~Hohenheim's Leaving Theories For Manga, Spoilers if you haven't read the manga or viewed whole series ~

What do you think will be his explanation for leaving his wife and kids in the manga? Since we learned from Father that he can't die wouldn't you surmise that he wouldn't be deteriorating like in the anime?

Was it for some noble cause? Insanity? Finding a way to make Trisha immortal as well? Digging holes?

What are your theories?

I'm guessing since he's like, imortal and what not, he sort of left the family to avoid tragedy. Cause, he's not aging, Trisha is, that's kind of hard to explain, no? ANd i wouldn't be surprised if he as slightly insane as well. He seemed off of his rocker when we see him. He doesn'y seem to have the will to live anymore, although he may have no choice.

I think it might have something to do with the promise him and Trisa made it wasn't explained yet.

He knows Father's evil plan is in it's end stages and left to try and stop it.

That's what I was thinking. Maybe Father turned him into the "monster" he thinks he is.

Going to have to agree with simargl with this one.

EDIT: Adding to my comment to avoid blocking Nepharski's...

I have a feeling that Father is going to use Ed and Al for some bad reason. He'll lure them in to convince them that he's no different from Hohenheim, but do something... bad. Sorry, can't say I really have an imagination.

:P

Came as quite a surprise to the Father when he discovered Edward and Alphonse were the offspring of Hohenheim, now didn't it? My guess is that Ed's old man has an enigmatic higher cause he is orchastrating, probably against Father's insideous plans, but that he had to leave his family behind to protect them from becoming a target of Father should he try to strike out at Hohenheim.

i'd agree that it had something to do with the promise he made with Trisha. also, i think he probably wanted to protect Trisha and his kids from Father, which is presumably why they were never registered under his name. and finally, he might not have realized how long he had been gone if he is, like many people theorize, immortal. to him, it those years may have gone in a flash. when he does return, he's all surprised, like boom! Trisha's dead, and his kids are grown up. of course, his being extremely air headed probably has something to do with that.

Trisha's dying wish ("Tell him that I couldn't keep my promise, I'm going first") make me think Hohenheim might be looking for a way to pass through the Doors of Truth without dying or taking any lives. But that still begs the question of why he would want to do that in the first place.

Hoheneim is very surreal. That's why I like him.

Im not really sure what is going on with him.
but does anyone else wonder why he looks so much like father?

That's been discussed a lot... my theory is that Hohenheim and father were the alchemist who destroyed Xerxes. As a result of Father and Hohenheim gaining the powers of the stone, they also split or something. Father became the Sage from the East and Hohenheim went the other direction and became the Sage from the West. There'll probably be a short, one or two chapter flashback to explain what actually happened in Xerxes, but there hasn't been anything definitive yet.

That's a good theory. I believe it will be a while before we find out.

I agree with most of you.



I also think he left because he wasn't aging, and didn't want to out live his family.

~ Manga Ed And Al Not 100% Human?, Are Ed and Al Half Human and Half Unknown? ~

There's a lot difference I'm seeing between Manga Ed and Anime Ed. Most of us can probably agree that Manga Ed is stronger than his anime counterpart. Hoheinheim in the anime is just a person who's been swapping his soul from bodies to bodies prolonging his life. Manga Hoheinheim on the other hand is NOT human at all. He toke a few bullets in the chest and direct headshot from shotgun without really any scratch or bleeding on his body or face. And then we later found out he might have the same paranormal body composition as Father. Now I'm starting wonder if Ed and Al had inherited any of Hoenheim's super human or other unnatural traits.

I guess one trait Ed and Al might have inherited maybe that their injuries and wounds heal faster than ordinary humans. When Ed fought against the Slicer Brothers, suffered several sword wounds on his body and he was hospitalized for about one day dispite the many times he his wounds openned caused by people angrying him and Armstrong. The next day when they arrived in Rush Valley, when Winry forced Ed to take off his clothes to show off their automail, Ed's sword wounds was pretty much fully healed and there was only a badage patch on his back. When Manga Ed fought against Greed, Ed got clawed in the stomach and suffered bleeding. Greed also commented that ordinary person would have been already taken out by that attack. As the fight went on, Ed was severely battered and beaten against the wall where you can see his blood smeared on the wall down to his neck. Ed showed no signs of weakness or fatigue as he got right back up on his feet and continued to fight. Anime Ed on the other hand was taken out by a single punch from Greed when they first met. Going back to Manga Ed, the next day after the fight with Greed, Ed should have been fighting Lan Fan in Rush Valley still with wounds sustained from his fight with Greed. The weird thing is Ed's claw wounds in his stomach didnt open up during the fight and he showed no signs injuries or weakness besides his damaged automail arm. My guess is Ed's injuries had already fully healed by the time they reached Rush Valley.

