Envy's a worm, Pride's a fetus and Greed's a... MEXICAN WRESTLING MASK?
Summary:
RAN FAN manages one more kickass move before the show ends
After a small flashback to the “Dwarf in the flask – Homunculus” (aka Father-ball) telling Hohenheim that all he wants is freedom, we return back to the present as Ed unleashes a load of kick-ass against Father with his fists. Stunned that a mere human could beat him up, Father finds Greed hanging around for him to suck his Philosopher’s Stone out of. While Ling tries to keep a hold onto Greed from within, Father’s bond with his son is too strong, and Greed is pulled back to his maker. Unwilling to go quietly, Greed manages to use his carbonation skill to make Father’s body into charcoal before Father pulls him out and kills him.
Nice punch Ed.
With Greed vanquished, Ed punches the charcoal Father in the abdomen creating a nice hole for the remaining souls inside Father (taken from Greed’s Philosopher Stone) to escape as Hohenheim watches happily. Fatally weakened, black arms emerge from inside Father grabbing him back to the other side of the Gate of Truth.
After all that, we find out Father's really just the ball from Pong
As Father-ball questions Truth to ask him who he really is, Truth responds by saying that the best way to describe him would be that he is the world, the universe, god, the truth, everything, the one and also representing Father-ball. He explains that his job as Truth is to deal despair to those who have become conceited, and considering the amount of conceit that Father-ball had by trying to become god himself, he deserved ultimate despair. Realizing that his freedom will be taken away and he will be dragged beyond the Gate of Truth, Father-ball begs for leniency to no avail as he is pulled away forever.
Everyone watches for about 20 minutes as Ed draws a complicated alchemy circle with a stick
Back in Central, everyone has gathered around Al’s broken armour as Ed and May Chang weep for Al. Ling offers Ran Fan’s Philosopher’s stone as a toll to bring Al back, but Ed replies that they had promised each other to never use a Philosopher’s Stone for that purpose. Hohenheim offers his own life as a toll to bring his son back, but a teary-eyed Ed refuses him too as he finally calls Hohenheim his “Father” (well “crappy father”). After some thinking, Ed finally comes up with an answer, and draws a giant alchemy circle: the circle of human transmutation. Seemingly transmuting himself, Ed once again goes to the other side of the Gate. There he meets Truth once again, and instead of offering his life, he decides to offer his own Gate of Truth as a toll, a toll which means that he will never have the knowledge to practice alchemy again, but as Ed notes, a small price to pay to get his brother back.
"After all these years, I'm the taller one once again!"
With that Ed returns back from the other side with Al, body and all. Hohenheim is estatic to see both his sons return and May Chang is especially happy at Al’s return. With that we are treated to a mild epilogue as Pride’s fetus remains are returned to Mrs. Bradley, the end of the coup is officially announced as Roy and Olivier blocking rogue generals from committing a dangerous alchemy experiment after Bradley’s train death, and the Elric brothers rest up at the hospital. Alex Louis Armstrong manages to thank Hohenheim for having two amazing sons who saved their country from ruin, as a proud and happy Hohenheim listens. As Hohenheim reflects on the death of his nemesis and his own years spent with the Homunculus, he notes that the Homunculus itself was born from his own blood and had the same wish that he did of freedom so many years ago. With his last bits of energy, Hohenheim returns to the grave of his beloved wife Trisha as he tells her that he’s finally found happiness from the bottom of his heart. The next morning Pinako sees Hohenheim crouched at Trisha’s grave and realizes that with his energy drained he has finally passed on.
R.I.P. Hohenheim
Reaction:
This was definitely my favorite episode of the past 5-10 episodes. A lot of things were seemingly and very neatly wrapped up in this episode, including the conclusion of Father’s story, GreedLing’s final hurrah, the retrieval of Al, and of course the tragic story of Hohenheim.
