Fullmetal Alchemist

[Lithp]

Which characters are we talking about?

[Kim]

Fu and... whatsisface. The Briggs dude with the robot arm. Stabbed through Fu to hit Bradley.

Oh and I guess the characters who just got ate by the gate but we know they're fine so whatevs.

[Lithp]

Alright. I just wanted to make sure I wasn't missing anything.

[Corel]

Manga prediction:

Spoilering spoilers that are spoiltEd somehow acquires the god dude's powers which would allow him to do a whole bunch of crazy stuff he's always wanted but instead he's going to sacrifice it (along with his use of Alchemy?) to get Al back; maybe a pair of eyes and reproductive organs too.

Well, I hope it doesn't work out like this exactly; FMA tends to keep the reader guessing on what's going to happen next which is nice.

[Magus]

Actually I thought FMA's greatest strength is that a person can fairly logically predict what is going to happen based on foreshadowing and what characters say, perhaps with a slight twist but nothing approaching a "stupid" plot twist that only seems like a twist based on the fact that it comes totally out of left field. Like the opposite of what M. Night Shymalayn or Square-Enix does.

Like, I knew what Father's ultimate goal was going to be, maybe some of the things he did to get it to happen I couldn't predict but the overall thing seemed fairly obvious. But I like it that way because then the plot makes sense logically (within its own fairy tale universe and rules, I mean).

Anyway, the death of Fu and Buccaneer was definitely a surprise at the time but it wasn't earthshaking due to the fact that they are ancillary characters, not main characters. Their means of wounding Bradley was a "twist", but entirely logical, since his greatest strength is also his greatest weakness, his sight which allows him to predict the future but his dependency on which ultimately allows him to be defeated when it is taken away by a bright light or made powerless by the introduction of an object between him and the weapon that is attacking him.

So, yeah, twists are fun but they always need to be logical and in hindsight you should always go "Huh, wonder why I didn't see that coming!", 'cause if you thought hard enough it probably would have occurred to you. FMA is like that in most cases, though sometimes even it throws a curveball.

[phil_]

Originally Posted by Magus

Actually I thought FMA's greatest strength is that a person can fairly logically predict what is going to happen based on foreshadowing and what characters say, perhaps with a slight twist but nothing approaching a "stupid" plot twist that only seems like a twist based on the fact that it comes totally out of left field. Like the opposite of what M. Night Shymalayn or Square-Enix does.

But... Monthly Shounen Gangan is owned by Square-Enix...

What a twist!

[Magus]

Producing an anthology of comics which would be picked up by another company if they didn't exist doesn't really count...

I'm sure the FMA games that were made by Squarenix are full of plot twists that make no sense, though I haven't played them.

[Lithp]

I've played 2 of the FMA games. They seem to be fairly straightforward, except the revelation that Camilla, the antagonist from Game 1, is 100+ years old & still in her prime. The thing is, this was revealed at the end of the game, so it felt more like a sequel hook than a plot twist. They never went anywhere with it.

As for FMA, in regards to predictability, there are 2 main plot points that bug me: 1. Pride. Seriously, wtf? He pretty much goes against the pseudoscientific backing to this series. There isn't even an attempt made to explain how his power works. Related, but not nearly as bad, is how can Al see, but not hear, taste, touch, etc.? 2. Father's plan was...too predictable. I mean, the way Envy said, "There's much more to it than that" made it sound like...well, there was much more to it than that. I'm happy with the result, but we were really sent on a wild goose chase there: There really wasn't that much more to it.

Also, what plot twists does SE do that make no sense?

[Magus]

For plot twists that make no sense, I could cite FF8 and Chrono Cross, but we've done that a billion times here already and it really has nothing to do with it, so just forget I said anything. You could do a quick search of the forums up above for many topics made for both games with discussions from both sides as to whether or not they are confusing and unneededly complex.

Also, I'm not sure how Pride's ability is any weirder than say, Gluttony's real ability. I suppose time could have been taken to explain it but the author could have done that for a lot of stuff...anyway, Gluttony is Father's attempt to recreate the gate, and Pride seems to be like the stuff inside the gate, so maybe that stuff has those properties.

More could be explained but I don't think we'll get it in the main comic book series. They might eventually release some kind of compendium that explains more of the background elements of FMA. Like, Sloth's ability appeared to be some kind of ability to not take damage from one type of attack more than once, during his first appearance at Briggs, but then Armstrong does just that, attacking him with the same attack several times, and he's also super speedy, so his first appearance is kind of weird and possibly contradictory. I'm assuming his powers at that time have been retconned or else Armstrong is just so powerful he goes right through that defense.

[Lithp]

I was actually looking for a game I'd be familiar with.

As you said, Gluttony is an experimental attempt at recreating the Gate. This makes him basically a wormhole. It makes sense, insofar as we accept that some of this is pseudoscientific.

Pride's ability appears to be manifesting his shadow as physical matter. As we all know that shadows are just objects blocking light & therfore completely immaterial, this cannot be explained with alchemy. That's why I personally choose to view him as some type of plant-like lifeform, but I'm not entirely certain how well that viewpoint holds up under criticism.

As for Sloth, I don't think his original power was actually changed. He's immensely strong & was later revealed to be immensely fast. As for how Armstrong can hurt him, I suppose his alchemy is just that forceful. We know he can't be impenetrable, because that's Greed's schtick. Sloth's added speed probably didn't help much either. Don't get me wrong, that was an anticlimactic end, but I think you can extrapolate what happened without any new information being added.