(L) Fullmetal Alchemist Manga Discussion

[quigonkenny]

Originally Posted by Ghostfriendly

Does Winry's line about being drawn into a whirlpool of suffering imply that Father is really just sad and lonely inside, and might get a sympathetic end?

I'd say the suffering was more from the other disembodied souls than from Father.

[Kirarakim]

I admit I didn't think of a parallel between Ling & Ran Fan and what Bradley said about his wife but at the same time Ling is most certainly not Bradley so I am not too worried about Ran Fan's future.

[Freya]

Dang!!! 67 pgs! This chapter was crazy! I was wondering how they were going to fight after he became a "god". Should be interesting now. Though i wanna see what Ed and co do. Their power still is nowhere near that of Father.

[wandering-dreamer]

Full scanlation is out! Well, expect for one page towards the end which still has Ed saying something in Japanese but I doubt I'm missing much.

Originally Posted by akire_and_atem

we could call it: King Moment of Badassery

THIS. I was wondering how he caught the sword when I was reading the chapter and then to see it described here, Holy Toledo batman, all future badass villains are going to have a heck of a lot to catch up to!
And I also loved May in this chapter, she held her ground and did some pretty badass alchemy herself. But I really hope Roy manages to get back in on the fight soon too, it'll be pretty sad if we never have our promised five sacrifices all out fight.

[Vicious108]

...Just read the chapter.

Can you say... rushed?

Brotherhood officials must have really pressured Arakawa into wrapping it up quickly so the anime doesn't catch up.

A damn shame really.

[Kirarakim]

Originally Posted by Endless Twilight

Brotherhood officials must have really pressured Arakawa into wrapping it up quickly so the anime doesn't catch up.

How do you know that the Brotherhood team didn't decide how long the anime should be based on the information Arakawa gave them. Things are moving faster but I don't think it was a detriment to any scene. Everything doesn't have to be dragged out either. In fact I feel the faster pace even makes the scenes more epic & exciting.

Not to mention with 60+ pages we are almost getting 2 chapters in one. Even if there are only 3 chapters left that is more like 6 chapters worth of material.

[quigonkenny]

Originally Posted by Endless Twilight

...Just read the chapter.

Can you say... rushed?

Brotherhood officials must have really pressured Arakawa into wrapping it up quickly so the anime doesn't catch up.

A damn shame really.

What do you mean "rushed"?

Spoiler for 105:

More like logical. Someone's read the "Evil Overlord List" and actually taken it to heart. If I just became an all-powerful "god" and the only people on the planet with the slightest chance of hindering me are standing there in front of me, and at least one of those people probably does have the wherewithal to eventually undo what I just did, no way am I wasting any time before wiping them out in the most expedient way possible. I don't play with them, I don't gloat any more than necessary, and I sure as hell don't just sit around expositing any more than necessary while they come up with a counter.

Father obviously felt the same, and Hohenheim was smart enough to plan his counter in such a way where Father couldn't get any real time to do so. Is the "everybody has their souls back" bit a little too neatly wrapped up? Maybe, but it's so well foreshadowed I'm looking for Akamatsu Ken in the writing credits, there's still plenty of time for angsty death scenes and the loss of a major character or two, and I applaud Arakawa for not dragging out the "A God Am I" moment as long as some lesser authors have, because it invariably boils down to a quite boring period of waiting for the good guys to undo/overcome it or for the bad guy to win, since only one of those two choices is ever going to happen.

Originally Posted by Kirarakim

Not to mention with 60+ chapters we are almost getting 2 chapters in one. Even if there are only 3 chapters left that is more like 6 chapters worth of material.

Yeah, this is night one of the multipart series finale, where they bump up the episode length to double the length and spread it out over multiple nights. I can live with that. ^_^

[Bonta Kun]

Originally Posted by Shiroth

It's come to that point now, where the name Bradley must be mentioned whenever talking about something extremely badarse.

yes indeed he has totally raised the bar for extreme badaresy so high now, I doubt I'll see anyone reaching that hieght anytime soon.

Hell even Whitebeard from One Piece doesn't come close and he was badass personified.

pretty much everything was overshadowed by Bradley, even May's awesome moments.

[Jarmel]

So are we sure it ends at 108?

[K_Babyy]

What an exciting, LONG chapter! I hope the rest of them will be that long.

My favorite part had to be where Ed and Al were supporting Hohenheim, steadying him while he was guarding against one of Father's attacks.

And damn, Ed looked sexy on that last page.

[Shiroth]

Originally Posted by Endless Twilight

...Just read the chapter.

Can you say... rushed?

Brotherhood officials must have really pressured Arakawa into wrapping it up quickly so the anime doesn't catch up.

A damn shame really.

I'm glad i didn't find it rushed, because wow what a holy awesome 67 pages of awesome.

Best line of the chapter had to be: "Good lord, luck at me. I may have been a terrible Father, but i can at least show my Son's something cool!".

