Let's Watch FMA: Brotherhood

[TheSummoner]

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I disagree. If he's wrong about it, let him figure it out for himself.

[Kato]

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I'm sure he'll realize he's wrong at some point. I thing Pride explains it later so, yeah... Telling him probably wouldn't hurt much but I don't see any need to do so.

[SaintRidley]

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We should leave it. Do not tell him anything. If he misunderstands, that just prolongs our enjoyment.

[Gettles]

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Seriously why are you guys in such a rush to start talking. Let him go in his tangents for a bit and let Riza spell it out for him in two episodes.

[Randomguy]

Sorry about the lack of updates lately, I've fallen behind on my work. I should be all caught up around wednesday, so you can expect an update on wednesday evening or thursday morning.

[3SecondCultist]

Sorry about the lack of updates lately, I've fallen behind on my work. I should be all caught up around wednesday, so you can expect an update on wednesday evening or thursday morning.

So as a watcher of the 2003 anime, I've been dreading getting into Brotherhood. I actually liked some of the ways in which the original ended, and my friend already spoiled some of the coolest changes (like the identity of a certain Homunculus).

But I just took the dive, and have spent the last two days catching up to you.

WOW. Brotherhood is awesome. I'm looking forward to watching along with you!

[Randomguy]

Episode 38: Conflict at Baschool

Watchthrough Thoughts

• May Chang really hasn't learned from her mistakes when it comes to romance, has she?
• Looks like Edward's still really bad at persuading people.

Episode Notes

We find out Yoki's backstory! I'm about as interested as Edward was.

Scar doesn't try to justify killing Winry's parents. Good for him.

Looks like central command is getting a bit impatient with the people at Briggs. General Armstrong can probably lie her way out of this, though, and the commanding officers from central are probably itching to get home anyway, partly because of the cold and partly because they think everyone at Briggs will be massacred soon and have no intention of being there when it happens.

Scar has kidnapped Winry. On the bright side, this means she's out of Kimbley's reach, and Scar won't do anything to hurt her.
But why would Scar kidnap Winry? Maybe he wanted leverage to use against Edward? That's not really his style. It's possible that Edward and Alphonse planned all this as a way to get Winry out of her hostage situation, but there's no way that Edward would EVER trust Scar with Winry's safety. Not that Winry would agree to play along anyway.
If it wasn't staged, though, then why would Edward blame Kimbley for not keeping track of Winry? He and Alphonse are the ones that smuggled Winry away in Al's armour, and Edward's much more likely to wrongly blame himself than to wrongly blame others. I guess it wouldn't be that out of character for him, since he already hates Kimbley, but it still feels off.

Oh! If Scar has a hostage with him, then Kimbley can't use his stone-boosted alchemy to annihilate him from a distance. Well, not unless he wants to kill Winry too, and he's probably too smart to try that, since it'd turn Edward (and maybe some of the Briggs soldiers) against him. Oh, and Winry's the hostage that his side took to keep Ed in check, so there's another reason she's not acceptable collateral damage.

If the kidnapping was staged, then that would mean Ed and Al finally stopped wanting to fight Scar, and decided to team up with him so that they could learn alcahestry, and more about what's wrong with Amestrian alchemy. It would also mean that they trust him enough to leave Winry in his hands, and that Winry's willing to cooperate with the guy that killed her parents. Phrased that way, it makes it seem really unlikely (but not impossible) that the kidnapping was staged.

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

• Central command is starting to get curious about what's going on in Briggs. I guess this is more proof that Pride's not omnipresent, or if he is then he's not sharing everything with Wrath, or they just want to keep up appearances.

[Rodin]

I love the gag from this episode where Edward tells Yoki that "I don't think we've EVER met you."

Because of course, in Brotherhood, they never do meet him until this episode. The flashback from Youswell only occurred in the manga and first anime. Wonderful meta humor!

The flashback itself is one of the funniest things, too. Armstrong's sister hitting Yoki with a piano cracks me up every time.

[Gettles]

I love the gag from this episode where Edward tells Yoki that "I don't think we've EVER met you."

Because of course, in Brotherhood, they never do meet him until this episode. The flashback from Youswell only occurred in the manga and first anime. Wonderful meta humor!

The flashback itself is one of the funniest things, too. Armstrong's sister hitting Yoki with a piano cracks me up every time.

The funny thing is that Yoki comes up in the background a couple of times before he is introduced, early on Fuery makes an off hand reference to the Elrics exposing a corrupt official at a mining town, then when Ed and Al are leaving Rush Vally for the first time it focuses on 3 wanted posters, one of Scar, one of Greed, and one of Yoki.

