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Lan Fan (ランファン, Ranfan) is a retainer of the Xing Empire's Yao Clan, a personal bodyguard of Prince Ling Yao and the grandchild of Ling's senior bodyguard, Fu. She is fiercely loyal to her prince; insults to his name cause her to fly into a rage (overwhelming her better judgment and dulling her usually sharp combat abilities) and she becomes flustered when unmasked in his presence.

Appearance[]

LanFanArtwork

Lan Fan is a young girl with back-length black hair usually tied back in a bun with the bangs loose and framing her face, dark brown eyes, and a lean, muscular, and fairly curvaceous figure. Her usual attire consists of a black Xingese secret soldier uniform covered by a layer of body armor. On her hands and forearms, she wears fingerless gloves with forearm/hand protectors lined with small spikes along the knuckles. Lan Fan usually keeps her face hidden on missions behind a red and white mask with the Yin half of the Yin-Yang symbol on the forehead (Fu's mask bears the other half).

After losing her left arm on the battlefield, Lan Fan has a combat automail replacement built for her while abroad. It is gunmetal-colored and its shoulder attachments are shielded by what appears to be a steel variation of Xingese plate armor. For combat, it is adorned with a spike strip wound around the hand as well as a long sword blade extending from the bottom of the elbow.

Personality[]

When masked, Lan Fan displays the appearance of a cold, efficient, and lethal warrior of few words. She is overall a very serious person who has undying loyalty to her master and her clan. Similarly to Edward, she has a propensity for being brash when provoked and is easily angered, especially when it comes to the young prince.

However, when unmasked and around Ling's presence, a more shy personality is revealed. She worries incessantly about the young prince wandering off constantly and is often found watching him wherever he goes, concerned about whatever problems he finds himself in. This concern stems from her great loyalty that is implied to go beyond the duties of her clan. She considers herself to exist for Ling's sake and to undergo any sacrifice to help him achieve his goals. Being useless to him is considered as the ultimate pain and she is willing to go through any hardship to assist him.

As cold as she may appear, Lan Fan is willing to express genuine gratitude and thanks to those who have helped her. It is also revealed in the manga she has trouble expressing proper etiquette, such as saying a simple "thank you", especially to those she would consider "lower" than Ling.

Relationships[]

Ling Yao - As a clandestine soldier and retainer of the Yao clan, Lan Fan's duty to protect Ling is in her very blood, passed down her family line for generations. In that vein, her devotion to the young lord's safety and well-being is remarkable and she is more than willing to tend to his every command and sacrifice her life and body to protect him. Lan Fan's adherence to Ling is exceedingly strong, with the young girl becoming unnaturally flustered when unmasked in his presence and recklessly angry when he is insulted by others, and not denying that he is "very special" to her, when asked by Van Hohenheim.[1]

Fu - Despite their familial bond, Lan Fan acts as an efficient and obedient subordinate to her grandfather, showing what appears to be a strictly professional face when on missions with him. However, even her duties as a soldier of the Yao clan cannot erase the love she has for the old man. She apologizes sorrowfully for disappointing him and cares deeply for his well-being, though she knows that in her heart and for her honor, Ling's safety comes first. Lan Fan was nearly as distraught as Ling when she witnessed her grandfather's death but managed to stay more emotionally stable. Later when she confronted Wrath (King Bradley) who was responsible for her grandfather's death, rather than seek revenge, she asked if there was anyone he ever truly loved.

Doctor Knox - Doctor Knox serves as her doctor and caretaker after the events of her injury. Although Lan Fan is primarily in a state of depression while in his care, she shows genuine appreciation for helping her and is instrumental in allowing him to partially forgive himself. In return, Doctor Knox serves as a reality check to the young warrior, reminding her of her own condition and limitation and treating her not as a soldier, but a young teenager in need and his patient.

Abilities[]

Lan Fan's Automail

Lan Fan's Automail Arm.

Lan Fan is an extremely skilled combatant, well-versed in the use of Xingese martial arts in both armed and hand-to-hand styles. She has been shown to be able to easily overwhelm a seasoned combatant the likes of Edward Elric and inhuman beasts like the Homunculi. Like most skilled Xingese warriors, she has the ability to sense other people's chi, giving her an edge in battle and the ability to identify the Homunculi, whose life energy is twisted by the large amount of souls trapped inside them. Lan Fan herself is particularly skilled in the use of kunai and quite partial to the use of explosives in combat. Her skills are further enhanced with her Automail which has a unique large blade protruding from the elbow, in which she was able to nearly kill the Homunculus Gluttony by herself with ease, attacking him numerous times before he could react.

Trivia[]

  • Lan Fan appears on the binding of manga Volume 16.
  • Her voice actor, Mizuki Nana, also played Wrath in the 2003 anime series, and Armony Eiselstein from the video game Fullmetal Alchemist and the Broken Angel.
  • Lan Fan also bears a resemblance to Tachibana from Arakawa's one shot Raiden 18.
  • Lan Fan means cold rice in Cantonese/Chinese. A joke was made during the mid-show intermissions showing a picture of Lan Fan eating a bowl of rice during one of the episodes.
  • The kanji most often used for Lan Fan's name on Japanese fanart are readable as "orchid fragrance." As Lan Fan's name is only written in katakana in the Japanese manga, this translation is probably fanon.
    • The Chinese version of the manga uses the aforementioned characters 蘭芳・兰芳, read as lán fāng in Mandarin.
  • Lan Fan has two theme songs from the Brotherhood album. The first is called "Sora Kaze," which means "sky breeze" in Japanese, and the second is called "Sotto, sotto," which means "softly, softly." Both are sung by her seiyu, Nana Mizuki.
  • Lan Fan shares the same English voice actress, Trina Nishimura, with Mikasa Ackerman from Attack on Titan whose devotion to Eren Yeager mirrors Lan Fan's devotion to her prince.

References[]

  1. Chapter 90, page 22
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