Fullmetal Alchemist Brotherhood S2E30: “The Return of the Fuhrer”

Open on the barren sands of the eastern desert. Through the shimmering heat and dry dunes, a lone figure makes its faltering way. The camera moves closer, revealing that it's Hohenheim. Or possibly Father. This is probably right after they departed the empty husk of Xerxes in opposite directions, when they still had the same hair color, and the hooded robe prevents me from seeing if he's got the king's outfit on underneath. As he stumbles across the sand, he seems distracted by a conversation. With himself, it appears.

Trying to comfort someone and calm them to the point where they can communicate.

It's Hohenheim, then. Doing "the one thing that (Father) never thought to do" and establishing a dialogue with his new body's constituent souls. He took much less time in getting started on that than I realized, if this really is supposed to be right after his transformation. Though, I guess Father might have unintentionally set him on that path himself with the whole "listen, can't you hear them?" part of his speech at the end of "The Dwarf in the Flask." So yeah. Hohenheim listened, and within a few hours or days thought to try to speak in return.

As Hohenheim tries to talk the soul down, he stumbles and falls off the crest of a sand dune, collapsing in the desert. It looks like the heat is effecting him. I'm not sure how that could be, given his indestructible philostone body. Maybe his pseudo-neurons just haven't realized there isn't actually anything to be concerned by yet, and are still making his body react the way it's "supposed to" to heat and lack of water. In any case, regardless of whether or not this could be fatal to him (I doubt it, but who knows?), he's found by a proto-Xingese merchant caravan.

I wonder if Xing already had the Benjamin Franklin effect custom going on before this and the similarity is just a coincidence, or if Hohenheim just thought back on this event and went "hey, that worked that one time!" and made a habit of it that they copied from him. In the latter case, that's one more punch in the face that Edward didn't even realize he owes his dad.

They mistake him for dead, at first, and are about to give him an impromptu burial when he starts moving again. They quickly bring him water, though I doubt he actually needs it. Out of either habit or perceived necessity, he sips the water they give him, and whispers terse answers to their questions while keeping most of his focus on the soul he was talking to. "I'm sorry," he whispers to his unwilling tenant, "I couldn't stop him."

The "him" in this case could have been King Thiel, or Father. It's all the same from the souls' perspective, I think.

The caravan moves on along its way home toward Xing. It's already called Xing, apparently. That fits with the China-expie being older than any of the European country-expies, but I didn't want to make assumptions. As the camera rises away from the desert and into the sky and the title card appears, Hohenheim names the individual he's speaking to as "Sergence." I can't remember if that's a soul he's named in the past or not.

So, that was the beginning of the Great Western Sage's career. The Scientology parallels are almost definitely unintentional, but still kind of grimly amusing. I'll take this to mean that Hohenheim started small, managing to communicate with just one or two of his former countrymen at a time, and eventually manage something along the lines of organization. Wonder how long that took him?

Four hundred years in the future, and several hundred miles west, Wrath is making his return to the Command Center's outer gate. And, somewhere below his feet, Hohenheim continues his confrontation with Father. Hohenheim reveals that Sergence, formerly a master carpenter who maintained King Thiel's palace, was the first soul he ever managed to pick out from within the cacophony, and is also among those currently tearing Father's body apart from inside. He's being aided in this task by his son, Dzur, who used to help him with handiwork in life as well. And by Kaia, the florist Hohenheim had a friendship with, along with Sari the drunken stable boy, Tami the aspiring scholar, and a list of others. Hohenheim asks Father if he remembers any of these people from before he and the Xerxian elites murdered them. Father was with Hohenheim in that jar during at least many of the interactions he had with these people. He should be able to remember them.

Father is disbelieving. Even as the trembling and swelling spreads up his arm and into his torso, he insists that the souls in a philosopher's stone aren't supposed to be conscious or coherent enough for independent action.

