Fullmetal Alchemist (manga)/WMG: Difference between revisions

=== '''Note: This page is for theories about the manga and the anime ''Fullmetal Alchemist: Brotherhood''. See ''[[Fullmetal Alchemist Anime(anime)/WMG|Fullmetal Alchemist Anime]]'' for the first anime adaptation. New WMGs at the ''bottom'', please. ==='''

* Also, we're going to get a scene at the end of the manga in which it looks like Rose is going to confess to Ed, but she instead pours her heart out to ''Winry''. It would be a brilliant twist because of certain expectations built up by the anime and [[Ship-to-Ship Combat]].

Think about it. They both have similar appearances such as the braid. They work for a shady organization. They've suffered [[Parental Abandonment]]. A lot of people close to them ends up dying.

If this was true, that would mean the Elric brothers actually went into the ''[[Gundam Wing]]'' universe instead of ours. In the [[Fullmetal Alchemist]] universe, technology's slowed down while alchemy and prosthetic limbs become more advanced. While the other universe specialized in machines not unlike ours. However, there's a chance it could've went to the other extreme with giant robots, space colonies, and all that. Also, geniuses such as the Elric brothers may have influenced the design for [[Humongous Mecha]]. Really, what else would they do?

* You've got a point there. And Scott McNeil did voice both Duo and Hohenheim.

After leaving the military, Armstrong decided to sell cleaning products. He harnessed his sparkles to make whites whiter and walls cleaner.

How did he make it from to the 50's and 60's looking exactly like he did during WWI? Easy, he's a time lord.

The soul is an "electromagnetic pattern", as described by [[Watchmen (comics)|Professor Milton Glass]] & thus is able to create magnetic forces capable of manipulating metal. This is why bloodseals are only ever used on iron & not other chemicals present in blood. If it were not used on a metallic object, the subject would be unable to move. This may also explain how Al sees without eyes. He is actually "seeing" the effect things around him have on Earth's magnetic field or something like that.

* Al is one of the [[Fair Folk]] from ''[[Discworld/Lords and Ladies|Lords and Ladies]]'', so he sees through magnetism.

I apologize if this was actually stated directly, but I don't remembering it being. Father basically created alchemy, and you would think that since his "children" are formed from him, they would naturally have skills in it. But noticeably, they don't. While you can be successful in Amestris without knowing alchemy, Wrath {{spoiler|Bradley}} (does that even need to be spoilered?) doesn't use alchemy, and nor does Pride {{spoiler|Selim Bradley}}, even though he is Father's favorite and mimics him in all other ways. I also noticed with Greed that he wants the Philosopher's Stone for immortality, but never thinks about doing alchemy with it, in which case would certainly be a [[Physical God]] like Father.

My guess, is that if the homunculi did use alchemy, they would have nearly god-like powers (witness what Father Cornello could do with a much smaller stone than the ones making up their bodies), but it would drain them in the process. Father certainly doesn't want any of them equaling him in power, and practically, they would be in real [[Villain Sue]] territory if they had alchemic powers. Finally, from another angle, since alchemy was thought-up to manipulate humans, it's not likely that the homonculi would be that interested in it anyway, given their view of humanity.

* Ordinary transmutation clearly ''can'' change elements, otherwise it wouldn't be illegal for alchemists to create gold -- somethinggold—something we know Ed can do. It's probably a lot simpler even for normal alchemy to work with existing elements, but they have talked about turning metals into other metals and so forth.

* Actually, if you understand quantum physics, energy waves and matter ''are the same thing'', just behaving in different ways. A philosopher's stone would simply be condensing the matter and energy of people into a small stone; neither bodies nor consciousnesses were left after Xerxes, so both are in the stone. Envy even says, they're just being stored for later use. It's like charging a battery; the energy is still there, it's just in a container for now. The laws haven't been broken by philosopher's stones, but it has nothing to do with "deeper physics" or anything like that.

