By next episode, I fully expect a plague of locusts to hit Japan...
Summary:
Sorry for being so late master, I was busy vajazzling!
Going straight back into the RAN FAN (sorry guys I know it’s officially Lan Fan, but I don’t care!) / Gluttony battle from last episode, we see our heroine kick some ass as she ‘kills’ poor Gluttony over and over. Being the brilliant guy that he is, Greed notices immediately that even under the mask and blades of death, RAN FAN is quite the hottie. Meanwhile her grandfather Fu explains to Ed about the Xing ability to sense Homunculus.
Back in Central, Madam Christmas shows Roy some old photographs where Selim appears to be exactly the same for over a century, and always with high ranking officials. Surprised that no one would have noticed for so long, Roy shrugs it off as lies which are easy to tell when you’re in charge. We also learn that apparently Madam Christmas is none other than Mustang’s foster mother as well, as the two blow up her bar to escape from Roy’s pursuers.
Heinkel, you're not even hurting Selim's clothes! Of course he's not dying you dummy!
Back in the forest, Heinkel is still busy fighting Pride who just won’t die. Just as he has Pride pinned down, two random people with a lantern suddenly wander into the forest surprised at the loli-killing. With the lantern comes a shadow and Pride quickly hits Heinkel in the shoulder and throws the lantern in the forest, inexplicably easily and immediately lighting a bright but contained fire in the forest (I guess the Japanese have never really been camping LOL) for Pride to create more shadows with.
Why doesn't Pride try attacking Ed from behind?
Newly invigorated, Pride immediately goes to finish off Heinkel, but Ed steps in at the last moment. Using the high-carbon content of his northern automail, he creates a form of Greed’s ultimate shield and uses that to counter Pride’s shadow arms. After letting slip his secret carbon hand for no appearent reason, Pride decides to attack Ed once again using Al’s armour. This time though, Ed is prepared as he gets grandfather Fu to throw a flashbang in the air, thus temporarily overwhelming and erasing all the shadows in the area, and quickly bringing Al to safety as he’s now sure that Pride no longer has control over the armour.
I shed a tear :'( Poor Gluttony! I'd cry for Lust too...
As the flashbang burns out, Gluttony comes back on scene. Weakened after his battle with Heinkel, Pride decides that he needs more energy and with that he eats up Gluttony’s Philosopher’s Stone and gains Gluttony’s powers of smell along with it.
Come with me if you want to live
Back at Central, Roy has met up with his crew as they vow to not die. At Central HQ the generals discuss Roy’s actions when father asks them what they think Roy would do next. When no one responds, Olivier responds by saying that he’d probably capture Bradley’s wife, an action which father finds strange but ends up being absolutely what he does.
Reaction:
If it weren’t for the awesomeness of RAN FAN and some pretty cool Ed vs Pride (just like the OP) action, this episode would have been pretty meh. Really not much at all happened. The entire conversation between Roy and his foster mother proved nothing as we already know that Selim is a Homunculus and thus immortal. The fact that Madam Christmas is his foster mother is really unimportant. Really the only important thing that entire scene highlighted is that it shows that contrary to my questioning of how Riza was able to meet up with her old comrades so easily without being followed, it seems like there really were a lot of precautions taken for the meeting to take place.
As for the fight, I’m sad to see Gluttony go again. I mean the guy doesn’t really do much, but I’ve always had a soft spot for that lovable oaf. I wonder what the repercussions will be for Pride for eating Gluttony. I wonder if father will actually care or not. Considering father decided to remake Gluttony, he may have some feelings for his lost ‘son’ but maybe not. I also wonder if in addition to his sense of smell if Pride gains Gluttony’s fake Gate of Truth stomach.
I’d also like to dedicate some space in this review to the absolute awesomeness that is… RAN FAN. The fact that she can put up such a ridiculous fight only 6 months after getting her new arm is amazing… what can’t this girl do? Yes I believe the only answer to that question is… me in the 3D world 
. Too bad she didn’t take off her mask this week *dreamy sigh*.
