Desktop computers are weird to use

[evilhippo]

I'm actually too lazy to get my laptop out right now. I guess it's related to the fact that this computer has a functioning keyboard... which wasn't normal with the old one. I should remember to sign on from the laptop to at least post my airport entries, though. They're far, far shorter than the usual ones since I did so much running around between flights.

It's so nice to be home. Even though I didn't manage to turn in the paper to become a HIPS major before I left. I guess I'll pretend it was because I wanted to wait for my grades to be in. I managed a B in French! I'm sort of shocked, but I'll be quite happy with it (though, technically, it does bring my GPA down... but not nearly as much as a C would).

I miss my good internet connection. It takes me like, an hour to check my friends page now. And I don't get to poke at it all day anymore, since my sister's almost always on here. (She's out with people right now, which is how I've had this long enough to check my flist at all). There's not going to be anything for me to do during the day until Wednesday, when I start work again. And the shifts are 9-6 now, since it's winter. That's going to be brutal, but at least I get an hour-long break. Hopefully it won't be an hour-long break at like, 11. (Which is, sadly, what tends to happen.)

So, now that I've had most of a day to think about this... ridiculousness with chapter 54... I've come to several baseless and pretty useless conclusions. In fact, they're probably not even conclusions. Words. I have some words on 54. And now I'll write them.


For one, I'm not going to accept that Ling's evil yet. Not until there's proof. This is already set up on something we just learned in the previous chapter -- there's a lot we don't know yet. It was brought up that it's possible the Fuhrer still has his original soul, but since he wasn't allowed to really develop as an individual it's impossible to know. If that is the case, Ling could still be himself, only immortal. Which would allow us all the same sort of freaking out we had over when we thought Ed had died in the anime (only on a smaller level for most), followed by a resolution of rather strange proportions. I could see her pulling something like that. Whether it'd fit, whether it's even a good literary move... well, I guess we'll see. Me? I'm just upset that I'm not going to get my Greed!Hughes. (Okay, not that upset. That would've been a horrible literary move, and I can accept that I'm only going to get more Hughes in flashback form. Unless she pulls something really crazy on the Wrath end of things and... well, I refuse to put my predictions into words on that, since sketchyheart's getting superstitious about what I say. Hehehe. Though I did accidentally cause Lust!Hughes to exist last night. Which... almost injures my brain to the point where I'd have to write about it.)

Oh, and everyone wins for Hoho-papa being different from Father. We were right on that one thing... most of us, I think. But omg that eye... that eye thing that cried the philosopher's stone was creepy! Wtf was that? And is Father the alchemist, and Hoho-papa the Prideful copy, or is it the other way around? I'm leaning more towards Hoho-papa being Pride somehow, because I'm not sure he'd let Father/Pride go around continuing the evilness if he was really the powerful alchemist one. I think he's got the same "Most Human Homunculus" thing going on that Pride did in the anime. (We should make that an award.)

Now... I'm half-expecting a third totally crazy chapter next month, but I'm not sure if I'd survive it. If it's not, though, I think I might actually be disappointed. This is so weird... it feels like we're really close to the end (Ed and Al are with Father, Roy's facing off with the Fuhrer), yet there's so much that needs to be resolved they almost need to scurry off and regroup, then go at it again. I can see Scar and Mei-chan messing things up down in the sewers with Father, but there's got to be something weird in Roy-land to rescue him. Hawkeye, probably... but oh noes, the Royai. I don't want more evidence of it at this point!

Edit: And after actually reading the translated version of 54... well... I still believe that Ling wouldn't be foolish enough to do something like that if he didn't have something up his sleeve, despite the fact that, now that I look back on it, there really isn't the sort of character development needed to draw that sort of conclusion. But... yeah... Ling must have thought of some kind of catch somehow. La la la. There is a precedent for him not being all-out stupid. And if this is just me acting like Roy when he thought Havoc could be cured then... well, so be it.

P.S. I don't like the idea of there being some evil embodiment of Greed in the gate, waiting to take over another body. That's just not nearly as fun! And there obviously wasn't one for Wrath. Erm... I need more explanation! Gah!

Comments

[solitaryjane.livejournal.com]

What're you so upset over 54 for? I thought it's kinda cool that you can remake Homunculus this way! That means they could very well make a One-of-the-sins-Hughes. That'll be so cool.

And I bet it's not going to be Hawkeye who rescues Roy. I bet he's gonna get captured and the Hawkeye go save him and then stuff happens and she fails, and in the end Havoc magically comes back and re-saves their asses. (I still can't get over My Poor Havoc!!!)

You like Ling? I was iffy on the whole Xing Kingdom thing because it's kinda too obvious . . . and the squinty eye joke has kinda stopped being funny after I hear it two million times. The panda's cute, though.

I actually don't think this manga is winding down at all. There are so much more to resolve, because not only we're completely ignoring Scar at this point, we kind of put everyone in a situation where they may either end up dead or completely unscathed (again, by magic) after the battle.

And I think the human Al at the gate thing is extremely cute. ;-)

[evilhippo.livejournal.com]

I'm mostly upset because it kills a lot of my pet theories. Of course, most of those pet theories were killed last chapter when we found how how Wrath was made, but I thought that was more of a special case. I mean, it's got to be a special case the way it's set up, but then they go and pull it on Ling in this chapter. It's really weird. I mean, Envy couldn't have been made that way, nor Gluttony, since they serve different purposes. I think we're still too up in the air about how the homunculi are really created but 1 - it gets nixes one opening for another homunculus that could have been Hughes and 2 - it sort of makes it seem like a living body is required, which doubly rules out Hughes. And the longer we go, the more I think he should just stay dead. It makes me sad, but that's the way it should be. (Well, short of a really, ridiculously evil Hughes. That I think I'd like. But now that we've done this with Ling, you can't go and make another character evil like that, even in a separate plot line, because it just... doesn't feel right story-wise. This already doesn't feel right story-wise, though in hindsight Ling was a perfect candidate for this sort of thing, since on the whole he didn't actually have a whole lot of character development.)

