Fullmetal Alchemist (manga)/Headscratchers: Difference between revisions

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* If Father has {{spoiler|eaten God/Truth}}, why when Al made the {{spoiler|soul-arm transmutation, there's still a Gate and Truth in front of it?}}

** Easy. Truth isn't the one {{spoiler|that Father consumed.}}

*** This troper took it as not being {{spoiler|God that Father consumed. Rather, he used the gate of the earth and the sun/moon to take into himself all that knowledge and power of the earth and sun/moon. While godlike compared to everybody else, it had limits, just none that could possibly be comprehensible to anybody in the actual series. To take the entirety of God/Truth into himself would require the theoretical gate of the entire universe as a whole. Which might well have been his next plan, if he hadn't been stopped where he already was. His next centuries-long plot could well have been to consume the soul of every single person on the planet, and use that energy to open a gate for the galaxy, and then take it a step or two further, until he had all of existence bound inside him...}}

** Does he routinely get into fights? Does he like fighting? Does continual heavy exertion put wear and tear on his constantly degenerating body?

* I have quite a few things here that are more or less copy pasted from a list that I made.

*** They never go in depth into how the markings work. They explain their effects, like in the original anime with Mustang's alchemy. It would be very boring to see them explain every line of every circle so Arakawa went the simple route. There might be an actual graphical representation for it all but all you need to know is that they work because fantasy-science.

** Why do people (mainly the circle-less alchemists) avoid abusing it (the possibilities are obvious) I mean they could turn the ground to lava and take down an entire army.

*** To add to the "why don't those with circleless alchemy abilities abuse it?" question, I'm only going off the three circleless alchemists (Ed, Al, and Izumi), but maybe, since, they have had, in some sense, all the knowledge in the universe crammed into their heads, they've gained a certain wisdom from going through the portal of truth. They understand how much more powerful they've become and what it had truly cost to gain it (hint: more than just body parts). So that might be one reason why alchemists who use circleless alchemy don't abuse it.

*** (facepalm) Of course, how did I miss that people in this anime aren't ever going for the kill? Honestly you've defeated me not only as an intellectual but as a [[TV Tropes]] user as well (you appear to have fixed my posts).However this does raise another question, why didn't Ed just encase Gluttony in nets or something not edible to defeat him?

* In the Manga fight between Greed and Pride, why didn't Greed just fully armoured his entire body? He can't win against Pride but he can at least act as a shield for the rest of the characters involved in the fight. His nickname is the "Ultimate Shield", after all.

** I'm not sure sacrificing himself to save his ''possessions'' is Greed's modus operandi. He obviously cared about them, just not ''that'' much.

*** Ah, that's exactly what Bugs Me. Greed cut off his ties with Father and the others, which meant that his stone can't be renewed anymore. Why doesn't he just go full-armoured the moment he encountered Pride, instead of just standing there, letting Pride getting free hits at the expense of his stone?

** My impression is that it takes time for his shield to spread and Wrath was just way, way too fast for him.

** If I recall correctly, 3 pairs of characters were discussing the Ishbal war at the same time, Riza and Edward, Knox and Alphonse, Scar and Marcoh respectively.

* Why are some Homunculi able to regenerate their clothes? Lust regenerates an entire dress after being exploded multiple times, but I'm pretty sure she was wearing a different outfit when she was talking to Havoc as "Solaris," so I doubt it's a part of her body. (Unless she was just wearing her dress under that outfit, but that would be pretty impractical.) Also, Wrath doesn't seem to have any specific Homunculus outfit, considering we can see his collarbones in the most recent chapters (and his wife would have noticed), so... are the regenerateable outfits just for Father-created Homunculi only?

*** Actually it looks a bit more like some sort of kimono-esque dress, but the result is the same. It covers her homunculus skin-dress. You can actually tell it's still there by her hands- the dots on the backs of her hands and the lines connected to them are shown (not that Havoc would be able to recognize such a trait).

*** Could be for modesty reasons, but also considering that Lust's clothes could be also be regenerated by their innate Stones. Clothes should be no problem for them, but their bodies are another matter.

** I thought that entire sequence was ''made'' of awesome.

*** Not the thing with Bucaneer, that was awesome. I'm talking about the parts leading up to it. I mean honestly what happen to all those smoke bombs and explosives he had a chapter ago?, and you'd think Fuu would try harder to kill the guy who cut off his granduaghters arm. well hopefully Ling and [[Ran Fan]] will avenge his loss.

**** As far as I could tell, it was meant to demonstrate Bradley's awesomeness more than Fuu's. It has been repeatedly established that Bradley is flat-out '''unbeatable''' in regular combat - Fuu never really had a chance to begin with. As for why he wasn't tossing around smoke bombs and grenades, it seems like Fuu simply didn't have the time for combat tricks - it was taking everything he had just to stay alive. Remember that while Ling successfully used grenades against Bradley, they were used to ''escape,'' not as part of an actual fight.

