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timepiececlockWarning: 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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Yay for ships of microscopic fanbases...
Date: 2008-05-17 02:34 am (UTC)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...
Date: 2008-05-18 05:28 am (UTC)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...
Date: 2008-05-22 03:12 am (UTC)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...
Date: 2008-05-18 05:30 am (UTC)