Random Manga Ponderings

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17 June 2006 @ 09:39 am

I don't know if these things have been mentioned yet but the more I notice these things, the more they bug me. ~~(Well, not bug me as in annoy, bug me as in I have to do things like this to make me feel better.)~~ But seeing as they're all spoilers for 58-60, I'll be nice and put them under Lj-cut. ~~(So I don't get yelled at)~~

(Note: The pictures got smaller so you'll have to click them to see them up close.)

I don't remember who it is that ships the Archer/Kimblee pairings, but...Can you say "Love Child"?

I swear, You've got Psycho "I love to kill people" Kimblee with Mr. "Accept the fact that the reason you want to attack me is because I'm better than you" Archer.

Silver Alchemist Blooper

It seems that he loses his powers with injury, no?

What really bugs me ~~being an obessed Royai fan and all~~ is trying to figure out how old Roy and Riza are in this saga/arc/flashback. It may just be their eyes and hairstyles but I swear that Riza's only 15 which would make Roy around 19 (If you go with the four years thing.)

First off, Roy and Riza are at least a few years apart, seeing as how she refers to Roy as "Mr. Mustang" while he calls her "Riza". Though this might just be because he's her father's apprentice.

Second, Riza is practically a whole foot shorter than Roy at the graveyard scene. (Below, left) In the present time, she's only a few inches shorter than him. (Below, right)

What this can mean is that either Riza is still young enough to be growing or that Roy shrunk quite a bit which is quite silly and doubtful.

Also, since I've gone back to pondering the secrets of Riza's Father's research by looking into her tattoo more, I've found that I'm still in creepy mode.

I'm starting to wonder if Riza was forced by her Father to 'house' his research.

Riza mentions how her Father scared her, how he was always absorbed in his research, but then we saw how she already had the tattoo on her back in the graveyard.

It made me wonder: How obessed was her father? Was he so obessed with the fact that if he wrote his reseach down on paper that others would find it and use it for wrong? Was he so obessed with keeping it secret that he used his own daughter?

Needless to say, the answer to the above is yes, but then you have to wonder if Riza volunteered willingly or if he made her. (maybe it was just me, but when she was telling Roy about her Father's research, didn't she seem a little hollow or empty to you? As if she trained to talk about it in a certain way.

Also, how did he get the tattoo on her back? Did he use alchemy or was he a tattoo artist back is his younger, more rebelious days?

*ponder ponder*

Well, there's my pondering notes for this time around. Anyone can add their opinions if they want. I enjoy debating.

Cross-posted to fm_alchemist and personal journal

31 do | Do You Have What It Takes?

31 do —

( 31 do — Do You Have What It Takes? )

bettle on June 17th, 2006 02:48 pm (UTC)

Yep, that's definitely a love child. XD

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nintendocat on June 17th, 2006 02:49 pm (UTC)

Yay! People are agreeing with me! *Zoidberg dance*

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nintendocat on June 17th, 2006 03:32 pm (UTC)

She said school, not college. For all we know she might be in High School.

All in all, she was very young 'cause Roy seemed worried that she was by herself.

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taurusbombshell on June 17th, 2006 06:23 pm (UTC) (Expand)

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nintendocat on June 17th, 2006 10:28 pm (UTC) (Expand)

doctor_ricey on June 17th, 2006 03:50 pm (UTC)

Since she's got the big transmutation circle on her back, maybe it can be used... like a self-sacrifice thing if a situation gets really bad...?

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nintendocat on June 17th, 2006 04:21 pm (UTC)

I really think that when the final battle against the Homs. start we'll see Roy and Riza perform something amazing but she'll either die or nearly die in the end.

*High hopes that Riza is majorly involved in the manga's ending unlike in the anime's*

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doctor_ricey on June 17th, 2006 08:56 pm (UTC) (Expand)

nightfireblaze on June 17th, 2006 04:02 pm (UTC)

Hm, Well I was at Riza's hight at the graveyard scene when I was..11-12? Just by guessing and according to the hight chart I'm a few cm taller than her and I'm 15. Thinking that maybe she was in the Acadamy for a couple of years because didn't it say something about last year students going on the front lines or something? I would say Riza followed a hight change about the same as me though I can never be sure.
That is what I think at least.

You think Roy looks 19? To me he looked 16-17.

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nintendocat on June 17th, 2006 04:18 pm (UTC)

Well yes he looks really young but I'm trying to think about how old Riza would be 'cause if he's 16 she'd be 12 and she's too, err, 'shapely' to be that young.

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nightfireblaze on June 17th, 2006 04:23 pm (UTC) (Expand)

nightfireblaze on June 17th, 2006 04:06 pm (UTC)

And Manga!Kimbly being the lovechild of anime Kimbly and Archer was my first thought when I saw him too. XD

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nintendocat on June 17th, 2006 04:19 pm (UTC)

I don't know if anyone didn't think "Is that Archer?" when they first saw the RAW. Well, unless they never saw the anime.

