Monday, October 30, 2017

Episode 6 -- Road of Hope

At this point, the number of overlapping episodes and scenes are diminishing, so I will hopefully stop comparing to the '03 anime. I've found it really difficult to not compare, especially with these early episodes. I really think the two versions are very different beasts. I do prefer Brotherhood because I found the plot to be more robust, and the characters were over all better developed, especially the characters outside of Ed and Al. But, that doesn't mean I don't like the '03 anime. There was a lot I liked about that one as well, but where they do overlap, I do tend to prefer how Brotherhood handled the situations. Anyways... moving onward to Episode 6.

 Poor Al. At least they didn't forget him this time...

 Drop by next time... The feels because ... you know... there won't be a next time. T_T Since I am generally unfamiliar with the manga, the first time I watched through Brotherhood, I did hold out on a slim hope that he might not die.

 Poor Ed with his left armed salute, not realizing that this is his final good bye to his friend. T_T Okay... enough of that. Moving on.


 There will always be screenshots of Armstrong and his shenanigans because I love him so much, especially all the things that have been passed down the Armstrong line for generations.

 Perfect example of the use of the Improvised Weapon feat (reference most versions of D&D and Pathfinder).
 Hey look: it's the thing you're questing for. If the Elrics didn't have ethics, they could have walked off with this and we could have ended the show here. But, I guess that would have been a bit anti-climactic.

 The one thing I did find strange about this scene, and I didn't notice it until one of my later viewings of Brotherhood, is that Al doesn't speak. At all. Especially since he's the topic of conversation for part of it.

 And Al's no longer luggage. I wonder if anyone else riding on the train thought it was weird that a dis-assembled suit of armor was talking.

This is one of those places where my memory is a bit fuzzy for the '03 anime. I want to say Marco died here in the first anime. I certainly expected him to be dead in this version. At this point in the story, he'd served his relative purpose, which is to direct the Elrics toward discovering how to make a philosopher's stone.

 Pinako Rockbell vs. Edward Elric. Pinako wins every time (my opinion).

 Given how smug and casual Ed looks here I'd be pissed too if I was Winry. "It's basically the same, just in smaller pieces."

 Yeah. He deserved that...

 More backstory. I find it interesting that they go to significant effort to make sure we don't see the father's face. This is also another place I'm fuzzy on the '03 anime: were Pinako and Hohenheim drinking buddies in the '03 anime? I can't remember. It wasn't a major point if they were. Pinako is one of many characters that got more TLC in Brotherhood. She's allowed more of a role, more personality, and more depth to her character (although we don't really see that yet).

 Always...
 Just get used to it...

 Such poise. Such emotion.

 Hey... Poke. Does this bother you?

 Hey. Poke. How about now?

Hey. Look at this face I can make. (What the heck kind of face is that anyways?)

 How about now? Does this bother you now?

 And this is why I think Ed is obnoxious, and I cried tears of joy over Brotherhood and the fact that he did not completely run the show. I also think Winry is a saint for tolerating him. This is possibly an unpopular opinion, but at this stage in the story, he's not particularly endearing to me.

I'm also a huge fan of canon pairings for most series, and this one is no exception. She's an angel, and he's the devil. Just saying.

Friday, October 27, 2017

Month In Review - October 2017

October is drawing to a close. This is a sad thing as October is one of my favorite months. The weather has finally started to get cooler... as in it's finally under 90 degrees. >_< I admit I really can't wait to find an excuse to move away from this area, and that has been a big part of what we've done during this month. We are slowly solidifying plans to move away, preferably back to mountains. This plan will probably take at least a couple years to get us to a place where we can pull off the move. It's a work in progress, but it's a huge thing for me. Although I love the people we've met here and the fact that I live and now work with one of my best friends, it is not where I really want to be. So, Shaun and I are working on moving. We're taking our time and finishing up a few things we want to see done before making a move--like finishing school for midwifery and getting my Etsy shop back up and running. October also has Halloween, which has always been a favorite Holiday of mine. Because I always need excuses to put on a costume.

