Edward Elric

Known as "Fullmetal" by his peers, Edward is the youngest State Alchemist ever selected by the Amestris State Military. His State Alchemist name was given to him by Furher Bradley upon passing the State Alchemist certification, a pun which refers to his stubborn attitude. The fact that even after being taught alchemy by Izumi-sensei and taught the theory of equivalent trade and the consequences of human transmutation, he still went ahead to attempt to transmute his mother shows how stubborn he is, and King Bradley thought it was an appropriate title considering the irony of his automail (note at end), his artificial arm and leg. This could also be seen as a playful knock on the boy, seeing as his brother is the one that is truly 'Fullmetal', and would thus cause many cases of mistaken identity. It may also be that State Alchemists are not named for what they are, but for their outstanding achievements in Alchemy. In this case, Edward's title of Fullmetal would have been presented to him for his successful binding of his brother, Alphonse's, soul to a suit of armor.







Edward Elric was supposedly born on February 3, 1899 to Hohenheim of Light, known in the manga as Van Hohenheim, and Trisha Elric. Hohenheim left the family while Ed was very young, for reasons later revealed in the series. Edward states that he is 18 years old during Conqueror of Shamballa. This occurs when the suit of armor Al attached his soul to inexplicably implied that Edward had changed and gotten taller after passing through the temporary gate. In reply Ed knocked off the armor's head exclaiming that Al didn't anticipate him getting any taller now that he's 18 years old. This reveals that Edward was 16 at the end of the series since he stated he spent two years traveling around Europe. During this time, Edward lived with his father, who designed replacement robotic prosthetics for his arm and leg until he disappeared without a word.









Some time later, Edward became friends with Alfons (often mistaken for Alphonse, his name is the German version) Heiderich, whom he helped in developing rockets. While the main story of the series revolved around the changes of Edward and those around him, the objective of the Elric brothers was to find the Philosopher's Stone to correct their maimed bodies. While Al's body is recovered, Edward continues to live with artificial limbs, with which he seems now comfortable since he has his brother back.












Ed is short and slender, but compactly muscled. Edward's automail limbs are considered some of the best, prepared and compacted with a strong foundation made by his childhood friend Winry Rockbell, he remains extremely agile and flexible. He is able to think quickly, even in desperate situations. These qualities, combined with his alchemical powers, and his incredible physical strength make him a formidable fighter. He has golden-blonde hair and gold eyes. He is right handed although he is shown using his left hand in the first episode. This is because it is difficult writing with his auto-mail hand.



Ed is intolerant towards jokes regarding his height, such as "shrimp," evident throughout the manga, anime, and video games. He becomes so enraged by such quips that he usually yells at whoever makes them accusing them of using a highly exaggerated insult which is nowhere near the original remark. Ed is very laid back and kind when he's not working, although he can hold a grudge for a long time and go to extreme lengths to get an apology. He regards religion and superstition cynically and believes alchemy and science are the true saviors of humanity. He thus shows little remorse in defeating the false prophet Cornello in Liore and "taking away the hope of the people", although he does show more compassion when dealing with the religious Ishbalans. He may have gotten some of his anger issues from Izumi Curtis, and makes similar scary face expressions like she does.



Ed's story begins in February 1910, when he and Alphonse, his younger brother, attempt to revive their mother, a forbidden act of alchemy: human transmutation. The process requires the correct proportion of elements which constitute a human body, (according to the dialogs this includes 35 liters of water, 25 kilograms of carbon, 4 liters of ammonia, 1.5 kilograms of lime, 800 grams of phosphorus, 250 grams of salt, 100 grams of saltpeter, 80 grams of sulfur, 7.5 grams of fluorine, 5 grams of iron, 3 grams of silicon, and trace amounts of fifteen other elements) as well as the more metaphysical element of a human soul which is rendered by Ed and Al through a drop of one another's blood, the same blood as that of Trisha Elric. The attempt backfires, resulting in Al losing his body and Ed his left leg as well as bringing to life an inhuman monster. In order to save Al's soul, Ed sacrifices his right arm to bind Al's soul to a nearby suit of armor using knowledge he attained from this glimpse into the Gate. Unbeknownst to Ed at the time, he also gains the rare ability to perform transmutations without a transmutation circle.



In order to regain what they had lost, Ed and Al decide to search for the legendary Philosopher's Stone, which allows an alchemist to perform transmutations that violate the Law of Equivalent Exchange (in order to gain, something of equal value must be lost). To gain access to the vast amount of research and information on alchemy available only to State Alchemists, Ed and Al decide to take the notoriously difficult State Alchemist entrance exam. They stay for a year in Central with Shou Tucker, the Sewing Life Alchemist, while studying for the exam.



Note: This is in the anime only. The stay with Tucker came after the incident in Liore in the manga. In the manga, the brothers went to Mustang once Ed had finished his rehab, who took them to Central and only Ed took the test. He passed, and they returned to Resembool and burned their home down. In the anime, they stayed with Tucker while studying for the exam, and had burned their house down before they left. That explains why the date on the inside of Ed's watch is different between the two canons- in the anime, it's "3 Oct 10" and the manga is "3 Oct 11".



