Fullmetal Alchemist Brotherhood S2E38: “Journey's End”
The final resolution. This episode has issues. In this case though, pretty much all of said issues are down to the anime having - once again, just like in the original Fullmetal Alchemist adaptation - outpaced the manga. This was true of the last couple of episodes as well, but for this finale in particular I feel the need to point it out preemptively. The reason being that when I first saw it, I *hated* this episode. After being made aware of how the manga did things and seeing where the studio clearly misinterpreted whatever notes Arakawa gave them...well, it doesn't redeem the actual episode, but it does redeem Fullmetal Alchemist as a story. So, pointing that out now, since I'll be coming back to it a few times throughout the review.
Start with Dr. Knocs making his way to a heavily guarded hospital room, in which (general? minister?) Mustang and his advisors are going over the plans for the rebuilding of Ishval. With Amestrian greening techniques they should be able boost local agricultural output to the point where letting all the refugees from the villages and shantytowns around Amestris and nearby return and rebuild should be economically viable. As Mustang and Hawkeye explain to Knocs when he enters, nothing they can do will ever make up for what they did under the old regime, but this is the best they can do and it's a lot better than nothing. Mustang also says that he won't accept the office of Fuhrer until he's done all he can to rebuild Ishval, which leads me back to wondering how much official power he actually has right now.
At any rate, Knocs isn't the only doctor to have come to visit Mustang today. Marcoh came with him.
Marcoh has a protostone crystal in hand. It looks like it might be the one that Alphonse used against Pride and Kimblee, but it could just as easily be another shard left over from the Central stores after they chased Father onto the surface. Anyway, he offers to use it to restore Mustang's sight, since Mustang is working to restore Ishval it's probably a worthy use of the souls within. Mustang refuses at first, but then reconsiders, but only accepts the restoration if he can use it to fix Lieutenant Nobody's legs first. You know, the guy who got paraplegic'd by Lust and then used his family's grocery trucks to send them ice cream during the Battle of Central. The music playing here is happy and triumphant.
...
So, right off the bat, first scene of the episode, we have our first adaptation problem.
Apparently, in the manga, Marcoh and the other alchemists have used Edward, Ling, and Hohenheim's breakthroughs in philostone-manipulation to communicate with the souls in that crystal. The offer to Mustang was being made BY the Ishvallans in the stone, saying they'd consent to be used in restoring he and his underlings' wounds as long as he promised to do his best rebuilding their homeland.
In other words, the anime version completely misses the point of the scene and has Mustang and the others backslide on everything they've learned the instant they get into power. Which I guess could work as an absolutely bitter, cold, grimdark gut punch of an ending, but not with this happy, uplifting music and room full of optimistic smiles.
So, this adaptation is both extremely incompetent, and impossibly tone deaf. The latter is actually more egregious, to me. You'd think that if they'd misread Arakawa's notes about this upcoming manga scene they'd go "wait, what???" and double check. The fact that this misreading didn't immediately strike someone in the studio as off reflects pretty poorly on them.
The first time I watched this episode, I spent most of it in a low-key rage just because of that first scene. This is why I decided to insert that caveat upfront in this review. A blind watch of this finale would be an extreme disservice to the source material.
...
On the topic of Ishval, Scar is recovering from his own injuries in a somewhat unlikely location. Armstrong Manor has been restored, and Olivierre is overseeing Scar's recuperation.
Miles seems to have done some reflection since last time these two spoke (thank god), and is now 100% committed to embracing his Ishvallan heritage and trying to rebuild their country. I don't know if this was intended by the script, but the voice actor makes Miles sound really remorseful as he approaches Scar about helping set up a new government. Being both the slayer of Wrath and one of the few surviving monks and ecclesiastical scholars of their people, Scar is uniquely capable of rallying the mistrustful Ishvalan splinter populations and lending an air of legitimacy to the new government. And, Miles makes it clear that he's begging for his help. And, implicitly, at least as the VA is playing it, his forgiveness.
Like I said, I don't know if the author or studio writers were actually this self-aware about how badly Miles came across in "Daydream." But the actor and/or director definitely seem to be, and I'll take it. It makes sense in character too, for Miles to have become cynical and self-serving in his desperation to survive the purges, but now come to regret the course he took and be taking steps to correct it.
Kind of parallels my reading of Mustang, come to think of it.
Scar pulls himself out of bed and looks out the window at the sun. The god Ishvalla is supposed to be a sun deity, as I recall. Scar says he'll do it, and - for what I think is the first and last time in the entire series - he smiles. Olivierre asks him what his actual name is anyway, and he says that it doesn't matter at this point. He's died and come back remade twice since his first naming, so at this point he might as well find a new one. Maybe this is an Ishvallan thing, or maybe this is just a Scar thing.
