Envy (エンヴィー Envī) is the embodiment of some of Father's envy. Envy has the ability to shapeshift. This ability can be used to assume the form of any existing person (or original personas that Envy himself creates). He can even modify his own voice to directly copy others. Being a homunculus, Envy technically has no sex. Although he is capable of taking the form of both male and female people, he is usually referred as a male, and takes a male form mostly.
Envy, who exists only to make humans suffer, bears more bitter resentment for humans than any other homunculus, and negatively treats with humans in the most personal and heartfelt manner. His hatred for humans has an immense emotional and personal foundation greater than any of his siblings'. Envy can easily be set off by insults due to his large and delicate ego, thus causing him to make mistakes.
In the Manga and 2009 anime, Envy is one of the two homunculi who possesses a "true form", being a physical incarnation of their traits and personality that take form when their Philosopher's Stone is almost completely depleted. The other homunculus with a true form is Pride.
In the 2003 anime, Envy is actually the only homunculus with a "true form", with his true form in that series being the reincarnated homunculus of Hohenheim of Light and Dante's son.
Appearance
Envy's two true forms from the Manga and Brotherhood: the unleashed form (above) and powerless form (below).
Envy usually appears as an androgynous young man with a lean, muscular build and pale skin. Envy has long stringy hair and violet eyes with slit shaped pupils. In the original manga as well as the 2009 anime, Envy's hair is depicted as being pitch black like the rest of the homunculi, however the 2003 anime and numerous pieces of merchandise instead depict Envy's hair as being a very dark green. This trait of Envy's hair being green has occasionally persisted long after the 2003 anime ended, as seen by several plushies from the Fullmetal Alchemist x Sanrio collaboration in 2017 using the dark green colour for Envy's hair.
Envy typically wears an all-black outfit comprising of a crop top, skort, elbow length fingerless gloves, stockings that expose his heels and toes, and a headband with an alchemical, triangular symbol on it. It is assumed that this "clothes" is actually a part of his body, as it changes like the rest of him when he shapeshifts into different forms and is even known to disappear when Envy becomes an animal. Evidence to this being the case is seen when Envy wears a "real" coat over his usual attire that does not change like his normal clothes, instead flying off when he becomes a dog.
True Form (Manga)
Although already formidable in his human form, Envy can assume a much larger, chimeric shape featuring a long serpentine body and tail, four pairs of legs, long manelike hair, a protruding animalistic snout, and six pupils in his left eye. The most disturbing feature of Envy's unleashed form are the human faces and limbs protruding all over its body like drowning people momentarily attempting to surface before being pulled down by others. These are physical representations of the dozens of souls of the people of Xerxes that Father absorbed and used to create the Philosopher's Stone that is Envy's core.
In his true form, after most of the Philosopher's Stone that is his core is destroyed, Envy is a small, caterpillarlike serpent with multiple legs (which is directly underneath him like those of mammals and birds) and a jawless, suckerlike mouth resembling those of lampreys and parasitic flatworms. He is virtually helpless save for attaching to another living thing to take control, but once able to reach a Philosopher's Stone, Envy can regain his full ability.
Envy's true human form (above) and the leviathan form (below) which he takes upon travelling through the gate in Episode 51.
2003 Anime
In the 2003 anime, Envy's true form has shoulder-length blonde hair and golden eyes, much like his father and half-brothers, as well as sharing the same skin complexion as them.
In his leviathan form, Envy's face and top half of body are mostly green. The bottom half of Envy's serpentine body has a greyish white underbelly, along with dark grey spots touching parallel to the top half. Envy's eye color is still the same as his normal form, excluding the slit pupils. Envy has dark yellow spots on his face, on the sides of his eyes and muzzle. He also has two green fins behind his neck (one on each side), six thin grey wings (three on each side), and his tail resembles those found on a sea serpent.
Personality
Envy giddily reveals himself as the one who sparked the Ishval Civil War.
After his brother Pride, Envy is by far the cruelest homunculus, joking around and delighting in human misery. Envy will kill without hesitation, usually playing on his target's emotions to have a psychological advantage, with no remorse for what he has done. He even takes pride in the suffering he inflicts, going so far as to boast about starting the Ishvalan War and ruining the reputations, lives, and souls of thousands with only a single, effortless move. Envy's only personal intention is to make humans fight each other and suffer.
Beneath this cruel and aggressive exterior, however, Envy is secretly jealous of humans' inner strength and the mutually beneficial friendships that they share, as most of Envy's kind show little real concern or emotional support for one another. This jealousy motivates Envy to hate and mistreat humans very personally; more personally, in fact, than any other homunculus.
Envy seems to resent being confronted about his inner envy. This eventually causes Envy to commit suicide. Notably, before this revelation, Envy disguised his inner motives so well that not even a slip of his true reasons occurred.
