http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/WMG/FullmetalAlchemist

Note: This page is for theories about the manga and the anime Fullmetal Alchemist: Brotherhood. See Fullmetal Alchemist (Anime) for the first anime adaptation. New WMGs at the bottom, please.

Ling Yao and Lan Fan are expies of Lau and Ran Mao from Black Butler

Similar names, the Token Asians of the show, Ling/Lau never opening their eyes, Lan Fan/Ran Mao being body guards for their retrospective lords/masters? Not to mention, they're both pretty much canon. Because really, who else could you pair them up with, without it being Crack-ish ? Seems suspicious...

Ed is now a Philosophers Stone

turned himself into a stone

being impaled by an I-beam in a mineshaft that Kimblee blew up

Pride's

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How did I not spot that?

Think about it, when hefirst to heal himself afterand then to force his way intoStone, that isn't something that can just be undone as soon as he isn't paying attention to holding it up anymore. And on top of that Pride's stone wasn't empty yet. So given that Pride was Brought Down to Normal , all the energy had to go somewhere because energy can't be created or destroyed, only transformed, and there wasn't an explosion or shock wave to show that the energy of Pride's stone was released. So all that energy now is within the Philosophers Stone that now is Ed's soul. This has the bonus of him not dying young after using his life to heal himself. Also the Father of the homunculie after being beaten down and diminished and crying out for a stone went straight for Ed. When Greed was right there. And Father wasn't just looking for a soul either because Al and Mei were closer.

Rose is bisexual, and it's Winry, not Ed, who she really likes.

INCOMING SHIP!!! Not that there's anything wrong with that!

Also, we're going to get a scene at the end of the manga in which it looks like Rose is going to confess to Ed, but she instead pours her heart out to Winry. It would be a brilliant twist because of certain expectations built up by the anime and Ship-to-Ship Combat. Sadly Jossed, but there are a couple of scenes late in the manga that could be interpreted as Les Yay if you squint. So, they could still be used as fuel for this guess.

I can almost believe this WMG, and I endorse it anyway because it's frickin hawt.

How many girls named Kain have you heard of? Cindy McKain. Please explain this one. Plus the OP said "bi" not "lesbian". Maybe she liked Kain (a boy) and then got interested in Winry (a girl)...

Maybe she likes Ed AND Winry?

The part about the word in the manga is true: 恋人 (koibito) is gender-neutral. And the manga never mentions a name or any other definition either. The only other word they use (as far as I noticed) was あの人 "anohito" but that's gender-neutral too. (On the other hand, it's fairly usual in Japan. There's nothing particularly strange about the gender-neutral wording unlike in English where you kind of start to suspect something if people are avoiding gendered words. Koibito is just a common word for lover of both genders and gendered pronouns (or personal pronouns in general), while they technically exist, are rarely used and tend to sound a bit weird even. So it's not really evidence for this theory... but then again it isn't evidence against it either. And personally I rather like it, so.)

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Additionally, that dead boyfriend of hers? The original Japanese version of the manga apparently used a gender-neutral word for "lover" and never went into more detail about that lover's gender.

Shou Tucker was more involved with the Military's experiments then he let on

He did mention that he was supposed to be "the authority on Chimeras" and had already been a State Alchemist for two years, despite what an apparent hack he is. Since the Central guys are really no better himself , they may have realized that Tucker's Furry Wife was still marginally better than their previous Chimera experiments. Even if Tucker wasn't directly involved, he still served as a "creative consultant", and eventually the perfected process led to a fresh batch of Beast Men . Tucker's next work came out so poorly because he was rushing to meet demands, and was initially reluctant to use his daughter and dog.

Think about it. They both have similar appearances such as the braid. They work for a shady organization. They've suffered Parental Abandonment . A lot of people close to them ends up dying.

If this was true, that would mean the Elric brothers actually went into the Mobile Suit Gundam Wing universe instead of ours. In the Fullmetal Alchemist universe, technology's slowed down while alchemy and prosthetic limbs become more advanced. While the other universe specialized in machines not unlike ours. However, there's a chance it could've went to the other extreme with giant robots, space colonies, and all that. Also, geniuses such as the Elric brothers may have influenced the design for Humongous Mecha. Really, what else would they do?

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You've got a point there. And Scott McNeil did voice both Duo and Hohenheim. Yes, but if we use Mr. McNeil as evidence, then we must also conclude that they are the reincarnations of Rattrap and Dinobot. My money is on Ed being the reincarnation of Rattrap, and Duo Dinobot. Given the tangibility of transformer souls, and the villainous nature of the Gate, which consumes souls (and this theory equates human souls with Transformer sparks), this means that...



Alternatively, The Gate is the Borderworld Xen

So...Hohenhiem is Freeman? That doesn't work, because Freeman never says a word to the point where they lampshade it. Hohenheim has a couple of lines of dialogue. Because he gave up his voice to get through the Gate. It all makes sense now... It seems more likely that considering that the gate takes what you value most Freeman would have lost his giant sexy brain, or his clobberin' arm. UNLESS. He had... the best voice. The best voice. Because he is Freeman when he lost his sexy voice they gave it to some other Freeman who the Truth thought needed a sexy voice. Morgan Freeman.



Armstrong is really Mr. Clean.

It's the space between dimensions that connect different worlds. Only reachable by extreme measures, and REAL bad things tend to happen when they do.After leaving the military, Armstrong decided to sell cleaning products. He harnessed his sparkles to make whites whiter and walls cleaner.

How did he make it from to the 50's and 60's looking exactly like he did during WWI? Easy, he's a time lord.

"This catchy jingle has been passed down the Armstrong line for generations!"

Al uses magnetism to move the suit of armor.

Al is one of the Fair Folk from Lords and Ladies, so he sees through magnetism.

Ohh, that's actually a good theory! Makes more sense than him... idk, using up his soul to move it. Or it moving just without any energy. (Unless, I guess, it was just normal alchemic energy from the tectonic plates, actually. Huh. Never thought of that.)

The soul is an "electromagnetic pattern", as described by Professor Milton Glass & thus is able to create magnetic forces capable of manipulating metal. This is why blood seals are only ever used on iron & not other chemicals present in blood. If it were not used on a metallic object, the subject would be unable to move. This may also explain how Al sees without eyes. He is actually "seeing" the effect things around him have on Earth's magnetic field or something like that.

Olivia Armstrong is deathly afraid of her sister Katherine.

"Since childhood, Katherine has loved to play the piano. And lift the piano. And drop it on Olivia." This troper and her girlfriend have incorporated this bit into their personal fanon, it's just too awesome. Seconded. Thirded. Excuse me while I go die of laughter now. Fourthed. Can't stop laughing Fifthed! That's just too hilarious!!! Sixthed so very very much Seventhed! this is too funny "KATHERINE! That piano has been passed down through the Armstrong line for generations! STOP DROPPING IT ON OLIVIA!" Maybe the youngest sibling dropping the piano on their older sibling/s was also passed down through the Armstrong line? No reason, other than it'd be hilarious. Maybe the reason she had her family go on a long vacation to Xing before the climax wasn't for their safety, but because she was terrified at the prospect of having to spend an extended stay in the same house as her sister, and this was the quickest way to get her out of the country...



You know, the one who could lift pianos and rejected Havoc. No reason, just Rule of Funny

The Armstrong family are all vampires, of the same sort as those in the Twilight series.

I hate you. I really do. How dare you? Gotta admit, though, it's hilarious. And becomes even more hilarious if you read the first chapter of Shanghai Youma Kikai (another manga by Hiromu Arakawa). There's literally a sparkling vampire there, and he seems to be related to the Armstrong family somehow...

Ah, but Twilight vampires are supposedly all stunningly beautiful. Have you seen his sisters? Not Katherine and Olivia, they have that "hormonal about face" (never quite fully got that phrase), but like Strongine. She looks like transvestite!Alex. So does his other sister, Amue. Havoc's hormones did an about face when he saw Catherine. :)

Alternatively the Twilight vampires are distant relatives of the Armstrong family-as in at least Carslie Cullen's era. The Armstrong family may have been awesome for generations, but that doesn't mean they've been awesome for every generation.

Major Armstrong's claim that he uses techniques "passed down the Armstrong line for generations" is a lie. He's merely an immortal who continuously uses the same techniques despite changing identities to keep people from being suspicious of his true nature, and merely claims that they've been passed down to him in case anyone notices the fact that his techniques are the same as his supposed "ancestors". This also explains why the Armstrongs all sparkle: Twilight vampires all sparkle in the sunlight.

The world where Amestris/Ishval/Xing is might be Europe's (and perhaps Northern China's) Soul Society , but with different rules

And the black goop creatures in the gate (in the anime and movie. at least) are equivalent to the Cleaners in Bleach. The different areas could even be immigrants, sent to the same afterlife in areas more corresponding to the culture they lived in. It doesn't really explain the Earthian/Amestrian alts.

To think about that, both have portals where the souls seems like to be exchanged, and crossing this portal is forbidden to untrained specialists (the trained ones were the ones that managed to use a pure Philosopher's Stone, it seems). Their Zanpakutou equivalent are the Transmutation Circles, and those who acquired the equivalent of Bankai had to pay a high price to do so. The Homunculi are like Arrancars, eating incomplete Philosopher's Stones just like Hollows eat souls, to ease their pain and become more human-like. Ishvalans might have lived in the region equivalent to the 80th from the Japanese/Korean/Southern Chinese (and just maybe Australian) Soul Society, Zaraki, due to the extremely harsh conditions the place presented. The equivalent Shinigamis are presented as Federal Alchemists, and the rules set there are really strict, to avoid unnecessary Hollows to invade the real world. There's even a conspiracy in the roots of the Federal Institute, just like the Japanese Shinigami Academy!

The Armstrong family uses alchemy to create perfect offspring.

So, they are the ones that know the TRUE human transmutation? I'm not sure it would count as human transmutation. This seems more like creative arrangement. Remember when Ed (in the anime at least) turns his hair green? He was just using a way to make the pigments cover his hair without waiting half an hour, like we normally do. Even then, with human transmutation, doesn't the alchemist need to find a way to combine all the different materials cohesively? In the case of an embryo or fetus, all the chemicals and pieces are there, so wouldn't it just be a simple matter of rearranging the DNA?

