And when you said lulzy cuddly dope, you meant Barry, right? I thought you meant Scar! I knew I was forgetting someone (there are too many serial killers in FMA, lol). But yeah, I had seen your earlier comments about that. In the manga, I was always aware that Barry was a serial killer and I never liked him and I didn’t think he was very funny. I could tell it was supposed to be funny, but I wasn’t getting it. So maybe I agree with you in that way. I will say, though, that in FMA 03, once he is a suit of armor, he is hilarious and I always laugh, especially in the English dubbed version. Perhaps it’s the timing or even the voice. Of course, before that they have that terrifying episode when he is still human, so perhaps that makes up for it. He does die sooner, also. But even so, I think he was much funnier in FMA 03. But it’s true that they don’t end up working with him like they do in FMAB. Really, I never liked his character in the manga or FMAB. But sometimes things that aren’t funny can come across that way in movies, and even in real life depending on what it is. I’ve laughed in serious discussions when someone said something in a certain way that was funny. When Barry says stuff like, “Hold still and let me cut you up!” That’s not funny at all, but it can sound a little funny I guess.
I will say, though, that in FMA 03, once he is a suit of armor, he is hilarious and I always laugh, especially in the English dubbed version. Perhaps it’s the timing or even the voice. Of course, before that they have that terrifying episode when he is still human, so perhaps that makes up for it. He does die sooner, also. But even so, I think he was much funnier in FMA 03.
Yeah I love the 03 incarnation. You're always aware he's an evil douchecanoue but you still appreciate how colourful and vibrant his character is. I think seing him as a human beforehand and then seeing him as armour adds to his pathos as well when he faces Al as you can start to see him as a kinda-normal person who's just really sick in the head. His death in 03 has a weird dicotomy where you're like "oh wow, someone finally did it" but also like "poor guy."
I come with a neutral opinion, although I'm a huge fan of Fullmetal Alchemist. The best anime of all time is no doubt Dragonball series. Dragonball not only set its foot in animes and mangas but in gaming and all sorts of other commercial goods. That's not the same with FMA, and is not really the type of anime that could be commercialised. But if i were to vote an anime with the best plot and story line- it is Fullmetal Alchemist Brotherhood no doubt, and i think, no i know most of u know thats true. We look at the story, the symbolisms and personification of different virtues & sins anre extraordinary, depicting a lot of alchemical history and also gives a good lesson and ideas for the viewers. The naming of the characters and places are very nice. It's really a good anime overall, and i would definitely rank it top 2.
Yeah I believe so . It is true that it varies from person to person . It is the best.
It dosent have boring fillers or irrelevant episodes. They made an awesome anime .
I've seen it thrice and i still feel like watching it. it still gives me goosebumps.
Although i am a diehard fan of bleach . The Best?
I wud answer Fullmetal Alchemist Brotherhood
To me, it encapsulates the feeling of suspense and all around epicness with cool, likable characters in a grand plot better than any anime out there.
The OST is so fitting and bloodpumping, with truly beautiful musical scores.
The animation is damn near flawless, especially for a 64 episode series. Some of Bones' most fluid fight choreography resides in Fullmetal Alchemist: Brotherhood.
The second half of the series never fails to send chills up my spine, and goosebumps all over my body. The directing of the scenes and the hype that each moment builds is something that I have yet to find in any anime other than Brotherhood.
So I would say that the title of 'best' anime, as subjective as it is, would do well in the hands of FMAB.
For me its pretty far from being the best.
Not saying that i hate it but idk, i always end up watch a bunch of episode and stop watching it for months.
I have watched FMA:B and it was great. Though I don't have much of memorable scenes in it. I don't really care much of the characters at all. The plot was well thought out but that's the thing. I find it more of a plot-driven than a character-driven story. I'm not saying it's a bad thing but it is more focused on the plot that somehow it feels like everybody is there as plot device. I like Edward and Mustang but not enough to get to my list of top favorite characters. It has a very conclusive ending. In fact, a satisfying one that you couldn't ask for more. The problem lies with the characters, I think. Since they fail to interest me especially with the antagonists. I like Wrath and Pride but not reaching Hisoka-level.
I could say this anime is good and in fact even better than most animes out there but I don't think it's the best. It has low rewatchable value for me. I dont even intend to watch it again. In my opinion, I like HxH more than this. But that's just me.
DarkAngel035May 24, 2016 3:41 AM
That feeling when you feel you know the feeling of not feeling any feel at all. Get the feeling?
Fma is the reincarnation of the word: overrated.. i had great expectations when i watched it.. But that humor in all the serious situations.. Omg.. I couldn t take it serious so i dropped it
Gintama is the real king and HxH should be second
Definitely the best one out there. The plot is perfectly put together, the animation is great (minus one or two hiccup scenes I can recall), and the characters are all fleshed out really well. People may disagree that it's the best of all time, but anyone who says it's "overrated" or "not that good" is just trying to be edgy.
I just wasn't terribly impressed because the story wasn't that original... Hitsuga no Chaika, by the same studio, has a similar story (that I felt had more feeling, even if the premise is more fantastical) and yet is rated more accurately in my mind (not close to perfection, just fine)...
Seyfert said: I just wasn't terribly impressed because the story wasn't that original... Hitsuga no Chaika, by the same studio, has a similar story (that I felt had more feeling, even if the premise is more fantastical) and yet is rated more accurately in my mind (not close to perfection, just fine)...
The original novel for Hitsuga no Chaika didn't start publishing until after Brotherhood finished airing which is close to 10 years after Fullmetal Alchemist started publishing. The "hero journey" of losing a parent and trying to find them or bring them back is fairly common, but FMA does it well. The magic system is also quite unique and they manage to develop it without any plotholes, which is quite an accomplishment. They never explained why souls are attached to voices, but that isn't too important. Obviously nothing can objectively be the best of any genre or medium, but your reasoning isn't very sound.
I believe it is. There can never a best anything, yet Fullmetal Alchemist Brotherhood most likely has the most people considering it the best, only rivaled by HxH and One Piece. It has almost everything you could want in an anime besides fanservice (which is a plus for me), and the story/plot of the show is amazing.
IMO it's the best anime ever. It has the score it gets though not for being everyone's favorite, but for being universally loved and agreed upon as great. I've never seen anyone who didn't like FMAB, I can't think of any other anime that can say that. If the haters are out there, they're unbelievably few in numbers.
Immahnoob said: They say Jesus walked on water.
People are made out of 79% water.
I can walk on people.
So I am 79% Jesus.
What if i say... Hunter x hunter 11 is better? Even fmab highest recommendation here is hxh.. Well i like intelligent things. As far as i see, hxh is amongst the most intelligent anime there is ever existed (i still didnt watch ghost in the shell and such so i i'm not sure to say hxh no. 1 tho...)
TheArchangels said: IMO it's the best anime ever. It has the score it gets though not for being everyone's favorite, but for being universally loved and agreed upon as great. I've never seen anyone who didn't like FMAB, I can't think of any other anime that can say that. If the haters are out there, they're unbelievably few in numbers.
I hated episode 1-18 does that count?
In the name of Allah, the Gracious, the Merciful. | You know what I hate the most? People who aren't free. They're no more than cattle.
Harukei_bMaster said: What if i say... Hunter x hunter 11 is better? Even fmab highest recommendation here is hxh.. Well i like intelligent things. As far as i see, hxh is amongst the most intelligent anime there is ever existed (i still didnt watch ghost in the shell and such so i i'm not sure to say hxh no. 1 tho...)
Hunter x Hunter 2011 is fabulous, but it's far from being "the most intelligent anime". Hell, I'd argue FMAB is more intelligent even though that's not a defining characteristic of the show. Unless you just haven't put everything in their yet, I see that your list is pretty small. I'm no anime aficionado, but you might want to watch some more anime before you make such a statement. There are tons of classic, "intelligent" anime that still are missing from your list like Death Note and Code Geass just to name some popular ones.
Immahnoob said: They say Jesus walked on water.
People are made out of 79% water.
I can walk on people.
So I am 79% Jesus.
TheArchangels said: IMO it's the best anime ever. It has the score it gets though not for being everyone's favorite, but for being universally loved and agreed upon as great. I've never seen anyone who didn't like FMAB, I can't think of any other anime that can say that. If the haters are out there, they're unbelievably few in numbers.
I hated episode 1-18 does that count?
lol nope, you still have it as an 8/10 and you haven't even gotten to the good parts yet :]
Immahnoob said: They say Jesus walked on water.
People are made out of 79% water.
I can walk on people.
So I am 79% Jesus.
TheArchangels said: IMO it's the best anime ever. It has the score it gets though not for being everyone's favorite, but for being universally loved and agreed upon as great. I've never seen anyone who didn't like FMAB, I can't think of any other anime that can say that. If the haters are out there, they're unbelievably few in numbers.
