Before we get started, I would like to acknowledge Linkara's History of Power Rangers series. It has been a huge influence on this liveblog, and I respect Linkara for giving that influence to me with that excellent series!
Without further adu, here is Chapter 2!
Chapter 2: The Price of Life
So we open of the second chapter with Cornello gleefully stating that he knows how Edward could become a State Alchemist, as he and Al committed the greatest crime an Alchemist could commit: Human Transmutation. (Or in other words, they tried to resurrect the dead). We get a close up on Rose’s shocked face, as she recalls Ed quoting the story of Icarus (Which reminds me: Is Greek mythology really a part of this universe? Even though Christianity is not? It’s just weird is all.)
We then cut to a flashback of a younger Ed and Al, as Ed rushes to show Al his human transmutation theory he has created (It’s in the form of a transmutation circle) saying that they can finally bring their mother back. Al starts to narrate how their mother was a kind person, and all they wanted was to see her smile again, and despite knowing human transmutation was taboo, they studied alchemy for the sole purpose of bringing their mother back. While Al narrates this, we see their study, which has piles of books and scrolls everywhere, two suits of armor, (One of which is the one that Al is) a human skull (Uhhh....) and a tiny Mew in a jar (!) *.
However, the next text is put against the Black Background of Ominousness™, as Al points out that something went wrong. See, alchemy kinda frowns upon Necromacy. We see two juxtaposed panels of Ed loosing his leg and Al’s body disintegrating. ‘’Dang’’. Al says that he blacked out for a moment, and that when he came to, he saw Ed’s bloody body, now missing both an arm and a leg.
Alchemy REALLY frowns upon necromancy.
Ed snarkly states that his left arm was only enough to pay for Al’s soul (Despite being on the verge of bleeding to death), as Al responds that he didn’t have to do that. We cut back to the present, as Al points out that even though he had already lost his body, Ed sacrificed his own arm to bring him back. Ed smiles as he says to Rose that he and Al went through all that because they tried to bring a dead person back to life, before yelling to Rose if she has the guts to do it.
Cornello simply laughs at Ed, calling him a joke, saying “Is this the kind of State Alchemists they allow in their ranks now, Edward Elric?”. Ed snaps back at him saying that at least he’s not some wannabe with a fake stone. Cornello says that they would want the stone as it could make human transmutation successful, but Ed responds that they want the stone so they can bring their bodies back to normal, not that they are sure of sucess however, as Ed proclaims. Al gives Cornello one more chance to hand over the stone *.
Cornello simply laughs and prclaims “The fools that fell from grace from venturing too close to the gods.....Salvation shall be granted to thee!” as he trasmutates his cane INTO A F**KING GATLING GUN. Wow. Say what you want about Cornello, at least he makes things that can get the job done. He opens fire on the Elrics, but Ed blocks the gunfire by Earthbending Transmutating a wall in front of him. *
Ed lashed back with “Thanks for the offer, but god doesn’t want me....Last time I went he slammed the door in my face”. Huh weird comeback. Wonder what he meant by that. Eh. Probably isn’t important.
Al takes Rose out of danger, as Cornello fires at Al. Who apparently is made of 50. Cal resistant steel, as the bullets bounce harmlessly off him. Ed and Al make a beline for the door, as Cornello says that the door will not open unless he commands it to. Ed however, gets around this by making a door, as Cornello exclaims “HOLY CRAP!” (Although his expression does give the impression that there way have been a translation error)
The Elrics burst out of the room with Rose in tow, running down a corridor filled with Cornello’s supporters. Cornello yells at the supporters to go after them, as they start their pursuit, saying that the Elrics must have blasphemed against Leto and that they must not leave alive. One group is in front of the Elrics as they tell them to come along quietly so nobody gets blah blah blah...So Ed simply transmutates his arm into a giant wicked looking blade, scaring the ever loving piss out of the goons. The group ahead of them has their pointman tell them not to let their guard down because they are just kids...As Al boots him in the face in mid run, with Al saying “Excuse me”
They run past, as Rose explains, Cornello’s broadcasting room. Ed proceeds to get a look of pure malevolence, as Al realizes that he’s getting one of his “ideas”.
