Let's Watch FMA: Brotherhood

[Knaight]

Winry gets a lot of character development this episode. One of the things that kind of bugs me about her is that even though she felt really guilty about her mistake, when she finds out that it wasn't her fault Edward was hospitalized and that Edward didn't think it was her fault, she charged him for the extra repairs. So the net result is Winry gets paid for doing a sloppy job and then gets paid again for fixing her own screwup.

It wasn't a perfect repair, but I'm not sure I'd characterize it as "fixing her own screwup". There's a reasonable range of action for automail, and then there's what Ed uses it for, and they're not even remotely in the same category. At the very least, Ed should probably tell Winry that she should be designing the automail for all sorts of ridiculous violence, seeing his propensity for getting in fights.

[Math_Mage]

It wasn't a perfect repair, but I'm not sure I'd characterize it as "fixing her own screwup". There's a reasonable range of action for automail, and then there's what Ed uses it for, and they're not even remotely in the same category. At the very least, Ed should probably tell Winry that she should be designing the automail for all sorts of ridiculous violence, seeing his propensity for getting in fights.

Not to mention he transmutes it at the drop of a hat. That can't be good for its durability.

[CarpeGuitarrem]

Not to mention he transmutes it at the drop of a hat. That can't be good for its durability.

Small wonder that Winry throws things at him, really.

[Knaight]

Not to mention he transmutes it at the drop of a hat. That can't be good for its durability.

Were it not for the rest of his use, this might even be a significant factor in it wearing out quickly.

[ryuplaneswalker]

Also the opponent's ed tends to combat are not exactly on the scale of normal combat paramiters that Winry would build for.

IE.

Dude with only half the transmutation process tattooed into his arm, super strong suits of armor...

Spoiler: no really, serious spoilers do not click if you are afraid of spoilers at all

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Chimera, Immortal beings with various powers...an immortal clone of his father who ate God.

[Randomguy]

It wasn't a perfect repair, but I'm not sure I'd characterize it as "fixing her own screwup". There's a reasonable range of action for automail, and then there's what Ed uses it for, and they're not even remotely in the same category.

At the very least, Ed should probably tell Winry that she should be designing the automail for all sorts of ridiculous violence, seeing his propensity for getting in fights.

While it's true that Edward isn't exactly following the automail intended usage guidelines , this doesn't change the fact that the missing screw is the reason his arm broke. If it had broken a few minutes earlier, when he was fighting the armour, then he would have died. What's worse, when Winry found out about the mistake, she didn't feel the need to tell him. (Although granted, maybe if she would have if she knew the kind of crazy stuff Ed used that arm for). When this kind of negligence happens in real life, people get hurt and the engineers responsible often lose their jobs, or worse.

A more sensible alternative to using the automail as a weapon would be to use something that was actually intended to be used as a weapon. I know Ed's against killing, but he could at least use a steel quarterstaff. That way he could transmute it into a spear faster than making the spear out of iron, from scratch, when he needed to use his signature weapon spear thing. Or he could have an actual spear, and transmute it to make it blunt and easier to carry when he's not using it, and use the blunt end to smack people around with when he doesn't want to skewer them. Or he could get some sort of super strong metal shield.

[Forum Explorer]

While it's true that Edward isn't exactly following the automail intended usage guidelines , this doesn't change the fact that the missing screw is the reason his arm broke. If it had broken a few minutes earlier, when he was fighting the armour, then he would have died. What's worse, when Winry found out about the mistake, she didn't feel the need to tell him. (Although granted, maybe if she would have if she knew the kind of crazy stuff Ed used that arm for). When this kind of negligence happens in real life, people get hurt and the engineers responsible often lose their jobs, or worse.

A more sensible alternative to using the automail as a weapon would be to use something that was actually intended to be used as a weapon. I know Ed's against killing, but he could at least use a steel quarterstaff. That way he could transmute it into a spear faster than making the spear out of iron, from scratch, when he needed to use his signature weapon spear thing. Or he could have an actual spear, and transmute it to make it blunt and easier to carry when he's not using it, and use the blunt end to smack people around with when he doesn't want to skewer them. Or he could get some sort of super strong metal shield.