There have been quite a few flashbacks over the previous 30 episodes of the time spent between Father and Hohenheim, and it was touching in a way to see how after it all, Hohenheim did manage to remember when the Homunculus was merely just a “dwarf in the flask” who wanted the freedom to walk around as he wished and how those wishes echoed Hohenheim’s own servitude. Father’s actions allowed Hohenheim to gain freedom as well, while it was Hohenheim’s actions that allowed Father to gain freedom at last. It was nice to see how after it all, we did end up seeing a very different side of the Homunculus from the perspective of his arch nemesis, not as a conniving and arrogant existence, but a pitiful one with his own simple hopes and dreams. Hohenheim never did forget that the Homunculus was born of his own blood from an alchemy experiment so many years ago, and it seems that Hohenheim himself wonders how much of himself is within Father. We wonder if Hohenheim wonders to himself if he himself could have acted like Father under different circumstances.
As for Father’s last hurrah, I was quite happy with how his final ‘opponent’ ended up being Truth itself. After trying to obtain the power of Truth, it’s evident that Father still did not have a full grasp of what was going on, until the very end when he realizes that no matter how much power he had gained, he could never truly be god. In the end his pathetic begging was a fitting end to his arrogance, but still sad in a way, especially after seeing Hohenheim reminisce about him later in the episode.
Greed meanwhile was the one Homunculus that really exhibited the most growth the entire story. Although he was always a bit of an anti-villain, he was still the kind of guy who always wanted it all and wasn’t afraid to tell everyone. His sacrificing himself at the very end so that Ling would be safe and to make sure that Father would be defeated was quite heroic. Perhaps we could say that in the end Greed wanted it all, including being revered for being a hero, but either way, it was a good amount of character development that he had throughout the series and I wanted to acknowledge that.
Over the series we’ve slowly learned more and more about truth. From learning that he had different forms for different people, we learn in this episode that truth is actually in a way the ‘karma’ of the world, to ensure that things are kept in balance. Those who are too arrogant are kept in check, and as such those who would attempt human transmutation, perhaps one of the most arrogant of all alchemy moves have to pay a severe toll. Seen another way, Truth represents the sum or totality of the universe, always keeping things in balance, all knowing but having no will and no true form or even existence of his own.
What we never really do learn though is the true nature of Father. We know that he was created in some experiment using Hohenheim’s blood, and it seems from this episode that Father originally started out as a being from beyond the Gate of Truth. I wonder if the space beyond the gate is kind of like one giant Philosopher’s Stone in a way, where there is one giant consciousness (who may not even be conscious) and by using Hohenheim’s blood they were able to seal a bit of that essence in the flask. Because it was beyond the Gate, the Homunculus did have knowledge beyond that of humans, but was ultimately dictated by the fact that he was originally held by Hohenheim’s blood and perhaps his own personality in a way was shaped by this. Whatever he really was, Father is finally vanquished, and once again humans are left to their own devices.
I do wonder about how Ed was able to give up his own Gate of Truth. Was this the knowledge he gained after he saw Truth for the first time (after he committed human transmutation) or is this some kind of innate power that he was born with that allows him to do alchemy? Truth mentions that without his gate, Ed would be like “every other human” unable to do alchemy, so it’s more than just the power to do it without drawing a circle. Does this mean that Ed always had this Gate of Truth which allowed him greater powers (and the same with all the other alchemists?) than normal people, or does this gate represent some kind of knowledge that anyone can gain with sufficient training, but by giving it up, Ed is ensuring that he can never gain this knowledge again? It’s all a bit wishy-washy, but I guess I’ll accept the idea of using knowledge or power as a toll for a physical body.
Finally we have the touching last few moments. It was supremely satisfying to see Ed bring his brother back from beyond and Hohenheim finally getting to see his two sons in the flesh after all the years. It was much more sad that I ever thought it would be to see Hohenheim’s final moments even if he had finally found happiness himself. No doubt Ed would be mad that his dad died without even telling him where he went, but it was a just and fitting end to Slave 23.
Next episode I’m thinking that we’ll see some sort of extended epilogue. Manga readers: did the manga end with this episode, or are there still manga things left to be addressed next episode? Please don’t leak any details if that’s true, but I’m just wondering if it’s all new stuff or not.
