Blogging Brotherhood: Episodes 3 & 4

This is an entry in a larger series that I am working on called Blogging Brotherhood. To understand the premise of these entries, please read the intro here.

Episode Three: City of Heresy

Welp, so far no explanation for Rose's change in skin tone, but I guess there are more important things to think about.

This is the first episode that's a pretty straight-forward repeat of one from the original. It's not entirely the same: in what's becoming kind of standard, they cut out a lot of the "fat" and got down to the meat of the material. There's no botched bird monstrosity posing as Rose's reborn fiance, and a lot of her story in general is sidelined to make way for religious commentary and the dopey Father. Rose plays the role of the brainwashed follower, manipulated through her loss to serve...uhh...Man Whose Name I Forget, and not much more. Even so, there's a lot more tension and emotion in these episodes than in the original. People are certainly quicker to pick up on what happened to Ed and Al and Ed is much more reactive to it. While I think it's a little weird that so many people know immediately what the automail and sentient suit of armor mean, I do appreciate that Ed's reaction has been more emphasized. He's already a pretty high-strung character, so it makes sense that he would be emotional about his and Al's past actions.

However, I still think that it would have been better if this spanned at least one more episode. It's not that what they give you isn't effective; I just think that it would be even stronger if they did what the original did and fleshed Rose out a little more. As it stands here, she's rushed onto the scene and then rushed back out, and I feel like they used her character more for the sake of having someone for Ed to get pissy at and act like an asshole to than as an actual person.

Speaking of, the religious commentary in Brotherhood is a lot more...prevalent. I mean, it was there in the original no doubt, but here it almost seems like it wants to be one of the central themes of the show because they keep bringing it up. I can't tell if the things Rose says are meant to be snickered at or if it's really just trying to present different points of view. Ed's feelings are completely unsurprising, and it's understandable why he would feel the way he does. But the way they handled his dialogue with Rose--who states things that many, many Christians have said and believe themselves--she comes across as someone to pity or to see as pathetic. I get that Ed doesn't actually think poorly of Rose (and I like how he uses the story of Daedalus and Icarus to make a statement about him and Al's past actions), but damn...some of his responses are really obnoxious.

I'm not saying that it's offensive. In the context of his character it's hardly out of the ordinary, and the general criticism seems to be directed at the more cult-ish religions or those that allow people to spin empty promises on them over and over. But like...isn't that kind of standard at this point? It's not saying anything that rational, regular people would disagree with, and it seems like a dumb way to juxtapose Ed's views because any normal person would side with him in that situation.

I don't know, I think I'm rambling. I get annoyed when people present faith as foolish, especially when they use the most radical and outrageous type of person to do it.

I'm going to quit my bitching, though, since I do love Ed's clear regret for what they did. He's got a bit more pain on display and I'm a sucker for dramatic crap like that. And of course Al, in his typical fashion, tries to play the peacekeeper and smooth things over with Rose and explain what happened rather than yell at her. Ed yells enough for the two of them.

I will say that the humor in this episode is handled a heck of a lot better. The timing is much more fluid and some of the expressions on people's faces are priceless (expressions are becoming a shining element of this series). I forgot about the hidden plan to get the Father's confession out through the intercom system, since they don't bring it up like they did in the original, so when Ed reveals what he was doing it was legitimately funny. And it's sad because it shouldn't be, since so many people come to realize that they've been lied to and manipulated, but...THEIR FACES.

I still don't like that opening narration, and I'm probably going to have to accept it as a part of the show and move on. That being said, the question asked at the end, "For what could equal the value of a human soul?" is a good one and a nice launching point for the series in general.

Episode Four: An Alchemist's Anguish

That damn narration before the episode starts is bad enough--why must they give a summary of everything that happened in the previous episode with it now, too?? It's even more cartoon-y!

Anyway.

You know, my ability to recognize voice actors even when they're putting on a character facade is getting to be kind of sad. Either that or I watched far too much of Black Butler that I'm able to identify Brina Palencia and J. Michael Tatum like I have some kind of weird reflex.

Regardless, aside from Maxey Whitehead as Al, they're the first two people to take over the roles of their characters from previous actors. Brina does a better job of voicing Nina, whose original voice actor was the most unconvincing little girl I've heard in a show that I can remember (part of the problem might have been the decision to have her mispronounce sounds the way a little kid would and it comes off as horribly stilted--could've been a director's choice, but either way it was bad). Tatum is taking over for Scar, and...well, at this point my opinion of his performances should be obvious, so I'll leave the gushing out.

Brotherhood is, so far, strangely episodic; there haven't been any episodes that carry over into another, even though there's still an over-arching story. Both the shenanigans in Lior and everything that happens with Tucker have been reduced to single episodes. It makes me curious what they plan on spending the rest of the show doing if they're shoving as much stuff as they can into the first set of episodes.

Speaking of Tucker, they really play up his psychopathy here. It wasn't as obvious in the original until later on, but here...holy crap, from the first shot of him you know there's something wrong. Even his voice is unsettling. Add to that the fact that, for some reason I see a cross between Beaker and that scientist-looking muppet in his appearance and the whole thing is just ew:

And the drama. Oh, man. The drama. They do a much better job setting up Al and Ed's affection for Nina, which was sort of shoved into the plot of the original in a really awkward way and never felt convincing for me. In 22 minutes I felt the bond between them much better than in the three or four-episode arc. Ed's reaction when he realizes that Tucker has turned Alexander and Nina into the chimera is heartbreaking.

I also cannot emphasize enough how much I effing love the expressions in this show, Ed in particular:

And that final confrontation with Tucker, man. That music. The acting. It's all so, so well done that every frame of it had me staring into my computer with anticipation.

Side note: Al apologizes a lot.

Mustang's final words to Ed when they're sitting out on the steps in the rain are bleak, but I like how they're establishing his character's perspective early on. I can't remember if they did that well in the original or not, because to be honest there was so much other stuff going on that I wasn't paying attention, but he was one of the most complex characters in FMA and I like that he's getting more screen time. He's got his head on much straighter than Ed does, even if he can be lazy and odd and kind of, uh, goofy. His words are harsh but they're the kind of thing Ed and Al both need to hear, Ed especially because he's the official State Alchemist.

Actually, that's one thing I will say this series hasn't done too well so far: They don't bother to explain why Al never took the test to become a State Alchemist. Had someone never seen FMA, they may be wondering why Al didn't become one, too. Hell, he's mistaken for one all the time, he might as well take the test.  At least that was something the original covered in it's too-many-episodes-long coverage of Ed's time preparing for the exam. I'm still holding out hope that they'll give more information on that whole part of the boys' past, but we'll see.