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.
