Fullmetal Alchemist S2E2: “Father”

Alphonse is going to meet Father, and Edward might meet him as well depending on where his experimental teleport drops him off. No teaser this time. We go straight to the (inferior) OP and then into the episode.

Gluttony leads Alphonse into Father's office. The guy has a human skull candle holder lmao, god for a serious baddie he's really leaning into the cheeseball villain aesthetic. Gluttony startles Alphonse by suddenly announcing that he's brought a sacrifice, and Father emerges from the shadows and asks who Alphonse is. Alphonse recognizes the face of the man before him, and this leads to the appropriate title card.

Before the conversation can go any further though, Gluttony starts screaming and thrashing, his body swelling to even more grotesque proportions, as his bodymaw is forced open in a flash of red lightning. After what looks like a very agonizing few moments, he is buried under a giant pile of Envy as she's disgorged in her full, hideous glory, with Alphonse and Yao climbing out from under her semi-gelatinous bulk.

Gluttony is presumably under that whole pile trying to work his bodymaw shut again.

Alphonse gives Edward a one-armed glomp, while Yao and Father just kind of stare awkwardly. Edward apologizes for worrying Alphonse so much, and then he and pandarat both leap back in surprise as Father approaches, trying to make sense of what the hell just happened. Edward gasps Hohenheim's name as he comes into view. Father, for his part, muses aloud about Edward's automail and Alphonse's armor, and asks if they are the Elric brothers. Confirming for both the audience and the brothers that there are two Hohenheims running around, and that this is not the one who raised them or the one who Edward met again in Resembool.

So that wasn't Father impersonating Hohenheim back in "Father Before the Grave," if he didn't immediately recognize Edward now. That was their actual dad.

Father asks if perhaps they have him mistaken for someone else. They tell him that he looks and sounds an awful lot like their own father Hohenheim, and when Father recognizes the name he's quite shocked.

"Elric" is definitely a fake name, then, if Father didn't recognize it upon hearing the two potential sacrifices' names long before this meeting.

Also, Father refers to his body double as "Van Hohenheim." Don't think we've heard that prefix attached to it before. Interesting.

...oh. A moment later, when Father gets all handsy and Edward angrily knocks him away, Edward explains that they kept their mother's surname. Ah, okay. That's where "Elric" came from.

Father asks where Van Hohenheim is now, and Edward truthfully answers that he has no idea. They in turn ask who he is, and why he looks exactly like their dad, and Father just completely ignores the questions. As if he sees them as curious specimens to examine and get information from, rather than people to engage in conversation with. He only acknowledges them again when he notices that Edward is injured and Alphonse is missing a gauntlet. He lays a hand on Alphonse, and restores him, before doing the same thing to Edward to heal the arm and ribs that Envy broke in a crackle of red lightning.

Both Edward and Alphonse point out the obvious: Father not only didn't draw any glyphs to heal them, but also didn't make the prayer circle gesture with his arms. Or any gesture at all, aside from simply touching them. Less obviously, Alphonse also informs us that he didn't make the rest of his armor any thinner when he replaced that gauntlet, and it doesn't look like he had any other supply of metal on hand to have used to make up the difference in mass. Well, red lightning, so that's not such a surprise. Father is probably using his internal philosopher's stone supply for pretty much all of his alchemy, so equivalent exchange is just barely a thing for him.

Yao stumbles forward, still injured, and not very happy at Father having ignored his own injuries while healing the Elrics'. He demands to know what the hell Father is; his ki-sense is clearly giving him some really, really weird readings from the wizard.

Father asks for his name. And, when it isn't given, quickly loses both patience and interest.

This overhead shot also calls attention to Father's throne type thing. The dimensions and internal geometry of this room seem to change every time we see it, as does the throne's position relative to the walls, but in this case that might actually be Father reshaping his sanctum at his whim rather than inconsistent art. More importantly though, what exactly is that chair?