Related posts:
- Fullmetal Alchemist Brotherhood 62
- Fullmetal Alchemist Brotherhood 55
- Fullmetal Alchemist Brotherhood 56
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!
{ 1 trackback }
{ 37 comments… read them below or add one }
This episode covered about half of the last chapter so there is a bit more manga material to cover next episode
I found it interesting that Pride was thr only Homunculi to live it is infact another reference to the inferno
it says that a man’s pride can never truly be killed and Pride is the only sin to never vanish. another source from way back then it ironicly also says that greed is nither good nor bad also fitting into this
and about you question of course thee manga did not just end there. it had an epiloge and everthing ending with a bunch of pics showing what happend to everyone (like Yoki for example he went on to do somthing you should laugh at)
oh yeah if they do anything they are going to show more of what happen’s after this (the entire Kimblee bursting out of Pride and marrying RAN FAN and Make little Ranblee’s with Kimblee’s intellect and Dressing skills and RAN FAN’s badassery and looks was only breifly seen
Clinton you big kidder you!
*Pffft!* Psycho-bomber-ninja babies~ XD Yay for crack pairings!
(I swear, I know you from Tumblr or something… I’ve heard that from someone there.)
There is enough material in the latter part of the manga to make a good final episode. Nothing ground breaking but it will just wrap things up nicely.
Let’s see… I think, that as evidenced in this episode, every person has a gate of truth. Beyond which is all of the knowledge of alchemy that exists. However, most people never see their gates, and thus perform simple transmutations with alchemical arrays and small amounts of equivalent exchange. But like the series implied, human transmutation is the HEIGHT of conceit and arrogance so much so that a person is dragged to the front of their gate and is pretty much forced to pay an extreme toll to the truth. But once a person is made aware of their gate and the truth, alchemical arrays can be performed without the aid of circles because the knowledge to do so has become known to them and internalized.
My theory is that everyone is born with a gate, which represents a person’s total potential aptitude towards alchemy. But not everyone knows how to utilize it, and in the same way that neuron pathways diminish over time with lack of use, one who does not learn at an early age (or at least study) how to perform alchemy will eventually lose that ability and become a normal human.
So knowing truth and your gate can afford you tremendous power, but exacts a very heavy toll: your limbs, your body, your organs, your sight. But since the gate is also the representation of a person’s aptitude in alchemy, and the contents within are the sum total of all knowledge in the universe, sacrificing your one access to all the knowledge that has ever existed does become quite a large toll in my opinion. But also well worth it as the series states, because you still have everyone else.
Yeah, I love this series.
Yeah that makes sense, is sort of what I was thinking as well. I guess they leave is purposefully ambiguous though (i.e. what’s behind the gate, when father goes into the gate is that HIS gate, or is he actually a being from beyond the gate, etc etc)
Wow.
After the past few episodes, where I have been cheering on for Edward to kick the shit out of Truth, my perspective has completely changed. After that soul-crushingly brutal speech to Father showed he can be just as hard on the bad guys as the good guys, as well as his new-found respect for Ed that basically convinced him to give Ed a freebie and take Al home, I now question my entire premise for hating this guy, that of being an unjust God, and find things are much, much more complicated than that.
Still, though, the moment when Ed’s like “I be paying you with my Gate” and then Truth is, for once, absolutely stunned speechless was priceless. That’s not quite the ass-kicking I had in mind for Ed to do to him, but it strangely works, lol. I got a good laugh out of that scene.
About Father: I loved how Truth turned Father’s own words against him, and it’s no less than he deserved, especially seeing I had to remind myself this seemingly harmless black blob was responsible for genocide on numerous occasions. As much as I wanted to hate this guy, I was amazed to find myself feeling sorry for the dude as he was dragged away kicking and screaming. Still though, there is something that bothers me, and it all has to do with personal opinion:
I can’t help but think that Father was originally like one of those Gate babies (*shudder*) we saw in the 2003 anime. Those babies were one of the most disturbing aspects of the 1st FMA, and they are one of the top reasons I was never able to watch the show through a second time. Those things were truly terrifying to me on a primitive level. Call me a wimp, but that’s how it is. The difference being this time, it seems like whatever “creature” there is in the Gate is not a bunch of things, but rather one giant organism, and Father was a part of it that was cut off from the main body but retained part of its sentience. This is all theory, and probably doesn’t make much sense, but just wanted to throw that out there.
