Sorry if you like Ling, I just can’t. I’m forever baffled as to why he’s apparently extremely popular. Feel free to argue with me if you like – this ended up way, way longer and more detailed than it needed to be. And am I taking terrible comedy too seriously? Undoubtedly.

But I really do dislike him. He annoyed me from the first moment he appeared in episode 15 of BH where he behaves absolutely obnoxiously throughout the entire episode and continued to annoy right up until he got consumed with Greed. And his ending annoyed me.  

Part 1 – First appearance

First impressions are everything, right? While I’m willing to change my mind if a character has hidden depths etc., if their character is plain irritating, that impression tends to last.

Okay, so he’s passed out in a random alley and Ed and Al find him – which is by the way a huge plot contrivance. They’re in Rush Valley in the South and Ling will explicitly tell them that he travelled to Amestris via the Xerxes ruins which are the North-East. And he seems to be heading to Central, there’s no reason for him to be in Rush valley let alone in a random alley alone so Ed and Al can help him. (This is a minor point though, I can deal with a couple of contrivances.)

After Ed and Al help him out, giving him food, he asks about the Philosopher’s stone and Ed tells them they don’t know anything . This is sensible – the Philosopher’s stone is pretty evil by the way, seeking power from the stone is dangerous – so will Ling ever have to question his desire for the Stone and the source of its power? Ha, no.  

So Ling decides to sic his ninja bodyguards on Ed and Al! They said they didn’t know anything! Given how rare information on the stone is, that’s completely reasonable but oh Ling just knows that they’re hiding something about it? And thinks attacking two kids he knows nothing about is a great idea?

Lan Fan and Fuu do not hold back either, they use explosives and knives and cause loads of damage in their fight when Ed and Al haven’t even done anything! It’s a cool fight spectacle-wise but the circumstances make me hate it! We get a shot of Ling casually eating a big meal while this is all going on to show how little he cares. Oh and he makes Ed pay the bill for it.

When Ed and Al do manage to win, Ling is completely unapologetic and allows Ed to get all the blame for the damages he caused when he sent his people to attack Ed and Al. When Ed comes back to see Winry, she is furious at him for damaging his automail again thanks to the fight he didn’t start. And Ling just appears again, casually breaking in to Ed’s place, insisting on tagging along even though Ed tells him not to. Ling doesn’t face a single consequence for any of this by the way. Ling does explain his status here explaining that he wants the Stone to become Emperor of Xing which is… yeah still quite a selfish goal.

And then there’s the conversation at the end of the episode where Fuu asks Ling why he’s putting up with Ed and Al, who are beneath him. Eh? This is Ling being nice? Ed and Al have been fairly nice, helping him in that alley, listening to his story. Their anger was entirely justified with how obnoxious Ling has been this entire episode. But oh it’s Ling who is supposedly bowing his head to someone so far beneath him? Ling understands that a little humility might be wise when his clan’s fate is in the balance. In light of that, what do appearances matter?

…

So you’re telling me that being incredibly obnoxious and annoying was deliberate? All he achieved was making Ed and Al and me absolutely hate him! I’m going to ignore this conversation about Ling seeming wise and having a bigger plan because it doesn’t match up with anything else in the entire episode.

Now, I don’t mind flawed characters – but Ling never gets called out on any of his behaviour and never gets asked to change. Instead what we’ve seen so far is that Lan Fan is ridiculously devoted to him right from the beginning and the only way we see it as a flaw is that she’s so defensive she loses her cool just from hearing Ling get insulted. Quite why she is so loyal is never explored and I know she’s only a side character but you know I could really use a legitimate reason to like Ling.

Part 2 – Ling’s leadership?

Okay, his first appearance was just a comedy episode so I’ll just be kind and dismiss it. What’s Ling like when the plot gets a bit more serious then? In Central, Ed and Al hatch a plan to catch a homunculus by getting Scar to attempt to kill them and Ling volunteers to help fight the homunculi while Ed and Al deal with Scar.

So Ling and Lan Fan get into a fight with Wrath and Gluttony and Ling reveals that he’s also a superb fighter too because why not? Like, Lan Fan takes a nasty injury from Wrath but Ling manages to hold him off and runs away while carrying Lan Fan. That’s downright crazy alone – that Ling is such a competent fighter he can hold off Wrath while carrying Lan Fan! Isn’t Lan Fan meant to be the trained bodyguard?

Okay so his fighting skills are ridiculous, fine it’s a shonen anime, everyone can fight, whatever. It’s the conversation with Wrath that really gets to me though.

