(L) Fullmetal Alchemist Manga Discussion

[Arabesque]

saw the raw couldn't wait, and just read through the early translation

Spoiler for ch 106:

-I loved how Greed was so pissed about Bradly gaining the one thing he will never have, satisfaction

-Mustang FINALLY does something cool (though they still treated him as comic relief for a bit )

-Ed vs Pride was really good, especially since Ed reused the same method about turning into a Philosophers Stone. Kimblee coming back was unexpected but welcomed, and he was just pawing Pride with every sentence

-Scars exposition was really good at the start, and really showed that Arakawa was a really capable writer here. It appears that the popular fan theories were correct about that Father controlled the alchemy in Amestris, but now thanks to his brother's research, they now have better alchemy

-Father shows some of his sadistic nature (ofc, one look at Envy and you already know he had it in him) also THAT SMILE (seriously the guy transmutate stuff by just smirking)

Originally Posted by Kanon

Wow, 66 pages again ! This is wonderful.

Spoiler for 106:

I was more or less right. What a bastard he is...

And since you bring up what Pride did to Ed:



That panel reminded me of this pic from the new opening. Coincidence?

Spoiler for :

I sooo knew that was Ed

also, am I the only one who thought it was funny how Arakawa decided to use the logic of one of her omake to justify what Pride wanted to do to Ed?

[aohige]

Originally Posted by Haladflire65

Spoiler for 106:

Yeah, I knew what it said, and well, I thought Roy was telling Riza to fight in his place or something... What does everyone else think?

I'll translate the dialog for you.

Spoiler for for translation:

Mustang: Lieutenant... how is your wounds.
Liza: There you go again! You need to worry about yourself!! Your eyes are...
Mustang: Lieutenant! ..... can you still fight?
Liza: .... Yes sir!

Also, my favorite is Kimblee's line.

Spoiler:

(as Pride attempts to take over Ed's body)
Kimblee: Not good. Defenitly not a good move, Pride the homunculus.
Pride: Kimblee!! How...!? How can you stay self-concious in this storm of souls!?
Kimblee: Storm? Oh, don't make me laugh. Voices of agony... are nothing but lullaby for me!

Pride: Why are you getting in my way, Kimblee?
Kimblee: Well, if you kept on fighting, I wouldn't have interfered.
But you ramble on about the pride of a homunculus, and yet when you find yourself in danger of perishing, you cower into taking over a human body...
who you consider below your kind.
You're.... disgraceful.

Pride: he's... going to kill me!!
Kimblee: Kill you? You do not understand Edward Elric at all, do you?

And the magnificient bastard fares adeu with his hat as his soul disintergrates.

It's funny how Kimblee's mentality is more a monster than any homunculus could ever achieve.
Man, Kimblee and Wrath were the two coolest antagonists of this series, and Arakawa sensei gave them a fitting awesome end!

[Haladflire65]

Originally Posted by aohige

I'll translate the dialog for you.

Spoiler for for translation:

Mustang: Lieutenant... how is your wounds.
Liza: There you go again! You need to worry about yourself!! Your eyes are...
Mustang: Lieutenant! ..... can you still fight?
Liza: .... Yes sir!

Yeah, I said that I know what they said, it's just that it's I feel like it's implying that Roy can't fight so he's asking Riza if she can.

... or I'm just being pissed and paranoid, not a good combo...

[quigonkenny]

Originally Posted by aohige

I'll translate the dialog for you.

Spoiler for for translation:

Mustang: Lieutenant... how is your wounds.
Liza: There you go again! You need to worry about yourself!! Your eyes are...
Mustang: Lieutenant! ..... can you still fight?
Liza: .... Yes sir!

Spoiler for 106:

Awesome. I was pretty close. Only the "Mata anata wa!!" line was off (BTW, does she usually call him "anata"?).

@Haladfire: As written, it could go either way, but taken together with the level of badass contained in his expression while he's saying it...oh yeah, they're getting involved... For those of you intent upon giving Father/Homunculus a new name, I've got one soon to be appropriate: "FOOMP!" ^____^

Originally Posted by aohige

Also, my favorite is Kimblee's line.

Spoiler:

(as Pride attempts to take over Ed's body)
Kimblee: Not good. Defenitly not a good move, Pride the homunculus.
Pride: Kimblee!! How...!? How can you stay self-concious in this storm of souls!?
Kimblee: Storm? Oh, don't make me laugh. Voices of agnoy... are nothing but lullaby for me!

