Blogging Brotherhood: Episodes 24-26

Episode Twenty-Four: Inside the Belly

Edward, Alphonse, and Ling find themselves going head-to-head against Envy and Gluttony while Mustang seeks out a general that he believes may be willing to help him out in taking down the Fuhrer.

Oh, so that's what happened to Dr. Marcoh. To be honest I kind of forgot about him. Is that bad? According to Envy, he's got a bit of an ultimatum: Help them and save his village (which means destroy Amestris) or don't and have his village obliterated. I'm not too sure what the heck he's doing for them, but at this point I know better than to question anything because I'm sure it will come up again.

We get our first "glimpse" of Pride here. He never shows his face but has the same voice as both that thing inside The Door and Bradley's kid, so I'm sensing a possible connection...hm. Although where he's speaking from and how Bradley can hear him is a bit of a mystery. I like the image of the butterfly being caught in the web as they have their conversation. Very symbolic, and a little on the creepy side.

Aaaand we also get a nice look at Gluttony's "true form" which includes giant fangs and a scary-looking eyeball. So much for the squishy, kind-of-cute Gluttony. Although to be fair, if I had a stomach that looked like that I would be a bit angry myself.

Gah, doesn't having Shao May clinging to Mustang's face (and his consequent pulling her off that has a distinct suction cup sound to it) clash with the tone? Hawkeye nearly got herself killed and then they cut right to the shot with the panda on Mustang's face...I don't understand these shifts in tone. I know they're part of the "shonen" genre, but...seriously?

Okay, to be honest I'm being a jerk and nitpicking because I DID laugh at it. I'm more concerned about why it's becoming a trend for anime characters to take their gloves off with their damn teeth. At least in Black Butler it was kind of done for the ladies as a sexual thing, but Mustang has another perfectly good hand he could take that glove off with. And isn't it far harder to pull gloves off with your teeth than it would be to just yank it off with your hand? These things confuse me.

How many times has Hawkeye saved your ass, Mustang? I swear, without her you would have been dead way back in episode one because you forgot that fire and water don't mix. YOU NEED HER.

 
Also, why does Ed dislike the colonel so much? So far he's been dependable and proven to know how to handle certain situations, like with Ross. Hawkeye was the one that snatched Gluttony and Ling per his orders. Roy can be a bit of a dope every now and then (case in point: that rain and fire slip-up I just mentioned), but he has a head on his shoulders and is willing to do a lot to help Ed and Al out.

I'm not gonna lie, seeing that dog talk was almost as freaky as Gluttony's current form. Envy had a weird moment of normalcy here, where he/she honestly didn't want to fight Ed. He/she got plenty of characterization in the original, but it feels a little more nuanced here. It's making me interested in what he/she's got in terms of a past, if there's a person's memory behind him/her or if that concept has been removed from Brotherhood.

Bradley's family: I GOT QUESTIONS. There's something up with that kid and I want to know what. What about Bradley's wife? Where did she come from? If Bradley is a Homunculus, what the heck is she? Is she a human that got suckered into marrying him? Is she something else? I'd like to know these things.

Gluttony...swallowed them? He actually swallowed them? So...where did they go?

About the last scene: They're clearly foreshadowing something with the chess game and finishing too weak. It's Mustang's greatest weakness, one that goes so far as to be obvious in a chess game. We see that the Fuhrer reveals himself in that meeting of generals and that pretty much no one can be trusted. Mustang was too quick to assume that certain people would be his allies, and it's only when he realizes how far this corruption has gone that he understands the military isn't concealing the problem--it IS the problem. So will he remember this lesson he's learned and apply it in later situations?

Of course at this point, we've whittled our heroes down to a select group of people: Roy and his entourage, Ed, Al, Ling and Lan Fan (who's more or less out of commission for the time being), and...Armstrong? And he hasn't even been in an episode in a while. Clearly the corruption runs deep. But does that mean the generals know the Fuhrer's a Homunculus and don't care? Do they know what he and the others have planned for Amestris? I imagine it isn't going to benefit them much in the long run, so why side with him?

Episode Twenty-Five: Doorway of Darkness

Edward and Ling struggle to find a way out of Gluttony's stomach. Meanwhile, Mustang discovers that his team is being reassigned to different stations and May Chang continues her search for Shao May.

You know, I think the inside of Gluttony's belly looks a lot like I imagine mine does after eating Mexican food.

I swear, Ed and Al had better not end up developing telepathic powers. That would be too weird. And ridiculous.