"These genetic engineering techniques have been passed down the Armstrong line for generations!"

Then wait a second, what about the two sisters who look like Alex?

Maybe they thought that they would be male, so they made them manly, but they turned out to be female?

The Armstrongs are already known to be masters at twisting chemical components to their own ends. Since the base elements of a human being are amino acids, it is entirely possible that, while their children are in the womb, Armstrongs twist the acids, rearranging key DNA strands to create either a brilliant female commander, a muscle-bound romantic, or an improbably busty teenager. This new troper is surprised nobody has picked up on this.

Havoc will betray Mustang to the military for a permanent girlfriend.

This troper says Havoc will meet Becky and cute sparkly love will ensue.

Still hope he and Sheska get together. They are pretty much meant for each other, as the pretty nerdy girl that gets unnoticed, and the guy that can't get a girlfriend because no girl really notices his qualities. They'll notice each other and make a geeky couple. Are you sure you're thinking of Havoc and not Fury? Because Fury seems more the type of guy who'd go for the geeky type like Sheska. And this troper agrees that Becky and Havoc would make a cute couple (even if I dislike the woman for some reason.) Double date Omake! Besides, we all know Havoc's all about the busom .



Otherwise he will die alone. This way he gets a girlfriend, and Mustang will be in jail or dead and will stop ruining his relationships. Happy ending for all!

Speaking of Sheska...

She will eventually discover that her reading abilities are practically inhuman, and discover she can redirect such abilities to Alchemy, thus, becoming the Paper

Envy has been everyone at one point or another.

Picture your favourite scene of your OTP. One of them was Envy.

Envy was Maes Hughes. Envy was Winry during the movie. Therefore, I have a theory. Envy has been everyone in the manga, anime, and every alternate reality at least once. The scary part comes when you realize he was Maes Hughes' daughter, which technically means...Attack of the Killer Cute!

The Truth is a Trinitarian god.

Okay here's the spill. The truth states that he is God and that he is also the person with whom he is currently talking. The eye-shaped entity within the gate is called the Eye of God. My theory is that the FMA equivalent of God is a Trinitarian deity consisting of the Truth, the individual (or rather, every individual), and the Eye of God. It is shown that people transmute using their connection to the gate, so it's not too much of a long shot to suggest that all life forms capable of alchemy are connected to and make up a part of God. Also, this kinda validates what Ed said about alchemists being gods.

The gold toothed doctor is Father's secret lover.

Because let's face it, if Father wanted a family, he'd know of the typical two parent unit. Gold Tooth, meanwhile, seems to be the most loyal of Father's human cronies, and raised one of his kids.(Bradley) And they're both omnicidal , misanthropic bastards who use their "children" as weapons. If Father needed a partner to complete his "family" he'd probably seek someone with as much love for humanity as himself.

Just like their counterparts in the first anime, the manga homunculi can't use alchemy either, and that was deliberate on Father's part

I apologize if this was actually stated directly, but I don't remembering it being. Father basically created alchemy, and you would think that since his "children" are formed from him, they would naturally have skills in it. But noticeably, they don't. While you can be successful in Amestris without knowing alchemy, Wrath Bradley (does that even need to be spoilered?) doesn't use alchemy, and nor does Pride Selim Bradley, even though he is Father's favorite and mimics him in all other ways. I also noticed with Greed that he wants the Philosopher's Stone for immortality, but never thinks about doing alchemy with it, in which case would certainly be a Physical God like Father.

My guess, is that if the homunculi did use alchemy, they would have nearly god-like powers (witness what Father Cornello could do with a much smaller stone than the ones making up their bodies), but it would drain them in the process. Father certainly doesn't want any of them equaling him in power, and practically, they would be in real Villain Sue territory if they had alchemic powers. Finally, from another angle, since alchemy was thought-up to manipulate humans, it's not likely that the homonculi would be that interested in it anyway, given their view of humanity.-Edit- this actually seems to be confirmed in the fight between Greed and Pride. Greed is currently possessing Ling] and can only benefit from Ling's Detect Evil powers by turning off his control

I don't think that uses alchemy. If it did, then either Ling, Lanfan or Fu would have learned at least enough Alchahestery that they could heal themselves or to have it as another combat option. Now I'm wondering why they didn't bring anyone with them who knew it to keep their heir alive, other than not bringing in too many Alchahestery users into the story. It kind of uses Alkahestry. May describes Alkahestry as controlling/manipulating the world's Chi in order to transmute, while Ling and his bodyguards say that the way they fought Pride was by reading his Chi. I think they know just enough of the basics of Alkahestry to know about Chi and how to detect it, but not enough to be able to draw circles and transmute with it — it's a read-only property for them.

Now that Pride ate Kimblee will he be able to use alchemy?

Pride has the ability to learn alchemy by eating alchemists. In that regard, I think the nature of their sin determines whether they can learn it. Since Pride is Father's "greatest achievement" it's only natural that he would be able to gain the same abilities. Someone like Wrath, on the other hand, would be better suited for cutting/punching/stabbing/anything that causes immense pain and immediate restitution.

has the ability to learn alchemy by In that regard, I think the nature of their sin determines whether they can learn it. Since it's only natural that he would be able to gain the same abilities. Someone like Wrath, on the other hand, would be better suited for cutting/punching/stabbing/anything that causes immense pain and immediate restitution. In the first anime, it's implied to some degree that the homunculi's powers are a type of alchemy (Anime!Sloth turns into water, Anime!Wrath can transmute his limbs into certain material, like rocks, and it's implied that Anime!Pride can manipulate wind to some degree with his sword, disabling Roy's flame alchemy). In the first anime Anime!Pride's ability is explained as the 'Ultimate Eye' which is able to see all, that extends to the air around him, and by disrupting it when Roy attempts Alchemy, it disperses the dense oxygen rendering fire alchemy useless. Anime!Wrath is the exception to the rule. He can use alchemy because he had Ed's arm and leg.



The philosopher's stone doesn't break the laws of equivalent exchange

Although its use is not recommended, simply because changing an atom structure means consuming a lot of energy to do so, and liberating a bit less than that after the process. It'd be way too dangerous to risk a mini black hole, or a mini nuke from doing so.

Ordinary transmutation clearly can change elements, otherwise it wouldn't be illegal for alchemists to create gold — something we know Ed can do. It's probably a lot simpler even for normal alchemy to work with existing elements, but they have talked about turning metals into other metals and so forth. I thought Ed made iron pyrite and Yoki didn't know how to recognize it? Maybe I misunderstood that scene.

This isn't much of a guess; the Philosopher's Stone is literally the energy of life itself. Equivalent Exchange still happens, its just you are exchanging life for the desired effect. Life is very powerful stuff.

Actually, if you understand quantum physics, energy waves and matter are the same thing, just behaving in different ways. A philosopher's stone would simply be condensing the matter and energy of people into a small stone; neither bodies nor consciousnesses were left after Xerxes, so both are in the stone. Envy even says, they're just being stored for later use. It's like charging a battery; the energy is still there, it's just in a container for now. The laws haven't been broken by philosopher's stones, but it has nothing to do with "deeper physics" or anything like that.

The energy in a Philosopher's Stone is essentially currency for alchemy. Rather than using the normal barter system to exchange two pigs for a donkey, you can use a philosopher's stone to buy whatever you want. Sure, you can use it to change lead into gold, but it's just as easy to go "Presto! Now I have a mountain of gold!" Human souls are worth quite a lot, which is why human transmutation always fails when you're trying to make a human from scratch. Al gave up his entire body to obtain a soul for their "mother," and even then it was his own soul that was going to be used. So, you can trade one for pretty much anything else.

Since the energy for alchemy actually has a source (geothermal energy), this implies that the law of conservation of energy holds. In the real world, we concluded that mass is just a very dense form of energy by watching matter turn into energy. However, in FMA, we can't be sure this is true. However, we do know that souls can turn into mass. So, perhaps souls and matter are different forms of the same, fundamental substance, as we can see that we can turn souls into matter. This leads to the question: can we turn matter into souls? There doesn't seem to be a clear answer to this. Attempts to create new souls don't really come up, it's mostly trying to bring dead souls back, and even in the case where Ed gave his arm to transmute his brother's soul, Al wasn't actually dead, which is why he only had to give up an arm and not his entire body like Al did when they tried to bring back their definitely-deceased mother. One might argue that the creation of a homunculus would suggest that this is at least theoretically possible, but the counter-argument to this is that homunculi don't really have souls of their own - the only possible exception being Wrath, but this falls apart when you remember that even he doesn't know if the soul he has is his original or not (and in that case, it wasn't "created" at all). The short answer seems to be a distinct and resounding "who knows?", but I don't feel like the idea of "creating" a soul was ever explored thoroughly, at least not thoroughly enough to glean an argument one way or the other. That, or a 'soul' is simply the electrical energy inherent in the brain of a sentient lifeform, since the only tried-and-tested way of making new souls is to make new people. Thus, the reason people can't bring dead souls back is a) they're trying to collect something fully formed rather than recreate something; b) even if they did try to remake the soul, they're trying to make something that doesn't exist, like a transmutation aiming to make elemental water would always fail - water isn't an element and a 'soul' is just a pattern of electrons; c) even if you did just try to make the brain of the person exactly how it was, you cannot know enough about that brain without having done the most in-depth MRI scan possible at the instant of death or being a deity-level being whose job it is to know literally everything about literally everything. Thus, the closest humans can come to playing with souls is either creating new ones, as humans do, or moving the energy keeping a 'soul' in someone's body to the centre of a transmutation circle - resulting in a braindead person and a Philosopher's Stone.



It merely allows for transmutations on a deeper level. Ordinary transmutation can't change one element into another. By rearranging the atom, a user of the stone can change one element into another, including all those lovely gases in our atmosphere. Another thing it might be doing is making use of the idea that energy is matter and vice-versa, and converting energy (from the souls it contains) into matter. There's no rule breaking going on, just a deeper level of physics and chemistry.

