Watching Thursday

[dhampyresa]

I forgot I should do a reading Wednesday post yesterday. Oops. To be fair, I am kind of still trying to put coherent thoughts to my feelings on Grass King's Concubine and Le Déchronologue.

Have tings I have recently watched, instead.


Fullmetal Alchemist: Brotherhood

I have SO MUCH FEELINGS. This might be because lunik_the_bard and I watched the entire back half in under a day and a half. It was. Huh. IT WAS INTENSE. (And possibly I talked too much and was a terrible houseguest. I'm sorry, Lunik.)

I'd read the whole manga before, but for some reason I'd forgotten (almost) everything about the Promised Day onwards.

My favourite characters are Scar, Winry (omg the Scar & Winry relationship is my favourite thing) and Ling/Greed. Greeling? THAT GUY. You know the one.


Voltron: Legendary Defender

Then I got home and basically inhaled all of the new (?) Voltron series. I need to stop watching things so fast, it's not great for me,  I can't connect to characters.

So basically my feelings right now boil down to LOOK AT THESE NERDS IN A ROBOT with bonus of Pidge, Shiro and Haggar being (unsurprisingly) my favourites. Science-y one, cyborg-y one* and witch-y one. Yup, I am predictable. I really like Allura a lot too! She tosses Shiro around like a sack of potatoes it's great.


I think I'd still rec both of those, in completely different ways. FMA is a lot darker and intense but very intricately plotted. Voltron has nerds in a castleship and Shiro's eyeliner.

Anyway. Talk to me?


* I will just say that if you want to rec me a piece of visual media and the words METAL ARM apply, use those words.

Comments

[yhlee]

I love FMA! :D

I regret to report that my reading of Defrasne is on hold indefinitely because I'm 95% certain the book drowned in the flood. I will probably see if I can get a replacement copy at some point, but it will have to be after I get a bunch of other stuff out of the way. *shakes fist at the universe* I was enjoying the chapter on Hannibal, too!

[dhampyresa]

IT IS SO GREAT! I remember following the manga as it was coming out (in French). In retrospect it makes perfect sense that you like it. What do you like best? Who's your favourite character?

That's a completely reasonable reason. Don't worry about getting a replacement copy, you've other things to think about.

[yhlee]

I really liked the epic plottiness of it, and the wide variety of characters. My favorites are Roy Mustang and Riza Hawkeye, and Olivier Mira Armstrong is awesome on a stick, BUT I like most of them, it's just a matter of degree. I do happen to be a minority in the fandom in that I find Maes Hughes annoying, but I see why he appeals to others.

[dhampyresa]

I SHOULD HAVE KNOWN. I also like everyone, but weirdly I found myself liking Mustang less after this rewatch, not entirely sure why.

[yhlee]

Well, I have severe issues with Mustang and also Hawkeye, because they are people with existing moral senses who nevertheless are complicit in the genocide of the Ishvalans, and I think Arakawa doesn't call that out as much as she should have. But I still like them as characters. The portrayal of Alex Louis Armstrong in FMA:B (vs. FMA:A) really crystallized this for me.

[dhampyresa]

Actually that's part of why I didn't like Mustang as much this time around -- except I couldn't/can't quite put words on my feelings.

I think it's also that Mustang doesn't ever appear to take Ishvalans and what they want in his great plan to rebuild Ishval or whatever. We literally never see him talking to an Ishvalan who isn't Scar. Granted he has good reasons not to talk to Scar and the lack of ANY named Ishvalan characters* (Scar is pseudonymed rather than named, if you know what I mean) is on Arakawa, but still it grates.


* I'm not counting Miles, because I have complicated feelings about Miles and identity. Basically: Miles only has one Ishvalan grandparent and while that might be enough for him to identify as such anyway, it's not a choice he gets to make. Because he looks "Ishvalan", post-genocide, that's an identity that's imposed on him by everyone else because it's all they see. In that context, I feel uncomfortable calling him Ishvalan rather than 'of Ishvalan descent'. Does that make sense?

[yhlee]

No, I agree--the Ishvalans are sort of--victim-puppets in the narrative that Arakawa has constructed, rather than people in their own right, and it makes me twitchy. And a lot of FMA:B/manga fandom sort of goes along with that in a way that I'm not completely comfortable with. Granted, I understand that sometimes you just want your anime viewing to be entertainment, and that's a thing, too! I feel twitchy more in Arakawa's direction for enabling that, if that makes sense?

And yeah, your examination of Miles's identity makes sense to me, too. :]

[dhampyresa]

That totally makes sense! I do get grumpy at Arakawa for that too. (A friend and I both need to worldbuild Ishvalan culture for fic and we are crying tears of blood over the name issue, let me tell you.)

[skygiants]

The Scar-Marcoh-Mei-Yoki sitcom is my favorite show on Brotherhood, but, I mean, I love basically all the shows that make up Brotherhood. EVERYTHING IS SO GOOD.

[dhampyresa]

IT IS THE BEST SHOW. I would honestly watch an entire series of the Scar & Friends roadtrip (with occasional guest star Winry Rockbell), ngl.

Brotherhood is so great, I love it.

[inkstone]

FMA is one of my most favorite things!!

[dhampyresa]

IT IS SUCH A GREAT THING.

[genarti]

YAY FMA! I am so up for talking about it any time, oh man. (I haven't watched Voltron yet, though I've heard good things.)

[dhampyresa]

FMA IS AMAZING. Who's your favourite character(s)?

Voltron is very Giant Robots and Eyeliner, if that makes sense.

[http://users.livejournal.com/_profiterole_/]

J'ai vu l'autre FMA. Ca date un peu maintenant. XD

[dhampyresa.livejournal.com]

Mais, nan, c'était hier!

2003?! Ça nous rajeunit pas...

[egelantier.livejournal.com]

voltron is so delightful, isn't it? i wasn't expected to be so ~swamped with feels, et cetera, et cetera, and yet i was. and shiro's eyeliner is to die for :D

[dhampyresa.livejournal.com]

It's delightful in a giant robot punching stuff way. Shiro's eyeliner game is amazing!