FMA Brotherhood question, can Scar's tattooed left arm function as its own?

[NotaNuffian]

So context, scar has a tattooed right arm that has the ability to disintegrate things and people.

Basically following the function of the work's magic aka Alchemy, Understanding, Deconstruction and Reconstruction

So yeah, he has the right arm for destruction/ deconstruction.

Then in the finale, he got his left arm tattooed and got the power of reconstruction.

My question is, is the left arm useless without the right arm? After all, need to deconstruct then can reconstruct.

 

[Valmond]

Ya know, never thought about that.

 

[Deleted member 206441]

Yes

 

[Valmond]

Yes

Please explain, wise detective furry.

 

[Corty]

I think it is useless because reconstruction comes after deconstruction.

Plus, I don't think he understands the principles behind it, so if you give him a pile of materials, he won't be able to construct anything from them. I even wonder why he can do anything at all besides just destroying things, but I am not here to debate it.

 

[Deleted member 206441]

Please explain, wise detective furry.

I, too, never thought about it....

But:

Chap 103
When Scar uses Alchemy at the end of the chapter, he is using exclusively his left arm. This should not be possible, as he supposedly would need his right arm and left arm together to perform standard transmutations, as his right arm must perform the deconstruction phase and his left arm the reconstruction phase of alchemy, as his brother described. However, it could be that Scar improved on his brother's research, enabling his left arm to be able to perform both the deconstruction and reconstruction steps.

He did need to use both arms to do the big magic thing in 105-106
But he could make spikes with left hand

Whether he improved the tattoos or alternatively may be the tattoos just have to be on him for his left to access to deconstruct "energy"

 

[beast_regards]

The Full Metal alchemist is obsessed with its rules, their magic, or rather alchemy, follows.

Creating things ex-nihilo is ... or at least, should be ... impossible. Transmutation follows that law.

On the other things, incomplete transmutation is possible, which is what Scar does by default.

 

[NotaNuffian]

The Full Metal alchemist is obsessed with its rules, their magic, or rather alchemy, follows.

Creating things ex-nihilo is ... or at least, should be ... impossible. Transmutation follows that law.

On the other things, incomplete transmutation is possible, which is what Scar does by default.

Basically 1 2 3.

1 2 is fine.

But straight jump to 3 from 1 is not.

 

[beast_regards]

Basically 1 2 3.

1 2 is fine.

But straight jump to 3 from 1 is not.

Transmutation = 1st comprehension + 2nd deconstruction + 3nd reconstruction

Scar is "skipping the third step"

He does need to understand the vague makeup of the target to make it go ... poof.

He also needs his tattoo. The basic to do the alchemy in the FMA setting is the transmutation circle. It allows to do the whole thing assuming you follow several other rules. You would see that circle often, usually drawn on the ground, but some characters have it on gloves etc.

What Scar got is transmutation array, which is incomplete things excellent for making things go ... poof. He just skipped the output. With the second hand tattoo he completed the whole thing, but obviously, it won't work because of whole no creation ex-nihillo rule.

 

[NotaNuffian]

Transmutation = 1st comprehension + 2nd deconstruction + 3nd reconstruction

Scar is "skipping the third step"

He does need to understand the vague makeup of the target to make it go ... poof.

He also needs his tattoo. The basic to do the alchemy in the FMA setting is the transmutation circle. It allows to do the whole thing assuming you follow several other rules. You would see that circle often, usually drawn on the ground, but some characters have it on gloves etc.

What Scar got is transmutation array, which is incomplete things excellent for making things go ... poof. He just skipped the output. With the second hand tattoo he completed the whole thing, but obviously, it won't work because of whole no creation ex-nihillo rule.

Yup, what I meant skip to 3 from 1 is talking about using his left arm without is right.

 

[miyoga]

Basically 1 2 3.

1 2 is fine.

But straight jump to 3 from 1 is not.

May I present Colonel Roy Mustang, the Flame Alchemist. He doesn't technically deconstruct anything when he snaps his fire into existence, so that kinda disproves your idea here.

The Ishvalans are very religious though, and for the longest time Scar thought his arm was a curse. Looking at it like this, his initial thought process would have been "To defeat the devil, I must become a devil myself" which would explain the destruction caused by his right arm. His positive encounters with the Elrics brought him around to accepting that he needed to complete the circle to find peace with himself, hence the left. He's never "playing god" like the State Alchemists do, so he won't practice "their" alchemy. When he used his left arm, he also never created anything, it was always more like when people transmuted walls into obstacles or when Edward created a Halberd when his arm was broken and he couldn't transmute the blade on it.

The way that Scar's works (in my mind) is somewhere between Mustang's glove, in the form of the tattoos, and Edwards laissez-faire transmuting.

 

[NotaNuffian]

May I present Colonel Roy Mustang, the Flame Alchemist. He doesn't technically deconstruct anything when he snaps his fire into existence, so that kinda disproves your idea here.

The Ishvalans are very religious though, and for the longest time Scar thought his arm was a curse. Looking at it like this, his initial thought process would have been "To defeat the devil, I must become a devil myself" which would explain the destruction caused by his right arm. His positive encounters with the Elrics brought him around to accepting that he needed to complete the circle to find peace with himself, hence the left. He's never "playing god" like the State Alchemists do, so he won't practice "their" alchemy. When he used his left arm, he also never created anything, it was always more like when people transmuted walls into obstacles or when Edward created a Halberd when his arm was broken and he couldn't transmute the blade on it.

The way that Scar's works (in my mind) is somewhere between Mustang's glove, in the form of the tattoos, and Edwards laissez-faire transmuting.

Roy Mustang's gloves actually do deconstruct the water molecules in the air into Hydrogen (a fuel) and Oxygen (an oxygen source). And since his gloves can cause sparks when rubbed together (heat source), the fire triangle is form and fire is created.

It is not using the fire tetrahedral model model to sustain the fire.

 

[miyoga]

That may actually be the biggest difference right there. The Sciences vs The Sacred. All the State Alchemists understand scientific disciplines like physics, biology and (especially) chemistry. Because of that, the way that they conduct Alchemy would be fundamentally different from how a religious group would approach the same action/thought. Even in the opening scenes, we see the chemical breakdown of the human body in Ed and Al's attempt to bring their mom back.

I remember hearing about this in some religious studies class or something, about one of the christian God's hands being primarily creative, so I looked and found this article saying: "For in the right hand realm, God rules by re-creating and renewing his relationship with his human creatures. But he does not then remove from this world; instead he sends us back into his realm of creation..."

The TL;DR version of the article is that you can't really have destruction without creation and that "destruction" in one world/hand is just a transmutation into the other world (like Edward at the end of the 2003 series and follow-up movie). I think that Scar himself explained that he's aware of the scientific side of Alchemy, but because of his beliefs he can't/won't perform it in the same way that everyone else does. I also vaguely remember a line from him going something like "I am the Right Hand of God", but admit I could be imagining it.