Let's Watch FMA: Brotherhood

[Randomguy]

Sorry for butting in, but I wondered... Isn't episode 32 the one where you actually want to watch the post credit scene?

I think I've been watching all the post credit scenes (I might have missed one or two though). In this one it was just Edward and Alphonse on the train talking about snow. In one of the earlier ones I've seen The Father saying he was going to bring Gluttony back with all of his memories and absorbing the philosopher's stones, and in a different one there was a little baby Gluttony crawling out of The Father's beard. I just stop watching when the dramatic "next episode preview" music starts.

[Rodin]

I think I've been watching all the post credit scenes (I might have missed one or two though). In this one it was just Edward and Alphonse on the train talking about snow. In one of the earlier ones I've seen The Father saying he was going to bring Gluttony back with all of his memories and absorbing the philosopher's stones, and in a different one there was a little baby Gluttony crawling out of The Father's beard. I just stop watching when the dramatic "next episode preview" music starts.

That's a safe tactic. Pretty soon I think you start getting into the territory where there are a LOT of post credit scenes, some of them quite important.

[Randomguy]

Episode 33: The Northern Wall of Briggs

Watchthrough Thoughts

• Looks like the novelty of snow wore off real quick for Edward.
• Dammit, Edward, way to leave without telling Winry where you're going or how to contact you! And Garfield's just making her worry more.

Episode Notes

It looks like Scar can beat Kimbley in hand to hand combat, which isn't really surprising, since, like Kimbly mentioned, he's out of practice, but also because the only person able to stand up to Scar in melee so far was Major Armstrong. I think Kimbley's smart enough not to try that again. His next attempt will probably look more like orbital bombardment using philosopher's stone boosted alchemy.

Splitting up that way was clever on Scars part. Technically, he never needs to get to his brother's notes: As long as May Chang and Dr. Marco get to them they can learn what they need to. (Actually, this makes me wonder why Scar even needed to go north in the first place. They were splitting up anyway. If Scar had gone south after jumping off the train, or jumped on a train heading back east, then it would have been a better way of keeping attention away from Marco and May).

I sincerely hope that Mustang's plan doesn't hinge on the Elric brothers convincing Olivier Mira Armstrong on helping, because if it does then they're all doomed. Honestly, Edward's been consistently and absolutely terrible at diplomacy throughout the entire show. I don't think he's ever persuaded ANYONE to do ANYTHING, with the exception of getting Izumi to become his alchemy teacher (which only worked because another townsperson said they were orphans) and getting Envy to cooperate with escaping Gluttony's stomach, which only worked because the alternative to cooperation was a drawn out and inevitable death. Oh, and also getting Winry to help him out a few times, but that's a special circumstance because they're childhood friends (and one of those times she was feeling guilty because it was her fault his arm was broken anyway).
Basically the only thing they have going for them is that they're good people, they're powerful alchemists, and they're actually telling the truth, so if Olivier's actually a good judge of character then they might have a chance.
If they do manage to get her on their side, then her paranoia will be very useful. The enemy have many high ranking military personnel as well as a shapeshifter on their side, so some suspicion about someone's identity and motives will go a long way.


Something's up with the north wall and automail. I know that metal can shatter really easily in cold temperatures (which is why it's a bad idea to climb everest with braces, unless that part of the Everest trilogy was made up), which might be why Edward's automail was hurting him. Metal also contracts in cold temperatures. Edward's automail might not be designed to withstand the cold, so if his automail is tightening around his skin then that could be what's hurting him. That would explain why their driver asked if Alphonse had automail.

I guess the military grade automail is designed to withstand the cold, for one thing. It might also be made to resist being transmuted, but more likely it's just not made of iron or steel, but some sort of special alloy. In a fight, an enemy alchemist would be expecting iron or steel and try to transmute that, but since it's something different the transmutation wouldn't work. Most alchemists wouldn't be able to transmute the arm at all, since they'd need to specially prepare transmutation circles to affect it.


On a completely unrelated note: I just realized that Drachma, as a big, inhospitable snowy country, is this setting's version of Russia.

Things to add to my List Of Stuff That Will Become Important Later:

• Automail might not work as well up north.

And hey, now I can finally watch the intro scene!

[CarpeGuitarrem]

Aw yeah, this arc. Really interested to see your conclusions on a couple points.

