[Zolda]

Clotho says @ 00:53 Gaelya told her that Hijiri's gonna change the world, and if succeed it will make her dream come true. What's Clotho's dream? Is it unleashing Gaelya's Dark Malgam virus and turning humans into Malgams, or back to what it used to be as visualized @ 06:07? Clotho divulging Gaelya's master plan like that makes her sound like a comic book villain. She could learn a thing or two from Adrian Veidt aka Ozymandias in Watchmen (2009).
Ozymandias: "The Comedian was right. Humanity's savage nature will inevitably lead to global annihilation. So in order to save this planet, I have to trick it... With the greatest practical joke in human history."
Nite Owl: "Killing millions?"
Ozymandias: "To save billions. A necessary crime."
Rorschach: "You know we can't let you do that."
Ozymandias: "'Do that', Rorschach? I'm not a comic book villain. Do you seriously think I would explain my master stroke to you if there were even the slightest possibility you could affect the outcome? I triggered it 35 minutes ago."

Lachesis has finished undergoing the memory reversal process. She says @ 04:54 that the person she was modeled after was an ambitious singer with a greedy, unpleasant personality. So, now she has both the memories of the person she was modeled after and the memories as a homunculus. It's kinda like being 2 different people at once. I wonder if those overlapping memoriers will cause conflict and identity crisis later. I think this scene could be better done with a flashback, rather than a plain infodump like this which makes it look mundane and unimpactful. Kyouka is kinda low-key playing the matchmaker role @ 21:06, haha.

Gaelya calling herself a God @ 06:44 once again firmly establishes that the Unholy Trinity are Gods. Where's Gigist? He's nowhere to be seen in this episode. I wonder what he's doing in his spare time, haha. Perhaps he's looking for ways to snatch and absorb Gaelya's powers once she's defeated.

Gaelya says @ 03:56 that Hijiri is a special person chosen by the stars. What's so unique about Hijiri or her Malgam power? She's absent for 34 episodes and she's suddenly become a special person. She says @ 09:37 that she doesn't deserve to be with Kajiki, and @ 10:04 she's transformed by Gaelya into a Dark Raidenji Malgam, but this time the Malgam spawns out of the host, instead of the host being transformed. The spawn Malgam is able to regenerate as long as the host is holding on to negative emotions. It must be the destructive power of her feelings of unworthiness, guilt, shame, and self-hate that Gaelya is trying to extract as shown @ 18:31. In the end, Kajiki manages to save Hijiri and reunites with her. Soooo... All's well that ends well. I've got a fitting soundtrack for this scene and the one @ 18:46, haha.

Next week:

Gaelya is reversing the memories of the people who have witnessed Chemies and Malgams. She's also restoring all forms of evidence, so now people who recorded, wrote, or talked about Chemies/Malgams is getting their data/information back. I wonder what's her goal by doing this. Is she trying to create chaos by instigating a three-way conflict between Muggles, alchemists, and Chemies/Malgams? The AA members will be the scapegoats and the Muggles finally manage to locate their hideout. I'm curious to see how the AU's top brasses respond to this unexpected situation. I hope they'll at least conveniently reappear for the sake of plot and do something, not sitting comfortably on their throne like they did in previous episodes. The AU/AA continues to be a huge yet hollow organization.

And does it mean that Houtarou's (and probably also his mom's) manipulated memories will also be affected by Gaelya's plot and is now completely recovered? Will Houtarou's true past be finally revealed? I'm curious to see Houtarou's dad and the circumstances of his disappearance, the identity of the the Alchemist of Dawn, and the possibility of the connection between Houtarou, his dad, and the Alchemist of Dawn.

Spanner will debut his formal alchemist uniform.

Out of my expectation, Akiko Inoue returns to writing duty for episode 45, and likely for episode 46 as well. This means that Hiroki Uchida could also return for episode 47-48 or 49-50. It's almost the final episode but I'm not getting a climactic vibe at all. Some people said that Gotchard is losing steam near the end of the story, but I disagree. Gotchard has never lost steam because it has never had it in the first place. I patiently waited for the story to build up the momentum, but my wait didn't pay off because the writers didn't even try to develop and elaborate the story. The writers finally realized that it was almost episode 40 and scrambled to retcon and convolute the internal logic, but it doesn't do much since there's not much time left. The story is entering the climax/payoff stage, but the writers are doing what they should've done during the setup stage a long, long time ago. If the story has reached the last 20% and I'm still messing with the internal logic, then it only means one thing: I screw up. So yeah, the momentum is gone and is virtually impossible to regain.

Three words that best describe Gotchard's story:
Hollow, vapid, and lethargic.
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