Pride: Why are you getting in my way, Kimblee?
Kimblee: Well, if you kept on fighting, I wouldn't have interfered.
But you ramble on about the pride of a homunculus, and yet when you find yourself in danger of perishing, you cower into taking over a human body...
who you consider below your kind.
You're.... disgraceful.

Pride: he's... going to kill me!!
Kimblee: Kill you? You do not understand Edward Elric at all, do you?

And the magnificient bastard fares adeu with his hat as his soul disintergrates.

It's funny how Kimblee's mentality is more a monster than any homunculus could ever achieve.
Man, Kimblee and Wrath were the two coolest antagonists of this series, and Arakawa sensei gave them a fitting awesome end!

That is going to be such an awesome scene when they animate it. Now we see why the guys running the Brotherhood adaptation seem to have trimmed as little of Kimblee as possible.

Spoiler for Kimblee scene:

Also maybe a dig at the Pride-Ed fanartists? I can sense the butthurt building... Fufufufu...

[orangejuicetang]

Spoiler for Chapter 106:

My god, Kimblee is awesome. That's some serious willpower he has right there.

Also, Father is pretty impressive with the way he responds to Hohenheim's taunt.

'Humans give birth to the philospher's stone, which give birth to the Homonculus. But what can a homonculus give birth to?'

'what if I give birth to humans?'

I just found that exchange amazing.

[Vicious108]

There is a scanlation out already, so really no more need for spoiler tags. Anyways, my impressions on this chapter:

- KIMBURIIIIIIIIIIIII!!! I fucking called it! I knew it! I knew Arakawa-sensei wouldn't disappoint me like that and have Kimblee's closure be that meh-tastic defeat at the hands of Lion King. His appearance in this chapter made me 'mark out' so goddamn hard. His vintage mindscrewing, this time Pride being the victim. This is just my take on it, but I do believe that with these final moments, it's likely that Kimblee chose to side with humans in the end and recognized them as the strongest and most fitting and deserving of survival. Which is an absolutely awesome ending for his amazing character.

- And while Kimblee's return stole the show for me, let's not forget how epic Ed vs Pride was. That was beyond intense. And in the end in spite of his monstrous power and twisted nature, Pride really was a kid that longed for some fatherly love and approval, yet never got it. I can totally see Ed throwing this in the face of Father later on, plus the fact that Envy was envious of humans, to show him not to look down on humans who are so much stronger than the supposedly evolved homunculi. But man, what was up with Pride's "true form"? That was... kinda random and a bit silly. I thought only Envy had one. And I don't think Mrs. Bradley will be very happy to see that her son has become the size of an ant.

- Riza's reaction to Roy's blindness was... underwhelming. I expected it to be a bit more dramatic, at least. Not over/melodramatic of course, but still something more than that. Still, Hallad, I think you're jumping the gun a bit, from his look and words in his last panel, I don't think Roy intends to sit this one out at all.

- Father finally does and says something cool since becoming 'god'. "What if I were to birth humans?" That was pretty neat. And a transmutation caused by an evil grin = win.

- Last but not least, it needs to be said. Arakawa's art in this chapter was unlike anything we've seen from her before. She's really pulling out all the stops for these final chapters, cause this one looked absolutely amazing. Especially the Ed vs Pride panels. Hopefully she'll keep it up for the last remaining chapters.

So yeah, overall very pleased with this chapter and it was quite an improvement over the disappointing 105 IMO.

[orangejuicetang]

Actually, now that I read it a few more times, it seems that it was actually Kimblee that somehow managed to interfere/stop/slow down Pride's takeover of Ed.

[Vicious108]

Originally Posted by orangejuicetang

Actually, now that I read it a few more times, it seems that it was actually Kimblee that somehow managed to interfere/stop/slow down Pride's takeover of Ed.

I've only read it once and it was pretty clear to me that that's how it went.

And Ed probably has no idea too. Lol I'd like to see his reaction if he learned that Kimblee of all people saved his life.

[Jarmel]

Great chapter again. I find it somewhat amusing how Kimbley somewhat saved Ed's life. I'm also glad Arakawa filled in that plot hole about forcing people to open the gate as well as clarifying the counter-transmutation circle(also helps to justify the brothers training in Eastern alchemy) . Ed's charge at Pride was pretty epic and I loved Kimbley's lines in that scene. I was kinda hoping that Ed would take control of Pride ala Ling but that would take too long and be too easy of a way to get his arm back. Hawkeye's reaction to Mustang was a little underwhelming but oh well. You guys are saying poor Izumi but Hohenheim got nailed too with saying the remnants of his dead friends. Now I wonder if that energy blast destroyed Ed's auto mail and whether he's out of the fight.

