Wrath likes to mimic

I think it’s kind of cute how when Wrath he has no memories he goes around mimicking others, and by others I mean Edward, who’s the first person he meets.

In his first appearance he’s in shadow and unclothed, shown to be watching the Elrics as they wander about happily. (One of the only times they’re happy and its reminiscing about all the terror they experienced as kids, like getting attacked by wild animals and struggling with hunger…)

Then we seem him again and he’s transfigured himself some clothes. We only see his back and a brief evil smile at this point.

We get a proper look at him at the beginning of the next episode, dressed in a black shirt and shiny black trousers. You can’t see it in this shot but he’s actually got black boots on as well.

Yeah, he’s dressed exactly like Ed, (who isn’t wearing a coat or jacket in these episodes) apart from the automail arm. It’s more difficult to mimic! But that’s the very next thing he tries.

Stone fist, to punch Ed with. (Ed did basically attack him here, it’s totally justified for him to be struggling.)

Wrath doesn’t really hold a grudge at this point. That night, Ed and Al go to interrogate him and Wrath just asks if they could play with him, presumably to have fun like Wrath observed on the island.

(I wish we could’ve seen this whole scene of Ed and Al deciding to play catch the rat. They’re actually having fun of all things.) Anyway, Ed isn’t interested in playing with Wrath and instead decides to upset and frighten him.

The next day Ed and Al go and interrogate/attack Wrath again and he ends up running away. They track him down again and he’s calmed down and they actually attempt to have a reasonable conversation and are almost nice to him. So Wrath opens up to him and asks curiously about their limbs, because clearly the automail arm thing has still been bothering him all this time. It’s funny how he asks this question so naively and yet it’s basically the worst possible question to ask the brothers who have worked out that Wrath’s limbs might be Ed’s.

After this, the military grabs Wrath and he has his fateful encounter with Envy, who is friendly at this point and Wrath regains some memories of the gate and what he is. And for whatever reason, his homunculus outfit strongly resembles Envy’s.

(I love how only one of his arms has a wrist thingy on it. Same with the feet.)

Even with his new memories he still mimicks Ed sometimes. Using the same kind of spear to fight him with and transfiguring his arm into a stone spike, as Ed likes to do.

He even cries when Sloth is killed and Ed doesn’t. Ed states out loud that he feels like Wrath was crying for him. His final act of mimicking Ed is of course getting automail from Winry, specifically the new models she’d been designing for Ed. Plus he and Al can interact, while Ed and Al are separated. Wrath totally stole Ed’s happy ending! He’s not even grateful about it…

It’s a shame that Wrath doesn’t get much of a conclusion to his character in the series proper. He’s still very angry and confused. The best thing about CoS was definitely all the Wrath scenes, they show him being much calmer even if he’s not exactly happy.

Ed’s relationship with Sloth

In FMA 03, when Ed and Al performed human transmutation they ended up creating a homunculus – Sloth. It might seem a somewhat random choice at first glance. Nothing about Trisha Elric was particularly slothful, indeed she raised Ed and Al alone, giving them tons of care. She doesn’t particularly show any vices in the brief time we get to know her.

But then, the point of Sloth’s character is to show that she is not Trisha Elric. She may look just like her but she was created by Ed and Al. This post is made in order to talk more about Ed and his similarities with Sloth.

A critique I sometimes see of Sloth is that she doesn’t embody her sin very well. None of the homunculi in 03 really embody their sins perfectly though, as they were merely named after the sins by Dante. But like, what is the sin of Sloth? It means laziness, sure. But it’s not just reluctance to do work and the desire for rest. The homunculi in 03 are actually incapable of sleep. Sloth also means not caring about things I.E indifference, apathy. This is mental laziness if you like, and denial and avoiding your problems rather than having the willpower to deal with them are other examples of mental sloth.

The homunculus Sloth is very apathetic. She ruthless, shown to be able to kill people without a second thought if they become an inconvenience. She wants to kill Ed and Al because their existence is making her feel things and she doesn’t want to deal with it any more.

I think that the homunculi in 03 all reflect their creators in some ways. For instance, Scar’s brother was in love and ended up creating Lust. He was a very curious person, learning alchemy despite being an Ishvalan and Lust also seems very curious and knowledgeable. Izumi is a very violent person and she creates Wrath. Ed’s not exactly Slothful – Pride might seem a better fit.