When I first saw him in it, back in "Those Who Lurk Underground," I thought it was a life support machine of some kind, and inferred that Father was unable to leave it. That clearly isn't actually the case, though. Those Gigeresque pipes all seem to be feeding into it, though, and seemingly not into the bigger apparatus that it's facing (though that's also quite vascular). Honestly, the whole layout is more overtly Space Jockey-esque than Santana's pillar from Battle Tendency, now that I've got a good look. The bigger device is hooked up to the haemonculus incinerator, we know, as well as probably other things. But what about the chair itself?

The pipes leading into the chair form an obvious tributary structure, with more tributaries flowing into on another to create larger and larger inflow pipes, which ultimately lead to the throne. Coming from all directions. Maybe connecting to the multiple protostone labs hidden around Central? If so, that would explain what the protostone is for. We know that haemonculi run out of batteries after a while, and we know that you need a true philosopher's stone to form the core of a new haemonculus. But, maybe you can recharge one using the mass-produced, low density stuff? Maybe that's why Father sank all those state resources into producing an inferior version of the stone. He can't reproduce with that stuff, but he can feed on it. Periodic infusions using that throne might let him extend his lifespan long enough to complete his other plans.

Just a working hypothesis. Could be wrong, but I doubt I'm too far off.

Edward asks if Father can consider Yao their "plus one" for sacrificial immunity benefits, and unsurprisingly is shut down. Alphonse also fills Edward in on this being the "Father" who the haemonculi have been blabbering about. So, while it was nice of him to heal them, this probably wouldn't be the beginning of any sort of friendship even if he hadn't just told Gluttony to eat Yao. Yao asks if that's how this is, then; if Father is another of those demons like Envy who feeds on human suffering while mocking human error. Father says that no, he isn't like that. He does not consider humans to be important enough to mock, nor for their limitations to be anything more than a minor, dry fact of life. Humans are just insects to him. Probably crickets or mealworms, specifically, since we're also edible.~

Of course, I don't actually buy this coming from Father. If he actually thought so little of humans, he wouldn't bother explaining himself to them. If his brood were so secure in his teachings, they wouldn't constantly need to talk to each other about how much better than humans they are. He might aspire to become as to men as men are to insects, but if he felt like he was already there he wouldn't feel the need to brag about it.

Seeing that diplomacy is getting him nowhere, Edward tells Father that it seems they have "irreconcilable differences" (lol) and that if he's the one trying to eat Amestris then it's time to go. Forget about the small fry, he's challenging Father to a duel.

Envy tells him that he's one to talk about "small fry." Ouch. Envy, you traitor! I thought we were past that!

When Father doesn't acknowledge his challenge, Edward transmutes some of the pipes into grasping tendrils and sends them whipping toward Envy and Gluttony, only to change targets at the last second and grab Father. The feint works, and he catches the enemies off balance.

Unfortunately, he hasn't even finished gloating when Father disintegrates himself free.

He doesn't appear to have taken any injuries at all from that. Either he used some repulsion spell to keep the tubes from crushing him before he disintegrated them, or his body is just that tough.

Edward, Alphonse, and Yao all attack in concert now, Edward doing his best to distract Envy and Gluttony while Alphonse launches a stone projectile and Yao leaps forth with his bloodiron sword. Father destroys Alphonse's transmuted stone with a glance, and intercepts Yao with a barrier of his own with another. No glyphs. No arm circle. Father can transmute with a flick of his eye or a touch of his finger.

He declares that this is a waste of time. He doesn't want to kill the Elrics, and they don't have a chance of killing him. To cut this short and keep the cleanup from getting any more tiresome than it will already be, he taps his foot on the ground and does...something. There's a red flash and an odd noise. Out in the hallways, Scar and May look up in surprise from the chimeras they were fighting. Way out in the mountains of East Province, Hohenheim turns in the direction of Central, sensing a great disturbance in the thingy.

We return to Sin Inc executive headquarters, and the Elrics can't transmute.