Deep thoughts aside, yeah, I had to LOL as well when Ed finished drawing his massively complex circle when really, all he had to do was clap. And that nobody realized what he was gonna do until he said it out loud, despite having Hohenheim and Izumi there to recognize the thing.
MEXICAN WRESTLING MASK FTFW!!! HELL YEAH!
The idea of what lies beyond the gate as simultaneously being both knowledge of the universe and a living Eldritch Abomination and Father being a small portion of that is extremely appealing to me.
I agree with you. The way that Ed handled Truth was pretty brilliant. At first I was tempted to say it was a bit of a deus ex machina and that they couldn’t have thought of a better way, but then I realized that it really wasn’t. The answer was always staring at us in the face, and Ed gave up one of his most cherished things (his ability to do alchemy) but was able to let go just like that because of his love of his brother. Brilliant.
Ed’s unemployed now though. I doubt the state will still be giving him research money if he can’t do alchemy anymore >.<
I wonder what this guy's gonna do now… a question for ep 64 I guess ~
someone posted this before, its about the father.
while his guess about the father goals isn’t right, his guess about the father’s nature seems right to me
Hi,
I liked your review (this is the first I read I guess). It’s nice to see someone else’s thoughts about the episode. I think you put a lot of thought into it. I can’t tell you your wrong or right about some conclusions, but they’re satisfying.
No matter how much I think about it, some things still are a bit vague, but that’s the kind of mystery I like, personally.
As for Hohenheim’s ending, I liked it better then in the manga. (I’m not going to give any spoilers). They gave his ‘goodbye’ much more detail in the anime, and it was so much more touching and sad to see. Definitely his words “I used to think that living a life longer than normal was nothing but tiresome.” “It’s been a fullfilling life. Yes, it’s enough…” “Ah, but, in the end I don’t really want to die.” stay with me.
In the end you could even feel a bit sorry for ‘Father’, unlike in the manga.
Also to address your question: yes, there are some scenes from the manga that didn’t show this episode. The story didn’t come to an end with the scene with Hohenheim.
Although I would like to say they follow the manga very precise at this point. All that was said in this episode was an exact copy of what was said in the manga. Only Hohenheim’s last words were the biggest difference.
That’s all I have to say I guess, and I hope I answered your question.
I’ll look forward to your review from next week!
Thanks Julia. I as well liked Hohenheim’s last line that he did not want to die. At first I was going to correlate it with Father not wanting to disappear, but then I realized that the line really brought things into full circle. Even with his living thousands of years and powers beyond all humans, in the end Hohenheim was just like all of us, not wanting to die.
I also think he wouldn’t want to die now he finished his task to prevent Father to turn into ‘God’ . He finally finished his quest, the traveling around, just to spread the souls of xerxes. He could finally be a father to Al en Ed. But now there’s no time left…
I think he would have want to spend some little more time with them and that would be also one of the reasons to not want to die.
So I thought that was kind of sad, he finally was ready to be their dad and now he had only ‘one life’ left. One life that didn’t last long.
I guess these things do make the story stronger. You can understand how the characters feel and that makes FMA so beautiful
Hohenheim is only around 450 years old.
He’s nowhere near thousands.
I was really looking forward to Al’s return and Hohenheim’s end and both were handled really well. Good job, Bones! Now, I’d be so happy to see those epilogue moments in details. There’s enough to make a very satisfying ending episode.
Envy’s a worm, Pride’s a fetus and Greed’s a… MEXICAN WRESTLING MASK?
“After all these years, I’m the taller one once again!”
After a long time some nice captions!!
