(Author's Note: So I'm apparently a massive idiot and didn't realize for the duration of this blogging series that "Homunculi" is, in fact, the proper plural for "Homunculus." My computer wasn't registering it as a word, so I decided to go with what the spell check options suggested, which was just "Homunculus." At this point, I shouldn't even bother, but I did go ahead and change it for these entries because it started to annoy me.)
Episode Sixty-One: He Who Would Swallow God
"Millions of lifeless bodies litter the landscape of Amestris, and a being with the power to create suns is unleashed upon the world. Unless Hohenheim has something amazing up his sleeve, all is surely lost."
Buckle your seat-belts, kiddos, 'cause this entry is going to be long.
This episode decides to bypass the traditional opening in favor of an intro scene that's a flashback to Ed and Al as kids. We see that the sun and moon in this universe are viewed as male and female respectively, which is interesting, because according to the belief systems of a large amount of early cultures and religions the reverse was true: Sun deities were primarily feminine and moon deities masculine. In fact, it was more common to run into a sun goddess than it was a sun god, and those that were male often derived from a mother goddess. Hell, one of the major deities in Shinto (a religion widely practiced in Japan), Amaterasu, was a sun goddess. The one major exception to this pattern is (based on my 15-minute Google
search) Greek mythology, where Apollo was the sun god and Artemis a
goddess often connected to the moon.
So it's curious that Arakawa would opt for the historically less conventional anthropomorphic interpretation of the two. It reflects more of a Western mindset, as I don't think many people in North America or Europe would have been confused when Ed says that the sun is male and the moon is female. At least, I wasn't. I found it far more surprising that the reverse tended to be true, and part of that may be thanks to the onslaught of Greek/Roman mythology that we're exposed to during school. I have no clue how much they educate kids in Japan and other Eastern countries on it, but I can tell you that any high school graduate in America will know a lot more about Greek and Roman gods and goddesses than anything regarding Shintoism or Hinduism. There's also the fact that a large majority of early European traditions have the sun/male and moon/female dichotomy, which derived from Orphic and Gnostic philosophies.
What I found most interesting, though, is the idea that combining the two (like the eclipse is basically doing) produces the "perfect being." The merging of male and female is considered to be ideal and Ed suggests that it's supposed to be representative of God. I don't know about other religions, but I can say that Christianity follows that logic to a large extent. Man and woman are seen as part of God's overall being. They vary in their design and purpose, but they are both of equal value and importance because they hold all of the characteristics of God in two different ways. It's kind of like the duality of the lion and the lamb: God is equal parts lion and lamb, but the two are very much their own separate entity. God isn't masculine or feminine; we just choose to depict him as male since he came to the earth in the form of a man. Given that this story takes heavy influences from Christianity, this was a neat detail.
Then there's the concept of alchemy and power and how this world views God in general, which are all strongly rooted in Eastern philosophies and belief systems. Once Father has sucked in all of the power from the life force of the Amestrians, he basically says that he has become God. Except in this case, "God" isn't a deity or entity; it's energy. The energy that he collects from all of the Amestrians, what's left over from Xerxes, and powered by alchemy is what gives him his god-like status and abilities. If anything, the Philosopher's Stone is the god, as it's the manifestation of all that energy stored inside Father's body. Based on the previous episode, all of the energy from the people and the earth come together to form an organism that, on some level, could be considered a living being. Alchemy in Amestris is powered by tectonic energy in the ground while Xingese alkahestry comes from the energy of the earth or the "Dragon's pulse."
I guess you could throw a little bit of paganism in there if you want, with the ouroboros tattoos and transmutation circles.
On a less complex and theological note, Father's new "god-like" form is so shōnen it hurts:
Although to say he's the only blatantly shōnen element of this episode would be a serious understatement. For the most part, FMA sports a style unique enough that it doesn't often register as shōnen to viewers and is much easier to look at for those who have next to no experience in anime (and if any Western audiences saw Avatar: The Last Airbender, that show comes the closest to matching this type of style even though it was finished at least three years prior to Brotherhood's airing and still has a distinct Western identity). This episode, though, abandons that concept in several areas, most notably the fight scenes, which go from fluid and smooth to...well...this (skip to 4:08):
That isn't to say it looks bad. I happen to think it's impressive. It's just a deviation from the style the show's used up until this point and I imagine the reason for that is the emotional intensity of the scenes where it's applied. Both Scar and Bradley (and later during the final battle between Edward and Father) are at the end of their rope in this fight. Scar has to take Bradley out in order to activate the reverse transmutation circle and Bradley I'm sure is so done with all of the humans interfering with Father's plans and pissing him off. It's also where Bradley, or Wrath, displays his traits the most openly: Everything he does here, including his yelling at Scar, is smothered in fierce anger and indignation.
