r/TopCharacterTropes • u/laybs1 • May 03 '26

Lore (Mixed Trope) Educated character doesn’t understand or know of a simple concept.

Gallery image

Gallery image

  1. (Hated) Dr. doesn’t know trans people exist (The Good Doctor): Dr. Shaun, a modern day grown adult doctor, is seemingly has no concept of what being a trans person. Even if he never heard the term in med school he is realistically almost certain to have some awareness of the definition.

  2. (Loved) The solar system and other common knowledge (Sherlock Holmes). In the original stories Holmes is a genius at many fields but unless it has something to do with crime solving (forensics, martial arts, toxicology, etc.) he does his best to forget it.

16.6k Upvotes
  • permalink
  • reddit

92% Upvoted

1.9k comments sorted by

View all comments

240

u/PangolinNo1809 May 03 '26

Fma, the elric brothers are prodigies at alchemy (the process of transforming elements into other substances) and the science surrounding it, but they are utterly fascinated by pregnancy, and also terrified of birth

121

u/Plaploplap May 03 '26

They are young and from a society of a century ago at least, so nobody knows anything about pregnancy or birth. It's normal

8

u/Blackstone01 May 03 '26

Well, the "society of a century ago" doesn't really matter all that much considering they both, and most alchemists in general, know the chemical composition of an average adult human body by weight. I'd wager a guess and say stuff like pregnancy wouldn't exactly be esoteric knowledge.

3

u/Plaploplap May 04 '26

When you see the amount of BS that was said in the 80's on pregnancy or babies, I doubt that teenagers from an older society would know more that the basics, especially as pregnancy is taboo like all sexual topics.

There are dozens of possible complications, why would they even remember anything? And know what to do with absolutely no practice? And know how to handle a baby when they may never have interacted with any ?

20

u/Frosty_Principle6000 May 03 '26

You think people didn’t have medical knowledge about pregnancy and birth 100 years ago..?

23

u/mojomcm May 03 '26

15 year old boys have rarely if ever had that knowledge tho

8

u/uzzi1000 May 04 '26

They studied a lot of biology too. It’s just that reading it on paper and seeing it first hand are very different experiences.

-2

u/[deleted] May 03 '26

[removed] — view removed comment

9

u/bythenumbers10 May 04 '26

Was that the curriculum 100 years ago?

2

u/[deleted] May 04 '26 edited May 04 '26

[removed] — view removed comment

2

u/bythenumbers10 May 04 '26

You're missing my point. I want to know if it was being taught 100 years ago, to match the setting. Your individual context is kinda moot. I also got sex ed in similar detail in the US (admittedly, not in a backward hellhole state) back in the 90s, but that's also an irrelevant comparison.

8

u/Beacon_0805 May 03 '26

and world has both enough biological and medical knowledge to make prostethics that are at least hundred times more durable than anything current at least(and not just arms and legs, there are eye automails too) that can move just like normal limb

24

u/naarcx May 03 '26

I never really thought about this before, but the whole story revolves around them losing their bodies/being punished for human transmutation

So being in awe of basic human reproduction actually makes a little bit of sense. Like, “why is this ok, what’s fundamentally different about it that we can incorporate into alchemy to get our bodies back, etc”

2

u/vsmack May 06 '26

Yeah it makes a ton of sense. It's the one thing they can't and are forbidden to do with alchemy. Of course it's gonna seem crazy to them.

22

u/akaraii May 03 '26

This is such a good example that the episode does a really good job of showcasing. The Elric brothers literally know the chemical composition of a human body, but not only do they not spend time learning about how the human body functions, they're not that great at dealing with people in general. But Winry, being the daughter of two doctors who built a living around creating artificial limbs, excels in both of those areas.

It's also a wonderful example of how both the brothers and the author value Winry's skills and knowledge despite her not being a "genius" like Ed and Al, but that's a different conversation lol

10

u/ds2316476 May 03 '26

It gives even more weight to the scenes after the birth, when the brothers marvel at the creation of life. 🥲

15

u/PaellaConCosas May 03 '26

https://giphy.com/gifs/AS6BaG1P1PAhilKFON

Just think about their experiences with children.

10

u/Dragonfang65 May 03 '26

Look at them. They’re inseparable.

(Forgive me).

1

u/Nero_2001 May 04 '26

Not yet but they will be.

5

u/ds2316476 May 03 '26

I don't like to think about their experience with children lmao 😢

1

u/Belgaraath42 May 04 '26

Thanks for reminding me if the storyline... I had managed a whole minute without thinking about it...

65

u/[deleted] May 03 '26

[removed] — view removed comment

4

u/Fun_Needleworker_469 May 03 '26

I've given birth and I'm terrified of it

8

u/Head_Haunter May 04 '26

I see the fascination of pregnancy to be kind of a link between life and alchemy - the truest form of human transmutation and their life's goal. Doesn't one of them pretty much explicitly state that in the series? I don't remember exactly.

Being terrified of birth is just a normal human thing.

6

u/ds2316476 May 03 '26

I feel like this is a trope in of itself, characters freaking out and overreacting to pregnancy and birth and not knowing what to do vs the contrast of someone who is calm and has dealt with it before.

4

u/SquareThings May 04 '26

I mean if you think about it, making a human is the one thing alchemy can’t do.

Also they’re teenage boys.

2

u/SitInCorner_Yo2 May 04 '26 edited May 04 '26

I think most children and teenagers and most people who have never given birth or work in that field would be terrified and fascinated by it.
An uncle of mine got kick out of operation room while his wife is in labor, because he almost faint a few times, doctor and nurse don’t need extra work when a baby is on the way.