I'm tired of living a lie, I don't get the ending of FMA: B, I saw it over a decade ago, I've rewatched it but I don't understand how Ed trading his own Gate of Truth was the "correct" answer and that allowed him get Eds body and soul back
At least the original series makes sense in a soppy way (memories/experiences are life so you can trade them)
giving up the ability to do alchemy is the only proper equivalent exchange for human transmutation
he gave up his ability to use alchemy
Seems arbitrary, what's the logic?
People who want to transmute humans are usually desperate and want to do so out of love
If it was a case of people who transmute humans being power hungry, it would make more sense since they lose their "power"
I understand that, it's more why that's the equivalent trade for a human life
You can't bring someone back from the dead with alchemy. You can only do it by giving up your alchemy. Equivalent exchange: A life that can begin anew for a life that can never be the same again. Ed's body for Al's identity.
Fine, that's what I figured, good to know someone else sees it the same way
His natural gift for alchemy was what caused his and his brother's suffering to happen. Admitting that and giving up alchemy to return things to normal felt equivalent.
the ability to use alchemy is a gift from God, so surrendering that gift back to God is the only way to do something that contradicts God's laws
Based
Al can still do Alchemy though?
It's extremely arbitrary.
The only explanation is that the Truth is sentient and assigns values that he sees fit based on the circumstances.
A human soul and body transmutation being equivalent to Ed's Alchemy would only make sense if Truth willed it to be so. There isn't a concrete value that can be placed on either.
>everyone has a door, that are their alchemy power gifted from god/truth
>alchemy makes people arrogant
>they try to act like gods and bring back dead people
>god/truth doesn‘t like that, so people loose something very dear to them. As punishment. But none loose the door.
> He realizes that the door is completly obselete, nothing changed. Human are still just humans. That‘s why he offers the one thing humanity thinks they can‘t survive with
But I really dunno, what would happen if you offer it without another door. Would you become another god?
At the start of the series Ed sees everything as part of the law of equivalent exchange. It’s an ironclad rule, everything has a fixed value and you just need the right price to pay.
As the series continues, holes appear. You can’t bring a human back to life, this means then that there are some things that do not have a price that can be paid. Ed in the finale offers to exchange his gate. The gate is what gives him the ability to do alchemy, but it doesn’t make him any more than a person. He has always been just a person. His alchemical ability, the skill that he assigned value in a way to get the body back, is not what gives him value.
So he gives it up, which means he loses nothing (he was always just a person), but gains everything (his brother’s life, he can return to his family and friends). Windy does the same. She gives Ed her life, and he gives her his. Neither lose anything, but they both gain immeasurably, meaning they subtract 1 from each other, add 1 to each other, but come out of it with immeasurably more, which breaks the law of equivalent exchange. That’s how Truth is beaten, again: there are some things that cannot be quantified through alchemy. They are considered priceless. Ed chooses them and gains everything, but loses nothing.
It's an interesting idea, kinda the opposite of other theories, some say the gate has a high value but you say it's worthless
Ed can do transmutations without circles
so he traded that ability + all of his transmutation powers to get Al's body's back.
>Windy does the same
>Windy
A human soul cannot be quantified. It's even noted that you cannot resurrect the dead, and when Ed and Izumi dig up the corpses and check the transmutation results, it's stated that nothing in them could have been human. That's the message that is driven in over and over again, there are some things that cannot be given a value.
Alphonse expands on the theory at the end as well, when he explains that they are going to try and find the new truth, a better one than equivalent exchange, one about getting more out than you put in. Alchemy says it isn't possible, equal value for equal value, equations must be balanced. Yet Ed does it by giving up something that does not diminish who he is only to gain far more.
I was expecting that Ed give his life as equivalent exchange, but that would be like a sad ending and it cant be because its a shonen.
That would be a bad ending all around since Al wouldn't want that and there's nothing clever about it
>Yet Ed does it by giving up something that does not diminish who he is only to gain far more.
Kid Ed had Alphonse and could perform alchemy
Adult Ed has Alphonse, and can no longer perform alchemy
All in all, net loss
That defeats the whole moral of the story
Ed matures (and starts growing) once he recognizes that alchemy has never allowed him to change the past and that the door of truth, while priceless to most, is worth nothing to him compared to his brother
He "won" by defeating equivalent exchange
Everybody knows that "real story" aka brotherhood sucks compared to "made up fanfic" original (not) version.
Even alchemy is better there.
It's not like he resurrected Al from the dead, Al was never dead, his body was just locked up. He essentially traded in his Alchemy, which keep in mind is an incredibly useful ability, to free his brother from prison. He didn't resurrect him, or get his leg back, he just freed Alphonse, that was all.
This is precisely why it's not arbitrary at all. Truth is merely the amalgamation of all knowledge, and with humans being the most knowledgeable beings it's only natural that truths ultimate redpill would be some raw human values.
Recognized his family and friends, a power greater than his alchemy. Net gain.
He gave up one of the two things he valued most for the other. The correct answer is that to Ed himself the two were equivelant.
He gave up Al(chemy) for Al(phonse). No this is not the correct answer but it's just as valud any answer there is. There was no Truth, just the whims of a God.
If that were the case, why did truth only say that ed made the correct choice only AFTER he remarked on still having everyone around him.
Said no one ever
Because even if he trades away his most valuable thing Ed recognized he still had other things he valued nearly as much. Losing one thing is not losing everything.
No no, listen. Rewatch the scene. The implication is clearly that the correct answer had nothing to do with equivalent exchange in the first place. Clearly Truth doesn't operate EQ using arbitrary values that people themselves place on things. To say that it works because ed felt they were equivalent completely ignores Truths entire dialogue.
This is textbook shonen user. He can't give up his life because that would be so sad nor giving up any part of his body because that defeats the purpose of his quest.
>the answer was his nakama all along
very textbook, how could anyone not get it