Fullmetal Alchemist Brotherhood S2E12: “Conflict At Baschool”

Baschool's either going to be where they catch up with Scar and Co, or where they'll meet a Drachman attack that Father has somehow provoked. Or both at once, given how contrived this northern arc has been so far. 

Well, hopefully I'm just being a negative nancy and things are going to start getting consistently good again.


The teaser opens on Hawkeye coming home to her apartment, face still visibly cut from Pride's warning scratch, and starting in fear at a movement in the shadows that turns out to just be her dog. Riza has been having a rough night. :/

As Pride's warning that he'll always be watching her from the shadows even if no one else is haunts her and she tries to think of a way out of this, she's startled again by her phone ringing. It's Mustang calling from a payphone, who tells her that he "got drunk and bought an entire car-load of flowers" and that he wants her to meet him somewhere and figure out what to do with them all. He also, notably, avoids referring to either of their names or ranks. Hawkeye stiffly addresses him as "colonel," tells him she doesn't even have a flower vase, and that she's off duty. He asks her if she's okay. She stiffly tells him that everything is completely fine, and hangs up.

I'm guessing Mustang was calling to arrange her escape from Central once she confirmed Wrath wasn't around. Well, now he knows that there's something else that's got a bead on Hawkeye, and that that something is more than just a bunch of armed thugs who she could probably handle herself.

Intro. Alright, let's see if Mustang and Hawkeye can figure out how to elude a creature with literally nation-length reach and awareness. Or not; the last few episodes' first scenes have been pretty disconnected from what follows.

After the OP, we jump to the Briggs Scar-Hunting expedition arriving at the abandoned mining village of Baschool. A local forester claims to have seen suspicious individuals moving toward Baschool, so Scar and his associates might be hiding out there.

Miles suggests they split into teams, which is a perfectly logical thing to do when searching an area of this size, and which Kimblee can't object to without getting funny looks. The best he can do is make sure that the party that includes the Elric brothers also has two of the weird-badge soldiers he brought with him from Central. He himself, I imagine, will be expected to lead a different party so as to spread out their alchemical power. Not sure where Winry is being left. Maybe at the vehicles, with a handful of guards?

Naturally, the Elrics give their escorts the slip at the first opportunity, claiming they saw movement in a large building and running inside before Kimblee's men can react. They then transmute a fake wall at a branching corridor behind them to lose their pursuers.

Presumably, even a cursory inspection of that wall will reveal the tell-tale geometric fake detailing left by hasty transmutation. But even if they do, they'll still have to break it down, so either way the brothers are long gone before they can get around it.

Now that they're free, the brothers need to either find Scar and May themselves, or sneak back around and pick up Winry before making their getaway. They take the former approach, which unfortunately means that it's a race against time to find Scar in this abandoned town before the others can, assuming he's actually here in Baschool at all. Fortunately, he is, and his companions are making a point of seeking out the Elrics while avoiding hostiles. May finds them before long. Turns out she's transferred her crush from Edward to Alphonse, too, which we saw the beginning of before but seems to have intensified with absence. She just can't not be yandere for someone or other, I guess.

The presence of Pandarat (and her quickly demonstrated ability to move independently of May) proves that this isn't Envy. Not that there's anything particularly suspicious about meeting May in these circumstances per se, but I'm still expecting Envy to come up here in person at some point, and a lone friendly they meet in the investigation area would be a perfect guise for her to use. Hopefully the characters will realize this themselves, and take the appropriate precautions if they meet an actually alone individual up here.

Also, now that they've found who they're looking for, Al opens his torso and reveals that the boys have been one step ahead of me. They already did double back to the campsite and collect Winry while Kimblee and his lackeys were elsewhere; must have been offscreen. A little cheap on the creators' part, but good to see that the boys are being systematic.

May is jealous, but at least she's not violently jealous this time. Baby steps.

