I’m literally calling it right now and here’s why:
– They wouldn’t show us the snake that can switch people’s souls and then just not use it. It just makes NO sense narratively.
– Harrow was way too hyped up as a character to be killed off in the first season when there’s so much more planned.
– Harrow would never go through with Viren’s plan, so Viren obviously executed it against Harrow’s will. I’m not sure what putting Harrow in a bird’s body instead of just letting him die would do to benefit Viren but I’m sure he needs him for something.
– Viren seemed awfully eager to get rid of Harrow’s body, maybe so there’d be no way for Harrow to get back into it. Either way he had some motivation besides the war to hold his funeral early.
– Right after Harrow’s body died, “Pip” was locked up in his cage (so he couldn’t escape). Viren then smugly says something like “no song today?” (That’s probably not word for word but you get the gist). The thing is, Viren seemed VERY smug, like he won against Pip somehow. Because he’s talking to Harrow.
– If Viren had switched Harrow’s soul out with another person’s, Harrow could just be like “hey guys it’s me.” But since he was switched with Pip, he can’t communicate. He’s trapped.
– So Viren either A) needs Harrow’s spirit for something, or B) just wanted him out of the way without directly killing him/letting him die. There’s also C, where Viren just wanted to keep him as a bird to just be evil, I guess.
– So how does Harrow get out of this? How would this tie into another piece of fact within this universe to ground this theory more? Oh yeah:
– EZRAN CAN UNDERSTAND ANIMALS.
– They wouldn’t just have this character trait only be relevant for one episode. It’s going to come back later.
– My guess is that Ezran (plus Callum and Rayla probably) will end up back at the castle somehow, discover that Harrow is trapped in Pip’s body, and find a way to get him out. Either that or Harrow will escape and find Ezran. Either way, Ezran will be the one to discover what’s going on.
– And that’s my theory thanks for coming to my ted talk
I hadn’t done that one yet, but I’ve got some time now, and you’ve reminded me, so let’s see if I can get my thoughts in order here.
The thing I had about Lust’s death on that particular analysis list was that it was based on a misconception about Mustang. The thing I had about Pride’s was that it felt incomplete, oversimplified, and perhaps technically incorrect in one particular bit of wording.
If my memory serves, this particular one-line analysis of Pride’s death and the irony therein was that he was turned into a human, which he considered beneath him. Now, technically, if we take Grumman’s words into account when he visits Mrs. Bradley after all is said and done, little Selim is still a homunculus. He’s still an artificial human rather than one natural-born, which is a distinction of terms that may or may not matter much as he’s being raised as though he were truly human, presumably growing and changing in ways similar if not identical to one. So we’ll let that part go – Pride does indeed fall and winds up living the life of something he considered lower, being raised in kindness and humility.
There’s also the whole reason Kimblee interfered in the fight on top of that – it’s spelled out in both manga and anime for us that Kimblee objected to Pride willingly attempting to take on the form of a human to save himself rather than clinging to the sin he is meant to embody and damn the consequences, so that’s pretty well on the nose. Pride’s last moments as himself are also filled with fear and crying out for Ed to stop while images of Mrs. Bradley – the nearest thing he has ever had to a mother, by his own admission – flash in his mind, so hardly an arrogant ending in that way as well.
But there’s one more interesting aspect in Pride’s End: who did it.
Edward Elric ended Pride.
And to unpack that a little more, we go back to Ed’s own beginnings, the origin story of the Fullmetal Alchemist: his act of human transmutation. As a child, he looked at this bit of theoretical, forbidden alchemy, something considered both impossible to carry out and highly dangerous (not to mention illegal) to even attempt, and his thought was that surely he and Al could do it successfully. He thought, as a child, that he could do something that the entire history of alchemy deemed too difficult and dangerous and perhaps even morally wrong to allow. Faced with the Truth beyond the Gate, he demanded to see more, certain that the answer was in there somewhere and that if he could only reach it, he could solve everything.
He later likened himself to Icarus, who flew too close to the sun on waxen wings and fell to his death for his carelessness and pride.