Wrath tells him that if he let go of Lan Fan, he might have a have a chance of escaping. Ling interprets this weirdly and goes on about how a true ruler cares about his subjects and so would never abandon his people and says that Bradley is no true King.

Shut up Ling. Bradley isn’t hiding behind others here, he’s fighting you one-on-one, not sacrificing minions. And you aren’t Amestrian so you have no reason to know about Bradley’s other decisions as a leader so how can you so confidently criticise him? (Bradley is an interesting character who totally shines when being challenged by the heroes but I hate Ling doing it here.) I mean, isn’t Ling the one who orders his minions to fight while he eats breakfast and lets someone else pay for the consequences?

Okay, so I shouldn’t take that fight seriously because it’s not meant to be serious. How about the current one? Ling volunteered to help with Ed’s plan and that lead to Lan Fan risking her life for him! Sure, Lan Fan agreed because she’s stupidly loyal but this was Ling’s plan and she got hurt! Her injuries are as much his fault as anyone’s.

Ling choosing not to abandon her is nice, sure. But given she got hurt following him, I’d call it being a decent human being, rather than a true paragon of leadership! And that’s if I’m to accept that any of this makes one particularly good for being a leader anyway. Ling is kind of extremely reckless. Did I mention the part where he disappeared on his bodyguards just because, leading them to worry as he was passed out on the street in the middle of Central? And then got arrested? Gosh he’s irresponsible. He is so lucky that worked out so easily.

Bradley doesn’t refute Ling’s words, just saying something about how there are no true kings in this world while Ling attempts to escape, still carrying Lan Fan. And there’s another annoying plot hole here where Lan Fan lets off a flashbomb and Ling takes the chance to escape but Wrath reveals his other eye under the eyepatch, preventing Ling’s escape. And then it cuts to the next scene and… Ling has escaped the room!

He’s still running away from Wrath while carrying Lan Fan and despite how fast Wrath is, Ling manages to get pretty far away somehow. Far enough that Lan Fan successfully cuts off her arm, then they tie it to a dog, and escape through the sewers all before Wrath catches up to him. This whole sequence was all off-screen!

In case we haven’t got enough of Ling being awesome, our next scene of him has him jumping out of the sewers with his shirt off where he proceeds to capture Gluttony.  Heh, I guess there’s nothing wrong with that but I can’t help but feel like I’m really supposed to like Ling here and love the badass moments and I cannot. I’m upset that the scene where Ling is forced tie her arm to a dog while Lan Fan is bleeding out beside him was cut as that’s the kind of scene that would get me to actually like him. Not scenes of him being an awesome fighter.

Part 3 – The part I don’t hate

Ling is a character with flaws and room for growth, which is something I can appreciate. But these earlier flaws are presented as just comic relief, if they’re acknowledged at all. That’s what annoys me – I usually like characters who can be obnoxious jerks with a heart of gold so long as their flaws aren’t just blatantly laughed off as a joke and they aren’t put on such a pedestal.

In the next few episodes we do get to see a more serious and conflicted Ling. This is Ling at his most interesting. He feels guilty about what Lan Fan’s done for him when he was too weak to do so himself and is determined that her sacrifice has meaning. So he’s got the hero flaw of caring too much.

This leads to an interesting conflict where Ling, Roy and Ed all fight over Gluttony and his philosopher’s stone. Ed wants it for Alphonse and points out it was his plan. Roy wants it to heal Havoc. Ling wants it to become emperor and argues about what Lan Fan’s sacrificed so that they could catch the homunculus. This is the kind of conflict I find interesting!

Sadly, Gluttony breaks free then so this argument isn’t really explored any further. It’s still something though.

And at the end of the series we do see how they’ve changed in this regard. Ling finally gets a stone and even though he’s just lost Greed, he freely offers the stone to Edward to save Al. And Ed refuses. So this stuff is all interesting and I really do wish the conflict and resolution wasn’t so brief (and that Roy wasn’t just given a stone to cure his blindness but I digress.)

Ling gets swallowed by Gluttony and there’s more comedy which is still a touch irritating but not nearly so bad as his first few appearances. Ling collapses again with no energy and this should be serious (it seems like it ought to be quite a serious issue) but it’s still presented as comic again. I can’t take Ling’s fainting spells seriously as it’s played for comedy every. Single. Time. That aside, Ling is at his most tolerable here and it’s interesting how determined he is against Envy in contrast to Ed’s horror at Envy’s true form slowing him down. When they’re out, Ling distrust of Father is also good.