We cut to a bell tower as the guy there looks at his watch, wondering what all the ruckus from downstairs is, all he superior tells him to ring the bell. However, they notice that the bell is gone....As we see Al making off with it.
On the balcony of Cornello’s palace, Rose is still surprised that transmutation comes at a heavy price, as Al brings up Equivelent Exchange again, pointing out that while everyone considers Ed a genius, he had to pay a heavy price for that repuation. Rose says they had payed a heavy price to get their mother back. But Al grimly says that their mother was barely human, as we see a single arm and several streams of hair sticking out of a pool of blood (The rest being obscured just offscreen, to make sure we get to sleep tonight). In the flashback Al is distraught, saying that the theory should have been foolproof, but Ed simply says “The world just made bigger fools. US.” Back in the present, Al continues that even though they had given up on human transmutation, Ed still wants to get their bodies back, as even Al wants Ed to get his back. But he says that they are going down a difficult road, one with a heavy price, and that they have to take the burden of their sins. He finishes, and tells Rose that she must never go down their path.
As we go back to the broadcast room, Cornello finally finds Ed waiting for him. They banter at first with Ed simply saying that he should give up, as the townsfolk will be onto him sooner or later, but then Cornello goes into a motive rant explaining that he controls all the information, and that the townsfolk are all his expendable pawns, and he could just use the power of the stone to get more followers if the current batch goes down, and that Ed can never stop him (Guess what’s going to happen). Ed simply laughs at Cornello saying “When it comes to deluded Third Rate Alchemists, you really take the cake!”. And after Cornello makes one more boast, Ed reveals that, of course, he has the broadcast switch on. Although cliche, Cornello’s dawning realization is hilarious.
It turns out that Al turned the bell into a makeshift megaphone, and the entire town heard what he said, with panels showing the reaction of the people of Lior. (Highlights include a worshiper facepalimg and the bartender in shock as the coffee he is poring overflows from the cup)
Cornello flies into a rage as he tries to transmutate his cane into a gatling gun again, but Ed simply transmutates a blade onto his automail and cuts the gatling gun in half. Saying that Cornello is way out of his league. Cornello says that he will not yield, as he tries to reconstruct the gun, but he then yells out in pain as we get our first of many example of Body Horror in FMA, as his arm proceeds to mutate into a twisted mutation of flesh and the gatling gun parts. Ed is surprised, but then headbutts Cornello to the ground, yelling at him to see the stone. Ed says that it’s just a rebound and that losing a hand is nothing to whine about (Uhhh.....Ed? You may be used to dismemberment but I don’t think the rest of us are...)
But after Ed says that, the stone cracks and falls off Cornello’s ring before crumbling to dust. Ed is shocked that the stone broke, and says that the stone is supposed to be indestructible. Cornello does not know anything about this and pleads for his life. But of course, Ed is more focused on the realization that the stone is a fake, and that the entire ordeal was for nothing, and then collapses in sadness. In cute chibi style.
But Cornello tries to take advantage of this and prepares to take out Ed with the sharp edge that is on his mutated arm, before Ed exclaims at Cornello that not only did he manipulate the people and try to kill him and Al, and while he is saying this, the room starts to become transmutated, before roaring that now he finds out that the stone was a fake. As he says this, a GIANT FIST comes down from the roof, crashing in front of Cornello, as Ed transmutates a GIGANTIC STATUE OF LETO, towing over Cornello before Ed roars “EAT MY DIVNE WRATH!!” as he smashes Cornello with a fist. Ouch. That was a bit brutal of Edward, to kill Cornello like tha-Oh wait, next panel shows that he just slammed it down in front of Cornello, knocking him out with the shockwave.
Regardless, to quote Shadow Warden:
Edward Elric’s Crowning Moment Of Awesome: ASSIGNE-
No. Actually, I won’t be doing that. See, FMA has so many CMOA’s, I will instead be keeping a tally instead!
Edward Elric CMOA count: 1
- Current: PWNING Cornello with a giant statue
Ed brushes himself off as he proclaims the entire adventure to be a giant waste of time, and that they were so sure that they could bring their bodies back. Al says that Ed should get his body back first, since his Automail must be uncomfortable for him (Aww). As Ed gets ready to move on, he notices that Rose is in the pits after the whole “Her boyfriend will never come back thing” before yelling at Ed for revealing the truth (Huh. Guess she couldn’t handle the truth after all). She screams “What do I have.....To live for NOW?! TELL ME! TELL ME!”. Poor Rose. You can really feel for her in this part, helped by the excellent artwork on her expressions. Arakwa is great with that.