*** I disagree. 1) You say it was a damning act, and in part it was, but what all that burning was about was for Riza to, emotionally and physically, be free from her father's bonds and for Roy to somehow make up his betrayal of her trust to her. That's how Arakawa portrayed it. I really doubt anything other than Roy burning her could have been done, but if you think of something let me know. But my point in that is- that is how Arakawa planned it and wanted it. You need to keep in mind that FMA's characters aren't people, they're just ink and paper of a writer's imagination. 2) I agree with you on the point that others know Roy's pain of ''Ishval'' but again I have to disagree, since what I'm referring to is the number of people killed. For a poor example- the atom bomb. Roy's the bomb, Riza's the scientist. You can't tell me that just because the inventors of the atom bomb weren't out killing Hiroshima's residents they didn't feel a horrible guilt engulfing them. I mean it to this affect. It's the guilt that's being shared there- I don't really understand what you mean by betrayal. How was there a betrayal there? Roy didn't willingly commit genocide. Riza knew that. There could be form of diluted betrayal there, but they obviously still trust each other with their backs; if there was really a sense of betrayal, there'd need to be hatred there, or at least dislike, but there isn't. For me, that's the whole point about Mustang and Hawkeye's relationship- logically speaking, if as you said, it was betrayal that kept those two binded to each other, there should be hate, dislike, weariness, but in the series they've both shown an immense attachment to each other. Riza cries and gives up when she thinks Roy is dead. Roy panicks when he thinks Riza's in danger. Roy gave up on dying when Riza would die too. And, I must point out that in ch. 101, until Riza gave Roy that signal about the chimeras being above ''he still could not make a choice between saving her or committing human transmutation''. 3) You see, this is my point when I say it's not platonic: their relationship is built on the angst they've caused each other, however they trust each other with their lives and care about each other's safety. In ch. 95, Roy was the one being just as 'damning' as you portrayed Hawkeye in the burning-the-tattoo scene, if not more. ''He was telling Riza to kill him''. He'd seen Riza cry when she'd thought he was dead, he'd even commeneted on it a scant chapter or so before, but nonetheless he was so overwhelmed with hatred that he didn't care if he caused her pain (thus his apology and distraught look later on, when he told her to lower her gun). This just proves that ''yes'', '''they are two screwed up people'''. I never denied this. But I don't believe it's platonic at all, simply because Roy stopped his [[Moral Event Horizon]] when he knew that he would be damning Riza as well as himself. He cared about her more than himself- and, now that we come to it, since he was planning on dying and throwing all his plans down the drain, he cares about Riza more than he cares about his goal, but my main point is that he cares about'' '''her''' more than ending his pain and just dying''- and isn't caring about someone more than yourself the basics of love? 3.5) Riza saying she'd kill herself is simply because if Roy had forced her to shoot him like she'd promised, she would be too overcome with the pain of it all to carry on; because even if it had been Scar to pull the trigger and not Hawkeye, she would still have been the one who had exposed him to Flame Alchemy and made him capable of Ishval. She was still the one who made Roy into a murderer, and made him capable of [[Crossing The Line]]. The guilt of making her most important person die would have been too much for her-- andher—and yes, there'd be no other option and she ''would'' have to pull the trigger, because in the pair's Ishval-influenced-mindset she ''owed'' him to keep her promise, just like he had owed her to burn her back; it's the guilt behind it all that's making them hurt each other in the end, though it's technically for their own good; Riza didn't want to be bound to her father's alchemy, and Roy didn't want to turn into 'an animal in human skin', no matter how painful and fatal the solutions may have been. Another reason for Riza's possible suicide: Roy and Riza living and working together to change the country is their ''redemption'' for Ishval- it's the only way they can look themselves in the mirror. I think that in ch. 95 all that pain of Ishval and Hughes' death just came rushing to the surface, and the self-loathing within the pair of them manifested into a desire to just die and be done with it. But the reason that tipped the scales, the reason that Roy didn't let Riza shoot him, was not his goal at the end. At the end it was an unwillingness to cause Riza pain again. Despite Scar and Ed's words' affecting him, up until Riza told him she'd die too, Roy was willing to die. - and now I've rambled on again, so I don't really know if you got my point, but here it is: ''Roy and Riza care about each other more than themselves''. I'm not saying it's nice, I'm not even saying it's healthy- however, I don't believe that you can care that much about a person on a platonic level. Not to mention Arakawa herself has dropped [[Ship Tease|little hints]] various times over the series: when Grumman asked Roy to marry his granddaughter, his reponse was "You're thinking to far ''ahead''" exactly, as well as Roy going into a rage over Barry the Chopper's groping, him calling her "RIZA!" when he was a student, Mustang labelling Riza as his Queen, Chris knowing 'Elizabeth', the gold-tooth scientist calling Hawkeye Roy's 'precious woman' (yes, literally, I read RAWS), Bradley calling her his 'important person', Ed telling Roy not to worry Hawkeye..etc. Taking all this evidence into account, I cannot help but conclude that there is definitely something there. It's not nice, not pretty, as I mentioned before not even healthy because of Ishval's influence, but to call the relations between Hawkeye and Mustang as platonic doesn't do justice to the emotion there.''' 'Love' doesn't have to have to be ''romance'' or nice, or even happy to be ''there''.''' Of course, I'm not saying I can convince you otherwise, I'm just giving my side of the argument. In conclusion, my personal opinion is that Hawkeye and Mustang are willing to spend their lives together. They don't need marriage, and aren't capable of it either (as I said, the only way/time I can see it happening is when they're really old). But they do think of each other as their most important person, and they do put each other, admittance or not, above everyone/everything else. That's all I'm trying to say.

