Ed and Al proceed on their trip in search of Kenja no Ishi and are flipping through some ancient books at a old bookstore. Al finds an elementary book on alchemy which the brothers used to learn from. However, Ed seems to be reluctant to talk about the past as Al relates what happened in their hometown, Rizenburu.The two brothers lived with their mother, Trisha and their father had left them many years ago. They are good friends with Winry Rockbell, who lives nearby and her grandmother, Pinako. The Elric brothers' first product from alchemy was a doll for Winry's birthday but she got scared at the sight of the ritual and resulted in her parents telling Trisha about it. However, Trisha did not blame them and even praised them for being smart enough to conduct alchemy rituals. As such, this led to the brothers being more obsessed with alchemy so as to please their mother. Trisha didn't talk much about her husband and was constantly in a daze which led to Ed being increasingly irritable when his father was being mentioned. Actually, Ed didn't really hate his father but he was angry that the latter's departure without a word about his whereabouts caused unhappiness for Trisha and gradually resisted the mention of him.
One day, the Elric brothers heard from Winry that her parents were dead due to the internal war and ran home crying as they couldn't bear the thought of Trisha leaving them in the same way. However, as fate would have it, Trisha passed away when Ed was 10 and Al was 9 due to a chronic illness which she had never told anyone about. Ed and Al had sent letters to their father's acquaintances so as to get him to return to see Trisha but to no avail. The brothers then decide to find a teacher to learn all about alchemy so as to bring their mother back to life despite the fact that the resurrection alchemy ritual is forbidden due to the unforseen repercussions. At this time, Ed was already quite furious about his father not even returning to attend Trisha's funeral and didn't want to rely on him even if they did meet him again.
After the brothers came back from their learning trip, they proceeded to make arrangements for the resurrection ritual. Unknown to them, someone from the military had been watching them from afar as they prepared for the ritual. Things went out of of control which resulted in Ed losing his left leg and Al losing his entire body. To prevent Al from disappearing, Ed sacrificed his right arm so as to contain Al's soul in the metal armour. When Al regained his consciousness, he is shocked to see what happened and brings Ed to Winry's place for treatment.
At that same time, Roy Mustang, the military guy who was observing Ed and Al's house from afar came to Winry's place and asked to talk to Ed and Al but was being chased out by Pinako who wanted to give Ed some rest. After Ed woke up, he asked Pinako and Winry to fix metal limbs for him so that he can go to look for Roy when he recovers. Pinako tries to dissuade Ed from being a national alchemist since this means that he will be enlisted into the army when there is war and that he may be forced to use his alchemy skills to kill people. However, to Ed, the most important thing to become a national alchemist was to find a way to get back his and Al's bodies.
After some time, Ed was finally able to utilise his metal limbs with ease and told Al about his decision to be a national alchemist so as to find ways to regain their bodies. Al refused to leave Ed and insists on going with him. Ed says that they might not succeed again this time to regain their original bodies and he was prepared to bear all the consequences of his actions. Al decided against stopping Ed and the brothers went to look for Roy after burning their house so as to say goodbye to their pasts.
This is a rather emotional episode where we find out what happened in the Elric brothers' lives before the failed alchemy ritual. The bond between mother and son is so strong that I felt so sad when Trisha died and the brothers stood in the bitter cold at the cemetery. When Ed said with indignation that Trisha was happy to see the brothers being interested in alchemy just because it reminded her of their father, it was as if Ed felt that all he had done so far were in vain and his resentment towards his father seemed to have escalated due to Trisha's death. He thinks that his father should be held responsible for Trisha's unhappy life while pining for him so when Ed and Al meet their father again, it's probably going to be a clash of emotions.
Just a note here, I might not be able to come with the actual spelling of the places since they are in romaji. If not for the website, I may have similar problems with the characters' names too.
No comments:
Post a Comment