And Havoc needs like, months of rehab still. Roy isn't going to survive months with Wrath... and Hawkeye's the only one in the slightest position to save him. If anyone's going to, it's going to have to be her. Though, what with Arakawa's apparent obsession with the Havoc character-type, I don't doubt he's going to come back in some way later on... but when we expect it the least. I can see Winry coming back, too, since they both left the story at the same time, in about the same way.

Human Al needs a sandwich. Several sandwiches. Maybe fifteen. And his soul back.

[sketchyheart.livejournal.com]

*rolls in omg!*

I was going to say something on this whole homonculus deal, but then I realized that I'm still mixing my anime and manga theories together. Bad me, bad.

(And pssst! I think I might be growing an immunity ro something to the Woe and Angst chapters! I think it might be because I keep opening them and so many of the icons are turning out angsty. ... Now that I've said all this, I know Arakawa is going to doing something Mean And Wicked. ... Crap.)

I think Al needs a blanket too. I think The Gate might be kind of a chilly place to be sitting around naked by.

Beware the medical injuries! They run wild and multiply like whoa!

[evilhippo.livejournal.com]

I'm still wary of accepting that there's nothing in common between the manga and anime homunculi, but it's looking so much like that anymore. But... okay... we know Gluttony's the fake Gate. And Envy's a whole freaking lot of people, probably involved in making the philosopher's stone the first time, or a container for sacrifices on the way there (which is what I lean more towards). Lust was... I dunno about her, but we know she had the stone at her core, which is probably different from Wrath, since he's apparently only got one soul, so it'd probably be the same with Ling. And also implies a second method of creating homunculi.

See... you mention homunculus again, and I go off on the tangent I was holding back. You're a terrible influence.

(I... I think I left my disc with the manga on it at school, crap. I guess I can't randomly expose myself to more angst and woe in an effort to condition myself for the inevitable. Countdown to Roy's inevitable doom? Or is Arawaka attached to him like she was to Havoc? And she so ruthlessly murdered Hughes! Murdered! Completely without ruth! Darn you, Arakawa! Not that the problem he caused could have be solved short of a head injury, and veggie!Hughes would have been so much worse and... gah, I'm still holding out for the homunculus thing, because the more I think about it, the more Lust!Hughes is kind of cool, as long as the Inheriting Previous Personality thing doesn't keep up because... holy wow, not only would that be creepy, but it leads to the most screwed up Havoc/Hughes ever. WAIT! That's it! There's Havoc/Hughes without rape! I knew it existed!)

Holy tangent... um...

I bet there's a breeze when the Gate opens up. He's lucky he hasn't caught pneumonia already, really. Poor Al.

Everyone will end up dead or injured! It's like Shakespeare, only originally in Japanese and with more wtf-plot than wtf-wordchoice-and-pentameter! ^_^

[sketchyheart.livejournal.com]

Tangent! Bwahahaha! *influences!*

We also have no freaking clue about Sloth. Freaking Man Thing in the middle of a tunnel. Wtf? And Pride. Rrrrr. For a very short while, I thought Hoho!Papa might be Pride. Then I realized that he couldn't be Pride, because Envy talks to Pride during the whole Homonculi chase scene of doom a few chapters back. And Pride talks to someone else at some other point. All while Hoho!Papa is no where near any of this. Unless he can speak with mind powers. Or something. I'd really just like to know why he's all unaging if he isn't a homonculus. I jsut had a bunch of random ideas go through my head, and none of them make any sense. Uhm. Wee!

And alas, I cannot think of much else to come back with to make my comment any longer than my previous one. Damn. I wrote stuff whoa.

(... I hate you. So much. You're just as bad an influence on me, because now I feel compelled to draw Havoc/Hughes with Lust!Hughes. ... Bah. >_>)

*drops blanket on Al*

Could liquid Philosopher Stone in your bloodstream be considered posion? Because omg, they're being poisoned too! Ahh!

[evilhippo.livejournal.com]

I keep forgetting about Sloth... It's way too easy to pretend that it's actually Trisha in the manga, too, even though it obviously wasn't. Weird cave-digging man. I mean... that's some real bad hiring there, too. If you want to dig a hole to China Xing, or whatever he's doing, you don't want to hire the embodiment of laziness to do it. There was a post on fm_alchmist a bit ago with theories on this, though. Like Hoho-papa heading off to the mountains, and Sloth digging, and some sort of possible connection there. I think it's getting to the point where I'm going to have to re-read the manga and take notes so I can theorize properly.

And... huh... I'd almost forgotten that Pride had a different silhouette. Though, the ears did look somewhat like Hoho-papa's, he seems too far removed from everything else (especially father) to be Pride. So... hmm. Maybe we do still have someone else. (Who, sadly, isn't Hughes, because those ears don't fit him, either. Maybe it's Hawkeye.)

I think the Philosopher's Stone is supposed to be poison, yeah. I mean, it killed most people who had it injected into them, and you can't really digest human souls (I had a conversation about this in the elevator once, actually, though the reason was totally unrelated). It'd probably have some sort of adverse affect. Kind of like thinking about Havoc/Lust!Hughes... or maybe not at all like that, aside from being waymuch screwed up. As long as Hughes doesn't speak with her voice...

::gives Al one of those super-long party subs::