Kiri ☂ (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
taotrooper) wrote2005-06-27 02:40 pm
taotrooper) wrote2005-06-27 02:40 pm
Entry tags:
The problems with het in the FMA fandom
I'm back from my mom's. I'm a bit pissed off because I downloaded TC #12 there, and could also watched it there, but when I went and tried to transfer it to Alphonse (aka the mp3 player thingie, see my latest post)'s memory, I got several Windows Explorer errors for some unholy reason I can't understand and it sort of froze. My mom was near, probably making sure I wasn't fucking her computer up, and she was creeped out. So to make it short: now I'm banned from using her PC for downloading any of my crap, ever. I can't either install weird software (aka BitTorrent) OR connect my mp3 player to her hardware.
And I had to delete the raw before I could even take screencaps ¬_¬ So the post about episode 12 will have to wait, until I get the raw downloaded, again. This is the kind of episode I must point out thebishin bishuals visuals.
Happy belated birthday,![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
nienna_m! ^_^ Since I'm owning you and I promise, here's the rant about the FMA fandom, female and het pairings bashing I promised you on your journal a couple of weeks or so ago as your present.
We all know the Fullmetal Alchemist fandom is... something else. The wanks, the crack, the batshit sensation the biggest community leaves you after you check it. But the fact the female characters and the pairings involving them with male characters are somehow avoided concerns me more than raping lightbulbs or other expressions of insanity.
I mean, even in the craziest fandoms *cough*HP*cough* there's a balance between slash (including femmeslash) and het. Even with all the gay couples going on there, thelunatic het ship wars are here to stay. Then it's almost all good, you know. They're all aloud all the same.
However, the het shippers in the FMA fandom, even if they DO exist in great quantities, don't really talk a lot. And you can see why: for instance, if you ship Edward Elric with Roy Mustang, Alphonse Elric or Envy, you're never questioned or flamed. The other people never try to discuss with you on why their yaoi ships are better than yours. Moreover, your fellow shippers will be thrilled and start fangirling with you ver this or that. However! If you admit you ship him with Winry or anyone else born with a vagina, they'll look at you weirdly and try to ignore you like you have the plague or something.
Sure, there's been a couple of gals wanking in the community, saying "omg slash is gross eww", but fuck, we're not all like that. Just because we ship a het couple, we're not going to be homophobes or disgusted with 80% of the fandom. Get real. Chances are, we are saner and more open-minded than you.Actually... nah, I'd better shut up.
Moving onbefore I get stabbed by the FMA yaoi faction in my flist. Of course, yaoi in shounen mangas are every day's bread. However, it's true that some of the shounen stories have lame female characters, or at least they're not portraited nearly as cool as the guys. In some sagas, the girls and women are just there as fanservice, love interests or watching while doing nothing. So the boys hang out/fight with themselves most of the time, so more canon interaction. So fine, I see your point in some way.
But this is not FMA's case, you dumbasses! Our fandom has the most kickass lassies and ladies I have seen. Except for Roze, who's just sort of there, I have yet to see a lame female character created by Arakawa. They either know how to fight, or they're too smart, or BOTH. They all have a special talent or quality that makes them stand out, even if they don't go and join the main characters in combat (Winry is a mechanic genius, Schieska has a photographic memory, Gracia and Trisha are the archetype of wife and mother, Izumi is good in both alchemy and martial arts, and so on.) They all bear a special jigsaw in the puzzle that is the plot.
That's why I don't understand the bashing. None of them (again, excepting Roze) are weak, as they claim they are. So I can understand if you're annoyed by someone's personality and dislike her for that, but don't ditch any of them because they're "weaker" than the other guy you ship her beloved guy with. Because they aren't, get real. And besides, just because you hate this character you don't have to look down on somebody else's OTP. For instance, I loathe Envy, but I don't hate Envy/Ed because of it: it's just the nature of the ship itself, and I see zero sparks. I support EdWin, also. But I don't go insulting Envy and Envy/Ed around. It's idiotic.
And besides the female bashing, there's another phenomenom: FMA Mary Sues. Again, something you see in every fandom, and this series is practically asking for it. But why would Ed prefer this shiny state alchemist/homunculi girl he just met over any other canon character he already knows?
