I think I would like the idea of Al going to Xing. Even though he loves his brother, Al could come to the conclusion that it is time he and Ed part ways for awhile so that he could learn more about alchemy and life on his own. In a way that would kind of be an emotional ending without any one having to die.

And as always, I'm still hoping for Denny and Maria to declare love for each other. Maybe an emotional reunion. Both of them can cry as they embrace. That Maria can tell Denny that while she was separated from him, she realized just how much she loved him. Then they will share their first kiss. I'm a sucker for things like that.

^That would be adorable.

Since I was thoroughly disgruntled with the anime [>>''], I would prefer a more detailed ending, which manga generally guarantees, in my opinion. Generally, I would like most of the characters that deserve to be happy, to be such. Especially Ed, the poor kid, and Roy as well.

~ed will end up with winry.. haha
~al'll get back his body, adopt some cats (!? maybe..)
~roy with riza also..

~"father"'ll die with his lovely children..
~annihilation for philosopher's stone

I don't know why, but IMO I think Greed will live and become emperor of Xing along with Ling. As for Ling getting together with Lanfan, isn't the emperor supposed to have, like, LOADS of wives ( one from each clan, as far as I remember). I'm sure Greed will like that.
As for Al I think it might be a good idea for him to go to Xing to study Retanjutsu to broaden his knowledge of alchemy.

That's for the purpose of having a lot of children, right? How will this play out since the Homonculus are sterile???

something like al gets his body back, ed sill alive somewhere,winry sill working a rush valley,

For the ending....

Elric Brothers: The journey to restore their bodies back maybe? I mean, in the end they might not be able to get it back unless another discovery appears in the manga. Hehe just a thought.

Then again I may have to review about Rentanjutsu details since it has stuck in my head when they all formed the solution from the reverse human transmutation circle.

Hoho might finally be able to get his dream: his death so he could join Trisha Elric in the afterlife.

Roy... after the coup they did with others like Mira: I'm not quite sure which one of them would still aim for the position of the President, but Roy is adamant of becoming one so I hope he gets it, together with his subordinates in his side.

The homunculus..hmm maybe Greed will remain or will be destroyed along the rest of the remaining ones. Even the Father. If they continue to live, history will only repeats itself.

Though, if there won't be any homunculus in the end... there will be no war, what will become of the military? Helping the victims of war and restoration of cities maybe.

I give my trust to Arakawa-san. She did a lot of research for the entire story and the reason why I keep reading and waiting for the next chapters because her FMA is so deep, I believe. It touches several issues.

~ Will Roy Lose His Eye? ~

So the manga may be coming to an end soon, and I'm wondering if Roy will lose one of his eyes? Like in the first anime?

He was pretty sexy with that eye patch! LOL

Er, no, I don't think so. Arakawa told the writers that she wanted them to have the anime end differently since it was a different format, so I don't think she would do something like that. Also, for what reason? Arakawa doesn't do things in FMA just to make it look sexy or cool (well, except when making Ed shirtless and all, LAWL); she does what she thinks is most appropriate for the characters.

I sure hope not. And well, because the anime already did that, I can't see her putting it in the manga. I mean what would be the point?

Well I don't know what the point would be! Since it hasn't ended yet. I'm just curious I guess. I mean I think that it might confuse newbies to FMA's manga or Brotherhood series, when they see a Roy with an eye-patch.

So I do think it's something that Arakawa and the writers would have considered.

Either way its no biggie, just curious what everyone thinks!

I dont really thing so.. Arakawa likes to make things very interesting, and well we have seen Roy with an eye patch it wouldnt make that of a shock like in the anime if it happens in the manga.

But I do agree that he looked very sexy

I personally hated it... so, no

Me too~!
I mean honestly, it was covering half of his face >.< Anyway I do not approve of the eyepatch!Roy and emo!Roy

I don't think that she will do this since there is no point in it besides first anime already had it and she's this type who is original and even if not she wouldn't copy ending from BONES (I mean that Roy will have eyepatch)

I don't think this needs to remain open, so I'm closing it. Tombow might know a good thread for it to be merged with later though.

<Program Note>


Gahaha, in fact I do, and I've been contemplating to move this thread there from the start, but hoped that if we kept the thread open here for a while Claudius or someone just might add some interesting movie/manga comparative analysis kind of stuff here and tell us why "one-eye Roy" would/would not happen in manga. But, that doesn't seem to occur, and instead the thread is going down the predicted path. So , yeah, I agree with Chiyo.

I'll add this to FMA manga ending - what do you think would happen at the end of the series? thread shortly.
Anyone have more discussions on how FMA manga would end, please add your post on FMA manga ending - what do you think would happen at the end of the series? thread.