And finally we get to Ling accepting Greed into his body. Again he’s being super-reckless and he’s sort of being called out on this as Ed urges him to fight but Ling decides not to. Again we get this characterisation of Ling as someone willing to surrender and lose face to get what he wants. As he said to Fuu when he first met Ed, appearances don’t matter in the long run. He can bow his head when the situation requires. Fighting Greed here would be pointless.

(This is in contrast to Ed who is prideful and can never accept defeat. In Gluttony’s stomach we see him marching relentlessly onward even though its futile. Later, we see Ed’s growth where he agrees to be Greed’s minion, letting go of his useless pride as he realises he can gain something by humbling himself.)

I wish this was explored a bit more too though. It feels more like Ling’s recklessly jumping at the chance to gain immortality despite having been told repeatedly that its a bad idea and, though it seems like he faces consequences in getting consumed by Greed, it eventually works out quite well for him. (Okay that’s a bit harsh, I enjoy Greed’s struggle.) And it seems like its more like luck than any cleverness on his part, which is kinda irksome with how lucky Ling is generally. He’s extremely lucky.

I’d have to rewatch some parts to confirm but I do remember being irritated at how Ling would often take the moral high ground in his arguments with Greed. It seems to be assumed that Ling is a noble person who cares for others and he’s helping Greed to learn that as well. But eh, I was reading it the other way round – Greed’s the noble soul and Ling’s the one who needs to learn.

–

So yeah, I like where he’s serious and gets challenged but I feel like it rarely happens. Ling’s other flaws just feel like they’re all comedy where the joke is that he’s rude and obnoxious and pushy and gets away with it. None of his other appearances stop his personality from grating on me. At the beginning of the series, he thinks he’s going to find the secret to immortality and be a great leader and apparently he’s completely correct. Because yeah, he obtained the philosopher’s stone and became Emperor of Xing. Not that I want him to fail, I just don’t like his initial character when I feel like I’m supposed to and most of the character development with Greedling feels like its solely for Greed. Eh I’ve rambled on enough now.

I actually love Greed’s character, he’s really interesting and I adore his development. My hatred is purely directed at Ling.

I think there’s a bit of a misunderstanding here with regards to revenge in FMA. It’s kind of confused at times – which is pretty irritating.

Brotherhood has both Scar’s and Roy’s character arc demonstrate that seeking revenge is wrong. I believe Brotherhood’s stance is that revenge is not a stance that should be praised even if it is an understandable reaction to suffering at the hands of another because life has a value and destroying life does not bring the lives lost back. It just brings death upon those who wronged you. Which then leads to others seeking revenge against you and a cycle of vengeance. This viewpoint certainly makes sense in a vacuum.

But it isn’t applicable to the situation in FMA 03 and suggesting that Brotherhood’s more optimistic message is more powerful fails to understand that they are not even discussing the same issues. Brotherhood appears to be talking about the dangers of being driven by emotions and using past loss (that is in the past) to justify your present violent actions.

It’s pretty effective with this usually but there’s this one big flaw. Scar. The issue is in the framing of Scar’s actions as revenge in reaction to his loss, as actions take out of anger with the intent to cause suffering. But Scar’s actions are not being done simply out of revenge.

FMA 03 shows that Scar is acting to make a positive difference by preventing further bloodshed in his actions by fighting against an oppressive regime that continues to cause suffering. Had in some highly unrealistic fantasy scenario after the Ishvalan war the Amestrian government had experienced rapid reform and apologised to the Ishvalan people and tried its best to make amends etc., Scar’s actions could maybe be taken as revenge for the sake of causing suffering. (And that would be understandable given what’s he’s lost – but wrong.)

But Scar is fighting against a regime that has not changed at all. It’s attempting to turn Liore into another Ishval. It continues to mistreat the Ishvalan people. It is only after a military coup and the death of the Fuhrer that the Ishvalan policy finally gets reversed and positive change begins to happen in FMA 03.

In short, I think the FMA 03 narrative has a clearer idea of what it was doing with regard to its message on genocide (mostly… Al does compare Martel seeking revenge on Kimblee to Scar and keeps discussing it as revenge…) where Brotherhood seems to get confused by melding personal revenge and fighting against an oppressive regime together, leading to some unfortunate implications in that regard.

(Note that I haven’t actually rewatched Brotherhood in awhile and don’t remember everything about it so I may be forgetting something. I’m mostly just trying to clarify why I don’t really believe 03 is discussing revenge at all.)

Hey, this blog is of course a place for me to post my fma meta in an organised fashion and I wanted to expand on this with a little links page to some other nice posts I’ve read. (Visit here for most of my own essays.) These ones aren’t mine and not all of them will necessarily reflect my opinions but they’re all worth checking out in my opinion – or I just wanted to save them here. I hate trying to track down old posts! If you want to know my opinions or just want to discuss any of them, feel free to ask, I’d be more than happy to chat (bearing in mind that I’m mostly an FMA 03 fan.)

