Characters / Fullmetal Alchemist: Envy

Fullmetal Alchemist Main Character Index
Elric Brothers | Team Mustang | Main Supporting Cast | Military | Homunculi (Father, Envy, Affiliates) | Xing | Others | 2003 Anime (Main Characters) (Homunculi)

This is a short summary page for characters from the Fullmetal Alchemist manga series and its anime adaptation Fullmetal Alchemist: Brotherhood. Note: For the page about the characters from the 2003 anime, see here.

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Envy the Jealous

Voiced by: Minami Takayama (JP), Wendy Powell (EN)^{Other Languages}Ivette García (Latin America), Silvio Giraldi (BR, Álamo), Miguel de Britto (BR, IST), Alessandra Felletti (IT)

^{Click here to see their giant form}

^{Click here to see their true form}

Affiliation: Amestris Military/Homunculi
Rank: Any
Speciality: Shapeshifting/Causing discord

"You have no idea how good that felt! I ravaged their entire country with a single bullet! I mean, talk about invigorating!"

The homunculus who personifies Father's jealousy. Envy is a vicious and spiteful shape-shifter who takes great pleasure in the suffering of humans. If they can Kick the Dog, they will. As Father's chief spy and instigator, they specialize in causing discord, though they're a huge Dirty Coward when things don't go their way.

For the sake of clarity, Envy will be referred to by they/them pronouns.

