Fullmetal Alchemist Chapter 106 (SPOILERS)

My thoughts on Fullmetal Alchemist chapter 106:
 

"Hmm, now how can I be a bigger douchebag in this chapter?"


Sorry it's taken me so long! In fact, chapter 107 should be out soon! Yeesh.

This chapter got a little trippy, which is nothing new after a few chapters ago when Father "swallowed God" or something of the sort. We get a bit of weirdness with Father creating people out of himself, no doubt from the souls encased in him, or maybe with the "God" he took into himself, as a distraction to the sacrifices fighting him. Also there was the bit where Ed "enters" Pride, which I guess is left to the imagination as to how. It seems a little too esoteric, even for FMA, and it sort of bothered me, to be honest.

I was glad that Edward finally got to beat a homunculi. Hell, that he got to do anything is a real step up from his lack of involvement in the past, I don't know, forty or so chapters. He is the main character, after all. It was disappointing that he was only able to beat Pride after Pride had been through the wringer, but then, Ed sort of has, too, recently. My only real problem with the fight was, as I mentioned, that weird bit where he goes into Pride and Kimbley helps him defeat him. While I like the idea of Kimbley coming back in a way, and helping to take down Pride, I feel like it's forced, because Pride didn't utilize Kimbley at all, or even attempt to, and so it seems like Kimbley was placed there for the sole reason of being part of his defeat. It's bad writing. It reminds me of the Roy vs Envy fight. Just because something looks cool doesn't make it good writing.

And what's with that baby thing inside of Pride that Edward took out for later? I have a feeling he'll be giving it to Mrs. Bradley when all is said and done, so that she can have some sort of happy ending, but that's just extremely eye-rollingly lame. Even though Mrs. Bradley is easy to feel bad for, Selim never really existed, it was the bastard Pride. This isn't Sailor Moon, giving the baddie a second chance at childhood like Hotaru. Gimme a break.

Still, the pages of Ed shattering Pride's head is now my desktop wallpaper. Looks pretty bitchin'.

Another thing that baffled me was this thing about Scar's brother figuring everything ever out, by himself, with just a little help from Xingese texts on rentanjutsu. Come on. Really? We're supposed to believe that Scar's brother was some massive genius who figured out what was going on and how to reverse it? It's asking a little much of the reader to believe all that.

The Philosopher's Stone buffer zone is an interesting aspect, though. All this time, the alchemists in Amestris were using Philosopher's Stones as the source of their alchemy. But that leaves the question of what would happen if an Amestrian alchemist used alchemy in Drachma or one of the other surrounding countries? Did Father have a buffer element throughout the entire world, or just Amestris? Anyway, with that layer gone, apparently the purpose behind the reverse transmutation circle, the Amestrian alchemists are now much more powerful, and their alchemy can't be disabled by Father.

The actual fight with Father was the best part of the chapter, and caused the least amount of headaches. I especially liked the bit where Greed tried to use, as he put it, his "old bathtub", to kill Father. Of course, to no avail, but I enjoyed the callback. But Father zaps the hell out of Hohenheim, Roy, Izumi, and Alphonse as Ed comes up from out of the hole he created to escape the den, so it looks like they might all be doomed. I doubt it, though. It would be interesting if Ed is the only one to survive, or at least the only one to recover right away and has to fight Father by himself.

I have a feeling that, as usual, this is one of those cliffhangers that fails to pay off.

Wow, re-reading all of the above, I sound pretty negative, but I didn't really dislike the chapter. It had plenty going for it, especially some of the excellent art. Arakawa's style has gotten even better over time. Still, there were a lot of elements that bothered me.

It's not like I'm going to stop reading when the manga's going to end soon, though!
 



Recent Comments