Fullmetal Alchemist Episode 63

While this may not be the final episode, this actually the end of the story. Episode 64 will mostly be an epilogue.

Ed continues to pound Father, and Father goes desperate. He leaves Ed and attacks Greed straight on in order to steal his Philosopher’s Stone.

Father and Ling embark on a tug-of-war of Greed’s soul. Greed tries to talk Ling to letting go, since Ling would get absorbed as well at that rate. Ling would not relent, so Greed dupes him into letting his guard down and punching him for him to let go.

And so Greed and Ling officially split, and Greed rebels against Father from inside by turning his entire body into charcoal, supposedly the weakest of carbons.

Seeing what Greed is doing, Father officially kills him. But soon enough Ed makes his move and strikes through Father literally, thanks to his soft as charcoal body.

With a hole right through Father’s body, it’s now all over. His remaining souls get released, and Father himself gets consumed by freaky waving hands coming from the Gates of Truth.

And so inside the gate, Father, in his dwarf-in-the-flask form, faces up to that which he calls God.

Finally, Father receives his punishment. He mentioned before that the Truth gives out tolls which prevent people from being conceited, and as such, the same case happens to Father. He is sent back to confinement as his price.

Now, back in Ed’s world, the guys pick up the pieces. However, they still need to deal with the fact that Al is now gone. People offer their help to Ed, especially Ling who offers the stone Lan Fan got.

Even Hohenheim offers his last remaining soul. Ed denies him, saying he has no reason to sacrifice himself. Hohenheim replies with a beautiful, “Because I’m your father. It’s not about needs or reasoning. You two are precious to me. I want the both of you to live happily.”

At this point, though, I am disappointed that they did not animate Roy’s beautiful line about the nature of the brothers. From the manga, Hawkeye asks Roy if Ed would sacrifice himself to bring Al back. Roy answers that, “Ed knows all to well the horror and despair of being left alone. He would never subject Alphonse to it.” Leaving that out was a shame…

In any case, Ed ultimately arrives at a answer, and he proceeds to do what he calls as his final transmutation…

In front of the Truth, he pays the price of his own gate, his own capacity for alchemy. He admits to the Truth that he is only a normal human, and that he has relied to much on alchemy. He also mentions that he doesn’t mind losing his ability, since he still has the people around him to rely on.

And thus the Truth declares himself beaten by Ed for arriving at the truth of the matter. And both Ed and Al are now back.

And thus the long and winding road for the brothers has finally come to an end. Sure Ed still has his automail leg, but there’s still one episode, remember?

Meanwhile, the rest of the episode focuses on Hohenheim, as he finally gets the peace he has longed after. As his final act, he goes back to Trisha’s grave, and declares himself to have finally come home.

He reflects upon his life, declaring that he finally found the beauty in his life by meeting his family. And finally, he passes away with a very fulfilled life.

And so Hohenheim finally receives the rest from life he had hoped for, but with an added bonus of passing away content with life. It’s a beautiful scene considering the burden he carried throughout his life.

And so here ends Fullmetal Alchemist: Brotherhood. As for the final episode, we’ll get an epilogue to wrap everything up.