Scar in episode 42 *SPOILERS!!*

[sailornyanko]

I'm just curious cuse I finally saw this episode today.

Scar gave his right arm that had the Arcane symbols to Al to save him from blowing up. However Kimblee destroyed his other arm leaving him armless.

Later on he got shot a few times protecting Lust. Now ignoring his manly manliness, he falls down and dies right on top of one of the lines of the arcane transmutation circle and he activates it.

Did Scar just perform alchemy in that moment even though he never did it before? Before that all he did was blow things up using his special arm, but this time he activated the circle without using his arm directly. If he did, how could he do it if he had no arms? Can alchemy be done in unusual circumstances even though you never saw the gate?

[Bezerker]

I wouldnt look too far into it, its just another B/S plot device bones threw in to move the story along.

[crow-kun]

Not to mention that non-sense he did when he made that magic decipher sphere to read Marcoh's notes :lol:

[soulreaper]

Oh great. It looks like, for once, I have to agree with crow. Bezerker as well. Yes, this makes no sense and is just a poorly written BONES plot device. Yet, it still looked cool. Dramatic, too.

[EmberAlchemist0]

I just saw this episode finally this evening when I watched my dvd that I finally received! Yay! ^_^ Anyways...This did not make any sense that he was about to activate the transmutation circle without having his arms. But seriously digging to deep to figure it out will be useless just an extra something to make the episode exciting. I did have a small thought on that tho...It may have been possible that once Scar had his brothers arm attached to him that his brother became a part of him. Oh well after I thought about it for like 2 or 3 minutes I didn't really care how it occured and just keep watching the episode. :)

[Scar (Ishbalan)]

I know this is probably a dead thread but, does anyone honestly care? the story may have had flaws but it was very injoyable, and isnt that all that really matters.

[Bernard_Monsha]

I always thought because the final ingredient for the philosophers stone is life of the one making it. It happened to Hoenheim when he made the original one and Dante had to put him back together.

[Mikadzuki Tatsu]

The only explanation I have managed to come up with is that Scar's alchemy is different than the Elric brothers', and that it has something to do with the symbols on right arm. They resemble the transmutation circle he drew around Liore; however, that circle looked nothing like the transmutation circles we've seen other alchemists use. It looked more like a work of art than a scientific diagram. It was almost like Scar was using a different "brand" of alchemy.

I did a little bit of research (via Wikipedia), and apparently the manga explores the "origins"/secrets of Scar's arm in greater depth via a flashback chapter. (I can only assume Arakawa wrote that chapter after the anime had diverged from the manga.)

[Scar (Ishbalan)]

Scar alchemy is the same as, for example Kimble's, its mearly a different type of transmutaion circle on his arm. He "skips" a process in his alchemy. which only allows decompisition, which is why his arm is only used to destroy things.

[Mikadzuki Tatsu]

Scar alchemy is the same as, for example Kimble's, its mearly a different type of transmutaion circle on his arm. He "skips" a process in his alchemy. which only allows decompisition, which is why his arm is only used to destroy things.
I haven't read the manga yet, so I'm pretty much piecing together things that I read online, and so I acknowledge that there's a possibility that some of what I say here is wrong.

In the FMA world, alchemy comes in more than one form. There's renkinjutsu, which is what the Elric brothers use, and which is derived from Western alchemy. Then there's rentanjutsu, which is a kind of alchemy found in the far-eastern country of Xing, and which seems to have Chinese roots. Scar's brother had researched both types of alchemy, and the symbols he had tattooed on his body were symbols of both renkinjutsu and rentanjutsu.

As a side note, the term rentanjutsu, according to a Japanese-English dictionary, means "alchemy; art of making elixirs." Renkinjutsu just means "alchemy.")

[Scar (Ishbalan)]

i see, well the manga and the show have many differences, but i've seen all the tv series, im just waiting to read the rest of the manga.

