The Problems with Fullmetal Alchemist

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Yeah, you read that title right. No, this isn’t  some sort of bizarre dream world you’ve been   plopped into. Despite making about 1000 videos  on Fullmetal Alchemist, I have problems with   every version. And even though I’ve already  spent a good deal of time complaining,   I still have some assorted complaints that just  didn’t really fit anywhere else in this series.   So, before I wrap up this 10,000 part  video series, I figured I should spend   a bit of time going over all that stuff that  I don’t like about one of my favourite series. Before going into my issues with 2003, I want  to start with mangahood. The reason is simple   enough--I have a lot more to discuss  with 2003. That’s right--after 100,000   videos in this series, I’m finally discussing  my major issues with 2003. But first, mangahood. My first issue comes in the form of convenient  plot points. Now, none of these things are plot   holes or things that have no explanations--they’re  just things that I feel aren’t adequately   explained in the story itself, or that feel  rather unsatisfying to me. For example,   fairly early on in the story, Ed, Al,  and Alex just happen to run into Marcoh,   who happens to have incredibly important  information about the Philosopher’s   Stone that will help the boys along on their  journey. It’s not like this couldn’t happen,   but it sure is convenient. I can’t help but  feel that it would’ve been better for Ed   and Al to end up actively searching him out,  instead of just stumbling upon him like this. A bit later on, Ed and Al also  simply happen to stumble upon Ling,   who happens to be looking for  the secret for immortality.   Again, a case where I would have preferred if Ling  was actively searching for them with more purpose,   or if Ed and Al were looking for him when they  heard rumours of someone looking for this secret.   Similarly, Barry happening to run into  Hawkeye just as they need information from  However, the bigger issues come as the story  moves along. First, Marcoh using his knowledge   of alchemy to destroy Envy's philosopher's  stone. Fair enough that he knows how to do this,   but afterward, it begs the question, “Why didn’t  he teach someone else how to do this?” Or, if he   couldn’t do that, “Why didn’t he try using this  on Pride later?” Of course, there are potential   answers people could come up with, but there  isn’t an answer provided in the story itself.   Instead, it feels like this plot point was  put in the story because the group to capture   Envy here so other things could happen later.  So this was used without considering how it   would impact later events or the overall  logic of how the homunculi are dealt with. But the largest issue in regards to these  convenient plot points easily comes from   Father’s plan itself. I mean, what is Father  doing here? He needs all these human sacrifices   and they’re an incredibly precious resource,  yet he just lets them run around doing whatever?   Beyond the fact that this allows them to actively  oppose him, what if something bad happened to   them? I get that he views humans as ants, and that  means he might not view them as enough of a threat   to even care about what they’re doing, but he  should care about them getting hurt themselves.   Really, at a point, it’s hard to understand why  he doesn’t try to keep them tied up under central,   waiting for the promised day. Again, even  if Father’s weaknesses can help you come up   with a reason for his actions here, I would have  preferred if the story focused a bit more on this.   As it stands, I'm not a big fan of it, and  it's one of these things that's always in   the back of my mind, bugging me, like,  "Father, be smart - I'm begging you!" Next up, problems with characterization. There  really aren’t many of these. In fact, it’s   impressive how few complaints I have, considering  how many characters there are and the length of   this story. However, there are a few moments where  character’s actions feel really strange to me,   where I don’t really buy what they’re  doing, or where I feel there was   missed opportunity to delve deeper into the  character's personalities and experiences. For example, there’s this moment where Martel  is killed inside Al. The fact this causes him   to regain his memories of the gate has always  been a bit confusing to me, and stands as one of   those contrivances I was talking about, but more  importantly here, Al’s reaction to this is so .   . . toned-down. Like, when it happens, he seems  understandably panicked and upset, but then he   moves on so quickly. Sure, this definitely impacts  his actions later, when he talks about refusing to   let anyone else get hurt, but overall, I think we  could have gotten more of him being really upset   about this, seen more of his emotional state  followed such a disturbing incident. Instead,   he simply moves on, and the plot pushes forward  with him mostly acting as he normally does. Later on, there’s another part where all these  characters are together and they agree to let   Mei take Envy back to her country as a way  to appease the emperor and save her clan.   