All credit to original writers! Many will have written more stuff about FMA so consider checking them out to see what else they’ve written.

They are in no particular order.

Specifically FMA 03 essays

• Episode 10 and its foreshadowing of Sloth by Zapph0 Really cool analysis that really helps you to view this generally considered subpar episode from another angle.
• Character Breakdown of Roy Mustang by calangoh. Excellent post – probably one that influenced much of my own thoughts on Roy.
• Roy’s vengeance by prettywitchiusuka – discussing both Roy and the topic of revenge in 03 more generally.
• The Women of Fullmetal Alchemist: Sloth, Sheska and Lust by boob-tube-blog. Three-part series discussing these three fascinating woman. My favourite is the breakdown of Sloth’s character and her motives.
• In defence of the 2003 body crisis by Karinakamichi – covers Al’s identity crisis in detail and why, they argue, it works both as a dilemma for Al and thematically in view of the wider series.
• Why does Ed flinch? by Zudilio + fmanime. It’s a look at the briefest moment in episode 8 and its implications. 😦
• Why Dante’s a great villain by theishvalanalchemist. This post really helped me to appreciate her.
• FMA03 Ending Analysis by EditorofShamballa. Extremely detailed breakdown of themes and ideas and how the FMA 03 ending works. The message section is particularly illuminating. Great to check out, especially if you had issues with the bittersweet nature of the ending.
• Alphonse Elric’s soul is artificially created – an FMA theory by AlWrath. This is quite the compelling theory. If pretty dark.
• Countering the Copy theory – were the homunculi indeed once human? by BudgeFMA. Another compelling theory on the nature of the homunculi.
• State-alchemists in Ishval = State-sponsored terrorism by Lusilly. These are some great thoughts and it’s also very worth reading all their other Ishval-related posts.

Specifically FMAB/manga essays

• One is all, all is one + Father’s fate. by Jon_S111 Really interesting analysis of the final gate scene.
• On Lust’s ironic death by Oreramar. Nice explanation on how Lust’s death is ironic just like the other homunculi deaths.
• Truth takes 11 and gives back 10 – a quick look at the alchemist’s punishments by d31tafOrc3. Short but eye-opening.
• Eyes convey truth in FMAB by Under-the-Scope. Interesting video essay showing this intriguing link.
• Breaking the Cycle – Scar by Aleczandxr. Video essay on Scar’s character arc, exploring the theme of revenge.
• Winry as Ed’s truth by Drrockbell +others. Cool look at both the 5th OP and Winry’s importance to Ed.
• Of Gods, Guilt and Greed: Morality and Mad science in FMA by hckleinman. Nice analysis of a couple themes most notably the importance of the bonds between people.
• The problematic portrayal of minority characters. by Amarielah This is a detailed break-down of some issues specifically with regards to how Miles and Scar were portrayed in Brotherhood.
• The case against Fullmetal alchemist brotherhood by luv_mehta This is some pretty heavy crit – more of a rant than anything else, though it’s surprisingly detailed for all that. Worth reading in case you ever just want to hear someone complain about this anime though fans should probably just avoid it.

Series comparisons

Note that these are mostly biased towards FMA 03 because that’s kinda the stuff I tend to keep track of. It’s not a reflection of the fandom’s view in general – indeed it would seem the reverse is true.

• Lowart’s video series. A series of videos comparing FMA 03 and Brotherhood. Currently in progress. There’s actually two versions as he ended up remaking the series. Older version is here. It’s also very definitely worth checking out the comments as that’s also got a ton of really good analysis going on.
• What makes the first anime so different from the manga? by Amarielah. This was written in 2009 when Brotherhood is just coming out and so it’s comparing the 03 anime with the Manga and where their real differences lie.
• A comparative liveblog by Irin. This series is framed as a response and rebuttal to crit FMA 03 has often received and is very harsh towards Brotherhood. Yeah not really for fans of it at all as it doesn’t even get past episode 20 of Brotherhood yet analyses FMA 03 to the end. But there’s some really interesting insight in it as well.

And that’s the current collection – it is currently extremely incomplete so expect this list to be frequently updated but finding these and adding them takes time. While I’m sharing this list, it’s definitely going to be for my own use so I can just keep track of these posts.

Anyway If you know of any cool posts, feel free to rec them to me so I can add them. Cheers!

