Fullmetal Alchemist: Brotherhood

Huh, strange - I much prefer Hologram to Golden Time Lover. Oh well.

I swear I've heard that ending theme somewhere before. Can't remember where for the life of me though.

EDIT: Looks like Hohenheim was more similar to his son in his younger days

Holy shit so that's the man from the start of the first OP! I thought it was an differently-drawn Ed, but it turns out it was a young Hohenheim!

We see Father's origin, but just what he is is unclear to me. What type of being is he? How does one create a Dwarf in a Flask?

So Father guided the King and Hohenheim to inadvertently kill the entire population to create a massive Stone within Hohenheim, which he then transumated to give himself a humanoid form and similarly insane Stone powers? Did I get that correct? I also wonder what Hohenheim saw at the Gate. Furthermore, does the country-wide Stone circle have different properties and effects as your standard Stone circle? The one at the Fifth Laboratory didn't seem to need blood seals to function and it doesn't seem to send the one who activates it to Truth, and there was no mention of sacrificing those who had seen the Truth personally for either that or the Xerxes circle. I wonder what the difference is.

edited 8th Dec '16 2:10:38 PM by LinkToTheFuture

I'm not quite sure Ed pulled that replica Al armor out of, but otherwise that was a fantastic episode. Really they all are. 03 had its weaker episodes, especially towards the start, though the quality seriously ramped up in the last 25ish episodes and remained consistently fantastic towards the end, I don't think Brotherhood has ever had a serious dip in quality since the beginning, besides a few early pacing wobbles. It's not perfect, there are some plot developments that I haven't felt have an adequate explanation (though we might get that later, and is partially my own fault) but it's still a 10/10 series so far. Maybe 9.8 or 9.9, but no lower.

Father is a being born from the gate and related to Truth. His true form is the combination of Truth (outline and mouth) and the Eye of God (black mass, tendrils, and single eye).

Incidentally, Pride is a larger form of Father. By favoring his oldest kid Father is engaging in some self love.

It's a coal mine, there is plenty of metal to transmute a suit of armor.

edited 8th Dec '16 3:03:25 PM by RAlexa21th

Father is a source of Fridge Horror in that he is obviously the result of some sort of experiment. Considering how powerful and knowledgeable he is and the more advanced state of technology in the present day, what is going to stop people from accidentally creating more beings like him in the future?

Even more, how much sacrifice has been made so that God is willing to exchange a piece of Itself?

edited 8th Dec '16 3:32:13 PM by RAlexa21th

The sacrifices can't have been much as Xerxes had a much smaller population than Amestris. And Hohenheim survived whatever what was done to summon Father. In comparison to creating a philosophers stone, summoning a Homunculus into the world seems to be rather mundane. Considering the catastrophic damage just one did, that is worrisome.

One of the themes of the ending, Alchemy is bad seems in retrospect to be less about relying on yourself and more like trying not to mess with forces man was not meant to know and unleashing hell on earth.

edited 8th Dec '16 7:59:10 PM by DocJamore

Promised Day, huh? I wonder what's special on that day. It seems to be the day of the Mustang/Armstrong Joint Coup of Awesome, which is twice the awesome of the Mustang Coup from the first anime. I guess I'll find out later on why Hohenheim considers it so important though.

A nationwide transmutation is going to take place, so that's pretty important.

Had somehow forgotten that Father had mentioned it, if he did. My memory, if you can't tell, is pretty bad sometimes.

I appreciate the Gold-Toothed Doctor creating a circle the specifically sends people who have seen the Truth back to the Gate. I'm questioning how that even works, but it's cool.

There's probably a formula for that, probably given to him by Father.

The final arc already? That's fast.

Hey, I love this series. It's practically impossible not to binge watch.

"Rain" is a fantastic opening. I can't decide between it and "Again" as my favorite.

My main hangup right now is that I'm wondering what Winry's up to.

Hohenheim, you beautiful bastard.

edited 9th Dec '16 10:48:20 PM by LinkToTheFuture

So, it's over. What a ride. Ending was conclusive fun, and well-earned, though I'm a little sad that Ed lost his ability to use alchemy. I just want to see more though, not in the "feels like something's missing" way like say Homestuck did (though I'd say that Homestuck was the last work of fiction to give me an experience quite on the level that I did with FMA/FMAB) but in the "I want more damnit! More Ed! More Al! More Roy! More alchemy!" way. I just don't want to leave these characters and this world I've grown to really love. Well, onto the next thing I guess. Whatever I choose to see next will have impossibly big shoes to fill. My only real nitpick with the last 4 episodes is that I feel like Roy being blinded would have had more impact if he had chosen to open the Gate willingly.

I'd give the edge to Brotherhood (9.9/10) over 2003 (9.2/10) but they were both fantastic series. Brotherhood was missing some elements that made 2003 great, Brotherhood was just such a grand experience that I couldn't help but be blown away by it. If you want a comparison, in my view 03 is Majora's Mask while Brotherhood is Twilight Princess, to those of you who are also Zelda fans.

edited 10th Dec '16 12:39:04 AM by LinkToTheFuture

Huh, I did play TP first and never bothered to finish MM. Good point.

I never saw a whole lot of Twilight Princess, but what I did see looked very brown!

What did you think of Bradley vs....well everyone (I think if you type his name on the youtube search, that's the actual name of any videos about that fight).

And now you understand what I meant about him and 03 Bradley I imagine.

@ Link. Now I recommend Shamballa and FMAB OVA; they are canon to their respective series. 4-Koma Theater is fun too (with some icky gay jokes, just a warning). FMAB blooper is also available on Youtube. Youtube. Sacred Star of Milos is eh, but maybe you can see and judge for yourself.

Chapter 108.5 of the manga is a also canon. It is set between ep 64. The FMA prototype is a What Could Have Been for the Cornello arc.

edited 10th Dec '16 11:06:48 AM by RAlexa21th

Did I miss your reaction to Pride's reveal, Link, or did you just not post it?

I had been spoiled on it already, unfortunately. It was really well done though.

I'm not sure if this is awesome or horrible.◊

Answer to both is yes.

...Oh.

You motherfucker.

...aaaaaaaaaaaaAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA

We need to find the person who made that shirt, shake his hand, and then beat him.

Beat him to death.

Never has the best and worst of humanity been more defined than in one piece of clothing.