I can understand their desire to help her, but  this has always felt mind-numbingly stupid to   me. Of course, just because characters make a  decision I disagree with doesn’t make something   a flaw. But I personally don't think the  characters don’t discuss this nearly enough.   After all, what if the emperor chose to use Envy  for evil means? Well, I guess they’re assuming   that Envy has no more power left, but that seems  like a very foolish decision for these characters   to make. Naturally, some people will feel this  is in the realm of reason while others won’t,   but this has always struck me as reckless in a  way that doesn’t suit this group of characters. Then, finally, there’s the whole human  sacrifice plot with Mustang. I already   mentioned that Father letting the characters  run around was a bit hard for me to buy,   but this is the most ridiculous with Mustang. The reasoning provided is clear enough: Mustang  is a potential human sacrifice, because he has   the ability to open the portal of truth. OK, fair  enough. But there’s something strange about this.   Mainly, there’s the question of what makes  someone a candidate for human sacrifice.   Throughout the story, the implication is that  the individual must be a powerful alchemist:   After all, Ed, Al, and Marcoh are among them.  Later though, we learn that people can only   be used as sacrifices if they’ve seen the  truth. So, in that case, why are characters   like Marcoh and Mustang considered? I presume it's  because, in order to successfully open the gate,   they would need to have a phenomenal understanding  of alchemy that very few people possess. All right. This all makes sense so far. But then  Mustang is forced through the gate and everything   gets kinda messy. If characters can be forced  to open the gate, keeping someone like Mustang   alive makes a lot less sense now. After all, he  learned a whole lot about what was going on fairly   early into the plot, and from there represented  a threat, or at least an obstruction, to Father’s   goal. In this light, it seems like Mustang  was kept because he was needed for the plot,   rather than that it really made sense  to keep him alive at this point. In chapter 52, Mustang even asks why he’s  being kept alive, to which Bradley replies:   “To make you realize how deep the waters are  you’ve been swimming in.” So maybe this could   be viewed as Bradley’s big weakness - that  he wants to see Mustang and others suffer;   that that’s the only way his wrath can be  satiated. Beyond that, I’ve already discussed his   desire to be in conflict with others in previous  videos, so perhaps Bradley didn’t want to wipe out   an adversary at this point. Still though, that  explanation doesn't quite satisfy me. I'd want   something a bit more - just a bit more of a focus  on why Father is taking such a hands-off approach,   and on why Mustang is being allowed to run around,  and on why, if they wanted to force Mustang   through the gate or force him to open the portal  - why didn't they focus more on this earlier? Why   didn't they kill his friends along the way in  an effort to convince him to open the portal,   instead of right before they need him? This  whole plan feels rather slapped-together for   something that was in the works for so long  and that so many people had their fingers in. Well, that's it. My main  complaints about mangahood.   All in all, not that much stuff here,  and none of it really gets in the way   of me enjoying this story thoroughly. But now?  Now we're onto the bigger part of this video. Episode 26 of 2003 has to be one of my least  favourite sections of Fullmetal Alchemist across   any version of the story. Why? Because  it takes the chapters its adapting,   removes and alters my favourites parts, and  replaces them with an abysmal Winry plot   that I just can’t stand. Of course, this  is the Rush Valley section of the story. First though, I need to discuss Rush Valley as its  presented in mangahood. Overall, this is where we   see Winry’s strengths as a character - we see  her passion for automail; her desire to become   a better engineer so she can help Ed on his quest;  her wisdom when she tells Paninya to stop stealing   stuff and that Dominic gave her her legs so she  could do better things than that; her capability   and level-headedness when she delivers this baby.  Along with that, she opens up Ed’s pocket watch   without realizing that what he has hidden in there  - that a bit of his trauma has been etched inside   it - but she still opens up to him about the fact  she saw this and discusses it with him. Basically,   she does the best thing she could do after having  made this mistake. After that, she steels her   resolve even more, and manages to find an automail  instructor who will teach her how to improve.   Much like Ed, she’s unwilling to let her abilities  stagnate. She wants to become better because she   wants to help them, because she cares about these  boys so much, and because she’s just passionate   about her craft. All in all, I came away from  this section of the story liking her a lot. However, 2003 uses this Rush Valley  section for the opposite purpose.   