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Hey, Answerman! [2008-04-25]


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maichips



Joined: 11 Jun 2006
Posts: 96
PostPosted: Thu Apr 24, 2008 11:16 pm Reply with quote
I have seen the lair of the great and powerful Answerman. And I feel so very disillusioned. Zac, I expected hellfire and brimstone! What's up with this average-looking workspace gig? Razz ((Your chair looks rather comfortable, by the way.))
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Kenotic



Joined: 02 Mar 2007
Posts: 167
PostPosted: Thu Apr 24, 2008 11:23 pm Reply with quote
Uh Oh, Hazel-rah is forming an Owsla to take on the flake. This will not be good.
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the_windcaster



Joined: 16 Jun 2006
Posts: 47
PostPosted: Thu Apr 24, 2008 11:32 pm Reply with quote
To Mr. Davis:

spoiler[
I think you're missing the point of the show. FMA isn't about a totally happy ending. It's trying to say that things rarely ever end the way we want them to. However, Ed got what he wanted, and he didn't care what the cost was.

The Gate doesn't follow rules. It's arbitrary. It's chaotic when the rules are broken. When Al's body came back, in exchange it took Ed to the other side and it decided to take Al's memories as well. Telling what the gate will do with alchemy on humans is impossible. You're dealing with something on a cosmic scale. Science (in this world, and therefore alchemy in Amestris) only functions in a given set of parameters, usually larger than cells but not as huge as a universe. When you get that big and that small, the laws of physics as we know them no longer apply. They don't. That's like the Gate when it comes to human Alchemy.

Also, thematically, remember that whole shpiel at the end of the show about equivalent exchange being a farce? THAT'S WHAT HAPPENED. That's what the show was talking about. Like any rule, it has exceptions. That's the point. That's why people got shafted in the end. Goals have costs and obstacles, and Ed had to deal with both of them at the end of the show. The solace in the ending is that he accomplished his goal and gave all he was willing to. He was willing to die. Al was willing to die. How lucky of them to both be alive!

I do also feel bad for Winry at the end of the movie. The same theme still holds... her world was saved, but it cost her the two people she cared about the most. And it cost Ed the life of his 2 friends and his father!

So yeah, in closing, I think you missed the point. I hated the ending too until I thought of this. It's tragic without being too tragic. Tragic yet hopeful for the series, anyways. I was actually really scared when I found out they were making a sequel movie. I didn't want them to ruin the beautiful ending (To quote Kino's Journey, "the world isn't beautiful... therefore it is.")
]
(Edit to cut out random excess tags)
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DRWii



Joined: 16 May 2007
Posts: 636
PostPosted: Thu Apr 24, 2008 11:39 pm Reply with quote
Perhaps those bunnies are in league with the dolphins? (a pat on the back for anyone who gets the joke)

Yeah, I guess the end of "FMA" is a bummer in a certain way, but I think its all appropriate (and more importantly, well done), so I like it. And I'm not even going to argue about "Evangelion"; that dead horse has been beaten so much that its reincarnations are in pain.

EDIT: Also, "FMA" should probably just end with the movie, otherwise it'll be like having a "Pirates of the Carribean 4": the probability of it sucking would be high.
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the_windcaster



Joined: 16 Jun 2006
Posts: 47
PostPosted: Thu Apr 24, 2008 11:47 pm Reply with quote
@ DRWii - I totally agree that it should end where it does. Thank goodness the manga goes in a totally different direction, so if people want more, there they go.
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HitokiriShadow



Joined: 09 May 2005
Posts: 6251
PostPosted: Thu Apr 24, 2008 11:49 pm Reply with quote
Re: endings

Gilgamesh:
This was one of the dullest series I had ever seen. The last episode or two were the only ones I enjoyed much. spoiler[Seeing a bunch of characters I didn't give a damn about get slaughtered] was far more entertaining than the 25 episodes preceding it.

Fullmetal Alchemist:
I didn't have any problems with the ending of the TV series. It wasn't a nice neat close and certainly wasn't what one would typically expect, but that's fine. On the other hand, I didn't really care for the movie at all. The whole thing was rather uninteresting. New uninteresting and undeveloped villains are shoved in and loose ends from the series are haphazardly dealt with. It was simply an excuse to spoiler[please fans who didn't like Ed and Al being separated.]

Mahoromatic season 2
First, I should mention that this is one of those cases where I had read the manga first and then watched the anime later. For the most part, I liked the anime and didn't mind the changes it made though I preferred the manga version.

As for the ending, I didn't mind what they did in the second to last episode, I just didn't care for how things turned out in the epilogue. spoiler[Suguru was an unlikable douchebag and just about all of the supporting case was ignored. Then Mahoro comes back (maybe; I've seen some interpret it as being Suguru's dying vision) with no explanation.] The problem with the latter point is that the anime seemed to be trying to copy the manga only partially, but as it had diverged significantly and removed several elements necessary to explain this, it really makes no sense in the anime.

That said, most of the complaints I see about the ending seem to be spoiler[but it was happy and lighthearted in the beginning! Therefore a sad ending is a bad ending. This really annoys me because A) since when does a happy beginning mean the end has to be happy? and B) Mahoro's limited lifespan is brought up right in the first episode and hammered in over and over and over. The latter half of the series is increasingly dark (even more so in the manga) anyway. The series never even begins to suggest that there is a way out for Mahoro; she was destined to die one way or another from the beginning.