Really, a lot of Ed’s story and character arc comes down to pride. It was the source of his greatest fall, and the thing he eventually had to overcome to win – truly win – in the end. Remember that he claimed victory over Truth by surrendering his ability to perform alchemy entirely – an ability that made him exceptional by most measures, one which he had built so much of himself around. Truth itself asked Ed if he was certain, suggesting that doing so would lower him to the status of a normal human.
I’m sure we remember Ed’s reply to that.
So really, Pride was taken down to his most basic form, his own truth, by a human who had himself fallen prey to pride before, and who had since learned a humility great enough to beat the being known to some as “God” at his own game.
But, then, it’s a little hard to fit all of that into a one-liner list of Homunculus deaths.
A thought in my head, which I am getting out by dropping it into the abyss of tumblr…
If you’re a fan of the Fullmetal Alchemist manga/Brotherhood, you’ve probably seen people analyzing the deaths of the homunculi and the ironies therein before, whether in full essay format or in super simplified lists. Gluttony is eaten by an ally/brother homunculus, Greed finds peace and satisfaction in self-sacrifice for the sake of the friends he always wanted and actually had in the end, Envy commits suicide after being called out on his jealousy of humans despite his outspoken derision of them, etc. etc.
I recently saw one of these simplified lists elsewhere online and one of the points this person put up bothered me. Well, two, actually, but the one about Pride is something I’d want to get into separately if at all.
This is about Lust’s death, and Mustang’s part in it. This is about the idea – held by some fans, but not all, I’m certain – that it was ironic because she was killed by a womanizer.
This is based on a misconception. I want to pick at it a little bit, for the sake of my own brain if nothing else. I’m sure others have made this analysis before. I’m going to do it over myself anyway. So, here we go:
Mustang was not, in actuality, a womanizer, or anything similar. He just made sure he appeared that way for his own reasons. For one thing, it made him seem less of a threat to senior officers as he climbed the ranks. A young officer with obvious laser focus on higher and higher seats, on more and more power, on getting into positions of command further up the chain and giving all he had to get there? That’s a concern. But a young officer with an almost lackadaisical attitude about him, one who, yes, does his job and all and even generally seems to do it well, but who primarily seems to have flirting and dating and general fooling around on the mind whenever he can spare a thought? Not such a big deal. Sure, he’s still getting promotions despite his relative youth, but it’s not like he’s gunning for them, right?
For another, it masks his information network, his alchemical notes, and the off-the-record missions he gives his closest and most trusted subordinates. Those dates he goes on, almost every time with a different girl? Totally just dates. He’s a young playboy officer. Everybody knows it. It doesn’t even bear thinking about.
Except…no. Not dates. Not girlfriends or romantic or sexual interests. Those are his adoptive sisters masquerading as the interest of the day, and those are information trading meetings masquerading as fun, easygoing, inconsequential nights out on the town.
His alchemy notes, encrypted as a harmless little black datebook. This is entirely in keeping with his persona. A cookbook written by a scientific researcher with no further explanation or apparent reason honestly stands out more. But Mustang’s datebook? Who’s going to think twice about it? For that matter, who’s going to want to sit and try to decipher whatever’s on the surface of that just on the assumption that there’s more to it?
And those missions. Everybody who knows of Mustang’s office habits knows that when Lt. Hawkeye is out on leave, Mustang takes it as an excuse to slack off and fool around on the job. Without her watchful, strict, no-nonsense eye on him, he feels free to call up his favorite ladies and pass the time in flirty chitchat. What an idle fool he is, unable to discipline himself and focus on anything other than pretty women and petty charms when left to his own devices, right?
Only on the surface, really. The readers and watchers of the manga and Brotherhood know better. We got to see “Elizabeth” on the other end of the line. We caught the double meanings of their conversations after that was revealed. But to an outsider, who doesn’t already know what’s up? Clearly Mustang’s up to his womanizing ways again, and there’s nothing more to it.