Wrath continues his habit of ranting as he's fighting, but at least this time the things he says are in some form meaningful. He criticizes Scar and his use of alchemy; how it shows that he's turned his back on his God and done what he wanted to all along. He's trying to manipulate Scar's emotions and get him to fall back, landing a final blow with his statement that perhaps, while his people were being slaughtered right before his eyes, there was a time that Scar believed there was no god at all.
The irony of this, though, is that Scar does manage to kill him, and Scar is the one who spent the duration of the first season or two claiming he was acting on behalf of god. Scar, of all the characters, arguably has the greatest amount of wrath within himself. Even when he goes to activate the reverse transmutation circle, he says that he hasn't let go of his hatred and anger towards Amestris but is helping them anyway. I get the feeling that a lot of his decision is leaning on the fact that his brother was the one who discovered the issue with Amestris' alchemy, developed the reverse transmutation circle to fix it, and gave his brother his arms that were capable of reconstruction and deconstruction. Like his arms, Scar is a character who has both sides to him: He can destroy and he can create. It's up to him to decide which one he will let be the driving force in his life.
Wrath's final thoughts are some of the most thought-provoking. Of all the Homunculi, he's the one who's probably had to fight for his life the most. He fought to be Fuhrer, fought to maintain order in Amestris, and then fought to preserve his life in the end. He's the only Homunculus that can age and doesn't regenerate, making the task of staying alive infinitely harder for him as opposed to his "siblings" who are ageless and can heal themselves. His required perseverance and drive made him potentially view life as even more valuable, since he could very well lose it at any given moment. And perhaps, as much as he still seems bitter, his last words claiming that it was maybe a life worth dying for imply that he is filled with more than just wrath.
In regards to his wife, he says that she understood what it meant to be the wife of the Fuhrer. He picked for her reasons that are never specified, though Pride's conversation with Al several episodes back can offer a few possibilities. Whatever the reason, I suspect that she may have known or been aware on some level that her husband was not everything he claimed to be. If Bradley can be cool with Mustang, Al, Ed, and just about everyone else in the military knowing he's a Homunculus, I imagine his wife had at least an inkling that something was off and he wouldn't have made an attempt to hide it.
This episode in general focuses a lot on the unraveling of the two remaining Homunculi, Pride being the other (minus Greed, who has his own end later on). Pride, in this case, is quite literally unraveling--the more he fights Edward, the more his skin begins to crumble and fall away. Like Wrath in his final moments, a lot of Pride's tell-tale characteristic of arrogance is stripped from him as his body deteriorates and he seeks to use Edward as a new body. Edward, meanwhile, gets into Pride's head by asking him why he serves a father who only uses him for his own gain. Pride tries to maintain his confidence by arguing that it shouldn't matter whether his father loves him or not; he's an immensely powerful Homunculus and is therefore better than any weak and lowly human.
And then we have by far the dumbest element of this episode, Kimblee's "return," and I'm not saying that because I still think Kimblee is a POS. This whole concept of him "haunting"--for lack of a better term--Pride is ridiculous. It looks dumb, sounds dumb, and doesn't make a whole lot of sense. Kimblee doesn't care about helping Edward, he just wants to mess with Pride by claiming that leaving his body for Edwards isn't indicative of pride--it's the opposite. The distraction gives Edward enough time to break free of Pride's grip on him and then...climb into...Pride's...body...and take out his Philosopher's Stone.
Oh yeah, that scene screams shōnen as well:
Pride's clear psychological damage is the most intriguing part of this entire showdown, especially the fact that one of the images that flashes in his "mind" is of Bradley and his wife. For someone who was so dedicated to Father, I think that image makes it clear who he considered to be his real family.
As a small note, Pride shrieks that Edward is "turning into a Philosopher's Stone" and "forcing himself inside me," which...kind of implies that Edward is psychologically raping him. And I find that disturbing. It's made worse by the fact that Pride's true form is...basically a fetus:
I can't possibly be the only person who noticed that.
As a final comment, we get to see the people of Xerxes take a stand against Father and use their life force from the Philosopher's Stones to strip him of his power taken from Amestris. Their voices were a little goofy, but charming nonetheless. It reminds the audience that, despite the fact that they don't have bodies, the people of Xerxes are still very much alive.
Episode Sixty-Two: A Fierce Counterattack
"A truly epic battle erupts when Edward, Mustang,
Hawkeye, Greed, Izumi, and Armstrong attack the god-like Father. The
odds are against the forces of good - until one brave boy makes a
shocking sacrifice."
I have a confession to make: I laughed a lot more at this episode than I probably should have, and not at the parts that were meant to be funny (though I did laugh at those, too--most of them).
