Lust in Reunion of the Fallen

FMA 03: Episode 35

In FMA, the homunculi are named after the seven deadly sins. However, the homunculus Lust never really displays any lustful behaviour. That’s fine of course – she does display many strong non-sexual desires. Her character is all about a search for her own identity, reclaiming the humanity that she’s lost.

That said, another way to embody the sin is in how she can invoke feelings of lust in others. Her character design as a dark beauty reflects this.

So there’s this episode where she encounters a young man and he falls in love with her. It’s a tragic story because she seems quite unaware of his growing feelings for her and she never intends to hurt him. I love this episode and how it clearly demonstrates her inhumanity, her heartless cruelty that has been prominent up until now in the series, but now its juxtaposed with her own dissatisfaction, her longing for answers and her (so far) unspoken wish of regaining her humanity.

When Lust walks into his life, the young man, Lujon, is already engaged to be married to a nice girl who desperately cares for him. But he quickly grows close to Lust. His fiancé, Lydia, is growing sick and she’s aware she’s losing Lujon just as she’s aware she’s losing her life.

She even confronts Lust about it, though coughing and crippled she nevertheless begs Lust to let her have Lujon. Lust is entirely unaffected. I like the contrast between the two – Lydia is this sweet girl who feels helpless against this exotic beauty.

On the day Lydia and Lujon are going to be married, Lujon goes into the woods to see Lust instead. That’s when he attempts to confess his feelings, hugging Lust tightly. (Again you can contrast Lydia in her white dress and white veil – a white wedding dress traditionally indicates purity – with lust in her black.)

I think this is a seemingly very classical example of the sin of Lust. Lust herself isn’t even aware of the turmoil she’s causing but her mere presence has caused these two great pain, leading to heartbreak and separation. Without her in the picture, the two of them would have been happily married.

And yet, it’s not so simple because Lust is presented in this episode to both be very knowledgeable and yet very naive. She’s shown to know a lot of alchemy and she and Envy are scheming; using this village and this illness they manufactured for their own goals. Yet she also seems unaware that Lujon has fallen for her. Lydia is fully aware of it, hence her earlier confrontation but Lust didn’t seem to get it and when Lujon hugs her, she’s completely surprised and caught off-guard. These feelings are all new to her.

As Lujon hugs her, faded memories of being held like this suddenly resurface. In this scenario, she is the sickly, dying girl while her love is a man considering forbidden alchemy to save her.

That’s the thing with Lust, she appears to be this perfect immortal creature, the dark destructive beauty bringing ruin. Ed even questions her about it later:

But, at her core, she’s more like the sickly dying girl who wants to be truly alive (or is ready to accept death?). Up until this point in the series, Lust has appeared plenty and she’s always been ruthless, cruel and a bit mysterious. This episode show’s more of that, as she and Envy show no remorse at the awful disease they spread and the many lives they’re ruining. But it also shows her wanting to be human. She’s very thoughtful but scared of her feelings as they confuse her.

So after Lujon hugs her, Lust runs away. Two years later, Lydia has come to terms with the way things are. She confesses that as much as she loved Lujon, there was someone else he loved more. But Lust is still feeling lost.

She is still looking for answers. This episode immediately follows Greed’s demise and her own mortality weighs heavily on her. Upon meeting Lujon again, he is happy to see her. He was sad that she disappeared and regrets that things ended the way they did but confesses that he’s been hoping to find her again.

So, Lujon embraces her again, making his feelings clear. She is startled by the memories once more and still doesn’t know how to deal with them. So she tries to run once more. This time though, she stabs him through the heart and he dies. A dying Lydia stumbles upon his corpse and it seems they are at least together in death.

Lust is left feeling only bereft as she leaves with Envy. It’s a cruel irony that she has been looking so hard for answers only to be scared once she starts to find them. Not unlike Ed and Al’s own hopeless quest in that regard. She killed Lujon but it doesn’t end the inner turmoil. Her search for answers continues.

Ep 8 – Ed can get really emotional and act irrationally

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.

03 Envy = BH Father

(Don’t take this post too seriously, it was fun to write is all.)

Hey, so I think 03 Envy has a lot in common with Father from Brotherhood. They’re like counterparts!

Like, they’re both homunculi created by Hohenheim, right? And Hohenheim also fled from them, regretting his mistakes. And they’re both 400 years old. And they both look down on humans, seeing them as lesser creatures.

Also, they’re both secretly golden-eyed blonds.

Father is literally a father to his homunculi. Envy is the oldest homunculi in 03 and sort of acts like an older brother to the other homunculi when he’s in a good mood. Father provides them with their philosopher’s stone’s and we see Envy providing 03!Wrath with red stones too.

