Episode Guide - episode 3
Episode title: Mother
Episode title (Japanese): おかあさん - Okaa-san......, "Mother"
Number of times Ed looks horrified: 2
Number of times Ed flips out because someone calls him 'short': 0
Synopsis
Edward and Alphonse find an Introduction to Alchemy book that reminds them of how they first learned alchemy and how everything changed when they used it to try and resurrect their mother.
Trivia
Alchemy and Herbalists
When printed text is shown in Fullmetal Alchemist it's usually only shown on-screen long enough for you to see the diagram on the page or read the first sentence - the rest of the text is often irrelevant text (such as the 16th century alchemy manuscript excerpt in this website's title image). However, that's not the case in this episode.
Thumbnail, click for full image
Roleplaying game fans were amused to find the text of the book at the start of this episode to be about Dungeons and Dragons - specifically, the text was taken from an online review of the book Alchemy and Herbalists published by Bastion Press. (A little research reveals that the review was probably written by one Jeff Ibach of the website DM's Haven, but the site where his article was printed has since gone down.) Was one of the show's animators a D&D fan, or did he merely type 'alchemy' into a search engine?
Hohenheim Elric
Hohenheim, Ed and Al's father, is named after sixteeth century alchemist Theophrastus Bombastus von Hohenheim, better known by his alias Paracelsus. (Guilty Gear Isuka fans may recognise that as the name of A.B.A's giant key.) Paracelsus was known for studying how 'alchemy' (what would today be called chemistry) affected the human body. Of course, the real Hohenheim used this 'human alchemy' in the study of the effects of poisons and medicine, rather than resurrecting the dead.
Slip-ups
Blood Seal
kobrah mcquorie points out this continuity problem - warning, though, it's something of a spoiler for later events. "ed kicks al into the river while they are sparring but we no later that if the blood seal gets wet than it will dissapear and so would als soal but he is perfectly fine later."
I had noticed this myself, although I assumed that he somehow hadn't realised until then that water was a risk.
Mustang's Name
Caitlin B writes: In episode three I noticed that the name on Mustang's letter is not, in fact, his name quite a while ago (It reads 'James Herbert' instead). As a joke I always called him that, ect. But only last night when talking about books with a friend did I notice what the name really was. James Herbert is a well-known British horror writer.
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