But he and Sloth are alike in some ways. Following the human transmutation, both wake up and are encouraged to join the military – Ed by Roy and Sloth by Dante and Pride. Both join the military, Ed feels guilty about the human transmutation and wants to fix things by restoring his brother, Sloth is troubled by the human transmutation and wants to fix things by becoming human. And so, both of them decide to try and get the Philosopher’s stone, having convinced themselves that it will be the solution to their problems. Sloth’s being manipulated, blindly following Dante. Ed’s also being manipulated by Dante. Neither of them are willing to accept their fates.

One of the big themes of FMA 03 is death. Edward has trouble accepting death. His reaction to hearing Winry’s parents are dead is to suggest bringing them back. At his mother’s grave, he doesn’t cry because he refuses to accept she’s gone and suggests bringing her back. Edward is motivated by this denial, (Pride is another big motivator, believing he’s smart enough to do what no one else has ever managed). Later, Nina’s death really shakes him and his instinctive reaction is to try and bring her back – Mustang very coldly tells him to move on. Ed later tells Rose that she needs to try and move forward too. She had allowed herself to believe that Cornello could bring her dead boyfriend back to life. Rose takes this advice to heart, ironically far better than Ed himself can.

As well as trouble with accepting death, Ed has trouble accepting that he could have created a homunculus. Izumi and Wrath have to spell out exactly how a homunculus is made before Ed can believe they’re created through human transmutation. Even then, he refuses to recognise Sloth. (And he totally can’t miss it, he stares hard at Sloth the first time he saw her and Winry recognises her in a second.) Literally right after Wrath explains how a Homunculus is created, he runs into Sloth. But Ed pretends she’s all she appears to be – the fuhrer’s secretary. Al attempts to bring up this multiple times but each time Ed dismisses him, doing anything to avoid that conversation.

But Ed grows up over the course of the series, he grows more selfless over time, becoming more concerned with problems outside himself and his brother. In Liore, the first time he visited, he is utterly concerned with his own goal and in the end he’s only angry that he didn’t get the Philosopher’s stone for his trouble. He doesn’t even realise that he’s only caused instability and conflict for his actions. On his return to Liore he’s forced to face the consequences of his actions and its also the first time he confronts Sloth. After Liore, he’s got the stone but he doesn’t want to use it anymore. His goal is now to stop the homunculi because they are dangerous creatures who want to start wars and cause much death and despair. Therefore, he goes to Risembool to visit his mother’s grave in order to defeat Sloth.

Sloth doesn’t change, she doesn’t want to change. She doesn’t allow herself to care about others and ultimately she forces Ed and Al into a fight to the death. She can accept nothing else. Only when she’s defeated and there’s nothing else to do does she seem to really care. Maybe she just wants to hurt them with sweet words (she can pretend to be kind very well) but maybe she immediately forgives them and accepts her death. All the homunculi are frightfully accepting of their own deaths actually. Scar called Nina a sin against nature and kills her as a kindness. It seems the homunculi see their destruction in the same way.

After this, Ed goes to face Dante fully accepting that he has a duty to stop her. He forgives his father after Hohenheim explains himself to him. Forgiving meaning accept that Hohenheim regrets much of his past and is trying to do what he can to improve now and letting go of his anger, (Still condemning Hohenheim’s past actions as pretty evil and selfish.) Blaming Hohenheim for Trisha’s death is another symbol of his denial, inability to accept death as a natural part of life. Forgiving him is part of Ed growing up.

His final action is to perform human transmutation to try and save Al. Ed’s changed in some was but his care for his brother is too much a part of him. Still, he accepts it may not work, it may be for naught, but he still has to try and even smiles gently as he performs it, knowing he probably won’t survive.

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There’s something admirable about Sloth’s rejection of her former life and wish to realise her actual self. It’s quite feminist even (rejecting the role of a housewife forced on her by other in order to embrace her true self.) Her problems are more her methods and that being in denial is not the same as moving on.

Ed feeling lost

Here’s some musing from me on this little scene in FMA 03, episode 19, (The Truth Behind Truths) where Ed feels lost and wants to give up.

Ed: (sighs) Just face it, Al. It’s gonna be this way our whole lives.

Al: Don’t say that.

Ed: I really thought it was going to work out, brother. That we would find the Philosopher’s stone and it would all be okay.

