Envy(エンヴィー Enbī) was the third Homunculus to appear in the Fullmetal Alchemist series. It has the ability of shape-shifting and this unique ability can be used to assume the form of any existing person (or original personas that Envy itself creates). It can even modify its own voice to directly copy others.
Envy is most comfortable in the "adorable" and "beautiful" form of an androgynous teenager. It usually serves as a spy, but its abilities are also extremely useful for assassinations, as demonstrated by the murder of Maes Hughes. Envy's most frequently used assassination technique is to imitate either one of its victim's loved ones or close friends, and use their hesitation as a chance to kill them. Envy may not be as intelligent as some of the other Homunculi, but is by no means stupid. In fact, it can be just as good a puppet master as Lust, but this attribute is overshadowed by its cockiness and bad temper. It can easily be set off by insulting its large and delicate ego, thus causing it to make mistakes.
The two true forms: the unleashed (above) and powerless (below) form.
Envy usually appears as a pale-skinned androgynous youth with a lean muscular build and bulging biceps. Envy has long, wispy hair, violet-pupiled slitted eyes, and wears a black form-fitting bodysuit with a matching headband, with an alchemic, triangular symbol on it. Its appearance is mostly the same in the 2003 anime, but Envy's physique is more slender, making its gender look more ambiguous, and its hair is a dark green.
Although already formidable in its human form, Envy can assume a much larger, lizard-like shape with a long black mane and six pupils on its left eye. The most disturbing feature of Envy's unleashed form are the human faces and limbs protruding all over the body like drowners momentarily attempting to surface before being pulled down by others. These are physical representations of the dozens of souls of Xerxians that Father absorbed and used to create the Philosopher's Stone that is Envy's core.
In its true form, after most of the stone that is its core is destroyed, Envy is a small, helpless lizard and is powerless save for attaching to another living thing to take control. But once able to reach a Philosopher's Stone, Envy can regain its full ability.
Personality
Envy giddily reveals that it was the one who sparked the Ishval Civil War.
Envy is one of the cruelest Homunculi, joking around and delighting in human misery. Envy would kill without hesitation, usually playing on its target's emotions to have a psychological advantage, with no remorse for what it has done.
Beneath this cruel exterior, however, Envy is secretly jealous of humans' inner strength and the mutually beneficial friendships that they share, as most of its kind show little real concern or emotional support for one another. It may even be considered to have the deepest personality of all the Homunculi, as it is shown that Envy is very emotionally conflicted about Edward being able to see its jealously so easily.
Envy's relation to Edward is due to having spitefully insulted the alchemist's size, by calling him "Pipsqueak". In the 2003 series, this relationship is augmented with Envy having a bitter loathing towards Edward due to their relation with Hohenheim.
Powers and Abilities
Envy has the ability to shape-shift into anything or anyone, should it be real people or human aspects that it made up. It can transform to 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 it to shape-shift 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 parts of its body, often using this ability in battle to transform its limbs into weapons.
Even in its preferred human form, Envy's appearance belies his actual weight, something Ling Yao realized as he fought it, granting it enormous strength and durability. In spite of its immense weight, Envy is very fast in all forms it assumes. It is also noted that even in his human form he can turn his arms into extendable (to an unknown length, however), apparently sharp, as proved by the injuries it inflicted upon Riza Hawkeye, tentacle like appendages.
Under its monstrous form, Envy can use its strength to its maximum and becomes all the more dangerous; such as being easily able to crush rock under its limbs or jaws. It is also able to manipulate the human remains that cover its body and make them appear and disappear, and to elongate its tongue to use it like a harpoon or a binding rope, a continuation of its transformation ability.
Under its 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 their soul or Philosopher's Stone to increase its strength, up to a point where it can regain its preferred form and array of powers, which is similar to Pride; although it's unknown whether or not it can do this to its Homunculi siblings. This power, in a way, is somewhat similar to Pride being able to devour humans.
In the manga and 2009 anime
Envy causing the Ishval Civil War.
Envy was the fourth Homunculus created by Father, used for the purpose of causing mass slaughter with its shape-shifting powers inducing distrust and bloodshed. One such event was in Ishval, posing as an Amestris militant to kill an Ishvalan child in the open to cause a massive revolt that led to the Ishval Civil War while the soldier it impersonated was the fall man. Overall, Envy gloated to have enjoyed committing the deed with great zest. Envy was later sent to pose as Father Cornello to oversee the events of Reole after the false prophet was exposed and killed off by Lust.
