it all the same.
Roy/Riza is the ship I ship the "most", probably, because I've read more fic and written fic for them, and I consider them basically anime canon (though not permanently), and they're one of the few couples that gets something like a happy potential future. (it seems every other pairing in FMA is at least one half muderer or crazy person villain.) Edward/Riza I read one really hot fic for, and I thought, "Well, huh... okay, I can dig this." But I haven't read anything else for them.
I adore Lust to pieces (she's the character for which I wrote my first NC-17 fic for) and love the interwovenness of her and Scar's stories. I don't go into doomed relationships much, but there is something so beautiful about how broken and fucked up that scrap of potential love is.
Oh I know. I'm so with you there... for so many reasons. I don't usually go for doomed either, but something about both of them makes it jsut too appealing. They are so VERY doomed and twisted, but that just makes it better...
-she was at least 8 years older than him, and he was a teenager when he fell in love with her
-she was in love with his brother
-his brother went insane and killed himself over her
-she's now an [evil] amoral monster
-he's a mass-murdering psycho fanatic who's even rejected by his own people
-his love for her makes him human again
-her recognition/love/attachment to him makes her human again
-their fates are wound up with the war and the lies and the philosopher's stone
-they can never be together (in this world!)
It's almost too epic, and I love how it was so understated in the series but still there were little hints, and as the whole picture was gradually revealed about the philosopher's stone and the overall plot, everything happened quickly and we learned all these details about Scar and Lust and their doomed love/hate/something relationship.
That scene in Rush Valley where she's crying and basically saying 'what's wrong with my automail that you have to kill yourself to get your body back' and he just lies there with his back to her? Oh man. I about hit the screen in an attempt to get him to hug her.
I know. I look at their relationship in the anime and it's like this sad example of "the situation screwed you over long ago." I think Ed cares about her deeply, and liked her when he was younger, and probably *could* truly love her and stay with her if... and here's a billion ifs...
-if he wasn't obsessed with his absent father & alchemy
-if he wasn't obsessed with his dead mother
-if he wasn't obsessed with having ruined Al's life
-if he hadn't gone chasing conspiracies and deadly magic adventure since he was 11 thereby ensuring that he would probably never settle down (sub to that: if Roy never offered him a way out of his village )
-if he didn't love Al & the world more than he loved her
And the thing is, I feel like over the course of the anime (and the movie) you can see how Winry witnesses all this and eventually comes to grips with it. She was so classy in the movie, I loved her.
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Scar/Lust is just about the most epic relationship in that series, and I love how intertwined it is with the rest of the plot - it's not something that was just added on because they needed a romance - it really grew organically.
Ed/Winry I could really see working if Ed got his head screwed on straight. I actually think post-Our World would work well, if only because he would realize how much he honestly cares about her, when returning wasn't an option. (Because though out the series, I think he always know he can go back to Risembool and find Winry). That is not to say, however, that she would be in any way waiting for him.
That girl is living her own life, and Ed just better pray he gets back to Amestris when she's between boyfriends.
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He didn't blame Noa for her weakness in trying anything to get what she wanted, its what he did too. Her nomadic lifestyle fits his and I think they make a great pair.
I love Winry but I like her with dark characters like Wrath/Roy/Scar. Her gift has been forgiveness and understanding and she's wasted on Ed who won't see or appreciate that gift in her. A darker kind of guy whose been kicked around would appricate that trait in her more.
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Anyway, I don't think Ed ever viewed alchemy as a sin, to be honest. Episode 1 shows he was most certainly an atheist, and in any case it's actually Scar who regards alchemy of any kind a sin of the highest degree; contrarily, Ed upholds alchemy and science above religion without hesitation. I won't argue, though, if you're referring to his earliest attempt at human transmutation specifically. Now that was probably the closest Ed has ever gone to acknowledging and regretting a sin, bar what happens during and after the search for the Philosopher's Stone; the sin of human transmutation isn't the essence of alchemy, though, so I'm sure Ed has no qualms about using alchemy in almost every other way.
Heh, I think Ed kicks himself around. ^^ Anyway, I also disbelieve Winry's powers of forgiveness and understanding are wasted on Ed; as insensitive as he is to her romantic affection, he still has visible instances of (facially and silently) appreciating her devotion and maybe pitying her for it. Being conscious of her strengths isn't exclusive to being in love with her romantically. If he doesn't express his appreciation of her more frequently, this is probably because it would seem unnecessary in light of their long history of friendship.
