FMA: BH ep 7 - Hidden Truths
I actually watched this episode on Monday, but haven't had time to write about it. On Tuesday, ![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
my_daroga and I visited snickfic, who I rec just in general, as a livejournal friend but also real life buddy. We talked about SPN a lot, which made me miss that show. To write this reaction, I sort of skimmed the episode again. I didn't want to leave anything out!
This episode, to quotemy_daroga, "felt like an assault." Overall I felt it was much lower in quality than anything we have watched so far. There was way more yelling and high pitches, over the top reactions, silly art to convey outrageous reactions. I found it really exhausting, and feel a little frustrated because this was an episode without much happening in it. It should have been low key and quiet, and I'm particularly frustrated because one of the low-key quiet moments in this episode was one of the best moments so far. It was just surrounded by unnecessary mayhem.
We started with Lust talking about the fact that she burned down the library. Then Gluttony fights Scar, so I suppose they're not on the same side. I'm hoping we're going to learn that the government is in fact evil, in which case Scar is a little more ambiguous, though murdering State Alchemist doesn't seem righteous any way you spin it. But the fact that the Very Bad Guys are against Scar says something interesting. Also, where was Envy?
Then Mustang says he wants to solve the Scar case so his "stock will go up." He reveals his intention to become Fuhrer, and Hawkeye suggests he might wanna be more circumspect about voicing his ambitions. Mustang doesn't seem to take this warning seriously. This is a different version of Mustang than the really self-flagellating one I had hoped for. This is a little more Flamboyant Arrogant Hero meet Sensible Repressed Woman, which is less interesting. But I love Mulder/Scully, so it's not like I'm entirely opposed to the dynamics.
The Elrics and Armstrong find the library burned, which is a bummer. Ross and Bosch take over custody of the Elrics, which brings up several things I've neglected to mentioned. When Armstrong was fighting Scar back in episode 5, it was mentioned that the Elrics needed to be kept under wraps. I forget who said it, and I remember thinking it odd at the time, because until that point I felt like the Elrics had paraded around telling anyone and everyone who they were. I'm still confused about what they were doing before the start of the series. I feel like Mustang came to recruit them four years ago, but it's unclear when Edward took his State certification test thingy.
Anyway, the "boy, we better keep the Elrics a secret" thing seemed out of the blue, but here it's in full force. Bosch and Ross don't know that Alphonse doesn't have a body, and for some reason Edward and Alphonse don't want to tell them, even though they've seemed plenty pleased to tell people before. Ross and Bosch are also overwhelmed and impressed with how important and powerful and mysterious the Elrics are, which reads as more of the same problem I was having in the last episode: the text wants to convince us the Elrics are special.
This is compounded by Sheska, who seems as far as I can tell to be some kind of fangirl insert. She's cute but also very "normal" looking; all she likes to do is read; she doesn't feel useful but is really passionate about books. Idk all the stuff about her felt unrealistic and over the top and pointless and silly. This show is about people using magic left and right, and yet I'm more frustrated by a girl with this kind of capacity for photographic memory because it just isn't explained. I understand that some people do have photographic memory, but she appears to have every page of like 50,000 books memorized, and I don't think that's possible. I don't think fire and metal bending is possible either, but at least there's a diegetic explanation of it. The diagetic explanation for Sheska seems to be that she's a nerd, and nerds have special powers? Idk. I liked Sheska herself, but the device rubbed me the wrong way. Anyway, probably the reason it rubbed me the wrong way was that a lot of the OTT stuff was in conjection with Sheska.
Also, why does Edward need an "escort"? Do they think he needs a babysitter? And if so, how is he a State Alchemist? Also, I don't know who subbed this particular version, but they keep using the word "stuffy" to describe Armstrong. I don't think that word means what they think it means. I think maybe they mean intimidating? I will say that it's nice having another girl!soldier in the person of Maria Ross. She reminds me a little of Maria Hill, maybe just because she's a short-haired brunette who seems a little uptight, named Maria.
So anyway, they get the texts from the library due to Sheska's amazing memory. Sheska comes back to thank them, and says she is a worthless person, which is annoying. But Alphonse is wonderful and kind and reassures her, and Edward listens to Al and is also reassured. It was a nice brotherly moment, and also a nice Al-being-just-generally-awesome moment.