However, because the brothers feared that their secret (that they had performed forbidden alchemy) would be exposed during the physical phase of the exam if Al were to take it, they decide that only Ed should take the test alone. Ed easily passes, and, at the age of 12, becomes the youngest State Alchemist that the State has ever certified. (Note: Had Al not been forced to drop from the Exam due to his "condition" and passed it, he might have been the youngest State Alchemist ever certified -at age 10- instead of his brother, Ed. He did finish the written portion of the exam while Ed was unable to do so. Al's selection, though, is not a given. The state only takes one or two alchemists a year, so presumably even some alchemists that pass are not selected. However, there is a chance that even if Al had made it to the final stage of the exam Edward would have been selected over Alphonse because of Ed's ability to perform transmutations without a circle.)



Despite his diminutive height, Edward is a very powerful alchemist who, unlike most practitioners, can perform alchemy without the use of a transmutation circle, also known as an array. In the anime, he first discovered when taking the state entrance exam, he saved a man's life by turning a falling hot air balloon into a shower of cherry blossom petals. (He did however once do it by accident when Gracia was giving birth and he boiled a pot of water without a transmutation circle.) In the manga, however, Edward's first transmutation done without the use of a circle was when he transmuted Al's soul into the suit of armor. Note: Edward's ignorance of this ability in the anime version constitutes a continuity error to some fans, in that the Gate is supposed to give knowledge of alchemy rather than unexplained special abilities. This, however, could be explained by the fact that Ed was preoccupied with transmuting his brother's soul rather than understanding what he gained. It is later revealed when Edward is telling their teacher the story of what happened on the night they tried to resurrect their mother that while he saw that the gate contained knowledge and the truth there was simply too much for him to take in and understand. That while he has gained the knowledge he is incapable of understanding what he has learned.




In the Anime


At the end of the series when Edward is fatally wounded by Envy, a Homunculus who was created by Ed's father Hohenheim of light, Al uses the power of the Philosopher's Stone (contained within himself) to heal Ed's body and to reattach his soul. The revival, however, uses up the all of the Stone's (Al's own body) power. Al appears briefly at the gate and then disappears. After being revived, Ed discovers that he has regained his arm and leg but decides to risk everything to bring back his brother by pulling Alphonse's soul and original body out of the Gate and reassembling them, in exchange for his own life if necessary. As a result, Ed ends up on the other side of the gate which is our world. He is living in Post World War I Munich with Hohenheim (it's possible that he landed in London and they later moved to Munich, but we're never told, merely given a caption that says "Munich 1921", however Edward and Hohenheim did originally land in London. Hohenheim appeared to have been there for some time despite a relatively short passage of time between his being sent there by Dante in the anime, and Edward's arrival there. Since Hohenheim was already in London in the first place, and this was where the gate took Edward the first time, it is more than likely that Edward returned to London the second time around, and that they then moved to Germany, where Edward was attracted to research rockets and spaceflight.).



Hohenheim later offers the theory that the bonds formed in the four years the brothers spent on their quest for the stone, served as the Equivalent Exchange in the transmutation (rather than Ed's life, as he intended). Hohenheim also says in an earlier episode, one way for the Elrics to reclaim what they lost is to give up what they had gained. The death of Sloth, the Homunculus born when they attempted to transmute their mother, had given back a portion of what they had gained. In Al's case he loses all the memories he had of the time he spent in his armored form and reverted to exactly how he was, body and all, before the failed transmutation of their mother. Ed, on the other hand, could not keep his arm and leg because he exchanged it for the soul of Alphonse.



Determined to retrieve Al, Edward becomes involved in rocketry research in the country of Transylvania, with the intention to use that technology to try and get back to his home world. Sometime between the end of the series and the movie, he moves back to Munich and lived with Alphonse's parallel, Alfons Heiderich.



During that time, Edward matures emotionally and seems slightly cold and distant like his father. After he got caught up in this world's plots of the Thule Society surrounding the Beer Hall Putsch of 1923, Ed was able to make his way back to his world. There, back in Amestris, he aided to defeat the Thule Society's invasion of his world. After which, in the end of the invasion, Edward and Alphonse cross over to Other World in order to seal and make sure the physical Gateway between both worlds was closed off forever. Edward and Alphonse then decide to go on a quest to recover a nuclear bomb created in Amestris which had been sent over into the Other World.



In a three minute OVA designed to take place after the events of the movie, the brief sequence shows the great-great-grandchildren of Edward whom find fascination in his story (which has apparently become a movie in that time) as they bring him a gift from Alphonse for his 100th birthday. The scene depiction only shows us a brief shot of Edward, who still bears the automail Winry designed for him, as well as the physical resemblance of his father, Hohenheim. Since the sequence was never featured on the American DVD, it was most likely decided that the open-ended finale of Conqueror of Shambala's would be a more fitting finale with fans postulating whether or not the Elric brothers would ever return home.




