——Concluding remarks of "Fullmetal Alchemist FA"
I think, when I watched FA in 2009, I only understood half of the story.
If Fullmetal Alchemist does not make the 2009 version (exactly according to the comics), and only has the story until 2003, then Steelmaking is not worthy of the evaluation of "great".
1. Equivalent exchange
"What people want to get, they must pay the corresponding price - this is the principle of equivalent exchange." The most basic principle in the world of alchemists. Once upon a time also one of the principles that I strongly believe in. This society is cold-hearted. To be successful, it must be exchanged with talent and sweat, or in many cases, these are not enough. The more you want to achieve amazing success, the more things you have to trade: time, health, family fun with family, food, drink and play with friends. . . I used to believe so. Therefore, the so-called success is "exchanging life for money".
It wasn't until I was dropped, hurt, and got up again that I realized that in the end, what Ed and Al found again was what Al said, "Get ten, return ten, plus your own One", it was when Ed exchanged half of his life for half of Wen Li's life, Wen Li's "all of her life is fine". rather than an equivalent exchange.
I have a hard time expressing it in my own words. Maybe someday in the future, I will be able to articulate it clearly. But today, I just want to remind myself that there are so many children who love steel, and in the end, the principle of equivalent exchange is abandoned. The reason why this society is cold is because we simply face it with the principle of equivalent exchange. And the new principles can make this society warm, at least make the society in our eyes warm. It's not naivety, it's grown-up strength.
2. Women of Steel
When I first learned that the author Arakawa Hiroshi was a woman, I was really surprised. But that was the era of the 03 edition. After watching FA, I can't help but say, "This is not a cartoon drawn by a woman... It's a complete feminism." If you ask, who is the strongest in steel? I would say, it's not Ed Doudin, not Al Armor, not Roy, not Papa-san, it's Winry, it's Lieutenant Hawke, Major General Armstrong, Mama Sauce, and Mrs. President. . .
I love Winry. In the 03 version, Wen Li, who was completely tasteless, really abandoned it and it was a pity that the food was tasteless. But in FA, it is completely different. Although being taken as a hostage "dragged down Ed and Al", Gu Liang bravely ran out (without any self-consciousness of being a hostage) and worked hard with Ed Al. Just a few days ago, I revisited "Fruit Basket". When Jia Cai felt that she had hurt Bo Niao, she fell into constant self-blame and finally fled. And here Wen Li, also faced the fact that "because of herself, her man was dragged down", blamed herself, but still fought bravely with Ed Al. So, in the end, Jia Cai and Bo Bird separated, but Ed and Wen Li were able to go on together. It is precisely because of Wen Li's bravery that it is possible to solve Wen Li's hostage threat through cooperation with Ska later in the story.
It was Wenli who brought about the reconciliation between Ed Al and Ska. In the face of Ska who killed her parents for no reason, Wen Li hated, but when all men (except Dr. Mal, who had the need to actually solve the book and had no personal grudges) decided to execute Ska, she gave Ska to her. Bandage the wound. Not forgiveness, but patience. Unreasonable behavior can never be forgiven, but it takes patience to break the chains of hatred. Just imagine how much hatred there is, whether family hatred or ethnic hatred, they are all accumulated because of mutual hatred and mutual revenge and mutual harm. But no one is willing to endure and cut off the hatred and revenge in their own generation. When is the time for retribution. What kind of love is needed to suppress one's own personal hatred and one's own hatred. And Winry did it. She believed in the fraternity of her parents, and she believed that the fate of the entire nation was more important than her own experience without her parents. She overcomes lust with justice, and overcomes hatred with love. This is the most powerful force of women. In all fairness, apart from some philosophers, among those who have realized this, I really haven’t seen a few male figures (of course the total number is not too many), at least in the literature and film and television works I read, most of them are not. Some are women. I think that Miss Hiroshi Arakawa has roughly expressed how to resolve the hatred between the Amest and Ishbal people—with patience and love.
