Wait a minute that's Aaron!? The same guy who voiced Urushihara in the devil is a part timer, and the young Hohenheim here is voiced by the voice actor for Al from the original FMA series!!
He was also a bar-brawling, sword-fighting, hard-drinking badass who got thrown out of pretty much every center of higher learning in medieval europe at one point or another. Definitely an interesting historical figure.
Dude this blew my mind because i was reading 'Frankenstiein' and one of the footnotes said Theophratus Bombastus Hohenheim and i imidetly ran to this video just to make sure i wasnt going crazy. Low and behold it was the name options the dwarf in the flask gave i even kept reading the footnote and it said an alchemist. I thought ahhhhh it all makes sence.really blew my mind
@@knightofarkronia9968 From the initial impression, he gave- Father initially started off as the perpetually stoic patriarch of the Homunculi and the shadowy leader of the government, with incredible power with a no-nonsense attitude. Then his past was revealed, he was essentially, the father/mentor figure to Hohenheim, with his own desire to be free of his restrictions at any cost, having a complex personality that could be witty, but sinister as well while yearning for the humane attributes that he outwardly dismisses. In his pursuit of perfection to become completely boundless, he shreds of all of his depth to be a cold-hearted monster with a single-minded goal that hides the one-dimensional nature of a psychotic lunatic that craves power for the sake of it. And in his escalation of power, he loses his humanity to become a feral beast obsessed with self-preservation at all costs, in his ironically most human like form. He then is dragged into the Truth, essentially, Hell, bewildered why he lost, unable to understand due to being a hollow shell of what he used to be. He's no means, sympathetic, but pitiful in sad way.
@@knivez786 Hell? The Idea of a Homunculus is a Thing in Alchemy, they just created him in the Flask like a Modelship. He would spret into the Air and dissolve if he got free.
Well to be fair, he was extremely grateful to Hohenheim since his blood gave the Dwarf life He literally owes his existence to Hohenheim and whoever used his blood to create the dwarf
@@netherdominater9960 and not just that, since the dwarf emphatized with hoenhein, as he said, they are both trapped in a flask, and the only way to get freedom is by knowledge
@@cardeselmalevolo4014 Not to mention, the King of Xerxes was the one who wanted to be immortal and killed his own people to accomplish this. So the king was partially responsible for the disaster that happened.
@@ab-kz6ks one thing people don't get is that the homunculi and the dwarf are products of tragedy that resulted from what could be said to be noble intentions. bringing back a loved one, pursuit of knowledge are both things that people would state are noble maybe even pure
It’s very sad that Van and Dwarf were friends, they grew up together, they learned alchemy together, they served the king together. They were basically brothers until Dwarf went and destroyed everything Van loved for the sake of having a body. They were such intriguing characters. They probably could have had their own anime.
Meh It's even sadder meta-wise, considering that the men whom voices both their grownup versions of these characters in the Japanese version (Kayumi Iemasa and as of late, Unsho Ishizuka) are now dead.
I don't think he did that out of being evil. I think he cared for Van. Dwarf was funny, witty, wise and a stranger to the world. He thought what he gave Van was a great gift, immortality for someone doomed to die. Only after detaching himself from his, ironically, good sides, he became a cruel monster (though even at that point he really cared for Ed And Al, helping them and not killing them- I mean, really, what chances did they have?). It's not that he was a sadistic monstrosity form the beginning, he wanted very simple things- to be free and be better to eventually become perfect. He was greatful for being alive, so he gave Van the very thing mankind wanted since we gained a level of intelligence higher then the desire for a banana- immortality. It was the means that made Van hate the Dwarf and himself. And Dwarf's desire after Xerxes- to become a perfect being is the very thing alchemists of old desired for centuries. To become perfect, to find the Philosopher's Stone, the piece of divinity (actually, it's an interesting story how Philosopher's Stone came into popculture from European alchemy, to which it came from Arabian alchemy, to which it came from the further East, like India). Overall FMA is a great way to show that perfection is not becoming "pure" and boring, that life is nothing without our sins, and that the things that make us human are not "the good things", but sides that a lot of moral codes deem as bad and wrong.
I can’t imagine making an entire anime out of that. But the fact that there’s more depth to the story is a good thing. It makes the audience feels like there’s always another piece of the puzzle.
Dwarf didn't have much choice. Remember it's the King that wanted to become immortal and was fine sacrificing his countrymen's lives. All Dwarf did was trick the King.
I always thought that “Ed” at the Beginning of the first opening looked kind of off, that’s because it wasn’t Ed, it was Hohenheim. The whole thing started because of Hohenheim’s blood so the show starts with him. The leaves/flowers show the passing of time and him Meeting his wife, then shows Ed who in way takes over for Hohenheim and finishes what he started. I can’t believe I’ve never noticed that before.
Father: "Check it out, buddy! I made us both immortal!" Hohenheim: "You murdered over a million people and wiped our entire country off the map." Father: "🎶What can I say except you're welcome?🎶"
@@aprofessionalgamer5355 First of all, he feel guilty. Second, he can feel ALL the agony of the souls inside of him. So he has a really valid reason to despise Father.
I love how Ed clearly takes after his dad and Al clearly takes after his mom XD Also, I love how the Dwarf in the Flask was noticeably more cheery and good-humored (whilst also being unrepentantly evil) back before he removed his seven desires--gives me Bill Cipher vibes. Guess this is where Wrath, Envy and Greed got it.
I also get Frankenstein vibes. Hohenheim "created" the dwarf from his blood. Then the dwarf becomes sentient & destroys Hohenheim's country. Hohenheim abandons his creation (understandably) & the dwarf seeks revenge.
He wasn't evil though, at least not here. At most he's amoral, which is to be expected from something Lovecraftian like Dwarf. But he and Ho really were friends, it's why Dwarf made him immortal and crazy powerful- poor guy probably thought he was giving Ho the bestest present ever. Also, it was the King of Xerxes who was perfectly fine with sacrificing his country- Dwarf jus tricked him since, if SOMEONE'S gotta be immortal, then it might as well be me and my best buddy. Right?
Dwarf in the Flask had every human quality; compassion ion for fellows ( like Lust) , a hint of childlike innocence ( like Gluttony , and Sloth) , wanting to care and be cared for ( like Greed ) , but he threw everything away to be perfect, and instead, turned into a bland and evil character.
I just realized, that theophrastus bombastus van hohenheim was a real person and swiss alchemist in the renaissance era, often referred to as the "father of toxicology". This depht makes fmab even better!
