(L) Fullmetal Alchemist Manga Discussion

[BetoJR]

Good Lord. I spent almost the entire time while I was reading the chapter with friggin' big tears welling up - and good God, I think I'm gonna bawl when I see some of these scenes animated. What a great final chapter. What a sad day, when we're given the certainty that there won't be any more new stories with these characters we've come so attached to.

Bravo, Arakawa-sensei. Bra-vo. Now, excuse me while I go wash my face.

[ChronoReverse]

@Xagzan

He was already crumbly. Clearly he had ran out of the "juice" that had kept him going.

[Slayerx]

Originally Posted by Xagzan

Spoiler:

What was up with Hohenheim's death? How did he just die? Plus, I know he wanted to die, and everything made sense until page 75, where apparently his last words were he didn't really want to die, right after he said he had a full life and it was enough. What the deuce was up with that?

Spoiler:

Even a philosipher stone like himself has a finte amount of power... his just had a lot due to the number of souls was in his creations.... the battle against father burned him out

Originally Posted by ProlificSky

Truly one of the most fulfilling endings in a long time. However, there is one thing I'm unsure about. When Al goes to visit Hughes' family, he talks to Hughes' wife about trying to prove a new rule in contrast to equivalent exchange and in response gets asked if there is something he wants to do. Al then mentions Nina, but I'm not quite understanding what Al wanted to do in referencing Nina?

He's referencing nina because the two chimera buddies are in a similar situation... it's not as animal like as nina was, but both of them are stuck as chimeras but want to seperate the animalisic parts from themselves so that they can be human... If Al had been able to do that all those years ago, separate a human from a dog, he would have been able to save nina

granted those two kind of bugged me cause i could never see anything all that wrong with their situation... i mean they control their appearance and look like normal humans; so i have trouble seeing why they think being a chimera is so bad; much like the other two chimera's who don't mind their bodies... Nina was a different story, she was stuck in a dog-like form... if they were stuck in their more monsterous forms, then i could really sympathize...

[Xagzan]

Originally Posted by Slayerx

Spoiler:

Even a philosipher stone like himself has a finte amount of power... his just had a lot due to the number of souls was in his creations.... the battle against father burned him out

Ok but

Spoiler:

What about that last line of his, suddenly deciding he didn't really want to die? That made no sense to me at all, since he's wanted to the whole series.

[Slayerx]

Originally Posted by Xagzan

Ok but

Spoiler:

What about that last line of his, suddenly deciding he didn't really want to die? That made no sense to me at all, since he's wanted to the whole series.

Spoiler:

well you do have to recall that what he wanted to do was not to just die, but to grow old together with trisha and die with her... her dying young wasn't exactly part of the plan...
There was one added perk to growing old with trisha, and that was being able to watch his boys grow... so he may have wanted to keep living just a little longer so that he could spend time with his sons; afterall the small amount of time he got to spend with his sons was all business (stopping father); he died before he could get a chance to really spend any quality time with them

it's not that he didn't want to die... just that he wanted to just a bit more time
He's been miserable for centuries, trapped by immortality and just when he was finally enjoying life, it comes to an end...
it's tragically ironic when you think about it

but he still smiled at the end...

[ProlificSky]

Thanks for your helpful insights Slayer!

[Dead Cake]

Spoiler for ch 108:

Although there are many things I don't like in this ending, the one thing that really amazed me was how much Ed has grown and how strong his values are. I loved how there was countless temptations to use the easy way to get Al back but time after time he refused to use them and solved the situation on his own. That's the way to go! *cough*firstanime*cough*

And after these badass moments Roy took the easy way out? Oh come on! I wanted him to stay blind. And the baby-picture. Believe me or not but it took several minutes for me to realize they were Ed's kids. Oh god how much I hate baby-epilogues.. Also the Selim conclusion was really weird.

Olivier was awesome as always and the Hoho-scenes almost made me cry :) I don't know, this was a great ending but some parts were disappointing...

[Freya]

Hey I'm still confused at what Mustang said. Why couldn't he give up his alchemy to get his eyes back?

[ChronoReverse]

Originally Posted by Freya

Hey I'm still confused at what Mustang said. Why couldn't he give up his alchemy to get his eyes back?

Because you get rid of your door to get rid of your alchemy. If you give up your door, you no longer have a way back to the real world.

[Kazu-kun]

Originally Posted by ChronoReverse

Because you get rid of your door to get rid of your alchemy. If you give up your door, you no longer have a way back to the real world.

Exactly. It worked for Ed because they still could go back through Al's gate.

[ZeroForever]

amazing series, the end is probably one of the best manga ends I've ever read.

now here to hoping the anime end does it justice.

[Freya]

Originally Posted by Kazu-kun

Exactly. It worked for Ed because they still could go back through Al's gate.

Ohh I get it now. Thanks.

[wandering-dreamer]

Originally Posted by ProlificSky

Truly one of the most fulfilling endings in a long time. However, there is one thing I'm unsure about. When Al goes to visit Hughes' family, he talks to Hughes' wife about trying to prove a new rule in contrast to equivalent exchange and in response gets asked if there is something he wants to do. Al then mentions Nina, but I'm not quite understanding what Al wanted to do in referencing Nina?

