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Recap / Fullmetal Alchemist Brotherhood E 63 The Other Side Of The Gateway

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  • Bittersweet Ending: Edward has sacrificed his ability to ever perform alchemy again, but in exchange, Alphonse has his body back. Meanwhile, Hohenheim returns to Trisha's grave and finally dies. While he does want to live a little longer for his sons, he does accept his death gracefully.
  • Book Ends: Greed was the first of Father's children to die in the series and he's now the last.
  • Brick Joke: Back during Greed's first death in Episode 14, his dying words were a joking vow to give Father a stomach ache and that Father would have no one to blame but himself. 49 episodes later, that pledge is finally fulfilled in a sense.
  • Brought Down to Normal: Ed forsaking his alchemy to save Al.
  • Earn Your Happy Ending:
    • Alphonse has gone years stuck inside his armor body, unable to eat or touch. And it didn't help when he sacrificed that body for Edward. And yet, Ed finally fulfills his promise to Al to restore his body. Although Al is emaciated, for the time being, he's happy to have a body again.
    • Hohenheim also counts. After centuries of living with guilt and immortality, everything falls into place for him. The being who started all this misery (Father) has been defeated, his younger son's body has been restored, and both brothers have been lauded as heroes (on top of Ed referring to him as a "rotten father"). Heck, even his dying beside Trisha's grave means he no longer has to outlive everybody he meets: he finally gets to join her in death.
  • Face Death with Dignity:
    • Greed laments that he didn’t know he’d found what he’d really wanted until now, but is content to die knowing he’s left a mark on his friends.
    • Hohenheim finally dies, now that he's used up his Philosopher Stone. However, he also wanted to live just a little longer so he could get to know his sons more. Nonetheless, rather than be upset over it, Hohenheim accepts his mortality with grace and is content to know he'll finally join Trisha.
  • Framing the Guilty Party: The fate of the surviving members of the Military's Senior Staff. They're blamed for Bradley's death and the Promised Day (with both being sold to the masses as a failed coup and failed alchemy experiment). It's a justified, necessary evil, because they can't exactly cover up the Nationwide Transmutation Circle's activation and its effects. But revealing the truth about Bradley and the Homunculi conspiracy would only completely destroy all public trust in the Amestrian government and tear the entire country apart.
  • Heroic Sacrifice:
    • Greed sacrifices himself to save Ling and deal enough damage to Father's remaining defenses for Ed to literally strike the final blow.
    • A variation with Ling when he offers Ed the Philosopher's Stone Lan Fan recovered from Bradley's corpse. Ling is prepared to sacrifice the very MacGuffin that brought him to Amestris and would let him secure the Xingese succession and become Emperor. That Ling's willing to forfeit his victory to help Ed bring Al back speaks volumes about his character development over the course of the series (and how much the Elrics have come to mean to him). However, it's ultimately averted as Ed, tempted though he may be, refuses to break his promise to Al to never use a Philosopher's Stone
    • Similarly to Ling, Hohenheim is likewise prepared to sacrifice what's left of his own Philosopher's Stone and is also rebuffed by Ed (both because of his promise to Al and because of finally reconciling with his father).
  • Historical Hero Upgrade: Bradley's posthumous legacy as he's remembered as a victim of Central Command's 'coup' attempt. It's a necessary evil because, again, revealing he was part of an ancient conspiracy trying to kill the entire country would only tear Amestris apart.
  • Honor Before Reason: Ed refuses to use any Philosopher's Stones to retrieve Al, determined to honor the promise he made to his brother to never retrieve his body that way.
  • Irony: Ever since he became immortal, Van Hohenheim was long wished to die so he could escape his survivor's guilt and the horror of watching everybody else age and die without him. Now that he's dying, he voices that he wanted to live just a little longer so he could spend time with his wonderful sons.
  • Laser-Guided Karma: For all the suffering he's caused many centuries in the making, Truth punishes Homunculus return to the Gate of Truth from whence he came, effectively subsuming his personality.
  • Meaningful Echo: When Truth warns that trading his alchemy for Al's body will "reduce" him to an "insignificant human", Ed bemusedly remarks he's always been nothing but an 'insignificant' human "who couldn't even save a little girl". Previously, Ed said this as a sorrowful and cynical statement of how powerless he was to save Nina from her fate. This time around, it's said in a warmer and more appreciative tone, as though Ed is thankful at how such humility has granted him the wisdom to recognize his limitations, and the people who helped him.
  • Offing the Offspring: Father once again kills Greed, this time permanently.
  • Once More, with Clarity: When looking back on how Father's last pitiful words were how he wanted the world's knowledge for his own, Hohemheim remembers that day when his younger self asked the little homunculus what he wanted most. This time, we see Homunculus's eye narrow rather wistfully as he answers that all he wants is to leave his flask. It signifies Hohemheim looking back with regret that, for all his twisted personality and lack of empathy, the homunculus's wish for freedom was sympathetic.
  • Ontological Inertia: Downplayed. When Pinako finds Hohemheim, the latter's body is greatly aged from having used up his Philosopher Stone. While his body isn't that of a centuries old man, it's nonetheless the body of a man in his 80s or 90s.
  • Symbolism: When ranting to Truth about how he shouldn't be punished for wanting knowledge, we have a close-up of the Dwarf in the Flask's eye. It's as though it reflects how single-minded and short-sighted his goals are. Despite him previously existing as the powerful Father, Truth is right: he never did grow beyond the tiny homunculus inside the flask.
  • Vocal Evolution: Inverted; in Father's last moments after Ed destroys his Philosopher's Stone, his voice returns to how it originally sound when he was the Dwarf in the Flask. Justified, as it's meant to symbolize that (according to Truth), despite changing his form, Father never really grew from the Dwarf in the Flask he started out as.
  • Wham Line: Ed calls Hohenheim 'Father' for the first and only time in the Present Day, signifying that he's finally forgiven his Dad for leaving them and Trsiha.
    • Of course, Ed being Ed, he does preface this heartfelt Wham Line by still calling Hohenheim 'Rotten' (something which an amused Hohenheim can't help noting when he's at Trisha's grave).

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