And how does FMA: Brotherhood end? With Ed punching Father in the face. FMA 03? Ed punches Envy in the face.

See! Similarities everywhere! And there’s even a part when they both put a hand through someone’s chest. (Which happens in the second-last episode of each series.)

And then there’s what happened after that.

They both have a scene at their respective gateways and both get dragged in to the other side. See all these parallels?

…

You’ll notice, of course, that one stark difference in all these images is that Envy is always grinning where Father never is. That is because they have this one big key difference in that Envy embraced all his evil feelings and vices while Father attempts to separate all his vices out into the Sins. So Envy is filled with emotion channelled in the worst ways possible while Father became empty, channelling it in the worst ways possible. Father’s goal in life is to make himself into a god where Envy has no aspirations at all, and just amuses himself with causing humans to suffer.

How did they turn out different? Well, Envy had the manipulative Dante while Father had the loyal Pride. Dante likes to remind the homunculi that they’re worthless and uses them as tools for her own ends. No doubt Envy was being regularly compared to her dead son and to Hohenheim and so there’s a lot of hatred there. Father, meanwhile, had Pride who was literally a part of him and always served Father’s goals and respected him and this served to heighten his god complex. Essentially the two extremes. Shame Hohenheim didn’t stick around in either version.

Now there’s obviously also Brotherhood!Envy who is literally a part of Father. They represent Father’s envy and they can look however they want and choose to look like that. I say that Envy’s look is secretly Father’s preferred form. And Envy’s look is definitely 03!Envy’s preferred form.

(Okay I think that’s enough reaching and making spurious connections for one day.)

Wrath and Ed and the homunculi’s deaths

Wrath and Ed are always paralleling each other in FMA 03. One striking instance of this comes from episode 47: Sealing the Homunculus. We see Wrath turn his arm into a blade to stab Lust, killing her.

This is Wrath’s first kill. The method is quite similar to Ed’s kill of Greed. Lust is super sympathetic in these episodes given how she’s allied herself with Ed and everything but from Wrath’s perspective she’s as monstrous as ever with her brutal beat down plus the way she was slicing up Sloth earlier.

Just like how Greed’s really sympathetic, rebelling against the other homunculi, but from Ed’s perspective he was a monster who had kidnapped his brother and kill a (supposedly) nice old woman. Both fights take place around the same sealing circle as well. (it’s the anti-homunculus one so it’s only logical but I wanted to mention it anyway.)

But Wrath’s really quite different from Ed here, he knew exactly what he was doing as he ended her life and only stares at her dissolving corpse impassively. A far cry from how Ed collapses in despair, not having expected to actually kill someone.

But episode 47 also features Ed’s second kill and this time he knew exactly what he was doing. He planned for the scenario in advance and was ready. After it’s over he doesn’t collapse or start crying, mostly keeping hold of his emotions.

Except it wasn’t just Ed who destroyed Sloth – it was Wrath as well. He didn’t intend it but by recklessly fusing with her, he completely paralysed her and left her vulnerable for Ed to destroy. And Wrath collapses in despair and starts sobbing at what’s happened.

…

And here’s Ed after killing Sloth and Wrath after killing Lust. Both kinda sad and contemplative but reasonably composed and both probably questioning life and death and existence etc.

Wow this is a dark analysis. Eh, one final similarity? Lust, Sloth and Greed were all at peace as they were dying:

(Yes I think those are all meant to be little peaceful smiles. Wrath is also pretty content with his death in CoS.) …That addition just made this even more depressing, didn’t it?

BH rewatch episode 30

Table of Contents

Episode 30: The Ishvalan war of Extermination

This episode is… kinda boring honestly? It’s important to the character’s backstory but it’s, I don’t know, full of really cheesy lines? So much talking about how terrible everything is that I’m wishing there was less talking and more just showing stuff without commentary. (And warning I feel like my overanalysing nature is worse than usual in this episode rewatch.)

It probably doesn’t help that I’ve seen 03 countless times and much of the Ishval backstory happens there so all this war stuff is just really familiar and so it’s not really shocking. Kimblee of all people is actually the highlight.

So the episode opens with Roy talking to his teacher, trying to convince him to pass on his alchemy research to him. Roy is wearing a uniform and has just become a soldier but believes that this is his chance to help people while his Master thinks him a fool and doesn’t wish his secret knowledge to be abused and used for evil. Oh he’s also dying.

