FMA timeline question!

[timepiececlock]

I jsut had a thought. I've been laboring under a miscomprehension about the timelines/ages for the FMA characters in the anime v. the movie.

Ed's not 18 in the movie, he's 20-21. Al's not 12, he's 14-15. (and looks it.)

I know the movie takes place two years after the end of the anime. But I (and others) have forgotten the date we get at the end of episode 51, in the scene with Hohenheim in the market. Two-three years pass between the stuff with the zepplins and then the date of the scene in the market. Then another two years have to pass to get the date we have for the movie. Think about it.

Which means it's also been 4-5 years for the FMA characters too, like Mustang and Hawkeye and Armstrong.

Because "2 years after the end of the anime" means literally 2 years after the END of the anime.

Huh.

If I'm wrong, explain the whole date thing to me.


... Unless there was a time jump on Earth side, and Ed pulled himself through the gate in 1918 (WWI!) and then when he traded himself for Alphonse, he landed in 1921 instead? I was under the impression that the timelines for both worlds passed at a parallel rate. But if that's true, then Edward is 20-21 in the movie. Because the end of the anime actually has him at 18. It also explains why in some of the Alphonse scenes in episode 51, he looks more like 12 than 10. And why Winry looked so mature in the film.

What do you think?

Comments

Makes sense

[redrose999.livejournal.com]

Makes sense to me, but so many sources say Ed's 18. I read his alternet was killed during the London Blitz which is well into WWII. Which means the gate is a Time thingy as well as space...00 But I'm not an expert on FMA...

Redrose

Re: Makes sense

[redrose999.livejournal.com]

Hey How old is Hugh's little girl? That should help...

Redrose

Re: Makes sense

[rashaka.livejournal.com]

When we last see her in the anime, she's 4. But that's before the final events, so I don't know how old she is at the end of episode 51, and she doesn't appear in the movie at all. She was born on Ed's twelth birthday.

Re: Makes sense

[octopedingenue]

Do we ever see Rose's baby in the movie?

Re: Makes sense

[rashaka.livejournal.com]

I don't think so. But you know, when I first watched episode 51 I had assumed that at least a year or two passed between Ed's disappearance and the scene where Al's at the dinner table wanting to learn alchemy with Izumi again. And I remember thinking Edward looked older in the unpacking scene. Then I changed my mind based on all the other stuff I read in fandom about the end of the anime. But now... I think my original reading was right. Otherwise, there's no way to explain why they marked the one date 1921. Everything we've seen points to the presumption that the timeline is the same on both sides of the gate, and WWI ended in 1918.

[catystorm.livejournal.com]

Huh, I really hadn't thought of that. For some reason I was under the impression that the timelines didn't quite sync up, but now I can't remember for the life of me why I thought that was so.

But, it makes sense, for the reasons you cite.

If that's really so, it sends me to quite the happy place. XDDD

[rashaka.livejournal.com]

The longer I think about it, the longer I'm sure. Especially because I can't get over how OLD Alphonse looks in the movie. Compare him in the movie to Edward at twelve in the anime. Huge difference. Al looks closer to the 15 year old Edward.


For some reason I was under the impression that the timelines didn't quite sync up, but now I can't remember for the life of me why I thought that was so.

I think it's the Fox News syndrome, applied to fandom as a whole.

So we hear that the movie's coming out, and that it will be set 2 years after the movie. Before anything else comes out, and long before the end of the series, we're already assuming Ed will be 18. So that's the idea. And then the anime ends, and due to vague transitions, it's difficult to tell about the passage of time in episode 51. Fandom collectively assumes, for some reason I can't fathom, that although in the entire 50 episodes previous the FMA world has been running on a calendar exactly parallel to our turn of the century calendar, and though the timelines for their 1918 perfectly match ours when Ed and Hohenheim go through the gate... somehow that all changed randomly in the 51st episode and Ed actually jumps three years into the future landing in 1921.

Now one sight reports he'll be 18 in the movie, and then another, and then another. Until they're all saying the same thing and nobody bothers to look at the source material and say "Wait a minute, they give us a date right here, plain as day, obviously he can't be 18." Instead they just repeat what they've heard.

Voila, fanon has been achieved!


All seems unnecessarily complicated to me.

[rashaka.livejournal.com]

I just submitted it to the masses at fm_alchemist

Art Books

[redrose999.livejournal.com]

If there is an art book, it will have the proper ages. Does anyone know? One of the things I like about FMA is they do AGE the characters and that many of the adult characters are over the age of 25 some even in their 30s and 40s (GASP you mean life continues after 21 in anime????). Being someone one year to 40 with 3 kids I find it rather refreshing......