So how has October been? It's certainly had it's ups and downs, and right now I'm fighting a sinus infection that is threatening to strike and make a mess of my plans for Halloween weekend. We are looking forward to a fun weekend. Last night my kids and husband went to our church's Reformation Day celebration. I had to miss it because I was working. Tonight, we're going to a corn maze with some good friends, which will be followed by s'mores at a bonfire. Saturday afternoon and evening will be our annual Halloween Party. It's a kid-friendly even, so we don't allow alcohol, but it is always an evening of fun. We run a costume contest, and sometimes the prize we give out is something decent. We usually run a murder mystery or some other role-playing game. This year's theme is Disney, and if we can finish it, the mystery will be "Who Killed Elsa?" and the playable characters will be a selection of the more fun Disney villains. I have to work Halloween night, but we're allowed to dress up at work, so I'm thinking I might wear my Princess Buttercup costume because it's super comfy, which is good for a 12 hour shift. I'm loving how our Halloween-ish activities are spreading out over almost a week this year.

In other news, we have a new cat in our family. She's named Lana, and I will probably put up a post in November or December all about her, otherwise she might completely take over this post. =P We've been making slow progress on all of our art projects. A lot of this month has been spent re-focusing. We had made plans back in August for what we wanted to see done this fall. I think we over-estimated what we would be able to do, since Shaun is back in school as well now (he teaches) and that stuff always ends up taking more time than we think it will when the semester is just starting. So, we re-evaluated our plans. This may sound like a little thing, but it's a big thing for me because in the past, I would just continue to try and plow through everything, getting increasingly more stressed, going without sleep, and otherwise killing my immune system.

So, anyways... November is another month I like. I'm going to have to work on Thanksgiving, so I'll have to miss out on the family festivities there, but I'll live. We're working on coming up with some things to make work that night more fun. I'm going to continue working on our projects based on our re-focusing discussions. One of my big goals is to finish cleaning out the garage enough to get a space set up to store all my inventory and set up a space for shipping things. Ideally I'd like this ready by mid-November. That might be a bit optimistic, but I'd like it done enough to have my Etsy up with some new products before the end of the year. So we'll see how this goes.

Wednesday, October 25, 2017

WIP Wednesday - 2017 - Volume 15

We've been doing a lot of work on the ties lately. I've come to the conclusion that I don't like the pattern, but I've found a material for the inside that I sort of like--although even this is less than ideal. I'm being super picky about the ties because I really want them to be awesome. We do have 2 prototypes finished that Shaun and Ty wore to a wedding recently, so although I am not satisfied with them, they are more than passable. I guess I'm just a perfectionist. =P So, I'm going to play with some different patterns and see what I come up with. We're also looking at ways to cut down on the time it takes to get everything cut out and ready to sew together. Right now, what we're doing is taking way too much time. This is a problem for 2 reasons: First, I don't have much time, so that means getting these finished is taking forever, and, second, if I want to charge for my time, then the ties are going to be way too expensive--or at least significantly more than what I want to charge for them. Anyways, here's a sneak of the two prototypes we finished, along with a test tie we made with the Zelda fabric that we screwed up printing -- the pattern is supposed to be smaller, but I uploaded the file with the wrong DPI. Oops. But we had the fabric, so why not use it? We used the Zelda fabric to test several different insides for the tie.


Monday, October 23, 2017

Episode 5 - Rain of Sorrows

This was the episode that made me fall in love with Brotherhood.

I'd like to say that this is unrealistic and that people wouldn't fall to violence so easily, but the more I see of the world, the easier it is to find this believable. 

And we see that the happy healthy Cornello was a fraud (of a different kind), and the homunculi are the ones really calling the shots and inciting the violence. As much as I dislike what they're doing, I can't fault them for their derision of humanity. I promise I have always been this cynical, although working at the 9-1-1 call center has probably not helped.

Discussing Scar... Scar is without a doubt equal to any of these characters when it comes to combat. He is probably better than any one of them on their own. That's my opinion. Mustang is advised to lay low, as he's the only State Alchemist of note in the area. Oops. Forgot about Ed. I like how there are clean narrative transitions. The conversation naturally built to move to Ed, then cut to the next scene with Ed and Al.

So usually people have something else in mind when they say depression kills. Here it's more not being aware of or caring about your surroundings, especially not noticing the mass murderer in front of you. That kind of malaise is clearly bad for Ed's health. 

I like that Ed does recognize that he doesn't try to avoid making enemies with the implication that his personality and behavior could be abrasive enough to create serious enemies. Ironically, this is probably one of the few times where Ed is legitimately not responsible for Scar's enmity. Is my bias showing? Ed isn't really one of my favorite characters. 

