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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. 

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.

I’m skipping episode 27 because nothing can convince me to watch interlude party a second time. It’s 80% recap and the rest is just Hohenheim sitting by a fire and remembering Trisha at a creepily young age.

Episode 28: Father

This is the episode which serves to introduce our main villain, who’s been in the shadows until now. It’s pretty interesting. Plus, finally, Greedling! (Though I think we explore him better next episode). The worst thing, as usual, is the accursed comic relief.

There’s not even all that much of it but it just grated every single time since this is such a focused and intense episode. The entirety of it takes place in Father’s lair and the characters are surrounded by homunculi the entire time and it’s otherwise got a good atmosphere.

Like, Ed, Envy and Ling burst out of Gluttony’s stomach in a rather brutal and gory way. Al sees Ed and we get our first look at him showing that he’s alright. Ling too.

Then we get this animation shift of Ed and Al into cartoons as Al grabs and hugs his brother, proclaiming about how he’s alright. Why could you have just had Al pick up and hug Ed? It’d have been a nice, heartwarming moment. Then you have Father interrupt it, giving him a feeling of coldness. You didn’t need to swap animation style in an over the top way. All it does is break my immersion and draw me out of the scene before it resumes its seriousness with Father.

Later, we’ll get more of Mei and she always brings far too much of this comedy with her. Now I guess her betrayal at seeing how Ed is nothing like she has imagined has been set-up – but it’s the most obvious subversion of her crush possible. It even transfers to Al next episode. It’s just not that good and Ed is literally being crushed by Envy (held down at least) so is it really the time to be making jokes at his expense? (So many jokes are picking on Ed when he’s not even doing anything!)

This should be a tense scene and would have been a great time to show off Mei’s more serious side- like there’s this brief moment where she looks at Scar in fear and concern as he expresses rage at the homunculi for Ishval. Finally she’s seeing his dark side. It’s never touched on again (though maybe I’m forgetting some later Scar-Mei interactions). Also she transmutes massive amounts of rock, flipping Envy in his massive form over but instead of the proper awesome moment it’s framed in a joking way as she’s angry because she feels tricked by Ed.

That’s my only real complaint. I mean I guess I don’t like how quickly Ed, Al and Ling view Father as an evil villain. His introduction shows him being strangely friendly with Ed and Al by healing their injuries and being curious about Hohenheim. It’s oddly pleasant and I wish it took them longer to decide there’s something off about him. Not that it doesn’t make sense that they’d work it out.

To do this, just have Ling not voice his distrust out loud until it’s too late as he’s already been turned into Greed. Then have it dawn on Ed later that this person doesn’t respect humans at all. I don’t know, I’d just have liked to explore Father’s character a little more with its alien logic before the heroes all start seeing him as a monster. His detached and harsh logic could be really interesting but it’s not delved into enough for me.

That’s not a real complaint by the way, just some stuff I’d like to have been explored more. I actually do like this episode.

We get the formation of Greedling, which is awesome. Greed is such a good character and the only downside is that he’s forced to share his body with such a grating character that is for some inexplicable reason a fan favourite?

Either way, I liked Ling in this episode. We see an interesting side to him, how he will do something absurdly foolish in letting himself be turned into a Homunculus. It shows the lengths he’s willing to go in a different and more dangerous light.

I like how Greed casually tells Ed that Ling didn’t put up a fight and Ed frantically denies this, thinking that Ling must have fought. Last episode (ignoring interlude party) you had Ed starting to give up and let himself get swallowed by Envy while Ling screamed at him to keep fighting. This episode we get the reverse.

The Greed stuff is all really interesting but it’s getting overshadowed by the battle with Scar and Mei. More on it next episode, I think. Al asks for Scar’s help against the homunculi and Scar wonders at how they can ask him to be allies when he is responsible for the Rockbells’ deaths. Al basically says they don’t have much choice. (It almost reminds me of the Al-Scar stuff in 03 but not nearly so explored of course.)

So Alkahestry can transmute stuff like alchemy can and it’s really powerful. It’s also not affected by Father’s power. Later it can match Father’s energy blasts and it can be used from a distance and it can also heal. Is there any ways it is inferior to alchemy?

Now Ed and Al both know that the villains aren’t going to kill them. The fact that this is a thing and they know it is starting to get tiresome. It’s so obvious that Ed and Al are extremely troublesome but the villains are so ineffective at doing anything to stop them.

So… that’s some of my thoughts. Usually I try making these be basically summaries but I kind of just listed stuff in a random order this time.

I actually did very much enjoy this episode, it’s got plenty of excitement and I love the homunculi. If this post feels like it’s heavy with complaints it’s more that they took a long time to describe, this doesn’t show how they’re mild annoyances at best.