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A-J

• Accidental Pervert: Envy walks in on Edward after Edward just left the shower, and thus has no pants or towel on. In Brotherhood, screaming ensues. In the manga, Envy is apathetic.
• Adaptation Dye-Job: The manga has Envy with black hair. The 2003 anime has Envy with green hair. Brotherhood does a bit of a compromise and gives Envy extremely dark green hair.
• Adorable Abomination: They're a hideous, giant Flesh Golem Eldritch Abomination who prefers to look like a Cute Monster Person. This only applies skin deep, however...
• Alas, Poor Villain: Invoked by Edward during Envy's death. Averted with Roy and Scar who have No Sympathy.
• Ambiguous Gender: While other characters refer to Envy with male pronouns, nobody knows Envy's true gender, not even Envy. They have no problems with shapeshifting into people of any sex, they're voiced by voice actresses in most languages who sound boyish, and in their preferred form they combine long hair and feminine clothes with a masculine upper body and a more slender lower body for an androgynous look. For what it's worth, Envy's true form is possibly a case of No Biological Sex.
• Animal Motifs: They have a reptile motif going on — shapeshifting is traditionally associated with chameleons, their default form looks vaguely reptilian with wide facial features and hair resembling the spines of an iguana or dinosaur, their true form looks like a mix of a giant lizard, an eastern dragon and a prehistoric protomammal, their true true form is a tiny salamander-like creature and they once tried to kill Ling by turning one of their arms into a snake's head. This fits with their "sin" (the deadly sin of Envy is often associated with snakes and its patron demon is the serpentine sea monster known as Leviathan) and their duplicitous personality.
• Arch-Enemy: Manages to become this for Ed, Scar and Mustang due to their role in the Ishval Massacre and killing Hughes. They also become this to Marcoh because they are the one that terrorizes him the most.
• The Assimilator: While in the tunnels with May, Envy manages to possess a mannequin soldier and fuses with numerous others until they have assimilated enough to reconstitute themself, and continue absorbing the Immortal Legion to add to their power. Though as May points out the downside is that, while she can't plausibly defeat a hundred zombies, she can definitely take on one Envy.
• Attention Whore: Makes a deliberate point of pointing out their roles in everything in order to garner reactions from other people, most notably when they reveal they began the Ishavalan war to Edward and when they Gloat about killing Maes Hughes in front of Roy Mustang. Ultimately, The negative attention they receive from people is their attempt to have some degree of emotional connection to them, because they don't understand how to have it beyond hurting people.
• Ax-Crazy: They revel in the horrible atrocities and Kick the Dog moments they commit and take every possible opportunity to gloat about them to anyone who will pay attention. For a perfect example, look no further than when they giddily admit to Ed and Ling that they were the one who started the Ishvalan Civil War, all with an ear-to-ear Slasher Smile on their face.
  • Strangely, they admit they don't like fighting since it hurts and express joy when Ed's automail malfunctions, as it means they can avoid a skirmish altogether.
• Berserk Button:
  • Throw an insult Envy's way and it's bound to get under their skin. Like any bully, they hate it when their targets fire back. More specifically, Envy really does not like being called "ugly", something Greed is delighted to taunt them with.
  • Envy can't stand being pitied or considered less than by others, especially humans. Edward's pity ultimately drives them to suicide.
• Beta Test Baddie: And they kill themself when someone points it out.
• Black Eyes of Crazy: The left eye of their One-Winged Angel form has a black sclera, and in the manga this will sometimes appear on their humanoid form as well, particularly when they feel most vicious.
• Break the Fourth Wall: They do this in Brotherhood after finishing up a call. The camera zooms in on their face while Envy stares directly at the viewers, telling them 'Things are getting interesting'.
• The Brute: Kinda, although they're more skilled and svelte than Gluttony and Sloth. Envy's got a Hair-Trigger Temper, a profoundly limited sense of subtlety, an overreliance on brute force in combat, and a relatively low position on the Homunculi totem pole. They are also the biggest homunculus when their Philosopher's Stone is intact, if you don't count Pride's shadow range.
• Bullying a Dragon: Envy admits to Mustang that they killed his best friend and brags about it. All that mocking stops the moment Mustang sizzles out their eyes.
• Card-Carrying Villain: Just look at how they gloat to Ed and Ling about how they were the one who sparked the Ishval Civil War. It's obvious they love being a heartless, evil monster.
• Chekhov's Gun: In the manga, they leap onto a metal railing which promptly crumples beneath them. It's an early clue to what they really look like. Ling recalls it when the homunculus starts sinking into the ground during their fight, causing him to realize Envy is significantly bigger than they look.
• Chewing the Scenery: "I'm ALLLIIIIIIIIIIIVE AGAAAAIIIN!"
• Chew Toy:
  • A regenerating one with an incredible talent to piss powerful people off. Envy takes SO much abuse during the series that their massive amount of hitpoints (combined with their terrible fighting skills) starts to look like a disadvantage since it only allows Envy's enemies to hurt them more.
  • The "fight" between them and Roy basically consists of Envy starting to say something, getting the shit burned out of them, and then running as far and as fast as they can. Rinse and repeat.
• Clasp Your Hands If You Deceive: While gloating about how they started the Ishvalan genocide.
• Clipped-Wing Angel: Two ways: first, Envy's true form is a little fetus-thing that you could kill by stepping on it like a bug. Second, Envy's attempts to go One-Winged Angel against Roy led to the response, "I can't believe you made yourself a bigger target." Cue Oh, Crap!.
• Combat Pragmatist: Envy's go-to method of fighting is by using underhanded tactics, such as a Shapeshifter Guilt Trip. It's also deconstructed a bit, as this actually turns out to be one of Envy's biggest weaknesses: they can only win fights by cheating and playing dirty, so when they're faced against people powerful enough to shrug off the dirty tricks (like Roy Mustang), they're completely helpless.
• Combat Tentacles: Often morphs their limbs into such.
• Creepy Souvenir: Not as blatantly morbid as other examples, but seriously messed up. While absent from the anime, the manga heavily implies that Envy took one of the coats issued to the soldiers in Ishval as a souvenir, a war they gleefully started by killing a child and lead to the eradication of the Ishvalans.
• Crippling Overspecialization: Both in combat and in basically all the plans they execute for the Homunculi, Envy's "strategies" boil down to 1: Use the Shapeshifter Guilt Trip by turning into their targets loved ones, and 2: If that doesn't work, go One-Winged Angel into the big green monster. If neither of these work, they're completely hapless and they pretty much just run around aimlessly getting their ass kicked, as happened both when fighting Dr. Marcoh and Scar and during Mustang's infamous No-Holds-Barred Beatdown of them.
• Cruel and Unusual Death: Has specific parts of their body targeted by pinpoint explosions and has the fluid in their eyes boiled until they eventually decide to commit suicide.
• Cute and Psycho: Sassy and playful on their best mood, but they're rotten to the core, as Lust points out.
• Deadpan Snarker: They have a nasty little sarcastic remark to say for every situation.
• Death by Irony: Is Driven to Suicide by the very creatures they secretly envied. Ed exposes their envy of humanity and pities them for it, driving them to destroy their philosopher stone in humiliation. In doing so, Envy destroys the one thing that was actually their own.
