the most realistic thing about FMA is that ed, as a 15 year old, has an undeniable knowledge of what it means to be badass in its purest and most fundamental form and that ed, also as a 15 year old, is only capable of having a fucking hideous sense of style, and so combined we get things like this
which is undeniably incredibly badass, but also looks fucking awful
“What? Like, a disabled protagonist? How would that even work? How could someone with a disability be the hero in an action show?” local anime trash boy wonders while sitting next to his box sets of Full Metal Alchemist, showing no hint of irony or self awareness.
but is Ed really disabled? sure I get he lost his arm and leg
but he’s still able to move and do things perfectly
He has prosthetics. Having prosthetic limbs (that more than once break amd need repair) doesnt make him not disabled
It should also be noted that Ed:
-had to undergo very painful and lengthy surgery to get automail
-had to relearn how to write because of his prosthesis (there’s a post going around showing he had to switch hands etc) and his handwriting is likely a lot worse due to that. This means automail isn’t super good for delicate work, unsurprising, considering what it’s made of.
-experiences phantom limb pain and therefore other associated stuff (this was only really shown in the manga)
-cannot go anywhere too cold without changing his automail or he’ll get really bad frost bite and it will stop working
-cannot go anywhere too hot, period, because the metal attached and under his skin will overheat and he will be badly burned
-Reattachment is painful, but needs to be done frequently if he breaks or outgrows his automail
– it’s HEAVY so much so that the strain has the potential to cause stress on his body, enough that it’s even theorized as possibly stunting his growth.
-it requires really frequent maintenance or it will break down, as shown by how when he first moved out he forgot to do that and it…broke down.
-when it does need to be repaired, it takes time to do that, during which Ed uses regular prosthetics (that usually don’t quite fit him).
-costs a lot of money (not a problem for Ed due to high state alchemist salary/having mechanics as surrogate family, but explicitly noted to being the reason why most people in the fmaverse stick to regular prosthetics along with the painful surgery)
So Ed can’t actually do everything perfectly and experiences a lot of extra hassle, problems and pain people without automail don’t have to deal with! And any advantages he does have are more suited to fighting than day to day life (being able to incorporate weapons/fake out people who want to blow up his arm).
Arakawa did her research and thought it through. Automail is by no means a magic cure that solves all problems associated with losing a limb.
From the popular “FULLMETAL ALCHEMIST” series comes a Nendoroid of Riza Hawkeye together with her pet dog, Black Hayate! She comes with articulated arm parts that allow her to be displayed in her iconic saluting pose, and she also comes with both two military pistols as well as a rifle. 🔫
I mean… I get that you want to align Roy Mustang with lawful good because he’s a high ranking military officer, but the man literally overthrew the government because he didn’t like it
the peak of japanese minimalism is not so much highly exaggerated geometric architecture with natural lighting but it is: fully drawn and minimal alphonse elric