Then Hughes walks in, which brings up other stuff I also have neglected to mention. In ep 5, when Mustang & co. came to help the Elrics fight Scar, Hughes said something derogatory about benders, I mean alchemists. He appeared to be joking, and no one took particular offense. It made me think, though, about how alchemists have this incredible power that makes them more powerful than other people. I mean, we have seen how State Alchemists get money and good treatment from the state in exchange for working for the government, but there's also just the power of alchemy itself. Are some people more "natural" alchemists, like some people are benders and others aren't? So far this seems to be the case.
And speaking of Avatar: the Last Airbender, are we gonna explore this divide in power between those who can perform alchemy and those who can't? Are we gonna see more about the feelings of those who can't; are we going to have political strife over the matter? I haven't finished watching Korra, but I really appreciated those issues getting explored in the Avatar universe. It was a little bit like someone made a sequel to Harry Potter and said, "Okay, but what about those Muggles? Let's examine the cultural implications of a race of people who are more powerful and thus more privileged than another race of people, and what that means in terms of Death Eaters who use that power to subjugate, vs Harry Potter & co, who go prancing about acting as if there is no difference at all."
Also, Hughes says in this scene that the Elrics should look him up when they're in town. He did say something similar in the first ep, when he showed them his pictures of his family, which makes me wonder if the first ep was the first time the Elrics were at Central? Still confused here, probably mostly because the first ep was such a hash and also I'm bad at paying attention before things get interesting.
Then the Elrics break the code and find out human sacrifices are necessary to create a philosopher's stone. They tell Ross and Bosch, for reasons that make no sense. Then Armstrong gets it out of Ross and Bosch with the power of his sparkles. This is more OTTness, which we really don't need in this ep, and also I still don't get Armstrong. I get that he's really emotional, and he's really big so that when he wants to he can also be really scary, but just . . . idk so far he doesn't seem like a real person.
Someone toldmy_daroga they thought she would love Armstrong. This made me pretty excited, because my_daroga loves characters who love life. Iroh is her favorite character from A:tLA, and while he's not my favorite character, I do love him dearly. I wasn't expecting Armstrong to be Iroh, but once we saw him get all emotional over the Elrics I was hoping he'd be this huge guy who was really just this great big softy, but this episode gave him glowing eyes of fire so idk. Everything was so loud and outrageous and badly drawn, it was sort of hard to tell.
And then we get this quiet moment that is really one of the most beautiful moments in the series so far. The Elrics are lying on couches in the dark, with the ceiling fan really the only sound. Edward talks about how everything slips out of their grasp, how maybe there is no hope for them, how maybe God really just hates them. Then he says that he's been meaning to say something to Alphonse for a while, but he didn't have the courage. It just a really, really powerful scene, especially the quietude of it, and the sound of the ceiling fan, and the little clinks of Al's armor.
(For some reason, anime makes better use of silence than most western dramas, in my opinion. In Touch, an anime from the 80s about baseball, every once in a while it would get very quiet, and the only sound would be some windchimes. It had a special meaning in the show, and man, every time it happened it was just heartbreaking. I couldn't believe how powerful the effect was, and how rarely I have seen audio used like that on television.)
I also appreciate that Edward didn't get to say what he was going to say, but I'm really annoyed that Armstrong came in and was Armstrongy again. I sincerely hope Armstrong begins to make some sense soon.
So anyway, Armstrong says that it's horrible the military "conducted something like that". What does that mean? Does he mean conducted the research? Because before they researched it, how did they know it was evil? But Marcoh was pretty upset by his research, and had to change his identity because of it. This suggests that the military wanted to keep on studying stones and possibly even wanted to start making them. Armstrong's upset about this, but it seems . . . facile? Isn't Armstrong a part of the military? Does this betray the things he stands for and believes in? Instead he just says "the truth can be cruel sometimes." Idk, he doesn't seem to have different views of the military because of this; his worldview doesn't seem to be shattered; he just seems sad for the sake of being sad--maybe because they wanted to have overdramatic tears streaming out to either side of him, rather than deal with a real man whose view of the world has just been challenged? Idk, what's up with this show, man?