Instead of high-lighting Winry’s strengths,  it highlights Winry’s weaknesses.   Here, Ed’s goaded into an arm-wrestling contest  and, as soon as they insult his automail,   Winry eggs him on. Since these arm wrestling  guys are cheating and scamming people,   Ed cheats as well, and uses alchemy to win.  But Winry doesn't know this right away.   Even so, she learns soon enough  when these con-artists confront Ed. Now, her being upset makes sense. After all,  she wants her automail to be useful to Ed,   to help him on his journey. So seeing it help  him succeed? Well, that would be extremely   validating. Learning that she misunderstood  the situation would certainly be upsetting,   but her reaction and the way it’s framed  is bizarre and makes her so unlikeable.   First, she sort of goes into her  comedic violence mode - you know,   where she hits people and the art style changes  - but the art style doesn’t completely change   and the serious music remains, making this  section come across pretty badly. Here,   it seems like she’s just the sort of person who  resorts to violence to solve problems, even though   in the previous section with Al’s identity crisis,  she was supposed to stand in as someone who shows   how important it is to use words to solve  your problems and connect with other people. But the next thing is what really makes me dislike  her: See, 2003 Winry already knows the secret   inside Ed’s pocket watch. She saw it earlier,  which means that she knows that this is an   incredibly personal object that contains a piece  of his trauma. So what does she do here? Well,   she steals it from Ed and gives it to Paninya,  so he’ll have to chase her and come to respect   good automail, I guess? What a horrible  over-reaction and what a terrible thing to do.   Weaponizing Ed’s trauma to force him to chase  someone else is just . . . really messed up,   and this is only made worse by the fact that I can  compare this directly to mangahood’s version of   events and go, “Oh wow, she's really nice here.  And then she's just a total jerk over here." Anyway, following this, Ed gets his pocket watch  back and talks about how he can’t let anyone beat   him as far as his automail is concerned and the  sentimental music comes in and all that jazz.   I guess this is supposed to the moment where they  come to some sort of understanding, but instead,   to me, it makes Winry look more ridiculous. Here,  Ed uses his words to tell Winry how great her   automail is. Despite the fact she stole his pocket  watch. And it makes Winry seem more ridiculous   because she could have just talked to Ed about  this. I mean, he's clearly willing to talk. Now, I’m fine with characters making mistakes and  all that, but again, Winry’s actions here are such   obvious over-reactions, and the implications of  her stealing the pocket watch really don’t feel   like they were fully considered. Of course, I  understand that this section couldn’t have been   kept exactly the same as in mangahood though.  After all, Ed and Al already helped deliver a   baby in 2003, so something else had to happen here  unless the show wanted to weirdly repeat itself.   But this? This whole alteration to  the Rush Valley section of the story?   Not the “something else” I was hoping for at all. Well, that’s enough complaining about one  episode. Now it’s time to complain about some   broader stuff. And much like with mangahood,  I’ve got some contrivances to complain about. These contrivances mainly start piling  up once 2003 goes in its own direction.   First off, there’s the Juliet Douglas plot.  For those who haven’t seen the show in a while,   Juliet Douglas is allegedly the soldier who  started the Ishbal war by shooting a child.   After her death, Sloth uses her name to sneak  into the Amestrian military and take the roll as   Bradley’s secretary. Eventually, Hughes figures  this out, and that’s what leads to his death. But the question I always had was . . . why Juliet  Douglas? Why this name? Why such a high profile   soldier, someone who’s said to play such a central  roll in the Ishbal conflict. Couldn’t they have   used someone else’s name? Someone who wouldn't  have a whole Wikipedia article on them if you   looked it up? Or couldn't Sloth have slipped into  the military in some other way? All in all, it   just doesn’t make much sense to me, and it feels  like such an odd decision that I can’t see it as   anything other than a contrived way of getting  Hughes to realize something’s wrong with Sloth. Following this, a smaller contrivance pops  up when Izumi breaks into Ed’s hospital room   while Mustang and the gang are there and they  just . . . don’t follow up on that. To me,   it’s not a huge deal, but still . . . kinda  weird. But then these moments start piling up,   and it gets harder and harder  to brush them under the rug. Most of these problems come right towards the  end of the series - from episodes 46 onward.   