[Randomguy]

Episode 39: Daydream

Watchthrough Thoughts

• New opening theme!
• Edward: "I hate to brag, but I've got a pretty smooth tongue, you know." Bwahaha! Oh, Edward, you really, really don't.

The Chimaeras
I really didn't expect the chimaeras to do a heel face turn. I wonder if they were part of the "immortal soldiers" thing? Did they get new bodies like Hohenheim? I think this is a different process. It seems like the high ranking generals in Central, like Raven, are the ones that actually get immortality, and they know about the stuff with the giant transmutation circle. This was probably another project, to get more powerful soldiers. Although now that I think about it, the spines and the viscous projectile saliva are both less effective than, you know, firearms.


The Kidnapping
Turns out that the kidnapping was, in fact, staged. Edward was willing to work with Scar because he understood that getting those notes was more important than his own dislike, which isn't THAT surprising. After all, they did kind of cooperate briefly against The Father. What really blew me away here was Winry's reaction. She's shown herself to be ridiculously enlightened, and Scar realizes this. If he can learn from her example then he might actually be able to break out of this cycle of revenge.

Briggs
I vastly underestimated the threat that Central forces arriving at Briggs represented. The Briggs soldiers are going to have to be very sneaky if they want to hide Scar and his adventuring party allies.

Olivier's heading back to Central. This is terrible news for the protagonists, but on the bright side the viewers get to see her interacting with her brother! This is bound to be hilarious.

Alphonse
I'm surprised Alphonse can feel cold at all. He doesn't really feel pain. I mean, a few episodes ago Wrath stabbed right through him and he didn't seem to mind.
What exactly happened with the daydream? Was his physical body calling his soul back into the place beyond the Portal of Truth? Is the suit of armour rejecting his soul? Or maybe it was just has something to do with the cold?


Now that I think about it, Alphonse's method of immortality would probably be good enough for May Chang to bring back to the emperor of Xing. I mean, it's not perfect, what with the soul eventually being rejected, but if you're already on your deathbed then it's better than nothing.

The Sacrifices
It looks like The Father's deciding on sacrifices. Edward, Alphonse, Hohenheim, Izumi and one other. With the exception of Hohenheim, we already knew these characters were potential sacrifices. Off the top of my head, the only other confirmed potential candidates are Dr. Marco and Colonel Mustang. I'm pretty sure Kimbley would also work, and Major Armstrong might also be a potential sacrifice, since he's a powerful alchemist. On the other hand, if he was a potential sacrifice it would have probably come up by now.


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

• Who was the Amestrian that put Major Miles on his path?
• The daydream.

[Douglas]

the viewers get to see her interacting with her brother! This is bound to be hilarious.

Oh, you have no idea.

[Macros]

About the Chimeras, I suppose there is nothing preventing them turning people in chimeras to enhance their abilities, and still giving them weapons... Evidently, they didn't do that, though, your guess is as good as mine on this particular point.

[TheSummoner]

Well... It's probably difficult to hold a gun properly when changed into a less human form. I wouldn't be surprised if they carried weapons, but just can't use them in their chimera forms.

[Suichimo]

Well... It's probably difficult to hold a gun properly when changed into a less human form. I wouldn't be surprised if they carried weapons, but just can't use them in their chimera forms.

They can certainly use weapons, with the exception of Bido, they're all former soldiers after all. We do see two of them using weapons. Roa had a hammer and Dolcetto had a sword.

[Ravian]

They can certainly use weapons, with the exception of Bido, they're all former soldiers after all. We do see two of them using weapons. Roa had a hammer and Dolcetto had a sword.

Yes but Dolcetto is almost entirely human in appearance. Roa's form also helps accommodate weapons, particularly large ones like his hammer. The Briggs chimeras however are largely more efficient without weapons, with increased strength, and projectiles and most are probably too large to effectively use firearms in their animal forms.

[CarpeGuitarrem]

I'm surprised Alphonse can feel cold at all. He doesn't really feel pain. I mean, a few episodes ago Wrath stabbed right through him and he didn't seem to mind.

I'm thinking it's because cold tends to very strongly affect metal. Alphonse's armor chills (and might eventually freeze) and contracts.

[ryuplaneswalker]

I'm thinking it's because cold tends to very strongly affect metal. Alphonse's armor chills (and might eventually freeze) and contracts.

That would be a strange explanation if someone who did not know Al's secret overheard it

Al :"Oh I hate the cold, it causes my armor to shrink and get smaller"

Random Stranger : "Oh lord the chafing!"

[Xondoure]

I'm thinking it's because cold tends to very strongly affect metal. Alphonse's armor chills (and might eventually freeze) and contracts.

