Analysis of 03 Ed and his struggles
This is a half a repost of a comment I previously left on another post asking about thoughts on 03 Ed where I kind of forgot the concept and cooked up a four paragraph long analysis of our boy, and half the completion of that analysis.
At the beginning of the story, 03 Ed is just like BH Ed, he has strong morals he shares with Al of not wanting to kill, and of believing in equivalent exchange the way Rosé believes in Leto. He is innocent, a little shaped by his mistakes the way Mangahood Ed is, just your regular Ed.
And then the story starts. It's more or less the same, but cruder, rawer. The team is a little meaner with Ed, but it's fine. At least until Ed is directly faced with the consequence of his mistakes. Not his brother's missing body, but the origin of homunculi. That's exactly the starting point of Ed's downward spiral. He is forced to kill all of a sudden, when his morals began to weaken, and it shatters and he is has to deal by himself with the aftermath of that direct kill.
And he does that all by himself. I remember someone saying that 03 Ed was the version of Edward who didn't accept help from others and closed himself with Al, with their codependency dooming them further, and I find this take brilliant. It's just tragic. Ed had people he could have relied on, but almost none of them were enough if you think about it. Team Mustang was less kind with him, and even if Mustang cared deeply, Ed didn't trust him, neither did Al, and by the time they became >!war criminals!< it makes itself clear that they do not trust the team. Mustang says that they could have come to him. But did they ? In Ed's vision, Mustang is a bully who uses him and Al to become Fuhrer.
About their Teacher, compared to BH, she was so much more fragile, though still badass. Proved by the fact that Ed relied on her help to find Al. We love Izumi. I feel like she was the only adult they fully trusted. And Winry with Pinako, oh boy is it painful they only relied on them for Ed's automail and for hiding.
They had support, but I feel like it was just never enough. Never what they exactly needed. Which is why the brothers relied on each other. The adults let them down without meaning to.
An interesting but tragic thing about him compared to BH Ed, is that he was a child who was just not built for the military. BH Ed gladly takes the backlash and thrives in an environment that was harsh and dog eat dog mostly, while 03 Ed just struggles and struggles. As I laid down before, he is a good person at heart, and not only was he forced to let go of his morals but Mustang and the team treated him more harshly than in BH, and I feel like you just feel how Ed was really not cut out for the weight that comes with being a dog of the military. Even if he takes the burden and shoulders it, it's jarring how you just know this child had nothing to do here. Probably comes with the fact we saw him be a twelve year old at the beginning, be naive and innocent and have all of this stomped on.
Now, the notorious way his vision of things was broken down and deconstructed by Dante seals Ed's shattering. All he lived for, his philosophy is nothing and everything around him is falling apart, and he feels like he failed yet he doesn't give up. He keeps fighting, which I feel is the one thing that makes him similar to BH, both of them are fucking determined. 03 Ed's character was broken down completely yet two things remained, his determination and his drive to get Al's body back, even if he has to die for this to happen. It might be a little far-fetched, but his last transmutation can almost be a metaphor for a failed suicide attempt. I'm pretty sure he says that he meant to give his life yet he survived. Since 03 is meant to be more philosophical, I think it holds up.
This is something almost defining in a way. No matter what, Ed always failed in a way. He failed to save Al, to save Nina in time, to >!save the soldiers in Liore!<, to stop Scar, he >!died to Envy thus failed in this fight!< , he failed in stopping Dante because Al is the one who stopped the transmutation to save Ed, and >!Gluttony killed Dante!< and in the end >!Ed didn't even bring Al back correctly, neither his mother.!<
03 Ed tried his hardest and still failed hard. He's been let down to the point he only trusts himself and won't accept that other people can care about him, he's too blinded by his goals, by his mistakes, by his brother and his self-loathing. Yet he still tries to do the good thing. He never gave up even when nothing went right, and even if it costs him he's totally ready to sacrifice his own happiness and future for others.
I feel like you really see how he changed in between Liore and CoS, in Liore he caused the Civil War by overthrowing an admittedly corrupt priest but also ruining their belief system without a second thought, thinking it was a good thing because their belief is different from his and science is better. Dante happens. In CoS, his actions to save the world weren't driven by self-righteousness or pride and condescending, it was driven by responsibility. He wants to fix each and any of his mistakes even at the price of his own happiness because it's the right thing to do. In Liore, he sacrificed the happiness of others, while in CoS he sacrificed his own.
And what I love is how despite all of his character growth, he still hasn't reached the best outcome. He is still deeply flawed. His self-sacrificial tendencies haven't budged, and he is still somewhat stuck with his bad coping tendencies, brushing Earth off as a punishment or a dream and isolating himself to dampen the pain. By now, he stopped running from his mistakes, but he still has issues facing some of his problems.
Finally, in a way, while things mostly went in BH Ed's way allowing him to be cool and thrive with his friends, 03 Ed struggled, failed and was failed in many ways but he still tries to be a BH Ed, who would be the "best outcome" I mentioned earlier.
This is the end of this analysis, it's the first time I do this so it's a little messy. Thoughts ?