An Analysis Of Ed’s Gate: Or, How I Learned To Stop Worrying And Love The Bomb

An Analysis of Ed’s Gate: Or, How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb

So, we’ve all noticed that the Gates (or the portals) of Truth appear differently depending on the person who’s been summoned before it, right?

Al’s gate is a relief from “The Marrow of Alchemy” , a 15th Century Italian Alchemy text. 

Roy’s gate is inscribed with the Flame Alchemy array, similar to what’s tattooed on Riza’s back. 

According to the wiki, the Gate of Truth is source of all alchemical knowledge, and serves as the entrance into the domain of God, where men are not meant to tread. The engravings reflect each person’s innermost self, and their understanding of “The Truth” i.e., the Universe and all contained within it. (does this mean that Roy’s perception of reality is only viewed through the lens of Riza Hawkeye and/or Flame Alchemy? Maybe. Maybe not. Up to you to determine if that makes them soulmates. MOVING RIGHT ALONG.) 

What I found really interesting about this is that while every gate IS truth, a person’s perception of the universe will change how they view it. Understanding Ed’s gate through this light is fundamental to his character and how he perceives the world around him. And that’s the ride we’re going on today, because Ed’s gate is FASCINATING. 

Ed’s gate is the Tree of Life. Versions of the Tree of Life  can be found in practically every religious tradition from ancient Assyrian religion to modern-day Christianity. Most commonly, the Tree of Life is a symbol of knowledge, connecting heaven to the underworld and connecting ALL forms of knowledge together. 

Ed’s gate isn’t just a bastardization of any Tree of Life. It’s specifically the Kabbalistic Tree of Life, called Eitz Chaim, from the Jewish tradition of Kabbalah. 

Kabbalists believe that that Tree is a representation of how the universe came to be. Branching out from the Tree are words for God (Elohim, El, Eloah, Adonai, and so on). The Tree ALSO represents where human knowledge of the origins of the Universe END. The tree flows from pure nothingness and energy to actual physical universe, in the roots, and then this process is thought to reverse itself. “Thus, the Kabbalist seeks to know himself and the universe as an expression of God and to make the journey of return by means of the stages charted by the spheres, until he has come to the realization he sought.” (source) 

even MORE interesting, The Tree of Life can be interpreted as the very same tree that Eve ate the apple from, became “knowledgeable like God”, and was thus kicked from Eden. 

So, what does this it mean for Edward “I don’t believe in God” Elric that the very essence of his being is tied to knowledge as an expression of the very divinity he refuses to acknowledge? Especially when we think about Al’s gate which is simply about the nature of alchemy, just knowledge for knowledge’s sake, what does it mean that Ed’s perception of Truth is indelibly intertwined with Faith, with God? 

We know that Ed views himself as Icarus and that his attempt to bring his mother back was flying too close to the sun. That he’s bitter over having bitten the apple of Knowledge, and thus been kicked from Eden. The fact that his gate insists on there being a natural stopping point to what can be known by man, and it all flows back to God, seems almost antithetical to Ed’s character. 

However. 

I posit that it’s not. It’s not, at all. All gates are truth. The idea that energy is not limitless, that it starts from one place, intangible, flows to become physical, and then back again, losing none, only being transformed, is EXACTLY what Ed believes: In order to obtain or create something, something of equal value must be given up in exchange. 

Ed’s belief in equivalent exchange is so strong that it bypasses a simple alchemical truth that must be learned to perform transmutations and becomes his very perception of the universe- his truth, or perhaps you could call it his faith. Whether or not this faith is “true” in the way one could evaluate religion is irrelevant; we know equivalence is a law of the universe, and Ed’s belief in it is what matters. 

So, with this in mind, remember what Ed does to retrieve Al? 

He gives up his gate. He literally destroys how he perceives what Truth is. I don’t think this means that Ed no longer believes in equivalence, but that he understands that there are powers that supersede conservation of energy. 

After all, the Tree of Life is not only about energy changing forms, but about God creating the universe out of (in many interpretations) love. And when Ed destroys his Tree, destroys his ability to manipulate matter and participate in this great exchange, even destroys the natural stopping point that protects him from flying too close to the sun, does he not do that out of love, too?