No, sorry. :( It’s funny bc puzzleshipping is my OTP and considering how alike the pairings are I figure I’d be all for it, but I love their bromance so, so much more. I don’t think it ever got romantic imo because I guess I just think that their relationship holds so much meaning and shows how much of an influence people can have on each other without wanting to get into each other’s pants, but I completely understand people who want to ship them. It’s such a unique relationship so it’s pretty open to interpretation but I personally don’t ship it, no. (That doesn’t stop me from reblogging the pretty fanart, though…)

I’ve seen a grand total of one episode, haha. I promise I’m getting to it…

Yes, exactly! Every time I rewatch this show I feel like I have to go rewatch it AGAIN and requestion whether or not all the characters are really right or just in the decisions they make — there are so many morally gray areas in this show and one thing I love about it is that Arakawa doesn’t say “so-and-so’s definitely right,” there’s always another angle to it. Even if the villains are — apparently — “supposed” to be just flat embodiment of human characteristics, that doesn’t mean that they’re flat themselves. A fake human that hates itself but doesn’t know what it is vs a man full of so much drive and anger, I didn’t think I’d be touched by that fight the way I was, and still am (and not in a good or bad way, just in a powerful way). There’s so much there that I’m not sure I’ll ever recognize or be able to understand it all, but it’s definitely one of my top five episodes in FMAB, not because it’s my favorite or because I enjoy it, but because of the impact it leaves on me every time I watch it. I don’t even know how it makes me feel sometimes, just that it does, but then I think about how I’m human enough to be able to feel these things as I am and I think about how Envy never really got the chance to experience humanity the way it was meant to be, it had to watch and loathe and try to destroy it from afar because if it couldn’t have it then nobody could, so I just… I don’t even know anymore. It just leaves me reeling every time.

I’m in the Korra fandom more than I am the A:tlA one? (to me there’s a difference, idk) But yeah, the Korra fandom is… um, flawed. And… spirited. Which isn’t always a good combination when you have a show revolving around very attractive, very shippable characters and a show that has a lot of social issues that are easy to debate on. So honestly all of the fandom nonsense that ever happens I’m not really surprised by, which helps my “lean back in your chair and try to stay out of it” strategy. I mean obviously this kind of gets difficult when I follow so many Avatar blogs and so many follow me (in comparison to the other blogs that follow me, at least) so some of the worst posts are bound to surface on my dash eventually, or I’ll at least catch wind of them… idk, I’ve gone through my “ugh this fandom is the worst I hate everything” phase and I’ve kind of settled into pure idgaf bliss (though ofc I’ll step out of that zone to talk about serious stuff and all).

I mean obviously if you’re not content with the fandom then I’m not saying don’t be bothered by it; there are a lot of annoying idiots that lurk in all fandoms so I just… don’t see the point in judging a fandom as a whole when a lot of others are relatively similar in terms of the ‘idiots’ to ‘the greatest people you’ll ever meet’ ratio.

If you’re getting annoyed, though, maybe just take some time off and unfollow a few blogs? I get really irritated by fandom too; a few weeks ago I went through this bad spell where I was irked by everything and not even my friends in the Korra fandom could really make me remember the bright side of it, but I took a mental break from it all by blacklisting some tags for a while, ‘cause I just needed to get away from everything and everyone… The Avatar and Korra fandoms are so big and there’s so much to discuss, even being near it can be really draining, but I guess it just depends on if you find it worth it. Sometimes when I’m pissed at a whitewashed fancasting or finding out someone’s trolling just to piss people off, it’s not really worth it to me, but most of the time for me the good times tend to take up the largest chunk of my Fandom Enjoyment Pie Chart.

Did that even make any sense? Eurgh…

Yeah, I mean, I’m not saying you’re not allowed to be annoyed or anything, ‘cause there’s totally a lot to be annoyed about. (And it’s cool that you sent this to me, I guess that means you sort of respect my thoughts on the matter.) idk, maybe take a break? Sometimes maybe we just need it…

aww thank you! :D

I’m just relieved I’m not one lone fan shouting out about FMA feelings to an empty room

((sorry this is all rushed and unedited but i’m about to hop in the shower and have no time to revise))

Um, yeah. Ship it like FedEx. tbh I blame the fucking awesome fic for getting me into it (that third link especially, it’s honestly one of the best stories I’ve ever read)…