Not everyone has undergone a redemption arc over the course of the series, though. Olivierre has ulterior motives for ingratiating herself to Scar and ensuring he becomes politically important, which she cackles over after leaving Scar and Miles in the guestroom.
She still fully intends to challenge Mutang, Grumman, and whoever else gets in the way of her quest for supremacy.
I like Olivierre as a character, but I think she's the only semi-major cast member who didn't really have an arc. I guess you do need static characters here and there when you're balancing such a big cast, but I feel like this is also part of what made the Sloth battle weaker than the others.
Also - and this is a problem with this finale as a whole - it still has this laid back, happy music overlaying everything, even this. Like I've been saying for at least a third of the series now, Amestris' future post-Father isn't going to be an orderly or bloodless one. Olivierre is almost certainly not the worst of the likely opportunists who will be trying to bite off pieces as the central government falls apart. It just kind of feels like this finale is trying to downplay the fact that this isn't a happily ever after, even when the script seems to be pretty clear on the subject.
From there, we jump over to the Elric brothers having just gotten off the train at Resenbool. Alphonse is having trouble making the walk to the Rockbell residence; even with the aid of a walking stick, the muscle atrophy is just hell. He refuses Edward's offer to carry him though, wisely pointing out that he needs to take every chance to build muscle back up.
Edward refuses to go ahead of him either, though. So, the two just wait together until Alphonse catches his breath and they can continue. For that matter, Edward is limping a little himself anyway. He might have his organic arm back, but the initial botched transmutation that costed him his leg is much too late to go back on. And, while it's still working, his automail leg got fairly banged up in that fight. So, on top of the homecoming, he needs Winry to fix it up again. I doubt she'll be too upset this time, given the circumstances and how unavoidable they were.
As the brothers limp their way home, they idly wonder if the Xingese are having an easy trip home. The Yao and Chang representatives returned across the desert together, no longer at war. Flash back a couple months to Central, just after the end of the previous episode. Ling approaches May, and shows her the vial of protostone he managed to recover from the battle against Goldtooth and Wrath.
He tells her that he intends to be the next emperor, but that he will be ensuring her own clan's safety, no matter what the political consequences may be. After all, if he was able to share his very body with a violent, erratic alien creature, how hard could it be to take the Changs into his ingroup?
I really wish the exact political situation in Xing had been explained at some point. Where exactly is the existential threat to the minor clans coming from? The current emperor? More powerful clans throwing their weight at the next emperor? It still isn't remotely clear. What little we heard about the current monarch - Ling and May's ageing father - made him sound like he might be the source of the problem, but I really don't know.
Anyway, what Ling plans to actually do with the protostone - if anything - is also unclear. But given the Xingese obsession with immortality, maybe just him having it and letting the alkahestrists verify that it's the real deal will be enough to win him the throne. If that's how it works. I feel like a better resolution to the Xing plot would have been for the whole gang to cross the desert and put their freshly honed evil-patriarch-killing skills to use on a fresh target. Ah well. I guess I'll just assume that things turned out okay ish.
How and if that liquid protostone gets used, on the other hand, I'm not sure of. With what they've seen and been through, maybe Ling and May will try and restore those souls to sanity as well. It would actually be something of a big PR move, if Ling emulates the Great Western Sage himself in this regard. Or maybe not. In any case, while I wouldn't be as disappointed in Ling as I initially was in (the show version of) Marcoh and Mustang for using the stone, since his arc wasn't about seeking redemption for atrocities like theirs were, I still wish the show would frame this as a dark-ish moment. Ling might be a better guy than he was when we first met him, but I'm not sure that he can be trusted with philostone, and the story should acknowledge that tonally. Same problem I had with Olivierre's ending, basically.
Anyway, the Xingese departed back east that very day. Among other reasons, because Ling and Ninjette wanted to bury Graninja in his ancestral tomb as soon as possible. Legit.
Back in the present, Edward points out that Alphonse and May seemed awfully fond of each other, while giving him a sideways grin. I...am not sure enough of how old Alphonse and May are to know if this is creepy or not, but I'm leaning toward creepy.
...huh. Actually, according to the wiki, she's supposed to be 14. Within just a year or so of Alphonse. She's just small for her age, like her pandarat. Okay, that helps. Honestly, it helps with a lot of other things too. Even for a shonen series where young teenagers can have ridiculous asskicking ability, May pulling off the feats she did at the age I took her for was pushing it.
Al counters by asking Ed if he's sure about going forward with Winry. Edward doesn't really answer. Finally, they reach the house, and Winry sees Edward alive and Alphonse - for the first time in years, Alphonse as she remembered him before the accident - beside him.
