ALPHONSE ELRIC
AE
His entire body was the toll. Ed bound his soul to a suit of armor at the last possible second before the Gate took him completely. Seven feet of medieval plate steel with no heartbeat, no sense of touch, no taste, no smell. Gentle past all reasonable explanation given what he has been through. The 2003 anime adds a particular cruelty unique to this version: the question of whether Al's memories of his childhood are real, or whether they were implanted by Ed to give the soul in the armor something to hold onto. Whether the person inside the armor has always been there. The show does not answer this quickly.
ALPHONSE THROUGH THE ARCHIVE //
ISHBAL & THE MILITARY //
Open page →Liore · the same machinery, a new city
Military escalation around Liore creates exactly the kind of concentrated death that Philosopher's Stone research requires.
Scar understands what is happening and responds by building his own transmutation around the approaching soldiers while trying to move civilians out of the intended sacrifice zone.
Scar understands what is happening and responds by building his own transmutation around the approaching soldiers while trying to move civilians out of the intended sacrifice zone.
What changed
The Ishbal lesson becomes active. Characters are no longer remembering how a massacre was exploited for alchemy. They are watching the same structure being assembled again and choosing what role they will play inside it.
Episode 42 · the Stone is completed
Scar turns the military force entering Liore into the human cost of the Philosopher's Stone and completes the transmutation through Alphonse.
The revenge is understandable because of Ishbal. It is also deliberately uncomfortable.
The revenge is understandable because of Ishbal. It is also deliberately uncomfortable.
Why it matters
Scar's final answer still accepts the premise that enough human lives can become material for a greater purpose. He changes who is sacrificed, not the logic that permits sacrifice.