There is a reason why Ed doesn't use a weapon, though it's never explicitly stated. I'm also not sure if you've hit that point yet. It's not really spoilers, but I'm curious to see if you'll catch it anyways.

As for Winry, I always got the feeling she was going to fess up, but then Ed took the blame, and she took the opportunity. She doesn't feel any guilt in billing Ed, because he is getting a big paycheck from the government, and I never got the feeling that she approves of the government.

[Randomguy]

Episode 10: Seperate Destinations

Watchthrough Thoughts

• Woah. Almost at the start of the episode we get a visit from the Fuhrer. And he basically said… stop looking into this stuff? What if this is Envy?
• So they’re going to visit their alchemy teacher, and she is apparently terrifying. (Is that the false assumption that I made? I assumed they had a male alchemy teacher before. Actually, now that I think about, all the alchemists we’ve seen so far are male, even though there are some female soldiers. )

Discerning and Deducing

In this episode, Hughes figured out that all the government destabilizing events were orchestrated on purpose, and was killed for it. This confirms (or at least provides strong evidence for) my theory that the Sins orchestrated the genocide in Ishval.

Let's take a look at some of the things that the person who looked like King Bradley said:
“I know there’s been suspicious activity in the military lately, and something must be done about it"
“Every person in the list of researchers who worked on the philosophers stone is missing” “Forget this matter and all that it concerns. Suspicion is our strongest line of offence and our only line of defence is discretion. Don’t trust anyone”.

Note that the second quote could mean there are some researchers who aren’t on the list that still haven't been kidnapped. Like the Elric's alchemy teacher maybe? There’s no evidence to support that conclusion, but I have a hunch.

If this was Envy talking, and not the Fuhrer, then the statements have been made to discourage them from spreading information and telling more people about the Enemy’s affairs, same as if it was really King Bradley and King Bradley was secretly orchestrating these events. But why would Bradley be orchestrating these events? He’s got basically absolute power already, and the Enemy’s actions do nothing but destabilize his country. Unless he wants an excuse to commit genocide? That seems unlikely.
Alternatively, if King Bradley was exactly who he appeared to be, then he was genuinely trying to ensure the safety of some of his trusted soldiers.

King Bradley's actions overall are a bit befuddling. He supports research that involves human sacrifice in exchange for phenomenal cosmic power and keeps it secret from even many people in his government, but that doesn't necessarily mean that he's The Enemy. He did wipe out the people of Ishval, but if the Sins orchestrated the Ishvali uprising (which is likely), and if he's not involved with the Sins, then his part in the war was mostly self defence. That said, the official story makes it sound like he could be responsible for the war, since the entire thing could have been a false flag operation, which would imply that he is The Enemy and that he's in league with the Sins. But he would need a really darn good reason to start a war that would destabilize his own country. He was also crying at Hughes' funeral, which implies that he wasn't responsible for Hughes' death, or else a very good actor, or that he regretted the necessity of the deed.

I'm going to tentatively conclude that the Fuhrer isn't The Enemy, although he definitely has a few of his own irons in the fire.

Let's take a moment to sum up what we know:
We know The Enemy has kidnapped government researchers that studied the philosophers stone, that The Enemy was involved with Ishval, which involved heavy offensive use of the philosophers stone, that The Enemy is inciting rebellions all over the country, that the Enemy has either infiltrated the Higher Ups or has backing from one of the Higher Ups, The Enemy is an organization including Lust, Gluttony, Envy, probably the other seven deadly sins, and someone Lust called “Father” and the Enemy wants to sacrifice Edward (or more specifically, Edward’s divinely imparted knowledge about alchemy) in order to get something in exchange.

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

• The Elric brothers' alchemy teacher is terrifying.
• A stab wound to the head with an ordinary knife won't kill Lust, and likely won't kill any of the other sins. Maybe they can only be killed with cold iron or silver? Or decapitation? Or the tattoo is secretly a blood seal, or works similarly? If that's true then it's surprising that they're right out in the open.

[Ravian]

My God the anticipation tastes so good... you're just so close to figuring it out.