Edward realizes that there's a "truth within the truth" to what Marcoh told them, whatever that means. I guess they decide it means that state was making philosopher's stones? Apparently it does, because next we're looking at a map of Central, with four alchemy labs. Edward figures out that the fifth (condemned) lab is making philosopher's stones, because there's a prison right next door. They could use the prisoners for human sacrifices! If this is his conclusion, he comes to the idea that the state is evil quite quickly. Did he already have a premonition? And Armstrong swears Bosch and Ross to secrecy, but why isn't Edward more careful? Why does he trust Armstrong? Why does he trust anyone? If he looks at the map and realizes the fifth lab could be using the prison to make human sacrifices, doesn't this say to him that the state is deeply, deeply involved in some pretty fucking horrible behavior, and don't you think he would be instantly on his guard against all the military personnel in the room? This whole scene makes no sense to me.
Armstrong, with red eyes of fury, makes them promise not to go to the lab to check it out. So the Elrics go to the lab to check it out. Edward shimmies through a vent and calls himself small, and then does his "I'm not small!" freak-out at his own self. Yay, more of the joke that I just don't get. Then there are definitely guys doing stuff in this lab, and a scary-seeming dude drops down toward Alphonse with a big sword thing. I think I'm supposed to care, but this episode was such a jumble that I'm having trouble doing so.
Also, I watched episode six until after the cartoon closing-credits at the end. There was a moment with Winry picking up a screw, looking like it was something she had forgotten to include in Ed's arm or Al's armor. Then the preview for the next episode started. I don't like watching previews when I can watch all the episodes in a row anyway, so I generally just turn the show off when the end credits come on. I checked some other eps, and they did not appear to have tags after the end credits--but ep 6 definitely did. What's up with that?
I'm afraid this episode reaction might be disappointing to those of you who really like the show! I'm not giving up on it or anything. It takes quite a bit for me to give up on something I've committed to watch, but as you may have noticed, it takes quite a bit to get me really into something too. The only show I've ever really fallen really hard for in the early episodes is maybe The West Wing, and look how that turned out (the first season is by far the best and I haven't been able to finish the show because I'm just so bored with it. I'm currently mired in S5). Meanwhile, my favorite show ever, A:tLA, took me until season 2 to really love it, and the best show that exists, The Wire, didn't convince me I really liked it until the end of S3. So there ya go.
my_daroga and I visited snickfic, who I rec just in general, as a livejournal friend but also real life buddy. We talked about SPN a lot, which made me miss that show. To write this reaction, I sort of skimmed the episode again. I didn't want to leave anything out!This episode, to quote
my_daroga, "felt like an assault." Overall I felt it was much lower in quality than anything we have watched so far. There was way more yelling and high pitches, over the top reactions, silly art to convey outrageous reactions. I found it really exhausting, and feel a little frustrated because this was an episode without much happening in it. It should have been low key and quiet, and I'm particularly frustrated because one of the low-key quiet moments in this episode was one of the best moments so far. It was just surrounded by unnecessary mayhem.We started with Lust talking about the fact that she burned down the library. Then Gluttony fights Scar, so I suppose they're not on the same side. I'm hoping we're going to learn that the government is in fact evil, in which case Scar is a little more ambiguous, though murdering State Alchemist doesn't seem righteous any way you spin it. But the fact that the Very Bad Guys are against Scar says something interesting. Also, where was Envy?
Then Mustang says he wants to solve the Scar case so his "stock will go up." He reveals his intention to become Fuhrer, and Hawkeye suggests he might wanna be more circumspect about voicing his ambitions. Mustang doesn't seem to take this warning seriously. This is a different version of Mustang than the really self-flagellating one I had hoped for. This is a little more Flamboyant Arrogant Hero meet Sensible Repressed Woman, which is less interesting. But I love Mulder/Scully, so it's not like I'm entirely opposed to the dynamics.
The Elrics and Armstrong find the library burned, which is a bummer. Ross and Bosch take over custody of the Elrics, which brings up several things I've neglected to mentioned. When Armstrong was fighting Scar back in episode 5, it was mentioned that the Elrics needed to be kept under wraps. I forget who said it, and I remember thinking it odd at the time, because until that point I felt like the Elrics had paraded around telling anyone and everyone who they were. I'm still confused about what they were doing before the start of the series. I feel like Mustang came to recruit them four years ago, but it's unclear when Edward took his State certification test thingy.
