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.)

————————–

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.

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.

——————————–

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.