Used the episode title because this post contains massive spoilers for FMA Brotherhood.
I must apologize ahead of time. This post is a couple of hours late because I slept all day in-between doctor appointments, and it’ll also be short because I don’t know what happened to my FMAB files and can’t remember the episode in detail. But I’ll try.
FullMetal Alchemist Brotherhood Episode 54 – Envy’s Breakdown
FMAB had without a doubt the most interesting and tightly written plot that I’ve seen in anime, and was packed with many massive scenes that blew my mind again and again. But while much of it prompted reactions such as “OMGWTGWIN,” one scene left me and my brother in utter silence and prompted chills up and down my spine.
Roy Mustang came after Envy like a hunter with a ferocity that was as frightening as it was badass. Envy definitely had it coming—he’d been responsible for literally countless deaths, including that of Mustang’s best friend Hughes.
However, not unlike a similar scene from Shiki, Mustang’s hunt of Envy was almost hard to watch—but for a different reason. Envy was just so pathetic and Roy so powerful that it didn’t feel right. As a viewer, I wanted to see Roy get his vengeance, but I didn’t want to see him become a villain in the process.
Hawkeye and Ed stopped Roy from ruthlesly murdering Envy, and Envy, reaching a new level of pathetic in his tiny bug form, started begging why, why won’t the humans kill each-other? Why don’t they hate each-other the way that he hates them? Ed confonted Envy that the reason he hates humans so much because he’s jealous of their ability to love one-another. Envy was so ashamed that he pulled out his own core and killed himself.
This was a brutally heavy scene and a powerful one at that. I wish I could say more, but it’s been too long.
Anyway, come back later today to watch me unwrap my next present!
Bonus: Actually, all of FMAB is on youtube apparently. The scene really just speaks for itself, so here’s the episode.
My Sword Is Unbelievably Dull 
What was Riza checking here? Mustang’s brutality? Way too late for that. Killing Envy would’ve just ended the misery for everyone involved, unless, there’s some kind of Batman shit going on wherein Mustang isn’t allowed to kill. You tell me.
I think it’s some kinda Batman shit. It’s not merely that Roy would’ve killed Envy, but that he’d do it with such hatred, I think. Mustang has killed many people, but he regrets this fact. What would it mean for him to become someone who murdered with intent? Who killed out of fury?
I dunno, that’s just how I feel right now, looking back.
This was one of several scenes in FMA:B where the sap factor got to me. It would’ve been one thing for Riza to keep Roy in line, since she was already there, but for Ed to turn back at such a critical time just to make sure Roy was playing nice, that bugged me.
I can’t really remember exactly how it played out, but knowing the kind of person Ed is, it shouldn’t be that surprising that he’d turn back. One of Ed’s troubles was always that he couldn’t forget about others in place of his ambitions (wouldn’t have had nearly so many problems if he valued lives just a little less.)
I’m glad no Brotherhood posts shock me thanks to the manga. This was definitely a powerful moment; I actually felt really bad for Envy…I had trouble hating anyone in FMA, no matter how many terrible things they did.
Right, that’s how I felt. I *liked* Envy, even if I did think he deserved what he got, knowing he only would’ve ever killed more. He was just too much fun as a character.
What I said in WRL:
http://ghostlightning.wordpress.com/2010/12/24/moments-of-2010-fullmetal-alchemist-brotherhood-60-i-find-the-darkest-hour
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Picked the same episode, the same scene. I was torn between reveling in the death of this disgusting little creature and showing it pity. It’s strange how I liked his incarnation in the original anime, but when he was exposed I felt differently about him. Maybe it was the different motives for hate (family as opposed to humanity as a whole). The Envy from the first series was a ful of hate as jealousy, I think Arakawa’s version embodied the character more completely though.