[Mikadzuki Tatsu]

i see, well the manga and the show have many differences, but i've seen all the tv series, im just waiting to read the rest of the manga.
I've seen all of the anime, too (including the movie). That's why I looked into the manga to see if Arakawa covered the mystery revolving around Scar's arm, since I know that the manga and anime are very different in many ways.

[sailornyanko]

I'd say Ishbalite alchemy is different from the western type Ed uses.

For one, it kinda hints Ishbal type alchemy requires a smaller sacrifice when doing a human transmutation.

I mean, Ed's teacher lost half of her intestines, Al's body dissapears and the only thing Scar's brother loses are his.. ahem! 5th appendage (though I'm quite sure a lot of men would throw away a liver anyday instead of what Scar's brother lost).

Shame Ishbal alchemy is rarely executed in the series to see other examples of variations in equivalent exchange rules.

It's hard to determine whether Scar's life was the "trigger" of creating the stone or it was just mere coincidence he managed to activate the circle without using his arms and that his cause of death had more to do with losing several pints of blood and being shot at multiple times in the chest.

[emotoaster]

I think it was the trigger and he figured he would die there so he planned it out to happen that way.

[Mikadzuki Tatsu]

I'd say Ishbalite alchemy is different from the western type Ed uses.

For one, it kinda hints Ishbal type alchemy requires a smaller sacrifice when doing a human transmutation.
I know I'm being really picky here, and I'm sorry, but I'm giving into the screaming perfectionist inside of me. Technically speaking, there is no such thing as "Ishballan alchemy," since, to the Ishaballans, alchemy was taboo. Rather, according to the manga, the second kind of alchemy that Scar seems to use is Xing alchemy (Xing is a far-Eastern country that only exists in the manga).

Okay, I'm done being picky.

[Tidusauron12]

Not to mention that non-sense he did when he made that magic decipher sphere to read Marcoh's notes :lol:

lol. Your comment made me laugh.

[Tidusauron12]

I know I'm being really picky here, and I'm sorry, but I'm giving into the screaming perfectionist inside of me. Technically speaking, there is no such thing as "Ishballan alchemy," since, to the Ishaballans, alchemy was taboo. Rather, according to the manga, the second kind of alchemy that Scar seems to use is Xing alchemy (Xing is a far-Eastern country that only exists in the manga).

Okay, I'm done being picky.


Well, there is still a difference in the alchemy. The number of sacrifices varys, so reactions aren't as drastic in the 'Ishballen' alchemy. Thi sinfo comes from the anime, when they talk to that old exiled man. There's also a little evidence in the series to support this. It's the same thing basically, but there is a little variation, as one could expect.

[EmberAlchemist0]

I know this is probably a dead thread but, does anyone honestly care? the story may have had flaws but it was very injoyable, and isnt that all that really matters.

Yeah it doesn't really matter. (Sorry for dragging up an old topic) Anyways FMA had many flaws, but still it turned out ok. It obviously did because it is very popular.

[Scar (Ishbalan)]

I'd say Ishbalite alchemy is different from the western type Ed uses.

For one, it kinda hints Ishbal type alchemy requires a smaller sacrifice when doing a human transmutation.

I mean, Ed's teacher lost half of her intestines, Al's body dissapears and the only thing Scar's brother loses are his.. ahem! 5th appendage (though I'm quite sure a lot of men would throw away a liver anyday instead of what Scar's brother lost).

Shame Ishbal alchemy is rarely executed in the series to see other examples of variations in equivalent exchange rules.

It's hard to determine whether Scar's life was the "trigger" of creating the stone or it was just mere coincidence he managed to activate the circle without using his arms and that his cause of death had more to do with losing several pints of blood and being shot at multiple times in the chest.

Actualy the Ishbalan way to make the Philosipher's Stone cost more lifes, requiring, I qoute,"The Distruction of a mass city or a genocide.".....yeah.....kinda a difference in sacrifices there.