I hated episode 1-18 does that count?
lol nope, you still have it as an 8/10 and you haven't even gotten to the good parts yet :]
An 8 is the highest this show could get from me.
I won't give it a 9 due the start and I don't like it more than an 8
In the name of Allah, the Gracious, the Merciful. | You know what I hate the most? People who aren't free. They're no more than cattle.
TheArchangels said: IMO it's the best anime ever. It has the score it gets though not for being everyone's favorite, but for being universally loved and agreed upon as great. I've never seen anyone who didn't like FMAB, I can't think of any other anime that can say that. If the haters are out there, they're unbelievably few in numbers.
I hated episode 1-18 does that count?
lol nope, you still have it as an 8/10 and you haven't even gotten to the good parts yet :]
An 8 is the highest this show could get from me.
I won't give it a 9 due the start and I don't like it more than an 8
That logic doesn't make much sense, it's worthy of an 8 already and it gets way better from where you're currently at. I can see you refusing to give it a 10, but maxing it at an 8 seems silly and doesn't make much logical sense.. Oh well, to each his own. The point still stands, even you as someone who hated the beginning is still giving it an 8/10 indicating that it's "very good".
Immahnoob said: They say Jesus walked on water.
People are made out of 79% water.
I can walk on people.
So I am 79% Jesus.
Harukei_bMaster said: What if i say... Hunter x hunter 11 is better? Even fmab highest recommendation here is hxh.. Well i like intelligent things. As far as i see, hxh is amongst the most intelligent anime there is ever existed (i still didnt watch ghost in the shell and such so i i'm not sure to say hxh no. 1 tho...)
Hunter x Hunter 2011 is fabulous, but it's far from being "the most intelligent anime". Hell, I'd argue FMAB is more intelligent even though that's not a defining characteristic of the show. Unless you just haven't put everything in their yet, I see that your list is pretty small. I'm no anime aficionado, but you might want to watch some more anime before you make such a statement. There are tons of classic, "intelligent" anime that still are missing from your list like Death Note and Code Geass just to name some popular ones.
and i dont always update my list. I'm tired doing so. I joined mal feb 2016. There are many other anime that i didnt put here (about 100, not sure, i watch it on tv and animax). I didnt watch death note yet, but i ptw it(because many ppl say its genius). Just i need some other requirement to do so. For now i dont have time to watch anime but DN was sure for me to watch when i have free time. Sorry if i seems not professional here.
HxH is more intelligent because both sides had personalities and had psychological monologues... what, besides religious fervour, did the 'Father' in FMAB display? One thing in common though, both Ed and Gon were annoying...
I used to think it was the best anime of all time but then i had to stop thinking so objectively. No matter what, FMAB will be one of my favorite animes but there are still many anime better than it, and I want to watch them all! In all of the greatest anime, there shall be flaws! The only major flaw in FMAB is the excruciating overly saturated humor. It's hard to take the show seriously with all the humor in some of the most dire scenes. But even then, I still admire FullMetal and it's characters. But it's just an opinion, nothing is truly the best.
Probably not. But unlike other so-called "greatest out of all time" anime like Code Geass, Gurren Lagann, or Gintama; Fullmetal Alchemist Brotherhood being given the title doesn't make me laugh or make me angry.
There will never be a definitive "greatest of all time". That term is completely subjective and this debate will never, ever be answered within a shadow of a doubt.
That being said, my vote would go to Cowboy Bebop. If not that, then Hunter x Hunter (2011), Ping Pong the Animation, The Tatami Galaxy, or Welcome to the NHK.
Full metal alchemist is legit the best anime series i have ever seen. No anime has ever touched me as deeply as this one, and i still haven't finished the anime yet, i'm only halfway... If you are looking for some emotional, amazing and fucking epic anime, you should seriously watch this!
Favourite shounen with HxH close second. Wouldn't say it's the best, but there isn't really any flaws, LOTGH is the best anime imo. Nodame Cantabile is probably my favourite anime though.
"There are no wrong turnings. Only paths we had not known we were meant to walk." - Tigana
"The genius of Guilty Crown is that they made a show so stupid and illogical that it's almost impossible to criticize properly. I don't even know where to start."
- Sleeplesstown
it is the anime with the widest target group where people will love it. People who has seen 200-300 anime will in most circumstances have FMAB in top 50 and higher, while a lot of other anime like Kill la Kill will be best ever for some, but not even top 100 material for others. Clever anime series are usally perceived differently and with smaller target group it wont be possible to claim 1st place. Anime like Kino and Kaiba is best if that is what you are looking for, but if you don't understand that universe, or rank that kind of thing highly it will be low in most circumstances. Therefore anime that is easily understandable with a large target group and easily to be liken will be ranked 1st.
Honestly FMAB is an incredible anime, and if I were to place it out of the 100 anime I've seen it would be ~ 20th place. So it may not be 1st for most people but it is in the top xx for most people and therefore it is the "best ever".
I would also say Kingdom is one of the best shounen anime and may be even better than FMAB, but because the manga is even better people seem to downrate it. Also don't let mal fool you its not seinen, its shounen
Gintama is the best and FMAB is one of the best alongside magi, natsume, hxh and diamond no ace.
There are literally no memorable or big flaws in FMAB and I believe it should be rated 2nd right after gintama.
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There are literally no memorable or big flaws in FMAB
#1) The first time Father reabsorbed Greed, he COMPLETELY reabsorbed him into his body, as in he became like he was before he gave birth to Greed. The second time he reabsorbed Greed, Greed not only retained his consciousness, he somehow was able to nullify Father’s alchemy/regeneration and turn his body into charcoal (or weak carbon), which, for some reason, Father wasn’t able to turn back to flesh, despite the fact that he STILL had THOUSANDS of souls within him. Also, it was stated his body was supposed to be MADE OF Philosopher’s Stones, not contain one like the Homunculi (in other words there’s no part of him, except for his soul, that’s not a Philosopher’s Stone). However, when a hole was punched him him, they are all suddenly seen escaping. When Father punched a hole in Hohenheim (and when he was shot many times in the manga), the souls didn’t escape. Also, how could Father destroy Greed just by biting down on him, especially if he was in such a “weakened” state?
#2) Father’s arm was still inside of Ling AFTER he removed all of his Philosopher’s Stone and Greed. How was Ling able to survive being run through if Father removed his Philospher’s Stone? Seems this was done/stretched just for the sake of convenience to the plot.
#3) Also, did Ling actually figure out how to gain immortality with the Philosopher’s Stone he took back to Xing? If not, why did he become emperor? And if he didn’t learn how to insert it into himself to make himself immortal while in Amestris, who’s to say the emperor simply wouldn’t have taken it from him to use on himself? In the manga, May said that the emperor is the kind of person who might do that, hence why she didn’t want to take back to him the method of creating the Stone, or the fact that it’s composed of human souls—because he just might actually try to make one to prolong his life.
#4) King Bradley constantly keeps his Ultimate Eye covered with an eyepatch. Yet somehow, he is still able to use it to dodge and predict anything and everything. He also removed this patch when fighting Greed/Ling at Central HQ, commenting that, like when he fought Ling before, that it was his “blind spot.” So, he is able to, at least partially, see through what we assume is a completely opaque material (or it could just be inconsistent writing either way—he can use it when covered by his eyepatch, but it’s still somehow his “blind spot?”). However, Buccaneer is able to stab him by thrusting his sword through Fu into Bradley, impaling both of them, commenting that “even with Godlike eyes, there’s no way you can dodge an attack that you can’t see!” A solid, opaque object (Fu) was blocking Buccaneer, just like how Bradley’s eyepatch is a solid, opaque object. Seems like this was done for convenience of the story.
-->#4a) A supplement to that: How would Bradley be able to avoid a _hail_ of bullets? Some of the bullets/artillery shells would block from view some of the other bullets/artillery shells, especially when facing a whole platoon or army. Futhermore, when he was still rising up through the ranks as a young man, wouldn’t it be possible that some of the higher caliber bullets could pass through the men nearby/in front of him who were blocking his view and still be able to hit him without him seeing them? He explained to Greed that his Ultimate Eye is the reason he was able to “dodge flying bullets on the battlefield” and rise to his current rank, but situations like the ones just mentioned must have arisen at some point, right?
-->#4b) Also, the ONLY thing I can think of to explain that is that his eyepatch appears opaque from the outside, but allows him to at least partially see through it from the inside? Even this is somewhat of a stretch, though, in my opinion.