Regardless of how much I love this series -  and regardless of the fact that some of my   favourite moments also occur in these episodes -  I still dislike how a lot of things were handled. Most of these issues come in the form of  questions I can ask, like, “How did Lust, Sloth,   and Wrath find where Ed and Al are staying here?”  After all, there’s no point where they would have   been able to learn their location. Then, “How  did Ed fix his automail arm after it broke?”   When his arm previously broke, he needed to go to  Winry for help, but now? Now he claps them hands   and gets moving. Maybe this arm is supposed  to be weaker than what Winry makes, but it   sure doesn’t seem like it, considering that he’s  also able to make it into a full-on gun. Later,   “How did Izumi know Ed and Al were in this  factory?” I mean, Ed had met with Izumi   before he learned Al went there, and they never  show him give her a call or anything like that. One that particularly bothers me is that the  Tringhams happen to get arrested and taken to   jail just before Ed breaks into this same building  and, whoa, the Tringhams have a note from their   father’s journal that provides Ed with the exact  info he needs to find Dante. It would have been   nicer if Ed took on a more active role and figured  out how to find her of his own accord somehow. Also, after Ed gets transported to the other  gate, it feels like quite the coincidence that   this Zeppelin lands on him. The strange part  of this is that it would have felt a lot more   appropriate if the other-world Ed had just died  in a fire bombing or something more large-scale,   instead of a freak accident taking him out, and  yet they still chose to go with a freak accident. Meanwhile, Rose’s state in this final set  of episodes has always confused me. I always   assumed Dante slipped something in her drink, but  she snaps out of it as soon as Ed gets stabbed,   but not when her baby’s getting tossed  around like a hot potato? Uh, OK? I guess?   It's possible that the drug just happened  to wear off as soon as Ed was stabbed,   but to me it always gave the sense that Rose  reacts more to Ed's suffering than she to her   baby getting tossed around, which  feels kinda weird for her character. Beyond that, I can understand why  Mustang wanted to go after Bradley,   but it’s harder to understand what exactly  his whole plan was here. He locks Bradley   in this room with him and then . . . what?  I can understand why he’d act recklessly,   but it’s harder to believe that Hawkeye would  let him go through with such a haphazard plan. Then, most importantly, what is Dante doing  during these last episodes? Of course,   she has her plan to use Al’s philosopher’s stone  to transfer to Rose’s body, and then she wants   to get it on with Ed so, yeah, that’s something  special right there. Makes enough sense though.   From here, she casts Ed through the gate. Now,  it's important to recognize that, at this point,   Al doesn't know where Ed is. So he doesn't  know that Ed has been sent to the other side. However, when Ed comes back through the gate,  Al is there, and he sees Ed. Now that Al knows   he's here, things have changed. Because  if Dante kills Ed, what's to stop Al from   using the philosopher's stone? From using  the very power source she needs? I mean,   maybe this alchemic circle underneath  him is supposed to be some a restraint,   but it clearly doesn't end up working out that  way, so . . . I'm not sure. Either way though,   killing Ed now is exceptionally stupid in a way.  Instead, shouldn't she use his life as leverage? The best justification for her actions I can  come up with is that, because she's such a   self-centered person and has such a low opinion  of other people, she can't imagine Al sacrificing   himself for Ed. Alternatively, it's possible she  thought she could use her alchemic abilities to   over-power the philosopher's stone. Maybe she's  just that prideful or something like that.   But if either of these things are  the case, or if both of them are,   I would've wanted more focus on those ideas. However, I've conveniently skirted over  a bigger issue I have. Termin-Archer. (man crying) Oooooh noooo.  NooHOHOHO. NOOOOOOHOHOHO. (girl speaking)   I'm trying to avoid any sort of  contact with my eyes with this thing. (explosion) Sometimes I remember that termin-archer  exists, and I just get a little bit sad.   Like I'll be doing a watch-through of 2003 - cuz I  watch this show a lot; it's one of my favourites -   and Termin-Archer's ugly mug pops onto the  screen and I go, "Oh no. I forgot about you."   