The FMA thread!!!

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ranger
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Re: The FMA thread!!!

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GinRei wrote:
ranger wrote: BTW May is like the Ayumi of this series, pretty much useless (well, no one in FMA is useless, they can all do something), but she only caused trouble.  She sucks.
In the dub, she has the same voice actress that dubbed Ayumi's voice.   :P
My intuition is as sharp as ever, it's like I have some uncanny ability to sense annoying girls in animes

edit: btw someone reply to my previous post, because I would actually like an explanation
Last edited by ranger on August 7th, 2011, 4:44 pm, edited 1 time in total.
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randompi314159
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Re: The FMA thread!!!

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ranger wrote: I finished brotherhood, overall a great series, but there were some points near the end that kinda make me go "..okay".
Spoiler:
I thought the whole forcing Mustang into doing human transmutation wasn't properly explained and felt like a weak plot advance - I mean..it just kind of came out nowhere, I know the author has the right for making up stuff like this in a world where alchemy is possible, but still, felt too rushed.

Also, how the heck did Ed beat Pride?  It seemed like he transmuted himself into Pride or something..once again, it was strange.  Also Kimblee helping Ed?  Kinda seemed out of character, but whatever.  So Pride turns into a fetus, without any of his original powers, and lost all of his memories? Is he still a homunculus? Will he age..?

How Hohenheim used his Xerxes souls to harm Father was strange as well, I felt confused - so he left his kids and wife to plant his souls around the country.  So..how exactly did that hurt Father?  Those souls weren't his, they were Hohenheim's?

Finally, when Ed brings back Al's body, sacrificing his alchemy...uh whaa? Why didn't you just do that in the first place?  Was there any inkling that you could even sacrifice your truth door to do this?  And, seriously, what was the spark that made Ed finally realize he can do this...felt iffy.  Meh.
Well,
Spoiler:
Not sure if I can answer them all atm, but I'll try. The Doctor forcing Mustang to open the gate does seem not as planned out, but I guess it was necessary for the plot to gather its 5 sacrifices that were main characters. As I couldn't imagine another main alchemist opening the gate. I suppose there's Scar, but it doesn't seem to fit as well.

As for how Ed beat Pride, yeah, it was weird. While Pride was trying to take Ed's body, they clashed souls or something and Ed beat him there, which led to him being able to decompose Pride's weakened body and won I guess.

Hohenheim scattered his souls from his Stone across the country in a circle as a countermeasure to when Father used the nationwide circle to create the Stone to remove the souls for the new Stone, the one that used the citizens of Armestris, from Father and send them flying back to their original bodies. Thus weakening Father, I would presume. He also used them to destroy Father's body in the beginning, so I suppose that means the souls were able to move around and whatnot.

And as for why Ed decided to give up his Gate of Truth in the end, I suspect it's because the fighting was over. Not sure if there were any hints as to someone doing that in the first place, other than just being something the author decided/had set on doing, but initially Ed and Al wanted to use a Philosopher's Stone to do get their bodies back. After figuring out how to make one and stuff, they decided to go about another route to try. I would suspect that somewhere after that he learned that he could give up his Gate and Alchemy to do so, but by that time he was already caught up in Father's plot and still needed his alchemy to fight. And when Ed and Al were younger and they just opened the Gate, I would guess that they were still learning about what transpired and didn't think of it or know of it at the time.
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mangaluva
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Re: The FMA thread!!!

Post by mangaluva »

randompi314159 wrote:
ranger wrote: I finished brotherhood, overall a great series, but there were some points near the end that kinda make me go "..okay".
Spoiler:
I thought the whole forcing Mustang into doing human transmutation wasn't properly explained and felt like a weak plot advance - I mean..it just kind of came out nowhere, I know the author has the right for making up stuff like this in a world where alchemy is possible, but still, felt too rushed.

Also, how the heck did Ed beat Pride?  It seemed like he transmuted himself into Pride or something..once again, it was strange.  Also Kimblee helping Ed?  Kinda seemed out of character, but whatever.  So Pride turns into a fetus, without any of his original powers, and lost all of his memories? Is he still a homunculus? Will he age..?

How Hohenheim used his Xerxes souls to harm Father was strange as well, I felt confused - so he left his kids and wife to plant his souls around the country.  So..how exactly did that hurt Father?  Those souls weren't his, they were Hohenheim's?

