12:11 he gave the floor to make a spear. if the floor is marble, you have a marble spear. that's the fair exchange

Theres couple of episodes with post credit scenes important to the story: 6, 8, 28, 29, 30, 32, 33, 36, 40, 42, 43, 44, 46, 48, 49

At the risk of slight spoilers, Ed paid a leg for the knowledge, and his arm to bond Al’s soul to the armor. Al paid his whole body for the skills and knowledge required to bring their mom back to life. It’s a natural thing to question what sort of knowledge Al might have gained in that transaction, and also why he can’t recall it.

He didnt sacrifice his brother, his brother went along with it just as much but he paid a bigger toll

The reson Al always calls him "Brother" instead of "Edward" is just that it is translated from Japanese, where it is more conventional for a younger brother to call theri older brother "Nii-san" (Older Brother) than by their name

Important note: Alphonse is _not_ the toll ed paid. Edwards Toll was only his leg, Alphonses Toll was his whole body. They bot paid their own price.

So just for clarification (with no spoilers) Ed and Al tried to bring back their mom but their formula wasn't correct. Any alchemical formula that isn't balanced (equivalent exchange) backfires on the caster(s). So for reasons that will become clear later in the story Ed and Al are brought before Truth and it shows them the truth of all alchemy, forcing knowledge into their heads. But in order to gain something, something of equal value must be given and so Truth extracts a price for the knowledge given. Ed loses his lower left leg and Al loses his entire body. Then in order to retrieve Al's disembodies soul, Ed offers a part of himself in exchange and Truth takes his entire right arm. Ed then binds Al's soul to the armor with his blood. The knowledge Ed gains allows him to perform alchemy without drawing a structural matrix. For some reason even though Al went though the same process he can't remember anything about Truth or the knowledge he gained in the gateway.

The 2009 Fullmetal Alchemist anime is a mostly faithful manga adaptation...but it was made with the assumption many people had already seen the 2003 version (which drastically changes the plot after 10-15 episodes). So the first few episodes of Brotherhood are compressed and shuffled around for pacing reasons. The first episode is entirely filler, while this second episode actually takes place in chapters 21-24 of the manga. So they are technically showing it earlier than it was shown originally. You normally don't want to start a series with heavy backstories because you are not invested in the characters yet, so would likely not care. Also Alphonse's body and Ed's leg were the cost to create the body you saw. Alphonses soul wasn't used as part of the transmutation for the mother. So Ed only paid an arm to bring the soul back. In later episodes you learn what happened to Alphonse's soul during the human transmutation.

This episode gives you the backstory of our main characters, but the first episode does a great deal to give background on the world and introduce a number of important characters. The events of the first episode are actually not in the original manga or the first anime adaptation, but serve to provide an informative and exciting introduction to the setting without overwhelming the viewers. And you were correct about Ed using material from the floor to make his weapon. Alchemy requires equivalent exchange, and they are careful to abide by that rule, always using available materials or the environment to transmute in or out of battles. Think of it as chemistry-on-demand, if you have the knowledge and the transmutation circles prepped. Most specialize in a particular form of alchemy, because it takes a LOT of study to get good at it.

3:45 "Film Theory: Fullmetal Alchemist's FATAL Miscalculation" I gotta rewatch it to tell you how far to watch for no spoilers, but you should watch this video at some point, he talks about the recipe Ed made and the process.

14:25 1st episode doesn't even happened in manga. This is where the story begins originally

While Ed may be the dominant personality of the two, Al did go along just as wilingly as Ed and he underwent the exact same training. They were both arrogant (also young and stupid) enough to think that they might be the first once to suddenly crack the code and get it right

The Ingredients they give would in theroy make up an avarage human person. Though, I would say that is the first mistake they made. They are not planning to make "Human Nr.5" they are specifically trying to bring their mother back to life, including, i presume, recreating her old body. But If these ingredient amounts don't match he rprecisley, which, I mean, they won't, how could they, Even if anything else went right, would there just be chunks missingt /be added on? What would happen about the missing or superflous ingredients? It just shows that, for all their learning and knowledge, they _are_ still children. Their going about this with the mindset of being invincible and immortal, because their at a stage in their lifecicly where their own mortality hasn't sunk in yet and consequences arent something they think about rationally

You are also spot on with the Winry and Misty from pokemon comparison. They are both the tsundere archetype, a very common, and honestly a little overused at this point, trope in a lot of anime. If you have ever heard the old wives' tale wisdom about little children that if a boy is mean to a girl, that means he secretly likes her - that's basically what a tsundere is. In anime, it is usually more common for the female love interest to be the tsundere, hence Winry and Misty. But you will notice Ed is also a bit of a tsundere to Winry.