But I never truly forgot. He's always lurking  in the back of my mind. Gnawing at my brain. Termin-Archer. There are so many things to complain about  with this. Just . . . why? Archer, before,   was a fine enough villain I guess. He existed  to show a member of the military who cared   about nothing more than gaining more power and  just becomes this war-mongering monster. And   that's a good thing for Ed to have to face in this  series, since he's constantly coming to terms with   different ideas of morality and what's  right and wrong and what he should do   and how he can navigate these situations. So  coming up against someone like this - someone   he probably isn't going to be able to make a  satisfactory deal with? I like that idea a lot. Either way though, I'm going a bit  off topic. I'm trying to ignore   the biggest problem, which is  that he become Termin-Archer. Having this goofy, ridiculous robot-man  appear at the end of the series,   as things are getting darker and more  depressing and more serious - Why? WHY? First off, how does he exist? I didn't know  that they have this sort of technology.   I guess maybe this is part of some sort of  secret military project. Maybe some of the   philosopher's stone was used for it, but .  . . why would you use it for that? I don't   know. Either way, even if that is the  case, it's not provided in the story. He just appears. As Termin-Archer. And  he's there. And he's running around.   And the craziest thing is, he  doesn't really do anything. He appears. Runs up. Shoots Mustang in the eye.   And then Mustang's fine. So all he really  does I guess is hurt Mustang. But he   hurts Mustang in a way that Mustang could  have just been hurt by Bradley. In fact,   it probably would have been better to have Bradley  hit Mustang in the eye - you know, slice it or   something - and then just do it that way. Bradley  can be the one who takes out one of his eyes. But no. Termin-Archer kinda just walks up and   does it and it makes the whole scene just a  little bit goofier, just a little bit stupider. (sigh) Now, despite all these complaints, it might  be surprising to know that I like the end   of the TV series. Actually, I kind of love  it, despite some of the messiness of it all.   Of course, I guess I was already primed to  have my expectations lowered, since I had   already heard about how bad it apparently was.  Either way though, my personal experience was   largely positive and, as the music swelled  and the credits rolled, I could confidently   say that I was satisfied with the ending.  I liked the open-ended nature of it. To me,   it felt like a fitting conclusion to Ed and Al’s  journey, even if it was incredibly sad. I didn’t   need there to be anymore and I’d seen a series  that I enjoyed at least as much as Brotherhood.   Over the course of my next video, I will go  over why I love the ending, but for now, all   that’s important is that I did love it and that  I didn’t feel the need for the story to continue. But, even then, I knew that this wasn’t really  the end. No, there was the follow-up film   The Conqueror of Shamballa. Still, I didn’t  watch it for at least a month because,   well, I was satisfied. Continuing the story felt  wrong to me, and I was worried that, somehow,   the movie would tarnish this series--this  ending--that I was actually quite fond of. So did it? Well, yes, no, maybe?  Honestly, it’s hard to say.   Because I’m incredibly conflicted  about The Conqueror of Shamballa. See, I like most of the ideas present in here.  Ed being hyper-focused on his world and slowly   becoming less and less hopeful he’ll make  it back? That’s a great direction for his   character to go in, a great way to expand on  this idea of “living in a dream” that comes   up multiple times throughout 2003. However, I  like how Ed’s feelings about this are clearly   mixed - he still reacts to what’s going on around  him; he still helps others; and, in particular,   he connects with Rose who he can relate to due to  her experience of being “othered” in this world.   Later, the story challenges Ed in a great way  when he decides he can’t allow the two worlds   to connect, since people on this side want  to use the other side for their own purposes.   Since Ed needs to connect the world in order to  see Al again, this challenges the very core of his   character - he needs to choose between the good  of the world and realizing his dream and desires. Meanwhile, Mustang having his rank lowered  following his attack on Bradley is an   appropriate direction to take his character  - after all, at the end of the TV series,   Ed told him no one would be able to trust him  as a leader if he went through with this plan,   regardless of his reasons. Basically, he knew he  might lose the support of the masses by acting on   his own, but he went through with it anyway, and  now he has to live with the consequences of that. Al’s development is similarly compelling to me.  In his desperate pursuit of Ed, he’s become a   hyper-competent alchemist. Throughout the  film, his razor focus on getting Ed back   is paired up with the other world’s Al trying to  build this rocket. In both cases, these characters   are following their dreams and, in the end, they  do things that could harm the rest of the world.   Basically, through them, we see how “living in a  dream” can cause people to make horrible mistakes. Regardless of all these good ideas though, I’ve  always felt that something is missing here. In   particular, Izumi, Mustang, and Winry’s arcs don’t  quite feel full to me. For example, we see Mustang   all depressed and then he comes back to central  to fight. Both of these moments work, but what   about the time between? Yeah, we can assume that  Mustang found the will to fight, but it would   have been nice to see that. This way, we get the  beginning and end of an arc, but the middle is   oddly missing. Meanwhile, Izumi just dies between  the show and the movie, so her character doesn’t   really get a proper send-off. Then Winry.  