Episode 9: Be Thou for the People (2003 series)

Synopsis
Ed and Al go on assignment to inspect a small mining colony and discover its inhabitants are being heavily taxed by a tyrannical military Lieutenant and his Alchemist.

Episode Notes

 * This episode is adapted from content in Chapter 3: The Mining Town.
 * A few notable differences from the manga chapter this episode was adapted from, is that Lyra, a character exclusive to this series, destroys Halling's inn with her alchemy instead of Yoki's men burning it down. Also, Halling's son, Khayal, was in the building at the time, but was saved by Alphonse.
 * In this episode, Edward uses gold coins to coat bars of transmuted culm and make them appear to be gold bars, whereas in the manga, he had merely transmuted the culm to gold and back. This indicates that the 2003 anime considers the transmutation of base materials to gold impossible without the aid of the Philosopher's Stone, while in the manga storyline, it is merely outlawed.
 * The episode officially ends the flashback story that have occurred through Episodes 3-9 of Ed's early days of becoming a State Alchemist and earning his reputation. The next episode will take place after Episode 2.