He was also know more popularly as Paracelsus. As you said, he was a Swiss physician and Alchemist, it's even believed he achieved in creating an elixir called Azoth, which is another form or concept similar to the Philosopher's Stone in Alchemy. He also pioneered a certaint degree of Alchemical and occult theory that would later be used by the Rosicrucian's much later on. All and all, very beneficial for both the scientific and spiritualist worlds.
The more I think about it, the more I realize that the Xerxian alchemists didn't create Father, more like summoned him with Hohenheim's blood from beyond the gate, not knowing with what they're dealing with
It's sort of implied that the Dwarf is a small piece of Truth/The Eye they managed to extract from beyond the gate and that Van Hohenheim's blood was used to give it form in the physical world That's why it knows so much about stuff besides alchemy--teaching Van Hohenheim what a deed/being a slave was and giving him a name
Say , if they commit human transmutation , they end up summoning someone... at least one soul . Ed's transmutation created a different body but placed Al's soul into that body and it rejected the body ( the manga elaborated it ) , Izumi's transmuted baby had at least some soul in it , although it died , Barry the Chopper had some random animal soul stuck inside his body of flesh and blood. All those transmutations used blood . Hohenheim's master was probably a part of this . We don't know who got the rebound or died , but they created a bizarre body and a random soul from the portal got stuck in it . Turns out that this soul is of an intelligent being who is capable of learning really fast , of course the bizarre body could reject him , that's probably the reason he was contained in a flask and Hohenheim's blood was used to stick him in , much like Al's soul being kept inside the Armour with a blood rune . Just my two cents.
What Brotherhood doesn't delve into too deeply (which is very odd) is that Dwarf/Father is a piece of The Eye (of God). Father is a piece of God given flesh and form by human blood. Father holds a little bit of detail akin to Lucifer, Jesus, and the AntiChrist with his creation. He was already "born" and made prior to the experiment but he technically didn't exist until he was brought to the human world and given form and sentience of his own. You can see here that Father holds some of the latent knowledge he was granted as The Eye. He is born into the world already knowing a great deal about the universe and what it means to exist. He just lacks the omniscience of God where his knowledge is left much more limited and incomplete in scope. This obviously maddens him throughout his existence. He existed as God but was bound and became "human" or mortal. He is an incomplete piece of God and also not God either, neither fully human or God but something in between. He is born in a sense feeling that sense of incompleteness and disparity of his existence. He loathes humans but he despises that not only did humans "make" him and brought him to life, that he is human and bound to them at all. His sense of inferiority and inadequacy, his uncertainty over his odd existence morphs and conflates into a superiority complex. He now views himself as something not only greater and above all humans, but greater in existence than even God. He rejects his existence and strives to be something more than even what he was before. The superior God. Only he can reshape existence and rewrite it to what he wants. But what he wants most is to destroy any humanity he is tethered to, and always winds up failing. He fails to become better and he becomes much less and squanders any gift that is his existence.
The Dwarf in the Flask is one of the most interesting episodes in all of anime. It's right up there with some of the Hunter episodes in the Giant Chimera Art Arc.
It is my cousin has started watching it and I told him to wait for me to watch this one. I don't remember exactly what happened but I remember being in awe and lots of omgs I could wait that's why I TH-camd it to watch a little
@@maxalaintwo3578or if no one finds out He gets Blood taken again Edit of 10 days later after posting 20 Jan 2024 The manga has the dwarf all but state they couldn't replicate the experiment
Roy: "Have you lost your mind?! Did you forget how he tore you apart on East city!" Edward: "Oh sounds like colonel is scared of big bad scar. I'm not surprised considering how useless you were against him." (Laughs) Roy: "That wasn't my fault it was raining that day!" Edward: "Was it raining when you got beat up and sent to the hospital?" "Hah you're still useless!" Roy: "Shut your mouth fullmetal!"
For some reason I'm getting an Eve and the Serpent vibe from this scene, maybe because I already know WHERE this relationship ended up going and what came about from it.
@RiXtreme4 The Serpent was not The Devil though.There are several satans in The Torah but no supreme force of evil.That idea came about later in the Pentateuch and New Testament because people began to get uncomfortable praying to the same god who brought tidal waves and droughts.So they came across the idea to separate the good and evil aspects of nature into separate characters from the Zoroastrians and Sumerians.
Sad thing is that the Dwarf had friendship and companionship practically from the moment he was born and yet he ended up destroying it with an act he believed to be kindness.
@@BroadwayRonMexico Hohenheim and Father have a peculiar relationship with each other. They are "twins" in a sense (Hohenheim's blood being the catalyst needed to bound Father into a living form), both their own "creators", their once closest and cherished companions, and always their greatest enemies. Father always carried resentment he shared "blood" with humanity and he was born as a lesser, inferior being. Here, he even doesn't hesitate to continue putting Hohenheim and calling him stupid. Father is amazed, amused, and intrigued at the "brother" who gave him life but sees Hohenheim is obviously perfect and disappointed he had to be carried into existence from someone as low and inferior as this young man. Father always has a sense of kinship and connection with Hohenheim where Hoheimheim was the closest person he ever came to loving. Hohenheim was the only person he had any resemblance of being attached to. That he cared about. That he cherished in any way. He taught Hohenheim everything he knew and even was the one who gave Hohenheim a name and identity. A purpose to live beyond being a mere object or tool. In a sense, Father aimed to spare his "brother" from that fate of being trapped in a prison like he was. He just couldn't overcome his disdain and jealousy of everything humans had and everything humans are. He coveted the freedom and the ability to walk in the world like Hohenheim did so much, he even stole Hohenheim's physical appearance for his own. He became the very (hu)man he resented and claimed he wanted nothing part of. He always sought to escape and destroy his own humanity but was always found trapped by it and contained by it. He wanted to destroy his "brother", not realizing or caring his "brother's" blood was always what provided him life to begin with. His relationship with Hohenheim was always a mix of deep seated jealousy and while I'd argue not really love but affection. From his pov, sparing Hohenheim from the genocidal human sacrifice and granting him immortality along with him was a gift. An act of mercy. Of repayment for everything Hohenheim gave him. He was surprised that Hohenheim was shocked and sickened to his core. While they parted ways, Father also let him go, sparing his life rather than killing him or rescinding the immortality. He perhaps hoped at some point Hohenheim would eventually "come to his senses" and rejoin him. And when Hohenheim left, Father's humanity increasingly did because he lost his own focal point of what being human is.
not sure, it looks like a 3D layer with a 2D layer as background... it looks beautiful but it's not thaaat hard with and ink and paint tool in blender/maya
Whenever I watch this flashback I kinda want to see a full anime about Hohenheim and Homunculus before the tragedy of Xerxes. Their dynamic just seems fun and kinda creepy (in a foreshadowing kind of way).