[Suichimo]

Something's up with the north wall and automail. I know that metal can shatter really easily in cold temperatures (which is why it's a bad idea to climb everest with braces, unless that part of the Everest trilogy was made up), which might be why Edward's automail was hurting him. Metal also contracts in cold temperatures. Edward's automail might not be designed to withstand the cold, so if his automail is tightening around his skin then that could be what's hurting him. That would explain why their driver asked if Alphonse had automail.

I don't think this is at all a spoiler, but what happens when you have extremely cold metal in contact with bare skin for a long time? It's the beginning of frostbite.

Spoiler: Northern Automail

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I guess the military grade automail is designed to withstand the cold, for one thing. It might also be made to resist being transmuted, but more likely it's just not made of iron or steel, but some sort of special alloy. In a fight, an enemy alchemist would be expecting iron or steel and try to transmute that, but since it's something different the transmutation wouldn't work. Most alchemists wouldn't be able to transmute the arm at all, since they'd need to specially prepare transmutation circles to affect it.

This will actually come up several times in various fights. The big one being that it enables Ed to fight against Pride pretty effectively, since he can mimic Greed's Ultimate Shield with the higher carbon base of the northern automail.

[Deadline]

Just posting to say I'm enjoying this a lot. Your observations are often very interesting Randomguy! I would recommend taking a look at the original anime later on, mostly as a curiosity though.

[Randomguy]

Episode 34: Ice Queen

Watchthrough Thoughts

• So I guess Garfield wasn't just being a jerk, that was an actual warning, since just being in the north is risky for Edward because of his automail.
• Well that was unexpected.

Episode Notes

The soldiers stationed here seem a bit full of themselves. They go on about being the first line of defence between Amestris and Drachma, but Amestris has a non-aggression pact with Drachma, so working up north at the wall is actually safer than working at any other Amestrian border, with the exception of the border they share with the desert. (They do need to deal with the cold, but the other borders have to deal with enemy soldiers). Also, these guys are supposed to fight off invaders? They can't even fight off icicles well enough to avoid risking head injuries.
Not that anyone without a death wish would say this to Major General Armstrong's face, of course.

Sloth finally appears! He seems lazy (big surprise), slow, strong and not very smart. He's also ridiculously tough: Bullets at least force the other homunculi to regenerate a little, but they just kind of bounce off of Sloth. His arrival presents a golden opportunity for Edward and Alphonse: If they started talking about homunculi without proof, no one would believe them, but with Sloth here they can prove that at least some of what they're saying is true. They don't seem to be jumping on that opportunity though, which I can understand. From what I can tell, Edward's terrified that he'll reveal too much, and Wrath will hurt Winry because of it.

Why did Sloth tunnel into the building in the first place? He was acting under The Father's orders. It's possible he made a wrong turn somewhere, and wasn't actually supposed to end up at the Northern Wall, but that seems unlikely. The Father put too much thought into his plans to let something like that screw them up.
Maybe the tunnel is so that The Father or some alchemist acting under his orders can get to the Northern Wall and set up a transmutation circle there, as part of the plan? That's probably not it, the security in the fort is too good to sneak someone in, it would be faster and easier to just take the train.
Maybe the tunnel itself is part of a transmutation circle? That's a bit more likely, but transmutation circles seem like they need to be really precise. Is Sloth capable of digging with that kind of precision? Maybe the amount of error allowed in a transmutation circle is a percentage based on the size of the circle? I'll just assume that since alchemists can draw transmutation circles freehand with chalk, Sloth can dig them.
Maybe it's some sort of trap? General Armstrong sends a soldier down the tunnel to find out what's at the end, and Envy comes back? Maybe the whole point is for Sloth to come out of the tunnel and destroy the entire Northern Wall at this point in time? No, when you have that many philosopher's stones there are easier ways of destroying the facility.

To sum up, the possibilities, in order from most to least likely, are:

• The tunnel is part of a transmutation circle.
• The tunnel is some kind of trap.
• The tunnel is to get people in/out.

What does General Armstrong plan to use against Sloth? She wants to douse him in tank fuel, so it's not any kind of napalm. It's not fire, and is stronger than fire. Are they going to douse him in tank fuel and then freeze it solid with alchemy? But why would they bother developing a form if ice based attacks? Any enemy they fight will be well protected from the cold. Whatever it is, if it's stronger than fire then it won't be pretty.

Things to add to my List Of Stuff That Will Become Important Later:

• The tunnel that Sloth dug for whatever reason.

[CarpeGuitarrem]

Ahhhhhhhhhhhh the tunnel. What a dark turn things take...

[Forrestfire]

Ahhhhhhhhhhhh the tunnel. What a dark turn things take...

