The Fullmetal Fan Club!

Why Conqueror of Shamballa was a disappointment

Conqueror of Shamballa? More like Conqueror of SHAM-Balla, am I right guys? Cuz it's a SHAM?! Hahaha (cries)

I really, really wanted to like this movie.
For a number of reasons. For one, my mom paid to get me the special edition DVD off eBay. I was also feeling pretty hollow after finishing 2003 due to having now nearly exhausted the well of canon Fullmetal Alchemist content I had not read, so I was really hoping that this movie, even though I knew going in that I probably wouldn't like the ending, would at least provide another great story in the FMA world with the characters I've grown to love so much. I knew that the ending had made a lot of people angry, but hey, so did the ending of LOST, and I loved that! So I tried to set aside any expectations and just enjoy the movie.
And by the end of it, I felt...wrong.
     It wasn't because the ending was "sad." I've seen and even loved plenty of sad endings to shows and movies I love. Dark, Dead Poets Society, Hadestown, Interstellar, Phantom of the Opera and loads of other works of fiction I love ended in ways that absolutely destroyed me due to the loss of something irreplaceable and precious. So, the fact that the film ends with Ed and Al stranded on the other side of the gate, by their own CHOICE, isn't what bothered me.
     It's that it was such a comparatively easy choice for them to make.

     To me, Fullmetal Alchemist is a story about relationships. From Ed and Al's intense brotherly bond, to Roy and Riza's steadfast devotion to each other, even to the smaller things like Olivier and Izumi's mutual respect and comradery during the Promised Day, Brotherhood in particular does such a phenomenal job driving home the message that the bonds we form with others are the things that make us human. This series was able to give depth and agency to such a massive group of interconnected characters without ever feeling rushed or crowded, and it's something I can't praise the show for enough. But this movie threw all that out the window!!!

     I freaking hated the fact that when Ed makes the choice to close the gate and strand himself in our world, that he justifies it by saying "We have to stop acting like we're the only ones that matter." Because you know what? This STUPID MOVIE acts like Ed and Al are the only ones who matter! Aside from Roy, literally none of the other characters we've come to know and love get to do ANYTHING meaningful, and Ed and Roy are both SO out of character that they act like Winry and Riza (who, if I remember correctly, they both LOVE and CHERISH) don't even exist!!! I despised how much this movie gave the female characters the short end of the stick. When Ed is giving his whole speech before he goes back to our world, I don't even think he mentions Winry, who has been waiting for him for two whole years, thinking he might be dead, and now he's just gonna leave her again! And then Alphonse freaking follows him, so now she's lost them both! Forever! BY THEIR OWN CHOOSING!!! And neither of them shed a single tear or show any sadness about it! It's like it's easy for them to completely cut themselves off from everyone who has ever cared about them just because for some reason they are now attached enough to the real world that solving its problems has become more important than solving the ones in Amestris! This is literally the DOING THE EXACT OPPOSITE OF WHAT BROTHERHOOD'S ENDING DID!!! "Who needs alchemy when I've got them?" Nah, lemme just point a giant middle finger at everyone who ever loved me because of my STUPID FUCKING HERO COMPLEX!!! And what about poor Noah? All she wanted was to follow Ed to Amestris because literal Nazis are trying to kill her, and he basically just leaves her there to DIE!!! Is it just me, or is Edward Elric, one of my favorite protagonists in all of fiction, A MASSIVE ASSHOLE IN THIS MOVIE?!?! #NOTMYEDWARDELRIC

     Roy was also pretty off. I know he's in a bad place what with being demoted and having PTSD and also losing an eye, but like, the movie tries to act like it's because of Edward being missing that he's gone all reclusive and depressed, and like, I MIGHT be able to buy that if not for the fact that it apparently provided ammunition for RoyEd shippers which is just... no https://www.google.com/url?sa=t&rct=j&q=&esrc=s&source=web&cd=&ved=2ahUKEwi_6OvcmcfsAhVQhq0KHaxtB4YQFjAAegQIAhAC&url=https%3A%2F%2Ffma2003appreciation.tumblr.com%2Fpost%2F26668501536%2Ffma1-shamballa-in-which-royed-proves-to-be-the&usg=AOvVaw2fzqyr7qJzopgzDofUGH9i
https://royedismyaesthetic.wordpress.com/2018/04/21/a-shitty-summary-of-suddenly-gay-roy-mustang-in/
I just don't feel like this is how Roy would handle it. Him blaming himself for Ed's disappearance is something I could understand, and that combined with him basically hitting rock bottom is enough to send even our doggedly determined hero Roy into a funk. But the movie never properly fleshes this out enough for me to be anything other than confused, and I don't understand Ed coming back being enough for him to suddenly be okay again. And like...what the heck is going on with him and Riza?