Their dynamic reminds me of Devilman & Ryo Asuka. An ordinary human whose best friend (literal Satan) tricks him into becoming a demon hybrid to survive the apocalypse.
I gotta say, Dwarf in the past looked very natural and almost human with his personality, its almost sad that he became power-hungry. He seemed to be a pleasant conversationist
I dont know why some people compare it to other anime series like hxh or try to label it.. this epic series is far beyond all those.. Enjoy the series people.. stop freaking comparing everything.. ✌peace..
I absolutely love how they got Aaron Dismuke to voice him. It's so crazy to hear his voice now and then listen to 2003 Alphonse. I love how he grew up!
Only with Hohenheim, it's being called dumb, or stupid! Random passerby: You sure you can handle it? you're not exactly the brightest bulb. Hohenheim: WHO ARE YOU CALLING STUPID!?
Another interesting aspect to me here is how the Dwarf remarked his lack of ability to read and write. "I don't need to know how to read and write to do my work." - "Your slave work." It approaches the idea of acquiring more knowledge and abilities to not be on the level suitable for only a slave and as we know there are many jobs even nowadays which are in fact slave work. People do not try to advance further even though having all the knowledge there is, available in the world up to date, literally in your hand.
@@knivez786 Another commenter suggested that given what we know about his origins, the dwarf was more likely technically summoned and given a physical form, not created from scratch. And he's kept in the flask because this form is likely unstable.
Upon rewatching this after completing the series, you get a sense of how Truth was correct. The Dwarf in The Flask shows several signs of humanity in this scene: His inherent knowledge combined with the introspection offered by his “Sins” allows him to connect to his “Father”, Von Hohenheim. We see his wanting to be freed from his flask, and infer that he is a being with conviction. One that seeks to learn and evolve through interaction with the world. We see in his final interaction with Truth that this essence and the subsequent relinquishment of his “human condition” is what damns his actions to bear a sour fruit; He wishes to be perfect, and perceives his “sins” as a liability, thus he discards of them entirely. Afterwards being unable to contemplate his desires that allude his logical discrimination. One can ponder what the dwarf might’ve accomplished if he had kept this humanity by his side, he might’ve become a boon to all. Feverishly curious for knowledge he’d be able to use the data he collected throughout time to eventually understand the world in a subjectively perfect framework. But taken aback we see that after his severance to the ties that bind him from achieving perfection, he also loses the sense of want associated with them, and is left incapable of realizing contentment.
6 years and this video still amps me up, for some reason. I know its looked down upon you say the English dub is better, but its the version I grew up watching and they hit all the right notes with this.
*_The first scene of Father remembring the past and then turning into young Hohenheim looks like Plato in "The death of Socrates" by Jacques-Louis David_*
@@kronfischer *_If you've ever analyzed the painting extensively like me you will know that both the old man sitting to the left of the painting is also the young man in red giving the cup of hemlok to Socrates. The old man to the left and the young man in red are both Plato._*
Philippus Aureolus Theophrastus Bombastus von Hohenheim was a Swiss physician, alchemist and astrologer. (Better known as Paracelsus). In this scene they used part of his name (Theophrastus Bombastus) as the dwarf's first suggestion for a name, and they used the last part (Von Hohenheim) as the name they finally settled on for Slave 23.
Young Hohenheim reminds me of myself in High School. Could barely do math, didn’t know what existentialism meant, couldn’t even read a single page of Dostoevsky. So naive to my ignorance that I was incapable of changing it
Damn, such a total difference from Alphonse Elric. I was surprised this is Aaron. Even if he didn’t play Alphonse in FMA Brotherhood, I’m glad he still in it. 👏❤️
Funfact : Theophrastus Bombastus von Hohenheim was a real guy who was also known as Paracels and claimed that The homunculus could be created in the lab by putrefying semen and feeding it with blood . He also heavily influenced alchemy with his ideas. That's a great way to use history in anime . No wonder FMA is still at the top even after all these years.
This is the Dwarf with all it's emotions. All 7 Human emotions. Maybe things could have gone differently for him if he realized it wasn't exactly the Dwarf that caused his homes death. The King wanted it, asked for immortality and the Dwarf had no position to deny it if it wanted freedom. Maybe they could have released all the other souls and kept only the Royalty between themselves and the Dwarf could have grown as a being staying with him
That's one of the ironic points of his character. He was born with an incomparable amount of scientific knowledge, but, he had absolutely no emotional intelligence to go along with it.
"A slave? You mean a person without any rights or freedom? Someone trafficked and dated as a possession?" I wonder if the Dwarf in the Flask was affectionate to Hohenheim because, just like him, the Dwarf didn't have a name and was treated as a possession despite being sentient.
Xerxes: Yellow-ish blonde hair and gold eyes Ishvalins: White hair and red eyes Amestrians: Blonde hair and blue eyes What does that make Ed and Alphonse then? Hohenheim is an Xerxes, but Trish had brown hair and brown eyes, so what race of humans was she if she wasn't Amestrian? (She might be Amestrian, but I think it's just people with blonde hair and blue eyes who are full blood Amestrians)
Thrisha might be a mix off amestrain and xingese considering that ling ,May and lan fan have Black hair This may count for Roy to tough we know the least About his ancestory since they say he is adopted by his mom in fmab making him an orphan probably
MOONIE it's pretty arbitrary, the "blonde hair and blue eyes" idea fits with the parallels that Amestris and Nazi era Germany have. Ethnically, Germans believed blondies with blue eyes were "true Germans" while most of the population doesn't exhibit such traits, while at the same time you can be a citizen of Germany, but you're not "ethnically" German according to the ideals of the Nazi's. This sort of idea isn't ever implied or stated in FMA as far as i know, it's more of a headcanon.
The way I LOST MY SHIT hearing Aaron Dismuke as Young Hohenheim the first time. Not only is he my favorite English VA, but the fact that he was Al in 03 but couldn’t reprise his role cause his voice dropped, so they gave him the role of a younger Hohenheim in FMAB is SO GOOD
Aaron Dismuke’s evolution from a young boy Al to the slightly older yet composed Hohenheim to just pure unadulterated chaos in Senku is something truly amazing
I'm so glad they added 2003's voice actor for Alphonse Elric back, even if he was in a small role and not back to his original role. The old saying "Don't Look A Gifted Horse Un The Mouth" will go on this one.
