on fan randomness

[xparrot]

So we are on the last dozen eps of FMA: Brotherhood and omg sooooo gooooooood *_* LING LING LING LING (not to mention, Greedling!!! <33333) and of course must love Roy Mustang. To say nothing of the awesomeness of the ladies (Hawkeye! Izumi! Olivier omg omg Olivier~~~~!) and of course Ed & Al still hit all my devoted sibs buttons and just, everyone, all of it, eeeeeee! (FMA poses a difficulty because I often tend to pick favorite characters - have favorite characters picked for me - based on who is the most badass, only in FMA that is EVERY SINGLE CHARACTER EVER. It makes it haaaaaard~~!)

...Of course getting down to the end wire here (just saw Roy take out Envy and am starting to get REALLY REALLY STRESSED about who actually makes it and how it's going to end for everyone, because at this point I love everyone enough that losing any of them will hurt (including certain minor characters who initially seemed to be introduced as minor villains to test the good guy's no-killing resolve, and then just seemed to be there as canon fodder, and now I don't even know but yeah, I love them too, ahhhh!)

Looking forward to reading the manga after this, too. (Normally I would wait a bit, so all the plot is not so fresh in my mind, but I'm sort of already getting an urge to rewatch the series, so yeah, manga...)

In fanning from the other side of the globe, we've started watching Fringe - only about halfway through first season and, hmmm. It would be better if the show didn't think it was ~so very clever~ and unique (uhhh guys X-files already did this over a decade ago, on the same network even, you're not exactly breaking new ground!) - especially since the pseudoscience routinely threatens to MAKE MY HEAD EXPLODE (JUST LIKE RADIATION APPARENTLY DOES IN THEIR UNIVERSE.) Listen, I grew up on Star Trek, I love me my technobabble; and I'm all over comic books and their wacky amazing magic SCIENCE. And sometimes Fringe goes far enough that I can enjoy it but sometimes it tries to give 'clever'-sounding explanations that anyone who took high school physics (i.e. me) clearly can tell are wrong and also insane. Which they don't need to do! It's simple enough to handwave these things - just call on a MacGuffin! Ancient technology! Nanites*! Dark matter! Anything! Just doesn't say it's electromagnetism when clearly NO NO IT IS NOT!

OTOH this does have the effect of making me rather fond of Peter Bishop, since about 50% of his dialogue is saying aloud whatever I was just shouting at the screen. And so far I'm liking both his relationship with Walter (estranged parent-child relationships ftw) and with Olivia (their UST has been nicely and maturely underplayed thus far, to the point where I might be brought around to shipping them, if that's where it's going?)

...And then the brother has pointed out that the show is actually an AU Futurama - Walter is straight-out Prof. Farnsworth! Olivia is two-eyed less-tempermental Leela! Peter is pretty much exactly Fry + a brain! Astrid is Amy! Broyles is, uh, Hermes? Leaving only the question of who is Bender...

* ETA: Me, I just think Cesar Salazar should show up sometime. He and Walter are so on the same wavelength (Generator Rex's end was actually pretty decent, resolved enough to be satisfying but maintained enough status quo to easily continue it later, if they get the chance. Also I love Cesar for always; he is such an oddly special take on the comic book mad scientist...)

Comments

[sholio]

LOL, I am pretty sure that the "science" in Fringe is the worst of ANY genre tv show I have ever watched. And this is counting things like Stargate! It's AWFUL! There was one episode recently in which a (guest) character said, "There is no scientific explanation for this!" and we cracked up laughing because, yeah, way to sum up the whole series in a nutshell. XDDDDD

Anyway, if you stick with it, I'll be interested to hear your thoughts going forward! Peter and Walter's tormented father/son relationship is my favorite thing about the show by far. And I <3 Olivia and Astrid. (Also, Farnsworth is Astrid's last name. I had forgotten about that.)

FMA -- heeeee~! Isn't it the best? I adore Olivier SOOOOOO MUCH. Which is not to say that I don't love EVERYONE else. Royyyyy~~~! The manga-ka really writes awesome women, though. There's one volume of the manga in which her author's note mentions that she grew up on a farm and had to work hard, so her female characters always have to work for a living. I really think her women are among my favorites in all of anime/manga.

[xparrot.livejournal.com]

Oh yes! I'd forgotten but when we first heard Astrid's last name, the bro decided the Futurama thing wasn't a coincidence! Heh...

Compared to Fringe Stargate's science is amazingly accurate! They at least have Ancient technology to justify it...

But I'm liking the chars enough to want to stick with it. And I've heard it gets better later seasons, so...

