There’s plenty of emotion in FMA 03, really. It’s why it’s my favourite. I’m talking about episode 8 for now anyway.
So it’s the episode after Nina died and Ed is really distraught about it. And Ed encounters a serial killer! Interestingly, 03 decides to follow the Nina incident with Ed getting into a fight and almost getting killed just like the Manga but decides to hold back on the Scar fight. Events are shuffled around quite a bit really, but plenty of similarities remain.
But one big difference is that Ed wasn’t looking for the Scar fight, he was feeling sad and depressed about what’s just happened and then he’s attacked.
In 03 however?
Ed decides to leave the military (which he just joined) and hunt down the serial killer.
You can see why. He’s feeling helpless and wants to do something about it. He’s informed that Tucker’s been executed already and he can’t bring Nina back. The only other option open to him is to find who killed her and find some sort of justice for what happened. He needs some sort of obsession to focus on.
And the military is cold and uncaring. They want him to get to work. (And someone has a seriously sick sense of humour in ordering him to go through Tucker’s research.) Mustang is unsympathetic. Even Al just wants to move past the tragedy but Ed just cannot.
But Ed’s also acting completely irrationally. He heard about a serial killer in Central a little while ago and decides that it must be him behind Nina’s death. Even though it’s so obviously not. This guy goes after young women and likes to slash them up. The cause of death is completely different. But Ed’s basically clinging to whatever cause he can find.
Al’s trying to be reasonable. He’s like: “We don’t catch criminals, we’re alchemists, we do research. Maybe we can find a way to prevent another Nina from happening.” And Ed literally runs away. So he’s run away not just from the Military but from Al as well. So, Al gets on with research while Ed pursues his pointless mission.
Ironically enough, Ed actually does run into the culprit by sheer coincidence.
And he has no idea that it’s him and they wander away with no confrontation at all. (Aww, Ed’s so little.) Is he smiling? He hardly smiles at all this episode…
Well Ed still can’t do much alone so he goes to the one person who will help him out: Hughes. He’s kind enough to share his case files with Ed and give him a chance to focus on trying to solve this case. Ed’s still kind of snappish with Hughes and practically blows up when he suggests maybe an alchemist was behind the killings. Ed takes it very personally.
(Sorry Ed, but most alchemists are indeed killers.)
Well, Ed finally gets the fight he’s been after and it’s nothing like he imagined. It’s not him defeating the bad guy – instead his friend is in danger and Ed’s nearly rendered helpless.
When Al appears, Ed so relieved. He now talks about his feelings, how he felt extremely scared and vulnerable. And he’s crying even as Al comforts him and suggests a new goal in the form of the Philosopher’s Stone.
Is he starting to be more rational as he works through his feelings, or is it just something new to cling to to stop him from feeling so helpless? Earlier in the episode he dismissed the stone as just a fairytale and only listens now when Al’s just saved him.
Zetalial 