Solf J. Kimblee

Latest revision as of 05:08, 2 June 2023

Solf J. Kimblee is a male anime and manga character who features in Fullmetal Alchemist.

Biography

Solf J. Kimblee (Japanese: ゾルフ・J・キンブリー, Hepburn: Zorufu J Kinburī, also spelled Zolf J. Kimbley) was a male human who grew up to be a citizen of the nation of Amestris. At some point, he showed a talent as an alchemist leading to him joining the ranks of the State Alchemists.

After it was discovered that the Rockbell doctors were aiding the Ishvalans, Kimblee's superiors express discontent for their actions. As they were providing humanitarian aid, it was the military's duty to protect them, an act which they felt was an unnecessary burden to them. Kimblee's unit was the one sent to guard the Rockbells, with it being strongly implied that he was to assassinate them as soon as possible. Kimblee expressed admiration toward the doctors, stating his respect for their doing their job as doctors in such a chaotic time. When it's discovered that they were killed prior to his arrival, Kimblee states that the purpose of a soldier is to take life, and the purpose of a doctor is to save it, and as such, the Rockbell's deaths were noble ones. Following these events, Kimblee kills several of his superior officers, in doing so maintaining his possession of the Philosopher's stone he was issued, and was subsequently sent to prison.

After the war, Kimblee was released from jail by order from the Führer and Envy gives him a new Philosopher's stone. He is then sent to capture Scar and Dr. Marcoh. Of course, he was oblivious to the identity of Scar as the man whose entire family he's slain, and thus was fairly stunned at this revelation. He engages Scar in a brief battle on a train to the north but is badly wounded by a steel pipe thrust by Scar through his left side. He is then transported to Briggs, and General Raven arrives along with the Alchemist doctor who heals him.

With the Incomplete Stone provided by Marcoh worn around his neck, Kimblee's ability to create explosions was dramatically enhanced. Kimblee's bloodlust was not satisfied with the initial assault on Ishval so he pursued the escaping Ishvalans, killing some while inflicting inhuman torture on Scar, by creating an X-shaped scar on his face and blowing off his original right arm. It was by the interference of Scar's brother absorbing his incomplete stone that Kimblee was forced to take his leave, with Basque Grand destroying most of the landscape via his own enhanced alchemy. From that moment on, Kimblee was marked as the prime target on Scar's list. For killing some of his superior officers prior to going after the Ishvalans, Kimblee is sent to the prison next to the 5th Laboratory, sentenced to death. He was one of the prisoners the Homunculi and Shou Tucker tried to trick Edward Elric into using as an ingredient to create a Philosopher's Stone, but Zolf blew up another prisoner to escape, exposing the truth to Edward. Lust later berates Envy for this incident, particularly for his "not checking the ingredients thoroughly enough."

Zolf joined Greed temporarily, only to betray him in order to be re-enlisted in the military under Frank Archer with a full pardon and a promotion to Lieutenant Colonel. He is seen in the OVA movie Alchemists vs Homunculi assisting the Military and State Alchemists fighting the Homunculi, a job he relished for it gave him the chance to "make fireworks" in a long time. After re-joining the military, Kimblee is haunted by a "ghost" of the Devil's Nest - a vengeful Martel (dub: Marta). She finally catches up to him and assaults him just before the battle in Lior. Having not only betrayed Greed, but being at least partially responsible for the deaths of her fellow chimeras and friends, Kimblee remains calm, embracing the possibility of death as if even he agreed that he deserved it. The battle is never concluded but Kimblee swears revenge on Alphonse Elric after the boy assists the chimera and humiliates Kimblee by using the man's alchemy against him. A short while after, Kimblee and a troop of chimeras Shou Tucker had engineered are sent in secret to Lior to cause massive upheaval and lull its people to retaliate and strike first, absolving the military from any public wrongdoing as had been the case in Ishval. It was during this action that Kimblee encountered and remembered Scar. As they battled through the streets of Lior, Kimblee waits for a moment when Alphonse Elric distracts Scar to transform the Ishvalan's left arm into a bomb. When Scar removes his own arm, Kimblee realizes he is outmatched and attempts to escape. Scar moves faster, however, and stabbed through Kimblee's chest with his right arm, fatally wounding him. As his life slipped away, Kimblee made one last effort to turn Al into an armored bomb, grabbing onto his armored leg and turning it coal-black. This effort would prove futile as Scar's transmutation of Al into the Philosopher's Stone nullified his alchemy. Kimblee's body was later thrown from a rooftop in full view of Archer and his military contingent by Scar (secretly aided by Lust) as a lure to get them to enter the city in pursuit. Supposedly, his body was not transmuted into the Philosopher's Stone made by Scar, but simply buried under the rubble on the outskirts of Lior.

