Is FMA a metaphor for sex? - A Short Analysis on Fullmetal Alchemist

[scriptweaver]

I uploaded a new video very recently. this time, its examining the themes of sex and sexual reproduction found in Fullmetal Alchemist. A much shorter analysis compared to my last one.

Let me know what you guys think.

[video=youtube]

 

[JamesYTP]

Huh, interesting. Never even considered that idea but that makes sense.

 

[scriptweaver]

Huh, interesting. Never even considered that idea but that makes sense.

yeah, I thought it'd be a neat avenue that a lot of ppl haven't bothered looking at and/or are too afraid to. somebody's gotta analyze that aspect, am I right? lol

I was gonna make more fma video's if this got enough attention, but I don't think it will.

 

[JamesYTP]

Totally, somebody had to. YOu might've been the first to see that tho lol. Hope it does get hits!

 

[ShineCero]

Well, it's been a long, long time but it's better to comment on it now than never. 

I'm in agreement with JamesYTP, I never really thought to look at it in this context in terms of reproduction. Your analysis supports it by having Father react to Edward Brothers, becoming rather curious of their existence. In fact, the fact that he was referred as father, hinted at the possible curiosity of furthering his own legends, but because of the circumstances, it's was an impossible feat.

Does the original FMA anime has any hints on the topic of fertility and reproduction? I know that it had an anime exclusive Homunculus, the son of the teacher and the Edward Brothers' mother, which I thought spring up another connection with naturalization. Despite being brought into the world through the trials of alchemy, the two bonded somewhat in a mother-son relationship, as her mother instinct kicked in.

 

[scriptweaver]

Well, it's been a long, long time but it's better to comment on it now than never. 

I'm in agreement with JamesYTP, I never really thought to look at it in this context in terms of reproduction. Your analysis supports it by having Father react to Edward Brothers, becoming rather curious of their existence. In fact, the fact that he was referred as father, hinted at the possible curiosity of furthering his own legends, but because of the circumstances, it's was an impossible feat.

Does the original FMA anime has any hints on the topic of fertility and reproduction? I know that it had an anime exclusive Homunculus, the son of the teacher and the Edward Brothers' mother, which I thought spring up another connection with naturalization. Despite being brought into the world through the trials of alchemy, the two bonded somewhat in a mother-son relationship, as her mother instinct kicked in.

It's been a long time since I've watched FMA 03, but I know what your referring to. I'd say FMA 03 focuses less on the ideas of reproduction and more on the ideas on mortality, religion, and parallels to Dante's Inferno. I think at best there'd be aspects of maternity that could be examined or the idea of mother hood. That is definitely a reoccurring theme, but I wouldn't say the idea is there at a biological level like in Brotherhood or the manga series. 

Actually, I'd even go as far as saying there may be a lot to dig out of the FMA 03 series if focused on themes of parenthood in general. Personally I think this theme is delved into within FMA 03 because it started sprouting up in the manga series during the time 03 was being released, but bcuz the more biological aspects had yet to be revealed, its likely the shows directors and writers decided to take a less scientific route (I mean, you must admit, FMA 03 has a tendency to indulge and put emphasis on spirituality, while the manga and brotherhood series balances spirituality with science as though they are two sides of the same coin).

In other words, because of the lack of source material to go off of, background plots like Scar's religious crusade takes a center stage since Scar was largely focused on in the first 6 volumes (and as we know, they lay off Scar quite a bit after that in the manga and essentially never has Scar fully realize his quest of vengeance i.e. turning him into a less impactful, yet still important character)

 

[JamesYTP]

Been rewatching 03 recently.  One interesting aspect of it in the design, abilities and certain motifs attached to the two characters mentioned is that it takes a sort of Jungian approach to the topic of motherhood in many places. In the case of Sloth (the boys' mother) it sort of made a kind of "passage into adulthood" plotline in the sense that Jung  identified one of the negative aspects of the mother archetype that tends to be repeated in myth as "[font=Lato, sans-serif]anything that devours, seduces, and poisons, that is terrifying and inescapable like fate", and that water was a motif associated with the archetype. Sloth's ability was that she was made of water and typically drowned the people she killed within her body, in a sense a "devouring". I suppose how that related to motherhood was that it represented being sort of over-bearing and holding children back, be it from adulthood or self-actualization or what have you. To put it simply in her case she represented an obstacle and a past mistake the brothers needed to defeat as a means of rectifying wrongs they'd done and moving on, facing the ugly truths about their world they'd go on to. In essence, growing up.[/font]

[font=Lato, sans-serif]In little Wrath's case, another motif he associated with the negative side of the archetype was enclosed dark spaces (like the oven in Hansel and Gretel).  In Wrath's case, this place is the gate. This, Jung asserted was used by the creators of this myth to evoke what he believed was a universal unconscious fear children have of being shoved back in the womb, or kind of "sent back where they came from" to put is less grotesquely (as an aside, I would point out in this case, Jung was not particularly scientific at all and probably shouldn't be treated as such in this case).  It's a fear of abandonment more than anything, which obviously is more or less what happened with Wrath,  sent back to the darkness where he came from (ie the other side of the gate) from whence he had just been brought back.  This being the impetus for his anger, an anger he had to sort of overcome as his character arc. Kind of the opposite idea of the Elric boy's arc.

So...I'd conclude the idea of motherhood in '03 had more to do with personal growth than reproduction. As an aside I am probably going to need to edit this to make it readable, I am quite sleepy writing this lol. [/font]