• Deathless and Debauched: A massive sadist and extremely self-indulgent about it, immediately pouncing on any opportunities to cause suffering for their own entertainment. Envy also prefers to use their shapeshifting powers to appear 'young and cute', becoming easily enraged if called ugly.
• Didn't Think This Through: Envy seems to be under the impression that they can insult people as much as they want and said people will just sit there and cry about it. Instead, their insults are met with retaliation, as should be expected when you insult someone who can and will fight back.
• Digging Yourself Deeper: Envy's repeated attempts to Kick the Dog continue to backfire during their fight with Mustang. First by taking the form of Hughes's wife, then Hughes himself, and then attempting to kill Riza. All this does is infuriate Mustang more and make the No-Holds-Barred Beatdown that Envy suffers worse.
  Envy: That's right... how could I forget!? He's the one who incinerated Lust to death!
• Dirty Coward: Envy acts like a big shot and take every possible opportunity to Kick the Dog... until they're on the losing end of a fight. The best example of Envy's cowardice is their "fight" with Roy Mustang; they reveal that they were the one who killed Maes Hughes, gloat about it, and promise Mustang a fight. Once the fight actually begins, though, they're totally outmatched and quickly realize what a bad idea it was to taunt Mustang. So, Envy shamelessly runs away, not that it saves them. Mustang later calls them a "coward" when they commit suicide out of shame in response to Ed exposing the root of their behavior.
• Don't You Dare Pity Me!: Upon their final defeat, Envy is so completely humiliated that Ed actually pities them that they commit suicide.
• Driven by Envy: Ed comes to the conclusion that this is the real reason behind Envy's hatred for humanity. Envy is jealous of humans' inner strength and ability to make friends. This realization makes Envy feel so humiliated that they kill themself.
• Driven to Suicide: They rip their own Philosopher's Stone and crush it in their bare hands upon their final defeat.
• Eldritch Abomination: Evokes the same feeling with their true form. Lampshaded when said true form is unveiled, as Ed and Ling are both unable to fathom how what is supposed to be an artificial human could possibly look like that. Brotherhood drives it home by rendering said true form in 3D CGI, making it look creepily out of place and abnormal compared to the rest of the characters.
• Enemy Eats Your Lunch: They eat the steak intended for Dr Marcoh when he refuses food, taunting him all the while. Extra materials also state Envy frequently eats the rejected meals to avoid wasting their Philosopher's stone's energy.
• Enemy Mine: Briefly worked with Ed and Ling to escape Gluttony's stomach.
• Epic Fail: As if their bragging to Mustang about killing Hughes wasn't idiotic enough, Envy actually forgot that Mustang killed Lust when they did so. Not to mention, they were in the very room where Lust met her end.
• Even Evil Has Loved Ones: While Lust and Gluttony are closer to each other than to Envy, that doesn't mean Envy doesn't care about them. They're genuinely upset at Lust's death, and absolutely pissed at Pride and Wrath for not trying to avenge her death.
• Even Evil Has Standards: For all of Envy's cruelty, in the manga even they condemn and show total disgust for their brother Pride for being an Aloof Big Brother towards them and their siblings. Unlike Pride, Envy doesn't see their siblings as expendable and wouldn't leave them to die (well, with the exception of Greed).
• Evil Cannot Comprehend Good: To be fair, they have admitted this. And it pisses them off. Leads to their eventual breakdown after they're confronted with the fact that they're jealous of humanity's ability to be moral and strive toward redemption.
• Evil Counterpart: To Dr. Marcoh; both were heavily involved in the Ishval genocide, however, Marcoh becomes The Atoner while Envy revels in their actions there. Furthermore, while Envy prefers to stay in their 'cute' form Marcoh accepts being turned into The Grotesque. While Marcoh is an old man who uses his alchemy to fight the Homunculi and is quite good at it, Envy is a super strong Homunculus who uses brute force but is actually bad at fighting. Finally Envy couldn't get over their insecurities and kills themselves while Marcoh stopped being a Death Seeker and decided to help people.
• Evil Gloating: Envy never misses an opportunity to brag about the atrocities they commit. This costs them big time when they decide that gloating to Mustang about how they killed Maes Hughes is a good idea.
• Evil Is Hammy: One of the most expressive and over-the-top characters in the whole series as part of being a Card-Carrying Villain.
• Evil Is Petty: When Envy reveals to Ed and Ling that they started the war with Ishval by killing an innocent child, they take special pleasure in the fact that the officer they impersonated to do so was a moderate who'd always opposed Amestris's occupation — and is all but giggling when they says that the poor man couldn't come up with a defense for what Envy did and was court-martialled (and likely executed).
• Evil Sounds Deep: While a sexless being, both their VA's are women, and both use a deep, growling vocal tone. They're idiotic and not particularly competent, but they are genuinely dangerous.
• Evil Sounds Raspy: Envy's voice in the English dub of Brotherhood.
• Exposed to the Elements: They're lured by Zampano to Asbec, an abandoned town up north where there's snow everywhere. Despite this, while they initially don the appearance of a man in a coat, they quickly drop the disguise and revert to their preferred appearance, making no alterations for the cold.
• Eye Scream:
  • In their manga-only fight with Lan Fan, they take a kunai to the eye when she sees through their shapeshifting.
  • The (in)famous Curb-Stomp Battle where Mustang repeatedly flash-fries Envy's eyeballs. Ouch.
• False Flag Operation: Envy took the form of an Amestrian soldier and fired the shot that started the Ishvalan War. Years later, Envy took the form of Father Cornello to stir up unrest in Lior.
• Fan Disservice: Envy's default form is attractive, androgynous, and they wear a revealing outfit that shows off their muscles and curves. However they're ridiculously cruel and sadistic, and do it with a grotesque Slasher Smile on their face. Then they go One-Winged Angel and reveal they're an Eldritch Abomination made of pulsating, screaming bodies. And then they're de-powered and turn into a pathetic, parasitic tiny worm creature.
• Fangs Are Evil: They appear to have Cute Little Fangs, but they're more than nasty enough to qualify for this. Ironically, their monstrous form loses this for a mouthful of incisors instead, but this looks way creepier than fangs. Their powerless form has a mouth of razor sharp, lamprey-like teeth.
• Fatal Flaw: Like with Lust, sadism; no matter what, Envy simply cannot pass up an opportunity to Kick the Dog or gloat about their atrocities to anyone who will pay attention. Boasting about killing Hughes to Mustang leads right to their undoing. To a lesser degree, arrogance is also one, as they are simply too convinced of their own superiority and/or the infallibility of their plan to realize that long-winded boasting about how stupid everyone else is, how futile their efforts are, and how much they enjoyed committing one of their innumerable heinous acts accomplishes nothing other than revealing their plans or enraging people enough to make them get violent - in general, Envy is way too full of themselves to know when to shut the fuck up and stop doing things that make them lose control of a situation.
• Faux Affably Evil: Their attempts at being cordial only underscore the fact that they don't give a shit about the other characters' hatred.
• Feed It a Bomb: If Envy stops to open their mouth during their fight against Mustang, you can almost guarantee that Mustang will cause it to explode before Envy can even finish half of their sentence. If Mustang isn't aiming for their eyes or incinerating them entirely.
• Fetus Terrible: Their true form.
• Flaming Devil: Although a minion and offspring of Father, who is an example of the Satanic Archetype, Envy is the most effeminate and flamboyant of the homunculi, having an androgynous appearance, flamboyant mannerisms, is rather vain about their appearance, and wears rather feminine clothes. Additionally, the homunculi (as well as Father) are themselves demons, making them fit this trope.