#5) Why do Selim and King Bradley act like father and son even when no one is around or when they think no one is around? They seem to have an inconsistent relationship (sometimes occasionally when no one is around, their roles will switch; Selim is Pride and older than/senior to King Bradley/Wrath). Also, why would Selim drop over and over again to his mother and others around him that he admires/likes/wants to be like the Fullmetal Alchemist all the time? Wouldn’t it be smarter not to do that, as a homunculus? And how come his eyes glaze over and he gets so excited when he meets Alphonse? I don’t think he could be that good of an actor—it’s not all that believable. Neither is his complete personality change from when we think he’s just a normal boy, Selim Bradley, to when we find out he’s actually Pride. It’s just not portrayed/developed well, in my opinion.
#6) Why the HELL would Lust think it’s okay to kill both Alphonse and Roy Mustang? NONE of the other homunculi, including Father, EVER try to kill EITHER of them, EVEN when they discover the nationwide transmutation circle, AND stumble across Father’s lair. Even after Lust is killed, they never take it even close to that level by trying to harm or eliminate any of them. Totally inconsistent and ridiculous. Lust is also aware of Father and the other homunculi’s motives and what they are and are not willing to do, and that totally goes against that. She would’ve majorly screwed things up/made things difficult for Father if she had actually killed them, and I’m sure none of the other homunculi would’ve been happy with her if she had done that OR handled it in the way she did.
#7) Pride doesn’t seem to be injured in the same way as the other homunculi when fighting Heinkel, and isn’t seen regenerating, but still comments his Philosopher’s Stone has been weakened from fighting him. This is odd and inconsistent.
#8) How could Edward know what would happen when he made himself into a Philosopher’s Stone to invade Pride? He could’ve been lost in the torrent of souls or sucked in by Pride; he has no idea what would’ve happened.
#9) Is Pride’s “true form” shadows or the small infant seen after Edward defeats him? They’re completely different substances. Selim says he needs a new “container” when his body is breaking down , but what’s left when he is defeated IS a container. Also, Hohenheim remarks that Father made Pride in his image—as a mass of shadows, implying that the SHADOWS may actually be his real body. Hard to make sense of this.. it seems a little inconsistent.
#10) Father DOES seem to genuinely care for his “children” at first (except for Greed, whom he only melted down and reabsorbed because he openly rebelled against him and was potentially a big liability). He toasts the rest of the homunculi goodwill after reabsorbing Greed, calls Gluttony “my son” and takes care to recreate him with all of his former powers and memory intact after his Stone runs out, AND seems to confirm by his reaction Hohenheim’s accusation that the REAL reason he expelled his sins and created the Homunculi is because he wanted a family. Yet all of a sudden he abandons Pride, and Edward does convince Pride (or at least gets under his skin about it) that Father doesn’t care about him. This COULD be interpreted as Father simply wanted to take care of business and then return to Pride, or thought Pride could handle himself. Things don’t QUITE add up no matter which way you look at it.
***#11) Scar: this is a big one. So, it’s eventually discovered when he’s fighting King Bradley that before the Promised Day, he tattooed his left arm with his brother’s reconstruction array. So, he uses his right arm to destroy surrounding materials and sever Bradley’s arms, and his left arm to CREATE spikes which rise up from the ground. HOWEVER, it has been stated many, many times throughout the series, the three steps of alchemy are: understanding, deconstruction, and reconstruction. In other words, you have to 1) Know what you’re deconstructing, 2) BREAK IT DOWN, and 3) reconstruct it. That arm ONLY has the array for RECONSTRUCTION on it. Therefore, he shouldn’t be able to transmute ANYTHING without using BOTH of his hands (or perhaps even clapping them together first like Kimblee did to perform his alchemy), to deconstruct and THEN reconstruct it. The only thing I could POSSIBLY see his left arm being able to do (and this is a stretch, since it’s been made very clear you HAVE to go in order with those three steps of alchemy and there haven’t been any other cases of an entire step being skipped in the manga or in Brotherhood) without his right arm is bonding things together, like turning hydrogen and oxygen in the air into water, etc.
#12) Mustang—If he couldn’t see, how could he clap his hands and create that barrier from the ground when fighting Father with Hawkeye? He couldn’t see what material, or at least what kind of stone, he was transmuting. It’s possible he just already knew since he’s been in HQ a lot, but not necessarily in that particular area of HQ. Edward couldn’t break Buccaneer’s automail arm when fighting him for the first time near Briggs Fortress because he didn’t know what it was composed of (he thought it was made of iron, but it wasn’t). Also, if I remember correctly there are other times when characters used deconstruction without knowing what they were deconstructing.
#13) Sloth didn’t need to be hurt/killed as many times as the other Homunculi, especially Envy/Lust—look how many times they are “killed” vs. the few times Sloth is killed. Yes he suffered massive damage each of those times, but Lust/Envy often had their WHOLE BODY incinerated; one time Mustang even took Lust’s Philosopher’s stone out and it had to regenerate her body from NOTHING, which is equivalent to destroying her ENTIRE BODY once (Sloth never incurred that much damage), and regenerating it once.
-->#13a) Note: I admit this MAY be because Sloth is bigger and therefore has much more mass than the other homunculi, therefore takes more energy to regenerate his whole body; still though, that might be a stretch.
#14) Why didn’t Edward keep his automail as diamond-hard carbon when fighting Father? It wouldn’ t have been destroyed then, most likely. It seemed to be in this form when fighting Pride in Father’s lair, because he was able to block his attacks. Did he THEN transmute it back afterwards?? Why? Seems like this was done SOLELY so that Alphonse would later transmute his soul to restore his flesh-and-blood arm, when in fact that situation was easily avoidable by Edward.
#15) Greed- I think it’s idiotic that Greed doesn’t fully (or even close to fully, really) harden his body when fighting others, especially homunculi. I know he explained that he doesn’t LIKE to because it covers his handsome face, but if that’s the case, WHY would he break it out almost right away when fighting Edward and Izumi, and then NEVER use it again until the VERY end as Greed/Ling (junk like this has been done in other anime series too—a character will go full-out in his first appearance, but then never do that again for the rest of the series, even when his life is in danger; it’s just done to “punch up” the story or something at the expense of inconsistency)? Had he done this, instead of simply only hardening his arms as he usually does, he wouldn’t have been captured and melted down by father, would basically be nearly invincible when fighting (except against alchemists) and could make short work of his opponents, and most importantly, had NO REASON to run away from or be scared of Bradley when he attacked him in his residence and Bradley tried to decapitate him. This is DEFINITELY done for the convenience of the story, in my opinion. No fun having a character that’s too powerful or invincible, so we’ll just make it that he’s too dense to figure out he could win ALL his fights and not get himself into NEARLY as much trouble if he just completely used his powers rather than half-assing it. Total crap. Bradley could never beat him if he fully used his Ultimate Shield, and neither could Pride. Making it so he doesn't utilize it fully most of the time when he easily could only creates forced and artificial tension/drama.
#16) The thing with Greed being able to regenerate but Bradley not being able to just isn’t explained well, or at least fully (yeah, you could argue his thing about explaining that after fighting the Philosopher’s Stone when first becoming Wrath he was left with one soul and therefore couldn’t regenerate.. but I don’t buy it. How could he have any powers as a homunculus anyway with just ONE soul, like any ordinary humans? Their super speed/strength/etc. assumedly comes from the stone, which contains a multitude of souls). Although Bradley’s missing ability to regenerate might explain his aging (all the other homunculi who can regenerate don’t age, although not enough time passed to see if Greed/Ling would age), it still seems like this was done for convenience—he’s already hard to kill with his Ultimate Eye, so he would’ve been impossible for the characters to kill if he could regenerate as well.
#17) The thing about Hohenheim dying at the end because he ran out of Stone.. I don’t buy it. He should’ve become a normal human if he had only his soul left. Furthermore, Bradley said he was left with only one soul after becoming Wrath, and Hohenheim is very similar to a Homunculus anyway (the structure of his body is identical to Father’s). Bradley didn’t deteriorate into nothing and/or die after this, and neither should Hohenheim have. Maybe my argument is a stretch here, but I still think it’s dumb that he died at the end just because he only had one soul left.
#18) Eclipses don’t usually last as long as was depicted; Father should’ve started his transmutation RIGHT before the moon completely covered the sun, not right when it did. By doing that he risked the eclipse ending and the circle surrounding the eclipse dissipating before opening the Sun’s door/gate.