Envy pins Edward and Elric to the ground while they try in vain to use alchemy. Yao tries to help them, but is quickly seized by Gluttony. Envy taunts them about their confidence in a power that they don't even understand, and asks them if they really thought alchemy was something worthless humans could do all on their own.

So. She's implying that alchemy requires the assistance of an outside party for humans to use it. If the Wogdat(s) are actually higher souls that interface between humans and god, then...maybe they have to participate in some way in order to let their lower selves use alchemy. That would be in keeping with the higher soul concept from various IRL mysticisms that IRL weirdos think they can do real magic with. If so, then Father's disjunction works by suppressing the connection between higher and lower souls. I guess Alphonse's body is going to have to go hungry for a little while.

Father comments that Yao is awfully powerful of both body and will, for a mere human. Lucky coincidence; there's something he's been wanting to try, and while there's no guarantee it'll work with Yao there's no reason not to give it a shot. Envy asks in disbelief if he's really planning to try that right here and right now. Father lets his actions speak for him, and opens a mini-Gluttonizer in the "third eye" position on his forehead, which leaks a marble-sized mass of semiliquid philosopher's stone.

Well, if I had any lingering doubts about Father being a haemonculus himself, they're gone now. The key difference, it's implied, is that while his children are small cores of philosopher's stone animating and sustaining an organic body, he's just a human sized mass of philosopher's stone with a thin organic skin around it. His motionless transmutation powers may be enabled by the sheer amount of raw power that such a body contains, at least in part.

This actually raises a question I've had for some time now. Why don't the other haemonculi use alchemy themselves? Their built-in powers are impressive, but human alchemists have been able to defeat them using their own superior versatility. If Lust had had transmutation as well as her innate regeneration and extendo-fingers, I doubt even her stupidity could have allowed Mustang to gain the upper hand. And there's no way in heck Yao would have been able to escape Wrath and Gluttony during that failed ambush if Wrath had been a caster as well as a speedblitzer.

I suspect that Father forbids his creations from practicing alchemy, for fear of them coming to rival him in power. Or even put in a hardware "killswitch" that activates if they try to, thus explaining why Greed didn't seem to pick any up during his century of freedom. That would be consistent with the kind of relationship with them he's displayed in the past. Or, maybe it's just a matter of the haemonculi having lost the ability for their constituent souls to connect with their Wogdats, with Father being an exception for whatever reason.

Envy explains that Father is going to try creating a human-based haemonculus using Yao. I guess he's mastered that process in the last sixty years, if he no longer needs a hospital room full of instruments to do it and is capable of impromptu transformation. Wonder how many times he's tried it and reabsorbed the stone since Wrath, just to get it down pat? Still unable to transmute, Edward pulls out the handgun that Hawkeye gave him and points it up at Envy, but is unable to shoot when she extends a crying Xerxian face in front of the muzzle.

Not that it would have done anything anyway, of course. Edward, if you were going to pull the gun, wouldn't it have made more sense to shoot Father? While he's probably at least as bulletproof as his spawn, there's at least a small chance that he might not be, whereas you know that bullets are 100% not going to do shit to Envy. Not your proudest moment, Ed.

Yao then surprises everyone, myself included, by telling Edward and Alphonse not to try and interfere with this. Because, in his own words:

Um. Yao. Have you not been paying attention to, like. Anything?

Granted he hasn't received the benefit of hearing Wrath's backstory like the audience has, but even just based on what he DOES know it's pretty obvious that he's going to stop being Yao Ling and start being one of Father's monster minions if this process is successful. And if it's not successful, it'll kill him; Envy explained that part out loud when Edward asked her what the fuck is going on, and she wasn't talking quietly (Father even reacted to her at one point, so Yao must have heard her as well). But, Yao just explains himself that he came to Amestris to get a philosopher's stone, and Father is going to give him one, so that's fine with him. He's going to be Emperor of Xing now for sure.

-_-

Yao. You WHAT mate?