This would not be the last dwarf to come from Hohenheim’s blood
Ouch!
That's a Roy Mustang level burn right there!
Damn
*that’s a pretty big oof.*
WHO ARE YOU CALLING LITTLE PIPSQUEAK?!
Well, it's easy to see where Ed gets his temperament from.
171QA definitely
And a lot of his appearance lmao.
I was going to say that
no shit
Not the height though
I like how they got 2003 Al to voice young Hohenheim.
Wait a minute that's Aaron!? The same guy who voiced Urushihara in the devil is a part timer, and the young Hohenheim here is voiced by the voice actor for Al from the original FMA series!!
+ZNearX And leonardo from bloodblockade battle front
ZNearX it really shows how much they love the series
Yep. That's Aaron Dismuke.
Al (kind of) gets his dad's young voice.. Ed gets his dad's wardrobe, hairstyle, and heck he looks near identical to young hohenheim..
Funny thing is Philippus Aureolus Theophrastus Bombastus von Hohenheim actually existed and was heavily involved in alchemy
Yeah, it was Paracelsus' self-given name.
He was also a bar-brawling, sword-fighting, hard-drinking badass who got thrown out of pretty much every center of higher learning in medieval europe at one point or another. Definitely an interesting historical figure.
Dude this blew my mind because i was reading 'Frankenstiein' and one of the footnotes said Theophratus Bombastus Hohenheim and i imidetly ran to this video just to make sure i wasnt going crazy.
Low and behold it was the name options the dwarf in the flask gave i even kept reading the footnote and it said an alchemist.
I thought ahhhhh it all makes sence.really blew my mind
I know , she did great amount of research for sure !
He is a Swiss man
ah the dwarf in the flask, that was one intriguing villain.
OverlordPichu You mean Father?
@@knightofarkronia9968 From the initial impression, he gave- Father initially started off as the perpetually stoic patriarch of the Homunculi and the shadowy leader of the government, with incredible power with a no-nonsense attitude. Then his past was revealed, he was essentially, the father/mentor figure to Hohenheim, with his own desire to be free of his restrictions at any cost, having a complex personality that could be witty, but sinister as well while yearning for the humane attributes that he outwardly dismisses. In his pursuit of perfection to become completely boundless, he shreds of all of his depth to be a cold-hearted monster with a single-minded goal that hides the one-dimensional nature of a psychotic lunatic that craves power for the sake of it. And in his escalation of power, he loses his humanity to become a feral beast obsessed with self-preservation at all costs, in his ironically most human like form. He then is dragged into the Truth, essentially, Hell, bewildered why he lost, unable to understand due to being a hollow shell of what he used to be. He's no means, sympathetic, but pitiful in sad way.
How did the dwarf end up in the flask originally
Was a part of him able to escape hell on his own or did he have help
@@knivez786 I want to know the answer to this aswell. I feel like his origin isn't really fully explained at all and it really bugs me :(
@@knivez786 Hell?
The Idea of a Homunculus is a Thing in Alchemy, they just created him in the Flask like a Modelship.
He would spret into the Air and dissolve if he got free.
Who’d of thought that the most evil being in the universe would start off by teaching a nameless slave how to read.
Well to be fair, he was extremely grateful to Hohenheim since his blood gave the Dwarf life
He literally owes his existence to Hohenheim and whoever used his blood to create the dwarf
@@netherdominater9960 and not just that, since the dwarf emphatized with hoenhein, as he said, they are both trapped in a flask, and the only way to get freedom is by knowledge
@@cardeselmalevolo4014 Not to mention, the King of Xerxes was the one who wanted to be immortal and killed his own people to accomplish this. So the king was partially responsible for the disaster that happened.
@@ab-kz6ks one thing people don't get is that the homunculi and the dwarf are products of tragedy that resulted from what could be said to be noble intentions. bringing back a loved one, pursuit of knowledge are both things that people would state are noble maybe even pure
The guy who wanted this dwarf should have used his own blood. But of course he only has so much and didn’t know whether the experiment would work.
Father: Let me teach you von hohenheim.
Hohenheim: nah, I'll pass.
*Created by Hiromu Arakawa*
Stevey2578 That certainly would have helped a lot.
Stevey2578. Say no more
We wouldn't have such a great series, then
Really makes you realise this entire story started with Hohenheim which is why he's the first character we see in the opening
Vishanthfishy .R and it ends with him and Dwarf with the last ending being around the last Xerxians: Hohenheim, Ed, Al, and Dwarf (technically)
It’s very sad that Van and Dwarf were friends, they grew up together, they learned alchemy together, they served the king together. They were basically brothers until Dwarf went and destroyed everything Van loved for the sake of having a body.
They were such intriguing characters. They probably could have had their own anime.
Meh It's even sadder meta-wise, considering that the men whom voices both their grownup versions of these characters in the Japanese version (Kayumi Iemasa and as of late, Unsho Ishizuka) are now dead.
I don't think he did that out of being evil. I think he cared for Van. Dwarf was funny, witty, wise and a stranger to the world. He thought what he gave Van was a great gift, immortality for someone doomed to die. Only after detaching himself from his, ironically, good sides, he became a cruel monster (though even at that point he really cared for Ed And Al, helping them and not killing them- I mean, really, what chances did they have?). It's not that he was a sadistic monstrosity form the beginning, he wanted very simple things- to be free and be better to eventually become perfect. He was greatful for being alive, so he gave Van the very thing mankind wanted since we gained a level of intelligence higher then the desire for a banana- immortality. It was the means that made Van hate the Dwarf and himself.
And Dwarf's desire after Xerxes- to become a perfect being is the very thing alchemists of old desired for centuries. To become perfect, to find the Philosopher's Stone, the piece of divinity (actually, it's an interesting story how Philosopher's Stone came into popculture from European alchemy, to which it came from Arabian alchemy, to which it came from the further East, like India).
Overall FMA is a great way to show that perfection is not becoming "pure" and boring, that life is nothing without our sins, and that the things that make us human are not "the good things", but sides that a lot of moral codes deem as bad and wrong.
@@Ezio12201 "desire for a banana"
I can’t imagine making an entire anime out of that.
But the fact that there’s more depth to the story is a good thing.
It makes the audience feels like there’s always another piece of the puzzle.
Dwarf didn't have much choice. Remember it's the King that wanted to become immortal and was fine sacrificing his countrymen's lives. All Dwarf did was trick the King.
