Re: FMA 45 - A Rotted Heart

elsie wrote:
A couple of points about spoilers first. If you snip the quote, you're
snipping the spoiler space. If at some point in responding to this thread,
you decide to post spoilers for a later episode than the one named in the
subject line, please note at the top of your post which episode you are
spoiling, and add new spoiler space.


Episode 45-A Rotted Heart

My love is as a fever, longing still
For that which longer nurseth the disease,
Feeding on that which doth preserve the ill,
Th' uncertain sickly appetite to please.
My reason, the physician to my love,
Angry that his prescriptions are not kept,
Hath left me, and I desperate now approve
Desire is death, which physic did except.
Past cure I am, now reason is past care,
And frantic mad with ever more unrest.
My thoughts and my discourse as madmen's are,
At random from the truth vainly expressed;
For I have sworn thee fair, and thought thee bright,
Who art as black as hell, as dark as night.

William Shakespeare - Sonnet #147

We open to the confrontation between Dante and Hohenheim. "Dante," he says,
"I want you to stop using my sons as pawns in your malicious game. In
exchange for that promise, I will tell you the reason your new body is
rotting too."

Dante clutches her side where the flesh is rotting. She chuckles, "Perhaps.
But it's been centuries since our last meeting, Hohenheim. We'll have plenty
of time to talk later. Right now, why don't you help me enjoy this new
body?" she says, licking her forearm.

This was a really interesting motion on her part. Obviously sexual,
but also showing dominance over the body, cannibalistic or vampiristic
perhaps? Between the move and her stance she seemed to be screaming
for physical titillation, for using this new body and feeling the
pleasures she hasn't had for a while. HUNGER, that's what it shows.

"Sorry," he replies, "but I have a wife."

Love the tense. Even if she's dead, he's married to her in his mind.

"So? I was married as well, wasn't I? Again and again and again and again.
After all, if I stayed with one of them, he'd have noticed my slowly-aging
body, and our secret would be out." She twirls in a kind of creepy glee.

Smart of her. If she leaves them before they get suspicious then she
is safe. What a way to have to live your life (reminds me of
Highlander). It's kind of sad really. But it explains how she has
supported herself part of the time. Being married she wouldn't have to
work and could spend her time researching. I wonder how many of those
husbands she killed to get their money?


"That's where we're different," Hohenheim replies. "Trisha was my first and
my last, the only woman I ever really loved."

At these words, Dante stops twirling and looks downcast. Then she turns and
smiles at him. "How odd. Four hundred years ago, when we first met, back
when I was still an innocent, you whispered words of love to me. Or do my
memories deceive me?"

"No, they don't," he replies, looking a little ashamed.

He is such a ***!!! Even when he's home in the town of his beloved
wife, with his children showing up any minute, he has to flirt. It's
like he has no control over it. (Miroku disease?)


"On that day 400 years ago, we had finally achieved our goal."

Flashback time: The screen goes black except for a silver arcana circle to
create the philosopher's stone, to be replaced by a red- toned scene.
Dante's theme song plays under her voice over. "By using the lives of those
sentenced to hang during the witch hunts and those who were dying of the
plague, by repeating our experiments relentlessly, despite countless
failures...." We see a woman, apparently Dante, and a man watching a third,
probably Hohenheim judging by the beard, perform alchemy. "We finally
clasped it, the philosopher's stone." Hohenheim claps his hands. We see red
tanks and a silver circle turning red. We see the stone form as Dante and
the other man shielded themselves from the light. As the stone descended,
Hohenheim collapsed. "But the demands of the transmutation took its toll on
you. You were dying." Dante held the stone in her hand as she knelt beside
him. "From sheer impulse, I attached your soul to the body of another man.
And it was then that we discovered eternal life."


And just WHO was that other man? Why weren't he and Dante absorbed by
the creation of the stone? What happened to H's body? Are his bones
buried somewhere? Might that matter?

I have to wonder why they wanted to create the stone in the first
place. What was their final goal? How young were they when they
started? She said "countless failures ... experimenting relentlessly".
There must have been thousands and thousands of people they went
through to finally achieve it. They must have moved around an awful
lot.