[quigonkenny]

Originally Posted by Jarmel

Great chapter again. I find it somewhat amusing how Kimbley somewhat saved Ed's life. I'm also glad Arakawa filled in that plot hole about forcing people to open the gate as well as clarifying the counter-transmutation circle(also helps to justify the brothers training in Eastern alchemy) . Ed's charge at Pride was pretty epic and I loved Kimbley's lines in that scene. I was kinda hoping that Ed would take control of Pride ala Ling but that would take too long and be too easy of a way to get his arm back. Hawkeye's reaction to Mustang was a little underwhelming but oh well. You guys are saying poor Izumi but Hohenheim got nailed too with saying the remnants of his dead friends. Now I wonder if that energy blast destroyed Ed's auto mail and whether he's out of the fight.

That last attack implies that not just Ed might be out of action. Hohenheim and Izumi are unprotected, and Al jumped in front of Mei to shield her.

Looks like maybe with the top alchemists out of the picture it's going to be the humans (and maybe a blind guy and an injured little girl) that end up doing the majority of the asskicking in the next chapter. Considering Mustang's and Mei's dispensation so far in this fight, they're about due. Can't help but think that Nameless Briggs Grunt asking Olivier if they should "back them up" is going to come into play...

And as for Amestrian alchemy being run off of Father and not tectonics? Called it. ^_^

I think what Father was doing was acting as a "proxy server" for alchemy. Now that everything's going directly to the source, as opposed to going through Father, it's that much more powerful.

[Vicious108]

Originally Posted by quigonkenny

And as for Amestrian alchemy being run off of Father and not tectonics? Called it. ^_^

Lol you and the vast majority of the fanbase.

And yeah with the attack on the main team in the last pages I believe it might be time for Roy to step into action and make up for his uselessness in the past few chapters. If you ask me, he asked Riza if she could still fight to know whether or not she could 'become his eyes' for the battle.

[Kirarakim]

Originally Posted by Endless Twilight

If you ask me, he asked Riza if she could still fight to know whether or not she could 'become his eyes' for the battle.

Yeah that is how I interpreted the scene as well. Well it makes sense since I can't see how Roy can be of any use without his sight.

[Tsuyoshi]

Originally Posted by quigonkenny

And as for Amestrian alchemy being run off of Father and not tectonics? Called it. ^_^

Nope. It's exactly the other way around. Father was actually interfering with the flow of the Earth's energy, preventing Amestrians from actually using its full potential. That's why Mai and those two ninjas felt "a disturbance in the Force" when they came to Amestris, and that's why Ed was able to access more power than he's ever been able to. He was even surprised at himself for doing so during the fight. It acted as a cushion or perhaps even a filter, not a conductor. If anything, I should be the one saying "called it" for claiming the energy did not come from father I kid you, I admit I was wrong as well because I always believed father wasn't doing anything at all to begin with.

[zebra]

One thing I have to get out first:
YES, Hawkeye!!

God, I've been waiting XD And she's bringing the Colonel's fighting spirit with her, woot! Finally! He's getting back on his feet again.

Reunions was all over the place - "Honey! <3 *tosses Roy away*". Also nice to see the Armstrongs coming to the action. All characters nicely collected in one spot.

Kimblee's appearance really surprised me. His rant to Pride was really the cherry on the top after Ed questioning his pride and loyalty. Only interfering, because he thought Pride was acting pathetic .. wow. Reminded me what a great villian he is.
Pride's real form was a little odd for me, though. Representing the desire for nest warmth - yes, but Pride? Dunno.

Father recreating the people from Xerxes was awful. I really felt bad for Hoho Just when I think this was it on the creepiness scale, Arakawa pulls something like that. Also gave Father quite the boost on the villian-scale.

This chapter was really epic - dialogues, fight scenes and the art was simply stunning. And it's an awesome setup for the next chapters, I really hope they'll be just as good (or dare I say .. even better?).

This was an uber-amazing chapter in all aspects. Quality all over and that in over 60 pages ... dang. This is gonna be soooo badass when animated.