• Flesh Golem: Although not an undead, Envy's true form is all of the bodies of the people whose souls were used to make it, fused together. Basically a homunculus variant.
• For the Evulz: They get off on causing as much pain and destruction as they can, often crossing over into Stupid Evil territory.
• Friendly Enemy: Likes to play this role, particularly to Marcoh. It's all lies, of course.
• Genki Girl / Keet: An evil, gender-ambiguous version of this trope, being energetic and often emphasizing a "cute" appearance.
• Glacier Waif: Though still quite muscular, with their smaller frame you wouldn’t expect them to be The Brute. This is because their true, powered form is a giant monster and they still retain this weight in their preferred form.
• Gone Horribly Right: They try pissing off Roy Mustang by boasting about how they killed his best friend, Maes Hughes For the Evulz. They succeed at the cost of their own life.
• Green-Eyed Monster: They're jealous of humans for having such strong bonds and for being able to make friends of enemies.
• Hair-Trigger Temper: Hates being insulted, by anyone, about anything, and has a fuse even shorter than Ed's.
• Hate Sink: Zig-Zagged. On one hand, they are flamboyant, incompetent when their manipulation skills fail, and provide a lot of comedy, whether they're the instigator or are on the receiving end. On the other, they are disgustingly cruel and arrogant, and their sheer joy in hurting others incites the ire of both other characters and the audience. Subverted in their final moments, when Ed figures out that, deep down, they are secretly jealous of humans for being able to form friendships and develop past their Fatal Flaws. Envy is so humiliated at being exposed and pitied by the very humans they so thoroughly despise, that they burst into tears and commit suicide.
• Heavier than It Looks: Envy's preferred form is slender. However, since they avert Shapeshifter Baggage and their true form is massive, they are heavy enough to crush an iron fence just by landing on it.
• The Heavy: Splits this role with Lust and Gluttony being the most prominent Homunculi, they fall out of this role after Lust's death.
• Hidden Depths: They might be sadistic, but they do get along really well with Lust and Gluttony, and it's all but stated that they care about each other in return. Especially apparent after Lust's death.
• Humiliation Conga: Out-Gambitted into their truest form and carried around. Moments after regaining their powerful form they're hunted by Mustang. Then driven to suicide by Ed pointing their fatal flaw.
• Hybrid Monster: Their true form looks like a mix of a giant lizard and some sort of mammalian predator. Their true true form looks like a mix of a lizard, a bug and some kind of worm, with the mouth of a lamprey.
• Hypocrite:
  • Loves to cause pain and agony and laugh giddily over it, but if the tables turn expect Envy to complain the loudest of any of the Homunculi.
  • They're also this regarding his usage of the Shapeshifter Guilt Trip. Envy openly refers to it as a cheap trick and taunts opponents when they fall for it, but when someone doesn't fall for it, they try to invoke What the Hell, Hero? on them. Best shown when they use it on Mustang; they're confident that by morphing into the late Maes Hughes, Mustang won't attack them, only to be taken aback when Mustang only gets even more pissed off and burns them alive without hesitation.
    Envy: What's the matter with you?! You didn't even hesitate to incinerate your best friend!
  • They often laugh at how humans let their emotions get the better of them, but love to gloat about the horrible things they've done even when it's a really bad idea. Case in point: gloating about how they murdered Maes Hughes in front of Roy Mustang, having forgotten that the latter killed Lust, sets a chain of events in motion that leads to their final defeat.
  • In a less horrific vein, Envy repeatedly calls Ed a pipsqueak, though height charts reveal Envy's preferred form is barely taller.
• Hypocrite Has a Point: While Envy letting their sadism drive them to make idiotic decisions, seriously undermines their point about humans letting their emotions override their common sense, Envy's point is far from invalid, considering that the Elric brothers lost an arm, a leg and a body because of their desire to bring their mother Back from the Dead out of grief, or that Scar went on a Roaring Rampage of Revenge against all State Alchemists for the genocide they wrought upon his people—including those who did not participate in said genocide—and murdered the Rockbells in a Freak Out at losing his brother and being reminded of Amestrian soldiers upon seeing them again. Indeed, letting one's emotions override common sense contributes to many tragedies both In-Universe and in Real Life. Overcoming their impulses is a significant part of Scar and the Elrics' Character Development.
• I Just Want to Be You: For all humans. They don't realize this until after the final defeat where Ed points it out.
• I'm a Humanitarian: Attempts to finish Ed off by eating him after beating him into unconsciousness in their monster form. Later on, when they regenerate their body by absorbing some souls from the immortal legion, they remark on enjoying the taste.
• Immortality Hurts: Probably the poster child for this trope. Envy gets torched, blown up, eaten, stepped on, and sliced up multiple times over… and ends up regenerating and going through it all over again.
• Inelegant Blubbering: When it is revealed that Envy is jealous of humanity. They can't take the pity Edward gives them.
• Inferiority Superiority Complex: Despite their constant claims of being superior to human "worms", it's made clear in their last moments that Envy is filled with immense self-loathing for their inability to connect with others in the way that humans can.
• Inopportune Impersonation Failure: Envy impersonates Mustang in an attempt to kill Hawkeye. However, after they refer to her as 'Lieutenant', Hawkeye corrects them and states she and Mustang use their first names when they're alone; Envy is so outraged at having slipped up that they drop their disguise in outrage - only for Hawkeye to riddle them with bullets and admit 'I Lied'.
• Insufferable Imbecile: While not as stupid of Gluttony or Sloth, Envy is a tactless and foolhardy braggart who often takes every opportunity they can to be as nasty possible.
• I Resemble That Remark!: Their response to Greed calling them an ugly monster is...threatening to unleash their true form.
• Iron Butt Monkey: Downplayed. Envy is a horrible fighter and when they get into an actual fight, they are usually getting their ass kicked or forced to retreat, but they are able to take a ton of punishment before fleeing. That said, they actually gain the upper hand in a few fights: in their first fight against Ed, when Ed had broken his automail arm and in their fight against Ling and Envy inside Gluttony's stomach, in which they almost ended up killing Ed. After Dr. Marcoh almost completely immobilizes them by destroying their Philosopher's stone they still are capable enough to try to take over Yoki's body as a prisoner-and Marco helps to subdue them by saying they don't care if he dies, allowing the group to easily stuff inside a jar.
• Irony:
  • One of Envy's abilities is to transform into humans. Which must really tick Envy off, because even though Envy can pass off as a human, deep down Envy knows they can never be one. The one thing that turns the tables in a fight against any of their opponents is that they can only use the information they find out about anyone they transform into—Hawkeye uses this against them (by bluffing that Mustang calls her Riza.)
  • Is the one who most consistently makes fun of Ed's height, is later revealed that their true form is a little fish-thing that you could hold between two fingers.
• Jerkass: Envy is the cruelest of the Homunculi after Pride, willing to go as far as gleefully start a civil war with the Ishvalans by shooting a child. They act so cruelly out of jealousy toward other humans for being able to have companionship and love, something they'd rather kill themself over than ever admit.

