military and blackmails the Elrics into working under him. Seeking to protect their friends, the Elrics travel to the northern area of the country in order to request help from General Olivier Mira Armstrong. After the two are successful in their plan, Alphonse's original body tries to recover the soul resulting in him losing consciousness several times. Separated from his brother to assist his friends' escape from the military men serving Father, Alphonse is captured by the homunculus Pride to use him against Edward. Joining forces with his father Van Hohenheim, Alphonse traps Pride and himself within a cave where the homunculus remains powerless. State Alchemist Solf J. Kimblee later comes to Pride's aid, and Alphonse is rescued by some of his comrades. Seeking to transmute the whole country, Father transports the Elrics to his base to use them as two of the five sacrifices required to achieve his goal. At the same moment, Alphonse finds his original body, but refuses to recover it because its weakened state would not help them to fight the homunculi. In the final fight against Father, Alphonse requests help from the alchemist May Chang to return Edward's right arm in exchange for Alphonse's soul. As Edward, with his restored arm, fights Father, Alphonse's soul disappears from the armor. Following Father's defeat, Edward sacrifices his ability to use alchemy to restore Alphonse's soul and original body. The two return to Resembool, where they live until they decide to separate to study alchemy. Alphonse joins with two chimera comrades and they travel to the country of Xing to learn more alchemy with May's help. In the first anime The first half of the anime's plot follows that of the manga, but the plots severely diverge from each other near the middle of the story. After Kimblee uses alchemy to transform Alphonse's armor into explosive material, Scar transfers all of his incomplete Philosopher's Stone into Al to save his life. As a result, Alphonse's armor becomes the Philosopher's Stone. Because he houses the Stone in his body, he becomes the primary target of the homunculi's leader Dante, who is trying to cheat death. Once captured by the homunculi for Dante, Al is to be eaten by Gluttony to complete the Stone inside Gluttony's body. But when he sees his brother killed trying to save him, Al uses the stone's power to heal Edward's body and re-bind his