See, this is what happens when you make your students read depressing stuff in class…especially if the class is Film and Literature, where you have to see the matching depressing movies as well.

OK, so I don’t do emo usually. I do have stories in my head that have emo in them, but me myself, I’m not one to angst or anything. I’m a glass-half-full kind of person, who sees the light and humor in everything. But back-to-back reading of “Lord of the Flies” and “Bee Season” is enough to get anyone depressed. So while in a class discussion about how each character fails in “Bee Season”, I doodled on the back of my study sheet (which was bright pink…uh, okay… and got this. Entirely from memory, save for the automail leg, which I had to look up when I got home. I don’t know how this just popped out of my head; I was going for a fallen angel, but the wings turned mecha and the angel turned into Edward from Fullmetal Alchemist. O_o I think I’ve been watching that series too much…

When I put it up in my sketches gallery, commented that it was ironic, since Edward compares himself to Icarus from Greek myth, who flew too close to the sun with wax wings that melted, sending him to his death. Hence the title of this art. Only in this case, the wings weren’t made of a frame, wax, and feathers…it’s just a metallic framework with torn white ribbons. There are red cables wrapped around for an extra-angsty look.
Actually, it’s all very symbolic if you look at it that way. The white ribbons embody the youthful innocence shattered at the instant where Ed and his brother tried to play god. The red cables represent their “sin”, and the blood paid that resulted in their current state. To me, it also represents their past that they refuse to let go of, that has wrapped around them to the point where they almost can’t help but apply their mistake to everything they experience. The metallic framework symbolizes the very alchemy that brought them so high in the first place, but in the end wasn’t quite capable of what they thought it was. Ed’s tattered clothes stand for the trials and tribulations they’ve been through since. His exposed automail limbs represent his exposed weaknesses. His loose hair (not braided as usual) represents his strength and spirit, which despite all the bad, is still as wild as ever. The red background symbolizes the harshness of the world. And over it all, the bright light stands for success and/or hope, something that they keep heading towards. Whether he’s flying or falling…I’ll leave that up to you. ^_~

So now I know that if I ever want to get over-analytical and melodramatic in my art, I need to watch/read depressing stuff.

BTW, trying to get a scan of a sketch on a sheet of hot-pink paper is a pain. >_O

FMA is copywrited to Arakawa Hiromou