Except...well, we already know that that's not true, don't we? When Wrath told Mustang his origin story, he said that he wasn't sure if his consciousness was the one native to that body, or one of the Xerxians from Father. So...yeah, they can at least potentially be made capable of independent agency again. That was total cognitive dissonance on Father's part. The only way he could be genuinely ignorant here (hard to believe though that would be to begin with, what with all the research he's done on soul-manipulation) is if he deliberately let Wrath come to a false conclusion about what he was. I don't know why he'd do that.

Hohenheim reveals that he spent his first couple of centuries - presumably in between helping the Xingese invent alkahestry - isolating and consoling every single one of the five hundred and thirty-six thousand, three hundred and twenty-nine souls that Father left him with. He knows the name of every single one, and is able to coordinate them to act with unity of purpose. If only Father had listened to the other half a million souls inside of himself and let himself be swayed, he might not have gone down this road from then, and now this wouldn't be happening. Nonetheless, Hohenheim continues, while he regrets having to do this to his former friend and companion, Father has rejected his last chance at a diplomatic resolution when he tried to assimilate Hohenheim just now, so it will have to be a violent one. The hostile souls will tear Father's philostone body away from the true haemunculus at its core, and the dwarf without a flask will perish.

That's the plan, anyway. There are still eight episodes of the show left, and Edward and Alphonse haven't had a chance to be central to the endgame yet. Sorry Hohenheim, but the laws of narrative are not working in your favor. Even if it certainly looks like Father is getting rekked.

Only...oh, here it comes now. The substance of Father's flesh that was tearing him apart suddenly softens into something almost gaseous. Then, it pulls itself out of Father's skin, leaving it as an empty husk, which it then manifests a set of dripping white teeth to reabsorb it with, almost Kyubey-style. She black mass takes on a crudely humanoid shape, now covered in mouths and eyes, like a more gelatinous and semi-solid version of Pride's shadow form, and tells Hohenheim - its voice now a distorted and monstrous version of the original dwarf in the flask's - that he isn't the only one whose discovered new ways to manipulate his philostone body. Then the pipes and tubes making up the throne room all undulate and shake, and an immense eyeball opens up from the darkness near the ceiling.

I guess this is what the earlier hints that Father might be more like a fungal mycelium with a vestigial humanoid cap were there to build up to. Much of Father's...self...is stored in the pipe system spread out under Central.

How he used that as a countermeasure to Hohenheim's soul-infection, precisely, I'm not sure of. The metaphysics will presumably be explained (or at least, as is more often the way of this show, hinted at) in the final episodes. In any case, I'm guessing that researching this self-reshaping power was one of the reasons he created Pride. With Pride, he figured out how to let appendages made of wog maintain coherence without needing a self-contained environment, provided they're "rooted" in something more earthly. Since then, he's managed to improve the design, to the point where he can exist primarily as a wog mass and just keep the more earthly shell around as a finger-puppet to use for diplomacy and/or for sentimental reasons.

I think, at least. Anyway, I'm preeeeeetty sure he hasn't actually made himself able to survive without a philosopher's stone. Just, he's able to shape or house that stone into an approximation of his natural divine state. Again, I'm not 100% about any of this.

On a completely trivial, but kind of spooky, note, Father's voice in this form is kind of close to how I imagined Joseph Curwen from "The Case of Charles Dexter Ward" (who Father seems to be partly based on) sounding in his unseen monster form. Weird coincidence.

Hohenheim doesn't seem to have planned for the possibility of Father surviving the soul-virus trick, so he's out of ideas and facing an opponent who I'm not sure at all that he can win a straight up fight with. On that inauspicious note, we flash back upstairs to where Wrath is charging the front gate.

The tank is still guarding the entrance, but that wouldn't stop any of the haemunculi, let alone arguably the deadliest of the lot. The tank, as well as the gunners up on the roof, open fire with their antipersonnel guns. Wrath dodges or deflects every bullet. In desperation, the tank crew fire their cannon at him. He cleaves the tank shell in half, heedless of how one half of it flies off and kills one of his own soldiers behind him and the other punches through the wall of a nearby building.

Why even bother with philosopher's stone when you're in anime land? The stuff they make swords out of is enough of a supermaterial for you to not need anything else, just get creative with that stuff!