Ed just says to Rose that she will have to figure out what she has to live for herself. Ending with “Stand up....And move on with life. Your legs are still intact after all.” as the Elrics walk away, we are treated to a great shot of a tearful Rose looking up at the sky as the sun sets.
We cut to the palace, as the obligatory angry mob is trying to get to have Cornello’s blood. Cornello is still clutching his mutated arm, cursing how the Elrics ruined his plans. However, we do get a shot of the Chimera from before, which has had alot of it’s flesh eaten away. But then, a voice comes out of the shadows saying that while it would have taken a while to get things running, it was all for naught. We cut to the source, as we see it’s a Woman with long wavy hair, wearing a black dress that ends a bit over half of the way of her cleavage, with matching high heel boots (Really long boots at that). She is accomponied by a fat, almost rounded blob of a humanoid, wearing black as well. They both have what looks likes circuitry lines ending in nodes on their arms.
The woman calls Cornello a buffoon (She’s justified). Cornello simply asks why they gave him a fake Philosopher’s Stone, to which the woman simply asks why she would give the real thing to somebody like him. Cornello says that he was promised that the stone was susposed to make him a king, to which the woman say that Cornello was only needed to create anarchy, mocking him further. The manblob asks if he can eat him, to which the woman responds that he should not, as stupidity gives him indigestion. ICE BURN. Said conversation along gives us the names of these people. The Woman is called Lust, and the blob is called Gluttony. Gee. I wonder what the naming theme for the villains will be.
Engraged at Lust’s final insult (That he wouldn’t taste good anyway), Cornello charges at Lust....Only for Lust to sigh and impale Cornello through the head by extenting her fingers into Wolverine/Lady Deathstrike style claws. I am honestly wondering if that counts as a Darwin Award for Cornello. Lust even says that Cornello has Outlived His Usefullness. As Cornello falls, we get a glimpse of her boobs symbol on her chest, a winged Ouroboros encircling a Hexagon. Lust sighs, saying that they will have to go back to the drawing board. As Gluttony picks up Cornello’s corpse, and we get a shot of the Ouroboros tattoo on Gluttony’s tongue before a fade to black as Lust shouts at Gluttony that she told him not to eat Cornello, thus ending our chapter.
The Lior arc serves as an introduction to the plot, and it does so well. We get a good idea of Ed and Al’s powers, the world they live in, their characters, and their quest, as well as establishing the villains. Lust and Gluttony definately make an omninous first impression, giving us a sense of foreboding as we see that these two are beyond human, and have a very dark agenda. Though, I have to say that in terms of storytelling, both the 2003 Anime and Brotherhood did manage to do it better than the manga. Especially how Cornello gets exposed in the 2003 Anime. Though Cornello’s Batman Beyond esque transformation in Brotherhood was a bit silly and pointless. It did make the statue pounding a bit more epic though.
Those who have seen the first part of Red Letter Media’s Phantom Menace review will remember his talk on the everyman protagonist, how it works in fantasy and Sci Fi to share the facets of the fantastical world that they are in. That is what Rose is used to do. She is the role of the inexperienced rookie who is exposed to the fantastical elements, as her learning about Alchemy, as well as Ed and Al, and even the themes of the series are also learnt by the reader. With all that said, she does the job well, and she is given her own character. While she does have her moments of poor judgement, it’s undertandable, and she makes for a very sympathetic character.
Cornello is simply a patsy to show Ed and Al’s power, Ala Mizuki from Naruto. He’s a bit cliche as a villain, but he mostly serves as a figure for the whole faith vs resolve theme. That theme seems to be more prevalent than the whole Religion vs Science angle. The idea that blindly waiting on gods is not how you should live your life, but that you should use your own resolve and your own ideals and insight to guide you. That said there is the issue of Corrupt Religion, that people can try to twist faith into making people essentially puppets, and using it to create a fake aura of power and divine might.
That’s all for now! Join me next time, as the Elrics take on Authoritative greed in Chapter 3: The Coal Mine Town!
