timepiececlock

I've been addicted to this fanfic for the last 2 hours. It's a Full Metal Alchemist fanfiction set right before the main timeline of the series. It also crosses with Gundam Wing, of all things. And the buggery part is that it works. And it's smartly written, and I can't sleep until I read more.

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An artistic anaylitical note on the opening teaser for FMA #25:

flashback!Hughes: Or did you want to die? If that's the case, there is an easier ways to do that.

As he says this, Hughes is in the bottom left of the frame and taking up most of the image, and in the top right corner of the frame is a gun (presumably Roy's) on a table, highlighted by a light colored table and then the surrounding darkness.

Though I understood the implication, I didn't notice the gun the first time I watched it until right before they cut out of the shot-- I had to rewind to check. I love that they had the gun there... that's pretty blatant once I noticed it, but at the same time very subtle for an anime. Admittedly, I was first busy watching Hughes' face and listening that I didn't pay attention till the last moment to the background of the frame.

Actually it's one of the things I appreciate about this show so much... the same thing I appreciated about Trigun, and Cowboy Bebop, and Escaflowne. There's no need to dumb down things for the audience... the writers/animators can use subtle visual devices like the pistol in the corner of the background of Hughes as he's talking about Roy contemplating suicide, and they trust the audience is smart enough to pick up on it. In hindsight, it also calls to mind the attempt Roy made to shoot himself once before in Ishbal, when he was stopped by Marco.

I like that this show does stuff like this. It makes me feel catered to, the little artsy movie & lit geek in me.

... Episode 25 really is so sad though. It breaks my heart. Hughes was so good. He's the kind of smart, capable, wise person who is wonderful in his soul and of noble intentions the way people in his position should be. He's not corrupt. He has plans, big ambitions that involved Roy... but they were noble, dammit. Noble.

Huhges was...decent.

So he was killed. The way the good incorruptible cop who figured it out to soon is always killed.

And yet, I was still surprised. The way I was surprised about Nina. Why does this show manage to surprise me? Is it because it makes me so frelling attached to the characters before yanking them away?

::finishes second viewing of episode 25::

::has now cried *twice* for the same thing which just doesn't normally happen for Shaka::

::has to go cry self to sleep now and think sad fic thoughts::