Anyway, the "boy, we better keep the Elrics a secret" thing seemed out of the blue, but here it's in full force. Bosch and Ross don't know that Alphonse doesn't have a body, and for some reason Edward and Alphonse don't want to tell them, even though they've seemed plenty pleased to tell people before. Ross and Bosch are also overwhelmed and impressed with how important and powerful and mysterious the Elrics are, which reads as more of the same problem I was having in the last episode: the text wants to convince us the Elrics are special.
This is compounded by Sheska, who seems as far as I can tell to be some kind of fangirl insert. She's cute but also very "normal" looking; all she likes to do is read; she doesn't feel useful but is really passionate about books. Idk all the stuff about her felt unrealistic and over the top and pointless and silly. This show is about people using magic left and right, and yet I'm more frustrated by a girl with this kind of capacity for photographic memory because it just isn't explained. I understand that some people do have photographic memory, but she appears to have every page of like 50,000 books memorized, and I don't think that's possible. I don't think fire and metal bending is possible either, but at least there's a diegetic explanation of it. The diagetic explanation for Sheska seems to be that she's a nerd, and nerds have special powers? Idk. I liked Sheska herself, but the device rubbed me the wrong way. Anyway, probably the reason it rubbed me the wrong way was that a lot of the OTT stuff was in conjection with Sheska.
Also, why does Edward need an "escort"? Do they think he needs a babysitter? And if so, how is he a State Alchemist? Also, I don't know who subbed this particular version, but they keep using the word "stuffy" to describe Armstrong. I don't think that word means what they think it means. I think maybe they mean intimidating? I will say that it's nice having another girl!soldier in the person of Maria Ross. She reminds me a little of Maria Hill, maybe just because she's a short-haired brunette who seems a little uptight, named Maria.
So anyway, they get the texts from the library due to Sheska's amazing memory. Sheska comes back to thank them, and says she is a worthless person, which is annoying. But Alphonse is wonderful and kind and reassures her, and Edward listens to Al and is also reassured. It was a nice brotherly moment, and also a nice Al-being-just-generally-awesome moment.
Then Hughes walks in, which brings up other stuff I also have neglected to mention. In ep 5, when Mustang & co. came to help the Elrics fight Scar, Hughes said something derogatory about benders, I mean alchemists. He appeared to be joking, and no one took particular offense. It made me think, though, about how alchemists have this incredible power that makes them more powerful than other people. I mean, we have seen how State Alchemists get money and good treatment from the state in exchange for working for the government, but there's also just the power of alchemy itself. Are some people more "natural" alchemists, like some people are benders and others aren't? So far this seems to be the case.
And speaking of Avatar: the Last Airbender, are we gonna explore this divide in power between those who can perform alchemy and those who can't? Are we gonna see more about the feelings of those who can't; are we going to have political strife over the matter? I haven't finished watching Korra, but I really appreciated those issues getting explored in the Avatar universe. It was a little bit like someone made a sequel to Harry Potter and said, "Okay, but what about those Muggles? Let's examine the cultural implications of a race of people who are more powerful and thus more privileged than another race of people, and what that means in terms of Death Eaters who use that power to subjugate, vs Harry Potter & co, who go prancing about acting as if there is no difference at all."
Also, Hughes says in this scene that the Elrics should look him up when they're in town. He did say something similar in the first ep, when he showed them his pictures of his family, which makes me wonder if the first ep was the first time the Elrics were at Central? Still confused here, probably mostly because the first ep was such a hash and also I'm bad at paying attention before things get interesting.
Then the Elrics break the code and find out human sacrifices are necessary to create a philosopher's stone. They tell Ross and Bosch, for reasons that make no sense. Then Armstrong gets it out of Ross and Bosch with the power of his sparkles. This is more OTTness, which we really don't need in this ep, and also I still don't get Armstrong. I get that he's really emotional, and he's really big so that when he wants to he can also be really scary, but just . . . idk so far he doesn't seem like a real person.
Someone told
my_daroga they thought she would love Armstrong. This made me pretty excited, because my_daroga loves characters who love life. Iroh is her favorite character from A:tLA, and while he's not my favorite character, I do love him dearly. I wasn't expecting Armstrong to be Iroh, but once we saw him get all emotional over the Elrics I was hoping he'd be this huge guy who was really just this great big softy, but this episode gave him glowing eyes of fire so idk. Everything was so loud and outrageous and badly drawn, it was sort of hard to tell.And then we get this quiet moment that is really one of the most beautiful moments in the series so far. The Elrics are lying on couches in the dark, with the ceiling fan really the only sound. Edward talks about how everything slips out of their grasp, how maybe there is no hope for them, how maybe God really just hates them. Then he says that he's been meaning to say something to Alphonse for a while, but he didn't have the courage. It just a really, really powerful scene, especially the quietude of it, and the sound of the ceiling fan, and the little clinks of Al's armor.