They...cooked Ed's shoes...in blood...and...ate them? No, Ed, I'm pretty sure leather is not an edible substance. Your digestive tract is going to hate you for a long time after consuming that. AND IN SOMEONE ELSE'S BLOOD, TOO.

Courtesy of Envy and his bragging (they refer to him officially as a "he," so I'm sticking with that pronoun), we now know that he was the one who started the war by disguising himself as a human and shooting that child, rather than an actual Amestrian. Which...kind of makes the entire war a sham and discredits Scar and his vengeance charade when you put that into context.

There's a lot of commentary in this show, but one of the more prominent themes is the fragility and/or strength of humanity. Envy likes to riff on people and how gullible they are, which can be supported by both Hughes' inability to do anything when he took the form of his wife and the fact that he started an entire war by shooting one child. But then we've also seen an incredible amount of resolve and determination from more or less all of the heroes up until this point. Ling was able to hold his own against the Fuhrer, Ed transmuted his brother's body to a suit of armor as a young kid, and Roy used some quick thinking with the help of alchemy to destroy Lust--an "indestructible" Homunculus.

There's an interesting dichotomy here, which I think is true of real life as well. Humans are both incredibly small and fragile and weak while also being immensely strong and resilient. One of the reasons the relationships, too, are such a big deal is because the support that the heroes have is what builds that strength. No one in this show does anything on their own, not entirely. Not even Edward. Edward needs Alphonse. Mustang needs his team. Ling needs his servants. Everyone has a family, even if it isn't their biological one.

Whoo. There's the English major popping out. Moving on.

We also see Envy's true form, which...you know I don't think a screen shot captures how freaking...bizarre this thing is:

It's like...Godzilla mixed with a Chinese dragon and cobbled together with some sub-par CGI.

But in all seriousness, I'm glad Ling has become a far more tolerable character. Ed needed someone while stuck in what--as Envy explains--is a faulty portal of Truth. He's a bit more nuanced than I thought the show would care to go, so that's nice. He's proving to be a solid ally for Edward, which is something that is sorely lacking at this point in the story.

OF COURSE THEY EXPLAIN WHY THE PANDA IS TINY. Because I'm not allowed to complain about anything in this show, am I? Also, Insert Tragic Back Story Here. I'm not sure how someone couldn't have compassion for an extra tiny abandoned panda IN THE RAIN:

The weird things that Shao May is able to do are still kind of silly (like fighting and carting that massive basket of hay or whatever that was), but at least we get to see why she matters so much to May Chang. Overhearing the conversation, Scar must see a similar relationship between he and his brother and the girl and her panda. Either that, or Scar has a weakness for sweet little girls who lose their best friends. Who knows. Regardless, I'm glad he's got a little bit of compassion left and is willing to offer it to her.

I can't say the same for the idiot that's a part of their...troupe. Why is his character still in this show? What purpose is he serving? All he does is get in the way and spout mean, stupid comments. I kind of feel like the writers put him in the show for a certain purpose and now can't figure out how to get rid of him.

In regards to the Fuhrer and his meeting with Mustang, geez. Like, I don't think I could hate this man more if I tried, between his anger at Hughes' child making noise during his funeral, his separation of Mustang's team, and the dismissive way he treated Hughes' death in the first place. Yet...I can't help but agree with him a little bit. As far as soldiers go, Bradley is right--they should be prepared to die for the sake of their country. That's part of the risk of being a soldier. Now, I'm not saying Hughes deserved death or that making a big deal out of it isn't still justified, but I can understand why he would at least have that perspective.

I see he got tired enough of Team Mustang interfering with his plans, so everyone is going to be split up, with Hawkeye designated to be his personal assistant and everyone else in the South, North, and West. I'll be interested to see how Hawkeye handles her new position...whether or not she puts up with the Fuhrer and his BS. And what's going to happen to Mustang? Now that he's had this little chat with Bradley, what does that mean for him and his position? And--potentially--his life?

Episode Twenty-Six: Reunion

Edward discovers a way to get out of Gluttony's stomach by way of a human transmutation. Alphonse goes with Gluttony to "Father's" hiding place in the hopes that he can retrieve the three trapped individuals. The past of Fuhrer Bradley is revealed.

Is...is that Al? OH MY GOSH THAT WAS ALPHONSE.

Okay, let me back up. There's a lot that happens in this episode, so I'm going to try and communicate everything as best as I can.

