Fullmetal Alchemist FA is undoubtedly an excellent animation, full of content, compact rhythm, and amazing action scenes. It seems to be very impactful even ten years later. The producer Bones broke through the original style after completing the old work Fullmetal Alchemist 03, showing another style. However, this work also has corresponding problems. These shortcomings are concentrated in the script design of the ending: even with the plot turning of "ups and downs", the ending lacks a surprise turn, and it has never created unexpected emotional fluctuations.
1 to the dark moment the protagonist is absent
Popular commercial works have an important principle-the most desperate difficulties must be greeted by the protagonist himself: the protagonist can face the difficulties alone, can advance with others, can succeed, fail, and even be heroic and inherited by others, but You must personally "interact" with the predicament, and you must not stand idly by and do nothing. This principle is actually derived from the attitudes and perceptions of different works towards the world.
Regarding attitudes towards life and the world, literary works can be divided into two categories:
Dramatic stories and classical tragedies that emphasize "hero" and "growth". This worldview emphasizes the centrality of mankind and the influence that man can exert on the world, and the environment is relatively friendly and can be changed. Under this setting, the protagonist is required to change the world and achieve growth, which is embodied as the protagonist's actions to overcome difficulties. The protagonist does not have to surpass everyone, but he can definitely surpass himself and make a change: ordinary people find their favorite jobs (when happiness comes knocking on the door), disadvantaged groups realize their dreams (in the Pentium era), and even Americans save the planet year after year . In a romantic story where one's wishes come true, the protagonist can basically do what he wants. In classical tragedies, the protagonist can die or be alienated from society, but realizes the value of life in another way. The common point of these stories is that the world can be changed and life is meaningful. Even if the protagonist dies, it will reflect human dignity and value (classical tragedy), which inspires us to gain comfort and confidence from it and face our own lives.
The other is realism that emphasizes the objectivity of the world, and modernist and postmodernist works that can even abandon the centrality of mankind. The protagonists in realism will also try to confront difficulties, but their resistance is often negative and meaningless. The deaths of Oedipus and Achilles in classical tragedies also demonstrate the value of mankind—death to their rightful place and to be a hero, but the sufferings of Old Man Gao, Xiangzi Camel, and Madame Bovary have no meaning and value. Just live, suffer, die. If classical tragedy is the breaking of valuable things, realist tragedy is the destruction of things that are inherently broken. This kind of plot without drama, without heroes and growth, in the eyes of realist authors, is often more reflective of the truth of society: they pay attention to the typical presentation of society, especially its dark side, and are obsessed with digging the full picture of the era under the mud. Disdain to create drama plots that cater to readers. The world in realist works is often cold and ruthless and does not respond to the beauty of human nature. Modernism and postmodernism even begin to laugh at human nature and suffering itself-if realists only think that the drama that caters to readers is meaningless, modernism thinks reality itself is meaningless, and postmodernists think that it denies realistic meaning. The view is also meaningless.
From positive to negative attitudes towards the world, various themes should be: romantic stories (life is happy and valuable)-classical tragedy & existentialism (life is painful but valuable)-realism (life is very likely No value, but the value of human society deserves criticism)——Modernism & Postmodernism (Neither human beings nor human society are necessarily valuable), and the difference in script writing between the above categories of works is whether the protagonist needs to be personally face-to-face For difficulties.
The protagonist of romantic stories and classical tragedies must face a final difficulty to shape the drama, and this dilemma and crisis are usually the result of the whole article's efforts to shape the pavement-because the highlight of the whole work is the growth and change of the protagonist, and meet the crisis , Interacting with difficulties is the best way, and it is also the place where readers and viewers are most concerned.
The protagonists of realism and modernism do not have this obligation-the meaning of life is questionable. Even if a dramatic plot is arranged, it may not give ordinary readers the results they expect.
And to which category does steelmaking FA belong?
The answer should be a romantic story under the skin of classical tragedy and existentialism.
