Full Metal Alchemist General

I find it funny how the Greeds both ended up as they did completely with their sins.

Mangahood!Greed ended up becoming friendly and working in-tandem all because of his want for things.

Whereas Greed let himself die when he realized Dante pretty much denied him the power to ever truly possess things,especially his own freedom. Odd as it seems, it was his avarice that allowed him to goad Edward into killing him off.

It's strange how only Gluttony was played completely the same.

The worst thing he did was attempt to steal Father's nationwide transmutation circle for himself. A case could be made that, as neither side of him is particularly inclined towards alchemy, he may not have fully understood the ramifications of what he was actually doing, but it's still something he did; had Father not predicted Greed's intervention and planned accordingly, it would have been Greed committing the genocide of 50 million people instead.

That might be true, but all it equate to was smashing Father, I doubt there's anyway Greed could activate the circles which is needed to start the thing in the first place. So I call it a massive bluff on his part.

I don't see how you could claim he didn't legitimately care for them, people normally don't go rage mode for people they didn't care for, or feel complete agony over it. Him addressing them as possessions is just his way of caring for people. Because Greed values whatever they "claim" to own, Greed values his friends. Hell, he pretty much treated Ed, Ling and the chimeras the same way.

edited 26th Oct '14 9:24:18 PM by AfroWarrior27

Yeah you know what, screw that ALL GREED WANTS IS FRIENDS crap, that is bull and I just can't buy a guy whose theme and name is even freakin GREED having that kind of characterization, it just feels stupid. That right there is the kind of corny nonsense that hurts Brotherhood for me. Screw that noise.

edited 27th Oct '14 12:40:54 AM by Vertigo_High

Are you serious? You claim it was corny nonsense (admittedly it could have been handled better) but it's still better than 2003!Greed having a completely pointless death for the sake of angst for Edward.

Plus I fail to see how that doesn't fit within Greed nature, especially considering that all his friend was brutally murder, and Greed himself says Greed just isn't a one note sin that only means one thing. Value is one attributes of Greed. So how dare Brotherhood portray Greed more than just a typical sin.

I'll repeat my question again, did you feel anything that was different in Manga/Brotherhood, wasn't cheap? It seems you're actively disliking things about Brotherhood because it was different.

edited 27th Oct '14 1:22:56 AM by AfroWarrior27

Greed never claimed to want only friends. He actually claimed the opposite. He wants money, power, women, all the finer things in life.

The foremost difference between the sins of Greed and Envy is that Greed values what it has, while Envy values only what others have. For the homunculus, one of Greed's possessions is his friendships, and he values them as he does any other possession. He outright equates killing his friends to stealing from him, which is why he considers it one of the most horrific things a person can do to him - he would react just as negatively if you took his money, or his status, or his favorite coffee table or something.

He actually does say something like that, during the final battle.

Yeah, he does claim he wanted friends in the final battle.

Though it kind of fits for someone associated with Greed to chase material wealth and power to fill an emotional need.

I stand corrected.

Which is why that desire fits Greed, Vertigo High. -__-

It was not a pointless death just for the sake of Edward's angst, it was an equally plausible outcome for the vice of Greed.

Greed couldn't have everything if he wasn't his own man,which he couldn't be with Dante owning him and thereby any "possessions", that's why he went in. That's why he got defeated, and that's why he let Edward do him in. Only his death could he truly own, only killing off Dante's other minions could he truly own.

Personally I do wish Greed had lasted longer,given that I felt almost as much for him as 20+ episodes of the Mangahood!Greeds in spite of the big character arc.

That still doesn't make sense, he knew how to kill a Homunculus he really didn't have to set himself as an example.

He did if that was the only way to stick it to Dante, plus Greed and the first Mangahood!Greed do have some Blood Knight tendencies. He probably wanted to go out that way,given that everything else fell with Archer's Devil's Nest raid.

Also to your credit, I'm not agreeing with the other guy about "Greed wanting friends is bullshit" tangent.

Really it's an exercise in seeing how many ways to take the vice of Greed. And both turned out interesting.

Or perhaps Greedling was pretty much the Mangahood writers trying to reconstruct the mindset the original Greed had by having him then instead of giving up and resorting to Suicide by Cop actively take on Father.

edited 27th Oct '14 12:31:27 PM by terlwyth

If he really wanted to stick it up Dante he could actually help Ed out similar to what Martel later did in 2003, rather than kill himself. But I suppose if he did that would make both story lines too similar.

edited 27th Oct '14 12:35:01 PM by AfroWarrior27

Finished marathoning the first series and liked it enough to follow onto Brotherhood. Skipping the movie for now because there's a little Ending Fatigue and I'd rather save that for when I'm feeling a little refreshed on the series.

Going with the stuff I didn't like first because it's easier, the show got a little melodramatic towards the end. There are only so many dramatic explosions of sadness a show can throw at you before Alphonse loudly declaring they can't kill Soulless Water Lady because she looks like their Mum gets a little annoying. After a while I ended up hoping the characters would shut up and get on with killing the evil stuff.

