Summary:

Having been brought to Briggs, Winry switches out Ed’s automail arm, and he takes the chance to warn her not to trust Kimblee. This causes Winry to recall how Kimblee had told her earlier that his unit was the one who recovered her parents’ remains. In the process of thinking about Ishval, Ed remembers how Hawkeye had guessed that he liked Winry, and he starts to get nervous around her. Afterward, Winry goes to look at the automail workshop, and Kimblee wants to talk work with Ed. Olivier meanwhile tells her men that she’s taking sole responsibility for what happened to Raven, and Buccaneer leads a group of men into the tunnel to look for the missing team. Buccaneer’s group is eventually able to find a pair of desperate survivors who babble about a shadow coming. Unbeknownst to them, a dark force does approach them, but it retreats at the last second.

At around this same time, over in Central, Hawkeye is delivering some documents to King Bradley’s residence. It turns out that King Bradley is not there, but Selim is, and Hawkeye is surprised when his mother mentions that he’s adopted from a distant relative of King Bradley’s. Hawkeye knows that something is up because King Bradley shouldn’t have any relatives, and it all comes to a head when she’s confronted by Selim as she’s walking off the residence grounds. Selim ends up revealing that he’s Pride, the first Homunculus, and he offers to let Hawkeye join them. Since Hawkeye realizes that they just want pawns, Pride makes it look like he’s going to kill her and slices her cheek, but Hawkeye points out that there’s no meaning in killing a hostage. Pride thus backs off and disappears, however he warns that he’ll always be watching from the shadows.

Back at Briggs, Kimblee passes along to Ed three tasks from King Bradley: finding Scar, finding Marcoh, and doing the same thing here that was done at Ishval. Ed tries to protest against this last task and questions if Kimblee knows what the Homunculus are up to, but Kimblee is well aware and wants to see if human or Homunculus will win. Kimblee feels that someone like him surviving means that the world has selected him, and he decides to tempt Ed with a Philosopher’s Stone reward. Ed has no choice but to accept the tasks, but he asks to talk to Al and Winry first. When Winry realizes that she’s really a hostage, she starts to feel that she’s a burden on Ed and Al again, but after Ed decides go after Scar first and Al explains to her that they’re actually looking for May Chang, she decides to go along as an automail mechanic.

Preview

So the big reveal this week was the fact that Selim was Pride – if I don’t sound surprised, it’s because it was spoiled for me a while ago. It’s scary to think that his powers can extend as far as Briggs, but his actual character wasn’t too menacing or creepy, at least compared to Wrath or Envy’s second form. I’m sure Hawkeye would say otherwise, and I’m curious to see what she does now. I suspect that even if she were able to tell Mustang, Ed, or Al, they wouldn’t be able to do anything about it at this point.

On that note, Ed and Al have their hands full right now anyway. I liked Kimblee’s plans to use Winry as a hostage to force Ed to work with him, but he might have shown too much of his hand by trying to tempt Ed with a Philosopher’s Stone. Now that Ed knows Kimblee has it, he might try to have his cake and eat it too (i.e. getting May Chang, saving Briggs, and getting the Philosopher’s Stone). It’s also interesting that Winry is going along with them to find Scar. I tend to think that her presence will mean a relatively peaceful resolution against him, though obviously the preview shows a lot of Scar fighting. Oh and given the Winry focus at the end, the ED was very fitting this week. Hopefully the new ED starting in January, Shunkan Sentimental by SCANDAL, will be as good as these past two have been.

58 Comments

  1. Well.. I guess the pace has gotten somewhat better. They’ve now done two episodes (this one and the last one) that literally covers the whole manga chapter by the same title.

    . . just wish they would have done this from the beginning.

    Homuncurus!
  2. Yes selim is Pride and he is THE FIRST homonculus that father created and it’s really selim, it’s not a body who pride take.

    Wrath don’t know if he is a human or an homonculus so father put Pride for son to watch him because he don’t want that Wrath goes like Greed who betrayed them.

