Alright, we all know I have a fucking unholy obsession with my two blond/e kids, and now it’s time to explain it.
We all know I have a thing for the friends-lovers trope, and Ed/Win put it into action in the best, most traumatically wonderful way. They grew up in a small town together, and supported one another through the hard times. Winry’s parents dying, Trisha’s death, and even the transmutation that took away Ed’s limbs and Al’s body. Winry didn’t have any qualms about helping Ed carry his weight, even when he was younger, literally in terms of automail and emotionally. She was willing to cry for him and Alphonse when they couldn’t, and she took it upon herself to help, even during the automail installation
Then shit starts really going down, and Winry doesn’t back up or get scared on her own behalf, she gets worried for him. The manga has so many implications of her caring for him when he was in bad situations. Stopping work to come to Central when he was injured, putting aside customers to fix his automail, pulling all nighters to make sure he could return to the search as quickly as possible, even covering him up when he falls asleep at his desk.
She’s one of his closest friends before she’s any kind of love interest, and that’s such a unique quality to their relationship. She realizes she loves him first, but she doesn’t have qualms about him not having some deep love confession at the ready. Winry knows how determined he is to help his brother, and she is at the ready when he needs her, just like how he is willing to put himself on the line for her sake. She doesn’t devote herself to him, she travels and takes other customers and begins her life while he does his thing, and becomes well known for her talents, she just remembers him and has time for him when he needs her.
As for her talents, Ed recognizes them and jumps on every opportunity to flaunt how great she is, bragging to Greed about the quality of her work, bragging to other people, and getting irritated when people insinuate her automail is anything but top notch work.
Look at this boy. He is HERE and ready to talk about Winry Rockbell. He knows who the winner is here.
Not to mention, Ed wants to see her happy. He goes to great lengths to make sure he doesn’t make her upset, from screaming a promise to make her smile at the train station to literally refusing to die because “I can’t make her cry over something this stupid.” He has a metal rafter lodged in his hip, and he’s worrying about the feelings of his childhood friend. This boy is a man on a mission, and that mission is to make Winry stress less.
Then you have how her feelings and emotions make him want to be a better person. A lot of things forced Ed to grow up and become a better man, but Winry was the sole reason behind him learning the importance of humanity and empathy. Her delivery of the baby in Rush Valley was a turning point for Ed. He realized alchemy can’t solve everything, and that sometimes, the simple, sheer determination of one teenage girl can save a human life.
And then you have where Ed comforted her after her meeting with Scar, which was a MASSIVE ed/winry moment in itself, especially with him literally throwing himself in harms way to keep anything from happening to her
Even after that, he lets her cry about the loss of her parents freely, but only after reassuring her that she didn’t do anything wrong by not being able to kill Scar. Which resulted in his “Your hands aren’t meant for killing people. They’re for helping them live.“ speech that ruined my life.
But that scene didn’t disappear, it resurfaces during Ed’s talk with the ever-wise Riza Hawkeye, when he belittles himself for not understanding her feelings.
Ed was angry with himself for not being able to help her, and resolves to do better. He resolves to be a better person because of her. Riza notices this and spots his less-than-friendly feelings before he does, which says something about their whole relationship.
He wants to be a better person for her, not for their relationship. He wasn’t thinking of any type of romantic relationship when he was concerned for her feelings, he was concerned for her.
All this meta and analyses beside, they touch each other all the time. They’re completely comfortable with touching one another, even when it’s not romantically. Look at all
Winry: Ed! Did you eat all the ice cr-
Ed: (Shirtless and sweaty from working out) Did I eat what?
Winry: (feels his 6-pack) Uh…you. You…um…hi.
Ed: Please get a grip.
Winry: I am.
In a modern AU, Ed and Al would definitely have a cat named Nicolas Flameow (after alchemist Nicolas Flamel) that Al found on the street and refused to let go of
I know it’s impossible considering it’s the 1910s, but I want to see Al make a series of vlogs called “What’s Big Brother Doing Today?”, about his short-tempered, too smart for his own good, rambunctious fighter older brother trying to adapt to home life and being very bored
“What’s big brother doing today? …Yelling at a tree. Winry asked him to install a swing, since the old one broke. That was three hours ago. I think he’s just tree-shaming now.”
“What’s big brother doing today? …Dressing up the dog like a- You know, I don’t even know what kind of creature that’s supposed to be. Pretty ugly tho”
“Today brother is in a very bad mood. Granny insinuated that he’ll be as short as her when he’s old, and now he’s absolutely fuming.”
“Day 3 of Winry being in Rush Valley. I’ve spent the entire day trying to convince Ed that our house does not need a moat. I’m not sure I’m succeeding.”
“What’s big brother doing today? …Throwing up, because he ate an entire bucket of ice cream himself, in one sitting.”
“We took in three kittens whose mother was eaten by a coyote. The kittens’ names are Katya, Tiger, and Dark Lord Ragnarok. You can guess who named who.”