If you think about it, the fact that Alphonse is able to move his armor means there must be energy running through it. Colder temperatures would sap this energy; forcing him to give more just to keep moving around in cold places. So even if he doesn't have any sense of cold; he would notice how much harder it was to move.

[Rodin]

He was also going through deep snow, strong wind, low visibility, etc. Even if you can't feel the cold, that has to suck.

[Randomguy]

Episode 40: "Homunculus (The Dwarf in the Flask)"

Watchthrough Thoughts

• That hidden message was cleverly done. I'm impressed that they thought of setting up a way to pass secret messages to each other beforehand.
• For a moment when Hohenheim attacked Izumi I thought that he was going to kill her, to prevent her from being used as a sacrifice.

The Dwarf in the Flask
The original Homunculus had knowledge unknown to alchemists at that time. It was created so that it would tell the king how to achieve immortality. But where did this knowledge come from? My guess is that the dwarf in the flask was some fragment of The Truth. That might explain why he's trying to open the Portal of Truth: To get the knowledge that he was separated from.


The Father and the Homunculi
The Dwarf in the Flask looked a lot like a smaller version of Pride's shadow tendril form thing. Pride says that he was "The first homunculus" but The Father called himself a homunculus before the creation of the other homunculi. So what gives? I would guess that Pride was created using almost the same method that was used to create The Dwarf in the Flask, but with a few differences to give him philosopher's stone powered regeneration and to not be bound to the flask. This would mean Pride is less human than the other homunculi are.

I've wondered for a while why The Father would choose to create his homunculi out of his own seven deadly sins. Earlier I thought it was because he wanted to remove the sins from himself, to make himself a perfect being. This episode provided a bit of support to this theory: If The Father is a philosopher's stone in human form, and the emotions of the souls inside of him could affect his judgement or his decisions, then it would make sense to remove the most... problematic souls.


Sages
It seems like the only two Xerxes survivors are The Father and Hohenheim. The Father probably went west to set his plans for Amestris in motion right after he finished wrecking Xerxes. So what if Hohenheim went east to Xing before returning to Amestris? That would mean that The Father is the Eastern Sage, which I had already guessed earlier, and Hohenheim is the Western Sage.

Hohenheim is probably the only person in the world that has a chance of defeating The Father in a fair fight: They both have a couple hundred years of alchemical experience, and Hohenheim's probably been using his "philosopher's stone" less than The Father has, since The Father probably created the homunculi from himself, using the souls from Xerxes, since he really didn't have the resources to make more, separate philosopher's stones before founding Amestris, and we know the homunculi were around shortly after the fall of Xerxes, because Gluttony ate some part of the mural. Also, since Hohenheim knows original Xerxes alchemy, not the warped Amestrian version, The Father won't be able to turn off his alchemy.

The Father probably spent more time researching Alchemy, though, so he'd probably have a bit of an advantage, but if Hohenheim worked together with the other protagonists then they'd have a decent chance of winning if things came to a confrontation. Of course, getting Edward to work with Hohenheim will probably be even harder than getting him to work with Scar was.

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

• One of the big differences between what's happening now in Amestris and what happened at Xerxes is that in Xerxes there were no specially designated sacrifices that had to have gone through, or be powerful enough alchemists to go through, the portal of truth.
• The Dwarf in the Flask had no problem betraying the King of Xerxes, so The Father will probably betray the generals that were promised immortal bodies.

[Hiro Protagonest]

Spoiler: Western Sage and Alkahestry

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I always did wonder if Hohenheim knew the Dragon's Pulse and was skilled at medical alchemy, or if it's just the way the Xingese developed it, perhaps they had the Dragon's Pulse and tied it in to use ranged Alkahestry?

Also, would it be okay to just tell him he's right about the sages? I mean at this point it's pretty damn obvious.

[Ravian]

Spoiler: Western Sage and Alkahestry

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I always did wonder if Hohenheim knew the Dragon's Pulse and was skilled at medical alchemy, or if it's just the way the Xingese developed it, perhaps they had the Dragon's Pulse and tied it in to use ranged Alkahestry?

Also, would it be okay to just tell him he's right about the sages? I mean at this point it's pretty damn obvious.

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Well remember that Xing did have alchemy before Hohenheim, except it was focused largely on making elixers for medicine (much like real-world Eastern Alchemical traditions). Furthermore we do know that the Dragon's pulse philosophy is also a part of their martial art traditions (what with the fact that basically every Xingese person we've encountered can detect Homunculi regardless of alchemical skill). It's likely they incorporated Xerxean alchemy into that tradition, and Hohenheim himself also incorporated the philosophy into his own alchemical skills, allowing him to pull off his coordinated philosopher stone circle activation trick at that sort of range.