Admittedly this hypothesis doesn't explain inter-soul conflict or how a soul can retain its form long for five minutes, let alone five centuries, but it fits close enough to the rest of it that someone else can figure that out.

Parts of the Royal/Imperial Family of Xing, including Ling, is descended from Hohenheim.

I endorse this, if only because Ed's reaction would be hilarious.

Though it'd likely be so far back that they barely count as related by this point. It'd definitely still be funny, though.

If that's true, then the sequence of events that led to Ling becoming the second Greed was the most fucked up impromptu family reunion ever put to screen.

It's been mentioned that he looks like a cross between Edward and Ling in the past, and since he spent at least a few hundred years wandering around Xing and inventing Xingese alchemy, it makes sense that he would have had other kids there as long as Trisha came later enough that he'd moved on . Considering his descendants would likely be skilled in alchemy as the Elric brothers, it would make sense that they would be of a post ranking high enough to be eligible to marry into the imperial family.

Riza and Mustang are simply too fucked up to think anything about romance.

There also could be too much traumatic history between them both. If Riza truly felt bad about giving away her father's secrets and wanted the tattoo destroyed, she could have just gotten another tattooist to make it illegible or even do the burns herself. But she didn't; she asked Roy, the Flame Alchemist, to burn her skin so there'd never be another Flame Alchemist. The sheer amount of guilt and blame being laid in that action is huge. Later on, she tells him that if he breaks her trust again, she'd utterly destroy herself to ruin her father's notes for good. There's no real point to destroying the notes at this point; it was something said to shame Roy and make him feel accountable for her death. Like a lot of other characters in the manga, there's a real undercurrent of guilt, shame, and blame in Roy and Riza, which could be a real stumbling block for any real relationship. -_- Why didn't she ask a tattooist? Oh, I dunno, maybe because the secrets to flambaeing entire cities are on her back? It's supposed to be kept a secret for a reason - flame alchemy is beyond dangerous in the wrong hands, and Roy's the only one in the know, and obviously the only one Riza trusts enough to be on the know- heck, just think about that fact. Riza trusted Roy, and he actually was a trustworthy person but look at how that turned out- of course she wouldn't dare trust anyone else. That's why she didn't get a stranger to do it. And why didn't she burn herself? Because Riza's intention was not only to stop another flame alchemist being born, but to keep an eye on the current one to stop him from doing something so horrible ever again. Think about it, she doesn't know anything about burning people or which parts of the array to burn to make illegible, and when she asked Roy to burn her back, she meant the entire array, while he only certain parts when he did it to cause her as little pain as possible. The reason Riza asked Roy to burn it was that if Riza burned her back herself, at best she'd end up severely injuring herself, at worst she'd die- and Riza couldn't afford to die/be injured not because she didn't want to get hurt, but because she was the only one with enough leverage to stop Mustang from doing another Ishval. Yes, she enrolled into his team so she could serve under him and help him become Fuhrer, but I believe another big reason of hers was to keep an eye on Mustang and stop him from going on a wide-mass killing spree again (because as much as the guy regrets it, that's what it was). And yeah, Ishval screw them over, they'd be inhuman if it hadn't- but the thing is, they share that pain. No one could possibly understand how guilty Roy feels about burning so many people- no one but Riza, who suffers the guilt of letting him burn so many people and shoot a good few hundred herself. In a way, when it comes to burning all those people, Riza understands Roy's guilt better than Maes does. That's what gets me about those two- they understand each other like no one else does, because they've shared so much. And while they could never be Sickeningly Sweethearts like Hughes is with Gracia, could never have Babies Ever After, (may possibly marry if they make it to their late thirties), could never even be so much as a sweet couple because God knows the pairing of Roy Ai is practically built on ansgt, but that bond between those two is most definitely not platonic. You do not love someone platonically when you tell them in so many words that you can't live without them. And, yes, that goes on Roy's side too, since I read the RAWS and was untainted by how the scanlators sometimes made things so 'Western-like' they changed the meanings entirely. Chapter freakin' 95 people. Roy : If you're going to shoot, then shoot. But what will you do after shooting and killing me? Riza : "..I have no intention to live a comfortable life alone. When this battle is over, I will erase my body from this world, and with it the flame alchemy that drives men mad." Roy : * blasts one last snap of flame in frustration* "...That's troubling. I can't lose you." I think you're somewhat missing my point. They're both smart people, they could have found a way to destroy the tattoo themselves if they really wanted to. But the act of the Flame Alchemist burning the secret keeper of his alchemy so no one else could misuse it is a powerful, almost damning act, one that cannot be easily explained away by just practicality at the time. I also disagree that Riza is the only person who understand Roy's pain - many other characters are haunted by what they did in Ishbal, like Armstrong using his own alchemy to kill others or the doctor who dissected Roy's burnt corpses. Hell, Riza likes guns because she didn't have to see her enemy die up close, while Roy knows that his lips get greasy from human fat (the manga even emphasizes his personal knowledge of burning people to the point of scariness). Their specific shared pain is the betrayal of their ideal to use the flame alchemy to help the country, a betrayal that wounds them both in different ways. But you're right, they do understand each other very very well. What I disagree with is that it's impossible for them to be platonic. In regards to chapter 95, I fail to see how threatening to shoot someone who is about to betray you again and then saying you're going to destroy yourself for good because of the madness you unleashed is saying 'I can't live without you' and is supposed to be romantic. Killing yourself because your love is dead (because you killed them) is disturbing and messed-up, so I really don't understand why Royai fans used that very dark and disturbing exchange as 'proof' that their pairing is canon. I disagree. 1) You say it was a damning act, and in part it was, but what all that burning was about was for Riza to, emotionally and physically, be free from her father's bonds and for Roy to somehow make up his betrayal of her trust to her. That's how Arakawa portrayed it. I really doubt anything other than Roy burning her could have been done, but if you think of something let me know. But my point in that is- that is how Arakawa planned it and wanted it. You need to keep in mind that FMA's characters aren't people, they're just ink and paper of a writer's imagination. 2) I agree with you on the point that others know Roy's pain of Ishval but again I have to disagree, since what I'm referring to is the number of people killed. For a poor example- the atom bomb. Roy's the bomb, Riza's the scientist. You can't tell me that just because the inventors of the atom bomb weren't out killing Hiroshima's residents they didn't feel a horrible guilt engulfing them. I mean it to this affect. It's the guilt that's being shared there- I don't really understand what you mean by betrayal. How was there a betrayal there? Roy didn't willingly commit genocide. Riza knew that. There could be form of diluted betrayal there, but they obviously still trust each other with their backs; if there was really a sense of betrayal, there'd need to be hatred there, or at least dislike, but there isn't. For me, that's the whole point about Mustang and Hawkeye's relationship- logically speaking, if as you said, it was betrayal that kept those two bound to each other, there should be hate, dislike, weariness, but in the series they've both shown an immense attachment to each other. Riza cries and gives up when she thinks Roy is dead. Roy panics when he thinks Riza's in danger. Roy gave up on dying when Riza would die too. And, I must point out that in ch. 101, until Riza gave Roy that signal about the chimeras being above he still could not make a choice between saving her or committing human transmutation. 3) You see, this is my point when I say it's not platonic: their relationship is built on the angst they've caused each other, however they trust each other with their lives and care about each other's safety. In ch. 95, Roy was the one being just as 'damning' as you portrayed Hawkeye in the burning-the-tattoo scene, if not more. He was telling Riza to kill him. He'd seen Riza cry when she'd thought he was dead, he'd even commented on it a scant chapter or so before, but nonetheless he was so overwhelmed with hatred that he didn't care if he caused her pain (thus his apology and distraught look later on, when he told her to lower her gun). This just proves that yes, they are two screwed up people . I never denied this. But I don't believe it's platonic at all, simply because Roy stopped his Moral Event Horizon when he knew that he would be damning Riza as well as himself. He cared about her more than himself- and, now that we come to it, since he was planning on dying and throwing all his plans down the drain, he cares about Riza more than he cares about his goal, but my main point is that he cares about her more than ending his pain and just dying- and isn't caring about someone more than yourself the basics of love? 3.5) Riza saying she'd kill herself is simply because if Roy had forced her to shoot him like she'd promised, she would be too overcome with the pain of it all to carry on; because even if it had been Scar to pull the trigger and not Hawkeye, she would still have been the one who had exposed him to Flame Alchemy and made him capable of Ishval. She was still the one who made Roy into a murderer, and made him capable of crossing the line. The guilt of making her most important person die would have been too much for her— and yes, there'd be no other option and she would have to pull the trigger, because in the pair's Ishval-influenced-mindset she owed him to keep her promise, just like he had owed her to burn her back; it's the guilt behind it all that's making them hurt each other in the end, though it's technically for their own good; Riza didn't want to be bound to her father's alchemy, and Roy didn't want to turn into 'an animal in human skin', no matter how painful and fatal the solutions may have been. Another reason for Riza's possible suicide: Roy and Riza living and working together to change the country is their redemption for Ishval- it's the only way they can look themselves in the mirror. I think that in ch. 95 all that pain of Ishval and Hughes' death just came rushing to the surface, and the self-loathing within the pair of them manifested into a desire to just die and be done with it. But the reason that tipped the scales, the reason that Roy didn't let Riza shoot him, was not his goal at the end. At the end it was an unwillingness to cause Riza pain again. Despite Scar and Ed's words' affecting him, up until Riza told him she'd die too, Roy was willing to die. - and now I've rambled on again, so I don't really know if you got my point, but here it is: Roy and Riza care about each other more than themselves. I'm not saying it's nice, I'm not even saying it's healthy- however, I don't believe that you can care that much about a person on a platonic level. Not to mention Arakawa herself has dropped little hints various times over the series: when Grumman asked Roy to marry his granddaughter, his reponse was "You're thinking to far ahead" exactly, as well as Roy going into a rage over Barry the Chopper's groping, him calling her "RIZA!" when he was a student, Mustang labelling Riza as his Queen, Chris knowing 'Elizabeth', the gold-tooth scientist calling Hawkeye Roy's 'precious woman' (yes, literally, I read RAWS), Bradley calling her his 'important person', Ed telling Roy not to worry Hawkeye..etc. Taking all this evidence into account, I cannot help but conclude that there is definitely something there. It's not nice, not pretty, as I mentioned before not even healthy because of Ishval's influence, but to call the relations between Hawkeye and Mustang as platonic doesn't do justice to the emotion there. 'Love' doesn't have to have to be romance or nice, or even happy to be there. Of course, I'm not saying I can convince you otherwise, I'm just giving my side of the argument. In conclusion, my personal opinion is that Hawkeye and Mustang are willing to spend their lives together. They don't need marriage, and aren't capable of it either (as I said, the only way/time I can see it happening is when they're really old). But they do think of each other as their most important person, and they do put each other, admittance or not, above everyone/everything else. That's all I'm trying to say. Okay, I'm gonna keep this as concise as possible because it's very difficult to have a dicussion in this format. I also apologise for the lateness, real life has been nailing my ass. Point 1) I think we might just have to disagree on this, especially when you state what Arakawa planned and wanted. Neither of us are Arakawa, and neither of us can talk on her behalf. I just can't get over Riza asking Roy to burn her, considering the symbolism involved and the frequent references on how burning people has given Roy a sinister edge. Maybe it's just me. Point 2) Thing is, Roy did willingly commit genocide. As Riza says, the homonculi started it but they carried it out. Kimblee's scene in the flashback is all about making Roy and Riza take responsibility for what they've done instead of thinking that they 'had' to. So Riza trusted Roy with her back so he could carry out his dream, and he burned people to death instead. But betrayal doesn't have to equal hate or dislike - a good relationship can see the deep pits in the road but still continue onward. It wouldn't be the first time an anime showed two people hurting each other (intentionally or not) but still keeping a strong bond without ill-will. Point 3) Actually, you make a really good point here. Most Roy/Riza shippers talk about how romantic and sweet their bond is, when I've never really seen it. You pointing out that it could be a dark, almost damning sort of love is actually really interesting. I disagree that it has to be love, but I certainly agree it can be a dark sort of love. Point 4) Again, I really have to agree with the majority of what you're saying. Again, I think I've been tainted by too many other Roy/Riza shippers who say that Riza would kill herself because she couldn't live without Roy (who usually say they love Riza for being a strong female character, go fig). I think, really, the only fundamental thing we are disagreeing about is this: can two people be fiercely devoted to each other and care about each more than themselves without it necessarily being love? I personally think they can; I've always been a fan of two people being complete kindred spirits without any romantic love between them. But like I said above, you've managed to frame this in a way where I can see where you're coming from. If there is love there, it's not the type of love they'd act on with marriage or wild sex, but some sort of silent bond that doesn't need to be spoken



