Theories, Theories, what art thou, Theories?

[eucleia]

I just finished reading all the discussion of theories in the dgrayman commumity and my head is about to explode @__@;;
I know why a lot of people seem to like Fullmetal Alchemist more (D.Gray-Man isn't nearly as heavy on the angst and "life doesn't always have a happy ending" theme) but I swear D.Gray-Man is much more convoluted and head-scratching in terms of plot, at least from my humble point of opinion. I guess Fullemtal Alchemist is supposed to be more of a challange on morals and to make you think about differing viewpoints. So many questions:


- Who is Cross anyway? How old is he really? And how powerful exactly? (he uses forbidden magic for gods sakes) Is he in reality Mana's brother? Where is he now and what really happened that night he appeared do die either by suicide (looking more likely from reader's POV) or murder?
- Allen and the 14th's memories DD8 What's going to happen to Allen, really? Is he really going to lose his mind once those memories take hold of their host? When were they transferred anyway? For that matter, I want the answer to Allen's question too. When Mana said, "I love you" was he talking to Allen, or to..... And who was Allen to begin with? And is that important at all?
- What is the real purpose of the Black Order? The Exorcists battle Akuma, clearly, but as Cross mentioned, "There's another side to this war". <--(big hint from Cross-sensei methinks)
- And Timcanpy, what is he really? Not a regular simple golem that's for sure. He appears to have advanced levels of self-awareness unlike the other golems (i.e. what we see of Kanda's for instance), just 'happened' to be holding the music notation for Allen to play on the Ark, and well... 'eats'.
- Who is Lavi? It's a long shot but is he related to Cross? Bookman seems to be familiar with the general and both Lavi and Cross have red hair, outgoing personalities, a shared fondness for beautiful company (^^;), and "special" right eyes.
- Kanda's lotus. Where/who did he get it from? How did he end up with that curse/spell on him? Did he choose it himself? After all it does lend him a lto of extra power albeit at a horribly heavy price. Who is he searching for? And PLEASE don't tell me he's going to let himself die once he finds them (I believe he will find that person one day), that's just too un-stubborn. D8 He needs to carry on living *NODS*


More when I get back from class.

Comments

[liyosa.livejournal.com]

lol, you mean wherefore art thou? XD jk

I haven't read D. Grayman [premise was sort of monster of the week, so I guess I missed out on another great manga because of bad premises. *sigh*] But I agree that FMA in terms of plot is relatively simple compared to other manga. However much I like it [I'm sort of having a renaissance with the fandom :3] it's more about questioning morals and the general consensus on what is "good" and what isn't, especially in the anime version. Honestly, I don't care about the manga version, but yes, I do agree with your viewpoint that FMA can be simplistic at points within the plot.

I should read D Grayman then before that goes away too.... [ah Tokyo Babylon, WHERE art thou???? I need to read that so badly D:]

[midgar-skyline.livejournal.com]

*nodsnods* I agree. I guess in FMA they're aiming to make the audience think for themselves about morals and the boundaries of them, or as it may well be in the anime version, the lack thereof. I don't really care for the manga version of FMA either, but a lot of people are saying that even the manga totally pwns D.Gray-Man. :O I have no idea where they are getting this from, but it really isn't in my opinion.

DGM is awesome. Sure it may not be as "weepy" or challenging on your moral standings than FMA but it doesn't need that to make it good. To be honest though, the plot isn't too difficult to follow (i.e. it's no EVA), but there are plenty of mysteries to keep your mind racing - the main ones I can remember of which are listed in my original post. The characters as well may seem like typical anime-world personalities at first but upon pondering on them more clearly they really aren't.

The main character for example is your usual perfect boyfriend material (polite, courteous) with responsibility heaped onto him and he might be a destroyer of time by prophecy and with a cursed eye etc. etc.... but it turns out that now there's something else in his head which is not entirely himself, which will eventually erode away his own "self". O.O!! And there have been signs of it already starting to happen - he's seeing things in the mirror, following him around all the time like a shadow.

One of the main character's closest friends seems like a typical cool pretty-boy Japanese character swinging a samurai sword around with effortless grace and has a "cold" personality (basically squeeable material :P), but he's definitely NOT archetypal. For one thing, he may be cool, but he's a complete and utter bastard, and I mean more than most. Most "cool bastard" Japanese characters are at least very polite; this guy has serious anger management problems, and dare I say it, massive problems to do with life expectancy as well.

All in all I may be biased, but I highly recommend both the manga and the anime, the latter which has great orchestral music. I started with the manga but quickly became engrossed in the anime. There are 103 episodes of the anime at present and the anime series has ended, or at least is on hiatus until the manga pulls further enough ahead. No-one really knows yet.