Fullmetal Alchemist: Brotherhood (Episode 63) - The Other Side of the Gateway

With his failure imminent, Father attempts to take Greed’s philosopher’s stone, however, Greed has other ideas, creating an opening for Edward. Could this be the final confrontation?

Fullmetal Alchemist: Brotherhood (Episode 63) – The Other Side of the Gateway

What happened?

Father was getting knocked back by Edward now that he had two hands. How could he be losing to a lowly human? In a fury, he unleashed a torrent of energy. When all were distracted, he rushed towards Greed and attempted to take his philosopher’s stone. Ling tried to stop Greed from giving up. Greed even accepted that being Emperor of Xing wouldn’t be so bad. However, he used that to make Ling lower his guard. He knew that if they fought Father, Ling’s body would be destroyed too.

As a parting gift, Greed used his hardening technique to turn Father’s body into the weakest carbon substance he could imagine. Father pulled Greed from his body and cast him aside, killing him in the process. Edward jumped at the opening Greed had created and punched through Father’s chest, destroying his philosopher’s stone and releasing the trapped souls. The Truth consumed Father and then sent him somewhere where only the most heinous souls go.

Fullmetal Alchemist Brotherhood Episode 63 Edward and Mei Chang with Alphonses body

The fight was won, but Alphonse still hadn’t woken up. Edward needed to think. There had to be a way to get him back. Hohenheim offered himself as a sacrifice to bring Alphonse back, but Edward refused, calling him his father for the first time. Then it came to him. Edward performed human transmutation and appeared before the Truth. In order to get Alphonse back, Edward offered up his portal. It meant that he would never perform alchemy again, but he was fine with that. The Truth was delighted that Edward had finally chosen correctly.

Edward and Alphonse returned to the world and were taken to the hospital to have their wounds looked at. Mustang took over the running of the country as he released word that the Fuhrer and his son had died in the conflict. Selim’s true form was given to Mrs Bradley. Hohenheim returned home and visited his wife’s grave. He told her about everything and how he now wanted to live. The irony. He died with a smile on his face, kneeling before her grave.

Fullmetal Alchemist Brotherhood Episode 63 Hohenheims end

What did you think?

Well, that hit me right in the feels. Seriously, I’m not crying, you’re crying. This was an incredible conclusion to the series. Not only did Edward put everything into the fight with Father, but he didn’t hesitate to finish him off. There was no returning to the original form for the dwarf in the flask as the Truth consumed him. When Edward went to get Alphonse, I was worried he would offer up his arm but giving up his power was a nice touch.

That’s not all! The scene where Greed and Ling argued about him giving up and going with Father was intense. Then, seeing Greed reflecting on his life and how he actually really liked Edward and Ling before he died was sad, but amazingly done. Ultimately, Hohenheim wins the prize for the saddest story. He spent his entire life wanting to die and then when he finally found something to live for, his time was up. At least he went with a smile on his face. That’s one proud father.

Fullmetal Alchemist Brotherhood Episode 63 Edward takes Alphonse home

What have you learnt?

So often a series can be ruined with a bad ending. All that good work can be undone in twenty-four minutes. Thankfully, this was not one of those occasions and given the length of the series, it would have been criminal to end this poorly. Of course, this isn’t the last episode, which isn’t that surprising given that anime often likes to have an entire episode to wrap things up.

On one hand, I feel like this would have been the perfect place to end to get the biggest impact and leave the audience with tears in their eyes and their hearts in their mouths. Of course, I also want to see more so I’m going to take the last episode and see what happens. It won’t impact my thoughts on the series as a whole either way. This was an epic climax and I will always remember it that way.