the official translators seemed to be confused about it too because they called her “he” in one of the omakes but yeah! Den is a good girl and the best dog. FUN FACT ABOUT HER: she lost her leg saving Ed from getting hit by a train (the info is from an artbook and the screencap is from a game):
Another fun fact, she knew who Al was even after he lost his body and looked after him when he ran away (this is from an side-story that wasn’t officially translated over here):
and she’s top dog. this is the omake where the translators were confused about her gender:
why doesnt ed cry more in fma:b?????? literally all i wanted while i was watching it was for him to cry and be vulnerable, hes literally like 12, now im watching the older anime and??? hes so much more expressive and vulnerable and i love that, that was the thing he needed to feel more believable to me, i think. im on like ep 8 or something, in ep 7 he sobbed and i was screaming, now hes crying and explaining to al that he was terrified for his life while fighting barry and. hes twelve. hes TWELVE. HE NEEDS THIS. LET EDWARD ELRIC CRY.
the thing is though, ed HAS cried a lot in brotherhood. remember in episode 20 when he had to dig up the thing they created? he was crying there. sure there weren’t any tears, but he let out so many emotions in that moment. he was moaning and shuddering and thrashing and throwing up, he was in physical/emotional pain. he has these crying fits where he doesnt let himself shed tears because he doesn’t feel he deserves to and he sees it more of a burden than anything.
whenever he saw winry crying he always asked her “why?” as if crying would get her nowhere in the situation and that doing so was useless. but by not letting himself shed tears, he actually is harming himself even more because he’s not letting himself get that moment of release.
ed finally letting himself cry in episode 63 is a huge character development for him. he finally gets that moment of release that he’s been holding back the whole series which leads him to think clearly and find the right answer to beat truth. he manages to accept the feelings he’s been denying the entire time, such as him realizing that deep down he still loves his dad despite him leaving them.
i also feel like him seeing winry cry after she confronted scar changed his thoughts on what it meant to actually let yourself cry, and i think it’s what led him to crying when hohenheim began talking about giving his life away to save alphonse. he didn’t tell winry to stop crying in that moment nor ask her why she was doing so; he just let her because he knew she needed that moment of release, and he held her as she did so because he knew that was the only support he could give.
that’s why i think ed not shedding any tears until the end of brohood is a really good move for arakawa to make, but as i stated, ed still cried many times before that moment in the series as well.
it’s like what the narrator said in the preview of episode 19: “it’s not necessary to shed tears; a person can still cry without them.”
Whether for time or pacing or some other reason, this small moment never made it into the FMA:Brotherhood finale. It’s so small, but it speaks volumes, so I think it deserves some recognition.
This whole series has been big on the theme of “there are worse things than dying”. Death itself is natural, and trying to defy it–trying to not be the person left behind–is selfish arrogance; it’s punished continually. Hohenheim faced what may be considered a fate worth than death via immortality. Ed, Al, and Izumi were punished for trying to undo death. Roy, Riza, and Scar were haunted, possessed, driven to despair by being the survivors in a death-laden atrocity.
Convention states that the “selfless” thing to do is to sacrifice oneself for another. And Ed would do ANYTHING for Al. You’d think it’s logical, that Ed would just sacrifice himself to bring Al back and be done with it.
But THAT is not the philosophy of Fullmetal Alchemist. The SURVIVORS suffer. The ones left behind are left to deal with the grief and loss and loneliness. Ed knows that. He knows that all too well, to the point that even Roy is aware.
And Ed would much rather bear the burden of loss and hurt and grief himself. He’d rather shoulder the worse fate. He’d rather live in a world without his brother. Because the alternative would mean putting Alphonse through that survivor’s life,
FMA appreciation life 