Dr. Marcoh is soon drawn to the sound of their voices and enters the room as well. The brothers don't recognize him at first, thanks to his Scarification, but establishing his identity is easy enough. Then, as they start to explain what's happened since their previous meeting and Edward thanks him for the hints he gave them, Yoki comes in as well. He angrily confronts Edward, who seems to have no idea who he is.

Cue flashback, which for some reason is not only in a more extreme black-and-white than even the harshest of Ishvalan weather events, but is also done in silent film format. Not sure what the point of this stylistic choice was, and why only here. Anyway, Yoki was a landowner and army captain who managed to wheel-and-deal his way into military governorship over the people working in a coal mine he owned. This enabled him to cut wages, raise taxes, and make the lion's share of the cash disappear. When the workers realized what he was doing, he easily bribed the soldiers under his command to beat them back into submission.

Shortly before the time of the series' start, the Elrics were sent to inspect the mining operation. When Edward told Yoki he was interested in buying the land off of him for a massive sum, Yoki (who might have been fearing the jig would be up soon anyway) eagerly agreed. However, the gold Edward gave him was just some of his own coal transmuted to look like gold. This ruse didn't last long, but it gave Edward enough time to go over the business and military documents side by side and report the discrepancies.

Yoki was stripped of his rank and bank account, and had to flee to escape arrest. Edward gave the land rights to a local community leader who Yoki's thugs had beaten up at least once for trying to confront him.

...

It's been explained to me that this was actually an early in-story event in the manga and 2003 adaptation, during the early "Edward and Alphonse wander East Province doing policework" phase of the story. It was left out of Brotherhood because the previous anime had already adapted it, and unlike the Liore plot it had pretty much no plot significance.

I think they kinda messed things up here, though. I understand why they didn't want to bother adapting this episode for a second time, but in that case they should have done one of two things.

1. Gotten rid of Yoki entirely. Based on his role in the story thus far, I think the story could have been very easily tweaked to just omit his subsequent appearances entirely. Or, if Yoki IS going to end up doing something actually important later, then...

2. Built up his grudge against Edward as this big looming mystery and/or running gag, with the banality and pettiness of the truth revealed in this episode serving as the punchline.

It seems like they may have wanted to do the second one. There was a blink-and-you'll-miss-it mention of the Elrics having dealt with a corrupt official when Mustang was going over their mission records in one of the early episodes, and when Yoki was first introduced during his attempt to capture Scar he made one mention of wanting revenge on the Fullmetal Alchemist for something. Those were both dozens of episodes earlier, though, and there hasn't been anything like them since.

For this to work, it needed much more buildup and more frequent reminders. Both to make sure the audience doesn't forget all about Yoki's grudge, and to deepen and reinforce the mystery of it so that the anticlimactic reveal can be that much funnier. "Wait, this guy is just that corrupt official that Mustang mentioned once? THAT'S what he's been on about this whole time?" That would have been really funny.

So, I think Yoki's whole thing either needed a little bit more attention, or should have been cut.

...

Anyway, in the time since his defeat by Edward and before his ambivalent recruitment by Scar, Yoki tried a number of different off-the-record gigs as a street performer, unskilled laborer, and criminal, none of which worked out. After one last failed attempt to rob a wealthy house only to find it inhabited by a clan of musclebound, curly-banged blonds with superhuman strength (LOL), he ended up homeless on the outskirts of East City, where he lived among the largely Ishvalan shanty-dwellers until some bounty hunters came looking for Scar.

Edward vaguely remembers that mission now, but he doesn't much care. Can't say I blame him.

Dr. Marcoh says that the notes of Brothar's they found might be the key to figuring out why alchemy and alkahestry are so different, but that they'll need Scar to keep helping them decode them. Just as Edward is expressing his dismay at being reliant on Scar for something this important, they hear an explosion from the old warehouse that Scar was foraging for canned food in.

