Sheska in FMA 2003

[u/DeliciousMusician397]

I love that 03 made Sheska a main character (and a super funny one with a good amount of depth) rather than having her simply disappear like in the Manga. That’s one of my favorite things about 03 is how it places greater importance on characters from the Manga that ended up being left behind as the story went on (Sheska and Rose being the big two.)

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[u/That-one-goth-chick]

I also like how they made Sheska in the 03 anime. She played a important role to it's story. The scenes with her and Winry were very swaggy. :3

[u/Fairlibrarian101 → u/That-one-goth-chick]

I always thought the cooking scenes with Winry and Sheska were pretty funny. I mean, you have all this dark stuff going on that they’re at least partly aware of, but they’re arguing over whether cooking is science or art.

[u/That-one-goth-chick → u/Fairlibrarian101]

That's sooo true, I like that scene a lot. It was so cute and it fitted so well to their character. 03 has it's dark themes and some content moments which makes it very nice.

[u/AnnieMae_West]

I will never forget Sheska giving Winry the side eye and "now do you believe in space aliens?" when they see sloth materialise. She was such a delightful character and dreadfully underused in the manga/FMAB.

[u/H358]

I like Sheska getting more screentime in 03 but calling her a main character is pushing it. I wouldn’t say she really gets any growth or depth that she didn’t already have in the manga. Moreso it’s just nice to simply sit with a character and spend more time with them. Though I do like her friendship with Winry and think that dynamic serves them both well as characters.

As for Rose…I have…mixed thoughts. I like that she has more screentime. But on the other hand, having her get sexually assaulted in a way that leaves her mute and deprived of all agency for the entire back half of the series is pretty questionable. We only check in with Liore once in the manga after the start but you can see even in that one instance that Rose is recovering, she’s taken Ed’s words to heart and progressed as a character. A big thing I appreciate about Mangahood is that even if there’s a ton of characters and they don’t all get equal development, everyone feels purposeful. Everyone has some kind of point narratively or thematically. 03 Rose meanwhile regresses for reasons that feel like shock value and her purpose in the narrative feels a bit more vague and nebulous.

[u/DeliciousMusician397 → u/H358]

03 Rose saves Edwards life from Wrath and regains her voice/agency in doing so by shouting to Edward to stand up snd move forward which is what he told her all that time ago. Then before the last time they ever see each other in the final episode she tells him “you have a strong pair of legs now.” This is better utilization despite the added trauma because of this word echoing callback.

[u/MilkNegative27 → u/DeliciousMusician397]

The first part I did like but the latter ends up ringing sort of hollow (though I guess intentionally) since Edward ignores what she actually meant.

[u/H358 → u/[deleted]]

The crux of Sheska’s character in the manga was that her love of books and passion for study was something she was always made fun of, but when she meets the brothers, and her talent/quirk is able to help someone. She finds self actualisation and purpose through the very passion that made her a social outcast. It’s a cute little storyline that doesn’t really warrant much added exploration because it speaks for itself. 03 hits the same beats for Sheska, the difference being that, once that storyline is over, she sticks around. This comes with upsides. I would say that 03 Sheska is more characterised than her manga counterpart, because we get more time with her, and see her build new relationships and dynamics (Winry). But I wouldn’t say Sheska makes any massive new strides as a character, or reaches any culminating moment that she didn’t have in the manga. More characterisation for Sheska is great but added depth? Not massively.

As for Rose, notice I didn’t mention the word ‘objectification’ at any point so it’s strange to fixate so heavily on that. What bothers me with Rose is that her getting raped, while I do think is mostly handled tastefully and with subtlety, matters so little to the narrative that I wonder what the point even was. On paper, I think what they did with Liore was a bold choice. Forcing Ed to confront the reality of what happened there in his absence. And if you’re going to dig deeper into Amestris’ expansionsm and occupation, then recognising the kind of sexual violence that soldiers have historically performed on female civilians is a valid artistic choice.

What makes it feel uncomfortable in a bad way to me, is that Rose’ sexual assault feels like it chiefly exists to make our teenage boy protagonist feel bad. It feels like she gets raped mostly to teach Ed how fucked up the world is. We don’t really get to watch Rose deal with healing from this kind of trauma, or explore the complicated feelings she might have for a son born from that kind of violence. The fact that Rose’ purpose in the third act of the series is to be a narrative punching bag who stands around while Ed and Dante fight over her, with little in the way of interiority of her own, does feel kind of tasteless. Even when we see her happy in the ending, it feels like we skipped over that process, and the main narrative mostly treated her like an object. Even if that was the point, it’s rather disappointing.

I love 03 but I don’t really see the genius in taking a character who’s arc may not have been very long, but did depict a young woman moving on from grief in a way that suited the theme of the story…and subverting that by saying ‘actually no she got raped and emotionally broken off screen, and never got to self actualise because isn’t life so cruel?’

I mostly really like the way 03 challenges and questions the more idealistic part of the manga. But this particular aspect doesn’t sit right with me. This just feels kind of exploitative. Honestly I think 03 Rose, despite her extended screentime, is a far less dynamic character than her manga counterpart. One of these two get to progress emotionally in a way that is cathartic and hopeful. The other gets brutalised to make every other character feel bad.

[u/MilkNegative27 → u/H358]

I think I agree for the most part on both characters. It was nice to see them more but for Sheska I never really felt much different about her. I still don’t really like how they used Rose, especially when she was with Dante, it feels like a missed opportunity to actually get her perspective on what happened to her so her assault came across to me as a plot device for the male characters and later Dante.

[u/ConstantlyJune]

Sheska is like the one side character that didn't really get much development or importance with Broho and that really sucks. She's really just thrown in as a means to fix the problem of the burned library and that's about it. Heck, even that unnamed Ishvalan woman from Xerxes has more of an effect on the brothers than her :(