Well my conclusion is that they’re both idiots. Flame alchemy is one of the most destructive kinds of alchemy there is. Useful for nothing except burning stuff and Roy will go on to use it to burn people alive. What did they think they would use it for? Maybe if you’re creative it’d be good for cooking or something but Roy has literally just joined the military and seems to believe he needs flame alchemy to succeed. How did he expect it to help!? Showing him as an idealistic soldier wanting to make a positive difference would make so much more sense if he used anything but flame alchemy. Or if he was presented as more ambitious and believes flame alchemy is power and so only gets a greater feeling for morality from the Ishval war, thanks to character development.

Oh well. So episode proper starts with Ed visiting Hawkeye to return her gun. He talks to her about how he feels he was too weak to use it and expresses his fears of how Winry might’ve shot Scar were it not for him and did he make the wrong choice? Riza’s nice to him, suggesting its just some variant of survivor’s guilt, and explains how she’s in no position to judge, having become the sort of person who’s stained by her past actions and can pull the trigger far too easily but that doesn’t make Ed’s choices wrong at all. Then Ed asks about Ishval and Riza tells him about it.

Elsewhere we’ve got Scar demanding Marcoh tell him about Ishval as well.

We see that the war is terrible, lasting seven years until the Fuhrer decided to create a policy, 3066, to exterminate the Ishvalans. And so State alchemists were sent in to exterminate the people. Riza expresses how war can be chaotic but as a sniper she could see exactly who she was aiming at and with every shot she would end a life.

Marcoh reveals that Ishvalans were being used as ingredients to create a Philosopher’s stone. He was part of the operation, in fact. This stone was given to Kimblee so he could be even more destructive, allowing him to wipe out the Ishvalans in mass numbers. Scar recognises the description as the one who killed his brother. Scar is absolutely disgusted by all he’s learning from Marcoh naturally.

We see Roy at his teacher Berthold Hawkeye’s grave with Riza. They’re not familiar with each other yet but seeing Roy’s noble ambitions about how he wants to do good, she agrees to share her father’s research on flame alchemy with him. And Riza also decides to become a soldier herself.

In Ishval, we get some Roy and Hughes interaction as Hughes explains how Gracia is the reason he can continue moving forward and Roy ponders his own reasons. They note that they have the eyes of a killer now and think everything they’re doing is terrible, that it wasn’t what they stood for.

Roy sees Riza and is saddened to see her here as well, that the lovely girl he knew now has the eyes of a killer as well.

Kimblee appears and he just blows to pieces their attempts at trying to be above their actions. They’re still here and they’re still killing, what does it matter that they hate it? With Riza, he suggests she must feel some sort of pride every time she makes a successful shot and as it flashes back to her unflinchingly making a kill, you know he has a point. He reminds them to not turn their eyes away from their actions but to look unflinchingly into the faces of their foes and to never forget them, because they will never forget them. These words are echoed by Riza later on to Ed, so it’s clear she’s taken these words to heart. It’s pretty powerful.

And it’s such a brief scene of them interacting with Kimblee but I love it. Kimblee’s just like them in this moment, following orders given by a higher officer, what does it matter if he enjoys his work and they don’t? The results still the same. And why are they here, anyway?

They became soldiers, surely they should have expected war. Is it because its a civil war, rather than defending the borders against Drachmans or Cretans? What did Roy expect to achieve with his fire alchemy? They can condemn the State all the like but they’re a part of it.

I love to hear Kimblee questioning them on this and you can respect his viewpoint because he doesn’t pretend, he’s very honest about the kind of person he is. (I do question them giving a Philosopher’s stone to someone as chaotic as Kimblee though.)

Anyway, so we jump to the Fuhrer and the part where he’s ordered the extermination policy to go ahead. Some interesting characterisation of him with how he rejects the Ishvalans idea of a god given how many have already been slaughtered by the military and says how you can only trust in your own power. When the Ishvalan leader offers himself as a sacrifice to end the war, Bradley rejects it, stating that one life is now worth thousands and insists on exterminating the ishvalans.

This is pretty remarkable as far as characterisation goes but I feel it’s heavyhanded for a leader. I’m biased but I sort of appreciated how Bradley in 03 constantly had this demeanor of being harmless and friendly, keeping all this ugliness to secret plotting and backrooms, he wouldn’t be so openly villainous. (I think BH!Bradley is a far more interesting Homunculus than 03!Bradley, but I do appreciate how effective 03!Bradley was as a seemingly good leader.)

Anyway, Riza concludes her story with explaining how the military is corrupt and the bad parts need to be removed and the whole system needs to be reformed, which is what Mustang intends to do by attaining power. She also states that all the so-called heroes of the Ishvalan war should be tried as war criminals for their actions. Quite a statement as that condemns likeable characters like Riza and Roy. Edward is upset by this even as Riza seems very calm about the whole thing.

