Fullmetal Alchemist: Conqueror of Shamballa served as the conclusion to the 2003 run of Fullmetal Alchemist. The ending of both the anime and movie did not sit well for fans, and this can largely be put down to Ed and Al’s character regression at the end of the movie.
The conclusive episode of Fullmetal Alchemist showed Ed opening the Gate of Truth to bring Alphonse back to Amestris. In return, Ed became trapped in Munich, Germany in the year 1923. Unlike Amestris, this world is fundamentally governed by science, technology and engineering. Conqueror of Shamballa takes place two years after the end of the series, and the movie follows the perspectives of Ed as he tries to get back to Amestris and Alphonse, who fervently believes there is a way to rescue Ed.
Fullmetal Alchemist is a story about two brothers, Edward and Alphonse Elric, going on a journey to recover their lost bodies. Their goal is important because it sets the tone for the series; the Elrics are primarily self-interested in the recovery of their body parts. In nearly every episode, the Elric Brothers remind the audience what their goal is: “To find a philosopher’s stone and get our bodies back.” However, in the FMA movie Conqueror of Shamballa, the brothers' personal growth is displayed when they come to realize that they cannot afford to ignore the world around them any longer. This is an important distinction to make when comparing the series with the movie.
During Conqueror of Shamballa, Ed is trapped in the Weimar Republic in the year 1923 and must navigate a world that is becoming increasingly hostile toward the Roma. Clear parallels are meant to be made between the Ishavalans of Amestris and the Roma being persecuted in Munich. The Ishvalan-Roma connection is later confirmed when audiences see that the real-world counterparts of both Scar and Lust are Romani.
Ed begins to display clear character growth when he goes out of his way to rescue a Romani woman with psychic abilities named Noah from being sold. Noah then begins to live with Ed and a rocket engineer named Alfons Heiderich. The next day, he runs into Fritz Lang, a Jewish film director behind many famous German Expressionist movies. Edward agrees to join him on a quest to find inspiration for his next film in the rumor of a nearby dragon. The dragon, revealed to be Envy, is captured by the Thule Society -- an occultist society aiming to empower Adolf Hitler and the Nazis through magical means. The Thule Society is shown to be expanding and becoming more hateful, especially in how they treat the Roma.
The Thule Society is revealed to have learned about Amestris from Hohenheim and is in the process of opening a gateway to link the two worlds. Noah betrays Ed and aids the Thule Society in constructing a giant transmutation circle using Envy and Hohenheim as catalysts. Alfons Heiderich sends Ed back to his own world to stop the invasion of Thule Society members in Amestris. Tragically, Alfons is fatally shot before Ed can make it through the gateway.
The murders of Alfons and Hohenheim from the very society they tried to work for parallels Hughes' murder for trying to expose the homunculi. This corruption should have served as an example to Ed of just how dangerous it can be to have bigoted people in power. This is a lesson Ed is quite familiar with, having learned that the homunculi started the Ishvalan Civil War. This was in an effort to force the Ishvalans into such despair that one would attempt to create a Philosopher's Stone.
Amestris is an imperfect country, and nothing highlights that more than how Amestrians treat Ishavalans. Throughout the series, more and more atrocities are revealed to have been committed against the Ishvalan people, one example being the time that a specialized squad of Amestrians was sent to kill a temple full of peaceful monks, starting a civil war. During that war, Amestrians slaughtered defenseless Ishvalans and destroyed their homes. The Ishvalan living situation in Amestris is horrifying; they now live in isolated ghettos that are routinely attacked by racists and fake military personnel.
All of these lessons appeared to be leading to Ed and Al finally growing as characters and realizing that they cannot tolerate this kind of bigotry in their home country. Coupled with the fact that Ed has nothing to return to in the real world, it made logical sense that Ed and Al would finally be able to go on their own journey to fix the world the best they could. This would be a great callback to when they failed to help the town of Liorre in the first episode of the series, thus bringing the show full circle with much-needed growth. Ed and Al seemed to have finally grown enough to realize that they were blind to the world around them during their journey to get their bodies back and were inclined to change. However, this was not to be.
The real ending was much less satisfying. Ed decides to close the gateway and leave himself trapped on Earth despite having no one left to return to. Luckily for Ed, Alphonse disobeys Ed's wishes and joins him on Earth. This is problematic for a plethora of reasons. One such reason is that it creates a plot hole: alchemy cannot be successfully performed on Earth, thereby leaving Ed and Al with no way to close the gateway between worlds.
Instead of resolving the story by having Ed close the gateway on the Amestris side, the film creates more problems by stranding Ed and Al powerlessly on Earth. Ed and Al permanently abandoned their world to attempt to "fix" one that doesn't even belong to them. This is a very unsatisfying ending to watch since Ed and Al just abandoned all the friends they made along their journey.
Ed and Al permanently left their friends like Winry, Mustang, Armstrong, Hawkeye and Ross to fix a world that is completely foreign to them instead of the flawed one right at home. Rather than seeing the potential character growth, the audience is presented with Ed and Al regressing to the way they were at the beginning of the movie. The only difference is that now, they are both trapped on Earth.
In summation, Ed and Al failed to realize their responsibility to make Amestris a more righteous place. Instead of any realized character growth, Ed and Al go on another narrow-minded journey in an unfamiliar land. While Conqueror of Shamballa tried to address Ed and Al's failure to acknowledge the Ishvalan plight, the ending managed to invalidate its own message.
