Fullmetal Alchemist: Main Supporting Cast / Characters

http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Characters/FullmetalAlchemistMainSupportingCast

This is a short summary page for the main supporting characters of 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.

Warning: Spoilers are below.

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Winry Rockbell

Voiced by: Megumi Takamoto (JP), Caitlin Glass (EN, Funimation), Muriel Hofmann (EN, Animax)^{Other Languages}

https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/winry_transparent.png

Affiliation: None
Rank: None
Speciality: Mechanic

"You two won't cry; someone should do it for you, don't you think?"

The Elrics' childhood friend and Ed's personal automail mechanic, who happens to have a crush on him.

Adaptation Dye-Job: Blonde-haired in the manga and two anime series, brown-haired in the movie.
Babies Ever After: She marries Edward and has two children with him at the end of the story.
Badass Pacifist: She's the only major character without combat skills, but she manages to stand out as one of the braver characters through her sheer kindness and willingness to help others.
Belligerent Sexual Tension: With Ed. With Ed being as hot-tempered as he is and Winry being a Sweet Type Tsundere who usually gets frustrated with Ed, they get into a lot of arguments, but they also get quite a bit of Ship Tease. In the end, they marry and have children.
Berserk Button:
- Do not damage the automail she makes. Retribution will be swift.
- Also, if you're Edward, do not refrain from drinking your milk.
Beware the Nice Ones: She's a friendly person, but she can get rather vicious when she gets pissed, especially when Ed presses her Berserk Button by wrecking her automail. Scar had learned this the hard way as well.
Bratty Half-Pint: In an early flashback to when she was 11, while berating Ed for alchemically tampering with the first automail arm she made him, she came off as obnoxiously proud of her mechanical abilities. She told Ed, "As long as you're wearing my automail, you're stuck with this gearhead whether you like it or not." As indicated, she emphasized the word "my" and placed her hand over her heart to really drive the point home. Her present-day self is kind and doesn't boast about her skills, but her Berserk Button concerning damaging her automail still remains.
Break the Cutie: Totally loses it when she found out who murdered her parents.
Childhood Friend Romance: With Ed; she grew up with him and Al and she later gets a lot of Ship Tease with him. In the end, they marry and have two children.
Child Prodigy: She made Ed's first automail limbs when she was 11. Ed also says she was able to comprehend and read medical journals from a young age like he and Al did with alchemy books, which comes in handy when she has to deliver a child when no doctor is available.
Clingy Jealous Girl: A very slight case, but she did seemed bothered by Rosé's desire to see Ed again and Al teases her for it.
Comedic Sociopathy: She hits Ed with her wrench when he breaks the automail she makes him, which happens frequently, and it's always treated as Looney Tunes-style comedy... with blood. Of course, her violent antics being Played for Laughs also means Ed always gets Unexplained Recoveries afterwards.
Cool Big Sis: To Elicia Hughes.
Dark and Troubled Past: Her parents were murdered in the Ishvalan War and her two closest friends nearly died doing a human transmutation.
Double Standard: Abuse, Female on Male: She beats Ed (comically) with a spanner every time he breaks his automail (that's often). In the manga, her response to the damage from his battle with Lan Fan was to maul him with a chainsaw.
Dumb Blonde: Inverted. Winry has long, blonde hair, but she's a Gadgeteer Genius who also knows surgery and first aid (since her parents were doctors and being an automail engineer requires medical knowledge as well as mechanical knowledge).
Fanservice Pack: Her figure becomes appreciably more curvaceous and feminine throughout the time in which Brotherhood takes place. Justified in that she goes from 11 to 15-16.
Gadgeteer Genius: A prerequisite for being an Automail Engineer requires one to have knowledge of both mechanical engineering and medicine.
Genki Girl: She goes full-on Bishie Sparkle, Squee, and arm-wavy mode whenever she sees something cute or acting cute (Elysia Hughes weeded this mode out of her the first few minutes after she met her), something's caught her interest (mainly anything involving automail, i.e. Rush Valley, or a shopping spree in Central), or a rather vicious (and comic) argument with Ed (again, mainly over automail).
Get A Hold Of Yourself Man: She repeatedly hit Al with a wrench, after he started wondering about his history and if he was really a human (or just a construct created by Ed).
Girl Next Door: Was this to Ed and Al growing up, as their nearest neighbor and closest friend.
Glowing Eyes of Doom: She and Paninya discover that Ed's State Alchemist watch is alchemically sealed. Winry's theory as to why Ed sealed his watch? "Something's in here he's too embarrassed to let anyone see", taking out lockpicking gadgets with a comically evil expression on her face. Of course, her theory is proven wrong when she does open it.
Hair of Gold, Heart of Gold: Blonde, and one of the most morally upstanding individuals in the series.
Has a Type: Inverted: Winry has an anti-type, not being interested in men who are shorter than her (much to Ed's horror). Notably, she starts to realize that she's in love with him not long after he starts growing taller.
The Heart: Winry's main purpose in the series is to keep the Elrics grounded in reality. She's the kind, supportive Nice Girl of the series and a caring sister figure to the Elrics, though she is more of a Tomboy than is standard for this trope.
Heartwarming Orphan: Downplayed as she still had her grandmother and the Elrics have more sympathetic trauma.
He Is Not My Boyfriend: Thought not quite as, ah, vehement as Ed is about it, she is quick to tell Rosé that Ed is her childhood friend when Rosé looks as if she's about to assume something else.
He Will Not Cry, so I Cry for Him: Winry does this for Ed and Al at first, until Ed asks her to stop as it only makes things harder for him. They agree the next time she cries for them they'll be tears of joy. D'aww... By the way… promise kept!
Hostage Situation: The brothers specifically admit she is their weak point, as the villains of the story have, unfortunately for her, figured out.
Hypocritical Humor: When Ling and Lan Fan raise Ed's room service bill to unacceptably high levels, Ed shouts at them and comically sends them hurling out the window. Winry, angry that Ed is making such a ruckus at a late hour when she's planning to catch an early train next morning, promptly throws his door open aggressively and shouts at him to shut up.
If You Kill Him, You Will Be Just Like Him!: Ed tells her something like this when she points a gun at Scar.
Innocent Blue Eyes: Like her mother, which plays a big role in Scar's character development and Winry's forgiveness.
The Lady's Favour: Winry gives Ed her earrings to look after. It's actually for a logical reason (they're up north at the time, and wearing metal in your ears in the cold is a recipe for frostbite), but it's clearly intended to hint at this trope.
Locked Out of the Loop: She's very much aware that Ed and Al don't tell her everything about what they do, and it really bugs her too; especially when she finds out that Scar was the one who murdered her parents and that Ed and Al knew this without telling her. Gradually she's let in but even then Ed and Al still feel the need to hide or lie about what's going on including the fact that Bradley is using her as a hostage against the two trying to break away. Its also Deconstructed in that her being locked out of the loop causes just as much harm as good for all involved, such as that they learned Scar killed her parents and how she nearly shoots him.
Love Epiphany: When she gets on the train back to Rush Valley after the Scar incident, she gives the matter a lot of thought and comes to the realization that she's been falling for Ed for a long time.
Loving a Shadow: Being an orphan, she admitted to feeling this way toward Lt. Colonel Hughes for her dad, which made it all the sadder when he was killed.
The Medic: Winry was reading medical textbooks at the same age that Ed and Al started teaching themselves alchemy, and she shows skill in surgery, first aid, and automail (which requires the background in neurology and anatomy, among others). She also delivers a baby in Rush Valley despite never having done it before.
Miss Fixit: Usually automail but other machines too.
Ms. Fanservice: She's a beautiful blonde with a knack for repairing things. Most of the time she will be seen in nothing but a black tube top that shows off her midriff and nicely hugs her breasts, and baggy pants. Sometimes she will be seen wearing leggings. There is also a scene where she is about to take off her shirt, but is comically interrupted by Ed, and another scene where she takes a bath after visiting a mechanic's house.
Neutral Female: Justified, as she isn't an alchemist or even related to any form of the military except her parents being doctors. The one time she nearly gets into a fight is definitely not meant to be played for laughs or awesome...
Nice Girl: Winry is a very emotional, strong-willed and emphatic person who puts all her heart and effort into the things she does... which also means it's a bad idea to damage her creations.
Plucky Girl: She's a lot more cheerful than the brothers and just as brave.
Raised by Grandparents: She was raised by her grandmother after her parents died.
Shipper on Deck: Makes cracks at Al, regarding May.
Shorttank: She's a mechanic and is frequently referred to as a "gearhead" or tomboy. She fits the dress code quite well as she wears a sports bra when working and in public wears a tank top, jacket, and short skirt.
Single Woman Seeks Good Man: It took her a while to notice, but Winry realized she fell in love with Ed a long time ago. To reiterate, Winry fell for Ed, the man who is brave, selfless, loyal, fiercely protective of those he loves, and reverently values life. In fact, her Love Epiphany was right after Ed made a promise to her that the next time he and Al made her cry, it would be tears of happiness.
Skewed Priorities: Downplayed, as she genuinely does care for the Elrics, but from her (comically) violent outbursts against Ed when he damages her automail, you'd be forgiven for thinking she's more concerned with her automail getting damaged than Ed getting seriously injured in a fight. This is deconstructed in Episode 9; she assaults Ed's ears over the phone for getting her automail damaged in his fight against the Slicer Brothers at the Fifth Laboratory, and travels to Central intending to give Ed a lecture for his recklessness... only to find out that Ed is in the hospital and badly injured, complete with bandages. Winry is deeply affected by the sight, and blames herself for Ed's condition (she had forgotten to insert an important screw during the previous maintenance due to Sleep Deprivation).
- Played for Laughs in Episode 11, during Ed and Al's confrontation with Paninya for stealing Ed's State Alchemist watch. The brothers are ultimately not the ones to catch Paninya. Instead, Winry catches her... because she wants to have a closer look at Paninya's automail leg, much to the brothers' exasperation.
Squee: When she gets to Rush Valley, oh boy does she go into fangirl mode!
Tank-Top Tomboy: When shown during mechanical work, she often wears a tank top.
Tareme Eyes: They showcase her kind nature.
Teen Genius: When it comes to automail. She made Ed's at the age of 11.
This Looks Like a Job for Aquaman: Winry's only major skill is working on automail, so she's generally only useful when Edward needs his automail limbs repaired, upgraded, or replaced. Fortunately for her, this happens numerous times throughout the series, ensuring she at least occasionally has a productive role in the story.
Tomboyish Ponytail: She keeps her hair in a high ponytail down to her lower back. She also happens to be a Wrench Wench.
Tomboy with a Girly Streak: She is a tomboy who isn't afraid to get her hands dirty and has a deep interest and skill in mechanics, though she also sometimes displays more feminine traits.
Tsundere: The Sweet type. She's generally friendly and good-natured around most people, and the only person she gets really mad at is Ed, whom she has a lot of Ship Tease with.
Vapor Wear: At least in the chapter where Ed almost watches her undress.
Weapons of Their Trade: Winry (who is a mechanic) wields her wrench like a club.
What the Hell, Hero?: After Al accuses Ed of creating him with false memories, Winry knocks him with her wrench and tells Al what Ed was really afraid to talk about ^note and then demands Al find his brother and settle things.
Wrench Wench: She provides the trope picture. She made her first automail when she was 11, and her weapon is a wrench. She is never shown to be covered in grease though since automail construction is very fine work and actually more of a medical profession.
Wrench Whack: Her preferred method of punishing Ed (and on one occasion, Al) when he does something out of line, specifically breaking the arm that she made for him.

Scar

Voiced by: Kenta Miyake (JP), J. Michael Tatum (EN)^{Other Languages}

Affiliation: Ishval (formerly)
Rank: Warrior priest (formerly)
Speciality: Destructive Alchemy/Constructive Alchemy/Alkahestry

A mysterious Ishvalan warrior priest in a Roaring Rampage of Revenge against the State Alchemists that annihilated his people.