We get one more flashback to after the war where Roy shares his ambitions with Riza and asks her to work with him and watch his back. He adds that it means she has the power to shoot him if she so chooses. Roy states that he trusts her with this power, that if he ever strays from his path, he expects her to shoot him rather than let him go down the dark path.

Hmm… it’s interesting. You know, I’ve seen Roy’s character in 03 criticised for showing him almost killing himself as it’s out of character for Roy. I sort of agree that’s it’s a little too melodramatic and angsty, and you need to accept that 03!Roy and BH!Roy are different characters. BH!Roy certainly doesn’t believe in throwing one’s life away. But this statement is interesting in how it shows that maybe they’re not so different? The moment 03!Roy contemplates suicide is after he’s done a terrible thing in killing a pair of innocent doctors and maybe he genuinely believes he’s fallen too far from the right path and it’d be better if he were dead. He eventually decides to continue living in the best attempt to make up for some of his evil actions. This statement in Brotherhood mostly foreshadows him becoming consumed with revenge in his torture of Envy and he believes Riza will be a better judge of his own morality than him. But still, he’s very clear that he expects Riza to kill him if she thinks he deserves it. I find the parallel interesting anyway.

Sorry… just musing. (Warning for further digressions in this paragraph) Speaking of 03, I think it generally did a better job at showing the devastation and the horror and the trauma as a result of the Ishval war. With more focus on the Ishvalans side, and more moments of extreme weakness from the ‘heroes’. I also find it sort of strange how noble Roy seems to be even before the Ishval war. In 03 we never see any flashbacks from before the war and I think I like that? We can imagine that Roy was perhaps a man like Archer but the war broke him and led to him becoming a person with some trauma but also with higher ideals,. Yes, I know there’s nothing to support this reading in canon but still I wish the Roy before the war seemed more different from the Roy after the war.

Sorry, I’m being too harsh on this poor episode, I know. I should be putting on some Royai shipping glasses or something but I sadly cannot. There’s just too much talking about what’s happening and insufficient explaining about the characters actual motives for me. I understand that they feel bad about it but I want to understand why they choose to participate. How far they’re going. I know they joined the military but why?

I’m probably forgetting some details or misunderstanding something. Maybe I’m just overreading or getting fixated on the wrong stuff. All things considered, this was a pretty alright episode and did explain the events well and I did like how we get much of it through Riza’s perspective and I love the bits where Riza explains being a sniper and the parts with Kimblee. Bradley’s stuff was decent as is the brief bits with Marcoh. Ed talking about his own worries as actually a little boring for me – weird when Ed should be my favourite.

I’ll just end this part here. You know, I think writing about it actually helped me to appreciate it more though. Using its the reverse where I like an episode okay but find plenty of issues when I start to think about it in depth.

FMA 03 Official art

Hey, I’ve been collecting all the official art I could find online and saving it to my computer. I figured it’d be good I’d share some of it here. Enjoy!

(This is for 03 stuff – for Brotherhood official art check here.)

I’ve compiled a bunch of art together here. Enjoy. I don’t own any of it myself nor do I have a good list of sources. If you spot any errors or if you have any improvements, please feel free to tell me. I’m always looking for more to add to this!

Many pieces of official art are produced in sets, which will sometimes be obvious. I’ve grouped them together where I can. I don’t know everything that goes together though and so I just categorised them in other ways. Yes, some of these categories will be quite artificial. I’ve left my own comments throughout. Hopefully it is pleasing to browse and easy to find what you’re looking for.

The art is also varied in quality as for some of it I could only find them in low quality. Additionally, some of the art has words over it in cases where I couldn’t find a good clean version. Please click on the images to view them properly.

Some pieces of official art have been used in a variety of ways and may come in different backgrounds. I’ve tried not to have multiple versions of the same piece however.

(There is >600 images on this page so it may take time to load properly.)

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Al during Lab 5 arc

The Lab 5 arc in FMA 03 really served to make Al feel really inhuman. I’ve talked about Lab 5 from Ed’s perspective before but it’s a completely different experience for Al. (And somehow just as bad.)

He and his brother have to immediately split up because Al can’t fit inside the vents with his huge armour while Ed can. So he’s forced to wait outside until he gets attacked by another soulbound suit of armour. Except this one is the serial killer that so terrified Ed a few years ago. Definitely the opposite of the kind of person Al is.

Barry the Chopper immediately starts interrogating Al with stuff he’d rather not think about – his general existence and whether his love for his brother is real or artificial. Al worries and becomes distracted but puts it out of his mind for the time being as Scar appears and a way into the Lab is opened.

