Fullmetal Alchemist Brotherhood Episode 22

Wah ha ha ha ha!

Summary:

It seems they were short on the budget this week as episode 22 began with a quick recap of episode 21. Never the less, the action picks up right where it left off with the universally beloved Ran Fan struck down by the evil King Bradley. Luckily Ran Fan is saved by the awesome sword fighting skills of Ling Yao, who manages to put up a good fight against King Bradley. Unfortunately even with his skill Yao ends up being caught indoors by King Bradley and Gluttony. At the last moment, a reawakened Ran Fan manages to pull something cylindrical out of her mouth set off a flashbang with her mouth and with that Ling attempts his escape.

This was basically my only move when I used to play Rainbow 6...

With escape imminent King Bradley finally reveals the power of his hidden eye and stops Yao and Ran Fan before they can escape.

Meanwhile the episode flashes back to Winry as she visits Maes Huges’ grave with his wife and child. Afterwards, while thinking about her own dead parents, Winry overhears the people of Central remark that the Elric Brothers are fighting Scar yet again and she rushes to find them.

This was more fun with Sheryl, Ranka, Alto and what's his face Vajra green thing

It is there that Winry finally overhears Ed’s speech to Scar and realizes that he was the one that killed her father.

Hello. My name is Inigo Montoya... er Winry Rockbell. You killed my father. Prepare to die. (needs more emo face distortion)

With this we go into flashback mode as we explore more in depth the reasons why Scar was fighting in the first place. (Luckily for Baka-Raptor this involves no lolis and doesn’t really show any soft side to Scar)

Apparently the Ishbal guys are actually citizens of the country of Amestris and were being persecuted for no apparent reason by the blond hair blue eyed army dudes who were led by a guy in a military outfit with black hair and a mustache… HMMM just saying y’know?

I swear, we're not Nazis!

Anyway it seems Scar’s brother (voiced by none other than the awesome Takehito Koyasu, the only male seiyuu I fanboy over (there I said it)) had just figured out something really interesting about alchemy when the war broke out. Knowing that he sucks at fighting his brother leaves all his research to Scar, but unfortunately they are attacked by the army only seconds later. Using his newly found alchemy skills, Scar’s older brother saves him but unfortunately Scar is left… scared and without an arm. Knowing his younger brother is about to die, Scar’s older brother uses alchemy to graft his own arm onto Scar. We flash forward into the near future as Scar wakes up in the Rockbell’s hospital. Seeing the blond hair blue eyed Rockbells, Scar goes berserk and kills them before running off and burying his brother’s research.

Back in present day, Winry cannot find the will to kill Scar with the gun she found on the ground, and as he reaches out to kill her instead, Ed runs to protect her. Seeing a bit of his older brother in Ed, Scar hesitates, enough time for Al to kick him away as the episode ends.

Yes yes it was a tragedy Winry... now let's have pity sex.

Reaction:

Coming off last week’s rather weak re-introduction of Scar into the plot, this week’s plot was much, much stronger. Obviously the most important fact in the entire episode was that Ran Fan did not die, although we’ll have to wait till next week to see what really happens to her.

The second most important fact though was undoubtedly Scar’s older brother’s research. As he remarks, he found something ‘odd’ about the way that Alchemy is handled in Amestris compared to Xing. This information further lets him deflect a direct attack by the State Alchemist who kills all of Scar’s family and allows him to graft his arm to Scar. Of course the information is all written down in the now buried book of research and now one of the major plot points will undoubtedly be Scar’s eventual return to the ‘good’ side and helping out everyone by leading them to the book.

What does the book say? What will it give us? Perhaps the research showed that Alchemy in Amestris was not complete. Much like how the original series saw people ripped from World War II Britian, alchemy in FMA:Brotherhood may do something similarly wacky. The concept of equivalent trade is important here, as while Alchemy is able to turn something into someone else, the origin of the actual energy of alchemy is a mystery. How does drawing some circles and putting your hands together give the energy to do things? It is likely the source of this energy and how it’s handled that I think will become important as the plot progresses and may be a final plot point as to how the Homonculus are going to be defeated in the end. And also since we never actually saw Scar’s brother die, he may still be alive somewhere, armless and unable to perform alchemy again.

Finally the last major plot point is Ed and Winry getting closer and closer. Will we soon see the FMA:B equivalent of Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince with snogging everywhere? Only time will tell.