#19) Although Alphonse was very upset when he met his body in front of the doors when his soul left his armor body after it was transported to Father’s lair along with Edward, Izumi, and Mustang, because he knew that it was so atrophied and weak that he wouldn’t be able to use it to fight… WHAT could he have traded to get it back??? The body was calling his soul to it, as in the body probably wanted his soul to return to it in the gate/doors. Did Alphonse really think he could just take his body back to Father’s lair without paying a price? This part definitely doesn’t add up. AND Alphonse is an accomplished alchemist who’s even seen the Truth; there’s no way he could be so dumb or ignorant as to not know that he’d have to pay something to get his body back and couldn’t just “take it with him” just because. Makes no sense at all. If anything, trying to unite his body and soul would end with BOTH being trapped in the gate/doors. Although, really, Alphonse probably should have just stayed there, at least for a period of time (if that was an option), without uniting with his body, so that Father wouldn’t have a fifth sacrifice to use.
#20) Aren’t Ed, Al, Izumi, Mustang, and Hohenheim supposed to be human _sacrifices_?? They weren’t sacrificed at all; they were fine at the end, and Father even had to try to kill them AFTER the eclipse transmutation was over because they were clearly not dead. What was their role in the transmutation, why were they even required? I think if these were five random Alchemists that the reader was not familiar with OR were just people that the homunculi forced to perform human transmutation who weren’t major characters or important to the plot, Arakawa would’ve written it so that they would’ve died. But obviously no one would want to see five major characters die, so it was, in my opinion, done for convenience of the plot.
#21) Mustang should’ve lost his eyes, not just his eyesight, in the human transmutation, just like Judau did in the “Blind Alchemist” side story. This is just straight inconsistency, which in my opinion arose most likely because 1) readers didn’t want to see him without his handsome face, i.e. missing eyeballs & scars around his eyes, 2) the author intended his sight to be restored later (psh, like I never saw that one coming.. he kept his eyeballs to make that easier to happen for God’s sake). You could argue the punishment might’ve been lesser because it was a FORCED human transmutation that was performed against his will, but still—that might be a stretch. I mean he even gained knowledge from the doors/gate in exchange—he could use the clapping transmutation after that, so it was a legit human transmutation.
#22) Why would Father and the other homunculi have waited till the last minute to finish up SO much of this stuff? They had over 400 years. If Sloth was even slightly slower in carving the tunnel, it never would’ve worked out. They should’ve gotten on the thing with Ishval and Briggs WAY earlier. Also, letting Mustang roam (relatively) free instead of holding him like they did Marcoh allowed him to rebel and could have cost them dearly.
#23) Forcing someone to perform a human transmutation is ridiculous anyway, in my opinion. I think Arakawa might’ve painted herself into a corner with that one (just couldn’t figure out how to make it so Marcoh or Mustang would willingly perform human transmutation, or accidentally developed them so much that it would’ve then been very out-of-character to do that), and used that as an “out.” By the way, one of the sacrifices is going to be a Philosopher’s Stone in human form (Hohenheim)? How do you know that’s even gonna work?? He’s not actually a human anymore. Wouldn’t that screw things up? How do you know if that would even work out? Plus, you think it’s gonna be easy to subdue a human Philosopher’s Stone? Finally, Hohenheim has powers equivalent or near-equivalent to Father; if he HADN’T reached Father’s lair first, or hadn’t come in time, would father actually have been able to use alchemy to transport him there like he did with Ed, Al, Izumi and Mustang? Who’s to say he wouldn’t be able to resist something like that, considering he and Father are identical?
AND Father tried to steal his Philosopher’s Stone before the eclipse transmutation? Wouldn’t that kill him and therefore eliminate him for use as a sacrifice?
-->#23a) Come to think of it, much of the way Father planned his grand scheme seems rather poorly thought out and could have easily failed.
#24) Why did Father return to his original ball-of-shadows form when he was brought before the doors/gate at the end? Hadn’t he said before, when Hohenheim destroyed his body and it was revealed that his shadow form had grown to adult size, that he had evolved beyond that form in the 400 years since he was a ball of shadows in Xerxes? To me this is equivalent to a human infant growing up into an adult in the country of Amestris, then being reduced back to an infant when brought before the doors.
#25) I almost decided to let this one go, but alas, here we go: we’ve discovered that Father used the machine in his lair to spread the Philosopher’s Stone in his body throughout Amestris to dampen the effects of alchemy in that country, and to “turn off” alchemy there when needed. However, we’ve also discovered that Philosopher’s Stones usually have a size proportional to how many souls they contain. The number of people in Xerxes when the populace there was transmuted into a Stone was at least one million (AFTER using the stones in his body to perform some alchemy, and setting up his own nationwide transmutation circle, Hohenheim stated that he had a little over 500,000 souls in his body). With all of the people there, Xerxes is much smaller in physical size than Amestris. So, would half of the souls in Xerxes really be enough to completely cover the ground in Amestris (or really under the ground, but you know what I mean)?
***#26) Long-distance transmutation- ah, this is a big one, and one of my favorite (or least favorite) plot holes in the manga and Brotherhood. It’s said that alchemy is incapable of long-distance transmutation, while alkahestry (also known as "rentanjutsu") is. The long-distance transmutation is done by drawing a transmutation array on the ground, putting knives in each of the points of the array, reading the “dragon’s pulse” to understand where the flow of chi in the Earth lies and in what direction(s) it’s flowing, throwing ANOTHER set of knives at a distant object in the same formation as the original set of knives, and then transmuting. HOWEVER, there have also been instances of somewhat long-distance alchemy transmutation in the manga. Kimblee is seen doing it when he kills Scar’s family. Edward is seen doing it when chasing after Paninya in the mountainous area of Rush Valley (this is the most obvious example, ESPECIALLY in Brotherhood). And there are many other instances of that happening throughout the series; an alchemist is able to transmute a distant object or set of objects, often by letting the alchemic energy they’re using flow through the ground, or a nearby wall or path. Yet the Elrics are very surprised when they see May do her long distance transmutation, when they themselves are capable of similar or near-similar feats. I just don’t think this was thought out very well by Arakawa beforehand, or she slipped up and wrote some inconsistencies without thinking about it, because I’m still not entirely sure of the difference between long-distance alkahestry transmutation and just transmuting a not-so-nearby object using alchemy.
*A lot of plot points, including the ones above, seem to arise from dumb luck, and involve poor planning/leaving things to chance on the part of several characters, and it often seems like the author didn’t think it all the way through. AND it seems like a lot of the inconsistencies also arise from, as mentioned before in some places, for the sake of CONVENIENCE to the story. Things like that really cheapen it, in my opinion.
There are literally no memorable or big flaws in FMAB
#1) The first time Father reabsorbed Greed, he COMPLETELY reabsorbed him into his body, as in he became like he was before he gave birth to Greed. The second time he reabsorbed Greed, Greed not only retained his consciousness, he somehow was able to nullify Father’s alchemy/regeneration and turn his body into charcoal (or weak carbon), which, for some reason, Father wasn’t able to turn back to flesh, despite the fact that he STILL had THOUSANDS of souls within him. Also, it was stated his body was supposed to be MADE OF Philosopher’s Stones, not contain one like the Homunculi (in other words there’s no part of him, except for his soul, that’s not a Philosopher’s Stone). However, when a hole was punched him him, they are all suddenly seen escaping. When Father punched a hole in Hohenheim (and when he was shot many times in the manga), the souls didn’t escape. Also, how could Father destroy Greed just by biting down on him, especially if he was in such a “weakened” state?
#2) Father’s arm was still inside of Ling AFTER he removed all of his Philosopher’s Stone and Greed. How was Ling able to survive being run through if Father removed his Philospher’s Stone? Seems this was done/stretched just for the sake of convenience to the plot.
#3) Also, did Ling actually figure out how to gain immortality with the Philosopher’s Stone he took back to Xing? If not, why did he become emperor? And if he didn’t learn how to insert it into himself to make himself immortal while in Amestris, who’s to say the emperor simply wouldn’t have taken it from him to use on himself? In the manga, May said that the emperor is the kind of person who might do that, hence why she didn’t want to take back to him the method of creating the Stone, or the fact that it’s composed of human souls—because he just might actually try to make one to prolong his life.
#4) King Bradley constantly keeps his Ultimate Eye covered with an eyepatch. Yet somehow, he is still able to use it to dodge and predict anything and everything. He also removed this patch when fighting Greed/Ling at Central HQ, commenting that, like when he fought Ling before, that it was his “blind spot.” So, he is able to, at least partially, see through what we assume is a completely opaque material (or it could just be inconsistent writing either way—he can use it when covered by his eyepatch, but it’s still somehow his “blind spot?”). However, Buccaneer is able to stab him by thrusting his sword through Fu into Bradley, impaling both of them, commenting that “even with Godlike eyes, there’s no way you can dodge an attack that you can’t see!” A solid, opaque object (Fu) was blocking Buccaneer, just like how Bradley’s eyepatch is a solid, opaque object. Seems like this was done for convenience of the story.