All is going fine at first, Alphonse gets Scar to open up a bit about himself and his past. But then, the Homunculi appear.

Lust is all too happy to confirm that she in inhuman and Gluttony attacks Alphonse. He eats all four of Al’s limbs, rendering him completely immobile. Al has entirely lost the ability to move at all and he already can’t really feel things. He’s completely helpless and must feel like an object, very far from human.

Indeed the homunculi continue to treat him like an object, dragging him around and Lust even sits on top of him. He can only watch as Ed gets beaten up by Envy. And they barely acknowledge anything he says. Al is far from quiet for the remainder of this arc but rarely does anyone pay his words the slightest heed. Not only can Al not move, but he can’t even be heard.

In fact, the only stuff that does get said to him is about how the world is cruel. Also, in one respect and the Homunculi aren’t so different – they both want to be human. It’s another comparison that Al must absolutely hate – probably just as bad as the similarity between him and Barry the Chopper. Meanwhile he’s being used as a bargaining chip to convince his Ed to make the stone.

Ed is particularly bad about speaking to Al in this scene. He is so consumed with his own moral dilemma that he is neglecting to respond to Al at all. You’ve got Al screaming for Ed to stop, not to do anything and Ed shows no reaction to any of Al’s words. Al is at the centre of his thoughts, but he’s thinking of his promise, of Al being human again.

Ed doesn’t go through with it and Scar appears to save them, and then the Military arrives. Ed’s rendered unconscious and they’re both carried out. Al is still all broken up and can do nothing but wait for Ed to wake up before they talk. Although they’ve got out, Al still can’t move at all and all he can do is think. When Ed finally does wake up, neither of them are really talking and Winry has to be called over to fix Ed’s arm.

When Al wants to get away for a bit, he literally has to call Broche and ask him to move him outside. Perhaps it should come as no surprise that all Al has been doing is stewing over his thoughts and when he’s finally repaired, the first thing he wants to do is to get away after probably multiple of days of being stuck in this completely helpless form.

He lashes out at his brother when Ed grabs his arm to try and stop him.

He hadn’t intended to hurt his already injured brother and once again is horrified at his own strength. His next words are instead: “stay back.” Al feels like he is hurting Ed by being close to him and runs away. They do resolve things but first Al has to question his own state of self, asking Scar if he seems human, for instance.

There’s this one line where Al claims he doesn’t care about Ed, but I think that couldn’t be further from the truth. Truly, Al seems to be struggling to justify his own existence and is seeking validation. He cares enough about Ed that he seems to think that distancing himself might be better. In regards to believing his memories are fake, I feel like it’s a thought that gives him particular horror so he can’t help but dwell on it. But his lack of own self-worth is the real dilemma here and once that continues to be relevant. Later on, Scar will sacrifice himself fro Al’s sake and Al will start wondering whether he’s just cheating death and that he doesn’t deserve to have people repeatedly dying for him. A lot of that is also evident in this arc as well.

BH rewatch episode 29

Table of Contents

Before I tackle this episode, I figured I’d briefly mention the changed openings. It was different last episode too but I forgot to talk about it. Golden Time Lover is popular but I don’t like it nearly so much as Hologram, which it replaces. In fact I’d say it’s my least favourite of the Brotherhood openings. They’re all very good of course, so ranking them is hard. Mine would be something like. Favourite is OP5: Rain, followed by OP1: Again followed by OP2: Hologram, followed by OP4: Period, and then OP3: Golden Time Lover.

New ED’s nice and I’ll definitely be getting used to it as I’m being subjected to Post-credit scenes now. Why they start half way through the series is anybody’s guess. Lot of Winry fanservice in it. Anyway, on to the next episode!

Episode 29: Struggle of the Fool

Huh this is actually another one of those aftermath episodes, which caught me off guard a bit as I felt like the end of the last one was still sort of thick with action. Like, last episode ended with Ed trying to fight/talk to Greedling while Envy restrains them and Scar also just blew up the sewer corridor to escape.

This episode starts with no sign of Greedling as Ed and Al follow Envy, now back to his regular form, into an elevator and they ride an elevator together. (One that can clearly take a lot of weight as Envy is supposed to be really heavy). I don’t really mind I guess, but I feel like last episode cut off at a weird moment and it seemed like Greedling was going to be central to the next episode when he’s barely in it.

Oh well. Them just casually riding the elevator with Envy is kind of funny honestly. Gosh, Envy’s character is so different form his 03 self but somehow both are great in their own way. They now learn that Father’s lair is directly beneath the military HQ.

