#because boy do so many more characters die in this than fmab. like. almost everyone who isnt a main character really.

[dapper-nahrwhale]

So I'm watching fma 2003 with my brothers girlfriend who has only seen fmab and heres some highlights of it:

Her: so does ed still give up alchemy for al in the end?

Me: I'm going to say yes but not exactly. Technically he doesnt have alchemy anymore at the end of the series. And in a roundabout way he does give it up for al. (But he gave up more than alchemy to get al back)

Her: but he still gets al back right?

Me: shrug. Not quite. Kinda. Its complicated. But yes al does come back at the end with a body. (They just aren't together, ed trapped in a war torn world without alchemy, surrounded by the faces of those he once knew from his world, and al doesnt even know what ed did having no memory of the past 4 years and in a body that's 11 again)

Her: are the homunculus are still the same?

Me: uuhhh. No. Not at all. Their origins are not the same. That is very different for a specific reason. And their personalities are a little different too. (They are created through human transmutation to bring back the dead. So their failed resurrection of their mom in a very literal way comes back to haunt them. As one of the homunculus)

Her: hoenheim has to be the same tho, hes the philosophers stone!

Me: actually in this one he used to make philosophers stone's (in order to live longer, so he did in fact orchestrate enough death to get stones enough to transmute himself to another body to live a few times over. So he is centuries old and the cause of alot of deaths)

Her: do ed and winry still get together at the end tho?

Me: hm. Surprisingly enough! no they do not. Ed doesnt get with anyone at the end. And neither does winry.

Her: but all the characters in brotherhood still come up right?

Me: well seeing as how this was done at the beginning of the manga which finished well after the show was done, no they arent in this one sorry

Her: so your telling me that tucker comes back? Scar didnt kill him?

Me: yes and that's not even the worst part about it.

Her: what happens to hughes still does tho? Because that was the saddest and darkest moment in brotherhood, I cry every time.

Me: unfortunately yes. Even more unfortunate is that it isnt the saddest moment in 2003. That has to be the ending.

Her: why is the ending sad? Dont they still get Al's body back? Even though ed gives up alchemy for him? Everyone still gets a happy ending right?

Me: I'm so glad that's what you think happens, so I'm going to let you believe that for a while. (I'm so sorry but there isnt a happy ending, not for this one, at best its bittersweet at worst they're dead, all this fighting all this death so an already ancient old woman could live a bit longer, and at the end al gets a body but not the memories and ed looses alchemy yeah but what he gave up for al was himself and it's an eye for an eye, a soul for a soul but Ed's tainted soul just wasnt enough for the toll, so hes trapped on the other side of the gate which is our world in the 1920s without alchemy without al without any of his friends and family from his world in this one surrounded by the faces of his friends and family but it's not them it's just a mirror of them that doesnt know him and theres no way back to the home you burned down yourself a long time ago and theres no coming back to a world that you traded places with for al, after all that's equivalent exchange, a life for a life.)