Makes me wonder about the civilization 400 years ago. Perhaps it
wasn't all small villages and towns then, but thriving cities teeming
with populace. All the ruins around seem to testify to that.


We return to the present to look at Hohenheim as Lust comments, "So by
using the philosopher's stone, you transplanted your souls again and again."

"That's right," Dante replies.

"Why did you have us find someone to make the stone if you already had
one?" Lust demands.

"After Hohenheim of Light left my side, I needed a new stone, and I didn't
know how to make one on my own. That's why. Tell me, why did you leave?
Wasn't eternal life enough for you?"


So back then he was secretive. Even though she says "they" worked on
the stone and "they" accomplished it, she didn't know the HOW of it.
Either she is dumb as a stump or he diligently kept something from her.
She watched him make it, how could she not know how to do it herself?
She could have taught any number of alchemists how to do it for her,
just keeping the 'you die in the creation' part of it from them.

Hohenheim looks sad. In a worn, world-weary voice, he says, "Dante, there's
no such thing as eternal life."

And we go to the opening. And we come back to an argument between Winry and
Sciezka over whether cooking is an art or a science. Winry has even designed
and built her own oven. The phone rings to interrupt the argument, and
neither wishes to answer it. After Pinako yells, Winry picks up the phone.
We hear a familiar, rasping whisper on the other end of the line. "Hello,
I'm looking for the Elric brothers."


Alchemy is both, just as cooking is. Izumi was reading out of a cook
book when teaching the boys. Marcho's notes were in cook book fashion.
I love the oven. Looks just like mine :-)

I'm trying to remember where Tucker was at this point. The last time
we saw him was where? When Al was kidnapped? No, he then went with
Archer. Archer is maimed/crippled from the Stone creation. I guess
Tucker just tucked tail and ran.

Ed, his face sad and smudged with the soil of his mother's grave, makes his
way back to the Rockbell home. Inside the house, Winry tells Al about the
caller, having written the phone number in icing on a pastry. "He said his
name was Shou." Winry says the man was crying. It takes Al a minute to
recognize the name, but he immediately denies knowledge of it. As Ed nears
the house, Al folds the pastry on which the phone number is written. Ed
tells Al that he had been leaving tracks to imply a northward journey.
Pinako asks if Al told Ed about the call, but Al goes into "it's nothing"
mode, and Ed is too distracted by the smell of food to follow up.


Duh at me. I completely forgot that that's where Ed had been. I
believed him when he told Al about making tracks North (it would have
been a good idea if he had).

I liked the fact that Al was keeping Tucker a secret from Ed. All Ed
can see is the death of Nina. Al has been in the company of Tucker and
Scar and others that Ed has one dimensional thinking about, and he's
learned more about them than Ed has.

In Central, Mustang appears before the fuehrer and his assembled generals.
General Hakuro is angry, as he is "the one who nominated Edward Elric to
take the State alchemy exam, despite his age. And now look at the shame he's
bringing me."

Also at the table sits the Eastern general who had been Mustang's commanding
officer. He reads from Ed's original report on Lior about exposing Cornello.
"He stated that the people there had renounced the charlatan, but in
reality, the man went on to lead a revolt against our troops, and we were
forced into armed combat."

"I heard the military suppression was excessively violent, and that's what
started the war," Mustang interjects.

"Are you criticizing my operations, Mustang?" Hakuro demands. The other
generals murmur.

Bradley calms them, saying, "If you consider the impressive record Col.
Mustang has compiled, it's clear that he's an excellent soldier who has been
loyal and faithful to the military." We see Mustang bow. "However, I would
be interested to know the reason why you called off the search for the Elric
brothers."

"The Elrics were on their way to their hometown in the east but changed
direction before making contact with our squadron. Now it seems they have
redirected and are headed straight north."

"North to Drachma," says one of the generals.

"I see," says Hakuro. "So they have connections with that tribe of
barbarians."


This is the first time we've heard of these people. Knowing this show,
it won't be the last. Wonder if they too have their own way of
creating a Stone.

