(L) Fullmetal Alchemist Manga Discussion

[Grey]

Originally Posted by The Small One

Spoiler:

Why is Roy complaining about clapping? Just because he can transmute without a circle, it doesn't mean he have to. If it works better for him, he could have just repaired his circle and ignore clapping.

And the most important question: What was father thinking, standing there and doing nothing else than defending? He should have been able to attack more effectively, or even try to flee when noticing that the stone ran out of power. Standing there until no energy is left seems a bit stupid for someone with hundreds of years experience.

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.

[GaimeGuy]

Originally Posted by wandering-dreamer

Just had the thought

Spoiler for more speculation:

that perhaps Greed will also die/give himself up so that Al can come back, Roy gets his sight back and heck, I doubt it'll happen but Izumi could get her organs back as well. Between his stone and Hoenhiem's stone they must still have a good number of souls so Al can probably come back but I'm wondering if Ed is going to end up still having his automail leg since getting a body and soul can't be cheap.

I actually came up with that thought whileI was reading the chapter, too. I can totally see Arakawa doing something like that, that is...

Spoiler:

To have the greediest homunculi display the ultimate act of altruism, self-sacrifice for the sake of his friends.

Yeah, I can see Greed and Hohenheim being the tolls to bring back the things the other sacrifices have lost. Of course, Ling would survive, but Greed would be no more.

And I have a really bad feeling about the whole "Shoot the one who resembles the Fullmetal Alchemist without an automail!" line. Ed is totally going to get fucked over by some soldier.

And The Small One...

Spoiler:

The Truth leaves Father right before Al sacrifices his soul for Ed's arm. that's why Father is writhing on the ground not doing anything while Ed and Al are having their little moment

[Tsuyoshi]

Originally Posted by GaimeGuy

I actually came up with that thought whileI was reading the chapter, too. I can totally see Arakawa doing something like that, that is...

Spoiler:

To have the greediest homunculi display the ultimate act of altruism, self-sacrifice for the sake of his friends.

Yeah, I can see Greed and Hohenheim being the tolls to bring back the things the other sacrifices have lost. Of course, Ling would survive, but Greed would be no more.

And I have a really bad feeling about the whole "Shoot the one who resembles the Fullmetal Alchemist without an automail!" line. Ed is totally going to get fucked over by some soldier.

Probably not. Everyone was watching Ed beat the crap out of Father, so it's doubtful that they wouldn't tell the difference. Especially considering they've all been focusing on Father all the time, and that their eyes never left Father, it's difficult to confuse the two.

Also, Father isn't wearing a shirt. That's another way to tell the difference

[nameless child]

Originally Posted by GaimeGuy

oh god...

Spoiler for 108 speculation:

The soldiers were told father was the one without the automail arm. Who's going to shoot Ed? :X

Ed has a ponytail but father doesn't

[quigonkenny]

Originally Posted by duckroll

Others have mentioned the similarities to the original anime's ending, here's something else I personally noticed:

- In the original anime, Envy's "true" form turned out to look a lot like a slightly older Ed, and he caused fatal damage to Ed which resulted in Al sacrificing himself to bring him back.

That definitely feels to me like the most direct homage to the evens of the actual ending we're seeing here. It's possible Arakawa might not have told them specifically how she planned to end the manga, but maybe she hinted it to them that it would be cool to see Ed fight someone who looks like him, but who overpowers him and causes Al to sacrifice himself to bring his brother back.

I feel a lot of things could simply be coincidence (Mustang losing an eye is a pretty common plot element for older military heroes for example), but the visual impact of seeing Ed get beaten by someone who looks like him is probably something Arakawa wanted to see on screen just in case they never do another anime again. That's how I feel.

This is quickly starting to go down the "80 page chapter" path, so I'm going to nip it in the bud and ask for a source on the "Arakawa told the first series creators her ideas for the ending" story. I've been following the franchise since the first series made it over the Pacific, and I'd never heard anything of the sort until now. I'm not saying it's not true, I'd just prefer if we were discussing based on fact rather than something somebody thought they heard sometime maybe.

Case in point:

Originally Posted by The Small One

Spoiler:

Didn't Father absorb Truth? Why was it there to talk to Al?

Spoiler for 107:

We don't know what Father absorbed. The assumption by many was that it was Turth, but that's what they call "fanon". Fan speculation taken as truth. Like the 80-page chapter. It has never been fully explained what exactly Father absorbed, and none of us are Arakawa, so our ideas don't really amount to much without on-page proof. Also, whatever Father's God was/is, he appears to still have it, unless that eye in his mouth, which is still visible after Al's sacrifice, is something else.

My personal speculation? Every alchemist has a personal Truth at their Gate. Ed's being the only one we've encountered (and possibly Al's, hidden somewhere under that runway model physique). What Father did was force the world to open its collective Gate (foreshadowed by Father's forcing Mustang to open his Gate) and used the souls of all Amestris for the power to snatch that global Truth from its spot at the global Gate. Hohenheim's transmutation undid it, releasing the souls (foreshadowing Al's undoing his own soul binding).

Originally Posted by The Small One

This was a pretty interesting chapter. Though some things were kind of strange:

Spoiler:

I didn't really like how easily Ed got his arm back. What about all the mechanic parts, that were placed in his torso to attach the automail? What about the flesh that got removed for the operation and how can he immediately use his arm, after retraining all the nerves for several years to optimize them for the automail?
To me this was to easy.