ETA Sept. 9, 2009: Thread merged.

You know, I'm hoping Arakawa shows Denny Brosh's siblings again.

Like maybe them deciding to disobey Denny's orders to stay home to follow him anyways.

Maybe they can meet up with Maria before Denny does.

I was wondering:

Father called Hoho his "blood-kin" back in the chapter where he freed himself from the flask. It looks like it takes a soul and human blood to open the gate. Since Father had no blood source and it was one of those shadow things from the gate, it needed blood to "awaken". It then needed blood again to be sacrified (the bloodshed of Xeres) to open the gate once more.

I re-read that chapter and I had an idea - Father seems to still carry the blood of Hohenheim. If Hoho somehow used his own blood to open the gate now and sacrificed himself i was thinking one of two things or both might happen -

1) He scarifices himself and because of that "all is one" principle and because the only reason father has "life" is because he's using Hoho's blood, maybe if he sacrifices himself, it would drag Father back into the gate along with Father because of their blood connection. Father may have also given Hohenheim immortality because he needs his bloodline to survive in order to keep himself alive and if Hoho was dead, he'd die too. I found it although nice of him, odd that Father - being as selfish as he is - to go as far as to give Hohenheim HALF of the souls that he collected. Repayment or not, it's still a stupid move for some wannabe almighty ruler to give away HALF of his earnings.

2) Somehow the equivalent exchange is that whatever is in Hohenheim that is human is sucked into the gate (there's only so much he can sacrifice, im guessing his own soul) and the exchange is that those souls who are in him get their bodies back.

Please tell me what you think, had some kind of revelation.

Also, was starting to think of a theory to do with Pride. We all know from what Ed said about Envy how he was envious towards human life and such, I was thinking, Pride may have a breaking point when he realizes that he isn't the frist homunculus. Whatever, needs work. Anyway let me know what you think!!

@ o-ren

I like your theory But I think there's a loophole for #2. In the story, Edward confirmed that they cannot revive a dead person (he also confirmed that he can retrieve Al's body because Al never died in the first place).

As for the weaknesses of the homunculus, I'd been thinking of the same for Pride. Or maybe if there's a chance in the manga that he would be meeting his adopted mother then if she found out his a homunculus-- I wonder if he'll kill her. I think it was mentioned that he's taking a liking to his adopted mother.

Pride did mention he became fond to his adopted mother. It was also said that Wrath chose his own wife in chapter 80. For some strange reason I have a feeling that Wrath will kill the people who order to let his wife die and join Mustang's side. But then again, he is fateful to Father. But he was a human so he might still have human emotions...

Very true about point number 2, completely forgot about that!

As for your last point, I also forgot that Pride had said that. I'm pretty sure just like how Envy revealed all of that stuff when he was dying that Pride had taken the most pride in himself not being a homunculus but being a son and pleasing his "mother".

Crackpot theory #2! What if Pride's "mother" saw him and what he was doing to people and became afraid and ASHAMED of him. I don't know about you but the more I think of it, the more I think he takes pride in being a son more than a hounculus. Seeing Mrs. Bradley look at him in disgust may push him over the edge. Heck, he may even kill her sparking Wrath to go after him in a fit of rage.

Pride might then consume Wrath and then unfortunately for Pride, consuming a force that is bent on destroying him, the wrath that is now apart of him may destroy itself, killing Pride. I dunno, those two characters share a commonality for a reason. Thoughts?

I'd like to reiterate my previous theory:

http://www.onemanga.com/Full_Metal_Alchemist/67/35/
http://www.onemanga.com/Full_Metal_Alchemist/77/25/

Hohenheim has spent this entire time traveling around the country to every place a massacre has occurred, at the ten points of the transmutation circle Father has been creating, and sabotaging it with Xingese alchemy. This is creating the reverse transmutation circle discovered by Al, a mixture of Xingese and Amestrian alchemy. Riza is going to be killed by either Pride or Father. Roy will lose it, and, despite Ed's warnings, will attempt to bring Riza back to life. He loses a body part and sees the Truth. Father finally has the fifth sacrifice he needs, all gathered in his room, and beings the transmutation. Thus, he unknowingly activates Hohenheim's new transmutation circle, and transmutes and destroys himself. And the Philosopher's Stone that is Father will be what is paid to get Ed and Al their bodies back.

Oooh, that's a great theory. It totally works. I don't like the idea of Riza dying AT ALL... ...but I can still see it working.

You're brilliant. Mind if I borrow that theory for a fanfic I'm playing with?