So that’s Mustang and womanizing. Now let’s bring it around to Lust and the lead-up to her incineration. Let’s look at Mustang’s motivations to crisp her down to ash and bones.
First, there’s her part, however small, in Hughes’ death. Mustang’s been on the hunt for his friend’s killer since it happened of course, and while Lust wasn’t the one, she pretty much admitted in their confrontation that she was at least involved. She said it was too bad she couldn’t finish him off herself. That’s the first thing that set him off, even before attempting incinerations.
Second, she nearly killed Havoc, one of Mustang’s subordinates. She definitely paralyzed him, as we discovered later, but there was certainly intent to kill. That drove him to try to rip the stone from her very chest in an attempt to save Havoc’s life. She also attempted to kill Mustang after this, and, most cruelly of all perhaps, left him to slowly bleed out while watching Havoc do the same.
And finally, when Mustang caught up with her, she was about to kill Hawkeye.
Vengeance and protection, for the sake of his friends and loved ones. That’s what drove Mustang to go as far as he did. That’s why he reduced her to ash over and over and over again, until her apparent immortality ran out and she faded away forever.
Lust wasn’t killed by a womanizer. She was killed by someone who simply wore the mask of a womanizer.
Her death wasn’t ironic because she was killed out of lust, or even by a man who lusted.
It was ironic because she was killed by a man who loved.
So, in case you didn’t believe me when I said there were dick jokes in the paintings, here comes further circumstantial evidence…
In Part 4 of my Black Sails art post series, I pointed out that the entire Admiralty scene in s2ep5 is beautifully choreographed so as to make sure the dialogue is perfectly in sync with all those naval paintings appearing in the frame.
Well, the Admiralty scene wasn’t the only scene that was composed and choreographed so meticulously: The same is true for “James’s homecoming scene” (after three months at sea) in the very same episode.
If s2ep5 is already your favourite episode because of the Big Reveal™, I’ve got a little surprise in store for you: s2ep5 is also a well-choreographed masterpiece.
Let’s start with a painting we haven’t discussed yet:
What’s important to keep in mind is that the whole “homecoming scene” mirrors the overall London storyline: Miranda is the one welcoming James into their home in the screenshot above. This reflects the fact that she was also the first one to welcome James into her bed or, rather, carriage. The above scene mirrors the fact that she was the one who was interested in James first, thus ‘opening the door’ for a future relationship between him and her husband. On the surface of the text, the above scene shows no more than a handshake, yet subtextually it is recapitulating what we already know: Miranda (not Thomas) welcomed James into their relationship first.
We will see that this entire “homecoming scene” is structured in such a way that it mirrors and summarizes the overall London narrative. The whole scene in that sitting room is the London storyline in a nutshell.
So, as it’s roughly explained, the state alchemist program is a kind of “recruit potential human sacrifices” mechanism, with a side-order of “brute strength for the army”. But basically, the state alchemist title is mostly about being a researcher–given people like Shou Tucker exist, and given that the only requirement to stay a state alchemist is to submit a yearly report of your research that says “look I’m still being a useful scientist”.
So far, so far this is sensible, yeah? Father and the delightful children from down the lane are running a recruitment program for potential human sacrifices. So sure–butter them up! Give them lots of money, get them buddy-buddy with the government, and give them endless resources for research. It’s be pretty easy to trick a state alchemist in that position to open the portal if Sugar DaddyBradley is nudging them to do it.
And I’m still willing to go with this logic for the whole “draft the state alchemists into war” move. They make it pretty clear that was something of a last-ditch effort. And the blood transmutation circle around Amestris was an absolute necessity for Father’s plan. So the risk of a few state alchemists dying or resigning from your Potential Sacrifice Pool is worth it for the completion of the circle.
Now. To get to my fucking thought.
Edward fucking Elric. This fucking fight-me 12 year old troglodyte shows up to the exam and performs circle-less transmutation in front of mother fucking Bradley, demonstrating to one of the seven Actual Fucking Homunculi that he’d already opened the portal. Ed was literally prepped as a human sacrifice before he showed up to Central. A fully set human sacrifice showed up at the homunculi’s door, said “hey look what I can do!”, proved he’d opened the mother fucking portal already, and said “hey yeah hire me”. Human sacrifice, free shipping, no assembly required, handcuffs not included!