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nightfireblaze on June 17th, 2006 04:24 pm (UTC) (Expand)

pyrrai on June 17th, 2006 04:25 pm (UTC)

I'm glad I'm not the only one who thought Kimbley looked a LOT like Archer!

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e1ena on June 17th, 2006 04:50 pm (UTC)

Ooh, I feel like I'm missing something... Where is that "Please don't die" thing from? I wanna see. o.o;

I agree with a lot of what you've said and I've been wondering some of the same things. I've been especially curious about Roy and Riza's ages during certain times. Judging from those two pictures, I think you and

nightfireblaze were onto something with her being 13 and him being 17. That looks right, if you ask me.

Besides, I've from heard various places that, though her military uniform hides it, she has a rather large chest. o_O;

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nintendocat on June 17th, 2006 10:26 pm (UTC)

That's from chapter 60 on the second page. I love Roy's look at Riza's Blunt words.

And yes she does have a large chest. Though I think it's slightly smaller than Izumi's and Lust's.

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e1ena on June 17th, 2006 10:52 pm (UTC) (Expand)

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nintendocat on June 18th, 2006 02:16 pm (UTC) (Expand)

phoenix_z on June 17th, 2006 07:31 pm (UTC)

Some of these things don't worry me too much.

The Silver Alchemist's arrays - eh, well, they will be easy to add for the tank release. If noone fixes it, then I'd worry. It's common in manga for an initial serial release to need some touch-ups or fixing (or even entirely redrawn panels) because each chapter is on a tight monthly schedule. There's not alot of room for delays, and Gangan would rather run a chapter that has minor errors than skip it entirely. That's my preference, too.

And Riza's height and size- I wouldn't try to compare illustrations and manga to see what anyone's 'true' height is. It's hard for an artist to always remember and accurately portray such exact things (even with model sheets), and it's surely within creative license to fudge 'true' things for effect. Exaggeration is one of the tools in an artist's box- showing Riza as having been small enhances the feeling of her having been shy and reserved then. In current time she looks a bit taller, but she's also become pretty tough and appears more comfortable with herself. It's not a good method of trying to determine age or time passed. And things the author is thinking or wanting to portray will frequently influence how things are drawn, even without intending it. There is no forensic quality evidence for anything in manga, any manga :)

And the Mr. Mustang thing, it could just be politeness forced by not being close friends, or she was the type of person to keep her distance even from people she knew. I have no idea who's older than who, heh. Sorry. I would guess Roy, but that's just because he's already got his act together while Riza's been under her daddy's thumb.

Speaking of which, I'm totally creeped out by her dad and that tattoo, too. It's an array, but since he hid his info in code, it might not be useful as an array. The array aspect might just serve as a distraction, leaving a not-brilliant alchemist confused, while a smarter one might see through it. Dunno.

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nintendocat on June 17th, 2006 10:23 pm (UTC)

It is believed that in the current time Roy is 29 while Riza is 25, about 4 years apart.

As for the code in the array, I think it's the techinques used in Flame Alchemy. It may have nothing to do with Riza but I'd still like to see her as apart of the final fight, along side Roy and the Elrics as the try to save humanity. It'd be nice being that all she does in the anime is distract people and shoot Archer. She's so much cooler than that.

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grimm222001 on June 17th, 2006 10:46 pm (UTC)

Lovechild is the first thing that came to my mind too XD

My guess on Riza's age is that she's about 14. She just doesn't look younger than that (mostly I suppose because of her chest). But around that age a lot of girls are still growing (though she'd have to go through a major growth spurt).

But Roy's age also has to be appropriate. Unless I read wrong he wasn't a state alchemist when he first joined the military, which means he couldn't be too young or they wouldn't let him in.

So if Riza is 14, that makes Roy about 18 or 19 (forgot the age difference), which would make him old enough to join the military.

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areku1993 on June 18th, 2006 05:26 pm (UTC)

I think she's 14, just like

grimm222001 said. To find out how old they were in the war, though, we just need to find out how many years later the war took place. But I'm sure that during the war, Roy was old enough to stop growing but Riza, because of the age difference, still has time to grow. If the war was a year or two later, Riza would be a max of 16 years old, still with two or three years left to grow, but Roy would already be done.

Is that confusing? XP

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nintendocat on June 18th, 2006 05:35 pm (UTC)

Well according to the timeline in the second perfect guide Roy and Hughes were 22 when they started in the war meaning that Riza would be about 18. But she had grown quite a bit between the grave scene and the war scene.... I think...

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areku1993 on June 19th, 2006 01:23 am (UTC) (Expand)

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nintendocat on June 19th, 2006 03:03 am (UTC) (Expand)

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areku1993 on June 19th, 2006 01:05 pm (UTC) (Expand)

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nintendocat on June 19th, 2006 06:21 pm (UTC) (Expand)

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areku1993 on June 20th, 2006 10:39 pm (UTC) (Expand)

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nintendocat on June 21st, 2006 12:13 am (UTC) (Expand)

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areku1993 on June 21st, 2006 03:46 pm (UTC) (Expand)

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