48621


In episode 10 of _Full Metal Alchemist: Brotherhood_ , during the events in
the Research Lab 5, Edward Elric is severely hurt. Later in the hospital, he
writes down everything he had come to know, and he discusses with Alphonse,
Hughes, and Armstrong about what to do with the information to continue the
investigation.

At this point, King Bradley arrives with lemon into the room. He finds out
what they are doing but acts very calm and chilled out and allows them to
continue investigation while being careful.

Why did he not get Hughes and Armstrong killed at that point? Or at least tell
them to not investigate at all?


CC BY-SA 4.0
2017-08-25T20:22:33.957
42013
2019-05-29T12:08:46.727
2019-04-23T14:28:04.653
2516
14873
question
fullmetal-alchemist-series fullmetal-alchemist-brotherhood
Why did King Bradley allow the Elric brothers, Hughes, and Armstrong to continue investigating the military?


This wouldn't work, for a number of reasons.

## Ordering them not to investigate

If Bradley orders them to stop their investigation without cause, it could
only mean two things:

  1. Bradley doesn't want them to discover something, implying he is somehow involved with or related to their findings at the Fifth Laboratory.
  2. Bradley is an idiot.

Since I don't think anyone present would accept the second explanation, it
clearly implicates Bradley as being involved with the homunculi somehow. I
doubt this would stop Mustang since he aims to become Fuhrer, and exposing the
current one could help him achieve that goal. The Elric brothers would likely
just be even more motivated as well.

## Killing them

If Bradley killed them, it would indeed stop their investigation in its
tracks, since everyone who knew about it would be dead. There might be some
gossip about the Fuhrer inexplicably killing military officers, but it would
probably quiet down eventually.

However,

  * He cannot kill Ed or Al since they are important sacrifices for the homunculi's plot to

> turn Amestris into a philosopher's stone.

  * He can't kill Mustang either since he's a potential candidate for the above plot.

He could kill Hughes and anyone else present, but that would just add fuel to
the fire for Mustang and the Elric brothers, increasing the chances that they
will discover his real motives.

For these reasons, he decided to allow them to continue their investigation in
the hopes that they will be thrown off of the trail and not suspect that he is
involved.


CC BY-SA 4.0
2018-08-30T22:55:14.430
48621
2019-04-23T14:28:06.867
2020-06-17T09:17:53.303
-1
41474
42013
answer


Though this question has an accepted answer, I don't think it entirely answers
the question as titled. We have covered why Bradley doesn't kill them but
that's not the main question. Why did he allow them to continue their
investigation? He didn't need to kill them to stop them from investigating. So
why didn't he pressure them, took them captive or do similar things?

Well, the answer is: He did. He warned them about the danger these
investigations pose to them, we see him dropping by several times, casually
chatting with Winry, he meets Mustang with the Officers, ... Almost every time
we see him, he at least implicitly threatens our protagonists. As Mustang
continues his investigation, he becomes more direct and has Mustangs people
transferred and Hawkeye as some kind of hostage. He even imprisons doctor
Marco.

Keep in mind that we are talking about Wrath, who would like to kill every one
of them just for the sake of doing so. He tempers himself at all time so it is
hard for him to decide what the right amount of action/force is. He starts off
with warnings and puts them under surveillance so he could have them killed
when they found out too much (RIP Hughes), then he threatens them and reduces
their options. He can't kill most of them so he does everything he can (except
incarcerate them, but that would be super inconvenient for the plot) to make
sure they wouldn't find out too much.

His only other option would have been a big bluff doubling downing on the
story that he was trying to uncover the conspiracy and urging them to either
work directly under him (have them under control) or to drop the investigation
because it is too dangerous since it reached up to right under himself.

[Edit:] Another reason to neither kill nor incarcerate them is the fact that
he still is a military leader in a time of open conflict with several
neighbors. As hinted at in the series, after Scar killed quite some State
Alchemists, the strength of the military is considerably weakened. Losing
three more state alchemists and a living armor that would fight at Ed's side
anyway does not appear to be a wise decision. Father doesn't want to waste his
resources to defend the country so Bradley has to maintain the military's
strength. And purposefully weakening the military at a time like this would
appear odd to anyone else even if no one else could pose a thread, more people
investigating would be an inconveniance.

[Edit2:] From Episode 30 on, neither Mustang nor the Elric Brothes conduct any
investigation (or act against Father in any other way) that is visible to
Bradley. After thier next visible steps, they become outcasts and deserters.


CC BY-SA 4.0
2019-05-26T14:05:14.733
53060
2019-05-29T12:08:46.727
2019-05-29T12:08:46.727
33164
33164
42013
answer