K-Z

• Kick the Dog: Quite literally their entire mode of being. To describe Envy as being someone who likes to kick dogs is a profound understatement. Their sadism is pretty much the only thing preventing them from killing themselves from despair throughout the story.
• Kill It with Fire: Mustang uses a barrage of Flame Alchemy attacks to incinerate Envy’s humanoid form.
• Lamprey Mouth: Envy's actual true form has one of these. It allows them to take over other bodies
• Laser-Guided Karma: First, Envy boasts to Mustang about killing Hughes, remembering too late that Mustang killed Lust, and is subsequently burned nearly to death. Then, they are confronted with their own envy of humans, the source of their extreme misanthropy, and, in utter humiliation at being beaten by humans and pitied by the human they hated the most, is Driven to Suicide. What really seals the precision of this is that Envy, the character we've all been waiting the majority of the show to go down as hard as possible for killing Hughes and kickstarting the Ishvalan Civil War by killing a child (not to mention taking great pride in this heinous act), is so pitiful in their final moments that most of the audience even feels for them.
• Laughably Evil: Envy's a disgusting, malignant sadist to be certain, but they're so comically inept and mindlessly hateful that they're able to make you laugh at their absurd physical abuse and comically self-superior behavior before horrifying you by gloating about another unspeakable atrocity.
• Leaning on the Fourth Wall: After getting exasperated with Ed, Envy tells him they aren’t in a manga.
  Envy: Quit acting like you're in a manga.
• Logical Weakness: Envy is particularly weak against any kind of ranged attack, as they aren't skilled enough to reliably dodge what comes at them and have no means of retaliating from a distance. By the time they figure out how to make Combat Tentacles, they're already in a bad enough position that it doesn't really matter.
• Lovecraftian Super Power: In so many, many horrible ways. Their true form is an green, eight-legged, semi-reptilitan monster, many times the size of a house, covered with pulsating masses of human bodies (that still have the power to speak). Even the way they turn into it is grotesque, as it involves arms literally bursting out of their sides as they transform.
  • Also, while absorbing the mannequin soldiers to restore their power, they pretty much turn the entire hoard of monsters into massive, amorphous, flesh balls by having them bite each other to fuse them together. They even form disproportionately large mouths to swallow more mannequin soldiers. Even watching them regain their normal form is awful, since we're watching a featureless humanoid suddenly have a giant lizard sucked into them through their back.
  • On a lesser note, near their death, they become fond of turning their arms into long, fleshy, green tentacles.
• Made of Plasticine: While fighting Ling, the prince slices off their limbs with ease, which is especially egregious since Envy is significantly denser than a human.
• Malicious Misnaming: They enjoy calling Ed "the Fullmetal runt" or "pipsqueak" to piss off the latter a lot.
• Manipulative Bastard: Can be this when forced to be subtle. They manage to trick May Chang into indirectly letting them regain their normal form.
• Meaningful Name: Overlaps with Exactly What It Says on the Tin-Their alias, Envy the Jealous, refers to their jealousy of humanity, (specifically, their ability to form bonds).
• Middle Child Syndrome: Envy is fittingly the middle child of the Homunculi.
• Moral Myopia: Envy often complains about others not fighting fair whenever they start losing in a fight, but it rings a bit hollow, considering the fact that Envy seizes every possible opportunity to Kick the Dog and milks the Shapeshifter Guilt Trip for all it's worth.
• Morphic Resonance: In the manga, they become a horse with dark mane that's fairly spike and wispy, resembling their preferred form's hairstyle. Also, for military-related tasks they usually take on the appearance of a second lieutenant and retain their sharp, Tsurime Eyes.
• Narcissist: Envy looks down on humans as inferior beings they believe they should be allowed to insult and harm as much as they want, and clearly enjoys any time they get to brag about all the horrible deeds they've done. Furthermore, they intentionally use an attractive appearance as their preferred form and their Berserk Button is being called ugly.
• Nice Job Fixing It, Villain: They convince May to return to Amestris rather leave for Xing so they can rebuild their power after having been weakened to Sleep-Mode Size. However, this almost directly leads to Father's defeat, as going back allows for May to be with everyone during the Promised day and help Al return Ed's arm. Had they not done that, Father likely would have won.
• No-Holds-Barred Beatdown: Roy Mustang subjects them to a very, very nasty example — nasty enough that Scar, Ed, and Riza have to step in and tell him to stop.
• No-Sell: Takes a punch to the face from Ed and doesn't budge an inch.
• No Sense of Personal Space: They love to get into people's faces, especially to sneer or gloat.
• Obviously Evil: They almost always have a Slasher Smile across their face.
• Oh, Crap!:
  • There's no other possible way to describe Envy's reaction when they realize just how bad of an idea pissing off Roy was.
  • What's more, is that the only reason Envy tried to fight Roy, is because Envy forgot who killed Lust.
  • Envy also went into a monologue after seeing Roy's own Oh, Crap! face after Envy turned into Hughes' wife, saying it was the exact look Hughes gave Envy. The memory and current situation left Envy very satisfied at the time.
  • There's also a more minor one when Hawkeye implies there is something going on between her and the Colonel when Envy is disguised as Mustang.
• One-Winged Angel: A giant green monster. Not that it helped in their "fight" with Mustang, it actually provided him with a bigger target, allowing him to more easily scorch Envy's eyes until they retreated.