Hey- someone asked for the plot of FMA 2003 from where it deviates from Brotherhood. This is what I wrote out – note that I don’t recommend reading plot summaries – I’d recommend watching the anime. It’s great! This turned out really long but I still missed out so much and I didn’t exactly describe the character’s feelings – it only summarises the events.

So, FMA begins to seriously deviate from Manga/Brotherhood during Lab 5. Ed learns that the Homunculi are seeking the Philosopher’s stone in order to become human. And they’ve him there so he can create on for them. He then has an encounter with the Ishvalans and learns of how a stone was rumoured to have been created in Ishval and therefore decides to track down Scar.

Izumi runs into him however and convinces him to spend some time contemplating what they’re doing and what they’ve done. Whilst on Yok island, they meet a young Homunculus boy who they are immediately suspicious of. Overtime, they come to learn that he was created by Izumi after she lost her unborn child. After eating red stones, courtesy of Envy, the newly dubbed ‘Wrath’ confronts Izumi and the Elric brothers. Izumi at first thinks to choke the boy, but can’t do it and so Wrath nearly kills her before getting attacked by Al and Ed. Wrath also reveals that Homunculi are created when humans attempt a human transmutation to bring someone back to life.

Envy and Sloth arrive and take young Wrath with them, letting him into their new group, which is secretly lead by the old woman known as Dante – she’s Izumi’s former teacher, who lives in the deep forests and possesses great knowledge of alchemy.

Meanwhile, Greed has recently escaped from where he was imprisoned in Lab 5 after it was blown up during Ed and Al’s infiltration attempt. He and the military’s specially engineered human-chimeras – including Tucker – as well as former Crimson Alchemist Kimblee have formed a group together. Greed is supposedly seeking immortality though what he really longs for is true freedom as he has been reliant on red stones supplied by his creator Dante for so long. He has gathered powerful people around him and also wanted to capture young Wrath for himself – though that failed.

Greed decides to capture Al to see if he can learn more about his seemingly immortal state of being. This goes well initially, but it soon backfires when Kimblee decides to betray him to the military which naturally means the Homunculi track him down as well. Lust and Gluttony lure him out and, lacking options, Greed decides to head to Dante’s house. He hates this though, especially as he has no intention of being loyal anymore. It’s a trap and Greed finds himself in a Homunculus sealing circle, with his weakness laid out around him.

It’s then that Edward arrives, sees what seems to be Dante’s dead body and thinks Greed killed her. He’s also looking for his brother. Greed taunts Ed though, deciding he’d rather be dead than captured again and incites Ed into killing. With his dying words, he tells Ed the Homunculi’s weakness – their human remains – and instructs Ed to kill them for him. Ed is distraught.

Afterwards Ed and Al head out towards Ishval once more, deciding they still needs to track down Scar. We learn more about Lust and how she’s questioning her own nature, and we see more oppression of the Ishvalans. The Homunculi are inciting terror in order to cause despair. Ed talks to an Ishvalan exile and learns that Scar is intending to create a stone in order to forge a power greater than the military’s to save his people and Ed therefore decides he must stop him.

So Ed and Al travel onward and they meet Martel who helps them out and they run into the Military outside Liore, which has descended into a truly terrible disaster. Another Genocide is being considered and Scar is inside the town and Ed recognises the philosopher’s stone circle being drawn around the city. He enters the town fearfully but soon learns that Scar is not intending to use the stone on the people of Liore, but on the soldiers invading. Meanwhile, the military propaganda team is at work and they want an incident of civilians attacking soldiers to justify this invasion. They send in Kimblee to do so. Kimblee was the one who killed Scar’s brother and the fight becomes very personal. Scar kills Kimblee but A; is turned into a bomb. Scar decides to give Al his arm, which is an incomplete philosopher’s stone to save him.

The soldier invade and Al is turned into the Philosopher’s stone, and Scar dies. Lust was also involved – she was created by Scar’s brother and she was starting to regain some memories of her former life and seemed to be developing some feelings for Scar too – she’s even willing to defy Dante for him. Dante is in Liore as well, now in the body of an alchemist called Lyra – she’s extended her own life by moving her soul between bodies and needs a new stone to continue this cycle. She also has an interest in Ed as he’s Hohenheim’s son.

Ed has meanwhile been helping the people of Liore to escape which included a confrontation between him and Sloth and Wrath. He finally accepts that Sloth was his creation and therefore his mistake. Sloth hates him for creating and abandoning him. Rose helps him her – she had been rendered mute by the horrible things that have been done to her during the ongoing riots plaguing Liore but finds the confidence to speak here.