Has anyone created a map of this world? I'd love to see one so I can
place all the cities and towns.

Mustang continues, "Major Armstrong's tactical unit is searching for the
brothers up north as we speak. and now," Mustang says, about to throw the
cat among the pigeons, "I've heard some other interesting information that
I'd like to take up with the council. "

"Interesting information, hmm?" Bradley says. And we see that this meeting
is a game of chess between the two of them, with the generals as witnesses.
"Perhaps you gentlemen should excuse us for a moment."


This is an odd thing for Bradley to say. He'd excuse himself (or throw
out the Generals) just to talk to Mustang? He must think he knows what
M is going to say.

"Not yet," says Mustang, wanting to keep this public. "You see, the
information concerns your secretary, Miss Douglas."

"Just what are you implying exactly?" says one of the generals.

"It's Miss Douglas's day off today. I hope she's all right," Bradley says
blandly.

So it's not what Bradley must have been thinking. His body tension has
changed and he seems much more relaxed.


"There are serious doubts about her military record," Mustang says
forcefully. "It has now been suggested that she was an accomplice in the
recent murder of Brigadier General Hughes." The strain of controlling his
anger is causing Mustang to sweat.

The generals are shocked, except for the one who seemed to be Mustang's
former commander (or is he?). "Oh, my goodness, that's quite an accusation,"
he says. Bradley opens the curtains, sending the glare into Mustang's eyes.
They glower at each other.


I wonder if Roy is going to take his old General into his confidence.


Mustang emerges from the council room. Hawkeye has been waiting outside for
him. She salutes and then wipes the sweat from his face with her
handkerchief.

Roy is a man, he can sweep his arm across his face to wipe off the
sweat. But he doesn't. He allows Riza to pull out a hankie and do it
for him. Wife? Mother? Certainly not something we'd see Feury or
Havoc do as his underlings.

Hughes kept telling Roy to take a wife, but how could he? Riza is a
wife to him, and also his subordinate (could any man want more?) She
takes care of him and reads his mind. No outside woman could come
between the relationship they have. Roy might date, but no woman would
put up with the "stuff" that goes on between these two. (Then again,
this is my Western mind talking. Perhaps in Japan it's different?)

Later we find Mustang's men visiting Havoc in the hospital
teasing Havoc about a nurse he'd fallen for. But, "lost another one to"
Mustang.

That nurse was reminiscent of Siren. Looked a bit like her. Not
enough to mistake the two, but enough to make me take a second look.


Falman and Breda ask Mustang about making an enemy of the fuehrer. "I don't
know whether the fuehrer is a homunculus or not...," he says. In the
background Havoc changes from super-deformed despair mode to normal as
Mustang continues, "but for a long time these people who call themselves
homunculi have sacrificed innocent human lives for one reason, developing
the philosopher's stone. And it's possible the entire uprising and war in
Ishbal were orchestrated by them in order to gain the lives needed for the
stone's creation. "

"You really think they'd go that far?" Hawkeye asks.

Mustang turns from the window to look at them. "Tell me. Why would any sane
person go after the philosopher's stone?"


Maybe the key word here is "sane".


Falman: "for wealth, glory, power."

Fuery: "to gain eternal life."

"Despair," says Hawkeye, thinking of the brothers.

"We've all heard the stories of what happens to anyone who gets near it.
Losing the lives of everyone you care about. Or your entire civilization
disappearing in a single night. It should drive anyone away, except someone
who has already lost it all, someone pushed to the brink by the tragedies
around them, like in a war."


Mustang thinking of his own researches into a "taboo"? His trying to
remember it when Hughes died? He knows enough now to know that to do a
successful human transmutation he would need a Stone.


"It is odd," says Havoc. "Since Fuehrer Bradley took over, our country's
been at war constantly, one campaign after another." Breda agrees.

We still don't know how long Bradley has been Fuehrer. But it can't be
too long if they can remember before then. So we still have no idea
how old Pride is, or who made him.

"I'm a soldier," Mustang says. "I don't mind war, but what if all the
reasons have been lies, and the sole motive was to cause death on a large
enough scale to create both the motivation and the ingredients for a stone?"
And we go to break.