Spoiler for 107:

You've got a point about the ability to use his arm. Having a working, nerve-bound prosthetic arm in a world still at the steam train level is spotty as it is, but it's logical to assume that even then the mechanics of automail, given all the bells and whistles on other people's automail, is different from that of a normal arm. As for the missing parts, however, you're not paying close enough attention. In the panel where Mei/Al bring his arm back, you can see some of those parts popping off, suggesting the arm grows back from the shoulder out (something otherwise undisplayable in the manga medium without adding even more panels, and denying a WOW reveal). In a couple other panels, you can see that there are still some other parts imbedded in his shoulder area, which most likely didn't pop out fast enough, and should be fun fun fun later...

[duckroll]

Yeah I agree. Where's the source to "Arakawa told BONES how FMA would end"? In the manga omake showing the creative process between Arakawa and BONES for the original anime, it didn't indicate at all that Arakawa told them anything. In fact, she told them not to tell her how the anime would end so she could watch it on TV for herself iirc.

[Vicious108]

...You can't expect anyone to still have a link to a piece of news that was probably released like 6 or 7 years ago.

Best I could find now was this, where she says that the conclusion for the series had already been decided at the start of serialisation. She just didn't know how she would get there. If she already had it planned, it's not a stretch to believe she'd share it with BONES. I'm sure there's more solid proof than this around though, but hey, believe what you wanna believe.

[kujoe]

I heard differently.

Basically, BONES consulted with Arakawa with regard to how the story would most likely end, given that the manga was far from ending at the time. Eventually, it led her to actually spill the beans on what she had in mind, but she told BONES not to end it in the same way so that readers will still have something to look forward to in the manga.

The discussion explains the comparisons that have been said in this thread, but the differences are still there.

[duckroll]

Okay so I think we can basically conclude that it is all hearsay and bullocks until someone presents actual information that isn't "I heard".

[kujoe]

Pretty much.

I just read about it in some forums actually.

I was hoping to get some actual confirmation on this.

[duckroll]

Well, it doesn't matter in the long run. The manga is still the manga, and the original anime will be the original anime. They're both complete original stories and it should matter whether the team had any special hints about how the manga would eventually conclude.

What will be more interesting will be how the current anime adapts the rest of the manga.

[lonewolf777]

Lol @ 'leave everyone who can't fight behind.... like the frog and the two chicks.'

Greed always was my favorite Homunculus

[zebra]

Originally Posted by kujoe

I heard differently.

Basically, BONES consulted with Arakawa with regard to how the story would most likely end, given that the manga was far from ending at the time. Eventually, it led her to actually spill the beans on what she had in mind, but she told BONES not to end it in the same way so that readers will still have something to look forward to in the manga.

The discussion explains the comparisons that have been said in this thread, but the differences are still there.

I didn't hear, I read. Pulled out my copy again to be sure I don't just remember it wrongly . At the end of Volume 8 there is that omake of the first anime production and how the producers aproached Arakawa about many things. Even found it in english (point in question is at page 2):

Spoiler for omake:

The official german translation (which is pretty accurate most of the time and is the one I have a hard copy of) translates it like that too, stating she revealed the manga end to Bones. I always took that as the truth, even so it is an omake. But why would Arakawa put it there otherwise?

~+~+~
Now to 107:
WOA! Was on the edge of my seat after all!

Spoiler for 107:

Once I realized what Al wanted to do and how Ed got his arm back I was saying "Nonononononononononono!" like a mantra and got all teary eyed. At least it paid off. When he rejoins with his body, with that confidence, that Ed is going to come, that was just so heartwarming.
And then we have Ed beating the shit out of Advent. Woot, I was cheering! But I wondered how he could use his arm so easily (but I think the strong blows all came from his left, no?).

I totally forgot, that Roy can clap now, too. Nice to see him on his feet again. Also liked that tiny bit of Hawkeye pulling together. She did get some rest, but she's far from the top of her health (as many others too).

Awesome chapter!

[duckroll]

I have the English manga, and the translation is completely different. This is what it says:

"From their questions... ....I could feel the passion of the creative process! Even if that were so, I felt I needed to get serious about this too... Which is why the original ending is set to be one heck of a show!!"

Does anyone have the original Japanese scan? I don't have the Japanese volumes of FMA on hand at the moment.

[Vicious108]

It's kinda sad to be saying this, but I actually trust (good) fan translators more than Viz's "profissionals", whose translations were notoriously bad and changed the meaning of many lines here and there. And to think that to this day they still use "Cselkcess" for "Xerxes"...

[Shiroth]

Originally Posted by Endless Twilight

And to think that to this day they still use "Cselkcess" for "Xerxes"...

Eh? The viz releases i have stopped that quite a long time ago.

[Kirarakim]

The Viz release is not perfect but lately I think some of the scanlations are not great either. There seems to be a lot of creative translation to say the least.

Still I have read in other places besides that Omake that Arakawa had the ending planned from the beginning and asked Bones to give the first anime a different ending.

[Arabesque]

I don't the have the volumes at hand now but Im pretty sure they don't make thouse sort of things anymore. Or maybe because it is just not mentioned as much so I don't notice it :P I do like that they called Greedling Grin instead, much better name than the fan sans IMO

Spoiler for anyway, 108 predictions:

I bet that Ed well uses father's sun as payment to get Al back

[zebra]

Originally Posted by Kirarakim

Still I have read in other places besides that Omake that Arakawa had the ending planned from the beginning and asked Bones to give the first anime a different ending.

Data books maybe? Might be even the one for the anime.
Not implying that this is that important XD But I guess would be a cool trivia.

[duckroll]

Back to manga discussion:

Wouldn't it suck if Ed's left arm developed an infection from being impaled on that rusty pipe and he had to amputate it? He might need an automail arm after all, and this time no one can blame Truth!