I think he was still ashamed that neither he or Ed could deconstruct the Nina+dog chimera and then it showed the military chimeras discussing theories about how to get back to normal so he's trying to make up for Nina by helping as many people who have been messed up by alchemy as he can.

[Bombo]

I can't belive it...I really can't belive this series will be done now
Ialot things I want to say, But all what I want to say now is thank you Ms. Arakawa you are the women who made this series for us..
thank you very much

All this years finally its the end...I really like it alot stuff but a wonderful scene between winty and ed about half and all :d

[ProlificSky]

Correction:

Originally Posted by Bombo

I can't belive it...I really can't belive this series will be done now
Ialot things I want to say, But all what I want to say now is thank you Ms. Arakawa you are the woman who made this series for us..
thank you very much

All this years finally its the end...I really like it alot stuff but a wonderful scene between winty and ed about half and all :d

[Ryus]

First post in the FMA threads here... I just picked up the manga series a month and a half ago (very odd since the original FMA was my favorite anime of all time , guess I feared them being too different... What a moron I was for fearing FMA the manga ) . Well need less to say I finished it in a week (I was moving at the time so there was no way i could have read it in a day or two ) all happy thinking there was another awesome thread here I could finally hang on only to have it dawn on me that the plot feels like it's ending. Did some checking only to have my newly founded fear confirmed . So I spent the last month trying to pretend I didn't want to post anything here.

Didn't work...

Now about the ending...

Spoiler for Just incase someone hasn't read the end yet:

it really reminded me of the last episode of Stargate SG1 (the longest running US scifi show of all time) which the title of the final episode says it all, "Unending". For a moment I was thinking there might be a spin off series but the photos at the end said it all... Ed and Winrey have kids, Al and May Chang seem to be dating, Ling Yao became Emperor, Roy Mustang and Riza Hawkeye seem to only be working together , Scar's truly found something worth living for (too bad we didn't see Mustangs reaction to finding that one out ), there be puppies , slightly confused with Darius & Heinkeledit & Yoki Why does it look like they joined a circus? Since the poses that Darius & Heinkeledit are in + that frill around Yoki's neck + the scenery behind them really makes me think of a circus...

Now the ending wasn't dark which sometimes I really prefer in series but here I won't complain, too much. I'm really glad Ed kept the leg but that they got the rest of there bodies back. I also thought the brothers walking back home together was a great touch, especially since they didn't call in advance .

Not sure it's the time and place for me to discuss my over all series impressions, since clearly everyone is way too busy talking about the ending.

Any details on Hiromu Arakawa's next series? I'm so going to check it out! Until then I'll be popping in here every now and then but mostly hanging on the Claymore thread.

[Spectacular_Insanity]

Wow. Massive 112 page chapter.

Spoiler for comments on some stuff:

I'm sad Greed died. I really liked him as a character... he had a lot of growth over the course of the manga.

And I lol'd at Ed's lame proposal. And Winry's "90... no 80 percent?". That entire scene was both funny and heartwarming.

But overall my favorite part was Ed giving up his own gate and ability to use alchemy for Al's life was great. The way Truth said, "that is the correct answer, alchemist", was utterly epic.

Fantastic end to a great manga. I can't wait til this is animated. I also can't help but look forward to Arakawa's next work.

[Zek]

So...

Spoiler:

Why does having a philosopher's stone automatically make you Emperor of Xing? I thought the current emperor just wanted it so he himself could be immortal, which is impossible anyway?

[Slayerx]

Originally Posted by Zek

So...

Spoiler:

Why does having a philosopher's stone automatically make you Emperor of Xing? I thought the current emperor just wanted it so he himself could be immortal, which is impossible anyway?

Spoiler:

Ling explained it way early on... Obtaining something like the philosopher's stone or a "way towards immortality" was just a method to increase the Yao family's standing in the country. Even if it was not complete, the findings would please the emperor and he give the family a great deal of praise... Ling planned to use that heightened status to cement his standing in the country and claim his place as heir and gain victory in the succession war between the families.

[Ryus]

Originally Posted by Zek

So...

Spoiler:

Why does having a philosopher's stone automatically make you Emperor of Xing? I thought the current emperor just wanted it so he himself could be immortal, which is impossible anyway?

Spoiler for Spoiler:

Quick sum up...

By giving an old man hope before he died he became the favored heir to the throne... so when the Emperor inevitably died next in line to the throne out of all the countless heirs was Ling Yao. In short there was no clear successor until Ling Yao gained favor with the emperor.

Age nor sex had anything to do with the right of succession in Xing. It was all about gaining clout with the Emperor... when you think about it every family/clan was likely telling the guy I'm the best choice and here is why when Ling comes back and says "why do you have to die?"... it's clear why he gained the throne Ling just stood out and offered him a chance at something almost every dying person secretly wants a chance to not die, or at the very least not having there final days consumed by fear and worry.

Now clearly this didn't give him the throne but it made it far easier to gain it after the Emperor died. Since during the time while the Emperor still lived Ling would gain power in the empire by giving his father what he wanted, the spend that power/influence to gain the throne.