Sinnesspiel (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
sinnesspiel) wrote2012-08-18 01:14 am
sinnesspiel) wrote2012-08-18 01:14 am
Conqueror of Shamballa Prototype Script Excerpts
Part B had more changes and dropped scenes than any other part. The best part's the Izumi and Wrath scene, but there's some good Noah/Alfons/Ed bits, too. It really emphasizes how Al's lost all of his development from the series. To be frank, I can't stand amnesiac Al, myself.
Scene: (As usual, all action descriptions and punctuation, ellipses, etc. are taken from the text; no editorializing.)
Alfons: It seems like Edward-san doesn't have any interest in anything in this world.
Noah: Because he comes from another world? Do you believe too?
Alfons: ......I don't know. But he doesn't know how to get back to his world, he doesn't know what to do, and so finally he's lost the will to live... There are times when he looks like that.
(Alfons is looking into his coffee.)
Alfons: But he... he just wants to go anywhere that isn't here.
Noah: Is that such a bad thing?
Alfons: But in reality he's living here. That person's home might only exist inside of his own head.
Noah: Isn't that fine, too?
(Alfons tries to take Noah's arm)
Noah: (Gasping) Don't touch me!
(An image of Alfons's brain activity floats across Noah's mind.
But, Alfons misunderstands.)
Alfons: S... Sorry...
(Releasing her hand, he stands up.)
Noah: Alfons
Alfons: I have, work to do... important work.
(Alfons escapes and holes up in his own room.
Noah, without a word... worries about Ed.)
In the prototype, when Haushofer talks about the Lance of Longinus, Ed remarks on Christian legend saying it holds some holy power, meaning Ed calls bullshit on Christianity more or less explicitly in saying it's just a legend (in the final cut he just incredulously scoffs at it being called magic), though Haushofer says that the belief people have held in it for some hundred years is overflowing in the lances piercing him. "Ed has no words." The script itself says Envy is stilled by sheer material limitations.
In the prototype, the scene about Ed being's Hohenheim's son is a little longer: Ed identifies himself and rather than mentioning Hohenheim, they recognize the name. Haushofer and Hess talk privately about the Ed look-alike from the TV series finale: Hess said that Hohenheim's son had died shortly after arriving here. Haushofer muses on the fact that somebody else had made it safely from Shamballa.
When Havoc and Breda first arrive to meet with Roy, Breda suggests they go inside because of the inclement weather and Roy states in dutiful keigo that he can not least his post. Breda and Havoc promptly drag him inside without a word. Originally, Breda and Havoc were ranked up to First Lieuteants (actually, everyone named ranked up), but in the end the details of that would confuse too many people so while concern for his subordinates beneath him, a man who assassinated the Fuhrer, if he remained in Central was one of the reasons he bailed, and while there being some rank shiftings up or down for everyone based on the heavy government restructurings, it was decided to leave everyone at their more familiar ranks. The scriptwriter still seems a bit bitter about that, throwing in a note about how it's really more realistic as it was originally writ. He also said that he had fought to keep many of Roy's scenes in there until the very end but that the director insisted they be cut for time to deepen Ed and Al's story; while he fought it to the end, he says that now that it's over with, he does agree that was likely the best choice for the movie overall. That means that the snow cabin scene was considerably shortened as well: in the prototype script, Breda's dialogue goes into more detail:
Breda: Setting aside your standing and applying for this position out in the country is very you, I think. I suppose this is your way of taking responsibility for assassinating the Fuhrer.
Havoc: But the military needs you, Colonel.
Roy: I want to serve for the nation from here as a Corporal. I no longer intend to stand above anyone.
Breda: Colonel! In the name of "building the nation" they've started mutually raiding the budget. Nobody's showing any direction for what this nation's goals are.
(Then Havoc tries to light his cigarette, Roy gets a match, and it's back on track with the movie for a few lines.)
In the original script, they explicitly state that it is not (Captain) Hakweye he's waiting for but Ed, and Havoc muses that Roy supposes Ed disappeared because Roy didn't make it to him to help him. Aikawa notes that if it were a novelization, he'd keep it explicit, but as a movie, it was better not said so plainly.
All of Izumi's scenes besides a flashback got cut. Aikawa even apologized to her seiyuu in the final cut script. Here they are for your enjoyment!
(Direct scene translations)
Life is as it ever was in the meat shop. Sig is selling meat at the storefront.
Izumi's voice: It was about two months ago...
Izumi is laid up in bed.
Winry has come. It feels like she's become hardier having returned from her training. Her outfit has also changed, wearing an automail technician's toolbelt and such. Winry is looking worried, talking with Izumi.
Izumi: (With a coughing fit) I eventually become unable to move... I told Al to go. There wasn't anything else I could teach him.
Winry: Is... that so....
Izumi: He... had a terrible talent for absorbing alchemy... now he might even surpass Ed.
Winry nods.
Winry: But... he still hasn't given up on Ed, has he.
Izumi: He believes. ...That Ed is alive, somwhere...At first I thought maybe he just didn't really understand how he'd disappeared, but... That's not it. It seems he... feels... something.
Winry: ...
Izumi has a coughing fit.
Izumi: It seems he's seeing, in dreams.... Dreams of Ed... Himself, in the body of a sickly 17 year old boy, living with Ed. There's a rocket or something like that that they're... working on...
Winry: Izumi-san, that's enough, please rest...
Suddenly Izumi's eyes flare open and she stands.