[Haladflire65]

Originally Posted by Shiroth

I'm glad i didn't find it rushed, because wow what a holy awesome 67 pages of awesome.

Best line of the chapter had to be: "Good lord, luck at me. I may have been a terrible Father, but i can at least show my Son's something cool!".

I agree, Hoho is getting more and more epic as the story progresses. I wonder if he'll survive though

[GrahamAker]

at present fma is one of the best ongoing manga and anime besides kimi ni todoke!

[Poetic Justice]

67 pages of epicness, Hell yeah!!

[-Suigetsu-]

Amazing chapter, still worried about Pride though.

He's been nerfed (not really surprised, he's far to powerful for the main cast to handle) and performing horribly these past couple of chapters, I have a feeling he's going to get a lame death.

[Bombo]

I can't say anything with 67 page
But family part againts the one who called him self god was epic.!!
and btw the father 1 - 0 for the one who called him self the god Hahahaa :d

[germanturkey]

as expected, deus ex machina explanation of how to revive everyone. but still, rather quick and condensed. it did seem rushed, but depending on what happens next chapter, we'll see.

anyways, Bradley. badass. no doubt in my mind. its a whole new level. would have been even better if he used his teeth to grab his arm to slice Scar. but we'll make due with what happened.

[Kanon]

Wow, 67 pages !

Arakawa sure has worked hard on this chatper. Bradley has always been my favourite homunculus, I'm glad he stayed incredible until the very end. Great death.

[Jarmel]

Originally Posted by germanturkey

as expected, deus ex machina explanation of how to revive everyone.

No not really. Considering Hohenheim had been planning this from the beginning, it was a well thought out counter. Not only that, Arakawa showed it to us and gave hints as to what he was actually doing. She even explained the logistics of how and why the souls would go back to the bodies through the example of Barry. While I'm disappointed she didn't go down the uber-dark route, this does make perfect sense and fits into the context of the story.

[Arabesque]

After a really tiring week for me, I was really glad this months chapter ended up matching up to the expectations I have for this manga.

Firstly, the colour page and spread were among the best ones FMA had, unlike some of the earlier ones during the colour spamming it had near the 9X chapter's leading to the manga reaching 100 chapters. You can tell a great deal was put in the details and colouring of this chapter spread.

For me, there were a lot of moments that I could call great. Father sitting there on his throne transmuting things with a finger was pretty cool, Hohenheim was always a pretty cool dad no matter how many times he might try and put himself down (though I got a bit of DBZ flashback with the whole lend me your strength part ), May got some more spot light was good, and mask less Lan Fan was also very good. But there was one thing that really makes this chapter one of the best in FMA.

Now I can't believe I am saying this, but the true skeptical of this chapter was Scar Vs. Wrath. Whether it was the fight itself having been so well drawn (Bradley making that final attack to bring down his opponent with him made me just put him higher among my favourite villains list), the irony of how Wrath lost with him saying there is no God only for what can only be described as a miracle (seriously, best line of this chapter was him saying ''I believe the phrase here is God forsaken me, yes'')?, his word to Lan Fan explaining what was his relationship with his wife, and even if he didn't intended, his final words showing calmness and acceptance (even though his own soul was the very personification of anger) of not only his fate and death, but also of his life and I could even throw in a hint of gratitude towards mankind. For a fight that had barley any proper build up between the two characters, it ended being one of the best fights in the manga.

Now I am especially excited about next chapter. Even with Father not having ~50 million souls in him and Alchemy being back on the board, he stills has the souls of Xerxes (about half a million HP) God is still inside him (Infinite MP) and he still has a trump card up his sleeve (a SUN) and Pride is still there so I’m expecting this to be a really intense battle.

But putting all that aside, I am a bit sad though because with ever new chapter we are approaching the end of the series and it is a shame because part of me doesn’t really want to end .

Oh, and this chapter should finally confirm that the Amestrian alchemists do use the energy from the earth crust and not from Father.

Originally Posted by germanturkey

as expected, deus ex machina explanation of how to revive everyone.

Volume 11, chapter 44

Alchemy states that a human being is composed of the Body, Soul, and Spirit. I think that the Spirit is what connects the Body and Soul.

For it to be DEM the solution has to come from nowhere, which is not the case here. We already had Ed explain about the bond between the soul and mind when he was explaining about Al's situation more than a dozen volumes ago, we saw Hohenheim prepare for this day, and none of the things presented in this chapter contradict anything shown in the past. So it is not a DEM.

Originally Posted by Jarmel

While I'm disappointed she didn't go down the uber-dark route, this does make perfect sense and fits into the context of the story.

No it wouldn't. FMA does have many dark moments, but it has never been uber dark.

Originally Posted by The Small One

I think it was brilliant, that Hohenheim used the moon's shadow as a transmutation circle. Makes me wonder, why father didn't think of it. It could have saved Sloth from a lot of work.

Father probably was being too high and mighty about it.

But yeah, can't believe I'm saying this but poor Sloth