The ending doesn't state this, but neither does it have anything to the opposite effect. We may never know. Didn't Hiromu Arakawa state in one of the art books that the only reason they aren't married - at least by the end - is because of the anti-fraternization law? On another note, I think that both of them are definitely very, very sad people, but the bond between them is really very strong, romantic or not. As for Riza not being strong, I think that she's strong in that she's confident in who she is, but in the end both she and Roy are just too messed up to have a normal life. Gah! So many words! Mercy! Dear God, hold your fire! We're only civilians!



Okay, this might be unsettling for all you Royai shippers, but think about it; Roy and Riza never show anything but platonic care for each other. The reason is simple; their job in Ishval. It's highly probable that in Ishval war, they had been pushed too far, to the point that they can no longer feel any feels about romance, love, and anything else about it without feeling sick. Same can be said about Knox.about (again, like you said, unless they're older). So, I can we can come to some happy 'agree to disagree' here. :)

The reason why Mustang got really batshit against Envy about killing Hughes: Hughes is the only reason why Mustang is not become fully cynical.

See above theories. Despite being in Ishval war, Hughes grows up quite fine; he had loving families, cute baby girl, and practically everything else Roy can't imagine to have without feeling sick or disgusted. So, Hughes is living testament that, yes, you can be fucked up beyond any reason, but you can still genuinely capable to love and care for others.

Another reason why Mustang got really batshit against Envy about killing Hughes: Mustang likes Hughes

Lust's Meaningful Name represents not only her sexy appearance, but her bloodlust

That really seems good enough to be canon. While Lust is certainly skilled at making others attracted to her, she certainly doesn't reciprocate, viewing humans pretty much as worms. On the other hand, I never really thought of her as impulsive- I think of Wrath and Lust as generally more calm and low key about their efforts to torment humans, whereas Envy can be Stupid Evil on occasion.

Of course, Homunculi have no reproductive capability. Imagine if you were the immortal incarnation of lust, and you had no genitals. You would be the most sexually repressed being in the history of ever.

As far as I can tell, homunculi can have sex. On his most... well known list of wants, Greed mentions both women and sex. He also has a woman on each arm in his first appearance, and that would make no sense if he couldn't at least hypothetically have sex. And if he gave it to one of his children it doesn't make sense for him to not give it to all of them. Lust would actually be the most likely to be able to have sex because she actively seduces people. All it means that they can't have kids. People who are infertile in real life aren't infertile because they don't have genitals. They're infertile because of genetics or sperm or hormone production or ovoulation problems. Father could have just made it so none of his children produced any hormones so none of them could reproduce.

She could've killed sacrifices because she didn't want Father's plan to succeed. A way I've heard lust defined on this very site is "like greed but more manipulative." Logically, if this was the case she would share the desire to have friends. So, she, keeping in with the nature of her sin, pretends that she's loyal to Father and waits for an opportunity to screw up the plan. On Father's orders, she follows potential sacrifices to the fifth lab, alone, where she tries to murder them. The sacrifices manage to kill her, but even though she's angry at them for ending her life, she knows that it will inconvenience Father anyways, and makes her last words as nice as she can through her anger.

Think about it. She slices apart Barry without even bothering to extensively question him. She can't wait to send Riza to her 'precious Colonel.' She impulsively decides to kill both Mustang (a potential sacrifice) and Alphonse (a CONFIRMED sacrifice) on the same night. Wrath's actions on the scene show that she's not exactly following orders from Father. Seems once she starts the violence, she can't stop. The smug look on her face when she attacks Mustang shows just how much she enjoys killing. She's every bit as sadistic as Envy, just in a more physical, less mindgame-ish way.

Father is this universe's equivalent of Satan

This doesn't fit. The author herself stated that Christianity doesn't exist in this timeline; to impose a Judeo-Christian view on it is the reader's action, not something that was actually in the story itself. There also hasn't been any suggestion of the supernatural even existing, and all ties to the Gate and the Truth have been through alchemy, which is science in FMA. The creation of Homunculus was not shown, so we can't assume anything about the process other than that it required human blood (which is a part of the human body, making it human transmutation).

FMA actually challenges what the concept of "God" actually is by including all the religious references to Ishbal (a god that has abandoned its people, or may not even exist), Father Cornello's cult, the seeming lack of a majority religion in Amestris, and the complete blank that The Truth is. The gate does have the Kabbalistic tree on it, which has the 10 names of god, but in Kabbalah, those names are meditated upon in order to achieve understanding of what God is, not to mention that Ed and Izumi both called what was beyond the gate "The Truth". It's a really interesting narrative to follow since the author certainly included all of these mentions of religion for a reason. But yeah, Father still doesn't represent any sort of Satan figure. Really? A powerful agent from beyond the mortal plane, dragged down/cast out, whose goal is to return to that plane and overthrow an entity it refers to as God and claim total power and dominion over existance for itself, is not a Satan analogy? I'd say the recent events pretty firmly conclude that, as far as being an analogy, Father fits the Satan analog better then the God one, fit like a glove in fact. The heavy use of Judeo-Christian symbolism, which is littered all over FMA, the use of Hermetic magic itself, based on christian and jewish philosophy acts as evidence of a Judeo-Christian mythscape, if not the existance of the actual religion of 'Christianity' itself. Philosopher's Stone. The Devil's Research. Case. Point.

Think about it: What other extremely powerful being is also known as Father? Thus, it is quite possible that he is actually God in his reckless teenage years prior to the invention of Christianity. Can't see him really going over benevolent and forgiving, though.

It's kind-of, but not really confirmed. Father is one of the living shadow creatures that live inside the Gate. The Truth knows him and returned him to the Gate. So, I guess "the devil of the gate" works?

Father had a god complex. He used many of the trappings of the Judeo-Christian god, and of 'Father-Lord-type' gods in general, to build his image. Mainly for his own benefit, but I'm sure it had an impact on the people in his conspiracy and on the children themselves. One of Father's roles may be as Satan analogue (although even then God Is Pretty Much A Sadistic Creep), but in Father's mind, at least, Greed #1 was Lucifer—he who betrayed his father and ran off to build his own little kingdom because he wanted everything. Extra points for hanging Greed up on a cross and then destroying him, so that he could return to the greater whole of his Father. He gets to analogue the Morningstar and a Messianic Archetype! But Father knew he didn't have ultimate power, and that was his goal. Not that I know what other goal you can have, when you're immortal and have absolute power over the material world, and ruling countries is easy.



I'm basing this in part on speculation I read on another board. Pretty much, it seems like Father's goal is to open the Gate and storm the dimension where Truth-sama lives. They noted on that site how Pride's outline is identical to that of Truth-sama except that it's black rather than white and covered in eyes and mouths; and similarly, Father created Gluttony in an attempt to make a new Gate. So, my theory is that rather than being created in a flask, what Hohenheim's master actually did was more like demon-summoning and that Father was either previously kicked out of that dimension or else was separated from it by that ceremony. The way I see it, Truth-sama is a borderline evil god, but Father is much worse and the idea of Pride and Gluttony's appearance is that they are a dark reflection of the Truth just as demons are often presented as a warped version of angels.