To say that the ending sucked because Mahoro died suggests that the one making the accusation is disappointed that the anime didn't drop a deus ex machina to saver her and actually went through with what it beat the viewer over the head with since episode one. It was not "out of the blue" nor was it "horribly juxtaposed on the series main feel". I do think the latter point is valid if you are talking about the epilogue, but not Mahoro's death itself.]


Last edited by HitokiriShadow on Thu Apr 24, 2008 11:51 pm; edited 1 time in total
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rooboy666



Joined: 14 Dec 2007
Posts: 2
PostPosted: Thu Apr 24, 2008 11:50 pm Reply with quote
I just thought I'd point out that this week's bunny picture is incredibly creepy for any of us who might have read Watership Down. I don't think you've ever had a picture that frightening, Zac.
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britannicamoore



Joined: 05 Dec 2005
Posts: 2618
Location: Out.
PostPosted: Thu Apr 24, 2008 11:51 pm Reply with quote
The group telling people to stop downloading is a waste of space. Unless they want to disguse their group as a Naruto Shippuden free download link! then I doubt a majority of downloaders would "go" to it to be educated.

Nice Iron Man poster!

LOL at the flake. I would pay lots of money, maybe even gold to see that on a real persons tombstone.

As for the Answerfans question-

Kinda. I mean this, ANN, is a community right? We all gather here and talk about what we love. Even though we disagree at times, we still agree that anime is da bomb diggity. So...I think we are a community.


..that sounded like, so much better in my head. Confused
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AnimeFollower



Joined: 28 Jun 2006
Posts: 20
PostPosted: Thu Apr 24, 2008 11:51 pm Reply with quote
Hey, a "Watership Down" reference!

Well-played, Kenotic!

Actually, that was a picture of the rehersal for "Watership Down:The Musical". The scene shown being rehersed is the big song-and-dance number before the General appears at the warren to fight BigWig.

It's supposed to be a closed set, so I don't know how that picture got taken and smuggled out.

As for getting bummed out by an anime-series ending:

yeah, score 1 million and ONE for Evangelion.
I loved the show, but wanted to gouche out someone's eyes for that ending.
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Egret



Joined: 08 Jun 2007
Posts: 45
PostPosted: Fri Apr 25, 2008 12:03 am Reply with quote
I think probably the most disappointing anime ending I've ever seen was the ending of Ayashi no Ceres. I knew going in that it was going to be a mixed bag of happy/sad, and I was able to handle spoiler[Aki's death, because it had to happen]. The last four minutes totally threw me for a loop, though. I mean, having spoiler[Tooya admit that he's going to die soon and that he wants Yuhi to "take care of Aya" when he's dead] with like thirty seconds left to go? Why couldn't it just end with the happy?

*frustration*
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Big Hed



Joined: 04 May 2006
Posts: 1607
Location: Melbourne, Australia
PostPosted: Fri Apr 25, 2008 12:14 am Reply with quote
So this is what the Bat Cave looks like! Kudos to getting your 22" desktop and the laptop in one picture, Zac Laughing. Also, you have good taste in chairs. I had one of those before I moved. Very comfortable. As for the wires, they aren't so bad; reminds me of what my old desk was like. Now I keep most of them crammed behind the TV.

DRWii wrote:
Perhaps those bunnies are in league with the dolphins?


More likely the mice, I think.

FMA's ending was pretty good. The movie had a pretty solid plot throughout I think, and if nothing else it was a visual pleasure.
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Julia-the-Great



Joined: 14 May 2005
Posts: 328
PostPosted: Fri Apr 25, 2008 12:16 am Reply with quote
Hey, I thought FMA's ending was quite appropriate. I enjoyed the movie a lot. Very Happy

My most disappointing ending? Off the top of my head, maybe the ending of the Berserk anime. I'm watching the last episode, on the edge of my seat, look at how much time left and go "WHAT? They're just going to end it THERE?!"

Darn you, Berserk!!!!!

Oh well, it forced me to go read the manga... So it's all good. Very Happy
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DRWii



Joined: 16 May 2007
Posts: 636
PostPosted: Fri Apr 25, 2008 12:35 am Reply with quote
Big Hed wrote:
DRWii wrote:
Perhaps those bunnies are in league with the dolphins?


More likely the mice, I think.

Ah, yes. I completly forgot about the mice. A dangerous thing to do indeed! Shocked

Its probably just me, but I've rarely been disappointed by the way an anime ended, and it was usually mild annoyance. Off the top of my head..."E's Otherwise", "Murder Princess" (though that series isn't really rewatchable), "Haruhi" (chronological order), and "Appleseed" (that's the one I hate).
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Greed1914



Joined: 28 Oct 2007
Posts: 4410
PostPosted: Fri Apr 25, 2008 12:38 am Reply with quote
Although it's been said already, I definitely had the same reaction to the ending of FMA, both the series and the movie. It was a bummer how things turned out, but then I realized, the show loves to punch you in the gut every now and then, so why would this be different. The fact that it's so enjoyable with all the tragedy involved is part of what makes it my favorite.
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Ai no Kareshi



Joined: 13 Mar 2005
Posts: 561
Location: South Africa
PostPosted: Fri Apr 25, 2008 1:28 am Reply with quote
I love the bunny picture.

They really do look like they're conspiring. Razz
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