Well, on one hand I guess I'll have to revise my understanding of the situation in Xing, if Yao really did want to become Emperor himself and not just to appease or preserve the current one. I guess he could have also changed his mind since then, but...well, Xing is too much of a mystery at this point for me to make any good guesses. More importantly though, does he REALLY think that he's going to retain his free will and not become a slave to Father after this? That Father is just going to let him go home and be king?

...okay, actually Father might do exactly that, come to think of it. But considering that his reason for doing so would be "prepare Xing for a future sacrifice a few centuries down the line," and that Yao both a) knows that this is what Father does to countries he gets control over, and b) seems to actually care about at least his own tribesmen, I don't think Yao would see this as an acceptable cost. If he thought about it. Which it seems like he's not doing.

Father is as surprised as I am at Yao's willingness, and says that he appreciates the cooperation. He then drops the glob of his "soul" that he leaked out onto a cut on Yao's face, and the gel oozes inside like a living creature looking for shelter. Either Father can control his mass remotely, or philosopher's stone even in its raw state is capable of acting to some degree and has some sort of impulses to act upon.

Yao screeches about how he'll be emperor, he will be, he finally got what he came here for, and then he's being buffeted around a pit of screaming, fiery faces as the hundreds or thousands of Xerxians who just got injected into his bloodstream press in on his identity. Then a voice hails him, and a demonic face made of said screaming ghosts forms.

It's a familiar demonic face. And has the voice to go with it.

Huh. Well, maybe philosopher's stone in its raw state doesn't have the ability to move or react to its environment on its own, but this isn't philosopher's stone in its raw state. It's Greed. Father must have squeezed out the same specific "molecules" of liquid philosopher's stone that he reabsorbed from drinking Greed.

That might explain why the other haemonculi weren't more upset over their brother's execution. They expected that Father would recreate him at some point, presumably with some modifications to make this version more loyal.

...maybe this is related to what Wrath said in their confrontation, about him having died fifteen times already? No, I don't think so come to think of it. Wrath said that HE had killed Greed fifteen times, when that was their first meeting, so I guess he was just talking about how many times he'd forced him to regenerate a crippling wound during the battle. Nevermind, then.

Greed tells Yao that they're going to have to fight for control of this body. Yao tells him that he doesn't plan to fight; he's letting Greed take over. If he's going to be ruling a nation of hundreds of millions, he can certainly fit a few thousand more inside of his chest. Okay. Yao. Again. What makes you think that Greed and/or Father is going to have any interest whatsoever in Xing? Or that their plans for it if they do will be even remotely compatable with yours?

This is some "Head of Vecna" shit, I tell you.

Yao says that he wants the power to protect his own, which is a sentiment that Greed expressed in more cynical terms himself in his last incarnation. He tells Yao he thinks they have a lot in common, and then opens his mouth and swallows him.

Back in meatspace, Yao looks up again and begins speaking in Greed's voice. The ouroborous has appeared on the back of his hand.

Well, it was nice knowing you Yao. I guess. I'm not sure if you exist as anything more than just another howling face screaming through NuGreed's bloodstream with all the others anymore, but even if you do I think we've probably seen the last of you as an independent being.

When he introduces himself as Greed, Edward and Alphonse ask if he's that Greed, and he seems confused. Father explains that they knew the previous version of Greed, which NuGreed accepts with little more than a shrug. Guess Father purged his memories, along with whatever personality modifications he might have made. Or else he thinks that he did, and Greed is playing along. Probably the former.

Edward shouts Yao's name, trying to get through to whatever of him is left, to no avail. Just then, the door bursts open, and Scar and May kill their last gatekeeper as they wander into the room. May is disturbed by the ki-signals she's getting from Father. Scar doesn't need a ki-sense to get bad vibes.

Envy is still in her true form? I thought she didn't like it?

Pandarat comes running back to May, and it's a wholesome reunion.

Meanwhile, Scar assesses the scene, and asks Edward if he can kindly fill him in. When he addresses Edward, as "Fullmetal Alchemist," that gets May's attention. And, when Scar points him out to her, it takes her almost ten seconds to acknowledge that the bandaged, haggard-looking, undersized boy covered in blood and slime is in fact the person who she's been fangirling over for months.