I just tried to get some sense and think like any extreme fangirl, and determine why would they prefer to ship Ed or Roy with any random-or-not guy or a Sue BEFORE a canon female who actually has feelings for him. Because it's really bizarre. Sure, there are a lot of factors (general hate towards canon love interests and one-sided crushes, supposed lack of crack (*), it's not trendy/sexy/creepy enough, personal interpretation of what's canon and what's not...) but I also I came up with this pet theory:
The lack of alchemist women in canon. Or at least, women with alchemy-related powers.
Not counting Psiren, Lyla or Dante, of course, since they're cracky anime only. Bonesand also Square Enix when it comes to videogames should be ashamed for making so many Sues with speshul powers.
It's just that the only alchemist lady in both canons is Izumi Curtis, who just can't be shipped with anyone but Sieg because 1) "omg shes 2 old yuck!!1" 2) she's a mother figure 3) she's madly in love with her husband 4) she's not astonishingly beautiful or sexy and 5) Izumi would kill them with her bare hands, period.
I think the main reason fangirls don't want to ship their guys with Winry and Riza is because they cannot perform alchemy. Therefore, they see them as regular girls who can actually exist in real life. And that's not so attractive for them. So what if Winry scares the shit out of Ed, or Hawkeye can shoot guns when Roy is 'useless' in the rain? They're not "speshul" enough. And that's why it's better to resort to other male alchemists, brothers, homunculus, or all of the above; or to a gorgeous alchemist/homunculi OFC, if you find yaoi yucky gross eww.
I repeat, this is just an idea. Probably you wouldn't agree with it, or you don't think so, but I bet there are persons who actually like Roy/Ed or Elricest because they're both "speshul" males who can do alchemy. Or Roy/Hughes as the consequence of Roy being more "speshul" than the wife AND being his best friend. Meh.
And I think I'll end it up here ^_^U That's the theory I wanted to share.
(*) And it's all relative, actually. The yaoi fanon IS full of crack, but the het canon is really cracky itself. Like the manga scene of Winry chasing Ed on the beach with a chainsaw and Al's head pasted on a dog's body, or the Royai-based "useless" recurrent jokes in 4-koma. Even anime has its share, like when Winry hits Ed because he won't drink his milk and you see Holy Cow avatars on the background. So yeah, there is crack in canon het.
And I had to delete the raw before I could even take screencaps ¬_¬ So the post about episode 12 will have to wait, until I get the raw downloaded, again. This is the kind of episode I must point out the
Happy belated birthday,
nienna_m! ^_^ Since I'm owning you and I promise, here's the rant about the FMA fandom, female and het pairings bashing I promised you on your journal a couple of weeks or so ago as your present.We all know the Fullmetal Alchemist fandom is... something else. The wanks, the crack, the batshit sensation the biggest community leaves you after you check it. But the fact the female characters and the pairings involving them with male characters are somehow avoided concerns me more than raping lightbulbs or other expressions of insanity.
I mean, even in the craziest fandoms *cough*HP*cough* there's a balance between slash (including femmeslash) and het. Even with all the gay couples going on there, the
However, the het shippers in the FMA fandom, even if they DO exist in great quantities, don't really talk a lot. And you can see why: for instance, if you ship Edward Elric with Roy Mustang, Alphonse Elric or Envy, you're never questioned or flamed. The other people never try to discuss with you on why their yaoi ships are better than yours. Moreover, your fellow shippers will be thrilled and start fangirling with you ver this or that. However! If you admit you ship him with Winry or anyone else born with a vagina, they'll look at you weirdly and try to ignore you like you have the plague or something.
Sure, there's been a couple of gals wanking in the community, saying "omg slash is gross eww", but fuck, we're not all like that. Just because we ship a het couple, we're not going to be homophobes or disgusted with 80% of the fandom. Get real. Chances are, we are saner and more open-minded than you.
