HMD | July 2013

[these_balls]

EVALUATE MY BATTLING!

Trainer Tip: play nice and keep it civil.


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Comments

[(Anonymous)]

I have some concerns about the way you've been playing Alphonse. Though I haven't stalked all his threads, I've read both his posts and there were some behaviors that I was hoping you could explain? For example, when Alphonse first arrived, he had a thread with Envy that struck me as odd because Envy is one of the series villains, but Alphonse acted mostly confused about him and otherwise treated him pretty civilly for a character he knows to be evil. You mentioned that he was surprised to see that Envy had a body instead of being the small creature he remembered. Why was he only baffled and confused by that, instead of outright alarmed? For all he knew, Envy was supposed to be powerless in a jar, but here he was in human form again. Even if Alphonse was leaping to the incorrect conclusion that he'd stolen a body, why wasn't he upset or afraid by it? You have him treating Envy like a casual acquaintance he hasn't seen in awhile, when he has no reason to believe that Envy is anything but malicious, cruel, and a very real danger to everyone around him.

I'm similarly confused by his thread with Kimblee in his second post. You have him reacting with surprise because he hadn't expected Kimblee to be present, but in Alphonse's first post Ed told him outright that Kimblee and Envy were both in Route, so it seems inconsistent to say that Alphonse hadn't expected him when he'd been told otherwise. Aside from that, like with Envy, Kimblee is an antagonist for the majority of the series, but Alphonse is speaking to him like a casual acquaintance. I know he and Kimblee have civil conversations in canon, but I feel this is one area where putting more care and introspection into your tags would help, because without it, it reads as though Alphonse is carrying on a casual chat with a series antagonist like they're old friends, when that shouldn't be the case.

It feels like you like to play up one side of Alphonse very strongly, the soft-spoken and friendly side of him. That is a large aspect of Alphonse's character, but it's not the only one, and I think he can come off as one-dimensional because of it. At times it seems like he's reacting unnaturally because you want to play with the rest of his cast, without taking into consideration Alphonse's canon relationships with those characters and how he realistically ought to be behaving, basically doing what you want him to do instead of what he should do. So I was hoping you could explain your reasoning behind some of these character choices?

[thecalmone]

The Kimblee thing is my fault. I actually forgot that Edward told him he was here, but I actually spent some time picking over how to have him react to the man otherwise. You have to keep in mind that he's in no physical shape to go around picking fights with people right now, and being outright rude is asking for people to respond in kind.

Yes, these interactions have been over the network, but that doesn't mean he's not keeping an eye to the future. I'll need to be clearer with the meanings behind his emotional responses in the future as I didn't think it could be interpreted that he was treating either like an acquaintance he was on good terms with as I meant to convey his suspicious caution with Kimblee, and his vague alarm and bewilderment with Envy, who happened to roll in at a good time to catch him with his guard down. Especially given Envy's shocking civility.

I didn't intend to downplay any of these things, but Alphonse is mostly being cautious and trying to get information before doing anything, because that's the pitfall that always catches him and his brother out when they do things and he's fully aware of that. He also knows that he's no longer as easily fixed as he used to be. Thus, I apologize for not being clear enough, and will remedy this in the future.

[(Anonymous)]

I don't understand why his reaction to Envy would be only vague alarm though. If Envy's civility was shocking, then why wasn't Alphonse shocked? It's especially glaring since reactions in FMA tend to be grossly overexaggerated for the sake of humor, like Ed's screaming reactions to being called short. The range of emotion I've seen out of Alphonse so far has been confused, vaguely upset, or as you said yourself, vaguely alarmed. Even if he's being cautious, he shouldn't be flat and one-dimensional.

[thecalmone]

And I didn't intend him to be. I know I wasn't on my best footing for his very first post, but I promise that I've been doing my best to fix that since. I clearly need to be more expressive about it if he's coming off that way though. With Envy I believe that it's mostly the fact that it's been over the network and not in person that's made him temper his reactions. It helps a great deal that between the brothers, he's really not the one to go tearing off before thinking things through. Not without Ed leading anyway.