Author's Note: Because Netflix decided, for whatever reason, to remove the last 13 episodes of Brotherhood from their site, I'm switching services. Hulu has all of the episodes I need, but they're only available in Japanese (I've watched it this far in English; making the switch now would be annoying). So instead, I've gone the route of signing up for Funimation's free two-week trial just for the sake of having (legal) access to this show in English. But for crying out loud, you'd think with something as well-known and popular as this that more places would have it to stream. Netflix is generally not very good and they came out on top this time with the most amount of episodes available in Japanese and English. Anyway, that's why a good portion of the images now have the "Funimation" watermark on them.
Episode Fifty-Three: Flame of Vengeance
"After a startling radio broadcast grants Mustang’s forces the advantage over Central’s troops, the Flame Alchemist unleashes the brutal power of burning hatred in the battle against the killer of Maes Hughes."Oh yes. Oh yes. The opening scene to this episode (and therefore season five) is awesome. It isn't exciting, per se, but it does showcase something that I thought was a lost cause, at least for a while: Fuhrer Bradley's wife's testimony manages to convince people that a) Mustang is a hero and on the side of the state and b) that there was a conspiracy to overthrow the government. They used Bradley's disappearance and all of the chaos in Central to frame what's happening as they want people to see it. It was clever and satisfying to watch. At the same time, I do feel bad for Bradley's wife; she doesn't play any major role in these events, is completely innocent in the whole endeavor, and has no idea her husband and son have been lying to her for...well, the entire time they've been a family. Which I'm guessing is a while.
There is one thing that this plan made me think about, though, and that's the possible commentary that the show could be making on uprisings, rebellions, and government in general. It may not seem obvious initially, but if you stop and think about it, Mustang and the forces trying to take down Central aren't doing things a whole lot different than their opponents. People in Central were deliberately kept in the dark about Bradley's disappearance by the ones in charge, which is depicted as a bad thing. Yet who was responsible for the train exploding and therefore his disappearance in the first place? Technically, it's our heroes (well, more specifically it was Grumman's idea and I don't know how much or how little Mustang or anyone else was expecting it), and they're not making any attempts to clarify that. Bradley's wife thinks there's a plan to overthrow the government, which is true, but the people that are the ones behind everything are being heralded as heroes, like Mustang. They aren't out-right lying in most cases...but they're also not being entirely truthful.
I mean, look at what Grumman says to himself as he listens to the broadcast: "Brilliant play, Mustang! Taking advantage of the Fuhrer's absence and using his influence any way you'd like to suit your needs. And invoking the name of justice at that. Let's keep our fingers crossed that the public accepts it." Ross and Breda even have a somewhat sarcastic discussion about justice, in reference to her statement she broadcasted over the air. It's pretty clear that no one is all that concerned about justice in this case; they're concerned about eliminating the corruption, regardless of what it takes to do so. Being "just" isn't a major factor, and if it does show up, it's by happy coincidence.
My point, I guess, is that it's a good thing we know Mustang and all of the other players in this are genuinely good people, otherwise Central would be so freaking screwed.
The guy who gets on the phone with the Central general and convinces him that the station is under attack by Mustang and his men is fabulous. That entire scene, really, is funny. Everyone is laughing their heads off while that guy--who I'm guessing is maybe a station manager?--totally goes overkill on the drama and then just cuts off the line. I love it.
Denny's face, too, when he hears Ross' voice over the radio is precious:
There are a couple of other funny moments in this episode, like when that one general says, "They'd need a tank to breech the main gate" and--oh look!--they have a tank. They also used Olivier's mansion to assemble and hide the tank, which is just...I don't even know. Clever? Ridiculous? Awesome? Could be any of those. Mustang also makes a stupid joke about how the last time he and Hawkeye were in that underground room, she was crying over him. She responds by saying, "The last thing I'm gonna do is start crying for you now. Water makes you useless."
You just got burned, Roy. And she didn't even need flame alchemy to do it.
