Two Corrupt Governments Getting Eaten From Inside Out. I Like It.

Two corrupt governments getting eaten from inside out. I like it.

Bertolt, Annie, Reiner. Marley version.

This post pretty much explains why I prefer the manga.

15 things about Ishval that Brotherhood cut out

After rewatching Fullmetal Alchemist Brotherhood recently, I was once again extremely disappointed at the amount of content the anime cut out when it covered the Ishval war in episode 30. Volume 15 of the manga (which was entirely dedicated to showing the war in detail across four chapters) still remains my favourite volume of the whole series, so I wanted to talk about 15 things that Brotherhood cut out. Some of them are minor scenes and some are more major plot points.

The images I’ve included in this post have been taken directly from the Viz Media manga, as I really dislike the poor quality scanlations of FMA that are out there. I would highly recommend buying Volume 15 for yourself, even if it’s the only volume of FMA you ever own.

The things I’ll be covering are:

Neighbouring country Aerugo’s role in the war

The Ishvalans as people - their lives and strengths

The Rockbells’ extra scenes

The military’s order to kill the Rockbells

Roy, Hughes, and Hawkeye’s extra scenes

Hughes’ extended scenes as a squad captain

Corruption of high-ranking officers and internal assassination

Armstrong’s extra scene

Torture & human experimentation of Ishvalans

Doctor Marcoh & Doctor Knox’s extra scene

Roy’s role as the Hero of Ishval

Scar’s brother’s scenes

Roy’s squad

Children as the victims of the war

The overall portrayal of the war, and how Volume 15 was written/illustrated

** VERY LONG POST UNDER THE CUT, VERY IMAGE HEAVY **

Let’s begin!

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➥ Vocabulary Tips - Verbs Part 1

「voice」

say -  speak, utter, pronounce, give voice to, declare, state, announce, tell.

answer -  reply, respond, retort, sass, react.

ask - request, demand, solicit, seek, call for, beg.

whisper -  murmur, mutter, mumble, speak softly, breathe, hiss, susurrate.

yell - cry out, call out, shout, howl, scream, shriek, screech, yelp, squeal, roar, utter, exclaim.

sing - treble, harmonise, croon, utter, choir, vocalize, quaver, intone, intonate, harmonize, descant on, hum, vocalise, warble, chirp, chant, sing along.

laugh - chuckle, crack up, cackle, giggle, guffaw.

mock - deride, scoff at, sneer at, make fun of, poke fun at.

「move」

walk - stroll, saunter, amble, trudge, plod, dawdle, hike, tramp, tromp, slog, stomp, step.

run - sprint, race, rush, dash, hasten, hurry, jog, speed.

drag - haul, pull, tug, yank, force.

jump - leap, hop, skip.

dance - sway, whirl, pirouette, gyrate, boogie, shake a leg, belly dance, tap dance, foxtrot, twist, tap dance, mambo, disco, conga, samba, square dance, boogie, tango, bump, grind, kick, waltz, break-dance, waltz around, quickstep, shake, twerk, wiggle.

「face」

frown - scowl, glare, grimace, make a face, look daggers, give someone a black look.

observe - look at, observe, view, gaze at, stare at, contemplate, glance at, watch, keep an eye on, keep under observation, make eyes at, have/take a gander at, check out, size up, behold.

wink - blink, flutter, bat.

smile - beam, grin, smile from ear to ear, dimple, twinkle, smirk, smile smugly, simper, snicker, snigger.

cry - weep, mourn, wail, burst into tears, snuffle, sob, sniffle, blub, tear, bawl, pule, snivel, whimper, mewl, blubber, weep, wail.

「violence」

fight - exchange blows, attack each other, assault each other, hit each other, punch each other, struggle, grapple, wrestle, scrap, have a set-to, roughhouse, engage in fisticuffs, battle.

punch - inverted punch, uppercut, jab, cross, front punch, kumite bunch, concussion strike, hook, bolo punch, and my favorite, the haymaker. 

hand strike - backfist, tiger mouth, tiger claw, thumbknuckle, snakehand, palm smash/palm heel, inside outside down back hammer fists, 2 and 4 finger eye strikes, single interknuckle strike, middle interknuckle strike, inter knuckle (4 finger) strike, inside outside shuto, spear hand, uppercut wrist strikes (usually to the jaw and temple).

kick - snapping front, Teep, snapping side, breaking side, back kick, spinning side kick, 3 variations of roundhouse (striking with the chin (breaking roundhouse) striking with the instep, striking with the ball of the foot). Inside and outside Crescent, Axe kick, Stomp, butterfly, half moon (inside, outside) heel rake.

elbow - 12-6 elbow (Down elbow) uppercut elbow, 45 degree uppercut angle, 45 degree downward angle, inside elbow, outside elbow, rear elbow, lunge elbow.

knees - uppercut knee, drop knee, thrust knee, roundhouse knee, inside knee slap, outside knee slap.

➥ Vocabulary Tips Masterlist

⟨if you have other verbs that fit this topic, just send me a message.⟩

This is some helpful shit

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What are some good tips for getting started with writing a book? I have a concept but i can't put it into place.

Getting Started with Your Story

There’s no one way to start writing a book. For some people, it’s enough to just jump in and start writing to see where the story takes them. If you’re not too keen on that idea, then here is one process (as in, not the only process) that might help you move beyond your concept. 

Concept ≠ Plot

Many writers mistake concept for plot, but they’re actually two very different things. A world where everyone grows up with superpowers is a concept; the plot is what you decide to write about within that concept - the specific characters and what happens to those characters; who your antagonist is and what conflict arises when that antagonist goes after what they want. All of these things contribute to your plot. 