Accidental Murder: He killed the Rockbells after regaining consciousness after his family was killed, discovering that his brother's arm was now attached where his own once was and freaked out when he saw them and was reminded of the Amestrian soldiers.
Aloof Big Brother: Non-blood-related example, but Scar and May have a dynamic similar to this. Though the 'aloof' is a vast improvement over Scar's previous Serial-Killer Killer occupation.
Alternative Character Interpretation: In-Universe, Roy and Ed argue about what kind of man Scar is. Roy says he's a genocide survivor with a good reason to avenge his people. A chagrined Ed believes that Scar just likes attacking people because he's a bully that is masking his pain. Given that Ed was too young to possibly participate in the Ishvalan massacre and Scar attacked him and Al anyway, it may explain his point of view.
Anti-Hero: Eventually switches sides after the Homunculi start moving openly, but stays gruff and closed-off.
Anti-Villain: Type II. He just wanted revenge on those who have killed his people.
Back-to-Back Badasses: With Al when escaping Father's lair.
Badass and Child Duo: The Badass (mysterious, powerful grown man) to May's Child (perky preteen princess), although May herself is no slouch in combat.
Badass Boast: "Your only solace from my wrath will be damnation!"
Badass Preacher: A former warrior-priest. The guy killed about 20 State Alchemists before the start of the series and was able to effortlessly defeat Ed and Al. He even killed Bradley, a guy who went 1-0 with a tank.
Badass Transplant: He has his brother's arm, tattooed with alchemical markings that allow him to destroy anything with a touch.
Bare-Fisted Monk: Literally, as he was an Ishvalan warrior monk. Later upgraded this status with his added Facepalm of Doom.
Batman Grabs a Gun: During his showdown with King Bradley near the end of the series, he breaks his code as an Ishvalan and uses Alchemy to reconstruct matter, thus regaining the upper hand. Up until that point, he only used his abilities to destroy things and so remained technically within the bounds of his code against it.
The Big Guy: Scar's an extremely effective martial artist with considerable durability and the strength to take down anyone hand to hand. However, because of his history as one of Ishval's more conservative priests, he is (by choice) unfamiliar with the rest of the setting's combat tools and is quite unimaginative in a fight unless someone gives him some ideas. Ed almost got killed in his first fight with Scar by trying to fight him hand-to-hand; in his next fight, he stressed his alchemy more and had Scar locked down. It's also telling that Scar was only able to deconstruct Jerso's saliva to escape after Ed mentioned that it was mostly water.
Big Little Brother: He is way bigger and stronger than his older brother was. Possibly justified with his training to be a warrior monk while his brother became a scholar.
Black-and-White Insanity: His Fatal Flaw during the first half of the series. He believes every single State Alchemist is evil regardless of their motives or history, and sees it as a god given duty to hunt them down. The problem with this is that he doesn't care or make a distinction between those who actually were part of the Ishvalan Civil War and those who were not, so he tries to kill Edward because Edward is a State Alchemist, even though Ed was only a child during the conflict and had literally no part in the war. It takes a while for him to get over this and realize he was creating a Cycle of Revenge.
Bloodbath Villain Origin: He began his serial-killing career by killing any and all available Amestrians after waking up in a hospital to find that Kimblee has killed his entire family and that his brother's arm has been grafted onto his body in the place of his own severed arm. He flipped out and started his rampage with the Rockbells, two Amestrian doctors who saved his life, in front of numerous other Ishvalans. While the slaughter is indeed his Start of Darkness and he becomes an unrepentant murderer afterward, he does actually regret this particular action even before his Heel–Face Turn and acknowledges that the two doctors did not meet even his warped definition of guilty.
Book Ends: His story of revenge begins when he wakes up after being saved by the Rockbells and discovers that his country has been destroyed, and ends when he wakes up in the Armstrong mansion and is offered the chance to rebuild his people. A key difference is that in the first one, he suffers a Freak Out and kills the Rockbells, having connected them with the Amestrians who killed his people, while in the second he doesn't do any of that, despite being greeted by the similarly blonde haired and blue eyed Olivier.
Break Them by Talking: "Just don't forget, it was you Amestrians who started the Ishvalan War!"
Broken Bird: He is tough, self-reliant and cold. He has a very Dark and Troubled Past as a survivor of a brutal genocide, which has left him seeking revenge against the State Alchemists who annihilated his people. He also takes a younger person under his wing like many other BB's do, this person being May Chang.
Brooding Boy, Gentle Girl: Scar is an angry Byronic Hero who develops an Intergenerational Friendship with May Chang, a perky, kind-hearted young princess.
Bruiser with a Soft Center: He is a stoic Church Militant, but has a love of cute things, namely cats, May Chang, and her pet panda, Xiao May, the last of which everyone in the show thinks is a cat.
Byronic Hero: Morally neutral? He develops from an Anti-Villain to an Anti-Hero. Largely concerned with personal interests? He's driven only by his feelings and his quest for vengeance, at least for a time. Dark and Troubled Past? He lost his arm, his brother, most of his people, and his country in a brutal genocide. Defined by conflict, inner and outer? He has his moments. Introspective loner? Definitely so. Guilty of horrible crimes? He is responsible for dozens of murders, including the Rockbells, who were in no way responsible for the Ishvalan massacre. An exile? He's a wandering Vigilante Man. Cynical and self-destructive? He doesn't even care about his own life.
Can't Kill You, Still Need You: When he's captured by the heroes mid-way through his Heel–Face Turn, they still would like to kill him. However, they really need to be able to read the Alkahestry notes his brother made and they are written in an ancient Ishvallan language that only a former priest like Scar can translate.
Character Development: Scar starts out the series hell-bent on getting revenge on the State Alchemists for the genocide of his people, and is willing even to kill children for that purpose. Towards the end of the series, he's grown so much that he ends up helping to talk down one of the State Alchemists he was hell-bent on killing from losing himself to blind hatred and vengeance — exactly what Scar was at the start of the series.
Characterization Marches On: In his debut, he murders the two guards at Tucker's house without hesitation. However, in his later appearances, he just beats the guards in Briggs unconscious.
Charles Atlas Superpower: Mostly his ludicrous speed, but he is also extremely tough and strong as well. Scar is able to semi-successfully dodge bullets, literally throw his opponents around, and keep on fighting despite having lost ridiculous amounts of blood. The only explanation for that is him being an Ishvalan monk — one of those is supposedly worth ten regular soldiers in combat.
Churchgoing Villain: Scar filled this role early on, even going so far as to pray for God to bless the souls of Nina and Alexander whom he Mercy Killed. As time passed and he moved into a protagonist role, the conflict between his religious beliefs and his chosen path were brought into focus.
The Comically Serious: First seen in chapter 26. When a young Ishvalan refugee yells at him to clean up before throwing a washcloth at his face, Scar's expression doesn't waver one bit. However, the most famous example is probably his reaction to Shao May.
Continuity Cameo: Seems to make one in a crowd scene in season three of My Hero Academia. Fitting, considering both anime were adapted by Studio BONES
Cool Big Bro: May looks up to him as one.
Cool Shades: He wears a pair to hide his red eyes.
Cruel and Unusual Death: His trademark Facepalm Of Doom is this. He uses alchemy to "deconstruct" a person's body, causing wounds to open up all over the body, followed by part of the body bloodily bursting. A few of his victims are described as being "in pieces, or getting that way."
Cuteness Proximity: He loves kittens and had an urge to pet Shao May.
Dark and Troubled Past: The extermination of his people, his brother dying to save him, the scar on his face etc.
Death Seeker: Implied, at least for a time. When Winry hates him for killing her parents after they helped him due to his confusion at the time and considers whether or not to kill him, he understands and seems at peace with the idea of her getting her revenge on him and dying as a result. More explicit in the manga when, after being saved by Olivier, he complains that she, like the Rockbells, didn't just let him die.
Despair Event Horizon: He crossed it in his backstory after his friends and family were blown up by Kimblee, his brother sacrificed himself to make sure Scar lived, having a Freak Out and murdering the Rockbells in a blind rage, and then seeing his home having been reduced to rubble. The only thing keeping him going is his hatred for Amestrians, but he grows out of it eventually.
The Dreaded: For a good long while, he was the boogie man that had the entire military on edge.
Easily Forgiven: Played With. Winry is willing to help Scar by treating his life-threatening injuries because it's what her parents would have done, but that doesn't mean she's forgiven him. Also, Edward still wants to beat the crap out of him and make him pay his respects in front of the Rockbell graves one day. He also refuses to tell Winry why he killed her parents, not wanting to seek forgiveness for it (he killed them after regaining consciousness after his family was killed, discovering that his brother's arm was now attached where his own once was and freaked out when he saw them and was reminded of the Amestrian soldiers.) On the other hand, Olivier saves his life near the end and Miles offers him the chance to help rebuild Ishval. Olivier claims that she did it to scare Roy when it became obvious that saving him wouldn't benefit her.
11th-Hour Superpower: He eventually comes to terms with the fact that he's basically doing alchemy and it's the only way to complete his task, and gets the creation markings tattoed on his other arm for a complete power set. he then surprises Bradley with it in their climactic clash.
Empowered Badass Normal: Even before he got any alchemical abilities, he was capable of defeating multiple armed Amestrian soldiers with just his bare hands. The manga even states that the average Ishvalan warrior-priest was equal to 10 standard soldiers in a fight.
Establishing Character Moment: When he meets Shou and Nina Tucker he describes himself as God's retribution and brutally murders Shou but he takes a moment to pray for Nina's soul and makes it clear he considers killing her a Mercy Kill. This establishes his religious fervor and ruthlessness, but also shows he's not without a conscience or mercy.
Even Evil Has Loved Ones: His plan is to get revenge on the State Alchemists that annihilated his people. Once he meets his master and other surviving Ishvalans, it's clear that he still cares about his people.
Even Evil Has Standards:
- After he incapacitates Al, who isn't a State Alchemist, he gives his word to not kill Al while preparing to execute a helpless Ed, who is one.
- He is quite horrified when he realizes that Nina was fused with her dog Alexander into a chimera, and puts them out of their (ambiguous) misery.
- He admits that he feels horribly guilty for killing Winry's parents, because they were innocents and had saved him.
Everybody's Dead, Dave: His refugee party is wiped out by Kimblee.
Everyone Has Standards: As a man who is devoted to avenging his people, he acknowledges that it's only fair for Winry to try to kill him to take revenge for her parents' deaths at his hands. However, that doesn't mean he's going to lie down and accept that revenge and if she chooses to attack him he'll respond in kind.
Facepalm of Doom: His signature attack, he's also the page image.
Fallen Hero: He was once a warrior-priest who dedicated himself to his god Ishvala. However, the Ishvalan Massacre took his family and the most of his people away from him, leading to him turning his back on his people, his culture and religion's principals and values in favor of his quest for vengeance.
The Farmer and the Viper: During the war, Winry's parents gave him medical treatment, saving his life. Scar thanked them by flipping out and killing them both. It's a bit of unusual variation, as this murder was a result of confusion and rage on his part, rather than being an Ungrateful Bastard like in most examples.
Foil: He has one in Kimblee. Both men took part in the Ishvalan War and use alchemy to murder others because they enjoy it. But while Kimblee is quite open about how he does it For the Evulz, Scar presents his actions as a moral crusade despite them being aimed as satisfying his anger. This applies in-universe as well; part of Scar's Heel Realization is him noticing the similarities between himself and Kimblee.
Freak Out: He's usually quite cool and collected, but when he wakes up to find his brother has sacrificed himself to save him he loses it completely and undeservedly kills Winry's parents.
Freudian Excuse: Scar's turn to evil started after the Amestrian military launched a war of extermination against his people, the Ishvalans. The soldiers who caused the most casualties in the war were the State Alchemists. Scar himself was mortally wounded by the State Alchemist Kimblee, and his brother was only able to save Scar's life by sacrificing his own. Following this, Scar became a Serial Killer of State Alchemists, particularly targeting those who participated in the Ishvalan War of Extermination, in an attempt to avenge his brother and his people.
Freudian Excuse Is No Excuse: He becomes a Vigilante Man who targets State Alchemists because many of them had to do with the genocide of his people. When Roy Mustang (a State Alchemist himself) tells Ed that his quest for vengeance is justified, the latter rebukes it, claiming that he's still involving innocent people for the sake of his revenge and that he's just candy-coating it by acting self-righteous and calling himself "an instrument of God". Several other Ishvalans he meets also outright tell him that what happened to their people is wrong, but that going around and killing people doesn't make the system better. It's this and meeting Winry that Scar begins to reconsider his approach.
Friend to All Children: Children who aren't certified State Alchemists at least, since he tries to kill Ed as soon as he finds him. May Chang is the first one to try to reach out to him, and he also sympathized with Nina Tucker, albeit in a twisted way. In a way, him promising not to kill Al could also be seen as an example of this.
From Nobody to Nightmare: Downplayed. He was always a badass, but he went from a young warrior-priest to The Dreaded Genocide Backfire.
The Fundamentalist: He tries to pass off his murderous revenge against State Alchemists as a religious crusade, saying that their alchemy is an affront to his god Ishval. However, Ed later points out that Scar is deceiving everyone with this excuse, including himself; his real motive is nothing more than simple revenge for the genocide of his people. After this, Scar starts his transformation into The Atoner, fully admitting the crimes he's committed without using his religion as an excuse. It helps that his old master (presumably the guy who trained him as a priest) survived the genocide and when Scar runs into him, he takes the Ishvala Is Love approach — or more like, the Revenge Helps Nothing approach. This is one of the few instances of religion having a positive impact in the setting.
Genocide Backfire: Unfortunately for the Amestris military, one of the survivors of the massacre happened to be a vengeful Badass monk with a penchant for doing Your Head Asplode to State Alchemists. It really backfires in the end, doesn't it Bradley?
Genocide Survivor: Scar is the most prominent survivor of the Ishvalan Civil War, a massacre committed against his people.
"Get Out of Jail Free" Card: While he does go through a genuine Heel–Face Turn, Scar is still responsible for dozens of murders, including the Rockbells', who were in no way responsible for the Ishvalan massacre. He doesn't suffer any official punishment for any of them.
Ground Pound: When outmatched, Scar tends to shatter the ground around him with his alchemy, throwing off his foes and giving himself a chance to escape if necessary. He does this often enough that when Kimblee's chimera corner him, they refer to this tendency and stop him from doing it.
Hair-Contrast Duo: Inverted. Scar is an angry Byronic Hero with white hair. May is a perky, kind-hearted young princess with black hair.
He Who Fights Monsters: His entire family was killed by alchemists and his brother gave up his life (and arm) to save him, since his people have a quasi-religious reason to hate alchemy, he goes out hunting, "In God's Name". Especially ironic since he uses a form of alchemy to destroy his targets: State Alchemists. This is spelled out to Scar himself when Ed throws himself in front of Winry to protect her from Scar. Scar flashes back to Ishval, where Ed is in his brother's place, and Scar himself is in Kimblee's.
Heel–Face Turn: He wasn't super evil to begin with, but he grew less violent and radical over time. Even Envy pointed out to him that he was teaming with a State Alchemist; Scar basically told Envy he knew and just didn't care anymore.
Heel Realization: He knew he wasn't a good person for a while. But it wasn't until Winry agreed to heal his wounds despite her hatred for him (crystallizing a point his elders made about their decision to pursue nonviolence) that he comes to realize just where — and how grievously — he went wrong. The start of it was after Winry freaked out and tried to kill him after she discovered that he had killed her parents. Afterwards, Scar could only wonder if that was what he looked like.
Hero Killer: His first encounter with Ed and Al ends with Ed's automail being shattered, and Al unable to move. Ed was saved only by Riza Hawkeye and Alex Armstrong's Big Damn Heroes. Mustang also tried to pull this along with them, but failed because it was raining.
Hiding Your Heritage: Due to the persecution that the Ishvalans face, Scar, on a journey of vengeance to kill as many State Alchemists in the country of Amestris following their committing of the Ishval Massacre, hides his heritage by way of wearing sunglasses to avoid revealing the distinctive red irises that Ishvalans have.
His Story Repeats Itself: He starts out as a member of an oppressed group fighting to take Amestris down, and winds up saving it.
Huge Guy, Tiny Girl: A platonic example with May when she decides to start hanging around. She's around his waist in height.
Hypocrite: He, an Ishvalan, hates alchemy, but uses the deconstruction part of it to kill his targets. When he comes to terms with himself and realizes what he's doing is wrong, he gets a tattoo on his other arm and starts using alchemy.
Hypocrisy Nod: When Mustang is about to kill off Envy out of hate, Scar lectures him because he meant to become a ruler. However, he also made it clear that he won't stop him from taking vengeance because it would be hypocritical with Scar's history. Perhaps he wouldn't have judged Mustang so harshly, and instead just wanted to help him.
I Am Not Left-Handed: Shows Bradley that he has managed to make a reconstruction tattoo on his left arm in their final fight.
Ignored Epiphany: He seems to have had a Heel Realization when he wonders if his face looks like Winry after the revelation that he killed her parents even though they saved his life. However, it doesn't stop him from killing people until she meets him the second time, making it a subversion.
Imperfect Ritual: His tattooed right arm allows him to perform 2 out of 3 steps of basic alchemy. Considering those steps are understanding and decomposition, you do not want him to touch you with that right hand of his.
Irony: Scar's quest for vengeance started because Amestrians slaughtered Scar's people. That quest ended with his working with Amestrians to save both peoples. Also, he's the man who ends up killing Führer Bradley, the man who ordered the Ishvalan genocide, AKA Wrath, the sin he prescribed to the most in his original Roaring Rampage of Revenge. By the end of the story, he's over his anger and bitter hatred and is instead helping Major Miles promote a new age of peace and understanding between his people and the people of Amestris, as should have been done all along.
It's All About Me: He's driven only by his feelings and his quest for vengeance, not caring about what other people think of him (including his master) or the consequences of his actions. Subverted eventually because he learns to care about things other than himself or his quest for vengeance.
