Zyl on May 4, 2010 · in Full Metal Alchemist 2

Summary:

As Ed and Roy bicker, Riza thanks Scar for helping stop Roy from going down the wrong path. The battle against Sloth and the immortal army continues above but both Olivier and Alex are injured and are being worn down. Moved by the siblings’ courage and concern for them, the Central soldiers form a chain tug-of-war to hold the homunculus back so they can escape. But, haunted by his memories of Ishbal, Alex refuses to flee again. At Buccaneer’s request, Izumi and Sig Curtis arrive just in a nick of time to assist the Armstrongs. The latter instantly bonds with Alex, recharging the Major, and their combined coordinated attacks uses up the last of Sloth’s lives, destroying him at last.

Underground, Father attacks Hohenheim repeatedly with the same grim expression until he is asked if he wanted a family like the humans. Father claims that what he really wants is to become a perfect being and, having run his arm through Hohenheim’s back, starts to draw out his former friend’s Philosopher Stone. But he encounters something unexpected and is forced to stop; Hohenheim tells him that they will not be defeated so easily. Just as the troops from Briggs celebrate their capture of 90% of Central HQ and keeping the immortal army from spilling into the city, King Bradley returns and rallies the Central Army against the rebels.

Reaction:

Another Homunculus down! Olivier’s and Alex’s stunned reaction to Izumi throwing Sloth and then Sig doing a clothes line on him with such ease was hilarious – especially for the former since I can’t recall seeing her fazed before. It was a pretty good balance of showing how tough it was to defeat Sloth but letting Alex Louis have his (spike and muscle) moment of glory without making another seriously over-powered alchemist like Roy.

Now we’ve finally heard, from Father’s mouth, what the Amestris Transmutation Circle is meant to do. But it is still rather cryptic – what does he mean by become a perfect existence? I suspected that he needed to recharge as he had spent a lot of his power, from the Xerxes transmutation circle, in creating the Homunculus and then powering the alchemy of Amestris over these long years but it looks like he is after something bigger – just as Envy mentioned before. Other than the lives of Amestris’ entire population, he also needed the five human sacrifices (Hohenheim, Ed, Al, Izumi and Roy) who are all powerful alchemists (now all conveniently gathered in Central) so does he intend to become something like Haruhi God or, as GreedLing mentioned before, the King of the World rather than “just” the shadowy ruler of Amestris?

I was also intrigued by how Hohenheim managed to stop Father from stealing his Philosopher’s Stone. I seem to recall him calling out various names once before using his power so could it be that he has gotten to know the souls of all the people still inside him? And, just like how Heinkel persuaded Al to use Kimblee’s other philosopher’s stone, these souls are all rooting for him and refuse to join Team Homunculus? Or maybe Hohenheim could have found some way to immunize himself from a Father steal through the alchemy he taught Xing just like how Scar’s brother developed a counter to the Amestris Transmutation Circle with Xing alchemy?

As usual, no manga spoilers please! Next week, looking forward to the Wrath vs GreedLing fight, if the Mrs Bradley card will be used and to what effect and the FMAB aniblogging return of Epi!!