Winry just . . . doesn’t get much to do here.   Sure, she’s clearly upset and hoping for Ed’s  return, but then she gets left behind and . . . I   don’t know, I’ve always been left feeling that she  got kinda discarded by the film, that she wasn't   useful for the purposes of what she was trying  to do, and that her arc was never completed. So, after thinking about this movie a lot more and  watching it WAY too many times, I decided to go   look up who worked on this movie; in particular,  who directed it and who wrote the script for it.   I thought that maybe some people who hadn't been  as involved in the TV series had worked on this,   but . . . nope. The writer for the movie is  Shou Aikawa, who also wrote many of 2003’s   stand-out episodes, as well the enter  final stretch of episodes from 39 to 51.   Meanwhile, the series director, Seiji  Mizushima, returned for the movie. This was somewhat surprising to me.  These same people played a major   role in creating anime-original content I loved,   but in the movie, so much of what I loved  was missing. Of course, I wanted to know why. And, fortunately, there are some answers available  to us. In fact, a surprising number of answers.   Specifically, the scenario book for Conqueror of  Shamballa contains some stuff from the prototype   of the script, and many of the scenes or ideas  that were later cut are in-tact here. But it’s   only in Japanese and I haven’t yet levelled up  enough as an anime YouTube man to read that. But,   still, there's no need to worry, because a hero  emerges before us by the name of Sinnesspiel.   I probly said that wrong, but either way, you're  still a hero. Because they’ve translated a whole   bunch of this stuff, including cut sections of  the script and notes left by the film’s creators. Before reading this script, I only had a vague  sense of what I felt the movie was missing,   but after reading it everything  seemed a whole lot clearer.   Before I said that it felt like Mustang,  Izumi, and Winry had been kind of left behind.   Well, that’s because they were. Originally, they  were going to have a whole lot more content. First, Izumi wasn't going to die off-screen.  Instead, we were going to get her death scene.   In this scene, Izumi is on her last legs, and  she's talking with Winry about Al's focus on   getting Ed back. After a bit, Wrath  shows up, and she reaches out to him,   calling him her son. But he tries to leave,  saying that homunculi don't have mothers,   that they're nothing more than fake lives made  from alchemy. However, Winry implores him to stay,   so Izumi gets to wrap him in a hug, and says that  she'll give him a life, and then dies like that. It's such a great send-off for her character,  focuses more on Winry's effect on Wrath,   and also, really moves Wrath in the correct  direction for him to end up helping Ed and Al. In my opinion, an even more  important scene occurs later,   when Mustang goes to visit Hughes's  grave when he's called back into central.   Hawkeye's there too, and she tries to  encourage Mustang to come back to the military,   to come back to Central permanently, and work  as an alchemist there. But Mustang just says   that he doesn't have any right, and that he  feels he can't serve in the military any more.   As such, we see that it's not just that he's being  punished by the higher-ups for what he did. He's   kind of punishing himself. And as he's walking  away from the grave, he happens to run into Winry. Of course, there's some awkwardness between them,  but they still talk to one another, and Mustang   basically says that he's leaving the military.  Winry's response here is incredibly important.   She challenges him and asks him how  he can abandon his dream so readily.   After all, he had wanted to stand at the  top of the military, to change the nation,   to make sure another war wouldn't break out.  But now, he's just gonna give up. In this way,   despite the fact that Mustang killed her  parents, Winry encourages him to move forward,   in a way that's not all that different  from how Ed encouraged Rose to move forward   all the way back in the second episode in this  series. It's a wonderful moment that fills in   the gaps for Mustang's character arc in the  film, while also giving Winry a lot more do.   And I'd even say this serve as an effective end  for her character arc. She's grown so much and,   even if I still would've liked a bit more,  this definitely does a lot of good for her. To me, even just these scenes would have  gone a long way in fleshing out the film,   and in making it a serviceable  conclusion for the whole cast.   