As for Al, remember Barry was supposed to be put to death to death 2 years ago in 1912? Well instead of putting him to death, they toke his soul from his body and placed it in an armor. Barry's soul had been seperated from his body for about two years. When Mustang's group encountered Barry's original body, they mentioned Barry's body smelled like it was decaying and rotting. Al had his body seperated from him since 1910 when they tried to revive their mom. When Ed reencountered Al's body at the gate, it wasnt rotting or decaying. Al's body looked really thin like he's been malnurished and his hair had grown really long. Now why would Al's body look like its in a better shape than Barry's if it has been seperated longer from his soul? One possible explaination would be the some kind of special trait Al inherited from Hoenheim.

Here are just some of the possible theories I came with about the Elric Brothers NOT being 100% human since they may have inherited some special traits from Hoenheim's side. Its kind of like how other anime series where a human and a demon (youkai) interbreed resulting a hanyou (half-demon) with the child inheriting some traits from both parents.

*nitpicks*

Ed gets injured during the night. He's in the hospital the next day, and he calls Winry. After Winry arrived at Central (presumably the next day, though we don't know how much time has passed), she stayed overnight at Hughes's place. Winry bought train tickets on her second day at Central, and Ed said they were leaving the next day, even though his wounds weren't healed. Hughes gets killed the night after they leave, and his funeral is the next day (I think?), but Ed, Al, and Winry might have already arrived at Rush Valley before he died. In total, at least three days since he was injured.

Though it is ridiculous that Ed was doing all that running around when he'd just left the hospital, at least he has a bandage...



Ed had a bandage on his forehead when he arrived in Rush Valley. And the claw wound didn't seem to have much impact on his performance during the Greed fight, so I don't think it was too deep.

Anyway, Arakawa said that Ed's current scar (on his forehead) is because his skin there has become thin from constantly being in fights and not having enough time to heal, so it starts bleeding whenever he gets hit on the head. It all started with the Slicer brothers fight. XD

Ed's theory was that his and Al's minds are connected, so he's sharing his sleep and nourishment with Al. The fact that he saw Al's body at the Doors proves his theory right, so we already know why Al isn't rotting.

EDIT:

Oh, and he was referring to his own wound there (Ed cracking his head open on the floor). "That would have sent a normal human to the hospital." XD

Well, I was going to point out a couple of things, but CSakuraS did all the job for me so... U

Hm? Where's this from? I'm curious...

And I guess the same applies to Bleach's Ichigo... ;p

Volume 15 omake!

In Chapter 14, Winry comments even without the injuries that Armstrong inflicted while hugging him stilling injuried, she said that Ed was still injuried very badly from those sword wounds. Ed responded that it was no big deal, wounds like this heals real quickly. I guessing that his injuiries forced him to stay in the clinic longer than usual because his wounds kept opening up because people like Sgt. Brosh and Lt Colonel Hughes kept on refering Winry as his girlfriend and Armstrong when he attempted to bear hug him. Ed said thanks to Armstrong, he's stuck in the hospital longer. I mean, what's the average number of days for sword wounds to heal on an average person using modern era medical technology?

Not to mention there might be a hint in Volume 11. Hohenheim compares Ed to himself when he was young

http://groups.msn.com/FullMetalAlchemistV-...mp;PhotoID=2310

We know according to Pinako Hohenheim has not changed since she knew him which is a very long time. However it is possible from what Hohenheim said about being young that he was once human and something changed him. This would mean that Ed and Al would still be 100% human even if there is something weird with their father's body now.

Someone pointed this out on Live Journal and it makes sense.

And honestly I haven't noticed Ed healing faster then normal. Arakawa just has to move the story along so time just seems to go by quickly.

And that is interesting about Ed's scar. I thought it was from the fight with Scar didn't realize it goes all the way back to the fight with the Slicer Brothers. This is why I love Arakawa.

(let's use lower case for Ed's scar, so that we don't confuse that with Scar...)