Winry: Izumi-san?
Izumi staggers outside.
Izumi comes out of the back door looking ready to collapse. Winry and Sig follow her.
Sig: What are you doing?
Winry: If you don't sleep...!
Izumi brushes them off.
Izumi... desperately walks forward.
Izumi: So you've... come....
Looking ahead along Izumi's line of sight, Winry gasps.
Winry: ....
There is Wrath.
He stands, with rusted and broken down automail.
Izumi: ...Son...
Izumi reaches her hand towards Wrath and... like that, collapses.
With a start, Wrath starts to flee.
Winry: Wrath.
Wrath jerks to a stop
Winry: You can't go... Isn't she your mom, after all...
Wrath: Homunculi don't have mothers... We're... fake lives made with alchemy...
Wrath, with a look of suffering, approaches Izumi.
Izumi takes hold of Wrath.
Izumi: Then... I'll give you... a real life...
Wrath: ...
Suddenly, Izumi hugs Wrath tightly.
Like that she dies.
Winry: Izumi...-san? Izumi-san?!
Izumi has taken her last breath, holding onto Wrath with a smile.
Sig's tears overflow... without a word.
Wrath is spaced out.
Winry bursts out sobbing.
(End direct scene translation.)
The next scene is Al in the desert; only real change is that he looks up and says "..... Winry .....?" and then comments that he's coming up on Liore and that it somehow doesn't feel like the first time he's gone there. Some of the dialogue in Liore is chopped short; Foodstand man tries to insist for a line that he should have at least designed his storefront himself, but when Armstrong asks if he's unsatisfied, he just rolls with it.
Cut scene after foodstand guy:
Armstrong stops to take a look around town when some children come running up to him.
Kids: "Old man Armstrong, old man Armstrong!" "Do some more alchemy for us!"
Roze comes out of a house following the children.
Roze: Hey! You can't be like that, everyone!
Roze looks to Armstrong and bows her head
Armstrong: (Gathering and lifting up the kids) Seems the numbers have increased again, have they?
Roze: Yes. It isn't just Liore, there are children who have lost their parents all around... I thought I'd like to raise as many as I could.
Armstrong: What a splendid deed it is!
Roze: Uhm, Major...
Armstrong gives a talk about how he's no longer on the military register and is serving as a foundation to a director of national foundation, a corner stone of the nation, blahblah. Roze awkwardly smiles it off and then mentions that it's been two years since Ed disappeared after transmuting Al.
Cue earthquake, back to the script as normal.
For the quick, dialogueless scene with Fuery and Sceizka, there was a cut gag line by Fuery commenting that Sciezka can flee unexpectedly fast, followed by him adding, artlessly: "That's not to say you're always 'slow' or anything..." but Sciezka doesn't answer. There's a few extra lines here and there where Hawkeye is informed of the dual earthquakes by Ross, Denny trying to get the message has a few extra lines, etc. Armstrong is a bit put out that AL doesn't remember him, but when the military muses it seems like the people in the armor were dead from the moment they arrived, Armstrong is relieved they weren't killed by Al.
Al is surrounded by and playing with the kids. Roze's kid is there to.
Al: I wonder what the hell those guys were, don't you?
Roze: Even though you didn't know, you suddenly fought with them?
Al: Well, I wanted to test some alchemy...
Roze looks at Al's face as he seems to be enjoying himself.
Roze: Al... are you still searching for Ed?
Al: .... Yeah.
Roze: Ed... in order to bring your body back... disappeared as the price. No matter where in the world you look, he won't...
Al: .... I don't believe that.
Then the armors start going back into the gate, back to the final cut script. Gracia is pretty different in the original cut: they originally wanted to emphasize that, face aside, Shamballa Gracia is a completely different character, it says in a footnote regarding why she talks about war happily.
Gracia: We haven't seen much of Edward-kun lately, have we?
Noah: Yes. He said that he was just going out, but then he's always...
Gracia: But Alfons-kun is kind, so you're doing all right, right?
Noah looks at Gracia, surprised.
Gracia: But I guess it's no good if someone's just kind, is it?
Noah turns her face away and stirs the cooking.
Gracia: How long do you plan to stay here?
Noah: Eh??
Gracia: It'd be best not to be in Munich.
Noah: Why is that?
Gracia: (Sounding happy) Because, a war might be starting.
Noah: War?
Alfons returns home and Gracia serves them stew then leaves them be, cue the scene where Hughes get the door shut in his face, as in the final cut.
When Alfons and Noah are talking about war, Alfons says he just wants to make rockets and adds on "Unlike Ed, I'm realistic."
(scene translation pickup)
There's something that could be considered cold about those words.
Noah:... Ed... He couldn't possibly have returned to his own world, could he.
Alfons looks surprised. He forces himself to smile.
Alfons: Noah fully believes him, then. As for me... I half believe him, half doubt him, still.
Noah: .... But, there no people who can lie with those eyes!
Alfons turns from that gaze.
Alfons: That person... has never gotten a proper job and won't get too deeply involved with anybody but myself. I'm sure it's because he plans to return to his world some day... Because he's thinking this is a dream.... (Alfons starts to seem annoyed.) Even if you say to him that Germany's going to beat France and even England... All he ever says is that. "War is meaningless. No matter how many times it happens, Germany will lose" ... he says. According to that perosn, this world is all somebody else's problem.
Noah becomes uneasy wondering if Alfons doesn't hate Edward.
