FMAB 7 Full Reaction
Added 2025-06-08 07:07:01 +0000 UTCFull uncut reaction to Fullmetal Alchemist Brotherhood Episode 7
Comments
And an additional note: This was the first episode where we see Ross and Brosch. Major Armstrong knows Ed and Al by reputation, but also because he's worked with them before (episode 1, and episode 5). First Lieutenant Hawkeye is Colonel Mustang's second-in-command on his team, and Mustang is Ed's direct superior. Hawkeye and Mustang were also the only two who knew what Ed and Al had done until Episode 5 when Hughes and the rest of Mustang's team found out when they came to save Ed from Scar. In the other Fullmetal Alchemist anime (which was being released at the same time the manga was being written, so it eventually caught up to and passed by the manga and did it's own thing, whereas Brotherhood is much closer to a faithful adaptation of the manga), it's implied that Mustang and Hawkeye agreed to keep Ed's and Al's secret if Ed worked directly for Mustang. Mustang would give them leads on the Philosopher's Stone and keep his silence, and anything that Ed achieved would essentially bring reflected glory and status to Mustang, since Mustang "discovered" Ed.
Megan Saunders
2025-06-28 01:34:22 +0000 UTCIt's brought up later in the show, so it's not a spoiler, but for State Alchemists like Ed, there are three major rules they must follow: obey the military, do not create money, and do not commit human transmutation. The rule about money is essentially because if every alchemist walked around transmuting gold or money, it would cause inflation and destabilize the country's economy. Colonel Mustang said it back in episode 2 when they did the flashback of him recruiting Ed: As a State Alchemist, in return for serving the military, they are given high pay, high rank, and access to otherwise restricted research materials that non-State Alchemists could never touch. It's also made more obvious in the show that State Alchemists get yearly research grants - that's one reason why Tucker was so worried about his assessment day - he had to report on his research progress to prove he was worthy to remain a State Alchemist and that he was doing research that would benefit the military. He failed the previous year, so they essentially put him on probation for a year. Ed's a Major, and that's the rank he started at when he became a State Alchemist. From high to low, the military rank order in Amestris (their country) is: 1) Fuhrer 2) General 3) Lieutenant General 4) Major General 5) Brigadier General 6) Colonel 7) Lieutenant Colonel 8) Major 9) Captain 10) First Lieutenant 11) Second Lieutenant 12) Warrant Officer 13) Master Sergeant 14) Sergeant 15) Corporal 16) Private. By becoming a State Alchemist, Ed essentially jumped eight ranks that a non-alchemist would have to progress through over the course of their career, and it puts him basically right in the middle of the chain of command, so even though he's only 15, he can issue orders to anyone lower in rank than he is, unless a contradicting order comes from someone above him. That's why he couldn't just dismiss Ross and Brosch as his bodyguards, even though Ross (the lady) is a Second Lieutenant, and Brosch is a Sergeant - they said that their orders to be his guards came from Command, and Command overrules Ed's rank. Mustang is also a State Alchemist, but there's a OVA in the series that shows that unlike Ed, he actually went through the military academy first, before becoming a State Alchemist, but even so, once he was accepted into the State Alchemists, he got jumped to Major as well, regardless of what his rank coming out of the Academy was. In the flashback at the end of episode 5, when he was explaining about the Ishvalan Civil War, Mustang was one of the State Alchemists deployed during the fighting, and he was so powerful and performed so well that when the war was over, he was promoted to Lieutenant Colonel.
Megan Saunders
2025-06-28 01:12:40 +0000 UTC
