roymaes:

“Take him home.”

Listen. I don’t trust anyone who doesn’t agree that Nina’s tragedy in 2003 was a thousand times more heartbreaking.

Tucker’s house was Edward and Alphonse’s HOME.

They had their own room, they ate meals together, Ed took the dog for morning walks.

They lived there for at least a few months, as opposed to in manga/brotherhood where they were just visiting/studying for, what, a few days, maybe a week or two?

Oh yeah and also Ed and Al met the Tuckers when they were (just turned) 12 and 11, respectively, whereas in m/brohood they were 15/14. In ‘03 this was a couple of months after they burned their house down, barely a year since their attempt at human transmutation.

Tucker accepted them, taught and advised them. He was one of the first adults they trusted after Trisha’s death. But of course he betrayed them in the worst possible way.

And don’t even get me started on Nina. Ed and Al absolutely saw her as a little sister, and to have yet another sibling torn away so soon after Al disappeared would have been bad enough for Ed but he also COMPLETELY BLAMES HIMSELF (as usual)!! In manga/brohood, Ed has no idea what Tucker is planning to do and it’s a total shock when he realises what the chimera actually is. But in ‘03 Ed suspects him, and by the time he properly acts on his suspicions it’s too late. Then he messes up yet again when he releases Nina from the military’s truck, ultimately leading to her finding Scar and getting killed (which he also witnesses the gruesome aftermath of – remember in the manga when Riza wouldn’t let him into Tucker’s house after the murders because “it’s better if you don’t see”? Yeah).

Ok and one more thing in case I haven’t broken you enough yet, Edward tries to attempt human transmutation to bring Nina back. In manga/brohood, after they tried to bring their mother back both Elrics agreed that human transmutation was wrong and they would never dream of attempting it again. But what’s one of the first things Ed does in ‘03? He goes to clap his hands together to separate Nina from Alexander and bring her back, and the only thing that stops him is when Tucker says “careful you don’t do to her what you did to your mother!” (mere DAYS after Ed has severe flashbacks from seeing the butchered corpse of a woman in the street). And the saddest scene of all, at the beginning of episode 8, is when everything is silent apart from the sounds of Ed clapping and slamming his hands against Nina’s remains on the wall. Trying to bring her back.