I remember I laughed till my stomach hurt when you captioned in an episode “Thats a bear?Whats that tooth thing below its lips”
Yeah the story is wrapping up neatly!
Although its not a major spoiler…but in Brotherhood…its like “All thats well ends well”
I liked the 2003 Fullmetal Alchemist series’s ending better…with a sequel movie Fullmetal Alchemist Conqueror of Shamballa…
but that one was kinda cool!)
(P.S:I didnt say I dislike this finish…I love it
By the way what happened to Rose
)
She played a major role in 2003 Fullmetal Alchemist….guess she was just a minor character…and forgotten by everyone >_<.
(This time she's fairer and prettier too
Hmm…I better not say more or it would result in Epi's fun being spoiled!
Spoiling Epi = bad!!
I was not as big a fan of the original FMA… thought the ending with the whole WWII London thing was just really weird. I’m very happy with how this looks to be ending though.
As always your thoughtful review is a fun read ^^ About the “using knowledge or power as a toll for a physical body” thing, I think it makes sense since Arakawa is a voracious reader (in the back of one of the mangas, Arakawa told the story of how a storekeeper of her local bookstore recognized her for the mangaka that she is because he noticed that she was always buying a ton of books on all kinds of subjects). A lot of ancient myths treat wisdom/knowledge as a very precious thing, and humans/gods have to pay heavy prices in order to gain wisdom/knowledge. For example, Odin, the most powerful of the Norse gods, had to trade one of his eyes for it, which he quite willingly did.
I’ve felt that Arakawa was short on time for the last few chapters, and some parts of the story weren’t given enough time. I’m quite glad that those parts, such as Hohenheim’s death and Father’s death were done in more detail in the anime. It looks like the final episode of the anime will be entirely on the epilogue, and I hope that they will expand on the manga’s epilogue, which I felt was a bit rushed, and was told mostly through a collage of photographs.
Interesting observation about the role of knowledge in myths and so on. It is not as prevalent in Greek/Roman myths that I’m most familiar with though, perhaps it’s more popular outside of the west?
Hmmm, I’m gonna try this.
My opinions probably useless and no one cares but I wrote up this thing when I read the last chapter about how the Gate/Ed giving up his alchemy whole shebang goes.
Also Arakawa has stated in an interview that there’s nothing beyond the Gate – just something within it.
From my understanding everyone has a Gate – and this is based on my understanding that The Gate is just a smaller part in the pantheon that is the FMA universe. There’s the Gate of the Universe, the Gate of other individual systems within the universe, The Gates of individual Planets and Suns and Moons, and the Gates of individual people.
And The Gate is a simply a mass of knowledge that is the understanding of the universe and everything that exists within it. Basically it’s One is All, All is One. Everything is connected, and inside the Gate you can see how everything is connected. And that leads to a greater understanding of alchemy. Because, I don’t remember if it was stated like this is the manga but I like how Brotherhood put it, “Alchemy is Life itself.” Alchemy is the understanding of the One is All, All is One connection that everything holds, which is also how life works. Being able to do alchemy is in a way like being a God. You can understand the universe and how everything is interconnected to an extent and so you can manipulate it.
So The Gate, being the metaphorical, sort of tangible, representation of this is what is inside each individual person that gives them the ability to perform alchemy. So if you lose your Gate you’d lose that ability. You wouldn’t lose the knowledge but the Gate is like the wiring between a switch and a light*. It is what allows you to be able to perform the ability because it’s what is inside you that represents this connection through everything. The Gate is like a world unto alchemy itself, but alchemy is life itself so it’s also that…But if you no longer have the Gate you no longer have what was inside you that connected the flow of everything else in the world to the flow inside yourself (in a strictly alchemically speaking manner) I still think Ed has that connection to the world by itself but alchemy is like a small representation of life and he’s lost that connection, though not the knowledge of it.
^ And this idea is always shifting and changing. It’s pretty hard to put your finger on exactly what it is. But whatever it is the whole concept that Arakawa has presented here is pure brilliance and just so fascinating to me
And Cyaegha lives in the Gate and he’s Truth’s pet, so Truth made him wear a contact lens because he doesn’t like the color green.