Hook, watching from the roof, urgently orders the tank crew to retreat back through the entrance and make a fighting escape through the main security corridor. The crew complies, smashing through the door and nearly running over some of their own fellow Briggs troops as they floor the reverse, smashing through the railing inside the access hall and up the cargo ramp. Wrath leaps through the smashed door after them, killing half a dozen of those discombobulated soldiers as he passes by and chases the tank up the ramp.

He dodges or deflects more shells, blasting holes in the building's entryway visible from outside, and catches up to the tank before it can even reach the supply depot at the top. There's some truly incredible direction and animation, the view moving seamlessly between Wrath's POV, the gunner looking through the periscope trying to land a shell on him, and various external angles. Then Wrath leaps onto the tank, disables its machine gun, and finds just the right spots where there's room to stick his sword into the crew's heads via ventilation or view ports.

With the crew paralyzed by their losses, Wrath somehow cuts the tread chains to bring the tank to a stop, and then finishes off the remaining crew by dropping a grenade inside.

What's really striking about this sequence is how this sort of fight in anime almost always puts the hero in Wrath's position. The elegance, the mobility over brute force, the skillful disassembly of the sterile-looking war machine from the outside-in. However, the music here is more fitting for a horror movie than a heroic action show, and a great deal of focus is placed on the fear and panic of the tank crew and the horror as they see each other picked off (with loud enough blood splatter effects to be heard over the music).

Given who we're fighting, I feel like this has to be deliberate. The cult of the hero. The glorification of warrior-kings and dehumanization of enemy soldiers. It's showing the reality behind the power fantasy that makes people attracted to fascism.

I wonder if this is supposed to be a nod to that famous scene from "Fist of the North Star," specifically, with Kenshiro punching out the tank. I might be reading too much into this, but alluding to one of the foundational shonen fighty-heroes to warn against the perils of hero worship would definitely make sense.

Really great scene, if also a disturbing one. I recommend seeing it even if you don't feel like watching the show as a whole.

On a more plot-related note, the effort Wrath put into not taking a hit even when it seems like dodging the bullets was slowing him down more than letting them punch through him would seems to confirm that he can't regenerate. Either due to his inefficient philostone-infusion process, or as an unavoidable side effect of him keeping his body's aging process. Combined with the slight limp I noticed before he charged, it seems likely that a bullet CAN kill Wrath if you could just land the shot.

When Wrath emerges from the access hall and climbs up onto the roof through the cloud of smoke, no one is sure what to do about it.

Hook tries to attack him. Well, that guy always was characterized as having more courage than sense. And, it looks like Wrath might be finally breaking FMA's annoying trend of not letting named characters die even when we've got too many of them to juggle already.

Given the point that the show seemed to just be making about the dangers of putting heroes and normal people in different categories, I do appreciate that Wrath ended this rampage by taking down a named "badass" character with just as much contemptuous ease as the no-names in the tank.

Hook falls, and Wrath walks forward. The Briggs soldiers just part to let him through, holding their guns at the ready but being understandably too terrified to shoot. Are they surrendering? Do they try to appeal to him for mercy? I guess it depends on how many of them know about the Promised Day thing, and how much of it the ones that have heard actually believe.

This would be a great moment for Ross and Breda to show up with Queen in tow. I think they're still back at the broadcast station, unfortunately.

Or...wait, no, Hook isn't dead for some reason. Goddamnit, why. I don't WANT to be cheering for the good guys dying, but at this point I'm kind of desperate for the enemy to remind us that it's dangerous and that, you know, mookifying anyone who doesn't have a name while protecting people who do kinda goes against the themes of the series. Well, Hook's next bum rush is equally ineffective, though this time Wrath is uncharacteristically merciful and just destroys his automail arm instead of decapitating him. It wasn't clear what sort of injury he gave him during the first exchange of blows, but Hook is visibly bleeding from it, and now he's disarmed (pun actually not intended, no matter if you believe me or not) as well as wounded.

As Hook collapses, blood loss seemingly catching up with him, Wrath strides up to the central office complex door and orders Falman - previous of Mustang's squad - to move aside and let him through. Falman refuses, even though he's literally crying in fear and apologizing in advance to Mustang and Hawkeye for breaking the oath in the tunnel and letting himself get killed.

