Full Metal Alchemist General

Dante walked up to the Elric's house with an umbrella where Sloth was wandering around and fed it some red stones. Pinako never gets to bury Sloth because she had vanished they went back to the house.

What Dante was doing when she conveniently stumbled on Sloth in the boondocks however is never explained. I mean she could have been trying to stalk Hoenheim be he was long gone by that time.

Edited by lycropath on Mar 18th 2019 at 4:36:24 AM

Alright then. I also added a response to your last post on the previous page by editing my last post.

Dante mentioned that seeing some kids with a dead mother (actually, did Izumi tell Dante the part about the dead mother? I don't remember) wanting to learn alchemy from Izumi made her guess what they were trying to do so she followed them back for the express purpose of getting a new homunculus. Though if Sloth was wandering around even before Dante came to take care of her it kinda makes me wonder how nobody noticed anything.

Edited by Druplesnubb on Mar 18th 2019 at 12:47:40 PM

It was a bad storm when Ed and Al human transumted, so everyone being inside because the storm while proto-sloth wandered around isn't that strange.

x4 Troubled Production or not, the whole Wrath and Izumi plot ended unsatisfying for what was a pretty strong start. Not that Winry or even Roy and Al for that matter got much better mind you, all three of them felt accessory to Edward in the 2003 anime.

Edited by lycropath on Mar 18th 2019 at 5:01:33 AM

Pinako really should have called in the state alchemists by the point the undead abomination against nature went missing. She could at least have mentioned something to Mustang, since he was already in on the secret of what the boys had done (unless I misremember that part).

Edited by Druplesnubb on Mar 18th 2019 at 12:59:34 PM

In response to your earlier post: it seems kind of rare to see people who like 2003 Wrath. Its more common to see people say they hate him, at least from what I've seen. I've only encountered a few people who were fans, one of whom wrote a big fanfic centered around Wrath. Although, the only reason I came across that fic was because I was looking for post-canon 2003 fics, and that was the only substantial one I found.

It's more common to see people say they like 2003 Lust. It seems like Gluttony is underdeveloped in both series.

The base idea for Wrath was good, but the character himself was kind of obnoxious…

I never saw the first show, what was he a one-dimensional Complete Monster?

I know he strangled his son.

Edited by slimcoder on Mar 18th 2019 at 5:17:27 AM

That would actually be Pride who did that.

Remember, Bradley is Pride in the first anime, and Wrath in the second one.

Wait right 2003-Wrath was the kid.

Edited by slimcoder on Mar 18th 2019 at 5:19:28 AM

Pride's reveal in the manga had me laughing a little because the first thing I thought of was the strangling scene from the first anime. Oh, of all the names they decided to give Bradley in that series...

Yeah, Wrath was Izumi's stillborn son, and his arc is mostly centered around his mommy issues. Which led to him doing something really dumb near the end.

Bradley strangling Selim to death in 03 is a bit hilarious when you know their relationship in the manga.

Edited by Lyendith on Mar 18th 2019 at 1:25:46 PM

I mean Wrath is annoying and creepy and naked for a lot of his screen time, but I think his intro episodes where really good with a lot of tangled motivations and high emotion, but the show just doesn't proceed to do much with him beyond cause the deaths of Sloth and Lust.

2003 holds a special place in my heart. Even though I like 2003 more, one of the things I feel is true is that the animation in Brotherhood is much better. Ultimately though I appreciate 2003's darker aesthetic and grayer themes. I will say that I agree that brotherhood was not a battle shonen. Even so I really liked how the Final Battle was pretty much everybody getting a turn to beat up on Father. And that is why I dislike the final part of the Final Battle. I don't like how it turned into a free for all to a one-on-one fist fight between Father and Ed. I felt like that would have been more appropriate in a Battle Shonen.

It’s not like it was an even fist-fight. Father was pretty much out by then.

It was just someone needing to deal the final blow & everyone felt Ed deserved it after Al’s sacrifice.

Plus, it is satisfying as fuck to see Ed after all the shit he's been through, the pain, loss, misery, and knowledge it all ties back to Father, just get to beat the ever living shit out of him.

In the words of his father, FUCK HIM UP!

Definitely!

I don't quite understand people complaining that the ending was too happy. I mean, I guess I can see it, but with all the shit everyone had been through by that point, I wasn't about to complain.

Edited by SapphireBlue on Mar 18th 2019 at 7:54:02 AM

True Art Is Angsty essentially.

I like to see the happy ending as mostly being from the Elric's point of view, they went through hell and misery. They got their lives back in the end, they got their happy ending so they think the others will as well.

It was definitely one of the most fulfilling endings I've ever seen. Everyone just put in some much hard work that they definitely earned their shit.

Ed's final words really sums up the ending in its entirety: "There's no such thing as a painless lesson. They just don't exist. Sacrifices are necessary; you can't gain anything without losing something first. Although, if you can endure that pain, and walk away from it, you'll find that you now have a heart strong enough to overcome any obstacle. Yeah... a heart made Fullmetal."

Especially good since shonen has an unfortunate tendency to end...... rather unfullingly so its good FMA ended pretty damn well for the most part.

Edited by slimcoder on Mar 18th 2019 at 8:12:02 AM

I can understand why people might feel that Brotherhood feels a tad too idealistic in a bad way (not specifically because being darker is better), but what I can say is that it feels much more resonant and earned when compared to most other series I've read/seen, because Brotherhood's writing is just that above average. I feel similarly about Naoki Urasawa's Pluto.

Edited by Draghinazzo on Mar 18th 2019 at 11:16:56 AM

I also like how the ending has Ed trying to use alchemy again, seeing if he can get what he relied on for so long back.

But no it just doesn't happen, it's gone. Well and truly gone, Ed cracked the secret to human transmutation, all it cost him was the ability to try ever again.

To answer an earlier poster's question:

When Sloth was created in the 2003 anime, Dante was waiting for her because she had heard about "two young boys being taught by [Izumi]", her former alchemy student. When their mother had died, the brothers had found letters and old contacts in their dad's study from (assumably) alchemists all over Amestris, all of whom they sent letters to asking for their fathers whereabouts (so that he would know that his wife had died, "you deadbeat bastard!", etc etc). Dante (possibly under a different name?) got one of those letters, and, putting two and two together, determined that they were going to try and bring their mother back with human transmutation ("They are [his] sons, after all."). Once they had completed their training, all she had to do was head to Resembul and wait (in the 2003 show, when they use human transmutation, the house lights up all purple and glow-y, so assumedly she could see it clearly enough from a distance when it happened; Winry sees it from her house just fine, after all).

Yeah, I do have to say the origins of the sins in the 03 anime is way more interesting a concept than Brotherhood. "Nyah, I cast my shit aside and they became people!" is way less interesting than the Chekhov's Boomerang of them being the result of human transmutation. I thought that was a really clever little thing while Brotherhood's was... super generic.

It was definitely creative. I haven't seen the first anime, but from the things I've heard they did, that's one of the better ideas.