I have a feeling we'll have a ton of fun in Dublith.

The Hughes Funeral still gets me every time though, especially the rain.

[Douglas]

The sex of the Elric brothers' teacher was indeed the false assumption you made.

Lots of hints about various Nefarious Plots. It's interesting watching you piece them together, and comparing to the full picture that I know from having watched to the end already.

[Hiro Protagonest]

I've only gotten to the part where

Spoiler

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Greed gets destroyed after Wrath drags him back to their father

Because that's where I was before I decided to stop so I could watch the original (which I still need to get to Episode 26 on or just finish).

[Yana]

I can't wait to see your reaction to episode 14. A lot of stuff goes down in that one.

[TheSummoner]

Just checked the episode list... Yeah, episode 14 is going to be a good one. I also can't wait until he gets to episode 19. One of the best scenes in the entire show.

[Cen]

As a guy who only read manga can someone spoil me what happpens in 14 and 19 episode?

In original anime I literally cried after Maes was killed. I was sure that he was one of main characters and thought he had plot armour:/

[Dragonus45]

Ha ha, plot armor in FMA that's rich. Honestly Maes's death and funeral hit hard but much like most of the first 14 or so episodes of Brotherhood it's one of those things I felt was better handled in the 2003 anime.

[Gettles]

[QUOTE]

As a guy who only read manga can someone spoil me what happpens in 14 and 19 episode?

In original anime I literally cried after Maes was killed. I was sure that he was one of main characters and thought he had plot armour:/

Spoiler: Episodes 14 and 19

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14 is the reveal of Wrath.

19 is Mustang vs Lust.

[Closet_Skeleton]

I'm putting some of your quotes in a spoiler because I think its funny that you've said all the information that should have given you the answer but don't actually have the answer yet.

Spoiler: quotes

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Unless he wants an excuse to commit genocide? That seems unlikely.

He supports research that involves human sacrifice in exchange for phenomenal cosmic power

But he would need a really darn good reason to start a war that would destabilize his own country.

Ishval, which involved heavy offensive use of the philosophers stone

[Prime32]

In original anime I literally cried after Maes was killed. I was sure that he was one of main characters and thought he had plot armour:/

Yeah the first anime adds a lot of extra stuff with Hughes to make sure you love him before he's killed off. It does the same with Nina Tucker for that matter. IIRC it also left out the typical ending sequence for that episode, and played the credits in silence over a black screen.

[CarpeGuitarrem]

Spoiler: Mad Cackling

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If this was Envy talking, and not the Fuhrer, then the statements have been made to discourage them from spreading information and telling more people about the Enemy’s affairs, same as if it was really King Bradley and King Bradley was secretly orchestrating these events. But why would Bradley be orchestrating these events? He’s got basically absolute power already, and the Enemy’s actions do nothing but destabilize his country. Unless he wants an excuse to commit genocide? That seems unlikely.
Alternatively, if King Bradley was exactly who he appeared to be, then he was genuinely trying to ensure the safety of some of his trusted soldiers.

King Bradley's actions overall are a bit befuddling. He supports research that involves human sacrifice in exchange for phenomenal cosmic power and keeps it secret from even many people in his government, but that doesn't necessarily mean that he's The Enemy. He did wipe out the people of Ishval, but if the Sins orchestrated the Ishvali uprising (which is likely), and if he's not involved with the Sins, then his part in the war was mostly self defence. That said, the official story makes it sound like he could be responsible for the war, since the entire thing could have been a false flag operation, which would imply that he is The Enemy and that he's in league with the Sins. But he would need a really darn good reason to start a war that would destabilize his own country. He was also crying at Hughes' funeral, which implies that he wasn't responsible for Hughes' death, or else a very good actor, or that he regretted the necessity of the deed.

I'm going to tentatively conclude that the Fuhrer isn't The Enemy, although he definitely has a few of his own irons in the fire.

I can't wait for the moment of realization.

[Alleran]

Spoiler: I am giggling like a madman right now.