“What’s big brother doing today? …Trying to assemble a dresser, and failing really, really badly. Remember, this is the guy who passed the state alchemist test at age 12. He can’t put together a dresser.”
“Ed’s not home today. He found a book that has some really bad, possibly even dangerous advice for beginner alchemists, and he got so pissed off that he decided to go to Central himself and threaten the publisher into recalling it. I’d try to stop him, but… He’s right.”
I’ve always wanted to do some, but I’m shy about doing them unprompted, which makes me glad you came along, anon! I’d love to do one for you, although I will warn you it may end up long.
(edit: end wordcount is over 2500 words Be prepared, I certainly went in-depth with this one.)
Ed is, hands down, my favorite character of all time. I’m quite sure I gathered most of my personal ideology from him at 12/13, and absorbed half of his personality in the process. So, I really hope I can do him justice.
In all ways, shapes, and forms, Edward Elric is certainly the most multi-faceted, interesting, and revolutionary male lead I’ve ever seen in my life. I make it a personal goal to watch a lot of different kinds of media and critically consume it all, but I’ve yet to stumble over a character I love as ardently as Edward Elric.
He is a disabled, educated, and feminist male lead who not only breaks the boundaries between gender expectations, but also sets great examples for loveable male characters in the future. I have no doubt in my mind when I say this: Edward Elric and FMA:B as a whole turned an entire era of tropes, ideals, and character alignments on their head.
Edward Elric is an openminded young man who worked through his guilt, nihilism, and self hatred to become a kind, compassionate person who saved the world just because he wanted to protect and cherish what he loved.
More under the cut, so I don’t flood dashes with more of my rambly meta.
i love thinking about how cute ed is. like that country boy was so darned pretty, don’t tell me his cute rural charm and heroic behavior didn’t make him some kind of heartthrob. he probably didn’t even REALIZE IT.
after the promised day, he gets a free piece of pie from a local diner for being ‘such a hero of the country’ and he’s like “oh wow thanks.” he doesnt even NOTICE how redfaced the waitress is as she scurries away.
some teenage girl clips out his newspaper photo and puts it in her diary. “appreciation for the national hero?” her father asks. “uh huh.” the daughter replies, drawing a heart under his face.
students like 50 years later read about him and theyre like “yeah yeah, edward elric. national hero. whatever.” and they open their history books and BAM. the national hero was a scruffy 16 year old boy with literal golden hair and a model’s jawline. nothing is the same.
Winry Rockbell is so important to me from a feminist perspective (and important to me in general). Let me tell you why her narrative is amazing.
Please note I am approaching this from a largely western context as it’s the one I know. I’m aware Winry’s character and arc might have different connotations in her original Japanese context, so please feel free to tell me if you have some insight to that! This is just how I find her narrative inspiring and subversive personally, based on my own context, though I think it is fair to say Hiromu Arakawa subverted some common gender tropes with Winry’s character; tropes commonly seen in narratives on a global scale.
When you actually look at Ed’s character development throughout the series, the stuff in Rush Valley with Winry was a huge important turning point for him. Moreover, his respect for the simple heroism of human beings as opposed to the power of alchemy is really very inspired by how he views Winry as a hero who does work more valuable than what he does as an alchemist. He looks up to her and realizes she has skills that alchemy can’t compare to and that’s why she’s a big factor in his final decision.
First off, we have to look at the aftermath of the Nina thing. This was the first time Ed had to accept that he can’t solve everything with alchemy.
Here he blames being an “insignificant human” as the reason he couldn’t save Nina. He still believes he should be able to solve everything with alchemy and sees his humanity as his weakness here. He feels like a failure because he believes as an alchemist, his skills should apply to any situation.
He has a similar crisis when he’s unable to use alchemy to get to the doctor when the woman in Rush Valley is giving birth. He tries to build a bridge, but it collapses under it’s own weight.
Ed has a similar line at a different point in the Brotherhood episode that adapts it, and I remember that it someone at Mark Spoils commented it came off as kinda manpain-y, like he’s suddenly making this situation about his issues. I’m always one to criticize that sort of thing and I understand with the condensed-ness of the Brotherhood episode it can come off that way, but reading the full chapter the line was there for a very specific reason- despite having all the fantastic superpowers at his disposal, Ed is helpless in this situation.He has no power to save anyone.
Which makes it a powerful statement when Winry isn’t. Winry takes the reigns and saves the day not with superpowers, but with courage and basic medical knowledge. Ed may know alchemy and fighting, but when the situation is an everyday crisis of normal human proportions like giving birth, it’s Winry who can get things done and save lives. Winry doesn’t rely on alchemy, so she has important skills that Ed doesn’t, so she can save the day where alchemy can’t.
And that’s when Ed changes his attitude. Through Winry, he sees that “insignificant humans” are amazing and capable of things alchemy cannot possibly do. He would not have had the revelation if not for Winry’s heroism.
Do you ever think about the fact that Ed’s entire life goal almost hinged on whether or not he’d be able to pass the state alchemist test, and yet when he actually got to the test he decided to demonstratively try to assassinate the president
FMA appreciation life 