Of course, there's also the fact that Mustang and Hawkeye stand in the doorway doing nothing while Mustang processes in his head what the mannequins are and how they could eliminate them. He isn't even standing in any kind of ready position; he's just hanging out, thinking, while Hawkeye at least has her gun pointed and is prepared to move and everyone else is desperately trying to keep themselves from getting eaten. Then Roy blows them all up with flame alchemy, because it really took him several minutes to come to that decision. He does do it in a way that prevents anyone but the mannequins from getting hurt, so I guess his daydreaming went somewhere.
May shows back up, leading Envy right to where Ed and Co. are. She gets yelled at by Scar for coming back and not returning to Xing like he told her to, she starts crying, and I can't tell if that's meant to be played for laughs. Given her dialogue, the way Monica Rial plays it, and the fact that the camera switches to Envy's bored expression for the duration of her sniffling makes it hard to determine if that was, indeed, meant as a joke. She does seem genuinely upset, yet somehow I can picture Monica saying those lines and then bursting into laughter once the take was done. Whatever. It bothered me that Scar yelled at her, but it's such a minor detail that it doesn't make much of a difference either way, I suppose.
And then...once Envy is in the picture, this episode takes a direction that I don't even want to remotely joke about, because it's...it's really not funny. I said in the last entry that this show doesn't pull any punches when it comes to violence, but I think what's harder to swallow is the utter rawness with which they treat trauma and emotional wounds. Envy's confession to murdering Hughes is one of the more haunting and unsettling things in this show, and it isn't achieved by him reenacting the moment or describing in detail what happened or how he did it. As he tells Mustang after he re-creates Hughes' wife's form:
"Tell me who the real moron is here, because I don't think it's me! I prefer to use that term for someone who falls for a cheap trick like this. Ha-ha! You should see your face! Ah, you're not gonna believe this, but that was the same look on Hughes' face when I shot him! The utter shock, the dumb confusion! You can see every emotion he felt as his own wife shot him! It...was...great!"
You can tell everyone in that room is either horrified into silence or ready to rip out his throat, and most of that is because of the twisted nature of both how excited Envy was to have killed Hughes and the fact that he basically inflicted psychological torture on him before doing it. I don't blame Mustang for the intense, burning hatred he feels towards Envy.
Even so, Mustang's transformation after Envy's confession was one of the most uncomfortable things this show has depicted. Maybe it's because I've always, always had a soft spot for Roy and Riza's characters (even back in the original) that this freaked me out, but even with that bias I can't help thinking that other people felt the same way. We basically get a repeat of Lust's fight with Mustang, only this time Roy quickly devolves into his own brand of monster. He gets so intense and so violent and so angry that Envy runs away from him. Envy pulls himself together and retaliates, but he eventually runs and hides because he takes too much damage.
Not to mention that Envy's voice actor makes the scenes where he's being incinerated all the more painful to listen to. Look, I don't like Envy. But damn the noises and screams and dialogue that he shrieks in this episode gave me chills. It's disturbing, regardless of Envy's guilt. What's worse is that Roy is not prepared to show any mercy. He's enjoying ripping him apart. Scar was right--that if he continued down the path of revenge and retribution, it would destroy him. I don't think it would take much more than obliterating Envy for that transformation to become permanent with Mustang. Edward and Hawkeye know that. They're going to intervene. They have to. Otherwise, the person who had every intention of becoming the Fuhrer and protecting the people he loves will have to be removed.
And I don't want to see that happen.
The last scene of this episode has Hawkeye pointing a gun at Mustang's back, which I'm assuming means that one of them is Envy. The smirk on Hawkeye's face leads me to believe that's Envy, especially considering that the previous shot had Envy seeing her in the tunnel.
Episode Fifty-Four: Beyond the Inferno
"As Envy writhes within the firestorm unleashed by Mustang’s vengeful rage, Hawkeye must take drastic measures to prevent the Flame Alchemist’s hatred from burning out of control."Good god. Last episode was bad; this one was brutal.
