Part II of my comment. I wrote way too much. Can you tell I'm obsessed with analyzing Greed and Kimbley? I should just write the damn fic that I've been developing these ideas for. :P
he probably absorbs the meaning and the details and forgets the source, which lets him slep things together in unconventional connections
Ah! Just what I thought of when you suggested photographic memory! We must have some psychic connection! ^_^
There probably aren't many people who agree, but I'm really not impressed by photographic memory (at least in fictional characters). It's handy, but you can always look things up again. What's really valuable and admirable is the ability to analyze, make connections, and come up with a new twist on the information you've taken in--that's what, to me, really indicates that someone really understands information rather than just memorized a string of words. (I was a philosophy major, though, so I'm So Very Biased toward that kind of thinking.) . . . So of course I want Kimbley to think that way.
I have long thought he's descended from Hoho-papa
Oh, good, it's not just me!
my pet theory is that Envy was a young man of his time [ . . . ] and got an illegitimate child, from whom Kimbley is descended.
Hmmmmm . . . Now I wonder whether homunculi are capable of having children. 'Cause it would be even more cracked out cooler if Envy was Kimbley's father.
"You're descended from alchemists, son, now stand up tall and shoot the rabid dog."
And now I wonder about Kimbley's background, in terms of social class, rural vs. urban, formal education, etc. I'm leaning toward working-class with limited education (aside from spending every spare moment with alchemy texts)--mostly because he's such a racist (and species-ist) bigot when he's talking about Ishvarites, Liorans, and poor Martel. Though I'd also guess that the army draws a lot from the lower classes (especially in wartime when there's a high rate of, er, turnover), probprobably even when recruiting alchemists. And Kimbley seems just a tad power-mad sometimes (when he's not being bizarrely compliant), which makes me wonder if he's compensating for some kind of past disadvantage--but that could be anything from being poor to being bullied in school to being abused by adults, so it's not especially telling.
no subject
he probably absorbs the meaning and the details and forgets the source, which lets him slep things together in unconventional connections
Ah! Just what I thought of when you suggested photographic memory! We must have some psychic connection! ^_^
There probably aren't many people who agree, but I'm really not impressed by photographic memory (at least in fictional characters). It's handy, but you can always look things up again. What's really valuable and admirable is the ability to analyze, make connections, and come up with a new twist on the information you've taken in--that's what, to me, really indicates that someone really understands information rather than just memorized a string of words. (I was a philosophy major, though, so I'm So Very Biased toward that kind of thinking.) . . . So of course I want Kimbley to think that way.
I have long thought he's descended from Hoho-papa
Oh, good, it's not just me!
my pet theory is that Envy was a young man of his time [ . . . ] and got an illegitimate child, from whom Kimbley is descended.
Hmmmmm . . . Now I wonder whether homunculi are capable of having children. 'Cause it would be even
more cracked outcooler if Envy was Kimbley's father."You're descended from alchemists, son, now stand up tall and shoot the rabid dog."
And now I wonder about Kimbley's background, in terms of social class, rural vs. urban, formal education, etc. I'm leaning toward working-class with limited education (aside from spending every spare moment with alchemy texts)--mostly because he's such a racist (and species-ist) bigot when he's talking about Ishvarites, Liorans, and poor Martel. Though I'd also guess that the army draws a lot from the lower classes (especially in wartime when there's a high rate of, er, turnover), probprobably even when recruiting alchemists. And Kimbley seems just a tad power-mad sometimes (when he's not being bizarrely compliant), which makes me wonder if he's compensating for some kind of past disadvantage--but that could be anything from being poor to being bullied in school to being abused by adults, so it's not especially telling.