Al: It still will be. We’ll find the stone, brother. We will! And we’ll get our bodies back to normal. And be happy.

-From the English dub of this scene. (They’re overall reasonably similar to the subtitled version but I liked the wording of the dub slightly more here.)

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I like this scene. He’s just figured out the ingredients to a Philosopher’s stone and Ed is absolutely defeated. He’s looking at his metal arm as he says the first line, and he’s just completely giving up on his goal. Al’s trying his best to cheer Ed up and get him to move on but he’s simply not ready to move on yet. Al’s pretty unfazed himself or maybe he’s just trying to be strong when Ed’s so obviously affected.

Looking at the series as a whole, up to this point the Elric brothers have been entirely self-interested. They’ve only recently learned about the Ishval massacre (In episode 15) and were shocked by it but war is still a far-off thing that has nothing to do with them and the main shock was that it had affected soldiers they knew (Mustang, Armstrong, Marcoh etc.) but still not their problem. They’re about to get involved in Lab 5 where they start to realise that there’s more at stake than just them though. By seeking out the stone they’ve come to the attention of the Homunculi who are willing to destroy countless other lives to achieve what they want.

That marks the turning point where they start behaving more selflessly: seeking out Scar in order to stop him from making the stone because it’s the right thing to do, telling Mustang about how the Homunculi have infiltrated the military and dealing with Homunculi who will keep trying to make a stone. Saving themselves has become a secondary goal to stopping evil. Ed muses a bit on this in episode 48: Goodbye – how it’s important to live outside their own dreams because their individual actions do affect the world beyond them. (Liore is the clear example of how his own naive actions had unforeseen consequences.)

So, this scene continues with Maria Ross convincing Ed to keep looking to find out the full truth behind the Philosopher’s stone. Ed is completely unwilling to sacrifice anyone else’s life for his own needs, the point of continuing now is to look at the situation outside his own selfish goals. He gets tempted again inside Lab 5, but ultimately rejects sacrificing lives to achieve his own goals.

He still struggles over the decision he made though – this is not a smooth transition. Ed feels like he failed his brother in choosing not to make a stone. Al has his own problems at this point, questioning his own existence and identity. Ed considers that Al might be angry at him for not prioritising their own goals and making the stone. They both have to open up about their feelings, basically. While both of them do try to move on, it’s a struggle for them to move forward.

After killing Greed, Ed reflects on this moment again. This time it’s not with any regret about failing Al, it’s about how guilty he feels for almost crossing a line.

FMA 03: Motherhood

Ed and Al’s mother is very important to them and I really like how this show explores themes of motherhood in the show. Therefore I thought I’d write a post about it and the very different types of mothers we see. So, Edward and Alphonse loved their mother. But she dies. They try to bring her back with alchemy. It’s the premise of the story.

The story begins in Episode 3, aptly titled Mother. Trisha Elric is a lovely person, taking care of the two boys alone because her husband has left. We see her as caring and encouraging, there to comfort the boys and their worries – she also lets them study alchemy. Trisha also clearly misses her husband but she never lets her fears show to her sons and indeed hides her illness from them.

But first Winry’s parents both die, then Trisha falls deathly ill. Her death scene always hits me so hard. Ed and Al are left alone (save for Winry and Pinako who aren’t nearly enough for them). They can never get back what they’ve lost.

…

The brothers travel to Central and we meet Nina, who’s mother is also dead. She feels lonely in a big house with no other family save for her dad and they immediately connect with her. We also meet Gracia (and Hughes), a very positive example of a mother (and family in general). Ed, Al and Nina even get to watch her give birth. They’re still kids so they panic while Gracia is very patient and gracious with them, and she gives birth to Elysia. Ed says mothers are amazing, more incredible than alchemists – he sounds very sincere about it all. Overall Gracia seems very loving towards the brothers. But Gracia is one of the only (somewhat) happy stories we get.

Here’s a little boy crying over his dead mother’s corpse. (Thank you Hughes for taking Ed with you to this gruesome scene, it’s just what he needed…) And we’ve got the military here who are just too cold and impersonal to be caring and nurturing. After Nina’s death, Roy is especially cold and blunt (and unable to show how he cares about them). Ed is only 12 here and he doesn’t get to interact with any motherly figures for a while. Riza’s in the above scene of course, but she’s very definitely a soldier. Who else do they meet in their travels? Like Ed and Al, the Tringham brother have no parents, Psyren is a fake who pretends to play motherly figures for her own selfish ends.

