That's actually something I haven't understood since reading all of FMA this summer and talking to others about it! I like the character you mention well enough, but I feel I've been encouraged to like him more by his compatriots within the story and all the readers who seem to love him and are so upset when he gets killed. It certainly mattered to me when he was killed, and the way that it was done was reasonably disturbing (but a lot of violent acts in FMA shocked me considerably more), but it didn't rock my core and form a personal inciting incident against the Homunculi the way that it seems to for the readers I've talked to. For me it's not one of the more emotionally-charged FMA plot points (and of course there are many).
Perhaps his broad appeal is the fact that he's so happy? That is refreshing, especially as a point of contrast to, say, Roy.
Oh also, on the FMA topic: I have a friend who's seen the original anime and read the manga up through the point at which Roy performs a certain act which is hard to accept. And then she stopped! At the time it was because she was busy with school, but given everything she's read since, I really wish she would get back into the manga, because that's a terrible place to leave things at, especially since she really likes Roy. It's given me good practice in being an unspoilery friend: 'Yes, that's unconscionable; Roy really shouldn't have done that. I did respect him more before that point, it's true.'
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FMA spoilers inside
Date: 12/19/14 06:48 pm (UTC)Perhaps his broad appeal is the fact that he's so happy? That is refreshing, especially as a point of contrast to, say, Roy.
Oh also, on the FMA topic: I have a friend who's seen the original anime and read the manga up through the point at which Roy performs a certain act which is hard to accept. And then she stopped! At the time it was because she was busy with school, but given everything she's read since, I really wish she would get back into the manga, because that's a terrible place to leave things at, especially since she really likes Roy. It's given me good practice in being an unspoilery friend: 'Yes, that's unconscionable; Roy really shouldn't have done that. I did respect him more before that point, it's true.'