Envy instructs Ed to have a shower so we can enjoy Ed with his hair down. Ah it’s so pretty… Then standard shenanigans with Ed being naked and I admit that I was mostly trying to get a glimpse of Ed’s feet to see if he was still wearing only one shoe. What sort of fangirl am I? Oh right, the obsessed with irrelevant details kind. The answer, by the way, is that the show wants to frustrate me.

What kind of shoes are these black circles, show? Everyone else’s looks normal. (Okay so whoever supplied them with his outfit remembered to get shoes as well, that’s all.)

Huh, Ed’s calling Mei’s panda a cat now but I swear the first time he saw it, he correctly called it a panda. It’s established that Mei’s alright and inside Al’s armour anyway. Envy runs in on a naked Ed and is apparently embarrassed? It cuts away so maybe it was Ed reacting in horror? Envy doesn’t seem the type to care honestly but he’s hard to read especially when I’m often getting confused between 03 and BH Envy’s personality.

Right, so they meet with the Fuhrer along with Mustang who is honestly pretty generous. He doesn’t care what they do so long as they don’t interfere in Father’s plan and doesn’t really put any further watch on them even as he tells them that they’re very important. He just threatens Winry and Edward immediately complies after initially threatening to resign. (Roy’s team is already being threatened as well.)

Roy meets with Riza and seems to have suspected she might have run away though she of course stayed loyal. She says something about only needing to be told once. They tell Armstrong about Wrath. Roy muses on how he felt at his most human when fighting Lust, a real monster.

Oh, Armstrong reveals how he couldn’t take Ishval and fled. He regrets not fighting against it. I swear we don’t meet anyone who actually fought against the Ishval massacre though. All the other characters seem to have actively participated in it. His 03 counterpart participated and seems to feel great turmoil for it in that series so I’d say running from the conflict might have been the bravest action anyone took. It’s a form of protest in its own way even if it’s not truly effective. That he stays a part of the military at all is significant, though he’s probably pressured by his family.

Mei is taken to Doctor Knox to rest. Lan Fan is also there, recovering. She is intending to get automail though Al warns her that she’s still recovering. Eh, automail seems like the kind of thing that’d be easier to apply with a fresh wound anyway.

Ed calls Winry and we get our EdWin moment, with Winry claiming its rare for him to call and how happy she is that he’s calling and looking out for her. This reminds me of that moment where Ed asked for her opinion on their quest and she was flattered that he thought to ask her opinion at all. I swear the shipping moments are when the show’s at its least subtle.

GreedLing appears, reminding Ed that he is not Ling and Ed doesn’t try to push the issue at all for now. It’s just a casual, hello, give this to Lan Fan, bye. But last episode Ed was so determined to fight for Ling! Why is he so casual now? Nevermind that the existence of the message means Ling is definitely still in there and no one remarks on it.

I don’t know why he bothered to keep it secret anyway when the message merely said, that he has the stone while Al tells Lan Fan all about what happened.

Oh, Mei and Lan Fan are instant enemies because they’re from different clans. I know it’s meant to be a humorous moment but gosh they’re threatening to kill each other. It’s very dramatic. Where does Mei get all those daggers by the way? She seems to have hundreds of the things.

Wrath and Greed meet up and Wrath mentions that conversation he had with Ling about true leadership and how naive he was and how he must be disillusioned from being combined with a monster like Greed. Ling briefly breaks free to protest.

Ed confirms that his alchemy is working again and that other alchemists were stopped by Father’s power as well. He reasons that Mei and Scar’s power must be different and he resolves to find out why, which will start up another arc.

Speaking of Scar, he’s able to explore quite freely, I’m surprised neither Envy or Greed were sent after him. He finds Marcoh and Marcoh reveals that he was responsible for much of the destruction wrought in Ishval and begs Scar to end his life as he reveals that he fears another terrible plot is being brewed by those behind the military.

You know I wonder if any of this was inspired by FMA 03 at all? Marcoh bowing his head, freely accepting the justice from Scar reminds me very much of 03 episode 14-15 where Marcoh is very clear about his guilt and he even explains some of the Ishval war and the next episode of BH is also about Ishval, framed as Scar demanding to know about it form Marcoh. It’s hard to know – but I believe this part of the manga was released quite a while after 03 had finished airing so it’s possible it drew some inspiration as much as things go a different way. This series is emphasising Scar’s anger a lot more, I feel, where 03 Scar was different somehow. Like he was also willing to kill but he took no pleasure in it and considered it his mission from both his brother and his faith more generally. Where this Scar is more consumed with his rage which drives a lot of his action. The resolution with Marcoh will happen differently in this series but this episode ends here anyway.