The homunculi are generally opposites of their respective sins, not representations thereof / are the opposite of what you would expect

This is a philosophical speculation. First, there is the factor that while Pride and Wrath are respectively the oldest and youngest created homunculi (until the second Greed), in appearance, Pride looks the youngest and Wrath the oldest. Sloth isn't the slowest, but instead turns out to be a lightening bruiser. Lust is certainly "womanly", but not only is she not a horny devil , given that she loathes humans, and her signature weapon is a phallic symbol. Envy partially fits, as you'd think that he would want to be human, given his vice, but is instead the most cruel and sadistic towards humans (on the other hand, he actually does this because he envies humans, so maybe played straight).

Finally, there's an interesting thing with Wrath and Greed having the "wrong" powers fitted to their personality. You would expect that Wrath would be The Brute and so Greed's indestructible body would be a perfect weapon. However, Wrath is instead cruel in a calculating way, so he has a very intellectual power, whereas the relatively pacifistic Greed uses his armor as a shield and rarely uses it offensively.

Actually, it makes sense for Greed to have a defensive power. When your greedy, you may want even more then you already have, but you don't want to give anything up either. Thus, you shield it - of course, in this case, Greed shields... his most important possession, his Philosopher's Stone.

Wait... what about Gluttony? Dude loves eating. He has super eating powers and is always hungry. That seems pretty representative of his sin.

I think you might be looking at this the wrong way. Wrath isn't the same thing as anger, it's more like an all encompassing, cold fury. the wrath of war, rather than the anger of a drunk. Lust might not be a Horny Devil, but she is a text book temptress. Lust isn't just sex as well, it's desire. Their powers might be deliberately opposite for some of them, for an ironic twist, but their personalities match fairly well with their names.

Maybe I should have stuck with saying that the powers are the opposites. Like you could say that Gluttony being a "black hole" on the inside is the opposite of his seeming enormous weight.

Well, gluttony the sin is usually filed under "waste", not "eat lots of food", like how Wrath isn't so much "angry drunk" as Hitler, so the WMG still checks out. Gluttony doesn't need to eat, and he probably doesn't even taste anything properly (what with the way he eats, what he eats, that tattoo on his tongue, etc.). He just sticks stuff in his mouth or the dissolution cannon, where it's dumped into a giant Garbage Bin of Infinite Holding. Not that it really changes anything.



If Mustang had found out that Envy started the Ishvalan War

there wouldn't have been time for anyone to step in and stop the Roaring Rampage of Revenge. Not that Riza probably would've tried had she known that.

May's clan is evil

I don't know about them specifically, but there's definite evidence that the Xingese court might be a Deadly and Decadent one. Once they have learned how a philosopher's stone is made, one of the Xingese characters (I believe May herself) notes their discomfort at going back to Xing with this information, because they know the response would be "Great, now let's just round up a few thousand peasants and get the show on the road."

Yes, May is as innocent as they come, but she's also a bit delusional and not the best judge of character. She decided Scar and Yoki were wonderful people way before they did anything remotely redeemable. In Chapter 57, Lan Fan almost gets into a fight with May, claiming it's her duty to wipe out evil. Maybe this goes beyond clan rivalry and the Chang clan is genuinely villainous, perhaps composed of bandits and criminals. The real reason they're dying off is they've all got bounties on their heads for their heinous crimes. I mean, what kind of clan lets a small girl journey across a treacherous desert by herself as part of a probably fruitless quest for immortality?

Father is an idiot.

It seems an alchemist has to be of a particular moral fiber to be a worthy candidate. Kimbley was considered inappropriate since he lacked the steel to go through with the exchange. Like you said, his subordinates are morons, they're the only ones willing to follow Father (with the exception of Kimblee) he can't help it if the only people willing to help him are stupid, since anyone with a lick of common sense or sanity would be deead set against him. He's had to work with the tools he's been given.

While I think Father can be clever, his real undoing is his utter contempt for humans. He considers humans to be insects. When was the last time you successfully manipulated an insect into helping you accomplish a complicated plan? In fact, maybe the reason why the most recent hommunculi were created from humans is that Father realized he actually needed an associate who understood how humans thought. Not that this was really successful either.

And (original guesser here) the fact that they can force people to open the Gate against their wills is a strong (though by no means conclusive!) counterargument. Oh well. :) On the other hand, Ed notices that forcing Mustang though the Gate put a huge strain on Pride , so it's not really the most efficient option available. Father probably still preferred waiting for people to do it on their own, but you're right about him having the backup plan if necessary. Now, whether or not putting off that option until the last minute makes him an idiot or not is up for debate.

You forgot about Marcoh. He was also considered a "potential sacrifice", and they did their best to keep him confined to the capital to make sure he'd be available for the ritual, but he escaped and isn't close enough. So they actually had at least one spare.

But one has to wonder why Father didn't just get a whole bunch of loyal/malleable people to convince/force open the gate that he could keep under watch and control.

If the sacrifices weren't ready for this eclipse, he could just prepare for the next one. One of the benefits of immortality is that you're never in a hurry.

I'm guessing Father had spares, but the ones the story deals with were the best he had to work it. It's quite coincidental though, that they all knew (or come to know) each other. Also keep in mind that once he did whatever transmutation it was he did, all the sacrifices were summoned into his chamber. If he had one less sacrifice, he could always make one for his purposes, but there was no point in doing this until the eclipse. Also; eclipses don't happen often - the next one might have been a millennium away - so I'm guessing Father did have some sort of backup. He was arrogant, but not stupid.

He did do something to create sacrifices. It's called the state alchemist program. I'm pretty sure they say this at one point in the manga, don't remember when though. True, it would have been better for him to do what he did with the fuhrer candidate thing, but maybe he didn't think of that at the time, and thought the state alchemist program would be enough.

This is brought up in episode 49 of Brotherhood. How convincing it is depends on the viewer's Willing Suspension of Disbelief. Alphonse: It's not that hard to surprise you when you think so little of us humans. You think you've got us all figured out, but you don't know a thing about us. You're too arrogant to see that things might not go your way, like your plan to use us. It was too sloppy to actually work.

Pride: And how's that?

Alphonse: Well, the plan needed us, right? As your sacrifices? The whole thing hinged on us doing what you wanted. But what if we simply decided to run away to a different country? That's all it would have taken and your entire plan falls apart.

Pride: True. And there are some humans selfish enough that would have done exactly what you said. But then, not all. Just look at Wrath's wife. [...] There are a handful of humans like Wrath's wife. They're willing to give up their own lives in order to protect the things they care about. And one step up from them we have you and your brother, chosen to be sacrifices for the infinite strength of your spirit. You never would have fled and abandoned this country. And that, you even went as far to bring the fight to us. So explain to me again, how are our plans so sloppy?

This is part Just Bugs Me, but the above statement explains everything. His big, centuries-long plan, worked out to the last detail, relies for its final phase on complete dumb luck. He requires five alchemists who've been to the Gate and survived. How many are there in Amestris today, the day of the eclipse that's necessary for his circle to work? FOUR. If Hohenheim hadn't come west and fallen in love, if Trisha hadn't caught the plague, there would be two. EPIC FAIL. Father and his goons spent years on the Fuhrer Candidate program, decades more to maneuver Bradley up the ladder to where he could believably assume command. Why haven't they been farming slavishly loyal alchemists all this time who'd be willing to throw their lives (and, before that, body parts) away at their master's command? The only excuse is that the man is a moron. It doesn't help that his selection process for loyal minions inevitably surrounds him with people who are both incompetent and corrupt, as no officer who isn't both in spades would think that the plan was (a) a good idea and (b) everything Father claimed it was (raise your hand, anyone who believes that Father intends the high command to survive, let alone be given an invincible army).

The boys would have succeeded in bringing their mother back if they had stuck to the actual recipe for a human body WITHOUT trickling their blood in it or at least a very different result would have occurred

This Troper disagrees with your theory. While the brother's formula for a human being was correct, the actual human transmutation itself wouldn't have worked anyways. The inclusion of blood was for Trisha's soul, which would have made a being in the shape of a human actually be Trisha. If they had tried to simply create a being that looked like a human (such as the cyclops soldiers that Central was creating) they most likely would have succeeded because it wasn't "Human Transmutation" per se. Also, it's stated in Chapter 44 that beings that have no tie to life cannot be brought back from the dead, whereas people who are still among the living can still be transmuted, such as Al's soul. Probably jossed- it ultimately seems to be implied that you can bring people back by sacrificing your alchemical knowledge, but otherwise, Truth will just do something nasty to you and you won't succeed in bringing them back. And that was a special case as well, because Ed and Al's gates were connected. As Roy notes, nobody else could have retrieved a toll that way, because they'd have no way to get back. And AND Al wasn't actually dead. He was taken. There's a significant difference; his body and soul were intact and together, they were just at his Gateway instead of in the world. It's the same reason Ed was able to get his soul out of the Gate as far back as the beginning of the story; because Al was not dead, just gone.



Think about it. Their blood tainted the make-up of a human body.

Gluttony is a TARDIS.

bigger on the inside than he is on the outside.

And that would make Lust a Time Lord.

He is

Mrs. Bradley is secretly the most powerful woman on the planet.

with two of the most powerful homunculi.

She's the wife of the Fuhrer is in a familyShe's essentially this universe's conterpart to Chi-Chi.

Elvis didn't die, he went to Amestris.

EPIC, sir.

Rule of Cool. Also explains Mei's overly sideburned fantasies of Al.

Everyone has their own personal Door and Truth

ends up in front of the Door (only one door this time from what I could tell), there's no Truth around - just Al's oddly self-aware body. Al also ends up leaving through the Door in front of his body - his own Door, not the same one Ed used.

The thing about individual Truths is connected to how Truth takes the payment and adds it to its own body. Ed's Truth only has his arm and leg, which it's visibly still wearing years later. Al's Truth took Al's entire body, which is why Al's body is acting all self-aware while Truth is nowhere to be found . The biggest tip-off is that Al and Ed's Truths, when seen, are always the same height as they are. And Mustang's Truth, though only seen in one panel thus far, is noticeably taller than either of the Truths seen before.

. The biggest tip-off is that Izumi's Truth was a female silhouette.

Also, this information will be a major plot point, probably in regards to what Father wants to do with the Door. Seems to have some support in chapter 104, where Father opens doors in each of the sacrifices before opening a door in the planet itself. Whether it's the same Truth behind all of them still remains to be seen.