But yes, a fellow Ed/Rose shipper! Though less about the dancing and more about the total-shakeup-of-your-lifelong-worldview brand. Did you notice there's hardly any Ed/Rose fic...? I'm surprised there isn't a little more since, as you said, he *did* blush for her (more than he's done for any other female character!) and express a bit of attraction. You'd think fandom would be all over that.
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I wonder too if he might not be considered an agnostic even in the first episodes, and the word "atheist" is used as a slightly warped translation. Close, but not on the mark. I don't even know if the Japanese language makes a distinction between the two. That'd be interesting to find out; it took me a long time to understand the difference just in English.
Yay for ships of microscopic fanbases...
One can't convince the fandom that any romance of Ed's could ever compare with The Brotherhood, so naturally one doesn't try. I still found episode 1 extremely provocative though, as a shipper, and ended up eager for anything Ed/Rose because I have this huge thing for shipping the most different people possible - or, more accurately, people with the most different or opposing worldviews possible. It creates the best kind of tension, the most dramatic changes in the characters; if you give me a pair of opposite characters whose opposite philosophies or lifestyles go beyond bickering and snark, I guarantee you, I am won.
case in point: Zutara...So when Ed totally challenged Rose's religious passion, underwent a brief moment of betrayal, and ultimately upended her entire worldview and made her special in the city of Lior, I was kind of... very impressed. You're right; he left her stronger, smarter, more like a heroine. I need more snarky-traitorous-fundamentallyopposed-enemy-lifechanging OTP's.
Note that I haven't made a single mention of post-Lior-catastrophe Rose, though. I lost interest in her considerably after that; it was as though everything she gained from episode 1, she completely undid herself, becoming a faulty religious icon. And then she became eye-candy and wore that stupid dress and - sure, it's not her fault, but. :/
I think a lot of the dynamics of (pre-war) Ed/Rose are rather similar to the ones between Ed/Noa: different goals, different principles, inevitable betrayal, equal iron-clad determination with no weakness for love. The difference here is that Ed/Rose fell flat in the end (for me, at least) and Ed/Noa ended on a note bursting to the seams with promise - I mean, GYPSIES. Gypsies. It can't get more romantic than bittersweet journeys and gypsy songs and burning embers when night comes over the hills. Molly and Schmendrick...
In short, word to the Ed/Noa love!
re: Ed/Winry
Loath though I am to admit it, as long as Winry pined after Ed, I felt kind of sorry for her. And I don't like feeling sorry for her. I think that Ed, based on the way he notices her devotion and makes regretful faces, might have felt sorry for her in the same way, though not necessarily romantically. I mean, oblivious though he is, he can't possibly miss that she has always been there though he hasn't, and that she will always be there when he needs her, if she can. Ed must know this and love her for it in his own way, romantically or not. Anyway, that's how I like my Ed/Winry, just the way canon did it - full of could've-been-but-isn't, a touch of sorrow, a lot of absence. I love it this way on the condition that it isn't permanent, since Winry has to move on and become an even better mechanic. I love even more that the movie canon seems to agree.
Re: Yay for ships of microscopic fanbases...
It's weird... even though Ed's reaction to Noa was similar to that of Rose, for Noa it worked for me while for Rose it didn't. I think it was because Rose was coming from a much healthier and *safer* environment than Noa was. Even though Rose was living under the thumb of a tyrant, until that point her life was peaceful and relatively safe. Noa, when Ed met her, was being sold by her companions like a slave and had likely suffered a lifetime of persecution. It made her desperate behavior all the more believable to me. Until she met Ed (or at least in the recent inferrable past) there's probably been few people she could trust who *hadn't* betrayed her.
Totally with you on the gypsies thing. I loved the whole travel-with-gypsies aspect of the end of the film... it's a romanticized and dramatic ending for an epic story.
Re: Yay for ships of microscopic fanbases...
I could totally get behind Noa/Ed, though, but first I should rewatch the movie. When I said it went quickly for me, I mean literally, it went quickly - we watched a fourth in the car, half on the beach, and the rest at home. I don't think I remember any of the finer details...
Psssst, have you read any fic that features Ed and Al's activities during and after World War II? Just asking out of curiosity.
Re: Yay for ships of microscopic fanbases...