Also, she might remember having gotten the drop on and kicked him over during the trainyard fight. Could be, could not be.

If she'd met Edward in better circumstances, I don't think she'd have been so disappointed. Aside from being short and kinda goofy, he can be pretty damned impressive and charismatic when he's in his element. As it is, the reality crashing into her imagined version of him is...well, Arakawa has a thing about illustrating people's inner turmoil in the weirdest fucking ways.

While May is freaking out and screaming at Edward about how dare he be so unimpressive, Father asks Envy if she has any idea who these newcomers are. Gluttony volunteers the answer on his own, saying that Scar is the Ishvalan who he didn't get to eat before and who helped the others capture him. Father is pleased to have the guy who's been killing his valuable sacrifices just wander right into his inner sanctum, and tells Gluttony to go get him. Envy reassures Gluttony that with the spell that Father just cast still active, Scar won't be able to use his alchemy and will be limited to just mundane martial arts, so this should be a cakewalk.

Scar then intercept's Gluttony's charge with a disintegrating touch, half-exploding the haemonculus' body and sending him flying back.

Huh. Interesting.

While Envy and Father are being surprised by this, May screams about how everyone in the middle of the room is guilty of either disappointing her, stealing her pandarat, or being a scary monster, and then throws her alkahestry-darts and hits them with an earthbending slam from below that sends the lot of them flying.

Edward and Alphonse recover quickly, and try to use some alchemy of their own, but it still doesn't work.

Hmm. Brothar's armglyphs were a synthesis of alchemical and alkahestric techniques. May is an alkahestrist. Maybe what Father did was designed specifically to impede alchemy, and the process of alkahestry is different enough to be uneffected? I was probably wrong about the "blocking the connection with the higher soul" mechanics, in that case, unless alkahestry is REALLY different.

Taking advantage of the haemonculi's confusion, Edward addresses Scar and tells him the critical piece of information about Ishval.

That intense drumbeat theme previously associated with Wrath starts again as Scar looks upon the face of the true butcher of Ishval. He asks Father if this is true. Gluttony lunges at him again, but just eats another disintegrate for his trouble. Scar repeats the question; did he wipe out Ishval, and if so then why?

May backs away from Scar in fear at his expression and tone of voice. Scar doesn't even give Father a chance to answer, in the end. He just exclaims that he hopes his soul will end up nowhere near the paradise of his own people, and blows up the floor to clear the haemonculi out of his way. Father orders them to block Scar off, and all of them - including Greed - jump to obey. This new version of Greed isn't just amnesic, but also seemingly innately loyal without needing any sort of indoctrination or education. Curious. That's not how the others are implied to have been born. Edward does his best to distract Greed, who readily summons his skull-faced armor to fight in. May accidentally gets Gluttony's attention, and leads him on a chase. Alphonse and Scar punch their way through Envy, and Scar gets a clear line of sight to Father. He runs forward, and hits him right in the face with his disintegrator hand.

No damage.

There's not even a red lightning effect the way there was when Father blocked Edward and Alphonse's attacks. It doesn't seem like he defended against it so much as it just plain didn't work on him.

Probably has to do with Father's entire body being made of high-grade philosopher's stone. "Perfect substance" and all that. You can only break it by depleting its soul energy; physical trauma is ineffective.

Father again asks Scar - through the palm muffling his face - how he's able to use his powers with the anti-alchemy effect up. And, when an answer isn't forthcoming, he retaliates with an alchemical attack of his own that...well, it's not clear what it is exactly, but Scar ends up on the ground bleeding from multiple wounds, and thinking frantically that if he'd leapt away any slower he'd have been dead. Maybe Father used an area-of-effect version of Scar's own disintegrate attack, and Scar just got grazed by the edge of it? Something like that, I think.