The cyborg dog she and her grandma have doesn't recognize Al at first, before double-taking. Winry stares in silent joy. Finally, she tacklehugs both the brothers.
Journey's end indeed. The heroes have returned to the overworld for real now.
Fastforward two years. Edward is trying to repair the Rockbells' roof, and having a difficult time of it. Even two years after the fact, he still instinctively tries to transmute the roof back into shape before remembering he can't do that anymore.
He takes a break, just staring out over the idyllic faux-European countryside. After a minute, Alphonse climbs up with him. He still is nowhere near as strong and healthy looking as his brother, but at least he's able to do things like climbing onto roofs now. And, unlike Edward, he's still an alchemist, and a spontaneous caster. Anyway, he joins him up there, and they watch the horizon together.
They talk cryptically about what all is out there. How much they still have to learn.
And, on a very, very related note, we then cut to the garden of a manor house somewhere around central Amestris. Queen Bradley apparently lives here, and is being visited by Fuhrer Grumman. Mustang is out east overseeing the transition to an independent Ishval, and Olivierre is up north doing an unspecified something that I suspect will cause an unwanted amount of excitement soon.
I suspected Grumman would be the next to take office. How long he keeps it, and how long Amestris holds itself together, of course, are far less certain. Perhaps he'll hold it down until the end of his natural life, perhaps not.
Just as she's dumbly making an approving comment about her late husband and Grumman is being carefully polite in his response, Selim comes up to the gazebo. He looks younger than he did in his previous body, but not as young as he should be after a mere two year timeskip. I'd put his physical age at around four or so. It's anyone's guess how quickly he'll continue growing and aging from here. He also, notably, has a visible haemunculus marking on his forehead, similar to what Gluttony and Sloth had, which his previous "Pride" body lacked. Anyway, a bird hurt itself against one of their windows, and he's trying to help it.
She has him tell his grandfather (apparently they've moved back in with her parents) to call a veterinarian, and he hurries off to do so.
As far as anyone can tell, he's a kindhearted child. Almost no one is actually trusting this situation, though.
Queen faced considerable opposition when she decided to try raising him again. Grumman has had their family closely watched ever since. Nothing unusual so far, beyond the anomalous developmental rate you'd expect from someone that grew from a pinhead-sized baby. Grumman tells her that he still can't stop monitoring them, though. And that, if Selim ever shows signs of reverting to what he once was, there will only be one possible course of action.
As always, Grumman delivers this grim reminder with a smile. Queen just tells him that that's why she's doing everything she can to make sure he *doesn't* show any signs of abnormality.
...Queen, I don't think it works like that. Not that I'd have ever expected you to understand this sort of thing, but still.
As Grumman leaves, Selim cutely waves goodbye to him from across the yard, which he's just returned to after handing the injured bird off to a servant while his grandfather calls the vet. Grumman seems to actually be taken aback by the sheer innocence. He silently wonders if perhaps humans and haemunculi are capable of peaceful coexistence after all.
For now, he leaves, pleased that everything is alright for now as far as the last homuncule is concerned. A wish, centuries deferred, finally granted. At least one fraction of the Dwarf in the Flask has finally gotten what it always wanted; to be loved and parented by someone much dumber than itself.
Cut to the city, where Alphonse is visiting the Hughes family. After telling them that Edward is fine with the prospect of not getting his leg back (and that frankly, Winry would get restless without being able to work on it), he thanks them for the generosity they showed the brothers during their State Alchemist stints. That's the main reason he's here. He and Edward have a lot of people to thank before launching their next alchemical research project.
There seems to be another principle that complicates the equivalent exchange concept. Based on their experiences fighting Father and studying the philosophers' stone, Edward and Alphonse determined that there's a force that enables interconnected systems to be more than the sum of their parts. Edward might not be able to practice alchemy anymore, but his skill at understanding the theory and principles behind it is as keen as ever, and Alphonse can take care of all the practical casting. Interesting.
Anyway, the long and short of it is that they still couldn't save Nina Tucker, even if they were confronted with that situation again with their current skills and power. So, they're going to expand those further with their emergent complexity research, and maybe they'll find a way of solving even problems like that one.
After leaving the Hughses, Alphonse meets up with Beebop and Rocksteady at a restaurant. He's heading to Xing soon, and they'll be joining him. If anyone can provide a lead in restoring the chimaeras to human state, it would be the alkahestrists.
Alphonse is planning to follow in the footsteps of Brothar, and see if he can fuse alchemy and alkahestry into an ultimate sorcery, in keeping with their emergent complexity hypothesis. In fact, Xing is only the first stop. The world map is cosiderably larger than Amestris and its immediate neighbors, after all.
