Over in Bizzaro Land!FMA...

[dragonimp]

I loved the manga because Al's a smartass with just as much of an ego as Ed. I loved it because Winry doesn't have to have Ed to be happy, she's happy on her own - he's just a really sexy bonus.

All I can think is this person really wasn't reading the same manga I was. I adore Winry and I adore her in the manga, but her life is SO COMPLETELY wrapped around Ed that you never see her do anything that isn't because of Ed or for Ed or in some other way related to Ed.

And this person was saying these were reasons like liked the manga over 03. Except that Winry actually DID SHIT in 03 because she wanted to make a difference in general, not specifically make a difference for Ed. And where she, y'know, moved on with her life without him at the end.

But I am so not getting into this argument. I don't need that kind of stress. (Which is why I'm not posting this on Tumblr. Because even without tags, people manage to find these things and start wank.)

Comments

[amethyst-koneko.livejournal.com]

"...people manage to find these things and start wank." Amazing that after all these years that wank is still only one comment away from starting an all-out fandom war. :/

I'm with you. I don't think this person read the same manga you and I did. Brotherhood/manga Winry is so focused on Ed it's damned near stalker status. Uh, obsessed much? jeez. :p It's this obsessive behavior that made her so off-putting to me. I was never a fan of Winry but this crap? Yeah, no thanks. Winry had a lot of potential to be a strong independent female (FMA has several - Izumi and Olivier just to name two) but this single-minded infatuation with Ed made her more than a little creepy to me. Someone who has the guts and the brains to work with automail shouldn't be reduced to a clingy fangirl. :/ (Apologizes to all clingy fangirls out there! ^_^) "Ed's just a really sexy bonus" *eye roll* Good grief. Thank you, OP, for reinforcing the idea that Ed is nothing more than an object of desire to be pursued, and captured, at all cost. :p

[dragonimp]

And I'm pretty sure Winry was Ed's sexy bonus in that ending, anyway, not the other way around.

I got fed up with manga!Winry around the time she got her internship in Rush Valley. Because her stated reason for it wasn't because she's wild about automail or wants to be the best in her field or because the opportunity was too good to pass up, but because she wants to make better automail for Ed. I still think she's a great character (or has the potential of greatness and moments of greatness) but holy shit have a motivation or two in your life that doesn't revolve around your love interest. I excused it for a while because she's a 15-year-old girl, and it's not out of line for a 15-year-old girl to get completely wrapped up in her crush (though it is creepy), but when you step back and realize that she shares the female-spotlight with Hawkeye (unhealthy devotion/obsession with Roy), Ran-Fan (completely and utterly focused on Ling), and Mei (constant and immediate obsession over one guy and then another, ultimately has her driving problem solved by a man) you realize ... there's something really wrong here. You have to drop down to supporting characters (Izumi, Olivier, Maria) to find badass women who don't revolve their lives around their men.

It didn't even seem to me like this stuff required all that deep of a reading, it's pretty much right there on the surface. People have selective attention/selective memory, I guess? ("I will only remember the parts I liked and none of the problematic stuff!")