(End scene)
When Ed is snooping around before the Gate opens and he meets Al again, he first runs into Alfons and co., but trips off an alarm. A soldier comes along while Ed hides and Alfons passes it off as a stray bird tripping the alarm. The soldier tells them to take care and heads off; Alfons idly wonders about the heightened security and if something is happening. The soldiers smirk at each other.
Al's friend: It's been a while, Edward-san.
Ed: Aa. So this.... is your guys's rocket workshop, huh.
Alfons: Yes.
Al's friend: It's incredible! There are plans for the father of rocketry, Oberth, to come here soon!
Ed: .... This's Haushofer's villa, isn't it? An occultist's taking interest in your guys's rocket research?
Ed, making use of the model rocket as a footing, skillfully climbs up.
Alfons: Shamballa... have you heard of it?
Ed: Only just recently.
Alfons: (As if reciting from memory) It is a kingdom more expansive than any that's been above ground. Protected by the surrounding snowy mountains, it is an utopia without war, without sickness, without suffering and without sadness. The inhabitants' perfect knowledge assures their peace, and their mysterious power enables their military. In the final war, they will user in the golden age...
Ed: What a fairy tale, huh. On top of that, I heard this group believes in a northern island called Thule.
Alfons: It's the same thing. Haushofer-san and the others are seeking an utopia somewhere other than here. It's possible that that's at the brink of outer space.
Ed, while listening, climbs on the rocket near the ceiling.
Ed: What are they looking for that for?
Alfons: ...There are legends all over the world of an utopia hiding an amazing power.... with that power... They want to give peace to the world... so it's been heard.
Ed: Do you believe that?
Alfons says nothing. The smiles on Al's friends faces speak for them.
Then Al tells him the guard is coming again and they need to get to work, and Ed slips off to get back into the movie plot.
The information exchanged and gotten from the scene with Eckart and the others is about the same, but it flows a little more slowly but smoothly in the original cut. Eckart feels more fleshed out somehow to me.
(When Hess is aiming the gun at Ed)
Haus: But, he can open the Gate once it's been closed. We are in need of his knowledge.
Hess, nevertheless, keeps his gun aimed.
Eckart: Indeed... Edward-san, you are... interested in the other side of the Gate, are you not?
Ed: What are you talking about.
Eckart: The two of you, you and your father, do come from there, do you not?
Ed: ....Aa.
Eckart: Don't you wish to return?
Ed: ....
Hess: Answer her!
Ed: ... You guys... don't know anything.
Hess: How futile.
Hess shoots, and we're back in line with the movie script. It's the same, other than Alfons and his friends hearing the gun shots and Alfons seeing Ed and the armor fleeing, hearing Ed call it "Al" and him pondering about it briefly.
Originally during Ed and Al's talk, there was also a cut of Al's body back in the Rockbell house reacting to a part of his soul being elsewhere, complete with a transmutation circle on his neck as proof of his soul's binding? I wonder how that all works when he's doing it while awake like he did in Liore a few scenes ago... Anyway, Aikawa thought it was a bit strange, so it was cut. But Winry originally walked in on it, so this scene takes place with Al in the bed, unconscious but talking.
Winry pops her head into the room and:
Winry: Tahdah! I'm home, Al! What's this, why'd you come back, I was looking all over for you...
Winry spreads out souvenirs gathered from all over. But, Al, like someone engrossed in a long phone conversation, continues to lightly cough.
Al: But, why did you come to a place like this?
Winry: Al....?
Winry is coming downstairs, her face not shown.
Winry: If Sciezka-san were here, she'd say: "Al-san is is talking to alieeeeeeens!" about now.
Pinako is feeding Wrath, who Winry brought home. There's a quick scene were Wrath comments that he smells like the Gate. Winry knows what the Gate is and that Homunculi are born from it, as she explains it to Pinako. The script says she can't quite say it all, but doesn't really say where she cuts herself off.
Noah also eavesdrops on the conversation as Ed and Al talk, now at Ed's home.
Ed:: They're armored soldiers, they were lost over there. If your soul rode back on one of them that means... They've really obtained a way to open the Gate.
Al: That's great, Nii-san... Then, Nii-san can come back here!
Noah is listening.
Ed: A... Aa.
Al: I always believed! That Nii-san was alive somewhere, that you'd definitely come back...
Ed: Al... But, I....
Al: How do you think we can open the Gate?
Ed: They used Envy... They used a Homunculus's body. Since they're something that's originally pulled from inside the Gate, they might be able to open it.
Al: ... A Homunculus, huh...
Ed: But, I
Something makes a noise and they notice. Noah is standing there.
Ed: Noah?
Noah: Ah, uhm, should I buy dinner for your little brother?
Ed: It's fine, it's late. Besides, he can't eat.
Noah: I'm going!
Noah leaves as if escaping.
Al: She's cute. Winry would be mad, I bet.
Ed: What are you talking about?
Al: ... Because... I'm... now I'm years apart from Winry, already....
Ed: .... Al...
And, Noah cries out.
Ed is surprised. He's going. Al follows.
Al: Ah, Nii-san, wait. There's still something important to...
(not a direct translation of the action, but they go outside to see Shutner's followers trying to take Noah)
Ed: You guys are...
Noah: Ed!
Ed: Che, so you finally found her. In that case I'll make it so you can't ever come back again!
Ed fights them and uses his metal hand to bend their blades.
Ed: Al, you can tell by looking right, these guys are bad guys!
