*Insert Keyboard Smash Here*

So I was just looking up the Fullmetal Alchemist voice actors on TVTropes.

Travis Willingham (Roy Mustang) is the voice of Mori from Ouran High School Host Club?

Vig Mignogna (Edward Elric) is the voice of Femio in Princess Tutu and Spirit Albarn in Soul Eater?

Laura Bailey (Lust) is married to Travis Willingham and is the voice of Tohru Honda from Fruits Basket and Maka Albarn from Soul Eater?

I think I need to go sit down quietly for a while and digest this.

...I REALLY need to watch Soul Eater now!!!!

In Pace Christi,

Elyse

Dang You, Ed

So I bought the three-volume set of volumes 19, 20, and 21 of Fullmetal Alchemist today. Much epicness ensued. My family can testify that my reactions pretty much consisted of incoherent wailing and flailing.

Also, the words, "Dang you, Ed," were mentioned a few times. Why? Take a look:

It's not fair. It's just not fair. It was okay in the first few volumes because he was still a cute little kid. But now time has gone past (there's been a 6-month timeskip, too) and... well... Ed definitely looks older. Dang him.

I have other feels about Fullmetal right now (most of the Greed-related... weirdly enough. These three volumes really made me like Greed and Hohenheim, two characters whom I had just been meh about before), but let's just make this post Ed-centric, shall we?

Okay, so this post may also degenerate into anti-Twilight... but that is always an acceptable usage of a post and I am perfectly happy to demonstrate the manifold ways in which Edward Elric > Edward Cullen.

There is one and only Team Edward to which you should belong. Just sayin'.

Funnily enough, I actually got to this part in the manga today. He punched through a wall and choked a guy. While still standing on the other side of the wall.

WHILE STILL EATING.

In fact, some soldiers are pointing guns at him, and, "NOM NOM NOM" is written next to him to denote his nonchalant chewing.

Edward Elric, people.

Look, it's Ed being adorable for once! Quick, get the camera and record the moment for posterity!

AKA that moment in the first episode when you realized things were probably going to get epic.

AKA that moment in the first episode when you knew things were gonna get EPIC.

And things have only gotten more epic from there.

In Pace Christi,

Elyse

Dude, Not Funny!

That's just so not funny I can't even... gah. That episode was just... brr... Oh, and you think reading it in the manga won't be so bad, because at least you won't hear Ed's anguished voice screaming for his brother? Nope. It's still just as bad.

Gah.

Must post funny Ling gifs to cheer myself up.

That's better...

Haha, there's always one character in a fandom I'm like, "What's the deal with X?" Then I get into the fandom and go, "Oh... THAT's the deal with X." It was Ling Yao in Fullmetal Alchemist and it was Levi in Attack on Titan. No doubt, there will be more in the future.

In Pace Christi,

Elyse

Oh, Look, I'm Posting Anime Funnies Again

This is so cute!!!! (Yes, it deserves all those exclamation marks. However, you will observe that I stopped short of five, which, according to Terry Pratchett, is a sure sign of a diseased mind.) Anyway, if you're at all familiar with My Neighbor Totoro and Avatar: The Last Airbender, I'm sure you will agree with me that the cuteness of this picture is over 9000.

...I don't even have words to describe how appropriate this is. Yes. Headcanon accepted.

THIS IS NOT OKAY. THIS IS NOT OKAY. ALERT, ALERT, THIS IS NOT OKAY.

If there are two things you DON'T joke about in the FullMetal Alchemist fandom, it's Nina Tucker and Maes Hughes. *sobs inelegantly*

The only thing that could make it worse would be if someone responded with, "Roy didn't either," as he's been blinded in that last picture. :(

Pardon me while I go cry buckets of tears...

...Oh my gosh. I just found the first opening theme song of Shingeki no Kyojin/Attack on Titan... WITH TELETUBBIES!!! http://cheezburger.com/59357697 

I am now dying of laughter. As one commentator said, Teletubbies might be even more terrifying than Titans. For we live under the oppression of the tubby custard.

Oh, look more Avatar: The Last Airbender. Sokka is hilarious. Are you sure that was just cactus juice he drank?