-->#4a) A supplement to that: How would Bradley be able to avoid a _hail_ of bullets? Some of the bullets/artillery shells would block from view some of the other bullets/artillery shells, especially when facing a whole platoon or army. Futhermore, when he was still rising up through the ranks as a young man, wouldn’t it be possible that some of the higher caliber bullets could pass through the men nearby/in front of him who were blocking his view and still be able to hit him without him seeing them? He explained to Greed that his Ultimate Eye is the reason he was able to “dodge flying bullets on the battlefield” and rise to his current rank, but situations like the ones just mentioned must have arisen at some point, right?
-->#4b) Also, the ONLY thing I can think of to explain that is that his eyepatch appears opaque from the outside, but allows him to at least partially see through it from the inside? Even this is somewhat of a stretch, though, in my opinion.
#5) Why do Selim and King Bradley act like father and son even when no one is around or when they think no one is around? They seem to have an inconsistent relationship (sometimes occasionally when no one is around, their roles will switch; Selim is Pride and older than/senior to King Bradley/Wrath). Also, why would Selim drop over and over again to his mother and others around him that he admires/likes/wants to be like the Fullmetal Alchemist all the time? Wouldn’t it be smarter not to do that, as a homunculus? And how come his eyes glaze over and he gets so excited when he meets Alphonse? I don’t think he could be that good of an actor—it’s not all that believable. Neither is his complete personality change from when we think he’s just a normal boy, Selim Bradley, to when we find out he’s actually Pride. It’s just not portrayed/developed well, in my opinion.
#6) Why the HELL would Lust think it’s okay to kill both Alphonse and Roy Mustang? NONE of the other homunculi, including Father, EVER try to kill EITHER of them, EVEN when they discover the nationwide transmutation circle, AND stumble across Father’s lair. Even after Lust is killed, they never take it even close to that level by trying to harm or eliminate any of them. Totally inconsistent and ridiculous. Lust is also aware of Father and the other homunculi’s motives and what they are and are not willing to do, and that totally goes against that. She would’ve majorly screwed things up/made things difficult for Father if she had actually killed them, and I’m sure none of the other homunculi would’ve been happy with her if she had done that OR handled it in the way she did.
#7) Pride doesn’t seem to be injured in the same way as the other homunculi when fighting Heinkel, and isn’t seen regenerating, but still comments his Philosopher’s Stone has been weakened from fighting him. This is odd and inconsistent.
#8) How could Edward know what would happen when he made himself into a Philosopher’s Stone to invade Pride? He could’ve been lost in the torrent of souls or sucked in by Pride; he has no idea what would’ve happened.
#9) Is Pride’s “true form” shadows or the small infant seen after Edward defeats him? They’re completely different substances. Selim says he needs a new “container” when his body is breaking down , but what’s left when he is defeated IS a container. Also, Hohenheim remarks that Father made Pride in his image—as a mass of shadows, implying that the SHADOWS may actually be his real body. Hard to make sense of this.. it seems a little inconsistent.
#10) Father DOES seem to genuinely care for his “children” at first (except for Greed, whom he only melted down and reabsorbed because he openly rebelled against him and was potentially a big liability). He toasts the rest of the homunculi goodwill after reabsorbing Greed, calls Gluttony “my son” and takes care to recreate him with all of his former powers and memory intact after his Stone runs out, AND seems to confirm by his reaction Hohenheim’s accusation that the REAL reason he expelled his sins and created the Homunculi is because he wanted a family. Yet all of a sudden he abandons Pride, and Edward does convince Pride (or at least gets under his skin about it) that Father doesn’t care about him. This COULD be interpreted as Father simply wanted to take care of business and then return to Pride, or thought Pride could handle himself. Things don’t QUITE add up no matter which way you look at it.
***#11) Scar: this is a big one. So, it’s eventually discovered when he’s fighting King Bradley that before the Promised Day, he tattooed his left arm with his brother’s reconstruction array. So, he uses his right arm to destroy surrounding materials and sever Bradley’s arms, and his left arm to CREATE spikes which rise up from the ground. HOWEVER, it has been stated many, many times throughout the series, the three steps of alchemy are: understanding, deconstruction, and reconstruction. In other words, you have to 1) Know what you’re deconstructing, 2) BREAK IT DOWN, and 3) reconstruct it. That arm ONLY has the array for RECONSTRUCTION on it. Therefore, he shouldn’t be able to transmute ANYTHING without using BOTH of his hands (or perhaps even clapping them together first like Kimblee did to perform his alchemy), to deconstruct and THEN reconstruct it. The only thing I could POSSIBLY see his left arm being able to do (and this is a stretch, since it’s been made very clear you HAVE to go in order with those three steps of alchemy and there haven’t been any other cases of an entire step being skipped in the manga or in Brotherhood) without his right arm is bonding things together, like turning hydrogen and oxygen in the air into water, etc.
#12) Mustang—If he couldn’t see, how could he clap his hands and create that barrier from the ground when fighting Father with Hawkeye? He couldn’t see what material, or at least what kind of stone, he was transmuting. It’s possible he just already knew since he’s been in HQ a lot, but not necessarily in that particular area of HQ. Edward couldn’t break Buccaneer’s automail arm when fighting him for the first time near Briggs Fortress because he didn’t know what it was composed of (he thought it was made of iron, but it wasn’t). Also, if I remember correctly there are other times when characters used deconstruction without knowing what they were deconstructing.
#13) Sloth didn’t need to be hurt/killed as many times as the other Homunculi, especially Envy/Lust—look how many times they are “killed” vs. the few times Sloth is killed. Yes he suffered massive damage each of those times, but Lust/Envy often had their WHOLE BODY incinerated; one time Mustang even took Lust’s Philosopher’s stone out and it had to regenerate her body from NOTHING, which is equivalent to destroying her ENTIRE BODY once (Sloth never incurred that much damage), and regenerating it once.
-->#13a) Note: I admit this MAY be because Sloth is bigger and therefore has much more mass than the other homunculi, therefore takes more energy to regenerate his whole body; still though, that might be a stretch.
#14) Why didn’t Edward keep his automail as diamond-hard carbon when fighting Father? It wouldn’ t have been destroyed then, most likely. It seemed to be in this form when fighting Pride in Father’s lair, because he was able to block his attacks. Did he THEN transmute it back afterwards?? Why? Seems like this was done SOLELY so that Alphonse would later transmute his soul to restore his flesh-and-blood arm, when in fact that situation was easily avoidable by Edward.
#15) Greed- I think it’s idiotic that Greed doesn’t fully (or even close to fully, really) harden his body when fighting others, especially homunculi. I know he explained that he doesn’t LIKE to because it covers his handsome face, but if that’s the case, WHY would he break it out almost right away when fighting Edward and Izumi, and then NEVER use it again until the VERY end as Greed/Ling (junk like this has been done in other anime series too—a character will go full-out in his first appearance, but then never do that again for the rest of the series, even when his life is in danger; it’s just done to “punch up” the story or something at the expense of inconsistency)? Had he done this, instead of simply only hardening his arms as he usually does, he wouldn’t have been captured and melted down by father, would basically be nearly invincible when fighting (except against alchemists) and could make short work of his opponents, and most importantly, had NO REASON to run away from or be scared of Bradley when he attacked him in his residence and Bradley tried to decapitate him. This is DEFINITELY done for the convenience of the story, in my opinion. No fun having a character that’s too powerful or invincible, so we’ll just make it that he’s too dense to figure out he could win ALL his fights and not get himself into NEARLY as much trouble if he just completely used his powers rather than half-assing it. Total crap. Bradley could never beat him if he fully used his Ultimate Shield, and neither could Pride. Making it so he doesn't utilize it fully most of the time when he easily could only creates forced and artificial tension/drama.
#16) The thing with Greed being able to regenerate but Bradley not being able to just isn’t explained well, or at least fully (yeah, you could argue his thing about explaining that after fighting the Philosopher’s Stone when first becoming Wrath he was left with one soul and therefore couldn’t regenerate.. but I don’t buy it. How could he have any powers as a homunculus anyway with just ONE soul, like any ordinary humans? Their super speed/strength/etc. assumedly comes from the stone, which contains a multitude of souls). Although Bradley’s missing ability to regenerate might explain his aging (all the other homunculi who can regenerate don’t age, although not enough time passed to see if Greed/Ling would age), it still seems like this was done for convenience—he’s already hard to kill with his Ultimate Eye, so he would’ve been impossible for the characters to kill if he could regenerate as well.
#17) The thing about Hohenheim dying at the end because he ran out of Stone.. I don’t buy it. He should’ve become a normal human if he had only his soul left. Furthermore, Bradley said he was left with only one soul after becoming Wrath, and Hohenheim is very similar to a Homunculus anyway (the structure of his body is identical to Father’s). Bradley didn’t deteriorate into nothing and/or die after this, and neither should Hohenheim have. Maybe my argument is a stretch here, but I still think it’s dumb that he died at the end just because he only had one soul left.