    I have to say that Pride is the MOST creepy homonculus and the most mencaing, he don’t have any feels (wrath haves feeling for human). Pride WANT the sacrifice. And he will do everything for that. EVERYTHING. It’s the most bastard homonculus. Don’t look at a child, he’s powerful (the most!!) and he’s very very intelligent like a shikamaru. He’s very VERY sadic

    angous
  3. Oh and i have to say that Pride “controls” the six other homonculus, he’s the leader.

    When mustang fight against Lust, Pride appears (in the dark) in the city and injured envy and gluttony because mustang and his team are above father. And gluttony and envy (yes envy too) is scared about him.

    angous
  4. I was underwhelmed. The reveal scene didn’t seem as creepy as in the manga, but I guess maybe the impact is lessened from having read that part. Riza’s VA in this series didn’t help. She’s not particularly good.

    I wish Akira Senju would, I don’t know, compose some new damn music for the show now and then.

    Winry’s as annoying as ever. Olivier should add her to the foundation with Raven.

    penguintruth
  5. I love how Pride is revealed and all the sudden the shit hits the roof. STOP SPOILING EVERYTHING!
    @angous: “Pride appears (in the dark) in the city and injured envy and gluttony because mustang and his team are above father”
    . . I must have obviously fallen asleep reading this chapter of the manga, cause I don’t remember Pride doing much but scold them.
    @penguin: “Winry’s as annoying as ever. Olivier should add her to the foundation with Raven.”
    FIFTY POINTS TO GRYFFINDOR!

    Homuncurus!
  6. Homuncurus: When Mustang and Havoc found lust, she want to stop them, in the manga she said that she don’t want to mustang and havoc see what are in the room behind her. I think it’s the revelation in the volume 20.

    But that change anything, Pride scold them because mustang and his team are above father (the great door in the third laboratory) . If Lust didn’t stop them, they entered and found Father….

    angous
  7. @Agous: Not being funny but why do you “have to” say all that. I sure all these good people who haven’t read the manga will find out themselves all about Pride’s position and character. I’m disappointed it was spoiled for you Omni, I’ve been looking forward to your reaction to this for a while.
    @Penguintruth* I completely agree, this scene seemed so much more eerie in the manga. And I’ve never really liked winry too much either, I find she whines too much. I prefered the other voice actress so that doesn’t help.

    Blaineo
  8. It’s a real shame the pride thing was spoiled for so many people (by so many morons). It was one of the best reveals in the manga and I can tell you I only know one person who figured it out in the fandom (although it was a crack theory at the time).

    Kim
  9. @ angous: whether it is accurate or not what you are telling, why do you need to spoil? Have you not read that Omni already knew about the big reveal because it was spoiled? And no doubt others don’t like to read comments that end up being spoilers.

    It is not as if you have a big scoop: loads of people read the FMA manga. The NY Times listed it in the top 10 sold manga (in the US of course). So really, you don’t do anyone a service by telling everything you know of a character: either people will roll their eyes, thinking that they knew that ages ago yet didn’t feel the need to boast and/or spoil about it, or people will accidentally read it and will end up not enjoying a twist or big reveal because someone just couldn’t help himself and post not just once, but twice all the info he has…

    Btw, this goes for all the spoiling people: keep your hands of the keyboard or if you want to give a minor spoiler, use spoiler tags.

    It would be nice if someone could moderate the comments before letting them through and stop spoiling posts from getting posted. But I guess that can’t be done or is way too much work reading all comments through.

    tiw
  10. I really liked this episode, but the animation this week was a little off at times. I guess it’s just so that they can save up for some awesome fights in the future. And when they do animate those, it’s all good. 😀

    Acylia
  11. PRIDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDEEEEEEEEEE!!!!!! sigh. okay im done. they really did make his reveal scene less creepy somehow. i think its because they only showed a quick flash of him with all the eyes around him, then cut to the break inbetween. in the manga i was staring at that fullpage picture for about five minutes going WTFLOLOMG. everything else was okay but im glad we have finally gotten to the point where pride is revealed.

    TakashiD
  12. Its not that it “wasn’t as creepy” as the manga, they just delivered the whole reveal badly in Brotherhood. If you notice, the episode reveals who Pride is the instant Riza sees him inside the house (with the shadowy hand behind her). That wasn’t in the manga, and therefor made the big moment really shocking.

