Let me start this by saying that Scar has to have the best fashion sense of any zealot I’ve encountered in fiction. He may be on a deranged, murderous rampage, but the man still knows how to style his hair and make his clothes match. Usually those are the first things to fall by the wayside when somebody’s going over the edge.
We’ve met Lust and Gluttony, so I suppose this shape-shifter’s supposed to be what… dishonesty? Wait, that’s not one of the seven deadly sins. I’m assuming these nogoodnicks are part of a whole gang of sin-named villains who’ll get revealed one-at-a-time. So what does that make him, then? Envy? Maybe Pride? On the subject of these naughty people, I have to say I was getting an evil, cannibalistic Jar Jar Binks vibe off of Gluttony. I don’t have as much of a problem with Jar Jar as, well, basically everybody did, but there’s something about the bald guy’s eagerness coupled with his childish syntax that reminded me of the Naboo frog man… if he just happened to like to eat people.
Even though the state alchemists get their act together by the end of the episode, they really came off like this world’s Keystone kopps leading up that. Seriously… the fire alchemist had to be reminded that his powers won’t work in the rain? He’s a highly-regarded warrior scientist and he has to be told that water’s going to snuff out any flames he projects? Maybe this goes back on the discussion I had about there being different kinds of intelligence when I was reviewing the last episode…
Ed and Al might have gotten pretty messed up by this big man, Scar, but I’m wondering if the show’s setting him up to be in the right. Or, at least, misguided, with intentions that’d be heroic in other circumstances. That back story about the Ishbalan massacre doesn’t exactly make the state alchemists out to be the good guys.
Watch this episode “Rain of Sorrows” below and here, and read my comments on the previous episode here.
-- Tom Pinchuk is the writer of UNIMAGINABLE for Arcana Studios and HYBRID BASTARDS! for Archaia. Pre-order the HYBRID BASTARDS! hardcover now on Amazon.com.
Shapeshifter is Envy, by the way. And about Gluttony resembling Jar Jar, I never thought about it like that before you mentioned it, but I see what you mean. I always thought of him as a toddler.
really?
Scar is pretty cool if you ask me. And his backstory is interesting as well.
Tom I'm surprised you didn't harp on all the "untimely" comedy during this episode. But I like how the comedy is mixed in so it give me a laugh to break away from the serious parts. So far we have Envy, Gluttony, Scar, and the woman in black as the baddies but what good is a 65 ep series with only 4? I can't wait for the real revelations to start because then FMA really gets exciting. That's the one thing I like about FMA how there are so many secrets and they are only gradually told.