Fullmetal Alchemist: Brotherhood Episode 20 Discussion

robbydesu said:

For once, there was a specific part when the background music annoyed me a lot, I think it was the bedroom scene between Winry and Al. This surprised me, since I'm not too picky about background music.

robbydesu said:
I very much liked this episode :). So far for the past few weeks - I think I like this episode the best in terms of character development. Last week's was epic, this week's is just emotional :P.

For once, there was a specific part when the background music annoyed me a lot, I think it was the bedroom scene between Winry and Al. This surprised me, since I'm not too picky about background music.

I really liked the part when Ed was fervently digging for the human remains of his "mother" - you can literally see him turning mad/crazy.

Various moments when I was just awed by the animation/art. Like the moment when Al "cries" - god I thought that was genius

As always, can't wait until the next episode!

(Shoot I just remembered I have vacation, dammit I have to wait for two weeks!! NOOOOO)

smokes said:
lol they showed Hohenheim only a few seconds and thats all lol.

plus his character is annoying... = doesnt seem like a father lol

NoyaChan said:
Wait, so if they didn't transmutate their mom, what DID they transmutate?
Like, some random body without a soul? :O Hmm.
Also, Ed's dig up scene was done brilliantly ;(

Oosran said:


Yeah it made my day : D Although Ling's face's not so bad either

noteDhero said:
Melodrama.
He was sick with nervousness that he could have not transmuted his mother in the first place, and therefore losing Al's body for nothing. Maybe his joints hurt when it's about to rain like he said, but he was clutching his stomach and chest, and not his arm or leg. Much more emo and over the top than anything I've seen recently. A little hokey.

robbydesu said:
I thought that was pretty nice man, really fits the mood of that scene - you can just see/feel the tension build up and Ed going a lil wacko XD

hakufirefox said:
Wait, I'm confused. What the hell did I just watch?

Let me get this straight: Ed transmuted some random guy from the other side of the gate instead of his mother and didn't know until this ep. And somehow that makes things possible to get Al's body back and Izumi's son back...?

I don't understand how Ed didn't know what he transmuted wasn't his mother. And then why isn't his mother in her own grave? Where is his mother? Am I supposed to know these things by the episode? If not, please don't tell me.

TL;DR: I'm confused about ep 20, someone help without spoiling the series for me.

NoyaChan said:
Wait, so if they didn't transmutate their mom, what DID they transmutate?
Like, some random body without a soul? :O Hmm.
Also, Ed's dig up scene was done brilliantly ;(

lolodalonghorn said:


Basically it was just Ed figuring out that it's impossible to bring back the dead no matter what. What he transmuted was a soulless body which is why Al was looking through it's eyes before Ed attached Al's soul to the armor. Ed and Al gathered the essential ingredients for a human but it was impossible to actually bring back their mother because, well...she's dead.Trisha Elric is in her own grave, dead. No possible way for her to be brought back. Same goes for Izumi's kid because her child is gone, thus when she performed the transmutation, she created a soulless human, not even really human for that matter.

Based on that, it's possible to get Al's body back because technically Al didn't die, his body was just taken away by the Truth. If Ed and Al can re-open the gate they opened when doing the human transmutation, they can get back Al's body because it's not dead, just kind of...I guess "resting".

I hope that helped a bit...

noteDhero said:


Did you? I just thought it was too much. He was at a 10 that whole scene and I just couldn't really tolerate it. I had a problem with most of his actions/reactions at Reseembool. He was better at Central for me.

noteDhero said:
Yeah, too extreme. With the exception of the confrontation with Hohenheim at the grave. That was a fair, if not a little subdued, reaction.

I can't even call it childish or immature. It was just weird digging up his mother's grave. It felt like a totally different show. I really don't know what it was. Ed just wasn't acting at all like himself. I almost felt like I was watching Dr. Jekyll/Mr. Hyde and Ed was about to change.

HawthorneKitty said:


I love Lan Fan's face.

noteDhero said:
I disagree. Generally, Ed is an oversensitive, overcompensating albeit talented kid who likes to cover up for the fact that he (as Hohenheim wonderfully pointed out) ran away from the biggest mistake of his life by forcing everyone else to come to terms with their own realities. All that said his closer relationships prove how much of a child he is (not realizing he's in love with Winry, not opening up more to his family, short jokes, etc.) even though his is more than capable at his job.