I always thought that “Ed” at the Beginning of the first opening looked kind of off, that’s because it wasn’t Ed, it was Hohenheim. The whole thing started because of Hohenheim’s blood so the show starts with him. The leaves/flowers show the passing of time and him Meeting his wife, then shows Ed who in way takes over for Hohenheim and finishes what he started. I can’t believe I’ve never noticed that before.
Wtfff TIL
WOW, you're right!
Lmao before I even watched the series and I watched the opening I assumed that was his dad and now I, surprised that I was even right
I thought it was al
I'm just now figuring out the person from the intro was Hoheneim
Father: "Check it out, buddy! I made us both immortal!"
Hohenheim: "You murdered over a million people and wiped our entire country off the map."
Father: "🎶What can I say except you're welcome?🎶"
That’s basically it, yeah 😅
At that point why even be mad, it's over and done with why not be immortal freinds?
@@aprofessionalgamer5355 First of all, he feel guilty. Second, he can feel ALL the agony of the souls inside of him. So he has a really valid reason to despise Father.
Actually it was about 500,000 and he only stole their souls...
@@klof4276 it was ~500,000 for each of them
Well we all learned that:
Ed hates being called short
Roy hates being Useless
Van hates being called stupid
Probably why he got so mad when Pride called Al stupid.
So 2003 Alphonse is now a young Hohenhiem. Funny how life is
LemonadepieX: La vie est drole 🤡😎
Hohenheim
Primal reversion
Yes Aron Dismuke has such a crisp voice I like it. It's hard to think that he ever did the voice of Alphonse!
I know what you mean. Did not recognise it at all
Shinju Koizumi I know right his voice is so unique.
You can pin point him in anything I think it's his accent and his tone idk but he's one of my favourite voice actors
Shinju Koizumi agreed!
That was Alphonse?! Holy shit did puberty do him good
I love how Ed clearly takes after his dad and Al clearly takes after his mom XD
Also, I love how the Dwarf in the Flask was noticeably more cheery and good-humored (whilst also being unrepentantly evil) back before he removed his seven desires--gives me Bill Cipher vibes. Guess this is where Wrath, Envy and Greed got it.
I also get Frankenstein vibes. Hohenheim "created" the dwarf from his blood. Then the dwarf becomes sentient & destroys Hohenheim's country. Hohenheim abandons his creation (understandably) & the dwarf seeks revenge.
He also seemed quite nicer. Looks like that's where Greed got it from.
He wasn't evil though, at least not here. At most he's amoral, which is to be expected from something Lovecraftian like Dwarf. But he and Ho really were friends, it's why Dwarf made him immortal and crazy powerful- poor guy probably thought he was giving Ho the bestest present ever. Also, it was the King of Xerxes who was perfectly fine with sacrificing his country- Dwarf jus tricked him since, if SOMEONE'S gotta be immortal, then it might as well be me and my best buddy. Right?
Yeah, I kind of like him here.
Dwarf in the Flask had every human quality; compassion ion for fellows ( like Lust) , a hint of childlike innocence ( like Gluttony , and Sloth) , wanting to care and be cared for ( like Greed ) , but he threw everything away to be perfect, and instead, turned into a bland and evil character.
I just realized, that theophrastus bombastus van hohenheim was a real person and swiss alchemist in the renaissance era, often referred to as the "father of toxicology". This depht makes fmab even better!
Der Bürgermeister you mean you looked it up, you didn’t just come to this realization...
What a name lol
He was also know more popularly as Paracelsus. As you said, he was a Swiss physician and Alchemist, it's even believed he achieved in creating an elixir called Azoth, which is another form or concept similar to the Philosopher's Stone in Alchemy. He also pioneered a certaint degree of Alchemical and occult theory that would later be used by the Rosicrucian's much later on. All and all, very beneficial for both the scientific and spiritualist worlds.
@@TrystLyonesse wow thats crazy
And may or may not predict the 30 years war the lion of the north
They quite litteraly created each other.
You can tell Edward takes after his father not just in looks but in temperament as well.
Wow I thought Edward was nothing like his parents. I thought Alphonse was a lot like his parents.
Ed is really similar to his dad
Also, Al visibly looks like their mom!
I think it goes same for their personality as well, ed is more of hohenheim and al is Trisha
It's probably why Ed fights more with his dad than Al.
Hohenheim said it himself that Ed reminds him of himself.
Ed is similar to young Hohenheim, Al to older Hohenheim and probably their mom.
The more I think about it, the more I realize that the Xerxian alchemists didn't create Father, more like summoned him with Hohenheim's blood from beyond the gate, not knowing with what they're dealing with
Very good point
It's sort of implied that the Dwarf is a small piece of Truth/The Eye they managed to extract from beyond the gate and that Van Hohenheim's blood was used to give it form in the physical world
That's why it knows so much about stuff besides alchemy--teaching Van Hohenheim what a deed/being a slave was and giving him a name
Say , if they commit human transmutation , they end up summoning someone... at least one soul . Ed's transmutation created a different body but placed Al's soul into that body and it rejected the body ( the manga elaborated it ) , Izumi's transmuted baby had at least some soul in it , although it died , Barry the Chopper had some random animal soul stuck inside his body of flesh and blood. All those transmutations used blood .
Hohenheim's master was probably a part of this . We don't know who got the rebound or died , but they created a bizarre body and a random soul from the portal got stuck in it . Turns out that this soul is of an intelligent being who is capable of learning really fast , of course the bizarre body could reject him , that's probably the reason he was contained in a flask and Hohenheim's blood was used to stick him in , much like Al's soul being kept inside the Armour with a blood rune .
Just my two cents.
What Brotherhood doesn't delve into too deeply (which is very odd) is that Dwarf/Father is a piece of The Eye (of God). Father is a piece of God given flesh and form by human blood. Father holds a little bit of detail akin to Lucifer, Jesus, and the AntiChrist with his creation. He was already "born" and made prior to the experiment but he technically didn't exist until he was brought to the human world and given form and sentience of his own.
You can see here that Father holds some of the latent knowledge he was granted as The Eye. He is born into the world already knowing a great deal about the universe and what it means to exist. He just lacks the omniscience of God where his knowledge is left much more limited and incomplete in scope. This obviously maddens him throughout his existence.
He existed as God but was bound and became "human" or mortal. He is an incomplete piece of God and also not God either, neither fully human or God but something in between. He is born in a sense feeling that sense of incompleteness and disparity of his existence. He loathes humans but he despises that not only did humans "make" him and brought him to life, that he is human and bound to them at all. His sense of inferiority and inadequacy, his uncertainty over his odd existence morphs and conflates into a superiority complex.
