Fullmetal Alchemist: Brotherhood (Episode 15) - Envoy From the East

Edward and Alphonse are on their way back to Central so they call in on Winry. However, once there they run into a foreigner who is searching for the philosopher’s stone and he’s quite persistent. Scar is also on his way back!

Fullmetal Alchemist: Brotherhood (Episode 15) – Envoy From the East

What happened?

Scar returned to his base fresh from a battle with another State Alchemist. He won, but a large cut on his leg was causing him some issues. Inside, he found a little girl from the nation of Xing who had travelled across the desert to find Edward Elric…

Edward and Alphonse arrived at Rush Valley and went to the shop that Winry was now working at. She was happy to see them but less impressed by what Edward had done to his artificial arm. After Edward did some explaining, Winry patched it up and ordered some new parts. They had some time to kill, but unless you have a thing for automail, there’s not much to do in Rush Valley.

Alphonse found a guy who was barely conscious so they took him to a restaurant and fed him. He revealed that he had travelled from Xing and was searching for the philosopher’s stone. When Edward told him he knew nothing, two mysterious fighters appeared from nowhere and attacked. Edward and Alphonse managed to win, but not before destroying most of the valley.

Edward had damaged his artificial arm even more in the battle and couldn’t perform alchemy. Luckily, since Alphonse recovered his memories, he has been able to do it without a transmutation circle. They fixed the town up and returned to Winry’s shop, complete with Edward’s busted arm. Upon discovering they were headed to central she asked to come too… so that she could visit with the Hugheses…

Fullmetal Alchemist Brotherhood Episode 17 Alphonse and Edward

What did you think?

This felt like a fairly odd episode, especially with the introduction of two visitors from Xing. There were some pretty funny moments such as Edward hitting Ling Yao with his severed arm and Ling pretending not to speak the language when the angry mob descended after the battle. Of course, then we had the ending which sets us up to go through the pain of Maes’ death all over again. I still can’t believe Alex Armstrong never said anything when he had the chance!

I’m not sure what adding even more countries to the mix will achieve, but I’m prepared to ride the wave as so far, this series really hasn’t let me down. There’s been a couple of bumps, but overall I can’t fault it. Also, I need to see much more of Riza Hawkeye. Even Barry the Butcher was in awe of her… and he’s mental!

Fullmetal Alchemist Brotherhood Episode 17 Ling Yao

What have you learnt?

One of the issues with adding new players at the later stage of the game is that they end up feeling like they’ve been tacked on. I remember it happening in A Game of Thrones when all of a sudden there was another couple of houses to deal with. That problem didn’t occur in the books as there was more time to prepare for them to become relevant.

We also got a bit of a geography lecture too which kind of threw me out of the moment. I love a good fantasy map and being able to picture where stuff is, but combined with two newcomers from the same place, it all felt a little forced. Foreshadowing is important for all sorts of things and not just major events. Anything that feels too surprising can pull the audience out of the moment.