It seems like the Xing alchemy power of ‘feeling the Homunculus’ is sort of like The Force in some respects. I kept thinking back to Return of the Jedi when Luke goes “I’m endangering the mission. I shouldn’t have come“. I was a bit taken back by Ed’s reaction to Fu’s sensing of his dad (he goes ‘Him?!’ after Donkey Kong mentions that the other energy form is his dad). I thought Hohenheim [ED: I will start using the spelling "Hohenheim" as it's an actual place name in Germany and as we know everything in this story is German, Persian or Chinese] made it clear that he was a giant philosopher’s stone.
Finally, I wonder what Olivier’s getting at in telling Father exactly what Roy is up to. While she probably didn’t know his actual plan and was just giving an educated guess, was there a reason why she had to tell Father the truth? I hope she’s not also hoping to ‘get rid’ of him (like how Miles think Grumman will do) for her own ends so that she could be the ruler of Amestris when all is said and done. Hopefully it is just a tactic to gain Father’s trust momentarily before she turns the tables.
Next week: The next 20 minutes in this REAL-TIME ANIMATED FINAL BATTLE that I’m told will span 20 episodes for 1 day…. they should rename this 24: Brotherhood.
EDIT: Oh yes, and we now have a good way to defeat Pride. Use Hohenheim’s philsopher stone power to create a geodesic dome to surround him by and then he can’t move and that’s that.
Related posts:
- Fullmetal Alchemist Brotherhood 47
- Fullmetal Alchemist Brotherhood Episode 23 & 24
- Fullmetal Alchemist Brotherhood 45
This post was written by...
Epi – who has written 175 posts on Sea Slugs! Anime Blog.
As a huge fan of all things mecha, high school and tsundere, I've been writing for SSAB! since the summer of 2009, although my love of anime spreads through all genres. I'm not as witty as some, but I aim to bring comprehensive and well-written anime reviews out there for you all out there to enjoy!
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Geodesic Dome?
Nice Review
I guess I should elaborate on my prediction in that I think it will be geodesic dome made of carbon fibre. We’ll see if I’m correct
But how are they going to lure Pride to Epcot?
Uhhhh they’re going to let Pride win the Superbowl dumbass
I thought you said you hadn’t read the manga yet.
DID YOU JUST CALL OUR MASTER A DUMBASS?!?! YOU BEST HOPE THAT A “SUPERBOWL DUMBASS” EXISTS OR I’M GONNA PERSONALLY SPOIL FMA FOR YOU!!!
(btw, I still find it amusing that we’re most active at night. Wonder if the new members will be Night Owls as well ;3)
Yeah, this episode wasn’t as good as last ep, but still good. I feel sorry for Gluttony, although it was good irony that Gluttony ended up being eaten by someone else.
I’ve heard someone ask why didn’t Ed just put out the fire with his alchemy during the fight, and I don’t really know. Seems like he could have done it. Oh well, FMA is not immune to logical gaps.
I get the feeling that Ed didn’t really WANT to put out the fire. Without using his flashbangs and seeing Pride’s shadows evaporate he couldn’t be completely sure that Al wasn’t still under Pride’s control. As we saw in the last episode, Ed was still a bit leery of Al’s non-moving armour.
The real problem is I really don’t see why the fire would start that quickly… my few times camping have shown that starting a fire is not so easy.
take a look at this
Christmas
Chris Mustang just a little thing
also Gluttony gets the irony of getting eaten by someone with a greater appetite (the punishment for Gluttony in hell) intresting Lusts Punishment is to get purged by flames (Mustang burned lust) Greed To be Boiled alive(Greed got that back in ep 14
also Gluttony the 2nd youngest Houmnculi and 2nd to die man, age around 100, Episodes 1 to 48 may he rest in peace (man Lust died early she in 19 while Gluttony made all the way to 48)
lol great episode memorization powers there
Good call about the punishments Clinton. I’m not too familiar with the seven deadly sins myself and too lazy to look it up, so I wonder how the others will die. But don’t tell me, I want it to be a surprise if the anime really does follow through!
k thats all i will say
Pooor gluttony! i like that guy, always abuse the fat guy D:
Amen to that. I remember reading on a blog a while back that Ran Fan could be translated as ‘soft rice’ in chinese while Lan Fan would be ‘lame rice’. Soft or lame… well i’d know which of the two i’d prefer my favorite Xingese ninja to be.