Finally, when Ed brings back Al's body, sacrificing his alchemy...uh whaa? Why didn't you just do that in the first place?  Was there any inkling that you could even sacrifice your truth door to do this?  And, seriously, what was the spark that made Ed finally realize he can do this...felt iffy.  Meh.
Well,
Spoiler:
Not sure if I can answer them all atm, but I'll try. The Doctor forcing Mustang to open the gate does seem not as planned out, but I guess it was necessary for the plot to gather its 5 sacrifices that were main characters. As I couldn't imagine another main alchemist opening the gate. I suppose there's Scar, but it doesn't seem to fit as well.

As for how Ed beat Pride, yeah, it was weird. While Pride was trying to take Ed's body, they clashed souls or something and Ed beat him there, which led to him being able to decompose Pride's weakened body and won I guess.

Hohenheim scattered his souls from his Stone across the country in a circle as a countermeasure to when Father used the nationwide circle to create the Stone to remove the souls for the new Stone, the one that used the citizens of Armestris, from Father and send them flying back to their original bodies. Thus weakening Father, I would presume. He also used them to destroy Father's body in the beginning, so I suppose that means the souls were able to move around and whatnot.

And as for why Ed decided to give up his Gate of Truth in the end, I suspect it's because the fighting was over. Not sure if there were any hints as to someone doing that in the first place, other than just being something the author decided/had set on doing, but initially Ed and Al wanted to use a Philosopher's Stone to do get their bodies back. After figuring out how to make one and stuff, they decided to go about another route to try. I would suspect that somewhere after that he learned that he could give up his Gate and Alchemy to do so, but by that time he was already caught up in Father's plot and still needed his alchemy to fight. And when Ed and Al were younger and they just opened the Gate, I would guess that they were still learning about what transpired and didn't think of it or know of it at the time.
Spoiler:
For the first, I think it was meant to look rushed; the Homunculi had been banking on Roy performing human transmutation in exchange for Riza's life, and seemed pretty set back by him refusing; Pride mentions that forcing him was a last resort, and it seems to take a chunk of Pride's stone or something to do. It was their final resort plan with the only sufficiently powerful alchemist to hand (I don't know if they ever acknowledged Scar as an alchemist; he has his brother's arm, but it's unclear if he ever actually studied alchemy for himself).

Didn't Ed use his own soul like a Philosopher's Stone? He used his soul as a Stone once before, when he healed himself. I think it's also partly to do with the fact that Ed and Pride are basically cousins. As a Stone, Ed was able to move in and out of Pride's Stone. Oh, and Kimblee wasn't helping Ed; he was being a dick to Pride. Much earlier on, he commented that he was genuinely looking forward to seeing which species would win the fight for dominance, Homunculi or humans. He got annoyed when Pride chose to save his own life by possessing Edward, something that Pride had already jeered at Greed for doing. Kimblee got annoyed and decided to be a dick for the hell of it, which has been his MO before.

I think because Hohenheim took the time to calm and talk to his souls, and help them regain their own conciousnesses, they became capable of using their own power independently. He planted them at the points of the circle that would reverse the creation of the Amestrian Philosopher's Stone, and when the shadow of the sun moved into the right place they activated themselves. Without that 50million strong stone, Father didn't have the power to restrain God and fight at the same time, so his Xerxesian stone was massively strained. I think Hohenheim's stone was able to act independently at other times, too.

Wasn't the Gate something Ed began to realize after that time in Gluttony's stomach when he transmuted himself, and saw Al's gate? He realized that their bodies and souls had become connected at that time (he then went on theorizing that the reason that he's short is that his own growth is being divided equally between his body and Al's, and that was also the reason that he slept and ate so much). He might have already came up with the idea that the Gate could be sacrificed, but the problem is that the Gate is the only way out of that place, so sacrificing your Gate would normally trap you there. He could only do it because he and Al were connected, so he could leave through Al's gate. Anybody else sacrificing their Gate would be trapped forever.
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Yukimi
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Re: The FMA thread!!!

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*Thumbs up to mangaluva for explaining everything thoroughly*. I wanted to reply but I finished the manga a while back and with my bad memory I didn't have all the fact straight :)
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ranger
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Re: The FMA thread!!!

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Ah, okay Mangaluva thanks - that last part about the gate sacrificing makes a lot more sense now
Spoiler:

still a bit iffy on the pride vs ed thing, with using himself as a stone.  Oh well.  Also, is Pride like human now, since he became a fetus and then eventually grew up?  What's with that bulls eye mark on his forehead?
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Re: The FMA thread!!!