*** Okay, I'm gonna keep this as concise as possible because it's very difficult to have a dicussion in this format. I also apologise for the lateness, real life has been nailing my ass. '''Point 1)''' I think we might just have to disagree on this, especially when you state what Arakawa planned and wanted. Neither of us are Arakawa, and neither of us can talk on her behalf. I just can't get over Riza asking Roy to ''burn'' her, considering the symbolism involved and the frequent references on how burning people has given Roy a sinister edge. Maybe it's just me. '''Point 2)''' Thing is, Roy ''did'' willingly commit genocide. As Riza says, the homonculi started it but they carried it out. Kimblee's scene in the flashback is all about making Roy and Riza take responsibility for what they've done instead of thinking that they 'had' to. So Riza trusted Roy with her back so he could carry out his dream, and he burned people to death instead. But betrayal doesn't have to equal hate or dislike - a good relationship can see the deep pits in the road but still continue onward. It wouldn't be the first time an anime showed two people hurting each other (intentionally or not) but still keeping a strong bond without ill-will. '''Point 3)''' Actually, you make a really good point here. Most Roy/Riza shippers talk about how romantic and sweet their bond is, when I've never really seen it. You pointing out that it could be a dark, almost damning sort of love is actually really interesting. I disagree that it ''has'' to be love, but I certainly agree it can be a dark sort of love. '''Point 4)''' Again, I really have to agree with the majority of what you're saying. Again, I think I've been tainted by too many other Roy/Riza shippers who say that Riza would kill herself because she couldn't live without Roy (who usually say they love Riza for being a strong female character, go fig). I think, really, the only fundamental thing we are disagreeing about is this: can two people be fiercely devoted to each other and care about each more than themselves without it necessarily being love? I personally think they can; I've always been a fan of two people being complete kindred spirits without any romantic love between them. But like I said above, you've managed to frame this in a way where I can see where you're coming from. If there is love there, it's not the type of love they'd act on with marriage or wild sex, but some sort of silent bond that doesn't need to be spoken

* See above theories. Despite being in Ishval war, Hughes grows up quite fine; he had loving families, cute baby girl, and practically everything else Roy can't imagine to have without feeling sick or disgusted. So, Hughes is living testament that, yes, you can be fucked up beyond any reason, but you can still genuinely capable to love and care for others.