But then we meet Maria Ross! Unlike other soldiers, she doesn’t see Ed as a powerful prodigy, she’s sees him and Al as children caught up in a mess that’s far too big for them. She takes her duty of protecting them very seriously and is able to help Ed through his despair upon finding out the secrets of the philosopher’s stone. It’s clear she goes above and beyond her job for them, for instance arguing with both Ed and Hughes about getting the boys more protection – she’s doing her best to take care of them.

Hughes talks to Maria about the brothers; he notes that she doesn’t have kids of her own and how these kids may be young but they have the State’s future in their hands. As the Elrics are too stubborn to give up on their goals, he recommends protecting them as best as the can while still enabling them. Maria takes this message to heart. She rescues Ed in the Lab 5, at great personal risk. (Edward is out of control due to absorbing alchemical energy from the red stones and she calms him down with a hug.) It’s easy to miss but Ed actually mutters ‘mom?’ before he blacks out. It might well be the first hug he’s gotten in a long time.

Now episode 24 tells this story of a pair of Ishvalan brothers whose mother died. The older brother is pretty angry and in denial about, finding it easier to believe she never loved them. Then when he’s presented with truth to the contrary, he breaks down crying, realising that she did love them, that she’d wanted to protect them but couldn’t and that she’s dead. It an interesting parallel with Ed who was also in denial about his mother’s death – not crying at her funeral but coldly declaring that they were going to bring her back. Even years later, Ed is still feeling her loss.

Teacher Izumi. She trained Ed and Al after their mother died and she clearly cares deeply for them. She was very much a substitute mother to them. She’s anything but perfect though. Her methods of teaching are harsh, very harsh. She fails to convince them not to go through with human transmutation and they’ve been actively avoiding her for years. They do know she cares about them, but they’re also scared of her.

Izumi desperately wants to be a mother but her only child was stillborn and in her anger and despair, Izumi commits human transmutation. The creature she creates appears to be an abomination so she gives the child to the Gate. Upon Wrath’s introduction though, we see her caring, gentle side. But yet again, she decides Wrath is a monster and very nearly tries to kill him again. Wrath is angry and confused and finds a replacement mother figure in Sloth. Sloth is of course, the homunculus created by Ed and Al, which is fitting given that Wrath wants to steal Ed’s life.

Sloth completely rejects the idea of being a mother. She’s cold and apathetic. She hates the fact that she’s a homunculus with a false identity thrust upon her. She hates Ed and Al for creating her and wants to kill them to prove once and for all that she is not Trisha Elric. From there she can embrace who she actually is. Sloth was created from Ed’s inability to get over his mother’s death and she helps him to realise that Trisha is indeed gone for good, that Sloth can never be what he may have secretly wished her to be. Ed ultimately defeats her; Sloth demanded nothing less from them.

Rose. When we first meet her she’s just a girl. But when we meet her again she’s got a small child. She didn’t choose to be a mother, but now she is one. Ironically the people of Liore call her the Holy Mother and she became a symbol to them. She’s a strong person, horrifically violated but she moves on anyway, past the travesties inflicted on her. In the end, we see her living with Al and Winry in Risembool, raising her son. It’s a hopeful end because she’s clearly trying her best to be a good mother now despite the child’s origins.

And finally, our main villain, Dante. She had a son long ago and when he died, Envy was created. She’s created other homunculi too and they follow her. She was also once Izumi’s teacher. But she’s a selfish person who manipulates the homunculi into following her whims, and her goal is to be young and beautiful forever, without regard for others. She could’ve been like a mother to the homunculi, with her naming them and taking care of them – but she rejects this role. She frequently reminds the homunculi that they are not human, that they don’t have proper feelings and, yes, she even tells Wrath that homunculi do not have mothers. Envy might be considered her son and he’s an angry hate-filled person who somehow still appears to care about others more than she does. She considers herself above the homunculi and above other mere humans. It is fitting then, that she dies to her own creation, Gluttony, who had lost all ability to care thanks to her. Our main Villain quite clearly rejects the role of mother.

