State Alchemist - Blog Posts
Sorry to those who followed me for my HTTYD content, I’m going to talk about the famous FMA x HP fanfic real quick. Bear with me for a sec.
So in “He’s a Killer Queen, Sunflower, Guillotine”-
-there is a lot of discussion on why and how Ed sympathizes with the slytherins in the first place. I mean, his friends trust him and eventually get why Ed wants to interact with the slytherins. And we all know this (if you have read the fic) but I noticed something kinda like a parallel in the story between Ed in Amestris and the Slytherins.
In Ed’s world. He technically fills the role of the Slytherins. Slytherins are people who do magic but are ostracized because of their families and are known to kinda be almost like dogs for Voldemort.
State alchemists are those who can do alchemy but are ostracized because they are dogs of the military and don’t follow the universal rule of “be thou for the people.”
Now while both are ostracized for very reasonable reasons (such as helping continue a genocide) but it does make Ed’s sympathy for the Slytherins make sense. Ed knows of the horrors the state alchemists have committed, he works for Roy after all! But Ed also knows that most of them were in a dire situation and were forced, and while that doesn’t excuse the killing, etc…it does make it easier to see from the state alchemists point of view. Ed applies this logic to the Slytherins. Edward is aware of the horrors committed by the parents and families of the Slytherins but he knows most of the kids are innocent. Edward knows and can empathize because Ed is treated the same way they are back home. We see time and time again as Ed is thrown out for being military, targeted, kidnapped, and almost died because he is a state alchemist.
Ed may be a Hufflepuff in the HP world but he’s in the Slytherins position in his own. And if he can change the perception of state alchemists in his own world too, then Ed can change how the HP world views Slytherins as well.
Just um…food for thought, I’ll stop now.