Spoiler

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Well yeah, they kinda had to make it dark. If there was any light, Pride would get them

[Gnoman]

Spoiler

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Didn't he already find out about the National Transmutation Circle? It should be pretty obvious that's what this is.

[CarpeGuitarrem]

Spoiler

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Didn't he already find out about the National Transmutation Circle? It should be pretty obvious that's what this is.

Spoiler: Not necessarily obvious

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I mean, he knows about the Big Circle, that it exists (but not why or how it works), but it's not made clear that the tunnel is following the circle. One of those things that's more obvious in hindsight.

[Randomguy]

Episode 35: The Shape of This Country

Watchthrough Thoughts

• I don't like the look of that doctor...
• I'm of half a mind to look up all the dates they're listing and see what they correspond to in real life.

Episode Notes

So the tank oil only evaporates in the cold? That's not how evaporation works. bluh. Whatever. Evaporative cooling is actually a thing though, so I guess they get half credit on the science there. But yeah, splashing him with liquid and then pushing him outside was clever.

The tunnel and the railroad tracks... It looks like they aren't just a transmutation circle, but also a transportation system. That might be how they're going to attack Fort Briggs. The trouble here is that even if they manage to fight off the attack without taking a single casualty, they'd still be killing the invaders, which would still cause a lot of bloodshed.

I'm surprised Edward came up with the plan of milking Raven for information. That was clever! More importantly, it was sneaky, which is a nice change of pace, since Edwards normal approach involves brute force combined with a brilliant understanding of alchemy. Wait a moment, this isn't the first time Edward pulled this trick! He did something similar earlier, in Leore, with Father Cornello.

Winry
If Olivier manages to infiltrate Wrath's inner circle then they might be able to get Winry to the Northern Wall, on the grounds that Ed needs his automail mechanic with him. Wrath will think that Winry's guarded by his loyal soldiers, but really she's being protected by General Armstrong's soldiers. This would get Edward out of his hostage situation, and it would be an opportunity to further develop the romance subplot, but it would also put Winry in danger, since we know that something big is going to happen at Fort Briggs. Something that involves a lot of bloodshed.


The Dragon's Pulse
From episode 15, we know that alcahestry is “the art of reading’s the dragons pulse. Of knowing the power that flows through the ground and how to use it”. This is what allows May Chang's distant transmutations to work. Alchemists in Amestris think that the energy they use comes from the movement of the earth's crust, but that's not actually it. "It feels like... a crowd of people, squirming around". The source of Amestrian alchemy is something that The Father has control of, something he can deny them access to. It's something beneath the ground. Some sort of philosopher's stone? That would fit in with the "crowd of people" sensation, what with the souls and all. But that doesn't seem right, since then the laws of equivalent exchange wouldn't apply. Maybe... the underworld? In Amestris, do the souls of the dead provide the energy used for alchemy? Did The Father set something up for the entire country? Did he deal with Truth? This is starting to get far fetched. I don't have enough information about this yet.

The Father's Plans
You know, for an episode in which the protagonists figure out what's going on, there was surprisingly little new information. With the exception of the stuff May Chang said, the only piece of new information related to The Father's plots is that the transmutation circle contains a railroad track. Well, that and the "bloodshed" requirement at all the key points on the map.
At least now the Elric brothers have a decent idea of what's going on.

Back in episode 25, I concluded that The Father was trying to open the portal of truth, and now there's more evidence supporting that theory: When Xerxes was destroyed, the portal of truth opened, but when they created the philosopher's stone for Kimbley to use it didn't. What's happening in Amestris now is the same as what happened in Xerxes around 200 years ago, so it will open the Portal of Truth, at least briefly.

But why open the portal again if he's already opened it before? The Father can do alchemy without a transmutation circle, he can apparently do alchemy with his thoughts alone. Could it be that he learned how to do this by passing through the portal in Xerxes? Is he trying to learn more of the Truth now? I know that alchemists are hungry creatures, always chasing after the truth, but is knowledge for the sake of knowledge really what he's after? Or does he want this knowledge to achieve some greater goal? While many people seek knowledge for its own sake, some want knowledge to gain power, and power is not an end in and of itself but a means to accomplish something else.

"Ultimately what is their motive? What is it they're really trying to do?" That's a good question, Dr. Marco, and it's been haunting me for a long time now.

Ouroboros
I finally figured out why the homunculi are associated with Ouroboros! It's because Ouroboros is associated with immortality and reincarnation, something beginning again as soon as it ends. This describes the homunculi: They are immortal, and if you deconstruct them they immediately reconstruct themselves. That took may way too long to figure out.