    @Cornwiggle: If you’re saying that because of the Winry thing, then a lot of us have bad tastes, cause her character is as bad as they come.

    Homuncurus!
  13. I’m saying it that because he thinks Hawkeye’s voice actress isn’t good, and I’ve read a lot of his posts before how much he compared this new (far superior) series to the extremely mediocre one before hand.

    That’s how bad his tastes are to me.

    Cornwiggle
  14. If you’re saying that because of the Winry thing, then a lot of us have bad tastes, cause her character is as bad as they come.

    Winry is awesome and I wish there was more well written young female characters like her.

    Kim
  15. @Cornwiggle

    So you already admit you have a bias against my opinion, and thus even if you agreed with something, you’d disagree with it by default. Nice.

    Learn to compartmentalize.

    penguintruth
  16. <.<…Wooow, Hiromu would be sooo pissed off to see the Winry haters here. So would the anime makers, since they like her as well. *rolls eyes* Ah well, it can’t be helped, I guess. Anyways, great episode, nice animation. Could’ve made Pride more creepy, though.

    Ashley
  17. Penguintruth: I know your type down to the letter. You think your opinion is holier-than-thou so ANYTHING ANYBODY says is related to what YOU said.

    I’ve read it all the past blog entries.

    Here’s a very very useful world tip for you: The world doesn’t revolve around you.

    I’m just so tired of your constant bashing of everything. Nothing is ever good enough for you, so wah-wah, not everyone thinks like you.

    Idiot.

    Cornwiggle
  18. Hahaha. WOW, Penguintruth.

    “Learn to compartmentalize”

    How ironic that you don’t even take your own advice. Someone says “I disagree with you” and that somehow means that EVERYTHING you say is automatically taken into account.

    Correct me if I’m wrong, but I’m having a very difficult time trying to even understand your “retort” to Cornboy; it’s so completely irrelevant, I think he nailed it between the eyes about “I’m the center world”.

    Try some humble pie. You need it.

    Gubbbies
  19. *Just saw the new reply*

    If anyone’s butthurt over cartoons, it’s you. “Don’t call me out if you have nothing to counter”

    You’re making this like a political debate or something. He didn’t call you out, nor is he taking this seriously, LIKE YOU, I might add.

    There goes Mr. Universe again. Unable to get off his high horse regarding anime.

    Get a life, buddy. You also need that, very badly.

    (Thanks for the great laughs though).

    Gubbbies
  20. I love Winry as a character and I’m not going to debate because everyone has their own taste of characters athough I find it irriating how people downgrade her and hate it when she’s given some scenes especially for not being seen very little snice the scar battle in ep 22 and 23. I wonder if she’s going to get bashed after her crowning moment of awesome next episode which manga readers should know what I’m talking about. I find it hard to dislike any character in FMA because they are all unique and have a story that move the plot in their own way. What Winry is doing right now is a plan that will pay off later and you have to give the girl some credit for having guts and a plan.

    Rzerox21xx
  21. Gubbbies, calm down, man. If you’ve read all these blogs like I have, you’d know that arguing with this manchild is pointless. He seems to think he’s always on top, despite doing nothing more than posting his OWN opinions. You and I both know how much of a Center of the World he thinks he is.

    He has the brain, reasoning skill, and debating power of a mentally handicapped toddler. Just leave it at that. Besides, just the fact that someone disagrees with him, obviously sets him off in more ways than anything. And that’s something we should leave him to wallow in. 🙂

    Cornwiggle
  22. It’s funny what passes for discourse these days. If you had only disregarded my opinions in the first place, you wouldn’t have made such idiots of yourselves struggling to counter them with “derp, you’re arrogant” statements. You expended more energy being butthurt than it would have taken to say, “Well, I disagree with you about Winry, and here’s why.”

    penguintruth
  23. Hey

    You guys are putting Penguintruth in the center of the world, he just said that he didn’t like something, nothing special. Also, you guys keep atacking him and not his comments, using two big fallacies:

    Personal direct attack (saying that he needs a life, for example) and personal indirect attack (saying that he always do that kind of comments).