I've Come Too Far: He's a Warrior Monk turned Vigilante Man who hunts the State Alchemists in his quest to avenge the genocide of the Ishvalans. He rejects his master's plea for him to stop his Roaring Rampage of Revenge, saying that he's gone too far to turn back. Subverted when he has a Heel–Face Turn and later is there to stop Mustang from passing the Moral Event Horizon.
Jerkass Has a Point: When Ed and Al confront him for killing the chimera made out of Nina and Alexander, he retorts that if they had lived, the poor creature would have spent the rest of their life in agony as a laboratory experiment. The brothers silently acknowledge that they knew Nina and Alexander could never have been separated and returned to normal.
Karmic Nod: When Winry confronts him at gunpoint for the murder of her parents, he owns up to it, accepts her hatred and encourages her to pull the trigger. However, he warns her that if she fires, he will treat her as his enemy and try to kill her as well, reasoning that one of them must die one way or the other to sever the chain of vengeance that connects them.
Life-or-Limb Decision: When Scar lost his arm in a bomb attack, his brother replaced it with his own arm, and apparently bled to death in his place.
Light Is Not Good: He often wears white or other lively colors and had a religious affiliation attached to him at one time.
Lightning Bruiser: His weapons are his fists (well, his fist o' destruction) so in order to do much damage he has to get close enough to touch his opponent. Pair that with fighting mostly long-range opponents, and you either get really quick or really dead. He's probably the fastest human in the series, barring perhaps Major Armstrong, and Ed when he had his Briggs automail.
Like Brother and Sister: With May.
Logical Weakness: He might be able to destroy everything his right arm touches, but it operates under the same premise as normal alchemy - he requires a knowledge of what he's transmuting before he can do it. He's failed to destroy Ed's automail arm twice due to this; the first time was because he didn't realize right away that it was automail, the second because he didn't know that it was no longer composed of steel.
Loophole Abuse: Abhors alchemy as part of his religion and for the State Alchemists' role in his people's massacre, but he considers it not-alchemy to use steps 1 and 2 (identify and deconstruct) so long as he stops before step 3 (reconstruct). He gets called out for using alchemy in all but name and he eventually gets over his hatred of it, getting a left-side tattoo that lets him fully perform alchemy.
Mage Killer: Of a "fight fire with fire" type which would make him a Hunter of His Own Kind since he uses alchemy to kill Alchemists. He targets State Alchemists to punish them for the massacre of his people, while breaking an Ishvalan taboo against the use of alchemy. He has killed at least twenty-one people, which is considerably impressive considering State Alchemists are feared as Human Weapons, each capable of being a Person of Mass Destruction in their own right. As a testament to his skill, he killed Basque Grand and Comanche and nearly killed notable State Alchemists such Mustang, Armstrong, Kimblee, and the Elric brothers in their encounters.
Mangst: He is one of those very people targeted in the Ishvalan Civil War. He lived through a genocide campaign that left his country erased, his people nearly extinguished, his family dead, and his brother's arm grafted to his shoulder. Just as an insult to injury, the arm also means he can use alchemy with ease; an act that as a former monk he views as sinful. He embarks on a ferocious Roaring Rampage of Revenge that he implies is supposed to end with suicide by State Alchemist. Some monologuing reveals that he's insane with grief for his people and family, and after encountering the daughter of a pair of doctors he murdered, he begins to change because she cuts close to home for him. Notably, his backstory is never divulged by him: May Chang has to learn of the Ishvalan genocide by a disenfranchised officer to realize why Scar pities her.
Mercy Kill: His reasoning behind killing the Nina-Alexander chimera is that there's no way to safely undo the transmutation and it will spend the rest of its life locked up in a military laboratory, though it's ambiguous how much it was really suffering.
Misplaced Retribution: He tries to kill the Elric brothers shortly after he's introduced. He is one of the few surviving members of a genocide perpetrated by the Amestrian government, and so has good reason to be angry, but he chooses to exact revenge for the deaths of his people by killing State Alchemists, and all State Alchemists, regardless of whether or not they were involved in the Ishvalan conflict. Ed and Al in particular were small children when the genocide took place and had absolutely nothing to do with it. He murdered Winry's parents, who saved his life as doctors, when it seemed like they were Amestrian scientists who were conducting experiments on Ishvalan survivors. Basque Grand, an early victim of his crusade, is revealed in a flashback to have vehemently opposed the genocide and even put Logue Lowe under his protection when escorting the Ishvalan elder in an attempt to save as many Ishvalans as they could. As a bonus, it turns out that the people responsible for the whole war were Father and Envy, who treat their Amestrian minions like fish food. Whoops.
Moral Myopia: He is angry at the genocide of his people, but he rarely cares about the people he has killed and the consequences of his murderous actions. It's subverted in regards to his accidental murder of Winry's parents, who saved his life, in that he feels guilt and remorse over it.
Mr. Fanservice: He gets a few shirtless scenes and many, many shots that pan down his arms. His good physical shape's justified in that he's an Ishvalan warrior-priest, and he gets yelled at for maintaining his workout regiment even while recovering.
My God, What Have I Done?: Among his murders, Winry's parents are the only ones he feels genuine guilt and remorse over, as he knows they were unjustified. And unlike the others, they also weren't planned and were carried out in the middle of a freak out. When Winry confronts him and demands to know why he killed them, he admits that any potential reason he could give would only be an excuse.
Named After the Injury: Got his nickname from his distinctive X-shaped scar on his forehead.
Named by Democracy: His real Ishvalan name was never told and they went with Scar since it was one of the few particular characteristics they could obtain from witnesses at first. He seems to have adopted it to a some degree since he has done many things that go against the Ishval Teachings (mainly murder).
Names to Run Away from Really Fast: He is only known as Scar for his facial scar.
Never Hurt an Innocent: Played With. He usually targets State Alchemists, but he has his moments where he kills or targets innocents, such as the Rockbells, the guards at Tucker's house, and Ed. But then played straight when he just beats the guards in Briggs unconscious.
Noble Demon: He may be a terroristic serial killer who indiscriminately hunts down State Alchemists, but he does have his principles. He avoids harming innocents and even minimizes damage to soldiers and police, saving his wrath for assassinating State Alchemists and self defense against homunculi. He kills Nina to spare her from a living hell as an abomination and experiment, honors Ed's "last" request to spare Alphonse, and takes full responsibility for killing Winry's parents in cold blood.
No Name Given: More like he forsook his own name.
Normally, I Would Be Dead Now: Survives killing Wrath (no easy task) and even gives us some exposition in 106. While dripping blood out of... everything. He's not that impressed when he wakes up later to find that he did survive.
Odd Friendship: May and Scar develop an Intergenerational Friendship. She's a cute little princess with an adorable pet panda and he's a Serial Killer out on a Roaring Rampage of Revenge.
Oh, Crap!: Usually on the giving end of this but also not above having a few of those moments himself. Most notable was when he tried to use his Touch of Death on Father to no effect (Father could reconstruct himself simultaneously as fast as Scar's tattoo could deconstruct him). Scar immediately panicked and leapt back before Father's lethal retaliation.
Only Known by Their Nickname: He's only known by Scar. He refuses to tell anyone what his real name is because he doesn't feel he deserves it anymore.
O.O.C. Is Serious Business: A subtle version post-reform. When helping to talk Roy down from his Roaring Rampage of Revenge against Envy, he concedes he has no moral high ground to condemn Roy's vengeance but admits he shudders to think what someone consumed with hate like he once was could do as the leader of a country. Up to that point there's never been a hint that anything following the Ishval Massacre could actually scare Scar.
Overdrawn at the Blood Bank: Bleeding out a lot, but survives.
Pay Evil unto Evil: Discussed; Scar's mission upon gaining his alchemic right arm from his brother is to use alchemy itself (stopping at the second out of the three stages, Destroy, so as to not go against his religious beliefs) to kill all the State Alchemists in vengeance for the mass genocide they committed against the Ishvalan people. Roy, who witnessed the horrors of Ishval firsthand, thinks that Scar's campaign against State Alchemists is not unfounded. After all, they were, regardless of their feelings on the matter, willing participants in a genocidal purge of Scar's people. However, Scar is targeting all State Alchemists, even ones that had nothing to do with Ishval and also kills other people like security guards who get in his way.
Perpetual Frowner: The number of times he has smiled in the entire series can be counted on one hand. But given all the pain, horror, and anguish he has gone through and seen, it's very, very much justified.
Personality Powers: A violent revenge seeker fittingly has destructive alchemy.
Pet the Dog:
- His mercy-killing of chimeric Nina, grim as it may be. The pity with which he finishes her is one of his first on-screen instances of humanity.
  Scar: At least your passing will be in peace.
- His kindness to May makes him a bit more likeable.
- According to the Omakes, he also likes kitty cats. Awww.
- Being fond of Shao May is an almost literal example, as he tries to pet her at one point.
- Unlike his hatred for alchemists and apparent indifference or distaste for Amestrians, he is gentle and respectful to the Ishvalan refugees he meets, especially children and his elders.
Please Kill Me if It Satisfies You: When Winry picks up a gun and is on the verge of shooting him, Scar freely admits she has every right to do so, though he also warns her that the second she pulls the trigger, she will be his enemy. Ed and Al intervene, not wanting Winry to become a murderer.
Power Nullifier:
- He ignores Father's Power Nullifier and absolutely wastes Gluttony with his destructive touch after Ed and Al's alchemy had been rendered useless. This was because his right arm, which he'd received from his brother, was based in Xingese alkahestry and not Amestrian alchemy.
- In the story's climax, Scar is responsible for carrying out the plan to nullify Father's Power Nullifier by activating a reverse transmutation circle in coordination with several Ishvalans. Not only does this make it impossible for Father to shut off alchemy any further, but it also gave Amestrian alchemists full access to the raw power of the earth, something Ed picks up on and uses to his advantage.
Power Tattoo: The source of his alchemy is the network of tatoos on his arm.
Redemption Earns Life: He becomes a priest in the reforming Ishval, teaching the new generation about their people's culture alongside Miles.
Red Eyes, Take Warning: Zigzagged. His red eyes identify him as an Ishvalan -- something which would get the average Amestrian up in arms immediately. However, the Ishvalans are a needlessly persecuted ethnic group that was nearly wiped out in a civil war. Compared to the average Ishvalan, though, Scar is an extremely dangerous individual, especially to State Alchemists, yet through his Character Development, he's less caustic and more antiheroic by the end of the series.
Revenge: Wrath is his big sin, to the point that he essentially views himself as the wrath of God personified, starting him down the deep end. It foreshadows him being the one to finally kill Wrath the homunculus.
Revenge Before Reason: He hates State Alchemists enough to try to kill Ed, who had absolutely nothing to do with the genocide of his people, just for being one of them. Even after finding out that some of his people survived, it takes time for him to give up his quest for vengeance to join them.
Revenge Is Not Justice: When the series starts out, he's is a Vigilante Man/Serial Killer who targets State Alchemists because many of them participated in the genocide of his people. While Roy Mustang, one of the participants in said genocide, views it as justice that one of the surviving Ishvalans would seek revenge, Ed rebukes it, stating outright that regardless of his reasons, Scar is still involving innocent people in his rampage and candy-coating it by acting self-righteous and calling himself "an instrument of God". Several of Scar's fellow Ishvalan survivors, including his master, also tell Scar point-blank that no matter what happened to their people, what he's doing is wrong.
Riddle for the Ages: His real name is never given and Scar refuses to provide it several times when asked.
Right Hand of Doom: Can only perform his deconstructions with one hand.
Rule of Symbolism: Scar, a Vigilante Man whose arc is about letting go of his anger and breaking the cycle of vengeance, defeats the personification of Wrath.
Roaring Rampage of Revenge: Scar goes on one of these when nearly his entire people, including all of his family, are killed during the Ishval Massacre. His plan is to kill every State Alchemist he meets, including those not involved in the Ishval massacre. He eventually sees that what he is doing is wrong, and becomes something of The Atoner.
Say My Name: "KIIIIIIIIMBLEEEEEE!!!"
Scary Black Man: Well, Scary Ishvalan Man, but close enough. This guy becomes the State Alchemists' bogeyman! Although it's averted with May, who doesn't find him scary at all, even after being informed that he kills people.
Serial Killer: Of the Mission-Based and Revenge variety; he targets State Alchemists to punish them for the massacre of his people and breaking an Ishvalan taboo against the use of alchemy. He has killed at least twenty-one people.
Serial-Killer Killer: Replace "serial killer" with "war criminal" and yeah, that's Scar. Indeed, he assassinates his targets with the same power that they use to commit their war crimes.
Shoot the Dog: Upon finding Nina transformed into a horrific dog-creature, Scar recognizes that she's suffering and mercy-kills her with his alchemy.
Sinister Minister: He is a former warrior-priest and a ruthless Serial Killer in a Roaring Rampage of Revenge, though was originally a good man before the Ishvalan Massacre took his family and the most of his people away from him.
Spanner in the Works: Father's alchemy-cancelling abilities have absolutely no effect on him. Compounded with the moment he and May first gatecrashed into his lair, he's been derailing his plans bit after bit.
Straw Nihilist: Implied, at least for a time. While he's not vocal about it, he doesn't even care about his own life and at one point, he claims to have decided to abandon everything his God gave him.
The Stoic: He's a man of few moods. The most common is "solemn religious judgement".
Suicide by Cop: Seems to be his life's goal. He doesn't succeed, much to his irritation.
Survivor Guilt: He's extremely distressed that his brother, who he considers a better person than himself, died and saved Scar's life with his own arm. He deals with it by killing State Alchemists.
Sympathetic Murderer: Even being a ruthless Serial Killer who attempted to kill The Protagonist isn't enough to keep him from sympathetic, given that as a genocide survivor he had lost everything he held dear. He also admits that he feels horribly guilty for killing Winry's parents, because they were innocents and had saved him.
Tame His Anger: Probably the most noticeable one in the series.
Team Dad: He becomes one after Yoki and May become his True Companions.
That Man Is Dead: Twice. He uses this as his reason why he abandoned his real name. In the last chapter, when Olivier asks him what she should call him, he tells her to call him whatever she wants to, since he's died twice.
Teeth-Clenched Teamwork: With everyone after his Heel–Face Turn, especially Ed.
Tragic Bigot: His hatred of all Amestrians, including and especially State Alchemists, stems from what the Amestrian military did during the Ishvalan Massacre.
Tragic Villain: Scar used to be a kind and caring man before the Ishvalan Massacre took his family and the most of his people away from him. He does make a Heel–Face Turn, though.
Tranquil Fury: In his Roaring Rampage of Revenge, he is, save for a few moments, very calm throughout the entire deal. He even goes toe to toe with Wrath with only a Death Glare to show his utter hatred of the man who slaughtered his people.
Trauma Button: When Ed throws himself in front of Winry to protect her, Scar flashes back to the moment his brother threw himself in front of him to protect him from Kimblee and freezes up; Al takes advantage of it to attack Scar and drive him off.
Trauma Conga Line: It all started when Kimblee attacked him and Scar's brother gave up his arm to save his life. When he woke up and thought his brother was with him only to find out about his arm and the fate of his brother, he freaked out, killed the Rockbells in a berserk rage, and went outside only to find Ishval destroyed.
True Companions: With Yoki and May.
The Unapologetic: Deconstructed. When Winry questions why he killed her parents, Scar tells her that there can be no excuse for it instead of apologizing for it.
The Unfettered: He will stop at nothing to destroy those who killed the most of his people.
The Unreveal: He doesn't reveal his real name.
Used to Be a Sweet Kid: An older example; in the flashbacks, he is shown to be once a good if very strict person who genuinely cares about his family and people. Having lost everything he held dear, he became a ruthless Serial Killer in a Roaring Rampage of Revenge we know today.
Vigilante Execution: His standard MO, assassinating State Alchemists for their war crimes during the Ishvalan Massacre. He stops doing this after his Heel–Face Turn.
Vigilante Man: He is trying to punish State Alchemists for their war crimes during the Ishvalan Massacre. Deconstructed as he tries to kill Ed, who had absolutely nothing to do with the genocide of his people, just for being one of them.
Warrior Monk: He was a warrior-priest of Ishval during the war, and tried to do penance afterward through becoming a death-seeking avenger of God.
White Hair, Black Heart: Zigzagged. His white hair identify him as an Ishvalan. However, the Ishvalans are a needlessly persecuted ethnic group that was nearly wiped out in a civil war. Compared to the average Ishvalan, though, Scar is an extremely dangerous individual, especially to State Alchemists, yet through his Character Development, he's less caustic and more antiheroic by the end of the series.
Withholding Their Name: The Ishvalan known as Scar underwent a Meaningful Rename, and tossed away his old name in his quest for revenge. During Brotherhood, Yoki asks Scar's name. Scar responds that to Ishvalans, a person's name is the most important thing; the name is regarded as a gift from God. So Yoki asks again, and Scar's response is "I threw it away. I threw away my own name." Yoki doesn't dare ask him again. At the end of the series, he still refuses to give his name and says you can just call him whatever you want to.
Woobie, Destroyer of Worlds: He's one of the few survivors of a brutal genocide which killed almost all his loved ones. As revenge against the government who massacred his people, he becomes a Serial Killer who exclusively targets state alchemists. Fortunately, he gets much better over time.
World's Best Warrior: Scar is the best hand-to-hand fighter in the cast thanks to his martial arts prowess and his destruction technique. He is, however, held back by his poor range and lack of alchemical skill, at least until he battles with Wrath and decides to give reconstruction a shot.
Would Hurt a Child: At first. He gives a Mercy Kill to Nina after he murders her father in front of her. Then he attacks Ed and Al, who only put up a fight when cornered, despite the fact that both of them were too young to have participated in the Ishvalan massacre.
"X" Marks the Hero: Double Subverted. He starts out as a He Who Fights Monsters-style Anti-Villain, but the ensuing Character Development slowly turns him into an Anti-Hero instead.
You Monster!: Called this by Winry after finding out that he killed her parents even though they saved his life.
Winry: GIVE ME BACK MY MOM AND DAD, YOU MONSTER!