• O.O.C. Is Serious Business: When confronting Ed and Ling in Gluttony's stomach to explain that said stomach is a broken alchemical portal with no escape, leaving waiting for death as the only option, Envy speaks in a Tranquil Fury tone, in stark contrast with their usual Evil Gloating. Eventually, Ed tells Envy that, since he knows Führer Bradley is a Homunculus too, he suspects the Homunculi were involved in how the Ishval Civil War started... and Envy immediately reverts back to their usual sadistic self, gloating about how they impersonated an Amestrian soldier to shoot and kill an Ishvalan child to deliberately kickstart the war.
• Otherworldly and Sexually Ambiguous: Envy is an Artificial Human of unknown gender and possibly No Biological Sex.
• Pint-Sized Powerhouse: While it's not as noticeable as other characters, Envy in their preferred form is actually quite small, being barely taller than Ed at the start of the series. They're also strong enough to shatter concrete with a single hit and toss Hawkeye around like a rag doll, though their combat skills are overall quite poor.
• Poisonous Captive: When Envy is trapped in a jar, they're able to play on May Chang's fear for her clan and talk her into going back instead of taking them to Xing, which allows Envy to get free and obtain a second Philosopher's Stone.
• Powerful, but Incompetent: Envy is an immortal homunculus with the unique power of shapeshifting, though the usefulness of this ability is hampered by their numerous flaws. Envy is easily provoked and extremely impulsive, which others will take advantage of to defeat them, but sometimes Envy will just screw themself over. Their drive to kick any and every dog they find causes them to make very bad decisions as they'll go out of their way to upset someone even if it's an obviously terrible idea. This officially places them in the Too Dumb to Live category when they fight Mustang after having forgotten he burned Lust to death. They use their monster form to fight, not realizing that makes them an easier target and intentionally provoke him into a Roaring Rampage of Revenge beforehand. Their only trick left at that point is a Shapeshifter Guilt Trip, and they have absolutely no fallback when it fails. Needless to say things do not go well.
• Pride: They're always going on about how much better they are than humans, and about how stupid and pathetic humans are, to the point where they end up coming off as being more prideful than Pride himself. And when it comes out that they're actually jealous of humans, they commit suicide rather than live with the shame.
• Psycho for Hire: They serve as this for the Homunculi, going above and beyond to Kick the Dog wherever and whenever they can.
• Psychopathic Manchild: Envy, a shapeshifting Artificial Human who's 175 years old is a sadistic, misanthropic psychopath who often acts even less mature than the teenage hero Edward. They're arrogant, impulsive, petty, sarcastic, gloat about the atrocities they've committed like a juvenile delinquent or bully, become a whiny Dirty Coward and throw tantrums when they're outmatched, and of course they're extremely insecure. They also pick a young, cute preferred form, and their "outfit" choice looks like they bought it from Hot Topic.
• Puppeteer Parasite: When reduced to their de-powered true form, this is the only ability they'll have left, though only the body. Unfortunately for them, the guy they tried to take over was another loathed Butt-Monkey.
• Rage Quit: Commits suicide by ripping the Philosopher's Stone out of their own body when they realize that they're not just defeated (again) but an object of pity.
• Really 700 Years Old: Their official age is one hundred and seventy-five, though they prefer to look somewhere around their teens.
• Red Oni, Blue Oni: The red to Lust's blue.
• Repression Never Ends Well: In contrast to Greed, who revels in his sin, Envy never makes any references to wanting what someone else has, and instead constantly mocks and torments humans for being lesser than homunculi. However, underneath it all, Envy is incredibly jealous of the friendships and inner strength humans have but can’t cope with the idea of it. When they're reduced to their true form, unable to keep up their supposed superiority with the humans around them refusing to turn on each other and being pitied for their jealousy, Envy completely loses it and breaks down in a sobbing fit before committing suicide.
• Reptiles Are Abhorrent: Both of their true forms resemble lizards and they're a spiteful, evil little sadist. Additionally, Envy's basic form has a slightly reptilian look.
• Sadist: A bit of an understatement.
  • Envy delights in causing pain to others, to the point where they started a genocide under false pretenses and seem to view it as the proudest moment of their life, and constantly goes out of its way to Kick the Dog and gloat about the atrocities they've committed to anyone who'll pay attention.
• Same Clothes, Different Year: Greed implies Envy has been wearing the exact same outfit for at least a hundred years.
• Screw This, I'm Outta Here: Envy attempts to pull this when it’s clear they have no chance against Mustang. It fails.
• Self-Disposing Villain: After their final defeat at hands of Mustang and Ed exposing their secret jealousy towards humans, Envy takes their own life by crushing their Philosopher's Stone.
• Sexier Alter Ego: Exaggerated. Their true form is a massive, eight-legged, lizard monster with writhing bodies fused to its flesh, but Envy prefers to look like an androgynous teenager in a Stripperific outfit that shows off their muscular build.
  Envy: But if I'm going to change shape anyway… Why should I be a crusty old geezer… when I can be young and cute?
• Shapeshifter: Ties with Unlimited Wardrobe.
• Shapeshifter Baggage: Averted. Despite their short and skinny preferred form, Envy is actually incredibly dense. They can destroy a steel fence by jumping on it and when they don't react to being punched by Ed, Ling realizes they're probably bigger than they look...
• Shape Shifter Guilt Trip: They absolutely love using this. Works on Hughes and Ling, fails horribly against Roy.
• Shapeshifter Showoff Session:
  • Envy announces to everyone that they murdered Hughes, though Mustang is unconvinced that someone like them could really do it. Envy then decides to prove it by showing off their powers, transforming into Gracia while explaining with sadistic glee how Hughes was unable to even fight them when Envy took on the form of his beloved wife. Unfortunately, this backfires as Mustang is considerably more pissed-off than afraid.
