I apologize if this post isn’t that great, I’m pretty sick and have been working like a dog the last few days…
Why would a troop truck explode? Reminds me of that Simpsons when Hans Moleman crashes into the milk truck and it explodes...
Summary:
Spinfire kick! Oh wait that isn't Chun-Li...
After a brief recap of the end of last episode, and a brief reminder that May Chang and company still exist, we flash back to the GreedLing/Bradley fight where GreedLing finally gets the upper hand as he throws Bradley off the wall. Bradley manages to grab onto GreedLing’s arm though and will not budge as GreedLing loses his grip on the crumbling wall. As he is about to fall, Ran Fan comes to the rescue.
Don't worry cutie, Epi will make things all better 
It soon becomes evident that Ran Fan’s automail arm cannot pull GreedLing and Bradley back up, and the Brigg soldiers quickly help out with one of them shooting Bradley in the arm as he falls into the moat below. As Ling (now back in control) weeps with Ran Fan over Fu’s death, Falman and his troops run out of bullets for their machine guns and the Central soldiers advance. Ling thanks the dying Buccaneer for making Fu’s sacrifice worth something by stabbing Bradley, and Buccaneer replies with his last breaths that he defend the gate and not to let it open to honour the order of his ‘Queen’, Olivier.
Most. Epic. Death. Ever.
Channeling Greed’s power, Ling gladly complies and quickly manages to take out all of the central soldiers on the ramp and down below to the amazement of the Briggs troops watching. Happy that Olivier’s orders were carried out, Buccanner dies with a smile on his face. Meanwhile as the Armstrongs discuss what happened to Izumi and the nature of the Gate of Truth, word reaches them that Buccaneer has fallen but with a smile on his face, and Olivier decides to press on to honour his memory.
Bonus points: What anatomical position does Hohenheim's mouth now occupy? (Click for full size pic)
At the same time, deep underground in Father’s lair, Ed and Izumi are reunited and so is a silent and non-moving Al. They are quickly joined by Father, now in his true Homunculus form with Hohenheim partially absorbed within his body. Father notes that four of his sacrifices have arrived, with the fifth one missing.
"Dammit, I should have worn a scarf"
With Scar, Roy and Riza finally stopped by the failed Bradleys, the Gold-Toothed Alchemist ponders the same thing as Father as he is annoyed that only four people alive had ever bothered opening a Gate of Truth, especially now that time is running out. Knowing that Mustang likely knows how to open it, he urges Roy to open the gate to which he predictably refuses. Knowing that time is running out on Father’s plan, the Gold-Toothed Alchemist gets his minions to kill Riza. As she lies dying, he brings out a Philosopher’s Stone, stating that if Roy opens the gate, even if he doesn’t transmute anyone, he will save her.
I was urged not to watch the next episode preview in lieu of major spoilers (thanks Clinton!), so I have no comment about what’s coming up.
Reaction:
Pretty exciting episode overall. We’ve had a few episodes in a row with alternating good and bad animation, and it was nice to see that like the previous episode, this was also nicely animated. The continuation of the GreedLing/Bradley battle was pretty short though, but was to be expected as it was dragging on to it’s third episode already.
Whether or not Bradley is actually dead is a matter of contention. Major characters in this show have shown an uncanny ability not to die even under the most extreme situations, and the fact that Bradley had already survived Buccaneer’s ‘fatal wound’ makes it even less likely that a bullet to the arm would do any real harm to him. I think unless they get a really good death scene a Homunculus cannot die just yet.
As for the issue with the human sacrifices, I guess my observation that there were only four is correct. Relying on pure chance for five different sacrifices to appear during this solar eclipse for a plan hundreds of years in the making is just too random for me. I wonder if Father did go out of his way to ‘create’ people who would be opening the gate (by creating optimal conditions for it all for instance). Besides, it seems that Father has not found all those people after all as he seemed to have missed the ‘Blind alchemist’ from the OVA extra (unless that isn’t considered canon). Considering the amount of time and careful planning spent on this plan, for it all to hinge on whether or not Roy Mustang’s emotions can be overcome so that he does something really dumb is stupid to say the least.
Will Roy actually open the gate or not? Tough to say as he knows it’s probably the stupidest thing that he could do. There’s no way that he could trust the Gold-Toothed Alchemist to save Riza, and he must know that if he becomes a human sacrifice, then it’s game over. The question is, whether or not Roy has some tricks up his sleeve even if he does become a sacrifice, or whether or not his emotions will overcome him. Considering it was Riza that finally managed to stopped his rampage against Envy earlier and now she’s about to die, I have a feeling that Roy will go through with it and do something really dumb.
But that doesn’t mean that Father has won just yet. With everyone’s ‘teleportation’ to Father’s lair and Al’s armour being silent, I wonder whether or not that will put a dent into Father’s plans regardless of what Mustang does in the end. Al has likely returned back to the ‘other side’ looking at his real body with his soul at the Gate of Truth. How long Al spends in that state will give our heroes some leeway to do SOMETHING at least to try and stop Father, or at least wait until the other forces will do something (May Chang group/Marcoh group/Olivier group).
I do wonder what Grumman has been up to all this time though, and Pride as well. All that earlier hype about Grumman doing something big, and now he hasn’t been part of the picture for a while is really too bad.