FMA has always kind of said "Screw you" to my emotions, so watching an episode that's sad isn't unique or new. No, this episode goes beyond making me sad and instead takes my heart and bludgeons it with a baseball bat. There were also some moments that made me feel things I'm not so sure I'm comfortable with.
We open with a pre-credits scene that's a flashback to 1909, the end of the Ishvalan War. We've been given a small amount of information regarding Hawkeye and Mustang's past already; this adds more detail and fleshes out their relationship even further. It isn't too long, but it does bring back into the spotlight Riza's back tattoo that I had actually been wondering about as of the last four or five episodes. They introduced it a while back as her father's research that he entrusted to her to keep safe. Mustang is the only one who knows about it. It's unclear whether or not the tattoo was how Mustang learned flame alchemy in particular or if that was, in fact, taught to him by Riza's father. This scene does explain why her back is scarred--I thought that it had maybe been shot because someone attempted to kill her, but no, she asks Roy to burn the tattoo off of her back so that no one can ever use flame alchemy again.
What this opening scene sets up (or, more than anything adds to) is the kind of relationship that the two of them have. It's more than just an "Oh yeah, you're the daughter of the guy who taught me everything I know about alchemy" kind of deal; Hawkeye trusted him to straight-up mutilate her back without actually killing her. Mustang would give up his own life for her sake. For better or worse, the two of them are inseparable.
Which then carries us into the rest of this episode.
I was wrong about Envy being disguised as Hawkeye; it's the other way around. She makes a statement about how when it's just her and Mustang, he calls her by her first name. It's a bluff and Envy falls for it, but it made me stop for a second because I was pretty sure I had never heard Roy say "Riza," ever. My assumption is that this is 90% a Japanese thing and 10% a habit rooted in an official army tradition. It makes at least a little sense to Americans in this context.
(Side note: The Japanese tradition of formality would also be why Al always calls Ed "brother" rather than by his first name. English doesn't have a single word for "older brother," and calling him that for the duration of the show would sound unnatural to English speakers. That's my understanding, at least.)
God, that whole scene where Envy is dumb enough to attack Hawkeye and throw her to the ground with Roy proceeding to scorch the ever-loving shit out of him is...stomach-turning. Mustang has already done this with Lust, but this is different: With her it was a calculated move, his only intentions being to wipe out what he saw as the enemy. Here...here Mustang is losing it, and I swear I thought Hawkeye was going to cry as she watched him throw blow after blow at Envy. It takes her longer than I anticipated to stand up to him, though I suppose that comes from going so long obeying his orders. I think she wanted to trust him, wanted to let him make the decision to be merciful on his own, but that clearly wasn't going to happen.
I have never been more relieved to see Edward, with the possible exception of when he first appeared after that brush with death last season. He brings Scar with him, too, which is so full of irony I don't even think I need to explain it.
Then there's Envy.
I understand that Envy is despicable. He's twisted, disturbed, violent, and has killed numerous people without remorse. He's awful. I don't like him. I have little sympathy for him. I hope he dies and never comes back. These are all the things I know to be true about the character and my feelings towards him.
But I'll be damned. I wanted nothing more than for someone to show that piece of garbage some mercy. Despite everything he's done, despite all of the atrocities he's committed, Envy didn't deserve to die like that, pleading for his life while being crushed in his helpless chameleon form under Mustang's boot. It wasn't right. Part of it may be the fact that Envy's voice when he is reduced to his true form is... kind of cute and vulnerable. I may be showing my female colors here with this, but there's no way on earth that I couldn't show mercy to someone (or something in this case) who squeaks when they're stepped on and has the voice and breathing pattern of a child. I'm sorry. It wouldn't happen. The icing on top of that cake is the fact that Envy is crying. Those giant eyes are pleading with Mustang not to kill him. As much of a front as he tries to put up, I'm convinced that Envy is truly terrified at this point and those tears are real, even if he doesn't want to admit it to himself.
Edward demonstrates a level of maturity here that I think rivals many of the adults in this show. He stands up to Mustang not out of defiance, but because he knows what's happening and he's doing his best to prevent it. Everyone in that room has felt what Mustang has and they all know first-hand what hate can do to a person. Ed's willing to let Mustang attack him, with the caveat that he will fight back. And unlike Mustang, Edward has enough control of himself and compassion left that he wouldn't seriously hurt Roy.