On another anime-related note, I've gotten into Soul Eater. Problem is, it's veerrrrrry hard to find the dub on YouTube. Please, don't make me go to Hulu... *whimpers*

In Pace Christi,

Elyse

I'm Gonna Call Myself An Alchemist...

So my organic chemistry teacher started off our chapter on aromaticity by recounting the story of how August Kekule figured out the cyclic structure of benzene. He dreamed of the ouroboros, the mythical snake that swallows its own tail, and in thinking of it realized that the carbon atoms of aromatic compounds (in particular, benzene) could be arranged in a circle:

I was sitting, writing at my text-book; but the work did not progress; my thoughts were elsewhere. I turned my chair to the fire and dozed. Again the atoms were gamboling before my eyes. This time the smaller groups kept modestly in the background. My mental eye, rendered more acute by the repeated visions of the kind, could now distinguish larger structures of manifold conformation: long rows, sometimes more closely fitted together; all twining and twisting in snake-like motion. But look! What was that? One of the snakes had seized hold of its own tail, and the form whirled mockingly before my eyes. As if by a flash of lightning I awoke; and this time also I spent the rest of the night in working out the consequences of the hypothesis.

For comparison, here is a typical ouroboros (you may find others in your standard fictional medieval setting):

Here's Kekule's drawings of benzene:

To us organic chemists, it usually appears more like this:

Now, there's two things I know about the ouroboros: it's generally the symbol of an artificial, 'perfect' life-form (as the ouroboros is supposed to have neither beginning nor end), and it's generally evil. Perfect case in point: FullMetal Alchemist. The homunculi (artificial humans, created by alchemical use of the Philosopher's Stone and believed by themselves to be superior to mere humans) all have the ouroboros tattoo somewhere on their body.

So where is the point at which chemistry and alchemy becomes indistinguishable...?

I do love the thought of calling myself a scientist, but the thought of calling myself an alchemist is also pretty darn appealing...

In Pace Christi,

Elyse

Elric Brothers Feels

Why can't all siblings get along like these two?

In Pace Christi,

Elyse

Love Never Fails - FMA Style

Goodness, I don't know which FMA couple hurts the most here. Ling and LanFan (he's carrying her AND fighting Bradley, oh, yikes), Hohenheim and Trisha (the couple that started it all), Al and May, Maes Hughes and Gracia (and their daughter, Elicia), Sig and Izumi Curtis, Ed and Winry, Roy and Riza.

I love these characters so much, you guys.

The most painful, though, has gotta be Roy and Riza at the bottom. That's blood on his ignition glove, isn't it? And look at the blood on Riza's shirt and face. I think this is right after the enemies try slashing her throat to make Roy open the Gate of Truth for them. And he's forced to watch and be unable to do anything... Gah. RoyxRiza will break your heart. Seeing as how they've been in love for almost 15 years now and they protect each other in battle and yet they can't get married because of the military anti-fraternization laws...

Gah.

I'm seeing DoS tomorrow; I don't need to die of FMA feels at the moment. Too many feels.

*runs off sobbing*

In Pace Christi,

Elyse

Fullmetal Feels

Brought to you by gifs. Let the silliness abound!

I love how Hayate keeps getting repeatedly drowned and Riza's just sitting there cleaning her gun (no relation to the fact that Ed is drowning her dog in coffee) with her expression not varying in the least.

Context: Riza just said, "You love Winry, don't you?" So, yeah, Ed's reaction... Poor Hayate.

Lan Fan just looks so surprised at getting booted out the door. Meanwhile, Ling has his arms folded in his sleeves and a chicken bone still hanging out his mouth. He's such a big eater that was his way of proving he was the real Ling in the next volume of the manga: "Wait a moment. How can I be sure you're the real Ling?" "Would you like me to recite the entire room service menu from that hotel at which you were staying?"

When I first joined this fandom, I was like, "What's the big deal about Ling?" Now that I've started that part of the manga, I can assure you I was like, "Ohhhhh. So that's the deal with Ling."

I do love Jean Havoc. Don't worry, he's not generally as silly as this gif would have you believe. (I wonder what's going on here...) He's actually quite awesome. Sadly, the last I've seen of him in the manga so far is when he gets paralyzed by Lust, so that's not fun. :(

His best line so far was probably when he first saw sweet, pretty Katherine Armstrong: "I can hardly believe she's the major's sister!" Then she picks up a piano with one hand. "I change my mind! She's totally the major's sister!"