Izumi Curtis

Voiced by: Shoko Tsuda (JP), Christine Auten (EN, Funimation), Muriel Hofmann (EN, Animax)^{Other Languages}

Affiliation: None
Rank: A housewife!
Speciality: Martial-Arts/Alchemy without an Array

Mentor to the Elric brothers, she taught them both alchemy and martial arts, both of which she is very much a master of. Despises State Alchemists. Believes in physical honing over focus in alchemy as a balance. Also, scary as hell, especially when coercing her apprentices.

Action Girl: One of the most action packed women in the series to the point Ed and Al fear her wrath. She also survived the cold winters near Fort Briggs for a month, taking out several soldiers and a giant bear in the process.
Action Mom: She taught Ed and Al advanced alchemy and how to kick ass while also serving as their surrogate mother.
Adaptational Jerkass: In the manga, Izumi sent Mason to the island while Ed and Al were there to make sure they survived. This was left out of Brotherhood, meaning Izumi left the Elrics entirely on their own in the wilderness for a month.
Aerith and Bob: Her Japanese given name stands out a bit since Japan has no (known) direct counterpart in this universe, unlike Amestris which is based on a mix of Germany and England, and Xing which is based on China. ^note
Almighty Janitor: Izumi loves to announce her status as a lowly housewife before laying into her enemies.
Apron Matron: Izumi will proudly proclaim herself a House Wife while simultaneously kicking the ass of every single person/chimera/immortal who dares to hurt her surrogate kids. Then she beats said surrogate kids up herself!
Aw, Look! They Really Do Love Each Other: Even if she roughs up Ed and Al more than necessary, it's very clear that she loves the two like they were her own children.
Badass Bookworm: When she started training the Elrics, she effortlessly dodged everything they threw at her while reciting the first lesson of alchemy from memory and reading from a cookbook simultaneously.
Badass Bystander: Her skills in alchemy and unarmed combat are both high enough to fight homunculi, but she's more interested in running her shop with her husband than saving the day for the state. When she does get dragged into conflict, it's usually personal, and the results aren't pretty.
Badass Teacher: She's the one who taught Ed and Al alchemy, after all.
Barefoot Sage: She always goes around in open-toed sandals, which may be because she doesn't care much about conventions due to being a powerful and experienced Alchemist.
Battle Couple: With Sig, her husband. They are Happily Married and were part of the Final Battle together.
Berserk Button: Two.
- The military, albeit to an extent. She does not approve of their actions (or at least the State Alchemists) though she does get along with and respect individuals such as Colonel Mustang and General Olivier Armstrong.
- Never call her "old".
Blood from the Mouth: Tends to happen at random, completely freaking out everyone around her. Which, in a very rare form of this trope, is usually Played for Laughs, including one moment when, mid-interrogation, a perp cracks when she starts vomiting blood all over him. It stops after Hohenheim rearranges her organs to compensate for her damage.
Braids of Action: She wears her hair in multiple braids. She also taught Ed and Al both to fight and to use alchemy.
Character Catchphrase:
- "I'm a housewife!"
- Near the end of the series she deliberately changes it to "I'm an ALCHEMIST!" indicating her intention of giving a good asskicking for the final battle.
Charles Atlas Superpower: Quite possibly one of the strongest characters in the FMA universe. She can aikido you in the air with little effort even if you're stronger than her. Just ask Sloth.
Chekhov's Gunman: While revealed a little late, she is a necessary "sacrifice" required for Father to absorb God.
Chubby Chaser: She absolutely adores her husband and fell in love soon after meeting him, Sig, who is a Big Beautiful Man.
Contralto of Strength: Like Major General Armstrong, Izumi's voice is the deepest among the entire female cast and she's certainly one of the most dangerous.
Disabled Snarker
The Dreaded: Given the Training from Hell they endured while under her tutelage, combined with her Hair-Trigger Temper, the Elric brothers are understandably terrified of her and make it a point to avoid making her mad. In fact, they often use this as a motivator, saying they can beat a villain because said villain isn't as scary as Izumi.
- During her own Training from Hell in the past, she had to survive the frozen wilderness alone and frequently fought off Fort Briggs soldiers and preyed upon their rations. In one month, she knocked out so many armed patrols and stole so many supplies that the notoriously competent and fearless soldiers of Fort Briggs thought they were dealing with an entire elite infiltration unit and had to issue an official report to top brass in Central. The military never officially resolved the incident and still speak of that month like a terrifying urban legend, to the point even Olivier Mira Armstrong notes its significance when asked if anyone had ever infiltrated Fort Briggs.
- She is one of only two characters in the entire series who is able to get away with pressing Ed's Berserk Button (i.e. drawing attention to his height), due to Ed being so afraid of her. The other is Olivier Armstrong.
Dreadlock Rasta: Word of God says they're actually microbraids.
Dreadlock Warrior: She is the Elric Brothers' teacher of both alchemy and the martial arts. In fact, she is one of, if not THE only person that they are afraid of. Albeit, as mentioned above, they aren't dreadlocks, but microbraids.
Drill Sergeant Nasty: Her Training from Hell is only the start. She continually berates and abuses the Elrics throughout their training and well into their journey for the Philosopher's Stone. She really does mean well, and much of her anger in the present is due to concern and disappointment over some of the brothers' unwise decisions, like attempting human transmutation and enlisting in the state military.
Early-Bird Cameo: Izumi and her husband get a blink-and-you'll-miss-it appearance in episode 9 of Brotherhood.
Excuse Me While I Multitask: She is shown fending off the Elric brothers during their training with her while reading from her notes (encoded in a cookbook) as she lectures.
Expecting Someone Taller: Winry was expecting someone huge and terrifying from the brothers' description of their teacher.
Genius Bruiser: She'll just pummel you without breaking a sweat normally, so pray she doesn't decide to break out the alchemy too.
Good Is Not Nice: She does not believe that painless lessons are worthwhile lessons, to put it mildly. But she is undoubtedly one of the good guys.
Handicapped Badass: She's missing several of her internal organs and randomly coughs up Blood from the Mouth. She is also one of the most frakkin' epic characters in the entire series. Later on, she is no longer as inhibited by her loss thanks to Hohenheim's alchemy rearranging her innards.
Happily Married: To Sig. They run their business together, he takes care of her when her illness starts up, and there are frequent lovey-dovey backgrounds when they're both on screen.
Heroic Neutral: She discourages her pupils from mixing alchemy and world affairs and largely keeps out of the events that drive the plot until they directly affect or interest her. Her only desire is to be a happy housewife.
Hidden Depths: Despite being introduced as The Dreaded badass who scares Ed and Al to death, when she learns they did Human Transmutation to bring their mother back to life, she hugs them and tells them it's okay, showing us that Izumi is more complex then first thought. It's later discovered that she made the same error when she tried to bring back her stillborn child.
Housewife: Emphatically declares herself one, though the closest we see to it has her working in a butcher shop with her husband.
Huge Guy, Tiny Girl: Her husband is easily twice her size and can match muscles with Major Armstrong. Nice Guy for the most part and he runs a butcher shop, but don't make him angry.
Incurable Cough of Death: Due to her failed attempt at human transmutation, she lost some of her internal organs (enough to where she could never give birth to a child again.) Partially fixed later, thanks to an alchemical punch to the gut from Hohenheim, who cannot give her organs back but can nullify the effects of such a loss by restructuring her innards around.
Jerk with a Heart of Gold: Her training methods are harsh and she will utterly eviscerate the Elric brothers should they anger her, but she ultimately means well and cares for them like her own sons.
Killer Rabbit: At least when compared to her Gentle Giant Face of a Thug husband.
Kung-Fu Wizard: In a series full of Magic Knights, she trained two of the best. Her alchemic knowledge and abilities are easily on par with State Alchemists, and her skill with martial arts is so high that she can trounce both Elrics at once, go toe to toe with Homunculi and dispatch the notoriously tough soldiers of Fort Briggs without alchemy. Her philosophy is that alchemy shouldn't be wasted on tasks humans can handle by natural means, so she puts plenty of emphasis on training and conditioning.
Law of Inverse Fertility: She and Sig had difficulty conceiving a child, and when they lost that baby, she was desperate enough to try human transmutation to revive it. She's then left completely incapable of bearing kids after Truth took out some of her organs.
Love at First Sight: With her husband after a Crash-Into Hello.
Mama Bear: Her own child was stillborn and her alchemical attempts to bring it back robbed her of her organs to where she could never give birth again. Through a strange exchange of fate, ended up taking Ed and Al as students who just lost their mother. As such, she more or less became their second mother. They are very competent fighters, but hurting them will bring her wrath and she will show you why she is one of the few people whom the brothers fear.
Meaningful Name: Her given name, Izumi, means flood in Japanese. Guess during what event Edward and Alphonse first encounter Izumi?
Mentor in Sour Armor: No matter how hard she is on the Elrics, she loves them as her own sons.
Mukokuseki: Inverted. In a cast where genetics clearly plays a role in determining physical appearance, Izumi's ethnic background is a mystery. Her hair is in microbraids and her name and physical features are asiatic, but her maiden name, Harnet, is European.
Must Not Die a Virgin: Part of what kept her alive when she was training on Mount Briggs.
Older Than She Looks: She's revealed to be around thirty-eight throughout the course of the series (she was eighteen when training in Mt. Briggs, which is stated by soldiers about 3/4 into the series to have been twenty years ago), and doesn't look much older than thirty, if that. That being said, calling her "old" is not a good idea.
Outliving One's Offspring: Her and Sig's biological son was stillborn.
Parental Substitute: Both played straight and inverted. While she primarily served as their teacher, it's pretty evident that she also serves as a strict but caring mother for them (especially given the recent passing of Trisha Elric). Appropriately enough, the Elric brothers also become the sons she never got to raise (as her own child she gave birth to was stillborn and her attempts to bringing them back resulting in her losing certain parts of her body and leaving her unable to give birth ever again.)
Pet the Dog:
- She's far from villainous or malicious, but most of our perspective of her comes from her interactions with the Elrics, where she seems harsh, violent and furious. But if you pay attention, she has a few moments of genuine tenderness with her beloved husband and the Elric brothers, for whom she has a sincerely maternal love and teacher's affection. And even then, her harsh interactions are out of concern for them.
- She's also shown to regularly fix the neighborhood kids' broken toys, though she insists on fixing them by hand no matter how much they bug her to use alchemy. When a little girl asks her to "fix" her dead kitten, however, Izumi explains as gently as possible that she can't since death isn't something anyone can fix. She does help the girl come to terms with it and give her kitten a funeral, though.
Plucky Girl: A grown-up version, but she still qualifies.
Proverbial Wisdom: Well, she doesn't speak in proverbs all the time, but when she left the brothers on the island to survive on their own, she also gave them a cryptic koan-like saying ("All is one, one is all") so they could find out its meaning.
Sexy Mentor: Winry even remarks that's she's surprised at Izumi's looks, since she got the impression from the Elrics that their mentor was an evil old hag.
Shrouded in Myth: Twenty years before the start of the series, she trained in the Briggs mountains, which included - and was not limited to - wrestling with a bear, and continually beating the crap out of and stealing rations from the soldiers stationed there, a story she told to the Elrics at one point. Twenty years later, her tale is still known among the Briggs men with a myth-like reverence, as she was the only person who repeatedly screwed with them and was never caught, as Olivier recounts. Only the Elrics ever put the pieces together.
Shoe Slap: Hits people with her sandals several times throughout the series.
Sickeningly Sweethearts: With Sig.
Sink or Swim Mentor: How she trains the Elric brothers: abandoning them on a mostly-deserted island with little equipment. Either they die of starvation, or learn to survive. Even that isn't enough though, as they have to understand Alchemy and its fundamental concepts or else she'll kick them out. Mind, she also made sure that they'd be okay by leaving someone else on the island to check up on them, which is more than she got while undergoing the same "training" in the frozen mountains of Briggs.
Stern Teacher: She's very strict, and doesn't pull any punches, literally or figuratively, when it comes to disciplining her students.
Super-Strength: She effortlessly judo-throws Sloth. If any unaugmented human in this series qualifies, it's Izumi.
This Is Unforgivable!: When she learns the Elric Brothers did Human Transmutation, she expels them, stating that she cannot forgive them for such a thing. In reality, it's much more complicated namely in that it reminds of her own attempt to bring back her stillborn child the same way they would try to bring back their mother.
Tough Love: She's hard on Ed and Al because she loves and cares for them, and empathizes with their pain since she also tried to use alchemy to bring a loved one back.
Training from Hell: She subjects the Elric brothers to this, to the extent that the very mention of her name makes them tremble with fear. Which is nothing next to the training she endured. It involved Mt. Briggs and fighting bears, which we get to see more of in the 3rd OVA. Some of her exploits surviving out there include pilfering military bases for supplies — read that again, she stole from Briggs and got away with it.
Tsundere: Type A as she seems to be 'tsun' when not putting up a "sweet housewife" front, but is unbelievably 'dere' with her husband.
Two First Names: "Curtis" can also be used as a first name.
Utility Magic: She is critical of people too liberally treating alchemy as this. When a local boy brings her a broken toy, she fixes it with tools. He thought she would use alchemy, but she says that no alchemists should become too dependent on alchemy solving all their problems, especially ones they can fix themselves. This attitude may be born of her traumatic attempt to resurrect her baby instead of accepting his death, creating an abomination and costing her some pieces of her organs.
Waif-Fu: Looks like a typical housewife, but manage to to set off her Hair-Trigger Temper and you're in for a pretty solid ass beating. And you better pray you don't make her angry enough to use her alchemy. She tosses Sloth, the fastest homunculus and who's built like a tank to boot, like he weighed nothing. This move completely floored the Armstrong siblings, who had been on the ropes after fighting Sloth.
Women Prefer Strong Men: If her relationship with Sig implies anything about her taste in men, it's this. In a humorous flashback, it's revealed that she was attracted to Sig at first sight, and fell head over heels when he effortlessly picked up the bear corpse she had dropped.
- During the final battle, she remarks to Alex Armstrong that he’s a “fine man.” But of course, she tells him she already has a man “100 times finer than you.”

