Greed (Fullmetal Alchemist: Brotherhood)
Greed is a male anime and manga villain who features in Fullmetal Alchemist: Brotherhood.
Contents[hide] |
Biography
Greed the Avaricious was one of the Homunculi that were created by Father. Following the destruction of the nation of Xerxes, Father began to wander the lands and sought to accomplish his mysterious goals. Thus saw him creating new homonculi that were patterned after the Seven Deadly Sins of Man and were generated from traits in his own personality. Afterwards, Father created further homunculi that included Pride, Envy, Lust, Gluttony, and Sloth. Greed was the third Homunculus created by Father where sometime after his creation he looked to achieve his own vices. Over a century ago, Greed rebelled against Father and departed his side where instead he sought power for himself. At some point, he discovered a number of Chimera who began to operate with him as part of his gang.
Greed has his Chimeras Martel, Dolchet, and Roa lure Alphonse into a factory, where they capture him after Martel enters his armor. Greed introduces himself to the youth when he brought to the Devil's Nest bar he had settled in. As Alphonse recognizes his Ouroboros mark, Greed reveals that he was told by his informants that Alphonse's soul was bound to a suit of armor. Greed demands to learn the secret to Al's soul affixation, which he believes to be the key to eternal life, but learns that it was Edward who performed it. Izumi then comes to Alphonse's rescue but she cannot harm Greed, whose Ultimate Shield breaks her knuckles when she punches him. Edward later confronts Greed, but refuses to listen to his conditions and attacks him. Greed however is unimpressed by Edward's insults and he turns into his Ultimate Shield form, easily overpowering him. Just as Edward figures how to transmute Greed's carbon to undo the Ultimate Shield and harm his enemy, several soldiers led by King Bradley, the Fuhrer of Ametris who is also the Homunculus Wrath, storm into Greed's hideout, forcing the homunculus to flee. Bradley and his soldiers kill most of Greed's underlings killed as he and Martel escape with Alphonse through the sewer. Upon seeing Bradley murder Dolchet and Roa, Greed attacks the Fuhrer, who easily beats up to submission by striking his weak points and captures him.
With his defeat, he was taken to the underground headquarters of Father beneath the Capital building. Upon awakening, he was greeted by his fellow Homunculi and asked about their latest addition. Fuhrer King Bradley responded by saying that he was the Wrath the Furious with Lust saying that he was the latest creation of Father for the final stage of his plan. Greed was shocked to learn that the Amestrian's official ruler was a Homunculi that could grow old and called this impossible. This caused Envy to mock him with Greed responding by calling him a monster. Envy was prepared to attack the captive Greed but Father stopped any further hostilities. Greed would mock Father with his creator offering him a chance to rejoin him. However, Greed refused stating that he would never do so with Father deciding to reabsorb him. Thus, Greed was forced into a pit of lava thus destroying his body and dissolving his essence into a liquid Philosopher's Stone that Father consumed. This forced Greed to be returned back into Father's body and become part of his creator once again.
Deprived of his power, Father sought to consume Greed's Philosopher's Stone in order to replenish himself. This saw him plunge his hand into Greed's host body and attempt to draw out the Homunculi to be observed. However, the human host Ling attempted to hold onto Greed and prevent his absorption despite Greed telling him to let go otherwise they would both die. Ling stated that the two would work together in defeating Father with Greed agreeing but he used that distraction to knock himself loose from the human. A distraught Ling asked why the Homunculi did this as they agreed to work together but Greed lied stating that he hated the human and wanted to be away from him. In reality, Greed wanted to help his friends and after being taken into Father's form he worked against his creator. He did this by reversing the Ultimate Shield thus turning Father's body into the most fragile form of carbon causing his arms to snap. A shocked Father asked why Greed would betray his creator with the Homunculi stating that he was always the rebellious sort. In anger, Father plucked out Greed from his body calling him a craft devil and snapped any ties with him whereupon he threw him into the air. This severance led to Greed dissipating without a form and he began to die where in his last few moments he stated that with his friends he had achieved everything he wanted in life.
