Blogging Brotherhood: Episodes 38 & 39

A Quick Recap

For those of you wondering where on earth episodes 35-37 went, they aren't here. I watched the episodes almost two weeks ago, right before my graduate classes started. Once those hit and I realized I have a heck of a lot more coursework than I was anticipating, blogging about these episodes took a backseat to...well, everything else. Even sleeping.

Point being, I opted not to go back and blog about those episodes because, at this point, in order to give a decent synopsis and my thoughts I would need to re-watch all three of them, and I frankly don't have the time or attention span to do that. So instead, I'm going to jump right back in and continue from where I left off which, conveniently, are the final two episodes of this "season."

Before I talk about 38 & 39, though, I'm aware of everything that's gone down in terms of major plot points: Ed, Al, and Olivier have discovered that Amestris' creation was done intentionally for the future production of a Philosopher's Stone. Kimblee is alive and well (unsurprisingly) with the help of a Philosopher's Stone and he visits the North along with Lieutenant General Raven. Marcoh and May Chang read over Scar's brother's notes about alkahestry.  Winry also arrives at the north via the request of Kimblee and isn't aware that she's being used as blackmail. There's a bunch of back story about Hohenheim's past that I wish I could talk about, but I can't. Basically, as I suspected, Hohenheim wasn't a bad guy. He's awkward as heck, and a little strange and freaked out by the fact that he has children, but not evil. Still nothing about who "Father" is. Selim is a Homunculus (omg!), and the original one at that. He's got a bone to pick with Hawkeye, who he threatens in one scene. Kimblee tells Edward that he has to find Scar and Marcoh as well as create a blood crest with Briggs Fortress, using a Philosopher's Stone to tempt him into accepting.

Now that those things are out of the way, onto the episodes for today's blogging!

Episode Thirty-Eight: Conflict at Baschool

This episode opens with a shot of Hawkeye in a slightly battered state, and had I not taken the time to review what happened in the last one I would have been confused.

We don't get much of her in this episode, but based on everything that's been revealed about her character, I'm guessing that she's going to end up playing a greater role in Brotherhood than she did in the original. There's another great moment with her and Roy on the phone--I love how he's well aware that something is up, even if she won't admit it. Not to mention the voice he uses when she answers is freaking hilarious.

Ah, poor May Chang. On the one hand I don't blame her for falling for Alphonse, but on the other...I can't imagine that her romantic attraction will end well. I'm also not sure why Shao May acts like her shadow and does every single thing that May Chang does. I guess it's for comedic effect, but I find it strange that a panda would act smitten with what amounts to a human soul in a suit of armor.

I can't decide whether or not I think the whole "it would be easier if she came to us" joke works in the long run or is just a cop-out for the sake of speedy storytelling, but either way I don't think it hurts the plot.

There is one area where I put my foot in my mouth yet again, but it was honestly the last thing I expected: They have Yoki explain why the hell he's with Scar and May Chang and how he even got there. The fact that they use the old silent film format for the animation is really funny and clever, but at the same time I think this should have been explained a heck of a long time ago. As it stands, that whole five-minute segment feels out of place and unnecessary, like they needed to pad the episode with more material so they stuck that in there. Ed even dismisses it when he's complaining that they're not listening to him. And after he has his monologue, I still don't think there's any real reason that he needs to be hanging around. He's kind of excess baggage at this point.

The real crux of this episode is definitely the capturing of Scar, although I'm beginning to feel like Ed and Al's encounters with him are becoming repetitive. This one in particular bears a lot of resemblance to their last fight, down to Winry's presence and her confrontation of him in regards to the murder of her parents. She's a lot more composed here, though you can tell in both her voice and her body language that she's holding back a lot of anger. Like anyone else would in this kind of situation, she wants to know why he did it.

To Scar's credit, he doesn't try to weasel out of anything. He's pretty upfront in saying that, "There's nothing I can say that won't sound like an excuse...and nothing can change the fact that I am responsible for their deaths." I'm under the impression that Scar really does feel remorse for what he did. I won't go so far as to say he's regretful, but part of that I believe is Scar doesn't want to let it haunt him. It's kind of like what he's been doing to the State Alchemsits: He knows that his actions are wrong, but he's gone too far to go back. He admits that he is the one responsible for Winry's parents' death and as much as he may know his actions were appalling, there's nothing he can do to change the past.

Scar is a weird character for me, so I'm not sure how I see him. I don't think he's a full-on villain, but some of the things he does make it really hard for me to sympathize with him.

Now someone who is definitely coming around for me is Olivier. She's one of those people who is never upfront about how she feels towards her men (or people in general), but the fact that she gave the crew in charge of waiting for the rescue team to come back the directions to close everything up after 24 hours with a faulty watch says a lot. Her conversation with...uhhh...the guy whose name I forget on the roof of the fort was interesting, too. You can tell she does truly care about her men, she just isn't too keen on making them aware of it.

The ending for this episode seems to want to make me believe that Scar got away, but somehow I'm not so sure that's the case. There's something fishy about the way it's presented. I don't think Ed would bother yelling at Kimblee about watching Winry; he'd just got straight for Scar's throat. Also, given how many people were around, Scar would have to have some mad skill to snatch her up like that.

Episode Thirty-Nine: Daydream

HA! I was right! That whole thing about Winry being captured was faked. I thought that whole set up was suspicious.