Ed and Al meet up and head to Risembool. On the way the getting captured by Mustang who reveals he cares and that he was responsible for killing the Rockbell’s and that he has sworn to never follow unreasonable order again as he decides to help Ed. Ed tells him that the fuhrer is a Homunculus and Mustang decides to investigate this, coming to the conclusion that the fuhrer has been starting pointless wars purely to create lives and despair in order to create a philosopher’s stone. So Mustang decides to stage a coup.

At Risembool, Ed digs up his mother’s grave in order to get her weakness to use against Sloth. He’s now wanted by the military so he disguises himself before leaving for Central. Al realises Ed’s keeping secrets from him and isn’t talking so he decides to go to Tucker to learn about the Stone. Tucker is just using him to recreate Nina however. Meanwhile, Ed talks to Izumi asking for her baby’s remains to use against Wrath but she doesn’t have any. Wrath and the recently released Lust go to confront Ed but Lust decides to attack Wrath instead because she no longer believes Dante and decides to help Ed. Sloth has gone to confront Al and is pretending to act motherly towards him. There’s some fighting, Ending in Wrath killing Lust and Ed killing Sloth while Wrath runs away and then Al gets captured by Envy and taken to Dante.

Izumi and Ed head first to the military building, then Ed head alone to meet Dante beneath a church in a secret city beneath Central. This city was destroyed hundreds of years okay to create a philosopher’s stone and then it was buried and forgotten about with Central city built on its ruins. This was done by Dante and Hohenheim, who were once lovers a long time ago. They also had a son together – the very first homunculus – Envy. Envy hates his father for creating and abandoning him, a hatred encouraged by Dante and extends to Ed and Al – plus all humans to a lesser extent. Dante is intent on harvesting Al for the stone and means to do this by having Gluttony devour him.

Hohenheim confronted Dante but she opened up the gate and his body and spirit were pulled to the other side. On the other side lies another world. Dante has learned to open it by using a baby as each human inside them possesses a gate through which they perform alchemy – it’s a link to this other world. A baby’s gates are naturally more open.

When Edward arrives, Dante decides to drag his spirit through the gate as well – but his mind and body gets separated as his body remains inside the gate – which is a void of sorts – while his spirit got pulled into his counterparts body on the other side. There he meets his father who instructs him to try opening his natural gates in order to pull his spirit back into his own body. He does so, but at the cost of his counterpart’s life.

Meanwhile, Roy’s coup is also a distraction as he and Riza sneak over to the Fuhrer’s residence in order to kill him. Pride is very formidable and Roy takes grievous injuries – he only survives when young Selim appears, holding Pride’s weakness. Pride is furious and strangles his own son. Roy takes the opportunity to kill him – burning him to ashes. As he slowly leaves, Archer appears and shoots at him. Riza saves him, killing archer though Roy sustains a bad injury to the idea. He survives, waking up in the hospital, his ambitions of becoming fuhrer over, but happy and able to appreciate the good in life.

Back to the main plot. Ed breaks back through the gate and gets into a fight with Envy. He reveals his true form and Ed’s shocked and it gives Envy the chance to stab him fatally. Ed dies. Al, still trapped in the centre of the room decides to use the stone to sacrifice himself to bring Ed back.

Envy got caught in the transmutation and decides to go to the other side of the gate to seek out hohenheim, so driven by hate. Dante is furious at having lost her stone and tries to leave. She gets caught by a Gluttony whose mind she destroyed to force him to comply and she herself gets devoured. Out of the homunculi, only Wrath, missing two limbs, lives with mind intact.

Ed wakes up but Al is gone. Rose suggests he tries to move forward and be thankful for what he’s been given, but Ed cannot. He decides to sacrifice himself to bring back his brother. It works and Al is restored as a 10 year-old-boy without memories of the last 5 years.

Ed meanwhile has given himself to the gate in sacrifice but manages to survive by pushing himself to the other side of the gate, body and soul this time. Hohenheim suggest that their experiences may have paid the price. He still intends to find a way back to his brother some day through research the science of this other world. Al likewise, decides to research Alchemy in the hopes of someday reuniting with his brother again.

[On reddit, me and EditorofShamballa got to discussing BH’s ending. It’s not exactly my favourite as I’ve mentioned before. I don’t usually discuss Brotherhood unless specifically asked. Aside from the ending rant and the incomplete rewatch series, I think I’ve only discussed it in response to some sort of query.