Looks like I was right about Aerugo being coastal. It actually looks like it and Xing might be pretty easy to travel between by boat, depending on what's just offscreen to the south of the desert. Meanwhile, there's a whole cluster of countries further east, and at least two others west of Creta, whose names are written in untranslated foreign script to represent the lack of contact Amestris has had with them.
The Xerxians couldn't have been the only ones to independently discover magic. There must be other forms of alchemy out there. They're going to try and excavate them all, and if someone loses more limbs along the way then that's just how it'll have to be.
Back at Resembool, Edward is setting off as well after having made a gratitude circuit of his own. Alphonse is heading east to Xing before theoretically traveling further. Edward, meanwhile, is going to be journeying to the lands west of Creta to see what new arcana can be discovered there. A repetition of Hohenheim and Father's parting, albeit far more amicable. Winry is reminding Edward to keep his automail leg oiled and the screws tight; if it breaks down on him, it'll be a real pain in the ass to bring it back to her. Edward is clearly preoccupied by something, though.
As the train pulls in to the station and they say their final goodbyes, Edward starts saying something else but can't bring himself to. It takes some effort, but he manages to be more expressive than his father, and...tells Winry he'd like to make an equivalent exchange.
That's the magitech equivalent of "if I could be any enzyme, I'd be DNA helicase so I could unzip your jeans." Edward why do you hurt me so.
Winry accepts his cringey marriage proposal, and they make tentative plans to do it as soon as he returns from his first research trip out west. The timeframe isn't specified, but I assume he and Alphonse have a schedule planned out.
As Edward's train departs, Winry muses that while being away from him off and on will be hard, she's gotten over her abandonment issues. Edward and Alphonse would get restless if they stayed in one place for too long anyway. And also, well...
Yeah. That's...kind of an understatement of their recent life experiences. Just a bit.
And, finally, we come to what may or may not be the last bit of tonedeaf adaptation. The last shot of the entire series. While I *want* to say this is a fuckup by the studio, I'm afraid that in doing so I might be making too many excuses for the mangaka.
As Edward's train carries him west, he thinks to himself that there's no takeaway from a lesson without pain. Only by sacrificing something can you gain something. And, once you've endured that pain, you can accomplish anything; your heart has been made fullmetal. As he says this, the camera slowly pans up to the sun before going to the end credits.
So. First, some contextualizing information.
This whole speech was apparently an author's note from Arakawa to the reader, regarding her trials and tribulations in finishing the project. In the manga, this scene just ends with Edward proposing to Winry. Putting the author's note into the narrative itself, in Edward's voice, and panning up to the sun - representing god - while he recites it kind of changes the meaning.
The question I have is whether this message stands in opposition to the rest of the work's. I want to say yes, but I'm not sure. I'm thinking back to the scene where the sun blinds Wrath, in particular, and wondering what FMA's actual position on divine providence is. It never puts forward any refutation to the atheist-at-best-and-dystheist-at-worst worldview established by the early series. Wrath's question to the Ishvalan high priest, "How many must I slaughter before God strikes me down?," doesn't get a satisfying answer. He only gets struck down years later, after he's essentially completed the genocide. Are we supposed to be thankful for that? Really? At the time, I took his death scene as a "if the universe is unfair, it's unfair for everyone" refutation of the smug flavor of nihilism, but was it actually intended as that? Or was it walking things back?
The story as I interpreted it up until now DOES offer a solution to the specter of nihilism. But these little bits at the end that seem to appeal to a form of divine justice contradict my interpretation, and instead seem to run away from the question. So, have I been giving this work too much credit?
I don't know. Like I said, this last line wasn't part of the comic, and the studio might have just fucked things up here by projecting a lazy Just World attitude onto the work as they adapted it. On the other hand, there's the context of weird bits like the Wrath/sun scene that make me wonder if I'm the one projecting something into the story that really isn't there.
I'll go into this in the analysis post(s), where I'll explain what I got out of the story, regardless of whether or not it was the author's intent.
The end credits theme is "Hologram," the second of the show's intro songs. As the most upbeat of said songs, I think it works well here. There's a montage of images, showing Edward and Alphonse growing up, marrying Winry and (not explicitly, but visually suggested) May, and having children. Roy eventually getting the big chair after Grumman, albeit no signs of whether his democratization plans ended up going anywhere. Yoki getting a job as a circus clown. Ling being crowned emperor. Etc. And, that's that.
The final analysis posts will come over the next few weeks, interspersed with other reviews. I've avoided going into it, but FMA is a story that's been hitting me very close to home, on multiple levels, so some of this might get heavy in a way I haven't done before.