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If this was Envy talking, and not the Fuhrer, then the statements have been made to discourage them from spreading information and telling more people about the Enemy’s affairs, same as if it was really King Bradley and King Bradley was secretly orchestrating these events. But why would Bradley be orchestrating these events? He’s got basically absolute power already, and the Enemy’s actions do nothing but destabilize his country. Unless he wants an excuse to commit genocide? That seems unlikely.
Alternatively, if King Bradley was exactly who he appeared to be, then he was genuinely trying to ensure the safety of some of his trusted soldiers.

King Bradley's actions overall are a bit befuddling. He supports research that involves human sacrifice in exchange for phenomenal cosmic power and keeps it secret from even many people in his government, but that doesn't necessarily mean that he's The Enemy. He did wipe out the people of Ishval, but if the Sins orchestrated the Ishvali uprising (which is likely), and if he's not involved with the Sins, then his part in the war was mostly self defence. That said, the official story makes it sound like he could be responsible for the war, since the entire thing could have been a false flag operation, which would imply that he is The Enemy and that he's in league with the Sins. But he would need a really darn good reason to start a war that would destabilize his own country. He was also crying at Hughes' funeral, which implies that he wasn't responsible for Hughes' death, or else a very good actor, or that he regretted the necessity of the deed.

I'm going to tentatively conclude that the Fuhrer isn't The Enemy, although he definitely has a few of his own irons in the fire.

Let's take a moment to sum up what we know:
We know The Enemy has kidnapped government researchers that studied the philosophers stone, that The Enemy was involved with Ishval, which involved heavy offensive use of the philosophers stone, that The Enemy is inciting rebellions all over the country, that the Enemy has either infiltrated the Higher Ups or has backing from one of the Higher Ups, The Enemy is an organization including Lust, Gluttony, Envy, probably the other seven deadly sins, and someone Lust called “Father” and the Enemy wants to sacrifice Edward (or more specifically, Edward’s divinely imparted knowledge about alchemy) in order to get something in exchange.

I can't wait for some of the upcoming episodes to hit.

[Forrestfire]

Spoiler: *cackles*

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Stuff about Bradley

Yeah, that'll be fun.

[CarpeGuitarrem]

Yeah, that'll be fun.

Spoiler

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"I'm going to tentatively conclude that the Fuhrer isn't The Enemy, although he definitely has a few of his own irons in the fire." is my favorite part.

I can't wait for the Pride reveal.

[Forrestfire]

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"I'm going to tentatively conclude that the Fuhrer isn't The Enemy, although he definitely has a few of his own irons in the fire." is my favorite part.

I can't wait for the Pride reveal.

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The best bit, at least for me, is that I came to the exact same conclusion when reading the manga

[Closet_Skeleton]

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I was almost convinced by that scene in Brotherhood despite having read that far in the manga and seen the first anime.

[Randomguy]

Episode 11: Miracle at Rush Valley

No watchthrough thoughts today.

Rants and Ravings

First off, what is up with this town? How are there so many people with missing limbs? Did they all move here to get automail and then never leave because they needed repairs? Did people start amputating their own limbs so that they could get superior metallic replacements? Was there some sort of railroad project that resulted in a lot of missing limbs? And why would there be so many automail mechanics in one place? I'll just assume that they all moved there after they heard about all the missing limbs in the town and decided it was a good business opportunity, and then never left. For some reason.
The townspeople are even weirder than the town itself. When Edward arrives they all completely disregard his privacy to take a look at his automail. I mean, I understand Winry geeking out about Paninya's robolegs because those were particularly well built and were weaponized, unlike most automail, but these are professionals who see dozens of people with automail every day! You'd think they could control their excitement enough to respect Edward's privacy.

Speaking of Winry, what the hell was that scene between her and Paninya?! "You should stop stealing from people!"
"Alright, person I just met today. I will entirely change my lifestyle because you think it will make my mentor figure, who you have spent about five minutes with, look up to me."
Yeah, that was a really Sue-ish moment for Winry. And another thing: have none of the people living in that house tried to discourage Paninya from stealing before? And while I understand why the old engineer would give Paninya automail legs, why in the world would he weaponize her?

