Fullmetal Alchemist: Brotherhood (Episode 41) - The Abyss

Alphonse attempts to warn Scar and the others that Briggs has been compromised while Edward tries to capture Kimblee despite Miles’ intention to kill him. Will Edward regret his resolve?

Fullmetal Alchemist: Brotherhood (Episode 41) – The Abyss

What happened?

Scar and Doctor Marcoh emerge from the mining tunnels on the other side of the mountain, far away from Kimblee. Now, they just need to trek across the snow to Fort Briggs where they will be able to hide until Kimblee has been taken care of. It looks like they might make it but then a muffled voice and a metal foot catch their attention. It’s Alphonse, buried in the snow.

Back in the mining town, the snowstorm has ended and the search for Scar resumes. However, Miles has decided to assassinate Kimblee. He’s too dangerous to let live and will no doubt do the same to them if given the chance. Edward doesn’t like it and has no intention of letting them kill Kimblee. He may have valuable information.

Miles gets his team in place and prepares to have a sniper take the shot, but Edward walks into the picture and demands that Kimblee talks to him. However, Kimblee is well aware of the snipers and believes Edward is trying to buy them time to set up. He creates a cloud of vapour from the snow and escapes into the tunnels, leaving his men, a pair of chimaera to take care of Edward.

Edward manages to defeat the chimaera using ammonia and races after Kimblee. He even manages to know his philosopher’s stone out of his hand. However, Kimblee had two and uses the second to blow the mineshaft to pieces. Edward wakes at the bottom, impaled on a metal bar. He has enough energy to save the chimaera that Kimblee left for dead and asks them to help him remove the bar.

Fullmetal Alchemist Brotherhood Episode 41 Edward Elric hurt

What did you think?

As soon as they made a big deal about Edward’s conviction to not kill Kimblee, I knew it was going to be a valuable lesson for him. However, it wasn’t all bad. He may have messed up by allowing Kimblee to live, but his decision to save Kimblee’s men was proof that he has it right… most of the time. Edward needs to learn when a situation is hopeless or not, especially before he comes up against any of the truly strong opponents like King Bradley.

It was quite intense watching Edward try to remove the metal bar from his abdomen and then attempt to heal himself with alchemy. Obviously, the philosopher’s stone that one of the chimaeras found will no doubt come in handy once Edward is awake again. Only time will tell if Edward learnt anything from the meeting, but I think he’ll come back stronger from this. My only complaint is that it’s been three episodes since I was able to get a screenshot of Olivier Armstrong. What’s up with that?

Fullmetal Alchemist Brotherhood Episode 41 Edward Elric

What have you learnt?

The big lesson in this episode was clearly about learning the difference between an ideal and reality. Having ideals is a great starting point for a character, but it’s how they approach them in reality, especially when faced with evidence that they may have been incorrect or a little naive. Edward learnt a valuable lesson and I’m looking forward to seeing him bring that into his thinking. There will be a time when he will have to kill in order to move forward.

If there isn’t then this lesson was kind of redundant. That’s something to always be aware of when putting together a story. You’ll want your characters’ experiences to shape the way they act. It’s not impossible, but you would expect the character to learn from their journey and grow, changing things about who they are. As with everything, there are no hard and fast rules. These are simply things to consider and implement as you see fit.