Sloth (Fullmetal Alchemist: Brotherhood)
Sloth is a male anime and manga character who features in Fullmetal Alchemist: Brotherhood.
Contents |
Biography
Sloth (Japanese: スロウス, Hepburn: Surōsu) the Indolent 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. In addition, Father created further homunculi that included Pride Envy, Lust, Greed, Gluttony, and finally Wrath. Sloth is tasked with digging a gigantic transmutation circle beneath Amestris to be used in turning the country into a Philosopher's Stone. Though he is briefly yielded in this job when he runs into the Elric brothers at Briggs Fortress, he was allowed to continue his work, finishing the circle. Sloth is always wanting to rest and finish his job so he can stop working, repeatedly stating that everything he is forced to do, and even living itself was always 'bothersome'.
When Greed is captured by Wrath, he asks about Sloth and Lust answers by saying he is still working, meaning he was already making the tunnel before Greed left the group one hundred years before. After finishing the transmutation tunnel, he acted as Father's personal bodyguard, following him when he took direct control of the army and sleeping near Father's throne when he had nothing else to do. In Chapter 91, he was sent to deal with Major General Olivier Armstrong when she took one of the corrupted generals of Central hostage. However, Sloth inadvertently kills the hostage in a lazily thought-out surprise attack before finally engaging in battle with the female general. After a lengthy battle with both Armstrong siblings, in which Sloth gets impaled several times, Izumi Curtis and her husband, Sig, come to their aid, further hindering Sloth's progress. Sig and Alex Armstrong then proceed to brutally attack Sloth and finally throw him onto a transmuted earth spike, impaling him. As he attempts to recover, he, in disbelief finds that he quickly begins to disintegrate. Realizing his now imminent death, he embraces it with a smile, stating that even living was too much effort for him. Sloth was the 4th Homunculus to permanently die.
Overview
Personality and attributes
In appearance, Sloth had the form of a large, muscular man. He wears black pants and shoes and sports black straps across his chest. He has long and stringy black hair that runs down his head, sharp teeth and a single blank white eye with a scribbly outline. His red node that he shares with most of siblings is on the right side of his body, and goes from where his right eye should be, down to the right palm of his hand. He is also commonly seen with chains around his wrists.
He wondered what death felt like stating that it was such a pain. However, he also stated that it was an even greater pain to go on living.
Powers and abilities
Sloth was a Homunculus (人造人間ホムンクルス, Homunkurusu, Latin for "Little Human", Japanese for "Artificial Human") who was born from Father and was a representation of his creator's ego. Within his body contained a tempest of souls that were composed of the Philosophers Stone (賢者の石, Kenja no Ishi). It was responsible for granting him enhanced strength, speed, reflexes, stamina, and near-limitless regenerative abilities.
In combat, Sloth uses his fists and the chains on his wrists coupled with his astonishing physical strength. He is more than capable of crushing and tearing through solid rock and steel with his bare hands and can easily crush a human body with accidental ease. Sloth's hide is also extremely tough, being capable of resisting bullets and merely being staggered by a rocket launcher - however it has weak points: such as on the top of his head and the inside of his body. Nothing short of tank or artillery fire could pierce it from a distance. In his most devastating attack, he hurls himself towards his foes at incredible speed. In fact, his speed is so formidable, he appears to have no means of controlling his momentum and is thus incapable of stopping himself without crashing into something. He claims to be the fastest Homunculus, which is fitting, as the sin of Sloth signifies a wasting of one's potential.
Despite his slow pondering nature, Sloth when he actually used his powers was the fastest of the homunculi. He was able to go through rapid bursts of speed where he only appeared as a blur. However, he has little control over his trajectory which meant he coukd miss his targets frequently.
Sloth is also extremely clumsy and easily fooled. While incredibly fast, he lacks proper coordination needed to fully utilize such abilities, and thus tends to have a very poor aim as well. He is very slow-witted and apathetic, resulting in opponents getting the better of him simply by outpacing him. His sluggish nature may also explain his low intelligence, as in his last moments he claims that thinking 'takes too much effort'.
His regenerative abilities are notably much slower than those of the other Homunculi, though the reason for this is unknown. It is in line with his sluggish character and may be an effect of his large frame. He is able to use this to his advantage however, by stretching out the tendons in his muscles, increasing the range of his attacks. However, it has also been shown to be a hindrance as well, as Sloth did not need to be killed nearly as many times as his Homunculi brethren. A possible explanation for this phenomenon is that when Alex Armstrong impaled Sloth through the mouth with an earth spike, the Homunculus's Philosopher's Stone apparently lost a lot of energy keeping Sloth pinned before he could slowly regenerate and free himself. This incredibly slow regeneration also led to both Sig and Alex being able to inflict massive, continuous damage onto Sloth (increasing the amount of energy needed to heal himself as well) until he finally disintegrated a short time later.
Notes
- Sloth was created by Hiromu Arakawa where he featured in the setting of the Fullmetal Alchemist universe.
- The character was based on the seven deadly sins.
In other media
Television
- In Fullmetal Alchemist, a different version of Sloth appeared in the setting of the 2003 anime television series adaptation. This version was an original character which was actually a failed attempted at human transmutation and bringing back the dead.
Appearances
- Fullmetal Alchemist: Brotherhood:
External Links
This article is a stub. You can help Multiversal Omnipedia by expanding it.