Despite his callous, ruthless, and sinister persona, Envy occasionally shows a more silly, rambunctious, and even comical personality around his fellow homunculi, and even some humans. When referring to his human appearance as being "cute and youthful," Lust reminded him that he was, ironically, the most ruthless homunculus, a reply which mildly angered Envy. Another example was during Envy's second confrontation with Edward and Ling Yao, where Envy constantly asked Ed to stop trying to beat him up, but Ed was in a fit of rage after being called short and would not back down.
Envy, at times, demonstrates a vanity streak over his appearance. He is irritated when Lust says his personality is 'vile' and nearly attacked Greed when he called Envy ugly. Upon his introduction, Envy refers to his preferred form as young and cute and very obviously enjoys looking attractive. However, he seems to greatly dislike his true appearance, and he yells at Ed and Ling to not to look at him while he was in said form.[2]
Envy does not have particularly good relationships with his fellow homunculi. He acts more as a handler for Gluttony than an equal and is unsympathetic to his grief over Lust's demise, acting annoyed and frustrated more than anything. He shows Wrath little respect and does not interact much with Pride or Sloth. The only one he has shown concern for is Lust, going so far as to demand that Wrath execute Mustang for killing her. Most interactions he had with her were relatively positive compared to the rest of the homunculi. Envy's relationship with Greed is overtly antagonistic, as like the other homunculi, Envy perceives Greed as a traitor, and it takes very little time for the two to throw insults at each other.
Deep down, Envy is the saddest homunculus, having never known any true content or satisfaction.
Powers and Abilities
- Immortality: Envy does not age, though the physical age of his true form is up for debate.
- Rapid Regeneration: Envy can regenerate incredibly quickly from otherwise fatal injuries. One of the best examples (though not shown on screen) is when he regenerates from half of his body after being swallowed by Gluttony. However, what is unique to Envy is the fact that after being killed enough, instead of remaining in humanoid form, he will expel a small, lizard or wormlike parasitic form that can be easily killed.
- Self-Sustenance: Envy does not need to eat, drink or sleep to stay alive.
- Enhanced Physiology: Even in his much smaller, preferred form, Envy possesses strength, speed, reflexes, stamina, durability, agility, and coordination superior to any human, chimera, or animal. However, his lack of combat prowess has proven to be a liability.
- Shapeshifting: Envy has the ability to shapeshift into anything or anyone, whether it be real people, animals, or human aspects that he made up. He can transform into anything that doesn't exceed the size and weight of his true form, which, seeing how massively large it is, does not create much of an issue. This power comes in handy to go anywhere unnoticed or to travel fast, allowing Envy to shapeshift into an average citizen to blend into a crowd for stealth, or a fast-moving animal such as a horse or dog. Additionally, Envy can transform individual parts of his body, often using this ability in battle to transform his limbs into weapons. Even in his preferred human form, Envy's appearance bares his actual weight, something Ling Yao realized as he fought Envy. Envy's true form's weight grants him enormous strength and durability. In spite of his immense weight, Envy is very fast in all forms he assumes. It is also noted that even in his human form, Envy can make his arms extendable (to an unknown length, however), and apparently sharp (as proved by the injuries he inflicted upon Riza Hawkeye), tentaclelike appendages.
- True Form: Under his monstrous form, Envy can use his strength to its maximum and become all the more dangerous, with him being easily able to crush rocks under his limbs or in his jaws. Envy is also able to manipulate the human remains that cover his body, make them appear and disappear, and elongate his tongue to use it like a harpoon or binding rope, a continuation of his transformation ability.
- Envy can transform individual limbs into those of his true form, enabling him to gain massive arms and hands while otherwise remaining in his preferred body. He does not become unbalanced while doing this, despite being extremely disproportionate.
- Impersonation: Envy is proficient at imitating the personality and traits of other people. This, paired with his shapeshifting, allows him to disguise himself as different individuals without arousing suspicion. The best example of this ability is when he fooled the people of Liore into believing he was Father Cornello, and Envy was even able to goad them into violence. However, his imitations are not perfect, and Envy is prone to becoming overconfident in his disguises. People who are close to the one Envy is impersonating are also able to pick up on Envy's inconsistencies, such as when Hawkeye deduces Envy was not the real Mustang.
- True Form: Under his monstrous form, Envy can use his strength to its maximum and become all the more dangerous, with him being easily able to crush rocks under his limbs or in his jaws. Envy is also able to manipulate the human remains that cover his body, make them appear and disappear, and elongate his tongue to use it like a harpoon or binding rope, a continuation of his transformation ability.
Envy as a Mannequin Soldier
- Body Puppetry: Under his true, parasitic, original form, Envy's only remaining ability is to take control of the body of a human or homunculus host. The host then becomes an extension of Envy's parasitic body, being able to take control of additional host bodies, using the host's soul or Philosopher's Stone to resupply his strength. Envy seems to only be able activate this ability by biting his victims while in his weakened form. However, Envy has noted he cannot control someone by biting into Automail, as seen when he failed to possess Edward. This ability is similar to Pride's ability to gain the traits of whomever he devours. With the body of a Mannequin Soldier, Envy initially only possessed the abilities of a Mannequin Soldier, along with the ability to absorb other Mannequin Soldiers. Upon absorbing enough of them, Envy regained his former abilities, morphing the Mannequin Soldier bodies back to Envy's human appearance.
