Ah, good point there. I mostly use Brotherhood to hook people on the series because it's easier than getting them to read manga. Because I think the narrative there is much stronger, but it's basically a direct copy so there's nothing new there.

Of course that's kinda of what I like about it, since there were definite elements of the first series that I thought were really stupid. (I wonder if that's because I read the manga first?)

Anyway, yes, fic! I also tend to avoid FMA fic, but every so often there's something good!