“ed elric and winry rockbell are a sweet, healthy, supremely shippable couple with a well-executed narrative and rock solid chemistry,” I say into the mic.
the crowd boos. I begin to walk off in shame, when a voice speaks and commands silence from the room.
“she’s right,” they say. I look for the owner of the voice. there in the 5th row stands: alphonse elric himself.
She is a beautiful ray of sunshine that does not deserve any of the bad things that have happened to her.
No, but seriously. I cannot comprehend how anyone could not love her. To talk about her more trivial characteristics first, she is SO BRILLIANT. Winry not only designs automail but performs the surgery and maintenance for it. Winry is fifteen years old. That means that at such a young age, she has become an expert in human anatomy and how every nerve is meant to work. This is a seriously underrated thing that I feel more people should be talking about.
Yeah, Ed and Al were alchemic child prodigies and it’s incredible, BUT WINRY BECAME A SURGEON AT THE AGE OF ELEVEN AND IS THE ACTUAL REASON ED HAS USE OF HIS LIMBS.
She’s a genius. End of story.
More complexly, there is an obscene amount of love in this beautiful child’s angelic heart. At the beginning of the series, Winry cries a lot. Notice that she cries for OTHER PEOPLE and their struggles because she feels empathy so deeply. You rarely see her cry for herself. I think the only time was in a flashback when she had to say goodbye to her parents—which is totally justified and not only because they’re going to join the medical team for a civil war and could very likely not come home. And guess what, they don’t.
Does that ever stop her? Does she ever wallow in self-pity or drown in her own grief? No. She becomes an automail mechanic and works hard every day to make the world better by helping people. She makes her parents’ work mean something and she does it with a smile on her face.
Winry isn’t Lan Fan or Riza and I don’t think anyone should expect her to be. She isn’t going to fight because that’s not where her strength and morality align. (Not to say Lan Fan and Riza fight immorally because they, like Winry, are guiding the world to a brighter future one way or another. Lan Fan protecting Ling, and Xing by extension; Riza protecting Roy, and Amestris by extension). Winry is a different kind of fighter.
In addition, she’s a total badass. She doesn’t let anybody tell her what she can and can’t do, but she’s never too proud to listen to guidance and back away when she knows it’s best. She takes none of Ed’s shit which is why I think they’re so perfect for each other. Nobody can keep up with Ed the way Winry can and vice versa. She’s stubborn but not narrow-minded. And she doesn’t think anyone’s life is disposable, no matter what they’ve done. That’s indicated when she dresses Scar’s wound when Miles holds him at gunpoint.
I just have so many Winry Rockbell feelings. Riza is my queen but Winry is my princess and ray of sunshine.
childhood friends gradually becoming lovers is SUCH a good trope. i’m 100% here for it. just imagine all of the small nuances of both of their personalities, that they both know incredibly well, that float in their memories. for winry, i’m sure she’ll continually bring up ed’s childhood stubbornness and infantile struggles in a sort of teasing match for the ages. ed would remind her of her semi-constant third-wheeling, and her own persistence and independence and probably her unadulterated love for dogs. they grow together, they witness each other’s struggle and strife, and they profoundly change but they will always have their own growth to reflect on and it’s SO CUTE OKAY
and to a different extent, friends to lovers is SO GOOD. for winry it’s much more obvious: she’s outwardly always expressed care for the boys, and we see it manifest more and more into deep love and care for ed and when she first admits it on the train it’s a relief almost to hear it. but from ed’s perspective it is SO satisfying to watch his care for her evolve, and he’s definitely always felt for her in some capacity. you see him really concerned for her when she tempts the idea of shooting scar and you see her really vulnerable around him for the first time and the effect on him is evident. we see him start to concern himself heavily with her well-being to the point where it’s so obvious but he’s so stubborn and bad with words and that final train scene is such a sigh of relief. so many feels.
mutual appreciation and admiration for each other’s skill and person. mayhaps winry didn’t always ~love~ the idea of alchemy, but certainly she gave the boys credit for their goals. she never doubts them, in fact if anything she’s dubious of the fact that they are so tight-lipped. she believes so profoundly in them, and in ed, and same goes the other way around. hearing ed talk about winry to other character is just *heart eye emoji* he is SO proud of her, constantly boasting her as the best damn mechanic, an incredibly engineer, etc and he see that appreciation begin to encompass her whole being aka his awe when she treats scar in briggs, when she’s not afraid to stand up to him, etc. etc.
while i am a huge proponent of winry and ed growing together in sexual/romantic maturity aka not ALWAYS being awkward and unsure in those types of advancements (i like to think they both, privately, grow assured of their actions and move in a rhythm that is syncopated yet unexpected, in a good way) they idea that they save that for each other kind of makes me want to die? aka, not huge on PDA, at the most a kiss goodbye and hand holding. neither one wants to be ~that couple~ so rather they save it for closed doors, which is so them imo
NICKNAMES?? need i even say more??
ed being a bad sleeper and nuzzling into winry’s form, nuzzling her shoulders when hints of morning appear
all of the rockbell-elric babies, and on another note, rockbell-elric is such a concept. i’m so for the hyphenated surnames just because they both carry so much pride in BOTH names it only makes sense to me
various married life shenanigans? like honestly there’s no way in hell that these two could just ~settle for a quiet life in the country~ like there will always be pranks and fun and laughter and joy emitted from wherever they plant themselves and babies. lots of babies.
FMA appreciation life 