Full Metal Alchemist Ep 40 Reaction, "The Dwarf in the Flask"

Boooo

Sam Revlej

I love that if you go back and rewatch, there's an earlier episode where Ed and Ling talk about the origin of alchemy and alkahestry. Xing had the Sage of the West and Amestris had the Sage of the East. Well Xerxes is in the middle of the two countries, so the original teachers were Hoenheim and Father. Father went to amestris while hoenheim went to xing.

April

Now that you have more information about the homunculi I can go into more detail about a theory I have that I believe I mentioned briefly back around episode 20; we know that Pride was the first homunculus and Wrath was the newest, (and Greed was the next newest), so my theory is that the more humanoid a homunculus is, the more recently it was created, as Father gradually got better at making artificial humans. The order, by that theory, starts with Pride (an amorphous mass of shadows that needs Selim to move freely about the world), followed by Envy (a dragon made of green, melting human bodies that has the ability to shapeshift), Gluttony (a cartoonishly fat man with the ability to peel open into a nest of teeth), Sloth (a giant muscle man with sharp teeth and blank eyes), Lust (a relatively normal-looking woman with razor-sharp talons), Greed (first homunculus confirmed to be made from an actual human body; indistinguishable from the host body except when he hardens his shield), and finally Wrath, who is so completely indistinguishable from an ordinary human that he can even age.

Kyle MacDonald

One of my favorite episodes! One thing I always wondered about in my first walk through was why Ed and Al have golden eyes when no one else (besides Hohenheim) does. It's a fairly common thing in this series that certain races have certain eye colors. Ishvalans have red and Amestrians are kind of all over but are portrayed in the Ishvalan War scenes as having mostly blue eyes. And then in this episode you see that people from Xerxes have golden eyes and since their father is from there it explains their strange eye color.

Setsuna22

I love this episode the most. And father is literally the lucifer or satan as he more often called of the fma universe

Kj23

Surprise! The cause of all the weird stuff with Hoenheim is incredible trauma the likes of which no living being can even comprehend.

AE Jones

The fall of Xerxes was ~400 years prior to the start of the series. (1510)

David L

Isaac Aderman

One of the best episodes and awesome reaction! Fathers / Hohenheims backstory is fantastic

Izrail Gevorgyan

this is one of my favorite episodes, because for the whole series, you know something is up with hohenheim. He looks like Father and by in the show you know he has a relationship with him, he was never around for Ed and Al when Trisha died, and he has knowledge that no one else has. I never thought he was evil, or still evil, but every piece of media has taught me to think of someone like Hohenheim as someone who has done something wrong. Either he worked with Father in the past, or Father worked for him and overthrew him. But nope, he was completely innocent in the fall of Xerxes, he thought the king was a benevolent ruler and was happy for him to gain immortality. He didn't even know the evil behind the transmutation circle. Everything was forced upon him, and it is one of my favorite twists in all of anime

bloodyshadow1

I think this is my favorite episode

Mikey

Just wanted to say since you guys usually get shit for being wrong, I'm really glad you guys had the part predicting dwarf in the flask was pride because my first time watching I thought the same thing and had my mind exploded as a kid when father walked out

Corey Porter

From father in episode 15 I believe “greed, you are both my son and you are a piece of my soul”

Mortis

I will not say exactly the relationship between Pride and Father and the birth order but will recall some of the statements made in previous episodes. When Gluttony was talking with Al he said that 'Father made all of us', the name Father and how Greed called him 'dad', and third with Pride taking offense to being said in the same breath as Gluttony.

Historia-Europa

Should I explain Pride's statement, or is that a spoiler...? I feel like it's not, but I'm not sure.

Mark O'Leary

They’ll find this out next episode. You don’t need to clarify.

april 🍏

Some clarification, the red light coming from Wrath's eye is similar to how any alchemy that is powered by a philosopher's stone will have red light. We've seen the homunculi all show red in their eyes at one point or another, hinting toward the fact that they are made of philosopher's stones. We also sometimes see glowy red eyes to indicate that the person with them is scary in one way or another (I think when we met Izumi back in episode 12 she briefly seemed to have red eyes to emphasize how scary/tough she can be.) So here I think it's both: we are seeing the red eye representing the philosopher's stone, but also the fact that Bradley is terrifying and that his words are veiled threats.

cosmotron

Lol it must suck reading the same thing over and over once you guys guess something wrong 😂

Justin Spencer

For a bit of an Easter egg, you should rewatch the first opening

Topher

We already know that military officials (at least in this show) have their own secret code in order to hide information, and they almost never tell anyone what that code is. So the fact that Mustang knows Hawkeye’s secret code and was able to communicate with her through that shows just how much they trust each other. Plus, the scene itself is just really cool lol

Chelly

Love Kenny's "WiFi of destruction" metaphore for Father and Pride lol

Drake

this is my favorite episode of the show, but there are some REALLLLLY good ones coming up

zahra

love this episode

Kyra Sun

The population of Xerxes was used to create a philosopher’s stone the size of Von Hohenheim,literally. Father/homunculus-in-a-flask has plans to repeat what he did to Amestris now. Amestris has about 50 times more the population than Xerxes had. Just some food for thought

Crystal Laeyt

Funny thing about the first name the Dwarf gave Hoenheim is that Theophrastus Bombastus was a real life alchemist although thats only part of his name. His full name was Paracelsus Philippus Aureolus Theophrastus Bombastus von Hohenheim

Tessa

From here on out the pieces start to come together

Ryan Tinkham

Well said. The first homunculus is father’s “pride and joy” in that he is the pure distillation of his (fathers) own self exaltation. Like you said, that is why he shares many characteristics with father.

keyton bush

To echo other comments, Pride was the first Homunculus Father separated from himself, and his Shadow form is similar to Father’s appearance in the Flask. Truly the most prideful thing he could do is make his first “son” look like him.

Ethan Honza

When Pride calls himself the First Homunculus, he’s saying “I’m the first one Father made from the seven of us”

Mr. 2Dirty

So, Pride or at least his ability is fashioned after Father's original form as the Dwarf in the Flask. He is the first one he ended up creating but Father essentially leads them.

Dead Man Talking

They're both slave #23

Coco XLarge

What does Hoenheim have in common with Michael Jordan?

Coco XLarge

OMFG YES!

Ben Barringer

YESSSSSSS

lux

Fun fact: The actor who voices young Hohenheim also voiced Alphonse in the 2003 Fullmetal Alchemist anime

rupeestarmie

Oh dang it’ll be a few hours before I’m free but I cannot wait for your reactions to this episode

Lars

HELLLL YESSSS I WAS WAITING FOR THIS ONE!!!

NICK FROST

wow, what good luck I have 😁 HERE WE GO!

Austin Wiebel