Think about it. She slices apart Barry without even bothering to extensively question him. She can't wait to send Riza to her 'precious Colonel.' She impulsively decides to kill both Mustang (a potential sacrifice) and Alphonse (a CONFIRMED sacrifice) on the same night. Wrath's actions on the scene show that she's not exactly following orders from Father. Seems once she starts the violence, she can't stop. The smug look on her face when she attacks Mustang shows just how much she enjoys killing. She's every bit as sadistic as Envy, just in a more physical, less mindgame-ish way.

* This doesn't fit. The author herself stated that Christianity doesn't exist in this timeline; to impose a Judeo-Christian view on it is the reader's action, not something that was actually in the story itself. There also hasn't been any suggestion of the supernatural even existing, and all ties to the Gate and the Truth have been through alchemy, which is science in FMA. The creation of Homunculus was not shown, so we can't assume anything about the process other than that it required human blood (which is a part of the human body, making it human transmutation).

* FMA actually challenges what the concept of "God" actually is by including all the religious references to Ishbal (a god that has abandoned its people, or may not even exist), Father Cornello's cult, the seeming lack of a majority religion in Amestris, and the complete blank that The Truth is. The gate does have the Kabbalistic tree on it, which has the 10 names of god, but in Kabbalah, those names are meditated upon in order to achieve ''understanding'' of what God is, not to mention that Ed and [[I Zumi]] both called what was beyond the gate "The Truth". It's a really interesting narrative to follow since the author certainly included all of these mentions of religion for a reason.

* Think about it: What other extremely powerful being is also known as Father? Thus, it is quite possible that he is actually God in his reckless teenage years prior to the invention of Christianity.

* Father had a god ''[[A God Am I|complex]]''. He used many of the trappings of the Judeo-Christian god, and of 'Father-Lord-type' gods in general, to build his image. Mainly for his own benefit, but I'm sure it had an impact on the people in his conspiracy and on the children themselves. One of Father's roles may be as Satan analogue (although even then [[God Is Evil|God Is Pretty Much A Sadistic Creep]]), but in Father's mind, at least, Greed #1 was Lucifer--heLucifer—he who betrayed his father and ran off to build his own little kingdom because he ''wanted everything.''

This is a philosophical speculation. First, there is the factor that while Pride and Wrath are respectively the oldest and youngest created homunculi (until the second Greed), in appearance, Pride looks the youngest and Wrath the oldest. Sloth isn't the slowest, but instead turns out to be a lightening bruiser. Lust is certainly "womanly", but not only is she not a [[Horny Devils|horny devil]], given that she loathes humans, and her signature weapon is a ''phallic symbol''. Envy partially fits, as you'd think that he would want to be human, given his vice, but is instead the most cruel and sadistic towards humans (on the other hand, he actually does this ''because'' he envies humans, so maybe played straight).

Finally, there's an interesting thing with Wrath and Greed having the "wrong" powers fitted to their personality. You would expect that Wrath would be [[The Brute]] and so Greed's indestructible body would be a perfect weapon. However, Wrath is instead cruel in a calculating way, so he has a very intellectual power, whereas the relatively pacifistic Greed uses his armor as a shield and rarely uses it offensively.

* Wait... what about Gluttony? Dude loves eating. He has super eating powers and is always hungry. That seems pretty representative of his sin.

* Maybe I should have stuck with saying that the powers are the opposites. Like you could say that Gluttony being a "black hole" on the inside is the opposite of his seeming enormous weight.

Think about it. Their blood tainted the make-up of a human body.

She's the wife of the Fuhrer is in a family {{spoiler|with two of the most powerful homunculi.}} She's essentially this universe's conterpart to [[Dragonball Z|Chi-Chi.]]

Rule of Cool. Also explains Mei's overly sideburned fantasies of Al.

On a lighter note, I came across [http://fma.wikia.com/wiki/File:Lingyaofma.jpg this recently]{{Dead link}}, which was a shot from the original anime wherein one state alchemist looks exactly like Ling, but with Greed's sunglasses. Given that for instance Basque Gran looks the same in both the anime and the manga, I doubt it was a coincidence that Arakawa chose to draw that guy. There's also the cool factor that with the shades, Ling (and the above image) looks like a [[John Woo]] character.