#18) Eclipses don’t usually last as long as was depicted; Father should’ve started his transmutation RIGHT before the moon completely covered the sun, not right when it did. By doing that he risked the eclipse ending and the circle surrounding the eclipse dissipating before opening the Sun’s door/gate.
#19) Although Alphonse was very upset when he met his body in front of the doors when his soul left his armor body after it was transported to Father’s lair along with Edward, Izumi, and Mustang, because he knew that it was so atrophied and weak that he wouldn’t be able to use it to fight… WHAT could he have traded to get it back??? The body was calling his soul to it, as in the body probably wanted his soul to return to it in the gate/doors. Did Alphonse really think he could just take his body back to Father’s lair without paying a price? This part definitely doesn’t add up. AND Alphonse is an accomplished alchemist who’s even seen the Truth; there’s no way he could be so dumb or ignorant as to not know that he’d have to pay something to get his body back and couldn’t just “take it with him” just because. Makes no sense at all. If anything, trying to unite his body and soul would end with BOTH being trapped in the gate/doors. Although, really, Alphonse probably should have just stayed there, at least for a period of time (if that was an option), without uniting with his body, so that Father wouldn’t have a fifth sacrifice to use.
#20) Aren’t Ed, Al, Izumi, Mustang, and Hohenheim supposed to be human _sacrifices_?? They weren’t sacrificed at all; they were fine at the end, and Father even had to try to kill them AFTER the eclipse transmutation was over because they were clearly not dead. What was their role in the transmutation, why were they even required? I think if these were five random Alchemists that the reader was not familiar with OR were just people that the homunculi forced to perform human transmutation who weren’t major characters or important to the plot, Arakawa would’ve written it so that they would’ve died. But obviously no one would want to see five major characters die, so it was, in my opinion, done for convenience of the plot.
#21) Mustang should’ve lost his eyes, not just his eyesight, in the human transmutation, just like Judau did in the “Blind Alchemist” side story. This is just straight inconsistency, which in my opinion arose most likely because 1) readers didn’t want to see him without his handsome face, i.e. missing eyeballs & scars around his eyes, 2) the author intended his sight to be restored later (psh, like I never saw that one coming.. he kept his eyeballs to make that easier to happen for God’s sake). You could argue the punishment might’ve been lesser because it was a FORCED human transmutation that was performed against his will, but still—that might be a stretch. I mean he even gained knowledge from the doors/gate in exchange—he could use the clapping transmutation after that, so it was a legit human transmutation.
#22) Why would Father and the other homunculi have waited till the last minute to finish up SO much of this stuff? They had over 400 years. If Sloth was even slightly slower in carving the tunnel, it never would’ve worked out. They should’ve gotten on the thing with Ishval and Briggs WAY earlier. Also, letting Mustang roam (relatively) free instead of holding him like they did Marcoh allowed him to rebel and could have cost them dearly.
#23) Forcing someone to perform a human transmutation is ridiculous anyway, in my opinion. I think Arakawa might’ve painted herself into a corner with that one (just couldn’t figure out how to make it so Marcoh or Mustang would willingly perform human transmutation, or accidentally developed them so much that it would’ve then been very out-of-character to do that), and used that as an “out.” By the way, one of the sacrifices is going to be a Philosopher’s Stone in human form (Hohenheim)? How do you know that’s even gonna work?? He’s not actually a human anymore. Wouldn’t that screw things up? How do you know if that would even work out? Plus, you think it’s gonna be easy to subdue a human Philosopher’s Stone? Finally, Hohenheim has powers equivalent or near-equivalent to Father; if he HADN’T reached Father’s lair first, or hadn’t come in time, would father actually have been able to use alchemy to transport him there like he did with Ed, Al, Izumi and Mustang? Who’s to say he wouldn’t be able to resist something like that, considering he and Father are identical?
AND Father tried to steal his Philosopher’s Stone before the eclipse transmutation? Wouldn’t that kill him and therefore eliminate him for use as a sacrifice?
-->#23a) Come to think of it, much of the way Father planned his grand scheme seems rather poorly thought out and could have easily failed.
#24) Why did Father return to his original ball-of-shadows form when he was brought before the doors/gate at the end? Hadn’t he said before, when Hohenheim destroyed his body and it was revealed that his shadow form had grown to adult size, that he had evolved beyond that form in the 400 years since he was a ball of shadows in Xerxes? To me this is equivalent to a human infant growing up into an adult in the country of Amestris, then being reduced back to an infant when brought before the doors.
#25) I almost decided to let this one go, but alas, here we go: we’ve discovered that Father used the machine in his lair to spread the Philosopher’s Stone in his body throughout Amestris to dampen the effects of alchemy in that country, and to “turn off” alchemy there when needed. However, we’ve also discovered that Philosopher’s Stones usually have a size proportional to how many souls they contain. The number of people in Xerxes when the populace there was transmuted into a Stone was at least one million (AFTER using the stones in his body to perform some alchemy, and setting up his own nationwide transmutation circle, Hohenheim stated that he had a little over 500,000 souls in his body). With all of the people there, Xerxes is much smaller in physical size than Amestris. So, would half of the souls in Xerxes really be enough to completely cover the ground in Amestris (or really under the ground, but you know what I mean)?
***#26) Long-distance transmutation- ah, this is a big one, and one of my favorite (or least favorite) plot holes in the manga and Brotherhood. It’s said that alchemy is incapable of long-distance transmutation, while alkahestry (also known as "rentanjutsu") is. The long-distance transmutation is done by drawing a transmutation array on the ground, putting knives in each of the points of the array, reading the “dragon’s pulse” to understand where the flow of chi in the Earth lies and in what direction(s) it’s flowing, throwing ANOTHER set of knives at a distant object in the same formation as the original set of knives, and then transmuting. HOWEVER, there have also been instances of somewhat long-distance alchemy transmutation in the manga. Kimblee is seen doing it when he kills Scar’s family. Edward is seen doing it when chasing after Paninya in the mountainous area of Rush Valley (this is the most obvious example, ESPECIALLY in Brotherhood). And there are many other instances of that happening throughout the series; an alchemist is able to transmute a distant object or set of objects, often by letting the alchemic energy they’re using flow through the ground, or a nearby wall or path. Yet the Elrics are very surprised when they see May do her long distance transmutation, when they themselves are capable of similar or near-similar feats. I just don’t think this was thought out very well by Arakawa beforehand, or she slipped up and wrote some inconsistencies without thinking about it, because I’m still not entirely sure of the difference between long-distance alkahestry transmutation and just transmuting a not-so-nearby object using alchemy.
*A lot of plot points, including the ones above, seem to arise from dumb luck, and involve poor planning/leaving things to chance on the part of several characters, and it often seems like the author didn’t think it all the way through. AND it seems like a lot of the inconsistencies also arise from, as mentioned before in some places, for the sake of CONVENIENCE to the story. Things like that really cheapen it, in my opinion.
There are literally no memorable or big flaws in FMAB
#1) The first time Father reabsorbed Greed, he COMPLETELY reabsorbed him into his body, as in he became like he was before he gave birth to Greed. The second time he reabsorbed Greed, Greed not only retained his consciousness, he somehow was able to nullify Father’s alchemy/regeneration and turn his body into charcoal (or weak carbon), which, for some reason, Father wasn’t able to turn back to flesh, despite the fact that he STILL had THOUSANDS of souls within him. Also, it was stated his body was supposed to be MADE OF Philosopher’s Stones, not contain one like the Homunculi (in other words there’s no part of him, except for his soul, that’s not a Philosopher’s Stone). However, when a hole was punched him him, they are all suddenly seen escaping. When Father punched a hole in Hohenheim (and when he was shot many times in the manga), the souls didn’t escape. Also, how could Father destroy Greed just by biting down on him, especially if he was in such a “weakened” state?
#2) Father’s arm was still inside of Ling AFTER he removed all of his Philosopher’s Stone and Greed. How was Ling able to survive being run through if Father removed his Philospher’s Stone? Seems this was done/stretched just for the sake of convenience to the plot.
#3) Also, did Ling actually figure out how to gain immortality with the Philosopher’s Stone he took back to Xing? If not, why did he become emperor? And if he didn’t learn how to insert it into himself to make himself immortal while in Amestris, who’s to say the emperor simply wouldn’t have taken it from him to use on himself? In the manga, May said that the emperor is the kind of person who might do that, hence why she didn’t want to take back to him the method of creating the Stone, or the fact that it’s composed of human souls—because he just might actually try to make one to prolong his life.