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So there we have it. FMA 03 has good mothers, dead mothers, kids without mothers, motherly figures, people who want to be good mothers, people who are forced into being mothers and people who reject the idea of being mothers. It’s all so very interesting in a story about two brothers who are really only children struggling to grow up and get over the death of their mother. I love all the different variants the show presents us with. None of these characters are perfect people, and pretty much all of them are in some way relate-able.

My six issues with Brotherhood’s ending

I have spoken about the FMA 03 ending but I also have issues with Brotherhood’s ending. This has probably also been done to death but, eh, I like writing my opinions out. Note: I do overall like it, as much as I like complaining about it!

I’ll start with this guy… a completely mad and insane alchemist who runs a group of loyal soldiers who were potential Fuhrer candidates. Why does he do anything? Because he’s insane. They even give him insane looking eyes. He just comes out of nowhere and is insanely loyal to Father’s plans and he’s just so obviously evil. And he’s pretty critical to the plot given that he did that transmutation to teleport the sacrifices to Father’s lair so I can’t just ignore him. His knowledge is used by Pride to force Mustang to commit human transmutation. He is, in essence, a villain extremely important to the plot. And he’s just crazy! I hate how his entire character is crazy evil and everything he does is to make a contrived plot happen.

Pride. Everything he does towards the ending raises a million questions! So he, like, assimilated the mad doctor, and used his knowledge to force Mustang to perform human transmutation and the both of them magically reappeared in Father’s basement and this weakened Pride for whatever reason. Why anything happens is vague and unclear. Then Ed’s suddenly certain he can defeat Pride (who has previously been incredibly dangerous even he isn’t fighting at full strength) and everyone just lets him like they also suddenly know he can deal with the dangerous Homunculus alone. Pride’s body is crumbling so he decides to take over Ed’s but that is somehow lowering himself (Because Ed is human and humans are inferior) so Kimblee wakes up from inside a vortex of souls just to stop Pride (but like Pride was literally crumbling is it really lowering yourself to steal a new form? How’d he even get his initial form? It looks pretty human.) Ed defeats Pride by turning himself into a philosopher’s stone to punch Pride inside his mind which turns him into a tiny foetus. (Cause that’s not killing…) Then Mrs. Bradley just raises the foetus who grows up apparently good. Fine, whatever. I’ll pretend it all made sense.

So the entire plot of BH is that Father is going take the souls of the entire country. And despite everything, his plan goes off. Everyone’s soul is taken. Oh no.

And then Hohenheim immediately reverses it in a minute with a self-activating circle using the circle of the moon’s shadow. The circle of the moon’s shadow! So basically, everything in the series was pointless because Hohenheim had probably already planted most of the souls to activate before the series even began. He’d already defeated Father before the series began! He states that it would activate even if Hohenheim was dead so Father plan was utterly doomed to fail. Absolutely no chance of the villain’s plan working.

Everything else is just fancy decoration. The series is called Fullmetal Alchemist but it should be called the Fullmetal Alchemist’s Deadbeat Dad because he is the actual hero apparently. He basically tanks all of Father’s big blasts too. Oh and he doesn’t ever mention the fact that Father’s plan is doomed to failure to anyone.

Oh no, Ed is trapped! Al sacrificing himself to save him is a great idea! Except, you do realise that these two are not alone but completely encircled by good guys? Father is ambling towards Ed at a leisurely pace and where did Greed go? He was right next to them. Is Ed even that trapped? He’s not trying to move his arm at all. How about Al uses alchemy to move the ground or anything other than sacrifice himself? (Or ask Mei to do something?) If he has enough time to convince Mei to transmute his body for Ed’s arm then he has enough time to slow down Father in any other way. That’s what Ed does the second he gets his arm back (Including pulling the metal out of his arm dramatically. If you could rip it out with two arms then how about with one?) Great idea, awful execution, everything about the circumstances makes what should be a tense and heartwarming moment stupid.

And why does Greed’s (much better) sacrifice come right after this? Don’t put two huge sacrifices in a row like that! It’s kind of exhausting, you know? Alphonse acts completely certain he’ll be saved just in case there was any tension. This should be the greatest, tensest moment in the series and instead I have to avoid thinking about it. (Speaking of sacrifices, I find it amusing that the five ‘sacrifices’ were practically the only people not sacrificed in the country-wide transmutation, but I digress).

