Fullmetal Alchemist

[Kim]

Actually, I thought of Pride as another Dwarf in the Flask, and didn't really think his abilities were hard to believe with that in mind. That's just me though.

[Lithp]

Yes, he basically is. But you're missing the point. This guy's abilities contradict the series's entire premise: That alchemy works with basic natural laws.

[Premmy]

Every Homunculus has regenerative abilities as a baseline power, their special powers are dependant on the nature of their creation.

At Briggs, sloth was just too lazy to actually DO anything but plod ahead, he wasn't exhibiting any special powers.
as for Pride, I distinctly recall several moments where father and company were all "Naw, alchemy doesn't work like that, we were totally lying, as per our big conspiracy" so Pride's powers don't irk me as much, especially if you consider the fact that ALL of central is technically the inside of his body

[Magus]

I was under the impression that Pride doesn't really use shadows to attack, he uses his shadow, which isn't actually a shadow but some kind of other material with the properties we know of (slicing) and which is housed inside his "body", which is just a shell to house it. It functions like a shadow in that it needs light to be cast to form but it's not actually a shadow, it's some unknown material that he is made of or is at least attached to him in some way, and appears to be the same material Father is truly made of.

There was clearly a scene when Sloth plods through Briggs where they shoot him with a tank, it causes damage, he heals, they shoot him again with another shell, and it bounces off and they go "It doesn't work now!" or something to that effect. Most people thought this meant he had some muscle memory power that prevented the same attack from hurting him twice. Obviously the added momentum from his speediness may have overwhelmed this, as you pointed out, and that's probably what Arakawa was going for.

[Lithp]

Sloth-I honestly don't remember any damage being done to him at all before the big showdown.

Pride-That's kind of how I view him, Magus, but there is a lot of focus on portraying the shadow aspect. On the other hand, Premonitions, Central is definitely not inside of him. He's confined to certain places, not the other way around. As for alchemy in general, this was finally revealed to just be that Father can control alchemy for Amestrians using his Philosophers Stone. Which doesn't entirely make sense, but hey, it more-or-less worked.

[ZAKtheGeek]

My problem's with Ed's Greed-like northern automail. Yeah, okay, I understand you can make carbon "really hard," but "really hard" doesn't equal impenetrable. In the end, it only makes sense that the "ultimate shield" is made possible by carbon but necessarily backed by the alchemic power of a stone.

As for the latest attack on Ed, Mustang, etc, jeez, come on. Oh yeah, we got bred super-soldiers who've been preparing their whole lives, but that's alright, fuckin' Hawkeye's on the job! Who is also wounded, but who cares about wounds, unless you're a red shirt, in which case they're crippling if not fatal. Oh, and by the way, at least one of them seems to be able to dodge bullets. But yeah, it's cool, we got Hawkeye.

[Magus]

Well, that fight was a while ago (in the manga, maybe you're referring to the newest episode I haven't watched yet) but FMA barely kills off side characters, I'm surprised you'd think that any of the main characters are going to get killed.

I was under the impression that they made the carbon into some kind of diamond configuration, and you have to remember that while the arm has carbon in it it also has steel. There is more strength there. Also, Greed's shield didn't run off of his stone, I'm pretty sure, it's some kind of innate ability he had. It was pointed out that his body was technically human, he could just reconstitute the carbon in his skin into a diamond shield. It was just a "natural" (created by Father) ability that ran off of his body's own mechanisms, not the stone, which was used to regenerate damage to his body but not run the shield. Any abilities outside regeneration is more like Father "gene-splicing" human-like bodies to have weird powers, using his knowledge of alchemy. Like the homunculi's powers would be like if a mutant had superpowers (to use comic book terminology), except for regenerating damage. Father could technically create humans who have weird powers without having them be homunculi with regenerating powers from philosopher's stones inside of them (in fact the chimera are a good example, sure he didn't start from scratch but they clearly have powers that are not running off of the power of a philosopher's stone).