As we come back from the break, Winry finds Ed dying his hair a
greenish-black. [Yay. Ed with his hair down and in his boxers.] Al has been
disguised as a bust of Armstrong? "No one will know he's in there unless
they break it open.

Oh Yeah!! We've got some nice shots for us girls in this episode. Ed
in his undies and H in bed with Trisha. Yummm! Ed is looking better
and better as he ages.

The statue looks enough like Armstrong. That's who I thought Ed
fashioned it after. It reminded me of the little figure that Armstrong
had turned the hammer into when fighting one of Greed's chimeras.

"So you guys are leaving again? "

"Sorry, Winry. There's something I need to do."

Winy thinks they're still searching for a way to get Al's body back and
suggests they stay in Resembool to do their research. But Sciezka is at the
door, and she thinks they plan to avenge Hughes.

"If I give my whole life to revenge now, everything Scar said, his life,
would be meaningless. Still, there is something I have to take care of."
[Great shot of Ed's reflection in the basin of dye.]

"Something more important than what you've been searching for? or revenge?"
Sciezka says. Winry wants to braid Ed's hair for him. She is blushing, and
he gives in.

This was a sweet moment between the two of them. Winry is showing Ed
that she cares about his human parts too.


"Something dangerous, isn't it?" Sciezka continues, as Pinako
eavesdrops. Later the two girls watch the train leave.

Ed is in his Alucard disguise. Al still wants to know where Hohenheim went,
but Ed just tells him to stay quiet.

THANK YOU! It was driving me crazy trying to figure out who Ed looked
like. My most favorite Vampire of all time and my favorite manga/anime
character.


We return to the confrontation between Dante and Hohenheim where little
time seems to have passed. "How can my soul be rotting?" she asks.


So we see what the name of the episode means here, but I haven't
figured out it's other meaning yet. Unless that's what Ed's got in his
pocket. Yechhh.


"Not even souls are invincible," he replies. "Each time we leap to another
body we leave a little strength behind. Now our souls no longer have the
energy to maintain a body. You have to face the truth, Dante. That's how
we're going to die."

"I won't die. As long as I still have the stone I'll transfer to another
body."

"And pretty soon that body will rot as well. And the next one will go even
quicker."

"And then I'll transfer to another body." Give up, Hohenheim. She's not
getting it. She's going to keep jumping until the bodies last mere minutes.

He chuckles. "And what about the philosopher's stone? How will you keep
transferring your soul? You must have already used up the small fragment I
left you."

She laughs. "I forgot. You haven't been keeping up. Thanks to a clever
Ishbalan alchemist and a decade's worth of labor, one of your sons has been
turned into a new philosopher's stone."

Both Hohenheim and Lust are surprised, he by the news about Al and she by
the knowledge that Dante had been helping Scar. "You really don't
understand," Hohenheim says to Dante, walking toward her. But he's in for
another shock as Sloth descends the staircase behind Dante, carrying Rose's
baby.

Hohenheim recognizes the link between Sloth and Trisha and flashes back to
a memory of Trisha with one of his sons in her arms. We see a montage of
memories: the two of them under the tree; courting in a boat; newborn Al
beside his mother; Ed handing his father a feather; Ed and newborn Al; Ed on
a rocking horse; Trisha carrying Al while H helped Ed walk along the wall;
the two off them in bed, the rot encroaching on his bare shoulder. "You
should have told me, our sons. You should have told me what they attempted
when I came back. No. No, I think I knew. I just didn't want to believe.
Trisha, I love you. I always will," he says to his memory of her.

There are some really lovely scenes in this flashback. The one of H
and little Ed walking on the wall then H swooping him up and falling to
the ground together just made my heart giggle. There was also a flower
that kept being shown. We know he used to make her circlets of them.
Wonder if they have any special significance or if she just liked ugly
flowers.

And there are the scenes of H and Trish in bed. He looked so tender
with her. They didn't lick each other though (Dante reference).

"Why, thank you," says Sloth, who restrains him with her watery form. "You
are just too kind to me, Hohenheim of Light." As she says his name, her
voice acquires a hard edge.