Gang Lian 03 is an unusually classic classical tragedy, and FA is brighter, in other words more inspirational: classical tragedy emphasizes that no matter how heroes are beyond mortals, they cannot escape the shackles of law or destiny, and the protagonist in the romantic story only needs to pay. Satisfying the final demands is just like the protagonist in FA solved the villain's plan perfectly and found his body. However, in the beginning, Nina and the gloomy atmosphere created by the human and dog synthesis did not integrate well into the more inspirational and passionate atmosphere in the later stage. Everyone began to find that the synthesis people were everywhere, which listened to reason and was easily persuaded to turn against each other, and the early stage. The halfway dark style is full of contradictions.
But this is not the main problem. The flaw in the ending of Steelmaking FA is that as an inspirational and passionate "romantic story" commercial work, it wastes the protagonist’s opportunity to shape the greatest crisis—the protagonist has nothing when the crisis occurs. Dry. What's even more incredible is that this huge crisis that paved the way for dozens of episodes lasted only a few minutes.
This crisis is the completion of the entire territory on the agreed date. This episode contributed the most magnificent special effects in the film: the villain has absorbed the lives of the people of the whole territory and made it into the stone of the sage. We found that the people of the whole territory, including Mrs. Seuss and his daughter, Wen Li and grandma fell and died one after another. , And the villain in the bottle swells into a god. On the one hand, Edward lost his relatives and alchemy ability, and he was extremely weak in force and spirit. On the other hand, the villain was almost invincible. He was already unmatched with half a million souls, and he absorbed 50 million. How can the human soul be defeated?
But the FA's solution to this difficulty was to let Hoinheim take the initiative to solve it-through years of his subordinate agencies, he instantly reversed the existing results, rescued the people of the country, and brought the villains back to their original form. The protagonist Edward watched the whole process and contributed zero to this reversal. From this moment on, the villain in the bottle's plan of refining the land has failed in stages. Even if he is not killed on the spot, he can only wait obediently before the next appointment day. Because of Hoinheim's deeds, this desperate crisis lasted only a few minutes.
Is the plot reasonable, or is it self-consistent? The answer is yes. It may be because the protagonist and the villain are too far apart in strength. The author created Hoinheim to balance combat power. Its ability setting can solve almost all problems. However, in terms of plot utilization and characterization, this arrangement is very poor.
First of all, it wasted the long-formed preparation for the country. It took almost thirty episodes to complete the preparation of the land, but it only took a few minutes to solve the problem. The method to solve the problem-Hoinheim's reversal of the formation of the formation is also pitiful, and it is almost completely independent of the protagonist's plot. Because a lot of narrative resources have been invested in Edward and other protagonists, Hoinheim’s plot thickness is not enough to independently support this 30-episode conspiracy, resulting in top-heavy plot;
Secondly, the opportunity to shape the protagonist was wasted. Because this huge crisis lasted for a few minutes and ended, the protagonist's participation was zero, and the opportunity to play was lost. This long-established material is wasted in vain, which is very uneconomical.
Where is the protagonist’s crisis and timing?
Transformed into the following two:
First, everyone in the headquarters worked hard to beat the remnant Boss. The boring part of this crisis is that the enemy has become weak at this time, his own image is thin, his skills are monotonous, his subordinates may be killed or injured, and his own people have a strong lineup and a gathering of stars. In essence, they are not an exciting Jedi comeback. It's the use of crowds to deceive the widows, which reduces the tension, and also leads to the top-heavy plot-the difficulties of true despair are easily solved, and the final details are frantically exerted. Moreover, he is extremely unimaginative in terms of combat performance and element design.
The second is that Al’s resource sacrifice and Edward once again face the gate of truth. This is another plot with an unusually poor design. This point in time, which should have become the emotional eruption point of the whole play, is extremely boring.
2 Wen Tun's weak emotional eruption
Script writing usually divides the plot line into two lines: line A is the main line of the plot, explaining the purpose and actions of the protagonist, line B is the emotional line, describing the emotional communication between the protagonist and others, usually love or family affection. When the plot enters the final stage, the two lines will definitely meet: the emotional support and contract opportunities provided by the B line become the clues for the A line to solve major difficulties. When the two lines meet, it is the moment when you can cry out in a movie or drama-this will be the strongest emotional eruption point of the whole drama, and it is not an exaggeration to say that the whole work is serving this. In terms of character creation, this will also be the time for the final growth and sublimation of the character.
