[Jmariofan7]

Originally Posted by Tsuyoshi

^To add to that, it's not even certain if that soul was Bradley's original soul or the soul from the philosopher's stone. Bradley himself says so in the discussion you mention.

The single soul within him is clearly Father’s own soul fragment representing his emotions of anger towards humans, after all Ling and Greed were separate souls within the stone, Wrath just stole the body of the original human.

Originally Posted by quigonkenny

He's just so badass, and his ability so suited for him, that he's gotten by without ever being killed. Everything since he arrived back in Central after the failed assassination attempt suggests this. He gets multiple injuries, none of them fatal until the end, and never heals any of them, even though he does have some moments where he could have, if he had the capability.

Only because all his opponents were idiots most of the time and never took advantage of his clear weaknesses, his eyesight, Greed never goes full armour in ANY of his fights even when he clearly had an opening to do so, and the ninja grandpa never uses a flash grenade on him.

Originally Posted by Rennir

Yeah but I think its better to have it end. Mangas like bleach and naruto that drag on forever just get boring after a while. Its better to go out with a bang . But I hope that Ed doesn't have to cross the gate and live there for the rest of his life in this version.

They don’t “drag on forever” nor do they “get boring” because they have longer, deeper and more complicated plots than FMA, which is just an insultingly basic battle of “good vs evil” with unbelievable strawman cartoon villains that some don’t even get proper cathartic defeats like Lust, Wrath and Kimblee.

Brotherhood isn't about suffering and catharsis, it's about pseudometaphysical bologna that attempts to appeal to the same crowd that thinks NGE is deep and insightful.

Originally Posted by Grey

I was a bit disappointed about the "just wants friends like them" revelation for Greed. It fits with the way he developed a band as the previous Greed, but it's such a shounen cliche it felt a bit like Greed's character was cheapened. "You don't really want everything in the world, you just want some good friends"--what? I guess the set up and delivery just didn't work for me. [/SPOILER]

Haven’t you noticed that Father still demonstrates all Seven Deadly Sins even after supposedly “removing” them from himself? Because they were actually his emotions towards humans with Greed being his want to make friends.

Originally Posted by Grey

Spoiler:

I guess seeing the Truth doesn't teach you how to use alchemy to sew gloves while blind.

Hundreds of years of experience sitting in his chair. But eh, there could be lots of possible reasons Father didn't use a different tactic. Can't run and concentrate on alchemical defense and keeping the God in; area is too open to escape fire from Briggs, Mustang, etc in time; was waiting for a lull in the attacks to counter-attack but new arrivals like Greed and Mustang stopped him; didn't waste energy on an earth shield because artillery would quickly batter it down; didn't expect to spend so much power so quickly.

Except that he easily could have liquified the ground beneath him to escape into the catacombs. He was also stupid for wasting a ton of his energy for releasing those souls just to eff with Hohenheim and even more energy firing off that massive energy beam.

Heck his biggest stupidity was never keeping tabs on Hohenheim from the start, the BIGGEST threat to his plans.

Originally Posted by Tsuyoshi

Which brings me to my next point. Ed's answer the the Guardian of the Truth made me skip a beat and shed a tear. Ed renouncing alchemy was the ultimate act to understanding that alchemy could not possibly provide all the answers, regardless of how much you learned. The real answers lay in the people around him, the world that's out there, not what was within yourself. It symbolizes just how much can be gained from acknowledging life around you rather than being self-centered and focusing on the world inside of you. That was the mistake Homunculus had made, a mistake Ed recognized he had made.

And yet we also get characters like Olivier Armstrong, a really self-centered character who never gets any punishment.


Actually the biggest thing I would like to say is that Arakawa’s ORIGINAL pitch for FMA was that Roy was the MC and the main antagonist would be Bradley, which at the very least Arakawa should have stuck with Bradley being the main antagonist instead of the generic cartoon blob monster that was Homunculus "some magical creature created with blood that gets knowledge out of his ass and wants to become a god". We didn’t need all that bs.