Al's down. Ed's next. So, generally it's a good thing that Mustang remembered Ed and decided to go check on him... I sometimes wonder how Mustang would have reacted had he either forgotten Ed, or had Ed not been there, and therefore not been a concern.

Lol. Love this scene. <3 Riza so much. 

And Armstrong sparkly muscle. Because I can. XD

This was one of the first places I noticed that whoever choreographed the combat put some effort into differentiating fighting styles. Armstrong fights using boxing stances and strategy, which really suits his build and combat style. For me, details like this are big. 

Du-duh. Foreshadowing. So, just to note, although I will try to avoid spoilers, I'm going to assume that most people reading this will have seen the '03 anime, and knows where Hughes's story goes. If not, ready any part referencing him at your own risk, because there are indirect spoilers. Hughes should take his own advice. Getting messed up with this pack of superhuman freaks will be bad for his health. Interestingly, he's referring to alchemists, but that statement could just as easily apply to the homunculi.


Extra special freak show and it's only going to get worse from here. Take my advice: just go home. But then he'd feel bad because the extra crazy ones are just a pair of kids, and if he went home, it would make him look bad. Sometimes people can be so irrational. There's nothing wrong with turning tail when you're dealing with something beyond your means to handle. 



Backstory/exposition time. I like the muted tones added to the flashbacks to the war. I like that generally. I'm not sure I like the color differentiation with the red tones for the Ishvalans and blue for the Amestrians. On the one hand it does serve to clearly show who's on which side, but I also find that I don't like the red for the Ishvalans. Clearly they are set up as victims, and red is the color of blood--and their blood flowed freely during the conflict. However, red is a color traditionally associated with evil. So, I think they should have all had purple eyes, and used purple colors in the back stories.

Again, discussion that transitions to the next thing. This time, it is Ed discussing fixing his arm (and Al), which means, it's time to visit Winry. I wonder if she got one of those chills that means someone's talking about you somewhere... or someone's walking on your grave... 

Friday, October 20, 2017

Classic Film - Episode 7

 A drama for this week. The Fugitive was released in 1993. From my understanding it was based on a 1960 TV series, which was based on a real person. I seriously doubt the film even remotely resembled reality but it is still a fun movie to watch. Starring Harrison Ford as Dr. Kimble, a man wrongfully accused of kill his wife, the fugitive follows Dr. Kimble as he escapes jail and seeks out the real murder all the while being chased by a hard-nosed U.S. Marshall named Samuel Gerrard.

The film opens with the murder of Dr. Kimble’s wife. It’s very blurry and in slow motion so most of the violence is muffled by the odd camera angles. It’s clear what’s happening but the details are fuzzy, which makes the crime all the more poignant since it is precisely the truth of these details that forms the subject of the next scene with Dr. Kimble’s trial. The most damning evidence is a 911 call of Mrs. Kimble in which she says she’s being attacked and then calls out her husband’s name before dying.

We are then treated to the escape, which is an exciting action scene. Dr. Kimble is being moved by a prison bus when several of the other prisoners attempt to escape. They cause the bus to run off-road and flip over several times before landing on the tracks of an oncoming train. Dr. Kimble barely escapes and then runs for it.

Enter Tommy Lee Jones as the U.S. Marshall sent to capture Kimble and the one other prisoner to survive the crash. This is Tommy Lee Jones at his best. He’s sarcastic, scarily perceptive, and cracks jokes in a dead-pan fashion. He also immediately takes charge and announces one of the best short speeches I’ve ever heard in a film in which he directs the police to search every gas station, residence, warehouse, farmhouse, henhouse, outhouse, and dog house in a four mile radius.

While we can certainly relate to the sympathetic Dr. Kimble and his quest to discover the truth behind his wife’s murder, it’s really the U.S. Marshall that makes this film so much fun. When Gerard confronts Kimble for the first time in a sewer, Kimble announces that he didn’t kill his wife. Gerard, even though he has a gun pointed at his head, casually replies that he doesn’t care. He’s funny, single-minded and seemingly good at his job.

The overall story is a standard murder mystery. If you haven’t seen it, I won’t spoil the ending but there really aren’t many twists and turns. What’s interesting about the film, however, is how Dr. Kimble uses his knowledge of hospitals to sneak back into society and covertly investigate his wife’s murder while playing cat-and-mouse with Gerard. Both men are intelligent and it’s fun to watch them match wits even though they aren’t technically enemies.

