January 13th, 2010 
AstroNerdBoy Hagane no Renkinjutsushi – Fullmetal Alchemist Ep. 39
鋼の錬金術師 FULLMETAL ALCHEMIST Episode 39 review
Fullmetal Alchemist Brotherhood – 39
SPOILER Summary/Synopsis:
Scar escapes with Winry as a blizzard sets in and Kimblee is convinced that Scar has Winry as a hostage as a blizzard comes up. Ed reflects on how Miles worked out a deal with Scar in order that the notes of Scar’s brother might be translated. Winry comes up with the notion of being Scar’s hostage and a further deal is reached with the chimeras Zampano and Jerso, who after seeing Al’s condition, decide they too want to return to their original bodies. Yoki, Zampano, Jerso, Dr. 
Marcoh, Scar, Winry, Mei Chan, and Xiao Mei make their way through the abandoned mining tunnels to Briggs.
As Miles, Ed, Al, and the soldiers wait out the blizzard, Miles learns that Central has replaced General Armstrong as base commander and have transferred many soldiers from Central as well, meaning Winry’s group may well be caught. Al volunteers to go after them and warn them since he never gets tired and he wouldn’t freeze to death. However as he 
attempts to reach Winry’s group, he has a vision of his real body waiting outside the Door of Truth and fears the suit of armor is rejecting his soul.
In his lair, Father lays out pieces on a paper representing Ed, Al, Hohenheim, and Izumi, leaving only one more piece to fill the corners of the pentagon drawn within the boundaries of a circle on the paper.
Thoughts/Review:
I was both right and wrong about Scar and Winry. I had expected it to be Ed who came up with the plan to fake a kidnapping in order to save Winry while gaining access to Scar’s brother’s research. Having it be Miles that came up with the plan works for me on two levels. For starters, a part-Ishvalan person is basically giving his full-blooded “cousin” a chance at redemption. Second, it allows Ed and Al to keep their anger at Scar pure since it wasn’t their idea but they are just going along with the plan.
I also liked that Winry was the one to decide to be a hostage for similar reasons. She gets the added bonus in that she is putting her life into the hands of the man who slaughtered her parents. That’s pretty brave on her part and I like how the story has crafted her to show this strength despite her own natural feelings.
There are two problems with the plan. The first is the news that General Armstrong has been replaced. With the Sloth fiasco and General Raven’s disappearance, it is no surprise that Central needs to get control over Briggs to make sure Father’s plan goes down as designed. Central can’t prove Armstrong murdered Raven but they can remove her from command and attempt to control the situation since Armstrong is a wild card. The thing is, I don’t think that will be enough because her troops are fiercely loyal to her. Since she’s shown she’s willing to buck the system, her troops would be too in my opinion.
The second thing wrong with the plan is Kimblee himself. Kimblee has shown himself to be very smart and while he could be fooled initially, aided by the blizzard which stopped the fight, I can’t imagine his analytical mind replaying events and not picking up certain “wrong” things. I figure Kimblee will question Al’s being missing and end up trying to track down Scar himself, thus attempting to get Winry back in the process. We’ll see what happens though.
As to General Armstrong, if she’s been replaced and transferred, then what will King Bradley and the rest of the generals do with her? I suppose they could arrange for her to have an accident and remove a problem. However, word of that would likely cause her former troops to riot. Would that be a bad thing? Not if Father needs blood in Briggs and what better way to accomplish that than by getting rid of Armstrong?
Still, since she’s featured in the OP, I don’t think this is the way they’ll go. So if she’s not to be killed, then she needs to be controlled, like Riza. However, can you truly control a force like General Armstrong? I just can’t see that happening.
I suppose this will mean that General Armstrong and Colonel Mustang will be meeting at some point. I would like to see her meet with her brother though. ^_^
Zampano and Jerso defecting to Ed’s and Al’s side was a surprise to me. They seemed pretty hardcore about things last episode, but here, they seemingly aren’t happy with being chimera. I’m not sure I trust them though. If Winry’s group makes it to Briggs before Al finds them, I could see the two chimera turning on the others.
As to Father’s plans, we know that Ed, Al, and Izumi have seen the 
Gate of Truth. I’m guessing Hohenheim has as well since he’s mentioned and he does appear to have multiple philosopher stones within him. So they are key to Father’s plan and that leaves one other. But whom?
The new OP/ED themes don’t really do much for me at this point, but the new ED is something that could grow on me.