Al: Mou! Don't talk to me like a child! I'm twelve years old!
Ed looks with a start.
Ed: (With a pained smile) Is that right, twelve huh. Then let's do it.
Al: But, Nii-san
(cutting some action description, some of the enemies are afraid of a talking Al and shout that he's a devil, an armored devil.)
Al: I am NOT a devil!
And, Ed, who is covering for Noah, is surrounded by the followers.
Al: Nii-san!
Al approaches to save them.
Ed: (Happily) Al!
But in his approaching pose, he freezes to a stop. With jerking movements, he moves slowly.
Ed: ... Al.... what's wrong?
Al's voice, like a radio with bad reception fading out, cuts away.
Al: Nii-san, I tried to tell you this before but... The technique to attach my soul... It doesn't last very long... It looks like I'm out of time...
Ed: Al... Al... You're going back?
Al: But... I know... how to bring Nii-san back... I'll open... the Gate from here, too....
Ed: ...Al!
Al's armor has completely stopped moving and the light is gone from his eyes.
Noah: ... Ed...
(short description again, Ed goes into a fit and wails on the guys surrounding them until Gracia comes out.)
Gracia: Ed-kun, what are you doing!
Looking at the scene, the followers are all defeated, but Ed continues to hit one of them.
Gracia: What's wrong, Ed-kun, Ed-kun, please!
Gracia embraces Ed. Ed, at last stops, with a breath.
With a clang, Al's armor falls to the ground.
Slowly, a humongous smile breaks out over Al's lips. Suddenly he bursts out laughing. Surprised and watching are Winry and the others.
Winry: Al!
Al: Winry... It's Nii-san, I've found Nii-san!
Winry: Ed?!
Without thinking, Winry becomes happy.
But, Wrath looks on, uneasily.
Al takes Den's paw and starts to dance.
(Next scene summary: Al is taking notes while talking to Winry)
Winry: Wh, why are you asking something like that all of a sudden....?
Al: I want to know, anything. Anything about me and Nii-san. Nobody is telling it to me clearly, are they?
Al looks at Winry.
Al: Me and Nii-san... We tried to revive mom and performed human transmutation... But, that failed and Nii-san lost his limbs... and I lost everything.
Winry nods.
Al: But, Nii-san attached my soul to some nearby armor. And... What happened after that? We went on a journey... and then...
Winry: Al. It's just like I told you before. Your body returned... and Ed... disappeared.
Al: Where at?
Winry: In Central... Underground, they said.... Please, stop, already.
Winry, unable to bear it, leaves.
Al crumples up and throws away his remaining notes.
Al: Underground in Central...? But, the Gate opened in Liore. Liore and Central... Earthquakes... What is...
Wrath: Liore... That's where Scar died, isn't it.
Al looks to him with a start.
Al: Scar?
Wrath: Aa... you don't remember that either? You were on the brink of death, so he transmuted you into the Philosopher's Stone.... They said he saved your life.
Al takes hold of him.
Al: You are... What do you know?
Wrath: Let go.
Al: You... What are you? Nobody would tell me about you properly! What on earth are...
Wrath: ...I saw it... All of it....
Like the end of a play, the scene of the final battle. Wrath can only watch.
Wrath: You brought Edward back to life... And after that Edward... transmuted you and disappeared.
Al looks at him.
Al: ... (Enduring his racing heart and at last) .... Then you... know where that place is, don't you?
Wrath: ...You wanna go? To where you were transmuted.
Al nods.
(Scriptwriter's note: I wanted to use this scene to show how much of Al's memory was lost and how much he had heard from people, but for people for whom the movie was their first exposure to Hagane, it might be an awful lot. And if Wrath talks this much, it might make Wrath's last scene difficult, so it was erased.)
Ed goes to Shutner's where he comments on Ed's aura while Gracia hides Noah and questions if the armor had spoke earlier. Hughes comes during this scene and Gracia comments on how horrible it was that she was attacked. Hughes awkwardly agrees while saying she just needs to come down to the station to talk about what happened. She uncomfortably goes with him, and Gracia calls after him to protect her. Hughes says nothing.
Shutner talks to Ed about a mysterious power that exists deep inside and insists it's a different internal power his society is after. Ed snarks: "In other words, you all've got no interest in reality." (The script writer ads, though, that Ed's look of vague interest despite himself is because if it were real, it would imply alchemy could be done in the 'real' world.) Shutner says they're different from the Thule Society, but Ed says they attacked Noah; Shutner says they were trying to protect her, it's the Thule society that wants to take her to get the power from Shamballa to conqueror the world. He who conquers Shamballa conquers the world, it's said; Ed realizes, in shock, that Eckart wants to conquer that world. It's discovered that Eckart got ahold of the bomb when Envy came through and, through analyzing it, determined that the land beyond was Shamballa with science and culture different and more advanced than their own. Ed gets pissed, denting the desk and demanding to know how they got that far in opening the pathway and analyzing that bomb int he first place. The answer is Hohenheim. Ed decides that he can't let them open the Gate again no matter what. The script writer points out that at this point int he prototype, Ed doesn't know if his enemy is Shutner or the Thule society, but much of Shunter's role was hefted off onto Fritz Lang in the final cut.
Cue a scene of Ed walking through the streets at night:
Ed walks. He's worn to his limits, with that face. That is the expression, the emotion, of having lost all hope.