Things to add to my List Of Stuff That Will Become Important Later:

• The transmutation circle has train tracks inside of it, which suggests the homunculi are going to be using it as a secret method of transportation, too.
• The energy source Amestrian alchemists use is different from what alcahestry uses.

[lord_khaine]

So the tank oil only evaporates in the cold? That's not how evaporation works. bluh. Whatever. Evaporative cooling is actually a thing though, so I guess they get half credit on the science there. But yeah, splashing him with liquid and then pushing him outside was clever.

Im pretty sure you either misread that or found a bad translation. The Fuel just had such a low evaporation point that it would also do so out in the extremely cold winter of Brigs.

[Randomguy]

Im pretty sure you either misread that or found a bad translation. The Fuel just had such a low evaporation point that it would also do so out in the extremely cold winter of Brigs.

Then it would have evaporated while he was in the hallway, right after he was splashed with it.

[Knaight]

So the tank oil only evaporates in the cold? That's not how evaporation works. bluh. Whatever. Evaporative cooling is actually a thing though, so I guess they get half credit on the science there. But yeah, splashing him with liquid and then pushing him outside was clever.

I don't think it's the cold so much as the wind. If the equilibrium point of the phase change favored the liquid enough, it wouldn't really cool Sloth all that quickly inside, as it would evaporate, saturate the air immediately around him, then stop. Once outside, it gets blown away, which constantly pushes the reaction* towards gas phase, cooling sloth in the process.

*Phase change is a physical and not chemical process, but LeChatellier's principle still works, so I'm using a chemical model.

[Closet_Skeleton]

*Phase change is a physical and not chemical process, but LeChatellier's principle still works, so I'm using a chemical model.

Ionisation is sometimes seen as a phase change and is chemical, at least in the idea that plasma is a fourth state of matter. The electromagnetic radiation produced by freezing water hints that there's a chemical reaction there as well but that's part of water's weirdness.

So this post is probably irrelevant to the hydrocarbons in the fuel in this case.

[TheSummoner]

Then it would have evaporated while he was in the hallway, right after he was splashed with it.

It wouldn't have happened immediately though...

This is something I've actually never understood myself. Arakawa typically shows her work, so I believe the logic behind it, I just don't understand it. Could someone with a better understanding of chemistry explain? The plan was essentially to rapidly sap heat from Sloth's body, right? How exactly does dousing him with something with a low evaporation point accomplish that?

[SaintRidley]

Not a chemist or a physicist, but if I remember, heat moves from high concentration to low concentration. Throwing low-evap fuel on him and sending him out draws heat from his body as the fuel evaporates, accelerating the freezing process.

[TheSummoner]

As always, Wikipedia to the rescue... Yeah, this bothered me enough that I looked it up.

Thermodynamics
Evaporation is an endothermic process, in that heat is absorbed during evaporation.

So more or less, it's just something that happens during evaporation... They douse Sloth with the fuel... It starts to evaporate, absorbing the heat his body is giving off. Inside the fortress, the bigger inconvenience is the smell of tank fuel, but as soon as he's shoved outside, the evaporating fuel speeds up hypothermia and shuts Sloth's body down. Science!

[Randomguy]

Episode 36: Family Portrait

No watchthrough thoughts this episode.

Episode Notes

Man, Hohenheim's a complicated guy. He accepted immortality at the lives of his friends, but mourns those friends. He distanced himself from his children because of his own self loathing. He loved his wife and children, but left them.

That promise Edward's mom made... could it have been just to wait there for him?
He said to Izumi that the philosopher's stone was a dream come true. Could he have been trying to become mortal again?
Could it be that the reason he didn't warn Edward and Alphonse to get out of the country is because he knew they would stay and try to protect people?

Tunnel Trouble
The tunnel thing is terrifying. It can move faster than a terrified horse going full speed and has some attack similar to Lust's ultimate spear. Could this thing be Pride? If he's just some sort of shadow, then that could be why we didn't see him during his conversation with Wrath. If it's not a homunculus, the only alternative I can think of is that it's the effect of a transmutation, so someone was transmuting the tunnel to look terrifying and kill the soldiers, probably using a philosopher's stone. If there are transmutation marks in the tunnel then that might confirm this. It didn't seem like a transmutation, though.

