Fullmetal Alchemist Brotherhood – 24

Hagane no Renkinjutsushi – Fullmetal Alchemist Ep. 24
鋼の錬金術師 FULLMETAL ALCHEMIST Episode 24
Fullmetal Alchemist Brotherhood – 24

SPOILER Summary/Synopsis:

Fullmetal Alchemist Brotherhood - 24Envy pays Dr. Marcoh a visit to bring him food. When Envy mentions Marcoh being a prime candidate for the sacrifice, Marcoh decides to inquire about this sacrifice. He correctly surmises that the homunculi are making a giant transmutation circle to kill everyone in Central City. Since Marcoh wants to save the lives of his own town, he submits to the homunculi even though it will mean even more lives lost elsewhere.

Fullmetal Alchemist Brotherhood - 24In Central City, Bradley (Wrath) has a chat with Pride, who’s voice we hear but whom we never see. At the end of their chat, Pride says he won’t report Wrath’s near treasonous talk to Father and inquires about the location of Gluttony.

Gluttony is still looking for Mustang to instantly inhale him into the open maw with the giant eye in it where his gut was. Mustang uses his flame alchemy ability to try to burn Fullmetal Alchemist Brotherhood - 24Gluttony to death, but the homunculus simply consumes the flame. Meanwhile Ling gets the injured Lan Fan to a waiting car driven by Dr. Knox. Riza gets Mustang there eventually as Ed, Al, and Ling tell them to escape and leave the rampaging Gluttony to them. Riza hands Ed a pistol which he’s initially reluctant to take but does so just the same.

After Knox gets his passengers to safety, Ed, Al, and Ling try Fullmetal Alchemist Brotherhood - 24to figure out a plan of attack on Gluttony. Envy arrives in the form of a dog and warns Gluttony off of consuming Ed and Al since they are needed for the sacrifice. Since Gluttony calls Ed “chibi” again, Ed goes off. Envy doesn’t want to fight since they need Ed. Ed decides to split the homunculi up by erecting a wall, leaving Ling to face Envy while Ed and Al face Gluttony, who now is under orders not to consume or attack them. Since there are no orders against killing Ling, Fullmetal Alchemist Brotherhood - 24Envy goes all out, having heard of Ling’s skills from Lust. Ling proves quite good though, so Envy ends up taking on the guise of the injured Lan Fan which causes Ling to hesitate. En and Al’s fight breaks through Ed’s wall and Gluttony ends up consuming Ed, Ling, and Envy on accident. Al, watched by Xiao Mei, wants Ed returned but as Gluttony’s maw shuts, Gluttony says that once he’s consumed them, there’s no return.

Fullmetal Alchemist Brotherhood - 24At Dr. Marcoh’s Knox’s place, the injured Lan Fan tries to get up, wanting to help Ling. Knox snaps at her since there’s nothing she can do in her current condition. He snaps at Mustang as well, who has not heard anything from Ed, Al, or Ling. Mustang is going to leave anyway to do what he can and is driven by Riza to HQ. Even though it is night, he meets with his commanding officer, Lt. General Raven. After some small talk about Roy’s former commanding officer, the Fullmetal Alchemist Brotherhood - 24two men head to a meeting. Along the way, they continue to talk and Roy jokingly mentions a rumor about Bradley being a homunculus. After a laugh, the two reach the meeting room which is filled with military brass. Raven suddenly turns serious and asks about King Bradley being a homunculus. To Roy’s horror, King Bradley enters the room and readily confesses to being a homunculus. Roy suddenly understands Hughes’ warning about danger and the military Fullmetal Alchemist Brotherhood - 24to mean the danger IS the military and not there is a danger TO the military.

Ed wakes up in a strange place with the ground naught but fresh blood. There are dead bodies and pieces of equipment as well as other things Gluttony has apparently consumed.

Thoughts/Review:

Fullmetal Alchemist Brotherhood - 24I think this anime should take the prize for having some amazing cliff hangers. The episodes just smoke by, then we get to the end with one stunner after another (well, stunner to people like me who’ve not read the manga).