Mustang going blind added an interesting obstacle for him to overcome, one he was determined not to let it stop him from achieving his goals. But let’s just cure it, you’d think the toll of human transmutation wouldn’t be so easily healed. I get that he was forced into it but, hey, Riza lived despite her life being threatened for refusing. Isn’t that a great enough reward for doing the right thing? Not only that, but it’s explicitly the stone created from Ishvalans Mustang helped to massacre. Scar and the Ishvalans were all so nice to forgive that in the ending, weren’t they?

Cute proposal! Ed’s resemblance to Hohenheim is especially striking here. It’s appropriate because he’s about to board a train and leave for an indefinite period of time. What’s better for a new relationship than lots of distance? Is he a coward or something who was so afraid of her rejecting him that he decided to leave and then tell her how he feels?

(Also they made Ed tall. WHY???)

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So those were my main issues with the ending. Yes, I was thoroughly aware of all of these as I was watching Brotherhood and, yes, on my first watch. These are legitimate grievances I have with the story. I still like Brotherhood overall but not for any of this.

And that’s my list. Another small thing might be Ling just taking the philosopher’s stone and becoming emperor at the end. I was thinking he’d learn to become emperor the hard way without seeking the evils of the stone but no he just takes it. Ed doesn’t care either, even though he considers using the stone to be morally reprehensible. (Ling’s kindness to Mei was nice though). I’ll be honest, this series ending really did manage to be aggravating. I guess I like it, but it also frustrates me.

My nine issues with FMA 03’s ending

Hey there, it’s been done to death but I like writing things out in my own words so here’s a little rant about everything annoying (for me) about FMA 03′s ending. I’m not going to talk about Conqueror of Shamballa here, that would be it’s own separate rant. Allow me to clarify that I do like the overall, I just have a couple issues. (And enjoy making fun of the series.)

After Sloth is defeated, Envy appears (disguised as Winry), Ed quickly recognises that’s they’re a fake. Then Envy just grabs Alphonse, picks him up and walks away with him with barely any trouble. Ed just watches helplessly until he’s distracted by a distraught Wrath. Envy gets away. (Wrath actually slows Envy down more than Ed!) The encounter is far too quick and Al is kidnapped far too easily. I’d have liked to see Envy succeed after maybe a little more struggle at the least.

This guy. Yeah, this was just a little too ridiculous for me. Automail to this extent strains credulity. Especially when it includes a gun inside his moth and a robotic voice.

It’s nice to see these guys again! It’s nice that they come to just help out. But it’s also super convenient that they appear just to lead Ed to this church just when he needs to from an old letter. Couldn’t Lust or Sloth given him the hint instead? These two can still wave him goodbye, but this felt too convenient. (Dante actually wants Ed to find her at this point so it’s not like a way to the underground city couldn’t appear more organically.

I love Pride’s defeat at the hands of Mustang and I appreciate the irony of him keeping his weakness like a treasured possession only to be undone by his own son. But Selim was only introduced an episode ago and he just idiotically brings Pride his weakness just before Mustang is killed. Pride keeping his weakness itself is idiotic but Selim just delivering right at the crucial moment is a bit too infuriating.

What is up with Rose in these final episodes? It’s like she’s in some sort of weird trance and it’s not explained. At all. She just kind of floats around, detached. Come on! Dante’s going to steal her body so she can seduce Ed with it. That might be the most awful thing in the entirety of FMA. Could we get some emotion?

I can’t believe Ed got killed by a blimp of all things!

That other world being on the other side of the gate came out of nowhere. I understand that there are little bits of foreshadowing but, like, not nearly enough. It’s an interesting concept to explore sure, but you’d need like an entire extra series to do it justice or something. Otherwise it just feels weird. Tacked on at the end.

The Philosopher’s stone was this ultimate goal and it was made out of thousands of lives. Dante and Hohenheim lived for hundreds of years using the Philosopher’s stone. We have seen how much work was put into creating this stone in first Ishval and then Liore.

Alphonse uses the entire thing up at once to save Ed. It feels like it cost way too much. And it’s not just the stone either, as Al is lost as well, meaning Ed has to sacrifice himself to bring Al back. Okay, I know the theme of the series is that equivalent exchange isn’t always true and that human life is expensive but it just feels so frustrating. The whole quest feels almost pointless?

