“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 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 regular maintenance or it will break down, as shown when he forgets to do that and it…breaks 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.
So to reiterate, just to nip it in the bud before people start freaking out about this:
The movie coming to Netflix in February is NOT “Netflix Fullmetal Alchemist”. It’s the 2017 Japanese FMA live action movie, made lovingly in Japan by dedicated fans of the series, with input from Hiromu Arakawa. Netflix may have obtained the rights to license it in the U.S., but they did not make the movie itself. It’s the same movie we’ve been hearing about since early 2016.
Netflix often buys the licensing rights to foreign shows, and then markets them as “Netflix originals”, but contrary to what it implies, that doesn’t always mean they were made by Netflix. Rest assured that this is not Death Note. I actually saw the FMA live action at its New York premiere back in November, and I can tell you that although the plot is different from anything we’ve seen before (think of it as an AU), it’s a fantastic Japanese movie that stays true to the spirit of FMA, with a great cast as well. So don’t miss it!
i love that part in the third episode of FMA:B where it’s revealed that ed had staged a classic “expose the villain’s lies by acting like i’m cornered and then secretly record/broadcast the ensuing monologue to the public” scheme
only instead of a stealthy bug or a wire he used a regular ass standing mic and it was lying right in the middle of the fucking floor the entire time and the guy just didn’t notice it was there when he walked in
