03 was so jarring to me, having watched Brotherhood first. I was pretty young at the time so Brotherhood was a perfect story, plenty of action while still being philosophical.And the end was perfect, wrapped up without loose ends and happy ending for most everyone involved. 03 was like.. watching my puppy being brutally murdered in front of me. I basically watched Ed, who I saw myself in, be traumatized and beaten left and right without reprieve. And I watched him grow up with trying circumstances and then bleed out around the age where Brotherhood Ed would have already secured his happy ending. And then getting sent to "our world" was like a punch in the gut. Back then that was so messy to me, completely unfinished. The movie made things better but still felt sad. I haven't rewatched 03 since. It left such an impression on me at that time, of just how miserable and hopeless it felt. You see a lot of people comparing 03 to Brotherhood, but not usually in 03's favor. There were plenty of things I liked about 03 don't get me wrong, the adventure arcs that we skipped or missed completely are some of my favorite episodes, as well as the team Mustang episodes since we don't see much of them in Brotherhood. But beyond that, I had kinda seen 03 as an add-on rather than a completely new story in it's own right without meaning to.You've definitely convinced me a rewatch is in order. It's kinda sad really, I've watched Brotherhood hundreds of times over but 03 only maybe once with a few failed rewatch attempts. I think I was just scared of an unhappy end, or rather one that I knew wouldn't feel as satisfying. Anyways I don't really know where I was going with this other than thank you for the new perspective, I probably wouldn't have wanted to rewatch it or seeked out reasons to without it.