He now views himself as something not only greater and above all humans, but greater in existence than even God. He rejects his existence and strives to be something more than even what he was before. The superior God. Only he can reshape existence and rewrite it to what he wants. But what he wants most is to destroy any humanity he is tethered to, and always winds up failing. He fails to become better and he becomes much less and squanders any gift that is his existence.
@@krosalil7732this was a really great description thank you
“I exist today because you gave me your blood...thank you”
Best gratitude speech a parent could ever get from ones child.
That means two dwarfs came from Hohenheim’s blood
@@Abdega three
@Scarf Briefs
Wait, are you considering Al a dwarf?
@@Abdega prides kinda a dwarf
When the cloud gets a devilish smile you know shits about to go down.
Al doing his best Ed impression.
That's what I was thinking XD
The Dwarf in the Flask is one of the most interesting episodes in all of anime. It's right up there with some of the Hunter episodes in the Giant Chimera Art Arc.
Amy Swanberg Definitely.
It is my cousin has started watching it and I told him to wait for me to watch this one. I don't remember exactly what happened but I remember being in awe and lots of omgs I could wait that's why I TH-camd it to watch a little
Fmab > Hunter x Hunter
@@johnbb6932 Fullmetal alchemist brotherhood is really good but HxH is on a whole another level fr
Chimera Art Arc was fucking trash. the last part anyway. so long and drawn out.
And to think the entire plot of Fullmetal Alchemist would never have happened if Hohenheim had simply pulled out one of those corks
The story would have ended very abruptly...with a faint "pop".
*pop*
And Edward Alphonse would have never born..
He probably would've been killed for that and then they would've taken blood from another slave
@@maxalaintwo3578or if no one finds out
He gets Blood taken again
Edit of 10 days later after posting 20 Jan 2024
The manga has the dwarf all but state they couldn't replicate the experiment
Ed: DON'T CALL ME LITTLE!
Hohenheim: DON'T CALL ME DUMB!
Edward truly takes after his father in both looks and temperament.
@@bookwormgamer3924 While Al takes after Trisha.
@@davidtimmer596 yep Alphonse takes after her in looks and in temperament. Lol good thing the brother's balance each other.
Roy: DONT CALL ME USELESS
Roy: "Have you lost your mind?! Did you forget how he tore you apart on East city!"
Edward: "Oh sounds like colonel is scared of big bad scar. I'm not surprised considering how useless you were against him." (Laughs)
Roy: "That wasn't my fault it was raining that day!"
Edward: "Was it raining when you got beat up and sent to the hospital?" "Hah you're still useless!"
Roy: "Shut your mouth fullmetal!"
For some reason I'm getting an Eve and the Serpent vibe from this scene, maybe because I already know WHERE this relationship ended up going and what came about from it.
Well, he practically did do what the devil did. Befriends the victim, tempts them, makes them think of a prosperous future, etc
@RiXtreme4 The Serpent was not The Devil though.There are several satans in The Torah but no supreme force of evil.That idea came about later in the Pentateuch and New Testament because people began to get uncomfortable praying to the same god who brought tidal waves and droughts.So they came across the idea to separate the good and evil aspects of nature into separate characters from the Zoroastrians and Sumerians.
Wicked FreeMan that's not what he meant by that
Fun fact is Aaron voices Licht too
@@genharmer9380 you're funny
Compare Aron's voice to his in 2003. It sounds like puberty hit like a truck when back to back.
A Ninja and he looks kinda hot too..
That's why he had to be recast
If you watch all of 2003 so you can watch Conqueror of Shamballa then go on to this series it pretty close to hilarious.
I really wish Aaron came back to voice older!Al when he gets his body back. It would have been full circle for him.
I knoooooow!!! Me toooooo!!! I miss him voicing Alphonse!!!
+Maggi Maldonado I now know what Hohemhime *however you spelled it* meant by Ed being alot like him Ed kinda looks like him in his younger years
+Gabby Amalia That would've been awesome but they signed him up for young Hohenheim so I guess they figured it'd be too confusing
My older bro sounds just like our dad so I think it would've been adorable to hear Aron as adult Al
Alphonse has a deep voice in the live-action movie, so maybe they could get Aaron Dismuke to voice him there should they ever dub it?
Sad thing is that the Dwarf had friendship and companionship practically from the moment he was born and yet he ended up destroying it with an act he believed to be kindness.
But he was jealous of Hohenheim
@@BroadwayRonMexico Hohenheim and Father have a peculiar relationship with each other. They are "twins" in a sense (Hohenheim's blood being the catalyst needed to bound Father into a living form), both their own "creators", their once closest and cherished companions, and always their greatest enemies. Father always carried resentment he shared "blood" with humanity and he was born as a lesser, inferior being. Here, he even doesn't hesitate to continue putting Hohenheim and calling him stupid. Father is amazed, amused, and intrigued at the "brother" who gave him life but sees Hohenheim is obviously perfect and disappointed he had to be carried into existence from someone as low and inferior as this young man.
Father always has a sense of kinship and connection with Hohenheim where Hoheimheim was the closest person he ever came to loving. Hohenheim was the only person he had any resemblance of being attached to. That he cared about. That he cherished in any way. He taught Hohenheim everything he knew and even was the one who gave Hohenheim a name and identity. A purpose to live beyond being a mere object or tool. In a sense, Father aimed to spare his "brother" from that fate of being trapped in a prison like he was.
He just couldn't overcome his disdain and jealousy of everything humans had and everything humans are. He coveted the freedom and the ability to walk in the world like Hohenheim did so much, he even stole Hohenheim's physical appearance for his own. He became the very (hu)man he resented and claimed he wanted nothing part of. He always sought to escape and destroy his own humanity but was always found trapped by it and contained by it. He wanted to destroy his "brother", not realizing or caring his "brother's" blood was always what provided him life to begin with. His relationship with Hohenheim was always a mix of deep seated jealousy and while I'd argue not really love but affection.
From his pov, sparing Hohenheim from the genocidal human sacrifice and granting him immortality along with him was a gift. An act of mercy. Of repayment for everything Hohenheim gave him. He was surprised that Hohenheim was shocked and sickened to his core. While they parted ways, Father also let him go, sparing his life rather than killing him or rescinding the immortality. He perhaps hoped at some point Hohenheim would eventually "come to his senses" and rejoin him. And when Hohenheim left, Father's humanity increasingly did because he lost his own focal point of what being human is.