They could have just tossed Ed into a shoebox and kept him there until the Promised Day. They wouldn’t even need to make up an excuse he attacked the f u c k i n g president. That’s fucking treason babey. He’s 12, he’s an orphan, he’s from a rural town in buttfuck nowhere, he’s literally the easiest person alive to disappear.They could have arrested him for assassination crimes, kept him in gay baby jail, and just popped him out for the Promised Day
What do they do instead?! “Oh lmao this kid’s great. Let’s give him infinite money, no supervision, no governmental responsibilities, access to all our secret resources, and toss him on a train to who-the-fuck-knows-where-land”
They fucking did that
And like? They then had the audacity to be concerned when Edward “Fight Me” Elric almost got himself killed about 293 times. Just an endless game of “I thought u were watching him” from one homunculus to another when Ed fucking absconds half-way across the globe to go entice some other hostile entity into murdering him to death. That’s the whole series. Every arc is Ed baiting death while the homunculi are in the background like “:/ wish he wouldn’t do that”
This only gets worse when you consider they later learned Al opened the portal too because really?? These two stab-happy globe-trotting public menaces are 40% of your final evil plan for godhood. 40%. Almost half. You couldn’t fucking set aside a cardboard box to keep these idiots in?
We all knew Father was terrible at planning when we learned his thousands-of-years-in-the-making-plan involved him procrastinating until the last five minutes to get his last sacrifice, while he was?? playing chess in his fucking basement, I guess. But it’s like every time I think about it like really think about it I find 7 more reasons Father was a fucking shit idiot moron, king of the stupid fucking idiot club, flesh and blood founder of seven other established dumbasses, all living in their idiot hovel under central, just giving random dumbass 12 year olds infinite money, j u s t b e c a u s e.
People in the replies trying to explain Father’s actions fall into one of three categories
Father didn’t baby-gate Ed because humans are like ants to him and he had no concept of how thoroughly Ed and co. could fuck his shit up
Father and the Hot Topic Brigade didn’t lock Ed up because they recognized the unbridled chaotic 12-year-old energy compressed into such a small vessel and they understood no jail cell on earth would reliably hold this thing
Father and his sin-sonas didn’t put Ed in a box because locking Ed away in their lair would mean dealing with Edward Elric day-in and day-out in their own home for the next four years and frankly even godhood isn’t worth certain flavors of hell.
Like I said to someone on Twitter, I think you need to be aware of a few things here.
Shiro and Adam are approximately 21 when this happens. Shiro has a degenerative disease he’s trying to outrun, and as Lauren said, Shiro and Adam have been together for a while at this point as flying partners and boyfriends. Adam knows Shiro. Adam also alludes to Shiro running a race against his own degenerative disease. Shiro has maxed every record, already risked his life in space, and now, he only has a couple years left in peak physical condition. Those two years can be spent on Earth and having a life Adam can play witness to or Shiro can leave and do this final mission that may or may not kill him.
Again, they’re young adults at an age where people find themselves standing at a lot of important forks in the road. Realistically, at 21, it’s already hard on the heart to know the man you love has a disease that will entirely disable him and then maybe kill him. Adam seems willing to do this with Shiro, but he also wants Shiro to meet him halfway, and well, Shiro doesn’t have to. It’s Shiro’s life. It’s two very important years to experience his life passion, but also, Adam doesn’t have to meet Shiro halfway either. It’s Adam’s life. Asking your partner to watch you go on a perilous and time stealing mission is a lot at 21 years old.
We can’t be idealistic and impart these puritanical expectations on queer people in media anymore. Adam’s reaction is human. It’s not right or wrong. It’s just human.