There is a lot of screaming in this episode and a lot of fighting that is so completely over-the-top that I couldn't help but giggle at the intensity of it. I'm pretty sure that this is a standard trait of shōnen anime and manga, and after the chunks of it we've been getting in previous episodes, I have to give the show credit for at least being considerate enough to not throw it all in our face at once. Even so, I have to say that I think it takes away a lot of the emotion from this episode, in particular the last three or four minutes. This is one thing that the original has in its favor: It never resorted to these incredible amounts of bombastic energy that can, frankly, make everyone in the scene look completely insane. I get that what's happening is intense and serious and dramatic. You don't have to do this to Edward's face to convey it:
To me this almost felt like it was going to reach Dragonball Z levels of yelling and overdone action and while the charisma of that show is appealing to a large demographic of people, it's not something that I can swallow easily. I don't think FMA is that kind of show, in tone or overall content, and inserting that standard shōnen trait is distracting at best.
However I won't go so far as to say it obliterates my enjoyment of the climax. There are still plenty of solid moments--which I'll get to in a second--that keep it somewhat grounded and it will never not be awesome to watch Edward beat the absolute crap out of Father.
Some highlights of it include:
- The fighting in regards to the alchemists. Izumi, Armstrong, and Mustang all pull their weight here and get a chance to showcase their abilities. The creature (dragon? dog? wolf?) in Mustang's fire was bad-ass, and he constructed that without having the luxury of seeing it.
- Hawkeye screams "Kick his ass!" and it's beautiful.
- Greed's dumfounded expression when he sees Edward go to town on Father's face.
- Any hit that Edward lands on Father is so cathartic.
Aside from that, we have the first chunk of this episode that deals with situating everyone for this climax: Olivier and Sig (for some reason) are kept behind as Olivier is wounded and can't fight. Everyone else--from Greed to Mustang to Lan-Fan and those in between--decide that they're going to help. I have to say, even though most of these characters end up side-lined for the showdown in general, it's nice that they were able to keep up with them at all. Our cast at this point is so big that I'm impressed they bothered to do it. Though I think keeping Olivier out of the fight is sort of a cop-out.
Mustang also makes a comment about how he's going to burn the Philosopher's Stone right out of Father, and I'm kind of thinking that he's had more than enough turns killing Homunculi. Let someone else shine, you attention whore.
Anyway.
I do like how a large amount of people, including Briggs soldiers and others on the side of the heroes, get in on the action. Everyone contributes to burning out Father's Philosopher's Stone, no matter how insignificant they may be. It reinforces the idea that nobody is accomplishing anything on their own; help comes in various different forms. And even though I want to complain that it's tedious watching a bunch of people shoot at an all-powerful being with rifles that feel like they aren't doing anything...I can't. Father IS being worn down. It works. Slowly but surely, it does work, and that's why Edward is able to take him on.
Then, of course, we have the sacrifice that Al makes in order to save Edward. If I remember correctly, this is almost the exact opposite of happens in the original series: In the 2003 version, Edward loses his life for the sake of protecting Alphonse. Here, Al trades his soul for one of his arms, the reverse of what Edward gave up in order to bond Al's soul to the armor. Al saves Edward's life and is reunited with his body at his Gate. It's a really great way to bring things around full-circle and to demonstrate that the brothers' love is intense and deep in both directions. Either one of them are willing to give whatever is necessary for the sake of the other.
I also want to give my compliments to Maxey Whitehead's consistently phenomenal portrayal of Alphonse. This moment for his character is of particular note because her acting is just so fantastic. You can feel the desperation in Al's voice as he's pleading for Father to leave Edward alone, knowing full-well that there's nothing he can do to prevent his brother from being killed aside from the transmutation he ultimately opts to do.
Props to May as well for going along with Alphonse's plan despite knowing what it will mean for him.
There's one more thing that I want to comment on, and that's Greed's realization that what he wanted all along was friends. It's one of those things that I can't decide whether or not I think it works--on the one hand they don't overdo the acting or dialogue so it doesn't come across as after-school-special in its delivery, but on the other the very concept of someone saying "I did all of these horrible things and went after everything under the sun but all I really wanted was friends" is too simplistic for me to believe. It's too easy of a conclusion to come to, especially considering the level of desire that Greed possessed and the origin of his character. If all Greed wanted was friends, then doesn't that mean all Father wanted was friends? Because somehow I don't think that's the case. He seemed pretty content with swallowing God and harboring unlimited power. I suppose you could make the argument that he did when you look at his background with Hohenheim; he did mock the notion of community and yet still decided to construct his Homunculi like a family.
Ugh. I don't know. I'm still on the fence about it.
General Thoughts
As this show rounds itself out to completion, I find myself thinking back on not only the early parts of this endeavor, but my experience watching the original show as well. It occurred to me that I have thoroughly enjoyed my experience thus far, as long and as grueling as it could be (In total I've spent close to four straight months involving myself in this universe. Holy cow). I've had my heart pounded to oblivion and my soul rocked, but in the end I think FMA is working its way into the little spot in my heart where I hold things as life-long loves. Like Avatar: The Last Airbender. And ice cream.
With this next entry, I will finish off Brotherhood and complete my Fullmetal Alchemist experience. L'eggo!
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