Posting anyway.

[krait]

Well, I'm falling behind on my resolution to post more, already; fandoms to the rescue!


Guess who just got Kings Rising and devoured it in a matter of hours? That's right, this snake! What a great finale - the juxtapositions went a fair way toward letting everyone have some "resolved" feelings about their past conflicts.


So Laurent finally managed to combine his dead-brother angst with his undeniable love of Damen, and took out Kastor before Damen's eyes! Fabulous. That whole scene made me so happy (though not untinted with worry, given Damen is busily bleeding on the floor the whole time) and was such a lovely example of the way Damianos and Laurent (and Kastor and Auguste) are mirrors-and-yet-not.

I didn't find the ending abrupt, either; it seemed very in keeping with the release of tensions and the removal of the last obstacle to kingship for both of them. From this point, they rise - nothing to impede them, nothing to tether them.

I've also been rewatching the original Fullmetal Alchemist anime lately, and have just about decided - after browsing a whole lot of fic and having to skim over all the manga-verse and Brotherhood-verse choices - that it's time to pick up one or both of those, too. There's just not enough fic, especially longfic, for the 2003-verse! Not sure yet which I'll go for first; it'll probably come down to "whom do I know that will loan me theirs" and/or "which can I manage to download first." So we'll see!

Fellow FMA fans on my flist, which did you like best? Where would you recommend starting? Do you have any fic recs for me, either for now (from 2003-verse) or for later (after I've started the manga/Brotherhood)? I can hardly wait to have another thing to squee about!

Comments

[tropicsbear]

I have vague memories of marathon watching the first FMA anime series in high school. Ah, that dog+girl combo. Good times, good times.

[krait]

I first watched it in college, and yep, nobody forgets the Ninadog! :D

[anotherfmafan]

Hmm, I am not up-to-speed on the modern FMA fic scene, so I can't say much for the volume of '03 longfic that is about currently; but in terms of older fic, there is a fair amount. It depends on what kind of fic you enjoy, I suppose.

But even as a hardcore '03 fan, I enjoy reading fic based on the manga or even Brotherhood. A good fic is a good fic, after all! :)

[krait]

There's a surprising amount of old '03 fic out there, and even a sprinkling of new stuff, but it's harder to find now. Especially since the Scimitar Smiles archive is broken. D: I'm hoping that I can contact the old archive mod and see what's up with that. If possible, I'd love to talk the mod into backing up the archive on AO3 via the Open Doors Project; there's so much good fic that I can't read anymore because of the archive's issues, but I still have bookmarks with titles and author names! So if it were archived somewhere else, I could easily find it and change my bookmark links...

I've started reading the manga, so that I can read more manga-canon fic! I'm at volume... eight, I think? And yep, I couldn't resist the lure of the fics; I've been reading the manga- and FMA:B-based fics that sound interesting! I think I'll always be a hardcore '03 fan, though! It's just such a huge part of how I know FMA.

I ought to do an updated recs post, huh.

[anotherfmafan]

Woot! Yay for 2003 die-hards! *high-fives*

Individual authors are bad enough, but the loss of an archive is truly a blow.... I do so hope that more and more people choose to take advantage of those AO3 features, for the good of all fandom.

I am very much not a fan of some of the modern fandom platforms (*coughtumblrcough*), and I know there are many who don't want to use older platforms like LJ. I think AO3 is a perfect compromise, in terms of availability of the fic.

Now if we can just get the rest of the FMA populace on board! XD

Do keep us updated as you get through the rest of the manga :)

[krait]

Yessss! *high-fives you back*

The manga is nice and all*, but 2003 was my gateway (heh) to FMA and it will always be THE BEST as far as my heart is concerned.

I am not a Tumblr enthusiast, either, though I just recently started one so that I could follow some FMA-related blogs. Mixed results so far: mostly I haven't bothered with logging in, I just check them via bookmarks, like I was doing before I had a Tumblr, so I'm not sure it's worth it. I don't post anything there, so at this point it's mostly serving as a way to kudos like-button stuff.

I really ought to track down the archivist and see if they'd be interested - or if they even still have control of the archive; who knows at this point. :/ It'd be so awesome to have all of that fic available again! As it is now, it's just tantalising - visible but not accessible, like a mirage that's always just out of reach.

Now if we can just get the rest of the FMA populace on board!

We should start a program: Come to Dreamwidth, we have cookies replies that actually work. :D



*Note: normally I'd say "so far" here, since I've just finished volume 12, but since I've been pretty thoroughly spoiled for everything it just feels weird to do so.

[anotherfmafan]

Haha, I know just what you mean about the manga. I was so spoiled on it by the time I finally read it, it was mostly just filling in the gaps.

Getting the entire FMA populace on board for a single fandom-interaction site would be fantastic, though I think extremely difficult (I myself am an old fogie who refuses to give up LJ), but at the very least if we could get them all to agree on preserving the fic itself in a place that is certain not to fall into disrepair, I'd be a happy, happy fangirl! Think of the children next generations of FMA fans!

The manga is nice and all*, but 2003 was my gateway (heh) to FMA and it will always be THE BEST as far as my heart is concerned. Preach!! Hahaha :D Arakawa is good, but ArakawaXAikawaXMizushima is my love for all time <3