The film is a drama so there are a lot of slow moments broken up by the occasional chase scene. There’s a fist fight at the climax, which is so over-the-top ridiculous and long that it almost takes away from the real seriousness of the rest of the film. My older kids really got into the story. They liked the conflict and the tension between the two main characters. There’s a villain and his lackey but they are in the film so little they might as well be side characters.

One of the interesting little trivia bits about The Fugitive is that they filmed part of the movie in North Carolina. They crashed a train into a bus and then pretty much left it here. You can drive out and see the wreckage if you are so inclined. They did a sequel to The Fugitive called U.S. Marshalls, which followed Gerard tracking down a different fugitive played by Welsey Snipes. I remember seeing it years ago and not being very impressed. I don’t remember much about it.

There was one thing in the story that stood out to me personally more this time around and that was one of plot twists involving a pharmaceutical company that was faking its research in order to get a drug approved. I’m not just not shocked by it. I guess it might be because I’m older now and have had more experience with the medical industry that I’m honestly disillusioned about the lack of morality in the health sector. Or maybe it’s because I’ve studied how academic and scientific research is conducted that this kind of blatant falsehood for profit doesn’t surprise or alarm me. I kind of almost expect it. Now I just feel jaded.


Overall, The Fugitive is a great drama. Harrison Ford plays the mournful victim well. We feel bad for Dr. Kimble and want him to discover the truth. You can feel his simmering anger at the injustice of the situation and while I enjoyed his detective-work, the scenes where he’s kicking butt and brawling just feels out of place. Thankfully, those scenes are short and there aren’t too many of them. Tommy Lee Jones is just awesome as the hunter. The dialog is witty and the banter between Gerard and his team helps us enjoy the ride.

Wednesday, October 18, 2017

WIP Wednesday - 2017 - Volume 14

I've been a bit slow on this project the last week or so. There's only 2 new sketches for the new archetypes--Bondage Villain and Holy Knight:



Monday, October 16, 2017

Episode 4 - The Alchemist's Anguish

I see this as the first episode in which Brotherhood really begins to diverge from the '03 anime. The episode begins with one of my favorite characters from Brotherhood. 



And there goes this Basque Grand, which is fine by me. I didn't like him very much in the '03 anime, so cheers to his early demise. Plus, I am a bit biased towards Scar.

Beyond this point though the episode ranks as FMA's more depressing episodes. I think that can be said for both versions of the anime. 

Introducing this episodes creepy evil guy with squinty eyes drawn to make him look like a loving father figure. He reminds me a lot of Cornello at this point. This was never a connection a made until I started pulling screen shots and writing this stuff up, but both Tucker and Cornello start out looking sweet and relaxed with their eyes closed. As the episode progresses and we see more of Tucker's dark side, his eyes gradually open, and the lighting in his scenes gets darker, much like it did with Cornello. The only difference is the timing. Cornello goes evil fairly quickly, while Tucker takes most of the episode to show his true colors.



All these fun scenes with Ed, Al, Nina, and Alexander. They're bright and cheerful. They really want to make you love these guys. 

The eyes are starting to open. Clearly the happy times from the middle of the episode are not going to last...
 Nope... probably one of the worst scenes in the series.

The eyes are wide open now, and he's going on about how what he did wasn't really that wrong because science. Yeah... No... This was a great idea, said no one ever. 

And the end of Tucker and Nina. In the '03 anime, Scar only stumbled upon Nina. Here he has intentionally tracked down Tucker. He ends both of them here.

At this stage, I remember wondering where the story would go as both Basque Grand and Tucker played larger, although still secondary, rolls in the '03 anime. It might be worth adding here that I have not read the manga, so all of this was entirely new to me the first time I watched through it.  I found it quite exciting, as I especially disliked the Lab 5 episodes from the original anime, and without Tucker they would clearly change. 

This episode plays on what I think are two of FMA's major themes: the value of human life and ethics in science. Ed is greatly distressed by Nina's transformation and loss of humanity, and then, in spite of what Tucker has done, Nina still loves her father and values his life, which she demonstrates when Ed attacks Tucker and again after Scar has killed Tucker. And, although there is some justice in Tucker's death, there is only sadness for Nina and Alexander. Their deaths feel cruel and wrong. This episode sucks... period. It introduces Scar, and sets up themes, but overall still leaves a bitter aftertaste.