Moving on
But this is not FMA's case, you dumbasses! Our fandom has the most kickass lassies and ladies I have seen. Except for Roze, who's just sort of there, I have yet to see a lame female character created by Arakawa. They either know how to fight, or they're too smart, or BOTH. They all have a special talent or quality that makes them stand out, even if they don't go and join the main characters in combat (Winry is a mechanic genius, Schieska has a photographic memory, Gracia and Trisha are the archetype of wife and mother, Izumi is good in both alchemy and martial arts, and so on.) They all bear a special jigsaw in the puzzle that is the plot.
That's why I don't understand the bashing. None of them (again, excepting Roze) are weak, as they claim they are. So I can understand if you're annoyed by someone's personality and dislike her for that, but don't ditch any of them because they're "weaker" than the other guy you ship her beloved guy with. Because they aren't, get real. And besides, just because you hate this character you don't have to look down on somebody else's OTP. For instance, I loathe Envy, but I don't hate Envy/Ed because of it: it's just the nature of the ship itself, and I see zero sparks. I support EdWin, also. But I don't go insulting Envy and Envy/Ed around. It's idiotic.
And besides the female bashing, there's another phenomenom: FMA Mary Sues. Again, something you see in every fandom, and this series is practically asking for it. But why would Ed prefer this shiny state alchemist/homunculi girl he just met over any other canon character he already knows?
I just tried to get some sense and think like any extreme fangirl, and determine why would they prefer to ship Ed or Roy with any random-or-not guy or a Sue BEFORE a canon female who actually has feelings for him. Because it's really bizarre. Sure, there are a lot of factors (general hate towards canon love interests and one-sided crushes, supposed lack of crack (*), it's not trendy/sexy/creepy enough, personal interpretation of what's canon and what's not...) but I also I came up with this pet theory:
The lack of alchemist women in canon. Or at least, women with alchemy-related powers.
Not counting Psiren, Lyla or Dante, of course, since they're cracky anime only. Bones
It's just that the only alchemist lady in both canons is Izumi Curtis, who just can't be shipped with anyone but Sieg because 1) "omg shes 2 old yuck!!1" 2) she's a mother figure 3) she's madly in love with her husband 4) she's not astonishingly beautiful or sexy and 5) Izumi would kill them with her bare hands, period.
I think the main reason fangirls don't want to ship their guys with Winry and Riza is because they cannot perform alchemy. Therefore, they see them as regular girls who can actually exist in real life. And that's not so attractive for them. So what if Winry scares the shit out of Ed, or Hawkeye can shoot guns when Roy is 'useless' in the rain? They're not "speshul" enough. And that's why it's better to resort to other male alchemists, brothers, homunculus, or all of the above; or to a gorgeous alchemist/homunculi OFC, if you find yaoi yucky gross eww.
I repeat, this is just an idea. Probably you wouldn't agree with it, or you don't think so, but I bet there are persons who actually like Roy/Ed or Elricest because they're both "speshul" males who can do alchemy. Or Roy/Hughes as the consequence of Roy being more "speshul" than the wife AND being his best friend. Meh.
And I think I'll end it up here ^_^U That's the theory I wanted to share.
(*) And it's all relative, actually. The yaoi fanon IS full of crack, but the het canon is really cracky itself. Like the manga scene of Winry chasing Ed on the beach with a chainsaw and Al's head pasted on a dog's body, or the Royai-based "useless" recurrent jokes in 4-koma. Even anime has its share, like when Winry hits Ed because he won't drink his milk and you see Holy Cow avatars on the background. So yeah, there is crack in canon het.
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All those cool ladies, so much to do there...
RoyxRiza is definitly the only (non married couple) ship for me in that fandom
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You get a cookie!
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That's a very pretty icon
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*jumps your icon*
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Personnaly, I don't understand it. I usually ship couples because I enjoy the dynamics between two characters (or more ;)) but that's totally regardless of their genders ! Some of my ships are het, some are slash, some are femslash.
I started writing and reading fics for a het ship (BuffyxSpike) and when I came back to it it was a slash ship (SeishirouxSubaru) nowadays I read more slash than het (or femslash for that matter), but I think that's because I've started reading writers and getting into fandoms for the purpose of fics in circles who write mostly slash.
I don't believe that either slahs of het have intrasec qualities that make them better or superior from the other. Unless all you're interested is the anatomy of porn, they're all about the relationship between two characters, and that's all we really need to care for.
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