Weird, isn't it?


There are clearly plenty of female soldiers in the Amestris' army, but none in the kokkarenkinjutsushi ranks.

Kinda makes you wonder...

if there were any, they'd be quite rare... or maybe, just like izumi, female alchemists strongly disagree to using alchemy for battle or for military purposes. either that or female alchemists in general are rare.

so far, in the anime, there are 4 known female alchemists: psiren, lyra, dante and izumi.

it's a shounen manga. what d'you expect? but i dunno, i think if there a female national alchemist, it'd feel like a mary sue... unless it was done uber good, but... yea... XD

I think the same... I'm kinda paranoïd about Mary-Sues... But teh females in FMA were all done great, so, maybe... Nah. It's alright like this.

yea, hagaren was one of the probably the only series i liked all the female characters! except when Lyra came in the anime...

hehe, i thought i was the only one with a Lyra problem...

now i'll post what everyone is actually thinking =PPP

male is the better and talented sex......

X_X *dead

Oh, I have a problem with Lyla too... I hated her from the first time I saw her.

What would yo usay if Lisa Hawkeye used alchemy? That'd be a twist, lol.

hehehe, that would be cool! if she were an alchemist, what would her specialty be, i wonder? but knowing how it is between her and roy, i doubt that he'd even allow her to study alchemy.

Maybe riza already does!!!
Offtopic:What twist would it be if Riza was *gasp* PRIDE!!!! (not very likely)

So true, Prinz! I'm with you~!!

Well, considering there aren't that many women in the army... And there are barely any (Army) State Alchemists to begin with: Roy, Armstrong and... oh drat, I forgot his name. Bomber-boy. You know. Suicide bomber? OK, and you've got Gran. But he was dead in the manga... and sucked in the anime. Ah, FMA just doesn't show many alchemists.

And yep, I'm also against the whole Mary-Sue thing. >__< Than again, who isn't? (Power to the canon characters!!)

*sigh

i will soon move into your big and beautiful house and be your life-partner....

Yeah you don't see to many alchemsits in general do you. I get very confused some times about how many there are. Like in epidsode one it seemed that nobody had ever seen alchemy before, but then we keep running into people who are like amature alchemists. Strange.
I don't recall seeing any women at either the written or practical test to become a state alchemist. Which seems a little fishy.
As a girl myself I don't really go with the whole 'men are better' theory. However I am afraid that the creators of the show might. I like some of the female characters, but they definatly are sticking with female archtypes. Even Riza, who is pretty bada$$ in her gun skills, only uses them to help protect Roy and bring his success, while terribly romantic it is also terribly steriotypical. We don't see any guys trying to push the women in their life to new heights. And the fact that Winry and The Libray Girl (can never remember her name S - something) are waiting at home to help the boys most of the series. Boooo. I'd like to see a female state alchemist, she doesn't have to be a Mary Sue, (Besides isn't Winry about as Mary Sue as you can get?).
~

Pardon my ignorance, but what the hell is a 'Mary Sue'?

It's a perfect girl, that everyone likes, has a past of some sort, is beautiful, talented, etc. They appear often in fanfictions, and sometimes in real work.

http://www.anycities.com/user1/ghostofdawn...ws/marysue.html

. . . well everyone in the story likes . . . but normally isn't to popular with readers/viewers.
~

Hehe, I awlays thought Hawkeye as the Mary Sue in FMA! *ducks incoming "flame" projectiles*

But... I've been wondering. Seeing as you've got Mary Sues for the female writers and Gary Stues for the male writers (or something to that effect <__<). What are you if you're a female writer that makes a male character? Ala .Hack Sign?

Hum... It's a Mary-Stu? or a Gary-Sue?

Or just a plain Gary-Stu!

Hawkeye as a Mary-Sue? Hum... Nah, I think Winry is more of a Mary-Sue. But I like them both, they're not too much Mary-Sues. I always thought Lyla was the Mary-Sue. I just hate dark and mysterious and powerful but still on the good side girls. When it's a main character, it can pass, and men often have (sexyness) and a little something that makes them loveable, but girls... I just saw too much of them in fanfiction >.<

Hawk - hmmm I guess I can see some aspects of Mary Sue-dom. I think that even Winry has SOME redeaming qualitites, that make her at least not a text book Mery Sue.
I haven't ever heard of a male Mary Sue, but I guess it makes sense. I also don't really understand why you need a different name depending on the gender of the author. *looks confusedly around* Any help?
~

On a completely unrelated topic, check out who's been hanging out in front of my house.

Ewww! What is that thing it's got? A cocoon? Yuch. spiders kind of freak me out.

~

it looks like a bee is inside the cocoon thing

Oh NO! Totally does. *Has flash back of Return of the King (Or Two Towers for you book fans )* Well I guess if I had to choose between a Bee and a Hobbit . . . I'm glad the hobbit lived another day.
~

I wonder how ED would react to that spider???

BTW: What drove the spider to act in HARRY POTTER??? I mean it would have been better off in Shrek...