But still, I ended up with a weird mixture of both complaining about it and explaining it. I like the stuff I briefly wrote on Ed’s character development in BH though. Here’s their initial questions – (not mine):]

I have some… questions pertaining to the writing quality about Ed’s last transmutation that I invite any knowledgeable fan of FMAB to give a shot at answering:

1) How is Truth (God) changing the laws of Equivalent Exchange seemingly arbitrarily because Ed “solved the puzzle,” (renouncing his arrogance in believing alchemy could solve his problems & declaring, “Even if I lose alchemy, I’ll still have my friends”)…

a) not a literal deus ex machina?

b) not break the hardness of the show’s magic system if EE isn’t based on fixed equivalence but however Truth/God would like it to work at the time?

2) How did Ed know Truth would (let alone could) change the laws of Equivalent Exchange for him? If it’s because Ed was desperate and grasping as straws, then why

a) is Ed so confident it’s going to work (he draws the circle and tells the crowd that, “I’ll be right back. The last transmutation that the Fullmetal Alchemist will ever do,” grinning re-assuredly all the while)?

b) didn’t Ed come up with this that other time he was desperate and grasping at straws (when he finds out the Stone requires human sacrifice) and has ample time comparatively to think of this?

3) How can Ed claim (and thereby persuade Truth to change the laws) Ed was wrong and arrogant to believe alchemy could solve his problems, when Ed uses alchemy (twice) to solve the main problem of getting Al back? Those two times being when Ed

a) draws the human transmutation circle in central and claps his hands

b) claps his hands and touches his gate, transmuting it away

4) Where is Ed’s character arc throughout the series of him overcoming his aforementioned arrogant belief in alchemy to solve his problems?

5) Where is Ed’s character arc of him valuing his friends and friendships significantly more than alchemy? Throughout the series, did Ed not hone alchemy as a means of helping people (like his brother), not for its own sake (like Tucker)?

6) How come when Ed finds out that EE is not governed by actual (fixed) equivalence but by the law of how Truth wants it to work at the time, it does not shatter Ed’s view of/faith in EE?

[Here is my reply. I was in an agreeable and therefore happy to whine sort of mood.]

I have a few issues with Ed’s final transmutation too. Not so much in the logistics of it though – that’s never really bothered me. More in how annoyingly pointless Al’s sacrifice felt – they were surrounded by other people! Father was ambling towards Ed. How was sacrificing Al himself to free Ed from a rock their best option? He or Mei could have broken the rock without trouble using alchemy, I’m sure. Or Greed could have intervened – he’s right there after all and Father really gets defeated when Greed sacrifices himself, not Ed’s punches. And yeah, Ed’s complete confidence that sacrificing his alchemy would work. I thought he’d just learnt to be humble but he’s as sure of himself as ever. Made worse as he’s literally given alternate solutions for him to reject so he can choose the ‘correct answer’. I miss my hell-gates that are beyond human comprehension.

I will offer an answer to 3) and 4) I think:

3) It’s more that alchemy got Al into his armour in his arrogance about trying to bring his mother back. Had Ed never touched alchemy, he and his brother would have both been whole and well – the things he really values are his friendships. It’s in giving up his alchemy that he gets Al back -yes he’s using alchemy to do it but it’s alchemy that caused the problem in the first place.

4) You can see this through Ed’s growing appreciation for Winry throughout the series. He feels useless when a baby is being born in spite of all his alchemy. Winry is a person he respects for her skills as a doctor and mechanic – she helps people. Ed’s speech about how her hands are meant for healing come with the flipside that his own hands are meant for destruction. Ed meets various other strong people who don’t possess alchemy, such as Ling, Lan Fan and Olivier Armstrong. With his alchemy all he’s done is join the military, discover the stone is made from human lives and get used as a human sacrifice, being used in a country-wide transmutation. In Briggs, we get another scene of Winry and Scar where she’s able to get through to him with her kindness, getting him on their side where Ed is again little help because he’s distrusting. His distrust of others is treated as a flaw, such as his refusal to make amends with his father being seen as childish stubborness.

Of course, this suggests to me that Ed is just incredibly uncreative if he can’t see how to use his alchemy for anything constructive – and there are actually very few examples of him using his alchemy for anything constructive – and I absolutely hate the way hohenheim is written in FMAB. I don’t think Brotherhood Ed is nearly as interesting or developed as 03 Ed.

[And their response.]

As far as your issues go, I think you make some great points! I have more issues than just the logic/degree of contrivance of the last transmutation, but that scene is the most densely packed of the writing issues, and that is already a wall of questions.

I know you’re not one to defend FMAB often, but I appreciate you giving counterpoints, so here are mine:

3) In the last transmutation scene, Ed specifically refers to becoming arrogant about alchemy after seeing the Truth inside the Gate, so post-decision to resurrect his mother.

4) I think this is a very fair point, thank you!