** Plus, Fû didn't get in the way, Greed did. The moment Fû got in the fray, Wrath saw that he was in trouble now that he faced a ''skilled'' opponent, and ridiculed Greed even more by throwing him at Fû and nailing him on the floor through his [[Badass Longcoat|Badass]] [[Awesome but Impractical|Longcoat]], just so that he could focus on the old man.

** Attack a fan favorite and that's what happens! Also, differently from the others, Roy DIDN'T want to do a human transmutation, but was still punished. Everyone tends to forget that immediately after, he (possibly) [[Pet the Dog|showed an appreciation to Al]] and that the one who is being severly punished is Pride, who is undergoing a massive literal [[Villain Decay]].

*** I don't have a problem accepting that he is the god of that universe, although I'd like to think that the presumably more benevolent Ishvallan god also exists- it's pretty clear that they worship a god more in line with monotheism- so part of me would like to think that Truth isn't actually the supreme being.

*** I actually think Truth is Good.... just that his way of acting is so morally ambiguous he looks evil... {{spoiler|and now with Father we'll surely have [[God Is Evil]] at full force! Thruth-kun will look like a pushover compared to him}}.

** Anyway, [[Word of God]] revealed the true nature of the Truth recently: Arakawa said the Truth was somewhat a 'hollow' version of oneself (as a sort of 'internal God', or conscience), a sort of 'negative' of that alchemist, which completed itself with the tolls taken by the alchemist upon seeing the Truth.

** Hoho was only able to do that little trick because he had spent 400 years individually separating each soul from the collective inside him. Without putting in the effort to separate them, there's no chance of that sort of thing happening; as evidenced by the fact that Father and the Homunculus have been fine for 400 years.

* Quite a few chapters ago, the main characters found an alchemist's circle that would effectively destroy philosopher stones. Why oh why has nobody used it since that one battle with Envy?! They're going into a major battle against all the surviving homunculi, which are POWERED by philosopher's stones, and not ONE of them thought to whip it out?

* It bugs me that so many people are saying that {{spoiler|all those people ''died''}} in chapter 104. Obviously they {{spoiler|had their souls sucked out,}} but that's not the same thing as {{spoiler|being dead, since their souls still exist. Bringing back the dead is impossible in this manga because the souls of the dead [[Cessation of Existence|do not exist]] anymore, but joining together existing souls and bodies, which have been previously separated, should be possible.}}

* How come the militaries looking for Ed after he is MIA and "wanted" due to his fight with Kimbley didn't have a photo of him (''while Hugues has a private photograph of his family'')? The only reason why the black dude doesn't recognize him is because Ed is accidentally [[Clark Kenting]]. It logically should have been a national register of the State Alchemists, with official photographs. Furthermore, why the only way for State Alchimists to prove their status is their silver watch? They're not nominative if I recall correctly. For a dictactorship, Amestris is kinda careless with identity proofs.

** [[Rule of Funny]]. If Ed's appearance was widely known, then you couldn't have the jokes where people think Al is the Fullmetal Alchemist, causing Ed to go berserk.

* Just how old is Mei? This has been bugging me for a while. Is she [[Older Than They Look|older than she looks]], or is really as young as she looks? I have yet to find a reliable source to tell me.

* Bothers me that everything is going to hell for Father right now. I mean, we all know he has to be defeated, but seems like his time as {{spoiler|a god}} ended a bit too quickly. I mean, not even a full chapter passed since {{spoiler|his plan worked}}.

** Actually, he {{spoiler|is still possessing God/Truth}}. It's not neccessarily over yet.

** Or for tl;dr (brought down to conform to the chronological queue and not confuse anyone, with intro added): What kind of question is this? Hoenheim probably just kept some armour suits in his house for decorative reasons. He probably collected them for a hobby as well.

** It's a bit more clear in the Japanese version of the manga, where he specifically says it's part of his armor collection. So yeah, it's a hobby.

* The origin of the ouroboros brand on manga!Wrath's eye has always bugged me. He was injected with philosopher's stone, struggled with the soulnado, and managed to survive with just one soul and enhanced abilities as a kickass non-regenerating homunculus-human hybrid. Gotcha. He then opens his eye and... reveals an ourobors tatoo. What, did it just... form out of the blue? With no direction? That seems pretty arbitrary as a natural consequence of absorbing a dosage of philosopher's stone. Since Father was apparently there during the experiments, wouldn't it have made more sense to examine #12, analyze the apparent consequent enhancement of his eye, and then brand him there and then with a single alchemical snap of the fingers?