@Red Shrimp

about your suggested ending for Roy....when Ed was talking to Hawkeye about the Ishbal(sp?) war, she said that if Roy became the President and then made the country into a democracy, all the state alchemists and people who participated in the Ishbal war would all be labeled as villains instead of heroes because what they did would not have been necessary. So if Roy really did get to become President, he would only be able to for a short amount of time before he got stripped of his title because of what he did in the Ishbal war.

Unless, of course, people would forgive everybody because what they did was not their choice but an order.....but I don't think they would forgive them that easily, they would probably be demoted at least. but of course, i don't know.

I REALLY dont think hawkeye would get killed so roy would open the gate, that is just completly out of character for Roy, when Hughues was killed he didnt do that, but he did say he thought he understood how the elrics felt, also he can tell just from looking at ed and al that it wouldnt work and would end in complete disaster, threaterning to kill Riza would be more likely, and that may not even be nesscary, as i said somewhere else, edward transmuted himself to open the gate and during that time Ling and Envy jumped in, also Hoho never himself transmuted when he saw the gate either, so couldn't they just stick Roy in the middle of a transmutation circle and transmute him without him actually performing the action himself? I'm not quite sure about that theory but maybe it could work, but about Riza, threatening to kill her would be much more effective, and i wouldnt be surprised if they put the lives of all his fellow subordinates on the line aswell, or offered him a deal that they wouldnt be used to make the massive philiosphers stone if he obeyed them.

More theroizing! Are we forgetting that Marco is also a sacrifice the bad guys are thinking of? But that leads to one too many which led me to think of this! Al is in quite a state at the mo with his rejection issues, what if his soul does actually get rejected and they use Marco instead? Of course Al wouldnt actually die, but Ed might think he has or something. Al saw his body on one of the occasions he nearlly got ripped away, maybe if Al's soul leaves the armour it will return to his body, when he reached out to his body in that snowstorm if he'd actually grabbed the hand maybe he woulda been completly rejected from the armour, and go back to the body, kinda like a revserse of when he grabbed the hand of himself in the gate (and then you dont have the problem of transferring Al's soul lol) and when the gate is opened with Marco in Al's place, Edward could pull Al whole and complete out again.

Yeah... I don't think Roy would open the gate even if they killed Riza. That's not like him at all. Especially after the whole incident with Envy. Even more so if Ed reveals human transmutation cannot revive people.

I'm not so sure about whether they will kill Riza, either, since Wrath didn't actually say he would make Roy open the gate because 'he's in love with Riza', he said, he would make him open the gate because 'he's too kind'. That's his weakness. I always picture Arakawa works between the lines, and not with the things that are obvious from the scenes.
I guess that's too much 'out there' to be something Arakawa would do. She's such an un-cliché-like writer!

I actually think they WANT Al to recover his body because, somehow, I think they need his body to perform that transmutation. In the case of Marcoh and Roy... well, one of them will have to open the gate, but as stated, it doesn't necessarily means they need to perform an human transmutation. Edward did it with only a Philosopher's Stone. The thing about opening the gate is sacrificing something, in this case, the stone, and not human transmutation itself.
At least, I don't see it any other way, cause I don't see neither Marcoh nor Roy agreeing to make a human transmutation under any circumstances. And more than that... it's still unclear whatever makes a person an actual sacrifice... it's related to the portal, but, still... we don't know exactly what and how they're doing it.

i just think its a bit odd they mentioned two potential human sacrifices for the 5th one they need, and Arakawa never seems to include anything for no reason XD as i said in my theory above, I think its possible Al will get rejected before he can be used, in which case Marco will be forced to replace him

@Turdaewen

When they open the gate and sacrifice a stone, couldn't Hohenheim be the sacrifice? He is a human Philosopher's stone, and he is also one of the chosen 'human sacrifices'. Then they wouldn't have to make a philosopher's stone to transmute, because they already have a huge and powerful one.

@Forsaken

But Marco and Roy both are still only 'potential' sacrifices, because they both haven't really opened the gate before, and I seem to have remembered somewhere along the way Marco's town was already wiped out, so they wouldn't have anything to threaten him to make him participate in helping to transmute.

Hohenheim said he had something to counter the countrywide transmutation circle anyway though, right? So if everybody was forced to activate the circle, they would still have that backup plan, right?

Well basically, I think this will happen:
- at least 1 person will die heroicly
-Al will get his body back (hopefully)
- Father will die a painful death!!!

"Hohenheim said he had something to counter the countrywide transmutation circle anyway though, right? So if everybody was forced to activate the circle, they would still have that backup plan, right?"

I already explained this!

