This is a part of a reply I wrote in response to drrockbell on Tumblr. I ended up talking about Winry’s dependence on Ed a bit and figured I’d post it here.
Regarding Winry’s role as a character dependent on Ed versus her being her own independent character, it’s true that the villains attempt to use her in order to get Edward to be compliant. That does not in any way reflect poorly on her character in itself though, certainly not when she manages to free herself from their schemes rather than being saved. I think it’d be weird to call her dependent on Ed in that regard.
There are some criticisms that can be levelled at Winry’s character though. She is largely linked to events in the wider story through her association with Edward (and she’s also his Love interest).
- She finds out about Scar because its Ed confronting him about her parents.
- The reason she’s in Central at all is to be with Ed.
- She goes to Briggs purely to help Ed.
- She waits in Risembool for Ed and Al to come home after the events of Promised Day. When they appear, she cries tears of joy just as Ed said she should.
The only place she really goes independent of Ed is Rush Valley and that’s pretty far removed from the main narrative. Basically, the majority of her character interactions come about due to her being close to Ed and so it feels like she revolves around Ed. Her getting used as a hostage to motivate Ed is another symptom of that.
Contrast this with, say, Mei who can be viewed as Alphonse’s love interest. She gets involved with the events of the story largely through her own actions.
Allow me to clarify that I like Winry’s character in Brotherhood fine – she actually has does have of moments of narrative weight that aren’t solely driven by her devotion to Edward. Her interactions with Scar may have been initiated by association with Ed but the way she approaches the situation and interacts with him is her own.
Still, it is hard to argue that she isn’t connected to the main narrative almost entirely through Ed in Brotherhood.
I appreciate 03′s handling of Winry’s character, in this regard. She heads to Central with Riza purely for her own reasons, not in any way motivated by Ed. Her friendship with Sheska is something that came about fairly naturally and her actions were motivated by her own feelings about Hughes. (In Brotherhood she mourned Hughes too but it happened to always be with Ed.) Though, I’m not saying 03 handled Winry that great either as many of her scenes were meant as comic relief from the darker plot that Ed and Al were involved in.
While neither show was terrible about Winry, let me say that Brotherhood could have given her a little more independence. Her character revolving around Ed is not inevitable. Winry could have been pushed in a different direction where she’s more independent of Ed by having her, for instance, deliberately seek out Ishvalans still angry from the Massacre and help them to see not all Amestrians are bad or something, (building off her parents legacy and her interactions with Scar) helping to further justify their key role in Promised day.
That’s just one possibility anyway.
This was only part of our discussion. I posted this part here because I feel like my thoughts were the most ordered in this section. If you like to read the whole thing (with some of her replies) then feel free to read it here! We kind of meandered about quite a bit in our discussion though…
Zetalial 