Van Hohenheim

Voiced by: Unshō Ishizuka (JP, series), Kenyuu Horiuchi (JP, FMA Mobile), John Swasey (EN), Daisuke Namikawa (JP - Young), Aaron Dismuke (EN - Young)^{Other Languages}

Affiliation: None
Rank: None
Speciality: Perfect Alchemy/Trap Alchemy/Immortality

The Elrics' father, a renowned alchemist who left them and their mother when they were little.

Absent-Minded Professor: While a fairly serious and somber character, he can be a bit of a bumbling space-cadet at times. For example, he once tried building a tree swing for the boys, stopped paying attention to what he was doing to think about other matters, and promptly fell out of the tree. Then there was his reunion with Al in the manga:
Al: Father?!
Hohenheim: My vintage armor!!
Al: What!!!!
Hohenheim: Oh... Er, Sorry.
Action Dad: The father of the two main heroes and has proven to be able to kick a lot of ass.
Adaptation Personality Change: While the Fullmetal Alchemist: Brotherhood anime preserves the most important parts of Hohenheim's character arc, it omitted the vast majority of scenes involving Hohenheim being an airhead, resulting in his personality coming off as much more serious compared to the manga.
All-Loving Hero: Does everything he can to save thousands of people he'll never meet, all while putting himself through hell. And then there's getting to know all of those souls.
Animals Hate Him: Justified. It's a natural reaction when they can sense more than half a million people standing in front of them at once.
Badass Bookworm: He looks like he should be teaching in some school, but he's one of two Perfect Alchemists in the series. Which, considering the nature of alchemy as a power science, would actually add credibility to him as a schoolteacher.
Badass in a Nice Suit: Always wears a nice suit.
Badass Longcoat: It's not as military as Mustang's or as... adolescent as Ed's, but his regular jacket is still long enough to accentuate his movements.
Badass Pacifist: Not a fighter himself but some of his actions can screw Father over.
Be Careful What You Wish For: After the final battle, when he's dying, he realizes that now that he's finally getting what he wanted, he actually doesn't want to die.
Berserk Button: When he was young, he would get angry if someone called him an idiot.
Big Good: He's the Good Counterpart to Father, serves as a Messianic Archetype, and has been setting up a response to the latter's plans for years.
Bizarre Human Biology: He is physically a human, but his body is artificial, constructed through alchemy and maintained by a philosopher's stone, much like the Homunculi.
Born into Slavery: Born a slave in Xerxes.
Break Them by Talking: After meeting his son for the first time in ten years and asking why they had burned his house down, he coldly rips Edward's answer apart. By the time he's done, Ed looks about two seconds away from having a breakdown.
Hohenheim: That's not it. You just didn't want to see it again. You wanted to escape your horrifying memories. You wanted to conceal all traces of the sin you committed. You're no different from a child who hides his sheets after wetting himself in his sleep. You ran, didn't you, Edward?
Chekhov M.I.A.: He left his family and went missing years ago. Once he reappears, he becomes a major character for the entire plot.
The Chessmaster: Has been setting up a response to Father's transmutation circle for years. No one, including the Big Bad, saw that one coming.
Cloudcuckoolander: Having all those souls inside him makes him kinda quirky.
Common Law Marriage: He and Trisha weren't officially married, but they lived happily together for several years and had two sons together.
Convenient Terminal Illness: Averted; he is dying after the final battle, having used up all the souls inside him, but Ed refuses to sacrifice him.
Cool Old Guy: Centuries old and has all of the experience and savviness that comes with it.
Cruel to Be Kind: During his first appearance, he coldly accuses Edward of running away and then knowingly lets him overhear a conversation with Pinako about the possibility that what he created wasn't even Trisha. The combination of these two events drives him to prove he isn't running away by checking the body only to find out that not only was it not Trisha, but it's little more than a crudely made jumble of random body parts that could never have been a functional human. By talking to it with Al, they realize it didn't even have a soul or consciousness of its own, so they didn't bring some poor freak into the world that could only suffer before it died either. This greatly eases the conscience of Ed, Al, and Izumi because it means they didn't kill their loved ones a second time.
Curtains Match the Window: Matching golden eyes and hair. A trait he passed onto his sons.
Daddy Had a Good Reason for Abandoning You: He doesn't try to justify his actions, but left home after realizing that Father was preparing a larger version of the Xerxes transmutation circle.
Dark and Troubled Past: Possibly the darkest here. He was a slave in Xerxes 400 years ago, and the Big Bad, Homunculus/Father was made from his blood. It taught him reading and alchemy, and then made him an Unwitting Pawn in the destruction of his own country, which led to transformation of all of its people into a Philosopher's Stone in order for Father to gain a body and power. Though he got immortality by absorbing half of his country's souls as Homunculus' gift and managed to befriend all of them later, Hohenheim is plagued by guilt.
The Dead Have Names: Knows the names of every person who died in the last days of Xerxes.
- He plays this deliberately, as he goes out of his way to befriend each of the souls he got stuck with.
Death Seeker: One of the main reasons he left his family is because he was trying to find a way to revoke his immortality so he and Trisha would be Together in Death.
Dirty Old Man: Subverted. He's called this for requesting Lan Fan to accompany him when the group splits up in the Third Laboratory. It's really so he can help her escape the lab and find Ling; he's intending on confronting Father alone.
Disappeared Dad: Hohenheim left the family when Ed and Al were very young. He did have his reasons, namely preventing his evil blood-related creation from absorbing the entire country into itself, becoming god, and conquering the world, but even so, Ed is understandably still bitter about it.
The Dog Bites Back: He and souls of Xerxes managed to return all of Amestris people into their bodies, thus preventing Father's victory.
Everybody's Dead, Dave: The complete destruction of Xerxes. To top it off, at least in part it was his fault. No wonder he freaked out.
First-Name Basis: A variant. Hohenheim solely addresses Father by his original name, Homunculus (Dwarf in the Flask in the dub) both because of their history and because he's not impressed with the grandiose station Father has given himself. He also refers to himself by his original name, rather than the name Father gave him, when issuing a challenge.
From Nobody to Nightmare: A benevolent version, but he went from a nameless slave to the Sage of the West.
Good All Along: His ominous behavior and resemblance to the Big Bad initially make it seem like Hohenheim is an antagonist. However, once his backstory is revealed, it becomes clear that he’s one of the good guys. Even him leaving his family turns out to be for a good reason: Hohenheim realized that Father was planning to recreate the nationwide transmutation of Xerxes in Amestris, and so left because he needed to travel the country and put a counter plan in place to stop him.
Good Counterpart: To Father, who shares his appearance and power; in a weird way they essentially created one another.
Go Out with a Smile: He dies smiling at Trisha's grave; the closest to a reunion he could make.
Hair Antennae: Evidently, Ed inherited it from him.
Heroic Sacrifice: Defied. He tries to offer his remaining energy as the toll to bring Alphonse back but Ed refuses. It's implied that Hohenheim gave his energy to Al to revitalize his body given that Al's recovery was said to be progressing incredibly quickly, he felt a shock run through him when Hohenheim shook his hand which he attributed to feeling another person for the first time in year but Mei had already hugged him without such a reaction, and despite having a human life's worth of energy Hohenheim expired mere days later.
Heroic Self-Deprecation: Hohenheim doesn't think anything he does is good enough.
Humanoid Abomination: Animals Hate Him because he's a Philosopher's Stone given the form of a man.
I Am a Monster: His usual explanation to anyone who sees his Philosopher's Stone-derived powers.
I Am Legion: A rare heroic example. He has, over time, come to terms with each and every one of the innumerable souls within him, making him nearly impossible for Father to subsume like the other Philosopher's Stones.
I Was Quite a Looker: He was a Bishōnen before he grew a beard and definitely fits the bill for Mr. Fanservice in his youth. Though he's not that bad looking now.
Last of His Kind: He is the last Xerxian, both as an inhabitant and ethnicity, at least in the sense of being a pure one. His sons are ethnically Xerxian as well as as their children.
Let's Get Dangerous!: Pretty restrained with his power, but when he lets loose....
Living Forever Is Awesome: Downplayed. "I'm not gonna lie and say it doesn't come in handy."
Manly Tears: To highly dramatic effect, after hearing Trisha's last words.
Mayfly–December Romance: With Trisha. When they got together, he had already lived for hundreds of years while Trisha was just a regular human. When he realized he would eventually outlive his lover and sons, Hohenheim wanted to find a way to get rid of his immortality and grow old with them.
Meaningful Rename: His past name wasn't a proper name but a number because he was a slave. The Dwarf in the Flask/Future Father gave him his current name.
Mind Hive: He has hundreds of thousands of Xerxian souls in him, but he is the dominant soul in the body. He has, however, managed to soothe all of the souls so they aren't consumed by despair and panic like souls in other Philosopher's Stones, and this allows them all to act with a singular purpose, as shown when Father's attempt to drain him is interrupted by some of the souls, and even more prominently with the Umbral Circle failsafe.
Mysterious Parent: We don't know much about him until later.
Named After Somebody Famous: The full name given to him by Father is Theophrastus Bombastus van Hohenheim — the real name of famous real-world alchemist Paracelsus.
Nigh-Invulnerability: Thanks to his Philosopher's Stone, it's really hard to hurt him.
Non-Action Guy: Despite his god-like powerful alchemy and Nigh-Invulnerability, he flat out admits being a pretty poor fighter. This results in him duelling Father by exhibiting impressive alchemic powers while stumbling around trying to stay on his feet.
No Social Skills: He's so terrible at interacting with his sons that at first he almost comes off as outright villainous. One of the first things he does is give Ed a Breaking Speech about his reaction to the failed Trisha resurrection, and instead of just telling Ed he didn't kill Trisha again he fakes an Exact Eavesdropping moment.
Obfuscating Stupidity: He doesn't want passers-by to know his true nature so he downplays it.
Opaque Lenses: They make him look pretty creepy on occasion, but it's ultimately a Red Herring.
Papa Wolf: "Don't you EVER mock my SON!"
Parental Neglect: When they were little, Ed and Al viewed him as a cold father who spent all his time working on his office, but he really cares about them.
Parents as People: As mentioned above, Hohenheim wasn't a great parent, having been cold and distant towards Ed and Al when they were young and ultimately abandoning them. However, he's a good person who loves his sons dearly, but seems to have considerable difficulty showing it, which itself is mostly due to his Dark and Troubled Past and focus on stopping Father.
Powered by a Forsaken Child: His alchemy is fueled by the 500,000ish Xerxian souls within him, as he is a Philosopher's Stone given the form of a man. It's reconstructed, however, given how he managed to reach an understanding with each and every soul within him, and in the finale, the souls within him actually urged him to use more of them to stave off the Big Bad's assault. It's as awesome as it is heartwarming.
The Power of Friendship: Part of at least two counter plans he has prepared, thanks to his Legion.
Really Dead Montage: In Brotherhood, after his death at the very end of episode 63.
Really 700 Years Old: Always looks like he's in his 40's to 50's, but is over 400.
Red Herring: Let's see, he looks just like the Big Bad, who was last seen getting off his throne and walking somewhere unknown shortly before Hohenheim returned to Resembool, he gives Ed a "The Reason You Suck" Speech, he warns Pinako about a coming catastrophe and tells her to leave the country and when she refuses he says that will be the last time they speak, and finally when he scares off some bandits by proving he's immortal he refers to himself as a monster, in a page that contrasts him with several Homunculi. And yet, it turns out the Homunculi's Father is a separate (but connected) individual, and Hohenheim is a pure-hearted Big Good.
Scary Shiny Glasses: A warning light indicating he's about to get dangerous. Alternatively, they indicate that he's currently being incredibly dorky.
Seven Heavenly Virtues: While Father is defined by the seven sins, Van Hohenheim is defined by the seven virtues. He fell in love with Trisha and remained loyal to her until he died (Chastity), he is willing to sacrifice his happiness for the sake of others (Charity), he is willing to work to accomplish his goals (Diligence) and will endure great struggle and time to solve his problems (Patience), and despite being incredibly powerful he does not exploit his abilities beyond what is necessary for the situation (Temperance), uses his power to help others (Kindness), and does not see himself as superior to others (Humility).
Shipper on Deck: He pretty blatantly acknowledges Lan Fan's feelings for Ling when he tells her to go find him.
Sole Survivor: Of Xerxes.
Sympathy for the Devil: Expresses some for Father.
Together in Death: He gets a scene with Trisha in the afterlife.
Trap Master: He may not be the best at combat alchemy, but he's great at transmuting traps and tombs for his foes. Pride learned this the hard way.
Unskilled, but Strong: Fu describes him as the strongest person present at a gathering that included Greed, Gluttony, and Pride. Despite this, his lack of combat skills makes him less impressive than he could be.
Unwitting Pawn: The original Homunculus tricked him into helping to obliterate his own civilization. The next time, he inverts it.
Who Wants to Live Forever?: Zigzagged all over the place. At first, with the freshly dead Xerxians inside him, he wanted to die to be free of the screaming. After he got them under control, he liked that he had all the time he wanted to experience the world. Then he met his lover and regretted that he would outlive her and his sons. Finally, as he's dying at the end of the series, he laments that he can't live a little longer with his sons.
You Are Number 6: He was originally just #23, beginning his life as a nameless slave. He later uses this as part of a Badass Boast threat to Father, the "son" who named him.
Hohenheim: Tell him Slave #23 is coming to see him.