So all in all, another breather with some entertaining bits but nothing too striking. It was an alright episode I guess. A lot of stuff is getting established that will lead into the next arc and some wrapping up of the last arc.

Not sure what the episode title is really referring to. It’s pretty vague. Greedling maybe? Doesn’t have too much to do with Episode 21: Advance of the Fool from what I can see though the title is formatted the same from way.

03 Ed’s character development

Hello, this post is a bit of me attempting to explain the progression of Ed’s character in 03 and how it shifts slowly over time.

Early on we see Ed (and Al) having adventures, getting into trouble and then solving problems. The Ed we meet here is really confident and happy with lots of big arrogant smiles. He takes great joy in outsmarting people or defeating people with his awesome alchemy skills. He gets moody at times – he doesn’t like being part of the military – but he is proud to be the alchemist for the people.

The first glance at him after the timeskip when he’s 15 has him talking to a taxi-driver about his lovely reputation and he’s visibly happy and gloating. (The wind gets taken out of him with a remark about his height though.) Now, he is sensitive to people’s suffering and wants to help others when he can – stuff like Nina still weighs on him and his past is extremely tragic but he prefers to blame the world and get angry and frustrated at the unfairness of it all. But mostly, he’s doing his own thing and thinks he’s awesome. (See Liore, Yousewell and the fullmetal versus flame episode.)

Al’s a little more humble and caring about others while Ed is less interested in other people’s problems, he’s not exactly cruel but he’s very-much self-interested – he generally wants to help only when he begins to care about them or if it’s really about proving himself. (In episode 10, the Phantom Thief, his problem with Clara wasn’t that she was a thief, it was because she was a thief using alchemy. He’s particularly opposed to the misuse of alchemy and actually helps her when he thinks she’s trying to help the town. Then when she’s tricked him, Ed wants to defeat her because she got the better of him and he hates that.)

Over the series, this arrogant attitude gets deconstructed. It starts with Marcoh, when Ed tracks him down and doesn’t care too much about his story about his Ishval and how the Stones he made were misused. He just wants the stone for his own goals – restoring him and Al – and doesn’t really care too much about the wider world. Then Marcoh gets taken by the military and Ed suddenly feels bad because he realises his actions caused this and he steps in to defend Marcoh from Scar. Complete with a flashback to Nina. (Separate post on this here)

So next, Ed finds out that the Philosopher’s stone is made from human lives and he starts to give up because pursuing their own goals would mean hurting others. It’s another huge challenge to his worldview. (Here’s a separate post I made on it.)

Then he enters Lab 5 and he finds out the homunculi have been behind things and that they’ve been secretly manipulating him and his brother all this time, leaving a trail to the stone to lure them in. Now Ed can no longer pretend that it’s their own quest independent of anything else. They’ve been controlled all this time and didn’t know it. Tucker is still alive. Barry the chopper is still alive. Ed hates being tricked and outsmarted and he’s really shaken by it all. All his achievements suddenly seem like nothing. (More of my thoughts on Lab 5)

Meanwhile, you’ve got Al interacting with Scar. Originally Scar is just a bad guy to Ed and now they’re learning more about Scar and his sympathetic motivations and it’s not so black and white. In contrast, many of the early villains tended to be framed as generically evil.

So Ed finds he’s more connected to the world than he’d like to be. He can’t just be selfishly pursuing his own goals with no care for his effect on the world. He learns about how the homunculi were created with Izumi and then he meets Greed. Greed’s just a bad guy to Ed. Then Ed kills him and Greed reveals he let Al go, that he’s been manipulated all his life and that he’s not such a bad guy. It’s not so simple as Greed or Wrath being evil just because they’re homunculi, like the ones they met in Lab 5. And now Ed has to deal with the fact that he’s taken a life, previously a line he swore not to cross, and he has to try and move on.

Early episodes had Ed really happy and proud with him being the hero defeating the bad guy and saving the day. (Nina, his great failure, and Barry the chopper are sort of exceptions but even then the bad guys were so clearly evil and he could at least take some sort of satisfaction from defeating them. Until lab 5…) These episodes show the opposite, Ed feels terrible for what he’s accomplished. There is no satisfaction here.

So the next couple episodes have some more of his assumptions challenged. His interactions with Ishvalans in episode 36 reveal that he’s been affected by propaganda more than he’d like and he confronts a bit of his own internalised racism (even if the show doesn’t really delve into the subject.) Ed is starting to rethink his assumptions and his worldview. He makes this nice statement about how you can’t always trust what you’ve been told and you have to come to your own truths about the world. It’s a lesson Ed’s beginning to take to heart. Soon after this, Martel informs him how the Ishval war wasn’t a single inciting incident based on different worldviews but an active insidious campaign by the military from the beginning purely to start a war. What he’s been told before has been more lies and military propaganda which he’d never questioned.

