{"id":2990,"date":"2013-11-08T08:00:37","date_gmt":"2013-11-08T16:00:37","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/markwatches.net\/reviews\/?p=2990"},"modified":"2013-11-22T15:51:16","modified_gmt":"2013-11-22T23:51:16","slug":"mark-watches-fullmetal-alchemist-brotherhood-episode-61","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/markwatches.net\/reviews\/2013\/11\/mark-watches-fullmetal-alchemist-brotherhood-episode-61\/","title":{"rendered":"Mark Watches ‘Fullmetal Alchemist: Brotherhood’: Episode 61"},"content":{"rendered":"

In the sixty-first episode of Fullmetal Alchemist: Brotherhood<\/i>, Hohenheim reveals his secret. Intrigued? Then it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s time for Mark to watch FMA:B<\/i>.<\/p>\n

This show is simply incredible.<\/p>\n

\n
It can\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t be said enough, but on sheer storytelling prowess alone, Hiromu Arakawa should be crowned queen of something<\/i>. Y\u00e2\u20ac\u2122all, we\u00e2\u20ac\u2122ve been on the same exact day for like fifteen episodes. And this doesn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t make the show seem sluggish or the plot static, and it doesn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t bore me in the slightest. That\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s an amazing feat, y\u00e2\u20ac\u2122all. There are flashbacks, there are tons of character parallels, things are constantly re-contextualized, the show is intensely serialized, it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s upsetting in a way that doesn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t make us lose so much hope that we don\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t want to watch the show. Somehow, Arakawa and the folks who worked on this show were able to balance a ridiculous number of difficult concepts and techniques without sacrificing the quality of the animation or the depth of the storytelling.<\/li>\n
And really, it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s hard not to think about how good Fullmetal Alchemist: Brotherhood <\/i>is when you watch \u00e2\u20ac\u0153He Who Would Swallow God.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d It\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s full of everything I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122ve come to love about this world.<\/li>\n
It\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s fitting, then, that this opens with the younger versions of the Elric brothers, before their innocence was lost along with their bodies, pouring over a book of their father\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s that gives them the clue to what Father has just done: Father made a fairy tale real.<\/li>\n
What an eerie fairy tale it is. Unlike the rest of the episodes, there\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s no opening song over the credits; instead, we treated to an unnerving sequence of silence in Amestris. The country is literally dead, bodies littering the ground, all light purged from the world. It\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s so horrifying, isn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t it? This<\/i> is what Father wanted; it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s what the Homunculi wanted (for the most part). Decades of planning and manipulation have led to this very moment.<\/li>\n
Fifty million people were sacrificed in a single moment. Fifty million<\/i>. I can\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t even wrap my mind around the idea, so it helps that Father\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s physical form suggests just how powerful he is. He\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s able to block all alchemy and then create a sun in the palm of his fucking hand<\/i>. He is<\/i> a god, able to create and destroy with impunity.<\/li>\n
FOR LIKE FIVE MINUTES. CAN WE TALK ABOUT HOW BEAUTIFUL AND HILARIOUS THIS IS? Father spent an ungodly (lol) amount of time setting this genocide up, and Hohenheim undoes it all in less than five minutes. FLAWLESS. But it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s not just a solution to this crisis; this reveal helps to explain why<\/i> Hohenheim has been traveling for so long. He was depositing the souls within him into the ground at strategic points in order to counteract Father with another<\/i> transmutation circle: ONE THAT RETURNS ALL OF THE SOULS TO AMESTRIS.<\/li>\n
FATHER CAN NO LONGER HOLD GOD WITHIN HIS BODY<\/li>\n
I LOVE YOU HOHENHEIM.<\/li>\n
And I also love May Chang, who is able to protect the entire group from Father\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s wrath by creating a protective barrier with her alkahestry. All that talk of the Dragon\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s Pulse and pulling energy from the Earth finally comes to fruition, not just through May, but in Scar and Scar\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s brother.<\/li>\n
I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122ll get to that in a second because I still need to just take a moment to say that I was ridiculously touched by the image of Edward and Alphonse holding their father up as he battled Father. Just\u00e2\u20ac\u00a6 oh my god, Hohenheim was so happy<\/i>.<\/li>\n
SCAR. SCAR<\/i>. Oh my god, Wrath tries so hard to bait the man, using blasphemy and some pretty heinous insults to Scar\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s culture to make him distracted, and GOOD GOD SHUT UP, WRATH. Wait, you actually will<\/i> because Scar LITERALLY DECONSTRUCTS YOUR ARMS.<\/li>\n
Though I can\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t ignore that Wrath stabbed Scar with a part of his sword in his mouth.<\/i> That\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s impressive any way you look at it.<\/li>\n
Ugh, how haunting is that moment when both Scar and Wrath collapse at the exact same moment, and we have no idea who is going to die?<\/li>\n
AND THEN LAN FAN.<\/li>\n
Y\u00e2\u20ac\u2122ALL. LAN FAN AND SCAR ARE BOTH CHARACTERS WHO DESIRE REVENGE, AND NEITHER OF THEM TRULY GETS IT<\/i>. And it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s fascinating to me that Lan Fan doesn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t express an urge to be the one to kill Bradley herself. Instead, she asks him about his wife<\/i>. Oh my god<\/i>. I think that is such an incredible thing that she wants to give Mrs. Bradley closure instead of seeking closure for herself. My heart<\/i>.<\/li>\n