Tim Marcoh

Voiced by: Masayuki Omoro (JP), Jerry Russell (EN)^{Other Languages}

Affiliation: Amestris Military (formerly)
Rank: Major (formerly)
Speciality: Medical Alchemy/Biological Alchemy

A state alchemist who served in Ishval, and is credited with inventing the Philosopher's Stone. Due to his experience in the war, he deserts the military, living a quiet life as a country doctor, until trouble comes knocking on his door.

Anti-Regeneration: Because of his intimate understanding of Philosopher's Stones, Marcoh can not only stop the Homunculi's regeneration instead of just exhausting it, but he can unmake them as well. He reduces the monstrous Envy to a tiny green slug with a single transmutation. However, this requires point-blank range, and he's not much of a fighter, so he only got to use it once.
The Atoner: He's wracked with guilt for his role in the research and creation of Philosopher's Stones.
Back-Alley Doctor: A very competent one - he works in a small backwater town not because he's unskilled, but because he's in hiding.
Badass Bookworm: Not actually in the beat-em-up sense, but his grit and determination are pretty badass. Although he does get to show off some combat chops against Lust and Envy.
Batman Gambit: His plan to drain Envy's regeneration worked because he knew from experience how much the villains like to wreck his life.
Beware the Nice Ones: A milder example, but by being a Badass Bookworm Envy finds this out the hard way. Turns out Marcoh also knows all the weaknesses of a Philosopher's Stone too, and is perfectly willing to exploit them.
Can't Kill You, Still Need You: As an alchemist skilled in human transmutation, Marcoh is a candidate for human sacrifice. Thus, the Homunculi imprison him instead of killing him, and Envy warns Kimblee to bring Marcoh back alive.
Cool Old Guy: His spine and his determination to atone for his sins properly have only increased with age.
Death Seeker: On first meeting Scar, he begs the Ishvalan to kill him.
Defector from Decadence: He deserted the military after an attack of conscience.
The Dog Bites Back: How does he fight back against the Homunculi's continued abuse of him? He sets a massive, effective trap that Envy walks right into. The explosion nearly kills them.
Foil: Can be considered one to Envy. Both did horrible things in Ishval but while Envy revels in the pain they caused, Marcoh becomes The Atoner for what he did. Envy is obsessed with their looks while Marcoh accepts becoming The Grotesque as punishment for what he's done. Finally while Envy kills themselves in a fit of humiliation and self loathing, Marcoh decides to live in order to help people instead.
Good Scars, Evil Scars: His horrifically mangled face serves as a symbol of his guilt and attempts to atone for his actions in Ishval.
Grew a Spine: At the beginning of the series, Marcoh had deserted the military and was hiding in a small village under a fake name, and he was so afraid of going back to his old work that he nearly shot Ed and Armstrong. By the end of the series, he's actively helping the heroes and even manages to take on Envy in a fight.
The Grotesque: Instead of killing him as requested, Scar disfigures him horribly, so they can travel without Marcoh being recognized.
Let's Get Dangerous!: You thought taking out poor helpless old Marcoh would be a piece of cake, didn't you Envy? Maybe you shouldn't have taught the guy everything you knew about Philosopher's Stones, particularly the bits about homunculi being made out of them, and how to destroy them.
Like a God to Me: Tim Marcoh, being largely responsible for the near extermination of the Ishvalan race, ends up saying this to Scar, one of the surviving Ishvalans. This is a sign of his own humility, but it only serves to piss Scar off (which Marcoh was trying to do).
The Medic: Acts as a medic and healer to the heroes.
One-Hit Kill: He shears off almost every soul in Envy's Philosopher's Stone with a single transmutation, turning them from a hulking green monster to a pathetically impotent pint-size echo in the space of just a few panels. For effect, the alchemical explosion Marcoh caused with this transmutation was massive enough that it had to be drawn from a good hundred or so feet away to fit on the page.
Starting a New Life: He has begun a new life as a small-town doctor.
Suicide by Cop: He wants to die without his beloved village being destroyed by the Homunculi. So when Scar shows up in their compound, he tries to punch Scar's Berserk Button and make his death look like an accident. Scar doesn't kill him, instead he kidnaps him and uses him to get information. Sorry, Marcoh. You were a few days worth of Character Development too late for that.

Yoki

Voiced by: Kazuki Yao (JP), Barry Yandell (EN)^{Other Languages}

Affiliation: Amestris Military (formerly)
Rank: 1st Lieutenant (formerly)
Speciality: Not a Damn Thing

Once an insufferable and deeply corrupt bureaucrat that ran the mines in the town of Youswell, Yoki was discharged from the military when the Fullmetal Alchemist showed up for an inspection and lost all his money thanks to his own carelessness. In time, he was found by Scar, who not-entirely-willingly took Yoki on as his sidekick.

Break the Haughty: In his first chapter, he goes from a petty despot looking to climb the ranks to a bum.
But for Me, It Was Tuesday: Ed and Al don't even remember their first meeting with him.
Butt-Monkey: He gets absolutely zero respect from anyone around him. Ed and Al don't even remember causing his downfall. He ends up becoming a professional butt monkey in the end—a circus clown.
Car Fu: Ramming a car against Pride.
Chekhov's Gunman: Even more in Brotherhood, where he's reduced to a brief mention in episode 4 and a Freeze-Frame Bonus in episode 11 before showing up again in episode 13.
Chekhov's Skill: Say what you want about him being a crappy mine proprietor, but the man knows his stuff about coal mines.
Cowardly Sidekick: To Scar.
Dare to Be Badass: It takes a long time and some serious circumstances to get him to even attempt this. Hitting Pride with a frikkin' car at top speed, and then staying long enough to get everyone in before making a great escape from what was ultimately a losing battle in spite of a good series of counter attacks. Given his expression and the obvious tears of fear running down his face, he even surprised himself. He doesn't pass up the chance to comment on it, either.
Yoki: "I did something! I did something!"
Dirty Coward: Before his Character Development he was this. He has no combat skills, unlike Scar and May, so in dangerous situations, he just panicked.
Even Evil Has Standards: For all his numerous flaws, even he still has sympathy for Scar and the extermination of the Ishvalan people.
The Friend Nobody Likes: Nobody likes Yoki; he's generally abused and neglected by whichever group he joins, and the Elrics can't even recall who he is when they meet again. When Envy tried to take him hostage in an attempt to escape, everyone was perfectly fine with letting Yoki die (or at least pretended to be fine with it to call Envy's bluff).
Getting the Boot: During his backstory as related in episode 38 he's shown being bodily thrown out of two different buildings.
Hidden Depths: He's surprisingly empathetic towards Scar's plight, and he even points out that May and Scar's situations with their clans aren't so different.
Hostage Situation: Happens, but everyone convinces the hostage-taker they don't care (at least some of them actually did).
Humiliation Conga: His life since the Elrics talked him in to giving up the title to the mine.
Jerkass Has a Point: He convinces Marcoh to stay out of the fight with Pride until the time's right, and indeed, he and Marcoh collectively end up saving the day at precisely the best timing when the villains think they're about to win.
Jerk with a Heart of Gold: Or a heart of fool's gold, if you will.
Know When to Fold 'Em: Slight variation in that it's more like "knows when to avoid jumping into fights," but Yoki's fully aware when he's completely outmatched.
Kick Them While They Are Down:
- Does this to Envy after its defeat to Marcoh, verbally at least. Not to mention running Pride down with a car and gloating about it.
- In Pride's case, it's more like "I can't believe I'm doing this shit!" than "Look who's laughing now, sucker!"
Lovable Coward: After his character development, he's become much better at taking action while tempering his cowardice into knowing when not to take action.
Non-Action Guy: In a World of Badass, he has no combat skills. Though running Pride down with a car was pretty badass.
Servile Snarker: He gets some delightful sarcasm in when he thinks Scar isn't listening.
Small Name, Big Ego: In his first appearance.
Smug Snake: Definitely, before his Heel–Face Turn. And even now he's a bit of a slimeball.
Starting a New Life: From corrupt government official to Scar's sidekick, and eventually becomes, of all things, a circus clown. Although given his expression in the picture revealing this, that last one was not necessarily his own choice.
This Looks Like a Job for Aquaman: When he and several others are stuck in a mining town during a blizzard he is able the guide them through the mines.
Would Hurt a Child: A flashback shows him slapping a child.

Sig Curtis

Voiced by: Seiji Sasaki (JP), Bob Carter (EN)^{Other Languages}

Affiliation: None
Rank: None
Speciality: Super-Strength

Izumi's husband. A meat butcher who is very protective of his wife, often accompanying her on her travels around Amestris. Despite his imposing face and stature, he is a loving husband and usually gentle man.

Amazon Chaser: Not much of his past or personality are revealed, but the fact that he's married to Izumi certainly shows he doesn't mind women who are inhumanly strong and ferociously assertive. They first met and fell for each other when Izumi was running through town with an enormous bear corpse slung over her shoulder like a sack of potatoes, which he completely took in stride.
Badass Normal: Alchemy? No. Really big muscles? Yes. During the finale he tossed Sloth the homunculus across the room despite Sloth having just moments prior laying the smackdown on Alex-Louis Armstrong and Olivier Armstrong (herself a Badass Normal of remarkable prowess).
Battle Couple: With Izumi, his wife. They are Happily Married and were part of the Final Battle together.
Berserk Button: Other men hitting on his wife is just about the only thing that can drive him to violence.
Big Beautiful Man: His wife evidently appreciates his size and chub. He also found himself surrounded by flirting women while waiting for Izumi in the city.
The Big Guy: In every sense of the term. During the battle with Sloth, Izumi tosses Sloth in the air, Sig punches him. Rinse, repeat.
Bruiser with a Soft Center: An absolutely colossal man who has no problem cracking skulls, he's also a Gentle Giant who is extremely Happily Married to Izumi and surprisingly fond of the Elric brothers, in his own quiet way.
Early-Bird Cameo: Sig and his wife get a blink-and-you'll-miss-it appearance in episode 9 of Brotherhood.
Face of a Thug: Ironic, given his wife's violent tendencies. He even looked like a crime boss when he was younger◊.
Gentle Giant: Slightly downplayed. Equal to Major Armstrong in size, he's mostly a nice guy, but can be somewhat cold at times.
Ham-to-Ham Combat: Engages in an epic muscle-flexing pose-off duel with fellow manly-man Alex Louis Armstrong. The two immediately become friends after destroying their shirts without exchanging a single word, in what observers can only describe as "a friendship forged entirely by muscle."
- In Brotherhood, they become Ham-to-Ham Bash Brothers. They kill Sloth immediately afterwards.
Happily Married: To Izumi. They run their business together, he takes care of her when her illness starts up, and there are frequent lovey-dovey backgrounds when they're both on screen.
Huge Guy, Tiny Girl: It's not that Izumi's particularly small, but almost any woman (and man) is tiny next to him.
Manly Facial Hair: He's got a well-groomed beard that alludes to his masculinity and discipline.
Not So Stoic: His default expression is a terrifying glower and he rarely speaks, but his love for his wife is powerful enough to stir him. He beams when they embrace, worries when she exerts herself and is enraged when people flirt with, threaten or harm her.
Outliving One's Offspring: His and Izumi's biological son was stillborn.
Parental Substitute: A downplayed example, but given how he mentions how the boys have grown and petting them on the head affectionately, it appears he does have a form of parental affection for them. It's just much more subtle than that of Izumi's, who is more open (albeit in a tsundere sort of way) with her maternal feelings toward the Elric brothers.
Satellite Character: He's almost never seen without being at his wife's side, so little is known about him beyond his relationship with her.
Sickeningly Sweethearts: Flowers and butterflies literally pelt anyone nearby whenever he and Izumi have a moment. Which is every time they're on screen together.
Stout Strength: Sig is a burly man with the physique that invokes the image of a powerlifter, whereas, Alex Louis Armstrong is more chiseled and has the physique bodybuilder.
Two First Names: "Curtis" can also be used as a first name.

Pinako Rockbell

Voiced by: Miyoko Aso (JP), Juli Erickson (EN), Mami Koyama (JP - Young), Shelley Calene-Black (EN - Young)^{Other Languages}

Affiliation: None
Rank: None
Speciality: Mechanic

Winry's aged — but still very spry — grandmother. Pinako is a master automail engineer who taught Winry everything she knows; it was she who first applied Ed's prosthetic limbs. Also Hohenheim's old drinking buddy.

