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FMA movie--death and sacrifice. And Metropolis.
Watched FMA movie again, this time with Bro. I put forth the brilliant theory that Alphose Heiderich's cough, the fact that he was dying, was related to Al's resurrection--that somehow, unbeknownst to any of the involved parties, Al was sucking up Heiderich's life force or something. I thought it was no coincidence that Al became whole in the sense of regaining his memories when Heiderich died outright.
Bro said Heiderich's cough reminded him of Izumi's, and he wondered if Heiderich was missing internal organs due to Al's resurrection. Really, it would be a weird place for the equivalent trade to come from, but maybe the Gate was just all, "Argh! I am not going to trade you two back and forth ad infinitum, so let's get this from somewhere else!"
Then I started wondering about Wrath, because I think Wrath was a lot more of a whole person in the movie than in the series; he's gotten that altruistic streak that I think you kind of have to be human to have, even though he still calls himself a monster. And I wondered if he had got that way, got some kind of piece of soul, out of Izumi, who raised him, having finally died.
After that I made a quick leap to Hohenheim and Envy, who essentially have the same relationship as Izumi and Wrath (and maybe Hohenheim's skin rotting thing was due to his life supporting Envy's, in addition to or instead of the accepted reason of his soul-hopping immortality business?). When Envy shows up in humanoid form at the very end of the movie, it's not long, green-haired tankini and miniskirt sin form, it's the true face of the son of Hohenheim that Envy showed Ed at the end fo the series. Is it possible that Hohenheim dying gave Envy some extra oomph of humanity, as well?
ETA: Lust was arguably the most human of the sins in the series; she had bits and bobbins of memory coming back, and she had some non-lust feelings for some people. I wonder if this could be related to her maker having died?
I already touched on Envy and Wrath. Greed and Pride were, I think, direct creations of Dante; Gluttony we don't know much history for. Sloth's creators were also still alive--actually, wouldn't it be interesting if Sloth became Sloth because Al's soul, which should have been applied to powering her, was withheld? Making her lethargic? You know, I always wondered what the connection between the Elrics and the sin of sloth was--most of the others are more self-evident. Lust being raised by her lover, the violent Izumi raising Wrath, etc.
So I'm thinking, the only way raising the dead can actually work is if the alchemist puts his or her whole, entire life into the process. Trying to raise the dead and survive it is what produces homunculi, because you can't hold anything back if it's to actually work. A life for a life does sound like equivalent exchange, yeah?/ETA
I was wondering about the significance of the date they mention--"It's ten days until November 8," Eckhart says. I thought it might have something to do with Samhain and All Saint's Day and this period of time when gates between worlds are traditionally supposed to be open, and then I looked on wikipedia to figure out why the hell 1923 and not closer to WWII.
Wiki has this to say on the subject of Nov. 8, 1923:
This shouldn't surprise me as much as it does because a) I don't know very much about the political build-up to WWII, as my education focused primarily on the Holocaust, and b) because the movie hits some nails on their heads in the film trivia, so clearly these people know their history.
I mentioned Fritz Lang in my last post about the movie without much explaining who he was because he's such a huge figure in my film history classes. He was a Austrian film director working in Germany in the 20s and 30s--though in 1933, in direct response to Nazi pressure on his work, he up and left his career, his fortune, everything, and went to Hollywood. Metropolis (1927) is probably the most famous of his films--it's a early scifi dystopian class warfare silent film. Even if you've never seen the film itself, you've almost certainly seen references to it. Hell, there's an anime adaptation of it, Metropolis (2001).
Lang's Metropolis almost certainly influenced FMA directly--a mad scientist who makes a robotic copy of a woman who is good and pure--but the copy is evil and entices people to sin? And the mad scientist has lost his right hand and replaced it with a black prosthesis? And how the workers are fed in regimented lines into the machine that powers the city--any of this sound familiar?
The fansub I have has not!Bradley asking Ed to meet him at "Ufer," which should be UFA--Universum Film AG, pretty much the film production company in Germany in the 20s and 30s, which produced Metropolis and many other films. I wish I knew enough about UFA history to pinpoint who not!Bradley is supposed to represent. But, hey, I'm just excited that I recognized UFA. My classes have relevance! OMG! Squee!
That's pretty much all for tonight. Finals next week, need to study. Sigh. *twitch*
Bro said Heiderich's cough reminded him of Izumi's, and he wondered if Heiderich was missing internal organs due to Al's resurrection. Really, it would be a weird place for the equivalent trade to come from, but maybe the Gate was just all, "Argh! I am not going to trade you two back and forth ad infinitum, so let's get this from somewhere else!"