  • While trapped together in Gluttony's stomach, Envy recounts how they started the war in Ishval by turning into a soldier and shooting a child, prompting Ed to punch them. This only serves to irritate the homunculus, who decides to, since none of them have any hope of escaping, reveal their true form to kill Ed and Ling. They then proceed to transform into a gargantuan, eight-legged lizard monster with pulsating human bodies fused to their flesh and attack.
• Shape Shifter Weapon: Envy can transform parts of the body into weapons, including a sword, a snake, and shapeless tentacles.
• Shapeshifter Longevity: An immortal homunculus around one hundred and seventy-five years old, capable of regenerating from even fatal injuries... and they also have the unique power to shapeshift, allowing them to transform into people, animals, monsters or create weapons from their limbs.
• Shapeshifting Sound: Is accompanied by a hissing, crackling sound that can be heard whenever they transforms. In the 2003 anime however, a high-pitched whirring is heard instead.
• Shapeshifting Trickster: Envy is a villainous example. In their debut, they impersonate Father Cornello to manipulate the people of Liore to kill each other, immediately demonstrating their psychopathic personality. Later, they kill Hughes by turning into his wife and then shooting him. Please note turning into Gracia was not necessary, as Hughes would have been powerless either way.
• She's a Man in Japan: Envy is genderless, with a female voice actor in both the Japanese and English cast, but they're credited exclusively with male pronouns in the English dub whereas the Japanese original language uses several unusual pronouns and has them as a Third-Person Person.
• Shut Up, Hannibal!: When Envy attempts to cause discord among Edward's group, Roy, who is absolutely fed up with Envy, pulls a particularly spectacular one by blowing up their mouth. Repeatedly.
• Sissy Villain: Envy is more effeminate and flamboyant than other Homunculi, and is also a ruthless, murderous nutcase who goes out of their way to cause as much suffering as they can. This is made a lot more apparent in the manga wherein Envy will sometimes pepper their speech bubbles with little hearts and musical notes and, when they are first introduced, comments that they like their preferred form because it's young and cute. Though considering their Ambiguous Gender, it may not be a case of effeminacy so much as just plain femininity.
• Sir Swears-a-Lot: Envy has the foulest mouth of the Homunculi, especially when angered.
• Slasher Smile: Always has one of these — Envy's true form is composed of a bunch of horrible faces, most bearing this expression as well.
• Smug Snake: As you may have already guessed by now, Envy's far too smug and arrogant for their own good.
• Sour Outside, Sad Inside: True to their sin, their cruelty and caustic attitude is fueled by pathetic self-loathing and jealousy of humans.
• Spies Are Despicable: Often works as a spy due to their shapeshifting abilities and is probably the most loathsome of the Homunculi with virtually no redeeming or admirable features.
• Stripperiffic: Tied with Sloth, they wear the most revealing outfit of the Homunculi, though with their shapeshifting and regenerating powers it's not much of a problem.
• Stupid Evil: Envy simply cannot resist an opportunity to Kick the Dog or brag about the atrocities they've committed, even when it's really not a good idea. Admitting to Roy Mustang, a Person of Mass Destruction who's already killed the Homunculus Lust who made the mistake of pissing him off, that they killed his best friend and gloating about it to his face is a case in point, as they actually forgot that Roy killed Lust when they did that.
• Straw Nihilist: Though all the Homunculi and their allies have this philosophy towards humans, Envy is by far the most vocal about how useless human lives and morality are.
• Sub-Par Supremacist: Despite proclaiming themselves superior to humans, Envy's magical abilities don't do much to cover up that they're an incompetent idiot who constantly ends up losing any confrontation they get into as a result of their non-existent planning abilities. They on some level recognize this, and simply use this as a way to distract from their own self-loathing and insecurities.
• Tactical Withdrawal: Apparently, they don't know how to do this. While getting their ass kicked by Ling and Lan Fan, they have to be ordered by Pride to leave the fight, which they only do begrudgingly. Later, while getting burned up by Mustang, they never attempt to retreat completely even though it would save their life, instead they stick around to keep fighting, which leads to a painful defeat.
• Talking Is a Free Action: Completely, utterly, and painfully averted. During Envy's fight with Mustang and Hawkeye, every time Envy opened their mouth to threaten or gloat, Mustang used that opportunity to torch Envy in the face (especially the eyes or tongue.)
• Technically Naked Shapeshifter: Envy's clothes appear to be part of their body. It's especially noticeable in the manga when they fight while wearing an actual coat, as the jacket comes off and has to be collected later, but their regular outfit regenerates with them. Both their true form don't wear clothes either, not that you could really get any on them.
• Teens Are Monsters: While they're a few decades too old to be an actual teenager, Envy prefers to appear as an adolescent and acts as such, all while taking sadistic pleasure in committing atrocities and causing strife.
• Tempting Fate: They tell Zampano that no one's falling for his bad acting, and calls Marcoh out on believing that he could put one over on Envy just before it turns out that Zampano lied so that Marcoh and the others could lure Envy into a trap.
• Tentacle Rope: Pulls it off against Hawkeye after she sees through their Mustang disguise. Doesn't get much farther than wrapping her up and slamming her to the ground before the real Mustang catches up to them again.
• Third-Person Person: Downplayed; in the original Japanese, they have a tendency to refer to themself as "kono Envy" (lit. "this Envy") in place of a personal pronoun, which most official translations leave out or translate as "I/me, Envy." This is a highly arrogant way to refer to oneself which also conceals Envy's gender, as it circumvents using an informal, assertive masculine pronoun such as ore.