Then cut to Alphonse having fled the room with a semiconscious May in his arms, and him running into Scar. Who also escaped, despite having just been injured and on the ground right in front of a glowering evil demigod. This show really has a problem with these offscreen escapes. Scar, Alphonse, and May are headed off by another pack of gatekeeper chimeras, and while they're preparing to either flee or fight Envy and Gluttony come up behind them, trapping them. It doesn't look like they can escape from this; collapsing the hallway would be more likely to kill themselves than trap the haemonculi. Alphonse asks Scar if he can get May to safety. Scar asks if Alphonse is sure he owes him that much courtesy after he killed Winry's parents, and Alphonse answers that he doesn't, but it doesn't matter, seriously get over yourself.

Scar declares that there's no use in trying; he can't carry May and fight through the gatekeepers in the state he's in now. Then, he knocks off Alphonse's helmet, and disintegrates the water flowing through the sewer-like tunnel beside them hard enough to make the pipes it's connected to explode in a cloud of pressurized steam. When it clears, several of the chimeras are dead, and Scar and May are gone.

Alphonse wonders why he decided to knock his head off before doing that, as he ruefully puts said head back on. I'm really not sure what the answer to that question is, myself.

Envy tells Gluttony to use his nose, but Gluttony - who was caught near the explosion, is on the ground gasping and smoking as weak red lightning flickers strenuously over him.

Envy realizes that after having his gluttonizer forced open from inside and being disintegrated multiple times in the last couple of days, Gluttony's battery has worn down into the red.

Damn. He must have not had much juice left in him even before, given how long haemonculi are supposed to last and how fearless they typically are about taking damage. Although...if I'm right about Father being able to recharge himself using protostone, then maybe his spawn can do that as well?

...that would actually explain why the previous Greed was so preoccupied with life extension. If Father had (or was working on) a way of recharging philosopher's stones, then Greed would have been expecting to live long beyond his original expiration date until he went rogue.

Back in what's left of Father's office, Edward is still fighting Greed, but without being able to use alchemy he has no way of penetrating the Ultimate Shield. He demands that Greed give Yao his body back, and Greed says that he can't. Not won't; can't. Edward manages to trip him, and then asks him if he really doesn't care about the Ling tribe anymore, or about Ninjette who cut off her own arm for him.

Greed gasps. And, when Edward punches him in the face, he doesn't extend the armor over it.

Huh.

Either Yao can still fight for control, or Greed somehow managed to keep his memories and desire for freedom through Father's purge and is sending Edward a message.

Greed gets the upper hand immediately afterward, though, and restrains Edward. Just as Envy returns, carrying Alphonse in one massive hand and the limp, twitching Gluttony in the other. Father orders her to bring them up for Wrath to imprison using whatever protocols a pair of spontaneous casters call for.

I wonder how exactly the anti-alchemy spell works, in terms of area of effect and duration.

Also, if they have a way of imprisoning spontaneous casters, I kinda wonder why they didn't do so to the Elrics a long time ago. Like, immediately after the lab 5 incident.

As they're led away, Edward whispers to Alphonse that he thinks Yao Ling is still in there along with Greed, and that's probably their only hope now. Roll outro. It's a...surprisingly Winry-focused montage, of her doing slice of life stuff in Rush Valley, with only brief glimpses of other characters being more dramatic. Wonder if that's going to signify anything about the next 15 or so episodes?

There's also an after-the-credits sequence, in which Father kneels over the dying Gluttony and makes a promise.

Okay then. It looks like they can't (or are not permitted to) recharge themselves directly, if indeed that's a thing, but Father can recharge them when he does the reabsorption/recreation routine. I wonder if the next Gluttony is going to have the phony Gate of Truth thing going on? It was a failed experiment, sure, but the Gluttonizer is a handy weapon even if nothing else. The end.

That was a dense and action pact episode, and unfortunately clumsy in the way that a lot of action-focused FMA:B episodes are. Quite a bit of temporal confusion, and these mysterious escapes are starting to really, really, REALLY strain my immersion.

