ND FUCK YEAH, WINRY BEING KIDNAPPED IS A RUSE AND ACTUALLY WINRY’S SUPER AWESOME MASTER PLAN TO SAVE EVERYONE. This is why I fuckin’ love this story, y’all. Hiromu Arakawa takes your backwards-ass damsel-in-distress tropes and explicitly subverts the shit out of them. But let’s go through the amazingness of this step by step. 

First, we have Winry’s scene with Scar. 

I just love how this is so completely and utterly Winry’s narrative. This lets the reader know “OKAY PAUSE ED AND AL TIME NOW IT’S TIME FOR WINRY AND SCAR’S FACE OFF YOU GUYS STEP BACK THIS IS HER FIGHT”. Scar is WINRY’S battle not theirs and Ed and Al accept this and step aside for her to talk openly with him and make her choice. 

Winry is so strong and so mature here. She can’t forgive Scar because what can’t be erased and she owns her anger and doesn’t try to suppress it. But she refuses to let revenge define her life. She’s going to do what’s best for her, what she feels her parents would have wanted, what she feels is right. She’s going to honor her parents legacy, going to use the skill and passion she was given to move on with her life and change the world for the better. She breaks the cycle of revenge and hatred and chooses to save Scar’s life instead. 

Winry Rockbell isn’t someone who destroys. It’s easy to destroy. It’s pointless and it never helps. Winry is one of those people who rebuilds. She keeps going. She repairs what is broken and saves people and lets new life flourish and she impacts everyone around her. She impacts Ed and Al by showing them a strength they couldn’t have imagined. She impacts Scar here by reminding him what his brother and Ishvalan mentor told him- that it’s our duty to be angry and injustice and no one should have to forgive it, but you can’t let what was done to you define you- you have to move under the burden and try to change things, not destroy them, if you want things to get better. It was something he was just starting to reconnect with, and seeing that rhetoric applied in real life speeds up the process for him. 

Winry is an inspiration here. She’s been through so much, but ultimately she makes the choice to save people. She builds something new with her pain. And that’s the core of what FMA is about, and that’s the core of her development, and what makes her such a hero to the readers and to the characters around her. 

You can tell Ed is blown away by how impressively Winry handled all this. For so long he didn’t want to hurt her, but now he sees her coming off an experience that would break most people stronger than ever. This is a confirmation that he was right to step back and let her make her own choice about how to deal with this, right to change his attitude and tell her the truth- even though it hurts him to tell her painful things and see her in painful situations, by being honest with her and respecting her agency, he sees her face those painful things and rise above them. And that’s why it was right for him to respect her- letting her face the pain she has a right to allows her get through it. Keeping it from her under the pretense of protecting her just means that she’s continually hurt by deception and lack of respect for her strength. 

And both Ed and Winry are serious about ther pact regarding Winry crying tears of joy. So Winry won’t be hurt, Ed refuses to let himself give up on supporting her and coming back to her. And so Ed will come back to her, Winry refuses to be broken by all the painful things that happen in the meantime. It’s an equal promise made out of respect and trust for each other that keeps them bonded and moving towards their goals 

And seriously, let’s just talk about how spectacular it is that Arakawa deliberately sets it up to look like Winry is going to be kidnapped for shock and drama and angst and manrage from Ed, but then completely pulls the rug out from under us and subverts it. Winry is put in a situation where she is used as a hostage. Female-love-interest- as-hostage is soooo typical in fiction. We must have the woman as a helpless and imperiled prop so the brave hero can prove his manliness and save her! She will rarely get to show any agency in the situation by saving herself (eSPECIALLY if she doesn’t have Action Girl powers) and actually her saving other people or striking a blow against the bad guys is out of the question. 

And does Winry need to be a action hero to do this? Does she need to save everyone by busting heads because that’s the only way a woman can be shown to be strong? No. She uses her head and that’s all she needs to save herself and everyone. I also love that once again she does this by using everyone’s expectations of her against them. She knows the military thinks of her as nothing more than a hostage, a weak tool for them to use against the boys, so she knows they’ll fall for her trap. She also knows they think Scar is is a souless monster and she uses that against them. 

She’s doing this at such great risk and pain to herself, being alone with the man who took her parents, but she’s so determined and brave she doesn’t care. She both subverts their expectations and prejudices and punches them in the face with them. WINRY IS EXPERTLY DISMANTLING THE CAGE THOSE IN POWER HAVE PUT HER IN WITH THEIR OWN TOOLS AND THEN HITTING THEM IN THE FACE WITH SAID TOOLS (PROBABLY A WRENCH) BECAUSE SHE IS SUCH A FLAWLESS HUMAN BEING. 

Anyone who says she is weak and just waits around or that she is anything, anything but a hero and a badass is SO OBJECTIVELY WRONG I DUNNO HOW THEY CAN FUNCTION. 

Oh, and I love how she stands up to Ed when he of course flips out about her plan, pointing out that this is her decision, she wants to do this, and she is just as involved in everything now as they are. It’s unfair for them to take on all the risks themselves, and she is just as capable of taking risks to help everyone around her as they are and she has a right to do so, it’s not up to them, so sit down, this is her plan and it will work. It’s such a big leap for her character and such an assertion of her agency and determination and I LOVE HER OKAY SHE REFUSES TO NOT HAVE HER VOICE BE HEARD SHE REFUSES TO BE SIDELINED. SHE WILL HAVE AN IMPACT AND SHE WILL DO WHAT SHE WANTS AND BE TREATED WITH RESPECT. 