So, another really enjoyable episode here. ^_^
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Ditto on the chimeras’ defection – I wouldn’t be surprised at all if they’re just playing along. Their rationale of “Kimblee would just kill us anyway” has some ring of truth to it, but it seems waaaaaay too convenient. I wasn’t sure what to think about their “Whoa, wait, Central is up to something dastardly that could hurt our loved ones?” (14:08-24). It could have been “Now we’re super-convinced,” it could have been “Wait, maybe we really should join you instead of just pretending,” or it could have been really hammy overacting.
But I also wouldn’t be too surprised if this were part of how the writers are trying to unpaint themselves out of the corner they got stuck in by letting Father hold all the cards. That, and anime tends to be more than a bit idealistic about people acting for the long-term greater good instead of for immediate self-centered benefits.
Put me down for a guess that #5 is Roy. It’s hard to imagine him making Ed and Al’s mistake since he’s seen what it did to them, not to mention that he’s gotten through really bad times before without doing anything desperate. But I could see Father trying to push him over the edge with the bait of bringing Hawkeye back.
Keep in mind that pretty much the only people who actually have any clue about what is happening in Central are the Homunculi themselves, the Generals, and Kimblee. The Chimeras know nothing about Father’s plan, which is why they where shocked when they learned the country was in danger. They joined the Amestrian military to serve their country and not destroy it.
So this isn’t going to be the last time that soldiers from Central join forces with the good guys.
no dont worry the chimera’s arent gonna betray them….or are they? *hint hint*
hey astro have you seen the ova’s? the second one has just been released…
and astro you are gonna lol when the armstrong siblings meet…
I cant wait for marcoh’s soon to come awesome battle…
@arimareiji — Now that you mention Roy, he has been mentioned as a candidate for sacrifice along with Ed and Al. I didn’t know what made him special enough to warrant that level of notice but if he has the potential to be that kind of Alchemist, then that makes sense to me. We’ll see though.
@Charred — interesting point.
@Ku Fei — OVA’s? Associated with the current series or the previous ones.
As to the Armstrongs meeting, I look forward to seeing it. ^_^
current series
I wasn’t even aware there were OVA’s. I’ll have to check into that.
*reads Fma most recent chapter*
…………………………………………………………………….ARGH! HURRY UP AND ANIMATE THIS!
ok it’s official! the wait for this is too great! *explodes*
I’m purposefully not reading the manga (save for the one volume earlier, but that was to compare what had been animated with the source material) but I’m glad it seems to be going quite well in terms of story. ^_^
The OVA’s all called “The Blind Alchemist” and “Simple People” The second one has a connection to what happened in this episode. ^_^ You should review them if you see them.
Watched and blogged. That will appear later.
Later today?
Yes…for “Blind Alchemist” anyway. Somehow, Google reported I’d already published it when it wasn’t. *_* However, the actual publication will happen at 2PM ET.
@Charred: I agree, but to me it’s a severe stretch that people would immediately respond to “Your boss, on whom your life has been heretofore dependent (which implies a lot of enforced trust), is doing Bad Evil Things” – from people they don’t know or trust – with “ZOMG it must be true let me join you” instead of skepticism or disbelief.
Look at any political forum, on any side, and you’ll see the extreme opposite in action. (^_~)
As humans, we tend very strongly to believe our chosen “authorities”, trust the familiar-but-morally-grey over the unfamiliar, and come up with really spectacular rationalizations for why something we think is in our own best interest is actually true against all rational evidence.
@arimareiji: While I think your point makes a lot of sense, I still see it believable the chimera would go along with these people (not really switch to their side, but go with them) for several reasons.
-They thought Kimblee would kill them for failing orders
-Kimblee was a known psychopath, known for killing his officers after the war, and just having recently got out of prison. They probably didn’t trust him or like being put under his orders
-They obviously weren’t under his orders for very long
-They already had some shaky trust towards their superiors and hatred toward them for turning them in chimeras as they were. And probably suspected “bad evil going-ons” because of this horrible thing that they did to them.
-Miles and co. were pretty clearly in their eyes as a group of rebels and deep down these chimeras probably wanted to rebel too. Were sick of the military, afraid of their superiors, and had reached a point where they thought they had no hope and only followed orders because they had to or else would be killed. It was Al’s little speech, as sudden as it was, that made them think there may be some hope. And it’s human nature to try to survive. In their position going with this rebel group was the only option left to them, or else they’d most likely be killed.
Even if Roy doesn’t human transmute voluntarily, they could always force him into a situation where he would have to. Somehow.
I think Roy’s too smart to be forced into that situation