"I've been doing some research since you've been gone," Dante says, looking
down at Rose's baby which she is now carrying. "Trying to learn more about
the gate that is the source of our alchemic power. I've discovered some
fascinating things, Hohenheim. Would you like to know what lies beyond the
gate? You can't tell me you haven't been just a little bit curious. " The
baby begins to cry. "Did you know a part of the gate is actually within all
of us? As our consciousness matures and we grow more attached to this world,
we lose our awareness of it. By using someone whose link is still strong,
like a baby, the gate can be summoned. I'm going to show you, my darling.
See for yourself just what is beyond the gate. "

Dante strips the blanket from the infant. There is an alchemic circle drawn
on its chest. Lust gasps. The circle on the baby glows blue as Dante claps.
She tosses it in the air. Hohenheim is sent before the gate, at the top of
which are arms reaching up for a baby. He stares up at it as the gate opens.
"Trisha," he says. As the door opens, we see many pairs of eyes and one
large, single eye looking out. "Our boys will be fine. They're yours after
all, and mine." The gatelings reach out to pull him in. Back in the hall we
hear shrieking as Wrath demands that the gate be shut. Sloth comforts him.
"It's all right, Wrath," says Dante. "I promise that you're not going to go
beyond that gate anymore."

It looks to me like Hohenheim chooses to go through the gate, not hat
he's being "sent in".

Ahh, I just realized what the eyes in the Gate remind me of. Alucard
from Hellsing!


Hohenheim doesn't seem bothered to be sent to the gate, and I get the
feeling he's been beyond the gate already. And we know that the gate can
open, and one can emerge from it. While I think Hohenheim will die, I don't
necessarily think this is the end of him yet.


Yeah, it looks like he chooses to go. Dante doesn't know where he's
been for 400 years. Perhaps he's been through and back a few times.

Dante switches gears. "Bring me the philosopher's stone now, Sloth. Take
him and her," she says, referring to Wrath and Lust. The blades disappear,
and Lust falls to the floor.

"Why should we?" Lust asks bitterly. "So you can be reincarnated again?"

None of the others would dare to talk to Dante like that. Lust is
really separating herself. Will be interesting to see how she backs up
the brothers against Dante later on.

"Once I have the philosopher's stone and transfer my soul to another body,
I'll finally be able to turn all of you into human beings. Of course, that
will depend on your performance, won't it?" Dante leaves the room and
enters one where Rose sits in a fancy Victorian style dress. She lays the
baby in Rose's lap. Dante reaches over and touches Rose's face. " You need
to eat more, dear. If you don't gain some weight, my dresses won't fit very
well."

Elsewhere, the train on which Ed and Al are riding is being searched. "We
have to assume they're in some sort of disguise. There's a tall one and a
dwarf. The dwarf could be easily overlooked so take some precautions. "

Educard is trying to contain himself and not react to the "short"
description. As Ed eavesdrops on the soldiers, he hears one report finding
an odd bronze statue. The soldiers decide to crack it open. Al is screaming
inside as Ed opens the side of the boxcar to release the statue. "Hey,
weren't you tall a second ago," says one of the soldiers. "You're the
dwarf!"


Ed has stilts in boots on the ground. Funny image. There is a flash
of blue light as the side of the train opens. I assume Ed uses his
alchemy to free Al of the statue.


"Al, let's go." I'm not sure how Al gets out of the casing. Ed tells Al to
run ahead as he attempts to stop the chasing soldiers.

"Brother, with the stone's powers we could... " Al prepares to clap his
hands.

"Just run now." Ed turns, claps, and touches the ground.

A little while later, they are in a bare room of an abandoned building.
Ed's hair is blond again. "Thanks, brother, but I could've..."


That was too bad. I was hoping to view a bit more of a black haired Ed
for a change. <shrug> Oh well. Guess it showed the passage of time
and the fact that Ed must have found a place to bathe.


"Al, you can't use alchemy any more."

"But why not? I remember the gate now, brother. And I'm the philosopher's
stone, and so I've been thinking I could probably do it without a circle."