We can look at a few examples: in the Titanic, the ship’s wreck and everyone’s way to survive is the A-line plot line, and Jack Ross’s love is the B-line emotional line. In the ending, the love and the love provided by Jack in the B-line Dedication became the help that allowed Ross to survive successfully, making the line B affect the ending of line A, revealing the power of love that transcends everything; in the wandering earth, line A is the wandering earth project, line B is the affection of Wu Jing and his son, and the ending is two Lines are united, and father and son saved the earth in the final reconciliation. In the animation Puella Magi Madoka, how does line A resist the witch represented by Witch’s Night, line B is the sincere friendship between Homura and Madoka. Similarly, in the ending The emotional line meets the plot line. Homura’s friendship and dedication finally triggered Yuan’s growth and feedback. Chu Beibei’s contract transformed the emotion of the B line into the reality of the A line. The friendship between the two reshaped the law of the entire universe.
In Steelmaking FA, the A line is adventure, including the pursuit of the sage’s stone and the action to save the country, and the B line is the feelings, depicting the sincere affection between the Edward brothers. Just like the script writing convention, the two lines intersect in the ending, showing that Al and Ed are refining the human body again in order to save each other, but the plot of the two blending is extremely poorly designed.
Because there is an important condition for the B line to be integrated into the A line, it is necessary to create a dark enough emotional trough-an environment of despair, helplessness and isolation, in order to create enough emotional twists and turns, making the outbreak of the B line more moving and powerful at this time . And FA just failed to create this emotional depression, but Steelmaking 03, who also had brothers forging each other into a plot, succeeded in it. We can compare the differences between the following two:
first. Look at the plot of Al Liancheng's brother:
In the 03 version, Al's elder brother was made in an extremely desperate situation: the opponent is very strong, he has been made into a sage stone, and there is almost no possibility of surviving, and his only relative Edward has been killed. When desperate, he chose to sacrifice himself and rescue his brother with a dangerous human body. Not only did he reverse the plot, it had an emotional impact, and it was more reasonable. In terms of character creation, the usually kind and cowardly Al was the first time. It showed a calm, firm and unwilling side, and completed the sublimation of the image.
In FA, Al’s elder brother is not desperate: the villain has been beaten to the end of the crossbow and can be beaten to death with bare hands by Edward; Edward himself is not dead or seriously injured, he just lost the mechanical armor, his left arm They were nailed down; more importantly, the brothers were not alone and helpless. The reinforcements around them included Colonel Marstan, Armstrong, the teacher and his wife, Greed, and Xiaomei. All of them were just blown away by the shock wave. The facts proved very Almost stood up. In this not-so-urgent atmosphere, the impact and rationality of Al's sacrifice to become his brother's arm is greatly weakened: the audience will question that you can remotely train the human body, why can't you remotely train a big fist to fly the Boss? From the follow-up plot, we can find that the Boss can't even stand Ed's meat fist. Or why not just break down the iron nails on Ed's arm, or turn the iron nails into carbon and lead? Even if the whole process of building a barrier delays time, let other friendly forces come to rescue it. With other options, Al chose the human body with the highest cost and the lowest success rate. Whether it is feasible and whether it can be operated remotely is completely unknowable. It also involves Xiaomei in the dangerous training, which makes people wonder The meaning of this plot has weakened the emotional outburst, and in character creation, it has failed to take Al's image further.
Let's look at the plot of Edward's becoming a younger brother:
In the 03 edition, Ed has become Al after losing everything. He knows that Al’s body and soul are in the door at this time is the last chance, but he has also lost other chips, so he can only do it at his own expense. His behavior was very "stupid", but because the situation at this time was desperate enough and there was no way out, it made people unable to reprimand, and eventually returned to the theme of "equivalent exchange" that could not be violated, creating huge sorrow. In terms of characters, the strongest and violent Edward finally showed a gentle and dedicated side, and also enriched the original image.