• Too Dumb to Live: They taunt Mustang, a Person of Mass Destruction who's already killed another homunculus, about how they killed his best friend; Mustang even lampshades how stupid it was of Envy before unleashing hell on them. To add to the stupidity, Envy actually forgot that Mustang killed Lust when they did that.
• Tragic Villain: In their final moments, they turn out to be Exactly What It Says on the Tin. Edward's "The Reason You Suck" Speech about Envy's jealousy toward human strength drives them to suicide.
• Transformation Is a Free Action:
  • Played straight. While fighting Lan Fan in the manga, they're able to change shape several times during the battle without getting attacked, but are usually stabbed afterwards.
  • Subverted. When they're tricked into outing themselves while disguised as Mustang, Envy immediately starts reverting to their preferred form, only to be shot by Hawkeye before they can even finish.
• Troll: Envy is essentially an internet troll with superpowers. They take pride and pleasure in harassing, annoying and horrifying people, they desperately beg for attention by doing so, they shapeshift into other people in order to hide behind anonymity, they like to hurt people weaker then they are, and they're ultimately little more then a wounded child who does so because they themselves are jealous of the closeness and bonds that humanity can form.
• Ungrateful Bastard: When trapped in Gluttony's Pocket Dimension along with Ed and Ling, they promise that if Ed can help them escape, they will tell him all about the Homunculi's plans. When Ed actually accomplishes this and lets Envy escape even after Envy told him about they shot an Ishvalan child to start the genocide while cackling maniacally, and tried to swallow Ed alive, Envy says..."I don't remember promising anything to you humans."
• Unskilled, but Strong: Envy is a terrible fighter in the manga/Brotherhood , but thanks to their shapeshifting abilities and the sheer weight Envy can put behind every blow in their true form, coupled with their massive size, they're usually on even footing with the heroes. The only exceptions are their manga-only fight with Ling and Lan Fan (who run circles around them due to their combat training), and their encounter with Roy, who had cast aside his moral restraint in favor of using his flame alchemy as relentlessly as possible, leaving Envy no room for counterattack.
• Villain Decay: Envy starts out being manipulative, clever, and competent enough to be an infiltrator. Then they get soundly beaten by Marcoh and May, gets their power back, and gets curb-stomped by Roy. By this point, Envy is portrayed as barely smarter than Gluttony and can't even land one blow. Justified — Envy's primary skills are disguise and manipulation. Against someone who's not falling for their tricks, they only have their combat abilities, which are definitely outclassed by the main characters, as well as by Lust, Wrath and Pride of the Homunculi. It also doesn't help that they regularly overestimate their ability to control a situation and are inordinately good at running their mouth to the absolute last people who they would want to piss off.
• Villainous Breakdown: Completely loses it after realizing they're outmatched during their "fight" against Roy, and it goes even further when they're pitied by the very people that they hate so much.
• Villainous Friendship:
  • While not quite as close with them as they are with each other, Envy seems to have this with Lust and Gluttony, as they bicker rather playfully with them, as well as being furious at Wrath for not avenging Lust. It's probably the only redeeming quality they have. But then again this is Envy we're talking about so they somehow forget that Roy Mustang was the one to kill Lust.
  • They're also surprisingly chummy with the Kimblee despite him being a human, as both are psychopathic sadists, with Kimblee even admitting that he loves their cruelty.
• Villain Has a Point: Though it's all a self-serving plot to get their power back, while being taken to Xing by May, Envy notes that returning there would mean abandoning everyone in Amestris to die and presenting the homunculus in their current, pathetic state is more likely to make the emperor mad than help her clan. It's difficult to argue that their points are off, and May is ultimately convinced to go back to Central.
• Villainous Rescue: After knocking down Ed, they pull him out of the collapsing 5th laboratory and hands him over to Ross and Denny — saying that he's an important resource.
• Villains Want Mercy: As soon as Mustang has them at his mercy, Envy pathetically begs for their life.
• Visual Pun: Envy, the big green monster.
• Vocal Evolution: An English dub example. When Wendy Powell voiced Envy in Fullmetal Alchemist (2003), she gave him a lower, smoother, and more effeminate voice. Here in Brotherhood, she voices Envy with a scratchier, higher-pitched, and more excitable voice. This reflects the differences in characterization; 2003 Envy was more of a Manipulative Bastard compared to the brutish bully they are in the manga and Brotherhood.
• Voluntary Shapeshifting: Their main power and entire M.O for everything.
• Walking Spoiler: Envy murders Maes Hughes, and they later gloat to Ed (and Ling) about being responsible for the Ishvalan Civil War. The Amestrian soldier who "accidentally" shot and killed an Ishvalan child? That was Envy in disguise, and the killing was deliberate. These two contributions make Envy difficult to discuss without spoiling major plotpoints.
• Would Hurt a Child: Started the war in Ishval by deliberately shooting an Ishvalan child in the head, while disguised as a soldier. Years later, Envy still seems to think of this as one of the most enjoyable things they've ever done. He also chases Mei with the intent of killing her when they return back to their original form.
• Would You Like to Hear How They Died?: Near the end of the series, they brag to Mustang about how easy it was to kill Maes Hughes by taking on the form of Hughes' wife. Needless to say, Envy quickly realizes that it was a stupid move.
  • They do this earlier to Ed and Ling by revealing that they were the soldier who shot the Ishvalan child and kicked off the civil war. Likewise, this comes back to bite them when Ed relays this information to Scar.

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