FMA now doesn't need to get any better, it is amazing and fantastic as is. Olivier is SPECTACULAR. And yeah, all the female characters...I think it does help that Arakawa is a women; there's a certain...not just depth, but realism? The women feel like real people as much as the men, have hearts and minds just as much. And it's not that guys *can't* write like that (or that female writers can't screw it up!) but - yeah, things like her female characters working for a living because that's what life is for her, yes, I can see that. At least in shounen series, there are few in which the female chars compare (actually Gintama is the other one which comes to mind; I still don't know why that is, but...part of it might be lack of fan-service? FMA is just very low-fanservice - the guys and girls both are all awesome and gorgeous (the bro is mad in love with Riza ;) but they're not on display like that...)(also in the visual sense, love that FMA chars are all *solid* - neither anime-slender or superhero-muscular, but built like real people...)

...which (obligatory shallowness) doesn't preclude them from being HOT AS HELL OMG ROY~~~~~~~~~~~~~ (putting aside the obvious puns, there are moments where he is one of the sexiest men I have ever seen in an anime...something about his eyes, or hair, or face, or just...yowsa.....)

[sholio]

Another thing about the FMA manga-ka is that she researches the hell out of it. Again from her author's notes, she interviewed a bunch of WWII veterans, and she talks about walking out of bookstores with stacks of books on abnormal psychology and serial killers that make her wonder if the bookstore clerk thinks she's planning some sort of terrible crime. ^^;; But I think that's one of the things that makes it feel so solid and real - she really puts a lot of effort into the characters' psychological reality, and making them believable for the kind of people they are.

And yes to the low fanservice! I really love that! It's a wee bit creepy that the only character who does get the fanservice treatment is Winry, who is all of, what, 16, but in general, yeah, male and female characters alike are treated with dignity and respect (well, except when they totally lose their dignity, but not in an objectifying way ...!).

(ETA: Oh, and totally agree on Roy - definitely a strong contender for the title of "Hottest Man in Anime". :D)

And yeah, Fringe does get a lot better later on -- and it's best if you try to stay as unspoiled as possible, because there are some awesome surprises! Oh, and also, don't skip the credits! I don't think this starts until season two, but they start doing some very clever things with the opening credits in certain episodes.

I also love their big floating location titles. XD Orion says that he wants to cast something like that as a sculpture and mount it on our property somewhere, with our geographic location. XDDD

[xparrot.livejournal.com]

Heeeee, I love the Fringe location titles! They are one of my favorite things about the show, no lie, it's a fantastic effect (having a real one would be awesome!)

So far I am mostly unspoiled - I know there is something with alt universes later on (a blue 'verse and a yellow 'verse or something?) which was one of the main reasons I wanted to see the show, as you know I am all over the cross-dimension stuff - but I don't actually know any details about it. Will try to remain that way! ^^

And FMA - yeah, I really appreciate all the effort and research put into the world! Even not knowing she'd done it - you can tell. It feels very real, very convincing, the chars and the universe both (I especially loved the reveal about what the masterplan was, because it explained the one thing that had been bugging me - that Amestris was a circular country, that was just weird, real nations don't have borders like that - but no wait, there's a good (well, not good horrible - but logical!) reason for that shape! So clever... *_*)

[rosalui.livejournal.com]

YAYAYAY ALLL THE FMA LOVE. ♥

Roy and Envy was badass to the point of frightening, and I LOVE THEM ALL SO MUCH. AHHHHHHHHH.

[xparrot.livejournal.com]

<333333333333 (oh god Roy vs Envy does actually get scary; they were right for stopping him because yeah, too far down that road and he might not have come back...)

[greenygal.livejournal.com]

Fringe is not just a better show after the first season, it's basically an entirely different one, one focusing heavily on the fascinating storyline it develops rather than biological horrors of the week (though it does have plenty of those still). First season definitely does look like X-Files, but you know how X-Files never really knew where their arc was going and would keep dropping random hints in the hopes of keeping the fans hooked? Fringe totally knows where it's going and is going to deliver on it. (Well, most of it anyway--some of the stuff implied in first season doesn't really go anywhere.) I mostly found first season valuable for getting me engaged in the characters and dropping the occasional hint that would be important later on; it doesn't start becoming the show it's going to be until "Ability" at the earliest.

...I can't promise that the science will get any better, though.

[xparrot.livejournal.com]

That is the impression I'd gotten of Fringe, from what I'd heard of it, glad to hear it confirmed! I'm looking forward to seeing where it goes (have only very limited spoilers now and am going to try to keep it that way ^_^)

The science...heh. I actually am hoping it gets worse...it would be hard for it to actually get good enough to be plausible, but if it gets ridiculous enough I'll be able to enjoy it for that ^_^

[moonriddler-mim.livejournal.com]

Roy and Envy got to me like WHOA! I think it even had me in tears. o.o FMA rocks in so many ways I can't even begin to count them!!!! \^______^/

[xparrot.livejournal.com]

That was an incredible scene - and yeah, it's a fantastic show all around!