There were a lot of great moments in this episode, first and foremost being Winry's confrontation with Scar. The last episode led us to believe that it was brief and only consisted of his initial response, but there was a lot more to it. Winry's character has always been consistently great, and here she shows a huge leap in maturity that makes her even better than before. The fact that she was willing to bandage Scar's wounds and prevent him from dying speaks volumes of her character and how far she's come even since that last encounter with him. Winry might not be able to forgive him for murdering people, but she's a healer and an altruistic person before she is hateful. Scar could learn a lot from her.

 
Actually, Scar's character gets a lot of clarity here as well. Whereas before I didn't think he was all that regretful towards his actions, I'm starting to rethink that analysis. He seems genuinely shocked when Winry wraps up his wound and assumes that she could possibly be forgiving him. That flashback with the old guru guy saying that "wanton murder" is not something that could be forgiven and that you should accept it and move away from those actions gets kind of...not necessarily defied, but I think Winry's compassion proves that, if anything, forgiveness is always possible--even when it doesn't seem like it. Scar is so wrapped up in his anger and hatred and bitterness (some of which is possibly directed at himself) that he can't see that. Not to mention he ardently refuses to forgive Amestris for what they did to his people, so who knows. Maybe Winry's actions will soften him up.

The conversation he has with the Major Miles is interesting, too, as one of his own people is telling him the way that he's handling himself is misguided and wrong. Unlike Scar, he has hope that things can change and peace between the two peoples can be restored. He's willing to use his unique position to make slow, gradual changes. It's already worked in large part at Briggs, where Olivier clearly does not give a damn that he's Ishvalan and no one else appears to have an issue with it, either. We'll see how much it impacts Scar's character. Our little main cast is beginning to expand to a large, eclectic group of people, so opinions and ideas may shift.

I am going to be honest and say that Alphonse's speech to the chimeras about wanting to get their normal bodies back and not giving up was kind of forced. It had a corny vibe to it, and I didn't take it all that seriously. Which is a shame, because any time Alphonse gets to step up to the plate and be proactive it should be epic. This one just felt...flat.

NATURALLY, THIS SHOW WOULD END UP MAKING USE OF YOKI. I swear, it's like the stupid thing hears my complaints and then does something to fix it. I won't say that I think Yoki has become a valuable member of the team, but at least he DOES something in this episode that doesn't involve long diatribes or comedic relief.

May Chang also makes an interesting point while they're all in that tunnel--she's more or less found what she's looking for in the Philosopher's Stone, but she recognizes that it's creation is evil and that, even with that knowledge, her emperor would still do whatever it took to create one. She's now got quite the conundrum on her hands, and I don't know what she's going to do. Marcoh suggests that there may be a humane way to attain immortality within Scar's brother's notes, but I'm not convinced they're going to find what they're looking for just based on what we know from the previous parts of the show. FMA is pretty unrelenting in its "wake up and smell the roses" tone, so being optimistic is an achievement for any of these characters.

Brigg's Fort is also now "under attack," as Kimblee managed to inform the Fuhrer that some suspicious things were going on there. Not that there really are...at least, there aren't any physical plans to do anything against the Fuhrer. Ed and Al's presence and the events that occurred while they were there just kind of stirred things up. I don't know what they'll do with Olivier, since Major Miles mentioned that Bradley would be putting someone he hand-picked in charge.

That last scene with Al was a little strange. At this point his body is looking pretty damn gruesome, but I'm not following the whole "body pulling the soul" thing. I'm assuming it will be explained further on, but at the moment that was a weird way to end the season.

Also, Al breaths quite heavy for someone who doesn't have any lungs.

Father's little chess piece things look like something out of the Nightmare Before Christmas. Why does he even have those in the first place? They're kind of arbitrary. But that's nitpicking.

 
Oh, and there's a new opening and ending! I have to admit, they're a little uneven with how many episodes a particular OP/ED appears. I thought they were switching every 13 episodes, but I guess it's not quite that pinned down. This opening is good; action-heavy with lots of great animation and the song is solid, too. I think the ED is going to take some time to for me to warm up to. It's not that I dislike it, I just don't find myself engrossed.

And with that, Part III is complete!

General Thoughts on Part III

This might sound strange, given that I've genuinely liked all of these episodes, but I feel like this "season" is the lull season. A lot of shows have this, where they get away from the main setting for a while, introduce a bunch of new characters, and the general tone feels a little off from everything else. The latter half of the season is where this applies the most, but even the first batch of episodes were a bit different.

I'm not saying this is a bad thing; I did like these episodes a lot, but I'm less inclined to re-watch many of them as much as I would the earlier ones. Part of it might be that, aside from some snippets here and there, Mustang's team was lacking in this season and they add a lot of color to the show as a whole. Their absence was felt. I'm also kind of disappointed that there were almost no interactions shown between Bradley and Hawkeye. I feel like they had some potential there, but maybe I'm speaking out of affection for Hawkeye as a character.

At this point, things are starting to pile up: Mustang's team is dispersed.The one possible ally in Briggs has been taken over by Central. Something funky is going on with Al's body. May Chang might not be able to return to her homeland. Ling has been turned into a Homunculus and the Fuhrer's son is revealed to be the original Homunculus with a ton of power. Ed and Al have discovered that Amestris is more or less one giant sacrifice. Father is looking for one more person to complete that mysterious pentagon.

Basically, Scar's brother's notes had better have some solid information in them or everyone is kind of screwed.

I guess we'll see.