Envy later meets with Edward Elric when he entered the Fifth Laboratory and killed off the younger Slicer brother with his own katana for nearly jeopardizing their plans. Ending up making an enemy out of Edward, Envy takes advantage of the boy's automail arm malfunctioning to knock him out with a knee to the gut while telling him to be lucky that it was not going serious on him. Envy later murdered Lt. Colonel Maes Hughes when he stumbled on the planned Day of Reckoning, assuming the form of his wife Gracia to kill him when his guard was let down by seeing the transformation. When Greed was captured by King Bradley - Wrath, Envy ended up in a "brotherly quarrel" with the rogue Homunculus that almost caused Envy to lose its cool before Father stopped the argument.
After Lust's death by Colonel Roy Mustang, Envy takes over as the Homunculis' representative and Dr. Tim Marcoh's jailer. Later, when Gluttony is captured, Envy attempts to retrieve the Homunculus, but ends up fighting Ling Yao before both they and Edward are sucked into Gluttony's subspace. There, once finding Ling and Edward, Envy states that there is no escape as it admits the act it caused in Ishval which provoked Edward to right hook the monster. However, seeing no more need to hold back, Envy assumes its unleashed state to kill the two humans.
Envy swallows Edward.
During the fight, Envy takes advantage of its captive souls to mess with Edward's mind before knocking him out and swallowing him alive. However, seeing Envy's Philosopher's Stone at its core, Edward placates the monstrous Envy and let it allow him to use its Philosopher's Stone to open Gluttony's fake Doors of Truth to pass through the true doors back to the real world. This drained many of the souls from Envy in the process, but it was evidently not enough to kill it. Though Envy promised to tell Edward what it knew, it took back its words while restraining him and his younger brother Alphonse so Father could make Ling the new Greed. But when Scar arrived, Ed reveals Envy's role to the scarred man as he and May Chang, causing a ruckus that almost enabled the Elric brothers to escape. Soon after, Envy takes the Elrics to Bradley so that they can forced to keep their mouths shut of what they have learned.
Envy later released Solf J. Kimblee from jail to have him work for the homunculi in tracking down Scar to recapture Marcoh. While in Briggs, Envy is lured into a trap by Zampano pretending to sell out Marcoh. During the resulting fight, it enters its unleashed state in a fit of rage, Envy grabs Marcoh and reveals how his men were sacrificed to create the Philosopher's Stone it gave to Kimblee. This proved to be its undoing as Marcoh succeeds in destroying most of the souls in Envy's Philosopher's Stone, reducing the Homunculus into its true form. After an unsuccessful attempt to hold Yoki hostage, Envy is placed in a jar and given to May to take back to Xing. However, Envy played on May's guilt of leaving her new friends to fend for herself to have her bring it back to Central to obtain a new Philosopher's Stone.
As the Day of Reckoning commences, Envy manages to take control of one of the activated Mannequin Soldiers attacking May, using it to assimilate the others nearby to regain its full form. From there, Envy chases down May before crashing to the entrance of the Third Laboratory. There, seeing former enemies working together, Envy reveals himself as Hughes' murderer by transforming once again into Gracia when Mustang refused to believe that his friend's life was taken by a "moron". Unfortunately, due to the Mannequin Soldiers made into its new being flammable, Envy drives Mustang into a hate-filled rage that forces the Homunculus to escape into the sewers. Finding Lt. Riza Hawkeye, Envy assumes Mustang's form and tries to kill her, but is quickly found out and shot repeatedly with her many weapons. Although Envy does manage to catch hold of her, Mustang arrives and continues the destruction of its new body until it is reduced back to its parasitic form once again.
Envy is saved from execution by Mustang's hands through the combined intervention from Riza, Scar, and Edward in order to cease his quest for vengeance. After unsuccessfully trying to tempt the group into fighting each other with every horrible thing they have done to the other, Envy is mortified on how former enemies can put aside their hatred and work together. At that moment, Edward reveals to Envy it is in fact jealous of human friendships and their ability to support each other. Realizing it, feeling utterly disgraced of this and the fact that Edward sympathized with it, a tearful Envy pulls out its Philosopher's Stone and crushes it. As its decaying body begins to disintegrate, Envy laments not seeing where this ceasefire among former enemies would lead while it whispers "Goodbye, Edward Elric" with tears in its eyes.