Then I started wondering about Wrath, because I think Wrath was a lot more of a whole person in the movie than in the series; he's gotten that altruistic streak that I think you kind of have to be human to have, even though he still calls himself a monster. And I wondered if he had got that way, got some kind of piece of soul, out of Izumi, who raised him, having finally died.
After that I made a quick leap to Hohenheim and Envy, who essentially have the same relationship as Izumi and Wrath (and maybe Hohenheim's skin rotting thing was due to his life supporting Envy's, in addition to or instead of the accepted reason of his soul-hopping immortality business?). When Envy shows up in humanoid form at the very end of the movie, it's not long, green-haired tankini and miniskirt sin form, it's the true face of the son of Hohenheim that Envy showed Ed at the end fo the series. Is it possible that Hohenheim dying gave Envy some extra oomph of humanity, as well?
ETA: Lust was arguably the most human of the sins in the series; she had bits and bobbins of memory coming back, and she had some non-lust feelings for some people. I wonder if this could be related to her maker having died?
I already touched on Envy and Wrath. Greed and Pride were, I think, direct creations of Dante; Gluttony we don't know much history for. Sloth's creators were also still alive--actually, wouldn't it be interesting if Sloth became Sloth because Al's soul, which should have been applied to powering her, was withheld? Making her lethargic? You know, I always wondered what the connection between the Elrics and the sin of sloth was--most of the others are more self-evident. Lust being raised by her lover, the violent Izumi raising Wrath, etc.
So I'm thinking, the only way raising the dead can actually work is if the alchemist puts his or her whole, entire life into the process. Trying to raise the dead and survive it is what produces homunculi, because you can't hold anything back if it's to actually work. A life for a life does sound like equivalent exchange, yeah?/ETA
I was wondering about the significance of the date they mention--"It's ten days until November 8," Eckhart says. I thought it might have something to do with Samhain and All Saint's Day and this period of time when gates between worlds are traditionally supposed to be open, and then I looked on wikipedia to figure out why the hell 1923 and not closer to WWII.
Wiki has this to say on the subject of Nov. 8, 1923:
On the evening of November 8th, six hundred armed SA men men surrounded a beer hall in Munich, where the heads of the Bavarian state and the local Reichswehr had gathered for a rally. The storm troopers were led by Adolf Hitler. Born in 1889 in Austria, a former volunteer in the German army during WWI, now a member of a new party called NSDAP, he was largely unknown until then. Hitler tried to force those present to join him and to march on to Berlin to seize power (Beer Hall Putsch). Hitler was later arrested and condemned to five years in prison, but was released at the end of 1924 after only one year of detention.
This shouldn't surprise me as much as it does because a) I don't know very much about the political build-up to WWII, as my education focused primarily on the Holocaust, and b) because the movie hits some nails on their heads in the film trivia, so clearly these people know their history.
I mentioned Fritz Lang in my last post about the movie without much explaining who he was because he's such a huge figure in my film history classes. He was a Austrian film director working in Germany in the 20s and 30s--though in 1933, in direct response to Nazi pressure on his work, he up and left his career, his fortune, everything, and went to Hollywood. Metropolis (1927) is probably the most famous of his films--it's a early scifi dystopian class warfare silent film. Even if you've never seen the film itself, you've almost certainly seen references to it. Hell, there's an anime adaptation of it, Metropolis (2001).
Lang's Metropolis almost certainly influenced FMA directly--a mad scientist who makes a robotic copy of a woman who is good and pure--but the copy is evil and entices people to sin? And the mad scientist has lost his right hand and replaced it with a black prosthesis? And how the workers are fed in regimented lines into the machine that powers the city--any of this sound familiar?
The fansub I have has not!Bradley asking Ed to meet him at "Ufer," which should be UFA--Universum Film AG, pretty much the film production company in Germany in the 20s and 30s, which produced Metropolis and many other films. I wish I knew enough about UFA history to pinpoint who not!Bradley is supposed to represent. But, hey, I'm just excited that I recognized UFA. My classes have relevance! OMG! Squee!
That's pretty much all for tonight. Finals next week, need to study. Sigh. *twitch*
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But I just had to say, all of this is really, really wonderful. *__* It makes an incredible amount of sense, too. I mean, especially that whole homunculi thing. Wow. If you keep that in mind, it just really explains a lot. *in awe*
And I'll be quiet now.
no subject