This was a very important episode for Ed in that Hohenheim forces him to become more adult and to come to terms with his choices and its consequences, and I guess because it was more forced than natural that it felt awkward to me. This easily could have been separated into two episodes...or extended into a second episode, but even then, I don't think that would have fixed the issue I had with it. I guess that's just the nature of forced character development.

Comparatively though, Al's stuff went over much better...though I am getting tired of Al saying he wants to be more proactive and then pretty much choking/depending on someone else to bail him out.

noteDhero said:
I disagree. Generally, Ed is an oversensitive, overcompensating albeit talented kid who likes to cover up for the fact that

noteDhero said:
LOL! No. The first part was a response to your post, and then the second one started a new (but I guess a bit random) thought.

I don't think Ed was maturing in that scene. His maturing was calling Isumi and dealing with her in the proper way, and then of course, at the end and the talk to Al. Normally he would have just shut him down and taken the burden on his own. I don't think I would have wanted to happen sooner necessarily, but to have so many people compare themselves to him without him take it to heart has been pretty annoying.

It is a little biased, but I think I balanced it with pointing out that he is very talented and beyond capable of his job. Ultimately, Ed is a child who forced himself to grow up too fast but wasn't mentally capable of dealing with what that meant even if he could complete the tasks given to him. I disagree though, 20 episodes into a series, the average viewer should be able to describe the main characters, and maybe even some character development. I don't think you need the whole series to say something definite about a character description. Unless it's a mystery based on not knowing said character.

I think it's incomplete also, and thus do give leeway, but when someone is acting especially strange or contrary, I either re-evaluate my picture of the character (as I have for Al) or see it as out of character. Sometimes characters acting out of character is in direct relation to development, but in this particular scene it was just weird, because this wasn't development as much as it was almost an allergic reaction of coming to terms with his past...very weird.

Yeah...but some of that could be fanboy whining about their favorite parts getting cut.... :D

I'll disagree there, there was a lot of development on the part of Ed in the first series. It was all much more understated, and focused on coming of age, but stuff like Ed killing Sloth, trusting Hohenheim, dealing with Hughes' death, and facing Mustang are all indicative of that. FMA did a better job of being about a handful of characters, while Brotherhood seems to be more about plot development.

noteDhero said:

He was sick with nervousness that he could have not transmuted his mother in the first place, and therefore losing Al's body for nothing.

noteDhero said:
Eh, I disagree that the angst is Shakespearean. It felt much more melodramatic. Especially because I think that by nature of it being shakespearean there has to be more writing that gives insight to the characters' feelings. Shakespearean characters aren't all that terse unless they have something to hide. It's a fine line, but I just didn't respond to it.

noteDhero said:
@fisher_88
What dog scene?

I use Eclipse...but that's because I prefer .avi. I'm not good at knowing the merits of specific sub groups.

suigetsu00 said:


the only dog scene i noticed was when pinako's dog walks into ed's room as hohenheiim asks her about that thing really being their mother

fisher_88 said:
. this, coupled by the fact that he doesn't age and trisha's promise, plus he looks like the father, means...

porkypink said:
Was this secret about houenhiem already mentioned in the 20 episodes?

Well throughout this episode it did give some clues and hints about this when Aru(i think) was talking about how his body was not complete eternal and the scene switched to Houenhiem all of a sudden. but I dont think it was mentioned..

Shancakeschan said:
Im quite confused.. I guess i didnt catch was was going on. haha. They didnt bring back their mother, but some random guy? And now Ed has more confidience in getting Al's body back?

Tsktsk. Im so slow. :(

fisher_88 said:


well, I have no idea about the completely eternal thing, but clearly Pinako aged from the picture and Hohenheim didn't (plus she mentioned it). That, and Trisha's promise = Hohenheim doesn't age, at least not normally.

I'm not gonna speculate on what he is, because that is asking to be spoiled.

fisher_88 said:


At best, alchemy can only transmute a body, not a person, certainly not a soul. That meant Al's soul in the armor was an actual soul Ed pulled out (from the transmuted body), not a copy or some other thing. Maybe some manga readers can clear up what exactly happened that night.

noteDhero said:
That's a bit of a spoiler. How are we supposed to know what is and isn't inside the gate?