Episode Thirty-Three: The Northern Wall of Briggs
Kimblee chases down Scar across the railroad as he travels towards the North where his brother's alchemy notes are stored. Ed and Al head towards Northern Command hoping to find General Armstrong.I find it kind of annoying that they haven't managed to keep the "summary narration" consistent. Like, they had it for most of the episodes in season one and then they stopped for a little while. They brought it back a couple of times in season two, and now this is the first time it's shown up again for season three. I mean, I hate the stupid thing regardless, but it would be nice if they could at least keep its appearances consistent. Then I would stop having to complain about it whenever it reappeared.
I'm sure not many other people will notice or care about this, but the backgrounds in this show are really, really beautiful:
It's not super duper detailed, but it's far more textured than the animation (which is typical). I figured I'd point out something positive, since I'm getting ready to spend most of this entry criticizing. Or, complaining would be the more accurate term, but I like to at least sound smart when I write these things.
Much of this episode focused on Scar and Kimblee, with plenty of fighting and strategy to go along with it. To be honest, I find a lot of this to be...not boring exactly, since I wouldn't call any episode of this show "boring," but not as engaging as everything else. I much preferred the little moments of Ed and Al recalling the snow from their childhood to anything Kimblee and Scar get into. Kimblee is isn't a bad character, but I liked him better when he was at least kind of pretending to be a hero. Maybe it's my brain being shallow and slapping a "dislike" label on him because I don't care for his character design, either. His white suit and hat are silly and the two giant strands of hair that stick out on his face make him look like a bug:
But I'm also not sure I can get on board with anything he does because he doesn't have a convincing motivation to me. He's very much like Alex from A Clockwork Orange--he does evil things because he can. There's no rhyme or reason to it. I don't buy that as a legitimate motive for anyone. Maybe it works better in real life, but for the sake of a story I don't think there has ever been a villain outside of a fairytale or Disney movie that does what they do for the sake of "being evil." And besides, Brotherhood is way more complex than that. It feels strange having a show where even the heroes are complicated and have troubling pasts to stick what equates to a Disney villain into the story.
Not to mention he gets skewered as he stands on top of the train trying to figure out how best not to get skewered. I'm hoping--and honestly assuming--that he intended for that to happen. I don't think the show is going to let him die so quickly and so unceremoniously, even if I'm relieved at the possibility of him being punted out of the picture.
Wait. Now that I think about it, Kimblee reminds me an awful lot of a character from another show who got a kick out of killing people just for the heck of it and also fought someone on top of a train:
Except he was even crazier and had a much more engaging personality.
And at last, we get to meet the infamous Olivier Mira Armstrong.
The good news? She isn't as much of a pain in the ass as I was anticipating. The bad news? She's still a pain in the ass.
I'm grateful that she doesn't scream, at least not to the degree that I was expecting. It also makes sense that she would be so distrusting and harsh given where her post is, and she seems more than capable of leading the men in her charge. I'm not faulting her for her ability to do her job.
But...good grief, she's still obnoxious. Is it really necessary to threaten to tear someone limb from limb because they're not moving into the fort fast enough? And she could have just stuck Armstrong's letter in her pocket rather than rip it to pieces and throw it to the wind.
Again, this is all first impression. I didn't like Ling initially, either, and he grew on me for the most part by the time Greed took over his body.
I'm also going to throw it out there that her design is weird. I understand that the idea was to make her as badass and still feminine as possible, but her lips creep me out. No other female character has lips like that. Her hair is pretty, but she cannot do anything with it in her face like that. The only way it wouldn't make a difference is if she was blind in that eye. Otherwise, she's cutting off vision for that entire side of her body and that doesn't make any sense when you're the general of an army. I know it sounds nitpicky and ridiculous, but look at Hawkeye. Look at Winry. Look at Lan Fan. They spend more time with their hair up because they are doing things that require it to be out of the way. It's down when they're at home or hanging out, not when they're making automail or shooting people, or fighting. The show has been so good to its female characters in that respect that this feels almost like a deliberate attempt to say "Hey, she's beautiful and has pretty hair AND she can kick your ass!" They don't need that. They've done it. Several times over, and in ways that are far less conspicuous.
I know, I know. I bitch about little stuff like this all the time, but that's because I like complaining. Her design is far from terrible, it's just that details like this get on my nerves, especially when the material is smart enough to know better. It's not a crime to wear a ponytail, and this show has proven that over and over.
Episode Thirty-Four: Ice Queen
Ed and Al learn more about Olivier Armstrong and the soldiers of the North until an unexpected enemy finds his way inside the walls of the fort.Coincidentally, there is a song with this exact same title by Within Temptation, except it isn't referring to a particular person; it's a metaphor for winter (it also isn't a bad song and worth checking out).
What a weird collection of people this fortress is, and not just in design. It's like the reject corner of the army--where they send everyone that doesn't quite fit in anywhere else. Armstrong even says that they don't get the luxury of discrimination up here. Clearly.
My assumption is that the army tends to leave these people alone for the most part, since they're so far away. Everything they do is a bit to the extreme, and for them their job is boiled down to "Survive so you can protect the border." There's nothing fancy or elegant about them, unlike back in Central. They have special automail for the weather, a surplus of weapons and are working on building bigger and better ones, and I really want to know what Olivier is planning to douse Sloth with, since it won't be fire.
I'm not going to say I take back my comments about Olivier in the previous post, but I will say that she has managed to be a more tolerable character than I was anticipating. If you look at the people she's in charge of--all of those who have "things they don't like to talk about"--she's basically running people that are one step above criminals, and she's doing it in an environment that could very easily kill them if they don't take the proper precautions. She has to be strict and tough so that nobody, you know, blows a hole in the fortress and gets everyone else killed or lets an enemy inside the Amestrian borders. And I have to admit--I'm interested in what her secrets that "could get her court marshaled" are. She doesn't seem like the type to always play by the rules, so who knows what those secrets entail.
There is also obviously a "thing" going on with her and her family, as brought to light by her reaction to the fact that he brother is doing well. I'm not sure what the heck a guy like Alex did to piss her off, but it must have been significant.
To her credit, later on when Sloth ends up inside the fort and it's obvious Ed and Al know what he is and that he can't be killed, she doesn't force them to answer questions they refuse to. She just keeps going until they can answer her. Granted, it's more than likely because she didn't have time to sit there and threaten them while her fort was being torn apart by a giant oaf, but still. It was some restraint and it gives me confidence that she's more rational than she lets on.
Oh yes, and we have another Homunculus! At this point I think the only one left that we haven't physically seen is Pride. This Sloth is much different than the one from the original. Unlike before, he's actually adhering to his title and being slow and lazy. He doesn't seem to give much of a damn what he's doing or who gets in the way; he must have just been ordered to "dig" and "destroy things." There isn't much to his character, which is kind of a shame, but I don't think someone who can tear through the floor of a military-fortified command center and withstand a blast from a tank needs to be all that complex to be intimidating.
On a lighter note, I feel so bad for Al and his "hair." And he doesn't even have the benefit of that growing out like actual human hair would. The way Whitehead delivers the "It looks awful" line is simultaneously sad and hilarious.
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