Admittedly, Hawkeye dying is the weakest part of my theory.

And sure, feel free to use it.

If the Riza part doesn't work out, everything that follows after that doesn't work out......

which is why people are arguing about possible sacrifices now.

Forsaken Love's been making the point that Mustang wouldn't open the gate if Riza died, because it's uncharacteristic of him. And I sort of see his point, but still think that's what's going to happen.

No matter how it happens, though, Mustang WILL open the gate, so the rest of it still works out.

Roy and Ed will get together. And get married. Than die Because Roy accidently called Ed Short. Outside of there home Kimblee made them ExplodeXD

Lol, What a imagination xD
But seriously, for me it would be a happy end, If Ed and Al will recover their bodies, Edward x Winry will be together and Roy x Riza too :3 And everybody must be in world of alchemy!

Who knows? There are still many choices of sacrifices, it doesn't have to be Roy. Either way, they will probably get forced to activate the transmutation circle (or unknowingly) because I don't really see them activating it on purpose just because Hohenheim has a backup plan.

And also, would Arakawa really sacrifice Riza? I mean, I bet that would really turn off some readers, and we haven't really seen any really important characters die (Hughes was kinda a main character, but not really).

Thats most likely gonna happen

=D

this is what i want with, but with minor differences.
-Ed and Winry have to get together, thats a given.
-i see Roy dieing. and if not Riza risking her life to save him (maybe not dieing from it but being crippled)
-Alphonse gets his body back, and meets up with Rose again, and they fall in love, and Adopt Mei(thats her name right, the girl with the panda bear, which i think they call a cat.)
-Ed doesnt get his limbs back, i just dont think its possible for him to get it back.
-Ling, yah he becomes emporer and marries RanFan
-Havoc creates guns, ammo, and other stuff for the military.

This manga cover :

http://www.onemanga.com/Full_Metal_Alchemist/97/01/

and the condition of Al at the end of the first series gave me this crazy idea:

As a result of the reverse transmutation circle Hoho regresses back to his teen years and Ed and Al have to figure out what to do with him. The three of them go back to Risembool to see Winry and she happens to be out of the house when they get there. Ed and his Dad get into an argument and Hoho stomps outside and leans his head against the wall in frustration. Winry then returns home and sees him from behind and thinks it's Ed. She runs up to hug him from behind just as Ed walks outside. Winry freaks and jumps backward thinking there are two Ed's for some reason. Hoho turns around shocked that she hugged him. Ed gets pissed and Al comes outside laughing while all the craziness ensues.

Yeh, automail's just too cool . Methinks he won't really care, as long as Al gets out of that tin can. Besides, more excuse to have Winry fuss over him.

Aside from that, I want the happily ever after with apple pie, but I doubt we'll get away without any deaths. A while back I thought Greedling would go for some reason, but now I'm not so sure.

I am positive that Al will get his body back and Ed will get his limbs too. Then we have 2 happy families: EdXWin and AlXMei. I want EdWin to have a daughter and AlMei to have a son, which I don't know why
Roy is unlikely to become Führer because no female officers agree to wear mini skirt. I think Bradley will still keep his job, as he realize his love for his wife, so he decide to become a better human (sound cheesy, doesn't it? )

I think Bradley is gonna die but Ling will live XD Ling is both younger and his soul is completly seperate from Greed, I think that Father will die and when he does Greed and Wrath been part of him will also die and their host bodys will 'dehomunclize' in a kinda reverse process from how they were homunculized in the first place, but Bradley for the reasons i suggested wont survive it and Ling will, XD thats what i think will happen =3 so Roy will probably get the fuher throne in that case

I think that:
- Al will get his body back but Ed...I can't see him without his automail maybe because it would definitly mean the end of fullmetal alchemist
- Roy will be furher, I see him having a happy ending. Arakawa seems to like talking about redemption, forgivness : Hohenheim /Ed , Scar/Alchemists , Winry/ Scar, Soldiers such as Roy, Riza, Maes, Alex / Ishbalan , Ed/Al ... So Roy (and Co) will be forgiven and lead Amestris
- Riza is the caracter I am the most fearful about (probably because she is my fav ^^), but her and Roy have been through so much they deserve their happy ending
- Greed will die (snif) because after all he is still a part of Father.
- Scar...I would like him to live only to see a world in peace, he has fought too much (Ishbal then alchemists and now homonculus).