@@BroadwayRonMexico No he wasn't
it must have cost $2000 for that transition 2:15 - 2:20
lol you just killed me
oblivexx yeah must of cost an arm and a leg.... i will let my self out I'm such trash
not sure, it looks like a 3D layer with a 2D layer as background... it looks beautiful but it's not thaaat hard with and ink and paint tool in blender/maya
lmao nerds
@@gyroxaver6897 Gyro really out here laying a crisp *OOF* on everyone. 💀
Whenever I watch this flashback I kinda want to see a full anime about Hohenheim and Homunculus before the tragedy of Xerxes. Their dynamic just seems fun and kinda creepy (in a foreshadowing kind of way).
Their dynamic reminds me of Devilman & Ryo Asuka. An ordinary human whose best friend (literal Satan) tricks him into becoming a demon hybrid to survive the apocalypse.
yes me too
I gotta say, Dwarf in the past looked very natural and almost human with his personality, its almost sad that he became power-hungry. He seemed to be a pleasant conversationist
Fun fact the person voicing young Hohenheim voiced Alphonse in the original Full Metal Alchemist Anime
Ah Aaron :3
Philippus Aureolus Theophrastus Bombastus von Hohenheim (or Paracelsus)
I dont know why some people compare it to other anime series like hxh or try to label it.. this epic series is far beyond all those.. Enjoy the series people.. stop freaking comparing everything.. ✌peace..
I actually like the dwarf more like this, prior to purging himself of his sins. He's so much more interesting like this, charming and quirky in a way.
How is the dub so perfect holy....
Because some don't suck as you think.
anyone else wish that hohenheim had a brother just so we could hear Aaron say it one more time
Rachael Muncie y e s.
I absolutely love how they got Aaron Dismuke to voice him. It's so crazy to hear his voice now and then listen to 2003 Alphonse. I love how he grew up!
When you realize the subtitle "Brotherhood" doesn't just refer to Ed and Al. It refers to these two as well
Theophrastus von Hohenheim, was a Swiss physician, alchemist, and astrologer of the German Renaissance.
He has so much personality for such a small thing.
Weird thing to say when Ed's not even in this scene
@@CapnShadesburn 😂
I love how much Ed looks like young hoenheim , just taller.
I see Alphonse was his father in another life. Not even kidding, that's Al's voice actor from the 2003 series Aaron Dismuke
I like that they brought back Aaron Dimisuke to voice young!Hohenheim (I loved his Alphonse from the '03 anime) 😁
*dismuke and yea it’s surprising.
And then: shit got fucked. Like, seriously.
God, Hohenheim looks just like Ed when he was younger. They even have the same temperament. 🤣
khfan4life365 well I mean hohenhiem is Ed’s dad-
Only with Hohenheim, it's being called dumb, or stupid!
Random passerby: You sure you can handle it? you're not exactly the brightest bulb.
Hohenheim: WHO ARE YOU CALLING STUPID!?
Another interesting aspect to me here is how the Dwarf remarked his lack of ability to read and write. "I don't need to know how to read and write to do my work." - "Your slave work." It approaches the idea of acquiring more knowledge and abilities to not be on the level suitable for only a slave and as we know there are many jobs even nowadays which are in fact slave work. People do not try to advance further even though having all the knowledge there is, available in the world up to date, literally in your hand.
"Don't you even want freedom? Are you going to live out the rest of your days as a slave?" Even the 'camera angles' intensified at that point.
Never noticed hoenhiem is Wearing bandages around his arm !!! Must Be where they took his Blood from
metaal boekee yup! It is.
I guess we all know exactly who Alphonse gets his voice from. XD
It's interesting how in the original Hohenheim was a young slave who simply wanted the knowledge that would grant him freedom
He was really similar to the dwarf in the flask in the beginning, as Homunculus, pointed out
But hohenheim developed and grew
How did the dwarf end up in the flask originally
Was a part of him able to escape hell on his own or did he have help
@@knivez786 Another commenter suggested that given what we know about his origins, the dwarf was more likely technically summoned and given a physical form, not created from scratch. And he's kept in the flask because this form is likely unstable.
It was born from truth
Look at truth look at the dwarf@@knivez786
Literally the first character we see in an anime intro is Hoeinheim. I love this anime so much
At first I thought it was Ed
Upon rewatching this after completing the series, you get a sense of how Truth was correct. The Dwarf in The Flask shows several signs of humanity in this scene: His inherent knowledge combined with the introspection offered by his “Sins” allows him to connect to his “Father”, Von Hohenheim.
We see his wanting to be freed from his flask, and infer that he is a being with conviction. One that seeks to learn and evolve through interaction with the world. We see in his final interaction with Truth that this essence and the subsequent relinquishment of his “human condition” is what damns his actions to bear a sour fruit; He wishes to be perfect, and perceives his “sins” as a liability, thus he discards of them entirely. Afterwards being unable to contemplate his desires that allude his logical discrimination.
One can ponder what the dwarf might’ve accomplished if he had kept this humanity by his side, he might’ve become a boon to all. Feverishly curious for knowledge he’d be able to use the data he collected throughout time to eventually understand the world in a subjectively perfect framework. But taken aback we see that after his severance to the ties that bind him from achieving perfection, he also loses the sense of want associated with them, and is left incapable of realizing contentment.
DAMN!! Aaron hit puberty hard XD
6 years and this video still amps me up, for some reason. I know its looked down upon you say the English dub is better, but its the version I grew up watching and they hit all the right notes with this.
The English dub of this anime is better then the Japanese version where the voice actors don’t even try half the time.
*_The first scene of Father remembring the past and then turning into young Hohenheim looks like Plato in "The death of Socrates" by Jacques-Louis David_*
my God, you're right
@@kronfischer *_If you've ever analyzed the painting extensively like me you will know that both the old man sitting to the left of the painting is also the young man in red giving the cup of hemlok to Socrates. The old man to the left and the young man in red are both Plato._*
This legitimately answered alot of my questions about Hoheneim
No wonder Ed is so snappy. He got it from his dad.
Oh Dwarf in the Flask! Now we know where his kids got their sass from. XD
And where Hohenheim's kids got their temper from.
Well I Know where Ed Got his Temper from!
It’s still mind boggling that the VA of young hohenheim was Alphonse and now he’s also Tamaki Amajiki from My Hero Academia
He's also Senku from Dr. Stone :))
And Old Hohenheim has the same voice as All For One
This scene happened thousands of years, honheim is really old
You've seen elf on a shelf, now get ready for-
1:01 like father like son and now we know who ed gets his temper from
I love how casual he is about being named by a Dwarf in the Flask, aka fuzzy black void in a glass alchemical bottle.
Father like sons...
1:37 HA! i get that joke
I don't?