Anime Hair: Her ponytail is constantly defying gravity. One omake jokes that the reason it always stands up straight is that there's natto in it.
Cool Old Lady: A pipe-smoking automail mechanic.
Hard-Drinking Party Girl: In her youth. She and Hohenheim were drinking buddies.
Honorary Uncle: Ed and Al frequently refer to her as "granny", even though she's technically Winry's grandmother and not theirs.
Huge Guy, Tiny Girl: She fit this quite well with Major Armstrong during his time at her house.
Hypocritical Humor: She snipes at Ed's size despite being pretty small herself, in fact she's even smaller than Ed. Subverted in that she was once a tall woman in her prime.
I Was Quite a Looker: And about three feet taller.
Irony: At one points she comments how, as she and Winry are medics who specialize in automail engineering, the same war that took away Winry's parents also gave them a stable future due to the amount of people who were left in need of a prothesis.
Miniature Senior Citizens: Seriously, she must have lost about half her height during menopause.
Noodle Incident: Whatever it was that happened between her and Dominic back in her younger days. He's very traumatized by it (and terrified of her as a result), but she hasn't mentioned it. Whatever it was, it earned her a reputation all across Amestris as "The Leopardess of Resembool".
Outliving One's Offspring: Her son and daughter-in-law were killed during the Ishval Civil War.
Parental Substitute: To her granddaughter, then later to her buddy's two sons as well.
Screw Politeness, I'm a Senior!: She ridicules Ed's lack of height with impunity (though usually when he has it coming).
Secret-Keeper: Having known Hohenheim for decades, she realizes that he must age slowly, if at all, yet she does not tell Ed and Al (or Winry) of this fact, instead leaving that up to their father.
Smoking Is Cool: Her wooden pipe is a permanent fixture on her person.
Troll: When the Elric brothers visit the Rockbell household for the first time since Ed received his State Alchemist certification, Pinako tells Ed that she hasn't seen him in a while, and during that time he's grown... smaller. Ed takes it about as well as you'd expect.
Ed: (Tranquil Fury) Granny, you've got it wrong. You're supposed to say, "How big you've grown lately, Ed."
Pinako: But why would I say something so clearly untrue?
Ed: (Rage Breaking Point) I'M STILL TALLER THAN YOU, YOU MINI-HAG!!!
Women Are Wiser: Her straightforward attitude helps keep other characters stay grounded.
Wrench Wench: Taught Winry everything she knows.

Trisha Elric

Voiced by: Yoshino Takamori (JP), Yuuki Mitsugi (JP - Young), Lydia Mackay (EN)^{Other Languages}

Affiliation: None
Rank: None
Speciality: None

The common-law wife of Van Hohenheim and the mother of Edward and Alphonse Elric. She was a sweet, gentle woman who was loved dearly by her entire family, even by Hohenheim, who despite having left them, was reluctant to do so. Trisha tries to last until his return, though she ultimately dies of an illness. Ed and Al's attempt to revive her with human transmutation set the events of the series in motion.

Common Law Marriage: She and Hohenheim weren't officially married, but they lived happily together for several years and had two sons together.
Death by Origin Story: Died of an illness about five years ago and gave birth to the Fullmetal Alchemist.
Deceased Parents Are the Best: Ed and Al remember her as the best thing that ever happened to them.
Good Parents: She encouraged her sons' alchemy talent, did her best to let them know their father loves them, and generally made it obvious why Ed and Al wanted her back so badly. The Tankobon Omake where she's shown flying up to Heaven even has her apologizing to the audience for her sons' crazy antics.
Housewife: She stayed home and raised the kids while their father was out.
I Will Wait for You: Only death put an end to this. The manga confirms that her and Hohenheim's souls find each other in the afterlife.
Mayfly–December Romance: With Hohenheim. He was hundreds of years old by the time he met her and they fell in love. In the anime, it's implied he knew her since she was a little girl.
Missing Mom: Died before the start of the series.
Motherly Side Plait: She wore a loose ponytail over her right shoulder. She's the late mother of Edward and Alphonse.
Plot-Triggering Death: It's her death that kickstarts a good part of the plot.
Posthumous Character: She died when Ed and Al were children, causing them to perform the human transmutation that kicked off most of the plot. As such, Trisha is only ever seen in flashbacks.
Proper Lady: In all the flashbacks she is sweet and loving to her kids and willing to wait forever for her husband.
Tareme Eyes: She has droopy eyes to signify her kindness.
Together in Death: With Hohenheim. He goes to her grave and waits for the last bit of his Philosopher's Stone to run out. An omake shows them being reunited.

Barry the Chopper

Voiced by: Hideyuki Umezu (JP), Jerry Jewell (EN), Jason Grundy (EN - Human body)^{Other Languages}

Affiliation: Amestris Military/Homunculi
Rank: Prisoner #66
Speciality: Knives/Swordsmanship

A Serial Killer that guards the hidden laboratory used to create the red stones. After being used as a subject in transmutation experiments, his soul was placed into a suit of armor, not unlike Al's. While he works for both Roy and the Homunculi over the course of the story, he doesn't really care as long as he gets to chop stuff up.

Abhorrent Admirer: For Riza, after she foils his attempt to stalk her and is unafraid of his hollow armor form, being familiar with Alphonse. Riza couldn't really care less about Barry.
Affably Evil: He can be a surprisingly friendly guy for an insane, murderous sociopath.
Amazon Chaser: The women he wants most to chop up are Lust and Riza. He also expresses attraction to Maria Ross.
And I Must Scream: After being destroyed by Lust, he is stuck in a tiny piece of armor, alone in a secret room and unable to move. It gets fixed quickly, though.
Animated Armor: His soul is sealed into an otherwise empty suit of armor, which serves as his new body.
Armor-Piercing Question: Gives one to another suit of armor concerning memories and existence, and it figuratively pierces the armor.
Ax-Crazy: This is why he was executed in the first place.
Break Them by Talking: Gives one mighty lecture to Al, leaving the poor boy questioning his own existence. Note that he was just making crap up to stall and not basing it on any flaws he saw in Al.
The Butcher: One of his nicknames, and he actually worked as a butcher in the past. Explains his use of meat cleavers.
Card-Carrying Villain: He has no problem admitting that he enjoys cutting people up, and once announced himself as "a terrible serial killer feared by all".
Comedic Sociopath: His goofy overreactions, unrequited devotion to Hawkeye and utter ineptitude in fighting Al are all hilarious, and even his casual, almost playful bloodlust comes across as almost endearing at times, but don't forget he was a Serial Killer in life and is still motivated by the same urges.
Death by Irony: Killed by his own body after he'd gotten excited about killing it.
Dual Wielding: With meat cleavers. He is a butcher.
Dying Alone: Nobody even knew he was still "alive" in the scrap of metal left after his body was shredded.
Forgotten Fallen Friend: Well, "friend" may be a bit of a stretch, but nobody seems to give a damn about what happened to him after Lust destroyed his armor. Ed makes a remark on him late in the series when he, Scar, and the chimeras find his remains, but he doesn't seem too shaken up about it.
Heel–Face Turn: Though not much of one. Even when working for Roy, he's still a psychotic killer. Probably the only reason he doesn't cut up his allies is that Riza tells him not to.
Heroic Comedic Sociopath: At his most heroic he is still a sociopath, but his love of cutting things up is played for laughs.
Hidden Depths: His Ax-Crazy personality and the fact that he goes up against people who can actually fight back in the present means he's often Played for Laughs, but he accurately deduced that the Homunculi view him as expendable and defected from their group because he saw their You Have Outlived Your Usefulness gambit coming from a mile away. In the end, he only delayed his demise when he decided that charging the homunculus with expandable and retractable razor-sharp claw-nails was a good idea.
Hypocritical Humor: Tries to scare Al by showing that he's an Animated Armor... only to freak out when his opponent reveals that he's one too!
Ignored Enemy: He constantly threatens the heroes, but they have more dangerous enemies to deal with.
I Have Many Names: Not that anyone cares to listen to the list.
Interplay of Sex and Violence: He measures the attractiveness of women on how much he wants to "chop" them — voluptuous characters like Lust and Riza are to his taste, but Envy was far too stringy. He also claims that Maria was "almost good enough to chop up" after she manages to talk herself into escaping prison. He doesn't exclusively chop up women he's attracted to and will gladly chop up anyone, but they seem to be his preferred victims.
Laughably Evil: He doesn't have any redeeming qualities personality-wise, but damned if he isn't funny. Becomes more Laughably Anti-Heroic, post-Heel–Face Turn.
Love at First Punch: He falls for Riza after she curbstomps him with her pistol.
Love Redeems: His Heel–Face Turn was prompted by him falling for Riza.
Nightmare Fetishist: His original body, now a mindless zombie, constantly chases him on orders from the Homunculi. Being close to him affects his blood seal and threatens to destroy both of them; according to him, his body's effect on his seal feels good. Also, rather than stay the heck away from it, Barry gleefully chases it because he finds to the idea of murdering his own flesh to be really cool. Too bad he got killed in the process. This is later made extra-ironic in that given the eventual relationship Al is shown to have with his body (which is in the gate), killing his own body would have likely caused his soul to be destroyed anyway!
Overshadowed by Awesome: He's actually quite fast and extremely deadly, and his armor form gives him the same pseudo-invincibility that make Slicer brothers and Al so formidable. Though he's more than a match for any normal human and murdered 22 people before he was caught and became an Animated Armor, he's a joke compared to the alchemists, homunculi and elite soldiers that he's usually up against in the present.
Pet the Dog: Doesn't want to stand by and let Maria Ross get convicted of a crime she didn't commit. He immediately calls Roy once he sees the news of her arrest and goes along with the plan, and he even stops to help Ling out of prison.
Psycho for Hire: He really doesn't care who he's working for as long as they let him chop stuff up. This is downplayed after his Heel–Face Turn.
Reminiscing About Your Victims: He fondly remembers the 22 people he chopped up and uses it as the reason to justify his existence.
Serial Killer: Started after he decided there wasn't much difference between cutting up beef and cutting up humans.
Set Swords to "Stun": Surprisingly, he obeys Roy's orders to not kill any civilians or guards when rescuing Maria Ross from prison, going out of his way to use the blunt ends of his cleavers as bludgeons.
The Sociopath: A butcher who became a Serial Killer because he loved chopping meat that much, and saw his soul being bound into armour as an opportunity to kill more people.
Token Evil Teammate: Roy keeps him on a proverbial leash and points him at his own enemies. Since all Barry cares about is chopping things up, he charges in that direction. Although he's much more restrained than before, since he only goes after the Homunculi and his possessed body.
Too Dumb to Live: He charges Lust head-on with his cleaver. Lust is a homunculus with the power to expand and retract razor-sharp claw-nails that can pierce pretty much anything. It goes every bit as well as you can imagine.
What Could Possibly Go Wrong?: To Riza, while she's walking her dog Black Hayate: "It's dangerous to be out walking the streets alone at this hour. You never know when you might meet... A TERRIBLE SERIAL KILLER FEARED BY ALL — BARRY THE CHOPPER!" Guess what happens next. Granted, Barry didn't know at that time that Riza is a competent military officer, but you'd think he would at least know that explicitly telling a potential victim that you're a Serial Killer is not a good idea.
What Measure Is a Mook?: His main reason for leaving the Homunculi is because they regarded him as such.
You Have Outlived Your Usefulness: The Homunculi tried to do this to him, and he defected from their group because he saw it coming. It took a while, and he definitely played a small thorn in their sides, but they ultimately succeeded.

The Truth

Voiced by: Various (JP), Luci Christian (EN)^{Other Languages}

https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/truthfma.png

Affiliation: Truth
Speciality: Everything

Mysterious guardian of the Gates, claims to be "Reality", "the World", and "God". Not having a form of his own, he takes on the outline of whoever approaches him. Whenever someone attempts human transmutation (except those who have the Philosopher's Stone), he forces them to pay a toll for trespassing in God's domain. However, he always gives them alchemical skill and knowledge proportional to their sacrifice. Despite his apparent neutrality, he seems to take sadistic pleasure in his tolls, often giving out ironic punishments. Because of him, Ed and Al have lost their limbs and body, and Izumi has lost several internal organs.