i definatly want ed to get him limbs back, that was one of the many many MANY things of the anime end that annoyed me, i want him to get him limbs back for the following reasons...
a) Ed and Al allways said they'd retrive both of their bodies not just Al's, to get back EVERYTHING they lost is the goal of the whole story
b ) Even though Ed thinks Al is most important, Al will be very upset if Ed doesnt get his body back, and states this in many scenes
c) The story will not feel complete and rounded of, and allthough I like everyone else don't want it to end xD it needs to eventually and when that happens i want a complete and fufilling ending, not a half acheived goal
d) Automail is painful and inconvieniant to Ed, he doesn't like it, and although he obviously values Al's body over his limbs he wants his original body back, he sais in some scenes, about not having to put up with the pain of automail when he gets his body back, so making the retrival of him limbs an important goal
e) I guess I felt this more so in the anime, than if the manga had this ending, because Ed's limbs seemed to pop up everywhere, on Wrath and on his own body at the end, but where the heck are those limbs gonna end up XD

so basically if BOTH ed and al don't achive their goal the story will feel incomplete to me

I'm pretty sure someone like Arakawa can pull it off, but I really don't want a completely happy ending tied off with a ribbon. So although it'd be cool if both Ed and Al got their bodies back, it doesn't seem right to me. Maybe the manga will end with them starting a new journey to get back Ed's limbs, but I like the idea of them just staying with Winry at Risembool.

Also Mustang has more of a personal reason to become Fuhrer but Olivia is always a candidate.

And Ed will cry for the first time when Al gets his body back. And then Al will cry. And then everybody reading will die from the ohmygodsobeautiful. :'D

yeshh! i so want an emotional brotherly embrace with loads of crying, manga Ed never really crys (unless you count during his automail surgery, any other times?) so he must be penting up all his emotions inside XD and Al sais he would cry if he had a body too, omg im gonna tear up soooooooooooo bad, if that happens in the manga XD I hated anime1 because it didnt have an emotinal reunion of the reformed bros

and im sure arakawa could pull it off XD but for the reasons i stated above, i would hate if ed didnt get his limbs back, i dont want fma to end, but it does have to and when it does i dont want some cliffhanger that will never be resumed, i want an ending thats full and complete and fufilling, and to restore both their bodies is their goal for the story and without that, for me personally the ending won't be complete XD but of course everyone will want different things

As long as it's not lame and tedious like the anime. Where Ed dies so Al sacrifices himself to bring Ed back who promptly sacrifices himself to bring Al back, therefore totally making Al's sacrifice useless and sending Ed to Germany.... couldn't have a more hastily-written ending. I just want to see the Hoenheim/Father showdown.

Well, actually, nobody ever forgave anyone in the manga. Winry hasn't forgiven Scar, same for the Elric. Scar himself hasn't forgiven Roy and Riza, but he knows he has to work with them. He may have forgiven Marcoh tough...



I'm pretty sure that Ed will recover his leg but not his arm. In a kind of equivalent exchange, the brothers will only get back what they lost in the actual human transmutation. So Ed's arm won't come back since he used it as a payment for Al's soul. It's something he knew would happen, as opposed to the absolute surprise that was having to pay for the transmutation of their mother.

A new journey when most of their goals are accomplished and Al can live a normal lie again? I don't think so, they're pragmatic enough to know that Ed living with an automail is a fair price to pay in order for Al to come back to normal. To continue to travel after that to get Ed's limbs back would be a waste.

Living with Winry in Resembool? Don't think so. Ed is most likely to settle with Winry in Rush Valey and be the house husband As for Al, he will probably live near them for a while, but eventually I think the two brothers will split up because that's how life goes... especially if Al starts a relationship with May some years down the line, like I hope

Well, I read just recently(or I wouldn't have remembered)that Hohenheim couldn't restore Izumi's sacrifice because it was the price of her sin. So, I'm not to sure if Ed and Al are going to be getting their bodies back, unless they OH-SO-AWESOME-LIKE surpass the law of equivalent exchange. Which I think is going to be possible with Hohenheim and rentanjutsu.

I would have to think some more on the other characters before I write some assumptions on them. :B

But I also think Kimblee being 'eaten' by Pride is also just going to give Selim indigestion. So another of my theories from researching is that, Kimblee might be somehow manipulated into helping out as one of the 'sacrifices.'

No well, I'm pretty much sure that Al will get his body back. Ed can still live a normal life with the automails, Al can't.

Now I don't think that Ed will get his limbs back as both him and Al being restored seems too much like a cheesy ending. Besides having automail has saved his life so many times that I think that thy might actually do him good.

Another theory that I think would make a great ending but isn't likely to happen is that Ed dies. It would make a great bittersweet ending if Al got his body back and Ed dies saving him.

Though personaly I'd rather all the homunculi come back, make up and live as one happy family. XD Like that would ever happen.