In the Manga



Ed in the manga chapter "The Two Alchemists".Ed goes home to Resembool to find Hohenheim, his father, standing at his mother's grave. After a brief argument, Hohenheim and Ed walk to Pinako's with Ed hostile and belligerent towards his father. While Ed pretends to be asleep, he overhears his father questioning Pinako on whether the body Ed and Al created by transmutation was Trisha revived. This question spurs Ed's curiosity, and after Hohenheim leaves the next day, Ed asks Pinako to go with him to the graveyard to dig up the body he and Al created so many years ago. He starts throwing up and has to take several breaks while digging, but eventually pulls up a lock of hair; black hair instead of brown. Pinako also points out that the bones aren't the same length as Trisha's were. So Ed learns that they didn't even bring back their mother, but brought back something entirely different.



Ed goes to central to find Al is missing his lower "jaw" and his right arm of his suit of armor. After Ed repairs Al, he finds out Al had a run in with Barry the Chopper and the Homunculi, but also finds out that Al learned that the soul, when not placed in its original body, can reject the substitute body, just as the human body can reject organ transplants. This rejection may occur within seconds of the soul being placed on a new body, or may not occur for hundreds of years, but rejection is inevitable.



He tells Al and Winry, after asking about an incident when they were five, that he is confirming the memories Ed has that Al doesn't have. Al and Winry allude to a moment when Ed was unconscious and fighting a fever after surgery when Winry walked in on Al, who was "resting," and they talk. Only, when Al and Winry allude to the conversation, it sounds almost like they played multiple pranks on Ed, causing Ed to become irritated and ask them to stop talking.



When they get back to the conversation at hand, Ed theorizes that Al's body is with Truth inside the gate and that it's still alive and possibly connected through Ed and Al's blood to Ed. (That he is sleeping, eating, etc. for the both of them.) Al's brain is still alive inside a body that's still alive and it is collecting the memories since Ed transferred Al's soul to the suit of armor. At this point, Al also remembers when he opened the Gate of Truth, he found himself in there, rather than his mother, as he expected. He also realized that his soul was placed on the body that he and Ed had transmuted, and even saw Ed from the body's eyes. However, rejection took place almost immediately after his soul was placed onto the body. As a side note, because Al's body is biologically connected to Ed, Ed has enthusiastically hypothesized that he may grow taller once Al's body is recovered since he won't have to eat (or grow) for both bodies.



Ed and Al eventually figure the only way they're going to catch a Homunculus (and the Philosopher's Stone within them) is to let Scar attack them, and tries to attract Scar's attention. Ed does a series of do-gooding around town (while showing off as much and as loudly as possible to get Scar to notice him) and eventually succeeds. A fight between Scar, Ed and Al ensues, with Mustang and Hawkeye diverting attention from them by redirecting the military vehicles to different places away from where the real fight is happening. Winry goes looking for them and ends up overhearing Ed accusing Scar of killing Winry's parents. She picks up the gun an officer dropped and points it at Scar, only to have Ed jump in front of her and tell her to drop the gun while Scar descends on him from the front. When Scar sees this, he hesitates, remembering his own brother protecting him from Kimblee's attack during the Eastern War. Seeing his hesitation, Al attacks Scar, driving him away from the two.



Then, Ling ties up Gluttony and Winry is going to Rush Valley once more. Gluttony escapes his bonds and tries to suck up Roy and everyone else into his "gate" for a stomach. He ends up sucking up Envy, Ling and Ed, instead, and Al's left hand. Ling and Ed find Envy eventually and Envy actually tries to be nice to Ed, however, it all backfires and Envy turns into his true form.



The tortured souls in Envy's natural form cause Ed to have a semi-nervous breakdown (he cannot bear to hurt them and flashes back to Nina for an instant). Envy then attempts to swallow him. However, after seeing pieces of the Xerxes ruins in Gluttony's stomach and the Philosopher's Stone that is Envy's center, Ed kicks out one of Envy's teeth and tells Envy and Ling that he knows a way they can escape from Gluttony's stomach.



In the recent chapters, Ed realizes that while human revival is impossible since equivalent exchange requires the existence of the soul in question, it is possible to open the Gate of Truth by transmuting existing humans using themselves as the starting materials. This does not violate the rule of equivalent exchange, but is still a form of human transmutation, and so can open the Gate of Truth. Using the souls inside Envy as the "Toll," Ed successfully transmutes himself, Envy, and Ling, and opens the Gate once more. This time, he sees a second Gate, as well as an emaciated Alphonse sitting in front of the second gate. Ed yells for Al's body to come with him. However, Al's body tells Ed that he cannot go back to the real world with Ed. Al's soul must be present at the Gate in order for Al's body to return. Ed is then swallowed by the hands reaching out from the Gate of Truth, and he, Envy, and Ling fall out of Gluttony's stomach, and in front of the Homunculi's "Father," who bears a startling resemblance to their own father, Hohenheim.