Affably Evil: He's genuinely polite and forward towards just about anyone, even when they're on their way to being crippled somehow.
Alternate Company Equivalent: This video by Max Derrat identifies him as The Light of Nature, an alchemical god who served as an inspiration
Ambiguous Gender: It's usual form a featureless humanoid with an androgynous, childlike voice, so its gender, if it even has one, is difficult to determine. Most fans call it by he/him pronouns though.
Bargain with Heaven: In contrast with his usual modus operandi, at the end of the series Ed offered his ability to perform Alchemy ever again in exchange for Al's body. Truth tried to tempt Ed to cancel the deal, but seeing Ed was confident his friends are worth more than Alchemy, Truth was absolutely overjoyed, congratulated Ed for giving the right answer and let him claim the ultimate reward in return.
The Blank: It's a mere silhouette, unless it's grinning creepily or wearing someone else's stolen face.
Brown Note: Kind of; looking at him won't kill you or drive you insane, but it does come with a hefty viewing fee. And there are NO exceptions...
Deal with the Devil: And you don't even have to initiate the deal, he enforces it whenever you do human transmutation. On one side, you get your punishment. On the other hand, he gives you the knowledge to perform circleless alchemy in return. At the end of the series, Ed initiated such a deal with Truth: losing his ability to perform Alchemy ever again, in exchange for Al's body. Subverted in that while the cost is indeed great, both parties are satisfied with the arrangement, especially Truth who remarked that someone finally gave the right answer.
Do Wrong, Right: Berates Homunculus/Father for attempting to absorb and control God when he didn't even believe in himself.
Empathic Shapeshifter: Downplayed. He doesn't change shape according to your mood, but he does change to match your appearance. Ed saw him as a Creepy Child, Izumi saw him as a taller, more feminine looking adult, Roy saw him as a tall muscular man and Father saw him as a shadowy ball of nothingness. When Ed paid a second visit to him at the end, he took a form more closely resembling Ed's then-current, teenage self.
Eyes Do Not Belong There: Does actually have eyes, or singular eye, but it's enormous and eerily lies beyond everyone's Gates of Truth. Making eye-contact with it is never a pleasant experience.
Good Is Not Nice: Truth appears to exact the proper toll from anyone who attempts human transmutation. This is never pleasant. His primary method of dealing with the people before him is being Cruel to Be Kind; his main goal is to teach alchemists that alchemy isn't everything. When Edward figures that out, Truth is overjoyed and lets the deal to reclaim Al's body be made.
Graceful Loser: When Ed finally learns his lesson, the Truth is overjoyed and is happy to let Al return to the real world.
Humanoid Abomination: The form he takes is humanoid but featureless—barring whatever toll he just exacted from you.
I Have Many Names: "One name you might have for me is 'the world', or perhaps 'the universe', or perhaps 'God' or perhaps 'The Truth'. I am all and I am one. So this also means that I am you."
Heavenly Concentric Circles: The Eye of God that lies directly behind the Gate of Truth has black concentric rings within its pupil and the rim of its purple iris. Oftentimes, they are drawn irregularly or with a jagged appearance for added psychological horror effect. In the anime, they have a color gradient to further differentiate each circle.
Ironic Hell: Ironic punishment anyway, inflicted on those who attempt to raise the dead, or Human Transmutation in general. Always befitting the wishes of the punished.
(To Homunculus) "Despair to the conceited."
- Alphonse wanted to feel his mother's warmth, so Truth took his body.
- Edward was oldest and didn't need help to stand, so Truth took his leg. Then he wanted his brother, his right-hand-man, back, so Truth took his right arm.
- Izumi Curtis wanted to bring back her baby, so Truth took, among other things, her reproductive organs.
- Mustang had grand visions for the future, so Truth took his sight.
- As indicated above, Homunculus is punished for his conceit to be god and have Everything with the overwhelming despair of being returned to the nothing he came from, desperately begging and pleading in hysterical terror as the door is shut on him.
Jerkass Gods: The Truth reflects the individuals who stand before him, and we usually encounter him from Ed's perspective. This ensues. He is more pleasant when reflecting Al, and the nastier sides are on full display when Father is finally dragged before him for judgment, not even smiling anymore.
Jerkass Has a Point: The Truth's punishments inflicted for performing human transmutation are generally considered to be harsh but fair by the characters he inflicts them on, a just recompense for their sin.^note When Father outlines how the Truth gave each of them a fittingly Ironic Hell, Ed's only objection is that the punishment given to Roy, who was forced to perform human transmutation isn't fair at all.
Karma Houdini: The Truth is never brought to task for taking away Al's body and Ed's leg for wanting to see their mother again, or for blinding Roy for forcing the Gate open when it wasn't even his call in the first place though in Roy's case, he seems to understand that and make the punishment temporary. Ironically, he appears to be some embodiment of karma itself, and his punishments do not seem to be anything but what he deems to be fair retribution, regardless of anything but willingness to voluntarily perform Human Transmutation.
Karmic Trickster: The Equivalent Exchange incarnate... has a certain sense of humor, yes.
Kick The Son Of A Bitch: What he does to Father is certainly nasty and it couldn't have happened to a more deserving individual.
Laser-Guided Karma: Personified. The payment for human transmutation is a Living Ironic Hell, with the only mitigating factor being whether or not performing human transmutation was done willingly and voluntarily (and even if it is not, there is still a punishment, just lesser).
The Omnipresent: Claims they are reality, the world, God, and you.
The Omniscient: It's all-knowing. It can give you knowledge too, for the right price... It also knows everything about you. Alchemists may try to cheat death, be cunning before a deity, lie to God, but they can never hope to lie to themselves.
Omniscient Morality License: While his methods are extreme, the Truth's ultimate goal is to stop people from playing God, which is justifiable. Furthermore, everyone who has gone through the suffering has become better for it and learned their lesson.
O.O.C. Is Serious Business: Whenever the Truth is shown, it always shows as a Perpetual Slasher Smiler. It only drops this smile twice; once when it loses patience with Father and dishes out his punishment, and the second time in complete disbelief when Ed offers his alchemy in exchange for Al.
The Only Way They Will Learn: Truth is brutal in their methods but wants people to come to an understanding - that alchemy cannot solve all of life's problems, and if anything, can hasten one's own death especially if they're arrogant or unskilled. Only friends and loved ones matter. Ed finally figured this out, and Truth was speechless then overjoyed, when the young man forfeited his Gate to restore his brother.
Pet the Dog:
- May genuinely respect Al, after Al gives up getting back his body to help save Amestris.
- Truth gets an even bigger one with Ed, after he surrenders his alchemy:
  Truth: That was the correct answer, Alchemist. You have defeated Truth. Take your prize. All of it.
- In the English Brotherhood dub, his line calls back to the Japanese version's "Voice of the Legion of the subject" thing which the English dub only does with this one line in episode 63.
  Truth: "YOU'VE DONE IT! THAT'S THE RIGHT ANSWER! GOOD JOB! YOU BEAT ME! GO AHEAD! TAKE HIM HOME! THE BACK DOOR IS RIGHT OVER THERE! GOODBYE, EDWARD ELRIC!"
- While taking Roy Mustang's sight may seem like a Kick the Dog moment, given that he didn't perform human transmutation by his own will (he was forced bodily into it), compared to people who lost limbs or organs, blindness is a lighter toll and he still gave him the ability to transmute without a circle. On top of that, said character is constantly attended to by Riza Hawkeye, who completely mitigates this punishment's practical applications. Furthermore, it was only a temporary handicap because Dr. Marcoh's Philosopher's Stone was used to cure him. Something that a keeper of a gate with all knowledge inside referring to itself as things like "reality", "the world", "all", "one", "you", and "God", would know.
Phrase Catcher: When an unfortunate alchemist asks who/what he is, Truth always gives the same answer.
Truth: I am "the world". Or perhaps "the universe". I am "God". I am "Truth". I am "all". I am "one". And... I am you.
The Power of Friendship: Turns out this is how you defeat him. He was even overjoyed that Ed beat him at his own game. Ed sacrificed his alchemical powers, because who needed alchemy when you have friends?
Pretender Diss: He doesn't appreciate people trying to imitate God, or be God, and would rather you just be yourself, to see your true worth as a free person, and your friends.
"The Reason You Suck" Speech: He gives a speech to Father/Homunculus about how and why it failed, and informing him that despair is for those as conceited as it, right before having its own gate swallow it.
Rule of Symbolism: According to Father anyway, who speculates that the prices Truth extracts from people for performing Human Transmutation are related to their reasons for performing it.
- Ed lost a leg and Alphonse, Ed's way to "stand by himself" and his "only family."
  - Ed sacrificed his right arm to get his brother back, his "right-hand man" if you will.
- Al lost his entire body so he "cannot feel his mother's warmth as he craved."
- Izumi lost "her capacity to nurture the seed of life."
- Mustang lost his eyesight, "denying him to see what his beloved nation will become."
- Homunculus wanted everything and is thus cast back into the nothing.
Shadow Archetype: Though in an odd way. It is the approximate size and shape of anyone attempting to converse with it. In chapter 108 when Homunculus talks to it, Truth takes the shape of a small sphere, just like Homunculus.
- Word of God is that every alchemist has their own Truth - (s)he is the part of the One that connects to the All that is the world. The last chapter confirms this.
- It probably also reflects their personalities. It is a jerk to Edward, nice to Al, and unrelentingly cruel to Father.
Shapeshifting Trickster: Truth appears as a blank version of whoever they are interacting with. They are effectively God, and take body parts from people who attempt human transmutation, all the while mocking their victims and always taking an ironic price. That said, Truth is not malevolent, they want to teach people alchemy isn't everything and to accept what they have, so when Ed decides to give up his Gate for Al, Truth is overjoyed that someone finally figured it out.
Slasher Smile: Its only genuine facial feature certainly shows glee when extracting its toll.
- It gives a genuine, non-slasher one as part of his hearty congratulation when Ed achieves the "truth behind the truth" and gives his own gate as the toll for Al.
- It also drops the smile for a disappointed frown when it banishes Father/Homunculus..
Trickster Mentor: It was this to Ed all along. It wanted Ed to learn that there was more to life than alchemy. When he learns the lesson and sacrifices his ability to use it to restore Al and claiming that he doesn’t need it as he has his friends, it’s overjoyed.
Voice of the Legion:
- This even takes on the quality of being a legion variant of the voice of whoever he's talking to.
- When congratulating Ed for the "truth behind the truth," his voice changes into a legion crossover between Ed and Al's.

Characters / Fullmetal Alchemist: Main Supporting Cast

Winry Rockbell

Voiced by: Megumi Takamoto (JP), Caitlin Glass (EN, Funimation), Muriel Hofmann (EN, Animax)^{Other Languages}

Scar

Voiced by: Kenta Miyake (JP), J. Michael Tatum (EN)^{Other Languages}

Izumi Curtis

Voiced by: Shoko Tsuda (JP), Christine Auten (EN, Funimation), Muriel Hofmann (EN, Animax)^{Other Languages}

Van Hohenheim

Voiced by: Unshō Ishizuka (JP, series), Kenyuu Horiuchi (JP, FMA Mobile), John Swasey (EN), Daisuke Namikawa (JP - Young), Aaron Dismuke (EN - Young)^{Other Languages}

Tim Marcoh

Voiced by: Masayuki Omoro (JP), Jerry Russell (EN)^{Other Languages}

Yoki

Voiced by: Kazuki Yao (JP), Barry Yandell (EN)^{Other Languages}

Sig Curtis

Voiced by: Seiji Sasaki (JP), Bob Carter (EN)^{Other Languages}

Pinako Rockbell

Voiced by: Miyoko Aso (JP), Juli Erickson (EN), Mami Koyama (JP - Young), Shelley Calene-Black (EN - Young)^{Other Languages}

Trisha Elric

Voiced by: Yoshino Takamori (JP), Yuuki Mitsugi (JP - Young), Lydia Mackay (EN)^{Other Languages}

Barry the Chopper

Voiced by: Hideyuki Umezu (JP), Jerry Jewell (EN), Jason Grundy (EN - Human body)^{Other Languages}

The Truth

Voiced by: Various (JP), Luci Christian (EN)^{Other Languages}

Alternative Title(s): Fullmetal Alchemist Scar

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Characters / Fullmetal Alchemist: Main Supporting Cast

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Winry Rockbell

Voiced by: Megumi Takamoto (JP), Caitlin Glass (EN, Funimation), Muriel Hofmann (EN, Animax)Other LanguagesMelanie Henríquez (Latin America), Andressa Andreatto (BR), Gigi Patta (BR, child [IST dub only]), Elisabetta Spinelli (IT)

Scar

Voiced by: Kenta Miyake (JP), J. Michael Tatum (EN)Other LanguagesAlfonso Nittoli (Latin America), Felipe Grinnan (BR, Álamo), Francisco Júnior (BR, IST), Massimilliano Lotti (IT)

Izumi Curtis

Voiced by: Shoko Tsuda (JP), Christine Auten (EN, Funimation), Muriel Hofmann (EN, Animax)Other LanguagesCittlali Godoy (Latin America), Tânia Gaidarji (BR), Donatella Fanfani (IT)

Van Hohenheim

Voiced by: Unshō Ishizuka (JP, series), Kenyuu Horiuchi (JP, FMA Mobile), John Swasey (EN), Daisuke Namikawa (JP - Young), Aaron Dismuke (EN - Young)Other LanguagesHéctor Indriago (Latin America), Leonardo Camilo (BR), Vagner Fagundes (BR - Young), Raffaele Farina (IT)

Tim Marcoh

Voiced by: Masayuki Omoro (JP), Jerry Russell (EN)Other LanguagesRafael Monsalve (Latin America), Sidney Lilla (BR, Álamo), Carlos Campanile (BR, IST), Marco Balzarotti (IT)

Yoki

Voiced by: Kazuki Yao (JP), Barry Yandell (EN)Other LanguagesLedner Belisario (Latin America), Gileno Santoro (BR, Álamo), Sérgio Stern (BR, IST), Oliviero Corbetta (IT)

Sig Curtis

Voiced by: Seiji Sasaki (JP), Bob Carter (EN)Other LanguagesRamón Aguilera (Latin America), Mauro Castro (BR), Stefano Albertini (IT)

Pinako Rockbell

Voiced by: Miyoko Aso (JP), Juli Erickson (EN), Mami Koyama (JP - Young), Shelley Calene-Black (EN - Young)Other LanguagesValentina Toro (Latin America), Zayra Zordan (BR), Cecília Lemes (BR - Young [Álamo]), Sandra Mara Azevedo (BR - Young [IST]), Elisabetta Cesone (IT)

Trisha Elric

Voiced by: Yoshino Takamori (JP), Yuuki Mitsugi (JP - Young), Lydia Mackay (EN)Other LanguagesMaritza Rojas (Latin America), Alessandra Araújo (BR), Fernanda Bullara (BR - Young [Álamo), Tatiane Keplmair (BR - Young [IST]) Silvana Fantini (IT)

Barry the Chopper

Voiced by: Hideyuki Umezu (JP), Jerry Jewell (EN), Jason Grundy (EN - Human body)Other LanguagesCarlos Vitale (Latin America), Élcio Sodré (BR, Álamo), Ricardo Fábio (BR, Álamo episode 39 only), Mário Jorge Andrade (IST), Luca Bottale (IT)

The Truth

Voiced by: Various (JP), Luci Christian (EN)Other LanguagesJosé Méndez (Latin America), Alfredo Rollo (BR)

Alternative Title(s): Fullmetal Alchemist Scar

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Voiced by: Megumi Takamoto (JP), Caitlin Glass (EN, Funimation), Muriel Hofmann (EN, Animax)^{Other Languages}

Voiced by: Kenta Miyake (JP), J. Michael Tatum (EN)^{Other Languages}

Voiced by: Shoko Tsuda (JP), Christine Auten (EN, Funimation), Muriel Hofmann (EN, Animax)^{Other Languages}

Voiced by: Unshō Ishizuka (JP, series), Kenyuu Horiuchi (JP, FMA Mobile), John Swasey (EN), Daisuke Namikawa (JP - Young), Aaron Dismuke (EN - Young)^{Other Languages}

Voiced by: Masayuki Omoro (JP), Jerry Russell (EN)^{Other Languages}

Voiced by: Kazuki Yao (JP), Barry Yandell (EN)^{Other Languages}

Voiced by: Seiji Sasaki (JP), Bob Carter (EN)^{Other Languages}

Voiced by: Miyoko Aso (JP), Juli Erickson (EN), Mami Koyama (JP - Young), Shelley Calene-Black (EN - Young)^{Other Languages}

Voiced by: Yoshino Takamori (JP), Yuuki Mitsugi (JP - Young), Lydia Mackay (EN)^{Other Languages}

Voiced by: Hideyuki Umezu (JP), Jerry Jewell (EN), Jason Grundy (EN - Human body)^{Other Languages}

Voiced by: Various (JP), Luci Christian (EN)^{Other Languages}