And Major General Armstrong, that sturdy and gorgeous woman. When I watched the northern part, I kept thinking, what kind of character is this? After saving the advance team from the tunnel, the colonel comrade who came back after saving people for more than 24 hours (is it the colonel? The strong one with the mechanical armour, the one who died in the end, I can't remember the name) found the major general, and the major general sat On the high fortress, looking down at the boundless silvery white below, I suddenly felt that Major General Armstrong was a guardian: guarding the northern border, guarding everyone in Brixley, and guarding Ed Al. Because you have to protect, you have to become stronger, and the more important the thing you protect, the more "unscrupulous" you have to become stronger. Because it is strong, it protects more things. (Tucao, isn't this a variant of maternal love...) So this is such a gentle woman, gentle enough to make herself so sturdy. So the 24-hour watch can only be forcibly stopped at the last five minutes.
Women in FA are rarely the kind that needs to hide behind men, and they have rich lives of their own. They will be weak, sad and hurt. But no matter who it is, don't let yourself be immersed in sadness. They are stronger than men, get out of pain faster, and live harder in the face of adversity. They teach men and boys love, affectionate love, lover's love, selfless fraternity, and in this, they also reap love. Mom Sauce uses love to save Dad Sang from the "monster"'s self-loathing and self-blame, Wen Li releases Ed's private hatred (to Ska), and Lieutenant Hawke firmly guards Roy's ideal.
So I think that the reason why steel is strong is precisely because of such a group of women. Or, it is precisely because of Arakawa Hiroshi, a woman who knows how to love.
3. Growth
finally comes to the theme of steelmaking. growing up. In other words, I really didn't think there was any theme in steelmaking before, which is why I said that I only understood half of the story when I read it in 2009.
In fact, this is a growth story.
Because of their innocence, Adel broke the taboo and lost their bodies and saw death and truth, so they lost the qualifications for innocence. Isn't it the same for us when we were young, innocent and carefree, until one day or suddenly found that we lost the qualifications for innocence. Then the world begins to turn ruthless, and we see life and death, love and hate, success and failure, survival and destruction. We find ourselves so weak, so vulnerable, so we study hard and make ourselves stronger, just like Ed and Al who study alchemy.
Then we thought we were strong enough to fight the world, strong enough to get what we want from this world, strong enough to guard our treasures in this world. However, we have failed miserably in our engagement with the world. Just as Ed Al is in contact with the underground "father" and android. I thought I was strong enough, I thought I knew enough, I thought I saw what others didn't see, what happened? Hughes died, and Lieutenant Winry and Hawke were taken hostage. We find that we are still so weak, that we have schoolwork and we have a family, and we still cannot rely on ourselves to survive on our own. We don’t want to rely on our parents but have no choice. Most of the time, even our parents can’t help us. As a result, many people fell down and complained about numbly living. It is the injustice of this society, the injustice of the system, the fact that others have good parents and good mothers, that power is money, that others are born smarter, that others are born Very lucky. . .
However, someone still got up. Accept failure, accept reality. Ed Al embarked on a new journey. On the journey, I meet different people, different life opportunities, different ideas, and different world views. During the journey, find friends who walk side by side, meet opponents who cherish each other, be guarded by others, and protect others. In the journey, learn to love, let go of hatred, see the vastness of the world, and give up stubborn ego. Therefore, no matter how great the pain can be, no matter how many difficulties, it can be solved. Finally, the small efforts and courage superimposed time after time finally surpassed the original silly self. In the battle with this world again and again, this world has become real, and although it is full of cruelty, it is also full of beauty. No, it's not the battle against the world, it's the battle against ourselves; in the battle against our own weakness and cowardice, in the battle against our own pride/greedy/wrath/envy/sloth/lust/, we grow slowly . This is not just the growth of the physical body, but the growth of the heart.
And then, the world hasn't changed. However, our hearts have grown stronger and we can face the world with a smile, surrounded by our family, friends and loved ones. When we look back, the people and things that once gave us pain are no longer painful, and we sincerely appreciate the love, truth, kindness and beauty we got on the way; I stumbled, laughed and cried, cried and laughed, I really like myself who worked so hard, even if those stupid things, the wrong things, and the things that I couldn't get in the end, so what? I have never given up on myself, I have been marching forward bravely, even if I am lost, even if I hate my weakness and the injustice of this world, I will move forward little by little with my own efforts: I will finally move forward until I have enough courage, Learn to love and believe in this moment in the future. Yes, I believe in the future, I want to know more about this world, I hope to meet more people and experience more things, I believe that even pain and sadness will not stop the progress and will not take away my happiness. . So we're all geared up to go on a new journey that's ours, just as Ed and Al embarked on their new journey.
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