Actually, given the Fritz Lang scene is in early Part C, maybe I've gone a bit over, but a lot of the Fritz Lang talks were earlier in the Prototype, moved to this point to emphasize, in the new script, what makes Ed give up on opening the Gate. The Prototype Script isn't broken up into parts as neatly, but I'll break here for now.
Thanks for reading!
Scene: (As usual, all action descriptions and punctuation, ellipses, etc. are taken from the text; no editorializing.)
Alfons: It seems like Edward-san doesn't have any interest in anything in this world.
Noah: Because he comes from another world? Do you believe too?
Alfons: ......I don't know. But he doesn't know how to get back to his world, he doesn't know what to do, and so finally he's lost the will to live... There are times when he looks like that.
(Alfons is looking into his coffee.)
Alfons: But he... he just wants to go anywhere that isn't here.
Noah: Is that such a bad thing?
Alfons: But in reality he's living here. That person's home might only exist inside of his own head.
Noah: Isn't that fine, too?
(Alfons tries to take Noah's arm)
Noah: (Gasping) Don't touch me!
(An image of Alfons's brain activity floats across Noah's mind.
But, Alfons misunderstands.)
Alfons: S... Sorry...
(Releasing her hand, he stands up.)
Noah: Alfons
Alfons: I have, work to do... important work.
(Alfons escapes and holes up in his own room.
Noah, without a word... worries about Ed.)
In the prototype, when Haushofer talks about the Lance of Longinus, Ed remarks on Christian legend saying it holds some holy power, meaning Ed calls bullshit on Christianity more or less explicitly in saying it's just a legend (in the final cut he just incredulously scoffs at it being called magic), though Haushofer says that the belief people have held in it for some hundred years is overflowing in the lances piercing him. "Ed has no words." The script itself says Envy is stilled by sheer material limitations.
In the prototype, the scene about Ed being's Hohenheim's son is a little longer: Ed identifies himself and rather than mentioning Hohenheim, they recognize the name. Haushofer and Hess talk privately about the Ed look-alike from the TV series finale: Hess said that Hohenheim's son had died shortly after arriving here. Haushofer muses on the fact that somebody else had made it safely from Shamballa.
When Havoc and Breda first arrive to meet with Roy, Breda suggests they go inside because of the inclement weather and Roy states in dutiful keigo that he can not least his post. Breda and Havoc promptly drag him inside without a word. Originally, Breda and Havoc were ranked up to First Lieuteants (actually, everyone named ranked up), but in the end the details of that would confuse too many people so while concern for his subordinates beneath him, a man who assassinated the Fuhrer, if he remained in Central was one of the reasons he bailed, and while there being some rank shiftings up or down for everyone based on the heavy government restructurings, it was decided to leave everyone at their more familiar ranks. The scriptwriter still seems a bit bitter about that, throwing in a note about how it's really more realistic as it was originally writ. He also said that he had fought to keep many of Roy's scenes in there until the very end but that the director insisted they be cut for time to deepen Ed and Al's story; while he fought it to the end, he says that now that it's over with, he does agree that was likely the best choice for the movie overall. That means that the snow cabin scene was considerably shortened as well: in the prototype script, Breda's dialogue goes into more detail:
Breda: Setting aside your standing and applying for this position out in the country is very you, I think. I suppose this is your way of taking responsibility for assassinating the Fuhrer.
Havoc: But the military needs you, Colonel.
Roy: I want to serve for the nation from here as a Corporal. I no longer intend to stand above anyone.
Breda: Colonel! In the name of "building the nation" they've started mutually raiding the budget. Nobody's showing any direction for what this nation's goals are.
(Then Havoc tries to light his cigarette, Roy gets a match, and it's back on track with the movie for a few lines.)
In the original script, they explicitly state that it is not (Captain) Hakweye he's waiting for but Ed, and Havoc muses that Roy supposes Ed disappeared because Roy didn't make it to him to help him. Aikawa notes that if it were a novelization, he'd keep it explicit, but as a movie, it was better not said so plainly.
All of Izumi's scenes besides a flashback got cut. Aikawa even apologized to her seiyuu in the final cut script. Here they are for your enjoyment!
(Direct scene translations)
Life is as it ever was in the meat shop. Sig is selling meat at the storefront.
Izumi's voice: It was about two months ago...
Izumi is laid up in bed.
Winry has come. It feels like she's become hardier having returned from her training. Her outfit has also changed, wearing an automail technician's toolbelt and such. Winry is looking worried, talking with Izumi.
Izumi: (With a coughing fit) I eventually become unable to move... I told Al to go. There wasn't anything else I could teach him.
Winry: Is... that so....
Izumi: He... had a terrible talent for absorbing alchemy... now he might even surpass Ed.
Winry nods.
Winry: But... he still hasn't given up on Ed, has he.
Izumi: He believes. ...That Ed is alive, somwhere...At first I thought maybe he just didn't really understand how he'd disappeared, but... That's not it. It seems he... feels... something.
Winry: ...
Izumi has a coughing fit.
Izumi: It seems he's seeing, in dreams.... Dreams of Ed... Himself, in the body of a sickly 17 year old boy, living with Ed. There's a rocket or something like that that they're... working on...
Winry: Izumi-san, that's enough, please rest...
Suddenly Izumi's eyes flare open and she stands.
Winry: Izumi-san?
Izumi staggers outside.
Izumi comes out of the back door looking ready to collapse. Winry and Sig follow her.
Sig: What are you doing?
Winry: If you don't sleep...!
Izumi brushes them off.