#4) King Bradley constantly keeps his Ultimate Eye covered with an eyepatch. Yet somehow, he is still able to use it to dodge and predict anything and everything. He also removed this patch when fighting Greed/Ling at Central HQ, commenting that, like when he fought Ling before, that it was his “blind spot.” So, he is able to, at least partially, see through what we assume is a completely opaque material (or it could just be inconsistent writing either way—he can use it when covered by his eyepatch, but it’s still somehow his “blind spot?”). However, Buccaneer is able to stab him by thrusting his sword through Fu into Bradley, impaling both of them, commenting that “even with Godlike eyes, there’s no way you can dodge an attack that you can’t see!” A solid, opaque object (Fu) was blocking Buccaneer, just like how Bradley’s eyepatch is a solid, opaque object. Seems like this was done for convenience of the story.
-->#4a) A supplement to that: How would Bradley be able to avoid a _hail_ of bullets? Some of the bullets/artillery shells would block from view some of the other bullets/artillery shells, especially when facing a whole platoon or army. Futhermore, when he was still rising up through the ranks as a young man, wouldn’t it be possible that some of the higher caliber bullets could pass through the men nearby/in front of him who were blocking his view and still be able to hit him without him seeing them? He explained to Greed that his Ultimate Eye is the reason he was able to “dodge flying bullets on the battlefield” and rise to his current rank, but situations like the ones just mentioned must have arisen at some point, right?
-->#4b) Also, the ONLY thing I can think of to explain that is that his eyepatch appears opaque from the outside, but allows him to at least partially see through it from the inside? Even this is somewhat of a stretch, though, in my opinion.
#5) Why do Selim and King Bradley act like father and son even when no one is around or when they think no one is around? They seem to have an inconsistent relationship (sometimes occasionally when no one is around, their roles will switch; Selim is Pride and older than/senior to King Bradley/Wrath). Also, why would Selim drop over and over again to his mother and others around him that he admires/likes/wants to be like the Fullmetal Alchemist all the time? Wouldn’t it be smarter not to do that, as a homunculus? And how come his eyes glaze over and he gets so excited when he meets Alphonse? I don’t think he could be that good of an actor—it’s not all that believable. Neither is his complete personality change from when we think he’s just a normal boy, Selim Bradley, to when we find out he’s actually Pride. It’s just not portrayed/developed well, in my opinion.
#6) Why the HELL would Lust think it’s okay to kill both Alphonse and Roy Mustang? NONE of the other homunculi, including Father, EVER try to kill EITHER of them, EVEN when they discover the nationwide transmutation circle, AND stumble across Father’s lair. Even after Lust is killed, they never take it even close to that level by trying to harm or eliminate any of them. Totally inconsistent and ridiculous. Lust is also aware of Father and the other homunculi’s motives and what they are and are not willing to do, and that totally goes against that. She would’ve majorly screwed things up/made things difficult for Father if she had actually killed them, and I’m sure none of the other homunculi would’ve been happy with her if she had done that OR handled it in the way she did.
#7) Pride doesn’t seem to be injured in the same way as the other homunculi when fighting Heinkel, and isn’t seen regenerating, but still comments his Philosopher’s Stone has been weakened from fighting him. This is odd and inconsistent.
#8) How could Edward know what would happen when he made himself into a Philosopher’s Stone to invade Pride? He could’ve been lost in the torrent of souls or sucked in by Pride; he has no idea what would’ve happened.
#9) Is Pride’s “true form” shadows or the small infant seen after Edward defeats him? They’re completely different substances. Selim says he needs a new “container” when his body is breaking down , but what’s left when he is defeated IS a container. Also, Hohenheim remarks that Father made Pride in his image—as a mass of shadows, implying that the SHADOWS may actually be his real body. Hard to make sense of this.. it seems a little inconsistent.
#10) Father DOES seem to genuinely care for his “children” at first (except for Greed, whom he only melted down and reabsorbed because he openly rebelled against him and was potentially a big liability). He toasts the rest of the homunculi goodwill after reabsorbing Greed, calls Gluttony “my son” and takes care to recreate him with all of his former powers and memory intact after his Stone runs out, AND seems to confirm by his reaction Hohenheim’s accusation that the REAL reason he expelled his sins and created the Homunculi is because he wanted a family. Yet all of a sudden he abandons Pride, and Edward does convince Pride (or at least gets under his skin about it) that Father doesn’t care about him. This COULD be interpreted as Father simply wanted to take care of business and then return to Pride, or thought Pride could handle himself. Things don’t QUITE add up no matter which way you look at it.
***#11) Scar: this is a big one. So, it’s eventually discovered when he’s fighting King Bradley that before the Promised Day, he tattooed his left arm with his brother’s reconstruction array. So, he uses his right arm to destroy surrounding materials and sever Bradley’s arms, and his left arm to CREATE spikes which rise up from the ground. HOWEVER, it has been stated many, many times throughout the series, the three steps of alchemy are: understanding, deconstruction, and reconstruction. In other words, you have to 1) Know what you’re deconstructing, 2) BREAK IT DOWN, and 3) reconstruct it. That arm ONLY has the array for RECONSTRUCTION on it. Therefore, he shouldn’t be able to transmute ANYTHING without using BOTH of his hands (or perhaps even clapping them together first like Kimblee did to perform his alchemy), to deconstruct and THEN reconstruct it. The only thing I could POSSIBLY see his left arm being able to do (and this is a stretch, since it’s been made very clear you HAVE to go in order with those three steps of alchemy and there haven’t been any other cases of an entire step being skipped in the manga or in Brotherhood) without his right arm is bonding things together, like turning hydrogen and oxygen in the air into water, etc.
#12) Mustang—If he couldn’t see, how could he clap his hands and create that barrier from the ground when fighting Father with Hawkeye? He couldn’t see what material, or at least what kind of stone, he was transmuting. It’s possible he just already knew since he’s been in HQ a lot, but not necessarily in that particular area of HQ. Edward couldn’t break Buccaneer’s automail arm when fighting him for the first time near Briggs Fortress because he didn’t know what it was composed of (he thought it was made of iron, but it wasn’t). Also, if I remember correctly there are other times when characters used deconstruction without knowing what they were deconstructing.
#13) Sloth didn’t need to be hurt/killed as many times as the other Homunculi, especially Envy/Lust—look how many times they are “killed” vs. the few times Sloth is killed. Yes he suffered massive damage each of those times, but Lust/Envy often had their WHOLE BODY incinerated; one time Mustang even took Lust’s Philosopher’s stone out and it had to regenerate her body from NOTHING, which is equivalent to destroying her ENTIRE BODY once (Sloth never incurred that much damage), and regenerating it once.
-->#13a) Note: I admit this MAY be because Sloth is bigger and therefore has much more mass than the other homunculi, therefore takes more energy to regenerate his whole body; still though, that might be a stretch.
#14) Why didn’t Edward keep his automail as diamond-hard carbon when fighting Father? It wouldn’ t have been destroyed then, most likely. It seemed to be in this form when fighting Pride in Father’s lair, because he was able to block his attacks. Did he THEN transmute it back afterwards?? Why? Seems like this was done SOLELY so that Alphonse would later transmute his soul to restore his flesh-and-blood arm, when in fact that situation was easily avoidable by Edward.
#15) Greed- I think it’s idiotic that Greed doesn’t fully (or even close to fully, really) harden his body when fighting others, especially homunculi. I know he explained that he doesn’t LIKE to because it covers his handsome face, but if that’s the case, WHY would he break it out almost right away when fighting Edward and Izumi, and then NEVER use it again until the VERY end as Greed/Ling (junk like this has been done in other anime series too—a character will go full-out in his first appearance, but then never do that again for the rest of the series, even when his life is in danger; it’s just done to “punch up” the story or something at the expense of inconsistency)? Had he done this, instead of simply only hardening his arms as he usually does, he wouldn’t have been captured and melted down by father, would basically be nearly invincible when fighting (except against alchemists) and could make short work of his opponents, and most importantly, had NO REASON to run away from or be scared of Bradley when he attacked him in his residence and Bradley tried to decapitate him. This is DEFINITELY done for the convenience of the story, in my opinion. No fun having a character that’s too powerful or invincible, so we’ll just make it that he’s too dense to figure out he could win ALL his fights and not get himself into NEARLY as much trouble if he just completely used his powers rather than half-assing it. Total crap. Bradley could never beat him if he fully used his Ultimate Shield, and neither could Pride. Making it so he doesn't utilize it fully most of the time when he easily could only creates forced and artificial tension/drama.
