a seemingly inoffensive comparison post for your dash
OK but see this point in the series has never really made that much sense. Like, OK, Ed sees the resemblance in Envy’s real form, I get this, but until this point Ed has no idea about his dad’s relationship to the homunculus, and Hohenheim and Dante conceived what would become Envy 400 years ago. There’s like… zero reasons why Ed’s recognition makes any sense.
*cracks knuckles*
Edward totally knows at this point that Hoenheim and Dante were a thing. If you were paying attention, Izumi pulls out a smutty letter Hoenheim wrote Dante nearly a millennia ago and Edward reads it and then presumably went out in the garden and barfed, and Edward confronts Hoenheim about it in London at the beginning of this episode. He knows Hoenheim was going around fucking other women before Trisha, especially after meeting Dante (also in this episode.) Like it’s pretty goddamn obvious.
Not to mention Envy has made it clear on multiple occasions while Edward was in the room that he has a major grudge against “some bastard” who’s blood is in Edward’s veins and who’s sperm Edward might be. Like Edward is not Goku, okay, Edward can intuit shit.
But Edward also has a big thing for denial what with the whole Sloth thing which he totally should have figured out eons ago but just didn’t want to admit to himself that he was that big of a fuck up.
So at this point Edward knows
1. Hoenheim is a manslut who dated an evil psychopath named Dante. 2. Dante creates Homunculus. 3. Homunculus are made when someone attempts Human Transmutation. 4. Hoenheim DID attempt Human Transmutation because he’s got the *clap* 5. Envy is the deputy ringleader of the Homunculus. 6. Envy has a major grudge against him and Al specifically. 7. Envy has mentioned twice now said grudge is because of who they’re related to.
He’s just gotta put two and two together and then boom Envy transforms and it’s all made pretty goddamn clear. Not only because of how much he resembles Hoenheim but because of how much he resembles Edward himself. The fucked up thing here, and the reason Edward hesitates is not only the realization that this monster is his brother, (which IDK brothers are kinda an important thing in FMA) but also because he sees himself in Envy’s reflection. He himself just barely dodged becoming the creature in front of him. (It’s not a coincidence Edward is one of the people Envy transforms into when they aren’t in disguise.) There’s a moment of real sympathy from Edward, and that’s all the hesitation Envy needs to murder him right then and there.
The point of sympathy later gets driven home at the end when both of them meet at the gate and Edward tries to warn Envy about how dangerous it is. He even sheds a few tears when Envy leaves, crying because he’s losing both of his brothers. (This is later all undone in CoS but I blame that on the writers not getting the mini-series they obviously wanted.)
So this is all really well established, foreshadowed, and lead up to, and the reveal is a pretty big moment for Edward’s character where he really has to confront the humanity of the homunculi, and how much he shares with them. Sloth is the drawback, Envy is the knock out.
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