[Zolda]

Houtarou's mom casually allows her place to be used as Houtarou's new Alchemy Club. Is she just being a supportive mom, or could it mean that she secretly knows (and remembers) the whole truth about alchemy, the AU, and her family, including the actual whereabouts of her husband? She's probably known the truth all along, and all this time she's been waiting on the sidelines for the events to unfold and see whether fate will make Houtarou and alchemy meet again. Her situation is probably similar to Airi Nogami's from KR Den-O.

Houtarou considers asking Kajiki to join the AC, but Rinne disagrees because the rules state that Muggles must not be involved in an alchemist business. It seems like Rinne is having a conflict regarding her strict adherence to the rules and the fact that the AC needs more members to join their cause. Shouldn't they try to ask other alchemists first and not go straight involving Muggles like Kajiki? Well, they already involve Muggles when they decided that Houtarou's mom place is their base. I'd like to see other lower ranked members of the AU/AA, not only the ones that are directly connected to the plot like Houtarou, Rinne, Sabimaru, Renge, Spanner, and Kyouka. If the AU is such a big organization, then they would find many people who are willing (or unwilling) to join their cause. This series desperately needs to show more the people and the inner workings of the AU as an organization. Show, don't tell.

I hypothesized about the existence of human-shaped Chemies here, but so far, out of 101 RCC's, all human-shaped Chemies are anime humans, not real humans. As shown in the scene @ 03:45, at this point it's pretty much confirmed that human Chemies doexist since episode 1, hidden in plain sight: The Sisters, and as later revealed, the homunculi that Glion created Golden Malgams from. Their prototype form is not stored within the RCC's, but inside Glion's inter-dimensional vault, in the form of doll-like artifacts. These doll-like artifacts are very likely the ultimate results of Glion's illegal alchemical research that were not authorized by the AU. I think The Sisters and these homunculi are Glion's masterpiece of dark alchemy. I pondered here and here why the Golden Malgam needed to kidnap humans. From this scene it can be concluded that the homunculi/Golden Malgams need any kind of meat as their diet. I hypothesized that the homunculi/Golden Malgams needed to absorb their life force, but I think it's more like that they need the biomass from normal humans/animals. How comfortable my life would be if I could transform a bunch of liquids into fried chicken, haha.

In the scene @ 05:57 it's shown that Minato is also able to perform a mind control spell like Atropos previously demonstrated several times. It seems like this spell is only able to be performed by higher-ranked members of the AU, that is the ones with red gem in their Ring (Fuga, Glion, Licht, Minato, and very probably several others). If mind control/mind wipe/memory erasure spell can only be performed by higher-ranked members of the AU, then how could've Glion tampered with the memories of the AU's top brasses with impunity and framed Fuga as the traitor? Did Glion sneak into their office and then tampered their memories without them realizing it? Or did Glion snipe them from afar with memory manipulation spell? Why couldn't they do anything to protect themselves from being manipulated by their fellow alchemists? Why couldn't Fuga defend himself and prove his innocence in front of the AU? Man, this memory manipulation trope creates many questions that can potentially cause plot holes. I was initially very interested in this memory erasure/memory manipulation spell, but at this point it starts to smell like a very convenient plot convenience that exists for the sole reason of moving the plot forward. It's also implied that Minato is more like an elite officer tasked by the AU to enforce total obedience to the organization on the AA students. Is this the reason behind his cordiality toward Glion in episode 18, now that Glion is virtually the one controlling the whole AU?

Kajiki still finds time to record the Cerberus Malgam amidst the chaos it causes, haha. He's actually useful as the field reporter for Houtarou's new Alchemy Club.

Atropos resumes her favorite pastime, that is mentally torturing Rinne, but in this episode it seems like her scheme backfires when the Cerberus Malgam that she ordered to attack Rinne attacks her instead because she loses control of it. Rinne finally finds the resolve to choose her own way and is able to transform into KR Majade again. She thinks that she and Atropos are similar because not only are they both loners, but they also focus on strict obedience on rules above anything else. Rinne obeys the rules as an alchemist, while Atropos obeys Glion's commands. It seems like Rinne's Gotchardriver and the Alchemis expansion unit are stored inside her Ring. KR Majade's proper debut is nice, but I think the fighting style doesn't quite match Rinne's personality. It's too athletic. It makes her look like a femme fatale, not a high schooler. I think the fighting style that matches Rinne's personality is a simple, graceful one with more focus on her alchemy power and less focus on acrobatic moves. I understand that the reasoning is to make a bombastic debut that's nice to look at, but it just doesn't fit the character's personality.

Spanner and Kyouka are secretly watching the scene from afar. It seems like Kyouka has a fascination with the Gotchardrivers. She now orders Spanner to also collect Rinne's. Is this order approved by the AU's top brasses, or is she secretly having an ulterior motive? Could she be having her own plan that's not disclosed to Spanner? And Spanner is seemingly lamenting his current inability to transform.

Lachesis displays some kind of jealousy when she sees Glion is favoring Atropos over the other Sisters. Could she be the first one to rebel against Glion's orders?

Next week:

Spanner is seemingly encountering the specters of his parents. They were probably dead in the fated event a decade ago along with other alchemists. These specters are very likely Glion's creations that are intended to manipulate Spanner. Why does Glion need to manipulate Spanner? What does he get out of it? Episode 20 (or 21) is probably Spanner's debut as KR Valvarad. I hope that this episode will also shed some light to what the heck actually happened in the fated event a decade ago. It's the epicentrum of the whole story, while the Ouroboros world might be the hypocentrum.