There were stylistic things that grated with me as well. I remember one instance with Soulless Child, Soulless Water Lady, Edward and First Episode Damsel (I'm not great with names) where there were three dramatic freezeframes in quick succession as the kid tried to murder first episode damsel and Edward leapt to stop him. Like the melodrama it just comes off as a tad overwrought.

As for the good stuff, well... pretty much everything else. It's hard to identify specific things, but the story arcs started flowing really well after the early procedural aspects faded away. The characters were endearing (Poor Hughes. Poor, poor Hughes.), there was legitimate pathos even as the series dipped into overwrought melodrama (Poor Lust.) and the ending... the saddest parts of the show were when Ed and Alphonse were split up. Ending the show with them on separate sides of the gate was very emotional, even if I wasn't a major fan of them essentially mindwiping Alphonse.

Looking forward to getting on to Brotherhood.

Whoa, that was quick? O.o Took you four days? It ussually takes me one to two weeks.

Glad you enjoy watching 2003 enough for you to move on to Brotherhood. Enjoy a spectacular ride with that show. You'll notice that the first 2-13 episode of Brotherhood are similar to some of the content between Episode 1-34 of 2003. That's because 2003 loosely adapt the first 30 chapter of the Original Manga before going it's own exclusive route, Brotherhood get's complete different from 2003 by the the time episode 14 happens and follows the original manga exclusively. I still recommend watching those episode because it was still handled in a much different fashion and events happen at a different time than in 2003.

And if you're worried about the melodrama, don't worry about that in Brotherhood. Brotherhood doesn't get melodramatic and instead goes for a more grander complex, epic plot route.

Brotherhood also had it't own movie as well called Fullmetal Alchemist The Sacred Star Of Milos which takes place between episode 20-21 of the show. So I'd watch that for more FMA. But it isn't vital to the storyline. Just think of it as extended Avatar episodic episode where the main crew get into someone else affair and the helps them out.

Try checking out the specials as it extend the back story for some of the characters. You can watch them whenever.

edited 1st Nov '14 2:27:17 AM by AfroWarrior27

Be aware that the first dozen or so episodes of Brotherhood will be incredibly familiar and kind of blandish. For Brotherhood's more accurate adaptation of the original manga, they somewhat skimmed through the material that the first anime covered. Some things are different, though, and the closer you get to the point that the first anime cut off its own tail and ran away, the more apparent the differences become.

And also be aware that if you seen the dub, a few of the actors get recasted. About 12 in general, most of them are minor characters but a few of the major players like Alphonse, Scar, and Breda we're recasted. Everyone else minor or major reprise there role in 2003 to Brotherhood though.

Ironically enough it's the opposite in the sub, nearly everyone was recasted while only a few reprise there role. Those few being (Edward, Alphonse, Izumi, Armstrong and his Father, Bradley).

edited 28th Oct '14 5:46:46 PM by AfroWarrior27

Breda is never really all that major in either beyond a name. As for Alphonse, his original VA does make a minor appearance...brownie points to you if you can guess who.

Hohenheim also has a different voice, John Swasey; and considering that Kent Williams is the voice of Father, I wouldn't have it any other way.

edited 28th Oct '14 5:39:20 PM by TheAirman

I wonder if oppyu will be able to figure that out though. Well that or just stick around for the credits.

Oh yeah, I forgot about Hohenheim.

Wait a minute, the irony of this post in...

edited 28th Oct '14 8:22:03 PM by AfroWarrior27

Ironically I think Swaseys voice fit 2003 Hohenheim and Mc Neils fit Brotherhood better.

Hohenheim is one of the characters who's radically different from both shows though, there some characters that at there core, are very similar but both story plays or focus on a different side to them. Than you have characters like Hohenheim and Scar who are completely different in both shows.

Edit: Oh wait a minute, I read that wrong. Can't say I agree. I don't think Mc Neil captures Hohenheim's more serious and masterful planning side like Swasey does. Mc Neil's Hoho is a bit too carefree to fit imo. I also feel Swasey fits the more family man side of him better. While Mc Neil captures his neglectful father side perfectly.

edited 28th Oct '14 8:28:47 PM by AfroWarrior27

So, I just finished watching Brotherhood with a friend, and I noticed something I really liked. I'm going to spoiler text this because we have someone in this thread who hasn't watched Brotherhood.

In the beginning of both series, Ed has a conversation with Rose in which he egotistically dismisses the value of her faith in her own church. It's largely framed from the perspective of Ed being the brilliant man of science while Rose is the ignorant peon, Ed openly announcing in the church, "Alchemists are the closest things to God there is," while the most Rose can offer in her defense is, "If you pray really hard, I'm sure God will make you taller!"

By the end of the series, Ed faces Truth armed with the knowledge he's attained over the course of his journey, but the most important lesson that allows him to triumph is the one he never could have managed in the start: humility. When he offers his Gate, Truth asks, "Are you sure you can be okay with lowering yourself to a simple human?" and Ed, without missing a beat, answers, "That's all I've ever been." In this way, his journey closes and he is allowed to take Al home, because he has finally, honestly repented the arrogance and hubris that drove him to sin in the first place.

And then God makes him taller.