Borrowed Bodies?
Raven said something about immortal bodies being prepared for them, and Hohenheim mentioned "when I took this body". Here's my current hypothesis: The Father creates a duplicate body. Like him, it's immortal, possibly philosopher's stone powered. Then do some transmutation to bind someone else's soul and mind into that body, and something else to make sure that the new body doesn't reject the bound soul. This would explain the comments made this episode, and it would explain why there's another Hohenheim doppleganger with an entirely different personality running around.

Of course, to make the immortal body would require sacrifices, literally. Hohenheim knew the people that died to make his body, so he apologized to them by name, the same way Edward apologized before using Envy's stone.

Oh, and what on earth was he doing at the start of the episode? He injured himself and healed via stone. Did he send droplets of his own blood on a mission? Is this for part of the ritual?


Scar
Woah! Scar spared some people's lives! That's not like him! They were soldiers and everything, too. Maybe now that he knows that the Father and the homunculi were behind Ishval he's less mad at Amestrian soldiers? Maybe it's just character development? Maybe he's been only killing state alchemists and not any regular soldiers this whole time and I haven't noticed? Now that I think of it, he's never (intentionally, while not in a disoriented state of mind) gone out of his way to kill anyone other but a state alchemist, but this is the first time he intentionally went out of his way to spare a soldier's life. (Is it? Correct me if I'm wrong).

Briggs soldiers are looking for May Chang, but since she has Scar with her she's probably not going to be found. Edward won't be learning alcahestry any time soon, but that's kind of a given what with everything going on at Fort Briggs.

Winry
As far as Wrath and the forces at central know, Edward's been playing his part, so it doesn't seem like it was some like some sort of threat. Maybe it's intended as a reward? Edward does need his automail mechanic, so that's probably it. This does give them the opportunity to get Winry out of the hostage situation, but for that they'd need to get rid of Kimbley, and that won't be as easy as taking out Raven was. I guess they could send him off to where Scar was last sighted and hope he gets himself killed off.


Things to add to my List Of Stuff That Will Become Important Later:

• Mysterious eldritch abomination lives in the tunnel.

[Gettles]

Scar has killed regular military before. When he killed the Tuckers, it was shown that the soldiers that were guarding the house were also dead.

[Cizak]

Spoiler

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Could this thing be Pride?

Oh man. Next episode, you guys.

[Knaight]

It wouldn't have happened immediately though...

This is something I've actually never understood myself. Arakawa typically shows her work, so I believe the logic behind it, I just don't understand it. Could someone with a better understanding of chemistry explain? The plan was essentially to rapidly sap heat from Sloth's body, right? How exactly does dousing him with something with a low evaporation point accomplish that?

Spoiler: Chem sidenote

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It comes down to how evaporation works. Essentially, you start with something in liquid phase at a given temperature. At the particle level, there's a distributed range of kinetic energies - the temperature indicates the average. The faster moving particles are the ones to escape and leave in gas phase, leaving the slower moving ones behind, dropping the average. That process is cooling. In this particular case though, the liquid is now lower in temperature than Sloth, so energy is pulled from Sloth to heat the liquid (standard heat transfer). Between the wind and the low evaporation point, the tank fuel was able to evaporate reasonably quickly, and it siphoned off Sloth's heat way faster than the ambient environment would.

[CarpeGuitarrem]

Man, Hohenheim's a complicated guy. He accepted immortality at the lives of his friends, but mourns those friends. He distanced himself from his children because of his own self loathing. He loved his wife and children, but left them.

Oh, yeah. I love the characterization of Hohenheim so much. One of the things, sadly, that doesn't show up in the first FMA. (Hohenheim plays much less of a role in the first series, because he didn't have much of a presence in the early bits of the manga.)

Spoiler: Heh heh heh heh

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Raven said something about immortal bodies being prepared for them, and Hohenheim mentioned "when I took this body". Here's my current hypothesis: The Father creates a duplicate body. Like him, it's immortal, possibly philosopher's stone powered. Then do some transmutation to bind someone else's soul and mind into that body, and something else to make sure that the new body doesn't reject the bound soul. This would explain the comments made this episode, and it would explain why there's another Hohenheim doppleganger with an entirely different personality running around.

CLOSE! But...backwards...

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Oh, and what on earth was he doing at the start of the episode? He injured himself and healed via stone. Did he send droplets of his own blood on a mission? Is this for part of the ritual?

Oh good. You noticed.

Oh, this is good. I forget how much stuff came to a head in Briggs. Such a good bit of the story.

[Gnoman]

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I really can't wait until he finds out just how wrong every one of his assumptions about Hoenheim is. The reaction should be priceless, since it's the only major thing that foold him.