the creepy thing is someone CAN make an exact human duplicate with alchemy and raw materials, bringing it to life though is where the rebound happens... for what can equal the value of a human soul?

nice one, is always so nice to see someone who knows nothing about the show really react to it hahah !!!about why they don't call each other by names so ofeterm remember is a japanese translation. In Japan you don't talk to someone that's above you by name but by tittle, but if they're below you you talk by them by name or as a "student-ish" if is too formal. As for the sacrificing, No, Al wasn't the one "being sacrificed", there was 2 people doing the transmutation and AL was the one paying most of the tolll, also there was the payment for the Human transmutation, not just the "information" given to Ed.

The funny thing is in the manga, you learn about their backstory way later like around what would be episode 13

I am a few days late so don't know if you will read this, but since you asked here goes. It is not an uncommon opinion among a lot of people that this second episode should have been the first episode. There is a reasoning for the first episode being what it is, but many people, and I, do not agree with it. The reasoning is as follows: This anime is an adaptation of a manga by the name fullmetal alchemist. There was a previous anime adaptation released in 2003. However, that series ran out of source material to adapt because it caught up to the original material it was adapting. So, just like game of thrones, after a certain point, the 2003 adaptation started making up its own plot because it ran out of material to adapt. When the manga finally ended, a fresh new anime adaptation was released which is this one, fullmetal alchemist brotherhood. Since the producers knew a lot of people would already be familiar with the early parts of the story from the 2003 adaptation, they made the weird choice to have a different pilot episode. The pilot episode in the brotherhood adaptation is more meant to highlight the action and the improved animation, as well as spotlight all the fan favorite characters. Clearly this isn't a great choice for newcomers to the series, so I'd say you are right. However it's not the biggest mistake. In anime circles the three episode rule is common - you give an anime 3 episodes to hook you. Since they go over the backstory in the 2nd episode, it kind of makes up for it. Also about the 2003 adaptation, lots of fans debate that it does a better job at adapting the earlier parts of the manga than the brotherhood version. It is also a smoother start. Which anime is better is also debated, although the majority agree brotherhood is better. Brotherhood is definitely the better adaptation since it adapts the entire source material. So it is the version that is recommended to newcomers. The 2003 version does have a diehard cult fanbase though, who feel it is unfairly overshadowed by the brotherhood adaptation.

⚠ NOT SPOILERS, READ TO AVOID MISSING IMPORTANT DETAILS IN FUTURE EPISODES ⚠ Episodes 6, 8, 28, 29, 30, 32, 33, 36, 40, 42, 43, 44, 46, 48, and 49 have scenes after the credits; they are sometimes just fun little vignettes, but often they include significant details that will be relevant later on, and that might make some future events confusing if you haven't watched them; it's therefore highly recommended to watch them. If you don't have this list at hand, just look at how much time is left in the video when you get to the credits; if it's more than usual, there's almost certainly a post-credits scene. Furthermore, the credits in episodes 45, 54, 63, and 64 are different than usual, and worth watching (especially the ones in 64, which everyone will probably be expecting a reaction to).

Brotherhood has the best fight scenes

The equivalent exchange law is inspired by Lavoisier's words " nothing is created, nothing is lost, everything change." In the hall, Ed used then the wood and the iron already used in the ground or the furnitures. The philosopher stone is said to avoid that law but once you'll know more about it you'll see it's not true. And that the price is terrifying. No spoils here. But the end is a nice bitter sweet one.

Ahh so excited!! You should watch Death Note after this one if you haven't seen that yet, either! Death Note hooks you from like..the first 5 minutes LOL. Death Note also has a hell of a soundtrack!

What mic do you use?

Re; the first episode question. I love FMA;B with my entire heart, but I cannot for the *life* of me understand why they put in that filler first episode. The only thing it does is overwhelm new viewers with hordes of characters and concepts several episodes before the show itself brings them up much more naturally, and several things I won't point out because spoilers. It serves no purpose, and they then immediately follow it up with what is the first arc in the manga anyway - interwoven with some backstory stuff that comes later on in the manga, but works here as flashbacks. It is an *awful* first episode, and I usually recommend people fresh to FMA just skip it and start at episode 2 - the real start.

It is not the first episode becausr this is Brotherhood not the original version

when are you reacting to apology tour ?