...then could Father perhaps be Hohenheim's Truth?

Also notable is the fact that, if you look closely, the door that each alchemist sees has a different diagram on it.

Semi-Confirmed by Word of God. Arakawa said the Truth was somewhat a 'hollow' version of oneself (as a sort of 'internal God', or conscience), a sort of 'negative' of that alchemist, which completed itself with the tolls taken by the alchemist upon seeing the Truth. This seems to fit with what's been stated here.

Confirmed in Chapter 108. Ed talks to his Truth and actually transmutes his own Gate as Equivalent Exchange for resurrecting Al. However, all the Truths seem to have a collective consciousness while taking the forms of their counterparts, since the Truth appears to Father as a sphere, like Father's "dust bunny" form

I like this because it might be this show trying to convey the message that everyone has their own subjective meaning of life, or truth.

Something like what the first anime showed, I'll admit. When Ed transmutes himself to get out of Gluttony's stomach, he goes to the Door of Truth...only to find a second door with Al's body sitting in front of it. Ed then gets dragged away through the Door he came in. When Al

Greedling will take to wearing Cool Shades

◊

Immediately after reading that, this troper got a mental vision of the Corinthian from The Sandman. Awesome, yes. Likely to give me flashbacks of the most disturbing non-hentai comic I've ever read? Also yes.

On a lighter note, I came across this recently , which was a shot from the original anime wherein one state alchemist looks exactly like Ling, but with Greed's sunglasses. Given that for instance Basque Gran looks the same in both the anime and the manga, I doubt it was a coincidence that Arakawa chose to draw that guy. There's also the cool factor that with the shades, Ling (and the above image) looks like a John Woo character.

May is older than she looks.

Everyone's been assuming she's just a young child, but I can't find her age stated anywhere. The truth is, she's actually about the same age Al is, or at most a year or two younger. It would explain why she's as good an Alchemist as she is. And it would be funny.

Probably one or two years younger - if the boys are 14/15/16 through the series then this might account for her looking quite childish still. In the frame where they're all together (and adults) in the end credits for Brotherhood, she looks younger than the boys but not by much. (Or maybe I'm over-thinking things).

She could always just be a late bloomer, which is quite possible and would explain this well if it's true. Also, since Ling is Younger Than He Looks, it would be hilariously fitting for the other Xingese noble we see to be the exact opposite.

Philosopher's Stones are based on Spiral Power

They harness the Spiral Energy of the souls contained within them. Using more hot blooded people will produce a better stone, which is why Kimbley needed a stone to recover from the same injury that Ed just used his own soul for.

It bypasses the Real Life physics of Equivalent Exchange . Need to say more?

Father's plan is to propose to the Truth!

Once he makes the cyrcle, he will reach the Thruth's domain and demand its/her hand in marriage, to which Truth-sama, flattered, will agree. At the wedding, Pride will play the piano, having been taught so in his Selim disguise, and King Bradley will stipulate their legal union, as he's the governor. Ed, Al, Izumi and Roy will have served their positions as wedding witnesses, as they all have known the Truth.

The honeymoon will be at Xing, as Father has a Xingese bodyguard (Greed/Ling). And, nine months later, Truth-sama and Father will have a child: Van Hoheneim (who they'll say he looks like Father in his adolescence)

THE END.

That has to be the most insane yet awesome fan theory ever! And after they marry, they shall cause chaos and destruction all over the world!

Of course, Amestris' destruction was the wedding gift.

...I Need a Freaking Drink after reading that, because I'm obviously not drunk enough to fully comprehend this Crack Pairing.

Father's ultimate plan is Instrumentality

Come to think of it, I think that the description of his plan would definitely qualify it as a form of Instrumentality. It's implied he wants to kill off all humans and then create "children" loyal to him- so it would be an Assimilation Plot since everyone would think the same way as Father. Also, that's what the higher-ups of the military were going for in supporting Father, especially in chapter 90-something when that dude was going on about the world needing to "be reborn anew/all is one and one is all." Maybe it was Father's idea to begin with, he straight out told them he wanted to assimilate everybody within himself and they were crazy enough to get on board with it. If that's not where he intends to go, then it's one hell of a Shout-Out to EVA.



Ch. 104 spoilers aside, I'm surprised this hadn't shown up yet...

The homunculus is the first member of the Godhand from Berserk

during an eclipse, it sacrifices a huge number of people with the help of a magic stone to have an encounter with God and attain a perfect human form.

Think about it:The events of the end of the manga are going to knock the world back to the stone age; Berserk takes place after civilization catches back up to the middle ages.

Seriously, though, I swear Arakawa was channeling Miura in chapter 104. Only without the rape, thank God.

Regarding the rape, I was going to think Arakawa would make men the victims, but she doesn't seem like an Yaoi Fangirl It quite makes sense, specially considering her very first manga Stray Dog was clearly Miura inspired. I also had a WMG moment when reading this, as I've always considered Truth-sama and The Idea of Evil the same anyway , and Pride's and Envy's true forms as well as Father's kinda resemble a bit apostles, and the homunculus could very well be "fake apostles", as in Rosine's elves and Mozgus and his angels; it makes sense since Father can turn people into homunculus much like the apostles can make false-apostles.

Also, Lust could be Slan manifesting herself in the physical world. I don't know if I should feel disturbed or not, specially after the troll intestine incident...

I actually had the comparison in mind way back when Ling became the second Greed- very similar to Griffith- insanely ambitious guy is badly wounded and so makes a Deal with the Devil, although thankfully, he didn't go off the rails to nearly the extent that Griffith did.

Also note the sacrifices( except for Mustang ) are like a backwards version of Apostle sacrifices-instead of causing the death of loved ones for the Gate, its the death of loved ones that lead you to open the gate, primarily willingly.

Father wanting to join with him

In the next chapter he will be quite angry withso he'll just roll him up and get what's coming to him

Olivia Armstrong and Major Miles are married.

Please, oh please, oh please! But Olivia has said more than once she's not married, so no! When has she said she's not married? This troper can only remember her saying that she's too old to have children (to Lt. General Raven, and it was to make herself appear softer than she was). Besides, supposing they are married, I could well believe Olivia would like to keep that secret so that Miles wouldn't become her weak point (say, Drachmans kidnapping him). I really wouldn't be surprised if this theory was true, because Miles specially mentions his wife's Amestrian ethnicity and Olivia emphasises rather heavily that she's native Amestrian. If they aren't married, it's quite a Red Herring. And finally - Briggs is a rather isolated place, so I would believe that soldiers' spouses and families, if they have any (remember, they're hinted to be a Ragtag Bunch of Misfits), live in the fort. Indeed, Olivia never said that she wasn't married, though other characters think so, such as her own brother. I can't remember if this scene was in the manga, but it certainly was in the anime: Alex said something along the lines of, "That's why you're not married!" But I totally love this theory; it's what converted me to shipping Miles/Olivia. And, because Olivia appears to be an ice queen (for practical reasons, as well as for the sake of her image, I guess), it would make sense for her to keep her marriage a secret (if she were actually married). Oh, and by the way, Olivia didn't say that she was too old to have kids, just that most other women her age would usually have a kid or two by now.

Holy crap. You, sir or madam, have converted me to your theory! I wish to subscribe to your newsletter.

He does say he has an Amestrian wife...

The god of Liore is based on Hohenheim or Father.

Considering that Letoism was a plot of Father's, I wouldn't actually be surprised if Leto were based off Father, what with his A God Am I plans and view of humans.

As I've been watching Brotherhood, there seemed to be an emphasis on Liore that I missed when reading the manga the first time. Since Liore worships a sun god and the statues show him as bearded, it makes sense he's based on one of them- either Hohenheim, given his blond hair and gold eyes or Father on account of his Light Is Not Good appearance. And it makes sense that the people there would have a longstanding belief of alchemy = miracle if they'd seen it before.

Roy and Izumi have Xingian ancestry.

Plausible theory. I would like to add that Kimblee looks like he could have some Xingian blood in him as well.

Very plausible. I'd add Lieutenant Ross to the list as well.

Not too off-the-wall, especially as WMGs go. Courtesy of LiveJournal 's moriapolonius, " I always thought that Roy and Izumi were drawn as if they had Xingian blood. Black hair, narrow uptilted eyes, smaller size. " Also note their black irises. Consult This Very Wiki 's FMA character sheet for reference images.

Father caused the Elric brothers' mother's death.

Poison or whatever, doesn't matter. He had one of his lackies, probably Envy, kill her to set off Hohehiem's offspring and get them to attempt transmutation. Despite his reactions to Al and Ed when they meet in the manga, he actually did know Ho Ho had kids; he just didn't know what they looked like.

The Fullmetal Alchemist Universe is really an alternate future of the Dragonlance Universe.

Okay, so let's say that the FMA universe is really an alternate timeline that split off from the Dragonlance universe during the early Fifth Age. The continent that Amestris is on is simply one of the other continents on Krynn, and the lack of races other than Humans can be explained by saying that some event caused them all to flee through planar portals long ago, OR there have only ever been Humans on the continent Amestris is on and since there never has been much contact between the continents in Dragonlance that there are in fact races like Elves, Dwarves, and Gnomes on the other continents. Now, the FMA universe is an alternate timeline from the early Fifth Age because there is only one moon, not three, and there are no gods around. Alchemy is just another form of Primal Sorcery and Mysticism. The Truth is an entity who managed to hijack the Gate of Souls (Krynn has a Gate of Souls that all souls pass though after they die, where they go not even the gods know) and use it for its own purposes.

I bet no one but me gets this...

Hohenheim has worn Al's armor body into battle.

the German military on the Shamballah project

body-switching

Wouldn't he have avoided fighting, knowing that it was most likely Father's plotting causing it? Who said he would have been fighting in any Amestrian conflicts? He was a non-native Xingese for hundreds of years, and there are at least six countries canonically named in Fullmetal Alchemist (five if Liore's just a subdivision of Amestris, as I always thought it was) with geography to spare. He could have gone the long way around Amestris and participated in some Franco-Iberian scuffles a few hundred years ago, for example.



