Out of all of the things that I’ve taken away from Fullmetal Alchemist Brotherhood,
I’d say that the most prominent would actually have to be what I consider to be a very simple
and obvious message.
This narrative sprawls outwards and back again and covers all manners of ideas, but to me
the one that shines the brightest is the very same one that stares us in the face from the
beginning.
We have war, violence, oppression and those who fight on either side of the conflict.
We have science and alchemy, and those who try to turn something as incorporeal as life
into equations or formulas.
We have rituals, magic both dark and light, religion and zealotry, and a gigantic cast
who settle themselves on different sides of every debate.
But overlying all of that to me is this dominant theme of.. humanity.
And if that sounds very vague, that’s because it is.
This concept can be approached from all angles, and Fullmetal Alchemist Brotherhood does do
that, but I think that where it stakes its claim the most is through the theme of humanity
remaining evergreen through all - how we will always drift to that same human sensibility,
how we will ultimately have to either face and confront that fact to better ourselves
or run away from it and lose ourselves, and how, in the end, humanity will always persist
no matter what.
It stays within those who try to discard it, it rears itself in a multitude of different
ways, and it remains the most fundamental and valuable essence in the story.
And this is pretty clearly frontloaded within the first couple of episodes, but only through
looking at the sheer number of other dimensions that the story adds to this idea can we really
see how fully Fullmetal Alchemist Brotherhood embodies it.
The first thing to establish is probably the most important fact - in this series, there
is nothing equal to the value of a human life.
We see right away through the brothers’ tragic failed attempt to resurrect their mother
that regardless of how adept one is at alchemy, no matter how much knowledge one has and how
thoroughly they prepare themselves for the task, it is simply impossible to bring back
someone from the dead.
Once a life is completely lost, it’s gone.
So through this we see that not only is human life the most valuable thing in this universe,
but the conclusion that it is finite means that even more significance should be placed
on it for those who are able to live.
And that’s partly why the most important goal for Ed is something that is intertwined
with making his brother’s life and soul complete again.
But this ephemeral nature itself poses a problem for everyone at the same time.
We struggle over decisions because we don’t know if they’ll be worth dedicating time
to with this short life to live.
We fear for the safety of our loved ones.
We agonize, we panic, we suffer within ourselves and we are flawed and vulnerable.
And that is the crux here.
That vulnerability - that inevitability of human beings being imperfect, fragile and
volatile for any number of reasons - that is the cause of so much pain.
But it is also the precursor to progress, love, respect, and in the end, strength through
overcoming that.
Pain must be felt in life and there is no human being who has never been vulnerable.
There is no way to avoid these facts, and those who try will end up undercutting themselves.
But those who embrace this will be rewarded.
To be human means to hurt and be weak, but through learning about and facing that, people
become strong.
This vulnerability is synonymous with human nature, and because of how often it arises,
we can see it in so many instances throughout the story.
And of course, that weakness in question is not limited to a physical weakness or overt
and obvious things like grieving or weeping.
Those are forms of what people consider traditional weakness, but weakness itself is derived in
large part from dependency.
This isn’t a bad thing, because it sure as hell isn’t a cardinal sin to lean on
others or any number of things to help us get through life at times.
But it is when that thing becomes a crutch that we become too weak and need to learn
to stand on our own two feet.
Once again, I want to stress this because it’s very important.
Weakness is not a bad thing.
People tend to attach negative connotations to it, but the act of showing weakness is
not a problem in and of itself - it’s only when we show an inability to move on and a
tendency to avoid the fact that we are weak that it becomes a true issue.
And two big characters that struggle with this in the story would actually be two that
tend to be the last that come to mind when thinking about weakness.
Scar and Roy Mustang are two men that fester rage inside them for differing yet similar
reasons.
They find themselves hurting, and instead of facing that and learning to move on, they
dwell in the flames of vengeance and would have ended up burning themselves inside out
if not for the help of others - not able to find the same strength Winry displayed.
In the end, they learn that this anger and revenge is just perpetuating an empty cycle
of hate devoid of any real fulfillment.
Sometimes lashing out can feel very right and gratifying in the moment, but Fullmetal
Alchemist Brotherhood states that this is unsustainable and only feeds a bottomless
pit that will lead the vengeful absolutely nowhere.
The true way to move on from grief is not to drown ourselves in it so much that we use
it as a crutch for some new and hateful life purpose.
It is to allow ourselves to feel it, but not become possessed by it.
You don’t have to like the state of things, but you have to accept reality, look at your
problems head on and then find the conviction to change things yourself and find more to
live for.
That inevitable hot rage or that deep sadness arising from tragedy is part of being human,
but in order to be a productive we must engage in another part of being human - being able
to move on from it.
It can feel like a curse to have to latch onto
things and struggle tooth and nail at times to deal with harsh reality, but that’s just
how things are and that’s just who we are.