Overview
Personality and attributes
In appearance, Greed was a tall, well-built and muscular man with dark hair, a pointed face and sharp pointed teeth. He wears the black clothing common among the homunculi, plus a black jacket with a white fur-collar and a pair of sunglasses, and most of fellow homunculi has red lines across his body; in his case the torso. Greed has the homunculi's distinctive Ouroboros mark on the back of his left hand. Used to the maximum, Greed's Ultimate Shield ability turns him entirely black and metal-like and the two red lines that run all over his body are expanded all over his face, crossing his eyes. After being destroyed and re-assimilated by Father, Greed is reborn in the body of Ling Yao. Thus he now has the appearance of his host, though his eyes become red, an Ouroboros mark appears on his left hand and his facial features are altered, looking paler and more akin to that of his previous aspect. When Greed is in control of Ling's body his hair cover his right eye, while when Ling takes it back, his hair cover his left eye. Also contrary to his host, Greed is almost always depicted with his eyes open.
Greed was the living embodiment of Father's extreme avarice and unquenchable thirst for every form of possession. He coveted everything that the world could offer him including money, women and political power.
Such was the extent of his avarice that he desired ultimate power as a result. This was seen when his human host offered him rule over his homeland of Xing to which Greed thought ruling a nation was interesting but he instead desired to control the world.
At one point, he used to state that nothing was impossible with Envy claiming that he used to throw around those words like they were his personal catch phrase.
In spite of his demanding and nettlesome personality, he was very polite, laid-back, chivalrous, and enthusiastic though he refused to fight against women. He never lies, he offers bargains to gain what he wants and he acted in an extremely friendly though sarcastic way even towards foes. However, he is bent on gaining whatever he has set his sight on, not taking "no" for an answer and fighting ruthlessly to obtain and keep it. When confronting people he dislikes, he becomes clearly insulting and bent on killing them, stating that he is so greedy that he wants their lives.
Being extremely greedy and possessive, he values his possessions much more than he demonstrates it, and holds those who swear their allegiances to him in very high regards, being seen kind and complementing towards his chimera underlings. He eventually becomes friends with Ling, though he frequently rants when Ling take the control of their body, which he considers as his own alone.
In his final moments, he admitted that the greatest desire he had was to have friends that cared for him. Greed finally acknowledges that beyond all pretences of ownership, what he truly desired most of all was companions and genuine friendship. This makes him the only homunculi showing a sense of empathy. This and his distaste for Father and his kin, makes him the only homunculus to reform.
Powers and abilities
As a Homunculi, Greed shared the traits of the others of his kind with abilities beyond that of an ordinary human being. This stemmed from his core consisting of a Philosopher's Stone that provided much of his abilities. Among these was being effectively immortal so long as the Stone remained in him and un-depleted. Furthermore, he was able to regenerate himself from wounds sustained to his form with these taking but moments to repair. He showcased this to the Elric brothers when he had one of his henchmen knock his head off his body whereupon it regenerated once more.
From Father, he was given a special ability that was known as the Ultimate Shield (最強の盾, Saikyō no Tate). This allowed him to harden his body into the strongest form of carbon making him nearly invulnerable to harm. This took the form of a black costing over his skin that he could control to cover parts of his body such as hands or neck or the entire body. Alternatively, he was able to reverse the Ultimate Shield making his body into the most fragile carbon that crumbled into dust.
Greed's biggest weakness initially was his lack of fighting skills. Though great at using his powers, he relied too much on his Ultimate Shield, which resulted in the weaker but far more skilled Bradley to easily overwhelm him. Upon gaining control of Ling's body, however, he becomes much more tactical as shown during his second fight with Bradley and during the final battle against Father.
Notes
- Greed was created by Hiromu Arakawa where he featured in the setting of the Fullmetal Alchemist universe.
In other media
Television
- In Fullmetal Alchemist, Greed appeared in the setting of the 2003 anime adaptation where he was voiced by Japanese actor Junichi Suwabe and English actor Chris Patton in the dub. This version's backstory was largely different as in this continuity Homunculi were created due to failed attempts at human transmutation. Originally, Greed was human until he died and a transmutation sought to bring him back. He turned against Dante leading to her imprisoning in a chamber for a century.
Appearances
- Fullmetal Alchemist:
- Fullmetal Alchemist: Brotherhood:
External Links
This article is a stub. You can help Multiversal Omnipedia by expanding it.