As for Father/Amestrian alchemy: the way I took it is that the reason that Father can shut off Amestrian alchemy is it is entirely run on his philosopher's stone juice that runs all throughout the country via those tubes that he attaches to himself. The true power source of Amestrian alchemy is his philosopher's stone fueled by the people of Xerxes, whereas foreign alchemy runs off of natural stuff...I think. It may run off of souls exuded from Hohenheim's philosopher's stone. I think it's clear that the circle that reversed Father's soul-stealing circle was running off of souls Hohenheim had let leech into Amestrian soil.

My only question is whether or not Alcahestry really runs off of the geothermal movements of the earth like was the myth for Alchemy or if it, too, runs off of soul power, possibly from and controlled by Hohenheim who appears to be the Golden Sage who taught all the Eastern people how to use Alcahestry...if so there doesn't appear to be any alchemy that is not "evil" in that it uses dead people's souls for fuel.

[ZAKtheGeek]

Originally Posted by Magus

I was under the impression that they made the carbon into some kind of diamond configuration, and you have to remember that while the arm has carbon in it it also has steel. There is more strength there. Also, Greed's shield didn't run off of his stone, I'm pretty sure, it's some kind of innate ability he had. It was pointed out that his body was technically human, he could just reconstitute the carbon in his skin into a diamond shield. It was just a "natural" (created by Father) ability that ran off of his body's own mechanisms, not the stone, which was used to regenerate damage to his body but not run the shield.

It's not that I don't get it, but I think it's kind of stupid, and would make more sense if alchemy was involved. What I'm pointing out is that its stupidity is compounded, or thoroughly demonstrated, at least, when Ed starts doing it too.

He has two indestructible limbs. Come on. Fuck that.

Well, that fight was a while ago (in the manga, maybe you're referring to the newest episode I haven't watched yet) but FMA barely kills off side characters, I'm surprised you'd think that any of the main characters are going to get killed.

Again, I'm not surprised, I'm just pointing out that it doesn't make sense. I like it when protagonists die. It usually makes a lot of sense within the context of the story. It doesn't, however, usually make much sense in terms of the author's narrative, and that disconnect eternally irks me. In short, go bad guys.

[Lithp]

Alchemy: That's what a lot of people thought, myself included, but it was revealed to be exactly the same thing, just "dampened." This would actually make the Amestrian definition of alchemy the more technical explanation of the "Dragon's Pulse," which I think is pretty cool.

Pride: I know it's not really relevent anymore, but the reason I said "plant like being" is because, if his power isn't manipulating his shadow & it really IS based off of his body, then plant like characteristics explain that pretty well: It can only grow around light, but it's sensitive to too much light.

Characters dying: Well, how are we defining "main character"? I mean, we've lost some pretty big names & came very close to losing others. Unless you're expecting Ed & Al to drop dead at random, I think FMA has established itself as an Anyone Can Die type series.

Ed's Limbs: Most likely, he can't change the elemental configuration of his automail limbs without running the risk of damaging them. I'm not sure about the manga, but that was stated in the anime. Also, FMA has been pretty consistent with its portrayl of automail modifications as a double-edged sword.

Wrath: I've been trying to figure out for some time, what exactly are the limits of his eye? So far, we seem to have bright lights & significantly opaque objects, so he obviously can't see behind him. Can he actually slash bullets in the manga, or was that just the anime Taking It Up To 11?

[Magus]

I'm not sure about the bullet slashing but that scene was close enough to the manga, he does take on that many soldiers, so in the wake of my being too lazy too look it up and my not being able to post the site where I read it, I'll just go with, "it would not be improbable that the manga showed exactly that."

I think the "coming very close to losing others (many times)" is precisely what Zak is talking about, kind of like in American comics where no one ever dies either. Coming close to dying isn't the same as actually killing them off, it's exactly the thing that annoys him. However, FMA is still ahead of your average American comics franchise at killing characters off.

While it would be difficult to define "main characters", I'd say it's the Elric family, Roy and his troop, and like ten other characters, so it does have a large cast of...maybe not necessarily main characters but secondary characters who at this point are pretty unlikely to be killed.