Finally, does anyone know who this guy is? Did they show this old guy and his wife just as a ‘montage’ of ‘random people’ (well not totally random cause they showed Hughes’ family) or was he someone important I’ve forgotten?
As always, no spoilers in the comments please!
Related posts:
- Fullmetal Alchemist Brotherhood 57
- Fullmetal Alchemist Brotherhood 53
- Fullmetal Alchemist Brotherhood 21
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!
{ 18 comments… read them below or add one }
LOL @
I knew you would come up with something the moment I saw Hohenheim trapped in Father like that
And by the way…the old lady beside “this guy” reminds me lot of Dante from the earlier Fullmetal Alchemist series…dont you think
So you have finished watching the OVAs it seems…did you like it Epi?
I actually did see the Blind Alchemist a while ago, just forgot I saw it. But then when I was thinking of people who had opened the gate, I realized that was an OVA. I don’t think I’ve seen the other ones yet though… who knows :p
Oh and Dante eh? Don’t remember her… but it’s been 5 years since I saw FMA.
well one of them involes Izumi throwing bears around so you should see it
Yeah that was definately a cameo of sorts for Dante as we first saw her in fma1. Guess the other guy was included just for conversation purposes.
Its not the first time fma’s had a cameo appearance, the first series had a brief scene of Ling as a state alchemist wearing Greed’s trademark sunglasses during an Ishbal flashback. I’d post a link to the fma wikia website for the image but the page also contains future plot details so its best not inadvertantly provide spoilers for non-manga fans
On another note the previews as of late have been very lax with providing spoilers. Its a shame as they’ve been pretty careful until recently.
Oh and great Ling and Ran-Fan scenes this week. Between this and the Lost finale its been a pretty emotional week with my fave shows.
I think I will make a conscious effort to not watch any more of these next episode previews. Don’t like being spoiled!!!
This cliffhanger? This is NOTHING compared to what is to come. You have been warned.
The cliffs get bigger and bigger!
poor poor riza getting your throat slit must hurt added on thats 3 good chaecters in 2 episodes that have died (or 2 if riza survies) im guessing the reason Pride is not back yet is because he has to walk all the way back with out a car (he is a minor in a sense) he sould be back with his 3 stones and alchemy smarts soon.
I appreciate how you made your riza comment non-spoilery clinton
It’s true! People are finally dying left and right. Heinkel should thank the anime gods that he was the last almost-death.
Just sear her wound like you did before, Roy! It’s not like she isn’t all crispy already. Kentucky Grilled Hawkeye coming up!
well it would be much simpler if several guys did not have swords at all of their throats and his gloves were not cut so he can’t do the alchemy
also a fatal wound does not mean it would kill someone instently Bradley wound would kill him in about 1 or 2 hours
plus that fall would not help his case with those wounds
opening the gate is not easy and Father does not Know everything (and the ova’s are cannon) the blind dude lives on the out side the circle they need 5 people to be in father’s lair on the day that saw the gate and lived (most people don’t) they started the state alchemist thing just to find canadates for sacrifce Alcemists that can see the door and live and only good alchemist’s can do that (they said that kimblee did not have what it takes) and they did not know about Izumi untill Bradley found Greed (their are probley tons of people that they missed or that they tried and failed with) they need people that opened the gate were skilled did it willingly and did not die
also i can’t edit my comment here but I just said that Kimblee was a bad alchemist (he is not) but you also need the will and nerve to open the door (Kimblee would never willingly open the door just to bring some one back or gain info) infact
you kinda misread Kimblee in the series
Kimblee is an idealist (an Ibealist that like to make things go boom) infact his only true love is explosions he loves them he does not care about the death that they will cause (he really does not care if some one is caught unlucky them) they are just biprouducts. he loves battle and war because it allows him to make the best use of his powers. He knows that he is not right in the head and is okay with that he openly wants to see what the world thinks (he did not get hit by a shot and survied thus the world chose him to live) he really wants to know who would win Humans or Homunculi (not just becuase people would die) he has never lied once in the series about his belliefs (he really did admire and respect the Rockbells and he likes Ed for sticking to his no killing Ideal)
infact the only people Kimblee hates and would kill because of that are Hypocrites
he only stands with the homunculi because they allowed him to use his powers best (if the good guys said he can blow up anything he sees he would be on their side)
and now im done
i have no idea why i went on a long rant about Kimblee he was beaten like 7 episodes ago so what ever
Good observation about Father’s plan. Still seems kind of crappy a plan though, if it all would have fallen apart if at the last moments he didn’t find Izumi and managed to turn Mustang over to the ‘gate side’.
I say ‘last moments’ because really, when your plan is hundreds of years long, it should be better planned out then this! The few months before the eclipse where he found Izumi is ‘last moments’ for a plan centuries in the making.
true but he probley found earily ones but they died (they are still human after all) of old age or snoping too much and Lust, Envy or Gluttony killed them. and he just did not find them all
he needed to find the scarifaces last because if he found them early they would die of natrully or kill them selfs (Marcoh thought of it)
also this is Dante http://images.absoluteanime.com/fullmetal_alchemist/dante.jpg
This has got to be one of my favorite episodes to date. They did a terrific job adapting it from the manga and even the things they changed around were all brilliant.
I wanna be excited about next episode (and I am) but I’m more nervous. Favorite chapter getting animated. If they screw it up in even the slightest way I may never forgive them ;P