"You have no idea how good that felt! I ravaged their entire country with a single bullet! I mean talk about invigorating!!! Oh, and the best part? The officer I pretended to be, he was always a moderate who would always publicly oppose the military's occupation of Ishval. And listen to this!! The poor bull couldn't come up with a plausible defense at the court-martial! You know, I don't think i'll ever get over with how easy to manipulate humans are! hehehe..."-Envy
Envy (エンヴィー,Enbī?) is the embodiment of some of Father's envy. Envy is genderless, and it has the ability of shape-shifting and this 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, 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. Its hatred for humans has an immense emotional and personal foundation greater than any of its siblings'. It is most comfortable in the form of an androgynous teenager (which it thinks is "beautiful" and "adorable"). Envy can easily be set off by insults to its large and delicate ego, thus causing it to make mistakes.
Envy is one of the two Homunculi who possess "true forms"-physical incarnations of their traits and personality that take shape when their stones are almost completely depleted. The other homunculus with a true form is Pride.
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, slitted eyes with violet pupils, and wears a black, form-fitting bodysuit and 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, chimeric shape with a serpentine body, multiple pairs of legs, long human-like hair, a dog-like head and six pupils in their left eye. The most disturbing feature of Envy's unleashed form are the human faces and limbs protruding all over the body like drowning people 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 their core is destroyed, Envy is a small, caterpillar-like serpent with multiple legs (which are directly underneath it like those of mammals and birds) and a jaw-less and sucker-like mouth resembling those of lampreys and parasitic flatworms. It 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 its full ability.
Personality
Envy giddily reveals itself as the one who sparked the Ishval Civil War.
Envy is one of the cruelest Homunculi, joking around and delighting in human misery. Envy will kill without hesitation, usually playing on its target's emotions to have a psychological advantage, with no remorse for what it has done. It even takes pride in the suffering it 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 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 its 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 happened.
Perhaps, deeply down, Envy is the saddest homunculus, having never known any true content or satisfaction.
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 the Elric brothers due to their relation with Hohenheim.
Despite its sinister persona, Envy occasionally shows a more silly, rambunctious personality around his fellow homunculi, and even some humans. When referring to its human appearance as being "cute and youthful", Lust reminded it that it was ironicially 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 it up, but Ed was in a fit of rage of being called short and would not back down.
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 its 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 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 their preferred human form, Envy's appearance belies its actual weight, something Ling Yao realized as he fought them, granting them enormous strength and durability. In spite of their immense weight, Envy is very fast in all forms they assume. It is also noted that even in their human form they can make their arms extendable (to an unknown length, however), and apparently sharp (as proved by the injuries they 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 in its jaws. Envy is also able to manipulate the human remains that cover its body and make them appear and disappear, and to elongate their 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 the host's soul or Philosopher's Stone to resupply their strength. This ability is similar to Pride's ability to gain the traits of whomever he eats.
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 their shape-shifting powers inducing distrust and bloodshed. One such event was in Ishval, posing as an Amestrian 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 by the Fullmetal Alchemist Edward Elric and killed off by Lust.
Envy later meets with Fullmetal when it and Lust both enter the Fifth Laboratory and kill 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 and Lust were not going serious on him. Envy later murders Lt. Colonel Maes Hughes when he stumbles on the planned Day of Reckoning, assuming the form of his wife Gracia to kill him when his guard is let down by seeing the transformation. When Greed is captured by King Bradley, Wrath, Envy winds up in a "brotherly quarrel" with the rogue Homunculus that almost causes Envy to lose its cool before Father stops 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 they admit the act they caused in Ishval which provoked Edward to right hook the monster. However, seeing no more need to hold back, Envy assumes their unleashed state to kill the two humans.
Envy swallows Edward.
During the fight, Envy takes advantage of their captive souls to mess with Edward's mind before knocking him out and swallowing him alive. However, seeing Envy's Philosopher's Stone at their core, Edward placates the monstrous Envy to allow him to use his Philosopher's Stone to open Gluttony's fake Gate of Truth to pass through the true doors back to the real world. This drains many of the souls from Envy in the process, but it was evidently not enough to kill them. Though Envy promises to tell Edward what they knew, it took back its words while restraining him and his younger brother Alphonse so Father could make Ling the new Greed. When Scar arrives with May Chang, Ed reveals Envy's role to the scarred man, causing a ruckus that almost enables the Elric brothers to escape. Soon after, Envy takes the Elrics to Bradley so that they can be forced to keep their mouths shut of what they have learned.
Envy later releases 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, Envy enters its unleashed state in a fit of rage, grabbing Marcoh and revealing that his men were sacrificed to create the Philosopher's Stone they gave to Kimblee. This proves to be its undoing, as Marcoh succeeds in destroying most of the souls in Envy's Philosopher's Stone, reducing the Homunculus into a small, weakened version of 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 plays on May's guilt of leaving her new friends to fend for themselves in order 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 itself 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 it 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 Envy's 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 Mustang's 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 that the homunculus 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 them, 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 their eyes. Envy is the third Homuculus to die permanently (though by its own hand) in the manga and 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.
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 2003 anime, Envy takes a new form by having a line of light go over their body in a rather quick pace. However, in the 2009 anime, the color of the morphing process is red, discharging some electricity, and is slower.
Despite having the same powers and preferred appearance, Envy's fighting styles and the reason for their invidiousness are extremely different between the 2003 anime and their manga counterpart. However, both share the same sadism and hatred toward humanity.
Envy's power to shape-shift, as well as having no constant gender, is very similar to the physical traits of Loki, the evil 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 awful 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.
Envy's true, monstrous form is loosely similar to the Devilman antagonist Jinmen, another reptilian manga and anime villain. Jinmen was a demon turtle that could attach the still-living heads of his victims onto his back shell, leaving them to scream in agony, much to his pleasure. In order to defeat the eponymous Devilman, Jinmen used to head of one of Devilman's friends as a distraction, not unlike how Envy distracted Edward with the Xerxian bodies. Also of note, in the sequel series, Devilman Lady, it is revealed that after being mortally injured Jinmen would revert back to his true form, that of a normal sized fresh-water turtle. While in this form he could take possession of any life form that touches him, and with the more bodies he assimilated Jinmen would eventually reform to gargantuan size.
Manga/2009 Anime
Envy was the only Homunculus to commit suicide.
Discounting Pride (who can grow larger than envy, but whose size is too dependent on light) Envy is the largest Homunculus, with their true form about the size of a building.
During their 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.
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 their 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 they regularly converse 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 they are 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 them the oldest in that continuity. Furthermore, Envy's true form somewhat resembles Father's third, "perfect" form - both resemble young Hohenheim, whom 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.
In the description of the 31st episode on Netflix, Envy is mistakenly referred to as female.