*** The eye didn't fall out; it MELTED. Other than that, yes. The new eye formed as one of the changes to his body when the Stone was accepted into it.

* The clothing. How do they have both modern and era correct clothing? In the first anime it makes sense {{spoiler|since they're an alternate universe from ours, in the early 1900s.}} However that doesn't apply to the other medias.

** This one is tougher to answer do to the nature of of the law and alchemy. Alchemists must have just about enough material to transmute the object they want to create or modify. It's probably them making guess estimates at how much material elements they have to work with. Now, their technology is fairly consistent with early 1900's Earth, but their clothing, prosthetics, and anything else that I have missed may improve into full on robotics by the time they catch up to our present day Earth. [[Wild Mass Guessing|WMG]], of course.

* One thing that just bugs me is that, in Brotherhood/the manga, Madam Christmas gathered several reports on Selim, showing that his appearance never changed through the years. If he's been with the Bradleys for several years, haven't the people around him (e.g. Mrs. Bradley, his bodyguards) ever grown suspicious of how he never grows older? I've tried to rationalize this by thinking that King Bradley hand-waved this by saying that Selim has some kind of disease.

** According, to Perfect guide book vol.3, he can "make body height elasticized". I think that means he simply stretches his container to look taller.

* It's stated in both the anima and the manga/''Brotherhood'' that alchemists can only reconstruct matter into things made up of the same elements. But it's also implied in both canons that gold can be transmuted from other elements. It seems like an inconsistency. So alchemy ''can'' change one element into another?

** You realize how thick and heavy gauntlets actually are? There's no way you can snap gauntleted fingers fast enough for them to spark. The point on the spare gloves makes sense, though.

** And on the point of tattoos, this is complete speculation but my guess is that he didn't want tattoos on his hands after he's already burned off Hawkeye's tattoo. It'd be kind of like a total betrayal of their trust, after knowing how and why Hawkeye got it.

** Not gonna answer any of the other points since I pretty much agree with them. However, as for the photo with Havoc and Breda, the woman looked a lot like [http://fma.wikia.com/wiki/Rebecca_Catalina Rebecca]. I thought that that pic implied that they opened up a bar, or something along the lines of what Roy's foster mother used to run.

*** I agree with what you have mentioned but really bugs me is the ending Elric family photo. I mean the manga had the nice picture of Ed and Winry and their two children and Al and May implying that they got together and Xao May. And then the anime throws in Garfiel and Paninya acting like trolls and ruining the photo. I want to know why they would do that when in the manga they had their own seperate picture. It better be along the lines that their godparents of Ed and Winry kids none of this friend bullshit cause it looked like in the manga that Arakawa made the picture to represent the new Elric family photo not a friend photo. Wtf Brotherhood anime writers and artists wait to ruin a nice family picture!

* Why do so many people seem to hate Rose from the first anime and the EdRose pairing? I don’t see anything wrong with her or it.

** I think part of it has to do with people just generally hating the first anime as a whole. Rose barely had any screentime outside of Liore in the manga and second anime, while Winry was a much better character, resulting in a staunch division of manga/Brotherhood fans who like Edwin, first anime fans who like Edwin, and first anime fans who like EdRose. Personally, this troper shipped Edrose from the very first episode of the first anime, having never read the manga before then, and was surprised and disappointed when she didn't go with Ed and Al on their journey at the end of the second. Having read the manga and seen Brotherhood now, this troper's fondness for Edrose has...waned. Not because Rose is any less likeable of a character, but simply because she's less relevant of one.

* Why did Envy bring precious human sacrifice Ed back to the military after the Fifth Laboratory incident? Why not just keep Ed, who had demonstrated circle-less alchemy when fighting the Armor Brothers, locked up until the eclipse? After all, Envy would outright incarcerate Marco later on, who was merely a candidate for sacrifice. Envy could have easily just ripped off all of Ed's limbs after he fainted and Father could have subsequently kept him sedated.

** Marcoh wasn't JUST a candidate for sacrifice. He was a candidate for sacrifice who studied the Philosopher's Stone extensively. He had knowledge that was potentially dangerous and couldn't be allowed to go unchecked. As for why not lock up Ed...did Envy know Ed was a confirmed candidate yet? He demonstrated circle-less alchemy when fighting the Armor Brothers, but Envy wasn't present for most of that fight. I got the feeling Lust, Envy, and Gluttony had just arrived when Lust pierced Slicer's helmet; otherwise, they most certainly would have intervened to keep him from killing a sacrifice. In any case, even if they were aware, they don't need to lock him up. There's no reason for it. He doesn't know anything dangerous and he's already a State Alchemist. The quest for the Philosopher's Stone can hold his interest and he knows nothing about any of them. He is not, in any way, shape, or form, a threat to the plan at this point. Locking him up would create an enemy where one does not need to exist, not just in him, but also in his brother Al, and possibly in Mustang, who they were trying VERY HARD to avoid making an enemy of because, as one of the homonculi, I forget which, later notes...of all the alchemists in Amestris, they fear him the most. You can't just make people disappear without repurcussions. And that's not even going into the fact that, as part of the military, they basically own him anyway.