LOL
http://dadonyordel.deviantart.com/art/Cyaegha-The-Destroying-Eye-154760554?q=&qo=
Sort of like a more metaphysical way of putting their alchemy powers than making something dumb up like Midichlorians?
Everyone has a Truth.
It’s what powers each individual’s alchemy. Since Ed gave it up, he will never be able to do any kind of alchemy ever again. Ever.
Though, not everyone can just sacrifice that. Most people only have one gate; their gate, so if they destroy it, they’d be trapped there forever.
Ed and Al’s gates are mixed together; why they appear in the same room. So, Ed could destroy his and then exit out of Al’s.
Do we know why Ed and Al’s gates are mixed? Is it because Ed previously lost his arm to fix Al’s soul and now they are linked?
They mixed their blood (their thought it was the soul information for Trisha) right before they performed Human Transmutation.
Remember, when they were cooking up the ingredients back in episode 2, they each slice their fingers?
Ed even mentioned back in episode 22 why they are mixed; and suggests that reason. It makes sense, they were basically transmuting themselves.
It’s also the reason as to why Al’s body was still alive, despite taking in no nourishment. Ed was sleeping and eating his share too. Not enough to be sustaining, obviously, but enough to keep it alive while Al’s Truth wore the body. (The same as Ed’s Truth wearing his own limbs)
Wait a second. If Al’s Truth was wearing the body of Al, then it means that Al’s truth spoke to Ed’s truth?
Yeah, they showed that a few episodes ago.
No.
When Al sacrificed himself to bring back Ed’s arm, his body and soul mixed together again.
Let me put it simply.
When Al was in the armor, everytime you saw his body (episode 26) and when Al ran into before going to Father’s lair, it’s Al’s Truth wearing his body.
But because Al’s Truth is just essential Al (Truth is just a mirror reflection of the person) it talked like his body, because technically it was. You have to think a little outside the box to understand this, because it’s hard to explain.
So, finally when Al sacrificed his soul back to Truth to bring back Ed’s arm, when his body grabbed the soul and the armor disintegrated, Al was finally reunited within his own body, so the Al Ed talked to in this episode was truly Al, the same Al who was in the armor the entire time.
Episode 62, 20:16 after armor-Al touched Truth-Al, and became Al, he talked to Ed’s Truth. That’s what I meant.
Al talked to Ed’s Truth. But Al’s Truth never talked to Ed’s Truth, that we saw. They could’ve been chilling together while waiting around since their Gates are interconnected.
Of course this is all a pretty pointless way of putting things since Ed’s Truth/Al’s Truth are all part of the same larger…Truth.
I always assumed that EVERYONE’S Truth is just the same thing, only in a form similar to the person it’s conversing with. “All is one, and one is all”, after all.
Up until now, I’ve always thought those moments where Hohenheim reminisces his past with Father was just him feeling sorry for the poor thing. I guess seeing a reflection of himself in different circumstances makes sense seeing as Father was talking about Hohenheim’s blood in one of the flashbacks.
…I wouldn’t have thought he would feel sorry for the thing at all, to be honest. Although I like how the anime added that little scene in, especially with it leading into his talk with Armstrong.
Instead of being remembered as the person who was largely responsible for the birth of the evil homunculus Father, he’ll instead be remembered as the man who conceived the Elric Brothers.
Hohenheim was friends with Homunculus for at least 10 years though in Xerxes.
So, yeah, he was a close friend to him, that’s why I think his betrayal and everything left Hohenheim so shaken up, so of course he would reminisce about him after he died and cling to his final words, feeling sorry for him.
They were both friends once upon a time.
This episode was simply incredible.
… I cried. 3 times. First at Greed’s death (He’s my fav character besides Ling and Ed), second when Ed yelled at Hohenheim and cried, and lastly, Hohenheim’s death. Sooo many tear-jerkers… ;~;
..Even without his alchemy, Ed’s always gonna be the Fullmetal Alchemist in my mind.