I wouldn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t say that I have developed a single feeling for Bradley, as he\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s perhaps one of the most despicable villains of the whole show, but I did appreciate that we got that very rare insight into what his life was like once he was able to step out of his role as the King of Amestris. It\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s still fucked up; the dude describes his time as essentially being entertained by humans while he was busy plotting their genocide<\/i>.<\/li>\n
It\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s so weird to think that Bradley is gone. Wow.<\/li>\n
And Scar was the one to kill him. In this act, he doesn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t necessarily kill the wrath within him, though. In fact, it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s these two streams of thought that intertwine inside of him, and Scar realizes that his brother once spoke of the very concept. So Scar uses his hatred and his hope, and he activates the very Reverse Nationwide Transmutation Circle that his brother had discovered. And we finally<\/i> discover why the people from Ishval and Xing felt like the alchemy in Amestris was always so wrong: Father\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s Philosopher\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s Stone was literally<\/i> acting as a barrier between the alchemists and the tectonic plates they should<\/i> have been able to access.<\/li>\n
Even then, it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s not like they\u00e2\u20ac\u2122ve stopped Father. I still don\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t know how this is possible when there are only a few people able to fight him. After he rushed to the surface, it was clear that he was going to go start murdering random Amestrian citizens to amass a Philosopher\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s Stone on his own, and each death would make him a little bit more powerful.<\/li>\n
I do have some hope, though, and it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s because I believe in these people. It\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s comforting to know that Riza, horribly wounded as she is, is still willing to fight for what she believes in. All of these alchemists and humans are willing to give up their own lives. (Oh god, could no one else<\/i> die? That would be the worst, y\u00e2\u20ac\u2122all.)<\/li>\n
But holy shit, THIS SHOW IS STILL NOT DONE WITH ME. The confrontation between Edward and Pride is so surreal and chaotic, especially since Pride knows that Father doesn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t really need Edward alive anymore. The threat is so much more real, but that desperation on Pride\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s part is their ultimate downfall. BECAUSE SOLF KIMBLEE. I LITERALLY DID NOT BELIEVE THAT THIS WAS POSSIBLE<\/i>. I figured that he was gone forever! But it makes sense that someone as vicious and strong-willed as Kimblee would be able to make their soul survive within Pride. It\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s fascinating to me that Pride\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s flaw comes from their willingness to live. Pride was willing to compromise their hatred of humanity in order to stay alive, and that\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s what Kimblee punishes Pride for.<\/li>\n
AND THEN ED BECOMES A PHILOSOPHER\u00e2\u20ac\u2122S SOUL AGAIN<\/li>\n
AND PRIDE HAS FLASHES OF THEIR PARENT<\/li>\n
AND THIS IS SO BIZARRE AND UPSETTING AND FUCKED UP AND I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122M ALSO SUPER PROUD OF EDWARD? He\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s the only alchemist we\u00e2\u20ac\u2122ve seen who is able to turn their own soul into a Philosopher\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s Stone and survive. Twice<\/i>.<\/li>\n
MY GOD, the original form of Pride is a tiny embryo.<\/li>\n
what is this show<\/i><\/li>\n
I still dread the moment when Mrs. Bradley finds out who her family really was. IT\u00e2\u20ac\u2122S NOT GONNA BE PRETTY.<\/li>\n
What an exhilarating episode, y\u00e2\u20ac\u2122all.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n
The video commission for this episode is now archived in my store for just $0.99! You can purchase the entire show at once for only $49.99 for 64 videos!<\/a><\/p>\n
Mark Links Stuff<\/b><\/p>\n
– If you would like to support this website and keep Mark Does Stuff running, I’ve put up a detailed post explaining how you can!<\/a>
\n– Please check out the MarkDoesStuff.com<\/a>. All Mark Watches videos for past shows\/season are now archived there!
\n– I will be traveling for many events! Check the Tour Dates\/Appearances page<\/a> for up-to-date tour events.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
In the sixty-first episode of Fullmetal Alchemist: Brotherhood, Hohenheim reveals his secret. Intrigued? Then it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s time for Mark to watch FMA:B.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[554],"tags":[555],"class_list":["post-2990","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-fullmetal-alchemist-brotherhood","tag-mark-watches-fmab"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/markwatches.net\/reviews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2990","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/markwatches.net\/reviews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/markwatches.net\/reviews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/markwatches.net\/reviews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/markwatches.net\/reviews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2990"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/markwatches.net\/reviews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2990\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/markwatches.net\/reviews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2990"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/markwatches.net\/reviews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2990"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/markwatches.net\/reviews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2990"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}