*** TL;DR: The search for the Philosopher's Stone and the perks of a State Alchemist are a better cage than any they could build.

*** But there ''would'' be a reason to incur all the risks of disappearing Ed--to make assurance double sure. Remember, Kimbley nearly killed the poor kid, and Al's soul was a flight risk too. Besides, Father could easily crush Mustang under his heel. Hell, Bradley could. As for whether or not they knew he was prime sacrifice material:

'''Envy:''' Looks like it's Elric hunting time! (Mustang will be a problem though...) }}

** Though I will grant that both Lust and Bradley didn't seem all that keen on the sacrifice thing. Lust tried to outright kill Alphonse later on, and Bradley was probably smart enough to put two and two together when Ed circle-lessly transmuted that spear right in front of him yet seemed to say nothing to Father about it. I guess neither was as beholden to Father as Pride was.

** Kimblee simulates the clapping alchemy because that's his 'trigger'. Mustang has a full circle since his actual alchemy is manipulating the flammable gases in the air. He then needs a spark to have anything happen. Similarly with Armstrong he needs to punch the object he wants to transmute with his gauntlets. Kimblee has no such trigger. If he had the full circle tattooed on his hands then he would blow things up by just touching them.

* Why do state Alchemists enter the military with the rank of major? It seems like a pretty high rank for people who are valued for their personal abilities in combat and research rather than their leadership skills and experience.

** Don't forget, the entire State Alchemist program (at least in the mangahood canon) is just a ploy to find worthy candidates for the Sacrifice on the ''Promised Day''. You certainly don't want potential ''subjects'' to be lowly ranked and risk them being accidentally shipped off to war by those who aren't in on the ''Evil conspiracy''.

** Mustang went through the military academy (it's where he met Huges). Presumably State Alchemists wishing to actively serve in the military have to go to school like everybody else.

* How come nobody in Fort Briggs seems to wear a hood or hat? Wouldn't their ears freeze off?

** They're too badass for that. In all seriousness though, if I remember right, several (not all of them though...?) of the soldiers wear those hats with flaps on them when they're out in the cold. And later, they've all {{spoiler|secretly moved to Central}} where it's warmer so it's assumed they don't need to bundle up so much.

** I've seen no reason to see the same point. If anything the closest Aesop we got concerning alchemy is more that "Power should be respected", in other words, the power itself isn't evil, but it should be used carefully. Edward, Izumi, Alphonse and Father all abuse alchemy and pay the price.

* Is it just me, or is the lesson {{spoiler|Truth}} is trying to teach by claiming that {{spoiler|giving up your own gate}} is the right price to pay when {{spoiler|performing human alchemy}}, is that the most appropriate answer to {{spoiler|playing god}} and facing punishment is saying "I'm sorry {{spoiler|God,}} I won't do it again!" Or is it implying instead that alchemy is a privelage of some sort and that when abused you'll get that privelage {{spoiler|taken away forever.}}

****** Do you know what the word "posited" means? Also, a wiki with no source is no better than your word.

**** Her name in Winry and has always been Winry. That's how it's pronounced in Japanese, so the "translations mistake" story you heard is either a myth or was inverted.

* what where Ed and Al's groups doing during the {{spoiler|time skip between chapters 83 and 84}}

* Ed and Al living alone as little kids [[Just Bugs Me]]. Seriously, why are they allowed to stay in that house alone, especially when there was someone nearby (Pinako) who was perfectly willing to take care of them? Pinako's a tough old woman, she could've made them live with her! Talk about being irresponsible...

*** That's whats so ''pathetic'' about Envy. Both the character and the emotion itself. He's so busy being jealous of the people who have what he wants, that he never realizes that he could probably get the same thing if he just made a little bit of effort.

**** And he's also a complete psychopath. That probably hurts his ability to get friends.

** In Japan, the sound made by the letter 'V' doesn't exist, but briefly shared the same character as 'B'. The two spellings are just a translation debate.

* What, exactly, is the point of Number 48 from the fifth laboratory having two blood seals located four inches apart? Such a thing would only be useful against the exact attack Ed used. If he had lost his legs, or been hit by a vertical cut he'd be knocked out of the fight easily. And for that matter, is the soul bonded to his head fighting at all? Or does he just exist to trash-talk intruders while his brother kicks ass?

 

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