HGKFJHGHDKJGF OK SO. At first I thought maybe this was some confusion having to do with Makoto Inoue’s pet flying squirrel (or was it a sugar glider? I can never remember), but I looked at the interview in question, and this is what Arakawa says:
“Although the story’s changed a lot, originally the main characters were going to be a father and son. The protagonist would have been the son, who was 18 years old and had automail. Despite being a prototype Ed, he wasn’t really short. The father was a talking flying squirrel. After a training accident, much like Al’s soul is attached to a suit of armor, the father’s soul was transferred into the body of a flying squirrel. In the end, though, in order to better suit Shonen Gangan’s reader demographic, I reduced the protagonist’s age and made the partner character his brother instead of his father. The reason why Al’s soul is attached to a large suit of armor is because I wanted to make a big character to contrast the small protagonist.”
Al’s sweet. The fandom understands that Al’s sweet. There’s no denying that. But I think people let that perception of Al mask the fact that he’s sassy as shit. Especially toward Ed.
Alphonse “Ohhhh great, now my arm fell off because my brother’s a big fat idiot!” Elric Alphonse “No way we look nothing alike. I don’t have a mean face like my brother. And I’m way taller!” Elric Alphonse “How do you plan to make this work? Because Scar literally tore us apart last time, Ed.” Elric
Alphonse is saucy as all hell and he takes none of Ed’s shit. The boy 400% definitely encouraged the most ridiculous tall tales about the Fullmetal Alchemist which spread around Amestris.
You are 112% right. Gluttony attacks the lot of them and Mustang’s flame attack doesn’t work, so Ed, Al and Mustang just start sprinting for their lives. While they’re running Al’s plan b is literally “Hey let’s leave Mustang behind.”
The exact exchange in the dub is
Ed: sarcastically “Hey, that worked well!” Mustang: “You’ve got something better, be my guest!” Al: “Or we could just leave you behind, Colonel. You’re the one he’s really after!”
The scanlation is even more brutal
“Don’t follow us. It’s targeting you.”
Ice cold, Alphonse Elric.
I answered this ask two years ago and I just realized anon said “short tales” instead of “tall tales” and frankly, that’s canon.
Seriously you guys. I can’t describe in words how much I love this moment, and how DAMN IMPORTANT it is for Ed and Hohenheim’s relationship. There were so many things they didn’t fix, but Ed’s expression in that second to last panel is undeniable. Pure surprise and realization. He realizes his father truly did love his mother in this moment. There’s so much damage his absence caused that couldn’t be undone, but for Ed to know that his father truly loved Trisha is so important. In my humble opinion, that’s probably one of the driving factors behind his decision to not use Hohenheim’s last life to bring Al back. Even though he didn’t have many opportunities to show it openly, Hohenheim did love his family. This moment of vulnerability is just… PERFECT. Ed tried to teach his father a lesson, but ended up learning something himself.
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