[Xondoure]

No comment on Father having Hoenheim's face as opposed to the other way around? Considering that's one of the few things that you weren't able to predict so far; I'm surprised it didn't get a mention.

[Randomguy]

No comment on Father having Hoenheim's face as opposed to the other way around? Considering that's one of the few things that you weren't able to predict so far; I'm surprised it didn't get a mention.

Whoops. Yeah, this update was a bit less thorough than usual because I accidentally lost everything I wrote about a quarter of the way through writing it. Although to be honest, now that I think about it I'm surprised as well: I never considered that the reason that they look alike is because The Father was cloned off of Hohenheim instead of the other way around. (I guess Doppleheim's brief appearance helped mislead me). I should have been absolutely blindsided. I guess I was thinking "So THAT'S how Hohenheim became immortal" instead.

I also forgot to mention that even though Hohenheim did nothing wrong, he's probably got MASSIVE survivor's guilt, which would explain a lot of his mental issues. Although hearing the murmurs of the souls of his old friends probably doesn't help either. Seriously, someone get this guy a therapist! Unfortunately therapists weren't really a thing until the 1950's in our history, so they probably aren't around in the FMA universe quite yet either.

[Gnoman]

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Did he figure out Hoenheim's a good guy? I'm not quite sure.

[Randomguy]

Episode 41: "The Abyss"

Watchthrough Thoughts

• With a title like that this is bound to be good.
• Hohenheim western sage confirmed.
• Decoy Alphonse!
• Oh, crap.
• get the stone get the stone get the stone GET THE STONE.
• Oh, so NOW they find the stone.

Sages
While watching the episode I thought that we got confirmation of Hohenheim being the Western Sage. He certainly fits the description: He's an immortal alchemist with golden hair. But shortly after it ended I realized that the only other possible candidate for being the Western Sage is The Father, who... is also an immortal alchemist with golden hair. So that description doesn't differentiate between the two of them at all. So now I'm not so sure: What if this whole thing is to set up a false lead, to make people think that Hohenheim was the Western Sage when really The Father was the Western Sage and Hohenheim was the Eastern Sage?
I'll give it a 95% chance that Hohenheim is the Western Sage and a 5% chance that it's The Father and that the writers set this up as a red herring. If they hadn't shown Hohenheim on screen while they were talking about the Western Sage, just given his / The Father's description, then I'd give it maybe 80 - 20 odds, but with the way they did it it would seem like they were blatantly misleading the audience if the Western Sage is really The Father, as opposed to the subtle misdirection in episode 1, for example.
WOW that was a run on sentence.
Oh, and I just want to say that it's a bit confusing that the Western Sage is the one that went East to Xing and the Eastern Sage is the one that went West.

Alphonse
Alphonse collapsed again when Edward was near death. My theory is that since that Edward's probably providing the food and sleep for Alphonse's body, when Edward was unconscious Alphonse wasn't able to resist the pull of his body on his soul. Edward is keeping Alphonse alive, so if Edward dies, so will Alphonse.

Edwin
When struggling to survive, part of Edward's resolve to stay alive comes from his desire to not make Winry cry again. Good. One of the reasons that I wasn't exactly thrilled when Winry fell for Edward back in episode 23 was that I felt there was basically only one way things could go: Edward dies, Winry cries (slightly more than she would have cried if their relationship was entirely platonic.) So it's good to see that Edward is at least somewhat aware of how much he means to her.

Although really, since he shortened his own lifespan with alchemy any "they live happily ever after" ending where Edward and Winry get together is made bittersweet, since Edward will die decades before Winry does. That's kind of a downer.
Unless of course May Chang and Edward use Scar's brother's notes to find a way to achieve immortality that doesn't involve sustaining yourself on the souls of others, but somehow I feel like that would be too idealistic for this series.

The Story's Tone
In general, I like the tone of Full Metal Alchemist. In my opinion it really hits the sweet spot on the sliding scale of cynicism and idealism. People die, and good people sometimes need to kill, but there's still room for more idealistic characters like Edward and Alphonse without them being portrayed as hopelessly naive. (They're portrayed as a little naive, yes, but not hopelessly naive). This episode was particularly good at this: Edward suffered the negative consequences of showing mercy, but he also reaps the rewards: He spared Kimbley's two soldiers, but to Kimbley they were acceptable collateral, so they ended up saving Edward's life and abandoning Kimbley.

