I'm Confused

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Warning: There are some spoilers for Fullmetal Alchemist and Fullmetal Alchemist Brotherhood, so if you want to watch them without spoilers, probably don't read this.

So I finished watching Fullmetal Alchemist and now I'm seriously questioning the validity of Netflix.

Here's the story from the beginning:

When I was 7 or 8, one of my older brothers was watching Fullmetal Alchemist and I happened to go into the living room while he was watching it (the same thing happened with another anime called Air Gear, but I haven't rewatched that yet and it doesn't exist on Netflix anymore).

I absolutely loved Fullmetal Alchemist and watched the entire thing with my brother.

So of course, imagine a few years pass and a generous friend (A) let me use her Netflix account and I eventually rewatched it after a few other animes. I was able to better understand it because I was probably 11 or something like that.

You can probably imagine I remembered quite a bit of Fullmetal Alchemist after watching it the second time (I did). 

I even watched Fullmetal Alchemist Brotherhood (I thought it was a sequel) if it can even be called that, because at the time, Netflix didn't have all of the episodes and I realized I only saw like 2 episodes from the last season (read: I didn't see EdWin happen even though I know it happened in the anime).

Anyway

More years passed and we get to now when I'm 16.

I decide to rewatch Fullmetal Alchemist (FMA) + Brotherhood (FMAB) and eventually read the manga, so I start with FMA.

So there I am, watching FMA while recalling everything I remembered, and also shamelessly comparing it to FMAB when something unfamiliar happens: Edward challenges Mustang to a fight for his assessment (or whatever it's called).

I very much do not remember that happening when I watched it before, but I played it off like I just forgot about it.

Not too long after, there was another gaping hole in what I remembered. Suddenly, while Ed and Al are in the 5th Laboratory, Ed is given a chance to transmute a Philosopher's Stone and almost does it using the lives of the prisoners that were previously hidden.

You might be thinking "Oh, well, it's been like 5 years since you last watched FMA, so you must have just forgotten about it," but, as bad as my memory is, things like this usually stick with me.

Now we move on to the episodes in the 30s where the Wrath of FMA comes into play.

I didn't know he was Wrath, I just knew him as 'the kid from behind the door.' But also, a lot of the moments with Wrath were severely unfamiliar to the point where I didn't even know he was  a homunculus even though I knew all the other homunculi. This is a pretty important part of the story to just 'forget.'

Moving a few episodes forward, I remember Greed and his crew of chimeras, and them kidnapping Al, and Ed and Izumi going after them, but I don't remember Greed being killed, and I don't remember Dante taking over Lyra's body. 

I don't even remember the episode that gives a focus on Lust and her past. I don't even remember her having memories of when she was a human. It was like I'd never even watched the episode in the first place.

When it came to the last 12 or so episodes, I didn't even remember most of them. There were so many holes in what I remembered.

This is the point where I thought about how dissatisfied I was with the ending of FMA. How Dante just threw Ed into the gate and he woke up in the body of a different world's Edward. And when he sees Hoenheim in that world and questions whats going on only to be told he's in another world. That was the ending I remembered, and today I learned there was quite a bit more that happened after.

My point is I don't think Netflix even had all of the episodes (or they edited them to remove some of the more serious/disturbing parts like Kimbly being responsible for Scar's famous scar or the fact that Scar's brother did human transmutation and eventually almost made a Philosopher's Stone)

I hadn't even seen the fight between Bradley (Pride) and Mustang. I had literally never seen the actual ending of FMA even though I had watched it twice before.

It just doesn't make any sense to me.

I had watched FMA twice and yet I didn't even know some of the most important things that happened in it. I hadn't seen at least 6 full episodes before today. Including the last one where Al does perfect human transmutation and then Ed does perfect human transmutation.

But also, I like how the ending I thought it had was Ed being sent to the world behind the door and just being stuck there only to find out the real ending is that Ed gets back to his world and then goes back to the other world after transmuting Al back and then they basically fistbump the sky from two different worlds at the same time.

I find it funny that of all things I could remember perfectly from FMA were the openings and endings. I remembered them all even though I usually forget those pretty fast.

Well, I am now moving on to FMAB where I remember (hopefully) everything besides the ending and (hopefully) see how Ed and Al actually get their bodies back.

This is a day after I drafted this: Apparently there are 13 episodes of FMAB I didn't see... Yes I watched FMAB in 2 days. When I watch, I watch it as fast as possible.

I also learned that there is a movie that follows FMA called Conqueror of Shamballa. Guess I have to watch that too.

Can someone tell me why Roy Mustang and Riza Hawkeye's ship name is RoyAi? I mean, sure, Japanese is a thing, but her name is 'Hawkeye' not 'Hakai.'

A few days later (brought to you be my dear friend procrastination) I am so done with Netflix. When school was actually in session, I decided to watch Avatar: The Last Airbender and it wasn't on Netflix. Now months later, it's on Netflix again. I am so done.

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