"Just don't, Al," Ed explodes, and then he relaxes. "If you use the stone's
power, we don't know what will happen to you. We'll take our time, okay?
We'll study more, and do it right. Don't worry. It'll be fine." Ed starts to
leave.


Ed is absolutely correct here. But he talks down to his brother so
it's no wonder Al is sick to death of being ignored and blown off.

"Brother, where are you going?"

"Good old Dad told us, didn't he? Someone out there has been manipulating
all the homunculi There's something here I'm going to need if we're going to
stop them." Al wants to go along, but Ed tells him to wait there as it won't
take long.


What if Al wanted to see Izumi too? Ed is being really selfish and
crazy in his paranoia. He's so paranoid he won't even tell his brother
what he is doing. The kid is losing his mind. It's set on one track
and is going to be the death of him if he doesn't start letting some
others in and if he doesn't start looking at the larger picture.

"But..."

"Don't worry. You just rest for a while." Ed leaves. Al thinks of something
and goes out into the hall where there is a phone.

In Central, Mustang and Armstrong are talking. " They've officially ordered
us to regroup and conduct an offensive in the North," Mustang says.


Whoa!!!!! Armstong is supposed to already be in the North looking for
Ed and Al. That's what Mustang told the Generals during the
tribunal/meeting/whatever it was. So much time has passed that he's
gone and back again?

"That's a very dangerous region," Armstrong comments.

"Right," says Mustang. "After my little performance at the council,
whoever's pulling the strings in all this must've realized I'm a threat. And
before we can cause any more trouble, they send us straight to the front
line."

"If they wanted to silence us so badly, couldn't they have just done it
here in Central?"

"Not after Hughes they couldn't. It would be way too suspicious if they
tried that again. Out on the battlefield they can have us killed whenever
they want to. There's nothing like the chaos of war to mask an
assassination."

"Even now I'm having trouble believing it's true. The fuehrer is a.... "
Mustang has stopped walking, and Armstrong stops talking to turn to look at
him.


Mustang says "Ssst." That's what stops Armstrong. It was as if he
started to say something and then cut it short.

"No matter how many times I read the material Sciezka gave to me, I just
couldn't put the whole thing together. I needed to confront the fuehrer to
test him. And he's responded in classic form. Innocent men don't cover their
tracks."

The scene shifts to Ed and Izumi standing outside Dante's mansion. "I didn't
think you'd come here again," he says to her, "after all that happened."

"I could say the same to you, and I came to look around and try to
understand some things."

"Did you find anything?"

"I'll tell you later. Why did you come?"

"Because I have a question I need to ask you."

"A question about what , Edward?"

"There's something I need, and you're not going to like it. I'll just say
it. Did you happen to keep any of the remains... of your baby's corpse?"

Izumi has a look of horror on her face. "You're going after them?"

"Yes." The word is barely a sound. The quiet agony in Mignogna's voice
sells this scene.


I didn't hear that as quiet agony as much as complete determination, so
complete that it didn't need to be shouted from the rooftops but could
be simply whispered and that would convey it's strength.

As others have pointed out, two equals. I guess we have to wait 'til
next week to find out what Izumi found.

Elsewhere, Al finds Tucker and the latest simulation of Nina in an
abandoned building. "Teach me," he says to Tucker. "Teach me how to use the
philosopher's stone."


I think this makes perfect sense. And I think Al is BRILLIANT in
choosing Tucker. Tucker is in hiding. Tucker was working on the
stone. Tucker liked the boys, though wasn't crazy about Ed being such
a prodigy. But he liked Al just fine. They kept company when Al was
kidnapped.

Al can see the grays. For Ed everything is black and white. Al seems
to be able to see that there are things to be learned from others
whether you agree with everythign about them or not. Look at how well
he ended up liking Scar, when all Ed saw was someone using alchemy to
kill people. Al sees the bigger picture where Ed is lost in tunnel
vision world.

Next episode: Human Transmutation

I'm really looking forward to this. Who is going to be transformed?
The boys? Already? Maybe Mustang is finally going to go for it? I'll
tune in next week and see.

.