I don’t think Adam is coming from an irrational place considering he knows Shiro is trying to beat a clock that will never stop ticking ahead of him. He basically asks Shiro what he wants since he’s already DONE EVERYTHING, and when Shiro couldn’t answer, I gathered that Shiro didn’t know either. He probably wants to cram his entire life into an impossible timeline, and that’s some rough stuff for young adults to negotiate. Shiro is mourning his life while trying to live it. Can you imagine?
My mom had cancer and died at 45 (believe it or not, internet, that’s tragically fucking young), and while she was declining, her decisions made me mad. They made me so mad I couldn’t see straight because I couldn’t understand why she would do things that felt like a shitty use of her time, and that’s normal. It’s something you discuss in grief therapy. You say shitty things. You’re scared. You don’t want that person to slip away faster than they are. It’s a desperate thing.
So, I don’t know. I trust Adam and Shiro had a good relationship until Shiro made the choice he had the right to make. I can tell this arc was written by people who are older and understand this shit is a nuanced thing we want to simplify but can’t.
That’s my hot take but it’s heartfelt, and until I see something that disproves my feelings in canon, then I’m not backing down from it.
baby: m…ma..many people seem to think that Boromir is a quote-on-quote “bad character” or “morally grey” because he makes literally one mistake, which is ironic considering the one mistake he does make is the same mistake that we are told throughout all the Lord of the Rings films is only too easy to succumb to–almost no one can resist the power of the Ring. And besides that, the only reason that Boromir even desired the Ring in the first place was for the sake of saving the people of Gondor, because he was such a pure-hearted and just man, and after the Ring takes him and he lashes out at Frodo, he shows IMMENSE remorse, and is seen next calling out softly for Frodo and sobbing on the forest floor, saying he is sorry. When next we see him, he runs to the aid of Merry and Pippin when they are ambushed by the Uruk-hai pack heading for Isengard, and he defends them with his life, fighting even after he has been shot by an arrow multiple times (in severely vulnerable locations, I might add). With his final breaths, he tells Aragorn that he would’ve followed him as his captain and king, and we see that he has not forgiven himself for what happened with Frodo even as he draws his final breath. Do not ever insult Boromir in front of me. Ever. Be at peace, son of Gondor. I’m sobbing
Adam was Shiro’s romantic partner who once was there for him and yet vld paralleled him with Keith who has shown time and time again to always be there for Shiro and never gave him up.
Both men love Shiro.
Both men have a past with Shiro.
And both men reacted differently to Shiro leaving.
One tried to make Shiro stay but ended up losing him.
The other waited for Shiro to come back despite what anyone said and did get him back.
Shiro’s/Kuron’s final thoughts in s3 was of his team and lastly Keith–not to the past with his ex.
Keith literally decided if he couldn’t save Shiro than there was no point in living without him.
The parallels of Sheith with Zaggar and Keith’s parents are also important.
Keith’s parents met the same way Keith found Shiro again.
And Zaggar’s love destroyed them while Sheith’s love saved them.
Adam, while definitely heartbroken over the breakup, has never been mentioned by Shiro or was Shiro’s reason for returning to Earth–remember Shiro was the only one who never spoke about anyone he left behind.
And that’s because he didn’t have anyone to return to.
Which a lot of people, myself included, felt that Shiro probably didn’t see Earth as his home anymore.
If Shiro was really still in love with Adam then he would have mentioned wanting to return to Earth for someone important to him like everyone else did. Doesn’t matter if Adam was thrown in “later” Shiro still never expressed interest in returning home and based off all the info about s7e1 and the trailer–Shiro still doesn’t look excited by the idea either.
Platonic or not Sheith, from a writing and animation perspective, makes the most sense. Shiro has someone in 6 whole seasons who never gave up on him. Someone who stayed as his best friend; his family; his savior; his equal.
We are two seasons away from ending Voltron for good. Now is the time for establishing the romances vld has laid out.
So it is very interesting to see parallels between an ex and his actions where he ultimately threw their relationship away over Shiro choosing his dream over him versus a potential lover who has been all the key aspects for Shiro and has always been there since the beginning and never once stopped Shiro from pursuing his goals.