Wrath just kind of raises an eyebrow. He doesn't say anything, but I get the impression that he has some measure of respect for this man, blubbering and crying though he is. Wrath seems to appreciate people who keep fighting instead of fleeing or throwing themselves at his mercy...although, no, he wasn't that way with Greed mk 1, so maybe it's more complicated than that. Anyway, while Wrath looks like he's deciding if he should give Falman a pat on the head or a sword through the trachea, Hook gets up again and tries to stagger after Wrath for a third time. Wrath appears to have respected Falman's defiance, but Hook is just annoying him now. He starts to ask Hook if he realizes how fucking useless his approach is, but is interrupted by another voice from high above. Yeah, humans are kind of pathetic and dumb, it says, but it'll still side with them over Sin Inc.

Ah, there you two are! What the hell have you been doing all this time?

Well, whatever featherbrained scheme Greed has been dragging Ling along into, at least it doesn't seem to be "hijack Father's ritual and eat Amestris in his stead." Since he seems to at least think he's siding with humanity, if only so he can rule it.

Outside of the command center, the fight is turning against the rebels now that Wrath is rallying the Central garrison. Looks like he might have entered the city with some reinforcements he picked up from somewhere along the way, too. Though...granted, I'm not sure how much any of this matters as long as Hohenheim, Edward, and Scar can neutralize or distract Father through the eclipse.

Cut to the radiobroadcast station. They've just received word that Mao Ze Ding Dong is alive and is reasserting control over the capital, and are enthusiastically welcoming this news. Queen is relieved, crying tears of joy, and just hoping that her son is okay too.

Some others present at the station are less pleased at this development.

Breda tells the others that they're going to have to hang Armstrong and her forces out to dry. I'm guessing that that's just "in the event that Father's ritual is stopped, but his regime remains in place." In any other outcome of today's events, it won't matter. '

Well, it's harsh, but I wouldn't be at all surprise if she had contingencies in mind to do the same thing to them if things went south in a slightly different way. This alliance was never going to outlive the government it formed to overthrow.

Breda takes the microphone and cheers the return of the Hasselhoff. Ross, hanging back near the exit, looks much more ambivalent about this choice. She leaves the room, along with that other guy from Mustang's squad whose name I can't remember, you know who I mean. They bemoan having to betray the Briggs group, and look warily at the street outside where loyalist forces are starting to surround them. They wonder if Queen's presence here will keep them safe from overwhelming force being brought down, and consider it more likely than not that no, Wrath doesn't give a shit about his wife and will let her die with all the others.

Hopefully we will actually get to see that put to the test!

...I wonder if Wrath had been planning to have Queen removed from Amestris before the macroglyph activated? Or if he was just avoiding thinking about her fate.

Hell, on that note, what was always going to happen to the Sins after Father's plan came to fruition? I doubt he's planning to reabsorb them along with the Amestrians, since they contain aspects of himself he'd rather not have to deal with at least for too long at a time. Hmm. Not sure. Wrath's thoughts regarding his wife's future (assuming he wasn't just fucking with Mustang and Hawkeye all those times that he told them he actually likes her) are probably contingent on what he believes is own to be.

Back to the man(ish...thing?) himself, craning his head up at Leed who is perched on a tower-top above. Wrath tells him he really should have just GTFO'd and hoped Father would forgive his betrayal after achieving godhood. Leed says that while part of him was tempted to do that, he can't just let someone else have a country and people that he wants for himself. Also, he still wants to kill Wrath for "taking his stuff" back in Dublith during Greed's previous incarnation.

The camera angle and backdrop here are interesting.

Very reminiscent of Father's final appearance in "Dwarf in the Flask," poised on top of the white marble balcony overlooking the city as he delivers his egotistical rant. Granted, Ling also has a fondness for high vantage points, but something about this framing makes me think more of that Father scene. I'll take this as another subtle hint that Father wasn't actually planning to make more philostone yet at that time. His original goal for founding Amestris in the much more public guise of the Great Eastern Sage might have just been to have a kingdom to rule; a desire that lives on in Greed.