It’s not uncommon to hear people complain that it’s annoying to see Ed after the Nina incident be so irrationally emotional. However, even in FMAB, Ed still holds onto his irrational emotional hatred of his father up to the end.

One would think those aforementioned complainers would find this exponentially more annoying because Hohenheim’s “abandoning” their family was so he could save the world from Father who Ed just literally punched into the next dimension. Ed even has the gall to call him “rotten” even after Hohenheim volunteers to sacrifice his own life for Al’s.

Is this similar to the issue(s) you have with how Hohenheim is written in FMAB?

[My response which turned into a rant…]

On 3) Did it really specify that? Well then, it’s especially bad that Brotherhood skipped Ed’s childhood then. The manga is structured with Liore then Yousewell then the battle on the train and then Nina. These first three help to show Ed as arrogant and sure of himself. Then the Nina incident deconstructs this and Ed’s whole arrogant attitude by showing Ed to be really powerless when it matters.

So he felt that by seeing truth and becoming awesome enough to be a State Alchemist, he was better than regular humans. In seeing Truth Ed believes he’s become special. Nina is the start of his character development into learning that he’s not greater leading up to this moment with Truth where he has come to the conclusion that he’s nothing more than a regular human who couldn’t even save a little girl – and that’s alright because regular humans are awesome – like Winry. That’s what I think it’s going for – which Brotherhood kind of messes up by skipping the establishing episodes – with its episode 1 being too busy to spend a proper amount of time on characterising Ed. (I guess he’s still being characterised as arrogant even afterwards but I’m told the Nina incident is meant to be a turning point in him starting to become more caring. He specifically mentions her in his speech to Truth.)

[And here’s where I rant about BH Hohenheim… I just don’t like him and how he’s written.]

Regarding Hohenheim, no not really. I think they frame him as way too heroic actually. From the second he appears in episode 20 of BH, he is scolding Ed for burning the house down, scolding him and calling Ed a child. He offers Pinako the vaguest warning of all time (how nice to warn your friend and no one else about the danger the entire country is in) and doesn’t offer any explanation for his 10 year disappearance. That would all be interesting as I do like exploring flawed characters but I feel as if the show wants me to see him as a good, caring person in how he leaves Ed speechless and that brief moment of him wanting to stroke Ed’s head but unable to do it because he doesn’t consider himself worthy. And then he leaves again without saying goodbye – he’s so infuriating- and after hardly saying anything useful when he could have shared so much more. And then you get that later scene where Ed meets his father again and there’s this bit where Darius asks Ed why he can’t forgive his father already? It’s none of his business! It’s basically signalling that Ed’s being childish for not being interested in reconnecting with a man who’s been gone for most of his life.

Now sure, from Hohenheim’s perspective you could say he had no choice but he’s so terrible at actually communicating. And his big reason for not being there was because he had to spread souls across the land to defeat Father. Did that really take 10 years? Amestris isn’t that big and I think he only had to visit the conflict points. Could he not have visited home occasionally? Could he not have called? Anything? His reason for not being there is stupid in short and it also leads to much of the climax being about him. He was the one to stop Father’s plan. In fact, Father’s plan has no chance of success since before the series even began because Hohenheim’s circle was self-activating (even if he died) and he’d planted most of the souls by the time the series started.

Now, I know he’s supposed to be a good person but I hate every scene he’s in. (Except for the one of him as a Slave in the past – that’s interesting.) I don’t think he’s that well-written. Even his relationship with Trisha came off as weirdly creepy in that one episode where she’s there as a child?? Ed’s even dressing up as Hohenheim at the end to annoy me further. (Not that I mind Edward’s character development ending with him forgiving his father – 03 was the same way. It just felt like less an expectation there.)

Wow, I wrote a lot there… sorry I guess I really like to rant about Hohenheim.

[So that was some problems with Hohenheim and I probably actually have more to say – once you dislike a character, suddenly everything is wrong with them.

I think it should be clear that Edward is my favourite character. Therefore, another thing I didn’t care for so much in the BH finale is how Hohenheim has essentially become its protagonist with the main connection to the villain, being so instrumental in destroying his plan, he’s Father’s foil and he even tanks so many blows before offering his life to save Al and bringing Ed to tears. Then he dies on Trisha’s grave with a smile on his face. It’s his story at this point more than any others and Ed’s importance feels contrived as his punching Father was hardly something anyone couldn’t have done just as well – I feel like he only does it to pay lipservice to the fact that he is nominally the main character even though he’s long been overshadowed by others. This is a personal complaint I have, I’m not sure it counts as anything like a critique but I felt it bears mentioning anyway while I’m sharing some of my issues with Hohenheim.]