Overview

Personality and attributes

In appearance, Solf J. Kimblee was a tall and thin man noted for his piercing eyes. He came to be known by the title of the Crimson Lotus Alchemist (紅蓮の錬金術師, Guren no Renkinjutsushi) or as the Crimson Alchemist (クリムゾン錬金術師, Kurimuzon renkinjutsu-shi). He tended to wear an all-white three-piece suit with a matching fedora and purple tie as well as white overcoat. He ties his long, black hair into a neat ponytail, leaving two long strands loose in the front.

On the surface, he presented the façade of a well-mannered gentleman to the world.

A deranged psychopath, Kimble loved to kill numerous civilians including women, and children for the sake of hearing them explode. He had a nihilistic view on human life even his own where he considered them without substance and worthless. He felt that the one thing worse than death was averting one's eyes from it. Kimblee believed one should look straight at the people they killed. According to him, one should not take their eyes off their victim for a second and never forget them as the person being killed would never forget their murderer.

He was shown as being an inquisitive, apathetic observer most of the time, assessing people and situations while throwing out morality and the concept of grey areas as contaminating factors. Driven by such mindsets as "survival of the fittest" and "to the victor go the spoils", Kimblee takes great pleasure in determining whether the will and/or strength of one person or party is capable of overpowering those of another and genuinely respects people of strong will and unshakable conviction, but cares little to nothing for human lives that are affected or even lost as a consequence of the conflicts that arise. Even his own life is accountable to his unconventional ideals and he is only too glad to put his existence on the line.

Cool and mannerly, Kimblee is an avid philosopher and skilled rhetorician who argues his viewpoints well enough to silence most naysayers. However, he seems aware that his mindset and actions are not in tune with the popular veins of thought and actively shrouds these with gentlemanly decorum and clever semantics. As an analyst of human nature, Solf J. Kimblee understands exactly what needs to be said in order to hide his "heresy" from those who would not understand him. He is shown to be a very calculating and methodical man, able to seemingly perceive any and all matters at hand and use this information to better manipulate the situation, making him all the more dangerous.

Powers and abilities

It was shown that he had a photographic memory as he never forgot a person's face with this mostly consisting of the faces of his victims.

At some point, he showed the potential for alchemy and trained to be an alchemist. Kimblee uses this array to transmute ordinary matter into explosives by clapping his hands together. By combining the contradictory symbols of the sun and moon, gold and silver, water and fire, the Crimson Lotus Alchemist creates an unstable imbalance of energy in whatever matter he touches, causing it to explode violently. He has also revealed himself to be capable of causing that instability to flow from one place to another at his will, essentially directing localized explosions from long range. By using only the hexagram of his transmutation circle and not the celestial runes, he can also perform more mundane transmutations that involve the alteration of matter, but not its detonation.

His alchemy title refers to his use of sulfur in the human body to create explosive fluids, turning people into living bombs. Kimblee is unique among the State Alchemists in the anime in that he only has to clap his hands together to activate his alchemy, but has not seen the Gate of Alchemy. The ability to clap his hands to activate his alchemy stems from the fact that Kimblee’s transmutation circles have been tattooed into his palms, effectively giving Kimblee a similar kind of alchemic freedom that Edward, Izumi, and Wrath have. The difference is that Kimblee can only use alchemy that utilizes the transmutation circles tattooed on his hands — namely, the creation of high explosives — whereas those who have seen the gate can substitute a hand clap for any type of transmutation circle.

Notes

• Solf J. Kimblee was created by Hiromu Arakawa and featured in the setting of Fullmetal Alchemist.
• Arakawa had said that the inspiration for Kimblee's character came in part from Alex, the protagonist of A Clockwork Orange.

In other media

Television

Appearances

• Fullmetal Alchemist:
• Fullmetal Alchemist: Brotherhood:

External Links

• Fullmetal Alchemist Wiki Entry
• Comicvine Entry

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