The 2003 series is "canon" too. Not the same canon, but also a canon, so the argument of "it's more like the manga" is as moot now as it always has been and always will be.cainx10a said:
I understand completely that people have favorite characters that they want better fates for, but you can't always have a happy ending.
As for what dialogue was pointless, try almost every line.
Sharp storytelling in films and TV, yes even ones of culturally alien Japan, relies on dialogue doing quite a few things (though not always at once). Dialogue has to imply subtext without exposition, because bashing information into the audience's collective brain doesn't allow for thoughtful processing of that information. Through dialogue and action, you learn about who the characters are.
Taking an entire episode to talk about the ramifications of a giant transmutation circle in Amestris isn't thoughtful storytelling, it's amateur hour, the kind of thing you see in bad fanfiction. That isn't an exaggeration. We get it, the big circle is bad, and Marco/Armstrong/the other Armstrong/Scar/both Elrics/several homonculi/etc. have already explained why ad nauseum. Move on already. And that's just one example of many.
The irony is that the first 8 episodes of Brotherhood were actually very solid. In fact, they kinda "fast tracked" events where it and the 2003 series overlapped, and I appreciated that we didn't need, say, two episodes to hammer in Nina's fate (not counting what happens to her later in the 2003 series). At the point it branches from the 2003 series is where the writers started getting word-happy, and where this aspiring screenwriter said "wow, I haven't sold a script yet, but I could have written this entire series better, no word of a lie."
I will admit that some of the new characters are really likeable, like the female Armstrong general whose name escapes me. Others could have been cool, like Miles, but end up being vehicles for what the storytellers thought was meaningful exposition (it wasn't). Yet others, like Buccaneer and especially some of the homonculi (2009 Pride blows, and 2003 Envy is like 8.5 million times better than 2009) are taking up time that could have been dedicated to not dragging this 26 episode series out over 50+ episodes.
I had to pawn the 2003 series for money (long story involving bad financial coincidences and job loss), but once I'm set up again I'm buying and treasuring its BDs. The 2009 series, not so much.
Great English voice acting in both series, though. Also, I liked Ling, for what's worth.