Aside from that, this episode has a bit of bonding between Edward and Winry, and a bit more backstory but not really much new information. There was also the part where Winry delivers a baby, which reminded me a bit of the Serpent's Pass episode in Avatar the Last Airbender. This brings Edward and Winry closer together, but mostly it gives the old engineer a reason to tolerate Winry's presence.

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

• Edward's line about childbirth being the creation of a new soul, something alchemy has never been capable of. Maybe I'm paranoid, but could this be foreshadowing? I really, really hope this isn't foreshadowing.

[Dragonus45]

My personal theory was that Rush Valley in a mining town or the most central town in an area that does a lot of mining. That being a job that tends to have a high injury rate which means that you start to see a big jump in auto mail sales so the best people start to set up shop for better sales, so people who need auto mail start to travel because the best of the best have set up shop and the next thing you know it's the mecca of automail.

[Ravian]

The Rush valley episode has always been interesting as one of the few pieces of filler that they really kept in Brotherhood.

Spoiler: All around spoilers but one particularly large one

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Really the only key plot purpose of the town is to introduce Ling and his entourage. Compare that to all of the filler that the first anime that not only dramatically expanded on any existing filler (like giving Yoki his alchemist to add some action to the episode) while inventing totally new filler to stretch things out even longer. Brotherhood skimmed Yoki so hard despite him becoming a semi-major supporting character. That they kept this episode though expands on a few things.

One it is our reprieve. This is a fairly light-hearted romp through a kooky town right after one of the saddest episodes of the series. And basically everything from here on is just going to get more and more serious, enjoy Rush valley while you can.

However it also gives us a little time to establish a few things. The childbirth scene is particularly key to both Ed and Al's journey as well as to their next interactions with Izumi. After all when you get right down to it, Ed's arc culminates in trading away alchemy itself for what he cares about. It's learning from his hubris in believing that he can do everything with alchemy towards realizing what really matters to him.

One thing in the background (that was mentioned by Hughes in the last episode) is that the nation of Amestris (their nation) is very war-like. Aside from the Ishbalan civil war one of the biggest recent conflicts are skirmishes in the South against Arugo (their Southern neighbor). Between the close conflict and Rush Valley's status as a mining town, it makes sense that Auto-mail engineers would congregate there. I believe Granny Pinako mentioned about the unfortunate fact that Auto-mail engineers profit primarily off of the suffering of others.

I do not know why Paniaya's auto-mail was weaponized, but my personal theory is that her engineer basically used her legs as his guinea pig for his various developments and inventions. Winry was particularly astounded that he was able to make so much room in her legs for rocket launchers while they still operate great

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A good point since most of the combat automail we see later on is not exactly what you'd call Graceful, ay Buccaneer?

the guy doesn't seem to do much business outside of Paniaya so he needs to test his inventions somewhere. Really her lifestyle, if amoral, at least would have given him a good gauge on how well the auto-mail worked.

[Randomguy]

My personal theory was that Rush Valley in a mining town or the most central town in an area that does a lot of mining. That being a job that tends to have a high injury rate which means that you start to see a big jump in auto mail sales so the best people start to set up shop for better sales, so people who need auto mail start to travel because the best of the best have set up shop and the next thing you know it's the mecca of automail.

I went with railway project because those also tend to have high injury rates (from what I know, I haven't done research on this) and because the train passes right through the town. Although now that I think about it, if it was a mining town then that would make it easy to get metal to use for automail. Which would be a vicious cycle, now that I think about. There are injuries in the mining town so automail mechanics arrive; automail mechanics need metal so mining is done; mining causes injuries so that automail mechanics arrive.


I don't know what it is about wednesdays, but I don't have a wednesday update this week either. On the bright side, I was relatively productive IRL today, so there's that.
I want to try to do the update for episode 14 by this Friday, so that means I'll try for a double update on thursday or friday, but I can't guarantee anything.

[Super Evil User]

Ha ha, plot armor in FMA that's rich.

Are you joking? Al has a laughable amount of plot armor in both versions. Arakawa had to make the "Human Sacrifice" thing just so that the homunculi wouldn't kill the protagonists instantly.

[Ravian]

Dude Spoilers seriously... he hasn't even gotten to any of the sins past Lust, Envy and Gluttony yet.