However, in FA, Edward's situation of Al's refining is very different. He no longer has nothing. On the contrary, there are alternatives and retreats-he can be made with the sage stone provided by Prince Yao, or he can be made with the sacrifice of his father. , If you wait a little longer, you can even use Doctor Maruk’s Sage’s Stone to rescue your brother. What he struggles with is how to save his brother's life without using the sage's stone and not violating his own moral code. The problem is that, in the eyes of ordinary people, using the sage’s stone to save lives is not a moral dilemma at all, and even its most legitimate use. However, it was rejected by the high moral standard of Ed, and forced to create "Can Al survive." "The suspense of ", the suspense caused by it is greatly reduced: on the one hand, as long as there is an alternative to the sage’s stone, the tension on whether Al can survive is greatly reduced; on the other hand, his brother is gone, and Edward is still attached to his own. High moral standards also weaken the shaping of brotherhood. In other words, Edward’s struggles before training in FA included two motives at the same time: his family relationship with his younger brother, and the struggle with his own high morals, which led to his behavioral drive not being primitive enough and not intense enough, making his motivation to save his relatives changed. .
So, how should we evaluate the plot of the FA ending?
Logically, the traces of the axe are heavier, only to justify it-we can artificially set up a hundred explanations to show that Al's human body is absolutely necessary, but emotionally, it is a very failure-this The plot is quite warm, not touching enough, not impactful, and it has not completed the sublimation of the character image. In my opinion, this plot can only be justified, but it is not qualified to be placed on the finale as an emotional eruption point.
3Finally, boss shaping is weak
Among the many characters in Steelmaking FA, the villain in the bottle is definitely the weakest link. This villain is qualified, but also mediocre and not good enough.
The villain has two functions. From a functional perspective, it creates a dilemma for the protagonist and triggers dramatic conflict. At this point, the villain in the bottle is only qualified. As mentioned in the first point, his failure is that his strongest wave of offensive-"50 million people nationwide" was quickly resolved by Hoinheim. , Turning the final battle into a scene where the residual blood boss was besieged by everyone in the headquarters square, but this plot is relatively monotonous and lacks imagination, resulting in the final performance of the villain in the bottle not being as strong as the foreshadowing and setting. , Which affected the intensity of the ending.
From the perspective of character creation alone, the villain in the bottle is a very flat boss, not so much a character, but more like a headless disaster. Even more tragic is that it was suppressed by a more brilliant character of the same type, the latter being President Kim Bradley.
The president is definitely the most dazzling character among the many villains in this game. He was cruel, fierce in combat, calm and calm. He was never defeated. He was not timid to face enemies several times his own. The scenes of catching Greed alone and chasing the tank with flesh and blood are all classics. Even if he is old and physically weak, his body is wounded, but his fearful fighting will is even more prominent. In the shaping of human nature, in addition to the pride of the human identity, the desire for battle and destruction, and the skills and training beyond human beings, the president still has a peculiar obsession with "independence", which seems to be a remnant of the original human nature: Even though his identity, son, and subordinates were all arranged by others, he was always proud of choosing his wife by himself. "We don't need a last word between us", this setting enriches the three-dimensionality of this character.
High-quality villains should be differentiated in design, but they are generally getting stronger. But the villain in the bottle is almost completely inferior to the villain of the president. In terms of deterrence, the villain in a bottle wearing white pajamas from the central headquarters was far less shocked than the president's return to the headquarters and angrily cut the tank. The character shaping is even more lackluster. The limited traits displayed by the villain in the bottle are limited to hating humans and craving knowledge and abilities. This role is supposed to be a sinister and wise intellectual villain. After giving up the emotional characteristics of the seven deadly sins, it should take the IQ rational route, but in the final ending, the performance is more like a martial lunatic in Dragon Ball. After failing to make things happen, the shock wave was randomly set, and the protagonist was finally beaten to death with bare hands without any dignity. It was supposed to be the scenes and scenes in which the boss failed to contribute enough weight in the end, which is another reason for the "top-heavy" ending. The original lonely, mysterious, curious, cunning, and unfathomable mysterious image of the villain in the bottle has not been further sublimated, and has been treated as a mediocre villain. After getting the body he dreamed of, why did he turn to becoming a god? The motivation for his transformation has not been explored. It is a tool of the plot that has no real meaning.
4 The core of the problem-the absence of the soul night
To summarize the above, the production team or the comic author Ms. Hiroshi Arakawa made three mistakes: the biggest difficulty is no protagonist, the emotional burst is weak, and the final boss is not enough, but these three are essentially the same mistakes. Yanshen-The author did not create a real "soul night" for the character.
