Gotta love the direction-changing sword.
I repel thee with my holy light!!
Summary:
After regenerating his armored body with the Philosopher's Stone, Al launches a counterattack against Pride and Kimblee. During the ensuing fight Al manages to knock Kimblee out of the way and then trap Pride in a small mound of earth. Kimblee recovers and asks Al why he fights instead of using the Philosopher's Stone to recover his and Ed's body, and Al answers that instead of choosing one or the other, he wants to save the world and return their bodies to normal. Kimblee responds by saying that Al will do neither of these things and Kimblee suddenly attacks using his own Philosopher's Stone, causing a big explosion.
Sloth might be thick-skulled, but Olivier can get through to anyone.
Olivier is about to become the flattest general in all the land.
Inside Central HQ, Alex starts pelting Sloth with his signature projectile attacks. While Sloth is reeling from Alex's attacks, Olivier jumps onto the homunculus and stabs him in the head with her saber and thereby killing Sloth once. Sloth becomes angry after being killed once by Olivier and the big homunculus suddenly charges forward at breakneck speed. Sloth is so fast that he can't control his direction and therefore he misses the Armstrong siblings on the first charge. The soldiers who are recovering behind the Armstrongs are not so lucky and are crushed into the wall. Olivier and Alex realize that Sloth was just lazing around before and Sloth states that he is actually the fastest homunculus. After several near hits, Sloth has Olivier lined up in his path but Alex jumps in the last moment to save his sister. Louis then punches the ground and sends Sloth crashing into the floor below. In blocking the attack Alex has a dislocated left arm while Olivier suffered a few broken bones. Suddenly, Sloth punches the ceiling and sends the Armstrong falling on to his floor and the massive homunculus reaches to crush Alex.
All that muscle sure came in handy for Alex in this situation.
Payback is a bitch and a sharp bite to the neck.
Back on the outskirts of Central, Pride is freed from the mound and sees Kimblee standing near a large crater. Kimblee tosses some small rocks and locates Al in all the smoke and the fight resumes again. Al puts up another smokescreen but this time Pride is ready and pins Al down with his shadowy tendrils. Pride tells Al that it's checkmate, but he soon discovers that Al actually used the smokescreen to hide Dr. Marcoh, who in turn healed Heinkel with the Philosopher's Stone. Al has also read the direction of the wind so that Pride couldn't use his sense of smell. Realizing that he has been had, Pride warns Kimblee to guard against the downwind direction but it's too late as Heinkel leaps out of the air and bites Kimblee in the neck.
Come on. Be happy. This is your (one and only) moment in the spotlight.
After Heinkel bites Kimberly in the neck, Pride sends his shadowy tendrils flying at Heinkel but stops at the last second. Pride tells Al and company that they can't win, and the powerful homunculus turns his attention to Dr. Marcoh. Prides sends in tendril to cut Marcoh down, but a van suddenly flies over the hill, deflects the blade, and runs Pride and Al over. To Al's surprise, the van (stolen from Kimblee) is being driven by Yoki, and Marcoh and Heinkel immediately race into the vehicle with Al and Kimblee in tow. Before getting in the van, Heinkel notices Pride getting up so he throws Kimblee at the homunculus. As Al and company speeds off in the van, Pride launches one last strike which cuts the roof off the vehicle. After Al and company have gotten away, Pride turns his attention to the barely breathing Kimblee and proceeds to absorb the alchemist.
A big boy like Sloth needs a big treat, but Alex probably overdid it a little.
Mustang and his group has circled central HQ in their re-disguised truck and find that all four entrances are blocked off. Mustang then decides to leave the outside to the Briggs soldiers while his group take another route in. Inside headquarters, Olivier recovers from her fall and sees that Alex has impaled Sloth in the mouth with a giant spike from the floor. Even though Sloth has been temporarily stopped, the Armstrong siblings find themselves surrounded by hostile Central soldiers, but the brother and sisters ignore the soldiers and starts arguing about inconsequential things such as who gets the family mansion. Nearby, some of the soldiers hear something coming down the hallway and suddenly a swarm of one-eyed zombies charge on to the scene. While the soldiers try in vain to shoot down the zombies, Olivier states that the soldier can shoot her and Alex and be eaten alive, or they can let her and her brother take on the zombies. As Sloth begins to regenerate, Olivier presses the soldier in charge to make a decision.
Somewhere underground, May is dodging Envy's strikes while trying to avoid the one-eyed mannequins, and Envy absorbs the mannequins along the way. Elsewhere, Ed and company are busy fighting another group of mannequins. Just as Ed is surrounded by several mannequins, Mustang (accompanied by Riza) blows through the door and sends the mannequins and Ed flying.
Real heroes know how to make real entrances.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
It's been non-stop action for the last two or three episodes, and yet FMA:B is showing no signs of slowing down. Once again, a lot of stuff happened in the span of the episode. The focus of the episode though was two awesome fights: Al vs. Kimblee and Pride, and Armstrong siblings vs. Sloth. Bones did a great job animating both fights, but the beginning of the fight involving Al was the best piece of animation in this episode. There are just certain parts of the manga can benefit so much from good animation, and the beginning Al's fight was such an example. The battle between Al, Kimblee and Pride was very well planned with Al managing to fake out both Pride and Kimblee at the end. On top of that, both Heinkel and Yoki got their moments in the limelight. FMA remembers its side characters. In the aftermath of that fight, Pride absorbs Kimblee, but I'm not sure if that'll do anything. I don't think eating a human who knows alchemy will give a homunculus the ability to use alchemy, and I don't think Kimblee had any talents other than blowing stuff up. I think Pride just wanted some food though given that he has Gluttony's hunger.
The other battle between the Armstrongs and Sloth wasn't as intricate as Al's battle, but it was pretty entertaining too. Well, we all know the Armstrongs are awesome. Many probably guessed that Sloth has another power other than his size and hard skin, but I didn't think that he'd be super fast. I loved the moment where Alex blocked Sloth's charge to save Olivier. It was one of my favorite moments from the manga, and Bones translated it well into anime form. Alex and Olivier managed to survive and may gain some allies in the Central soldiers, but it's going to be a very close fight against Sloth and the mannequins.
The only action scene that wasn't great was Ed's group fighting the horde of mannequins. I guess the point there was Ed's group was being overwhelmed by the mannequins' numbers, but the fight felt repetitive and a little boring compared to Al or Armstrongs' battles. This probably can't be helped: Al and the Armstrongs' battles were that good. Now that Mustang is in the house though things are going to different. May and Envy probably aren't too far away as well, so things are set up for the next round of action. Time to see the Flame Colonel receiving his big moment.
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