New fandoms update

[petronia]

Snowed gorgeously all day. Why couldn't it have started 24 hours earlier?? ^^; Then we would have had a proper white Christmas.

Anyhow. I'm not sure "new fandoms" is the right term but this is the FMA + FFXII early impressions plus amusing babble regarding other people's pairings post. XD To wrap up the year there will also be an old/existing fandoms update, a fic rec post, and an mp3 dump (I'm thinking of doing a Sabina's 2006 In Music sort of thing, in hopes that it becomes a meme XD).

Spoilers as stated in cut text.

Full Metal Alchemist, episodes 1-16:

Sabina: So is this fandom filled with, like, bizarro amputee porn?
Tania: What? No!
Sabina: Oh, okay.
Tania: ...
Sabina: ...
Sabina: I dunno, I just kind of assumed that
Sabina: uh.
Tania: ...
Sabina: ...

I think all that time spent in JoJo Japanese fanartdom is getting to me. >_>

Anyhow I am watching this with Tania at a rate of 1-2 evenings a week, 4-6 episodes per session. She loves it, I'm not sure I do (though I like it enough to keep watching). The story is compelling but practically every episode ends with a just-short-of-worst-case scenario. I mean normally shounen fantasy/battle anime gives the viewer a dozen episodes' grace period before breaking out the backstory angst, not heavy artillary from the get-go. XD; The emotional suckitude is nearly as bad as Mirage of Blaze. Though Mirage resorts to exotically arcane maneuvres whereas FMA is more, I dunno, Barfight 101 of angst. Thumb jab to the eyeballs, do not pass Go, etc. Basically in sixteen episodes I have learnt:

1) War sucks.
2) Selling your soul to the military-industrial complex sucks.
3) Losing family sucks.
4) Losing body parts? Yup, it sucks.

Also I have to keep reminding myself that the manga was written in 2002 or so and thus is not a thinly disguised allegory for anything, i.e. Rumsfeld is not innit. >_>

The characters are attractive, though (back when luxetumbra sent me the actual episodes she predicted I'd be down with the brotherly cute, and she is totally right XD). And even though it's horribly angsty I think I actually spend a large proportion of any given episode laughing, because Roy = hilarity and Al = sweet hilarity and Ed falling over because someone stole his gimp = DEATH BY LOL, although I felt horrible and politically incorrect for laughing at an anime character's disability. :x

The other thing I do is try to see how people came up with all the pairings in fandom (the names of which I've absorbed by osmosis). Had I known nothing about the FMA fandom/series beforehand, after watching thus far I would have predicted... much wank. XD

With caveats that the manga undoubtedly differs and adds a layer of complexity to the argument, and I'm less than twenty episodes into the anime, this is how I see it:

Ed/Winry: vaguely supported by canon, but in such a way as it's just kind of there. I wouldn't be able to do anything with this until/unless there is actual conflict or declaration or something. On a scale of 5: canonicity 4, moe 0, personality meta 1, controversialness 1.

Al/Winry: oddly enough, the first one T and I came up with. Canonicity 2, moe 1 (anything involving Al is automatically adorability +50 over its counterparts), personality meta 2 (Al likes nice girls, whereas Ed is sort of grumpy toward women; Winry likes mechanical things), controversialness 1.

Elriccest: I'm always for sibling interaction but not always for 'cest pairings, because I really am innit for the interplay and not so much t3h s3x, but I can see why people would ship this because they really are emotionally reliant on each other (having no one else >_>) and there is the whole pathos regarding Al's loss of relationships' physical component - the ability to touch, share warmth, give a real hug, etc. Then again it is a) kyoudai-ai and b) I am not quite J-fanartist enough to for-reals slash a giant suit of armour. XD; Canonicity 3, moe 3, personality meta 4, controversialness 5.

Roy/Ed: a trap waiting to happen, because it is canonically unsupported and yet designed to hit so many people where their kinks live with such force that they are deluded into believing it has canonical support. XD Canonicity 1, moe 5, personality meta 2, controversialness 3.

Roy/Hawkeye: the Shunsui/Nanao of FMA, basically. Canonicity 2, moe 3, personality meta 3, controversialness 1.

Roy/Hughes: I can see all the little glances of understanding and stuff, it's sort of interesting. XD I dunno if I want to do this because I think they definitely like each other as fellow masons of great artistry, so to speak, although the facades they build aren't of the same bricks, but because of that they wouldn't try to challenge each other. Also I suspect there is going to be backstory. Canonicity 1, moe 2 (going to 4 if you're into this sort of pairing), personality meta 3, controversialness 3 (Hughes adores his family).

I can't judge for many more pairings at this point. XD

Here is my scale, by the way:

Canonicity: 0 = "do they even meet?", 1 = "they know each other", 2 = "good friends/part of a tight crew", 3 = "there is a declared Special Connection", 4 = "other characters tease them about being a couple", 5 = "indisputably canonical girlfriend/boyfriend/married sort of deal".

Moe: a somewhat subjective mark given based not on how I feel, but how I believe the averaged-out animanga fandom would feel, based on lengthy experience therein. XD

Personality meta: how well you could support the pairing in an argumentative essay based on characterization. 0 = "canon says so but I see nada", 5 = "they are perfect for each other and here is the bullet point list why".

Controversialness: how likely it is other fans will hate your pairing, based somewhat subjectively on its intrinsic qualities (stuff like, is it underage/incestuous/non-con/on crack/destroys a widely adored ship just by breathing). Higher than 3 means a fair chance of wank. XD

...Uh, rather than write the FFXII part now I think I'll go game some more. XD We're discussing the gameplay mechanics in this thread, though.

Comments

[naanima.livejournal.com]

I don't know what to say because I DON'T want to spoil it for you, except fandom osmosis tend to spoil a person for a series no matter you try not to get spoiled (or maybe I just like spoilers). And it is interesting how you've made so many calls about teh characters after 16 episodes, because it pretty much reflects what I thought of it at that point, but let me tell you by episode 25 the bloody series ate my life, and I swear it is as if the series flipped a switch and I couldn't stop WATCHING it.

[petronia.livejournal.com]

Well, I'll post about it again after I've watched more, and you can comment then. XDD Just, it wouldn't be any fun if I waited until I ran through all the spoilers before I posted.

[worldserpent.livejournal.com]

I am quite amused at your pairings scale. :D I may steal it and start using it myself.

[petronia.livejournal.com]

I am actually elaborating on the scale. See my next post. XD