Envy is the third Homuculus to die permanently (though by its own hand) in the 2009 anime.
In the 2003 anime
Envy in the 2003 anime series.
In the first anime, Homunculi are based on failed Human Transmutations intended to bring the dead back. Because of this, Envy, being based on Hohenheim's dead son, is male rather than being a genderless entity. Whether Envy is male or genderless in his typical Homunculus form is unknown.
Out of all the Homunculi, Envy serves as the primary antagonist of the group. He is first seen at the end of episode 2 of the 2003 series, where he starts to impersonate the tarnished Father Cornello. He is not seen in his preferred form until the beginning of episode 14, and he does not reveal his original form until episode 50. As the oldest Homunculus, he claimed that he had forgotten what he originally looked like. However, it was actually a lie stemming from his hatred towards his father, Hohenheim, resulting in him transforming to look nothing like his original form. This was because Hohenheim was the one who created him as an attempt to bring back his first son (who died of mercury poisoning around the age of eighteen) and abandoned him. Envy hated all humans and followed Dante mostly for the opportunity of killing as many people as he could. This is what drove him in all that he did; unlike the other Homunculi, he did not care about the Philosopher's Stone, nor about becoming human. His most prominent murder was that of Maes Hughes. After his cover was blown while impersonating Second Lieutenant Ross, Envy transformed into Hughes' wife, Gracia, and used his hesitation to fatally shoot him. He also served as a key in imprisoning Greed, with whom he had a long-standing grudge against within the Fifth Laboratory. It is also notable that Envy had no love for his Homunculi brethren and mainly antagonized his first "brother", Greed. Also, he quickly turned upon Gluttony, Wrath, and even the higher ranked Pride. The only person that posed the possibility of a relationship with him was Dante herself. He was usually her enforcer and often carried out her whims more directly than most of his comrades. He was also apparently more comfortable in her presence than the rest of the Homunculi. However, he also lashed out at Dante with particular intensity when she impeded his ambitions of death and revenge. Well aware of the power that Dante held over him, Envy was at once the most uncontrollable and the most reliable member of her legion.
Envy's true form as Hohenheim's son in the first anime.
Envy's original human form is revealed in the penultimate episode of the 2003 series that he was created three hundred and eighty years ago by Hohenheim in an attempt to resurrect the son he and Dante conceived, who died from mercury poisoning when he was 18 years old. Envy held a great hatred towards him for never being acknowledged as his son and for abandoning him and Dante. As a result, he also hated his younger "half-brothers", Edward and Alphonse, as they obtained the fatherly love that he himself never received. When learning from Dante that Hohenheim was gone, Envy snapped at being denied from his wish to kill him. Dante, however, remarked that the Elric brothers are still alive and now have the Philosopher's Stone, as a consolation prize to curb his anger. The fact that they possessed the stone and would regain everything they lost made him more jealous of them and more intent on making them suffer as he had. However, Edward managed to see through his disguises and tricks until the Homunculus revealed his true form (an imitation of Hohenheim's deceased son with Dante) and his connection to Hohenheim. That stunt was all it took for him to successfully kill Edward, as the distraction gave him enough time to pierce him through the heart. He is then transported to the gate by Alphonse, meeting up with Edward again. Upon learning that Hohenheim was still alive on the other side of the Gate, he was able to successfully open and make his way through the doors. Once inside the Gate, the Gate Children attacked him, but he fought them off by transforming into Edward. Then, just before finishing his demand to see his father, he changed once again into his original human form. This is probably a way to get the Gate Children to take him to Hohenheim faster, which might explain the Edward transformation. By the time he made his way through to the other side, Envy became a serpentine dragon.
Conqueror of Shamballa
Envy's dragon form from the movie.
During the two year gap between the end of the anime and Conqueror of Shamballa, Envy was captured by the Thule Society. With Envy in his massive serpent form, the Society intended to use him as a literal Ouroboros to open a physical Gate and transfer their soldiers to the other side, to "Shamballa". Hohenheim was imprisoned and offered to Envy as a sacrifice; a human chew-toy to keep the "Great Serpent" calm as they formulated their plans. Around the time of Fullmetal Alchemist the Movie: Conqueror of Shamballa, Envy escaped and took shelter in an abandoned castle, only to cross paths with Edward once again. In their ensuing fight, Envy was attacked on all sides by the Thule Society, who recaptured him and managed to get a small regiment of soldiers to the other side for a short time. In the end, it was Hohenheim who took his own life using Envy as his means, enabling Ed to return to his own world in a final act of redemption for his sins, using him as material to create a gate between the two worlds. Thus, Envy finally realized his sole desire to kill his father, ultimately at the cost of his own life. He was the seventh and final Homunculus to die in the series. It is not known whether or not Envy forgave Hohenheim before his death, though it is not likely.