Izumi... desperately walks forward.
Izumi: So you've... come....
Looking ahead along Izumi's line of sight, Winry gasps.
Winry: ....
There is Wrath.
He stands, with rusted and broken down automail.
Izumi: ...Son...
Izumi reaches her hand towards Wrath and... like that, collapses.
With a start, Wrath starts to flee.
Winry: Wrath.
Wrath jerks to a stop
Winry: You can't go... Isn't she your mom, after all...
Wrath: Homunculi don't have mothers... We're... fake lives made with alchemy...
Wrath, with a look of suffering, approaches Izumi.
Izumi takes hold of Wrath.
Izumi: Then... I'll give you... a real life...
Wrath: ...
Suddenly, Izumi hugs Wrath tightly.
Like that she dies.
Winry: Izumi...-san? Izumi-san?!
Izumi has taken her last breath, holding onto Wrath with a smile.
Sig's tears overflow... without a word.
Wrath is spaced out.
Winry bursts out sobbing.
(End direct scene translation.)
The next scene is Al in the desert; only real change is that he looks up and says "..... Winry .....?" and then comments that he's coming up on Liore and that it somehow doesn't feel like the first time he's gone there. Some of the dialogue in Liore is chopped short; Foodstand man tries to insist for a line that he should have at least designed his storefront himself, but when Armstrong asks if he's unsatisfied, he just rolls with it.
Cut scene after foodstand guy:
Armstrong stops to take a look around town when some children come running up to him.
Kids: "Old man Armstrong, old man Armstrong!" "Do some more alchemy for us!"
Roze comes out of a house following the children.
Roze: Hey! You can't be like that, everyone!
Roze looks to Armstrong and bows her head
Armstrong: (Gathering and lifting up the kids) Seems the numbers have increased again, have they?
Roze: Yes. It isn't just Liore, there are children who have lost their parents all around... I thought I'd like to raise as many as I could.
Armstrong: What a splendid deed it is!
Roze: Uhm, Major...
Armstrong gives a talk about how he's no longer on the military register and is serving as a foundation to a director of national foundation, a corner stone of the nation, blahblah. Roze awkwardly smiles it off and then mentions that it's been two years since Ed disappeared after transmuting Al.
Cue earthquake, back to the script as normal.
For the quick, dialogueless scene with Fuery and Sceizka, there was a cut gag line by Fuery commenting that Sciezka can flee unexpectedly fast, followed by him adding, artlessly: "That's not to say you're always 'slow' or anything..." but Sciezka doesn't answer. There's a few extra lines here and there where Hawkeye is informed of the dual earthquakes by Ross, Denny trying to get the message has a few extra lines, etc. Armstrong is a bit put out that AL doesn't remember him, but when the military muses it seems like the people in the armor were dead from the moment they arrived, Armstrong is relieved they weren't killed by Al.
Al is surrounded by and playing with the kids. Roze's kid is there to.
Al: I wonder what the hell those guys were, don't you?
Roze: Even though you didn't know, you suddenly fought with them?
Al: Well, I wanted to test some alchemy...
Roze looks at Al's face as he seems to be enjoying himself.
Roze: Al... are you still searching for Ed?
Al: .... Yeah.
Roze: Ed... in order to bring your body back... disappeared as the price. No matter where in the world you look, he won't...
Al: .... I don't believe that.
Then the armors start going back into the gate, back to the final cut script. Gracia is pretty different in the original cut: they originally wanted to emphasize that, face aside, Shamballa Gracia is a completely different character, it says in a footnote regarding why she talks about war happily.
Gracia: We haven't seen much of Edward-kun lately, have we?
Noah: Yes. He said that he was just going out, but then he's always...
Gracia: But Alfons-kun is kind, so you're doing all right, right?
Noah looks at Gracia, surprised.
Gracia: But I guess it's no good if someone's just kind, is it?
Noah turns her face away and stirs the cooking.
Gracia: How long do you plan to stay here?
Noah: Eh??
Gracia: It'd be best not to be in Munich.
Noah: Why is that?
Gracia: (Sounding happy) Because, a war might be starting.
Noah: War?
Alfons returns home and Gracia serves them stew then leaves them be, cue the scene where Hughes get the door shut in his face, as in the final cut.
When Alfons and Noah are talking about war, Alfons says he just wants to make rockets and adds on "Unlike Ed, I'm realistic."
(scene translation pickup)
There's something that could be considered cold about those words.
Noah:... Ed... He couldn't possibly have returned to his own world, could he.
Alfons looks surprised. He forces himself to smile.
Alfons: Noah fully believes him, then. As for me... I half believe him, half doubt him, still.
Noah: .... But, there no people who can lie with those eyes!
Alfons turns from that gaze.
Alfons: That person... has never gotten a proper job and won't get too deeply involved with anybody but myself. I'm sure it's because he plans to return to his world some day... Because he's thinking this is a dream.... (Alfons starts to seem annoyed.) Even if you say to him that Germany's going to beat France and even England... All he ever says is that. "War is meaningless. No matter how many times it happens, Germany will lose" ... he says. According to that perosn, this world is all somebody else's problem.
Noah becomes uneasy wondering if Alfons doesn't hate Edward.
(End scene)
When Ed is snooping around before the Gate opens and he meets Al again, he first runs into Alfons and co., but trips off an alarm. A soldier comes along while Ed hides and Alfons passes it off as a stray bird tripping the alarm. The soldier tells them to take care and heads off; Alfons idly wonders about the heightened security and if something is happening. The soldiers smirk at each other.
