Episode 49, " Familial Love"
*****SPOILERS*****
Synopsis: Hohenheim tries to get Alphonse to wake up as Pride detects him and plans to lure him out. Greed takes back control of Ling's body as the group continues fighting Pride. Alphonse finally wakes up and asks his father to help him in a plan. Back at the fight, Pride is easily overwhelming Edward, Greed, and Ranfan, when Hohenheim shows up. Alphonse runs up behind Pride, but is caught. Pride calls Al foolish, which angers Hohenheim, who springs the plan into action. As Alphonse grabs Pride, Hohenheim uses his power to cause huge chunks of the ground to come up and close around Pride and Alphonse. The plan is revealed to have Pride trapped in total darkness in the giant mound until after the Promised Day. Realzing Pride is out of comission, Greed races towards Central, planning to take over the world. Scar, Marcoh, and their chimera companions meet with homeless folks who inform them of the blowing up of Bradley's train. Meanwhile, Kimbley kills several Ishbalans in the Central area. Inside the dark mound, Pride tells Alphonse of Mrs. Bradley's kindness. Scar's group meets up with Ed's group and Fu goes ahead to Central. Daylight comes and Edward puts on hs red coat for the Promised Day. In Central, Roy's rebellion begins.
Comments:
After a few episodes of combat with Pride, the battle comes to an end, or at least to a break, with Pride being sealed up in a dark mound, thanks to Hohenheim and Alphonse (there was some new music, there, too). Pride is probably the most dangerous homunculus, and it was Al's quick thinking that put him out of comission, not any of the combat maneuvers by the Xingese, which made me glad, because if they had been the ones to defeat him, I think I might have stopped reading the manga at this point.
It helped, also, that Hohenheim finally stepped up and used his alchemy ability (which is nigh infinite, thanks to the Philosopher's Stone in him). I wonder, though, if he could have just used his power to extract Pride's Philosopher's Stone core and destroyed him entirely. I guess if he could, he would have, though (assuming Arakawa though of that). If you were waiting for any real involved Hohenheim battle, you'll have to be a little more patient.
We got a nice little moment with Pride admitting that he does have affection for his adoptive mother. Still, I wouldn't be feeling any particular sympathy for him over it. He sort of took that as an opportunity to say how predictable humans were.
Greed has taken back control of Ling's body, to Ranfan's dismay, and is now heading for Central. With five out of the other six homunculi either destroyed or incompacitated, all he has to deal with is Sloth and Father (though I guess Father himself counts as a homunculi). While that's no easy task, I wouldn't expect Greed to take them on directly. Sorry to say, though, we won't be seeing Greed again for a little while.
Kimbley has returned, and he's still enjoying his work. His work apparenlty being killing random people. Seriously, though, who deployed him there? After successfully having the crest of blood made in the North, shouldn't he be back to tracking Scar down? Or is that what he's doing? Then again, killing Ishbalans is sort of a hobby for him, so I suspect he hasn't received any orders since being North, and is just having fun.
The episode ends with Roy Mustang's rebellion springing, and the return of Denny Brosch. The next episode will be all about this rebellion, though with the Fuhrer gone, I don't see why Roy and his group didn't just storm right into Central HQ before anyone could react. I guess he has his own plan, though. The scene with him at Maes Hughes' grave is a new scene that wasn't in the manga, and will probably help a certain later event a bit.
Overall Score: 3.5 out of 5
*****SPOILERS*****
Synopsis: Hohenheim tries to get Alphonse to wake up as Pride detects him and plans to lure him out. Greed takes back control of Ling's body as the group continues fighting Pride. Alphonse finally wakes up and asks his father to help him in a plan. Back at the fight, Pride is easily overwhelming Edward, Greed, and Ranfan, when Hohenheim shows up. Alphonse runs up behind Pride, but is caught. Pride calls Al foolish, which angers Hohenheim, who springs the plan into action. As Alphonse grabs Pride, Hohenheim uses his power to cause huge chunks of the ground to come up and close around Pride and Alphonse. The plan is revealed to have Pride trapped in total darkness in the giant mound until after the Promised Day. Realzing Pride is out of comission, Greed races towards Central, planning to take over the world. Scar, Marcoh, and their chimera companions meet with homeless folks who inform them of the blowing up of Bradley's train. Meanwhile, Kimbley kills several Ishbalans in the Central area. Inside the dark mound, Pride tells Alphonse of Mrs. Bradley's kindness. Scar's group meets up with Ed's group and Fu goes ahead to Central. Daylight comes and Edward puts on hs red coat for the Promised Day. In Central, Roy's rebellion begins.
Comments:
After a few episodes of combat with Pride, the battle comes to an end, or at least to a break, with Pride being sealed up in a dark mound, thanks to Hohenheim and Alphonse (there was some new music, there, too). Pride is probably the most dangerous homunculus, and it was Al's quick thinking that put him out of comission, not any of the combat maneuvers by the Xingese, which made me glad, because if they had been the ones to defeat him, I think I might have stopped reading the manga at this point.
It helped, also, that Hohenheim finally stepped up and used his alchemy ability (which is nigh infinite, thanks to the Philosopher's Stone in him). I wonder, though, if he could have just used his power to extract Pride's Philosopher's Stone core and destroyed him entirely. I guess if he could, he would have, though (assuming Arakawa though of that). If you were waiting for any real involved Hohenheim battle, you'll have to be a little more patient.
We got a nice little moment with Pride admitting that he does have affection for his adoptive mother. Still, I wouldn't be feeling any particular sympathy for him over it. He sort of took that as an opportunity to say how predictable humans were.
Greed has taken back control of Ling's body, to Ranfan's dismay, and is now heading for Central. With five out of the other six homunculi either destroyed or incompacitated, all he has to deal with is Sloth and Father (though I guess Father himself counts as a homunculi). While that's no easy task, I wouldn't expect Greed to take them on directly. Sorry to say, though, we won't be seeing Greed again for a little while.
Kimbley has returned, and he's still enjoying his work. His work apparenlty being killing random people. Seriously, though, who deployed him there? After successfully having the crest of blood made in the North, shouldn't he be back to tracking Scar down? Or is that what he's doing? Then again, killing Ishbalans is sort of a hobby for him, so I suspect he hasn't received any orders since being North, and is just having fun.
The episode ends with Roy Mustang's rebellion springing, and the return of Denny Brosch. The next episode will be all about this rebellion, though with the Fuhrer gone, I don't see why Roy and his group didn't just storm right into Central HQ before anyone could react. I guess he has his own plan, though. The scene with him at Maes Hughes' grave is a new scene that wasn't in the manga, and will probably help a certain later event a bit.
Overall Score: 3.5 out of 5
