Episode Forty-Four: Revving at Full Throttle
"Hohenheim and Alphonse enjoy a chance to get reacquainted. Their bond is restored with ease, inspiring the father to share his secrets with his sons."Oh, Alphonse, you are precious.
This show has been great at displaying the differences between Ed and Al as characters, but I think his interactions with his father here display them in a seriously stark way. When Ed saw his father again for the first time, he more or less had a tantrum. Not that his reaction wasn't warranted--Hohenheim left his family and wasn't part of his sons' lives. I would be mad, too. Alphonse's reaction is so much the opposite of Edward's. I don't doubt that Al feels a level of abandonment, but his response to seeing his father again is to desperately make up for lost time. He wants to be around him, to talk to him, to help him and the people of Lior rebuild their town alongside him. Al is far more willing to forgive his father than Ed, which makes sense when you look at the rest of his personality. Al is a natural peacekeeper. He recognizes the importance of relationships and kindness and is the first one between the two of them to show compassion. Ed's more hot-headed and impulsive, reacting based on emotion rather than logic or reasoning, so the vitriol he spat at Hohenheim twenty-something episodes back isn't unexpected, either. Al is always wanting to see the good in people, so his trust in his father shouldn't come as a surprise.
I don't know if anyone else felt this way when watching this episode, but something about Hohenheim felt...uncharacteristically pleasant. At least, in comparison to the way he talks to Ed in front of their mother's grave. There he was accusatory and kind of arrogant in his tone, which is probably another reason why Ed didn't want anything to do with him. I'm not saying Hohenheim is a bad guy, because we've certainly been shown that he isn't, but when you compare his tone with Edward to the way he is with Al, it's far more gentle. Maybe it's because Al was interested in talking to him? Or maybe the sting of knowing what his sons did has worn off and he's not nearly as disappointed anymore? I really have no idea. It isn't a major issue, but I did find it kind of strange in light of his infinitesimal amounts of interactions with his kids. There wasn't a whole lot of opportunities for his attitude to shift. It just kind of...happened.
In other news, Hohenheim is able to tell Al about his past and basically put everything out in the open. Having him as an ally is about the best thing that could happen, since he knows Father on a rather intimate level and potentially how to defeat him. We've also now got a date for when everything is supposed to go down, and it has something to do with the sun god Lito--whatever that means. I'm surprised that Lito turned out to be relevant in the end, since I definitely forgot about him. There's no specific time frame for this "Day of Reckoning," though I imagine it's got to be some time soon.
Winry's little scene with Rose was sweet. It would be great if they stay in touch and became good friends, because it looks like they'd get along fabulously...even though Rose speaks about Ed and Al as if they're gods. I found that to be a bit much.
And Edward is back! The antics with him and the chimeras (whose names I don't remember) were fantastic. There are so many funny moments when the soldiers show up at the hospital with Edward's animation in particular, and I LOVE IT. Although I have to be honest: I thought that, with the way they paint Edward's attack on the soldiers looking for him, when the camera finally showed him that he would be like, ten feet tall. I know that doesn't make any logical sense, but I was half-expecting to freak the hell out and get excited. Oh well.
Also, Edward really has no sense of style if he thinks this is a good-looking car:
Last thing to note: I TOTALLY called Ling taking back control of his body. He doesn't get it back entirely here, but it's coming. What's interesting about Greed is that he's the only Homunculus, aside from maybe Bradley, who makes bonds and connections with people/creatures that aren't Homunculus. Yeah, he views them as his property, but you could tell that the original Greed may have seen those people as more than just things. They were his friends and willing to die for him, and I think that meant something even if he wasn't willing to admit it. Ling points it out, too, and it pisses him off enough that he looses his mind over it. There's a scene after the credits where he attacks Bradley after memories of him killing the former incarnation of Greed surface.
It's going to be an interesting season, that's for sure.
Episode Forty-Five: The Promised Day
"Quiet warnings spread near and far: the Promised Day is at hand."Oh Olivier.
You were doing so well.
And now this.
Okay, maybe in the scheme of things, this isn't that big of a deal, but I find myself getting really annoyed with Olivier and her arrogance. I'm not saying she isn't worthy of respect, because she is certainly a capable woman, but her mistreatment of Alex is obnoxious. Not to mention she destroys a large section of the mansion while fighting him, which I can't imagine would be that convenient if she wants to stay in it.
The one idea that I'm holding out on is the potential for her behavior to be the way it is for the sake of her family's protection. She may hate Alex, but even he was able to see that she sent everyone else away so that they would be protected. Her taking over the family and demanding that her father retire may be so that she's the only one who would ever be brought under fire, which is a real possibility considering where she stands right now with the corrupt generals and Bradley. As for what she expects from Alex...I don't know. I doubt he's going to stand aside and let her do everything.
Of course, as I expected, May isn't going to make it to Xing. Thanks to Envy, she's now heading back to Central for her "unfinished business" which, if I'm being honest, sounds more like, "Oh wait we need her to get back into the story so instead of keeping her on the path to Xing let's have Envy use some flimsy persuasion to get her to go back." I don't know why they bothered sending her in that direction in the first place, since she got hardly anywhere before turning around.
But that's nitpicking, I suppose.
Edward and his chimera buddies meet up with Greed/Ling in this episode. Ling manages to take back his body for a little bit, long enough to tell Ed that Father is going to open the portal on the Day of Reckoning as well as suggest that Ed and Al jump into it when he does. Why Father's opening the portal in the first place, we don't know. Of course, Greed takes back over and that's the end of receiving any more information. I get the feeling that this is going to be a repeating occurrence.
As a side note, I have to wonder what the point is in creating a Greed Homunculus if the type of behavior exhibited by it leads it to go against the other Homunculus and Father. It's happened twice now, and both times Bradley has had to deal with it. Granted, this time Greed came to him and it was more self defense than anything else, but I mean come on--at this point making Greed seems more like a masochistic act than something beneficial. By the end of the episode, he's declared himself independent from the other Homunculus and Edward and the chimeras have decided to join him, so now he's toting the enemy with him as well. How much more wrong could he go?
I'm curious as to what Ed is planning on doing as Greed's ally, since it's obvious that's just an act for a greater purpose.
The last few minutes of this episode are so fun. I get excited whenever a big group of heroes starts to gather together, and that's exactly what this is--a five-minute montage of all the major players getting set up for the larger battle. Also, holy crap the amount of distance the message that Alphonse delivers is amazing. There are like, seven different people that it passes through and it's all done without the enemy finding out.
I've got to admit, this show has done a great job balancing dozens of characters and making them all relevant. Our heroes camp is growing, too, thank god.
Oh, and the after credits scene with Mustang snapping and setting the paper message on fire is freaking awesome.
Speaking of the end credits, they do something a little different with them this time. It's the same music, but there's no animation; just a bunch of stills. But the stills I think are designed to remind everyone of how many heroes/allies we've collected over the course of the show:
Alphonse & Hohenheim
Winry
Chimeras whose names I still can't remember & Loki
Izumi & Sig
Falman, Major Miles, & Fort Briggs
Breda & Fuery
Hawkeye & Havoc
Olivier & Alex Armstrong
Marcoh & Scar
May Chang (w/ Shao May)
Edward
Darius & Heinkel
Greed/Ling
That's a lot of people. It makes Father and his crew look quite flimsy in comparison.
No comments:
Post a Comment