[Randomguy]

Episode 37: The First Homunculus

Watchthrough Thoughts

• From the episode title I guess I'm finally going to find out about Pride.
• Edward's little freakout here was hilarious, mostly since my "think about something else" also defaults to the periodic table.
• I love how enthusiastic Winry gets about her work.

Episode Notes

Pride
Holy crap, this is one of the episodes I shouldn't have watched before bed.

How far do Pride's abilities actually extend? If he was telling the truth about always watching from the shadows, then he knows all of the protagonists plots and schemes, but so far it looks like their attempts at misleading the enemy have been working, so that was probably a bluff to scare Hawkeye. Maybe he can go anywhere there are shadows, but he can only be at one place at a time?

Oh no... Edward and Olivier had their conversation in the tunnels! The one where Edward completely betrayed Wrath! If Pride heard that, and reported it to The Father or Wrath, then that's game over for the Elric brothers.
What if Pride heard the conversation, but didn't report it, perhaps because he doesn't think the Elric brothers stand a chance? Maybe he just wants to watch their futile struggle? That would be a good example of pride as a fatal flaw, I guess, but it's more likely he just wasn't there at the time.

Why did Pride let those soldiers live? I guess he wanted them to get back alive and spread the story. I think he expects General Armstrong to send more soldiers into the tunnels with the goal of trying to kill him, so by sparing a few soldiers he'll be able to have some fun massacring even more Briggs soldiers later.

Those shadow-hands Pride has are similar to the ones that pulled Edward and Alphonse apart during their attempt at human transmutation. This has to be significant somehow. Maybe Pride was a failed attempt to recreate Truth, in the same way Gluttony was a failed attempt at creating a Portal of Truth? Maybe it's just symbolism? Maybe it has something to do with what happened in Xerxes? We saw those same shadow-hands reach out to everyone in Xerxes when the Portal of Truth opened. (Unless I'm misremembering.)

I'll have to dissect all the symbolism behind Pride at some point; there's a lot more of it than what's behind most of the other homunculi. After all, he's the first homunculus, the greatest sin, an everpresent shadow that appears pure and innocent at first glance.

Selim Bradley
Pride and Selim Bradley are two different individuals (we know this in part from the screen that shows the characters and their names, and partly because Pride would have to be a ridiculously good actor for this not to be the case). So how exactly does this work? It seems like their arrangement is similar to what Ling and Greed have, only instead of the human host having to fight for control, Pride lets Selim take the wheel most of the time, unless he needs to get something done. I think Pride also has some amount of autonomy, as The Shadow.

This must really complicate the relationship between Pride and Wrath. I've got to take another look at their earlier conversation given this new context.

Edward's Plans

If Ed can catch up with Scar, then team up with him and May Chang to take out Kimbley and his entourage, then they can finally learn alcahestry! They also have a convenient excuse for coming back without Kimbley: "Scar killed him, we barely escaped with our lives!" Which is especially plausible since at best the Elric brothers have only ever managed to stall Scar, not overpower him.
The issue is that I don't think Edward would make a plan that involves killing someone off. Winry being there also complicates things: They're going to have to pull this off without putting her in too much danger.

Things to add to my List Of Stuff That Will Become Important Later:

• Pride's shadow hands and why they're so similar to what happens when you try to open a Portal of Truth.

[Cizak]

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Pride and Selim Bradley are two different individuals (we know this in part from the screen that shows the characters and their names, and partly because Pride would have to be a ridiculously good actor for this not to be the case).

Er... do we tell him he's completely misunderstanding this? Does that count as a spoiler?

[John Cribati]

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Er... do we tell him he's completely misunderstanding this? Does that count as a spoiler?

Spoiler: Well...

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Selim Bradley id technically an alternate identity. And then Ed does somehow remove Pride and turn him into just Selim, so...

[Yana]

Spoiler: Well...

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Selim Bradley id technically an alternate identity. And then Ed does somehow remove Pride and turn him into just Selim, so...

Spoiler: Besides!

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It's much more fun to see him run with these misconceptions, isn't it?

Also, I'm glad you picked up on the location of Ed/Olivier's conversation. That threw me too when I saw it.

[Suichimo]

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Er... do we tell him he's completely misunderstanding this? Does that count as a spoiler?

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It shouldn't be a spoiler. But, just in case, we're only about 10 episodes away from Madame Christmas giving us all the information on Pride.

My vote is that it should be fine to clarify that Pride isn't like Wrath of Greedling.