Trivia
Envy's true form in the manga is slightly more creepy.
How Envy changes forms is slightly different in the two anime versions. In the 2003 anime, Envy takes a new form by having a line of light go over its body in a rather quick pace. However, in the 2009 anime, the color of the morphing process is red, discharging some electricity and is rather slow.
Despite having the same powers and preferred appearance, Envy's fighting styles and the reason for its invidiousness are extremely different between the 2003 anime and his manga counterpart. However, both share the same sadism and hatred towards humanity.
Out of all the Homunculi, Envy bears the most cruelty toward humans, and is repeatedly described as a sadist. Despite that and having no notable positive traits, Envy is an incredibly popular character and comes in 6th place in the latest poll, making it the most popular of the Homunculi.
Envy's power to shape-shift, as well as having no positive gender, is very similar to the physical traits of Loki, the Norse god of trickery (which is sometimes referred to as a demi- or anti-god), who can change his shape to anything, including women. Envy's instigation methods are similar to the actions of Eris, the Greek goddess of discord and chaos, who took delight in causing mortals to fight among themselves and eventually brought about the Trojan War.
Envy's hairstyle mimics the leaves of the mandrake, a plant with human-like roots associated with magic. In Chapter XVI of Eliphas Levi's findings, the Dogme et Rituel de la Haute Magie, alchemists were said to attempt the creation of homunculi using mandrakes.
Manga/2009 Anime
Envy was the only Homunculus to commit suicide, as opposed to being killed in battle.
Envy is the largest Homunculus, with its true form about the size of a building.
During its 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 "Purgatorio", in which the envious are cleansed by having their eyelids sewn shut.
Envy possibly has the most souls in its Philosopher's Stone than any of the other Homunculi. This is evidenced when Ed transmutes Envy in order to escape from Gluttony's stomach, yet Envy seems unaffected. It is also evidenced in Envy's encounter with Marcoh, despite draining Envy of all of its power, he is unable to kill the Homunculus entirely.
The reason for this may be that a substantial amount of energy is required for Envy to transform its body. Since the only time the other Homunculi's bodies generate sparks is when energy from their Philosopher's Stones is being used to regenerate their wounds, it would mean that energy from the Philosopher's Stone is being used to facilitate the changes Envy makes to its body.
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 its monstrous form could also be a subtle nod to the phrase "green with envy".
Envy seems to share a close bond with Lust, as she is one of the few Homunculi it 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 it is genuinely upset by Lust's death).
Both the Japanese and English (2009 anime) voice actors for Envy voice a character in Claymore called Irene.
2003 Anime
Envy is said to be the first Homunculus ever created, making him the oldest in that continuity. Furthermore, Envy's true form somewhat resembles Father's third, "perfect" form - both resemble young Hohenheim who they were born of.
It is interesting to note that both Envy and Maes Hughes have a green tint to their hair, since Envy murdered Hughes in both series.
It is a mystery as to why Envy's true form looks anything like Hohenheim, as Hohenheim is in the body of a different man to whom Envy would bear no resemblance. However, it may be possible Hohenheim chose a body that bore a heavy resemblance to his original one. Another explanation may be that, wary and regretful of his actions, he recreated his original body through alchemy, which explains the resemblance and how Dante was able to recognize him.
Hohenheim and Dante's son (the person Envy was supposed to be) died of mercury poisoning at the age of 18, possibly giving a nod to the fact that mercury was once believed to be the elixir of life, and one of the key ingredients for immortality. This could imply that he, Dante and/or Hohenheim might have been experimenting with the substance in order to attain eternal life without using up the Stone's power.
In the movie, Conqueror of Shamballa, Envy is permanently stuck in his dragon form, unable to use his shape-shifting powers due to the lack of alchemy in that world.
Envy has the distinction of being the first Homunculus born and the last to die.
