Brutally Murdering Rumors (You Heard Me)

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(There may be some stronger language in this Blog entry. If it bothers anybody too much, just speak up and I'll take action.)

I've been debating whether or not to do this, but after all this time, I say to heck with it. When I first became interested in Bluebird's Illusion, there was really no info on the web other than Bluebird's Illusion Guide and Bluebird's Illusion: Rebuild. I hope someday that changes, and would be glad to be an essential part of it, but I stumbled across some pretty ridiculous stuff that almost put me off BBI before I even gave it a chance.

Can you guess what I found? Rumors. Lots of them. BBI has gone down in Internet history via word of mouth, and as anyone can guess, it's a bit like the game Telephone. As the information goes from one person to another, it becomes distorted into something completely different from the origin. Occasionally, these rumors were fueled by ignorance, but more often than not they were nasty, nasty rumors.

I will now discount them before anymore poor souls become misinformed!

Rumor 1: "Elricest"
I have much to say about this rumor. Very much to say. I'm not a fan of Elricest myself, but I respect that there are those whose opinions differ, so I state very clearly that this is not an attack on Elricest fans, but on the rumor.

A very incorrect rumor. But then again, rumors are hardly ever true.

This rumor has its origins in several pictures, seen by fans that didn't speak the language and misunderstood, or just misunderstood because they never played the game. Below are the two most incriminating pictures. In fact, the first image is the banner for a Russian Fullmetal Alchemist fansite whose title translates (literally) to "Elricest Lives!"



The only thing intimate about the first image is the fact that two brothers are holding each other out of familial love. And which sibling hasn't accidentally walked in on their brother/sister in the shower?

"But Edward blushed!"

Well, yes he did. He was taken by surprise (strange that he didn't hear the water running, but whatever...) and he clearly questions why he was so embarrassed. My theory is that since the body Al was in was not his "actual" body that it was technically "someone else's body" and therefore Ed responded as if it was a stranger's naked body he had seen, not his brother's. Feel free to debate with me about that. Better yet, write some fanfiction. :XD:

This rumor: denied!

Rumor 2: Yaoi
Again, I am not part of the yaoi-fangirl boat, but it is never my intention to offend those who are.
"Yaoi (やおい) also known as Boys' Love, is a Japanese popular term for female-oriented fictional media that focus on homoerotic or homoromantic male relationships, usually created by female authors.

"In recent years, the terms yaoi and shōnen-ai have sometimes been used by western fans to differentiate between the contents of the genre. Yaoi has been used to describe titles that contain largely sex scenes and other sexually explicit themes and shōnen-ai is used to describe titles that focus more on romance and do not include explicit sexual content..."
Thank you Wikipedia for your ever-present wisdom. By these definitions, BBI contains the tiniest hints of shounen-ai. Mustang, on maybe two or three instances that I remember, implies and/or teases Ed about having any sort of relationship past what they already have.



Yes, the first image would be Mustang getting a kick out of annoying Ed and seeing him dressed as a girl all at once. And the second would be his guilty pleasure sitting quietly in his desk that only poor Al knows about. Nothing actually happens in the game, so people like me who aren't big fans of shounen-ai can safely navigate the story without any discomfort.

This rumor: partially denied!

Rumor 3: Illegal game
Here is where I tread lightly onto the battlefield. Law is complicated, and considering the fact the copyright laws in Eastern Asia tend to be laxly enforced just makes it worse. The way I see it, BBI was only illegal while physical copies were being sold for a profit. Now that most of it is online downloads for free the game is like any other fanart on the web. It is no longer illegal.

Of course, I've done my research.
  • Bluebird's Illusion is a derivative work of the Fullmetal Alchemist series, whose intellectual copyright rests with Hiromu Arakawa and the distributors of her work (i.e. Studio Bones, FUNimation, etc.)
  • 'Moments' by Ayumi Hamasaki being used in the opening sequence of the game makes the opening sequence a transformative work, which is in no way, shape, or form illegal
  • Translating and sharing this derivative game is noncommercial, and therefore legal
This is why I get pissed off when YouTube removes the opening sequence videos due to copyright infringement claims from Avex Trax (the people who own 'Moments'). When you separate the opening from the game (or even look at them both together) it is just like an AMV, which are noncommercial transformative works, and by law are part of our rights. Someday I will post that video on YouTube and file a counterclaim if they dare try to remove it. My mother is an attorney, I'm no ignorant wuss.

"The creators wouldn't want it!"

Personally, if I was Neoland OceanX and my game had been condemned by the law, but I found that a loyal fanbase had grown around it online with morals and a strong sense of community, I would be honored and proud to have done such a service as creating the game, no matter what had happened to me via government crackdown in the process.

This rumor: denied!

I hope this clears up some suspicions people may have had about Bluebird's Illusion. And don't forget about The-DA-Ranger-Group's Pride!Ed contest!
© 2012 - 2024 Bluebirds-Illusion
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ArrogantVengeance's avatar
Well, this was certainly an interesting read for a Friday afternoon, even though I'm years too late to be able to witness what actually happened during the BBI controversy. I already knew a while back about the game's legal standing, and reasons for why that was. I'm glad to see there are other BBI fans who also dislike yaoi and Elricect, and cut down rumors about these themes being absolutes within the game. Makes me feel not so alone with my opinions the fanbase. I for one will certainly not be adding yaoi or shounen-ai within my story for multiple reasons (the main one being that it's not canon for the characters, and a secondary reason being that it was just blatant fanservice).

As for hearing about rumors for a 'sequel game', unfortunately by the looks of things it won't ever be made. And seeing as how the BBI/Pride popularity dwindled over the years, it's even more unlikely. Technically speaking, we BBI and Pride!Ed fans are in the very small minority these days, we're even miniscule in number in comparison to, let's say, the Conqueror of Shamballah fans (which is understandable, seeing as how that movie was officially 'canon', but still). At least some of us in the fandom are still writing their own sequel stories to keep the story alive, me included. I intend to make my story a proper AU sequel to BBI, with my slightly modified version of the game's story. It's too bad the translations site is frozen now, and I won't be able to use accurate lines from the game. Despite this, I'll try to write up accurate flashbacks to the best of my ability, although they won't all be the central focus of the story.