Cut to the warehouse in question, a few minutes earlier. Scar hears someone approaching, and looks up from the empty cans he was rooting through to see those two weird-insignia soldiers enter the building. Having been spotted, they offer him a chance to surrender and be escorted back to Kimblee and the others. Scar is, understandably, dismissive of these two's ability to outfight him given his track record against Amestris' top soldiers and alchemists up until now.

The two openly admit that a couple of soldiers would never stand a chance against Scar. However, they're not just soldiers. As they speak, their bodies begin to shift and bulge in a way that we've seen only once before, when Greed 1.0's bovine friend was shifting into his combat form. The end results for these two, however, are both more extensive and more grotesque.

So that's what was up with Cow. His werebull thing was an experimental prototype for these guys. I'm guessing that the "gatekeepers" guarding Father's base were the results of early experiments, the gang Greed rescued/recruited were later and more advanced attempts, and these guys are the recently perfected endgoal.

I wonder if they were fanatical soldiers who volunteered to become chimaeras, or completely artificial life forms raised from "birth" by Father's loyalists. Greed's bunch seemed to have been involuntary test subjects, but that wouldn't do at all for soldiers you expect to be loyal.

...

This also reminds me of something I'd been thinking about with the philosopher's stone research. Father seems to have known how to make philosopher's stone for a long time, whether or not he did so during the fall of Xerxes. And yet, he seems to have been reliant on human alchemists engaging in prolonged research to develop a cheap, mass-producible version for use in his country-wide operations. Given the iterative improvements on the human chimaeras, it seems like he's been reliant on Amestrian researchers to expand his (seemingly very limited, to begin with) knowledge on that front as well.

What I'm getting at is that for all his power and experience, Father isn't smart enough to figure out all these new techniques on his own. He needs teams of human scientists working for decades or centuries to make things like protostone and intelligent war-chimaeras a reality, though he can probably practice those techniques with ease himself once the formulas have been developed. Being dependent on human intellectual prowess to do things he couldn't on his own has got to enrage him, deep down. When he told Edward and Alphonse that he sees humans as mere insects, and I commented that if he actually felt that way he wouldn't be bothering to explain himself to them, this was likely one of the things driving him to neurotically declare his superiority.

Father isn't nearly as good at inventing things as he is at using the inventions of others, and he has an inferiority complex that he's in denial about. These are the kind of weaknesses that could be key to defeating him.

...

Chimaeras wouln't seem like a particularly good anti-Scar measure, considering his ability set, but these two prove an exception. In addition to being much more nimble than they look, they each have a built-in ranged attack that takes their opponent by surprise. The pigdogupine on the left can shoot those quills in a wide volley that Scar has much more trouble dodging than straight-firing bullets. The guy who looks like Santana's been gestating inside of him on the right can spit globs of an extremely powerful adhesive for prolonged area denial. Furthermore, these two are well-trained soldiers who have been studying Scar's known abilities and tactics. For instance, knowing Scar's history of blasting holes in the floor to escape through or collapse buildings with, Goopy spits his adhesive at the floor beneath Scar the instant he sees him start to bend down, sticking his disintegrator hand in place.

The sound of the first explosion Scar created early in the battle got the gang's attention, fortunately. Edward and Alphonse tell the others to stay put while they go see if Scar needs help. As Winry watches them leave, she gets a strange look on her face and whispers Scar's nickname.

Oh god, Winry, please just don't. There are times and places to deal with things like this. Places like "literally anywhere but here," and times like "after we've dealt with Kimblee, who should be a pushover at this point even with his beastmen unless you do something stupid."

The Elrics arrive just as the chimaeras have immobilized Scar with that mucus trick and are about to knock him out. The only reason they haven't just shot him full of quills and/or drowned him with a faceful of glue after trapping him is probably because of Kimblee's insane demand to be the one who delivers the killing blow to Scar. When the good guys' own tactics fall short, they can always count on Kimblee to make up the difference. Distracted by the struggling Scar, the chimaeras are easy targets for Edward and Alphonse's surprise attack. Ed and Al recognize the chimaeras' voices as distorted versions of those of the two soldiers who brought Winry up, and quickly and quietly figure out what they're dealing with.