Then the truth about Liore is revealed and Ed is now confronted with the fact that his actions didn’t help like he thought. He couldn’t solve their problems. All he did was cause worse problems even though it wasn’t his intention. All he can do is collapse in horror at the graves, realising that he was never the clever hero defeating the bad guy. His actions really had huge devastating consequences outside himself.

And while in Liore, he confronts another mistake he’s made. He faces Sloth, who he’d been in denial about for ages, even when he should’ve known. Now he accepts that she’s his creation and his responsibility and he can no longer run from her. So after this, he prepares, going to Risembool to get her weakness.

Lust has been his enemy for a long time and she’s done some terrible things. Yet she offers to work with him against his enemies. She wants his help and I like her line about how if he gives her what she wants and makes her human then they wouldn’t be enemies anymore. It’s like, these characters are more complex than mere bad guys and helping her would be the best move even though she’s never shown any remorse for the things she’s done. There’s no point to antagonising her now. (I’m probably not explaining it that well but I find this scene really powerful.) Meanwhile, Sloth is intent on being their enemy to the end and it’s necessary to go as far as killing her.

Ed’s fight to defeat her is every bit as clever and awesome as any of his earlier schemes and he’s aiming for the ending he got. (Whereas he was shocked by his own actions against Greed.) But there’s no happiness in victory here. Only bitter sadness. He’s beginning to understand the homunculi and that they’re not monsters – they’re tragedies.

At this point they have the Philosopher’s stone and Ed could be trying to get his and his brother’s body back. I think it might well have been possible. Early Ed probably would have tried to do just that. But now Ed’s not thinking of his own goals, he’s thinking of the greater world outside of his own dreams. His conversation with Mustang in Episode 48, Goodbye, discusses this. Mustang’s throwing away his dream of becoming Fuhrer to defeat the corrupt Military while Ed goes after the Homunculi’s master who’s been pulling all the strings and starting wars. War is not a far-off thing that doesn’t concern him as he believed in early episodes.

So we don’t see much of his cocky smile anymore. Ed learns he’s not as clever as he thinks he is and that his enemies aren’t as simple as he once thought and that the world affects him and he affects the world, whether he likes it or not. That’s some of his character development throughout the series.

We may not get so many big grins but we do still get some nice smiles from him at times. He’s grows more thoughtful about the world and more caring about others. He’s calmer and less arrogant and better at forgiving others for their mistakes, (like he’s able to forgive his father for all the terrible stuff he’s done upon seeing how he’s trying to be better). He’s still restless, and very attached to Al and can’t let go of his principle of equivalency entirely and this leads to his final sacrifice and then continuing researching relentlessly in the new world – he doesn’t become a perfect person or anything but he does grow immensely becoming kinder and more selfless. I absolutely adore his character growth.

Ed’s my favourite character in FMA and I absolutely love his character journey in 03. I hope this helps to explain why.

My feelings on BH Hohenheim

This is my response to an ask I got asking me to compare Bh Hohenheim with 03 Hohenheim. It’s a fairly brief reply.

BH Hohenheim really grates on me for some reason, I just can’t stand his character. It’s hard to explain why. Maybe its because I feel like I’m expected to sympathise with him but I just don’t really. Maybe because it’s how he basically solves the plot? Seriously, he spent the last 10 years spreading souls around so that when Father pulled off his plan, Hohenheim could just undo it with a self-activating array. (So it would have gone off even if he died.) That means by the start of canon, Father’s plan is probably already doomed. I’ve talked about it before I think, but I’m not all that fond of Brotherhood’s ending and Hohenheim being the one who solves everything is part of it.

Some people absolutely adore Hohenheim and find him very sympathetic and have explained why but I just can’t feel it. This is my opinion, if I was attempting to be more objective then I couldn’t call him bad. But I personally just don’t much like him. Perhaps its because I’m so fond of Ed and feel that his reasons for feeling angry or disinterested in a relationship with him are justified and I’m not so fond of how its painted as immature stubborness. (I can forgive a character for making mistakes though!) That’s also a biased perspective and I’m sure if I could look at it from Hohenheim’s point of view instead I’d be more reasonable. But, Ed’s my favourite and I like viewing FMA from his perspective and focusing on his character. I did really like Hohenheim’s backstory as a young slave though! That was really interesting and nice.