Al's friend: It's been a while, Edward-san.
Ed: Aa. So this.... is your guys's rocket workshop, huh.
Alfons: Yes.
Al's friend: It's incredible! There are plans for the father of rocketry, Oberth, to come here soon!
Ed: .... This's Haushofer's villa, isn't it? An occultist's taking interest in your guys's rocket research?
Ed, making use of the model rocket as a footing, skillfully climbs up.
Alfons: Shamballa... have you heard of it?
Ed: Only just recently.
Alfons: (As if reciting from memory) It is a kingdom more expansive than any that's been above ground. Protected by the surrounding snowy mountains, it is an utopia without war, without sickness, without suffering and without sadness. The inhabitants' perfect knowledge assures their peace, and their mysterious power enables their military. In the final war, they will user in the golden age...
Ed: What a fairy tale, huh. On top of that, I heard this group believes in a northern island called Thule.
Alfons: It's the same thing. Haushofer-san and the others are seeking an utopia somewhere other than here. It's possible that that's at the brink of outer space.
Ed, while listening, climbs on the rocket near the ceiling.
Ed: What are they looking for that for?
Alfons: ...There are legends all over the world of an utopia hiding an amazing power.... with that power... They want to give peace to the world... so it's been heard.
Ed: Do you believe that?
Alfons says nothing. The smiles on Al's friends faces speak for them.
Then Al tells him the guard is coming again and they need to get to work, and Ed slips off to get back into the movie plot.
The information exchanged and gotten from the scene with Eckart and the others is about the same, but it flows a little more slowly but smoothly in the original cut. Eckart feels more fleshed out somehow to me.
(When Hess is aiming the gun at Ed)
Haus: But, he can open the Gate once it's been closed. We are in need of his knowledge.
Hess, nevertheless, keeps his gun aimed.
Eckart: Indeed... Edward-san, you are... interested in the other side of the Gate, are you not?
Ed: What are you talking about.
Eckart: The two of you, you and your father, do come from there, do you not?
Ed: ....Aa.
Eckart: Don't you wish to return?
Ed: ....
Hess: Answer her!
Ed: ... You guys... don't know anything.
Hess: How futile.
Hess shoots, and we're back in line with the movie script. It's the same, other than Alfons and his friends hearing the gun shots and Alfons seeing Ed and the armor fleeing, hearing Ed call it "Al" and him pondering about it briefly.
Originally during Ed and Al's talk, there was also a cut of Al's body back in the Rockbell house reacting to a part of his soul being elsewhere, complete with a transmutation circle on his neck as proof of his soul's binding? I wonder how that all works when he's doing it while awake like he did in Liore a few scenes ago... Anyway, Aikawa thought it was a bit strange, so it was cut. But Winry originally walked in on it, so this scene takes place with Al in the bed, unconscious but talking.
Winry pops her head into the room and:
Winry: Tahdah! I'm home, Al! What's this, why'd you come back, I was looking all over for you...
Winry spreads out souvenirs gathered from all over. But, Al, like someone engrossed in a long phone conversation, continues to lightly cough.
Al: But, why did you come to a place like this?
Winry: Al....?
Winry is coming downstairs, her face not shown.
Winry: If Sciezka-san were here, she'd say: "Al-san is is talking to alieeeeeeens!" about now.
Pinako is feeding Wrath, who Winry brought home. There's a quick scene were Wrath comments that he smells like the Gate. Winry knows what the Gate is and that Homunculi are born from it, as she explains it to Pinako. The script says she can't quite say it all, but doesn't really say where she cuts herself off.
Noah also eavesdrops on the conversation as Ed and Al talk, now at Ed's home.
Ed:: They're armored soldiers, they were lost over there. If your soul rode back on one of them that means... They've really obtained a way to open the Gate.
Al: That's great, Nii-san... Then, Nii-san can come back here!
Noah is listening.
Ed: A... Aa.
Al: I always believed! That Nii-san was alive somewhere, that you'd definitely come back...
Ed: Al... But, I....
Al: How do you think we can open the Gate?
Ed: They used Envy... They used a Homunculus's body. Since they're something that's originally pulled from inside the Gate, they might be able to open it.
Al: ... A Homunculus, huh...
Ed: But, I
Something makes a noise and they notice. Noah is standing there.
Ed: Noah?
Noah: Ah, uhm, should I buy dinner for your little brother?
Ed: It's fine, it's late. Besides, he can't eat.
Noah: I'm going!
Noah leaves as if escaping.
Al: She's cute. Winry would be mad, I bet.
Ed: What are you talking about?
Al: ... Because... I'm... now I'm years apart from Winry, already....
Ed: .... Al...
And, Noah cries out.
Ed is surprised. He's going. Al follows.
Al: Ah, Nii-san, wait. There's still something important to...
(not a direct translation of the action, but they go outside to see Shutner's followers trying to take Noah)
Ed: You guys are...
Noah: Ed!
Ed: Che, so you finally found her. In that case I'll make it so you can't ever come back again!
Ed fights them and uses his metal hand to bend their blades.
Ed: Al, you can tell by looking right, these guys are bad guys!
Al: Mou! Don't talk to me like a child! I'm twelve years old!
Ed looks with a start.
Ed: (With a pained smile) Is that right, twelve huh. Then let's do it.
Al: But, Nii-san
(cutting some action description, some of the enemies are afraid of a talking Al and shout that he's a devil, an armored devil.)