* Immediately after reading that, this troper got a mental vision of [[Nightmare Fuel|the Corinthian]] from [[Sandman]]. Awesome, yes. Likely to give me flashbacks of the most disturbing non-hentai comic I've ever read? Also yes.

THE END.

As I've been watching Brotherhood, there seemed to be an emphasis on Liore that I missed when reading the manga the first time. Since Liore worships a sun god and the statues show him as bearded, it makes sense he's based on one of them- either Hohenheim, given his [[Hair of Gold]] and [[Eyes of Gold]], or Father on account of his [[Light Is Not Good]] appearance. And it makes sense that the people there would have a longstanding belief of alchemy = miracle if they'd seen it before.

Not too off-the-wall, especially as [[WMG|WMGs]]s go. Courtesy of [[Live JournalLiveJournal]]'s moriapolonius, "[http://community.livejournal.com/fanficrants/9237643.html?thread=284126347#t284126347 I always thought that Roy and Izumi were drawn as if they had Xingian blood. Black hair, narrow uptilted eyes, smaller size.]" Also note their black irises. Consult [[This Wiki]]'s [[Fullmetal Alchemist (manga)/Characters|FMA character sheet]] for reference images.

"These novelty Xingese [[Bishie Sparkle|Bishie Sparkles]]s have been passed down the Armstrong family line of generations!" They're powered by the correspondence of the human's [[Hot-Blooded|Hot Bloodedness]] to the dragon whose life flows through the earth. Olivier just doesn't hold with sparkles. The Armstrong Family passing the novelty [[Bishie Sparkle|Bishie Sparkles]]s down their family line for generations may explain both how Catherine can power them without [[What Do You Mean It's Not Awesome?|drama]] and how she can lift a piano with one hand despite her [[Boobs of Steel|mostly]] slender body. She will show up at the last minute after a lesson from Mei Ling and singlehandedly solve every alchemy-related problem that exists within the series, at the cost of the [[Bishie Sparkle|Bishie Sparkles]]s ever being passed down to future generations of her family line (this guess could be the fastest example of [[Cerebus Syndrome]] and [[Plot Tumor]] ever, neh?).

* Uhh... *brain explodes*

* Also, pride somehow trapped in/under central, much in the way MIB was trapped on the island.

* Does that {{spoiler|mark on his forehead}} look [[Watchmen (comics)|familiar]] to you? That's how powerful he will become!

*** It was stated in one of the guidebooks. Furthermore, the the military vehicle that Hawkeye gets her name from is a reconnaissance plane called the '''Grumman''' E-2 Hawkeye.

* How could he decide to {{spoiler|become taller than Ed?}}

Eventually, when Selim's become a State Alchemist, only then will he trigger his old homuculus shadow abilities. This manifestation of said abilities will coincide with him starting to hear Kimblee whisper to him, haunt his dreams, and show him what he once was. Selim will be horrified and will continuously try to fight Kimblee as his personal [[Enemy Within]]. This will be the difficulty he'll have to overcome to gain, in Arakawa's words, a "fullmetal heart." <ref> You know this is a fanfic just waiting to happen.</ref>

** Or he does a bit of both. Antagonizing and mocking him one moment, and saying something that turns out to be helpful the next.

As a cover story, they just claimed that Bradley managed to impregnate (some [[Real Life]] pregnancy over 50 cases have happened to women who thought they were barren) his wife just before he died. This was helped by the true form of Selim actually growing at the rate of the fetus, and for the time of her "pregnancy" Mrs. Bradley was kept out of the public eye -- officiallyeye—officially for her privacy, but really to allow her to nuture the infant Selim before his officially announced "birth" without people wondering why her pregnancy isn't showing.

Elicia's cheery, in your face nature and investigative skills (inherited from her father) lead her to become a journalist. As for her romance with Selim? [[Rule of Drama]], [[Crack Pairing]], and the fact that the Selim Bradley fanfic that is being gradually written via these WMGs needed a love interest.

