"I Don't THINK So!" Poll--Who are we going to lose and what are you going to AU? (Ch. 102 spoilers)

[mfelizandy]

It's getting close to the end. Soon we'll have the last issue in our hands, and we'll know who survived and who didn't, and in what condition. I have my own opinions on who's likely to be a casualty of "The Ultimate Showdown of Ultimate Destiny", but I thought it'd be fun to see what the rest of the community has to say about the ending.

Poll We Know We're Going to Lose SomeNow for

Comments

[bodyline]

Scar and Hohenheim were doomed from the start, so they're gone. Izumi, maybe. I'm very hesitant to say she'll die for certain, but I suppose the possibility is there.

Greed might die, but Ling will live.

That's about it. Arakawa doesn't have it in her to kill off Ed or Al or Roy or Riza, killing Winry would be pointless, and I doubt Ling or the other Xingians are in any immediate danger since Fuu kicked it already.

[csakuras]

I highly doubt Ed will die at the end. In fact, I would be angry if he ends up sacrificing himself like in the first anime, because it's already been stressed in the manga that that's not the right way to do it.

But I do think he'll die rather young (in his mid-twenties or thirties). I mean he used part of his life energy. I'll be a bit disappointed if that isn't addressed in some way eventually; I don't think Arakawa did the whole impaling thing for no reason. And I generally prefer happy yet bittersweet endings like that.

As for everyone else, at this point I only believe that Scar will die. Hohenheim I hope will have some more time to spend with his sons before he dies. Roy and Riza are guaranteed survival IMO; after the close call and blindness, it would just be redundant to kill them.

[evil_little_dog]

Mmm, but she has drawn Ed as an old man and shown his tombstone with a "He lived 88 years" or something, right? Even if it is a teaser, I'm not sure she'd tease that much.

[driftwoodwings]

You by any chance have a picture of this? o.o

[evil_little_dog]

Follow my comment thread. :D

[norton198196]

I have absolutely no idea what will happen to Ed or Al, Arakawa's probably going to ruin any prediction I make anyway. XD

I said Scar without learning his name, Hoho, and the chimera. oh, and all the homunculi, are you kidding? lol. I'm pretty sure Scar will kill Bradley and then die afterwards from wounds.

[mfelizandy]

Oh, definitely the homunculi, that's what bad guys are for!

I can't decide whether Arakawa will buck convention and let Scar live to face whatever charges of vigilante murder someone might throw at him in the midst of the upheaval sure to follow Bradley's death, or kill him just to bring him full circle--he was "created" as a character by the war the homunculi started, now he's finished that war by finishing off the homunculi, so he's free to die and go to join his family and his god...*sigh*. It's a cliche, but in his case it fits. So I don't have high hopes for him, but I'll certainly miss him and probably AU him back to life.

[bob_fish]

Well, I already replied elsewhere in this post about Havoc - short version, you're right that writing a character with a major disability is much harder work in terms of research, but once your research is done, your character just gets on with his day and you only describe it when it comes in. It'll come out more natural than you think.

Anyway, here are my predictions and AU thingies.

Riza's going to live now, for my money, because if Arakawa was going to kill her, then the big scare of Ch 100 would reduce the impact of that. I'm on the fence about Roy's blindness - I can totally believe that it might stick, but this close to the end everything is up for grabs.

I don't think Olivia's going to end up Fuhrer. Roy's been struggling desperately towards this goal for years, Hughes died for it, Riza has dedicated her life to it, Havoc lost the use of his legs. Olivia is broadly on the side of the angels, but do you really see the Queen of Briggs introducing democratic reform? I don't see Roy giving up even if the blindness sticks. I'

[mfelizandy]

I don't think Olivia would hold power for long, but I can see her shoving Roy aside for a while to get things "under control" to her satisfaction. She's also the sort to take power and force Roy to fight her for it, for an assortment of reasons. One, she wants to be sure Roy won't let the loss of his sight rob him of his nerve. Two--she knows that making him struggle against her will teach him where his limits are...and aren't. Three, she's going to make sure Roy proves in and to the public that he's worthy of the post...at her expense. Four--for the moment it's her army that's trustworthy--her troops are loyal to her more than they are to the Central command. She's giving Roy time to weed out the traitors, scumballs, and just plain evil monsters from the rest of the military before she picks up her command and goes home to Briggs.

Then again--both Olivia and Alex Armstrong have taken one heck of a pounding. I could easily see losing one or both of them--I thought we had lost Alex a few issues back. A story of this scope

[bob_fish]

Well, all of this sounds like Olivia ... IF she didn't want to be Fuhrer herself. And she's on record several times in the manga as saying she's aiming for Fuhrer, and adding that she views Mustang as competition. So if she's going to do as you say, we'll need the revelation that she changed her mind off-panel, which would need some justification as she's been set up as ruthlessly ambitious for the whole manga. I'm not saying this outcome is impossible, it just needs a shift of attitude from her

[kashicat]

I've actually had moments where I wondered if Olivia was throwing out her comments about being Fuhrer as a sort of challenge to spur others to act. I'm not entirely convinced that's what she actually wants, though I'm quite prepared for my own interpretation to be less likely than what others are assuming.

I think she'll get control of the military no matter what. I could see her and Roy sharing power -- him taking the administrative side, reorganizing what needs reorganizing in the country, and her whipping the military into shape.

[cxrdevil]

Scar dies, Hoho dies, Ed doesn't actually make up with hohenheim but secretly he's gotten over that and the ho knows, Izumi lives, Mei should die but won't, Al will get his body back and Ed will be stuck with automail but somehow the situation will STILL make us cry for a week, roy and havoc start a damaged goods union and help each other overcome their weaknesses because that's how yaoi epilogues work. except riza will suddenly realize how ruggedly handsome havoc is and the three of them can be a happy family! Greed and Ling will come to an agreement and stay together and be good buddies as Greedling forever, and I can see Olivia being killed, but it won't happen, because a death THAT epic could steal the show from our main gang.