Scar has one of his best lines when he tells him: "Are you becoming a beast? Giving in to it's passion? You can if you want to. I won't stop you from giving in to revenge. What right do I have to stop someone from taking vengeance? But still...I shudder to think what kind of world a man held captive by his own hate would create once he becomes its ruler." You can see the complete 180-degree turn his character has made, as he's finally realized what his own thirst for vengeance created in him. He knows better than anyone what hatred can do to a person, and he managed to find a way to stop himself from going down that path without being able to return. And he's right--what good could come of a country if its ruler is controlled by his own hate? Everything they've worked for, everything that Mustang wanted to protect and defend, would be obliterated.
Thank god they make him see that.
But the feels don't end there. Oh no. As Mustang starts to come down from his high, Hawkeye tells him that if she had to kill him, she would. She'd do it and then take care of whatever was left, and without even a shred of hesitation she says she'd end her own life in order to keep her secret of flame alchemy from being found. I don't know about anyone else, but I think that's pretty damn bleak. This woman, who is capable of so much on her own, is so loyal to Mustang and so determined to prevent any more evil from entering the world through her, is willing to kill herself for the sake of others and from her own despair. I don't know if that's admirable or shameful.
Her admittance of it, though, I think is what really brings Mustang back. He launches a burst of fire down another tunnel, which I guess is supposed to be symbolic of him purging his anger, and then the next shot of his face has his features returned to normal. His response of: "I can't let that happen. I can't afford to lose you," also poses an interesting question: Is there something more than friendship between them? They've made jokes about a possible romantic attraction all throughout the show (including the previous episode), and with the way he treats her (he values all of his men for sure, but I think Riza has a special place) you'd get the impression that there was more there than platonic friendship. And yet...I don't know. I'm not saying it isn't possible, but honestly I think that they are too dedicated to their job and their country to ever act on those feelings if they're there. I'm still rooting for it in the back of my mind, but I wouldn't be surprised or even all that disappointed if nothing comes to fruition.
The final punch to the gut in this episode is the realization Edward makes about Envy. I had always wondered why he was named Envy, since out of all the Homunculus he acted the least like his name. Ed hits the nail on the head when he says that Envy's jealous of humans. He's jealous of their resolve, of their capacity to love and forgive and keep fighting even when they're knocked down. The Homunculus may have unbelievable power, but they're nothing in comparison to humans when it comes to the soul. Envy tries to incite anger in Ed, Scar, Mustang, and Hawkeye not because he is amused by their anger or bitterness as he claims; it's because he is incapable of forgiving or loving or having compassion and all those things he sees in them as they sit there. The sight of humans--especially humans that are enemies-turned-allies--working together and demonstrating those characteristics infuriates him and exacerbates his jealousy.
He basically verifies Edward's claim when he says, "I'm a Homunculus! How can this pipsqueak kid see through me?" Edward has the unique position of being the first human to understand why Envy is so twisted. He's broken through all of Envy's walls and motives and humiliated him by figuring him out. Yet, even with that, Envy still respects Edward: As he dissolves after pulling the Philosopher's Stone out of his body, he says: "Goodbye...Edward Elric." It's the first and last time that he refers to Ed by name.
OKAY.
I'm going to rush through the last bit since this entry is already embarrassingly long.
Oliver and Alex continue to lead men in the fight against Sloth, and Alex almost gets his skull bashed in. Olivier, as expected, has no compassion for her brother's plight and insists that he will survive or not be worthy of the Armstrong name. I have to assume that her brutal attitude towards Alex is the best way to motivate him, since it's after she says that that he picks himself up and takes out Sloth. I guess she's what it would look like to have violent, unrelenting optimism.
This episode leaves us with a brief appearance of Izumi, who I hope gets to kick some serious ass and do a lot of cool things. It's been a long time since she was around.
No comments:
Post a Comment