(For some reason, anime makes better use of silence than most western dramas, in my opinion. In Touch, an anime from the 80s about baseball, every once in a while it would get very quiet, and the only sound would be some windchimes. It had a special meaning in the show, and man, every time it happened it was just heartbreaking. I couldn't believe how powerful the effect was, and how rarely I have seen audio used like that on television.)
I also appreciate that Edward didn't get to say what he was going to say, but I'm really annoyed that Armstrong came in and was Armstrongy again. I sincerely hope Armstrong begins to make some sense soon.
So anyway, Armstrong says that it's horrible the military "conducted something like that". What does that mean? Does he mean conducted the research? Because before they researched it, how did they know it was evil? But Marcoh was pretty upset by his research, and had to change his identity because of it. This suggests that the military wanted to keep on studying stones and possibly even wanted to start making them. Armstrong's upset about this, but it seems . . . facile? Isn't Armstrong a part of the military? Does this betray the things he stands for and believes in? Instead he just says "the truth can be cruel sometimes." Idk, he doesn't seem to have different views of the military because of this; his worldview doesn't seem to be shattered; he just seems sad for the sake of being sad--maybe because they wanted to have overdramatic tears streaming out to either side of him, rather than deal with a real man whose view of the world has just been challenged? Idk, what's up with this show, man?
Edward realizes that there's a "truth within the truth" to what Marcoh told them, whatever that means. I guess they decide it means that state was making philosopher's stones? Apparently it does, because next we're looking at a map of Central, with four alchemy labs. Edward figures out that the fifth (condemned) lab is making philosopher's stones, because there's a prison right next door. They could use the prisoners for human sacrifices! If this is his conclusion, he comes to the idea that the state is evil quite quickly. Did he already have a premonition? And Armstrong swears Bosch and Ross to secrecy, but why isn't Edward more careful? Why does he trust Armstrong? Why does he trust anyone? If he looks at the map and realizes the fifth lab could be using the prison to make human sacrifices, doesn't this say to him that the state is deeply, deeply involved in some pretty fucking horrible behavior, and don't you think he would be instantly on his guard against all the military personnel in the room? This whole scene makes no sense to me.
Armstrong, with red eyes of fury, makes them promise not to go to the lab to check it out. So the Elrics go to the lab to check it out. Edward shimmies through a vent and calls himself small, and then does his "I'm not small!" freak-out at his own self. Yay, more of the joke that I just don't get. Then there are definitely guys doing stuff in this lab, and a scary-seeming dude drops down toward Alphonse with a big sword thing. I think I'm supposed to care, but this episode was such a jumble that I'm having trouble doing so.
Also, I watched episode six until after the cartoon closing-credits at the end. There was a moment with Winry picking up a screw, looking like it was something she had forgotten to include in Ed's arm or Al's armor. Then the preview for the next episode started. I don't like watching previews when I can watch all the episodes in a row anyway, so I generally just turn the show off when the end credits come on. I checked some other eps, and they did not appear to have tags after the end credits--but ep 6 definitely did. What's up with that?
I'm afraid this episode reaction might be disappointing to those of you who really like the show! I'm not giving up on it or anything. It takes quite a bit for me to give up on something I've committed to watch, but as you may have noticed, it takes quite a bit to get me really into something too. The only show I've ever really fallen really hard for in the early episodes is maybe The West Wing, and look how that turned out (the first season is by far the best and I haven't been able to finish the show because I'm just so bored with it. I'm currently mired in S5). Meanwhile, my favorite show ever, A:tLA, took me until season 2 to really love it, and the best show that exists, The Wire, didn't convince me I really liked it until the end of S3. So there ya go.
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- 6
- 8
- 28
- 29
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- 32
- 33
- 36
- 39
- 40
- 42
- 43
- 44
- 45 (note: most of the scene is over the credits, ending with a blank screen bearing the episode number and title. Immediately after that is the "next episode" preview.)
- 46
- 48
- 49
- 54
- 63 (again, only under the credits.)