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REVIEW: Fullmetal Alchemist: Brotherhood DVD Part 5

I AM THE VAST UNIVERSE wrote:

Really?That's the first time I've heard of anyone complaining about the final fight in the series with Father

Then prepare for another.

spoiler[The biggest problem this fight had, was that because of the closeness of the events, it had to be compared to the fight with Bradley, where it fell short. Alot.

The problem was, that after Father lost all the souls which he used to devour God, the fight just became WAY to predictable (and the whole reverse-circle thing felt a little contrived) and rather hard to get immersed in. While in the end, he did a lot of damage to the characters that got too close, there was nothing that struck me as rather serious, nothing that could be fixed in five or so episodes.

The ‘good guys’ a force did not seem really taxed during the fight, as Father was stuck on the defensive all the time and the only character that actually suffered anything serious in the long-run was Greed, which was rather... typical. Greed came off as a character that I KNEW was going to die, just because of the nature of his existence, so killing him off seemed rather predictable, not to mention the way they did it seemed so tacked on like... “Oh, well, I guess Father needs to kill SOMEBODY important before going down, hey, Greed still needs to die!”

The other fights were fine for the final arc, like with Envy vs Roy and especially Bradley! Hells, Bradley was so kick-ass. The Father fight just seemed like a major let-down after all that.]

The sheer logistics of keeping the show's enormous cast in play is impressive enough, but even more impressive is how much it makes us care for them, down to the bit players and even the villains.

I dunno, I never really bought Ed's growth through the series. spoiler[At no point in the series did it seem like Ed would be unwilling to make the exchange he makes at the end. Yeah, he valued alchemy, but not that much. In the end, it just felt like it suddenly occured to this supposed super-genius: "Oh, I can just do this!" It's like he checked out these superpowers from the library just long enough to save the world, then went back and returned them.] Maybe that was the point, but it feels rather silly, set against all the angst Ed suffered throughout the series.

For Equivalent Exchange it's also not really about sacrificing anything but if you look at the themes of the series it's more about a way to live your life. If you get something, give back in return. I never felt the theme was about losing something but about giving back. These are two very different ways to look at it. One is ultimately negative and one is ultimately positive. Equivalent exchange is not meant to be negative thing. Hence in the ending.

You are right Ed would have given that up in the beginning if he realized that was the answer but certainly he would not have understood that giving it up wasn't much of a sacrifice in the early part of the series as it was something that defined who he was. It was ultimately a simple answer but sometimes simple answers are the hardest ones to find.

And I certainly didn't see anyone predicting it beforehand.

Oh, it was. At least one fanfic I know of even used the concept (though the fanfic played with the more cynical tone that the first series had... I think it was set in that universe). But I'm not surprised no one on here knows of it. In fact, I'd be extremely surprised if anyone on here knows of the one I'm thinking of.

That is another thing I don't quite get.

Can somebody explain to me spoiler[how giving up his alchemy powers somehow is 'worth' the price of Ed's arm and leg, and Al's body, and Al's soul? They go on the entirety of the show focused on equivalent exchange, but yet at the end don't even really abide by it? I also thought it was hilarious when Marcoh just gave Mustang's sight back with the stone as if it was the easiest thing in the world. He could have done the exact same thing to restore Ed's and Al's bodies back, no?]