Fullmetal Alchemist: Brotherhood - Episode 18 Review

Episode 18, "The Arrogant Palm of a Puny Human"


*****SPOILERS*****

Synopsis: Major Armstrong escorts Edward to Risembool, where they meet with Breda and head out of the country to the remains of the country of Xerxes. While at the Xerxes ruins, Edward is shocked to see Maria Ross, alive and well. It's revealed that Roy set up a fake death for her and smuggled her out of the country using Barry, Ling, and Fu. Back at Central, Ling fills in Alphonse and Winry. Ed reaffirms his vow to get his and his brother's bodies back, adding that he will protect who ever gets involved. Fu escorts Ross to Xing, where she will live until she can return to Amestris. Back at Central, Barry's body attacks Falman, but Havoc and Barry (in the armor) lures it outside where Hawkeye shoots it in its hand. However, Gluttony arrives to take her out.

Comments:

Though I do find a few flaws in her work, the original manga author of Fullmetal Alchemist, Hiromu Arakawa is a good writer. She's good at filling out the world of the manga, providing all sorts of details that add a sense of realism to the environments and the people. Another thing she's good at is the arrangement of the story, the placing of events. So when she gave us a few chapters to consider Roy Mustang as a cold-blooded murderer who would burn up Maria Ross on sight, the reader should feel conflicted as to his character. I know I was when I read it.

But here it's revealed, in the episode after the supposed death occured, that not only is Maria Ross alive, but Roy faked her death to smuggle her out of the country. Now, while I appreciate the events themselves (Roy is very clever and shrewd), that they occur so immediately after her "death", as opposed to later on, as in the manga, makes me roll my eyes. It ruins the ambiguity of the character during the events that take place right after. What Arakawa does is have us guess at the sort of guy Roy Mustang is, but Brotherhood doesn't want us to do that much thinking. This rearrangement of events has got to stop, because it's draining the intelligence of Arakawa's work.

And, not to mention, having Maria Ross appear alive so soon sort of ruins the tension created and the suspense of her death. It's like the producers are trying too hard to relieve the viewer of any anxiety. If they're going to reshuffle the events, they should have at least have saved the Ross reveal for the middle of the episode, before the eyecatch.

My only problem with Roy's doings is just how extremely convenient it was that they could get a plan like that going so perfectly. I mean, having Barry at his disposal, Barry meeting Ling, Ling knowing Fu, Fu knowing Mr. Han, and being able to put together a dummy that was that perfect, it all sounds a little too convenient and perfect. Still, one can't discount that Roy himself is pretty resourceful, so even without all those conveniences, it's within reason to believe he would have thought of something else.

The Xerxes bit, although reshuffled and split up a tad, was handled fairly well. I love the scene where Edward and Fu exchange stories about the legendary "sages" that introduced alchemy to their countries, which will become important later on. The detail in the ruins and the animation was really beautiful and atmospheric. My only issues were with Edward AGAIN reaffirming his goals, which he tends to do every two minutes. That, and the scene with the Ishbalan folks just seemed like a forced device to tell him it was Scar who killed Winry's parents. Just because it was in the manga, doesn't mean I have to like it.

By the way, yeah, Scar killed Winry's parents in the manga. I personally preferred the idea of Roy having done it, because it sort of added a certain sadness to the reasoning behind Roy's motivation and showed how cruel the military could be. Not to mention it paid off for both Roy's character arc and Winry's, even though they never explicitely talked about it alone together. Still, with Scar having been the murderer, it adds a little more punch to Scar and a more personal reason for Ed to want to beat him.

The episode actually introduced a new piece of music, which played as soon as Maria Ross showed up. It felt a little bit more like "victory" music than the sort of music for such a reveal, though. In fact, it sounded somewhat like the track named "Victory" that was on the soundtrack for the first series. Anyway, by itself it's a neat little piece, and it is new, so I guess I can't complain about it.

I think what I liked more than anything about this episode was the preview for the next episode. Aside from already being excited for the events of the next episode, the clever wording of the narrator is a treat, making me wish I didn't know what was coming. People who haven't read the manga are in for a surprise.

Overall Score: 3 out of 5


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