I wish it was my neighbor's idiot dog in that web...

i hate this picture.................... it's disgusting... simply *ugggghhh

I had a spider who looked like this one on the front door of my house the other day... I had to take the back door >.< I have this insane fear of those little (or more like big) creepy creatures... And not just spiders >.<

What does that mean? I'm confused. I thought the spiders in Harry Potter were scary. Just the sound of huge spider legs hitting the forest foor *shudders* Oh man! I definatly picked my feet off of the movie theater floor.
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well back on topic here... I thought that since the time period is around 1914 the women were 'expected' to act like that... they stayed home and made sure everything was ok for the men or they helped the men for whatever other reason. Women just didn't have a lot of positions with power because they were 'supposed to stay at home and look after the family. Like it or not, that's what nature had intended for the human race... in modern days we are breaking the natural order of things while men do more and more of the child-rearing and women often times making more money than the men. I'm not trying to be a complete feminist nor am I trying to be chauvanist... in that time period I'm assuming in the FMA universe women had some power if they could hold it but the majority were in the stay-at-home-look-after-the-family-traditional-do-as-I'm-expected niche. Women used to have male pen names to get their books published. Like I said earlier, women who could hold their positions could have some power... like that painter Gentileschki (sp.?) during the Italian rennaisance (if any of you remember grade 9 socials anyways) remember that it wasn't until recently (maybe 10-20 years tops) that you really noticed women moving out of their 'traditional niche'

You're not alone ^__^

Hmm, maybe because people like to categorize everything. And I mean everything. So very... -___- urgh.

it could just be, as someone said earlier, that it probably goes against most woman's moral codes to do killing. That's why there aren't as many female soldiers either. It would seem that being a soldier, there's a chance you won't see the front line. If you're a nationally certified alchemist, you're almost guarenteed seeing the front line and having to do some killing. So maybe women, just for the sake of not wanting to kill don't bother with entering the army?

~ais

Good point as well. Ross and Hawkeye are just not your average stereotypical women than. Sciezka has a desk-job, of course.

Hmm, it's too bad the State Alchemist are infamous because of the previous War, otherwise Izumi would have been a great addition to the forces.

Hawkeye and Ross are deffinately exceptions.

Yeah, Izumi would have been a kickass addition to the State Alchemists if the Ishbal war hadn't made them into killing machine of the military... of course, if anyone had to face the prospect of fighting Izumi I'd bet the war or fight or whatever would be halted just out of sheer terror of getting their arse beat majorly. *snicker*

~ais

*trying to picture Izumi following orders ...*

Naaaaah you must be kidding XD

Hmmmm, maybe if Sig was her commanding officer?

*snicker* you're right. Now that would be the day. another possible reason why there aren't any female State Alchemists and fewer women in the military? Women are more prone to question the orders they're given, as oposed to most men.


~ais

You think Sig would be stupid enough to issue her orders? o_O

Aaaaah very good point... Hm, maybe she's more Fuhrer material.

Remember, the mangaka of the series is a female O_o"... you barely know any state alchemists period, let alone female ones. Besides, most of the females kickass in the series, maybe it just goes to show you they're smart enough not to become a state alchemist

And would the mangaka be discriminating against her own gender? (unless you're like some people here XD)

Maybe, maybe. She's definitely the commanding type. I'd hate to be her assistant, though. *ducks half a dozen butcher knives*

I'm gonna throw in with this one. Makes the most sense so far.

The women of Hagaren-Land are mostly either "NPCs" (if I can get away with importing this gaming term) or badasses. There's not a lot of gray area.

Pinako - Badass (elderly)
Riza - Badass (passive)
Izumi - Badass (dominant)
Winry - Badass (sometimes)
Schieschxzka...bookworm - Not a badass (but very smart and willful)

None of these character types fit with the Suzy Homemaker stereotype which would be common in the era (of RL) in which the story takes place. For that we've got -

Juliet Davis - Secretary
Hughes' wife - Mother/Homemaker
Mrs. Elric - Mother/Homemaker
Dante - Old gardener lady
Countless random strangers - Mostly mothers and/or homemakers of some sort.

I don't know if I spelled the Fuhrer's secretary's name right. Seems to me that most of the main female characters have managed to avoid being sterotyped. Double standards (with male sterotyping) should also be considered, as well as the difference between "Sterotype" and "Archtype" and how they're both used in fiction and storytelling.

And that's my two cents on that.

actually, we do see female state alchemists -at least 2, in fact - if you look for them. In the mess hall, where Ed learns about Dr. Marco running from the army, everyone in the mess hall (save Hughes) is a State Alchemist. And there are at least two females sitting there. As is demonstrated by this screen cap.




^^: and please forgive me for dregging this post up, but I'm one of those people who doesn't stop until I find the proof I'm looking for to make my point. I apologize.

~ais

its probably the traditional male setting in the army during the early 20th century in europe at that time with minor changes to suit the story

You sure those two aren't cross-dressers, dreamcatcher?

do you think the army would really allow cross-dressers? I'm fairly certain those two are indeed women, lol.

They look so BORING though......

^^; I can't help that! But then again, if they looked really exciting or anything, rather than normal soldiers, wouldn't that just make them bigger targets? lol. But at least it shows that there ARE female National Alchemists

No, I mean that they don't seem like they have an intresting life... maybe that's why they aren't that major...