Al is restored without his memories! How could you do this to me, show? The close relationship between the brothers, all the memories, all the growth and struggle, it’s all gone. He’s not even got Ed there with him to share all the stories. Al’s entire character is basically gone, replaced with this younger version who will group up differently. I can accept the brother’s being separate at the end, tragic though it is. I can accept Al being a kid again in body. But missing memories is too much tragedy and angst for me. How did he even narrate the series if he doesn’t remember?

WHY? Why does Envy randomly turn into a dragon when he goes through the gate?

Chimeras are underused

I think Chimeras should definitely have featured better in FMA. They’re introduced as this really incredible thing that can be done with alchemy: combining two or more creatures together to create a hybrid creature. The Lior arc has this awesome lizard-lion monstrosity.

The thing is, we hardly ever see any more of these monsters made up of more than one kind of animal. It’s like Cornello is the only villain to make use of them. (In 03 Tucker does create monsters a couple times more but even then they’re shown very briefly.)

We get introduced to the dark implications of it – combining humans with animals to create human chimera abominations. It demonstrates the darkness in the military in how they’re willing to fund research into using human alchemy and how the State Alchemist system pressures its alchemists.

And then… well we get ‘chimeras’ which are humans with extra abilities. Martel, Bido and Greed’s other companions. We never meet the alchemists who create them, or how they were made so well when the previous example was horrific. They look almost completely human. Some can even shift between more monstrous and less monstrous like its a shapeshifting power not a permanent body mutilation. Martel has the power to stretch her limbs – that well known snake power…?

We see practically no more instances of animal-animal chimeras and despite how Nina was such a significant event for Edward, the dark ideas are almost completely ignored. It’s one aspect of FMA that I wish was explored a bit more, if only with more enemies making use of regular beast chimeras.

Ed’s writing

Hey, here’s the letter young Edward sends out in episode 3, in a desperate attempt to get his father to come home. Presumably he wrote it, given he put his name on it and everything. He’s got decent enough handwriting.

Here’s Ed writing a letter when he’s 12. (He even wears his gloves while writing which seems weird but whatever, maybe he hates looking at his automail.) He’s using his left hand and the writing is legible but completely different, way simpler with none of the letters joined up.

He’s visibly frustrated while trying to write with multiple failed attempts on the desk. I’m figuring it’s because he wants the letter to look nice with no mistakes and he’s having trouble using his left hand. Poor Ed!

The takeaway here is that the show is subtly conveying that Ed has difficulties with his automail and his non-dominant left hand. He can no longer write as he used to without his original right arm, forced to relearn how to write.

FMA 03 timeline

Ed was born in the year 1899 in Amestris.

-Ed performs his first alchemy when he’s 6 and Al is 5.

-Winry’s parents are killed when Ed is 8 and Al is 7.

-Trisha dies when Ed is 10 years old. Shortly after the boys meet and get training from Izumi, this includes spending a month on Yok Island. Their training would have lasted less than a year in total even if we’re generous and assume that their mother died when Ed had just turned 10 and they find Izumi mere weeks afterwords.

-They perform human transmutation to bring her back in February when Ed is 11 (right after finishing training with Izumi).

-Also while he’s 11, Ed gets his automail arm and leg. He seems in excellent condition (fighting fit!) in October where he burns down his house and they leave for central. That’s no more than 8 months recovery time from the transmutation.

-Once in central they spend months studying with Tucker and Nina. (Gracia is 5 months pregnant when they’re on the train and Elysia is born on Ed’s 12th birthday so that must be late January/Early Feb, I think the preferred day for Ed’s birthday is the 3rd of February.). That’s a minimum of four months there.

-Some time after this, while Ed’s still 12, Ed takes the State Alchemy exam.

-Alchemy exam is episode 6. Episode 7, 8 and 9 all take place while Ed is 12, before a time skip back to the present (Liore).

-In episodes 1-2 (Liore) and episodes 10-22, Ed is 15 and he turns 16 in episode 23, (Fullmetal Heart) while he’s recovering from the Lab 5 incident. He remains 16 for the rest of the series.

-In Lior, unrest begins seemingly straight after the Elrics leave. It’s bad in episode 13 and in episode 15 while Ed and AL are meeting Marcoh and getting attacked by Scar, Rose is attacked by a group of soldiers. We don’t see her again until episode 40 (the scar) and she now has a very young baby. It’s hard to know how old the baby is but probably at least 10 months has passed between those episodes, perhaps a full year or even more.

