I really want to thank all of the manga readers who drop by here to leave a comment for staying away from the spoilers. Even though I don’t reply often, I do read all of the comments that get posted, and they’re often insightful, yet don’t give away what’s going to happen next. That’s something I realized especially after this episode, where we suddenly get treated to Hohenheim and Father’s backstory!
This was an awesome episode, that filled in a lot of the blanks in the back-story. As it turns out, everything started with a king, tempted with the prospects of eternal life. It all started with one successful attempt to create a homunculus, if I understood correctly. In order to create it, the blood of a slave was used, who would later become Hohenheim. The problem was that that was a really weak homunculus, who could only exist within a glass flask. That homunculus tricked the king of the country (who was really gullible, apparently), to create a huge transmutation circle, which sacrificed the entire population of the country to create two philosopher’s stones: Hohenheim and Father.
Now we also know why it was so easy for Father to take control of an entire country: everyone was killed off in the first place so he could very easily take control. Now, one thing that this episode seemed to hint at was that there are philosophers’ stones of different levels, depending on how much people are sacrificed. In fact, note that huge picture that we also saw earlier on the ruins? This episode only showed the inner points in that picture to be lit. currently, father is trying to lay out a transmutation circle that covers the outer reaches of the circle.
Also, what about the door? This episode also showed that “the truth” was already there before father arrived: it was probably this truth that showed our little homunculus how he should create such a philosopher’s stone. My guess is that for Homunculi, it somehow is very easy to get to this door. So here’s my guess as to Father’s plans: the philosopher’s stones that he’s made of is very powerful, but not exactly the “perfect” thing, the thing that will give him true freedom. My guess is that he has to make use of people who have seen “the truth”, and create an even bigger transmutation circle to achieve full immortality. This episode established him again as a patient person who’s willing to go through great lengths in order to accomplish his goals. It’s perhaps a bit cliched for a villain, but at this point I really think that he’s trying to become superior to whatever is on the opposite side of that door, “the truth” that showed him about alchemy, and who keeps taking away body parts from people who attempt human transmutation.
There are still a lot of questions lingering, though. What kind of homunculus was Father before this transmutation? Was he an early form of Pride, or were there actually more homunculi? I also now see that homunculi need a philosopher’s stone to function properly. And only one stone per homunculus seems to be the limit, otherwise he’d just keep feeding them these stones in order to make them more powerful and efficient.
Also, what has Hohenheim been doing for the past centuries, really? It took him something like five centuries to figure out something that Ed and Al figured out in a couple of years. A lot of his life is still a puzzle at this point.
Rating: *** (Awesome)