Sometimes I feel weird shipping it, though, because I know fandom has a tendency to get very excited about shipping any two guy characters that breathe in the same scene together, so at first when I heard about that I was like “lol whut never omg that’s just fandom being dumb” but… I’m kind of a sucker for ships that are more like partnerships than actual relationships. Idk if I’m making sense here, but Roy/Riza makes so much sense to me because even if they weren’t lovers, I think they’d honestly still be each other’s best friends, and easily the most important people in each other’s lives. Ed and Ling I just… while rewatching it I realized that Ed and Ling are probably the first real friends that each other have made that are their own ages, outside of the people they’ve grown up with up with. I think they have a really profound impact on each other that’s a lot more meaningful than I first realized (maybe more than I was meant to think in the first place, oops). They respect each other in a lot of very silent, almost unnoticeable ways and even though Ed’s annoyed at Ling 95% of the time he’s known him, he still flies into a rage at Greed when he thinks his friend is gone. Whether or not that indicates something deeper is obviously open to  interpretation and I definitely won’t argue against someone who says it’s just a close friendship, but I really love how they’re kind of like… mirror opposites (not just in terms of personalities, more in terms of how their character’s purpose stands in the story and how they reflect on each other), but there’s still this like… partnership? Is that the right word? Even if it’s not romantic I like the idea of them being best friends. bc I think they both can respect each other and their decisions in ways not a lot of people can (except perhaps Winry for Ed). partnership, romantic relationship, whatever, I just think that even if they’re friends it still goes a bit deeper than that, even if “deeper” doesn’t necessarily mean romantic. What they do for each other, not just in their actions but also in their entire dynamics and how they mirror each other’s goals, methods, and personal journeys, is really kind of striking to me. They may not always agree but there’s a very strong sense of trust there that they have with very few other people (like Lan Fan and Winry and Al, sure, maybe even Mustang, which is I guess why people ship Ed and Ling with all of these characters so much).

I ship Ed/Winry like burning, right, but I like the idea of the two of them. It just kind of… I dunno. I’ve already posted my thoughts on Ed and Ling’s relationship (as friends there) so I firmly believe they hold really important roles in each other’s lives in Brotherhood, but whether or not it’s romantic is up to the individual person. I mean I don’t see it necessarily ending happily (ultimately, Ed would either have to move to Xing or Ling would have to give up his crown, neither of which I see very likely), but my shipper goggles are firmly strapped on and even though my friend Sana tries to talk me out of it, I’m not looking back~

Plus they must’ve gotten bored on that months-long on-the-lamb camping trip they went on between episodes 45 and 46… suppose it would’ve given them something to do…

oh man you shouldn’t have given me the option for multiple answers

I suppose… well for me I think  that any “bad” character (in terms of development/dynamic/presence in the narrative) is one that I’m largely apathetic toward; even if I hate a character’s guts and want to rip out their spine through their mouth, at least I feel SOMEthing for them, which tells me the writer has done an excellent job making them have a presence and a purpose in the story, at the very least. But if I’m completely apathetic toward a character, don’t see how they grew or changed or what they brought to the story in the first place, then that’s probably who I’m going to view as a worse character than, say, Zhao, even if I completely hate Zhao’s guts.

That said, the character I feel mostly apathetic toward is Sloth (though this is probably obvious, and it’s quite possible that Arakawa didn’t MEAN to develop his personality beyond what we see in the show — so I say this knowing that perhaps that was the entire point of Sloth’s character, that he’s so apathetic that WE’RE supposed to be apathetic towards him… but yeah, I’m pretty indifferent. The only line that made him even remotely interesting to me was his last words on screen, but by then it was too late haha).

In terms of characters whose guts I hate and want to rip out their spine through their mouth, probably:

• Envy (though I love Envy’s character, I hate who Envy is)
• Kimblee (though his last scene on screen made me reconsider him)
• Pride, the little shit (I don’t think this needs explaining)

I think that’s it… mostly everybody else I either like or adore or REALLY REALLY REALLY love.

Most favorite, I can’t get too into this without going off, but if I have to pick —

• Greed
• Ling Yao
• Roy Mustang
• Edward Elric (I don’t stan for Ed or anything, he’s not my favorite character of everyone, but I think he had one of, if not the best development in Brotherhood, so he deserves a spot on my faves list anyway)
• Izumi Curtis
• Riza Hawkeye

It’s on my to-watch list, but I haven’t gotten around to it yet. I hear Todd Haberkorn is in the dub, though, which bumps it up a few notches on my list.

~twu wuv~ can conquer all tho

I don’t know if I started it, but I’ve definitely been very annoying about it for months, haha, at least toward some of my friends

and you’re very flattering, ty! but I don’t think the homunculus is the one we should be comparing people to in terms of their ‘godliness’ —