Philippus Aureolus Theophrastus Bombastus von Hohenheim was a Swiss physician, alchemist and astrologer. (Better known as Paracelsus). In this scene they used part of his name (Theophrastus Bombastus) as the dwarf's first suggestion for a name, and they used the last part (Von Hohenheim) as the name they finally settled on for Slave 23.
Hahahaha that was a really quick response, thank you! I understand it now.
I just happened to be at the right place at the right time :D happy to be of assistance
Anyone else think Hohenheim looks almost as hot as Edward at this age?
GShepherd17 0 you have to assume more than a year or two passed since the king is much older by the time hohenheim's "drastic" change occurred
T T: Ah, definitely. He is totes cute! 😍💞 Of course we ALL know Ed is the hottest of them all... 😍😇💖✌ It's just common knowledge. 💖
That's what I was wondering. Maybe he ran into a wall broke his nose then discovered plastic surgery few years later lol
That's kinda Gross
T T almost ;)
I never think the Dwarf in the flask is a dwarf , more like a black ball
I'll tell you what Van Hohenheim you can call me the Dwarf in the Flask Homuculus" so many chills
Hohenheim was right, the dwarf is way more likeable than father.
young von hoem hiem's voice is voice of alphonse fma 2003 and the voice of leonardo bloodblockade battlefont
Young Hohenheim reminds me of myself in High School. Could barely do math, didn’t know what existentialism meant, couldn’t even read a single page of Dostoevsky. So naive to my ignorance that I was incapable of changing it
Damn, such a total difference from Alphonse Elric. I was surprised this is Aaron. Even if he didn’t play Alphonse in FMA Brotherhood, I’m glad he still in it. 👏❤️
He sounds just like Ed
Set up bloodmobiles at anime conventions. Play 1:18 after each successful donor leaves.
Haha,I see where Ed get his attitude. Alphonse from Mother,Edward from Father😁
Guess what..? Apparently as I've been told this young hohenheim.. was the same voice actor as Alphonse Elric in the 2003 anime..
Anonymous Still Anonymous hit puberty hit him like a truck
It's weird to see how much ed and hohenheim look a like
I don’t blame the Homunculus for wanting out of his flask or tricking the King.
I blame him for everything after.
Shoutout to Aaron
"How do I call you?"
"Call me Dwarf in the flask (little one inside the flask), Homunculus"
Me: Ahhhhhhh... So he is Father...
Van Hohenheim: What do I get for acting surprised?
Later, 2:12
**Looks utterly shocked**
Funfact : Theophrastus Bombastus von Hohenheim was a real guy who was also known as Paracels and claimed that The homunculus could be created in the lab by putrefying semen and feeding it with blood . He also heavily influenced alchemy with his ideas. That's a great way to use history in anime . No wonder FMA is still at the top even after all these years.
Mainly due to the writing of the manga but yeah!
So…they took more than just blood from Hohenheim? >_
HoLY CraP!. I just realized that Young Hohenheim was voices by Aaron Dismuke who also voiced Al in FMA 2003!!!.... He's all grown up UwU
Man, Young Honoheim was 10 billion percent into alchemy
at 02:14, that frame of hohenheim trap in a room with a fence on it's window, shows him as a slave.
You thought it was Hohenheim, but it was I Dio!
Olivia Rosario A Jojo reference in a Full Metal Alchemist Brotherhood video, I am pleased
Category:Comedy HA
It kinda fits tho
This is the Dwarf with all it's emotions. All 7 Human emotions. Maybe things could have gone differently for him if he realized it wasn't exactly the Dwarf that caused his homes death. The King wanted it, asked for immortality and the Dwarf had no position to deny it if it wanted freedom. Maybe they could have released all the other souls and kept only the Royalty between themselves and the Dwarf could have grown as a being staying with him
That's one of the ironic points of his character. He was born with an incomparable amount of scientific knowledge, but, he had absolutely no emotional intelligence to go along with it.
"A slave? You mean a person without any rights or freedom? Someone trafficked and dated as a possession?"
I wonder if the Dwarf in the Flask was affectionate to Hohenheim because, just like him, the Dwarf didn't have a name and was treated as a possession despite being sentient.
If only he just dropped the flask
But we wouldn't have edward and al
I swear hohenheim is so cute when he was younger. And his voice. Oh god. 😍😍
Not fangirls btw.
He's pretty tho
I'm pissed because I managed to accidentally skip this episode and didn't realize it until I had finished the series.
Father's ONLY act of "selflessness" is what caused his demise.
Xerxes: Yellow-ish blonde hair and gold eyes
Ishvalins: White hair and red eyes
Amestrians: Blonde hair and blue eyes
What does that make Ed and Alphonse then? Hohenheim is an Xerxes, but Trish had brown hair and brown eyes, so what race of humans was she if she wasn't Amestrian? (She might be Amestrian, but I think it's just people with blonde hair and blue eyes who are full blood Amestrians)
Orange Fighter Remember that the country annexed and absorbed other populations which are all considered citizens by the present.
@Orange Fighter
I don’t know if your referencing the manga or FMAB, but in the latter Trish has dark green eyes with brown hair.
Thrisha might be a mix off amestrain and xingese considering that ling ,May and lan fan have Black hair
This may count for Roy to tough we know the least About his ancestory since they say he is adopted by his mom in fmab making him an orphan probably
Why are we assuming every amestrian has to have blonde hair and blue eyes?
MOONIE it's pretty arbitrary, the "blonde hair and blue eyes" idea fits with the parallels that Amestris and Nazi era Germany have.
Ethnically, Germans believed blondies with blue eyes were "true Germans" while most of the population doesn't exhibit such traits, while at the same time you can be a citizen of Germany, but you're not "ethnically" German according to the ideals of the Nazi's.
This sort of idea isn't ever implied or stated in FMA as far as i know, it's more of a headcanon.
The way I LOST MY SHIT hearing Aaron Dismuke as Young Hohenheim the first time. Not only is he my favorite English VA, but the fact that he was Al in 03 but couldn’t reprise his role cause his voice dropped, so they gave him the role of a younger Hohenheim in FMAB is SO GOOD
You can tell in certain parts that Aron voiced the two doods, Al and daddio.
Aaron Dismuke’s evolution from a young boy Al to the slightly older yet composed Hohenheim to just pure unadulterated chaos in Senku is something truly amazing
I'm so glad they added 2003's voice actor for Alphonse Elric back, even if he was in a small role and not back to his original role. The old saying "Don't Look A Gifted Horse Un The Mouth" will go on this one.
One of the best flashbacks ever