"Soul Night" is the most desperate and helpless moment of the protagonist in a Hollywood movie script-the villain is invincible, and the protagonist has nothing: the state has fallen to the bottom, the team is slumped, and close comrades in arms begin to die. From the perspective of suspense, this is when the reader expects the protagonist to rise; from the logical support, only by falling to the bottom can the protagonist make the most incredible actions; from the emotional explosion, the choice under desperate situation is more sincere and moving; from the character In terms of shaping, this is also a good opportunity to show other aspects of the character and sublimate the existing image. Therefore, even the most lively and gregarious protagonist in a comedy should design a solitary moment of sublimation and show him some death-related intentions. For example, in the Titanic, we can make Jack come alive, but what cannot be omitted is that the two face the moment of death and nothing. This is not only applicable to scripts, but also a rule that all romantic stories must follow.
In the final of Steelmaking FA, Hiroshi Arakawa did not set Edward a true soul night-his mental state was too stable, lacking a moment of absolute loneliness, self-doubt, regret and despair, and always had a group of allies following. Around. Two huge critical moments, one was easily resolved by Hoinheim, and the other plot to rescue Al was weakened by too many retreats, which weakened the sense of tension and impact, resulting in lack of basis for his final growth. This in itself is not a question of character creation or plot logic, but simply a matter of script design.
Some readers once asked me how to solve the above problems. In fact, the method is very simple. You can learn from the practice of Steelmaking 03.
In response to the difficulty of the protagonist's inability to participate, he directly allowed the high-powered Hoinheim to leave the field ahead of time, transforming into a consultant and clue role, and let Edward implement his father's plan, just like Rowling killed Dumbledore to let Harry Potter defeat Voldemort;
In response to the problem of boss shaping, let Boss have more monologues to show himself in personality, let him truly "kill" the protagonist once to create despair of nothing;
Combine the intersection of the A and B lines with the desperate scene of nothing to create a successful emotional eruption point.
Unlike FA, the 03 version is a work that unfolds completely in a three-act method, so naturally, it pays much attention to the dramatic setting of the ending. The node of the first act and the second act of the 03 version is the death of the mother, the midpoint of the plot is the death of Hughes, and the node of the second act and the third act is the death of Edward. The overall design of this script is quite "professional", and it is also very literary and symmetrical, giving people a strong sense of drama.
On the other hand, FA restored a long-term serial comic intact. It was a juvenile manga with a kingly theme, but it also made a trade-off based on the subject matter and audience: the audience expectation of the juvenile kingly manga restricted the choice of style and the protagonist. The setting of behavior patterns and moral concepts, as well as the way in which roles are shaped. In my opinion, FA is more amateur than 03, at least in terms of the final script.
5 Summary and reflection-Is Steelmaking FA a good work?
My original intention of writing this criticism is to understand why so many people think that Steelmaking FA is of amazing value, but I hate this work very much. To this end, I also spent a lot of time exploring. Now, my conclusion is probably that commercial value and artistic value cannot be confused, and popular taste cannot be applied to every individual.
From an objective point of view, I think Ganglian FA has a slight shortcoming in the plot design, but it still surpasses most of the works; its animation quality is even more outstanding. What's more, its comics and animation sales are very good. This should be a work that can remain famous in the history of animation, and its comprehensive commercial value and popular reputation should be comparable to Naruto.
But this is definitely not a work that I like, nor is it a work that I think is artistic. This may have nothing to do with the audience and positioning. I am certainly not a teenager, but when I watched it as a teenager, I felt like a short-lived highlight and an extremely clichéd dull, boring and banal ending.
Maybe I am a demanding reader who has spent a lot of time studying literary theory, rather than an ideal audience for Steelmaking FA. This animation failed to meet my core needs-the shock and beauty in literature and design, or the refreshing original creativity. On the contrary, every plot progress was expected and it was very tiring.
But if you like this work, I also hope you can enjoy it happily and be moved by it. After all, the colors of FA are positive, bright and full of life, even if it is not beautiful enough in my opinion, it is undoubtedly a good thing if more people can be inspired by it. But I doubt that such an audience can have the patience to read it here. After all, they don’t have a firm belief in God and a firm resistance to heresy, and they are not qualified to become a qualified fan of the Universe Everest of Steelmaking FA. .
Originally published in the column of station B:
https://www.bilibili.com/read/cv3695965
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