[GDB]

Ed's arm is getting quite damaged there, and it's supposed to be the ultra durable Northern version, right? Doesn't bode well for Al, but at least he didn't do the standard hug/save on Mei, so the blast at least has to go through two layers of armor to destroy his seal.

[quigonkenny]

Originally Posted by GDB

Ed's arm is getting quite damaged there, and it's supposed to be the ultra durable Northern version, right? Doesn't bode well for Al, but at least he didn't do the standard hug/save on Mei, so the blast at least has to go through two layers of armor to destroy his seal.

Actually the Northern version is lighter, so it's not quite as durable, IIRC (at least compared to his original model). It's just made out of components that won't give him frostbite. Either way, it's screwed all to hell.

Not so sure about the second part. I'm thinking Al's seal gets damaged and the remainder of the armor drops, lifeless, but somehow Hoho uses the last of his strength to pull Al's body (because we know that's where his soul would go) out from behind the door, and maybe infuses him with some Stone power (either his own or leeched off of Father) so he doesn't look so much like a clothing model, and the brothers are the ones who get in the last shot (after Roy and the military have their inevitable CMoA) and take out Father.

However it is, next chapter (or the first couple pages of the one after) should see Father's end.

Originally Posted by Endless Twilight

- Riza's reaction to Roy's blindness was... underwhelming. I expected it to be a bit more dramatic, at least. Not over/melodramatic of course, but still something more than that. Still, Hallad, I think you're jumping the gun a bit, from his look and words in his last panel, I don't think Roy intends to sit this one out at all.

Roy's, "Lieutenant! Are you able to fight?" line in that scene is going to be amazing, especially if they can tie a suitably epic BGM to it. Both the Japanese (Miki) and English (Willingham) voices are perfectly suited for it... ^_^

[Slayerx]

Originally Posted by Endless Twilight

- Riza's reaction to Roy's blindness was... underwhelming. I expected it to be a bit more dramatic, at least. Not over/melodramatic of course, but still something more than that. Still, Hallad, I think you're jumping the gun a bit, from his look and words in his last panel, I don't think Roy intends to sit this one out at all.

Well, there is a difference between "they got my eyes" and "i'm forever blind"
Roy made it clear that he was unable to see, but didn't really make it clear that the damage was permanent.

Originally Posted by Kirarakim

Yeah that is how I interpreted the scene as well. Well it makes sense since I can't see how Roy can be of any use without his sight.

Ya, i was expecting something like this ever since the moment Roy went blind

Spoiler:

Originally Posted by 009-12-13, 20:25

One thing i foresee, after Hawkeye reaches mustang and finds out about his condition, and the final battle begins

*Pride gloats or mocks them in some form or way
Hawkeye: "Colonel..."
Mustang: ?
Hawkeye: "2 o'clock, 27 and half feet"
*Mustang grins, claps his hands, snaps and pride burns!

granted, it's not gonna be pride, but it will still be awesome when it happens!

Really with the way those two work together, it seems only natural

[quigonkenny]

Originally Posted by Slayerx

Well, there is a difference between "they got my eyes" and "i'm forever blind"
Roy made it clear that he was unable to see, but didn't really make it clear that the damage was permanent.

I get the feeling that unless something is done, his eyes aren't going to get better on their own. No matter how it came to be, this is a sign of his "sin" in much the way that Izumi's organs, Ed's (arm and) leg, and Al's body were taken. Of course considering the implication from this chapter is that Father had a hand in every use of Amestrian alchemy since the country's formation (either actively or passively) it stands to reason that killing him is on the path to undoing their losses.

Either that or it truly will make their losses permanent... That could get sticky...

[Slayerx]

Originally Posted by quigonkenny

I get the feeling that unless something is done, his eyes aren't going to get better on their own. No matter how it came to be, this is a sign of his "sin" in much the way that Izumi's organs, Ed's (arm and) leg, and Al's body were taken. Of course considering the implication from this chapter is that Father had a hand in every use of Amestrian alchemy since the country's formation (either actively or passively) it stands to reason that killing him is on the path to undoing their losses.

Either that or it truly will make their losses permanent... That could get sticky...

What i meant was that Roy didn't make it clear to Hawkeye that his blindness was permanent

[Haladflire65]

Originally Posted by Slayerx

What i meant was that Roy didn't make it clear to Hawkeye that his blindness was permanent

But even so, I'd be pretty shocked if someone told me that he's suddenly blind.

... does Riza even know that he's blind? He just told her that they got his eyes.