If that isn’t romantic then clearly people don’t understand writing or how a waste it would be to animate Keith’s devotion and love only for him to watch Shiro return to his ex.
Shiro is no prize. Shiro isn’t owned by anyone and will make his own decisions like he did for Kerberos.
If he remains single then so be it. Sheith has always been perfect as best friends and that’s canon.
But if Shiro decides to be with Keith over Adam or any other suitor then it makes sense based on what we have seen in the show and the progression of their relationship–as the staff said Sheith’s bond will be stronger after s7.
And that is what makes Sheith beautiful at the possibility presented to us.
Shiro never said he saw Keith as his brother or adopted him. Shiro has never once thought less of Keith or that he was just a kid to him. Shiro always treated Keith as his equal and calls him his old friend and is someone he deeply cares about.
Shiro saw the potential in Keith and wanted him to succeed despite the odds.
And Shiro with his illness? Needed someone who would support his dreams despite his odds and ultimately that was not Adam.
It was Keith.
That’s what makes these parallels so very unique.
Adam made a mistake and I’m sure he regrets it and wishes nothing more than to reconcile. And I can’t wait to see the closure they both deserve.
But Keith? He has no regrets because he chose to follow Shiro into space and has never looked back since.
So I don’t see why Shiro should look back into his past when his future with Keith and their potential love is 100% what saved the fabric of the universe and themselves.
Like Keith said: “We saved each other.”
And that right there sums up their entire relationship from beginning to end.
I don’t usually defend Tony Stark. But this “Something went wrong” bullshit really rubbed me the wrong way. Wanna know why? Because the “Something that went wrong” was Howard Stark. The man that Tony idolised, and the man that abused him. And don’t give me that crap that in the MCU universe, Howard didn’t neglect or hurt Tony — he did. It’s very evident in the tie-in MCU comics.
But in both universes, Tony was raised by Edwin Jarvis. In 616, he has a father — Howard — who is constantly aggravated with his son, both as a result of his own drinking and because of what he feels Tony should be.
While Jarvis might be sensitive, thoughtful, intelligent and occupy roles that aren’t traditionally occupied considered “masculine” (which is bullshit in itself) if Tony ever displays anything remotely indicative of a “softer side” he is ridiculed, called a sissy, told that Stark men are “made of Iron” and abused by his father:
In the MCU, things aren’t depicted of being much better:
And in the MCU Jarvis, often, tried to soften the blow of Howard’s words an actions. But don’t think for a second that Tony didn’t internalise all of that. That he didn’t think that Howard Stark was the man he was supposed to be, and the man he wanted to be most like.
Of course, generally speaking — when Tony is the most like Howard — like at the Stark Expo, or during the senate hearings — it’s almost 100% preformative. That’s not who he is, or who he ever was, it’s who he thinks people want him to be, because it’s who his father wanted him to be.
I would go so far as to say that a lot of Tony’s womanizing ways, his alcoholism, his struggles with self-identity and importance all stem from the fact that he is often torn between being the man that he assumed his father wanted to be, and who he actually is.
If you look at Tony when he’s alone, or when he’s with the people he cares about the most, what you see is the caring, compassionate person who Jarvis raised, and that he is a lot more capable and a lot more loving than his father ever was. And it took him a long time to be okay with that, and with showing other people that that was who he really was
So yes… Just a reminder, Jarvis helped raised this man:
Don’t confuse the armour….
with the man who wears it.
THANK YOU.
always reblog the best takedown ever.
I know I reblogged this before, but it deserves ANOTHER reblog.
THANK YOU FOR THIS POIGNANT EXPLANATION OF TONY STARK’S CHARACTERIZATION!!!!
FUCK! YEAH! FUCK! YEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEAH!!!!!
YES YES YES
@reioka I feel like this is something you should see.
YESSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSS
Don’t confuse the armour with the man you wears it
Best part of this is the gifs that they showed for the ultimate take down. “The armor” was shown as Tony, giving a speech in front of people. “And the man who wears it.” That was Tony in his armor, but not, showing who he really is.
nightlilium 