Fullmetal Alchemist: Brotherhood - Episode 63 Review

Episode 63, "The Other Side Of The Gate"

Suddenly, a tournament fighter series!Tug o' Greed mini-game!

*****SPOILERS*****

Synopsis: Edward continues to pummel a weakened Father, who struggles to keep "God" inside of him. He grabs Greed's Philosopher's Stone, and Greed turns parts of his body into weakened carbon to make it easier to finish him. Father rips Greed out, and the greedy homunculus dies with a smile on his face. Edward continues his attack, and Father finds it impossible to hold "God" in any longer. He is pulled into himself by the black hands and ends up at the Gate with the Truth. Father defends his intentions, but the Truth says it's time for him to recieve punishment for his arrogance, and Father is pulled into the Gate, which closes. People mourn Alphonse's sacrifice and Hohenheim volunteers to sacrifice himself to bring him back. Edward rejects this offer and decides to sacrifice something of his own. Using a human transmutation array, Edward sends himself to the Gate, where he decides to sacrifice his own Gate. Truth tells him he will no longer be able to use alchemy, but he says it's fine, as long as he has friends. He retrieves Al and they exit through Al's doors. Central's radio station reports that the Fuhrer and his son died in the conflict. Edward delivers the tiny Selim to Mrs. Bradley. Alex thanks Hohenheim for his sons, who saved the country, and Hohenheim walks off. Arriving in Risembool the next morning, Hohenheim dies as he kneels at his wife's grave. Pinako finds him there with a smile on his face.

Alas, poor Greed. I knew him well, Edward. He was a man of infinite jest...;_;

Comments:

After all is said and done, the final battle is won, and the brothers, along with the help of others, save the country of Amestris from Father. This episode has a bit of that shonen spirit that I was glad the rest of the story didn't have much of. It comes off as a little weird seeing Edward fight Father one-on-one with everyone cheering him on like it was some usual fighting show. But at the same time, it was pretty exciting to see Edward, the titular character, get to take down the main villain of the story.

The episode covers about half of the final chapter of the manga, 108, which is huge and jam-packed with events. They slightly change things here so that we follow Hohenheim back to Risembool, when in the manga there were a lot more scenes of the aftermath of the battle before that. In fact, it seems like much of the episode is Hohenheim-themed, which given that he dies at the end, seems appropriate. I liked how the beginning of the episode flashed back to the Dwarf in the Flask's conversation with Hohenheim about wanting more out of life. Hohenheim thinks about this again when he's standing where Father was pulled into the Gate, like he finally understood what the Dwarf in the Flask was talking about and pitied him, despite his machinations.

And Father was pitiable. Not sympathetic per se, not bringing up feelings of, "Aw, now I feel bad about his karmic end." Pitiable. Like, here was this poor fool of a thing trying to know everything about the world, and look how pathetic he's become in his defeat. Though personally, I think his fall is due to his utter lack of creativity. Maybe that was because he got rid of his seven desires. Maybe you lose that spark that makes you creative. Because seriously, all he did was stand around while his Philosopher's Stone was chipped away at, like an idiot. But I still sort of pitied him as the black hands dragged him into the Gate, presumably forever.

Though that sort of leads to the question, what the hell was Father? I mean, we know that he was a homunculus born of Hohenheim's blood, but how was he made? What is his connection to the Gate? Is he part of the Gate, part of "God"? We don't really find out much about him. Now, you might ask, "Is it important, really?", and well, it's only important because there are obvious visual similarities between Father and "God" in the Gate. We also don't really find out what "God" is, whether it's some force behind alchemy, or whether it's really God that created the universe, or what. Edward says in the first chapter of the manga that there isn't any God, but is that self-deception or is the God of the Gate different than that religious God? None of that is explained.

And really, couldn't another Father be created at some point? I mean, are you telling me that in the history of that world, only some Xerxes people figured out how to make a homunculi like the Dwarf in the Flask? Too many questions are left unanswered.

One of the criticisms of the first Fullmetal Alchemist anime TV series is that Edward cries too often, that Edward is supposed to be more stoic. I'm of the opinion that he doesn't really cry as much as people think, but it is true that he's been more stoic in the manga and Brotherhood. I guess it makes it more powerful then when he does cry in this episode, when Hohenheim offers to sacrifice himself to bring Alphonse back, and he finally calls Hohenheim "father". It's the first time he readily acknowledges the man as his father, and it's a pretty powerful moment.

My favorite character in Fullmetal Alchemist, Greed, finally passes in this episode, but not before helping to weaken Father. It's too bad his ultimate motivation turned out to be so cliche and stupid, but at least he went out rebelling, and with a smirk on his face (a lot of characters in this show die with a smile, it seems) as he said goodbye. Godspeed, Greed, you magnificent bastard.

Another great moment in the episode is Edward's solution to bring Alphonse back from the Gate. Instead of sacrificing himself, as he did in the first series (after Al did the same), he merely sacrificed his Gate, stripping him of the ability to use alchemy. Now, how he knew the Gate would be enough of a toll to bring back an entire person is beyond me, but at this point in the story you just kind of have to go with it because of how clever the idea is. This leaves us with an Edward who can no longer use alchemy, but one that still lives in Amestris. It's spin on the end of the first series, which found Edward in a world where he couldn't use alchemy, but apart from his brother.

In fact, there are a few parallels to the end of the first series, already (the title of this episode, for one, being the title of ep 49 of the first series). The main villain gets a karmic death (Dante gets eaten by a crazed Gluttony), Edward can't use alchemy, and Alphonse gets his body back. Fortunately for Alphonse, he doesn't de-age, but that's unfortunate for May, too, since she's what, ten? Don't do it, Al. Ten will get you twenty. Besides, Winry's pie is waiting. (What? I meant an actual pie, you perverts!)

I have to admit, Hohenheim's final scene was pretty memorable, and may have provoked me to tremble slightly. But... no tears! No tears! It's... raining! It's raining!

Never seen a bluer sky... I can feel it reaching out and moving closer... there's something about blue...

"Turns out I was paper-mache the whole time!""That's one well-prepared dead guy."

Overall Score: 4.5 out of 5



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