Hiromu Arakawa, you excellent lady with your awesome narrative and wonderful characters, you did this right <3 

It is so important that Ed follows Winry’s plan. That even though he’s scared of her getting hurt, he respects her enough now to know that she is perfectly capable, has come up with a good plan and she can pull this off, and what’s more, she has a right to do this because she is involved. He knows she can do this, and what’s more he knows that it’s not his call to tell her not to do it. 

It’s a level of respect he has attained after all his experiences with her. 

That’s why I love this relationship. Because so much of it was about coming to this point, and because Ed learned to respect Winry enough to do the right and sensible thing, rather than following manly-man “i won’t let you take charge or do anything risky I have to protect you by infringing upon you!!!” bullshit. 

And we get an excellent bit of role-reversal here to show just how far they’ve come. Remember in episode 23 when Ed gave Winry his coat to comfort her when he went off to risk his life, both as a comfort to her and a promise he’d return? Now as Winry goes off to risk her life and fight her own battle, she gives Ed her earrings as a promise and comfort. Now ED has to wait for HER. This is true beautiful equality and fulfillment in a relationship, true give-and-take. 

OVA and manga sidestory spoilers, no main anime storyline stuff: Vg’f rira fjrrgre fvapr orpnhfr jr xabj gung gurfr ner rneevatf gung Rq tnir ure va gur svefg cynpr nsgre ur pnzr onpx ubzr sebz uvf qnatrebhf wbhearl gb trg svkrq hc gur svefg srj gvzrf. Naq abj fur’f tvivat gurz onpx va nggrzcg gb nffher ur’yy pbzr onpx naq gurl’yy zrrg ntnva. IT’S JUST SO! TOO SWEET AND SIGNIFICANT! MY OTP UUGGGGH. 

Okay I guess I should talk about things besides Winry in this episode 

Scar! 

-I’m glad we get the flashback to Scar’s mentor’s speech, I had THOUGHT his lines in the manga weren’t actually cut from the anime, and I’m glad to know I was right. Now I can un-rot13 this bit from my episode 13 review: There’s the line where Scar’s like “you expect me to forgive them?” and his teacher’s like “no. In fact it’s our duty to be angry at injustice. But we have to endure as we fight- we cannot become the animals they claim us to be” Which I always thought was a lot more on point than the messages we’re usually given re social issues-Anger is not a bad thing! And there are some things you can’t forgive! Anger has its place and forgiveness is not required- but also letting the hate ruin and control your life, essentially accepting you’ll never change anything and just choosing to become nothing but someone who destroys- it’s not productive and it lets the oppressors win because it lets them define and control you. 

As I’ve mentioned before, Scar has been a cycle of self-destruction. He’s not trying to help his people or change anything, and he admits as much here. (This is even further proven by the fact he basically tells Winry to kill him, even though an actual explanation of the fact he was going through severe PTSD when he murdered her parents would PROBABLY really help her understand and reconsider). But Miles does still hold out hope and is seeking change, even if he admits it’s going to be a hard long road. There are several things here that are connecting for Scar and there have been several things that are slowly allowing him to see self-desructive violence mgt not be his best option. He’s considering input and things he’s learned from Miles, his brother, his teacher and Winry- his relationship with May has surely helped him become a little more balanced too. I’ve said it before, but I like that it’s several different people who are serving a building blocks for Scar’s journey here and that it’s mostly his own people whose wisdom he’s remembering and learning from. 

-Yay, the chimera’s get to live! I know some think Al talked them into it too easily, but I think they were being intentionally kept ignorant and hopeless, and truly cared about their families and wanted to be with them- so once they knew the country was in danger, it makes total sense they’d want to help. Also, they’re super adorable as they bicker, aww 

-Poor May. As much as she wants to save her clan, she knows the philosopher’s stone is immoral and isn’t willing to sacrifice people. What a good kid. Also, it’s ridiculously sad that she basically admits that her DAD wouldn’t hesitate to murder people for his own gain. We already knew the Emporer was a bastard since he’s making his children fight over the throne like this and hasn’t even bothered to meet them, but still. 

-NOOOO AL’S IN TROUBLE. BABY NO. This is so stressful and awful don’t get pulled away Al! 

-Keep your hands off Izumi Father 

-New opening and ending! I love the first chords and the shots of little Ed and Al reaching for each other it HURTS MY HEART! Also Ed and Al with Winry and May and ALL THE CHARACTERS AND THESE CHARACTER DESIGNS ARE SO DISTINCTIVE YOU CAN TELL WHO MOST OF THEM ARE FROM SO FAR AWAY UGH SO GREAT. The song’s just okay, but still 

-THESE ARE MY FAVORITE CREDITS I LOVE THEM SO MUCH. THE SONG IS SO BADASS AND PERFECTLY TIMED WITH THE SHOTS AND LYRICS, WE SEE EVERYONE FIGHTING AWESOMELY AND MOST IMPORTANTLY, WINRY BEING THE BADASS SHE IS!!! 

Yes perfect lyrics to describe Winry this badass lady never gives up thank you credits. 

Oh and dicussing this from Ed’s standpoint- remember that putting his hand on people’s head is Ed’s chosen form of comfort consistently. It’s something he learned from his Mom rubbing his head when she was proud of him/to comfort him and something we’ve seen him do with Al. But with Winry, it far more romantic and intimate. He pull her close to him, in almost a hug, touching faces. This kind of shows the romantic element of their relationship, that while comforting her he wants to be as close to her in a physical way.