Fullmetal Alchemist, ep. 43-51 (intial reaction)

[oyceter]

GIANT SPOILERS

This is totally an initial reaction because I am really not coherent right now, largely because I spent the last episode sobbing. Oh, my boys. I was so scared something like this would happen, but at least they're still there and still looking for each other.

*sobs*

Is the movie worth watching?

But oh, my god.

Comments

[grendelity.livejournal.com]

I thought the movie was pretty good - especially considering that the original series is a pretty damn hard act to follow. Al just about broke my heart in the movie.

But Ed in the series totally did it for me. I think I shrieked when he died. XD

[oyceter]

I started bawling when it did the blank screen on Ed's eye. I mean, I sort of figured he'd end up ok because there was one episode left, but then Al did his thing, and I bawled more, and then Ed came back and started drawing another transmutation circle and I may have just lost it at that point.

[rachelmanija.livejournal.com]

And, and! The waltz of DOOM! The underground city! Ed's "don't worry about me, Rose!" grin! Riza screaming over Roy's body!

[oyceter]

I know! And that final image of the two reaching out to each other, in completely different worlds, and the knowledge that Al DOESN'T REMEMBER any of the past four years! That kills me. Because he doesn't remember Hughes or Marta or Nina or what Ed did or all the things they did together, wah!

[rachelmanija.livejournal.com]

And Wrath is out there, furious and automailed, and Al doesn't even remember him. Al never met Roy, or Sciezka, or any of them. Winry can tell him about the military people, and she and Izumi can fill him in a bit on the homunculi and his adventures with Ed, but only Ed knows everything, and Ed isn't there.

Leaving Ed out of the equation, I wonder if Al would trade his human body to get his memories back...

However, the whole thrust of the story was that the truth will out, even if some of the people who discover it aren't able to reveal it or pass it on: Hughes is killed before he can reveal what he knows, but Scieska and Winry figure it out based on their knowledge that he learned something, and then Roy is finally able to use that knowledge-- with the consequence that, though the cost is high, the socio-political situation improves drastically, with Ishbalans not being persecuted any more and the government switching to a less warmongering model.

All that suggests to me that even if Al doesn't get his memories back, he will learn what happened in some other way, even if he has to interview everyone he and Ed ever met... which might recreate some of the lost bonds. Even, in a weird proxy way, the ones with Hughes and Martel and Nina.

[oyceter]

Yes, I keep thinking that Al will end up getting his memories back, just because I don't think something like that will stay buried. Also, I am quite convinced that the two will meet again, given their mutual stubbornness, but it still kills me to think about it.

I think one of my favorite parts in the montage (besides the obvious Ed and Al stuff) was finding out that Roy ended up losing an eye. Even though usually I'd think it was the writers copping out, I am so not complaining this time about anyone making it out alive. Plus, I doubt he will ever be Fuhrer, and I love that the eye matches the Fuhrer's eye, only gained through pain and sacrifice and the willingness to fight, even though it may be for a lost cause.

I love Sheska as a symbol of lost information coming back; her memory is what "resurrects" all the books lost when Scar burnt down the library, and she's the one who pieces together what Hughes found out as well.

[octopedingenue]

I think the thought that Al doesn't remember Hughes-san or Scar-san hurt me the most.

[oyceter]

Oh man, I didn't even remember that he wouldn't remember Scar. That really does hurt.