Also, before Edward closes the distance and knocks him to the ground, Goopy remarks that Ed is even faster than Scar. Well damn. The Elric brothers really have gained a few levels since the series' start, haven't they? If Edward is actually faster than Scar, then he may have actually become the most dangerous close-quarters combatant in the show barring the stronger haemunculi.

A moment later, Edward is prancing around crowing about how light and fast his new automail is, and how he plans to keep it even after heading south again.

Ahhhh. Edward's heavy automail has been making him overdevelop the complementary musculature. Now that that weight is reduced, he's realizing that he may have actually been faster than Scar for some time now, but was prevented from leveraging his full strength and speed. That's even more impressive, honestly.

Unfortunately, while the lighter automail has its advantages, that comes at the cost of not hitting as hard as he's used to. Combine that with Goopy's superhuman toughness, and he's able to recover quickly. Spiky does the same as soon as Alphonse is distracted by having to help his brother out.

The chimaeras try to end the fight by telling the Elrics that they're on the same side. Edward and Alphonse respond by being really, really mean about their deformed appearances, telling them that they didn't remember ever working with a pair of fucked up monsters. Gee, come on guys, these chimaeras might well be brainwashed slaves, there's no need to go that low. Then...oh. Hah! I take that last bit back, this was actually a deliberate strategy on the Elrics' part. After they knock Goopy down again, Edward goads Spiky into shifting back into his human form to prove that he's actually a member of their search party and not just some weird monstrous third party. Then, when he's half-transformed, Edward bashes him over his considerably smaller and less armored head and knocks him out cold this time. He promptly declares that he knew who that was all along thanks to his voice.

Nice. And also a reminder of why conspiracies tend to be very brittle things. Information sharing in a conspiracy has to be kept to a strictly need-to-know level, especially for lower-rung enforcers like these two. They were very likely not briefed about Edward and Alphonse's previous human chimaera experiences, or about how much they know about Central's corruption (in fact, they probably know stuff that the chimaeras themselves aren't supposed to ever find out). Thus, their masters were unable to properly brief them on dealing with the Elrics.

With the chimaeras unconscious, the brothers now...tell Scar that they're going to make him answer for what he's done.

What.

But...um...guys? You know you're on the same side now, right? Like, you know May isn't going to want to teach you alkahestry if you actually get Scar killed or arrested, yeah?

The boys then charge directly at him. Scar starts to go into killmode, but then seems to think of something; it's weird that the Elrics, after fighting him with effective tactics for such back in Central, would now be charging him recklessly like this. And, rather than going for Edward's fleshy parts, he makes a point of targeting his automail arm.

...and fails to destroy it, since his disintegrator was set for steel. I forget, did Scar already know about the funky anti-cold alloy? I don't think he did. Maybe Edward was counting on him not knowing about it, and knew from experience that Scar would target his automail first? Did I misinterpret what just happened there?

The battle continues for a short minute, until Scar is distracted by Winry's entrance into the room. Shit. Winry. Don't you fucking do anything. Scar is distracted by his guilty conscience at a key moment when he sees her, and Edward and Alphonse are able to transmute some bindings around him that don't let his disintegrator hand touch them. Winry is then followed in by Miles and some Briggs grunts, who I assume weren't far behind the chimaeras in the first place.

Winry demands an opportunity to speak with Scar, one on one. The others hold her back, but she's adamant. When finally allowed to speak with him, she asks Scar why he killed her parents. Scar starts to answer, but then looks down and says that any reason he gave would just be an excuse. Goddamn these honorable types with their imaginary crosses to bear, just tell her it was a case of mistaken identity already!