So first, define what it is you actually have at this particular point. Do you just have a concept? If so, you’ll need to take the necessary steps to develop that concept into a plot. 

Concept >>> Plot

If you’ve decided that all you really have is a concept, then how do you take it and turn it into a plot? You brainstorm. All brainstorming really amounts to is expanding your ideas. All you’re doing is asking questions about the concept and delving deep into the answers. 

The most simplistic way to start this process, especially if you’re struggling, is to ask one of two questions (or both, if applicable). These two questions: What could go wrong? What could go right?

Going back to my example about a world where everyone grows up with superpowers. If I were to ask the question “what could go wrong,” I’d end up with a whole list of possibilities. 

The powers suddenly disappear

People start abusing their powers

Someone figures out how to steal powers

A hierarchy of strong vs. weak powers develops, creating superiority/inferiority dynamics

Someone is born without a superpower

There are many more possibilities I didn’t even think of here, but any one (or more) of these could become a plot. Choose one that sounds interesting, and then ask yourself “and then what?” 

Say I choose: Someone figures out how to steal powers. Then what does that person do? Do they recruit people to do the dirty work for them? Do they work alone? Do they hoard these powers and barter them for other goods? Do they attempt to enslave people? Do they attempt to take control of institutions? What do they do?

Your goal is to take your ideas and turn them into actions taken by characters. People doing things. And each piece you add will usually lead into another. If you went with the idea that this character is stealing powers and essentially selling them for other goods, you’d have to ask yourself follow-up questions. First, who are they selling to? Why would anyone buy a new superpower if they already have one? What uses would they have for additional ones? What is the key demographic that this person is trying to reach? Secondly, what are they selling them in exchange for? Money? Favors? Souls? What is this character getting in return?

Now that you’ve examined potential actions that the character takes, you’ve also exposed potential new characters. 

People they’re stealing from

People they’re bargaining with

People that try to police these crimes

People that try to copy this character’s process

At the beginning of this section, I talked about using “what could go right” as another optional jumping off point. This is a good path to follow if your concept is already really negative. For a concept where someone is killing people for some pointed reason, you might ask “what could go right” and explore ideas where the killer is caught and brought to justice. 

The point of all this is to think about change as a means of taking your idea from concept to plot. A concept is static - it doesn’t move, evolve, or change. By developing a plot, you’re forcing the concept to be challenged in some way. If you think about it that way, you’ll be able to formulate conflicts, and the people that orchestrate and fight against those conflicts. 

On that note, I think we’re ready to move onto the third piece of my graphic above. 

Plot = Character Actions and Consequences

At this point, you have sketches for characters. You’ve got this nameless, faceless person that is stealing the powers, and all these other nameless, faceless people that I listed above. In essence, we have character concepts. And just like we turned our initial concept into a plot, we have to turn these character concepts into actual characters. 

The basics are the easiest way to start. You figure out their name, their gender identity, their age, their appearance, some brief backstory and personality traits. I personally prefer the simplest questionnaire that I put together back in the early days because it hits on the poignant pieces of a character without overwhelming you with 100s of questions. 

Now that you’ve given your character concepts names and faces and potential behaviors, you start to consider how one character’s view of the world inspires them to take certain actions, and you then think about how those actions affect your entire story. 

We already kind of talked about the motives of the power thief in our example, but definitely delve deep here. On the surface, this character seems bad - stealing from people and then selling what they steal. But depending on what it is they’re getting in return, could we not argue that this character is a supernatural Robin Hood? Maybe instead of selling, they’re giving, and maybe the characters they’re stealing powers from are people that abuse and misuse their powers. Character motives can take a plot and turn it on its head, forcing you to reconceptualize everything. And that’s okay! That’s part of the process.

But separate from that idea, if we have a character concept of someone whose powers were stolen, and after developing their basic backstory, we discover that person’s name is Rose, and she has an especially close relationship with her brother. So when her powers are stolen, how does this affect her life? Was she using her powers to keep her brother alive and protected? What she using them to keep a roof over their heads? Was she using them as part of her job, as a means of providing? What happens to her life when her powers are stolen? And what will Rose do about it? Whatever Rose does will impact the story. If she does nothing to get her powers back, how does she solve her problems and does that make for a good story? If she does decide to act, then you’ve moved onto a new plot point to dive deeper into.

My point is, character concepts come from plots, but characters themselves often create plot, as their decisions and mistakes and successes create new outcomes. So if I could modify my original flow chart:

Before you develop something, you conceptualize it. You have a concept, then you make it a plot. You have concepts for characters, then you make them characters. And those characters end up driving your plot, to the point that this happens:

Plot inspires character. Character inspires plot. And it just keeps going around and around and around. Breaking it down into these pieces helps organize the process, but developing a story is rarely this neat and tidy. You’ll get ideas that don’t make sense, ideas that aren’t cohesive, characters you don’t need, characters that piss you off, problems you can’t solve, or plot points you’ve committed to that you no longer like…it will be messy. But it’s your mess, and the more you work on developing your own process, the more it’ll make sense to you. And it’ll become easier to know how to go about fixing it when something’s not right. 

Have fun with this process! It’s supposed to be fun. When the pieces start to become clearer, you’re able to put them together in a rough outline. And once you have a rough outline, you can start writing, and really see it take shape. 

-Rebekah

Third picture: Wot in tarnation

my roommate and i are temporarily taking care of a Very Small Tiny Kitten that her aunt found in a boarded up shed and shes GONE and its just me in the house with the kitten and its Too Small i cant handle this