Evidently, Aikawa agrees with some of this, since  according to the notes in the prototype script,   he particularly wanted to keep  some of Mustang’s scenes in. Beyond that, there are also certain plot  contrivances or confusing moments that   would have benefited from more time and a  slower pace. For example, Ed was originally   supposed to be taken prisoner when Noah went  to help Eckart open the door to Shamballa.   However, in the final movie, Fritz Lang breaks  through a wall and gets him. This was apparently   done because they wanted the film to keep  a fast pace going into the last stretch,   but it left me wondering how Fritz would know  his location at that moment and how he managed   to break through at just the right time. It  also results in this moment where Ed jumps   out of a plane, crashes through a window, and  bounces upon landing. I get that Ed’s resilient,   but this totally broke my suspension of disbelief.  This is a world where people die from a single   gunshot wound. A fall like this should have easily  killed him, or even if he was incredibly lucky,   injured him so badly that he couldn’t move.  Similarly, Winry and Sheshka were supposed to   end up in this underground city by other means,  instead of just collapsing down there when Eckart   comes through the gate. This moment isn’t a  huge deal, but I was always shocked that they   weren’t at all hurt. All in all, it gives the  sense that these characters are just stumbling   through life-and-death scenarios, somehow  holding onto their lives through simple chance,   and that makes the moments of danger in this  film lack some tension they’d otherwise have. Additionally, the notes in the prototype script  reveal that Envy lost his ability to transform   after passing through the gate, which is why he  still looks like a serpent. On top of that, he’s   lost his mind, too. This also explains why he’s  just chilling out with Hohenheim in his mouth,   and why he only bites down when Hohenheim applies  pressure. Unfortunately though, the film doesn’t   relay that info to the audience at all. In fact,  Envy is acting pretty much as he did before   entering the gate--as in, he still attacks Ed  upon seeing him, still gets enraged when he thinks   about Hohenheim, and still calls Ed a “pipsqueak.”  At the least, changes should to these included   scenes should have been made to get across the  idea that Envy isn't quite himself anymore. In the end, this scenario book helped  me figure out why I feel the way I do   about The Conqueror of Shamballa. I felt  that it was rushed and bloated because   that's kinda what it is: A much longer script  trimmed down, in many places, simply because there   wasn’t enough time to keep key moments in. Really,  it feels a lot like an adaptation of a novel that   rushes through a lot of material, even if it  does manage to cover the most major story beats.   As such, I don’t really like The Conqueror of  Shamballa, but I also don’t hate it. If this   were a 13 episode season of anime, it probably  would have fared much better. Fortunately though,   I enjoy the ending of 2003 and never felt  that it needed a continuation all that badly.   So this film doesn’t really affect my  opinion of the TV series all that much.   Even so, it’s hard not to be disappointed, since  I feel that this movie could have made the story   even better. Because of that, to me, this movie  will always be a massive missed opportunity,   and an unsatisfying end to Ed and  Al’s journey together in 2003. Well, those are a bunch of my problems  with Fullmetal Alchemist. Again, a lot   of complaining was done here, but that doesn't  change the fact that every version of this story   is wonderful. I love them all. I've watched  each of the anime multiple and read the manga   more than I'd like to admit. In case you haven't  been able to tell, I'm kind of obsessed with it.   And besides, it's not like I'm ending things  off on a negative note. Nope. We've got one   more video left in this video series. So I  hope you'll come back for that one next time. Either way, thanks for watching, and  thank you to all my patrons for support.   In particular, special thanks to Conrad over there  for noticing a couple missteps in my analysis   when I released this early to patrons. It was a  big help, and it saved me the hassle of going,   "Crap. I made a mistake. What do I do now?" And  I really appreciate that. Thanks again though,   and I hope you all have a great day.  See ya next time. Bye-bye for now.
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Channel: Lowart
Views: 259,184
Rating: undefined out of 5
Keywords: Fullmetal Alchemist, fullmetal alchemist brotherhood, brotherhood, 2003, fullmetal alchemist 2003, fma vs fmab, fma 2003, fma manga, full metal alchemist, fma, 2003 vs brotherhood, fullmetal alchemist vs brotherhood, brotherhood vs manga, the conqueror of shamballa, cos, fma movie, fullmetal alchemist movie, 2003 movie, 2003 vs broho, fma vs broho, old fullmetal alchemist, new fullmetal alchemist, old vs new fma, Father vs Dante, villains of fullmetal alchemist, fma problems
Id: GYu3QprCi5A
Channel Id: undefined
Length: 31min 26sec (1886 seconds)
Published: Fri Aug 20 2021
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