FMA’03 - episode 3: Mother
Dec. 15th, 2023 11:19 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
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tori_reviewsFMA’03 - episode 3: Mother
I want to like this episode more than I do, and I probably would like it more without the ability to compare it to Brotherhood. Not just the comparable episode, but because of the other show I find it very distracting trying to work out the timeline of events here.
This sort of makes clear that neither timeline fully works. In Brotherhood there’s about five to six years between Trisha’s death and when the boys actually get around to trying to bring her back, that’s more than half their lives that they’ve been chasing this idea they had at the tender ages of 4 and 5 years old. But this one squashes everything that would go into them figuring out how to bring Trisha back into less than a year, and I don’t love that either. (Actually I am going to have to keep an eye out to see if we ever see the date on Trisha’s grave in ’03, because the only reason we know it’s such a long gap in Brotherhood is because we see when she died.) I think a happy mid point would have been 2.5-3 years between Trisha’s death and them trying to bring her back; letting them be old enough to have more memories of her that motivate them and not be so young when they committed to the attempt; but also give them time to have experiences and for planning before they tried.
Point of order: should I use Ishval or Ishbal in the 03 reviews? There’s no question that I’m using Ishval in Brotherhood, but I’m not sure if I should go for consistency with each show or consistency between shows. I think I’ll use Ishbal, if anything it might make it easier to make comparisons, but I also might slip sometimes, I’m just more used to Ishval.
Anyway, point being that I also can’t quite work out the timeline in relation to events besides the brothers’ experiences. I believe this show sticks to the idea that the Rockbells were killed near the end of the war in Ishbal (with a different story behind it) which I’ve always placed in early 1909 (it’s sometime in 08/09), but with the ages given in this version they’ve pulled that back to I think about 1907, which is pre extermination order of 08. War would be going on, and hot in certain areas, but it hadn’t gotten quite so nasty yet.
I am glad we actually get to see when people found out about the Rockbells’ death, that is missing in Brotherhood (and I suspect happened while the boys were off training with Izumi), I’m glad we got to meet them at all. But I still find myself watching it wondering how they could possibly be dead while Trisha is still alive. I’m sort of mixed on what the show gives up through that ordering; I’ll admit to it being effective in the moment, for all it was trading on a bit too much tragic irony; but I’m also not sure it works to have the boys go through things with Winry’s folks before Trisha dies, on top of the timeline issues I’m stuck on.
And yes, I like that we get more Trisha, we did need a bit more time with her in Brotherhood and in isolation I think her development is better here, largely because it’s spread over more time. The narrative isn’t just meet mom, then mom died; we get a Trisha that actually was part of their lives and not just an unattainable ideal that she kind of is in the other version.
I kind of can’t tell yet if I have more issues with where the voice acting sounds the same between versions, or where it doesn’t. I guess it’s the clash that sometimes it does but sometimes it doesn’t. Because that is not my Roy-boy, and yet the cast around him sounds close enough to the Brotherhood version I’m more familiar with.
The quick turnaround between Trisha’s death and the boys’ trying to bring her back does allow this show to concoct a reason for Roy to show up during the aftermath, although more than a bit coincidental that he’s there that night. I’m not sure how well it works with some other decisions this show makes with his character, and they went a weird way with having him calm about the attempted human transmutation and yet just letting himself in the night it happened. It’s also odd because this is the version that will do more about Roy being selfish about recruiting Ed to be a state alchemist, and yet they don’t have him give the pitch for why Ed should join up, just passing it off on Izumi having described what State Alchemists get to do. It’s especially odd since Roy and Ed don’t actually meet in this version. He doesn’t know if there’s fire in Ed’s eyes or if this experience will have defeated him; Roy just leaves with a casual invitation to come see him at some nebulous point down the road.
There’s also something a little strange that this show will in a lot of ways be more explicit with Roy’s PTSD issues (in some ways Brotherhood does more, and I might have a better developed opinion as we go on) but none of that seems in effect here (again, especially with those later reveals). In the Brotherhood recruitment scenes there’s a weight to Roy’s offer, he knows it could go badly; and while he doesn’t get detailed with Ed, we get a double shot from Roy and Riza that it’s a big choice before them and should be taken seriously. Not casually the way Roy does everything here.
On the other hand, because he’s so uninvested at this point, there isn’t the uncomfortable reading that he’s offering a steak to a starving child whether or not he lets said child know the terms and conditions of eating the food.
Hmm, there may be another timeline issue to watch out for. In Brotherhood, there’s supposed to be at least a year between them trying to bring Trisha back and when Ed got his state license, with them burning the house down at that point. I can’t tell how long the surgeries and rehab took in this version, but Ed hasn’t gotten his license yet and they’ve already burned down the house. I know in this version Ed isn’t even going to take the state exam for a fair bit longer. So when we see the date in the pocket watch, how well is the timeline going to work out? I may or may not remember to try and work it out, but I should.
