I am a sucker and a fool.

[aquabean]

Went to Rising Sun on my lunch today. PT had rented the second disk of Please Twins, and I said I'd return it. So I did. Also picked up vol. 6 of One Piece. Dude, it's taken me forever to find it.

...and then I got the complete soundtrack to FMA.

The liner notes are perhaps some of most beautiful I've ever seen. It's a book I can't read a word of, but the images...Gorgeous and heart breaking. There are quotes too. Short ones, in English, spaced through out. Many of them I recognize. But there was one...(SPOILER)*



Brigadier Hughes...Promoted two ranks for being killed in the line of duty. You told me you would work under me and provide support, what are you doing ranking above me...fool...

I thinking...I think I'm just going to sit here and sob quietly for a little while. Oh..Oh, Hughes...oh,Roy....



*The most formative event of my young life, outside of growing up in Mexico, was Ken Burn's Civil War series. Burned indelibly into my brain are the faces and voices of boys who were killed and maimed and sacrificed. War terrifies me. But it's not the blood or the violence. Instead it's the images of these young men, and now women, dying so alone, most looking only vaguely startled, as if to say, "But..?"

Comments

[thirteen-quills.livejournal.com]

Instead it's the images of these young men, and now women, dying so alone, most looking only vaguely startled, as if to say, "But..?"

::weeps::

[runefallstar.livejournal.com]

There's a truth behind the old adage, "Old soldiers never die, just the young ones."

[chinchilla82.livejournal.com]

So you know about Hughes? Well well. Now I don't have to keep my mouth shut about that anymore. That was definitely a series of episodes that had me crying nearly nonstop. Especially his daughter pulling on her mother's dress and saying that her daddy can't be buried, he has work he has to do. *sob*

War is terrible. I went to Gettysburg when I visited Gettysburg College. We went on the "driving" tour, but I told my dad to stop the car. He pulled over, and I got out of the car and sat on a low stone wall and stared at the fields for goodness knows how long. I was afraid to close my eyes, because if I did, then I might have heard the echoes of guns and mortars and dying souls. Melodramatic? Probably. But I will never forget it.

[runefallstar.livejournal.com]

I haven't seen any of the episodes, nor do I know any of the circumstances, but someone mentioned something like it the other day on my flist and I got suspicious. And now? *sniffles* I'm just all mushy on the inside.

Look at the story I told Rana *points below*. It's impossible not be moved by the places where things like that have taken place.

[chinchilla82.livejournal.com]

Ack! I haven't ruined anything, have I? I would feel absolutely horrible if I did... :(

And what a story. It may be ridiculous to pull this from a movie, but in the Lord of the Rings, I think the idea of war actually happening and taking people's lives is brought home when King Theoden is standing outside of his son's tomb and says, "No parent should have to bury their child." Makes me want to cry every time. *sob*

[runefallstar.livejournal.com]

Oh, no, you're cool. I mean, I'm reading the manga right now -- and do you want me to send it your way, because omgsogood! -- so I'll be spoiled for everything long before I actually get to see the episodes themselves.

Theoden is just killer. Though, for me, as much as that moment makes me cry the one that kills is when Faramir is riding off on the suicide mission and his father is just eating and Pippin is singing and...GOD. It's so the way I see the old me of the world treating the soldiers they send off to fight. They don't care. It doesn't affect them. Their lives go on as if nothing is happening while a million miles away some young man is cut down -- and all because the old men don't want anything to change the way they see the world.

[chinchilla82.livejournal.com]

Weelll...if you really really want to...I certainly wouldn't object. ^_^ The mangas are always so different from the series, even if it is basically the same story. They have a unique and separate impact from the anime.

Yeah, the scene with Pippin singing had me crying in the theater too. I remember because my boyfriend looked at me like I was nuts. But then again, he's a bit of a snob about the movies because he grew up reading the books.
Anyway, it's true. And I hate those who try to pretend as if they know *cough*W*cough*. Wearign a uniform and serving in the National Guard doesn't mean you know what it's like to watch your best friend get shot when they're standing next to you. And I try not to think about WWI, which was basically because some stupid old farts diplomats couldn't stop being stubborn. Everyone talks about WWII being the most tragic war of our time, yet they forget about the thousands of young men who died in muddy trenches just to gain a few yards of ground. *sigh* I'll stop that rant now.

[ranalore.livejournal.com]

Did I ever tell you I hiked through Gettysburg? I was at camp, and it was meant to be a three-mile hike, but my group tossed the trail map and wandered over the fields as we felt compelled, for nine miles. We staggered on a field they hadn't included on our map for fear it would upset us too much. According to a plaque, some of the bloodiest fighting took place on that field. All of the vegetation grows red-tinged there, and legend is it's because of the blood.

I've been to any number of war memorials and battle sites, and they all have this gravity, this stillness that can't be touched. I want to take all the people who make the decisions about going to war and stand them in those places, and not let them leave until they understand.

[runefallstar.livejournal.com]

Three weeks after Sept. 11 I went to D.C. with a group of friends from school. We were there for a prayer trust. It was so surreal, all of it.

One of the only things we got to do -- we only stayed a single night because Kenyon was concerned about potential for further attacks and made us promise to come home if anything happened -- was go to Arlington. On our way there we drove past the Pentagon. It was still smoking.

At the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier we watched a wreath laying and I realized that from the steps there you could see perfectly the smoke and the side of the building that was hit. It was breathtaking, but only in the sense that the four of us stood there, hearts in our mouths and watched as a group of VMA students laid a wreath and imagined that these were children training to...Impossible not to cry. Impossible.

[ranalore.livejournal.com]

My dad worked at the Pentagon in September of 2001. He was TDY to Delaware, which is the only reason I was able to have dinner with him tonight. One of the first two bodies identified from the ruin was that of a man who had become like a son to my parents while they were stationed in DC. His widow is not quite my age.

I have to. I'm sorry, I have to stop talking about this now.

[runefallstar.livejournal.com]

*hugs very, very hard*

[ranalore.livejournal.com]

Sorry. I suspect it's always going to be hard to talk about. I'll tell you about it when you get back, if you'd like to know.

*hugs*

[runefallstar.livejournal.com]

*Hugs* We'll have a good dinner this weekend. *nods* Things can be talked about or not as the mood strikes. *hugs again for good measure*