Eh, I thought the Scar fight (the one that Scar broke Al's armor and Ed's right arm) comes BEFORE the Slicer brothers fight? :x

Or maybe you meant the Scar fight they had in which they got Gluttony captured?

Yes that's the one

And I edited the two different scars. I knew something looked weird about my post so thanks.

hmmm... it is possible. however I believe they are both humans, just really lucky heathy ones ^^;

Hohenhein is something special that's for sure, but who knows if that inhuman thing happened til after the sons were born. Also its possible Hohenhein reproductively is still human which would mean in turn his offspring would be human aswell.
Because frankly if hohenhein was non-human during the time him and Trisha decided to... make children they probably wouldn't have been able to successfully reproduce (since FMA is a very scientific manga series you'd presume Hiromu wouldn't allow a non-human to breed with a human and make babies x.x ).

off-topic: Is that Lust and Gluttony in your avay? So cute~

i think they are Half Something, i mean like How they survive this long, and they're only 14-16 year old boys. Well i think Alphonse is Believe he could survive , because he is in a freakin Suit of Armor.. Dang.. lol, and i think they cloud be half homunculus because how the Lust have the[spoiler] Philosopher' stone as her heart [/spoiler] well thats my opinion of this Thread.

... So are you saying that Ed and Al got half a piece of philo stone in them? If that's the case, then they shouldn't be able to use alchemy since the stone in their body would react when they use alchemy =\


I will still go with Ed and Al are 99.9% if not 100% human.

well yea i guess u can say that it my Opinion i guess lol.. yea u go with that i guess HAHA... I still think they could be half Homunculus

What?

Agreed

It's very probable that Ed + Al may have some inhuman traits in them, but for the most part I believe they are human (99%)--since when Trisha and Hoho had babies, its very unlikely that his traits didnt get passed on to his kids (but if they weren't passed on, then it could mean that non-human traits can't be inherited).
Another thing is, who was born first? Hoho or Father? 'cause if Hoho was born firsth, he would DEFINETELY have human traits, but if Father was the original (talking like this reminds me of Tsubasa Chronicles) then Hoho would be the clone with all the nice powers, hence a higher possibility of him passing on his traits to Ed and Al.

yep ^^

Well, we all know that both Father and Hoheinheim are immortal beings but we dont know if they're human or not. Remember Scar attempted human decomposition on Father's face but failed to make his head explode? That would mean that Father's body is not composed of the elements that form an normal human body. Hoenheim exhibited the same trait when he toke a shotgun blast in the face without any injuries and according Pinako's photo, he hasnt aged in over 50 years.

There are different types of immortally. One is based on mythology where a being is immune to death by caused by injury, disease, age, etc. People usually call these type of beings "gods." Father and Hoenheim would probably fit in this category.

Another type of immortallity is like being that can't die from old age. Examples would be vampires, elves, demons (youkais), etc. However, they can still be killed by conventional means. I guess the homulculi would fit in this category, the problem is you have to kill them many many many many many many times until they die and stay dead.

Im guessing so many other ficional series where a human can interbreed with vampires, elves, and demons is they all something in common. Their bodies are all probably composed of the elements that any regular human being has and are probably all in the same genus. There are several species of animals in the same genus that can interbreed. For example, a Tiger and Lion can interbreed to create an Liger. Another thing is the hybrid Liger is not sterile.

I'm starting wonder now how the hell can Hoenheim have children if the elements in his body are different from regular humans. I guess this the same question Father was also wondering when he met the Elric Brothers.

I've wondered this thing from time to time also. I think it started from chapter 5, when that random soldier guy said (referring to Edward) "He can't be human." Well, I don't think all civilians consider alchemists as humans but... Somehow this comment just keeps coming up (in my head, I mean )

I'd say that Ed and Al are mostly humans and we'll probably find out what's the other part of them sooner or later.

ExhileVoid: Wow, you have a very good theory!

Thanks! During Father's first meeting with the Elric Bros., he refered to Hoenheim as "It." I was wondering why he didnt use the word "He" when Father was refering to Hoenheim. I think it's safe to assume that Father created Hoenheim, but the question is what did he create and why? Father said that human foolishness is like to a bug that's struggling to crawl on the ground. Since humans are on a munch higher level than bugs, they often wouldnt hesitate to put that bug out of its misery. That is Father's same view towards humans demonstrating that he is a being that is far superior to them.