    Greetings.

    Show Spoiler ▼

  24. …Wah…so the big surprise turns out to be Selim is actually pride??..what a load of crap…>,<…Selim doesnt even look half as scarry as the others…but his powers are trully menacing….but he still doesnt look that threatining…..Im looking forward to watching it though^^…Really a big fan^^…

  25. @Argos

    They do, however, have a point. Penguin does seem unable at times to enter into a proper debate. He may not outright say ‘no you’, but when presented with good arguements of why something is the way it is, and he doesn’t like it, his retort will simply consist of reafirming his original standing. The one time I posted in his blog about why the creating of a second Greed was not a bad idea, instead of picking my points one by one, he simply paraphrased his original standing. I don’t know about the rest, but that DOES seem like a way of saying ‘No, my opinion is still better than yours’.

    I still don’t say personal attacks are even remotely good, but frustration can cause that sometimes. And if you start and find someone to go along with it, it’s just a downwards spiral from then…

    Lagunamov
  26. @ Sean
    He just showed up in the anime. I wanna find out what he’s like myself. 🙁 No spoilers. PLEASE. Guh. And yeah, I might as well just stop reading the comments. But that’s no fun. (:D)

    Acylia
  27. penguintruth is a Pessimist, every single post I have read of his has been negative. Why bother watching it if you don’t like what they are doing… or if you are like me and like to point out flaws in stuff – come up with better arguments.

    Person
  28. Like Omni, I was spoiled on who Pride was. THANKS FOR TAKING THE SURPRISE AWAY, ALL YOU SPOILERS HERE! You know who you are!

    Sometimes I amaze myself, a few weeks ago I was speculating the possibility of Oliver’s Northern Command joining forces with Gruman’s Eastern Command, with Mustang in Central pulling the strings. They can be a match with the elites in Central Command, plus the not so experience Western and Southern Commands.

    Those tentacle-like hands Pride/Selim emits, don’t they look like the arms seen inside the Gate of Truth? And that invisible child-like being called “Truth”, without reading spoilers, I have a hunch he is connected to Pride in some way, if not all the homunculi. (Pride considers himself above the likes of Gluttony)

    Kinny Riddle
  29. im a little surprised by the slightly unwhelming response to how pride turns up by people, in relation to the manga at least. sure i would have preferred with selim used his child voice and had glowing eyes (like the manga) but it was still damn good. i loved how the shadow hand appears behind hawkeye for a split second, plus her eyes when shes told selim is related to bradley. i personally never found pride particulary scary, just uber-powerful so i though the scene was done well. saying that, the hands crawling up hawkeyes legs was pretty creepy.

    the intoduction of kimblees men was a nice touch and pretty foreboding. i’ve never been a huge fan of them as they veer a little too much into guyver territory for my liking but none the less….

    finally as much as im glad that kimblees speech about admiring the rockbells principles was included i wish his flashback of being intructed to kill them, only to find them dead was included. as a result the scene makes it look like kimblee is actually quite decent regarding some issues or completely lying (depending on whether you believe him), whereas the truth isnt really either one.

    fathomlessblue
  30. I don’t know why everyone is dissing Pride’s reveal. I thought it was done great. Just that creepy music and how Selim is only visible in the shadows until you see all of the Pride Shadows. It was really good. I thought each the manga and anime had their own creepy revelations about him.

    My only disapproval of this episode came from Kimblee in the car. He tells Winry about the scene that was cut from the Ishbal flashback. And since (say, if someone who is unfamiliar) watched it, it would give Kimblee some redemption because he sounds honest about it. Too bad he didn’t mention “I was on my way to kill them”. I have hope they’ll include that later, but as it stands right now, I don’t know why they included it, but didn’t have the entire story about it.

    Gutts
  31. Oo, I’m so late!
    I like Winry. *look at how I’m not forcing my oppinion on people*
    And I still hate Kimblee. xD
    As a sucker for brotherly!love, I am (osh, pardon for my grammar), the part where Ed and Al went >.> <.< =.=, was luff 🙂
    XOXO

    Lilly

Leave a Reply to penguintruth Cancel reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *