I was curious about how true the portrayal of our world was in the anime. They mention Einstein, the atomic bomb (when that flashed on the screen it scared the hell outta me ), Churchill, and London, but how true are these? If I'm correct Ed went to our world in 1921 or somewhere near there, was Churchill the prime minister of Britain at that time? Also, were zeppelins ever used for military purposes? I wouldn't think so because with one bullet they would be down and out, right? Did you guys/gals notice anything else like that?




Also, they said that our world doesn't accept the laws of alchemy so we studied, produced, and use machines. How come the alchemy world is just as advanced as we were if not more. If you noticed the cars were the same, and Winry created that modern oven...I don't think they had ovens like that in the 1920's. Also, look at Ed's arms, they're mechanical, even today I don't think we can do something like that. So does that mean the alchemy world is better and more advanced than ours in every way?

The Alchemist World would be crushed by the military might of the Zepplin squadron of doom.

Some of this is slightly overthought, I mean it's anime, they aren't necessarily free of anachronisms. You're just suppossed to get the basic idea, and the machines and such just make it more conveniant action-wise and socially accessible to the current generation.

It may not be our world, it may be very close, it may be intended to be our world, but either way it's a cartoon version of Europe done by a buncha guys on an Eastern island, so don't think about it too hard or you'll hurt yourself.

i'm already hurt


I was just curious...that's all

I know they were used in warfare but I didn't think they actually used them to attack anything.. ever.. I didn't think London got bombed during WWI either but maybe I'm wrong. I think the 1940's jeeps, automatic weapons, auto-mail, ovens, and every other thing they left in was either for comedic value or to make it easier for the writers.

I still think it woulda been pretty funny to see Ed in a wheelchair with a nubby arm beating the bad guys down

The alchemy world seems to have tanks in mass production, large cities, railroads/trains, automatic weapons, and all that stuff, but suppossedly are outclassed by our.. biplanes.. :-\ But our world is developing technology at a much faster rate than theirs, or so I assume. So by the time they get helicopters in alchemy land, we'd end up with an army full of railgun-toting cyborgs or something cool like that

The story may also have been planned to take place around the 1920's-1930's or so, with this "Fuhrer" business, but they changed the time period to keep from pissing a lot of people off. I just thought of this recently after re-watching the episode with Armstrong's rebellion, Havoc whips out an MG-34.. made in 1934.. and then I realized most of the other stuff seems to fall into this time frame too, like the ghetto tanks and such. And when he went back to England during the blitz it might have been the blitz of the early 1940's . But then some other stuff doesn't quite fit, so blah, BLAH.

*Winces in pain*

I need to stop typing so much

Nah, typing so much means that your answer was fairly well-thought-out; and that's a good thing.

As for me...I have no theories to offer up. They've all been said and dissected on the fm_alchemist Livejournal at some point or another.

ZEPPELINS! are love.

thanks alot. That answers a lot. I geuss the writers either did it to show that it's not our world...or just didn't do a history check

There is alot of history flashed up during 'The Gate' scenes. It seems to be more WW2 when Ed is in London apart from the clothing and such. Of course I wasn't there at the time nor do I know too much about history. We studied WW2 alot in school (this being England and all) and if I remember the Zepplins were the pride of the 'opposing side' so perhaps that is why they were included.

The alchemy world looks very European, which would make sense because if where Ed ends up. Plus, all the writing in the anime is English (am I right?) Funny that he is (at some point) in the countries at war with each other. Don't know if that is significant or not

yeah...everything that is written is in english. However, with the WWII thing, the last episode showed Ed in Munich *i may be wrong about his location* in 1920 something....WWII didn't start until the mid 1930's. I don't think that there is any time travel involved so I don't know how possible that is

The scenes in London should be during WWI, since Ed goes back into the late 1910's / early 20's.

At that time, London DID get bombed in WWI, but Zepplins were not used in this way, the Germans used GothaG bombers.

And also, Winston Churchill was serving as secratary of war during WWI.

Zeppelins were also used in the WWI by german air force to bomb London and other cities.

but if it were really world war I, then how could they be mentioning an atomic bomb? That wasn't dropped until the end of WWII. Unless there was an incomplete prototype of it at the time.

Just another weird note: The rifles the military uses bare a striking resembelance to the M-14 rifles used at the beginning of the vietnam war. Also the machine gun used by Havoc was an M-60 not MG34, which was also used during the Vietnam war..........And I also heard somewhere that the cars are steam powered (hence the long tubes things and such). And since trains are steam powered too, there is no problem........and I have not seen any internal combustion engines so it all checks out.... except for the mini tanks and automail...and they did have ovens back then.........

When Ed and Honeheim (spelling?) passed through the 'tunnel' to the gate the 'truth' was revealed to them. If you look closely at the images which pass through, you see stuff which in in their future. That's how they know about the bomb.

Yep, the reason they know about the A-bomb is the Gate. Hohenheim is explaining the process of life-forces being the source of alchemical power, and telling Ed how the millions killed on this side of the Gate fuel their reactions. He says something like, "And millions more will die...you've seen it, haven't you?" and Ed goes wide-eyed and remembers the image of the atom bomb he saw in the Gate.

Otherwise, between zeppelins, Churchill, and clothing, it sounds like their London was relatively accurate. A few liberties taken, but nothing horrendous. Points to them.

And why couldn't they see other stuff from the future then? Like lasers, gundams, spaceships blazing off among the stars and such. If they can see the long ago past and 30 years ahead future, they should be able to see far, far ahead as well. Bones just aren't able to use their materials to the fullest potential

If I remember correctly, he did see somethings that were pretty recent.



Hate to break it to you, but I don't think we'll be having gundams for a while

i thought i saw a subtitle saying they were in Munich too. Perhaps the other side of the gate that we're calling "our world" isn't literally supposed to be the world we're in now, but just some world that is very similar to our own. Maybe to make us feel more connected to the series and see the parallels between the two sides of the gates more?

I can't think of any exact quotes from the series now, but does anybody else remember thinking some of the things in the anime (before we knew about whats on the other side of the gate) were reminiscent of things that have happened in our history? as a general example, purging the ishbal people because of their different coloured eyes and skin? Sorry if that is a bit off topic!

Hitler founded the NSDAP in the 20's, in Munich. The Weimar Republic was crumbeling, and the nationalsocialism was the hope the people was searching for, against the reds. That's the world Ed and Hohenheim are in. And remember Hohenheim is helping Eckhart, the mind of the mystic part of nazism.

That is a point...I saw references like that myself. The anime did a good job incorporating biblical references, current issues, and thought/attitudes to different people.





Oh yeah, Hikari no Hohenheim...thanks for the history lesson Hitler was involved in creating his nazi party in the 1920's, but didn't WWI end in the 1910's? So why is there combat? But anyway, thanks for explaining the whole 'magic' part to me, it finally makes sense....thought it was some cult till then

i would like to say some things: first WWII n churchil in early 1920's is historically wrong. Zeppelings were used as weapons n jeap appeared by the end of 1940's. the thing bout the automail n stuff is to make the anime a little more interesting. one thing i noticed is the weapons they used. most of them have automathic guns, which weren't invented till the WWII. shotguns are the same case.

however if we look closely to history books, we will see that by the time ed n al are supposed to be living WWI was going on at the moment. Hitler invented the nazi party by the end of WWI in 1917, he fought in it n then became dictator by 1930's if im not mistaken.

i cant affirm nor deny anithing else for i havent watched all the episodes, but when i do, i'll stop by n leave a short explanation of what i think

I think that Ed's first visit to the other side was 1916 London, while his second visit is 4-5 years later in Munich. It could be a plot device for the 4 years in the movie.
[spoiler]Because with the 4 years basically sacrificed *not really, but it was Ed's sacrifice for Al's transmutation* it could have warped him 4 years later on the other side of the gate *since he still is 16 in 1921 Munich*, and on the FMA world it took 4 years, and addition 2 years after that for the movie itself to take place *basically put Ed and Al at the correct ages, or at least correct distance Al 17 and Ed 18, not Al be 13 and Ed be 18*[/spoiler]

The 1916 thing i heard someplace, forgot where but it seems valid since WWI ended around 1917.

Yes, it was 1916 in the first visit. And yes, zeppelins were used by the Second Reich to bomb London. HagaRen's world have some things more advance than our 1914, but some less. They don't have airplanes (neither biplanes nor monoplanes), no radioactivity discovery (I assume), etc. Is a parallel social evolution.

1916 - Ed goes to London and sees the zeppelins raid. WWI. Second Reich attacking British Empire.
1920 - Ed is in Munich. Inflation. Thule Society. Peace. Weimar Republic. Birth of the NSDAP.

This thread seems like the right place for this...

I take German in school, and we recently completed a unit on German film in the 1920's. It was a short unit, and I don't pretend to have been made an expert-- but the whole time we were studing films like Metropolis (which has had an anime made of it, you may recall)-- films about the German search for a perfect, artificial human being (the term Homunculi was even used), their delving into moral dilemmas with ungodly or heathenistic ideas and inhuman creatures (Nosferatu comes to mind)... I was sitting in my seat trying not to fall over for laughing because the parallels to FMA were so blindingly obvious.

I bring this up now because of the Newtype scans so wonderfully translated for us-- if you will look closely at this one, in the pink box on the right near the bottom, there is mention of "a man named Mabuse."
Dr. Mabuse is a criminal mastermind featured in a series of (German) movies, from the '20's, by Fritz Lang-- the very same man who is responsible for bringing us Metropolis.

Significant? I certainly like to think so, beyond that someone behind FMA is into obscure films. ...I'm sure there's all sort of analysis to be done with the attitudes of the time period, but in the meantime I'll be very interested to see what else gets worked into my favorite series here. :3

So much history and stuff has been implemented into the ending of FMA(strangely I find that interesting)... seems like they planned the movie when the anime was being made. The only things I don't really get are how the alchemy world has invented stuff like automatic weapons, ovens, and automail when if compared to our world they shouldn't have all that stuff. I know that the alchemy world and our world don't necessarily have to be parallel to each other but I find it very odd that they have mixed and old new fashioned inventions, architecture, fashions. That and why Britain is mentioned in the profile of Shou Tucker when Roy tells Edo who he is .

Please tell me if I understood the end wrong. But does Ed say he is going to visit Oberth in Transylvania? I did a little research on this and at the time the anime took place Oberth was probably already in Munich. It seems like going to Transylvania was a little bit of wasted effort on Ed's part.

I realize I am nitpicking but I am trying to write a fanfiction and I want the history to be as accurate as possible.

Yes, that is what he said. I just watched that ep again last night so it's still fresh in my mind. (:

It sounds like it's *all* wasted effort on Ed's part since we know that rockets won't be used to transport humans for the next few decades (provided that *is* our timeline, about 20 more years until the V2 is developed), and I believe there was something in one of the scans for the movie which indicated that Ed had given up on the rocketry idea. I really wish I could remember exactly where I saw this, but it might ring a bell for someone.

If the fic is already in progress, can you link to it? Ever since finishing the series I've been interested in the fics taking place afterward to see how different people are handling it. There's an excellent one up on fanfiction.net as well which is still in progress, in which the writer researched all the history.

At this point it is still a work in progress. I am not content with it enough to post it yet but thanks for your interest. If I ever get around to completing it I will post it here (I get really annoyed at fanfiction writers who post things without finishing and leave readers hanging so I won't post it till I am actually done).

But anyways do you mind posting the link to that fanfiction. It sounds interesting.

in my opinion, i think the world is the human world we are in, but it's all messed around. he seemd to be in munich germany, but there were things from all sorts of european nations. and the historical figures, too.

like somebody above said, it's just anime.

let's just wait until the movie comes out and we can see for ourselves.. then ask all the questions. when there is a possibilty of somebody answering it somewhat correct. right now we are answering questions based on personal thoughts and opinions. lol.

wow i am so tired right now. i bet i am not making sense.

in my head i am though...

That fanfiction... dunno if you are refering to the some one that I got hooked on, is called "He who searches for himself" by a fanfic writer named "Yuuki HIkari"... I think you can find it in the ff.net search engine? (sorry, too lazy to go dig it up at ff.net ^^; )

Thanks for the link it seems the author had the same thought as me that Oberth was already in Munich in 1921.

YES! That's the one! ¦D

Link for anyone interested, since I have it bookmarked anyway: http://www.fanfiction.net/s/2092968/1/

It's incomplete but each chapter (14 so far) is supposed to be equivalent to an episode (it's numbered like that, as well) so it's not as though it just cuts off with constant cliffhangers. (:

I really like the story so far but I am being bad and only reading the parts with Ed in Germany because those are the parts I am mainly interested in. I probably should go back and reread the parts with Al.