#16) The thing with Greed being able to regenerate but Bradley not being able to just isn’t explained well, or at least fully (yeah, you could argue his thing about explaining that after fighting the Philosopher’s Stone when first becoming Wrath he was left with one soul and therefore couldn’t regenerate.. but I don’t buy it. How could he have any powers as a homunculus anyway with just ONE soul, like any ordinary humans? Their super speed/strength/etc. assumedly comes from the stone, which contains a multitude of souls). Although Bradley’s missing ability to regenerate might explain his aging (all the other homunculi who can regenerate don’t age, although not enough time passed to see if Greed/Ling would age), it still seems like this was done for convenience—he’s already hard to kill with his Ultimate Eye, so he would’ve been impossible for the characters to kill if he could regenerate as well.
#17) The thing about Hohenheim dying at the end because he ran out of Stone.. I don’t buy it. He should’ve become a normal human if he had only his soul left. Furthermore, Bradley said he was left with only one soul after becoming Wrath, and Hohenheim is very similar to a Homunculus anyway (the structure of his body is identical to Father’s). Bradley didn’t deteriorate into nothing and/or die after this, and neither should Hohenheim have. Maybe my argument is a stretch here, but I still think it’s dumb that he died at the end just because he only had one soul left.
#18) Eclipses don’t usually last as long as was depicted; Father should’ve started his transmutation RIGHT before the moon completely covered the sun, not right when it did. By doing that he risked the eclipse ending and the circle surrounding the eclipse dissipating before opening the Sun’s door/gate.
#19) Although Alphonse was very upset when he met his body in front of the doors when his soul left his armor body after it was transported to Father’s lair along with Edward, Izumi, and Mustang, because he knew that it was so atrophied and weak that he wouldn’t be able to use it to fight… WHAT could he have traded to get it back??? The body was calling his soul to it, as in the body probably wanted his soul to return to it in the gate/doors. Did Alphonse really think he could just take his body back to Father’s lair without paying a price? This part definitely doesn’t add up. AND Alphonse is an accomplished alchemist who’s even seen the Truth; there’s no way he could be so dumb or ignorant as to not know that he’d have to pay something to get his body back and couldn’t just “take it with him” just because. Makes no sense at all. If anything, trying to unite his body and soul would end with BOTH being trapped in the gate/doors. Although, really, Alphonse probably should have just stayed there, at least for a period of time (if that was an option), without uniting with his body, so that Father wouldn’t have a fifth sacrifice to use.
#20) Aren’t Ed, Al, Izumi, Mustang, and Hohenheim supposed to be human _sacrifices_?? They weren’t sacrificed at all; they were fine at the end, and Father even had to try to kill them AFTER the eclipse transmutation was over because they were clearly not dead. What was their role in the transmutation, why were they even required? I think if these were five random Alchemists that the reader was not familiar with OR were just people that the homunculi forced to perform human transmutation who weren’t major characters or important to the plot, Arakawa would’ve written it so that they would’ve died. But obviously no one would want to see five major characters die, so it was, in my opinion, done for convenience of the plot.
#21) Mustang should’ve lost his eyes, not just his eyesight, in the human transmutation, just like Judau did in the “Blind Alchemist” side story. This is just straight inconsistency, which in my opinion arose most likely because 1) readers didn’t want to see him without his handsome face, i.e. missing eyeballs & scars around his eyes, 2) the author intended his sight to be restored later (psh, like I never saw that one coming.. he kept his eyeballs to make that easier to happen for God’s sake). You could argue the punishment might’ve been lesser because it was a FORCED human transmutation that was performed against his will, but still—that might be a stretch. I mean he even gained knowledge from the doors/gate in exchange—he could use the clapping transmutation after that, so it was a legit human transmutation.
#22) Why would Father and the other homunculi have waited till the last minute to finish up SO much of this stuff? They had over 400 years. If Sloth was even slightly slower in carving the tunnel, it never would’ve worked out. They should’ve gotten on the thing with Ishval and Briggs WAY earlier. Also, letting Mustang roam (relatively) free instead of holding him like they did Marcoh allowed him to rebel and could have cost them dearly.
#23) Forcing someone to perform a human transmutation is ridiculous anyway, in my opinion. I think Arakawa might’ve painted herself into a corner with that one (just couldn’t figure out how to make it so Marcoh or Mustang would willingly perform human transmutation, or accidentally developed them so much that it would’ve then been very out-of-character to do that), and used that as an “out.” By the way, one of the sacrifices is going to be a Philosopher’s Stone in human form (Hohenheim)? How do you know that’s even gonna work?? He’s not actually a human anymore. Wouldn’t that screw things up? How do you know if that would even work out? Plus, you think it’s gonna be easy to subdue a human Philosopher’s Stone? Finally, Hohenheim has powers equivalent or near-equivalent to Father; if he HADN’T reached Father’s lair first, or hadn’t come in time, would father actually have been able to use alchemy to transport him there like he did with Ed, Al, Izumi and Mustang? Who’s to say he wouldn’t be able to resist something like that, considering he and Father are identical?
AND Father tried to steal his Philosopher’s Stone before the eclipse transmutation? Wouldn’t that kill him and therefore eliminate him for use as a sacrifice?
-->#23a) Come to think of it, much of the way Father planned his grand scheme seems rather poorly thought out and could have easily failed.
#24) Why did Father return to his original ball-of-shadows form when he was brought before the doors/gate at the end? Hadn’t he said before, when Hohenheim destroyed his body and it was revealed that his shadow form had grown to adult size, that he had evolved beyond that form in the 400 years since he was a ball of shadows in Xerxes? To me this is equivalent to a human infant growing up into an adult in the country of Amestris, then being reduced back to an infant when brought before the doors.
#25) I almost decided to let this one go, but alas, here we go: we’ve discovered that Father used the machine in his lair to spread the Philosopher’s Stone in his body throughout Amestris to dampen the effects of alchemy in that country, and to “turn off” alchemy there when needed. However, we’ve also discovered that Philosopher’s Stones usually have a size proportional to how many souls they contain. The number of people in Xerxes when the populace there was transmuted into a Stone was at least one million (AFTER using the stones in his body to perform some alchemy, and setting up his own nationwide transmutation circle, Hohenheim stated that he had a little over 500,000 souls in his body). With all of the people there, Xerxes is much smaller in physical size than Amestris. So, would half of the souls in Xerxes really be enough to completely cover the ground in Amestris (or really under the ground, but you know what I mean)?
***#26) Long-distance transmutation- ah, this is a big one, and one of my favorite (or least favorite) plot holes in the manga and Brotherhood. It’s said that alchemy is incapable of long-distance transmutation, while alkahestry (also known as "rentanjutsu") is. The long-distance transmutation is done by drawing a transmutation array on the ground, putting knives in each of the points of the array, reading the “dragon’s pulse” to understand where the flow of chi in the Earth lies and in what direction(s) it’s flowing, throwing ANOTHER set of knives at a distant object in the same formation as the original set of knives, and then transmuting. HOWEVER, there have also been instances of somewhat long-distance alchemy transmutation in the manga. Kimblee is seen doing it when he kills Scar’s family. Edward is seen doing it when chasing after Paninya in the mountainous area of Rush Valley (this is the most obvious example, ESPECIALLY in Brotherhood). And there are many other instances of that happening throughout the series; an alchemist is able to transmute a distant object or set of objects, often by letting the alchemic energy they’re using flow through the ground, or a nearby wall or path. Yet the Elrics are very surprised when they see May do her long distance transmutation, when they themselves are capable of similar or near-similar feats. I just don’t think this was thought out very well by Arakawa beforehand, or she slipped up and wrote some inconsistencies without thinking about it, because I’m still not entirely sure of the difference between long-distance alkahestry transmutation and just transmuting a not-so-nearby object using alchemy.
*A lot of plot points, including the ones above, seem to arise from dumb luck, and involve poor planning/leaving things to chance on the part of several characters, and it often seems like the author didn’t think it all the way through. AND it seems like a lot of the inconsistencies also arise from, as mentioned before in some places, for the sake of CONVENIENCE to the story. Things like that really cheapen it, in my opinion.
I see, it's been awhile since I've seen FMAB. But, there isn't any anime series out there which is considered flawless. Let's take naruto as an example which might I say I enjoyed, the story is repetitive, side characters are not developed and add nothing to the story, lots of plot holes, a shitload of flashbacks and fillers, the animation and art is inconsistent especially in the fourth shinobi arc, a underwhelming ending, villains most of the time turning good after naruto's talk no jutsu, predictable outcomes and other flaws I can't be bothered to list. Anyways my point is even tough I found lots of fleas in naruto I still enjoyed it and overlooked the flaws. At the end of the day the most important thing is the fact that you enjoyed it.
I'm not denying the fact that FMAB had flaws but I have to admit FMAB is one of the best shounen out there as of late.
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