-In that time:

-Ed and Al travelled to Risemboolb where Winry repaired his arm in just three days

-They decoded Marcoh’s notes which is suggested to have taken quite a while as it was very difficult. (Perhaps multiple weeks though no exact times are given other than Sheska taking three whole days to write out the notes for them.) Additionally, Scar is shown heavily injured in episode 18 when they arrived but appears recovered by the time they enter Lab 5.

-They entered Lab 5 and received grievous injuries (this is a single night)

-They recovered from those injuries and identities crises. (Again, heavy injuries and automail repair suggests that this would have taken a while, as they are recovered by the time they leave in episode 25, Words of Farewell.)

-They travelled to Rush Valley with Winry.

-Travelled to Dublith alongside Winry, Izumi and Sig. This includes spending at least a night or two on Yok island, perhaps a bit longer (its unclear).

-They meet Wrath and invade Southern HQ

-They meet with Dante and encounter Greed.

-They leave Dublith, staying at least long enough to prepare some graves, and repair Ed’s automail again.

-Travel towards Ishval. This is suggested to take quite a while as they stop off in a small town in episode 35 and seem to be travelling mostly on foot though they may have taken trains and taxis at points.

-Meet a group of Ishvalans in Kishua, and stay there long enough to help out. Winry leaves at this moment, heading to central.

-Travelled to another random town, again on foot. Here they meet Marta who offers them a lift on her bike, taking them the rest of the way to Ishval. They spend at least one night with her.

-Finally, they make it to a military outpost outside Liore. Ed enters Liore shortly after, meeting up with Rose.

—Episode 40–42 are spent within Liore presumably a couple days pass at least as the military seems concerned about how long Ed’s been gone.

-So, episode 43 (the stray), Ed and Al travel by foot away from Lior towards Risembool. When they arrive Hohenheim is there but he only spends the night (in a cave with Al) before leaving to go to central.

-When Hohenheim gets to central, Dante is there with Rose, Sloth, Wrath, Lust (on a wall) and Gluttony. Pride’s also in central and I have no idea where Envy is or what he’s been doing, he was the only homunculus not in Liore and he arrives sometime after Dante defeats Hohenheim. He’s very angry to have missed seeing him. Dante wants Envy to cause some war in the north but he’s too angry and instead Dante just redirects him to attack the Elrics.

-Mustang also leaves Risembool pretty quickly, returning to Central. He confronts Bradley who ends up sending him north to Drachma though Mustang secretly hangs back while Armstrong stages a coup for him.

Meanwhile, Ed and Al leave Risembool in disguise (which work for like 5 minutes…) Ed goes to see izumi at Dante’s house then fights Tucker and Wrath and Sloth in Central. Al gets kidnapped by Envy so Ed goes to confront Dante, running into Mustang on his way to kill Pride. These all seem to happen pretty quickly. This brings us to the end of the series, with Ed sacrificing himself for Al and ending up on the other side of the gate.

-The epilogue takes place around six weeks after with the military being dismantled, it’s a time of change. Mustang is recovering from his very severe injuries. Al is back in Risembool but is leaving again to going train under Izumi. Sheska is back in central, exchanging letters with Winry. Rose is in Risembool, raising her son who is looking noticeably older now.

Now, the Gate messes with timelines completely. Ed goes through the Gate in Episode 49 (the Other side of the Gate) and it’s 1916 in London, where he arrives. This is consistent with Amestris time, (Ed is born in 1899 and he’d be turning 17 in February 1916 so it could very well be early 1916 in Amestris. )

However, Hohenheim seems to have been stuck on the other side for ages given how established he is there, with alter Ed and connections to the UK wartime Government. But it can’t have been long at all if time flowed the same way as he only got into the gate in episode 45, four episodes before Ed where not much time could have passed. When Ed goes through again in Episode 51 it’s now 1921 (5 years gone?) and he’s also in Germany not London though he could’ve appeared in London maybe. He doesn’t appear to be 5 years older but just as long has passed for him as Al so this can only mean that travelling through the gate can seriously mess with time.

In the epilogue, Ed’s probably 16 or just turned 17 in the year 1921. This is why in the (not explicitly canon) OVA, kids it’s suggested that his hundredth Birthday would be in the year 2005.