Trivia
Envy's true form in the manga is slightly more disturbing.
- How Envy changes forms is slightly different in the two anime versions. In the first anime adaptation, Envy takes a new form by having a line of light go over his body at a rather quick pace.[3] However, in the second anime adaptation, the color of the morphing process is red, discharges some electricity, and is slower, looking very similar to a transmutation (red sparks are common for transmutations with the Philosopher's Stone).[4]
- In the English Dub of the 2003 series, Envy initially had a low and calm voice. During the last few episodes, it changes to the louder and snarky tone that is used in the 2009 series.[5][6]
- In Brotherhood there is an instance of Envy breaking the fourth wall. After finishing a call with Zampano, the camera zooms in on Envy's face while he stares directly at the viewer, telling them "Things are getting interesting".
- Envy does not explicitly act in accordance with his sin in contrast to other homunculi such as Gluttony, who is a literal glutton; Greed, who openly admits to being greedy; and Sloth, who only uses the minimum amount of effort for anything. However, Envy displays schadenfreude (gaining satisfaction or pleasure from someone else's misfortune, i.e., laughing over Hughes' death and the Ishvalan Genocide) on numerous occasions, which is considered to be related to envy.
- Snakes and dogs are both symbols associated with envy. Envy has been shown transforming into a dog in the manga and in the 2009 anime. In the 2003 anime, Envy's final form is that of a large, serpentine dragon.
- Envy appears to have retained a jacket as a souvenir from Ishval. He is seen wearing the same type of jacket as the soldiers while he participated in the war, and also wear it while fighting Lan Fan. Furthermore, it seemed to not have been a part of him, as Envy was seen retrieving it at the end of the fight.
- Envy shares some similarities with Diane from Seven Deadly Sins. Both are representative of envy, have extremely large true forms, purple eyes and a serpentine brand on their left thighs.
Manga/2009 Anime
- Envy is an incredibly popular character, coming higher on the fan poll than any other homunculus, making him the most popular.
- In the second popularity poll, Envy achieved fifth place. Arakawa expressed bewilderment over how Envy was able to get such a high ranking.
- Discounting Pride (who can grow larger than Envy, but whose size is too dependent on light), Envy is the largest homunculus, with his true form being about the size of a building.
- During his final fight with Roy Mustang, Envy's eyes are repeatedly boiled away by Roy's flames. This bears some similarity to the second terrace of Dante Alighieri’s "Purgatorio," in which the envious are cleansed by having their eyelids sewn shut.
- In many scenes during the second anime, Envy's hair has a greenish tint to it, albeit much darker. This is most likely referencing the first anime, where Envy's hair is green instead of black like in the manga. It, and the green skin color of his monstrous form could also be a subtle nod to the phrase "green with envy."
- Both the Japanese and English (2009 anime) voice actors for Envy voice a character in Claymore called Ilena ("Irene" in English).
- Envy seems to share a close bond with Lust, as she is one of the few homunculi he regularly converses with in a friendly manner. After Lust is killed by Colonel Mustang, Envy protests Wrath's decision to let Mustang and his subordinates live, saying that they killed her and made fools out of them (suggesting that he is genuinely upset by Lust's death).
- Although they seemed to bicker, Envy and Greed shared two preferences: both of them would rather avoid fighting if possible and both enjoyed their respective human form's good looks.
- Envy's closeness to Lust and similarities to Greed make sense, as the concepts of envy and lust are similar sins, and envy goes hand-in-hand with greed.
- In Envy's playable appearance in Monster Strike, he is categorized as Male.
- Envy's go-to appearance for military-related missions seems to be that of a second lieutenant with blond hair and blue eyes. Whether this is a real person or someone Envy made up is unknown.
- Envy is the only non-human-based homunculus besides Father to make an appearance in every season.
- While Pride remembers nothing of his life after reverting to his true form, Envy has all of his memories intact. It is unknown if Envy is capable of aging while in this form, as Pride does.
References
- ↑ Fullmetal Alchemist Chronicle, page 200
- ↑ Fullmetal Alchemist Manga
- ↑ Fullmetal Alchemist (2003) Anime
- ↑ Fullmetal Alchemist: Brotherhood (2009) Anime
- ↑ Fullmetal Alchemist (2003) Anime
- ↑ Fullmetal Alchemist: Brotherhood (2009) Anime
| Homunculus |
|---|
| Manga and 2009 anime |
| Father |
| Lust | Gluttony | Envy | Greed | Sloth | Wrath | Pride |
| 2003 Anime |
| Dante |
| Lust | Gluttony | Envy | Greed | Sloth | Pride | Wrath |