What frustrates me though is that, while it was a very clever trick, Edward ends up using his own soul as a philosophers stone and shortening his own lifespan when there was a real philosopher's stone just a few feet away. It'd be one thing if they found it somewhere next episode, but it was right there. Honestly, what exactly is the moral of the story there? "It is important to pay attention to detail or else you might make unnecessary sacrifices."? "S*** happens."? "F*** you Edward Elric, sincerely The Universe."? One of those.

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

• If Edward dies, Alphonse dies.
• There's a small chance Hohenheim isn't the Western Sage, but he probably is.
  

Oh, and on a completely unrelated note: I've taken to mentally referring to the crystal shaped philosopher's stone that is now with Edward as "The Shard", because it looks like a shard of crystal. I know it's less powerful than the marble shaped philosopher's stone that Kimbley still has, but it looks much, much cooler, and deserves a name.

[Gnoman]

What frustrates me though is that, while it was a very clever trick, Edward ends up using his own soul as a philosophers stone and shortening his own lifespan when there was a real philosopher's stone just a few feet away. It'd be one thing if they found it somewhere next episode, but it was right there. Honestly, what exactly is the moral of the story there? "It is important to pay attention to detail or else you might make unnecessary sacrifices."? "S*** happens."? "F*** you Edward Elric, sincerely The Universe."? One of those.

(This shouldn't be a spoiler, pretty sure it's an aspect of character that's already been portrayed, spoilering it as a precaution)

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While Ed was willing to use Envy's stone when they were stuck inside Gluttony, it was quite literally a last resort. Use the stone, or die a swift and unpleasant death. The great reluctance of both brothers to use the stones for anything else was quite explicit from the instant they found out what the stone was. Knowing that, Ed would probably have chosen to use his own, sacrificing willingly, rather than profit from a soul taken by force.

Apart from that, what struck me the most about this episode was that what Ed did, in any other series with similar magic, would be a deadly secret, as the ability to use a person in that way would be a foreshadowing of sacrifice-fueled magic and similar abominations. In this one, sacrificing one or two people to power your "spells" is so trivial as to be pointless, when it's so much more profitable just to make them into Philosophers Stones.

[Douglas]

Ed's self-healing did shorten his life span, but I don't recall it ever being stated to have shortened it by a particularly large amount. For all I know, that healing could have come at the paltry cost of 1 day of life span. That may be excessively low, but I certainly don't think it cost him decades.

[CarpeGuitarrem]

(This shouldn't be a spoiler, pretty sure it's an aspect of character that's already been portrayed, spoilering it as a precaution)

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While Ed was willing to use Envy's stone when they were stuck inside Gluttony, it was quite literally a last resort. Use the stone, or die a swift and unpleasant death. The great reluctance of both brothers to use the stones for anything else was quite explicit from the instant they found out what the stone was. Knowing that, Ed would probably have chosen to use his own, sacrificing willingly, rather than profit from a soul taken by force.

Apart from that, what struck me the most about this episode was that what Ed did, in any other series with similar magic, would be a deadly secret, as the ability to use a person in that way would be a foreshadowing of sacrifice-fueled magic and similar abominations. In this one, sacrificing one or two people to power your "spells" is so trivial as to be pointless, when it's so much more profitable just to make them into Philosophers Stones.

Spoiler: Original FMA Anime Spoiler

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This is what jarred me so gorram much about the Lab 5 sequence in the original anime, which I watched after watching Brotherhood. I had a hard time getting behind an Edward Elric who was on any level considering the possibility of sacrificing humans, even for Alphonse's sake.

Or am I misremembering it?

[Calemyr]

Spoiler: Original FMA Anime Spoiler

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This is what jarred me so gorram much about the Lab 5 sequence in the original anime, which I watched after watching Brotherhood. I had a hard time getting behind an Edward Elric who was on any level considering the possibility of sacrificing humans, even for Alphonse's sake.

Or am I misremembering it?

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The entire cast is quite different in nature between the animes. In the original anime, Edward is driven by one goal and only one goal, and he is willing to be ruthless if its necessary, but only when the cost wasn't great. He didn't take down Cornello in the original anime because Cornello was evil or using alchemy inappropriately or manipulating people, he did it solely for the stone and immediately lost interest when the stone turned out to be imperfect. Edward was willing to use a stone, as not using it wouldn't undo the damage already done, but he wasn't willing to sacrifice souls to make one. Brotherhood Edward is far less focused on that one goal - he readily accepts that there are costs that would be too great for him and that restoring his body isn't worth staining his soul. He still believes he can find a way, but he's far more likely to pass solutions by if it costs too much. So, no, Brotherhood Elric would have begged and pleaded with the homunculi and would have betrayed them before completing the job. I don't think he would have fared well in the original anime, though - it liked to punish the idealistic too much.