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ranger wrote:
Spoiler:

still a bit iffy on the pride vs ed thing, with using himself as a stone.  Oh well.  Also, is Pride like human now, since he became a fetus and then eventually grew up?  What's with that bulls eye mark on his forehead?
Spoiler:
As far as I know, he's still a homunculus.
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mangaluva
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Re: The FMA thread!!!

Post by mangaluva »

ShiraKiryuu wrote:
ranger wrote:
Spoiler:

still a bit iffy on the pride vs ed thing, with using himself as a stone.  Oh well.  Also, is Pride like human now, since he became a fetus and then eventually grew up?  What's with that bulls eye mark on his forehead?
Spoiler:
As far as I know, he's still a homunculus.
Spoiler:
He seems to be an aging homunculus, though, doesn't he? Maybe because he only has a soul's worth of energy left.
I just finished a binge of watching through Brotherhood and rereading the manga, so it's all very fresh in my mind XDXD
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Re: The FMA thread!!!

Post by Akonyl »

mangaluva wrote:
Spoiler:
Not sure if I can answer them all atm, but I'll try. The Doctor forcing Mustang to open the gate does seem not as planned out, but I guess it was necessary for the plot to gather its 5 sacrifices that were main characters. As I couldn't imagine another main alchemist opening the gate. I suppose there's Scar, but it doesn't seem to fit as well.
Spoiler:
well, Scar must have studied alchemy at one point because at the end of the series he finishes understanding his brother's research and gives himself the second arm. Though, the doctor had no way of knowing that at the time.
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Re: The FMA thread!!!

Post by mangaluva »

Akonyl wrote:
mangaluva wrote:
Spoiler:
Not sure if I can answer them all atm, but I'll try. The Doctor forcing Mustang to open the gate does seem not as planned out, but I guess it was necessary for the plot to gather its 5 sacrifices that were main characters. As I couldn't imagine another main alchemist opening the gate. I suppose there's Scar, but it doesn't seem to fit as well.
Spoiler:
well, Scar must have studied alchemy at one point because at the end of the series he finishes understanding his brother's research and gives himself the second arm. Though, the doctor had no way of knowing that at the time.
Spoiler:
I know he studied his brother's research during the winter timeskip, but I have no idea if he did any other research before or after that time. And the bad guys definitely weren't aware that he'd done that much, if Bradley's epic "Oh crap!" face when he saw Scar's left arm was any indication XD
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Re: The FMA thread!!!

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On a side note,I really like the last OP/ED combo, its on the same level as OP/ED 1, SID delivers.
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Re: The FMA thread!!!

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Gotten through a good chunk of the first anime now. I kinda like it, but not as much as the manga and Brotherhood. Some of the characters I like better (particularly Lust), some have kinda lost something (I kinda like Roy less, and Kimblee), and same goes for the plots- some I like (very interested in the Homunculi's origins) and some just weird me out (there is some weirdass alchemy going on here, not least Scar's arm). I still like Brotherhood better, but ti's an interesting seperate story.

On another note, when watching some Brotherhood eps with my little brother, I kept thinking of Yoki as Scar's "Jaken". When I realized that I was thinking that, I started thinking of May as Rin, Dr Marcoh as Kohaku and Scar as SesshoMaru XDXD Incidentally, if anyone has drawn fanart to this effect, I would love them forever for the link XDXD
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Re: The FMA thread!!!

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Yeah, the first anime has a darker edge to it imo. Some of the characters get much more developed, probably due to the smaller selection of characters.
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Re: The FMA thread!!!

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I thoroughly approve of Sheska being a bigger character XD But yeah, it keeps to a smaller cast, and it kills off more of them. One thing that's kinda uncomfortable for me, though, is the development of an Ed who's, if not happy about killing, at least somewhat comfortable with it. It really freaked me out when he accidentally killed that alchemist in an early episode, and it kinda surprised me when he seemed to have no real reaction other than just to stare blankly as the guy died. He did freak out when he killed Greed, but then before long he was at the point where he was quite stoical about killing a homunculus who looked like his own mother. I kinda liked how, in the manga and Brotherhood, Ed and Al stuck to their guns to the end and never killed anyone (Ed didn't kill Pride, and in the end he didn't exactly kill Father either, since he got sent to the Gate). I can follow and understand the character development involved, it just makes me kinda uncomfortable. Definitely darker XP
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Re: The FMA thread!!!

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Izumi Curtis...how does someone get the name Izumi in the Fullmetal Alchemist universe o_0
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Re: The FMA thread!!!

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Same way as Risa, Maes, Solf, Olivier, Heymans, Sheska, Vato, Kain, etc.
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