Let's start with May Chang and Scar who, by the way, win the award for the most hilarious couplet in this entire series. Watching this giant, scary guy walk around with a little girl is far, far more amusing than it should be:

Her and her awesome knives and alchemy are great, and I love the fact that she's so committed to getting Shao May back that she doesn't care about the terrifying dog monsters or the fact that Scar told her he doesn't know if they can take down Gluttony, since he's a Homunculus. Scar has a lot of patience to deal with this little girl, who runs head-first into danger. He's lucky she can hold her own, otherwise he would have ended up carting her on his back while he took out all of those...gatekeeper-things.

We've also got Alphonse and Gluttony, who make their way through the underground tunnels of Amestris. It may be a minor point, but Al is ridiculously brave for being willing to go with Gluttony to meet his "Father." Al has no idea what this "Father" is capable of, what he'll do when he meets him, or if he can even take "Father" on; yet he goes anyway, alone, with no one but an exceptionally tiny panda to help him out.

It's interesting about Gluttony, too, as he doesn't seem to be an inherently evil Homunculus. Yeah, he eats people and enjoys it, but he's doing it more for the sake of his own ignorant satisfaction rather than as a deliberate evil act. He's not like Lust, Envy, or Wrath in that sense. But you'd think that this "Father" guy would make a Homunculus with a little more intelligence so as to not lead the enemy right to your door.

I found Bradley's back story to produce a lot more questions than it did answers. Now we know that he WAS a human at some point and was turned into a Homunculus by way of a Philosopher's Stone transplant, so that's one hole filled. But who are the people in charge of those "prospective fuhrers?" Who was heading the country in the absence of a leader? Was Amestris around at that point? Where do they get the babies? Are they stolen or artificially created or donated or what? Why are the doctors working with this "Father" character? What happens to other candidates once a fuhrer is discovered? If they just killed them, isn't that kind of a waste of resources? If they became generals/part of the military, that would make more sense, but that's a lot of candidates for only so many military positions and not everyone in the military would be a candidate.

And perhaps most importantly: Why the hell is he bothering to tell Mustang all of this? We aren't given much beyond his little diatribe, but based on Mustang's possible "candidacy," it seems unlikely that Bradley will kill him. So why tell him anything? What difference would that knowledge make to him? All Mustang does is get angrier.

Then we have Ling, Edward, and Envy who are all still stuck inside the faux-portal. I had to watch this a second time because the first go-around I got confused. There's a lot of exposition here that honestly is hard to follow, and even having Ling play the part of the audience and ask questions comes off as...awkward. His dialogue is clunky. They do us a favor by providing flashes of the needed imagery to help understand everything that's going through Ed's head, but even with that it took more than one viewing to wrap my head around it all.

What it all boils down to is the giant mural-circle-thing is a summoning circle that allows someone to transmute a person, which is how "Father" managed to wipe out all of Xerxes. He didn't so much "kill" everyone in the traditional sense as he did transmute them. The part about returning them to their own reality and the transmutation bouncing back onto Ed should it go wrong is still fuzzy at best for me, but I'm not going to complain about internal logic and continuity because in all honesty I don't think my understanding of everything Edward said is vital for progressing through the rest of the show.

Now. Back to Al.

I thought initially that it was another version of Edward because they look a heck of a lot alike, and his hair is longer. But yikes that body is a hot mess. If Edward has been supplying nutrients to it, he hasn't done a very good job because Al looks about three breaths away from being dead.

He makes a statement to Edward about not being able to leave unless it's with his own soul, but then how the heck is he able to communicate with Ed? Shouldn't he just be a lifeless body hanging out in that vast whiteness? That's what Nina became in the original. Tucker brought back her body, but he didn't have her soul, so there was nothing much to her. I'm a little confused, but I guess in the long wrong it isn't a problematic enough detail to hurt the story, and given my track record with complaining about things that aren't explained, I'm not going to be so quick as to say it will go unresolved.

But that last bit of the episode, man...Edward's determination to get his brother's body back is amazing. The way they couple it with the ending music is perfect, too.

General Thoughts on Part II

Far more action-heavy than Part I, this "season" has started to fill in some holes here and there while simultaneously creating more questions and setting up more conflict. At this point we've got a lot of different characters running around, several different stories being told at the same time, and so far they've done a decent job of balancing everything out.

Things I hope to see in Part III include:

• Some answers regarding Bradley's family, in particular his son. 
• More information in regards to "Father" which Envy promises to give if Ed gets them out of Gluttony's stomach. Given his track record, I'm not holding him to that, but we'll see.
• I could use some more Ishvalan War stuff. It's the one thing that still feels lacking.
• Google Images gave me some mild spoilers, so I want to know what happens to Ling. It looks like something big does.
• The rest of the Homunculus. We've only seen five so far (with two being eliminated) and there are seven.