== Katherine Armstrong will somehow meet and fall in love with [[Durarara!!|Shizuo Heiwajima]]. ==

Two, He was the protagonist in the original concept. It would have started with a much younger Roy entering the military, and progressed with him going up the ranks in the same way that a typical shonen protagonist becomes stronger as the series goes on.

Instead he used some alchemy to give Roy [[Daredevil]]-level super-senses, and bought dark contact lenses to cover up the white in his eyes.

[[The Beatles|He just left the group before they became popular]]. He frequently turns up in [https://web.archive.org/web/20120622172913/http://www.westgatecentral.net/wiki/index.php5?title=Mobuta the background of scenes]. Before making Pride, Father created him, and Mobuta is immortal, but has no other powers. Like Greed, he turned out to be [[Dark Is Not Evil]] and left the group. In his case, he's [[True Neutral]], and so rather than fighting against Father and the others, just decided to do his own thing and see what happened.

== How Buccaneer lost his arm: ==

** Fiction and all I know, but I hate that stuff...seems a bit too 'clean.' Would rather have Ed still have maybe an extra 25-3025–30 years leftover to be used elsewhere (or not)

** I'm thinking more along the lines of PTSD(which depression is a symptom of).

Seriously, it makes perfect sense. Yog-Sothoth is both the Key and the Gate between worlds, An undoubtedly knows forbidden knowledge man cannot comprehend. If the Dunwhich Horror is any indication, him dealing with mortals can be more easily be accomplished by attempting human transmutation, which is easier to preform then say what the Whateley's did. Meaning, Yog-Sothoth can get more deals done, get more souls, and has the off chance of bringing him into that universe and...doing whatever outer gods do. And the hundreds of eyes and tentacles "inside" the gate just makes the connection worse.

The Other Alternative is Nyarlathotep. Who is an affably evil, shape shifting, do it for the Evulz, eldritch abomination who also loves screwing with mankind. This would explain why the figure outside the gate is down right sadistic with it's deals, and why it does them so often, its for its own amusement. This would also mean every event in FMA was orchestrated by Him... which can lead to sheer amounts of horror when you try to fathom what him, an outer god, and one of the worst of Lovecraft's menagerie, could possibly achieve by this. Not only that, sans the Pimp suit, Truth bares some startling resemblance to Mr. Skin...

Skip forward by about a century or so, Dr. Thomas Light, a leader of the new technological age of robotics, was working on making Robot Masters, humanoid robots with advanced AI that could make decisions based on vague commands and directions. At some point, either during or before the construction process, he learned of the legend of the golden-haired boy with the red and black clothes whose resilient heart and [[Power Copying|adaptive use of his skills]] once helped save the world, and this became the base he wanted to follow for his first robot. Thus Proto Man/Blues was made with a variable system that allowed him to study any tool and do what it does, as well as red and gray armor along with a yellow cape to match the hair. However, this one had an incomplete design and an imbalanced energy core that would eventually give out and die, but he was so independent and lonely that he didn't trust Dr. Light to work on him and ran away, presumably getting killed. Deciding to create another robot, Dr. Light not only learned from his mistakes with Proto Man's core, but also figured that Proto Man left in part because of not having a peer, so he separated his concept into two robots this time - one, Rock, to be a lab assistant, with the same variable tool ability, but completely blue in design; the other, Roll, a female android built for housekeeping, continuing the Elric-inspired trope with mostly red attire and blonde hair (as well as blue eyes, inadvertently channeling Winry as well).

{{spoiler|He gives up his Gate. Dead people are on the other side of the Gate. Thus, Ed cannot die.}}

** That's not how death works in the manga. The dead don't go beyond the gate, they form more of a life-stream.

Neither of them ever told Ed, Al, or Winry the truth-- Edtruth—Ed and Al are Winry's half-uncles. {{spoiler|And since Ed and Winry got married...}}