The major, by the way, is this guy:

For some reason, he just really likes ripping off his jacket and showing off how awesomely muscular he is. Nobody else is fond of this. To paraphrase Sergeant Brosch: "Please don't tell the major! He'll take off his shirt and lecture us again!"

Okay, this is actually a genuinely sad gif of Roy at his best friend's funeral. Poor Hughes... I loved him SO MUCH. He threw knives like nobody's business, was incredibly smart, and yet still was such a family man who annoyed Roy all the time by calling him just to brag about his daughter that you couldn't help but love him.

I think everybody in the fandom cries when Hughes dies. It's just part of the fandom. Like with Nina. *sobs*

And now just a gif of Roy being generally awesome. You don't want to be in the way when he snaps his fingers... Any man who can tell if he blew you to bits or incinerated you by the taste of fat in the air is not a guy to mess with.

Then again, he's also one of the most moral characters in the story. He wants to become the Fuhrer President... so he can ensure nothing like the Ishbal Massacre happens again. He wants to remove military protection from war criminals... even if it means suffering the consequences himself. He does his best to protect the men under his command... even if, from a pragmatic standpoint, he really shouldn't. All those dates he goes on? That's his information network.

Roy Mustang for the win!

Ed seems a little frustrated...

One sparkling state alchemist and one bonus little brother in armor waving fans in the wings... ahahaha. Can't beat FMA for taking you from tears to gasps to laughs all in a few pages.

I just like that picture, okay?

I must hang on to this picture. This picture is proof that everything in FMA will turn out okay in the end. Sure, Hohenheim may be crying in the picture of his family because Trisha just told him she'll always love him and that he should remain a part of the family, but the really touching image is the bottom one.

I mean, just look at them! Al is back to normal. Look, he's still taller than Ed! And it seems he and May Chang are a thing now, or she and her panda wouldn't be in the family picture. Ed and Winry have two adorable children... and the little boy looks just like him, lol. But the best part is that huge, dorky grin on Ed's face. I'm only about halfway through the manga and everything's going to go to hell in a handbasket, I know, but that grin says that everything will turn out fine in the end.

I must save this picture... It makes me feel content and happy deep inside. It is a promise fulfilled.

I must save that picture...

In Pace Christi,

Elyse

Briefly Interrupting the Hobbit Spam

...to bring you Catholic memes. It is all part of our grand scheme to evangelize the world, don't you know. And Phase 1 is already in place. See?

*rubs hands evilly* Time to get to work.

G. K. Chesterton for the win. His quotes are always so amazing, so applicable, and so *right* that you could slap them on pictures from just about any fandom and it would be perfect. We need more GKC in our modern world.

This is just a reaction meme graced by Pope Benedict XVI, not intended as a commentary on my previous statement about the world needing more GKC.

If I am ever in a position where I need to use this one, I shall immediately follow it up with lots of Catholic spam. Because I am a troll that way. XD

I love this one. Who knew Fullmetal Alchemist and a line from "The Magnificat" would combine so perfectly? See, Catholics know how to do humor concerning their faith without also doing irreverence. Protestants can't always do the humor part since they're so hung up on the reverence part (and even then... sometimes their priorities are skewed) and modern culture is so hung up on thinking humor comes only from irreverence that most of the time their end result is all irreverence and no humor.

Just sayin'.

"Honor your father and your mother, so that you may live long in the land the LORD, your God, is giving you."

Although... well... Van Hohenheim isn't the best dad. I can understand why he had to go off to save the world by creating his second array that canceled the Homonulorum Father's array. I can understand how he wanted to learn how to stop being a Philosopher's Stone (long story) so he could grow old and die with his family.

BUT! You can't just leave your family with no explanation for ten years and then show up again. And have the gall to be surprised that your wife has died, your kids have grown up, and your house has been burned to the ground. Seriously.

I was reading that part in the manga when Hohenheim turns up again and I was chanting to myself under my breath, "Punch him, Ed! Punch him in the face! Punch him with your right arm!" (Context: Ed's right arm is made of metal.)

So... yeah... Hohenheim may be a good person, but not always the best dad.

In Pace Christi,

Elyse