Maybe Hoenheim will reveal Ed and Al their inherited powers and abilities later on since it doesnt seem any of it has manifested itself yet (kind of like in X-Men where signs of human mutation dont show up until the teen years). In several other series, Amuro didnt find out that he's a Newtype until later in MS Gundam or when Kira didnt know he was created to be the Ultimate Coordinator until near the end of Gundam Seed.

Yes i agree with the honheim thing but i think anmie ed is stronger that manga.

Since reading chapter 67, I have been considering this point. I do think you're onto something here, ExhileVoid

We can be fairly sure Hohenheim has had the stone in him for some time, considering the picture we saw of him and Pinako back in 1866. Pinako herself points out that Hohenheim doesn't really look any different from back then. If he was human in the past, this was long before the birth of Ed and Al. And unless he happens not to be their biological father, I can't see Hohenheim's clearly inhuman nature *not* having some sort of impact upon the brothers.

Father is referring to Hohenheim as 'it' rather than he, and seems surprised that 'it' is capable of bearing children (and after chapter 67, so am I - because so far the only people we've seen with Philosopher's Stones in them are homunculi and a chap who claims not to be human. And Kimbly, except pretending to eat one doesn't count.) As the possibility of Hohenheim being a homunculus has been redundant for some time, I'm very curious to know what he is, and what that might mean for his sons.

@Reta McClain - Hmm, whenever the 'alchemists aren't human' thing comes up, I keep thinking it refers to whoever/whatever the Human Sacrifices are. (OT: apparently Bradley and co. don't know about Izumi. And I hope they don't find out. The poor lady has enough problems)

... how is that related to our current discussion?

Astria: Ah, you forgot that Homunculi know that Izumi "would make an worthy Human Sacrifice". (According to Vol. 8 Chap. 31 page 65) In that chapter, Bradley is reporting back to Father (this is the first time we see him ) and says so himself.

Speaking of anime Ed, anyone remember to 5 minute OVA entitled "Children" ? I'm guessing it takes place in our world when Ed turns 100 years old. Ed as a grandfather looks a lot like Father do to fact of his long untied hair and beard. I dont know to the anime series and movie if that 5 minute OVA is considered a canon or not. It could possibly be a character design that refrences Father from the manga universe. Now I'm starting to wonder if Ed turns 100 years old in the manga universe, will he become the spitting image of Father?

ExhileVoid: Only Arakawa-sensei knows answer to that^^ But your comment made me think that one sketch-book-scans or something... There was a page with Ed aging... There was picture of when he [spoiler] is 88-years-old, but it's not really him, it's a sketch of Ed's grave...[/spoiler] But whatever, I don't even know if that can count as a spoiler, but it was by Arakawa-sensei so...

None of the OVAs are considered cannon for either the anime or manga.

@ExhileVoid - I read interviews (that was in the same magazine that runs FMA, and the interview came out right after the OVAs were released) of the director of OVA who was also the director of FMA anime series and the FMA "Shambara" movie, and he said that "children" OVA was not supposed to be taken as a real continuation of the FMA anime storyline, (another word, canon,) as in "that is indeed Ed as 100 years old," but instead we should take it as "what if" fantasy, or "working of one's imagination."


@Reta McClain - Good memory!! That was FMA Rough Sketch Gallery by Arakawa-sensei, collection of Arakawa-sensei's "doodles," so to speak, she had made on the back sides of original FMA scripts which she has been submitting monthly, I suppose.
It has a doodle of Ed as 40 years old, and yeah that one does look very much like Ho-ho papa.

(You can see the sketch here, post #28, for translations read under "page 4" and scroll down toward the bottom of post for the thumb nail picks, the one on the second raw.)

(Sorry for the little digressions from the main topic. )

Now it would be funny if FMA ends at chapter 88...

Ooooh the irony.

*facepalm*. You're quite right. I've been hoping that "well, even if we don't see Izumi for a while, she might be okay". Hah...down goes my optimism. I don't know how I managed to miss that all this time. Thanks for the correction.

Tombow: Me? A good memory? You must be mistaken... I don't even remember my geography(?) homework!

AA battery: I have to agree with that one



Astria: No problem. I'm glad to be able to help^^

I think Ed and Al are both human. Whenever we hear about Ed's automail surgery it's always mentioned how much pain he went through as well as a fever which suggests he developed some kind of infection. No one ever says anything about Ed getting through that in any kind of unsual way.