I don't think he's ever going to tell her, honestly. Well, hopefully they can work past this regardless. Somehow.

The camera zooms out to reveal May and Dr. Marcoh outside the door, watching Winry's attempted interrogation. Then there's a burst of smoke that fills and partially collapses the room.

Hmm. May to the rescue, or was this all actually a clever ruse by the Elrics? Are Edward and Alphonse actually holding that big of an idiot ball here? Hopefully not.

Cut back to the Sloth tunnel. Hook and the other search and rescue team members (huh, I thought I saw Hook going off with Miles, Kimblee, and the Elrics etc before, and assumed they had already returned from the tunnels. I guess I mixed something up) are returning to the extra entrance. Unfortunately, due to the condition of the two survivors they're escorting and their refusal to let them light the lamps again, it took them longer than expected to make it back, and they're over the twenty-four hour limit.

They make a desperate attempt to try to bang on the floor where the hatch used to be and hope they're let up, but to their surprise they find that the hatch isn't even locked. Above it, a party of their comrades have been waiting for them. Hook demands to know why they defied orders, despite being glad that they did so. The officer in charge says that after agreeing to Hook's proposed twenty-four hour time limit, Armstrong smashed a wristwatch and told him to use it to determine when the time had elapsed.

The Armstrongs have a family tradition of passive aggressively weaseling their way around orders and promises they don't like when they really might as well just openly break them. And of pointless property damage. Well, at least it's usually for a good cause.

Hook goes up on the roof, where Armstrong is staring out at the wintry landscape. She tells him that she finds it comforting, all just starkly divided black and white. He points out that that's not actually true; the sky is blue, and she has to purposefully avoid looking at it to ignore the fact that things aren't really that simple, clear-cut, and binary. It's not a metaphor for forcing oneself to acknowledge alternatives to the simple, authoritarian worldview imposed by the national leadership, they're just talking about colors. She reluctantly agrees, and accepts his thanks for not sealing him and the others in the tunnel to die. She's distraught to hear how few survivors there were, and what condition they're in both physically and psychologically.

As they speak, a convoy of vehicles approaches. It doesn't look like the ones they sent out to hunt for Scar and May though, so this isn't a timeskip; there's someone else arriving. Maybe a follow-up investigation of General Raven's disappearance?

Armstrong goes down to meet them, and...yep, its a small army from Central sent to ask her some very pointed questions about recent events. Either she's going to have to pull some serious silver-tongued bullshit, or she'll need to kick off her revolt a little earlier than she'd have preferred.

Back to Baschool. Kimblee is leading the rest of their forces to the building where Scar has been captured, when the building explodes open in a cloud of smoke and debris. Edward comes stumbling out, roaring combat orders to an unseen Alphonse, and then sees Kimblee and blows up at him for...not keeping Winry safe. He was supposed to be guarding her at their camp, how the hell did Scar get past him in capture her?

Cut to Scar standing on the roof of the building holding Winry and posing like King Kong capturing Fay Wray.

Okay. I'm sorry I doubted you, Elrics. In my defense, I feel like the creators used some really cheap tricks with the scene cuts to make it seem like things happened in a different order, with the explosion appearing to happen right after we saw May arrive. On the other hand though, I also (briefly, but still) fell for it when Mustang pulled more or less this exact ruse back in "Cold Flame," and this episode has been calling attention to Edward's capacity for trickery repeatedly, so I think it's just as much on me. Come to think of it, I wonder if Edward and Alphonse were actually inspired by Mustang's little charade with Ross when they came up with this.

But god, this is brutal. They're not just going to kill Kimblee. They're crushing his spirit first. Their taking away whatever passes for his sanity before they let Scar or Miles or whoever snuff out the pitiful, empty shell of his body. I can't say there isn't a perverse thrill in watching the stupid edgelord get clowned on mentally and emotionally after already having been mauled physically, but it almost feels excessive.


End episode. Definitely an improvement on the last one.