It’s primarily this dependency that Bradley seems to despise in humans for being the antithesis
of his Randian way of living life with self-derived strength and authority - but funnily enough,
beneath this genuine display of wrath and hate, Bradley contains the essence of humanity
too.
Ironically he himself never found the power to look within and break out of a life that
he is implied to have only been satisfied with because of the singular human thing he
did - making one choice, which ended up being his wife.
He openly states that living by the sword as he does makes him feel more complete than
ever, but I believe that his hints of yearning indicate that he only feels this way because
of how limited his horizons are due to playing Father’s role.
It makes one think about how things could have changed for him and how much more life
would have had in store for him if he decided to live for himself.
To be human is to feel, and that can scare some - but to be human is also to be capable
of freedom and agency.
And that is something Bradley found true value in.
He would not have valued that choice if he didn’t yearn for humanity at least a little
bit.
And as I’ve said before, yearning to be able to be human in some regard is essentially
a form of humanity.
In my opinion, he fixated on human weakness so much and so forcefully demonstrated his
hate of it because he saw that vulnerability and humanity in himself, yet couldn’t address
it and harness that to turn it into something beautiful.
Instead he stubbornly avoids, just like someone else who we’ll discuss in a bit, subconsciously
thinking of what if’s, and taking solace in having been given one choice when he could
have made countless ones.
And just like Bradley, humanity came forth in other homunculi as well, despite them supposedly
being vessels purely comprised of their respective sin to make Father unblemished.
From Envy, who is revealed by the end to have been acting in opposition to their true loneliness
and jealousy of connections, to Pride, who shows immense panic at the prospect of death
and an ability to form bonds, to the obvious case of the wonderful Greed, who ends up forming
connections so strong that he doesn’t hesitate to give his life for them.
And finally, we have Father, perhaps the clearest case of this.
A man who eliminated all of the humanity he had through casting away his seven sins, yet
still had all of those sins resurface and manifest despite supposedly being rid of them
- with pride and greed being the most prominent in my opinion.
After all he did to become truly all powerful and detached, he still carried the insecurities
that were the reason he started his conquest in the first place.
He was still lonely.
He still yearned to be accepted.
And in the end, we see him for what he is - a scared, pathetic and sad human running
away from the inevitable and paying for his cowardice.
In this way, he is the flip side of Scar and Mustang - because while they showed their
weakness by using it as a crutch, Father showed his by completely avoiding it and trying to
pretend it didn’t exist, despite longing for the warmth of human imperfection and connection
deep down.
In contrast, Hohenheim lived eternally yet cursed this and dreamed for a finite human
life of meaning - which he eventually got.
And juxtaposing his pure happiness upon his death with Father’s attempts at escaping
everything tells a story of its own.
Humanity is inevitable.
Cut it off, and it’ll just grow back.
It springs up in places it had seemingly been sucked out of, and failing to accept this
double-edged sword and who he truly was is what caused Father to lose himself.
In addition to what we’ve covered, this story focuses greatly on progress.
Scientific, societal, personal, good, bad, whatever - so many these characters strive
for their version of moving forward.
And this makes plenty of sense, because in life, progress is required, necessary and
deeply valuable.
But through Arakawa’s fixation on the terror of conflict we can see that progress is only
that important if it is NOT prioritized above human lives and only if it is carried out
in an intelligent, respectful and dignified way - enthusiastic and impassioned, but never
executed through dominance.
Because human life is sacred, so precious a commodity that describing it in this way
almost seems disrespectful.
Humanity always took shape organically in this story as these individuals lived and
learned about themselves and the world around them.
Father gained all the power in the world and it still never quelled the dissatisfaction
and emptiness in his soul as he tried to consume everything.
And conversely, all the power in the world could not have saved a single life in Trisha.
It all comes down to the same thing - humanity is all-encompassing, finite, and so much more
indispensible than anything else because of how it refuses to be beaten down.
There is no point in trying to eliminate or avoid your vulnerabilities, and if there is
one thing that is inevitable and true, it’s that the human spirit is the most important
thing in the world and it will persist.
More important than science, the supernatural, structure, politics and even equivalent exchange.
You can cloak yourself in vengeance for self-preservation from pain, but sooner or later you will come
to see that letting go is what will make you stronger.
You can use supernatural powers to eliminate your humanity, and yet it will seep through
and be born anew anyway.
You can use equivalent exchange to try and save a life, only to realize that nothing
could ever be equivalent to a life.
You can try to oppress, only to realize that these stubborn beings will always rise up
to defend what they love, again and again and again despite their weakness.
Accept all that there is to humanity and embrace it.
Because those who cannot will die without having lived the way they truly wanted.
And those who can will find true beauty in the world even in spite of their pain.
Many thanks for watching.