I think Ed is simply highly motivated to the point where he just ignores injuries and he has a high threshold for pain. If he or Al were unusual in their ability to heal you think it'd have been mentioned of them as children, or at least that they would have noticed it about each other. On the roof of the hospital when Ed attacks Al to try and spar with him Al refuses to fight back, he only defends, claiming that Ed is too injured to be fighting. If he knew that Ed could somehow heal faster than a normal human he'd have probably not held back so much.

I actually have an entire much longer argument as to why I think they're human BUT I'm lazy and don't want to write it all. I'd be very surprised if we suddenly had it sprung on us that they weren't completely human, we've always been given hints before of things about to happen and there's never been anything obvious like that about Ed or Al.

i think the reason it looks like he heals so fast is because Arakawa probably skips a few days to save pages.(simple as that).

You mean the ligers ARE sterile. At least for males.
From Wikipedia:While male ligers are sterile, female ligers are fertile, and they can reproduce. If a liger were to reproduce with a tiger, it would be called a ti-liger, and if it were to reproduce with a lion, it would be called a li-liger. The fertility of hybrid big cat females is well-documented across a number of different hybrids. This is in accordance with Haldane's rule: in hybrids of animals whose gender is determined by sex chromosomes, if one gender is absent, rare or sterile, it is the heterogametic sex (the one with two different sex chromosomes e.g. X and Y).
According to Wild Cats of the World (1975) by C. A. W. Guggisberg, ligers and tigons were long thought to be sterile: In 1943, however, a fifteen year old hybrid between a lion and an 'Island' tiger was successfully mated with a lion at the Munich Hellabrunn Zoo. The female cub, even though very delicate, was raised to adulthood.

Most don't survive, and even if they do, they can't breed. If the Elric brothers are a mix of human (Trisha) and something else (Hoho), at least we know Hoho's genetic info matches up with humans'. If it didn't, Ed and Al would have had complications of mind a/o body.


Actually, Ed does display some amazing courage, as the surgery would have 'made any adult scream', yet Ed endured it, gritting his teeth and thinking that Al bore worse pain than he. But that could be done with any human with a strong will, so I don't think it counts.

Yup. Definitely. I survived and recovered from some kind of diseases when I was a kid within 7 months, when normally it would take over a year to heal. I am pretty sure Ed being able to recover from automail surgery within a year is just to show his strong will. I wonder if Ranfun can recover within 6 months as she says? Speaking of that... I miss her ;_;

I miss her too ㅠ-ㅠ
And she probably will be able to recover within 6 months, since Ed did it in a year when he was 11, and he
lost his arm AND leg. She's older and is only missing an arm. So...yeah.

Oops. Went off topic. Okay. Um...my views are still the same. Hoho's probably some subspecies or a mutation in the population. I think he still counts as human, though, because by definition:

Humans, or human beings, are bipedal primates belonging to the mammalian species Homo sapiens (Latin: "wise man" or "knowing man") in the family Hominidae (the great apes).[1][2] Humans have a highly developed brain capable of abstract reasoning, language, and introspection. This mental capability, combined with an erect body carriage that frees their upper limbs for manipulating objects, has allowed humans to make far greater use of tools than any other species. Humans originated in Africa about 200,000 years ago, but now they inhabit every continent, with a total population of over 6.5 billion as of 2007.

Like most primates, humans are social by nature; however, humans are particularly adept at utilizing systems of communication for self-expression, the exchange of ideas, and organization. Humans create complex social structures composed of cooperating and competing groups, ranging in scale from small families and partnerships to species-wide political, scientific and economic unions. Social interactions between humans have also established an extremely wide variety of traditions, rituals, ethics, values, social norms, and laws which form the basis of human society. Humans also have a marked appreciation for beauty and aesthetics which, combined with the human desire for self-expression, has led to cultural innovations such as art, literature and music.

Humans are also noted for their desire to understand and influence the world around them, seeking to explain and manipulate natural phenomena through science, philosophy, mythology and religion. This natural curiosity has led to the development of advanced tools and skills; humans are the only known species to build fires, cook their food, clothe themselves, and use numerous other technologies.


Well, I think Hoho can do all of the above. So that's what I think, anyways.