I’m kinda surprised by the lukewarm reaction both you and psgels had to this ep. Sure not alot happened in plot but both fights were plenty exciting and the animation was terrific. Some all out action has been needed after the quieter pace of the briggs arc. Kept me on my seat. I agree that mustangs sleuthing over selim bradley was unnecessary, it would have been better placed back when the revelations about selim first came out. Also pride should have been able to overpower ed easily like he did to greed last ep. I guess thats the problem when you make a character too powerful, you use tricks or dumb them down.
And RIP Gluttony. That scene was vicious. I actually felt sorry for him quite a bit, in my eyes he was one of the shows few innocent characters. Gluttony’s basically a child with child-like desires. He’s got his eating thing but he can’t help that and doesn’t seem to understand the moral implications of his acts; unlike lust and envy his actions aren’t truly malicious. Even his anger induced form is essentially like a child throwing a temper tantrum. Lust seemed to be the only one that looked after/mothered him and I found it touching that he both rages at mustang for her death and calls out her name for help when pride consumes him. At least Gluttony understood loyalty towards his own…
My problem with good fights is that while the fights are good, they are always indecisive. Yes Gluttony died (noooo!
), but that was Pride’s doing, not the fight’s. These fights always end in a bit of a stalemate. The only two times that there was any truly epic battle was Mustang killing Lust which was frankly one of the best episodes of the entire series (I’m including Barry the Chopper’s death in that), and Dr. Marcoh defeating Envy, although even that didn’t really conclusively end.
I’m pretty sure that they are holding the best stuff for last, but this just adds to the meaninglessness of these battles. It wouldn’t hurt to have more main characters die. So really what these battles end up being are Gundam type ‘battle of the week’ type battles which are fun and pretty to watch but pretty meaningless overall.
Thats a fair enough assessment, I personally can’t stand series that just have fights for the sake of it every week. I’m more forgiving to fma as the status quo does change as a result of battles either directly or indirectly because of the fighting itself. If the fights end with the situation exactly as it was before then I would be annoyed.
Totally agree with the idea of killing main characters. I don’t want to see them go but realistically there really should be more casualties given the opponents and the stakes. Heinekel should have died this episode not just suffer an arm injury. The series was alot less forgiving in its early stages
well lets not forget that Pride would not have ate Gluttony if they had not gotten so beaten up during the battle
If you couldn’t tell, Pride was too busy fighting to keep track of Hawkeye, and while she didn’t know that, she had Black Hayate with them just to make sure they weren’t followed. When the coast was clear, she went for it.
Remember, everyone’s been preparing for a few months (mentioned 2 episodes ago), so it’s not really that hard to grasp.
And
Ed and Darius’ expressions of Fuu being able to sense Hohenheim, wasn’t like you’re thinking. You’re thinking like they were like “HIM?! I DIDN’T KNOW”
They know what he is; he told them. They’re just surprised that they they can sense him TOO. That’s how they sense the Homunculi, by the way. Just like a Philosopher’s Stone (which each one has), that’s what they’re sensing, the countless souls. You’ll remember back in episode 18, when Ling and Ran Fan asked Gluttony “Just how many people do you have inside you?” So naturally, they can sense Hohenheim too.
Keep in mind though, that they couldn’t sense Bradley, as his stone only has one soul. Which is why he can’t regenerate like his fellow Homunculi.
Ahh makes sense!!
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