For starters, I did not expect for Gluttony to consume Ed, Ling, and Envy. Then again last week, I didn’t expect for Gluttony to have a giant eyeball inside of him either. Ling Fullmetal Alchemist Brotherhood - 24said he could sense the people Gluttony had consumed, so I’m guessing they are inside of Gluttony. However, that means that Gluttony is something very different than I expected. It is like he has some sort of pocket space within him but why? What’s the eyeball about? Man, my head is buzzing with possibilities, too many to even begin to write down. ^_^;

Fullmetal Alchemist Brotherhood - 24The next surprise was Envy telling Dr. Marcoh the plan to turn Central City into a giant transmutation circle and kill all the people there. Since we know people are the main ingredient for a Philosopher’s Stone, that’s going to be one massive stone if it gets made. Then again, I think of that ruined city with the transmutation circle part that Ed found (Xerxes) and how it is said to have come to ruin rather quickly. Since homunculi can apparently live forever (though Fullmetal Alchemist Brotherhood - 24Wrath ages for some unknown reason), my mind says, “they brought the destruction of Xerxes.” Well, I say “they” but since Father is the apparent leader of the homunculi, maybe he did it since he would be behind having Central City destroyed.

Anyway, now I know why Central City is shaped the way it is — to facilitate this sacrifice.

Fullmetal Alchemist Brotherhood - 24We were introduced to Pride if only in voice. I’m told that Pride should have appeared earlier in the story already as a voice. It is strange but he seems to be the highest ranking homunculi. I say this because when we were introduced to the homunculi, Lust appeared in command. Then when Bradley was revealed to be Wrath, he appeared to be in command. Now with the voice of Pride and Bradley seeming to subject himself to it, Pride would appear to be in command. That would make sense to me in terms of a sin and God’s words against the sin of pride.

Fullmetal Alchemist Brotherhood - 24Speaking of Bradley, it is so creepy to see him with a wife and adopted son. I kept thinking, “what would they say if they knew Bradley is a homunculus?” Then we come to the cliff hanger ending where Bradley comes right out at a meeting of military brass and says he is a homunculus and the military is fine with that. If that’s the case, then it is very possible Bradley’s wife and kid know the truth too and don’t care. Either way, Mustang is in a bad position and I’m guessing that this is where he will be brought under control.

Fullmetal Alchemist Brotherhood - 24Where’s Sloth? We’ve only seen a glimps of him and he wasn’t doing much of anything but clearly he must be part of the plan of the homunculi.

Did I hear right? Mustang has a wife? That has to be code, right? Update: OK, I see I misunderstood. Raven mentioned the call from his wife. ^_^;

Finally, while there wasn’t much comedy, Xiao Mei comes Fullmetal Alchemist Brotherhood - 24darn close to stealing the show a couple of times. The mini-panda being first attached to Mustang’s face, then when everyone is fleeing, the mini-panda clinging to that streamer from Al’s head. *lol* The production team are wise to keep Xiao Mei from stealing the show while at the same time letting the critter do her thing (I assume it is a she).

There is so much more I could write about regarding this episode. Unfortunately while my mind has been racing away, my fingers had no chance of keeping up on the keyboard. Probably just as well since I might have written a book. ^_^;

Fullmetal Alchemist Brotherhood - 24
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7 Responses to “Fullmetal Alchemist Brotherhood – 24”

  1. arimareiji says:

    Yow. I’d only watched the Eclipse sub – they translate King Bradley’s line as “What about me being a Homunculus? Is there a problem?” After reading your post I checked the Funi sub, which I’m guessing you watched, and they translate it as “If I were a Homunculus, so what? Is there some problem with that?”

    BIIIIIG difference; in Eclipse’s version it sounds like he’s daring Mustang to say it again rather than confirming it. I guess we’ll have to wait (or hope Zefyris can help) to find out for sure which is right.