I want to like this episode more than I do, and I probably would like it more without the ability to compare it to Brotherhood. Not just the comparable episode, but because of the other show I find it very distracting trying to work out the timeline of events here.
This sort of makes clear that neither timeline fully works. In Brotherhood there’s about five to six years between Trisha’s death and when the boys actually get around to trying to bring her back, that’s more than half their lives that they’ve been chasing this idea they had at the tender ages of 4 and 5 years old. But this one squashes everything that would go into them figuring out how to bring Trisha back into less than a year, and I don’t love that either. (Actually I am going to have to keep an eye out to see if we ever see the date on Trisha’s grave in ’03, because the only reason we know it’s such a long gap in Brotherhood is because we see when she died.) I think a happy mid point would have been 2.5-3 years between Trisha’s death and them trying to bring her back; letting them be old enough to have more memories of her that motivate them and not be so young when they committed to the attempt; but also give them time to have experiences and for planning before they tried.
Point of order: should I use Ishval or Ishbal in the 03 reviews? There’s no question that I’m using Ishval in Brotherhood, but I’m not sure if I should go for consistency with each show or consistency between shows. I think I’ll use Ishbal, if anything it might make it easier to make comparisons, but I also might slip sometimes, I’m just more used to Ishval.
Anyway, point being that I also can’t quite work out the timeline in relation to events besides the brothers’ experiences. I believe this show sticks to the idea that the Rockbells were killed near the end of the war in Ishbal (with a different story behind it) which I’ve always placed in early 1909 (it’s sometime in 08/09), but with the ages given in this version they’ve pulled that back to I think about 1907, which is pre extermination order of 08. War would be going on, and hot in certain areas, but it hadn’t gotten quite so nasty yet.
I am glad we actually get to see when people found out about the Rockbells’ death, that is missing in Brotherhood (and I suspect happened while the boys were off training with Izumi), I’m glad we got to meet them at all. But I still find myself watching it wondering how they could possibly be dead while Trisha is still alive. I’m sort of mixed on what the show gives up through that ordering; I’ll admit to it being effective in the moment, for all it was trading on a bit too much tragic irony; but I’m also not sure it works to have the boys go through things with Winry’s folks before Trisha dies, on top of the timeline issues I’m stuck on.
And yes, I like that we get more Trisha, we did need a bit more time with her in Brotherhood and in isolation I think her development is better here, largely because it’s spread over more time. The narrative isn’t just meet mom, then mom died; we get a Trisha that actually was part of their lives and not just an unattainable ideal that she kind of is in the other version.
I kind of can’t tell yet if I have more issues with where the voice acting sounds the same between versions, or where it doesn’t. I guess it’s the clash that sometimes it does but sometimes it doesn’t. Because that is not my Roy-boy, and yet the cast around him sounds close enough to the Brotherhood version I’m more familiar with.
The quick turnaround between Trisha’s death and the boys’ trying to bring her back does allow this show to concoct a reason for Roy to show up during the aftermath, although more than a bit coincidental that he’s there that night. I’m not sure how well it works with some other decisions this show makes with his character, and they went a weird way with having him calm about the attempted human transmutation and yet just letting himself in the night it happened. It’s also odd because this is the version that will do more about Roy being selfish about recruiting Ed to be a state alchemist, and yet they don’t have him give the pitch for why Ed should join up, just passing it off on Izumi having described what State Alchemists get to do. It’s especially odd since Roy and Ed don’t actually meet in this version. He doesn’t know if there’s fire in Ed’s eyes or if this experience will have defeated him; Roy just leaves with a casual invitation to come see him at some nebulous point down the road.
There’s also something a little strange that this show will in a lot of ways be more explicit with Roy’s PTSD issues (in some ways Brotherhood does more, and I might have a better developed opinion as we go on) but none of that seems in effect here (again, especially with those later reveals). In the Brotherhood recruitment scenes there’s a weight to Roy’s offer, he knows it could go badly; and while he doesn’t get detailed with Ed, we get a double shot from Roy and Riza that it’s a big choice before them and should be taken seriously. Not casually the way Roy does everything here.
On the other hand, because he’s so uninvested at this point, there isn’t the uncomfortable reading that he’s offering a steak to a starving child whether or not he lets said child know the terms and conditions of eating the food.
Hmm, there may be another timeline issue to watch out for. In Brotherhood, there’s supposed to be at least a year between them trying to bring Trisha back and when Ed got his state license, with them burning the house down at that point. I can’t tell how long the surgeries and rehab took in this version, but Ed hasn’t gotten his license yet and they’ve already burned down the house. I know in this version Ed isn’t even going to take the state exam for a fair bit longer. So when we see the date in the pocket watch, how well is the timeline going to work out? I may or may not remember to try and work it out, but I should.