I know him saying "my oldarmor!" in the manga hints at it having been found as a collectible or restored by him, but he's one of the only characters in the series tall enough to wear it (even if he would have to use the under-chin or neck visor as a viewport, unlike Armstrong and possibly Sig Curtis). If it was a war that involved much death by alchemy, others wearing the armor may have (in the first anime continuity) been flung through the Gate and influenced the design of the armor used by(that doesn't really matter, though, what with the). It would be a bad idea for the man with golden eyes and hair to be walking around a battlefield, getting stabbed and not bleeding, and I feel that Technical Pacifist or not, Hohenheim would put himself up as a literal foot soldier for something that he truly thinks of as a just cause (and may have been much less paxible a few centuries ago).

Uhh... *brain explodes* But seriously, life-alchemy powered floating glitter would explain it perfectly, and be completely plausible.

Armstrong can also transmute his uniform reversibly into sparkle, which explains how he can go from clothed to shirtless-and-sparkling in a split second.

"These novelty Xingese Bishie Sparkles have been passed down the Armstrong family line of generations!" They're powered by the correspondence of the human's Hot Bloodedness to the dragon whose life flows through the earth. Olivier just doesn't hold with sparkles. The Armstrong Family passing the novelty Bishie Sparkles down their family line for generations may explain both how Catherine can power them without drama and how she can lift a piano with one hand despite her mostly slender body. She will show up at the last minute after a lesson from Mei Ling and singlehandedly solve every alchemy-related problem that exists within the series, at the cost of the Bishie Sparkles ever being passed down to future generations of her family line (this guess could be the fastest example of Cerebus Syndrome and Plot Tumor ever, neh?).

If Envy hadn't been killed

summoning "God"

absorb and keep every human soul in Amestris

Envy was destroyed

Wrath, and thus Gluttony

eating God, which gives him both God's power and a release for the hatred of The Truth that he was able to feel now that he was once again in possession of of thousands of extra years of Wrath

, Father's "transaction" would have had a much different outcome.Father originally had a completely different plan that involved, perhaps wanting to increase his knowledge for knowledge's sake (to ease the sorrow of immortal boredom or or some other lament) and not caring about who he killed in the process. When he re-absorbed Greed, he may have changed the plan to, but that was likely part of the original plan since he kept it after making the new Greed. However, that he had an extra homunculus-attribute in him at the time, this means that the attributes have a sort of compartment soul, a glue that keeps them separate, and this may have returned to Father when. With Sloth and Envy driving him, as well asin him, he decides to screw the time and effort it would take to follow the original plan and gain what he wants by

Also, pride somehow trapped in/under central, much in the way MIB was trapped on the island.

Or alt-universe equivalent. A freaky, black, amorphous, shadow-y true form, an ancient evil, can sometimes take on the appearances of other people, has a complicated plan that involves killing vast numbers of people, frequently manipulates and uses people to further his own goals? Oh yeah. Jacob once compared the Man in Black to the wine in a flask, which kept the evil in... just like what Father was in his earliest days. Whether The Island is actually (yet another) giant transmutation circle has yet to be determined.

Riza's father attempted Human Transmutation

I actually use this in my fanon as almost-cannon. It makes perfect sense: Not only does he die by coughing up blood for some mysterious reason (Izumi anyone?), and his a master alchemist, he also claims that alchemists are beings that must "search for the Truth for as long as they live, (...) which is why I am a man who died long ago." Sounds like he's implying that he's seen the Truth to me. Not to mention that Riza says that her mother died years before her father... It's all too convienient to be a coincidence.

We see him cough up blood when he dies, and the only other person in the series who also coughs blood does so because she tried it. He was obviously a talented alchemist, having taught Roy and developed the flame alchemy theory. Plus, wouldn't it make sense if up until a few years ago, there was another fully-ready sacrifice waiting in the wings for them to use? Hell, they might have discovered Roy from keeping an eye on Hawkeye-sensei.

It's possible to make a chimera capable of human language (not just speech, but conversation) without using a human as one of the components

needed ted wan immediate results, so he gave up any time he made something that couldn't spout out Amestrian as soon as it was "born"

There doesn't appear to be a major water body in FMA's setting, so dolphins might be hard to find. However, provided they have corvids and parrots, it might work.

.By using a gorilla/chimpanzee, a (or some) corvids, and maybe a dolphin and/or parrot/mynah bird. You would have to teach it how to talk, but it would still be capable of passing an auditory Turing Test after a couple of years. The problem is that Shou

Fullmetal Alchemist is entirely real - and is taking place in modern day France as we speak.

◊

Then what's the smaller circle to the bottom left?

Oh fu-- Well, it's just France. If you strike them down, they will become more assholish than you can possibly imagine.

You just give Dan Brown something to write.

GENIUS.

In all seriousness, there is actually significant truth to this, as particle accelerators can be used to transmute metals. It's just really expensive. Equivalent exchange...

The inscribed pentagons do not exist, but more than one person thought of Fullmetal Alchemist when news of the Large Hadron Collider arose and it happened to be a giant, underground circle.

is a picture of the path of the Large Hadron Collider. Look familiar?

Mustang is actually a closeted gay man.

His womanizer persona is a red herring - he overexaggerates his interest in women and the vast number of dates he goes on to dispel any doubts about his sexuality, since being found out in the early 1900s is a court-martial offense. In canon, the only "date" we see him on 1, 2 is with one of the women who works for his aunt, and the "date" part is a cover for the exchange of intel she has collected for him. It's completely likely the rest of the dates he brags about are along the same lines. Being Madame Christmas' foster son, he likely grew up with these women like older sisters. They'd probably be happy to help him hold his cover (also, if they're already providing him with dangerous government secrets, what's one fake date between friends?). His flirting with Riza (or "Elizabeth") over the phone is also just coded information about the mission at hand.Not to mention his relationship with Hughes : the only time he cries in both canons is at Hughes' funeral, and he nearly loses his mind trying to get revenge for Hughes' murder.

The one-eyed zombies weren't just soldiers.

They were also subjects. Father wanted to lord it over a kingdom of mindless drones once he obtained his godhood, wiped out all Amestrians and, presumably, set his eyes on enslaving the rest of the world (or feeding it to his horrible invincible dolls). They were injected with philosopher's stone elixir that had been diluted over time to remove the original personalities attached to the soul-juice, and simply reprogrammed to obey only "father," which the top military brass and the mad scientists under Father's employ bone-headedly assumed meant that the zombies would respond to their own commands as well.

King Bradley is not a Time Lord.

Well, that's just no fun.

He literally grows old and die. End of story.

The Gold toothed alchemist doctor is Silver Steiner.

But even being Gold Steiner's younger brother, he'd need to be at least ten years older than he is now. So he's the real Time Lord here?



He didn't die. He faked his death so he could go work with Father.

Selim will grow up and try to follow in Ed's footsteps by being an awesome hero and/or alchemist.

He grows up to become what he pretended to idolize.

Does that mark on his forehead look familiar to you? That's how powerful he will become!

look familiar to you? That's how powerful he will become! One problem... Selim can't grow up, because he's a Homonculus. While he looks like he's younger physically then he was before and will probably continue growing until he reaches the physical age he once had, there's not much he can do afterwards. Selim had the ability to alter his own age, which let him believably masquerade as normal children for years at a time; we hear about this from Roy's mom, but he never has cause to use it on camera. Also, if he's down to one soul, he's probably the equivalent of Wrath and will age even if he retains some of his powers. Didn't Ed release most, if not all, of Pride's souls when he defeated him , though? If so, then he might age a tad slower than normal, but he probably still could.

It's fairly easy to imagine Ed and Selim teaming up later in life, with Selim being a total fanboy and Ed feeling uncomfortable about it. Holy crap, that would be uncomfortable! Imagine Ed being all "Stop admiring me! I kinda killed you / destroyed your memories once... (Also you used to be a bloodthirsty monster which is creepy.)" in his head all the time.



Because that would just be awesome, given the later events in the series.

The picture at the end of Roy and Riza is their wedding.

Oh please, I hope you're right! They really deserve some closure to their relationship.

Added to my personal canon. I mean, come on... we needed to hear more about what happened to them...

A wedding in military uniforms, with their serious expressions looking like they're planning a battle? That's... actually pretty in-character. Holy crap.

Of course it's not their wedding, idiots... it's their honeymoon XD. And may I be the first one to point out we can't see either of their hands and whether they may or may not be adorned with matching rings? And that, in the Japanese raw, when Grumman asked Roy to marry his granddaughter (a.k.a Riza Hawkeye), Roy exactly said "You're thinking too far ahead, General." Now, there needs to be something going on behind the scenes for getting married to be too far ahead, right? Also, when we see Riza's tattoo for the first time in the manga, she has a cup on her sink for her toothbrush and toothpaste. There is another cup on the side of her sink, as well as something that may or may not look like cologne- and may I also add that it seems Roy knows her home-number by heart? Just cuz it's interesting... Oh Lord, this isn't healthy. XD I don't think it was ever said that Grumman was Riza's grandfather. I believe Arakawa mentioned at one point that Riza was Grumman's granddaughter. It was stated in one of the guidebooks. Furthermore, the the military vehicle that Hawkeye gets her name from is a reconnaissance plane called the Grumman E-2 Hawkeye.

I am totally on board with this theory. YAY.

Sounding more and more canon than fanon with each passing line.

A recent artbook came out featuring Mustang and Hawkeye at a wedding and surrounded by Havoc, Maria Ross, Fuery and all the rest of Mustang's "favourite" officers. Mustang was the groom, Riza the bride. It seems to be effectively canon now, and Arakawa did say that the only thing stopping them was their military careers. WHAT BOOK WAS THIS?! Seriously, I want to see it. I literally almost cried, good Sir/Madam/(insert appropriate honorific here). Please please PLEASE deliver. As for the military careers getting in the way, that can easily be remedied. Being the granddaughter of the most powerful man in the military has to have some perks, yeah? And he's obviously already on board with the idea.

In that case, maybe Havoc or Ed or someone draw Roy's moustache on with marker pen during the stag party...

Because the Elrics all got romantic resolutions, why shouldn't they?

