Background info

This is a huge pretext so get ready…this whole pre story is eventually revealed in the series so don’t read too closely if you mind little spoilers. The plot revolves around the Elric brother’s adventure to get the Philosopher’s stone. Their family consists of their mother; Trisha Elric, their father; Hohenheim, and the two older and younger brothers; Edward and Alphonse, respectively. Their father left the family on a journey in the beginning of the series, and this is when Ed and Al start to develop their alchemy skills. Although Ed had always shown harsh feelings against his dad for leaving Trisha and making her cry since he never came back, he and a soft spot for him in his heart. The brothers continue to practice alchemy with each other so they could be as good as their father. They also attempted to save the dam that was breaking down near their village with alchemy. But this is where they meet their future teacher, Izumi Curtis who is able to perform alchemy without a transmutation circle. We’ll talk more about those in the Alchemy section, but since the Elric brothers were so amazed they beg that they be taught alchemy under her. She agreed after putting them on an island for some weeks or days, to test if they understand the cycle of life. This is that an individual death is needed for the cycle of life to continue so one shouldn’t hang over one death because since the body is composed of natural materials they go back to the earth to bring new life. After the Elric brothers learned their phrase, “All is the world, and I am the one” Isuzu agreed to teach them. But things worsened as the brothers found out that the women they were learning alchemy for to make her happy had passed away. This devastated the brothers and they ran away from Isuzu and her husband. She told them two things not to do and those were not to perform a human transmutation, and not to join the state alchemists. Human transmutation is when one performs alchemy to revitalize a person. The brothers lost their senses and went to their house to study taboo alchemy, which their father had books on. The brothers were kept watch under Pinako Rockbell and her granddaughter, Winry Rockbell, but they continued to research until they thought they had mastered the concepts.
First they put all the parentages of elements in the human body in a pile, and then they added drops of their own blood into the pile. All of this was on top of a transmutation circle, and they both got ready to perform the transmutation. Al continuously asked Ed to not do this because he was having a bad feeling, but Ed persisted and they did the transmutation. A series of unexpected events happened and the Gate of Alchemy or the Gate of truth showed up, and when the door opened a bunch of various shadow hands grasped Al’s whole body, and Ed’s right arm and leg into the door. When it was all over, Ed looked towards the once pile with anticipation for the smoke to clear, but as it did, he become quickly horrified at the monster he created. It was a demented version of his mother all twisted and inhuman. Ed passed out, and their product of the transmutation went somewhere else. But since Ed had seen into the Gate of Truth he knew how to save Al by putting his soul in a suit of armor, but he lost his arm and leg as a sacrifice. Now with his brother’s soul in a suit of armor, and his own leg and arm gone and replaced automail, strongest and lightest metal in the series, they search for the philosophers stone so they can get what they lost. In the Alchemy section we’ll talk about why they lost their body parts.



Lastly there is the Ishbal war. This was between a race called the Ishbal, and the Government, then State alchemists. The war was started out of fear from the gov. and they wanted to eliminate the threat, or so it would seem, spoiler. The fake philosopher’s stones were used in the war and those who used them were Roy Mustang, and Armstrong. This was a horrible war and everyone acknowledges the mistake, but, The Fuhrer made this attack for a reason.

Plot

From there on the brother go on various adventures to research, and look for this philosopher’s stone because it is said that with this stone one doesn’t need to exchange for the end product to come. Ed joins the state alchemists, and goes to various extents to find the stone. So throughout the series it is the struggle of ethical measures vs. doing anything for your desires; as Ed comes across this decision near the end of the series. But as they search for this power they come in contact with greater ancient powers which seek the same thing, and there the fatal battle would start.

Alchemy

Alchemy is the center of the show. First to give the origins of Alchemy; there are two worlds in the Anime series, the alchemy world, and our world with technology. Those who die in our world, their energy is passed through the Gate of Truth, and is used for Alchemy. While the alchemy world gives back to our world technology. Now to the basics of Alchemy; alchemy is the changing of objects to another object. There is one rule to this though, and that is the Rule of Equivalent exchange. This is where in order to obtain something, something of equal value must be sacrificed, or used. For example, to create a huge castle from alchemy you need the amount of stone to properly make the castle you desire. If there isn’t enough stone for the castle, the transmutation can’t be completed. It is fundamental for all alchemists to have a transmutation circle in order to do alchemy, but many state alchemists, like Roy Mustang, have the on their gloves so they can use alchemy without drawing more circles. But if one sees the Gate of Truth all they need to do is clap their hand to use alchemy, and since Ed saw the gate he is able to perform alchemy by just clapping his hands together once. Also Ed’s instructor Izumi Curtis can use this technique because she too saw the Gate.



There is a three-step process one must do in order to use alchemy on an object. The first step is to analyze the object and look at its composition. The second it to break down the object into those components of which it is made of. The third is then to reform the components into the object you want. This is why equality is important because you can’t create something from nothing.

Gate of Truth[Gate of Alchemy]

This Gate is the portal between the technology world, and the alchemy world. This gate also transfers the energy of human death to alchemy and technology. This relates back to the life cycle idea that when one dies from one world, they better the other by giving birth to new life. There is two of everyone including both worlds, and this shows how the worlds relate and differ. This is a confusing topic so forgive my being confusing, but I’ll try my best to make this less confusing. It is said that when a person encounters the gate and lives they gain the ability to perform alchemy by just clapping their hands, and this explains how Izumi and Ed are able to do so. This is because the Gate holds all the answers and knowledge to everything; thus, they gain knowledge on how to use their hands, but they can’t seem to explain it. This also explains how Ed was able to transmute Al’s soul into the armor within seconds. This is a great power that is cool!

Homunculi

These are the main antagonists, or the antagonists helpers in the series. These creatures were created from human transmutations. This means the Ed’s mother is a Homunculi, and she tries killing them after teaming up with Dante. Dante is the main antagonist in the Anime and she uses the Homunculi to get the philosophers stone so she can live forever. One more thing, it is also in legend that the alchemist Paracelsus, created a homunculus, or a fake human, and this relates to the name in the show.