Leed drops from the tower, cracking the pavement underfoot as he lands near Wrath. He asks Wrath how he survived the train explosion. Okay, yeah, if Greed is asking him that question then he absolutely 100% can't regenerate; if he could, Greed wouldn't bother asking since the answer would be self-evident. Wrath calmly replies that he used his magic eye to chart a course to safety through the collapsing debris.

He still sustained minor injuries, which he blames on old age starting to reduce his endurance.

Okay, then.

Leed lets Ling talk for just a second so he can say hi to Falman again. Then he switches back to Greed, deploys his graphene armor, and meets his younger brother in battle.

Leed's gotten better at coordinating himselves in battle since the fight with Pride the night before. Using Ling's experience and agility and Greed's armor and strength, Leed actually manages to fight Wrath on something approaching even footing. However, when Wrath removes his eyepatch to prevent exploitation of its blind spot and enable the use of his supereye, he quickly regains the upper hand.

Some soldiers try to intervene at the dumbest possible moment, during a break in the action, and get murdered for their trouble. If they had opened fire just a second earlier, when Wrath was fully occupied with Leed, they might have actually won this battle right there. Eh, maybe they didn't know about Leed's indestructibility and were afraid of hitting him.

The sight of his soldiers being cut down inspires Hook to pick himself back up and lunge at Wrath again for a *third* time. Is third time the charm? No, no third time is not the charm.

Maybe this time it'll stick?

If so, it doesn't stick immediately. Before going down, Hook manages to use his own torso to jerk the sword out of Wrath's hands. Wrath lampshades the absurdity of his sword getting stuck in a human body after slicing through a fucking tank shell by commenting on how hard Hook's abs must be. Maybe Wrath's sword finally used up all its anime points on the tank and has been dulled. Anyway, Leed makes sure to keep Wrath away from Hook and his dropped sword, forcing Wrath to pick up a pair of daggers from one of the other fallen soldiers instead. Not his weapon of choice, which will hopefully help Leed in the fight going forward.

Outside the outer entrance, the reinforcements from outside the city have wiped out the first line of Briggs soldiers defending the smashed-open entrance. A newly arrived commander in an SS-ish uniform leads his team in the storming of the entry ramp, against the machine guns of the remaining soldiers up above who are trying to defend the entry despite Leed and Wrath going at it just a few meters away from themselves. Seeing that the main entry hall would be too costly to take directly, SS-looking-guy grabs an internal phone and tries to make contact with any surviving loyalists inside the building, asking if they can help him flank those sentry gunners.

He does manage to get through to some kinda-sorta-still-loyalists, but they're still busy with something else.

Well, this officer at least certainly isn't in the know. Maybe he can be turned when he sees what's actually going on inside.

Unfortunately, before the situation can be explained to him, he and his men get hit by a Xingese smoke bomb and then quickly taken out (lethally or otherwise; it happens too fast for me to tell) while they're blinded via ki-sensing. Ninjette finally made her way back upstairs, maybe? No, she'd probably be coming from inside the building rather than outside, this must be Graninja. Wonder what's taking her so long? Ran into more mannequins on her way up through the command center, maybe.

Graninja makes it onto the roof and surprises Wrath, throwing him off balance in coordination with Leed (who has enough Ling in his fighting style for Graninja to work around and with easily). Leed tells him how nice it is to have him back. Graninja replies that he's going to squeeze Greed out of Ling's body like dirty water from a dishrag as soon as Wrath has been taken care of.

For now, though...

End episode there.


Action packed episode. Holy shit that scene of Wrath storming the entrance. Leed's reappearance, Team Mustang having to deal with this reversal in fortunes, all great stuff!

It was a little disappointing that we didn't get back to Hohenheim and Father, but I'm guessing the next episode will lean more heavily on them (and on Edward, Scar, Mustang, and Hawkeye finally catching up). Still, this was a satisfying installment, even if there isn't much analysis for me to do until one or more of these battles gets resolved.