Al felt so guilty about lying to Mei about what he looked like that he is now trying to look as attractive as possible to make it up to her.

he keeps his hair 'short, crisp and golden', he's clearly been working out, he is indeed taller than Ed now and unlike Ed, who dresses a bit sloppily, he wears clothes so elegant and well-tailored they belong in a Shojo manga.

How could he decide to become taller than Ed?

He drank A LOT of milk. He even orders some at the restaurant in the last chapter/episode.

Cultural note: The influx of easily attainable beef and milk had noticeable effects on Japanese childrens' growth rates. Perhaps a reference to this?

Seriously,

Homunculi are the Lie equivalent of Truths.

A Truth is a white being with no face and the shape of the person they reflect. A homunculus is a black being with a face and no shape. They both have their containers, the homunculi the flasks (for varying definitions of flask) and the Truths the gates. The original homunculi (and the homunculi in the original anime) were imitations of humans (the former humans in general, the latter specific humans), and the Truths gain the bits and parts of the people they reflect as they take them for trying to do human transmutation. Plus , the English pun in the word homunculie.

The Gold-Toothed Alchemist was a former sacrifice candidate.

Selim to force open the Gate for Mustang by using his connection like a crowbar.

He saw a very tiny part of the Truth and it took his tooth in exchange. The amount seen wasn't enough for Father to use as a straight sacrifice, so his slightly-enhanced alchemy was used in the Fuhrer Candidate project. It later allowed

Truth-sama is a Droste Image of its visitor.

The plane of the Gate is nothing else than a total perspective vortex created by certain transmutations. This means that the alchemist is seeing everything, including himself seeing everything, including himself seeing everything, ad infinitum. While most of the universe gets translated into a white void , the alchemist's own contour stands out, with another white void inside it.

Lust was a double agent secretly working against Father.

She always seemed all too willing to kill sacrifice candidates. Was she trying to sabotage Father's plan?Well, sex isn't the only aspect of lust. There's also Blood Lust. Could even be she didn't want to sabotage but usurp, as a Lust for Power, but didn't realise fully how to do it. Mangalust does after all, seem a tad more primal.

Roy gets his sight back and still gets to do circle-free transmutation.

Alternatively, he gets a eye doctor who knows Alchemy to fix his eyes with the Stone instead of calling upon God to do it. It's a Philosopher's Stone: you could make a new body easily, much less fixing some eyes! It also means that fewer souls are used up for him, so he can respect them.

While it's impossible to restore body parts taken by Truth with normal medical alchemy (Hohenheim mentions that he can't give Izumi back her organs), if the alchemist used human transmutation like Ed did to get out of Gluttony, and then used a Philosopher's Stone to pay the toll, it would theoretically allow them to get their body parts back without sacrificing their Gate. So if Izumi had used Hohenheim herself to do a human transmutation and then used some of the soul-energy inside him to pay the toll to get there, get her body parts back, and then return, she would have retained her clap-transmutation while also regaining her lost organs. It's implied that this may have been what Mustang did at the end of Brotherhood, which would make him one of the two most powerful living alchemists (alongside Alphonse, who has a body and clap-transmutation without any lost parts).

You need to go through a Gate to get back to the real world, and your Gate is your ability to do clap transmutation. Ed only got out because of his access to Al's gate. If Roy tried that trade, he'd be trapped. But trading the philosopher's stone back to Truth should allow Roy to recover his sight and still use his own Gate. Some guys have all the luck...

Truth isn't evil, just really really frustrated and disillusioned.

Most people assumed that Truth was such a spiteful bastard because God Is Evil . But imagine his contact with humanity throughout the ages - he's holding the vast knowledge of the entire universe, but he only meets desperate or arrogant people, so ambitious for power that they're blind to what they already have, just to gain knowledge because they're convinced that it'll solve all their problems. After seeing so many of these people, Truth becomes so embittered he starts to visciously teach them that it won't. But then he finally meets a boy who actually learned from his first attempt at transmutation; that while his life isn't perfect, he already has what he needs, and he'd rather gain things through his own hard work than just vying for an easy answer. And that's why Truth finally smiles at him and gives him his blessing - he's finally met a human who got it.

Elaborating on that, since the State Alchemy program is basically a front so as to find sacrifice candidates for Father, and Amestrian alchemy is used for largely military purposes, it seems quite likely that a large number of skilled alchemists are war criminals. Also, since their being powerful alchemists makes them a benefit to Father, who is Truth's enemy, it makes some sense for Truth to incapacitate anyone who comes to his realm, whether they are a good person or not.

Spoilers for 108, so I am censoring the shit out of this.

Armstrong is the alternate universe version of Theodore Roosevelt

EPIC, Sir.

I don't think Teddy cried quite that much. Alternate universe versions of people can be like that. In trade, Armstrong never beat asthma to death, ate its flesh, and ran 100 miles on the energy it gave him.



The old man talking at the end of each episode is Father

loses all the souls he absorbed

his inability to contain God without the souls

in relation to Father

If you listen to what the old man says at the end of each episode, it supports this. The old man's wisdom was one of my favorite parts of watching each episode, so this struck me hard. He starts off with good advice and powerful insights on the human condition. It hints at the next episode while reflecting on what you just saw at times. Later on however (near the climax), his advice gets shorter and shorter, plus his words start becoming bitter and negative. In Episode 61, after Fatherhe just restated Equivalent Exchange, which applies toand the events of the next episode

The last Ishbalan that Roy killed at the end of the Ishbal Civil War was Miles' grandfather or father.

Minor correction: if he was related to Miles, he'd have to be either Miles's grandfather or one of his grandfather's relatives. I think Miles commented that his father was of a non-Ishvalan ethnicity, which would imply that the Ishval blood came from his mother's side. Other than that, though, this would make for a nice dash of added drama.

No particular reason, just Rule of Drama mostly.

A large part of Father's motivations can be blamed on Hohenheim's master.

It seems that a part of his goals was acquiring information, like when he talks about how the world "is a system with knowledge of a vast universe far beyond blah blah blah blah" and when he says "I wanted perfect understanding of God! I wanted to know everything in this world!". This is a result of what he was originally created/summoned for. His original function seemed to be something like a living computer database, where he would provide information on any subject he was asked about. He even knew about things that Hohenheim's master did not (specifically, how to become immortal), which shows that he was probably suppose to find or devise ways of getting information on his own, not simply remember things he was told. So, even after he kills everyone in Xerxes and gets a body of his own, he still (perhaps subconsciously) pursues his original purpose of acquiring information, which leads to all the events in the series.

Arakawa will write a new series that is about Amestris time skipped about ten-years

Or, probably, they somehow need to recover Ed's Gate of Truth and reassemble the ol gang, because there's a new danger?

While the manga definitely ends with most loose ends tide up quite nicely, there's just enough left open to make this troper wonder if there isn't a sequal series somewhere in the future. The time skip would allow for characters to be in completely new situation/the introduction of new characters. The focus wouldn't be on Ed and Al, but someone else. Selim, perhaps?

Truth taking Roy's sight was totally fair and justifiable

It would explain why all Roy lost was his sight: Truth has never shied from taking limbs and organs before, so it would've made more sense for it to take Roy's actual eyes instead.

The rule is that Truth is cruel but fair, right? And Roy's primary thought while being forced to look into his Gate was probably something along the lines of 'I don't want to see this!' So the Truth took his sight so he wouldn't have to see it. Hey, it's the thought that counts right?

The "God" inside the Gate is related to the Shadow Queen

Considering her shadowy motif, she's probably a homunculus.

The Shadow Queen's shadowy hands reach up from the ground and drag her poor victims down into the ground, siphoning their life force to replenish her own HP. Self-explanatory.

Selim is now completely mortal.

When Ed defeated him, he released most of the souls that went into the creation of his internal Philosopher's Stone. Ed only left enough energy in him for him to age normally since we see that he grew up much like a regular child would at the end of the manga. He still has his homunculus abilities just waiting to be tapped when he's old enough, but said abilities are not as strong as before since he doesn't have a Stone to draw power from any more. he'll just have to supplement it with alchemy (perhaps he also retains the ability from his assimilation of that gold-toothed doctor, perhaps from some of the residual energy Ed left in him) should he chose to become an alchemist when he grows up.

Addendum to the above theory — Kimblee's still floating around in the residual energy Ed left with Selim.

note

You know this is a fanfic just waiting to happen.

Better yet: Kimblee will take a page from Truth's book and instead of being the kid's enemy, will become a Breaking Speech style Spirit Advisor to Selim once the latter grows up. Anyone could see Kimblee doing that; it fits his weird sense of humour. Antagonizing and mocking him one moment, and saying something that turns out to be helpful the next.

When Selim's become a State Alchemist he will trigger his old homuculus shadow abilities. The manifestation of said abilities will coincide with him hearing Kimblee whisper to him, haunt his dreams, and show him what he once was. Selim will be horrified and will continuously try to fight Kimblee as his personal Enemy Within . This will be the difficulty he'll have to overcome to gain, in Arakawa's words, a "fullmetal heart."

The reborn Selim Bradley at the end of the manga actually goes by the name Selim Bradley II.

As a cover story, they just claimed that Bradley managed to impregnate (some Real Life pregnancy over 50 cases have happened to women who thought they were barren) his wife just before he died. This was helped by the true form of Selim actually growing at the rate of the fetus, and for the time of her "pregnancy" Mrs. Bradley was kept out of the public eye — officially for her privacy, but really to allow her to nuture the infant Selim before his officially announced "birth" without people wondering why her pregnancy isn't showing.

Sloth was the smartest homonculus.

So Sloth was the strongest, fastest and smartest? That...actually makes perfect sense. That would make a lot of sense- not just because of the canonical irony that he's the fastest homonculus, but also because Greed, Envy, and Father all seemed to have considerable self-loathing deep down, so if Sloth was intelligent, he probably would have the same despair as them.

Another reason why he was so lazy is because he was intelligent enough to not only realise Father would abandon him when he get what he wants, but saw him only as a tool to get what he wants and how insignificant he is to both him and people. Due to being Father's sloth he didn't have the will to rebel against h