Gryphon
The One who has the Eyes
- Joined
- Dec 10, 2021
- Messages
- 672
- Points
- 133
Gotta say, don't get all the hype around it.
Don't get me wrong, it's a great show and I get why it could be someone's favorite, but it definitely is just pretty decent. Don't have any major complaints except that Sloth feels more like a filler antagonist compared to the rest of the antagonist crew. I mean, his first real introduction is him accidentally digging up instead of straight then gets forgotten about till the Armstrongs conveniently need something stronger to fight instead of the pretty much useless undead horde which also has pretty much no story significance.
Why did he dig up instead of straight like always? If he was prone to digging in the wrong direction, then why is it that he wasn't spotted previously? Or did he do it once before and the Homunculi covered it up. Either way, Sloth is a pretty boring antagonist compared to his peers.
Also the fights are mixed for me. I mean, when you actually boil down the fights with the Homunculi, all they need to do to kill them is to hit them till they die. There's pretty much no strategy involved when actually fighting which makes most of the fights just kind of feel empty. The fights are flashy, well animated, and most of them carry thematic weight, but when the way to beat the bad guy just revolves around: "Hit them really, really hard," it just kind of feels like wasted potential. Especially with how interesting the Homunculi's abilties are.
I mean, here's how the Homunculi die in order(Not counting Greed cause he counts more as an anti-villain):
Lust: Mustang burned her a lot. Dies very early on while not having much story presence, making her feel pretty useless except acting as a sort of gauge to show how strong the enemy is and how badass Mustang is.
Gluttony: Get's eaten by Pride. What's strange is his ability could lead to a very interesting strategic fight, but that never really happens. The only time his abilities ever need to be worked around is when Ed knocks out all the lights so it heightens his sense of smell. That also lets Lan Fan and Ling show their abilites with being able to sense chi. Beyond that, the protagonists ultimately don't do much to kill him.
Sloth: He gets hit really really hard. Again, he feels more like a filler antagonist if that was all it took to kill him.
Envy: Best Homonculi gets the best death. The fight is also interesting since they actually use strategy, with Hawkeye telling Envy a lie in order to get him to expose himself. Also has a very thematic and appropriate ending for the character.
Wrath: Again strategy is used in order to get the upper hand in the fight against Wrath and his death is pretty climatic. It feels very deserved and Wrath is my second favorite Homunculi for a reason.
Pride: I know he's technically not dead, but lets just say how he would have died if Ed did kill him then. What ultimately led to Pride's demise was a series of coincidences one after another. First he eats Kimblee, for some reason. Then he forces Mustang to do human transmutation which weakens him. Finally he said he would take Ed's body which made Kimblee mad, which lead to his death. There was no actual thinking on the end of the protagonist to ultimately kill Pride. It was all just multiple coincidences coming together to form a very anti-climatic fight.
Father: This time its a combination of hit him till he dies and coincidences. They need to hit him a lot to drain the power of the Philosopher's stone and he ultimately dies because he lets Greed into his body. It's not like it was something the protagonists thought of. It just happens in the moment and Greed and Ed uses that to take advantage of him. Thematically it still feels very earned, but as an actual fight its very lacking.
Also Also, how the Homunculi are created is very confused and is a sort of plot hole. So, Wrath is a Homunculi that ages because he was a normal human that took in a philosopher's stone. Because of that he has an extremely powerful body, but he cannot heal himself and will still age and eventually die like any normal human.
So then why can Ling heal himself? He is the same type of Homunculi as Wrath, but he can heal himself and everyone is saying he's now immortal, but that shouldn't be the case considering Wrath. Ling took in Greed through a philosopher's stone just like Wrath. Ling and Wrath both overcame their stones and became Homunculi. So why does Wrath age and can't heal but the opposite is true for Ling?
Ultimately, most of these are nitpicks, and the story itself is good enough that these issues can be ignores. This is just my thoughts. And if I'm wrong on something, feel free to point it out.
Don't get me wrong, it's a great show and I get why it could be someone's favorite, but it definitely is just pretty decent. Don't have any major complaints except that Sloth feels more like a filler antagonist compared to the rest of the antagonist crew. I mean, his first real introduction is him accidentally digging up instead of straight then gets forgotten about till the Armstrongs conveniently need something stronger to fight instead of the pretty much useless undead horde which also has pretty much no story significance.
Why did he dig up instead of straight like always? If he was prone to digging in the wrong direction, then why is it that he wasn't spotted previously? Or did he do it once before and the Homunculi covered it up. Either way, Sloth is a pretty boring antagonist compared to his peers.
Also the fights are mixed for me. I mean, when you actually boil down the fights with the Homunculi, all they need to do to kill them is to hit them till they die. There's pretty much no strategy involved when actually fighting which makes most of the fights just kind of feel empty. The fights are flashy, well animated, and most of them carry thematic weight, but when the way to beat the bad guy just revolves around: "Hit them really, really hard," it just kind of feels like wasted potential. Especially with how interesting the Homunculi's abilties are.
I mean, here's how the Homunculi die in order(Not counting Greed cause he counts more as an anti-villain):
Lust: Mustang burned her a lot. Dies very early on while not having much story presence, making her feel pretty useless except acting as a sort of gauge to show how strong the enemy is and how badass Mustang is.
Gluttony: Get's eaten by Pride. What's strange is his ability could lead to a very interesting strategic fight, but that never really happens. The only time his abilities ever need to be worked around is when Ed knocks out all the lights so it heightens his sense of smell. That also lets Lan Fan and Ling show their abilites with being able to sense chi. Beyond that, the protagonists ultimately don't do much to kill him.
Sloth: He gets hit really really hard. Again, he feels more like a filler antagonist if that was all it took to kill him.
Envy: Best Homonculi gets the best death. The fight is also interesting since they actually use strategy, with Hawkeye telling Envy a lie in order to get him to expose himself. Also has a very thematic and appropriate ending for the character.
Wrath: Again strategy is used in order to get the upper hand in the fight against Wrath and his death is pretty climatic. It feels very deserved and Wrath is my second favorite Homunculi for a reason.
Pride: I know he's technically not dead, but lets just say how he would have died if Ed did kill him then. What ultimately led to Pride's demise was a series of coincidences one after another. First he eats Kimblee, for some reason. Then he forces Mustang to do human transmutation which weakens him. Finally he said he would take Ed's body which made Kimblee mad, which lead to his death. There was no actual thinking on the end of the protagonist to ultimately kill Pride. It was all just multiple coincidences coming together to form a very anti-climatic fight.
Father: This time its a combination of hit him till he dies and coincidences. They need to hit him a lot to drain the power of the Philosopher's stone and he ultimately dies because he lets Greed into his body. It's not like it was something the protagonists thought of. It just happens in the moment and Greed and Ed uses that to take advantage of him. Thematically it still feels very earned, but as an actual fight its very lacking.
Also Also, how the Homunculi are created is very confused and is a sort of plot hole. So, Wrath is a Homunculi that ages because he was a normal human that took in a philosopher's stone. Because of that he has an extremely powerful body, but he cannot heal himself and will still age and eventually die like any normal human.
So then why can Ling heal himself? He is the same type of Homunculi as Wrath, but he can heal himself and everyone is saying he's now immortal, but that shouldn't be the case considering Wrath. Ling took in Greed through a philosopher's stone just like Wrath. Ling and Wrath both overcame their stones and became Homunculi. So why does Wrath age and can't heal but the opposite is true for Ling?
Ultimately, most of these are nitpicks, and the story itself is good enough that these issues can be ignores. This is just my thoughts. And if I'm wrong on something, feel free to point it out.