Plenty of stuff happened in terms of story arc progression, and we learned (or at least were hinted toward) quite a lot, but I didn't find all of it very satisfying.

Yao is...I really don't know what the hell he was thinking. That decision of his reminds me of some of the more shortsighted middle school children that I run D&D for in the afterschool program I work at, who clearly only think about the numbers on their character sheets rather than what's actually happening to their characters (and who bluescreen when they find out that "selling your soul to devils" actually means that the devils get their souls. Yes, I'm being literal. These kids are something). Anyway, Yao's actions only make sense if he was asleep with his eyes open when Edward was sharing his conclusions about the haemonculi's plans and methods and Envy was notably not denying any of them. Not that it would have made much of a difference if he'd struggled and resisted to the very end, of course; Father had the situation completely under control at that stage. But that kind of just makes it more egregious, as it wasn't even necessary for the story to work.

I'm also a bit surprised that Father doesn't know about alkahestry, given his age and knowledge. Even if he doesn't have a spell that can suppress alkahestry, you'd think he'd have still realized what was going on rather than just repeatedly asking how this could be? Hmm. Well, maybe I (and Edward) have been giving Father too much credit. He might be significantly younger than the Fall of Xerxes, even if he was made out of Xerxian philosopher's stone. If he postdates the Great Eastern/Western sages and the like, and he's kept his activities mostly confined to Amestris and its immediate neighbors, then it's more plausible that he wouldn't have encountered alkahestry (or at least, not encountered it often enough for it to come readily to mind). Perhaps seeing how powerful and untouchable he is in battle might have made me fall for his affected god-persona a bit myself, to the point of forgetting that - even in this very episode - he can be quite a derp at times.

Speaking of which, Father's characterization was a high point of this episode for me. The speed with which he bounces between childish, inquisitive and clinical, and a wrathful god is alarming, and his writing and voice acting is tight enough that he always feels like the same, contiguous character even when bouncing between extremes. We've seen all these aspects of him individually in his brief earlier appearances, but getting them all together at once really conveys the sense of this inscrutable, larger-than-a-single-human being. Since he's an entity made of potentially millions of constituent souls that is capable of dividing and recombining itself, that's only fitting.

You know, I made the Mass Effect references in my Serial Experiments Lain reviews, but this is starting to seem much closer to that than Lain was. Artificial intelligences made of conglomerated organic consciousnesses, seeking to harvest organic civilizations to feed, expand, or multiply themselves? These haemonculi are really scifi-horror critters in fantasy makeup, aren't they.

And yeah, at this point I feel comfortable in saying that the antagonists of this story are "the haemonculi." And I'm more inclined than ever to believe that Father's lack of any name besides "Father" does in fact signify more than just twisted Christian god-imagery. He is a haemonculus whose function is to create other haemonculi. The queen of the colony, in the social insect sense. That may or may not have been his original, intended function, but if not then it's the one he's found and committed himself to. If he really is planning to build his own Gates of Truth and create his own universe to be the god of, it will be a universe designed with his own spawn in mind.

Of course, given what I now suspect about the gates of truth, the wogdat(s), and the eyeball monster beyond the gates...is this entire story taking place inside of another haemonculus? Think about it. All are one, one is all. The dead are taken back through the gates, and reunited with *something* that they were already connected to. The personality that's been hinted at for any universal God that this setting may possess via Wogdat is not too dissimilar from Envy, Lust, etc, with its grinning contempt for and lording over of humans. This could be some crazy Matroyshka simulation-within-a-simulation-within-a-simulation thing, composite minds all the way up and all the way down.

It kind of makes you dizzy to think about.

More questions than answers all around, even if there were a good number of answers provided for at least some things. And, the main protagonists and main antagonist have finally had a face-to-face encounter that effectively showed just how powerful the latter actually is. So, exciting enough, but despite its interesting revelations and the excellent unveiling of Father in his full madcap glory, I'm forced to call this one of the weaker episodes of middle-FMA:B.

But, you know. It's nice to be watching a show where even the weaker episodes are still good.