Full Metal Alchemist Episode 49: Am I the only one Confused?

What I've read somewhere is that it might be an alternative reality... the real world ... which is basically what is behind the gate.. although that theory still has some unexplained stuff. >_>;; Like the fact that Wrath came from behind the gate.. :/
So I dunno.

And the whole thing with Ed and Dante is just her explaining that there is no real law of conservation... still quite confusing though :/

 

was that guy that killed him his father but how

 

[probable spoilers]

Dante just separated his body and soul, and without the soul, the body disappeared. I'm pretty sure the other world Hohenheim wasn't around when Light Hohenheim was sent there. Cuz I think he said that he went to (other world)Ed to take care of him (can't really remember)

I'm not really sure about that one.

There was this large area to go through while Envy was going thru it, so Wrath probably just came from that area, but not the actual other side(our world).

Do you mean the guy that killed Ed? That was Envy. He just looked like Hohenheim cuz he was a homunculus after all, that's why the real Hohenheim is called "Light Hohenheim"

I think the soul stops existing if you die, but since he wasn't killed (just split) He's still around. [That didn't make sense]

 

Part 1:
Dante claims that she is protecting the world by confiscating the Philosopher's Stone. It is indeed a legend of a major artifact, and she argues that human nature, with that power in possession, would destroy the world. She claims that by scaring humankind from the artifact and confiscating the products of those who got too close, that she is protecting the world. Of course, she also gets to live longer. Ed protests by saying that Dante is one of those human who are abusing the stone's powers. (Quote Fuhrer from Epi50 "To make sure you don't lead yourselves to ruin by using the Stone, we protect you by taking it from you. Therefore, we are God's Apostles." Note that since he admits there are no God, that he uses it to define a holy being, not to be related to God.)

Part 2:
After revealing Dante's decaying body, Ed reasons that the Law of Conservation causes this decay. (Note: I myself believe that the fact is that the soul isn't meant to live that long, and thus becomes more and more reliant on the body, seeping away the energy of the body's structure, leaving a dull husk.) Dante states that there is no Law of Conservation, that it is only an excuse to reassure people in the down times who believe they'll hit the jackpot some time in their lives. She says that the effort and result aren't always the same, using the concept of innate talent in the National Exam and alchemy and the potential of a human life. One can try to live but still die - doesn't matter how much effort you put into it (a twisted outlook on Fate), and another can kill many, but may live on despite that though he himself deserves to be killed many times as stated by the Law of Conservation. And yet, there are people who live in luxury while others live in poverty - wouldn't everything be the same, by the Law of Conservation?

Part 3:
We see a bit of Ed's humanism, which disgusts Dante. Dante then goes and activates the baby's alchemical array, which sends Ed through the gate. Now, let's take a look at the concept of this 'Earth'. Basically, this Earth is a parallel of the 'alchemy' world. Everybody in the alchemy world exists in the 'real' world, though whether their state of being (alive or dead) don't have to be the same. In this case, however, Earth-Hohenheim and Earth-Ed are both alive. Hohenheim is assumed to have been living there for quite a while (not recognizing Alchemy Ed at first, knowing the stuff at the 'real' world) - perhaps time travelled faster in the 'real' world, but it is still the 'alchemy' world's Hohenheim of Light. After all, he recognizes 'alchemy' world Ed Elric, though it took a while.

On Body And Soul:
Dante's alchemical array sends the target's soul, mind, and body to the gate, forcing a split of the body and soul+mind. This thing probably has the Philosopher's Stone powering it, but it is unknown. Either way, the party is forced through the gate - it's not voluntary, or caused by the gate. It's caused by the alchemy. When the soul arrives on the other side, it'll converge to its parallel self (which is the closest match it can get for a body) and forcefully invade it in order to have a host (after all, if it doesn't get one, it'll cease to exist. I believe that this is 'Death', and the entities inside the gate perform the action on the souls that lead to death). The previous entity is still there, but it's similar to having two subconscious beings inside your mind (Superego, Ego, Id.. ever heard of that?), but the forced soul (Hohenheim/Ed), if more powerful than the previous soul, would take over the body, being more willful. (Hohenheim's lived 400 years, Ed's gone through a lot. Their wills are considerably stronger.) After that, if their body travels through and is found by soul+mind, they are officially living there - and can't go back, because alchemy exists not.

On the Law of Conservation:
Dante did not explain the Law of Conservation and why it did not exist - rather, she just made examples as a counterpoint. It is Hohenheim, in Episode 50, who explained the whole thing. The concept of energy breaks the Law of Conservation, which is basically a primitive form of the law that we ourselves had long ago. The discovery of energy, then, reformed our own laws, but gave the 'alchemy' world a veil for them to still believe Conservation. In actuality, the souls of the 'real' world (which numbers a lot more - this is around World War II, I believe) had been providing energy for transmutations. As another example, Hohenheim brings up the idea of love.

On Alchemy:
Also in Episode 50, Hohenheim told that Alchemy was not just a concentration of power. Like how he explained the concept of energy, he says that we use the 'gate' to forcefully consume the souls from the other side of the world in order to fuel transmutations. This may even explain the happening of wars, to replenish the energy on the other side of the gate.

On Envy:
Envy was the child of Hohenheim, who died of mercury poisoning. Hohenheim proceeded to attempt to put life into him (much like Ed with his mother), and failed. Envy then claimed that Hohenheim abandoned him - which is half true. It could be assumed that Hohenheim ran away from the monstrosity (like how Ed's mother first became) and then got the red stone treatment from Dante - possibly without Hohenheim knowing. This is why Envy is hateful of Hohenheim's 'new children'.

On Wrath:
We must remember that Wrath is, unlike the other homunculi, not only an avatar of Izumi's child, but moreso an entity of this so-called 'middle of the gate' who got the limbs of Ed when the middle of the gate takes parts and defiles them into what we may call death. He, however, was lucky enough to be put into the body of Izumi's child, thus taking the limbs he stole with him (which weren't destroyed yet). Thus, when he's shown the gate again by Dante, the gate seeks to finish the job, and the gate entity in Wrath still exists, but with no more limbs. He still longs for the life that Ed could have had, being the 'Anti-Ed', so to speak.

I'd expand from 51, but I'm lazy and hungry. So, uh, yeah.

 

This is what breaks the "suspension of disbelief" in the series for me. You can transpute a pile of stone into a building. But it requires some energy to do that, where does that energy come from? You could as well transmute a rock from the ground to 10 feet above and use that weight to drive a perpetual motion machine (well, as perpetual as you can transmute). To make it easy, let's use water.

That energy has to come from somewhere.

But anyway, if all that is required for transmutation is the conservation of *matter*, then let's borrow some quadrillion quarks from a dying star 200 million light years from us, and use those quarks to construct the protons, neutrons and electrons that will form a created object. Heck, why not just borrow some subatomic particles from the earth's mantle?

Perhaps this is the limit of alchemy, some weird mathematical restriction on the distance from the decomposed object to the recomposed one. Interesting thought.

 

Then what are the transmutation circles for? The object to be transmutated needs to be relatively near to the circle in order to be used.

Anyway, that's the meaning of that episode. Apparently we're their source of alchemist energy. That's somehow... funny and... stupid xD *disappointment expresion*

Let's see what the manga has for us.