    I’m curious if the difference in translations is how Mustang got a wife… I don’t remember anything like that in the Eclipse sub, and I’ve only watched bits of the Funi sub.

    Two quibbles: When you say “At Dr. Marcoh’s place, the injured Lan Fan tries to get up, wanting to help Ling. Marcoh snaps at her…”, did you mean Dr. Knox? And while it would make more sense that Central City would be what gets sacrificed, in both of the subs Marcoh and Envy say it’ll be the whole country. That also seems to fit better with Hohenheim’s ominous warning to Pinako in ep 20.

  2. AstroNerdBoy says:

    Yeah, you are right about the Knox/Marcoh thing. I’ve fixed that. That’s why blogging when super tired is not a good thing. ^_^;;;

    As to item 2, I guess my thinking was Central City only because if they destroy the whole country (which is highly possible), then wouldn’t that kill Dr. Marcoh’s people as well? I thought they were in country too. I’d forgotten about the warning to Pinako though so I guess Dr. Marcoh’s people are outside the kill zone or the homunculi are lying to him about sparing his people if he cooperates.

  3. evgenidb says:

    Cliffhangers? Literally, most of the chapters in the manga are cliffhangers. Even at the end of a volume. And sometimes you need to read a chapter or two to get again to the continuation of a certain cliffhanger story.

    About the Gluttony’s “pocket space” – you’ll see what it is… in the next episode.

    About Bradley having a family – he had that in the first anime too. And he was aging too. So, it’s not a big surprise.

    About Sloth – you’ll see, you’ll see… when the right time (actually, the right episode) comes. And yes – he is part of the plan.

    What, Mustang has a wife? Where? When? Apparently, I totally forgot that part of the anime.

    And now – what was changed from the manga (or at least what I remember to be changed):
    – Envy was a horse, not a dog. Also, in the manga there was a scene where Envy was running (in a horse’s body) form the city to the Gluttony’s location. And the car with Lan Fan, Mustang and the others is seen going in the opposite direction. This means that Envy arrived after they have left.

    And one more thing – Envy was briefly in the shape of a dog (he tried to hide) when he fought with Lan Fan and Ling (with Gluttony). And Envy was rewarded with some daggers in the head.

    And basically that’s all changes I’ve spotted.

    P.S. If you remember, Envy allowed Ling to hit him with his sword at one time. This reminded me of a book called “The Old Man’s War” by John Scalzy (really good millitary sci-fi), where there are bio-engineered humans (from a normal human DNA). So, this bio-engineered humans are used as special ops warriors from their birth (they are summoned already adultlike, their training is about a couple of months, they have enhanced body and bla-bla-bla). Well, the point is that this warriors are fine with sacrificing some of their body, because they very well know that it could be repaired easily. While a normal human would never do that (mostly because they lived their whole life in a normal body, which is… not so perfect).

    So, the bottom line is, that Envy reminded me of these warriors.

    (I really suck at explaining things, aren’t I.)

  4. evgenidb says:

    No, I think that village is in the country. Ed was traveling to Rousenboul, when he visited Dr. Marcoh.

  5. Chared Knight says:

    The whole point of the Marcoh thing was that Marcoh wasn’t thinking rationally, he was thinking emotionally. Marcoh simply couldn’t cause the death of an entire village.

    As for the trnasmutation circle, it’s made clear in the manga that the country itself is the transmutation circle with the only place needed left to see bloodshed is the North area. For some reason they left the north comment out, and added the scene with Selim in.

    Also where in the funimation version did you see the part about Mustang’s wife mentioned? I don’t remember that being in the Funimation subs, and the only mention of a wife was by General Raven talking about his.

  6. arimareiji says:

    Very strange random thought:

    The more we talk about Mustang’s possible marital status, the more I get reminded of the Biggus Diccus scene in Life of Brian… “He has a wife, you know.”

  7. AstroNerdBoy says:

    I went back and rewatched. I misunderstood Raven’s statement. He was referring to his own wife and not Mustang’s. ^_^;

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