I wonder, after seeing Ed pay with a coin in this episode: how does money work in the Full Metal Alchemist universe? I mean, any alchemist could just gather some copper and nickel and make a fortune.
Anyway, this episode mostly consisted out of building up, although that introduction scene of Sloth rocked. The guy is pretty stereotypical (at least the “sloth” of the first season was a bit of a creative take on this trope), but the action scene was as good as usual. Heck, Sloth might be even tougher than Greed, who is supposed to be the strongest shield.
My guess would be that either Sloth or Gluttony was the first homunculus to be created. From the homunculi whose backstory we already know by now, you can see somewhat of a pattern, in which father experiments with various techniques to create homunculi, so naturally this would mean that his creations would keep getting better and better (see Wrath, who does stand out as the most skilled and emotionally stable homunculus so far). Gluttony and Sloth look like early prototypes: they have interesting powers, but tend to be too stupid or lazy to really be left on their own.
I do wonder, though. Father’s plan has always been one of secrecy, and silencing those who know about the alchemists. Why then does he send Sloth on such a mission, in which he’s bound to attract attention to himself. I mean, if he was looking for someone or something, he could have easily used Envy to infiltrate the base.
This episode was very much about getting Olivier to trust Ed and Al, which is of course a bit tricky considering how they can’t tell her exactly what they’re after, due to Winry. Still, I think she got the message at the end. The creators did well in portraying her as a hard-to-impress character.
Rating: * (Good)
I’ve still to see the ep and it’s been awhile since I read that part of the manga but I’m sure Sloth ‘infiltrated’ by accident, his task is unrelated.
I actually didn’t really care for the original sloth. It just didn’t make sense to me, especially since the others fit quite well (though I think Wrath suits Bradely better than Pride). Also, this series and the manga seem to do a better of job of making the humunculis’ names reflect their personality.
Also, I wonder what Sloth’s power will be. Thus far all the humunculi would have some special power. Something tells me “hard to kill” isn’t a power. I mean we might of thought eating was Gluttony’s only power and look what happened.
Sloth was the sixth Homunculus created. The first homunculus created was Pride, and his the strongest homunculus. I remember that their used to be a timeline showing the order that homunculus where created in but I only remember that Pride was first, Sloth was sixth, and Wrath was last.
As already stated Sloth came into Ft. Briggs on accident, his trying to dig a ditch under Amestris, and he accidently hit Ft. Briggs.
Whoa… I already thought that it was a bit coincidental for Sloth to show up, but for him to screw up, right at the exact same time and place that Ed and Al currently happened to be at might be stretching it a bit too much… I expected better fro this series.
Also, if Father created some sort of uberpowerful Homunculus at the beginning, then why did he settle for lesser versions after that? Obviously, if this amounts to spoilers, don’t answer this question.
“I expected better fro this series. ”
Oh noes ! Whatever shall we do now, rewrite the whole script for you, goshujin-sama ?
Because , as you probably know, each homunculus reflects pieces of fathers personality, so I’m guessing he can’t really choose what kind of homunculus he’s going to make. I’m pretty sure all of this has been said in the series, but if it hasn’t, my bad.
It’s also a coincidence that Winry’s parents were killed by Scar who then tried to kill Ed and Al. It’s also coincidence for Scar to run into Marcoh. It was also coincidence for Mustang to go to Risenbul to check out the rumor of an alchemist the same time Ed and Al do human transmutation. Fiction is chock full of coincidences.
In regards to the first paragraph, in the manga and first anime I know they mentioned that making money was against the rules for state alchemists, though you’ve got to wonder how they would be able to keep track of regular people trying this.
I wouldn’t really call Sloth being at Briggs coincidental. There’s a very important reason why he happened to be there, but I won’t say anymore, since it would be too much of a spoiler, and it’ll all be explained in next episode anyway (probably). But yeah, his infiltrating the base was pretty much an accident.
I love you! Because everything, every little thing, you have speculated in this review has been DEAD wrong. And so…that just goes to show that Akawara’s story is so awesome, tons of suprises and whatnot around the many, many corners. ^_^
Argh, and if you can ignore the 3rd comment! It’s full of spoilers >.> Not too bad, but still.
So in conclusion, Sloth will suprise you as to what he is and what he can do.
Who the original homunculus is will suprise you.
And what Sloth is doing around Briggs will suprise you.
That is, if you’re not hard to suprise, but still you’ll find out that all the flaws you try to nitpick out of this series aren’t really there ^^
wait, why did i never think about the money thing? ed and al are supposed to be stupidly rich thanks to their father, but whats stopping everybody from transmuting money?
maybe its just something they never bothered to explain, because it doesnt have that much of a role in the series. But i think the writer would say something like that the real money contains something that cant be transmuted correctly or something.
transmuting money is against the state rules. this is akin to how it is illegal to print fake money. the reason for this is because unreasonable increases in the money supply will cause the economy to spin out of control.
how the state can prevent this from happening, however, is another question.
@FMA: I’m a manga reader myself and I’d say that comment is an exaggeration, its too much of a stretch to think the manga series and even more so the anime (being more trunctuated with the details) to be “untouchable”. Not all the logic of the author necessarily goes down well, such as the timing of Sloth meeting with Ed and Al.
The series has its surprises but the pacing at times is rather off, especially with the latest batch of chapters that seem to prolong the innevetible end (not that I’m complaining much but at times it does diffuse the excitement though the latest chapter does bring it up again).
As others have said it’s not exactly a coincidence that Sloth is there. But that being said fiction is full of coincidences.
And the first anime Sloth was not lazy at all. I never understood the point of that character except to add more angst for Ed & Al. Although this Sloth is definitely not my favorite homunculus. I do like that he actually fits his name sake.
the homunculi were born in this order
Pride first (was made to resemble father make him his pride)
Lust (was made with his lustful thoughts
Greed (was made with his greed)
Envy (was made with his Envy
Sloth (was made with his sloth)
Gluttony (was made with his Gluttony and was intended to be a gate of truth it failed)
Wrath (you already know)
yeah the money thing, its talked about briefly in the manga, but basically its what others said, to prevent the economy from going out of control, so Im pretty sure if they suspect the currency devaluing from alchemists creating gold then the gov knows who to look for.
or it could be that the money is a material that is unable to be transmuted, or if transmuted will leave a mark (like when kimbley found the rocks that scar transmuted had transmutation marks on them.
yeah if you dont like the coincidences so far, youre gonna be pissed at the next set of coincidences that are coming…youd better stop watching the series now…
i just watched the subs so this is not a spoiler as i have not read the manga but sloth does not appear to know them all he really said was i dig holes i don’t know you
Sloth wasn’t sent to spy on Briggs, he’s just digging and accidently hit Briggs lol, he mentions it a lot of times.
I think Gluttony and Sloth are stupid because they were just born that way lol, I don’t think it has to do with improving. Gluttony was already born twice at least, and he is still the same.
Wrath was never improved, there’s only been one so far.
clinton (post #15) is correct regarding the order the homunculi were born in. Adding to what they said, Lust and Pride were born before history was recorded, Greed nearly 200 years before the start of FMA, Envy, Sloth and Gluttony over 100 years before the start of FMA, and Wrath was created 60 years before FMA begins (he even mentions he’s 60 when he fights Greed under the Devil’s Nest). Hiromu Arakawa published this info in an FMA manga guidebook released some years ago.