Al: I am NOT a devil!
And, Ed, who is covering for Noah, is surrounded by the followers.
Al: Nii-san!
Al approaches to save them.
Ed: (Happily) Al!
But in his approaching pose, he freezes to a stop. With jerking movements, he moves slowly.
Ed: ... Al.... what's wrong?
Al's voice, like a radio with bad reception fading out, cuts away.
Al: Nii-san, I tried to tell you this before but... The technique to attach my soul... It doesn't last very long... It looks like I'm out of time...
Ed: Al... Al... You're going back?
Al: But... I know... how to bring Nii-san back... I'll open... the Gate from here, too....
Ed: ...Al!
Al's armor has completely stopped moving and the light is gone from his eyes.
Noah: ... Ed...
(short description again, Ed goes into a fit and wails on the guys surrounding them until Gracia comes out.)
Gracia: Ed-kun, what are you doing!
Looking at the scene, the followers are all defeated, but Ed continues to hit one of them.
Gracia: What's wrong, Ed-kun, Ed-kun, please!
Gracia embraces Ed. Ed, at last stops, with a breath.
With a clang, Al's armor falls to the ground.
Slowly, a humongous smile breaks out over Al's lips. Suddenly he bursts out laughing. Surprised and watching are Winry and the others.
Winry: Al!
Al: Winry... It's Nii-san, I've found Nii-san!
Winry: Ed?!
Without thinking, Winry becomes happy.
But, Wrath looks on, uneasily.
Al takes Den's paw and starts to dance.
(Next scene summary: Al is taking notes while talking to Winry)
Winry: Wh, why are you asking something like that all of a sudden....?
Al: I want to know, anything. Anything about me and Nii-san. Nobody is telling it to me clearly, are they?
Al looks at Winry.
Al: Me and Nii-san... We tried to revive mom and performed human transmutation... But, that failed and Nii-san lost his limbs... and I lost everything.
Winry nods.
Al: But, Nii-san attached my soul to some nearby armor. And... What happened after that? We went on a journey... and then...
Winry: Al. It's just like I told you before. Your body returned... and Ed... disappeared.
Al: Where at?
Winry: In Central... Underground, they said.... Please, stop, already.
Winry, unable to bear it, leaves.
Al crumples up and throws away his remaining notes.
Al: Underground in Central...? But, the Gate opened in Liore. Liore and Central... Earthquakes... What is...
Wrath: Liore... That's where Scar died, isn't it.
Al looks to him with a start.
Al: Scar?
Wrath: Aa... you don't remember that either? You were on the brink of death, so he transmuted you into the Philosopher's Stone.... They said he saved your life.
Al takes hold of him.
Al: You are... What do you know?
Wrath: Let go.
Al: You... What are you? Nobody would tell me about you properly! What on earth are...
Wrath: ...I saw it... All of it....
Like the end of a play, the scene of the final battle. Wrath can only watch.
Wrath: You brought Edward back to life... And after that Edward... transmuted you and disappeared.
Al looks at him.
Al: ... (Enduring his racing heart and at last) .... Then you... know where that place is, don't you?
Wrath: ...You wanna go? To where you were transmuted.
Al nods.
(Scriptwriter's note: I wanted to use this scene to show how much of Al's memory was lost and how much he had heard from people, but for people for whom the movie was their first exposure to Hagane, it might be an awful lot. And if Wrath talks this much, it might make Wrath's last scene difficult, so it was erased.)
Ed goes to Shutner's where he comments on Ed's aura while Gracia hides Noah and questions if the armor had spoke earlier. Hughes comes during this scene and Gracia comments on how horrible it was that she was attacked. Hughes awkwardly agrees while saying she just needs to come down to the station to talk about what happened. She uncomfortably goes with him, and Gracia calls after him to protect her. Hughes says nothing.
Shutner talks to Ed about a mysterious power that exists deep inside and insists it's a different internal power his society is after. Ed snarks: "In other words, you all've got no interest in reality." (The script writer ads, though, that Ed's look of vague interest despite himself is because if it were real, it would imply alchemy could be done in the 'real' world.) Shutner says they're different from the Thule Society, but Ed says they attacked Noah; Shutner says they were trying to protect her, it's the Thule society that wants to take her to get the power from Shamballa to conqueror the world. He who conquers Shamballa conquers the world, it's said; Ed realizes, in shock, that Eckart wants to conquer that world. It's discovered that Eckart got ahold of the bomb when Envy came through and, through analyzing it, determined that the land beyond was Shamballa with science and culture different and more advanced than their own. Ed gets pissed, denting the desk and demanding to know how they got that far in opening the pathway and analyzing that bomb int he first place. The answer is Hohenheim. Ed decides that he can't let them open the Gate again no matter what. The script writer points out that at this point int he prototype, Ed doesn't know if his enemy is Shutner or the Thule society, but much of Shunter's role was hefted off onto Fritz Lang in the final cut.
Cue a scene of Ed walking through the streets at night:
Ed walks. He's worn to his limits, with that face. That is the expression, the emotion, of having lost all hope.
Actually, given the Fritz Lang scene is in early Part C, maybe I've gone a bit over, but a lot of the Fritz Lang talks were earlier in the Prototype, moved to this point to emphasize, in the new script, what makes Ed give up on opening the Gate. The Prototype Script isn't broken up into parts as neatly, but I'll break here for now.
Thanks for reading!